Chapter 602: With and Against the Current

"Xu Fu?"

The less well-informed tower-ship officers were rather astonished — why would this wanted alchemist appear here openly and brazenly?

But those with sharper ears and eyes knew that Xu Fu had already been pardoned: last year, shortly after the Tian clan rebellion was put down, when the court was settling scores, the Commandant Assistants of Linzi and Jibei submitted evidence that alchemists might have taken part in the revolt, and this group instantly became rats scurrying across the street, with everyone crying out to beat them.

At the same time, Xu Fu, who had vanished for half a year, was discovered by Gong Ao, who was out on a sea patrol, in an island dungeon off the coast of Qingdao...

Xu Fu's heart was bitter too — Heifu had locked him up for the better part of a year, not torturing him recklessly, just leaving him in solitary confinement without even a glimpse of sunlight, coming to see him every few days and making him confess the dirt on alchemists like Lu Ao and Han Zhong.

At first he refused to talk, but later he couldn't endure it any longer and began to divulge things bit by bit.

"You knew?" Heifu asked him.

"I... I knew."

Heifu smiled at the time: "Knowing and not reporting it, and even intending to deceive His Majesty together with Lu and Han — truly a capital offense. Fortunately I had someone intercept you at Langya, otherwise you would have had no path back to life."

After that, Heifu set Xu Fu aside and did not come to see him for four straight months. For over a hundred days Xu Fu had no one to talk to; even the old man who delivered his meals was mute. He felt like he wanted to die.

When Heifu came again, he merely said flatly that the Tian clan had rebelled and had already been put down by himself, then immediately had Xu Fu draw a sea chart of the Jiao-Liao region.

Xu Fu still wanted to hold something back, because he felt that if he told everything he knew, Heifu would soon have no further need of him and would kill him to silence him.

But after Heifu looked at the first version of the sea chart he submitted, he merely chuckled lightly, picked up a charcoal pencil beside him, and began sketching freely on the paper.

In a short while, a map of Jiaodong, Liaodong, and the Korean Peninsula emerged upon it.

After Xu Fu saw it, he too was greatly shocked — the general contours of those coastlines were exactly identical to what he remembered in his mind! Even more uncanny, Heifu could also draw coastlines Xu Fu had never visited, and even added an enormous island southeast of the Korean Peninsula, pointing at it and saying in jest:

"Xu Fu, oh Xu Fu, you wanted His Majesty to give you virgin boys and girls — the place you wanted to go, could it be this... What do you call this place? Eastern Ying? Fusang? Wa? Land of the Rising Sun?"

What it was called no longer mattered. Xu Fu nearly died of fright. He had thought this was a little secret he had worked out himself, yet Heifu had ruthlessly exposed it — how on earth did he know?

Xu Fu could not fathom it and could only consider him divine, instantly prostrating himself in utter admiration, and from then on dared not conceal anything before Heifu again.

He did not know that this was thanks to the map of China that had hung on Heifu's classroom wall for many years in junior and senior high in his previous life. Using mysticism to intimidate an alchemist — this could be considered repaying them in their own coin.

After cowing Xu Fu and making him completely obedient, Heifu, brimming with confidence, also told Xu Fu that the alchemists' collusion with the Tian clan in plotting rebellion had been exposed, that this group was thoroughly finished, and that Xu Fu had suffered guilt by association and had also become a wanted fugitive.

Xu Fu grew somewhat despairing — was someone as clever as him to spend his whole life as a prisoner?

Heifu did not speak at that moment either. Only after a long while did Xu Fu realize: all of Heifu's hints were simply telling him: you have only one chance left, and that is to step forward and denounce Lu and Han!

Xu Fu was willing to cooperate. After being brought back to Jimo, Heifu and the Commandant Assistant interrogated him together. Following the script Heifu provided, Xu Fu claimed that his sudden disappearance earlier and his failure to attend the gathering at Chengshan Cape were not deliberate deceptions of the sovereign, but rather because he had been shocked to learn that the alchemist Han Zhong and others were luring the emperor out to sea, plotting treason.

"I originally intended to report it, but was discovered by Lu and Han's underlings, cruelly abducted, and thrown into a dungeon on a nameless sea island. Only recently did I manage to escape. Now I hear of His Majesty's assassination and the Tian clan rebellion — all of these are the treacherous schemes of Lu and Han!"

The Commandery Governor Heifu took this matter very seriously and immediately sent Xu Fu to Qin Shi Huang's location.

No longer believing the alchemists' ghost stories, how would the Emperor deign to see him in person? Everything was handed over to the Commandant of Justice, Ye Teng, to adjudicate.

Xu Fu discovered that all his escape routes had been blocked. From escort to interrogation, it was all Heifu's people handling it. Even when he reached the Emperor's traveling palace, it was Heifu's father-in-law, the Commandant of Justice Ye Teng, who interrogated him. If he said a single wrong word, the other party had countless ways to make him die on the spot.

Even if he suddenly turned and exposed Heifu, what use would it be? Heifu had quelled the Qi rebellion and been enfeoffed as Grand Patriarch, his favor at its peak. The ravings of a wanted fugitive could not harm him, but would instead bring about his own death.

Xu Fu was a man who cherished himself and valued his life. He knew that what he most ought to do was listen to Heifu and draw a clear line between himself and the alchemists once and for all...

And so his testimony became the final straw that toppled the alchemists. Qin Shi Huang flew into a towering rage and buried several hundred of them alive in total.

The unlucky Master Hou was implicated merely for "not knowing," but Xu Fu, as the principal accuser, could be pardoned according to the statutes.

Yet Xu Fu still did not gain his freedom. Afterward, Heifu also petitioned that although Xu Fu was an alchemist, he had never dared deceive the Emperor, and was extremely knowledgeable in maritime affairs, so he could be allowed to serve in Jiaodong. Qin Shi Huang approved the memorial.

Early this year, Xu Fu returned to Jiaodong and worked under the Commandery Governor's office, but he kept an extremely low profile and rarely appeared in public.

But Xu Fu never expected that after returning to Jiaodong, the assignment Heifu gave him was actually to manage the alchemists...

After the burying of the alchemists, this group had vanished without a trace, with survivors only remaining in Jiaodong — those were the alchemists who had previously helped Heifu search for gold mines and improve salt-sunning techniques. They had rendered service to the court and were thus spared.

But after this fright, compared to before, the relationship between the alchemists and Heifu had undergone a massive change. In the past it had been full of hostility; now they regarded Heifu as a patron. If Heifu ever ceased his protection, they could be seized and executed at any moment.

Heifu divided these barely more than ten remaining alchemists into two groups. Those who studied "sacrificial stoves to summon beings" — that is, playing with cinnabar to refine mercury, and the mutual transmutation of gold and iron — formed one batch, secretly working on a project in Qingdao. Those devoted to seeking immortals overseas, who had sailed out to sea many times and were familiar with wind, waves, and hydrology, formed the other group.

The final form of the sea chart was precisely what Xu Fu led the second group in drawing. To say he drew it would not be an exaggeration.

Today, Heifu's purpose in bringing Xu Fu to Yantai Harbor was also very clear: Heifu wanted to take charge of this cross-sea grain transport, and deliberately had Xu Fu put on a show to demolish the proposal Ren Xiao had put forward!

As someone who had plied these waters for twenty years, when it came to familiarity with the Lesser Sea and the Eastern Sea, everyone present combined could not match him, right?

Having made up his mind, Xu Fu began his performance.

He paced to the center of the hall, bowed to Ren Xiao and the tower-ship officers, then pointed to the position of southern Liaoning on the map and said:

"Commandant Ren, you said just now that ships traveling from Lüshun to the Mazi River move extremely slowly, as if rowing against the current, taking seven or eight days. Do you know why this is?"

"Ocean currents?"

Ren Xiao and the tower-ship officers listened to this unfamiliar term that had popped out of Xu Fu's mouth, somewhat baffled.

"Indeed, ocean currents."

"Rivers have currents — the sea too has currents! Those who go to sea year-round know this: the same ship, the same cargo, the same calm winds and waves — going from Yantai to Chengshan Cape, the outbound journey saves time, needing only one day; the return journey takes effort, needing a day and a half."

And what caused this situation was precisely what Xu Fu called "ocean currents." Going with them was like drifting downstream on a great river; going against them was like rowing against the current — it would be strange if it weren't slow.

Put this way, it matched the common knowledge of Ren Xiao and the tower-ship officers, except that most of them came from the Chu and Yue regions and were familiar with rivers and lakes, but regarding the temperament of the great sea, they truly were not as knowledgeable as Xu Fu.

Seeing that the crowd no longer looked down on him, Xu Fu, this alchemist who had spent half his life at sea, began to lecture. Using a charcoal pencil on the sea chart, starting from the mouth of the Mazi River (the Yalu River), he drew a line along the coast, stopping at Lüshun, and marked an arrow, indicating that it ran from northeast to southwest.

"The Jiaodong coast has ocean currents, and so does southern Liaoning. As ill luck would have it, it runs opposite to the direction of the grain transport, which is why the journey from Lüshun to Manfanhan takes time, while the return journey actually saves effort!"

"So that's how it is."

Everyone nodded. Xu Fu's explanation of this point truly solved a long-standing mystery.

Heifu sat high in the hall, letting Xu Fu expound on the various "ocean currents" along the Jiao-Liao coast. Xu Fu had some genuine skill; having gone to sea many times, he had long known of this phenomenon's existence and had secretly summarized its patterns, but it was Heifu who had given it its name.

And the two coastal currents Xu Fu spoke of both had their origin in the "Yellow Sea Warm Current," a branch of the world's second-largest ocean current, the "Black Current."

The Yellow Sea Warm Current flows northward along the western coast of the Korean Peninsula. Near the Yalu River, due to the effect of the Liaodong Peninsula, it turns southwestward, and under the influence of the Yalu River's waters, it becomes stronger and directly surges into Bohai Bay!

This warm current circles along the coast of Bohai Bay, bringing warmth and making "Jieshi" — that is, Qinhuangdao — an ice-free port, and then flows out from the southern side of the Bohai Sea. Near Yantai in Jiaodong, it receives the freshwater from Laizhou Bay, becomes the Yellow Sea Coastal Current, rounds Chengshan Cape, and continues flowing toward the Langya region...

This is the ocean current circulation of the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea, and also the root cause for the early emergence of the Jieshi—Zhifu—Langya sea route.

Understanding this point allows one to fully exploit ocean currents for sailing.

Xu Fu said, "It is now summer, and the Liaodong current is weaker, yet still enough to make sailing difficult. Come autumn and winter, the current will be twice as strong! By then, trying to ship grain from Jiaodong via Lüshun to Manfanhan will be difficult beyond measure. A single round trip, I fear, would take a full month!"

Ren Xiao and the towered-ship officers fell into thoughtful silence. If what Xu Fu said was true, then their grain transport strategy might be barely acceptable in summer, but once autumn and winter arrived, every step would become a struggle.

"But if we do the opposite — set sail directly from Chengshan Cape, reach the Korean coast, and then go north to Manfanhan — the current along the Korean coast flows from south to north. In this way, we can avoid the head current, and on the return voyage sail with the current, achieving twice the result with half the effort and saving many days!"

(Earlier text contained an error: the Qin dynasty's easternmost border was Manfanhan; Liekou was further south and should have been a port of Jizi Korea.)

With the current is fast, against it is slow — everyone understood this principle. The crowd was gradually being won over by Xu Fu, yet one difficult problem still loomed before them.

"I have heard that the direct voyage from Chengshan Cape to Korea is a full four hundred li, taking four or five days by ship…"

The most seasoned towered-ship officer under Ren Xiao's command looked troubled and shook his head. "I have also asked many old boatmen of Yan and Qi. They have gone to sea countless times, yet even they dare not take this water route."

For this era, ocean voyages far from shore were exceedingly rare. First, the weather at sea was unpredictable, and the sails of this age were still primitive, unable to properly harness crosswinds — one had to sail with the wind. If there was no wind, one had to rely on oars.

Worse still, once the landmarks of land were lost, a ship's heading became a problem. By day and on clear nights, one could rely on the sun, moon, and stars to judge direction, but on overcast days and cloudy nights, the fleet became headless flies, drifting into lost navigation…

Among the fangshi of Yan and Qi, not a few had attempted distant voyages, but most veered severely off course. Those with bad luck saw their ships destroyed and men perish; those with good luck, by the time they finally managed to circle back, it was the year of the monkey and the month of the horse.

"That is because those people lacked the knowledge and did not know how to observe the wind's direction."

Xu Fu, however, was unimpressed. As a man who dared to urge the emperor to go to sea and who, historically, led several thousand people on a distant voyage to foreign lands, he naturally had a few tricks up his sleeve.

Xu Fu glanced back at Heifu and, seeing his master nod, continued: "I spent ten years studying wind direction and have gained some modest insight. At present, the wind mostly blows from east to west, making distant voyages somewhat difficult. But once autumn arrives, Heaven itself will aid us!"

"Heaven will aid us?"

The crowd frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

Xu Fu switched to chalk and, on that sea chart, in addition to the black ocean currents, added small white arrows — some from north to south, some from south to north, some spiraling uncertainly…

"This is…"

How could the towered-ship commanders who had struggled at sea for years be unfamiliar with this thing?

Xu Fu snapped the chalk. "Monsoon winds!"

This was a new name that Heifu, that naming fanatic, had given to these special winds. Xu Fu actually found it quite fitting — "monsoon" meant winds that shift with the seasons!

"Xu Fu is right."

Heifu also rose and clapped his hands, drawing everyone's eyes to him.

"With these winds to aid us, for towered ships to voyage far, cross a thousand li of sea, and conquer foreign lands — it will be as easy as turning over one's palm!"

(End of chapter)