The Longest Day in Chang’an: A Race Against Time - Chapter 40

Chapter 40: Shen Chu (15:00-15:59) P9
Translator: DragonRider
Such was the tension in the intersection that it seemed as if there would be an explosion in the air without detonating those Fierceflame Bombs. Mage’er’s cart was slowly progressing, as if there was nobody around. Eventually, he reached the edge of the blockade line on the north side. The wheel-horse broke through the thorn fence and kicked the front of a row of shields with its two forelegs.

Clearly those soldiers nearby could just kill this Turkish Wolf Guard, but none of them dared to do anything to him. The five big tawny barrels were like five Grim Reapers. In this subtle confrontation, elite Leopard Cavalrymen kept drawing back and scattering, and thus the cart forced its way through them. The general in command didn’t dare to make any rash decisions, his face sepulchral.

Standing on the top of a high platform in the corner of the fang, Li Bi closed his eyes. Once the cart crossed the border, the nature of this incident would be totally different. Immediate action must be taken. In a deep voice, he said, “Prepare fire arrows!”

Twenty elite archers instantly climbed up to the top of the platform. Twenty assistant soldiers dipped the heads of arrows, which were covered in balls of cotton, into turpentine and then handed them to those archers. Their captain gave an order and with that those archers quickly loaded their bows with arrows, drew them and aimed at the cart outside the fang.

If he didn’t take action right now and let the Wolf Guard keep approaching the imperial city and the palace city, all staff members of the Jing’an Department would be convicted of risking the lives of the Emperor and numerous officials. After weighing the two potential consequences, Li Bi would rather let it blast half of Guangde Fang and his reputation into pieces than allow it progress any further north.

Sounds of bowstrings straining kept coming into his ears. He knew that this whole thing would be over once he uttered that word. Under no circumstances would those twenty arrows miss the target from this distance, but what was going to happen next would be at the discretion of God.

“Master, this place is too dangerous. You should… What’s that?” Tanqi was going to try to persuade Li Bi into going down first in case those bombs detonated, but she suddenly saw something unusual in the intersection and exclaimed in amazement.

Everybody looked in the direction of the intersection that she was pointing at with her white finger.

A figure was fearlessly sprinting for the cart at an unprecedentedly fast speed. He was wearing a cape of a weird color and his face couldn’t be clearly seen. Mage’er concentrated all his attention on the blockade line in front of him, so he didn’t notice this. Taking advantage of this occasion, the figure leaped onto the cart-box, shot out one end of a rope and wrapped it around Mage’er’s wrist.

“That’s Xiaojing!” Surprisingly, it was nearsighted Xu Bin who was the first one to recognize that figure.

The spirit of staff members of the Jing’an Department instantly rose up as they heard this name. This convict condemned to death had worked miracles several times during the past few hours. No matter how desperate the situation was, he could always toughly figure out a solution. From curators to petty officials, everybody had a heartfelt admiration for him.

Zhang Xiaojing’s taking daring action at this moment made his image in their mind even more heroic. If it weren’t for that there were certain rules they had to follow, they would have been cheering. Li Bi, the only one whose face stayed unchanged, watched with his hands at the back. Twenty lighted arrows were still aimed at the cart.

Zhang Xiaojing had no time to think about the reaction of those staff members of the Jing’an Department. All his attention was on this Turkish desperado in front of him. It took only one tiny mistake to cause this cart to be blasted into pieces.

Just now, wearing the cape, under the cover of the crowds, he quietly approached the north entrance of the Tenth Street. A soldier in the blockade formation failed to keep his composure under the huge pressure and raised his pike slightly higher, which temporarily distracted Mage’er. Zhang Xiaojing seized this fleeting opportunity, dashed twenty steps forward, took a flying leap and landed onto the cart from behind.

Mage’er immediately recognized this person who had repeatedly brought them trouble. He thundered in Turkish, “I should’ve killed you earlier!” Zhang Xiaojing gave a wintry smile and said nothing, but his only eye, which was as ferocious as that of a lone wolf, sent chills down Mage’er’s spine.

The two people started fighting on the cart, risking life and limb. As long as Zhang Xiaojing managed to drag Mage’er half a foot away from the barrel, other soldiers would be able to come to his help. But on the other side, as long as Mage’er managed to buy himself half a Tanzhi (1. Tanzhi is a unit of time used in ancient China. A Tanzhi equals around 7.4 seconds), he would be able to stick the torch into a barrel. It was like the two people were standing on a rope spanning a deep gorge, where even the slightest mistake would cause them to be dashed to pieces.

This engagement lasted only a couple of instants. First Zhang Xiaojing punched Mage’er on the right eye which was directly pierced by the piece of iron between Zhang Xiaojing’s fingers. Then Mage’er shot out his forehead onto Zhang Xiaojing’s nose which instantly started bleeding. The two people were fighting in a disorderly but extremely fierce manner like two bloodthirsty wolves.

Mage’er’s wrist was tied with a rope, which restricted his movements. Zhang Xiaojing took advantage of this and ferociously attacked his head. Unexpectedly, Mage’er didn’t dodge but suppressed the sharp pain in the head, stretched his fingers and dug them into the wound in Zhang Xiaojing’s armpit. Mage’er happened to be the one who caused this wound in Zhang Xiaojing in Xiuzheng Fang. The pain was so intense that Zhang Xiaojing had a brief blackout, and his movements froze.

Mage’er didn’t seize this chance to continue attacking, since it was pointless to do so. He rapidly picked up the torch, looked around at those soldiers climbing up the cart from all directions, mumbled something in Turkish and then dropped the torch into a barrel. Zhang Xiaojing let out a cry, pounced on Mage’er and kicked him off the cart, but it was too late.

A smell of sulfur quickly wafted out of the barrel, accompanied by thin smoke.

Those soldiers who were climbing up like ants immediately retreated in horror like a tide. Li Bi, who was standing on the high platform, closed his eyes in frustration, ‘So it failed like this after all?’

“Master, look!” Tanqi exclaimed in amazement. Li Bi abruptly opened his eyes. Seeing what was happening, he lost his composure, involuntarily took two steps forward and nearly fell off the platform.

He saw that Zhang Xiaojing jumped onto the carter’s seat, whipped the wheel-horses, madly made gestures to signal those soldiers in front of him to step aside, and drove northwards.

“What is Commandant Zhang doing?” a curator of the Jing’an Department yelled.

“Is he by any chance trying to drive the cart to somewhere safe? How can he make it?”

“Even if there is enough time, the direction is not right. He’s still heading north!”

“Then isn’t he doing the same thing that those Turks were trying to do?”

If Zhang Xiaojing chose to back off at this moment, nobody would blame him. But he risked being devoured by flames, driving the cart northwards. All areas in the north were prosperous and busy, and there was no place for the five barrels of Fierceflame Bombs to detonate without causing casualties.

While they were discussing in puzzlement, a strange speculation occurred to them. This person had once openly expressed his grudges against the Imperial Court. Was he by any chance trying to take advantage of this opportunity and drive the cart to the palace city to take revenge?

The captain of Archers Team couldn’t help yelling, “Sicheng Li, the cart is about to go out of range!” Firmness gleaming in his eyes, Li Bi finally issued an order, “Unload the arrows.” The captain widened his eyes, suspecting that he had just misheard. Li Bi repeated, “Unload the arrows.”

Those twenty archers had no choice but to lower down their bows, confused. All curators looked at Li Bi. Sicheng Li had a reputation for his daring and decisiveness, but this time his decision was overbold.

Actually, Li Bi was also having a fierce struggle in his mind. He recalled the words that Zhang Xiaojing had said to him, “You were the one who chose me, and I’m the one who’s making this decision. We both have to be responsible for our choices.” Now that he had put a huge bet on this convict condemned to death, he might as well risk it.

He believed that there must be a reason why Zhang Xiaojing was doing this. But smart as Li Bi was, he couldn’t find a solution to this either.

On the cart, Zhang Xiaojing was driving madly along the broad street between the West Market and Guangde Fang. Behind him, black smoke was billowing out those barrels. Fierceflame Bombs didn’t detonate instantly, which was the best out of the worst, but the mountain tallow had already started burning, and the flames might flare up at any moment.

Zhang Xiaojing suddenly stooped down, whipped the left ear of the wheel-horse and with that the whole cart began to move leftwards, changing the direction.

“The track width!” Li Bi suddenly realized what was going on and with that Xu Bin also yelled, “The track width!” Seeing that other curators were perplexed, he added two more words, “West Market, track width!”

The West Market had only two entrances, on in the east and one in the west, each of which had a Dragon-threshold fixed on the ground. A Dragon-threshold was a lateral stone threshold beneath the gate. There were two gaps in the threshold, the distance between which was five feet three inches. In another word, only carts the track width of which was five feet three inches could enter the West Market. Carts of track width either wider or narrower than that were unable to get in. But the distance between the gaps in Dragon-thresholds in other fangs in Chang’an was only four feet, which meant that only narrow carts could get through them.

In this way, carts of wide track width transporting large quantities of goods had to go to the East Mark or the West Market, while narrow carts for daily use in Chang’an could get through all fangs without any trouble, but they couldn’t enter the two markets. Thus, big carts carrying goods and small carts carrying passengers would be traveling on separate roads, which not only helped prevent congestion but also made it convenient for administrative agencies of markets and the Jingzhao Office to regulate the traffic.

Su’s Cart Company only transported bulk goods, so naturally the standard for track width they adopted when making their carts was five feet three inches. If Zhang Xiaojing wanted the cart to get further away from the main street, entering the West Market was his only choice.

At this moment, the east gate of the West Market was about sixty steps ahead of the cart on the left. At this speed, the cart could reach the gate in a mere instant. But the West Market was also an important place of Chang’an, in which there were numerous merchants and goods as well as envoys representing rich merchants from various countries. If those bombs exploded in it, the damage would be just as extensive.

Li Bi had no idea what Zhang Xiaojing was planning to do at all. Currently, he could do nothing but fix his eyes on that convict condemned to death and hope for the best.