Many hours later, they heard shouting in the distance.

　　The sound of galloping hooves and clashing swordsincreased in volume until they heard a man near thepit shout: "Daughter! Master Chen! Where are you?""Father! Father! We're here!" Princess Fragrancecalled.

　　The heroes leapt out of the pit and saw Muzhuolun,sabre in hand, galloping towards them with a raggedbunch of Muslim soldiers behind, fighting bravely.

　　Princess Fragrance ran to him crying "Father! Father!"Muzhuolun took her in his arms. "Don't be afraid," hesaid soothingly. "I have come to save you."Xu jumped onto the back of a horse to get a betterview of the situation. He saw a great cloud of dustrising to the east and knew the Manchu armouredcavalry were coming.

　　"Master Muzhuolun!" he called. "Let's retreat to thathigh ground to the west!" Muzhuolun immediatelyordered his troops to comply. They started out fromthe pit with the Manchus close behind, and as theyreached the hill, saw another force of Manchu troopsmoving in from the west.

　　"Huo Qingtong was right," Muzhuolun thought glumly. "Ishould not have accused her like that. She must befeeling very bad."They threw up temporary defences on the hilltop andsettled down to wait for an opportunity to escape.

　　With the Muslims firmly established on high ground,the Manchus did not dare, for the moment, to attack.

　　Huo Qingtong stationed her unit about four miles awayfrom the enemy forces. At noon, the unit commanderscame to report. She told the commander of the GreenFlag's second unit: "Go with five hundred troops andtake up positions along the southern bank of the BlackRiver. The Manchu troops are not allowed to cross theriver. If they attack, do not engage them head on, butrather delay them as long as possible." The commanderbowed and retired.

　　She then turned to the commander of the White Flag'sfirst unit. "I want you to lure the Manchu forceswestwards. If your troops clash with the enemy, theyare not allowed to win the engagement, but mustcontinue to flee into the desert, the further thebetter. Take our four thousand head of cattle andgoats with you and leave them along the road for themto seize.""Why should we give them our livestock? I won't doit!"Huo Qingtong's lips tightened. "Do you refuse tofollow my orders?" she asked quietly.

　　The commander brandished his sabre. "If you tell me towin a battle. I will follow your orders. If you tellme to lose a battle, I would rather die then comply!""Seize him!" Huo Qingtong commanded. Four guards ranforward and grabbed the commander's arms. "The Manchuforces are oppressing us and to beat them, we mustwork together with one heart. Will you or will you notfollow my orders?""No! What are you going to do about it?""Execute him!" she commanded, and the officer's faceturned pale. The guards pushed him out of the tent andsliced off his head with one sword stroke as the othercommanders quivered with fear.

　　Huo Qingtong promoted the assistant commander to takethe dead officer's place and told him to retreatwestwards before the Manchu forces until he saw smokerising from the east, then to return as quickly aspossible, avoiding battle with the Manchus. Sheordered the other units to gather beside the GreatQuagmire to the east.

　　Her work complete, she mounted her horse and drew hersword. "The first and second units of the Black Flag,follow me," she shouted.

　　Muzhuolun, Chen and the others were trapped on thehill. The Manchu troops had attacked twice, but hadbeen beaten back. The hill was surrounded by piles ofcorpses. Losses on both sides had been heavy.

　　Sometime after noon, there was a movement in theManchu lines, and a column of mounted Muslim soldierscharged through towards them. Amidst the flying snowflakes, they spotted Huo Qingtong at its head.

　　"Charge!" shouted Muzhuolun, and led his men down thehill to meet her. Princess Fragrance galloped over toher sister and embraced her.

　　Huo Qingtong took her hand and shouted: "Commander ofthe Black Flag Third Unit: lead your men west untilyou meet up with the first unit of the White Flag andfollow the orders of its commander."The officer and his troops galloped off, and a columnof Manchu cavalry broke from the main force and chasedafter them.

　　"Excellent!" exclaimed Huo Qingtong. "Commander of theBlack Flag First Unit: retreat with your men towardsYarkand and follow the orders of my brother. Commanderof the Second Unit, you retreat towards the BlackRiver." The two units broke out of the encirclement,and disappeared into the distance pursued by two morecolumns of Manchu cavalry.

　　"Everyone else head eastwards!" Huo Qingtong ordered,and the remaining Muslim soldiers along with the RedFlower Society fighters galloped through the circle ofManchu troops and away.

　　The Manchu cavalry, under the command of Zhao Weiclosed in on the fleeing Muslims and cut off severalhundred of them. All were slaughtered. Zhao Wei wasdelighted. He pointed to the huge Crescent Moon bannernear Huo Qingtong and shouted: "Whoever seizes thatbanner gets a reward!" The cavalrymen surged forward,galloping madly across the desert.

　　The Muslims were riding good horses and the Manchucavalry had difficulty keeping up with them. But afterten or fifteen miles, some of the Muslim fightersbegan to fall behind and were killed by the Manchutroops. Zhao Wei saw they were all either old men orboys, and exclaimed: "Their leader has no crack troopswith him. After them!" They galloped on for anothertwo or three miles and saw the Muslim forcedispersing, apparently in confusion. Fluttering on thetop of a large sand dune ahead was the crescentbanner.

　　Zhao Wei flourished his sword and led the chargetowards the dune with his bodyguards behind. But as hereached the top and looked out beyond, he was almostfrightened out of his wits. To the north and south,were rank after orderly rank of Muslim warriors,waiting silently. The Manchu force had originally beenseveral times larger than the Muslim force, but somany units had been sent out in pursuit of thebreakaway Muslim columns that only ten thousandarmoured cavalry now faced the concentrated might ofthe Muslim army. Two more Muslim columns appearedbehind them, and with enemy troops to the north, southand west, Zhao Wei shouted: "Everyone forward!

　　Eastwards!" The Manchu forces surged forward as theMuslim fighters gradually closed in on them.

　　Suddenly, there was a chorus of cries from the cavalryunit in the lead. A soldier rode up to Zhao Wei andsaid: "General! We're finished! There's quicksandahead!" He could see a thousand cavalrymen and theirhorses already flailing about as they sank into thesoft mud.

　　Chen and the others stood on a sand dune and watchedas the Manchu troops fell into the quagmire. Thesoldiers behind tried to escape, but the Muslimspressed relentlessly in, forcing them into the mud.

　　The air was filled with the screams of the haplessManchu soldiers, but the mud crept up the............