The Longest Day in Chang’an: A Race Against Time - Chapter 75

Chapter 75: Haichu (21:00-21:59) Part 1

Translator: DragonRider

In the distance, six cavalrymen in gold armor appeared at the end of the street, followed by eight attendants holding crimson-painted, moon-shaped fans and long fans made of peacock tail feathers. With that, a luxurious four-windowed carriage drawn by four purplish red horses progressed over, escorted by a dozen guards in brocade clothes.

Haichu, 14th of the first lunar month, Tianbao Year 3, Tang Dynasty.

Pingkang Fang, Wannian County, Chang’an.

Shouzhuo mercenaries split into over ten squads and went into the web of narrow, winding alleys like mercury permeating through the ground, searching back and forth. Each squad had at least two members, because the fighting capability of the opponent was formidably high.

Just now, they had already forced that daredevil into an alley. How come he disappeared into thin air in a flash? With a sepulchral look on his face, the captain of Shouzhuo mercenaries yelled at his subordinates ordering them to solidly block every exits. He didn’t believe this injured guy could sprout wings and fly away.

He’d had his fill of bad luck for this day. The death of the Fire-master would have a huge negative effect on their business in Chang’an. If he failed to catch the murderer, he would be dismissed from his post of captain.

“Chief, those soldiers are still there… ” a Shouzhuo mercenary reminded him.

The captain looked in the direction he was pointing and saw that the five soldiers were following them closely but didn’t approach. He scornfully spat at the ground. “These no-good bums. Ignore them.”

“I just saw them beat the gold gong.”

The captain frowned. Patrol soldiers beat a gold gong to alert soldiers in nearby Security Stations. Before long, all soldiers in Pingkang Fang would be alarmed. Shouzhuo Mercenary was not a government agency after all. There would probably be unnecessary trouble if they openly blockaded several alleys.

“Tell our men to search these residents’ houses! Pay uncooperative ones! Hurry!” the captain ordered. Since that guy was not in these alleys and didn’t leave this area either, he must have intruded into some resident’s home.

Residents living in these alleys were all commoners, and their courtyards had two rows of houses at the most. At this time, most of them were on the streets enjoying the lantern show, so in most cases, when a Shouzhuo mercenary entered a house, there was nobody inside. Occasionally, some residents who stayed at home trembled with fear as they saw a man violently kicked the door open. Shouzhuo mercenaries usually gave them several strings of 1,000 coins and warned them not to tell what they saw to anybody. These alleys descended into confusion, as if fierce officials were collecting taxes in a village.

Two Shouzhuo mercenaries searching houses one by one suddenly noticed that a house in the corner ahead had no lantern ablaze, but the door of the courtyard was half-open. The two people exchanged eye contact and then walked forward.

They didn’t hurry inside but raised the lantern and stooped down to check the threshold, finding that there were drops of blood on it, which hadn’t congealed yet. Involuntarily overjoyed, the two first alerted their companions to come close to them immediately, and then drew their weapons and stepped into the courtyard…

All of a sudden, an anguished screech pierced the night air.

All Shouzhuo mercenaries were startled and recognized their companion’s voice. They hurriedly rushed in the direction of the source of the screech from all sides. With an angry look on his face, the captain arrived at the doorway of the house and observed the blood on the threshold. But he didn’t hurry inside. Instead, he bade his subordinates to surround the whole dwelling circle upon circle, and then rushed into the small courtyard with a couple of his most capable subordinates.

On entering, they were greeted by a small vegetable patch where a Shouzhuo mercenary was lying prostrate on a low bank of earth, covered in blood. Whether he was alive or not was unknown. The captain and his men instantly became vigilant, moving forward step by step with great caution, weapons in their hands. Soon they saw that another Shouzhuo mercenary was lying on the staircase in front of the house, also covered in blood. What was the most horrifying was that there was a pointed spindle sticking in his left eye, an overturned spinning wheel on the side.

On the sight of this gory scene, they all gasped in shock. ‘What a ruthless guy.’

The captain bade his men to transfer the two injured people out of the courtyard as soon as possible. Then he led the way himself and kicked the front door open. However, they walked around the room and carefully searched everywhere – under the couch, behind the bed, the beams, cabinets, but didn’t find anything. Shouzhuo mercenaries then searched the left wing room, the right wing room and the backyard, but there was also no traces of the target at all.

All Shouzhuo mercenaries outside reported that they didn’t see anybody climb over the wall – they even checked the dog hole in the corner of the wall.

Standing in the middle of the courtyard, the captain rested his chin on his hand and pondered for a while. Suddenly, his eyes lit up – they had missed a spot! He rushed into the kitchen of the left wing room in a couple of strides. The family living here was probably a big one, so they built a large kitchen range with a vault. The captain couldn’t help noticing that there was fresh blood still dropping down the withered twigs in front of the burner. He yelled loudly ordering others to come immediately, then grabbed an iron hook used for clearing the burner and heavily jabbed it inside.

As expected, the captain felt that the hook hit some kind of soft meat halfway. He drew back a step and gave another hard thrust. It was not until he repeatedly did this several times and was confident the one inside was powerless to resist that he bade his subordinates to drag that person out.

With everybody lending a hand, Shouzhuo mercenaries soon dragged a person out of the kitchen range. The captain walked forward and was just about to give the person a kick to vent his anger when he lowered his head and the smug look on his face instantly froze.

This was not Zhang Xiaojing but one of the mercenaries who had just come into this house!

The captain instantly understood what was going on.

Zhang Xiaojing downed the two Shouzhuo mercenaries who entered the room. He covered the first one’s face with blood and dropped him at the doorway to trick people coming inside later into having a mindset that the victim was their companion. Then he disguised himself as the second victim and also deliberately concealed his left eye with an spindle – the real second man was stuffed into the kitchen range.

Since the courtyard was pitch-dark and they were in anxiety, they wouldn’t check the victims carefully, though they had lighted lanterns. While the captain was searching the house all around, Zhang Xiaojing was carried out of the alley by Shouzhuo mercenaries.

“Go get him!” thundered the captain.

They quickly returned to the entrance of the alley, but it was too late. A couple of Shouzhuo mercenaries were lying on the ground, and there was only one injured man on the stretcher, his face covered in blood, while the murderer had long ago disappeared into the dark. With a loud bang, the captain swung his big hammer and landed a heavy blow on the cob wall beside him.

However, Zhang Xiaojing was still in crisis.

Groups of soldiers ran past on the street outside to organize defense in various thoroughfare. More soldiers were setting up blockades in spots further away, clamoring. A couple of important intersections had been barricaded. They might not have as much fight as Shouzhuo mercenaries did, but they had the weight of numbers. Besides, they worked for the government, which made things even trickier.

Zhang Xiaojing had no idea why he was wanted, who gave the order and what crime he was convicted of. Currently, there was only one thing Zhang Xiaojing could think about – fleeing!

After he got out of the winding alley, with his familiarity with the terrain, he had been quickly moving towards the gateway of Pingkang Fang. But soon he discovered that the road ahead was barricaded, so he had no choice but to hide himself behind a flag pedestal with his back against the wall. Zhang Xiaojing stroked his lower abdomen where the deepest wound was still bleeding.

Zhang Xiaojing felt that he was about to break down due to overfatigue. Gasping for air, he unintentionally raised his head and saw that someone on a distant watchtower was sending a signal with a purple lantern in this direction.

The signal was sent from the big watchtower, and the meaning of it was very simple – two words:

Don’t retreat.

Zhang Xiaojing immediately figured out the identity of the sender. ‘That hothead Yao Runeng is probably the only one who would put it this way.’

‘But what else could we possibly do?’

Zhang Xiaojing gave a wry smile. Of course, Yao Runeng took his stand by sending this message “Don’t retreat”, but he also implied that he was under heavy pressure, which meant that there had been a drastic change of Jing’an Department’s attitude, that something must have happened to Li Bi.

The look in Zhang Xiaojing’s only eye became dim as he thought about this. Without Jing’an Department’s support, how much further could this investigation go? Soon Kailu Hodo would destroy Chang’an, but the only person who cared about this matter was regarded as an enemy by the whole Chang’an. How ironic this thing was.

The purple lantern was still flashing on and off on the distant watchtower, but Zhang Xiaojing knew that was the only thing on his side in Chang’an. However, currently, he couldn’t even make a response to it.

Right at this moment, a broad, foldable-roofed carriage hurtled past. Exquisitely decorated, this carriage probably belonged to some dignitary. A beautiful female dancer standing in the middle of the carriage was dancing twirling around with colorful brocade ribbons springing out of her sleeves constantly, half a dozen men sitting around cheering her.

This was a newly-emerged fashion. When dancing, the dancer threw out brocade ribbons one by one with dexterously controlled strength, and if she did it right, the brocade ribbons would be shaped into various patterns in mid-air. Accompanied by the dancer’s movements, they looked like floating rosy clouds, which was why the dance was named Rosyclouds Dance. However, a performance of this dance cost two even three Pi(1. Pi is a unit of length used in feudal China. A Pi is roughly equivalent to 13 meters.) of satin, so it was not something the next person could afford.

As Zhang Xiaojing saw this carriage progressing towards those barricades with ribbons scattered everywhere along the way, an idea suddenly struck him. When soldiers at the intersection stopped the carriage, he hurriedly ran out, grabbed a handful of ribbons and quickly returned.

Zhang Xiaojing picked a couple of purple ones, wrapped them around a lantern he had conveniently taken at the doorway of someone’s house, climbed up to the top of a wall with suppressed pain and started waving the lantern at a watchtower.

Soon the lantern on the watchtower flashed on and off three times, which indicated that the man there had received his message. Thus the communication was restored.

Though he was communicating with a watchtower, Zhang Xiaojing still didn’t dare offer any details. He made a response to the big watchtower, conveying only two words: Roger that.

Then he gave an order to the watchtower in Pingkang Fang, requesting people there to monitor the blockade of all roads and keep him posted.

“Keep him posted” meant that people on the watchtower would send him a message immediately once they noticed any changes of the blockade, that Zhang Xiaojing didn’t have to query them, which meant that Zhang Xiaojing could get information on the latest changes of situation and enemies’ movements by merely raised his eyes, that he no longer had to wave the lantern risking exposing himself.

Back at the time when Li Bi was designing this network, in order to keep it out of external disturbance, he made it a rule that staff members working on watchtowers only answered to the big watchtower or an authorized member, that they were to ignore all others. As a result, staff members on watchtowers were unaware of the change of situation outside, and they certainly didn’t know the one who had just given the order was wanted by solders citywide.

Thus, an amazing scene appeared in Pingkang Fang on this night. Soldiers of Security Stations were trying their best to catch the important criminal Zhang Xiaojing; meanwhile, all watchtowers were still providing information for Commandant Zhang. The two security systems were operating parallel without conflict, madly functioning for different purposes of the same target.