The Prince
The next day my training as an undercover agent starts.
My teacher, unexpectedly, is Shao Ru.
“First thing is assassination techniques,” he says. He plonks an item down on the table. It’s a double-edged knife about the length of my forearm.
“There isn’t time to teach you more than a few techniques, but they ought to be enough. This is a sleeve sword. You strap it to your forearm. You’ll be wearing a robe with long sleeves so it’ll be concealed. You need to practise with it so you can get at it in a variety of situations.” He puts another item on the table, a sheath with adjustable straps. “Take it with you and practise at night. You’ve got to be so familiar with it that you can whip it out in a split-second. Stand up.”
I stand up. He jabs his finger into a place just under my ribs, in the middle but slightly to the left. “Your heart is here. One stab here, angled to the left, will kill you instantly. Turn round.”
I turn round. He jabs into my back. “You have to avoid the ribs or the knife will be diverted. If you’re attacking from the back, here’s the place to stab. Female assassins use the frontal technique because they can lure the victim in. You might find that more convenient too.”
“Female assassins?” I'm taken aback.
“Women are good at killing. A useful thing to bear in mind. Speaking of which, this is a favourite female weapon.” He brings out a long sharp decorative hair ornament.
“A hairpin?”
“Easily accessible and deadly. One stab under the ear and you’re done for.” He presses a spot right under my ear. “Here. You bleed out in seconds. You can also hide a knife in your boot. I reckon that with these three concealed weapons, you’ll be able to defend yourself in a one-to-one situation. Assassins also use poisoned weapons, but I don’t think we need to go there. Now I’m going to teach you some unarmed combat techniques.”
An uncomfortable two hours follow. I learn how to disable an opponent with my bare hands. Shao Ru’s the troop’s acknowledged expert on hand-to-hand fighting. He has enormous upper body strength. I don’t have very much.
“Doesn’t matter. You use whatever advantages you have. With you, it’s speed and agility. Go for the weak points. The nose. The crotch. It’s relatively easy to break someone’s neck if you catch them unawares. Dart in, strike and dart out again. Try it on me.”
I learn how to use my fists, my feet and the edge of my hand. It’s exhausting, but at the same time, it’s exhilarating. At the end of the session Shao Ru says, “Good. You’re making progress. Think about all this and we’ll practise again tomorrow.”
I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do and I’ve more or less worked out a plan in my mind, though I don’t think the Commander will like it. I reckon the best thing to do is to pretend to be a seductive but witless spoiled brat who won’t present any kind of threat. A little white rabbit, ready to be snapped up. On the surface anyway.
I go and find Qin Feng. “Where can I get a fan?”
“I know just the place. Anything else?”
I look at his earring. “I really want an earring like that.”
“No can do. It won’t be healed by the time we go into Qiu. But I can do it for you afterwards.”
“Deal,” I say.
“I could do your hair for you,” he suggests. “I know all the latest fashions.”
“Great, thanks. This is all a bit crazy, isn’t it?”
“Yes it is,” he says, “But exciting.”
And it is.
Two short tough-looking men in barbarian clothing come to the camp and are shut up with the Commander for a couple of hours.
“Mountain guides,” says Shao Ru, in reply to my question. “To take us up to the plateau. The Commander’s contact’s being very helpful.”
“Just who is the Commander’s contact?”
“That woman who runs the Lotus Garden,” Shao Ru says. “The one who shagged him witless the other night.”
“Ah,” I say. “Right.”
Shao Ru coughs. “I think Liang Zhou wants a word with you about poisons. Run along and speak to him.”
I run along. Liang Zhou’s busy mixing herbs. “Young Master Yan,” he says, “Come and sit down.” I sit, trying to concentrate. But Shao Ru’s careless words are running around my mind like busy little mice.
“A cup of tea,” says Liang Zhou. He pours me one. “Now,” he says, “We know that the King of Qiu takes drugs. He uses aphrodisiacs and I expect he’s familiar with many other kinds of drug. It’s quite likely that he’ll try and use something on you. So you must absolutely not drink or eat anything you’re given inside the Palace. Also you must beware of any highly-perfumed incense. I’m preparing various antidotes for you to take with you, just in case.”
“I thought that the easiest way to disable Wang Meng would be to trick him into drinking something that’ll put him to sleep. Once I get him alone, it should be relatively easy. Could you concoct something?”
“Certainly. That sounds like a good course of action. You seem to have it all worked out.”
“Well, I’ve got a plan, but I don’t know if the Commander will agree.”
“If it’s a good plan, he will.”
“I hope so."
I’m a little nervous about facing the Commander alone, but to my relief I find Shao Ru with him. All the same, I have trouble meeting his eye as I explain my plan. It sounds much less convincing than I’d hoped, but I try and make the best of it. “If I dress up like I did back at Jiayuguan Pass and give the impression that I’m a spoiled brat, Wang Meng will think I’m a pushover and won’t be suspicious. Given what everyone says about him, he’ll be anxious to get me alone as soon as possible. Then I’ll slip him a sleeping drug which will keep him quiet till next morning when you send in the fake courier.”
Shao Ru raises his eyebrows. The Commander frowns. “Too risky.”
“It sounds to me like our best bet,” Shao Ru says, “Young Master Yan’s willing to do it. And after all, it’s his chrysanthemum.”
My……? I have no idea what this means, but judging by the Commander’s sudden ferocious glare, I suspect that, as usual with Shao Ru, it’s something very rude.
“He’ll have hidden weapons on him,” says Shao Ru, “And by the time we’re ready to go, he’ll be trained in unarmed combat as well. You can give him an idea of what it’s like working undercover.”
“As long as you get there promptly next morning, it should work,” I say. “No-one’s going to disturb Wang Meng in his bedchamber during the night.”
We wait for the Commander’s decision.
Then: “All right,” he says reluctantly. “We’ll do it that way. Go as far as you can with the training. And come here tomorrow morning so I can tell you about undercover work.”
Later I say to Mo Jiang, “What does chrysanthemum mean? Apart from the flower.”
Mo Jiang grins. “Who mentioned chrysanthemums? Shao Ru?”
“Got it in one.”
“Well, it’s a certain part of your body. It’s where you do it if you do it with a man.”
I utter a despairing groan and put my head in my hands. Mo Jiang pats me consolingly on the back.
Next morning I go to the Commander’s tent to learn how to be a spy. My heartbeat’s a little uneven, but I’ve decided that the best way to deal with my emotions is to be very businesslike.
He’s being very businesslike too.
“Being undercover means that you have to concentrate absolutely for the whole time you’re in the field. You’ve got to remember who you’re supposed to be and what you’re supposed to be doing. One moment’s inattention and your cover’s blown. You’re going to be playing yourself, so there’s no need to remember a cover story, but your behaviour has to be consistent and you have to keep your mission in mind the whole time. Observe the people round you. Stay alert, even at night. Luckily, you won’t be in the field that long, only twenty-four hours at the most. But the environment you’re going into will be full of pitfalls, so you’ll need to have your wits about you. For someone of your intelligence, that shouldn’t be a problem. We’ll try to gather the maximum amount of information about the people you’ll be interacting with before you go in. It’s up to you to decide what kind of character you’re going to present, and stick to it."
“Have you really been undercover?”
“Several times.”
“What did you do?”
“Last time, I infiltrated a gang of smugglers on the coast. They were smuggling weapons to criminal gangs in Dongying.”
“That sounds dangerous.”
“Very. But we got them in the end.”
He pauses and says, “I think I mentioned that our contact has a person inside the Palace. That person will make himself known to you and will be a last resort if anything goes wrong. He will also open the back gate to let us in from the plateau.”
“What will you be doing?”
“Leading the main force. I’m going to put Fan Feng in charge of the attack from the plateau. He’s a mountain man himself.”
“Is the planning going well?”
“So far, so good. My contact’s going to buy premises in Qiu City which we can use as a base. We’ll store the weapons and wagons there. Now we have to work out the timing so that everything comes together at the right moment. In another couple of days, we’ll move on to Qiu City. We’ll camp outside and delay your entry on the excuse that you’re delicate and are suffering after the long journey. Fan Feng’s men will need two or three days to get up the mountain and in that time, we can scout out the town and infiltrate men and arms. When it’s all ready, we go into action.”
“I won’t let you down,” I say.
“I know you won’t. Now, Shao Ru’s waiting to continue the combat training, so hop off.”
I groan. “I’m covered in bruises already.”
He grins. “Try and give him a few.”
“I’d be so lucky. The man’s armour-plated.”
