Chapter 2 Zhangjiawan

  In the North Canal, the river water flows from north to south, eight thin ropes are swaying on the surface of the river, eight thin men are huddled together, pulling a double-masted inland boat along the embankment, the autumn temperature is already quite cold, but they are still bare-chested.

  "Right, Zhengzong, why aren't they wearing clothes? Autumn is here and it's getting cold. How can they bear with it?" Chen Xin asked the two people beside him while looking at the figures on the shore from the bow of the boat.

  Dai Zhenggang and Lu Tuizi were both from a poor family, so they naturally knew: "Brother Chen, if you wear clothes, they will be worn out in two or three days. When I first started pulling the rickshaw, my shoulders were rubbed bloody, so I found a piece of cloth to pad them." As he spoke, Lu Tuizi opened his cotton-padded jacket, and some scars could still be faintly seen on his shoulders.

  Ahead, there was a section of rapid water flow. Eight trackers shouted out in unison, their loud voices echoing across the river surface. Chen Xin watched with a hint of a smile, and in such a difficult environment, life still showed remarkable resilience.

  "That winter was even colder, and they still didn't wear clothes?"

  Song Wenxian was at the bow of the boat, stroking his beard and saying, "The North Canal freezes in winter, and by then there won't be any grain boats arriving."

  Lu Lu Zi also agreed: "Indeed, we went to Tianjin last winter to help someone transport goods by land. When the ice melted in the spring, we were driven away by that Tang Gui Gong." Then he gritted his teeth and said: "If I had this knife back then, I would have hacked him to death."

  Dai Zhenggang advised: "Don't chop all day, that Tang Gui Gong is not a good thing, but it's not worth killing."

  "How could it be that he even had someone come to chop off my hand..."

  Lu Zi and Dài Zhènggāng started arguing loudly, after he returned from the sea, he was no longer so obedient to Dài Zhènggāng's words. Although he still had some respect for Dài Zhènggāng, when they disagreed, they would argue. Now only Chen Xin's words were never questioned by him.

  Chen Xin ignored the quarrel between the two, his gaze fell on both banks. The northern autumn was desolate, the earth was covered with a gray tone, and some farmers were scattered in the fields, busy supplementing winter wheat.

  Chen Xin and his party set out from Tianjin five days ago, taking a grain boat northward. Today they will arrive at Tongzhou. Chen Xin brought a large group of people, including Dai Zhenggang, Zhu Guobin, Lu Lüzǐ, Song Wenxian, Hǎi Gǒuzǐ, and Zhang Dahuì. Adding Qin Lüfang, who was already in the capital, there are eight people in total. The team is slowly growing stronger.

  "Mr. Song, can we make it to the capital today?"

  "It won't work today, can only arrive at Zhangjiawan before dinner, from Zhangjiawan to Beijing is sixty miles, no matter what, it's impossible to arrive today."

  "The North Canal doesn't go to Tongzhou, does it?"

  "Only grain boats can continue on to Tongzhou, we passengers must disembark at Zhangjiawan."

  Chen Xing nodded: "In that case, we will stay at Zhangjiawan today. Tomorrow, rent a few horse-drawn carriages and we can arrive within sixty miles in one day."

  Dai Zhenggang had just finished arguing with Lu Touzi and heard this saying: "Chen Ge, we'll walk, you can take a horse carriage with Mr. Song."

  Chen Xin smiled and said: "Frugality is indeed a virtue, but when going out to handle affairs, one should take a car when necessary, as handling affairs is urgent."

  Lu Lu Zi also said: "Brother Chen is right, let's sit together." Dai Zheng Gang had no choice but to agree. Hai Gou Zi and Zhang Da Hui had never taken a carriage ride before, hearing that everyone was going to take the carriage, they became excited with raised eyebrows.

  By the afternoon, the river ahead gradually widened and the water flow slowed down. The trackers' bodies didn't have to be bent as low either. Song Wenxian told Chen Xin that Zhangjiawan was approaching. Although Chen Xin was from Tianjin, he wasn't familiar with Zhangjiawan. After the completion of the Beijing-Kowloon Railway at the end of the Qing dynasty, the status of the Grand Canal gradually declined, and by the time Chen Xin was born, the Zhangjiawan dock had already become a patchwork of farmland. Over the centuries, the river had undergone many changes, and the course of the Zhangjiawan River had shifted eastward by ten kilometers. Even for people who were born and raised in Zhangjiawan, it would be unrecognizable now.

  Zhangjiawan soon appeared in front of us, it is located at the confluence of the North Canal and Guo River (a tributary of the Lugou River), with slow water flow and a very wide river course, which is conducive to mooring junks. In the Yuan Dynasty, due to the first fleet of Zhang Xuan, the official in charge of the grain transportation, it was named Zhangjiawan, an important commercial and passenger terminal on the Grand Canal during the Ming Dynasty.

  The trackers' wives saw Tongzhou not far away and became excited, walking and singing along the way. Chen Xiang heard a loud mountain song tune coming from afar, listening carefully: "Don't be too familiar with each other in secret, don't raise eyebrows or make eyes at each other, when meeting face to face, still exchange greetings, on narrow roads, pass by quickly" (Note 1). After finishing the song, several trackers' wives burst into a fit of laughter.

  Chen Xin was taken aback and couldn't help but laugh. This mountain song that taught people how to have an affair discreetly, even after the reform and opening up, wasn't something that could be sung everywhere. But in this dynasty, it seemed that even some boat trackers could sing it out loud. "Good!" Chen Xin applauded from the bow of the boat, and the boat trackers on the shore all looked over, with one of them even making a slight bowing gesture.

  Lu Lu Zi heard that Chen Xin liked it, and he couldn't help but show off. With a playful smile, he also started singing: "Greedy flower new headscarf insert a flower, sister sees and takes hand to grab, grabs flower not to eat husband touches breast milk, husband greedy white milk sister greedy flower." Lu Lu Zi became a rogue from then on.

  Zhang Dahuai and Hai Gouzi applauded loudly, especially Zhang Dahuai, who had been staying in the brothel for two or three months. Chen Xingang had just let him return, but before he could ask about his learning experience, he heard this and also shouted: "Sister's born with a white chest, it doesn't matter if her lover touches it, walking on the stone bridge has its own gains, cutting knives on the water surface doesn't hurt." The hoarse voice of the wild goose echoed across the river face, his was even more ruffian than Lu Luzi, meaning that touching women's breasts wouldn't lose anything anyway.

  "Good! Good!" This time it was Song Wenxian who shouted first, this man had a bad bookish appearance, especially after getting rich, every time he came to Tianjin, he would spend the night in a brothel. Zhang Dahuai met him several times at Qunfang Building, and among Chen Xin's followers, he was most familiar with Song Wenxian.

  Lu Zhuangzi said loudly: "Brother Dahuai, how many white breasts have you touched in the brothel?"

  "Three, none of them gave me any money." Zhang Dahuai's face turned red with anger, and he raised three fingers.

  Chen Xin patted him on the head: "Get out of here, and don't go spreading rumors when you get back. If Big Brother Liu finds out, he'll scold you to death."

  Zhang Da Hui smiled and said: "I don't know what business Liu Dage has with my daughter."

  A few people burst out laughing, and the trackers on the shore also shouted a good cry. Just as they were about to start singing again, the boat owner came out of the cabin, scolding loudly at the trackers on the shore, until several of them were covered in sweat and had to pull the rope seriously, no longer daring to sing wildly.

  "What's the big deal." Lu Zizi and other boat owners returned to their cabins, muttering to themselves. In the past when he was a towerman, he had been scolded by the boat owner until he was fed up. Seeing similar situations now, of course, he stood on the side of the towermen. The others were disappointed and felt bored.

  Chen Xin was unwilling to get involved in more trouble and no longer provoked those concubines, asking Song Wenxian by his side.

  "Mr. Song, I've never been to Tongzhou before and don't know why the Grand Canal would choose this place as its starting point."

  Song Wenxian said: "Tongzhou has four rivers converging, and it is only more than 40 miles away from the capital. There is also the Tonghui River that leads directly to the capital, making it the starting point of the North Canal."

  "Why didn't they directly transport the grain from Tonghui River to the capital?"

  Song Wenxian furrowed his brow and said, "It seems that the water volume of Tonghui River is not large, and it needs to be built with layered ship locks. Every time you reach a lock, you need to change ships, so only the grain used by the imperial palace is transported through Tonghui River, while others have to take the land route."

  Chen Xin suddenly said: "So it was."

  Song Wenxian added, "Here at Zhangjiawan, every year people coming from the south and going to the north all get on and off boats here, but it's not necessarily that there are more goods than at Hexiwu, however, the granaries for transporting grain in Zhangjiawan far surpass those of Hexiwu."

  As the two men spoke, the boat had already been pulled to Zhangjiawan. The town of Zhangjiawan was on the west bank, and Guo River was also in the west. The two banks of Guo River and the west bank of the Grand Canal were lined with boats, and the shops along the shore were densely packed, with people coming and going like ants. Overall, it was not much different from the Grand Canal in Tianjin and Hexi, but there were many more docks than the latter two places.

  The North Canal flows from north to south, and it's downstream from Tongzhou to Tianjin, so no trackers are needed. The boats that are being tracked are all coming from Tianjin, usually taking the east bank route. If they need to unload at Zhangjiawan, they first pull upstream and then turn back to dock. However, the boat we were on was a grain boat and didn't go to Zhangjiawan, so we had to get off on the east bank and take a ferry to the west bank.

  Chen Xin got off the boat and looked around, on the east bank was a cluster of low and humble thatched cottages, similar to the kind he and Dai Zhenggang used to live in. Outside the shantytown, a group of children stared blankly at the dock, most of them were dressed in tattered clothes, some even bare-chested, each one as thin as a rake, with black smudges on their faces. Occasionally, a woman would walk out, staggering and seemingly about to fall over at any moment. The scene was similar to the African refugee camps Chen Xin had seen on TV, and it formed a stark contrast with the prosperity of the west bank.

  "Brother Chen, the 5,000 to 6,000 trackers from Tongzhou and Zhangjiawan all live in places like this." Dairen Gang looked at the familiar scene and said to Chen Xin, "In another ten or so days, these boats will head south, and the trackers will have no income. Those who are near their homes will return, while those who are far away or have nowhere to go can only stay here. If eight out of ten can survive this winter, that would be good."

  "Are so many people going to die?" Chen Xin asked in a slightly surprised tone.

  The canal is usually frozen until next March, and for several months they have no income. The government is afraid that they will make trouble, so every day in winter they distribute a thin porridge that can reflect a person's face. Women and children cannot finish eating it all, and some of it has to be given to the men; otherwise, next year the men won't be able to pull the boats, and the whole family will starve to death. Many people die every winter.

  "Why don't they have anywhere to go?"

  Lu Lu Zi said: "Last time I pulled Tongzhou, I met a few of them. Most of them were refugees from Henan and Shandong or Liaodong who had drifted into the pass. What else can they do if not this? Some families have been reduced to relying on menial labor, anyway it's all suffering."

  Chen Xin looked at the boat he had just ridden on, and the trackers were still pulling it forward. The boat owner had to rush to Tongzhou today. The trackers shouted slogans in unison, walking with consistent pace, and Chen Xin's face floated up a professional smile.

  Song Wenxian looked at Chen's new appearance and asked: "Brother Chen, have you taken a liking to these people? Among them, Bai Lian, Wen Xiang, and Luo Zu are all quite numerous."

  Chen Xindian nodded and said, "It's a good idea, but it can't be done in one go. If I have a thousand people and recruit a hundred, there won't be any White Lotus left at the end, but if I only have a hundred people and recruit a thousand, they'll all become White Lotus."

  Song Wenxian nodded and said, "That's right."

  Chen Xin didn't say some things, actually the most important thing is that as long as they can eat and wear clothes, what teachings are useless. As long as they enter the military camp, kick out the cult leader, close and manage them, brainwash them for a few months, plus having food and clothing, control their families, and the vast majority will not think about the cult again. So it's true that one can't eat too much at once, just look at these coolies shouting slogans in unison as they pull carts, they are the best source of soldiers. If the imperial court uses its brain a bit, don't let them die meaninglessly, but gather them into an army and train them, they will definitely become a fighting force.

  "Guo Bin, what do you think about these people becoming soldiers?" Chen Xin suddenly asked Zhu Guo Bin who was standing behind him and hadn't spoken.

  Zhu Guobin said: "Hundred House Lord, according to Master Qi's method of selecting soldiers, most of these people can make good soldiers."

  Chen Xin hesitated for a moment, then thought to himself how many of them would be able to leave with him. Chen Xin looked at the group of children outside the shanty houses, their clothes tattered and worn out, wondering how many of them could survive this winter.

  －－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－

  Note 1: The three folk songs are all from Feng Menglong's "Mountain Songs", many of the songs in Mountain Songs contain erotic content, haha, reflecting the openness of the late Ming dynasty.