The Longest Day in Chang'an

Translator: DragonRider

As people in the front moved aside to make way, this carriage with a phoenix-tail-like decoration at the rear gradually picked up speed, making it difficult for those fans to keep up with its pace. It quickly drove past the intersection between the Wuben Fang and the Kaihua Fang, and then the one between the Pingkang Fang and the Chongren Fang, heading squarely towards the East Market.

At this time, a string of drumbeats suddenly came from the right side of the carriage. A Chunhu carriage of typical western-regions style, oozing with competitiveness, emerged from a street between the East Market and the Xuanyang Fang, followed by a large group of fans. Drumbeat was emanating from the top of the Chunhu carriage. A female dancer of Hu origin with seductively curvy figure climbed to the head of her carriage and adopted a provocative pose – she was challenging the owner of the carriage with a phoenix-tail-like decoration to a competition.

However, when everybody present was eagerly looking forward to watching a duel between two top entertainers, the carriage with a phoenix-tail-like decoration changed its direction and drove towards the north side of the East Market, showing a total disregard for the challenge from the Chunhu carriage.

This was a gross insult. Fans around the Chunhu carriage started hurling abuse. At this time, fans of Xu Hezi hurriedly arrived. Seeing those people on the other side insulting their goddess, they immediately shouted abuse back at them. Soon, the verbal duel escalated into a mass brawl and the intersection instantly became a battlefield.

The carriage with a phoenix-tail-like decoration at the rear kept driving forward without a single moment's slowdown. The Xingqing Palace was right behind the East Market. At this time, the door of the carriage was opened from inside and with that a middle-aged handmaid craned out of the carriage.

It turned out that people sitting inside the carriage also heard the drumbeats of challenge, but the carriage didn't stop, so Xu Hezi's middle-aged handmaid opened the door to find out what was going on. On seeing the ferocious-looking one-eyed man standing beside the driver, she was instantly reduced to yelling in fear, "Misfortune is coming! Misfortune is coming! A maniac is here!" 𝐟𝘳𝑒𝗲𝘸e𝒃𝘯𝒐𝐯e𝚕.c𝒐𝒎

Every year, during the Lantern Festival celebration, there would be some deeds beyond the pale which were committed by a couple of fans unduly obsessed with their idols – committing suicide in order to confess their love, following their idols day and night, stealing their idols' underwear, to name but a few. People called them maniacs. This middle-aged handmaid had taken Zhang Xiaojing as a maniac when she saw him show up on the carriage without permission.

Zhang Xiaojing twisted his head around, produced his waist-seal and flashed it at the middle-aged handmaid, saying, "Jing'an Department. This carriage is temporarily requisitioned."

However, after being informed that he was a staff member of a government agency, the middle-aged handmaid collected herself and refused to be cooperative. "This carriage cost the Lady Xu over a thousand Guan (a Guan is a a string of 1,000 cash). You can't just turn up and requisition it like this. Who will compensate us if we miss the final competition because of this?"

Zhang Xiaojing, who couldn't be bothered to argue with her, drove his saber into the carriage frame beside the head of the middle-aged handmaid, hacking off half of the hairpin in her bun. Frightened, the middle-aged handmaid involuntarily took a step backward in horror and fell back into the carriage with a thud. Through the opened door, Zhang Xiaojing saw that a round-faced woman, carrying a bowl of pear soup good for the throat, was sitting bolt upright inside, a calm look on her face, that rainbow-colored costume of hers over a small hanger on the side.

"Mama (a form of address for a middle-aged female servant in feudal China), let this officer requisition our carriage as he wants," Xu Hezi said calmly without a single trace of alarm or anger in her tone.

Zhang Xiaojing folded his hands in front and said, "Sorry for hindering you from winning the competition. It's just that I have some urgent business to attend to and have no other choice. Please pardon me."

"Is it even more important than the Ba-lantern competition?" Xu Hezi asked curiously. Her voice was very low, probably because she was trying to protect her voice.

"There's a world of difference between them."

Xu Hezi smiled, "Glad to hear that. I could use some rest." After saying this, she raised the bowl and took another sip. She seemed poised and composed, far removed from the aggressively competitive woman she had appeared to be when she had been on the high platform.

"You are not afraid, lady?" He squinted his only eye.

"Would it make any difference if I were?"

Zhang Xiaojing let out a laugh, feeling that the anxiety in him had been dissolved considerably. He folded his hands in front, gave an inclination of them at Xu Hezi and then stepped back to the side of the driver.

At this time, the carriage was approaching the square in front of the Xingqing Palace. There was still some time left before the final candle-lighting ceremony, and all entrances were still sealed by the Mighty Dragon Army. A great number of residents had been queuing up outside, waiting to enter. The Taishang-xuanyuan Grand Lantern Pavilion, towering and imposing, was not far away. Lighted candles could be vaguely seen inside, along with many flickering figures.

After observing for a while, Zhang Xiaojing instructed, "All right. Stop the carriage."

The horse-drawn carriage came to a halt at a corner several dozen paces away from an entrance and Zhang Xiaojing jumped off while it was still moving. He was just about to leave when Xu Hezi's voice came from behind. "Officer of Jing'an Department, I wish you good luck."

Zhang Xiaojing paused and exhorted, "You'd better leave right now, the further away from the Xingqing Palace the better." On finishing this remark, he hurried away.

It was not until he walked far away that the driver, stroking his neck, resentfully let out a curse. "What a maniac!"

Xu Hezi put down her bowl of pear soup, her Dai-painted (Dai is a black pigment used by women in ancient times to paint their eyebrows) brows slightly furrowed. "I think we should listen to him."

The middle-aged handmaid picked herself up from the floorboards and replied, "You can't be serious, my lady. You really believe that goddamn maniac's nonsense?"

Watching that receding figure in the distance, Xu Hezi softly sighed, "I do, because never have I seen any eyes as desperate as his."

Zhang Xiaojing was unaware of these remarks made after he left, and he was uninterested in finding out as well. He had joined a queue, approaching the square. freℯ𝓌e𝚋𝐧𝘰vℯl.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Music emanated from the Industriousness and Pragmatism Pavilion not very far away, indicating that the Lantern Festival Spring Banquet was still ongoing. Many residents had specially come to this square to hear this music and smell those delicacies, which would make them feel that they themselves were also invited guests of the banquet.

Zhang Xiaojing was the only one whose attention was concentrated on those soldiers of the Mighty Dragon Army. Like he had anticipated, there were several layers of security on the square, which got tighter and tighter from the outermost layer to the innermost layer. And there were also densely posted overt sentries and covert sentries. No common people could get in without consent. Those members of the the Termite must have come by ID plates of craftsmen and gained entry posing as craftsmen.

It was unmistakably impossible to directly force his way in. He would be killed on the spot if he tried. Zhang Xiaojing had considered reporting it to a high-ranking officer of the Mighty Dragon Army, but he didn't have any proofs. Zhang Xiaojing knew better than anyone about government officials' attitudes towards a wanted convict condemned to death – he was unaware that the situation was different now.

A sigh escaped Zhang Xiaojing's lips. Li Bi, Yao Runeng, Xu Bin, Tanqi and Es were all no longer able to offer him any help. The watchtower network had collapsed. Currently, he was literally on his own. Nobody was at his back. Nobody had trust in him. There wasn't even anybody who knew what he had been trying to do. That copper waist-seal issued by Jing'an Department was the only thing that was still with him.

Zhang Xiaojing reached out his hand and brushed his eye socket.

He flicked another glance at the Industriousness and Pragmatism Pavilion, quietly left the queue, walked in the opposite direction and soon wormed his way through the Fang gate of the Daozheng Fang.

The Daozheng Fang was on the south side of the square which was on the south side of the Xingqing Palace. Back then when the Xingqing Fang was expanded into a palace, it incorporated part of the Daozheng Fang, so the two fangs were very close to each other, which had been the very reason why the Mighty Dragon Army also stationed a group of soldiers here lest any thugs occupy commanding elevations, but they were not paying close attention to low places which were of less strategic importance, and neither had they sealed off the whole fang.

After entering this fang, Zhang Xiaojing, cautiously staying out of sight of petrolling soldiers, headed straight east. He went through an affluent neighborhood and arrived at a piece of low-lying land where there was a pagoda tree wood. In the middle of the low-lying land was a fishpond with aprolls. All rainwater ditches on the sides of the streets in the fang led to this fishpond, from where the water flew into the Dragon Head Canal along a sheep channel (a water channel through a palace in feudal China).

It was early spring, and the fishpond was dry. Zhang Xiaojing, hand against the wall of the pond, cautiously walked to the bottom and then felt his way forward along the sheep channel. When he was close to the Dragon Head Canal, he crouched down, fumbled around in the dark and found a long ceramic drain-pipe. The ceramic pipe was very long, parallel to the Dragon Head Canal. Eventually, it led Zhang Xiaojing to a pitch-black entrance in the lower part of the canal bank, which was railed in by four dragon-scale water diversion pillars.

This was the big secret Chao Fen had disclosed to him before he left.

Although Mao Shun was the one who had designed the Taishang-xuanyuan Grand Lantern Pavilion, the principle behind it remained the same despite all apparent changes. Chao Fen pointed out that if those lantern figures inside the pavilion were to move automatically, waterpower would be indispensable. Given that the Dragon Head Canal was merely several paces south of the Xingqing Palace, Mao Shun would definitely make full use of it. It was the most likely that he had dug an underground water channel beneath the Dragon Head Canal, which was at a right angle with the canal and would allow the water to flow to the bottom of the lantern pavilion to provide driving force for the pivot.

Chao Fen had done some calculation and concluded that, given the volume of the Taishang-xuanyuan Grand Lantern Pavilion, the flow of water had to be huge, and that, since the channel might be silted up and craftsmen would have to go inside to unblock it, this underground channel must be very broad – broad enough for a man to walk in it.

Thus, Zhang Xiaojing didn't have to go through the square. He could directly get to the heart of the lantern pavilion through this underground channel.

These dragon-scale water diversion pillars had scale-like barbs on the surface. If anybody tried to squeeze their way through the gap between two pillars, they would be snagged by the scale-like barbs and stuck there and wouldn't be able to free themselves even if they pour oil over themselves.

But Chao Fen had made some preparations some time ago. He had gifted Zhang Xiaojing with a straight-handled horse-teeth file, with which Zhang Xiaojing soon broke a dragon-scale water diversion pillar and then squeezed through. As expected, it was a water channel built with bricks, which was wide enough for a stooping man to progress. Water diverted from the Dragon Head Canal was gurgling through the channel.

Zhang Xiaojing submerged his trunk in water, raised his head, took the crossbow from his belt, pressed it against the top of the channel and started walking forward step by step. It was also Chao Fen who had given him that crossbow. Since Zhang Xiaojing had refused to accept the knife, Chao Fen had gifted him with this customized machine crossbow which could fire four bolts in a row. Chao Fen had a strong hope that Zhang Xiaojing, with the help of this crossbow, would create "beauty" once again.

After several dozen steps, the water channel suddenly grew broader. Ahead of him was a chamber-like underground space. The water channel went through the middle of the underground chamber. On each side of the channel installed three giant wooden wheels, which were turning continuously under the push of the water flow, creaking in the dark. This must be the bottommost floor of the Taishang-xuanyuan Grand Lantern Pavilion, and it was also the place from where driving force for hundreds of lantern figures would be generated. There was also a uniquely shaped horse-mouth gear installed at the dome, the function of which was unknown to him.

This lantern pavilion would only be useful during the Lantern Festival celebration which would last merely three days, yet the Emperor of Tang had spent such a great fortune on it.

Zhang Xiaojing climbed up to the ground from water, roughly wrung water out of the lower hem of his clothes and, by faint light, carefully looked at the front. He saw that there was a crude wooden door at the far end of the underground chamber, which seemed to lead to a flight of stairs – this must be the passage through which people went in and out of this underground chamber. There was a lighted torch overhanging the door, which was providing limited lighting for the underground chamber.

At the edge of the radius that torchlight could touch, there seemed to be a couple of people standing. Zhang Xiaojing horizontally trained his crossbow at the front and then tiptoed over. When he was close to them, a strong smell of blood wormed its way into his nostrils.

Zhang Xiaojing held his breath, cocked an eye at them and discovered that those men were not standing but leaning against a couple of wooden chests. Faces of all of them were livid. Clearly they had breathed their last. They were wearing short brown robes and waterproof rattan shoes, which suggested that they had probably been craftsmen responsible for maintaining waterwheels.

Beside those bodies stood a strong man in skintight clothes, who was playing with a knife in his hands.

Zhang Xiaojing was startled. 'Members of the Termite have indeed infiltrated into this lantern pavilion.'

At this time, sound of footsteps emanated from the other side of a waterwheel and with that a tall, thin man walked out of the shadows at a leisurely pace. He was even humming a tune. But due to the poor lighting, Zhang Xiaojing couldn't get a clear view of his features. The strong man put away his knife and said respectfully, "Mr Long Bo, this place is clear."

The tall, thin man unconcernedly walked past the row of corpses and clicked his tongue. It was hard to tell whether he was expressing regret or appreciation.

Zhang Xiaojing's heart lurched as he heard this name. 'Long Bo? This guy that Jing'an Department has been trying to hunt down for such a long time finally showed up.' At first, they had thought that Long Bo was merely a planted mole of the Turkish Wolf Guards, but now, as things stood, he was definitely the mastermind behind the scenes as well as the leader of the Termite.

Zhang Xiaojing squinted his eye and arched his back, poised to take action. When Long Bo approached the doorway and walked to the edge of the radius torchlight could touch, Zhang Xiaojing raised his crossbow, shot off the torch on the door frame first, and then, taking advantage of the instant when the torch was falling and the light was erratic, he abruptly pushed off the ground with his right leg, sprinted over like greased lightning and fired two bolts in a row with his crossbow.

The strong man was shot in both the forehead and the throat and fell to the ground. Zhang Xiaojing pounced on Long Bo, brought him to the ground and pressed the crossbow to his temple.

The torch rolled on the ground but didn't go out. Zhang Xiaojing twisted his upper body aside and, by light of the residual flames of the torch, beheld an emaciated face and a hooknose. Meanwhile, the man distinguished his features as well.

"Oh, Big Head Zhang, long time no see." Surprisingly, Long Bo's lips curved in a smile.