It was early summer. As the morning sun rose, the thin mist shrouding Eastern Capital City gradually dispersed, revealing the face of what might have been the largest metropolis in this world.
North Mang Mountain lay to the city's north. An extravagantly magnificent palace complex stood with its back against the mountain, separated from the great river by its slopes, and was called Ziwe Palace. Between North Mang Mountain and the Luo River lay not only the palace complex but also more than fifty market wards east of Ziwei Palace, together constituting Luoyang County. The flatlands south of the Luo River held over ninety more wards, constituting Henan County. Together, they formed the main body of the city.
Beyond these, seven or eight smaller towns serving specific functions surrounded the city. To its west, countless artificial lakes and canals had been dug, forming the vast Western Park as well as a natural defensive water system.
It was precisely because of Western Park and the Luo River running through the city that the increasingly hot Eastern Capital City was wreathed in thin mist every morning.
Zhang Xing had been in the Eastern Capital for ten days. Unlike Qin Bao, who had joined the Brocade-clad Patrol Cavalry of the Jing'an Directorate's Central Pacification Office immediately upon arrival, this damned soldier had spent his first three days lodging at the Marquis of Ji'an's Estate in Tongtuo Ward, north of the Luo River. Only on the fourth day had he moved to Xiūyè Ward, rented a small courtyard for himself, and become a capital street-patrol soldier under the Jing'an Directorate's Eastern Pacification Office.
One of the so-called Street-Cleaning Tigers.
The authorities paid his rent, so once the matter had been passed to the ward clerk at the ward's north gate, he had simply rented the side courtyard of that clerk's home. And because the little courtyard stood right beside the ward gate, the commotion outside it had awakened Zhang Xing almost every misty morning for the past seven days. He would then get up, eat at the clerk's breakfast stall, and return to read. In this way, he had actually developed the good habit of going to bed early and rising early.
Generally, once the mist dispersed, passage through the ward cleared, and the streets gradually grew lively, his fellow Street-Cleaning Tigers from the Eastern Pacification Office would come looking for him.
That day was no exception.
"Commandant Zhang! Is Commandant Zhang in? Time to patrol the streets. Your two companions are already waiting outside the ward gate." Brother Liu, the ward clerk, called out right on time.
Dressed in the regulation close-fitting cloth uniform, Zhang Xing made no reply. He merely put away the book he had borrowed from the Marquis of Ji'an's Estate in a box beside him, casually tied on a forehead band, and picked up a curved saber in an embroidered scabbard. Then he rose, opened the courtyard gate, and, standing on the threshold with saber in hand, saluted the man who had knocked and thanked him:
"Thank you for the trouble, Ward Chief Liu. I'm all ready here. I'll head out now."
One additional word: a ward gate clerk's principal duty was to open and close the ward gate, possibly doubling as the caller who announced dawn and dusk on the street outside... In plain terms, he was an unranked clerk at the very bottom. "Ward chief" was merely a genteel popular title.
Zhang Xing's "commandant" was much the same. He was no genuine military officer, but a soldier of the regular establishment at the lowest level of the Eastern Pacification Office's division specifically responsible for the capital's streets and wards, under the Jing'an Directorate. People commonly called them commandants or strongmen simply because it sounded impressive.
Returning to the present, Ward Chief Liu, who was about fifty, seemed to have expected Zhang Xing to be so brisk and ready. Even so, before Zhang Xing shut the gate, he poked his head into the courtyard. "Reading first thing in the morning again?"
"Yes. Nothing else to do, so I might as well read." Zhang Xing turned to shut the gate and answered casually.
"If you're not cultivating and practicing martial arts, you're reading and practicing your writing. Not a moment idle... It's rare to see a young man like you so eager to improve." As they walked toward the ward gate outside, Brother Liu could not help voicing his feelings along the way. "With ambition like that, you're bound to make something great of yourself in the Eastern Capital."
"Eastern Capital City is big, and it's at the emperor's feet. Making a living here has never been easy." Zhang Xing, fastening the saber at his waist, was quite frank. "I'm not hoping to make anything great of myself. Reading and cultivating just happen to be what interest me. Besides, I've nowhere to go for pleasure."
He meant every word, but Ward Chief Liu naturally did not believe him.
They exchanged a few more casual remarks and reached the main courtyard gate outside, where they met a girl of fourteen or fifteen in a pale yellow blouse coming down with bamboo steaming trays from the breakfast stall in her arms. Zhang Xing naturally stepped aside a little, while Brother Liu's eyes visibly softened... For no other reason than that she was the ward gate clerk's youngest daughter... Once the girl had passed with her face flushed and her head lowered, Zhang Xing walked straight ahead. Sure enough, his two colleagues were already waiting inside the ward gate, an older man surnamed Wang and a younger one surnamed Zhao. Each was holding and eating a free bun from Ward Chief Liu's stall. Seeing Zhang Xing emerge, they swallowed their buns and waved to him together.
Zhang Xing went over, exchanged a few words with them, and, after they each shared a laugh, the three set off on patrol.
This so-called patrol amounted to no more than walking twice back and forth along the cross-shaped streets between the four symmetrically arranged wards of Xiuwen Ward, Xiūyè Ward, Shangshan Ward, and Jingshan Ward, making a show of maintaining order. At noon, they could disperse, go home, and spend the afternoon at leisure. Then they would gather again at dusk and meet a genuine Principal Seventh Rank Brocade-Clad Chief Banner Officer on the bridge at the end of the street to report and hand over.
The work was extremely leisurely, and Zhang Xing liked it very much. He had spent the past seven days doing just that.
This time, however, when the three reached the intersection at noon as usual and Zhang Xing was about to return to his reading, the other two walked ahead without a word, turned north, and then rounded onto the half-length Water Street on the Luo River's southern bank.
The Luo River crossed the Eastern Capital. The capital's supplies, the offerings of soldiers and civilians from every province in the realm, and bulk goods from north, south, east, and west all entered along this waterway, with countless warehouses and wharves. Its traffic was astonishingly prosperous, and it could also be considered a vital point close to the throne. Thus, the palace's Northern Office-the eunuchs-the Jing'an Directorate, the palace imperial guards, and the Southern Office's administrators all had dedicated, properly appointed officials liaising with it or directly overseeing it.
For precisely this reason, although Zhang Xing had known over the preceding days that this prosperous half-length Water Street lay alongside Shangshan Ward and Jingshan Ward, he had always assumed it fell outside his duties.
Now, it seemed there was another story.
"Brother Zhang, we won't hide it from you."
After they had walked a hundred-odd paces along the busy street beneath the Luo River's Golden Embankment, the somewhat younger "Commandant" Zhao saw that Zhang Xing still had not said a word. Admiring this, he nevertheless could not help speaking first. "Your transfer came too suddenly. It was practically forced through from above, and we couldn't find out the slightest thing about your background. So Banner Chief Feng and the rest of us didn't dare readily accept you. He only had us two take you patrolling Crossroads Street, and we didn't dare bring you over to Water Street. Don't hold it against us brothers."
Zhang Xing smiled. "That's only reasonable. How could I hold it against you two?"
"That's good." The "Commandant" Wang, a few years older, nodded as well. "Besides, bringing you here today means everyone from the banner chief down, including us two, thinks you're a sound man and has decided to accept you as a brother... We're going to Banner Commander Feng's place now to sit awhile and talk about where you came from and how we brothers usually go about things."
"I'll leave it all to you two." Zhang Xing remained entirely unruffled.
They walked on a few more steps. Then Old Wang suddenly stopped and pointed ahead at a tavern that projected out over the wall of Jingshan Ward, a flag hanging outside, and briefly introduced it:
"That place belongs to our Banner Commander Feng himself. His wife sells the wine at the counter, and everyone usually gathers there. We've never had to stand on ceremony... The banner chief and the other brothers are all waiting... But, Brother Zhang, is there anything you'd like to ask before we go in? We've been walking these routes with you for six or seven days, so we're a little closer to you. Don't hesitate."
Zhang Xing nodded, thought a moment, and promptly asked, "Our Banner Chief Feng is a proper Seventh Rank Chief Banner Officer in charge of four wards, quite a formidable figure on these streets. Does he have a nickname? If there's no objection, could you tell me about it?"
The two "commandants" exchanged a look. Young Xiao Zhao seemed a little anxious, but the older Old Wang smiled and answered, "To be frank, Brother Zhang—and there's nothing to hide—our banner chief did indeed once have a nickname. In earlier years, I heard some old men from the nearby gangs call him something like Molasses Iron Hand... 'Molasses' as in muddy, thick sugar, and 'iron' as in steel... It probably had something to do with the Chief Banner Officer having been in the sugar trade years ago. What exactly it meant, I couldn't say."
Zhang Xing raised an eyebrow, finding this interesting, and his expression grew unusually animated.
With that, the three said no more and entered the tavern by the wooden stairs descending from the ward wall.
It was afternoon. Though the tavern could not be called boisterous and bustling, nearly every seat was occupied: a whole other world within. Unlike elsewhere, however, the laughter and conversation did not falter in the slightest at the entrance of three Jing'an Directorate "commandants" wearing forehead bands and embroidered saber scabbards. Clearly, everyone knew whose property this was.
Or rather, they came here to discuss business, eat, and drink precisely because they knew whose property it was.
"Xiao Yu."
The young "Commandant" Zhao called from a distance to a young maid serving wine. "Is the banner chief upstairs?"
"What a damned question!" The young maid turned and swore, showing seven parts beauty, one part soft bosom, and another two parts sweat. "Where else would he be? If you've got time to flirt with me, you might as well help me work!"
Xiao Zhao took no offense at being scolded. Instead, he laughed and went over to linger and banter with her. Old Wang paid him no mind either. Walking farther inside, he cupped his hands to a graceful middle-aged woman behind the counter. "Sister-in-law, if you keep working Xiao Yu this hard, poor Xiao Zhao's heart will break."
"Then let Xiao Zhao buy her freedom... I spent thirty strings of cash buying Xiao Yu from a human broker back then. Now that she's grown into this, she's worth at least a hundred. Even at that price, you won't find another for sale. The whole shop depends on her, after all. Still, Xiao Zhao is one of our own brothers. If he really comes to buy her freedom, fifty strings will do..."
The woman raised her head. Though her words concerned Xiao Zhao, her oddly colored eyes rippled alluringly-whether she had ancestry from some other people or the lingering blood of the witch and demon races described in books was unclear-and fixed directly on the newly arrived Zhang Xing.
"This must be our new Brother Zhang? With that build, you look like a front-rank soldier from the Upper Five Armies."
"You have a good eye, sister-in-law." Smiling, Zhang Xing tucked his saber under his arm and cupped his hands.
The woman, still attractive in middle age, was just about to smile and say something else when both she and the older commandant beside him suddenly froze. A moment later, she hurriedly pointed upstairs. "Go right up. I'll send you good wine and good food."
Zhang Xing nodded and went straight upstairs. Old Wang turned and called to Xiao Zhao, who was bantering with the maid, then hurried after him.
Upstairs, sure enough, the bearded Banner Commander Feng and two squad leaders, along with seven or eight "commandants," were waiting, seated in sprawling confidence in the largest room straight ahead.
Anyone who knew would naturally recognize these as soldiers of the Jing'an Directorate's Eastern Pacification Office, specifically responsible for public order in the capital. Anyone who did not might have taken the place for some street gang's hall.
Of course, there was probably little real difference.
Zhang Xing did not stand on ceremony. He simply cupped his hands in a proper greeting as before and addressed him:
"Banner chief."
"What banner chief?" The banner commander surnamed Feng, only in his forties and reportedly nicknamed Sugar-Wrapping Hand, smiled slightly and stepped forward to raise him from his bow. None of his coldness of the previous few days remained; instead, he seemed amiable. "Unless some opportunity comes along, I'll never rise any higher in this lifetime. I've never cared about that title. I'm just scraping a living on these streets. Just call me elder brother... But you're so young, Zhang, and I hear you spend all day with a book in your hands. You may well have a great future ahead."
Zhang Xing shook his head repeatedly, still earnest. "I'm just a little too curious and find reading interesting. I have no other hopes... You must find it laughable, banner chief."
"Not at all." Banner Commander Feng waved a hand slightly, pointed to three seats left vacant, then sat back down himself and came straight to the point. "Old Wang and Xiao Qian both say you're a sound man. But there's something we can't put our minds at ease about unless we ask you plainly... Zhang, what did you do before?"
"I was a regular soldier in the Central Rampart Army." Zhang Xing did not hesitate at all, nor did he show any intention of concealing anything.
"Judging by your conduct, we all guessed you came from the army." From Banner Commander Feng down, almost everyone's expression changed, except Old Wang, who had already learned this downstairs. There was a pause before the reply came. "But we didn't expect the Upper Five Armies... Zhang, let me ask you again, carefully: aren't the Upper Five Armies still fighting the Dongyi in the Eastern Territories?"
"You brothers all understand the situation. I imagine you've guessed." Neither hurried nor slow, Zhang Xing answered with a mixture of truth and falsehood. "Yang Shen rebelled and cut off the army's grain. The forces at the front suffered a crushing defeat long ago... Here in the capital, it's hard to tell whether the court is deliberately suppressing the news or the defeat was so terrible and complete that word simply hasn't reached here yet. In any case, as far as I know, the Upper Five Armies are basically all gone. On my way back alone, I happened upon a squad of Brocade-clad Patrol Cavalry. One of them was a Black Sash who handled things fairly enough. He wrote me a document so I could return and seek a placement from the Jing'an Directorate... But only after reaching the capital did I discover that all my old connections had been in the army, and every one of them had vanished without word, like stones sinking into the sea. Though I'd returned to familiar ground, it was as if I'd arrived somewhere new. All I could do was shut myself indoors and read every day."
The noise downstairs continued, but upstairs, silence fell for a time.
After a long while, Banner Commander Feng finally gave a bitter laugh. "Actually, as people in official service, we always hear a little more news than ordinary folk. After that business with Yang Shen, anyone could guess the front would suffer a defeat, and a great one at that. But we never imagined it would be this bad-so bad that only scattered individuals escaped back, so bad that scarcely anyone dares speak of defeat... And now that two hundred thousand elite troops are gone, the Dongyi are certain to raid the coast again. The news will slowly spread sooner or later. Add to that the ruin Yang Shen made of the Central Plains, and the Eastern Capital is bound to face a heaven-shaking storm sooner or later. Every household of ours must be ready."
At first, these words seemed addressed to Zhang Xing, but by the end they seemed meant for everyone. Several of those in the room nodded.
"But whatever happens, Zhang's background is more or less what we guessed, so we can set our minds at ease." Banner Commander Feng collected himself and continued with a sigh. "From now on, give him a share of the usual Water Street proceeds... He's only just arrived, and he's crawled out of a heap of corpses, too. There's no need to rush to burden him with troublesome affairs. Take it slowly... And you needn't make a special trip to report in the evenings anymore. Just come here to enjoy yourself when you're free."
Without waiting for Zhang Xing to thank him, Banner Commander Feng rose, passed everyone, and went out. They hurriedly stood to see him off, but he waved them back. They sat a while, and Banner Commander Feng still did not return. Instead, wine and dishes of meat and vegetables arrived in succession. Apparently accustomed to this, they simply ate and drank with the door open.
Yet, having mentioned that the situation was about to take a terrible turn, they did not steer the conversation back to Zhang Xing, who ought to have been the center of attention. Instead, they discussed rising rice and flour prices, the criminal proceedings concerning Yang Shen, Dongyi raids on the coast, and even the routine political disputes between Daxing-Chang'an in the Western Capital and Luoyang-Henan in the Eastern Capital.
Of course, someone occasionally mentioned a little Water Street "business." It was essentially the same sort of thing gangs did, even including word of disputes with other gangs.
Zhang Xing was quite happy to listen.
Once everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, he calmly took his leave and returned alone that afternoon to the gate of Xiūyè Ward. There, however, a procession of carriages and ceremonial attendants of exceptionally high rank blocked his way, and he paused briefly outside the gate.
PS: Thanks to our new alliance leader, Master Xue Luofeng, this book's twenty-seventh alliance leader and a longtime reader.
. You are provided with the great author Water-Fearing Grenade's Exorcising the Dragon: Zhang Xing and Bai Yousi.
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