ˇ@ˇ§The Three Thefts of the Nine-Dragon Cupˇ¨centers around Yang Xiangwu and Huang Santai , characters from the novel The Court Cases of Lord Peng . It begins with the victory of Huang Santai, the best martial warrior in the south, over Dou Erdun , his counterpart in the north, by a very narrow margin. After Huang Santai became famous in martial arts circles, he even killed a tiger in the capital city and Emperor Kangxi bestowed a yellow robe upon him. Yang Xiangwu , who had studied martial arts under the same master, regarded himself superior to Huang and planned revenge. Yang went to the palace one night and stole Emperor Kangxi's Nine-Dragon Cup, which was again stolen by Master Thief Wong Boyan on his way back. The Nine-Dragon Cup eventually came to the hands of Zhou Yinglong of Bixia Village. Yang Xianwu had meant to show off the stolen cup to his bandit friends, but after Wong stole the cup, he never spoke of it again.
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Emperor Kangxi was angered and ordered Lord Peng to get the cup back. Lord Peng and Huang Santai would be punished if they could not find the thief. A Meeting of Robes was held, and all the bandit heroes attended. In the meeting, Yang Xiangwu and Wong Boyan were lured into describing what they did with the Nine-Dragon Cup. But the cup was now in Zhou Yinglong's hands and he would not return it because he thought Huang was no better than he. Yang had to go to Bixia Village and steal the cup a second time. He and Lord Peng brought the cup back to the Emperor and asked for punishment. Amazed at their skills, the emperor was pleased to see the return of the cup and praised them as noble men. But Lord Su of Damu believed that Yang was falsely boasting. He first asked for the Emperor's permission to keep the cup temporarily and then asked Yang to steal the cup a third time, before the crowing of the rooster in the next morning. If he succeeded, his crime could be pardoned. Should he fail, he, Huang and the rest of the bandits would be executed for deceiving the Emperor. That night, Yang skillfully sneaked into Wang's mansion and successfully stole the cup for the third time. He not only escaped the punishment but also made himself and the gang even more famous.
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