Undercover - In China - Book 7

Part 37 - Open the Gate

A few ragged children started running about holding their noses and more people arrived to watch the fun. Curious residents joined the debate from a safe distance. 

 Licia laughed. 'They are shouting, "Open the gate . . . Let him out of here . . . It stinks".'

 A guard called down from the top of the gate tower and Wang Bang disappeared inside and soon afterward reappeared at the top of the wall. 

 'There are some of Cho Cho's cavalry's outside,' Licia reported. 'They want to come in.'

The gate guards wound rags around their faces, to mask the stench of sewage, and busied themselves opening the massive wooden gates. Word spread like wild fire and people appeared from every alley and doorway each pushing to get out of the city. 

 On the bridge over the moat another mob had squeezed around the cavalry horses. As soon as the gate was open one group tried to get in, and the other out. The ox cart barely made it on to the bridge before it was forced to stop, jammed between opposing mobs. People struggled past each other in opposite directions, everyone holding their noses. The old man on the cart was shouting at the cavalry to get out of the way.

Wang Bang ran down the gate tower steps so quickly he fell. He picked himself up and pushed through the gates shouting.

We were stuck in the crowd near the cart and Licia was giggling and trying not to breath. 'Wang Bang told them to close the gates but they can't. There are too many people holding them open.'

'Ziff, keep your head down,' Miguel hissed as Wang Bang fought his way through the crowd around the cart. Wang Bang kept screaming orders until, finally, the cavalry backed up their horses to make room for the cart but then the confused ox would not move. Wang Bang turned back and flogged the ox's flank with his bamboo rod. The ox flinched, turned her head to look at her tormentor with one eye and jerked the heavy cart forward. One of the urns rocked and a wave of human waste slopped over the side and splashed onto Wang Bang. People nearby roared with laughter but Wang Bang was incoherent with rage as he climbed onto the cart, obviously intending to hit the old man. His grapnel hook caught on the edge of one of the urns and he only just prevented total disaster. 

 He looked at his audience, now laughing in anticipation, and jumped down intending to attack one of his tormentors but he slipped off the edge of the bridge. Fortunately, his grapnel hooked on the bridge rail and we left him dangling just below the edge bellowing for help, up to his hips in the smelly moat. The ox plodded past the cavalry and on toward to the river. There she stopped to drink as the old man jumped down with surprising agility. He pulled off his outer rags and washed the grime from his hands and face, revealing Kongming. 

 He spoke to Licia who relayed his remarks. 'Why did I listen to your tofu brain idea! That stink! I threw up twice. Once over that idiot Wang Bang.'

'Sor-ry,' I told him as Licia translated. 'But congratulations, that was a great job of acting.' 

 Chen Ling and her uncle caught up with us and gave the patient ox an affectionate pat on the neck. Kongming laughed and said something which Licia translated. 

 'Congratulations to Xia-Dian for the idea. I confess I didn't think it would work. That awful stink! I almost lost consciousness.'

'He hasn't smelled our skunk juice,' Licia giggled, 'I hope the rest of this adventure isn't going to be as stinky . . . Chen Ling says as soon as we she sells the sh . . . fertilizer she is going to visit her grandfather in Jiangling. She invited us to visit if we go there.'

Chen Ling gave Licia directions to find her grandfather's house and then we all gave her a goodbye hug. I didn't think we would ever meet her again.

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