Chapter 9: Legend of the River God

If it were normal times, even if Lin Zuo had some good feelings for this young man named Tang Zheng, he wouldn't have time to chat with him. However, this time he came to Zhenjiang undercover, and he really needed to find out some news from the streets that he couldn't usually find out.

So he patiently chatted with Tang Zheng. At first, he just wanted to probe the kid's bottom to see if he really knew something or was just bragging.

Unexpectedly, after this conversation, he felt somewhat compatible. I don't know why, although the status of the two sides was vastly different and there was an age gap, the young man's speech was very much to Lin Zuo's taste. Looking at him, it was as if he saw himself ten years ago. Chatting with him made the pressure in his heart feel much smaller for no reason.

"I tell you, you can ask me anything about the water transport." Tang Zheng said, holding a chicken leg in one hand and a wine glass in the other: "If even I don't know about it, it's useless for you to ask others."

"Brother, you're something." Lin Zuo clinked glasses with Tang Zheng and said, "You just said that the Grand Canal is not peaceful recently because of the River Demon, so how did you know about the water transport corruption?"

Tang Zheng poured the wine into his mouth, then sneered: "Does that even need asking? You can guess it." The imperial court allocates funds to the water transport every year, but the grain handed over by the water transport decreases year after year, and the people below are so poor they can't even eat chaff. Where did this money and grain go?"

"So you mean someone played tricks in it?"

"Obviously." Tang Zheng poured himself more wine: "Not only that, the river bandits are elusive and can never be caught. Every time our government troops are about to move, they have already disappeared without a trace. If there is no traitor in the government to report to them, I don't believe it."

"Brother, how do you know so much?"

"This..." Tang Zheng pondered for a moment, looked around, and lowered his voice: "Tell you a secret, actually my identity is very special. I'm afraid of scaring you if I say it."

Lin Zuo's eyes lit up: "Oh? You are..."

Tang Zheng smiled and was about to answer, but the whole ship shook violently, as if it had been hit by a giant object, and a large splash of water splashed on the side of the ship.

And Tang Zheng was sitting by the railing. If he hadn't reacted fast enough to grab the railing, he would have flipped out.

At the same time, the people in the cabin were in a mess, the cups and dishes on the table were scattered all over the floor, and someone at the bow shouted loudly: "The River God is manifesting!"

"River God?" Lin Zuo stood up abruptly and looked toward the bow.

He had also learned about the situation in Zhenjiang Prefecture when he came this time. It is said that in recent years, a "River God" with great magical powers has appeared around Zhenjiang Prefecture, claiming that following him will bring good weather and national peace, while going against him will bring floods and people's misery.

At first, the people didn't believe it, but soon after, ship sinking incidents began to occur frequently in the river channels near Zhenjiang Prefecture. According to the crew on those ships, it was the River God who drove water monsters to overturn the ships to punish those who were disrespectful to the River God.

Some people even swore that they saw those monsters shaped like dragons and snakes, which could easily swallow living people, were covered in scales, were immune to blades and guns, and could summon wind and rain, driving water and fire.

Such news spread from ten to one hundred, and soon spread around Zhenjiang Prefecture. Some so-called River God believers also appeared at this time, starting to incite the people in an organized way, calling on them to worship the River God at regular intervals.

The rules they set for worshipping the River God were very strange. They didn't use melons, fruits, or livestock as offerings, but real silver money. They also registered the amount of silver money worshipped by the people, and publicized that the more silver money worshipped, the more pious they were to the River God, and the more pious they were to the River God, the more they could get the River God's protection.

Originally, people were still skeptical at this time, but the river channel ship sinking incidents began to intensify. At first, there were two or three cases a month, then four or five, and later nearly ten cases a month. And it is said that the sunken ships all had crew members who didn't believe in the River God before. So a fanatical and blind trend began to permeate Zhenjiang Prefecture.

Those believers would set up altars and perform rituals at the Xijindu ferry every month, attracting a large number of people to worship the River God. Even the government didn't dare to dissuade them for fear of inciting public anger.

Such a practice made Lin Zuo smell a trace of unusual flavor. His experience and intuition as an Embroidered Uniform Guard for these years made him feel that this inexplicable River God and the Zhenjiang Prefecture water transport corruption and river bandit rampant cases should have a thousand threads of connection.

He leaned his body out of the railing and looked down. There were indeed several black shadows swimming rapidly in the river water. The estimated body length was about one meter. Occasionally, the black smooth skin could be seen on the back that surfaced, without scales, but with stripes of different colors, looking very strange.

Lin Zuo thought about it carefully in his mind, but couldn't think of any fish or aquatic animals that looked like this.

People, after all, are afraid of things they don't understand. No wonder the people believed in the legend that the River God could drive water monsters.

He saw those black shadows circling the large ship a few times, sometimes diving into the water, sometimes half-surfacing, accompanied by continuous thumping sounds, as if something was hitting the ship.

Some people on the ship were already scared silly, and some had already knelt down, kowtowing toward the direction of those black shadows, praying incessantly.

And just then, a figure holding a large blade separated the crowd and walked toward the bow, saying something loudly while walking.

Lin Zuo followed the sound and found that the person was the Grain Transport Supervisor Commander of Zhenjiang Prefecture, Su Shanhe, who was in the cabin earlier. I don't know why, but his face always gave Lin Zuo a feeling of familiarity.

He heard Su Shanhe shout loudly: "What are you worshipping? Get up, all the River God legends are lies."

And someone immediately retorted: "Nonsense, if you don't believe in the River God, you will be punished. If you want to die, don't implicate us."

"Humph, implicate you?" Su Shanhe sneered: "Alright, I will prove it to you today, let you know what the truth is."

Before the words fell, he leaped and jumped into the surging river water below with his blade.

A burst of exclamations rang out all around, and just then, the whole ship shook violently, and a muddy wave several meters high surged on one side of the ship. The muddy river water mixed with mud and sand fell like raindrops, as if an explosion had just occurred under the water.

Immediately after, a shrill exclamation came from the cabin: "The bottom of the ship is leaking, the ship is going to sink!"

The originally chaotic situation became even more unbearable. There was a curse on the ship, all scolding Su Shanhe for being disrespectful to the River God, and now everyone was in trouble.

And just in the midst of the cursing, Lin Zuo keenly captured a "plop" sound, like something falling into the water.

He turned his head and saw that Tang Zheng, who was originally sitting by the railing, had disappeared. He stretched his head out of the railing and looked down, and saw Tang Zheng struggling in the river water, waving his hands, shouting intermittently: "Save... save me, I can't... can't swim."

"Sigh," Lin Zuo sighed softly. He originally wanted to wait and see, but now... he couldn't just watch Tang Zheng drown.

The next moment, he carried the black oil-paper umbrella on his back and jumped into the icy river water. ===== CHAPTER 10 =====