Mu Guiyang, Chinese Woman Warrior

“Her swinging sword flashes like nine falling suns shot by Yet the legendary bowman; she moves with the force of a team of Dragons driven by the gods through the sky; her strokes and attacks are like those of terrible thunder; and when she stops all is still as water reflecting the clear moonlight.” — Tu Fu, “Viewing a Student of Madame Kung Sun”

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Mu Guiying assumed the command without hesitation. Like a veteran general, she was composed and confident, calling the muster roll of officers and assigning them to different tasks. She taught and then ordered them to break the different moves of the formation one by one by the counter measures she knew. She did not forget to send a surprise detachment to cut off the enemy’s supply line by burning all their food and fodder to ashes. Lack of fodder, the Liao cavalry, the major component of their army, would be rendered useless. Without food, an army of tens of thousands strong could not sustain a protracted war out of its base. As for the base, the City of Youzhou lost to the Great Liao in a previous battle, she ordered a third army to recapture it and thereby ridding the Liao of its bridgehead to invade Song.

Then the Song army engaged the enemy in the final battle and won. Guiying, with her talent and gallantry, also won the hearts of her elders and her peers. Upon their triumphant return, the emperor greeted Guiying as well as the courageous men and women of the Yang Family in person, and conferred titles they well deserved. His majesty also gave Zongbao and Guiying a grand wedding.

The story has been told and retold in fictions and operas alike and known to the Chinese old and young. Of the many episodes the most popular have been “Mu Guiying Assuming Command” and “Yanzhao to Execute His Son.”

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