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

Chapter 35: Shen Chu (15:00-15:59) Part 4
Translator: DragonRider
Zhang Xiaojing was alarmed. He dragged Jia Shiqi away and broke in himself. Once entering the yard, he saw a smoke bomb on the ground giving forth heavy smoke, and a string was tied on it. He hurried off to throw the bomb into a small pond nearby. The unleashed yellow smoke rose up slowly, easy to spot against the clear sky.

Zhang Xiaojing turned around and demanded harshly, “Did you see him returning to the deserted garden of Rinan King yourself, or he just told you so?” Jia Shiqi answered that the man went to ask him to be his lookout himself and just left after that, so he didn’t know if the man really returned to the garden.

“Whoa,” Zhang Xiaojing was amazed, the Wolf Guards were really something. From the very beginning, Cao Poyan had never had the slightest trust in these beggars. He told Jia Shiqi a false address on purpose, even if the Jing’an Dep. trailed him to this deserted garden, they would only end up in investigating in a wrong direction.

That smoke bomb must be the one taken away from Zhang Xiaojing by the Turks. It was tied on the back of the door. Once the door was pushed open, the bomb would be set off. Seeing its yellow smoke, the Wolf Guards hiding somewhere else would be alerted immediately. It could buy them some time before retreat.

What a small but cleaver trick, killing two birds with one stone. It could both mislead the Jing’an Dep. and alert the Wolf Guards. Cao Poyan really made the most use of the smoke bomb.

Now that the yellow smoke had risen, the Turks must have been on the way to escape. The worse thing was that the army of Jing’an Dep. hadn’t gathered here yet. Zhang Xiaojing held the shoulders of Jia Shiqi firmly and asked in a hurry, “Is there any other big garden or huge residence in Changming Fang? I mean the farthest one away from here.”

Jia Shiqi thought for a second, “We’re at the southeast corner of Changming Fang, the most demoted place from here is the brick-tile kiln in the northwest corner, but it was out of use long ago.” Zhang Xiaojing’s stern eye brightened a bit. He asked Jia Shiqi to brief him the address, walked a few steps away and turned around suddenly, “Go to the Changming Fang Gate at once. If any officers or the Lubi army are coming here, stop them and direct them to the brick-tile kiln.”

Jia Shiqi crossed his arms in front of his breast and smiled, “General Zhang, even His Majesty won’t ask beggars to…” before he could finish, Zhang Xiaojing sneered, “You have just served a Turk. He is planning to cause havoc in Chang’an.”

Hearing this, Jia Shiqi’s face went pale at once. Only till this second did he know he had made a terrible mistake. If he was prosecuted for treason, no beggar in Changming Fang would survive. No matter it was the officers from Dali Temple or from the Ministry of Justice, they wouldn’t investigate thoroughly to see if the beggars were framed. What they needed to do was to catch some criminals to make a “decent” report.

He grasped Zhang Xiaojing’s arm and begged, “I have no fear about death, but my men are totally innocent. Mister Zhang, please save me.” Zhang Xiaojing looked at him, and sighed, “If anyone asks, tell him you suspected that man and reported him to me. It may save you.” Then he whispered something else to him, thrusted him away, and strode out with the hound. Jia Shiqi took off the scarf on his head, only to find that his hair was drenched with sweat. Zhang Xiaojing was willing to cover him up, but he had no idea if the authority would buy it. He was still in a stupor, watching Zhang Xiaojing rushing far away, and suddenly he came around, put on the scarf carelessly and ran towards the Changming Fang Gate as fast as he could.

Zhang Xiaojing ran for a couple of steps and removed the leash around the hound’s neck. No need to worry about alerting the Wolf Guards for now. He could only rely on the hound to smell them out. The hound had been agitated for a long time. Once the leash was removed, it sprinted right towards the northwest immediately.

The smell of fossil oil may be too weak for the mankind to tell, but it was strong enough to guide the hound, especially the smell from the northwest, which worked like a beacon shinning in the darkness, leading them to the destination.

They ran across a big half of the Changming Fang. A brick chimney standing in the remote area came into sight, which meant there must be a kiln. Zhang Xiaojing ran closer. A huge wall stood in their way. The bricks of the wall looked a bit black, a result of being smoked by the hot kiln for years.

This must be the brick-tile kiln Jia Shiqi mentioned. An even dirt path wound its way to a wooden door, with trees growing wildly by its two sides. Obviously, no gardener had trimmed them.

Zhang Xiaojing slowed down and called the hound back. They needed to have a rest. It might take quite a while for the Lubi army to gather here.

If the fossil oil was stored in this place, there must be lots of Wolf Guards around. He needed to be extra careful.

He made a few more moves onwards, just for a test. Right now, most of his body was already on the dirt path. He thought, if there was a guard on the lookout, his movement must have been noticed. But there was no response from behind the wall. It remained silent.

No, there shouldn’t be many guards here. Zhang Xiaojing corrected himself.

They must have been short of hands, otherwise they would never hire the beggar to watch out for them, let alone lay a trap in the deserted garden of Rinan King. They took all the troubles to do this, which only revealed that they didn’t have enough Wolf Guards left.

Zhang Xiaojing calculated in mind. This morning the Lubi Army launched a sudden attack in West Market and finished off 15 Wolf Guards; he killed one in front of Zoroastrian Temple; five were killed in Xiuzheng Fang. It was 21 in total, which accounted for at least half of the Turkic Wolf Guards who had sneaked into Chang’an. The Turks lacked resources. They couldn’t afford more.

It was extremely difficult for the rest of them to control such a huge kiln and transport the fossil oil.

Zhang Xiaojing took a deep breath. He decided to try it out on his own, since the backup force hadn’t come yet. At least it could mess up the enemy’s plan and buy some time for the Lubi Army. What was more important was, he had to find Wen Ran before the backup force arrived.

He tied the hound carefully, stroked its neck with tenderness, and stood up again. Now he put on a brutal murderous look, which was gained after years of fighting in the Serindia. Zhang Xiaojing rolled up his sleeves and checked his crossbow for the last time. Part of the tattoo on his left forearm was revealed. It was a sword broken off in the middle. The curve looked simple but stern.

“Wen Wuji, the Eighth Regiment will fight against the Turks again. If you were watching up there, protect your daughter well.”

It sounded like he was heaving a sigh, or more like a prayer. But the light in his only eye became even brighter. He took two smoke bombs out of his waist pocket and threw them away with great force.

Two wisps of yellow smoke rose straight up.

Only about thirty steps or more away from Zhang Xiaojing, by the other side of the wall, Cao Poyan raised one hand up in front of his forehead, looking towards southeast, where there were a few wisps of yellow smoke that hadn’t been dispersed by the north wind.

It seemed the men of Jing’an Dep. had arrived at Changming Fang. Cao Poyan had expected that and even felt they were slower than he thought. He informed Long Bo in the warehouse of their arrival. Long Bo told him the work here was almost done.

The timing was just perfect.

The next step was to carry out the plan.

Cao Poyan bolted the warehouse door from inside and took out the crossbow he gained during fight. He stroked the groove of the crossbow with his index finger slowly. He didn’t like this kind of weapon. It felt sinister and petty. He preferred the shooting bow used by warriors riding on the grassland. What a shame he got injured in his arm. Even if he had a shooting bow by hand, he wouldn’t be able to use it.

‘If only I could hunt for the Mongolian gazelle on the grassland once again…’ Cao Poyan squinted at the thick calluses on the crook of his thumb carefully. It was likely that he couldn’t use bows anymore.

Boom, boom, two wisps of yellow smokes rose up from outside of the wall, which meant his enemy was quite near.

He held his thought back, and the look in his eyes turned bleak, just like a wolf in winter.

The hair on the top of his head had been shaved, so he had no right to flee. He must guard the warehouse and earn more time for his companions till his last breath. Cao Poyan touched his necklace, as if trying to absorb some force from it and get prepared for the last fight in his life.

It remained quiet at the door side. A head popped up on the top of the wall. Cao Poyan shot an arrow and dodged aside at the same time. The head was hit with the sound of arrow piercing into hay. Meanwhile, an arrow was shot from that side, hitting the land right beside Cao Poyan’s feet. Zhang Xiaojing jumped into the yard, made a quick roll, and landed on the open ground about over thirty steps away from Cao Poyan.

They both made some adjustment, stared at each other, and realized that they made the same mistake. They both thought they were outnumbered, but it turned out they were standing right here, only by themselves.

“Cao Poyan?” Zhang Xiaojing called him his fake name. Finally, he caught up with the man who casted a disturbing gloom over the entire city. “Drop your weapon. You may have a chance to live.”

Cao Poyan didn’t reply. The crossbow was out of arrows. He threw it away and took the dagger out of his waist. Chang’an city had been quite strict in weapon control. Apart from a few shoddy crossbows, Wolf Guards only had daggers to use in combat. Zhang Xiaojing threw his crossbow away as well. Faced with such a formidable rival, he had no time to supply more arrows. The best choice was to fight at close quarters.

The sword he had was light and short, but it was longer than a dagger. He got an edge.

Zhang Xiaojing fought by using the swordplay he learned in the Tang Army. It was plain but straight, steady and firm. In a situation like this, Cao Poyan should have attacked back swiftly, but he tried to avoid fierce confront and fought with him at ease. This strategy would protect him from being injured for a moment, but he wouldn’t hurt Zhang Xiaojing either.

After a few rounds of fights, it occurred to Zhang Xiaojing that his rival was not afraid of death, he was just trying to stall him off. He glanced over the shoulder of Cao Poyan with his only eye and saw a big wooden warehouse, the door of which was closed tightly and locked by an iron lock from the outside.

“Oh no, he is stalling me off, so his companions can retreat.”

Realizing this, Zhang Xiaojing made a fiercer attack with hi sword. Cao Poyan grasped the dagger and fought back hard. The clash of sword and dagger filled the whole yard. Zhang Xiaojing used to earn life in the most brutal battlefields and had rich fighting experience. It didn’t take long before he realized Cao Poyan had been injured in his left elbow, because no matter what movement he made, he kept in moving in a strange angle.

He began to focus on attacking Cao Poyan’s left side, aiming right at his weak point. Cao Poyan couldn’t fight back and got hurt by Zhang’s sword several times. Though the wounds were not lethal, they consumed his energy. Cao Poyan was about to lose the fight.

At the meantime, noise of footsteps came from the outside. And the door was slammed open with a loud bang. Standing outside of the door was Cui Qi, carrying a round wooden log on his shoulder, like a guardian warrior full of vigor. Dozens of Lubi soldiers rushed in from his left and right side.

It seemed Jia Shiqi had passed the message in time.