The Longest Day in Chang'an

Translator: DragonRider

With densely population and crowded roads in Huaiyuan Fang, even the fast horse couldn’t speed up. Zhang Xiaojing soon saw the figure galloping ahead. The guy rode quite well, and down vendors all the way, causing a series of cries and roars, but still kept speed.

Unfortunately, the horse Zhang Xiaojing robbed was not for riding and had no saddle to provide recoil, so no matter how he whipped it, he could only keep up to three or four peoples away with the Turk. He could see the scarf wrapped in the Turk’s head, but he could not get closer.

The two horses galloped down the street after each other, and alternated between sudden halt and sharp turns, kicking up a lot of dust. Pedestrians and carriages had to dodge them, causing more riots. The chaos finally alerted the security guards in Fang. Two guards, armed with wooden forks used to stop the frightened horse, forked from both sides of the street toward the horse’s head. The Turkic wolf guard turned his right leg and sharply reined the horse back. With a neigh, the horse raised front hooves, just avoiding the pinch of the wooden forks. Then he quickly adjusted his sitting and went on.

Though a small barrier, it had bought enough time for Zhang Xiaojing. He dashed forward a few steps closer, pulled a smoke bomb out of his waist and threw it out. The bomb contained white phosphorus, sulfur, reeds, rosin, camphor, etc, which self-ignited in the wind, smoking while burning. It was originally used for communication and warning in the military, and Jing’an Dep. also prepared a batch.

The flying bomb fell right into the bag hung around the front saddle. The young man who was robbed of the horse may be literati on the way to inquire for some bigwig, so he had put a bunch of poems in the pocket. The burning bomb immediately ignited these papers. Yellow smoke billowed out of the bag like a flowing flag on horseback.

Now, the Turkic wolf guard was facing a dilemma. If he ignored it, the plume of smoke would make him nowhere to hide; If he spared one hand to untie the bag, which was tied to the saddle with leather ropes, his speed would inevitably be greatly affected. The bastard chasing after him wouldn’t miss a chance.

He looked back subconsciously and was startled by the chilling sneer in the pursuer’s single eye. He was quite familiar with that sort of stare, which belonged to the most dangerous lone wolf on the grasslands.

The wolf guard went all out to run a few steps and suddenly drew a dagger to stab along the horse’s ear into skull. The horse collapsed with a neigh of pain; the wolf guard took the chance to jump into a side lane. The huge body of the horse blocking the lane entrance formed a perfect roadblock. Zhang Xiaojing, who arrived later, had to hold his reins back and stop.

He was not worried. Watchtower in Huaiyuan Fang would beat warning drum at the sight of the yellow smoke, with it the security guards would immediately close the gates of the Fang. Next, he could catch the Turkic wolf guard like shooting fish in a barrel. He didn’t believe that the wolf guard could find another hidden passage across the Fang.

The two security guards who stopped the horse ran over gasping. Zhang Xiaojing showed his identity and asked if the lane could lead to outside. A guard told him it was a dead end. Zhang Xiaojing added if there was any building on the other side of the lane. The guard hesitated and said yes.

“What’s that?”

“Temple of Xianism (Zoroastrianism),” the guard worriedly scratched his head.

Walking to the end of the lane, it suddenly widened into a square about two hundred steps wide with open view. Right in the center of the square stood a two-story temple. The temple had white walls, red tiles and arches all around, the structure of which was different from that in the Central Plains. The door was engraved with three statues of camels standing on the lotus with discs on their backs, fire in the discs, and bird-shaped priests on both sides.

The rooftop of Zoroastrian temple was covered with red flame-shaped tiles. Overlapping layers of tiles made the top look like a burning bonfire.

As Zhang Xiaojing and security guards rushed into the square, the worshippers there were already noisy. Zoroastrianism didn’t build temple or preach in Chang’an. This temple was for the worship of Hu believers in Chang’an only. Therefore, almost all the people gathered there were Hu people.

At this time, they all looked at the temple in fright. Zhang Xiaojing narrowed his single eye and saw the Turkic wolf guard standing at the door, holding an old man in his arms. The old man was wearing a gilt-edged white robe with two red bands crossed his chest.

The guards’ faces clouded and said that he was official Xianzheng of the temple, and his status was similar to abbot of a Chinese temple. Anything happened to him would provoke uproar among his followers in Huaiyuan Fang. Zhang Xiaojing slightly nodded, looking over carefully. It was only now that he saw the face of the Turkic wolf guard. That was not Cao Poyan; the man had flat face like a pancake, narrow eyes and a big brandy nose.

Zoroastrianism was also widespread among Turkic people; but seen from the ferocious look of the wolf guard, he was probably more loyal to Khan than the gods.

Zhang Xiaojing came up to the doorstep of the temple, and surprisingly spoke in fluent Turkic, “You are surrounded. If you give up and let the hostage go, I promise you to get the due courtesy of the Warriors.”

The Turkic wolf guard held a dagger against Xianzheng’s throat, speaking in a toneless voice, “Only Khan is able to appraise the name of the brave.” Zhang Xiaojing snorted as he thought to himself, “The wolf guards selected to Chang’an are Khan diehards. It’s harder to persuade them to surrender than the Emperor to stay away from women. Only a few words don’t work.”

But there were means for him, the former commandant of the Indecent, to deal with the hostage taking.

Zhang Xiaojing sneered and moved forward, “You’re gonna die, but your name won’t. Next, we will announce that you have confessed all the secrets between Khan and imperial court and personally led the way for Tang army. Soon the entire grasslands will know that it was you who betrayed the tribe and shamed the wolf guards.”

“Bullshit! You can’t know my name!” the Turkic wolf guard growled.

“Try me then”

Zhang Xiaojing pointed his knife at the other’s crotch and pierced through the air, laughing with viciousness twinkling in his only eye. The wolf guard suddenly felt his throat getting dry and his wrist began to tremble.

There was an extremely secret ceremony for the Turkic wolf guards. A soldier to be a wolf guard would get service of a beautiful female servant to make him fully erect, and then his penis would be carved with a special name. When the penis hung down, a wolf name came out; when it was erect, his real name was revealed. The Turks believed that the penis symbolized a powerful life, which would give a warrior one more life. The wolf guard didn’t know where Zhang Xiaojing heard the ceremony, but he realized if his body fell into the hands of the one-eyed man, it wouldn’t meet a good end.

“Let the hostage go, you can die nobly, or your name will ignominiously live in every Turk forever.”

Zhang Xiaojing stopped at a distance of five steps away from the two of them. He was waiting, waiting for fear to grow in the wolf guard’s heart. Xianzheng kept his eyes closed and was muttering to himself, begging for mercy or praying.

The worshippers looked at their confrontation nervously; someone even knelt down, gathered a small fire, and threw in spices and oils. As Zoroastrianism respected fire and worshipped Vulcan, this move spawned many followers. For the moment a dozen small fires rose around the temple, and prayers grew.

It was then that a loud scream came from the square,

“Give me my horse!”

A figure jumped out of the crowd and threw himself at the Turkic wolf guard. The wolf guard was already in an extremely nervous state. Facing this sudden attack, he subconsciously responded with his wrist. A blood slit appeared at Xianzheng’s neck; he started to choke and fell forward on the ground. The figure crashed into the wolf guard again, knocking him down the steps.

And an uproar erupted in the crowd. The Zoroastrianism worshippers first screamed in horror, and then they instantly came to surround the falling wolf guard. They kept swearing at him, kicking him. Zhang Xiaojing rushed over, but the angry worshippers were completely out of control, crowding in chaos. Zhang Xiaojing and two guards tried to cut through the crowd and shouted “stand back” but were knocked down finally.

At this moment, dozens of strong men in black clothes rushed out of the lane, Yao Ru’neng the first. They were not local guard, but Indecent from Chang’an County. They saw yellow smoke coiling here and came to help. They came in with Sais in hand, quickly divided and dispersed worshippers, whoever resisted would be beaten by Sais, and soon the riot was slapped down.

But this was only temporary. Most of the people refused to leave; they gathered around and talked loudly, waiting for a reasonable explanation from the court. It was a terrible accident that a Xianzheng was killed under the glare of the public.

Despite of this, Zhang Xiaojing approached and saw the wolf guard lying on the ground with bleeding face and distorted body; he was beaten to death. Zhang Xiaojing searched over the dead body, suddenly, his face fell.

The map was gone.

Even with a very strong heart, Zhang Xiaojing couldn’t help breaking out in a cold sweat. There had been so many people around the wolf guard in the past chaos, maybe some rats stole his stationery bag on the spur of the moment, which was the best of luck. If the Turkic spies took the Fang map out of the confusions.... He quickly looked around, but only saw crowded hostile faces that could not be distinguished.

Zhang Xiaojing looked back, annoyed, and saw the disrupter kneeling before Xianzheng, completely at a loss. Zhang Xiaojing recognized him as the young man who had his horse taken away by the wolf guard.

“What’s your name?” Zhang Xiaojing struggled to hold his anger back.

“Cen Shen from Xianzhou,” the young man stared back.

“Why did you kill him?”

Cen Shen laughed with angry, “He grabbed my horse on the street, why can’t I go after it?” Suddenly he was sad and cried, “That’s fine he took it away, why did he kill it? Lu Mei has been a nice companion for so many years, and is killed in the corner of the lane....” He went on with a sudden pause, “Gold can be compensated for my horse. How about my poems? They are also burned out?”

No time to listen to his nagging, Zhang Xiaojing said to Yao Ru’neng with a somber look, “Take this guy and the wolf guard’s body away.”

“By the way, what’s wrong with FarFortune Trade?”

“Alas, you don’t wanna know. Horses in the FarFortune Trade took fright and bolted. It so happened that these horses had no licenses and came upon us. Upon identifying ourselves, we were mistaken for anti-smuggling officers from West Market and caught up in fighting without a word....” Yao Ru’neng explained helplessly as he felt the new narrow wound on his forehead. 𝗳𝘳𝐞e𝙬𝙚𝚋𝗻𝚘𝚟𝗲l.𝑐𝑜ｍ

Zhang Xiaojing titled his head and suddenly heard dub-a-dubs from the distant watchtower before he could spoke. That was a reminder of order from Jing’an Department. They both looked up to the watchtower, and the scout upstairs soon started waving flag. Yao Ru’neng hastened to translate; his face became weird as the translation progressed.

Zhang Xiaojing asked, “Who gave the order? Is that Sicheng Li?”

“Nope, Sicheng Li is just a deputy. This order is personally issued by Supervisor He.”

“Who’s it?”

“Eh, you don’t know him? He is the boss of Jing’an Department-He Zhizhang.”

Zhang Xiaojing’s face changed slightly upon the name, “What’s his order?”

When Yao Ru’neng finished translating the order, he was completely stunned. Luckily the order from the watchtower was repeated three times. He promptly translated it again, nothing was wrong. He looked at Zhang Xiaojing, bewildered,

“Immediately withdraw Zhang Xiaojing’s post as Commandant of Jing’an Department and bring him back....”