Chapter 22: The Xunyang River Crossing

  Zhang Fei, being a martial artist, although born with a rough appearance, was extremely agile. Seeing the situation was not good, he leaped up and grabbed onto a protruding rock on the cliff wall, suspending himself half a zhang in mid-air.

  Liu Ze saw clearly that the mule was jumping and jumping, and the rotten plank road could no longer hold it. The supporting wooden pillar fell together with the mule and Zhang Fei, and below was a deep abyss of ten thousand feet. How could they survive if they fell? Fortunately, Zhang Fei reacted quickly and jumped up to grab a rock, barely avoiding falling down. Liu Ze hastily threw a rope to Zhang Fei and shouted: "Catch!"

  With the help of Liu Ze and Guan Hai, Zhang Fei quickly climbed up from below. The situation just now was truly perilous, even Guan Hai looked pale, but Zhang Fei was laughing and patting the dirt off his body, not taking it to heart at all.

  Liu Ze couldn't help but feel a little angry: "Younger brother, you just won't listen to advice. It was so dangerous just now. If you had really fallen down, you would have been smashed to pieces!"

  Zhang Fei was not worried at all, saying: "Nothing, relying on my skills, how can I fall down so easily? However, this plank road is too unstable, with just a little vibration, it collapsed in a big chunk. Ah, big brother, the plank road has collapsed, what should we do when we return?"

  The collapse just now caused a chain reaction, and the entire stack of hundreds of meters collapsed. Fortunately, the pillar under Liu Ze's feet was relatively solid, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.

  Liu Ze helplessly said, "Let's move forward for now and think of a solution on the way back." After taking stock of their losses, they found that five mules had fallen off the cliff. Fortunately, no one was injured, and the loss was not too great.

  After Jianmen, it is a vast plain of Chengdu. Through Zitong and Fucheng, passing Mianzhu, we arrived at the destination of this trip - Chengdu. As soon as he entered the city, Liu Ze immediately sold iron farm tools in the market.

  Due to the excellent quality of Liu Ze's farm tools and reasonable prices (Liu Ze was eager to get rid of them, so he set a price that was 20-30% lower than the local price in Chengdu, but still three or four times higher than the price in Luoyang), many people gathered around, and nearly one-third of the tools were sold on the same day. By the second day, news had spread, and farmers from distant suburbs also rushed over. Since Liu Ze allowed bartering with Shu brocade if there was no cash, transactions were booming. Within three days, all ironware was sold out, and even some farmers who came from other counties couldn't buy any, lingering around in disappointment for a long time before reluctantly leaving.

  Liu Ze arranged for Jian Yong and Zhang Fei to be in charge of selling ironware, while he himself took Gan Xi to immediately start purchasing Shu brocade. Due to the road to Chang'an being cut off, Shu brocade had become massively unsold, with prices plummeting by at least 30% compared to last year. Therefore, purchasing Shu brocade was even easier than selling ironware. Liu Ze put up a sign to purchase Shu brocade, and people lined up to sell their brocade, forming a queue that stretched for at least three streets, from morning till night, without a break. Liu Ze instructed his employees to strictly control the quality, only accepting high-quality Shu brocade, while rejecting medium and low-quality ones outright.

  By the third day, all the iron goods had been sold out, and the purchase of Shu brocade had also come to an end. Liu Ze even sold nearly a hundred Qin mules at a low price and used the money to buy more Shu brocade.

  Looking at the piled-up Shu brocade, Zhang Fei's head was big, and he asked Liu Ze how to transport the Shu brocade out of Chengdu. Liu Ze smiled but did not speak. On the fourth day, Liu Ze removed the sign for purchasing Shu brocade, and the market was in an even greater uproar. The people in line were sighing, shouting, and cursing, making a big commotion. Liu Ze could only repeatedly apologize from a high place, saying that since the purchase quantity had been met, they would no longer be buying, but promised to come back next year to make another purchase. The crowd sighed for a while before finally dispersing. Afterwards, Liu Ze rushed straight to the dock.

  The dock in Chengdu is located on the banks of the Min River, and all the boatmen shook their heads when they heard that Liu Ze wanted to go to Jiangling. Liu Ze asked why, and they all said that the Xiangjiang River was treacherous and no one dared to cross it. The Xiangjiang River referred to by the boatmen is actually the Three Gorges composed of Qutang Gorge, Wu Gorge, and Xiling Gorge east of Baidi. Liu Ze had been to the Three Gorges before, but those Three Gorges were already connected by heaven and water, with vast waves of smoke. However, before the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, the Three Gorges were indeed famous for their danger and strangeness. But it was not impossible to travel through the Three Gorges for thousands of years, otherwise there would not be Li Bai's famous poem "Early Departure from Baidi" which says "A thousand miles to Jiangling in one day". It's just that no one dared to try, so they thought it was mysterious.

  An old boatman told Liu Ze that to cross the Xiang River, he had to find Bai Lao Da, who was the bravest and had crossed the river several times. Under the guidance of the old boatman, Liu Ze found Bai Lao Da.

  Bai Lao Da readily agreed when he knew Liu Ze was going to Jiangling and needed twenty boats, but the boat fare was undoubtedly sky-high. A single boat cost 50,000 yuan, and Liu Ze didn't even haggle over the price. However, when Liu Ze started loading roll after roll of Shu brocade onto the boats, Bai Lao Da's expression turned grave, his mouth agape in surprise. He had transported a lot of goods before, but this was his first time handling Shu brocade, as no merchant had ever dared to gamble with such expensive merchandise.

  Bai Lao Da reminded Liu Ze that the chance of crossing the river without capsizing was less than 50%, and he needed to have the courage to risk his life to get on the boat.

  Liu Ze smiled and said: "How many times have you capsized?"

  Bai Lao Da was silent for a moment, then said: "My three brothers all died in the Xiang River."

  "So you still dare to cross the Xiaojiang River? Haven't you ever been afraid?"

  "We brave men who sail the seas, our fate is to die in the water, what is there to fear?"

  The next morning, twenty boats loaded with Shu brocade set sail from the dock of Chengdu, with favorable wind and water, they sailed eastward. The journey was smooth, the boat sailed on the river day and night without stopping, and it took only four or five days to reach Baidi City. When dusk fell, Old White ordered all the boatmen to moor their boats by the shore.

  "How can we not leave tonight?"

  "Up ahead is the Xunyang River," said Old White from a distance. "We dare not cross at night, we must wait until dawn to set sail."

  Liu Ze stood at the bow of the boat, and although it was May, the river wind still carried a hint of chill. The night sky was vast and dark, with only a few faint lights in the distance. Was this really Baidi City? Was this really where Liu Bei, the first emperor of Shu Han, had met his end? In the current course of history, there was an extra person - himself. Could he change the trajectory of history? Liu Ze let out a bitter laugh and sighed softly. The future was indeed a mystery. "Bai Di, Bai Di, Bai..." He couldn't help but exclaim: "Isn't this just a white word?"

  The ancestors cut off the white snake to start a rebellion and gain the world, Emperor Guangwu rose up in arms from Baima Village and had a revival, while Liu Bei died in Baidi City. The rise and fall of the Han dynasty was unexpectedly inseparable from the word "white". Liu Bei was defeated by Lu Xun's fire at Yiling, losing two brothers as close as hands and feet, and his dream of restoring the Han dynasty was completely shattered. When all spiritual support was lost, he really collapsed, and when he arrived at Baidi City, he was already exhausted. However, he still couldn't let go, after all, there was still the Shu Han court in the southwest, and there was also a worry about his son Liu Shan. Now, the only thing he could do was to win over Zhuge Liang's heart and let him assist Liu Shan. The sentence "If the successor can be assisted, then assist him; if not, you can take it for yourself" made Zhuge Liang loyal for life, showing that Liu Bei's skill in governing people was truly pure and refined.

  "When it can be helped, help; when it cannot be helped, take it yourself..." Liu Ze muttered this sentence repeatedly, and he seemed to have gained some insight from it.

  The next day, as soon as the sky was slightly bright, Old White ordered the boatmen to inspect the boat, secure the cargo, and everyone's face was solemn, as if facing a great enemy. After having breakfast, they set sail and headed east.

  A red sun rises from the east, in the distance a range of mountains stretches out in a continuous chain, the river suddenly narrows and its waters lose their calmness, beginning to roar.

  "Up ahead is the entrance to Xiling Gorge, Qiu Men. If we're lucky, we'll make it to Jiangling City by tonight." Old Bai only mentioned good luck; he didn't mention what would happen if they encountered bad luck - they'd end up as fish food in the Three Gorges.

  Liu Ze handed a roll of cloth to Bai Lao Da and said, "This is the navigation chart of Xiangjiang River, which clearly marks where there are shoals and where there are reefs. If you order the fleet to follow the red line, they can safely cross the river."

  Bai Lao Da stared for half a day, shocked to the point of being dumbfounded. He had spent many years exploring and navigating the Xiangjiang River, even paying the price of countless lives to barely figure out a route through it. Despite his years of experience sailing on the Xiangjiang River, his success rate was only about 50%. But the navigation chart Liu Ze gave him was truly astonishing. The hazardous reefs and rocks marked on it were mostly familiar to him, having cost him blood and tears in the past. There were also many dangers that he was not aware of, after all, the Xiangjiang River stretched for nearly a thousand miles, with hidden perils lurking throughout. He didn't doubt the authenticity of the navigation chart at all, but he couldn't fathom how Liu Ze could possibly know more about the Xiangjiang River than him, given his age and experience.

  Before the old man could think, the surging Yangtze River roared towards Qutang Gorge, with mountains on both banks as steep as if cut by a knife, straight down to the bottom. It was as if there was a sharp sword in the sky that had split the Red Cliff and White Salt Mountain into two halves. The river surface was less than a hundred feet wide, and the turbulent water wrapped around the waves, crashing heavily against the cliff wall, striking up thousands of layers of waves.

  The White General concentrated his spirit and led the fleet through Qutang Pass, which is the first danger and also the entrance to Kuijiang Gorge. The thousand-mile-long gorge starts from here.

  Liu Ze was calm and composed, feeling pleased with himself, and his poetic nature burst forth again, as Li Bai's poem flowed smoothly from his mouth: "This morning I bid farewell to the White Emperor in the colorful clouds, a thousand miles of Jiangling returned in one day. The cries of the monkeys on both banks did not stop, my light boat has already passed through ten thousand layers of mountains." However, this time no one cheered or applauded, Jian Yong, who was born in the north, had never seen such turbulent waves and his face turned pale, his whole body trembling like a ball. Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, who were brave and fearless on land, also looked serious and did not utter a word.

  The White Snake spirit infused, following the navigation chart given by Liu Ze with a red line, avoiding countless reefs and rocks, all the way smooth sailing, passing through Qutang, Wu Gorge, straight down to Xiling, in the evening glow, the fleet had already docked at Jiangling Wharf, indeed it was a thousand miles to Jiangling in one day.