The Longest Day in Chang’an: A Race Against Time - Chapter 72

After a twitch of his sleeve, Yuan Zai resentfully climbed down the big watchtower. He had too many things to do to waste any time here.

It was not until he saw Yuan Zai climbed down and walked far away that Yao Runeng wiped off the sweat, repeatedly saying to himself that it was such a fluke. He bade the two servants to keep checking those bodies, turned around and lightly turned one of those lanterns.

Half of this lantern’s paper was thin, and the other half was thick. If the lantern turned, people watching it from a fixed position would see it flash on and off. Yao Runeng turned the lantern at regular intervals, and soon a very small light spot appeared in a dark woods near the big watchtower. The light spot flickered several times, as if responding to the big watchtower, and then went out.

Yao Runeng was fully relieved.

After he was forced into telling Yuan Zai the address of the drugstore, he immediately forwarded a proposal to Ji Wen: currently, all streets in the city were crowded with people enjoying the lantern show, which made it very difficult to transport materials needed to repair the tower from other places, so they might as well make use of what was at hand, such as those big lanterns overhanging the front gate of Cibei Temple.

This was a very reasonable proposal, so it was directly approved. Then Yao Runeng climbed to one of those lanterns on the pretext of performing an examination.

He knew that in the faraway drugstore, Cen Can was watching this lantern playing the game of encoding rhymes into lantern codes as well as decoding them. Yao Runeng turned the lantern and sent the signal, secretly praying that Cen Can would notice this change and decode the lantern codes in time.

Pressed for time, Yao Runeng could only tell Cen Can to leave with Wen Ran as soon as possible, venture into the scene of the fire and go to the wall near the right side-hall of Jing’an Department.

Previously, Li Bi had set up a temporary meeting room in the thatch-roofed hut in Cibei Temple which was next to the department. He had also installed two wooden ladders on the wall to facilitate travel between the two places. Li Bi, Zhang Xiaojing, Yao Runeng, Tanqi and Xu Bin were the only ones who knew about the existence of this thatch-roofed hut.

Cen Can was indeed a poet. He accurately received this message as expected and immediately snatched a horse, galloped into the scene of the fire with Wen Ran, quickly climbed over the wall and removed the ladders. No matter how smart Yuan Zai was, he could never have expected that Jing’an Department had a foothold in Cibei Temple next door.

Now that Wen Ran was safe for the moment, Yao Runeng finally could concentrate his attention on the big watchtower itself.

The big watchtower had been allocated eight scouts and was able to send messages to and receive messages from all nearby watchtowers, but now all these eight people had been killed on the tower, each of whom had taken a fatal stab in the heart. Apparently, Termite first attacked the big watchtower blinding Jing’an Department and then carried out the next step.

There were no traces of fighting on the scene. Yao Runeng didn’t believe that anybody could have soundlessly killed these eight people in such a narrow space. He searched carefully for quite a while and discovered that the wok had overturned, mutton soup splashed around on the ground. He dipped a finger into the soup, held it to his nose and sniffed at it but didn’t smell anything suspicious. He opened a water sack and found that all water had leaked out.

Yao Runeng speculated whether the mutton soup or the water had been poisoned in advance, that these ten-plus people were under the influence of poison when they were attacked, which was why they were powerless to resist. He believed that probably only after a post-mortem examiner performed an autopsy could the truth be found out.

If this speculation was right, then the one who poisoned them must be a mole planted in Jing’an Department by Termite, and this mole was probably still alive. Yao Runeng’s heart sank as he thought of this.

It could be deduced that Termite was the organization which used Turkish Wolf Guards. There must be a deeper reason why they attacked Jing’an Department.

Yao Runeng bade the servants to get more people to the tower to carry these bodies down. The servant answered “Yes” but grabbed the ankles of a body and threw it off the platform. After a short while, a thud of the body landing was heard. Yao Runeng was infuriated and slapped the servant hard across the face. “Show some respect! They were martyrs to the cause of protecting our country!”

The servant believed that Yao Runeng was merely retaliating against his spying on him. He held his face and repeatedly mumbled “Yes, yes.” Yao Runeng ignored him and continued to assess the damage the big watchtower had suffered.

Flags, drums, corner lamps and other things used for sending signals were almost intact, but it was very difficult to find another eight scouts who were proficient in flag codes. Since the expenses of training them were extremely high, so the big watchtower had only two shifts. Currently, all other eight people were in different areas of the city, and it was impossible to gather them here in a short time.

Besides, there were lanterns ablaze everywhere in the whole city at this time. This day counted as the day when the communication conditions were the worst in a year. Even if the communication was restored, they wouldn’t be able to send complex messages.

To make things worse, none of the circle of watchtowers close to the big watchtower had lighted lanterns, which meant that guards on them probably had also been killed. In other words, the big watchtower could only skip this circle of watchtowers and send messages to those further away, and there would be considerable error.

It was barely possible to get the big watchtower working again.

Yao Runeng landed a punch on the railings and suddenly felt dispirited. Jing’an Department had been destroyed. Sicheng Li was unaccounted for. Their only asset Zhang Xiaojing had been convicted of treason. He felt that all his efforts had been in vain, that no matter how hard he tried, he could never stop the intrigue of Kailu Hodo.

Slowly, Yao Runeng leaned against the pavilion post, feebly looked into the pitch-dark night sky, consumed with depression and despair. Chang’an finally revealed its beast nature and started devouring, bit by bit, those who refused to assimilate.

‘Even Sicheng Li and Commandant Zhang failed to stop this. How can I, a rookie, stop it? Perhaps the only thing I could do is stay here watching this city be destroyed.’

However, after a couple of Tanzhi(1. Tanzhi is a unit of time used in ancient China. A Tanzhi equals around 7.4 seconds), he suddenly rounded his eyes, as if having seen some strange movements. He concentrated all his attention and carefully observed in the direction of those watchtowers in the distance. He noticed that those watchtowers were communicating with each other in a regular manner. Purple lanterns were flickering, as if sending messages to somewhere far away.

‘Eek? Watchtowers are supposed to work with the big watchtower as their hub. Why are they sending messages to each other?’ Yao Runeng looked carefully again and observed that they were not sending messages to each other but sending them in a particular direction. Though the destination was unknown, Yao Runeng could tell immediately that a new hub probably had been formed there.

“It’s Commandant Zhang!”

Yao Runeng abruptly became excited. It occurred to him that apart from people on this big watchtower, the only one who was qualified to command the whole watchtower network was Zhang Xiaojing, to whom the authority had been delegated.

The operation of the watchtower network was completely independent of other departments’ control. Even Zhang Xiaojing was wanted by the whole city, as long as people on the big watchtower didn’t revoke the authority delegated to him, people on other watchtowers would still follow his orders.

‘Commandant Zhang hasn’t given up yet! He’s still striving!’

‘Chang’an City still has its last faint gleam of hope.’

Enthusiasm welled up inside Yao Runeng, overwhelming him. He grabbed the railing and suddenly realized that his position was very important to Commandant Zhang… no, to the whole Chang’an City.

As long as the big watchtower was under his control, Zhang Xiaojing could continue using the watchtower network to track the targets, which meant they still had a gleam of hope of stopping Kailu Hodo. The fate of Chang’an depended on how long he could persist on the big watchtower.

‘The overall situation is already difficult enough. If I give up, the last hope will be gone!’

The look in Yao Runeng’s eyes instantly became firm and persistent. He raised the purple lantern, sent a message to the other side in a distinct manner and repeated it three times. Then he put the lantern down and clenched his fists.

Next, what he had to do was solidly guard this place just like what Commandant Zhang did in the beacon tower in Bohuan City in the Western Regions, even if it meant that he had to make an enemy of the whole Jing’an Department.

Standing in the alley in front of the bookstore, Zhang Xiaojing and Tanqi anxiously looked in the direction of the outside. A dozen Shouzhuo mercenaries blocked the entrance of the alley, all eyeing them with hostility.

It had been quiet outside the alley all along. Constantly, there were residents on the street walking past the alley. Distant sound of music played with various instruments were faintly heard. But the fleet of carriages, which were supposed to arrive soon according to Zhang Xiaojing’s promise, were still nowhere to be seen.

“How much longer do you want to keep us waiting? Where are the fleet of carriages? Where’s Seventeen Liu?” The captain of those Shouzhuo mercenaries took a step forward and raised his iron hammer high, an unfriendly look in his eyes. His subordinates, who had run out of patience, moved closer and closer, weapons in their hands.

“Today is the day of the lantern show. It’s pretty normal for them to be delayed on the street… ” Zhang Xiaojing raised his copper ID plate and snapped. “Don’t do anything stupid. This will be deemed an attack on the Imperial Court.”

The captain sneered, “Even dignitaries in the Imperial Court cannot just walk away unpunished after killing people.” Believing that this fraud was bluffing, he raised his arm and gave the order to catch him.

All people launched attack, racing to catch the target.

Since the Fire-master had been killed, severe penalties would surely be meted out to these protectors. Only by catching the murderer could they partially atone for their guilt. Seeing that the situation was about to get out of control, Zhang Xiaojing whipped out his saber with a whoosh, pointed it to the front and yelled, “Whoever approaches dies!”

“Return every favor. Repay every debt!”

Shouzhuo mercenaries repeatedly uttered the slogan while approaching slowly. Zhang Xiaojing still tried to convince them, but they just growled in unison, making no response to him. Various weapons were swung at Zhang Xiaojing and Tanqi.

Zhang Xiaojing couldn’t dodge, because Tanqi was right behind him. Having no other choice, he fought back head-on. Surprisingly, on engagement with the enemies, since he was very unaccustomed to these weapons, he was reduced to an unfavorable situation.

Shouzhuo mercenaries’ weapons were mainly tools of craftsmen, such as iron hammers, sickles, horsewhips, chisels, pitchforks and so on. In Shouzhuo cities, there were no ordnance departments, so residents had only tools, which they used for work at ordinary times and for fight in wartime. As time passed by, they developed their own unique fighting style.

Fortunately, the alley was narrow, so not all Shouzhuo mercenaries were able to engage the target at the same time. Clenching his teeth, Zhang Xiaojing tried his best to defend against the attack with the last faint advantage of the favorable terrain.

The three people in the front were downed, but more enemies instantly came at him. Realizing that he couldn’t let things keep going this way, Zhang Xiaojing fished three smoke bombs out of the waist of his clothes and threw them forward.

Smoke billowed out of the bombs and instantly pervaded the whole alley. In smoke, lanterns became indistinct lighted masses, which made it impossible to distinguish those flickering figures from one another. Zhang Xiaojing grabbed Tanqi’s hand and madly rushed towards the outside. Knowing that this was a life-or-death moment, Tanqi silently let Zhang Xiaojing hold her hand.

When the two people were about to reach the entrance of the alley, Shouzhuo mercenaries also regained their view and started pursuing them hotly. Zhang Xiaojing gave Tanqi a hard push and pointed at the front, saying, “Patrol soldiers are at the Fang corner. Go get help!”

“What about you?”

“I’ll hold them back!” Zhang Xiaojing abruptly turned around and held his saber horizontally before his chest.

Shouzhuo Mercenary was after all an underground organization. No matter how tolerant the government’s attitude towards it was, they would never allow these people to make a scene in Chang’an. Once patrol soldiers were alerted, these Shouzhuo mercenaries would retreat before the impossible.

“Remember! Mention my name!” Zhang Xiaojing yelled.

Tanqi turned around and rushed away, clashes of weapons coming from behind. Without turning her head back once, she rushed forward over two hundred steps in one breath, feeling as if her lungs were about to burst. The night-duty lantern ablaze, which overhung the gate of the Security Station located in the Fang corner ahead, could already be seen.