The Longest Day in Chang'an

Chapter 33: Shen Chu (15:00-15:59) Part 2

Jinguang Gate, which was in the center of the west Chang’an and one block east of the West Market, was the only way for western caravans to the West Market. The wagons carrying stone greases from Yanzhou must enter Chang’an from here.

“According to the entry procedures, the guards will jab a pear into the barrels in case someone hide inside. This material is hard to remove, so asking the gate keepers to find out the spear is enough,” said Zhang Xiaojing.

Hearing Ginguang Gate was far from here, Yao Ru’neng hurried to set off, but was stopped by Zhang Xiaojing. “You don’t have to go. If I’m right, cavalry of Jing’an Dep is coming, they will bring what we want,” Zhang Xiaojing looked down at the empty street, full of confidence after saying that.

“Are you sure?”

“Sicheng Li must do so,” said Zhang Xiaojing quietly.

Yao Ru’neng didn’t hide his reverence for Li Bi, “Sicheng Li is such a genius! He even saw through this clever trick of stone grease ink!”

Zhang Xiaojing just smiled and didn’t correct him. It might be Xu Bin who saw through the stone grease thing. Once they ate together, he said some customs in the western army and casually mentioned the mysterious stone grease. Unexpectedly, Xu Bin had such good memory and still remembered it.

He didn’t have many friends in Chang’an, and Xun Bin was one of the oldest. If this guy took this opportunity to make great achievements, thus winning office, it would make his long-cherished dream come true.

“Hope it’s not too late. We’ve taken too long,” Zhang Xiaojing muttered to the fading sky. Zhang Xiaojing’s anxious face somewhat touched Yao Ru’neng, he had been suspicious of this condemned prisoner, but after these things, he found himself wrong. What Zhang Xiaojing did have yet to be discussed, but by no means did he harbor any selfish intentions, and he even came close to losing his life.

After some hesitation, Yao Ru’neng bowed, kneeling down on one knee, “Commandant Zhang, I’m willing to be punished for having treated you with suspicion. Hope you won’t hold grudge against my fault, thus affecting the event of Jing’an Department.”

Zhang Xiaojing looked at the red-faced young man with interest, “Do you feel it is not normal for me to work so hard? Right?”

“Yes, Commandant Zhang, I thought your insincerity was driven by some selfish ulterior motive.” Yao Ru’neng frankly admitted. The reason “for the safety of Chang’an” would be convincing to him if it was what Li Bi said; However, when a condemned prisoner bearing grudge against the court said so, it was more or less suspicious.

In his eyes, Zhang Xiaojing’s investigation was to cover his intention to escape, which was logical. Yao Ru’neng was now feeling a burning sensation in his face. He wanted to escape this embarrassing situation, but he couldn’t. If he didn’t apologize to Zhang Xiaojing, he would never forgive his own stupidity.

Instead of holding him up or satirizing him, Zhang Xiaojing touched the head of a hound at his feet, slowly raising his head. He looked beyond Yao Ru’neng’s shoulders, out deeply into the towering and majestic Giant Wild Goose Pagoda far away.

“Ru’neng, have you ever gone up the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda around Guyu period?” (T/L note: Guyu is one of the 24 solar terms of ancient Chinese calendar, usually begins around April 20 and ends around May 5.)

Yao Ru’neng froze, and didn’t know why he suddenly talked about this.

“There is a novice monk who guards the pagoda. If you give him half string of copper coin, he will let you sneak up the top, where you can have excellent view of peonies all over Chang’an. The little monk never splashes money he saved, but always secretly buys river fishes to feed cats beside the Ci’en Temple.” Zhang Xiaojing slowly said, with a smile on his lips.

While Yao Ru’neng was opening his mouth to ask, Zhang Xiaojing continued, “In Shengdao Fang, there is an old man from Uighur specialize in Biluo pancake, he always chooses big sesame, so the hot pancake smells very good. When I was on duty, I always ran to the fang gate early in the morning and waited for the gate to open to buy some.” Tut~ tut~ the aftertaste seemed to linger in his mouth. “Also the cane shoot seed rice of the Puji Temple, available on the 1st and 15th days of every month lunar calendar, tasted wonderful as monks secretly added lard in it.”

“Commandant Zhang, you ....”

“Alo is a good camel tamer in the East Market, and his lifelong dream is to buy a house in Anyi Fang, then get married and have children there, settling in Chang’an. There’s a Taichang (musician in court) surnamed Xue coming from Luling living in Changxing Fang. He always plays flute on the Tianjin Bridge in clear midnights to refresh his flute with moonlight, and I’ve covered for his curfew violation several times. Also a dancing girl called Li Twelve lives in Chongren Fang. She is as ambitious as Lady Gongsun then. She trains so hard that her heels have been badly worn, so she has to wrap them with red silk. Oh, yes, during the Bon Festival, the river is covered with floating lanterns. If you walk along the Longshou canal, you will see a blind old woman selling paper boat in order to buy her granddaughter a copper hairpin, but I knew her granddaughter has died of illness long before.”

Zhang Xiaojing’s voice was long-drawn-out and his single eye lit up when talking about these unrelated people and matters, “Being the Commandant of the Indecent for nine years, I interacted with those people every day, watched and heard this life every day. For dignitaries, these people are insignificant, these things are nothing unusual, but for me, this Chang’an is living, not devoured by monsters. Only by their sides, I feel I am alive.”

Here, he lowered his voice a bit, “If the Turks succeeded, the first to die were these people. I’ll do my best to make sure these ordinary people live their ordinary life. What I want to protect is this Chang’an, do you understand?”

Yao Ru’neng felt a rush of emotion at this sudden honesty, and he was speechless. The guy had such unique idea that on one hand, he hated court, but on the other hand, he had sympathy for common people in Chang’an. How to evaluate his loyalty?

“Are you always thinking so?”

Zhang Xiaojing gave him a half smile, “I had been a soldier in western area for ten years and Commandant of Chang’an for nine years. What do you say?”

At this time, the heaving horse hooves and rolling dust in the distant brought them back on work. Before long, a fish barrel and a spear of wooden handle were delivered to them by an express rider. Yao Ru’neng held the blotched spear up to his nose, smelling a pungent odor. Zhang Xaiojing opened the fish barrel and took out a note covered with writing.

“Headquarter has found out that it was Su’s Carriage agency responsible for the transporting. They entered the city around noon, and then disappeared, porters, carters and carriages not checking in.” Zhang Xiaojing screwed the paper into a ball and said in a low voice, “I guess they have probably been killed. Carriages have also been wiped clean and could not be found.”

Yao Ru’neng was not so indignant this time. For one thing, he felt that the men deserved to die for helping the enemy to carry things; for another, after several hours of running, he was numb to the ferocity of wolf guards.

Zhang Xiaojing put the tip of the spear to hound’s nose, and patted it on the head. The hound first sneezed unhappily, then raised its neck, wrinkled its nose, and gave several fierce barks toward one direction. If Zhang Xiaojing didn’t hold the leash, it would have rushed out.

“Time is urgent, I’ll go first, and you wait here for Brigadier Cui’s arrival with his troop. Take yellow smoke as a signal.”

Yao Ru’neng looked around and finally realized that they had made something of a mistake. Eager to make up for his mistakes, Cui Qi had torn the Luby Army apart and spread them into fangs around. It would take some time for the troop to assemble.

That was to say, Zhang Xiaojing would be on his own before the assemble.

“Isn’t it too dangerous for you to go alone with injured body?” Yao Ru’neng was a bit worried.

“Everyone must be responsible for his own choice.”

Zhang Xiaojing simply said, loosening the leash. The hound flew away, and he strode following it closely. Watching the man and hound disappear around the corner of the fang wall, Yao Ru’neng fell in a trance for a moment.

The smell of stone grease was so strong that it was easy for the hound to track. It scrambled off in all directions, turned corners and ran at full speed, Zhang Xiaojing must run as fast as he can to keep up with it. Pedestrians looked curiously at them, thinking it as a new sideshow, and someone on both sides even cheered for them.

The hound ran two miles without stopping, and had several delays on the way. It just followed the odor in a straight line, didn’t know how to make a detour, so it hit dead ends and barked at the wall. Zhang Xiaojing had to pull it out and search again.

When they had managed to reach a fang gate, the hound stopped, sniffed here and there on the pavement, and then barked in frustration.

The odor disappeared here and the hound was unable to track it down. After all, it had been a long time.

But this was enough.

Zhang Xiaojing quickly put a leash on the hound and wrapped its mouth with a rope, in case that the wolf guards really hid here, they might be alerted by the dog barks.

Zhang Xiaojing glanced at the wooden plaque, which read “Changming Fang”. From overgrown walls and the threshold, to sparse ruts on the front earth road, all showed that there were not many people living here, and it seemed desolate and quiet. This fang didn’t even have the exclusive watchtower of Jing’an Department. After all, the budget was limited, priority should be given to the densely populated northern fangs, so wild land like this couldn’t be taken into account for the time being.

It meant that if something happened, it was impossible to inform the outside world in time.

Zhang Xiaojing thought for a while, failing to recall any special buildings in this fang. If only Xu Bin were here, that guy remembered everything. The guards must have left to celebrate the Lantern Festival, so he walked slowly into fang without any hinderance. Changming Fang was now completely open to everyone.

This was really a perfect hiding place. After entering the fang, Zhang Xiaojing half loosened the leash in his left hand, controlling the hound to slowly walk forward, at the same time, he looked right and left, his right hand holding the crossbow, ready to fire.

If the wolf guards had put stone greases here, he should have stepped into the enemy’s watch area. However, Zhang Xiaojing was not worried, once something abnormal occurred, he could throw a smoke ball to mark the spot. Even if the Turks had run away, they didn’t have time to move the stone greases.

Without stone grease, the Turkic wolf guards were nothing but a group of desperate scoundrels.

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