NOVEL WEB In the hall, Cui Qi was whispering with the maid deducing the sand table. When he heard Li Bi call his name, he ran over and fell on one knee, not forgetting that he was a sinner.
Li Bi said quietly, “Brigadier Cui, Liulang’s death is due to careless site-clearing. I gave the order, so I am also responsible for it.” Cui Qi suddenly looked up, hardly believing his own ears. On one side, he didn’t expect that his brother died through such a little fault; on the other side, how could a chief admit his error? Was he trying to win his support?
Li Bi curled his lip. He didn’t have time to play politics, but too proud to pin the blame on others. He pointed at Zhang Xiaojing, “It’s him, Commandant Zhang, who has cracked the puzzle. He’s gonna take the place of your brother to trace the wolf guards.”
Cui Qi looked at Zhang Xiaojing with both gratitude and doubt in his eyes.
He knew Zhang Xiaojing was a condemned, but he had no idea why Li Bi would bet on a prisoner. However, the soldier took obedience as his duty. He made a military salute and exclaimed, “I have three hundred Lubi Army under my command. They can walk or ride to any place in Chang’an within thirty minutes. Hope Mr. Zhang can give me a chance to kill the enemy so I can revenge for my brother!”
Zhang Xiaojing noticed that Cui Qi called him Mr. Zhang, not Commandant Zhang. It seemed the sword, given by Li Bi, was uneasy to control.
Time was ticking. The following schedule was so tight that Zhang Xiaojing took down the flag signals and some necessary contact information, and headed to the sand table to listen to a brief introduction about the Turks.
It was the beautiful maid holding a moon stick who was responsible for the introduction. Her voice was clear with something of a Hu accent. Zhang Xiaojing offensively took one more look at her. The girl named Tan Qi, with her towering nose and black bun, should be mixed of Han and Hu.
“The point is, what are the Turkic wolves gonna do?” asked Zhang Xiaojing.
Tan Qi said, “I don’t know yet. The only information came from Standby Division, Shuofang. A Turkic leader of a tribe claimed that the entire Chang’an was about to become ‘Quele Huoduo’. You know what that means, don’t you?”
Zhang Xiaojing nodded. “Quele” was a Turkic noun, similarly to Bloody Jail at the very bottom of the ground; “Huoduo” was to turn into dust. The whole word was both a curse and a legendary beast. Even if one didn’t understand Turkic, he would feel the surging desire to kill in the four words.
Chang’an was going to become Quele Huoduo. It would be an exaggerated rhetoric or a metaphor for something. No one knew.
Knowing time was urgent, Tan Qi spoke quickly, “This is debris we picked up in the C6 warehouse. It outlines half of the outer city of Chang’an. So, we guess that Cao Poyan likely wants a detailed map of all the Fangs in Chang’an.”
Hearing the Fang Map of Chang’an, Zhang Xiaojing knitted his brows together. Li Bi noticed that his look became somber and asked, “In your opinion, what do the Turks want to do with the Fang map? Well, put another way, if they obtain the map, what can they do?”
“Poisoning along the canal, arson in Fangs, killing at night, spreading rumors, breaking in the Imperial city…. During the Lantern Show, a few coins thrown at several prosperous viewing sites in Chongren Fang, Yanshou Fang, Xingqing Palace, and Qujiang Pond will lead to riots. Guided by map, they can come and go freely through Chang’an. There’s so much they can do.”
Zhang Xiaojing chattered on his fingers. One more word, the faces around went whiter.
Li Bi looked serious. He had estimated the situation to be threatening enough, but he didn’t take these eye-opening tricks into consideration. After all, members of Jing’an were civil officials, and their experience was far less than this ex-general of the Indecent who was used to dirty tricks.
“In your opinion, if the open search is infeasible, where we can start?” asked Li Bi.
Zhang Xiaojing answered, “Possessing Fang Map of Chang’an is a capital offense. No ordinary family has it except officials. Since Cao Poyan didn’t get it from Cui Liulang, he will either steal it from Imperial City, or….” He turned to the sand table, and his body moved toward Tan Qi, almost touching her shoulder, “Where was Cao Poyan last seen by watchtower?”
Tan Qi was somewhat surprised at his boldness and hesitated before answering, “Cao Poyan climbed over the Watergate too fast to be seen by the watchtower. However, he is presumed to land in Yanshou Fang and Buzheng Fang. Both of the places are crowded, easy to hide. We’ve sent a searching team there.”
Zhang Xiaojing said, “I guess he can’t go far, and he’ll have to come back here anyway.” He pointed at a spot on the sand table.
“The West Market?” Cui Qi was a little surprised. Li Bi nodded slightly before he and Zhang Xiaojing blurting out the same words, “Hu merchants!”
Most of the Hu merchants gathered in the West Market and some of them were Super Rich. Fang Map of Chang’an was good for business; collecting a copy was not surprising among them. Zhang Xiaojing was too familiar with their nature; these people were born to seek profits and bolder than camels.
After Cui Liulang was exposed, Cao Poyan didn’t dare to contact the Tang people. If he wanted to get the map in the least time, he had no choice but to count on Hu people.
“Do you know which merchant we are going for?” frowned Li Bi. The number of Hu merchants in the West Market was too large to be screened one by one.
Zhang Xiaojing clenched his fists and replied calmly, “There are exceptional measures at exceptional hour.” Li Bi was a little nervous, but he swallowed his tongue back.
The guy’s “exceptional measures” might be some kind of methods contrary to the humanity. But there was no time to talk about criminal law or conscience. The water was trickling from the hour-copper, beating on the hour-tin. Every drop could mean the loss of hundreds of lives.
“Commandant Zhang, the destiny of Da Tang and the fate of people in Cahng’an all depend on you.” Li Bi brushed his sleeve, solemnly cupped his hands and took a bow. And the officials behind him all stood up and bowed to Zhang Xiaojing.
Zhang Xiaojing did not respond, but only dusted off the left eye socket with his hand, and said with indifference, “What I do is only for the people of Chang’an. Don’t get me wrong.”
All the faces became pale at once. What was he talking about? Although everyone held resentment for the court in heart, how could he speak it out openly?
Zhang Xiaojing grinned and turned away. Officials in the hall were all frightened and turned to Li Bi. Li Bi looked as usual, with fly-whisk on his arm, appearing careless.
That guy was hinting to me that he would not be under anyone’s girdle.
At the door, Cui Qi had prepared sets of equipment: refined baffle knife, soft figure-hugging armor, smoke bomb, leather rope, etc., along with a hand crossbow. Zhang Xiaojing fluently hung them up, and squatted down to fasten the bottom of his trousers with two pieces of string. With these done, a vigorous killer came with overwhelming hunger.
Zhang Xiaojing took up the crossbow and repeatedly pulled the empty string. Then he listened to it before he said to Cui Qi, “Remove Wangshan (sight on the crossbow) and tighten the hook center two more points.” Cui Qi was startled. Wang Shan was a spare part for aiming, people who shot well didn’t like it; hook center adjusted the speed of the arrow, the faster the greater the power, but the accuracy was difficult to control. So it seemed that he was a hot shot.
Cui Qi quickly took the crossbow to craftsman for adjustment while Zhang Xiaojing took Xu Bin aside and whispered,
“Youde, please ask someone to send a message to the shopkeeper of Wen’s Incense in the southwestern corner of Dunyi Fang: Leave Chang’an immediately. You’d better ask your family leave as soon as possible. Don’t go to the Lantern Show.”
Xu Bin stared at him, puzzled.
Zhang Xiaojing spoke sternly, “I’ve been in Chang’an for so many years, and I know how fragile the city is better than anyone. If what Sicheng Li said is true, I guess….” Unexpectedly, he hesitated for a while and then said with emphasis,
“Chang’an is doomed.”
Meanwhile, Cao Poyan was standing at the gate of a Fang. He had a new rain hat on head, screening his entire face.
The gate was wide open. Under the Fang wall, countless vendors set stands and shouted; in an open space, a dozen idle men were grabbing the ends of a thick rope to play tug-of-war, with ten times more people watching and cheering. By the gate, there stood a large lantern over fifty feet high with cantilever bamboo cranes. Colorful silk tassels hung from each corner of the lantern, only waiting for lighting candles after dusk.
Cao Poyan lowered his hat, passed by the guards and walked into the Fang. A statement came from the Jing’an saying that guards of all Fangs must pay attention to a Turk with beard. It was so urgent that no portrait was attached. The guards were busy cheering for the tug-of-war that they didn’t even eye him and let him in when they saw Cao Poyan not wearing a Hu robe.
He paused at a quiet corner near the end of the tenth street, took out a roll of paper from his arms and stopped a running child to ask where the Lee’s Bamboo Ware was after a quick glimpse. The child saw his ferocious face and told him that it was in a residence at the end of the back street.
Cao Poyan walked along the way the child showed him. There appeared a bamboo ware workshop. The aisles and front doors were full of lantern frames, bamboo strips, including phoenixes in love, cloud-dragon (meaning appreciated by Emperor), various immortals and mascots. Business seemed to go well; it was busy even on the Lantern Festival.
He knocked the door, three long knocks, one short, and then another two long knocks. After a few moments of silence in the door, a skinny bamboo craftsman with sharp nose and deep eyes popped his head out, holding a sharp bamboo cutting knife to his chest.
“Where is yellow yurt in the royal court?” he suddenly asked in Turkic.
“Eagle over the grasslands fear no wild wind.” Cao Poyan raised his hat and also responded in the same language.
The door opened a crack and Cao Poyan edged in.