Chapter 934: Porters and Strongmen Tread the Path

The Sanchahe He Kou is a vital transportation hub. As the saying goes, it connects the north and south, all tied to the Grand Canal, and the most critical point of the Grand Canal is this very Sanchahe He Kou.

Many river channels meet here: the Southern Canal coming from the south, the Northern Canal heading north to the capital, the Ziya River connecting the Hu and Fu waters and linking Hebei and Shanxi, and the Haihe, where nine rivers converge and pour into the Bohai Sea!

So-called: three floating bridges and two passes.

The first floating bridge, the Chaoguan Floating Bridge, is set upon the Southern Canal.

This bridge connects to Hebei Main Street in the north. Exiting from the northeast corner of the old city, one finds the Chaoguan Floating Bridge. Crossing the floating bridge and following Hebei Main Street, one arrives at the location of the eighteen martial arts halls once suppressed by Qian Chen's two talismans.

After crossing the Chaoguan Floating Bridge, one reaches the Sanchahe He Kou.

Three rivers converge here in a 'T' shape. To the west of the 'T' junction is the Southern Canal coming from the south; the longest vertical stroke of the 'T' is the Haihe, which leads directly to the Bohai Sea.

At the Sanchahe He Kou, the corner where the Southern Canal and the Haihe meet is the location of the Tianhou Palace.

Further down, as the Haihe flows south into the Bohai Sea, passing the East City Gate, the second pass and second bridge—the Yanguan Floating Bridge—is crossed upon leaving the city.

It locks the Haihe channel leading from Dagukou to the Sanchahe He Kou.

To the east of the 'T' junction lies a river segment where the Northern Canal and the Ziya River converge.

This stretch of river makes a bend at Lion Grove and heads north, forming another 'T' junction at Yaowa. This time, to the east of the 'T' is the Jin Zhong River, and to the west is the Northern Canal.

The Northern Canal makes another bend at Yaowa, and on this bend lies the final floating bridge—the Yaowa Floating Bridge, later rebuilt as the Jin Gang Bridge.

The three bends enclose an islet surrounded by water on three sides, which is the most prosperous area of Dagukou: Lion Grove. Cutting through Lion Grove and connecting the Yaowa Floating Bridge and the Chaoguan Floating Bridge is Hebei Main Street!

North of Jin Gang Bridge, the Northern Canal and the Ziya River part ways again, with the three rivers converging to form a Y-shaped estuary.

Thus, the three floating bridges perfectly lock the Northern and Southern Canals and the Haihe leading to the outer oceans.

Surrounding Lion Grove, they form a land of 'Golden Locks and Jade Passes' that is extremely prosperous and gathers the Qi of all directions. Ever since the ancestor Chen Chuan dispatched disciples to build the Tianhou Palace and laid out the general layout of the Sanchahe He Kou beneath Lion Grove...

Countless masters of earth, heavenly masters, and feng shui experts from every dynasty have come to Zhigu to see this place.

Nine rivers flow down to Dagukou, with three floating bridges and two passes.

This is what locks the Qi of most of the north right here!

The three floating bridges lock the Qi mechanisms arriving from the north, south, and outer oceans via the canal port waterways, firmly securing them at the Sanchahe He Kou.

This created the overwhelming Qi and prosperity of Zhigu, a grand occasion where people of all walks of life mingle, and using this second-largest city in the north and its primary transportation hub as a seal, it firmly suppresses that thing beneath the Tianhou Palace!

That day, Qian Chen ascended the Wanghai Tower precisely to see clearly the three locks of the Golden Lock and Jade Pass and to calculate the seal on that thing.

The reason the Bai Lian Sect saint brought about the great drought in Shandong and led hundreds of thousands of wronged souls here was also to strike and cut off the Chaoguan Floating Bridge on the Southern Canal, opening the first lock!

As the sun set, the Sanchahe He Kou was the most prosperous place in Zhigu, and at this moment, the Chaoguan Floating Bridge was still teeming with crowds.

Even if countless people had died on it, what of it?

If the common folk didn't take this path, they would have to take the Yanguan Floating Bridge, then detour back to Lion Grove via the Yaowa Floating Bridge, walking ten more miles and crossing two or three more floating bridges.

Everyone is just trying to make a living; every day they open their eyes, they owe a day's worth of food money.

If they don't run into an evil ghost, they run into a poverty ghost.

No matter how terrifying the rumors are, they aren't as real as an empty stomach!

At this moment, both banks of the canal were even more bustling. On both sides of the river stood sailors and boatmen from the Boatmen's Guild, and the roads were filled with porters, thugs, and martial artists. People of all walks of life in Dagukou had come, and they had even set up high platforms on both sides of the river.

A group of monks and Daoist priests in ritual robes were up there performing shamanic dances and walking the Yu steps.

If one were to ask what Dagukou had the most of, it would certainly be porters!

In this major northern town, at least over a hundred thousand young men made their living specifically in this trade.

From the loading and unloading of canal boats from the Northern and Southern Canals and outer ports to the transport of local business; from the mule and horse roads leading to the capital to the merchants from Hebei and Shanxi, none could do without them.

The poorest men, with a sweat towel draped over their heads, a belt tied around their waists, and a pair of ragged trousers, would go shirtless or wear short jackets, relying on a pair of bare, iron-soled feet to carry cargo on the docks!

Those slightly better off, also barefoot, would carry a shoulder pole and handle short-distance transport in and out of the city.

Those with a bit of family wealth would pull rickshaws—carriages from overseas with large iron and rubber wheels—capable of moving like the wind whether pulling people or cargo.

And the wealthiest among them would lead camel caravans and horse teams, driving donkey and mule carts, coming and going endlessly from the capital to Dagukou.

At this moment, most of the porters in Zhigu had come to the Sanchahe He Kou.

Come to think of it, the thugs could only control a few thousand porters; most pulled rickshaws, a small portion worked in mule and horse firms, or ran carriage shops, open gambling dens, secret brothels, and opium dens—all added up to only a few thousand people...

But the sailors, laborers, and porters who relied on the two major Boatmen's Guilds for a living numbered nearly tens of thousands!

Others included the fishing trade, outer ports, and foreign merchant associations—all told, there were a hundred thousand young men.

At this moment, there were about that many people surrounding the Sanchahe He Kou area. The nervous imperial court had dispatched the River Patrol Battalion and the Constabulary Battalion to maintain order, the garrison in the military city had also left the city, and even a Beiyang fleet was staying outside Tianjin Port!

It was truly because these hundred thousand-plus young laborers relied on the two canals and one port to make a living.

The Red Mansion Ghost Ship and the Yin soldiers borrowing the path to strike the Sanchahe He Kou were meant to cut off the livelihood of these hundred thousand people.

To put it bluntly, with this many people, it would be enough to start a rebellion!

If the Sanchahe He Kou were truly cut off, and they lost their livelihood for ten days or half a month, and then someone with ulterior motives were to raise a cry, the capital was less than a hundred miles away; changing the dynasty would be a matter of the blink of an eye.

In fact, because the Red Mansion Ghost Ship had the shadow of the Bai Lian Sect behind it.

Many high-ranking officials in the imperial court felt that there must be such a scheme behind this turn of events.

Accompanied by the sound of a steam whistle, a small steamship with white smoke billowing from its steam engine traveled upstream from the Haihe, sailing all the way to the side of the Chaoguan Floating Bridge. Dozens of small boats followed the command of the large ships of the Boatmen's Guild in the middle of the river, with flags of various colors waving, gradually lining up in a row.

On the steamship, several foreign men with high noses and deep eyes used a crane to lift an anchor chain from the deck.

It was as thick as a person's embrace, heavy and dull, the black iron chain gleaming with a cold, chilling light!

The foreign sailors on the deck used all their strength to hang the four anchor chains dismantled from the ocean-going ship on both sides of the hull.

"Drummond!" Beneath the northeast corner of the city, a big-nosed foreigner wearing a Camelot gentleman's tailcoat and a bow tie lowered his monocular telescope and said to a blue-eyed foreigner in a long robe beside him: "Why are you helping these East Continent people? I heard about their 'duel' today; it's too absurd! By holding back a ghost ship, they think they can save their canal transport?"

"What they should really be doing is inviting us to partner in establishing a company to help them manage and dredge this long, magnificent canal!"

A trace of greed flashed in the eyes of the big-nosed foreigner, Kadoorie.

The lawyer Drummond beside him saw this, feeling a slight disdain in his heart, but still explained in a gentle tone: "Sir Kadoorie, you really should have watched their duel yesterday; it was a mystery and cruelty that even the devil would find hard to imagine!"

"This nation is truly too ancient!"

"So ancient that their occultism has simply merged with the nation itself. If Master Isaac only established the four major elements of 'Magic Potion', 'Secrecy', 'Spirituality', and 'Incantation' decades ago! Then this nation had already integrated these into their culture and traditions long ago."

"They are not the ignorant and barbaric nations of the New Continent, nor are they civilizations like India or the Ottoman Empire where mystery has already declined."

"Here, extraordinary power has not yet declined."

"Their population is vast, sufficient to accumulate powerful spiritual energy and symbols, and this nation is a natural conservative when it comes to the dissemination of knowledge. They are taciturn, simply carving the blockade and secrecy of information into their very bones."

"Secretive, yet fond of legends—this extraordinary law seems to be their national character."

"Here, it is called 'hearsay'!"

Drummond sighed: "This tradition makes the 'secrecy' of their civilization simply too powerful. Do you know? These laborers below who rely on the transport industry for a living are all those who have stepped onto the path, extraordinary apprentices!"

Kadoorie looked at the porters along the riverbank, crowded and dense, all with sweat towels tied around their heads and bare feet, and couldn't help but widen his eyes.

"They all are?"

"How is that possible? Has the extraordinary of this country gone mad? To disseminate 'secrecy' so widely, then that kind of extraordinary power would decline to a point of extreme weakness, to the point where it's simply invisible! Such apprentices, such apprentices are not even as good as a strong man holding a police baton!"

Drummond said calmly: "Yes! These people who have stepped onto the path have very weak extraordinary power. They don't even know they have stepped onto the path, entered the mysterious world, and become extraordinary apprentices."

"In their view, everything is just rules and tradition!"

"The extraordinary apprentice known as a 'Porter' has only one ability, called Iron Soles! The secret ritual for promotion requires running on the road barefoot, letting gravel and sand grind through the soles of the feet, stepping out one bloody footprint after another. If these footprints extend for ten miles, one can enter the mysterious world and accumulate spirituality."

"But this first-rank Porter path knower only has this one ability."

"That is to have a pair of iron soles with excellent endurance that cannot be worn out and can run barefoot on gravel roads!"

Kadoorie thought of the hundred thousand-plus people in this city, all of whom were extraordinary practitioners of a path, possessing a pair of feet that could not be worn out.

In his mind, he saw the scene of an extraordinary army of hundreds of thousands with iron feet coming to kill, covering the mountains and plains.

Even though he was a staunch hawk of the Kingdom of Camelot, always wanting to open the gates of this ancient and conservative country.

Thinking of this scene, he couldn't help but shiver! ===== CHAPTER 935 =====