As the story goes, Wang Ze was in the cottage gazing at the army horses and speaking when somebody shouted for them to hurry up and get to work planning the revolt. He was so frightened that his heart fluttered and insides turned to water. Raising his head he saw a curiously ancient-looking man wearing an iron Daoist's crown, mottled black and dark red gown and straw sandals. His face was red as fresh blood and his eyes twinkled like strange stars, and he flew right into that thatched cottage riding on the back of a tiger!

"Why, Master Zhang!" exclaimed Holy Auntie. "I'm just now discussing things with Dispatcher Wang! If you're joining us, come in already and stop scaring people!"

The gentleman dismounted from the tiger, shouted "Back!" and watched as the fearsome beast obediently went out the door. He then exchanged bows with Holy Auntie while Wang Ze saluted. The master returned his respects and sat.

"Master Zhang!" said Holy Auntie. "This is the Beizhou Garrison Dispatcher Wang Ze. Within five days you'll all be assisting him."

"My name's Zhang Ying. Holy Auntie and I have often discussed the possibility of your becoming the supreme ruler of the land. I've wanted to meet with you many times but I was afraid of being rebuffed. Holy Auntie! How did you get him to come here?"

"I had Yong'r go and perform a bit of magic in front of the yamen to lure him here. We were just talking things over when you arrived."

"Can you give me an idea when he's making his move?"

"Any day now. We must wait until he wins over the loyalty of the army, and when they rise up in revolt we must all do our parts to help the cause."

In the silence that followed they suddenly watched a strange creature enter the cottage door. Looking more closely Wang Ze saw that it was a lion, and he watched as it came into the thatched hall, pacing in circles and roaring.

"This must be a celestial beast," he said, feeling a mixture of terror and delight. "How can it be of this world? It's got to be yet another sign of my destiny!"

"This young fellow is also here to help Dispatcher Wang. There's nothing to fear. We can really make use of his genius!"

The lion wagged its head once and disappeared, and in its place appeared a man.

"Who's that?" Wang Ze asked Holy Auntie.

"Why, it's Pu Ji!" she replied, introducing the two men. After they exchanged formalities they were both seated.

"Dispatcher Wang!" said Holy Auntie. "Have you noted Zhang Ying and Pu Ji's talents?"

"With skills like theirs," replied Wang, "there's no need to fear that our undertaking will fail!"

"There's one more person to guide you in your great moment," she added.

"Who else is there?" asked Wang.

As they were speaking a fairy crane came soaring down out of the sky to alight in the hall and a man jumped down from its back. Zhang Ying, Pu Ji and Yong'r all bowed to him. Wang Ze noticed that the man was crippled in one leg and not much more than four feet tall. He wore a shabby turban and an old worn out gown and walked with a broken gait. His feet were clad in hemp sandals and around his waist was tied a belt of grass.

"Can't imagine who that might be!" thought Wang, still just sitting there.

"Private Wang!" shouted Holy Auntie. "This is my son, Zuo Chu! He's come especially to assist in your great undertaking. How come you don't rise up and give a proper bow?"

Wang Ze quickly got up and greeted him as she'd directed. Zuo Chu entered the thatched hall, saluted Holy Auntie and sat shoulder-to-shoulder with the others.

"Ma'am," he asked, "have the plans been completed yet?"

"You've missed out on everything. We're all ready to go, just waiting for you!" she replied.

"If everything's in such fine shape what's Dispatcher Wang still here for?" asked Que. "Is he perhaps hanging around for his wedding to sister Yong'r?" He then looked at Zhang Ying. "Master Zhang, how about taking the trouble to be the matchmaker of record? Wouldn't that be nice?"

"My feelings exactly!" said Holy Auntie. She then beckoned some pagegirls to take Private Wang over to the fragrant springs bathchamber for a pre-nuptial cleansing. He had a fine bath and then the servants presented him with a set of undergarments to change into. Next Holy Auntie presented a dragon gown with jade belt, a skysoarer crown and freedom shoes and told him to put them on. Now, he had never before seen fine accessories like that and didn't dare accept them. Master Que then came limping by.

"Dispatcher!" he called. "Put aside your modesty for awhile. If you've got any doubts as to whether of not you deserve such finery, I'll take you right over to the Three Rebirths Pond for a look at your eventual destined appearance in this incarnation."

Clad only in his underwear Wang Ze followed Master Que for a short walk outside the cotttage, and they arrived at the side of a clear pool. Que told him to look down at himself in the water, where he saw the reflection of the sksoarer crown on his head, his entire body wrapped in that dragon robe with the jade belt round his waste and turned-up shoes on his feet. His bearing was magnificent with an awesome air befitting the Son of Heaven of the imperial court.

"How do you like it, Dispatcher?" asked Que. "As your destiny has already been calculated by Heaven there's no use being modest!"

Wang Ze finally believed it in his bones and put on the costume. And in a short while that audience hall of grass was filled with the sound of flower drums rising to Heaven as eight pagegirls carrying lanterns and fans entered escorting Yong'r. She was dressed in a crown of pearls and an embroidered silk dress with corsets and ornaments really befitting an imperial consort. The two of them then became man and wife in that hall. What was it like? Just look:

That night they entered the nuptial bedchamber where all of the furnishings were in order for them. "Could this be a dream?" wondered Wang Ze. "It's hard to believe such good fortune! Oh well, if it's just a dream it certainly is one worth remembering all my life!" he concluded.

Now as for the origins of Wang Ze and Hu Yong'r, one was the male reincarnation of Queen Wu Zetian and the other a rebirth of Zhang Changzong transformed into a female. In their previous existance they had stood atop the Hundred Flowers Pavilion and sworn their undying love as husband and wife down through eternity. Now four hundred years later this pact was finally to be fulfilled and they were to enjoy marital bliss anew. Needless to say they had deep feeling for each other. The reunion as husband and wife lasted for three days. They truly were lost in a long night of fragrant soft jade and sensuous warmth, passing the hours in bouquets of flowers and silk.

As the fourth day arrived Holy Auntie summoned Dispatcher Wang for a meeting. "The lucky moment is here!" she called at the door. "We must plan quickly and get moving! Don't forget your great undertaking on account of this honeymoon of yours!"

Master Que joined in as well. "Time to go back, soldier! Zhang Ying and I and the others are going into Beizhou tomorrow to assist you."

How Wang Ze wished he could turn back time and relive those three days! Partly because everyone was pushing him and partly due to his three days of unauthorized absence he was apprehensive about returning to Beizhou. Nonetheless he thanked Holy Auntie, took his leave of Yong'r and dressed himself as before. Master Que led him out of the cottage and through the pine grove, then pointed out the road for him to take back to town. When Wang Ze looked back after a few steps Que had disappeared, and after just a few more paces he came to the wall and gate of Beizhou.

"Isn't this strange!" he gasped. "It took me half a day to reach that fairy cottage but now I've only walked less than a hundred paces to return to the city gate. They truly must be supernatural beings with magic powers coming to assist me. It really must be fated for me to leave my mark on history!"

When he entered the city it was early morning, not yet time to hang up his nameplate and begin work, so he decided to walk around a bit outside the yamen and see what was going on. He noticed two or three policemen who quickly spotted him.

"Dispatcher Wang!" shouted one of them. "Where have you been for the past three days? You weren't here when his excellency the governor called for you and he's really agitated about it!"

He ran into the yamen at once and reported to the governor, who was furious. "Wang Ze!" he shouted. "Where on earth have you been these past three days?"

"I went to my hometown to see a relation of mine, and I planned to come back the same day," replied Wang. "But I somehow caught a chill on the way and was flat on my back for three days.I finally woke up this morning, and I haven't even been home yet. I heard you'd called summoned me and so I got over here as quickly as I could."

"Well," said the governor with a forgiving nod, "there's nothing we can do about illness! Anyway, it was about those bolts of embroidered cloth I sent you to the shops to get five days ago. My lady feels the color isn't bright enough and she says they're cut short. You are to take them over and exchange however many there are, and be quick about it. I'm giving you a deadline of tomorrow. The auspicious time for my daughter's wedding is coming up soon and she's got her heart set on wearing that silk, so don't be late on account of anything!"

Wang sent for one of his trusted helpers to follow him over to the yamen's private quarters for the cloth. He received what were said to be thirteen bolts and counted them carefully, nodding his aggreement with the tally. Holding the cloth in both arms he left the compound and and went directly to his own room and sat.

"What rotten luck!" he said to himself. "I was so happy and comfortable for three days! I hadn't even had time to fix a cup of tea before that thieving official involved me some more of his crookedness," he fumed.

"You marry off a daughter and you involve Beizhou folks like me in it. You won't pay cash to the shops and you force them to sell on credit. Then you take the stuff and mess it up good while you find it not quite to to your liking and then you go back to exchange it. You are clearly a brutal governor!"

As he spoke he layed out the bolts of cloth so as to fold them neatly at the center. When he looked closely he was shocked to see that the head of the first bolt cut off. They had all been intact just a short while before when he received them. He opened them one after another and they were all like that. Using his foot for a measure he found them each missing five feet of cloth at the top.

"Being short a bolt out of the batch is nothing compared to this," he thought. "Why, these have been cut short and are no longer the original goods. There's no way the shop can exchange them! Certainly one of the governor's servants has helped himself and he should know about it. I'd better go report it and see what he says."

And so he quickly folded them back up and ran back to the yamen with them, but the governor had already left the office. "I'll just take them home," he thought. "It won't be too late if I come and report it early tomorrow morning."

After arising early the next morning Wang Ze went over to the yamen to await the governor's arrival. He then presented the thirteen lengths of silk and kowtowed to him. The governor was delighted.

"Wang Ze!" he exclaimed, beaming broadly. "You really have taken care of this as quickly as ever! I just told you yesterday and already you've brought them back this morning!"

"I haven't exchanged them yet," reported Wang Ze. "These bits of cloth that your excellency gave me yesterday weren't the original goods. Somebody had cut the tops off of them so there was no way I could exchange them. I await your instructions, excellency!"

The Governor glared at Wang Ze. "I told you to go and get them at my quarters yesterday!" he snapped. "If they'd been altered you should have said so then!"

"At your excellency's home I only counted the number of pieces of cloth," explained Wang. "I didn't see that they'd been shortened until I took them home and examined them. I rushed right back to report it but your excellency had already left the yamen. By that time it was dusk and I didn't dare entrust the message to anyone else, so I especially rushed over here early this morning instead."

Now the governor was furious. "Nonsense!" he thundered, "You should have returned them to the shop right after you'd received them! But instead you took them home where somebody no doubt cut them short, and now this morning you come here with this cock-and-bull report! Why, if I didn't take your usual hard work into account I'd have you flogged with a poisoned rod! Now hurry and exchange them and not another word about it!"

Wang Ze was stung and speechless from the tonguelashing. It was all he could do to carry them back home where he sat and brooded darkly. Just as he was wracking his brains for a solution he looked up to see three men enter from the street. Why, it was none other than Zuo Chu, Zhang Ying and Pu Ji! After finishing with their obsequies the three noticed the many strips of silk piled up atop the table.

"Where are they from?" asked one.

"It's a long story!" replied Wang. He then related in great detail how the governor had cut short those bolts of silk and then ordered him to exchange them.

"What's the problem?" laughed Zuo Chu. "I'll just hatch out an exchange for you with my body!" He then took the thirteen altered and faded bolts and placed them in a heap on the floor. He then knelt down to cover them with his own burlap gown and mumbled a charm before shouting "Live!" and sure enough, when he removed his gown and stood aside they had changed into thirteen freshly dyed full bolts of silk.

Wang Ze was ecstatic with relief. "Sorry to trouble the three of you but please wait a moment while I take these over to the yamen," he said. "I'll be right back to talk with you!"

"We've got something really important to discuss," they answered, "so hurry right back!" Wang Ze then carried the silk over to the district office with a broad smile on his face, and here is a poem:

Now the governor was still in his office, and needless to say he was delighted to see those bright new lengths of silk brought back. But just as if ordained by the wheel of destiny Wang Ze was about to be be handed his own yamen. He rushed back in a flash to find the three men waiting for him.

"Pardon me if I've missed anything!" he apologised as he burst in. "Now that you three are here I should serve you tea, but I'm too poor to afford a set. Let me just take you to the wineshop next door and buy us all some rounds."

"Stop talking like a loser!" said Zuo Chu, rising to his feet. "If you're game for drinking I'm willing to forgo my vows of sobriety!"

"Master Que has got such a fine way with words!" beamed Pu Ji.

"Well," continued Wang Ze, "today's a holiday and the silk has been returned, so we'll be able to sit there awhile!" The four men went into the wineshop and sat by a window. But just as they were happily drinking and carrying on together they spotted a mob of town garrison troops and others rushing through the street outside. When Wang Ze went out to see what was happening the conscripts all recognized him and saluted.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Dispatcher Wang!" called out one of them. "The governor is working us to a bitter death! We've done over three months' service and he hasn't even been willing to pay us one month's money or rice ration. Today we've been to the rice storehouse and the keeper had his guards beat us away."

"If it's got that bad what is to be done?" asked Wang Ze.

"If he doesn't pay us by tomorrow all the fellows are rising up!" came the reply. The troops and others then walked off, leaving Wang Ze to go back into the shop and tell Zuo Chu what he had just heard. The monk suddenly hobbled to his feet.

"Hurry after those soldiers and tell them to come back!" he exhorted. "Grant them a month's pay and you'll have them eating out of your hand!"

"And where, Master, have you got so much rice and cash?" asked Wang.

"You just tell them to get back here," ordered Zuo Chu, "and I'll provide it!"

Wang Ze then ran after the troops and told them to gather up their comrades and come receive a month's cash and rice. The troops then spread the word around the town's two garrisons; they all assembled at Wang Ze's door to see rice piled up like a mountain inside.

Now, Wang Ze wondered deep down inside where that roomful of rice had come from; it covered even his chairs and table. Quezi then raised his hand and spoke out.

"Listen up, all of you!" he began. "I want each of you to take between one and two hundred pounds of rice, according to your own strength, as much as you can carry by yourself. Just make sure there's no grumbling or calling for help!"

The troops all began moving the rice off with all of their strength, each of them shouldering between one and two hundred pounds as ordered.

"There's only half a ton of this rice!" went Wang Ze in disbelief. "The two garrisons have got six thousand men altogether. How can it be enough to go around?"

"Leave that up to me!" barked Zuo Chu. "You just tell them to come and get their rice ration!"

And so between noon and early evening the men carried off over five hundred tons and there were still a few hundred pounds left over in the room. The commanders and some other men all came to thank Wang Ze.

"Dispatcher Wang!" shouted Zuo Chu. "Just a little more hospitality and they'll all be eating out of your hand! I want you to go by moonlight tonight to the camp commanders. Tell them to order the troops to come over tonight and tomorrow to get a month's cash. We'll pay them in two sessions."

Now, the commanders were delighted delighted to hear this and fairly flew to tell the ranks to go and be paid. Wang Ze looked at Zuo Chu in amazement.

"Master! You've already given out so much rice. Now where's this money all coming from?"

"It's my own!" was the crippled monk's reply.

Zhang Ying then spoke up. "I had a thousand strings of coin hidden in a city mote over in Boping County," he added. "Just this morning I went and moved it under your bed."

Sure enough, when Wang looked there was a pile of cash bursting out from under the bed, and he couldn't imagine how it had been moved there. And then in the midst of this shock he felt the head of a string of cash underfoot as if buried in the earthen floor. He knelt down and tugged at it, seeing what appeared to be a fine coin as big as a sewing wheel embedded there. Hard as he tried he could not pull it from its resting place. He then fell down at once upon his hands and knees, and as he thrust forth his hands to dig there came a great laugh, and right up out of that buried coin burst a real live monk wearing gold earrings and a red flame-pattern gown.

Wang Ze's very soul parted from his body in terror as he threw up his arms and fled outside. The bonze continued to emerge. "Sorry I'm here so late, Dispatcher!" he apologized. It was none other than Pellet Bonze Dan! Zuo and Zhang then turned toward the terrified Wang Ze.

"This gentleman is Master Pellet Dan," they began. "He too is one of us, here to assist you in your great undertaking!"

Wang Ze was incredulous. "Isn't he the one who gave Grand Dragon Bao in Kaifeng such a hard time?"

"The very same!" chuckled Zuo Chu.

Wang finally calmed down and came forth for a better look as Pellet Bonze Dan spoke.

"Earlier this year Flawless Commander Wang donated three thousand strings of cash to me," he announced, "and it hasn't been spent on anything. Now that I've heard how Master Zhang is using the cash from Boping County on Dispatcher Wang's army command, I nave decided to hand over those three thousand strings as well to his cause.

"A string of cash for each of the six thousand troops!" observed Master Que. "We're still short two thousand strings."

"And I've got another three thousand in all," replied Zhang Ying.

"Rest assured, Master!" said Pu Ji. "I've already transported it here for you."

The men of the garrison then entered to be paid in groups of five. The cash was piled up in heaps of a thousand strings each, and the entire floor was covered with cash. Even before the piles had been completely deposited there the recipients had been lined up at the door. Wang Ze told them to begin moving inside and that each was permitted to carry off one string of coin. It was much more than they'd ever hoped for, and none dared to take more than their share. Deep into the night throughout two entire watches did they carry off their pay, and before long both encampments had been compensated.

"Hurrah for Dispatcher Wang!" they and their dependents, young and old, all shouted. "Who else would call people to to come carry off his own money and rice. We needed only be able-bodied enough to carry his full pay, and now we'll all have a little security at home! No more worries for awhile!"

After Zuo Chu and his four colleagues had dispensed all of the money and rice they took their leave of Wang Ze until the morrow. Wang himself was on duty the next day and so he was already in the district yamen awaiting the governor by seven in the morning. Now, this district governor was named Zhang De, the common surname Zhang and De meaning virtue, and the district residents all villified him in verse:

Now this governor never paid any mind to legitimate matters and only sought cash. On this particular day he sat in his office and called for Private Wang, who showed up at once with a snappy salute.

"Reporting as ordered, excellency!" he shouted loudly and clearly.

"Wang Ze!" said the governor. "I've heard you're a real sport! Why, only yesterday you took it on yourself to pay six thousand men their money and rice for me. Why didn't you report your generous intention to me first and let me give it out?"

Wang Ze didn't dare reveal that those colleagues of his had simply conjured up all that money and rice. He waited and though for a moment, but just as he opened his mouth to reply he saw two men in purple gowns and leather vests rushing forth. "Excellency!" they gasped. "Tons of rice are missing from the storehouse, and it hadn't even been opened. The locks and seals were undisturbed!"

The governor was frightened out of his wits; he truly did not know what to make of this news. And just then the guards of the district vault appeared. "Excellency!" they frantically reported, "Two thousand strings of cash are missing although the safe was sealed shut!"

Why, Master Que's rice and Pu Ji's money had been moved right out of the district's own coffers! "That's it!" thundered the governor. "Why, Wang Ze, of course you had no money of your own. It came from my storehouse and safe! You've obviously used some sorcerer's craft to steal and transport it!"

Wang Ze stood accused and unable to utter a word. The governor then called for a jailer with a long cangue and had Wang fitted in it and taken to prison, and he ordered the investigators to begin torturing the truth out of him. But more will come of Governor Zhang's casting Wang Ze into prison. A head will roll and an entire extended family will be exterminated in the name of a lost cause, and the people of Beizhou will have no peace or safety anywhere.

To see what tragedy the governor has set in play, just read what the coming chapters' story has to say.

Conclusion of Chapter 32 Click here to continue to Chapter 33 Table of Contents