Chapter 499: Our Own People

As Shopkeeper Wu recounted his background and ordeal, the eastern sky gradually paled, and the surroundings grew bright.

By this time, Shopkeeper Wu was also slowly discovering the true face of the "mountain spirit": damn it, this was no mountain spirit — these were strange men!

The several men before him were broad-waisted and round-bellied, iron tools in hand, uniformly dressed in floral clothes, their faces smeared with crisscrossing painted stripes.

As Shopkeeper Wu saw it, with this kind of attire and painted stripes, these men were probably She-Yao people from the nearby mountains? Connecting that to their bizarre accents, the shopkeeper felt he was closing in on the truth. So he quickly said, "We did not mean to offend you mountain braves. Please spare the two of us. Once this old man returns home, there will surely be recompense!"

Unexpectedly, the leader paid no attention to that, but instead took an interest in another matter: "Old man, you said earlier that you escaped from Guaitou Wa. That means you know the ins and outs of Guaitou Wa?"

"I can't speak of ins and outs. The two of us were only caught and held there for a single day."

Shopkeeper Wu was an old hand in the Edo. Sensing something off in the other's tone, though he could not grasp the situation, he instinctively sidestepped the topic.

Hmm... The one in the lead nodded, noncommittal. Probably seeing that Shopkeeper Wu had reservations, he turned his head to look at He Biandan beside him.

By now, He Biandan, who had been knocked down by the Palm Thunder, had recovered somewhat and was struggling to control his limbs, trying to climb up from the ground.

The leader spoke then: "Bring them all back first."

Then He Biandan was pulled up by someone: "Behave. Try any more funny moves and I'll zap you again!"

As for Shopkeeper Wu, who was now completely drained and slumped sitting on the ground, he instead received good treatment: several She-Yao men chopped and trimmed branches, and in less than ten minutes fashioned a makeshift stretcher, lifting Shopkeeper Wu onto it.

The next moment, He Biandan got a kick to the backside: "Waiting for dinner? Carry your shopkeeper!"

He Biandan, stunned stupid by the electricity, now became a laborer again, transformed into a stretcher-bearer, carrying Shopkeeper Wu as he muddle-headedly followed the group's departure.

Shopkeeper Wu, meanwhile, groaned inwardly: was this a rhythm of out of the wolf's den and into the tiger's lair? Yet the two of them were now utterly powerless to resist, and could only let these She-Yao people do as they pleased. Resigning oneself to fate was probably just like this.

But once he had nothing to do, lying on the stretcher, Shopkeeper Wu gradually began to observe some unusual details.

First was the direction. Logically, this group should be heading west into the mountains, but at this moment they were moving south along the Zeng River. It had to be known that the She-Yao people, unless absolutely necessary, generally did not deal with Han people. Continuing on like this, they would probably travel all the way to where Han people gathered, so Shopkeeper Wu was a bit puzzled.

Next, the widely-traveled Shopkeeper Wu discovered even more differences: whether in dress or the various odds and ends on their persons, upon closer inspection now, this group did not look like She-Yao people, but rather like military men.

First, that air of strict military discipline — Shopkeeper Wu had, in his early years, seen it in some military camps.

Second, setting aside the shiny, bizarre objects on these strange men, just the military boots on their feet — the kind that required "shoe polish" in Guangzhou City — were something the impoverished She-Yao people could never afford to wear.

The military boots and ordinary leather boots produced by the Yizhou Workshop not only had left and right distinction and were extremely comfortable to wear, but their soles were made of thick cowhide that the Ming people could not replicate, their quality far surpassing the commonly used wooden-soled and cloth-soled shoes. The price was very high, and they were now standard gear for the wealthy. The She-Yao people were ordinarily so poor they could not even afford homespun cloth — how could they possibly have a pair of military boots per person?

Thoroughly baffled, Shopkeeper Wu wondered all the way as he traveled, faintly feeling as though there was something he himself had overlooked — until he boarded the boat.

The group, each harboring their own thoughts, had maintained a silent marching posture from the start, heading straight south along the water network. After walking for a full half-hour, suddenly, two strange men also dressed in floral clothes darted out from the roadside.

This move startled Shopkeeper Wu, who was sitting on the stretcher: he had not noticed anyone around earlier? Strange — could this floral clothing deceive the eyes?

The ambushers who had darted out silently made a few hand signals, and the group turned into a patch of reeds beside them. Then, before everyone's eyes, the view suddenly opened up: in a small water hollow, several boats were moored.

By this point, there was no need to say they had to board the boats. And just as Shopkeeper Wu got off the stretcher and was helped aboard by He Biandan, he suddenly realized who these people were — one of them took off the strange-looking cloth hat on his head, somewhat resembling a brass-basin helmet, revealing a head of short cropped hair.

Cropped hair, with the continuous expansion of Cao Jiangjun's power base, had long since become standard in the economically developed areas of Fujian and Guangdong.

At first, cropped hair arrived in Ming territory along with fleet officers and soldiers, as well as Yizhou foremen and accountants.

Later on, once the novelty wore off, people simply didn't care anymore. Further on, gradually, many people working for the Grand Commandant Cao on the construction sites voluntarily cut their hair short. After all, if they did not cut their hair, a little "soap" fee would be deducted each month when wages were paid, the reason being that long hair used more soap.

This modest fee alone made many impoverished Ming people simply shave their heads and be done with it. Thus, as time passed, now wherever there were Cao Clan industries and large construction sites, cropped hair was everywhere, and the Ming people had long grown accustomed to it. Some young people, unable to resist the temptation of the bright shop windows and color hand-painted posters of the new-style barbershops, even made special trips to the barbershop for washing, cutting, blow-drying, and pomade — this had actually become a fashion among the young attendants.

And at this moment, seeing that the other party wore cropped hair, Shopkeeper Wu's mind flashed like lightning. In an instant, he ran through all the armies he knew that wore cropped hair, and then he arrived at an answer that seemed strange but was correct: "May I ask this Vice Lord, could you be under the command of Grand Commandant Cao of Yizhou?"

The next moment, the leader, his face smeared with colored mud, showed Shopkeeper Wu a terrifying smile: "Figured it out? Old man, you're a crafty one. How did you figure it out?"

"Aiya!" Shopkeeper Wu was now all overjoyed and slapped his thigh hard: "We've met our own people! You should know, Vice Lord, the Bai Trading Company this old man works for is precisely the agent for the Yizhou Seven Miscellaneous Goods in the Zengcheng District!"

"Oh, so that means that Lao Qi of Guaitou Wa has robbed our Grand Commandant's business this time?"

Shopkeeper Wu nodded repeatedly: "Correct, correct! This old man just picked up this batch of goods from the Guangzhou general agent the day before yesterday. It's hateful that the warehouse receipt was searched and taken by those bandits, but there are still duplicate records at the Guangzhou Wharf."

"Mm, robbing our Grand Commandant's business — that is a capital crime." The painted-face leader nodded upon hearing this: "But we brothers still don't know the ins and outs of Guaitou Wa, so we can't help you get revenge, can we?"

"Of course, of course!" Shopkeeper Wu pulled over He Biandan, who was staring somewhat dumbfounded: "This old man and this brother here have both been to the bandits' den. Vice Lord, just ask away — we will not utter a single false word."

But the painted-face leader was in no hurry now: "Mm, let's move first. We'll talk slowly once we reach our destination."

Immediately after, the three-boat flotilla set sail.

After threading through the reed marshes for a while, the boats soon turned into the Zeng River and went downstream. By noon, He Biandan and Shopkeeper Wu once again saw that Blue-Gold Great Ship moored at Huangpu New Port — this time viewing it up close, because the two were brought into the naval port where the great ship was docked.