Chinese martial arts: From being shot and killed by the armed police during a mountain search to bec

As darkness fell the next day, Chen Hongwu climbed out of the back window of the Yuelai Inn.

The curfew had just started, and there were still a few pedestrians on the street.

He mingled in the crowd and walked north of the city. After crossing two streets, he turned into a small alley and came out wearing different clothes.

Wearing a gray cloth jacket and old cloth shoes, with a satchel slung over his shoulder, he looked like a craftsman traveling at night.

The official road north of the city turns into a dirt road after leaving the city. The road surface is cracked from being dried by the daytime sun, and stepping on it kicks up a thin layer of loose soil.

After walking about two miles along the mountain path, the outline of Ciyun Temple emerged from the shadows of the trees.

The temple is small, hidden in a mountain valley, with blue bricks and gray tiles. It is surrounded by a dozen old pine trees, whose canopies cover most of the temple roof. The courtyard wall is made of blue bricks, about ten feet high, and covered with blue tiles, with a few clumps of pine trees growing on top.

The main gate faces south, with two wooden doors tightly closed, and the brass rings on the doors gleaming dimly in the moonlight.

Chen Hongwu did not go through the main gate. He went around to the back of the temple, walked around the courtyard wall, and stopped at the base of the wall.

The wall surface is flat with no protrusions to lean on, but the mortar between the bricks is quite old, with some sections peeling off and revealing gaps about half a finger deep.

He probed the depth of the gap with his finger, then pressed his body against the wall, gripped the brick seam with both hands, and inserted his toes into the gap, silently rising up like a gecko.

Geckos' wall-climbing skills!

This set of exercises is not from Xingyiquan; it is a body technique from Baguaquan.

Cheng Tinghua once chased a thief in Beijing. The thief escaped by scaling a wall, but Cheng Tinghua climbed straight up the wall, even faster than the thief, and landed right in front of him.

Chen Hongwu climbed over the wall, landing on the balls of his feet first. With a quick inhale and exhale, he absorbed all the force of the fall, and the sound of his landing was barely louder than a leaf falling.

The place we settled in was the backyard of the nunnery. Several vegetable patches were planted in the yard, and next to the vegetable patches was a woodshed. The windows of the woodshed were papered, letting in a dim yellow light. Inside, an oil lamp was lit, and by its light, we could see an old nun squatting on the ground tidying up firewood.

This is the kitchen.

Chen Hongwu crept along the shadows at the base of the wall toward the temple.

He had memorized the layout drawn by the spy. The main gate faced south, and inside was the main hall. Behind the main hall was the dining hall, to the east of the dining hall was the abbot's room, to the west was a lotus pond, and further north was a row of meditation rooms.

The first room on the east side belongs to the abbot, the second room is for worshippers, and the third room is for Mo Laohu's exclusive use.

Behind the meditation room is a small bamboo grove, outside of which is a low wall, and beyond that is a vegetable garden.

He walked around the temple, and in less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, he had explored every corner thoroughly.

Ciyun Temple is not large, consisting of only two courtyards, front and back.

The front courtyard contains the main hall and dining hall, while the back courtyard contains meditation rooms and vegetable gardens.

There were twelve or thirteen nuns in total, all ordinary women, none of them skilled in martial arts. Mo Laohu hadn't sent anyone to set up defenses beforehand, and Chen Hongwu hadn't even seen a single spear, nor did he feel like he was being watched by sentries.

When someone has mastered Xingyi Quan to his level, they will feel a chill down their spine and their scalp will tingle when someone points a gun at them.

"This place is nice."

Chen Hongwu found a secluded spot in the small bamboo grove behind the temple and piled up a shallow pit with withered bamboo leaves and weeds. A person could lie in it and cover themselves with a layer of bamboo leaves and branches. From the outside, it looked no different from a pile of fallen leaves.

He hid himself and began to wait.

first day.

After daybreak, the nuns in the temple began their activities.

Some were cooking, some were sweeping the yard, and the morning bell rang three times.

Chen Hongwu peeked half his head out from the pile of bamboo leaves, observing the patterns of everyone's movements.

Every morning, the nuns who cook go to the kitchen to start a fire, cook porridge and steam buns, and then bring them to the dining hall.

The nun sweeping the courtyard gathered the fallen leaves in the front and back yards into piles and dumped them into a pit next to the vegetable garden.

The abbot chants sutras in his room every morning, comes out to bask in the sun for a while at noon, and continues chanting sutras in the afternoon.

No outsiders entered Ciyun Temple throughout the day.

When Chen Hongwu got hungry, he would sneak into the kitchen when no one was around and grab two steamed buns and a piece of pickled vegetables.

There was always some leftover porridge in the pot. He would scoop some out with a bamboo tube, drink it, and then wash the bamboo tube clean and put it back in its place.

The water jar contained spring water, which was sweet and thirst-quenching. He drank a whole bamboo tube of it and then put the lid back on.

the next day.

There was still no movement.

Mo Laohu did not send anyone to set up defenses, nor did he come to offer incense in advance; there wasn't even a single extra footprint on the stone path in front of the temple.

Chen Hongwu squatted in the small bamboo grove, looking at the empty mountain road through the gaps in the bamboo leaves, and for the first time, a trace of doubt arose in his heart.

"Could there have been errors in the intelligence from the Guangdong army?"

The thought flashed through his mind, but he didn't rush to conclusions. He only waited a day and a half. Mo Laohu was used to coming every seven days, so perhaps today was the sixth day and tomorrow was the actual day.

Let's wait one more day.

By the evening of the following day, things had finally changed.

A series of footsteps came from the mountain path. There were not just one person, but at least four or five people, along with the sound of horses' hooves.

Chen Hongwu's spirits lifted, he lowered his body, and locked his gaze through the gaps in the bamboo leaves onto the entrance of the temple.

The person who came was not Mo Laohu.

They were three men wearing gray cloth short shirts, their waists bulging, clearly carrying weapons.

A middle-aged man who looked like a butler led the way, followed by two attendants carrying gift boxes.

They stopped in front of the temple gate and knocked on the door.

The young nun in the nunnery opened the door, said a few words, and then led them inside.

Chen Hongwu silently moved from the bamboo grove to the back wall of the abbot's room and listened intently.

Voices came from inside the room. The middle-aged man, who looked like a steward, said to the abbess, "...The warlord was supposed to come today, but something happened. He encountered an assassin in the city a couple of days ago and was shot in the arm. It's not fatal, but he'll need to rest for a few days."

The warlord sent me to tell the nun that the incense money for this month will still be paid, and she can come to worship Buddha again after she recovers from her injuries.

The abbess's voice came: "Amitabha! The warlord has been frightened. This humble nun will now chant sutras and pray for his well-being. I wonder if the assassin has been captured yet?"

"He escaped." The butler lowered his voice. "That man is incredibly skilled. Even the warlord's six guards couldn't stop him. But we have a lead, so there's no need to worry."

Upon hearing this, Chen Hongwu's expression froze for a moment.

After a moment, he sighed silently.

What a waste of time!