The Longest Day In Chang'an Chapter 2: Si Zheng (10:00-10:59) Part 2

The girl servant took the moon stick and kept moving the black pottery figurine to the appropriate site. Cao Poyan’s walking track was vividly presented before the two Principles: the caravan was walking far away from the busy area, and gradually approaching the Lonely Willow in the southwest of the city.

The Lonely Willow was a place to execute the condemned criminals in the West Market. The merchants thought it was unlucky and stayed away from it, so there were fewer people nearby.

The youth turned his head slightly, “Principle Xu, are there any buildings around?”

The two officials were surrounded by a dozen long tables, which were covered with volumes. Dozens of junior officials were busy working. A fat middle-aged scribe heard the call, hurriedly put down the scroll, ran to the sand table. His eyesight was not very good, so he had to lean over the edge to see where the black pottery figurine was.

Principle Xu thought for a second and immediately answered like reciting book, “Northeast Lane is mostly low-lying and wet, with only sixteen warehouses and adjoining Guangtong Ca.n.a.l. In Kaiyuan Year 15, the rain-swollen ca.n.a.l flooded three Hu merchants’ inventory, worth Guan five thousand.” His memory was so impressive that he answered casually, without stammering.

The youth interrupted his reciting, “Is there any exit nearby for the sixteen warehouses?”

“Em…No. But….”

At that moment, the messenger broke into the hall again and interrupted his words, “Wolfpack has entered into the sixth C warehouse and haven’t come out!”

The atmosphere in the hall was stirred up by this message; everyone turned to the sand table.

“Got it!” the youth’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Tell Cui Qi to be ready for action; The Indecent clear the outside of the warehouse now, don’t let anyone in or out. Stand by at the second gate of the West Market,” short and forceful orders came out of his mouth with obvious excitement.

The messenger took down the order and left the hall quickly. The youth, with his arms on the edge of the sand table, leaned forward, looking at the black pottery figurine and muttering to himself,

“Turkish wolves, I’ll see what the h.e.l.l do you want in Chang’an?”

The order was sent from the Jing’an Department to the Watchtower. Then, it quickly crossed the street and returned to the north Watchtower of the West Market through a series of flag signals. The Scout copied the flag signal on the wooden slips and threw it downstairs, shouting, “Brigadier Cui, take orders!”

Before landing, the wooden slip was grasped by a big hand.

The man holding the wooden slip was tall with sideburns and arms as thick as beams. He took the wooden slip and cheered up after glancing at the order above, and then he turned around and shouted, “Everyone falls in!”

Fifty soldiers from Lubi Army filed out of the warehouse besides him. They were wearing inky infantry amour, holding hand crossbow, horizontally hanging eye-free swords on their waists, and ten of them had long bows slanted. During the gathering, no one spoke, only the dreary footsteps and breathing were heard.

Cui Qi ran down the team, said with a dark face, “The target is in the sixth C warehouse. Surround them, and then attack; Try to keep them alive. Keep your eyes open later, and don’t humiliate the Lubi Army!” With the words he waved his hand and ran outside. The soldiers, every five stood in a row, trotted after the General, and then ran fast.

They easily skimmed over the Cross street, got in the back alley and headed for the south Fang in West Market. The merchants along the street were shocked to see the suddenly flying dust and so many soldiers running through. Before they could whisper together, a large number of Indecent came and asked the shops to close temporarily. People in the streets were also invited to rest in nearby shops, but no one was allowed to leave.

At the East and West entrances of the West Market, the gatekeeper lifted the stone bolt from the pit so that the gate could be closed at any time.

The cobweb was rapidly woven in layers, and a sharp arrow was piercing right there.

When stepping into the range of the C warehouse, Cui Qi made some gestures, so the Lubi Army tacitly divided themselves into three directions, quietly approaching the warehouse, and the Indecent had stealthily blocked all the roads nearby. There were horses and cattle of a few caravans tied up here, watched by two or three men. The Indecent went over and persuaded them into taking the animals far away.

So far, the C warehouse was cut off from the West Market.

Squatting at the corner of a mud wall near the sixth C warehouse, Cui Qi took off the breastplate, hung it on the end of his horizontally-worn sword, and carefully held it out. With the reflection of the plate, he could see what was ahead without poking his head.

The C warehouse was a wooden building with capping, 93m long, 70m wide, almost square, with only one entrance and windows in four sides, but the window was too small to get through by adults. Close to the ca.n.a.l, this area was easy to be flooded in summer, so the bottom of the building was suspended and supported by sixteen wooden pillars, which was somewhat similar to architectural style in Lingnan.

At the door stood a man with big nose, who was one of Cao Poyan’s fifty Hu companions. He leaned his back against the wooden door and looked absent-mindedly at a string of beads on his wrist sometimes. Cui Qi estimated the range of the crossbow. If he really wanted to do it, he was confident that he would break in within seven seconds.

Cui Qi looked at the entrance and held his breath. Everything was ready, just waiting for something to happen in the warehouse.

In the warehouse separated from the outside world by a wooden wall, Cao Poyan stood facing the entrance, with his arms folded and his back against the corner. He had taken off his white steeple hat, revealing thick black braids. Other people scattered in small groups among the shelves, whispering in Turkic, not Sogdian. And of course, Cui Liulang, who was standing by the window, pretended he didn’t understand what they were saying.

Cui Liulang rubbed his hands and laughed, “Mr. Cao, who found this place for you? It’s wet and there are no grocery stores nearby. How about arranging another one for you?”

As if he had not heard the question, Cao Poyan answered coldly, “Get down to business.”

Cui Liulang was not embarra.s.sed, “Well. Can you tell me now what you want from me?”

Cao Poyan snapped his fingers, summoning two companions. They spread out a roll of cloth to a square size on the ground. Then they took out a Langhao pen (a writing brush made of weasel's hair), an ink stick and an inkstand. Cui Liulang was stunned, not knowing their purpose. Was it to have a poetry examination?

He looked at the hard-yellow cloth again and gasped in horror. The cloth was densely painted with countless squares and crisscross ink lines. It was the 108 Fangs Map of Chang’an. But the map was too rough, just outlining the city and its name.

“It is only collected in imperial city and secret departments, and the common people who hide it may result in capital crimes.”

Cao Poyan narrowed his eyes, “You dare not take the deal?”

Cui Liulang laughed and took a step backward to sit cross-legged on the ground, “If I dare not, I will not take you into the West Market. No risk, no riches in our business, so who will take state’s law seriously? Come on, give me pen and ink. What do you want to mark?”

“I need you to mark all the key points such as hidden doors, gutters and pa.s.sages between walls on the Fang Map of Chang’an,” Chao Poyan said, enunciating every word.

Cui Liulang was thinking rapidly while agreeing to do it. Chang’an had more complex topography than just twenty-five crisscrossed streets. There were water and land channels between Fangs, cavity walls between walls, ditches under bridges and pits beside slopes, and how and where they connected each other was unknown to most residents of Chang’an for their whole life.

If they got the panorama, they would know clearly enough about Chang’an and came and went freely. It seemed that these Turkic people were ambitious….!

A man took out an animal skin, poured some water on the inkstand, and ground out a shallow pool of ink after a while. Cui Liulang licked the pen tip, dipped in the ink and began to draw. Suddenly, he stopped, “Mr. Cao, you are not from the Central Plains and are not familiar with cloth. This cloth, which is called hard yellow cloth, is suitable for making clothes, but easy to block ink when drawing. How about I go to buy some first-cla.s.s Xuan paper….”

“You stay here.” Cao Poyan rejected firmly.

Cui shook his head, picked up the pen to mark. Just as he finished filling a corner of Chang’an, he raised his eyes and said, “The city is so big that three days and nights are not enough to draw everything. Mr. Cao, what are you doing with this map? If you tell me, I can draw in detail as you need.”

Cao Poyan said, “None of your business.”

Cui Liulang extended his hands palms-up, “You ask me to fill the whole Chang’an city in four hours, and refuse to tell me what it’s for. Sorry, I can’t do it.”

Hearing his excuse, Cao Poyan came to him angrily with one step, reaching to hold his breath.

Cui Liulang hesitated but didn’t move. He knew that people of Jing’an Department were outside, and with a cry, none of these Turkic people could run away. But in that case, all the efforts before would have gone. He bet that Cao Poyan was bluffing, and he wouldn’t really do it before getting the map.

With one more trick, he could figure out what they were really up to.

Cao Poyan’ hand suddenly stopped on Cui Liulang’s neck; Cui Liulang loosened up, realizing he won the bet. Cao Poyan kept this posture, and his head suddenly tilted toward the window, as if he was listening. Cui Liulang was anxious. Did the people from Lubi Army make noise carelessly? He asked immediately, “Mr. Cao, what’s wrong?”

“Do you hear anything?” Cao Poyan pointed to the window.

Cui Liulang listened for a while, but it was dead silent outside. He shook his head vaguely, “Nothing at all.”

“You’re right. There’s nothing outside.” With a ferocious smile unique to coyote, Cao Poyan’s fingers powered up suddenly, “When we entered the house, there were many animals tied up nearby, appearing lively. But you can’t even hear a neigh now.”

On hearing this, Cui Liulang’s face suddenly clouded due to panic, and then due to suffocation.

Cui Qi waited outside, feeling even more uneasy. It was quiet in the warehouse, but somehow he didn’t feel right. As a veteran, his intuition never failed.

He stretched out the breastplate with the sword, aiming at the window of the sixth C warehouse this time. The window was so small that only shadows could be seen moving in the mirror. All of a sudden, a shadow disappeared at the window, and something heavy fell to the floor with a “plump”.