Free Dragon by Jeff Stone Page A

set up our first real camp. It represents one of his first victories, and I understand that Cangzhen is quite close to the stronghold. Maybe we will finally get a break from this insane pace.”
    Cangzhen Temple!
ShaoShu thought. So this waswhere Hok and the others had lived! He gave his pony a slap on its rump and steered it toward a crumbled section of the wall. He wanted to take a look around before someone put him to work.
    ShaoShu made it through the gap without attracting any attention and jumped off his pony. What a horrible attack this must have been. Besides the burn marks, there were huge dark stains along the sides of many of the buildings that could only have been blood. He could not imagine two thousand soldiers armed with cannons and muskets attacking one hundred monks who had little more than sticks and swords.
    Soldiers began to call out for ShaoShu, but he was eager to see more. He tied his pony to a piece of rubble and headed deeper into the destruction.
    When he had heard about his friends growing up at Cangzhen Temple, ShaoShu had imagined one building. However, it was actually a collection of many buildings, with the high wall surrounding everything. He kept close to the wall, scurrying in its shadow, and soon reached one of the compound’s back corners. Here he found a small building with something shiny on the roof. Of course, he could not resist finding out what it was. He looked around and saw a thin clay drainpipe running straight up one corner of the building. It stopped at an ornate stone dragon overhanging the roofline.
    ShaoShu shinnied up the pipe, climbed over the dragon, and stopped dead in his tracks. There wasanother dragon on the roof, hidden behind the stone one—only this second dragon was real! It bared its pointed teeth at him, stuck out its forked tongue, and growled, “Get out!”
    ShaoShu let out a small shriek and leaped back, tripping over the stone dragon. He was beginning to tumble off the roof when the real dragon stabbed its sharp claws into his collar and jerked him to safety.
    The dragon clamped another claw over ShaoShu’s mouth and hissed in his ear, “Hush, ShaoShu! It’s me, Ying.”

S haoShu felt the pressure released from his mouth and collar, and he stared. It was indeed Ying.
    “I apologize,” Ying said. “I did not recognize you at first.”
    ShaoShu shrugged. He was not sure if he should be frightened or ecstatic. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
    “I might ask you the same thing. However, I think I can guess what is happening. Tonglong is stopping here on the way to the Forbidden City.”
    “Actually, he is stopping here on his way to the bandits’ former stronghold. We are going to wait there with a man named Commander Woo until the troops arrive from the south and east.”
    “Nice work,” Ying said. “What else do you know?”
    “Lots of things,” ShaoShu replied. “For one, Tonglong is a very bad man. Sometimes, when he wants information from someone and they won’t give it to him, he tortures them by—”
    “I can imagine,” Ying interrupted. “Look, we do not have much time to talk. Can you give me any specific troop information? How many men does Tonglong have?”
    “Ninety-nine. He calls them his ‘elite force.’ They are nasty, and they love to use pistols. They wear red uniforms like the one I am wearing, and like the Southern army wears.”
    “How many men is he expecting to arrive later?”
    “No one knows for sure. He has tens of thousands already, and he gets more every day. It is unbelievable.”
    Ying spat. “This is far more serious than I thought. The Forbidden City has its own sizable force, but I believe it is only a few thousand men. Tonglong might be able to overrun it with sheer numbers. I need to get to him before he reaches the Forbidden City. You said that he is going to see Commander Woo now?”
    “I believe so,” ShaoShu said.
    “Do you know anything about their short-term plans?”
    “One man