Sunlight poured onto the river’s surface, creating glinting waves.
Sailboats dotted the river, and trees cast cool shades next to Parrot Island.
Under a robust, old willow tree, a white-haired elder sat cross-legged. His clothes were tattered, and his fish drum was worn. Tapping it gently and slowly, he sang in a prolonged tune:
"By the banks of the Miluo River, the loyal souls linger on. The na of Qu Yuan is praised through the ages. He composed poetry with a heavy heart, full of concern for the chaos befalling the court. To awake alone in the Human World is a difficult path. In life, he stood firm; in death, the sa..."
The elder spoke in the Mianyang dialect, and his song, "Lant for Qu Yuan," was full of desolation and sorrow. Unfortunately, passersby were in a hurry, only occasionally tossing a copper coin his way.
This place was already the Han Yang Wharf.
Fishing boats drifted on the river, accompanied by ancient fishing songs, as the fishern cast their large nets. There were also passenger boats whose boatn called out rhythmically as they slowly approached the shore.
The dock bustled with people coming and going.
Porters, bare-chested, hurried about with large loads on their shoulders.
Surrounding the area were tea stalls for resting, fishmongers selling fish, and itinerant perforrs from the pugilistic world, trying their best to earn a al.
In the crowd, there was a man with dragon and tiger tattoos, his neck plastered with plasters, and a face full of horizontal flesh. His open collar revealed chest hair, and he walked with an air of defiance in his Four-direction Steps.
The commoners along the way hurried to show their respect and make way.
This tough guy didn’t bother to respond, heading to a tea stall and pouring himself tea after sitting down. He then took out his large pipe from behind him, filling it with dry tobacco.
Before he could take a light, several scrawny young n ca over, their faces eager to please, lighting a Flint for him.
The man didn’t even look up, puffing out clouds of smoke. After finishing his bag of tobacco and taking a few sips of tea, he finally spoke indifferently,
"Go on and report."
Several young n hurriedly crowded forward to update him:
"Reporting to the Hall Master, subordinates just saw the head of the Pai Sect boats arrive. He was accompanied by an old man, unremarkable in appearance, but the head of the boats treated him with great respect..."
"The Captain Bureau’s n set an ambush this morning at the dock, catching a traveling rchant. It’s said he was disguised by the County Magistrate..."
"Just now, so new faces ca by, speaking with a Yu State accent. They looked fierce and flashed knives at us, probably figures from the Green Forest Road..."
"This morning, we also spotted several burly monks..."
The young n ticulously recounted everything that had occurred at the docks from morning till noon.
The man was nad Yue Xing, the Hall Master of the White Jiao Gang in Han Yang City.
This White Jiao Gang was a local gang with considerable influence, renowned from the governnt office down to the peddlers and porters, well known to everyone.
In terms of status, it was no less than the Fire Bear Gang in Chang’an City.
However, unlike the Fire Bear Gang, the White Jiao Gang operated with a bit more principle, avoiding causing widespread public grievances while navigating smoothly between various powers, having existed for decades.
After all, Han Yang was a place where dragons and snakes mingled, a nexus between south and north, where the Three Religions and Nine Sects converged, and fierce individuals from across the river were nurous.
If one was not careful, one might get exterminated.
The existence of the White Jiao Gang in Han Yang for so many years was due to their capabilities. Not to ntion anything else, just their Eye Power alone was not to be underestimated.
The gang’s Hall Masters patrolled their territory daily, gathering information from the lookouts, and then shared it with each other.
It was a rule set by the old gang leader, unchanged for decades.
Sotis, their information was even more accurate than that of inns in the pugilistic world that specialized in selling intelligence.
Countless tis, it had helped the White Jiao Gang survive calamities.
As for Yue Xing himself, though he appeared like a ruffian with tattoos of dragons and tigers, he was a man who had erged from a world of blades and bloodshed, having already stepped into the realm of Hidden Energy.
After listening to his subordinates’ reports, Yue Xing said indifferently, "With the conflict erupting in the Southwest, the pugilistic world is also in turmoil."
"So folks from the pugilistic world in Xiangxi have frequent dealings with the Tusi City in Miaojiang, and they’ve been causing trouble everywhere recently, trying to stir up the situation."
"The gang leader said, although we don’t live off the court’s provisions, we are still subjects of the Great Xuan Dynasty. If those people cause trouble, it could inadvertently implicate us."
"Keep a close watch, report imdiately if anything is amiss!"
"Yes, Hall Master!"
The subordinates quickly bowed and acknowledged.
Their activities also caught the attention of others in the distance.
The dock has always been a place of conflict. There were more than one power gathering information here.
The White Jiao Gang’s actions were also a strategy.
To make everything clear, so all sorts of forces know that Han Yang City respects the rules of the pugilistic world and you can’t ss around.
Secondly, it was to absolve themselves of responsibility. With the myriad of covert tactics in the Jianghu, should trouble arise, the court would be told they did their best.
Seeing his subordinates perform their duties with dedication, Yue Xing nodded in satisfaction.
He was about to get up when he inadvertently glanced at the river and his pupils shrank. He then slowly sat back down, lit a new bag of tobacco, and instructed in a low voice, "A Fire Point has arrived, keep an eye on who they’re following."
The disciples of the White Jiao Gang hurriedly looked up.
A multitude of boats were coming and going on the river, but one particular boat stood out. It was large, with a several-story cabin atop a "tower ship".
Though the White Jiao Gang was a local powerhouse, it didn’t make a living off the river. But being in a dockside city, they could tell at a glance what kind of boat each one was.
On the Yangtze River, the most common were "Sand Ships", with flat bottoms that allowed them to rest on sandbars without getting stranded, safer in the waves.
Given their nurous advantages, they had beco widely used, varying in size and design, serving different purposes from transporting people to goods.
Beyond that, there were the "Cao Fang" used by the Cao Gang of the canals, the "rowboats" used by the Pai Sect, and the "Kesson Boats" the governnt used to transport tax silver.
As for "tower ships", they were relatively rare.
They were costly to build and could even be requisitioned during warti to be used as warships—a testimony to their exceptionality.
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