The Longest Day in Chang'an

Chapter 38: Shen Chu (15:00-15:59) P7

Translator: DragonRider

The further north they progressed along this street, the more crowed it became, and the more festive the atmosphere was. On the sides of the street, a lot of unskilled laborers standing on bamboo scaffoldings were busying hanging colorful lanterns with bamboo poles, Lantern Festival ribbons cascading down. Groups of residents could be seen gathering under trees here and there, looking up at those lanterns while talking and pointing at them. Entertainers from the Western Regions were performing rope-dance, jumping and singing. Vendors selling steamed buns and pomegranate water were walking along the street. Owners of various restaurants also put up stalls outside to sell fried fish, goat’s cheese and roast camel feet. There were even a group of teenagers who were playing football, holding moon-sticks. They were running all around, making the air dusty. Every time a goal was scored, a couple of drummers beat Jie-drums (Drums of a barbarian people in ancient China). The scene was even more spirited than the Emperor playing football.

Zhang Xiaojing and Yao Runeng had a heavy heart when they saw this uproarious and prosperous sight. If they didn’t catch those Turkish Wolf Guards, all these would descend into perdition.

The only good news was that the street was so crowded that there was only a narrow passage in the middle. It was not easy to get through it on a horse, not to mention on a cart. If those Turkish Wolf Guards kept going north, the street would get more and more congested. There was no way they could speed up.

At this moment a roll of deep drumbeat made by beating a lizard-skin drum drowned out the noises on the street and were distinctly heard by these two people, whose spirits instantly rose up. Yao Runeng quickly found the direction of the source of the sound and looked at the watchtower in the east.

“To the south of Chongxian Fang. Two carts. Heading north!”

The advantage of Jiajie showed up. If people on the watchtower had sent the message back to Jing’an Department first, and then sent it to the two people, the targets would have been long gone by now.

Yao Runeng yelled, “Jing’an Department is performing duty. Step aside! Step aside!” The two jerked their reins and knocked aside a couple of entertainers performing a play about the draft. Ignoring all those curses and screams, the two rapidly galloped forward. Soon they saw the two carts driving along the street at a steady pace. With an intention of displaying his capability, Yao Runeng rode in front of the carts, produced his waist-seal issued by Jing’an Department and ordered the carters to stop. But soon he was stunned. This was only a small band from Luoyang. The carts were laden with instruments and costumes. Some rich family invited this band here to perform on a birthday party.

Right at this moment, another message was delivered from a watchtower, “Intersection between Changshou Fang and Daixian Fang. Three wide-tailed carts. Heading west.”

Changshou Fang and Daixian Fang were on the fourth street to the west of the Rosefinch Gate Street. The targets were not on the third street as they had predicted. This time, Yao Runeng didn’t dare to make a decision. He looked at Zhang Xiaojing.

Zhang Xiaojing waved his hand, saying, “Let’s go and check!”

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Currently, the third street was very congested. It was very likely that Turkish Wolf Guards would take a detour to the west and then came back from the Huaiyuan Fang. The two ignored the panic-stricken opera troupe and laterally galloped westwards.

East-west streets were relatively less congested than south-north ones. The horses hurtled forward, leaving a long string of hasty footsteps on the wide road. Soon they arrived at the intersection between Changshou Fang and Daixian Fang and with that a nearby watchtower informed them of the latest movements of the targets: the three carts had just turned north.

This was exactly what Zhang Xiaojing had predicted. His face instantly went solemn and with that he took out his crossbow and asked Yao Runeng to hold the smoke bombs in his hand. After they rode about a hundred steps northwards, Yao Runeng suddenly yelled, “There!”

Three carts were parked outside the intersection not far away, horses diagonally facing east. All three carts were of the same model with long and thick spokes and wide rear cross-boards. There were several big barrels in the cart-boxes, which were covered with straw curtains. They stopped there because a team of carriages were clumsily turning east.

The intersection was too narrow. If two teams of carts driving in opposite directions met here and then turned to the same direction, one of them had to wait and let the other team pass first. These carriages had hexagonal tinkling bells hanging on the corners, colorful boards and gauzy curtains. There were also a couple of tall guards riding on horses beside the carriages. The passengers might be some female members from a couple of rich families, who had just done shopping in West Market and were on their way back to the eastern part of the city.

According to the traffic rules stipulated in the Vehicular Traffic Laws, vehicles the owners of which were of lower status must give way. Also, vehicles going downhill must give way to those going uphill, and pedestrians must give way to vehicles going in the same direction. Those three carts had no flags hanging on them, which meant that the statuses of their owners were low, so they had to give way.

Zhang Xiaojing hit the butt of the horse, speeded up and quickly approached the targets. The three carts were parked diagonally on the road, so he could see the profiles of those carters. Soon, a familiar face was reflected in his only eyes.

This was the very person who cut off a piece of his flesh with a spinning saber, abducted Wen Ran and then escaped!

As if there was some kind of telepathic connection between them, the moment Zhang Xiaojing approached that person, he unexpectedly happened to turn his head back. His two eyes met Zhang Xiaojing’s only eye. Mageer did a double take and then let out a cry. Five or six Wolf Guards jumped out of the three carts, poured a lot of pitch-black mountain tallow onto the ground with gourd ladles and wooden basins and then one of them tossed down a torch made of pine branch. The ground was instantaneously set ablaze with a short wall of fire.

It seemed that they had taken precautions against potential chase conducted by the Jing’an Department.

Zhang Xiaojing was not afraid, but his horse neighed in panic, raised its forelegs and refused to jump over the wall of fire. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the three carts abruptly started moving and ferociously ran into the carriage in front of them, heedless of the fact that it was still changing its direction.

The front of the cart was much more stronger than the side of the carriage which was instantly knocked over with a loud bang. Screams of female passengers in the carriage and neighs of wheel-horses mixed together. Those guards nearby were transfixed with shock. They had never seen such vicious and unrestrained carter in Chang’an City before.

A guard grabbed the reins and angrily asked the carter why he did this. A murderous look appeared on Mageer’s face and with that he drew a dagger, ferociously stabbed three guards and a female to death, backed the cart several steps and then drove it forward again, trying to push the carriage aside.

Realizing that his mount had become useless, Zhang Xiaojing dismounted, covered his face with both hands and rushed through the fire wall. Behind him, Yao Runeng saw the enemies, unhesitatingly threw a couple of smoke bombs at them, whipped out his saber and charged at them. Black smoke and yellow smoke mixed with each other and rose up to the sky.

After Zhang Xiaojing rushed across the fire wall, both his eyebrows and hair were lit, and he felt a burning pain in the skin, but the situation was so urgent that he didn’t even have time to put out the fire on him. He managed to open his only eye and saw that Mageer’s cart had pushed aside the overturned carriage and moved eastwards. The two carts behind it also speeded up one by one, intending to flee.

He took a short a sprint forward and jumped onto that overturned carriage. A female passenger was just about to crawl out of the carriage when Zhang Xiaojing stepped on her head. She let out a pained cry and cringed back. Those guards thundered at him but didn’t dare to get close due to what Mage’er had just done. Zhang Xiaojing stood on the carriage, took a flying leap and landed smack on the tail of the third cart, the broad rear cross-board of which provided him with a perfect landing position.

A Wolf Guard on board craned out of the cart-box and stabbed a short wooden spear at him. Zhang Xiaojing clamped the handle of the spear under his armpit, pressed the crossbow against the temple of the Wolf Guard with his left hand and shot a bolt into his head, brains splashing around. At this moment, another Wolf Guard came at him. Zhang Xiaojing tossed the crossbow aside, stooped down, picked up a triangular stone, which was used to prevent the cart from rolling away after parked, and violently stabbed it into the Wolf Guard’s eye. The Wolf Guard gave an anguished shriek and then was killed off the hurtling cart.

Without any pause, Zhang Xiaojing stepped on the narrow edge of the cart-box and moved towards the front of the cart, hands on those big barrels for support. Feeling that he was in a very unfavorable situation, the carter sitting in the front turned his head back and was just about to resist when a sharp Zhang Dao was slashed at him from behind. The wound was almost as deep as half the width of his neck.

All this happened very quick and there were barely any intervals between those movements. Zhang Xiaojing’s eyes briefly swept around and found there there were no other people on board. With a single saber slash, he cut off all the ropes attached to the wheel-horse and then jumped onto it to chase the second cart.

Without driving force, the third cart slowly stopped moving. Yao Runeng arrived but didn’t dare to leave. There were several barrels of Fierceflame Bombs on the cart and they could explode at any moment. He had no choice but to use a smoke bomb to signal Cui Qi’s troops to come quickly. Then he looked forward and saw that Zhang Xiaojing was riding side by side with the second cart. He raised his arm high and raised his thumb.

This was not a gesture of compliment but an agreed secret signal. Zhang Xiaojing had to immediately inform the Jing’an Department that they should blockade the intersection between Guangde Fang and Huaiyuan Fang and evacuate residents. Given the current situation, Zhang Xiaojing wasn’t sure whether he could stop all carts, so he had to take precautions against the worst-case scenario.

A horse was much faster than a cart. Soon, Zhang Xiaojing approached the side of the second cart. This time, those Wolf Guards didn’t use pikes but removed the tarpaulin and started pouring mountain tallow. Black, viscous liquid was splattered off the hurtling cart. If they threw a torch onto the ground, there would instantly be a big fire, so Zhang Xiaojing could only pursue the cart hotly but didn’t dare to get too close.

He could see that there were five barrels of Fierceflame Bombs on the cart, which took up half the space of the cart-box. Explosion of those bombs would probably blast the whole street to pieces.

The two fast-moving carts had no intention of slowing down at all. Residents ahead let out a string of exclamations of alarm. A lot of vendors and pedestrians were knocked over. They had approached the most prosperous area in the western part of Chang’an, which was not far away from the bottom line designated by Li Bi.

Zhang Xiaojing clenched his teeth and heavily stabbed the horse in the back with his saber. The wheel-horse gave an anguished neigh and took a leap forward.

Wolf Guards on the second cart immediately started pouring mountain tallow like crazy again but found that the horse suddenly took a lateral turn, and that the rider was gone. It turned out that Zhang Xiaojing managed to turn the horse sideways and with his excellent horsemanship, he quickly move to the side of the horse and hung there, using the giant horse body as a shield to protect himself against the mountain tallow. Taking advantage of this instant when the enemies were stunned, Zhang Xiaojing swiftly got over the horseback and leaped towards the cart.

But this time he was not as lucky as the last time. There happened to be a Wolf Guard standing on the rear cross-board. Zhang Xiaojing heavily impacted on that man, and both of them fell to the middle of the cart-box and knocked those barrels reeling left and right. The carter, who seemed to be very experienced, immediately jerked the reins and the horse abruptly turned left. Unable to keep his balance, Zhang Xiaojing tilted towards the outside. Another two Wolf Guards strode over and gave him a hard push on the chest.

Right at the moment when he was falling off the cart, Zhang Xiaojing had a ready wit in this emergency. With a twitch of his hand, something as long as a snake sprang forward.

This was a rope made of refined ox tendon. It was used by the Indecent in the capital city to catch thieves. Veteran members of the Indecent could control the rope like the arm controlled the fingers, even Qiuci(An ancient Asian state) entertainers were no match for them at this. As the General of the Indecent, Zhang Xiaojing naturally was very good at this.

At ordinary times, this rope was wrapped around his right wrist. When he needed it, he could shoot it forward with a single twitch of his arm. The moment Zhang Xiaojing landed on the ground, the other end of the rope had been tightly wound around the post on the side of the cart-box. The cart was still hurtling forward. Firmly holding the handle on the other end of the rope, his back against the ground, he was violently dragged forward by the cart, leaving a long, dreadful mark behind.

A Wolf Guard on the cart fished out a dagger and tried hard to sever the rope, but it was too pliable and tough to be cut off in a short time.

People on the cart were unable to get rid of him, but he was also unable to get on the cart again. After thirty or forty steps forward, the back of Zhang Xiaojing’s clothes was worn out, his back mangled and bloody. He suddenly stretched out his left hand, fumbled around and grabbed half a black brick. With the momentum, he conveniently threw it forward, which then traced an neat arc across mid-air and hit the eye of the wheel-horse on the right side.

Abruptly alarmed, the horse madly moved rightwards and with that the other horse also panicked. The carter couldn’t control the horses no matter how hard he tried. The whole cart involuntarily turned rightwards.