Chapter 6: The Canal Boat Trackers

  "The gate of Tianjin is shrouded in misty haze, the land floats on the eastern sea."

  Tianjin was formed 4,000 years ago by the sedimentation of mud and sand carried by rivers. It can be said that it is one of the youngest land on earth. The Yongding River, Ziya River, and Daqing River converge in the northwest of Tianjin to form a triangular lake, which flows out and converges with the Grand Canal to form the Wei River (now known as the Hai River), flowing into the sea. In the early Ming dynasty, Zhu Di led his army from this place to cross the Grand Canal and conquer Cangzhou, and was renamed Tianjin. After that, the Grand Canal was completely unblocked, and due to its location at the node of the Grand Canal, Tianjin gradually prospered.

  Tianjin was originally without a city wall. In the second year of the Yongle period in the Ming dynasty, Tianjin set up three garrisons and built walls. In the fourth year of the Hongzhi period, it was paved with bricks, and like Jizhou, the city wall was also nine li thirteen bu long, the city wall was three zhang five chi high, the city had four gates in the east, south, west and north, and there was a water gate on the southeast side, which was wide from east to west and narrow from north to south, commonly known as the abacus city.

  Chen Xinyu and Liu Min had a group of six people who walked for five or six days. They left Jizhou via Xianghe to Hexi, following the Grand Canal slowly along the way. Fortunately, it was not during the early Ming dynasty, when the road would have been famous but already gone, and only two black households were able to pass through. Along the way, they did "Hope Project" twice, relying on Chen Xin's swindling, their assets not only didn't decrease, but instead reached 120 taels, and they also had a good eastern pearl in hand, temporarily without worries about food and clothing. When they arrived at Tianjin, Liu Min looked far away at the city wall and sighed. The author Kong Shangren was stolen before he was born.

  Six people went north to Ma Tou Du, took a ferry across the river. Chen Xin didn't rush into the city, seeing that outside the city was quite prosperous. Two hundred and twenty steps west of the city wall from the Grand Canal, there were rows of shops in between, with people coming and going, and the canal bank was lined with barges. Chen Xin wanted to take a look at the types of businesses along the canal, so he led the crowd to walk along the street market on the south bank of the Grand Canal.

  Both of them are from Tianjin, revisiting their old haunt. Liu Min looked around for half a day but couldn't find the location of his former three-bedroom apartment, and could only shake his head in dismay.

  Chen Xin smiled at Liu Min and said: "Originally, the ferry on the west bank could have gone up or down, but you insisted on coming to take a look. Now are you satisfied?"

  Liu Min expressed his dissatisfaction: "You really plan to go to Jiangnan and muddle through life? Then why let the Sea Dog and others practice formation and physical ability? What's your plan for the future?"

  "Hehe, complicated things are the ones that need planning. In my heart, I actually want to get promoted, become rich and fight for dominance in the world, but now we're just two adults with four followers trying to make a living, no plans for now. As for training, it's just so that when someone chases us, we can run faster."

  Liu Min hadn't asked anything, and was about to continue arguing with Chen Xin when Zhang Da Hui suddenly asked from the side: "Brother Chen, shall we go swindle some money in Tianjin?" Hai Gou Zi and Zhang Er chimed in unison.

  Liu Min slapped a palm on Zhang Dahuai's head and scolded: "You're always thinking about cheating people, can't you live your whole life without relying on cheating?" Zhang Dahuai shrank his head and hid behind Wang Dai Xi.

  After scolding Zhang Dahuai, Liu Min turned his head to complain to Chen Xin: "Look at these few dropouts, what have they been brought up to be? Are we going to keep doing Hope Project like this? To be honest, I've never cheated anyone in my previous life. I'm always being cheated out of money by others. Although I'm a bad guy, I couldn't bear it in my heart."

  "What's with these kids? At their age, they can already be fathers. You promised to help when you brought them along."

  "Isn't this always deceiving a way out? Shouldn't there be a plan for the short term?"

  "Short-term plan is... mixed lunch." Chen Xin snapped his fingers.

  Four young men immediately cheered and agreed, following Chen Xin's two people, this period of their lives was the happiest time in their lives. During the day, they had food and drink, at night Liu Min taught them to recognize characters, everything had someone to take charge, feeling that they had a dependence, Chen and Liu also never discriminated against or enslaved them, eating and living were the same, in their hearts they already treated the two as family members.

  Three young Haigouzi boys were well-fed and every day they marched in formation as required by Chen Xin, their bodies had become much more robust, their eyes no longer dull as before, with a hint of youthful vigor. Only Chen Xin forbade Haigouzi from grinning foolishly, but Haigouzi couldn't change this habit.

  Looking at the four young people, Liu Min felt a sense of accomplishment in this era. He took Wang Dai Xi's hand and they walked happily along the riverbank with the group to find a restaurant to fill their stomachs.

  They walked for a while without finding a restaurant, but saw a crowd of people gathered on the shore ahead. A sampan was moored with its bow facing north, and six thin ropes were thrown to the ground. Chen Xin and others had nothing better to do, so they went forward to watch the excitement. When they arrived at the side, they heard a loud voice say: "I don't care about your sampan mouth, I only recognize the rules set by the sampan gang. Take the lead in sorting out the ropes, and this boat is mine today. No matter which sampan mouth you are from, I won't recognize it. Who dares to rob me of this rope, I'll make him bleed."

  A neutral voice replied, "Lu Zizi, don't try to be arrogant. The owner of this boat has been looking for trouble, and there's some truth to that. If you want to resort to violence, I'm not afraid of you. If you want to reason things out, let's go to the dock together and settle it. We can even go to the Qing military office if you'd like."

  Chen Xin pushed through the crowd and saw a thin, bare-chested porter facing off against a teacher with a mountain goat beard. The two men had their respective gangs standing behind them, all dressed as porters or sedan chair carriers. The teacher looked dry and scrawny, and Chen's 56th book storage said: "You can still fight?"

  Chen Xin smiled and said: "I've never fought in a war, but I've read some military strategies and battle examples. You know, I'm quite a military enthusiast."

  Liu Min said with a "tsk" sound: "Just a half-baked good-for-nothing." He turned his head to look at the scene again.

  Only to see that the green hand was still chasing after Lu Bi Zi, and the people around were also blocking him off. Lu Bi Zi's space was getting smaller and smaller, and his helpers were all separated from him. Finally, Lu Bi Zi was hit by a stick, slowed down in speed, and the green hand took two big strides to catch up. The Japanese sword was raised high, and Lu Bi Zi had no choice but to use both hands to block his head, putting his hands under the knife. The onlookers suddenly let out a burst of screams, and Wang Dai Xi turned his head away, not daring to look again, his two hands tightly grasping Liu Min You's clothes.