The Longest Day in Chang'an

Chapter 97. Zizheng (00:00-00:59) Part 4

Translator: DragonRider

Zhang Xiaojing had always hated the Imperial Court, for those who had victimized Wen Wuji were still at large to this very day. The sole reason why he had promised Li Bi he would ascertain the truth about this matter was that he'd believed lives of all residents in this city were at stake, but now his old comrade-in-arms was telling him that the Kailu Hodo was only aimed at members of the imperial family and high-ranking officials, that no innocent lives had to be lost, and Turks would be the ones who had to face the consequences. What a perfect plan.

Moreover, the Jing'an Department had now fallen into enemies' hands. Li Bi, Tanqi, Yao Runeng, Xu Bin, Es – all these people were either unaccounted for or in prison. All those related to him were being excluded and suspected. There was not a single person at his back.

He couldn't find any reason to refuse, and neither could he find any reason to persist in his investigation.

Zhang Xiaojing closed his eyes and his crossbow dropped to the ground with a clank. He regretted having agreed to Li Bi's request. Had he known beforehand things would come to this, he would have chosen to stay in the prison, which would have saved him all the trouble. Staring at this old comrade-in-arms of his, Xiao Gui didn't hasten to ask any further questions. Instead, he took a step backwards, waiting for Zhang Xiaojing to finish the intense struggle in his mind.

After quite a while, Zhang Xiaojing slowly opened his eyes and replied in a somewhat lifeless tone of voice, "I'm in."

Xiao Gui's eyes lit up. "Good! That's the very words I've been expecting! Finally, brothers of the Eighth Regiment reunited this time!" He excitedly held Zhang Xiaojing and laughed as heartily as he used to do in the Fengsui Castle, "Big Head Zhang, let's join hands and see another miracle performed."

Xiao Gui kept patting Zhang Xiaojing on the shoulder but Zhang Xiaojing was stiff all along, his face tense, without a shred of smile in his wrinkles.

Xiao Gui stooped down, picked up the crossbow, tossed it to Zhang Xiaojing without any misgivings and then made a gesticulation motioning for him to follow. The two of them left the underground waterpower chamber and ascended a flight of narrow stairs. After about twenty steps, they pushed open a wooden board and reached the bottom floor of the Taishang-xuanyuan Grand Lantern Pavilion.

A high building needs a solid foundation. The whole Taishang-xuanyuan Grand Lantern Pavilion was over fifty meters high. Though it was made of bamboo, the total weight of it was still considerable, and the foundation must be firm enough to hold it. As a result, Mao Shun had simply had the bottom floor of this lantern pavilion built like a commodious Taoist temple with cornices, which had over twenty rows of rooms with cloud-shaped eaves. Seen from the distance, the lantern pavilion seemed to be floating on auspicious clouds, cutting a celestial figure.

The place they reached after climbing out of the underground waterpower chamber happened to be the rear hall of this Auspicious Clouds Taoist Temple. At this moment, the hall was filled with large piles of Kylin Arms that had just been unloaded from horse-drawn carriages. A dozen men were bustling around with their heads down. After seeing Xiao Gui walk inside, they didn't stop but kept working in an orderly manner. As regards Zhang Xiaojing, they didn't even give a glance at him.

Soldiers of the Mighty Dragon Army probably were still unaware that members of the Termite had already quietly controlled the whole lantern pavilion, which was no longer a wonder supposed to bring Chang'an glory but the most lethal weapon this nation had ever seen.

Every Taoist temple has tripods. In the midmost area of the rear hall of this Taoist temple, there were eight tripods positioned according to the Eight Diagrams (eight combinations of three whole or broken lines formerly used in divination). Originally, they'd been meant to be decorations, but now they ended up being used as heaters. There were several dozen Kylin Arms in each of the eight tripods, under which there were charcoal burning. Beside each tripod was a man who constantly picked up an ice bottle and stuck it into a bamboo tube.

Zhang Xiaojing could instantly guess, without anybody telling him, that this was the Kailu Hodo that he had been trying so hard to track down. In this place, these people were performing the last working procedure – heating Kylin Arms. Those ice bottles were actually thin-necked glazed bottles, which were awl-shaped, and each of which had an ice stick inside and gradations on the outside. After sticking the bottle into a bamboo tube, by looking at the speed of the ice melting, people could gauge whether the mountain tallow had been heated to the required temperature.

It had never crossed Zhang Xiaojing's mind that even instruments of this kind were within these people's capabilities. Xiao Gui, noticing the look in his eyes, informed him, "Taoist priests use them in alchemy. I secretly learned from them. The properties of Fierceflame bombs are hard to stabilize. Without proper control of its temperature, the risk of accidental detonation would be very high." Full of zest, he reached out his arm, pointed at the charcoal under a tripod and queried, "Do you know where we got the charcoal?"

Zhang Xiaojing glanced at it and saw that the charcoal stick was snow-white and the flames were utterly smokeless. Xiao Gui informed him, "This is the work of a charcoal-maker living on the South Mountain. Charcoal made by that old man is as white as silver, generates flames of exceptionally high temperature and is almost smoke-free. He used to transport several cartloads of charcoal to Chang'an to sell every year, but palace purchasing agents, every time they saw him, would forcibly trade half a Pi (Pi is a unit of length used in feudal China. A Pi is roughly equivalent to 13 meters) of red yarn and a zhang (a unit of length used in feudal China; equals 3 1/3 meters) of damask silk for a whole cartload of his charcoal – that's over five hundred kilograms. As a result, after hearing that we were going to do something big, the old man offered to make charcoal for us of his own accord, and he didn't even charge us. Obviously this big thing we're going to do is what a lot of people want to do as well."

Zhang Xiaojing just silently stared at the burning charcoal, lost in thought. Xiao Gui said, "Okay, okay. I know this is too much for you and you need more time to get your thoughts sorted out. Let's go and pay a visit to Sicheng Li first."

He led Zhang Xiaojing to the second floor of the Taoist temple, which was divided into several ceremonial chambers. These chambers were meant for token activities of praying for divine blessings, so the furnishings in them were very simple. People carrying Kylin Arms heated to the required temperature were constantly walking through the passage on this floor to finish the final replacement work.

Xiao Gui pushed open one of the chambers. Zhang Xiaojing took a glance and saw that there was someone standing inside, who was upright and dashing-eyebrowed. It was nobody else but Li Bi. He had also been secretly transferred into this lantern pavilion. At this moment, he looked weary and dejected, but was still struggling to maintain what was left of his dignity.

"Sicheng Li, look who came here to visit you," Xiao Gui called genially as he put his arm around Zhang Xiaojing's shoulders.

On hearing this, Li Bi looked in their direction. At first he was amazed, and then he lifted his eyebrows and sneered repeatedly, "Very well! Very well!"

Zhang Xiaojing was expressionless. He neither avoided his eyes nor defended himself but just stared unblinkingly at him. Xiao Gui said smilingly, "It was quite a coincidence. I never expected that a commandant of the Jing'an Department was none other than an old comrade-in-arms of mine. Back then when we were in the Fengsui Castle, it was the two of us who climbed our way out of piles of corpses."

"Uh?" Li Bi was dumbfounded.

"It's true. In total, there were three men of the Eighth Regiment survived that fight. At that time, my name was Xiao Gui. Oh, incidentally, the other survivor's name was Wen Wuji. I think you know exactly where he is now, Si Sicheng Li."

With his wisdom, Li Bi immediately guessed the cause and effect of this matter, and with that, his eyes, which were fixed on Zhang Xiaojing, fell uncommonly icy, but in that iciness there was a hint of despair.

On one side was his old comrade-in-arms, and on the other side was an organization that had repeatedly suspected and stamped on him. It was unmistakably clear which side Zhang Xiaojing would choose.

Zhang Xiaojing avoided Li Bi's eyes, raised his arm and lightly brushed his hollow eye socket with his fingers. This was not a subconscious movement done out of force of habit but one meant to allay his embarrassment. Xiao Gui looked at Li Bi, moved his gaze to Zhang Xiaojing and then grinned, "Sicheng Li is indeed a discerning man. You picked this brother of mine after merely a glance at him. If it weren't for a stroke of fluke, my plan might really have been upset by him! Pity you guys are too stupid to keep your trust in him."

Li Bi didn't utter a single word. Xiao Gui put his crossbow into Zhang Xiaojing's hand and said relaxedly, "Big Head, how about you stick a cornel flower in celebration of our reunion?"

"Stick a cornel flower?" Zhang Xiaojing's face changed as he heard this expression. It didn't refer to the custom of people wearing cornel flowers on the Double Ninth Festival but was a military idiom used in armies stationed in the Western Regions. Ripe cornel fruits were purplish red, and "sticking a cornel flower" meant making someone bleed.

Smilingly, Xiao Gui jerked his chin towards Li Bi.

His meaning was obvious. An hour ago, Zhang Xiaojing was a commandant of the Jing'an Department, an enemy of the Termite. Now he had switched his allegiance. In order to convince his new companions, he must do something to prove his loyalty – killing Li Bi, the former head of the Jing'an Department, was a perfect choice.

If he killed his superior, there would be no turning back, which was the only way to gain trust of members of the Termite.

Xiao Gui stared at Zhang Xiaojing. There was a smile on his face, but there was also a ghost of unkindness gleaming in his eyes. Whether this brother of his, whom he could trust with his life in the past, was still worthy of his trust depended on what he would do next. A couple of guards beside Xiao Gui were eyeing Zhang Xiaojing vigilantly, poised to whip out their sabers to attack.

In the ceremonial chamber was a deathly hush. Li Bi raised his head and just stared at Zhang Xiaojing. He neither implored nor reprimanded him. Zhang Xiaojing also didn't move. He silently stood before Li Bi, his only eye slightly squinted, which made it difficult for others to guess what he was thinking right now.

Seeing he was still hesitating, guards slowly reached their hands towards the hilts of their sabers. With a click, Zhang Xiaojing raised his right arm and trained his crossbow to Li Bi's temple, his finger tightly pressed against the trigger.

"I'm very sorry, Sicheng Li, but I don't really have a choice," said Zhang Xiaojing in a deep and utterly steady voice.

"How could I blame you for doing something for the greater good?" Li Bi closed his eyes. He inwardly pulled a wry face. Several hours ago, when the two of them were talking in the Cibei Temple, they said something about "saving hundreds by killing one"; unexpectedly, those words turned out to be a prophecy. What was even more unexpected was that he ended up becoming an innocent person who was about to be killed as a sacrifice to the god of river.

Face impassive, Zhang Xiaojing unhesitatingly pulled the trigger.

With a dull puff, Li Bi's head, as if having been hit by a large hammer, abruptly jerked in the opposite direction and with that he fell to the ground in a somewhat amusing posture, lying prostrate and still.

Just like this, the Sicheng of the Jing'an Department was shot to death in this Taishang-xuanyuan Grand Lantern Pavilion.

Zhang Xiaojing lowered his crossbow and closed his eyes in the knowledge that from this moment on, there would be no going back for him. He made this choice in order to save Chang'an and he didn't regret it, but this was wrong after all. Every wrong thing that he did because he should do would add some weight to the burden on his heart.

There was a deathly hush in the chamber. Zhang Xiaojing suddenly opened his eyes, feeling that something was not quite right.

'No. This is not the reaction that someone should have after a bolt goes through their head.' He looked at the crossbow in his hand, shifted his gaze to Li Bi lying on the ground and found that there was a small patch of purplish black blood on his temple. Zhang Xiaojing's eyes swept across the ground and with that his pupils involuntarily contracted.

To his surprise, that fired bolt had no head.

The stick of a bolt was different from that of an arrow. The end of a bolt had to be whittled into a hemisphere, wide in the front and narrow in the rear, because a crossbow was usually used in a close combat in narrow winding space and was very powerful when the user was moving on bumpy ground. This bolt in front of him had no pointed iron head, only an oval-ended wooden stick. If it hit someone, it would cause a blunt force injury and bring them sharp pain, but it wouldn't kill them.

Zhang Xiaojing looked at Xiao Gui in confusion. Xiao Gui clapped with a big happy smile on his face. "Congratulations, Big Head. You passed the test."

"What's going on?"

"It's not that I don't trust you, Big Head, but I have to convince my man." Xiao Gui stooped down and picked up the bolt stick. "Originally, I thought that you would hesitate, but unexpectedly, you pulled the trigger without a shred of mercy knowing that you'd kill your superior. It's admirable, really admirable."

His last bit of uncertainty about Zhang Xiaojing finally dissolved. He could unmistakably tell whether someone really had a killing intent. Just now, in the moment when Zhang Xiaojing pulled the trigger, his eyes were absolutely heavy with murderousness.

Zhang Xiaojing softly gasped, his right hand shaking. "You removed the bolt head before you gave me the crossbow?"

Xiao Gui smiled, "Pulling the trigger is enough to prove your intention. There's no need to take Sicheng Li's filthy life. He'll be useful in some other circumstances. We need him alive for the moment."

At this time, Li Bi coughing tried to pick himself up, but that blow was too painful. He was still dizzy, an anguished expression on his face, blood flowing from his nostrils. Xiao Gui grabbed his hair and remarked, "Sicheng Li, thank you for helping me get back a good brother."

"Zhang Xiaojing!"

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