Over there, a flamboyantly dressed Young Master, surrounded by more than a dozen servants, was staring at him in astonishment. Then, a bullet fired from inside the gate struck the Young Master's fine horse right in the chest. The white steed neighed in agony and reared up, throwing the Young Master to the ground. Beside him, someone who looked like a The Butler immediately shouted in anger...

William Young peeked inside, gloating.

The The Officer stood there, face pale; with William Young's eyesight, he could even see a faint sheen of cold sweat on the man's face.

“Hurry up and save him!”

William Young shouted righteously.

The servants rushed chaotically toward their Young Master, but at that moment, William Young, like a wild, charging rhinoceros, suddenly began sprinting across the bridge. In the blink of an eye, he barreled through them and reached the other side. Only then did gunfire erupt again from the city wall, but at a distance of over fifty meters, the matchlock muskets wasted their bullets in vain. Including the The Officer who had chased out from the city, everyone could only watch helplessly as William Young dashed into the bustling dock, vanishing into the throng like a single leaf disappearing among countless others. But that The Officer had no time to care about him; in fact, the unlucky The Officer was busy wiping his cold sweat, facing a furious scolding from the The Butler as if he were a child being reprimanded!

The Young Master had broken his leg...

He was a bit calcium-deficient.

Clearly, the The Officer was in big trouble.

Canal dock.

“This is time travel!”

The culprit washed his face while watching the thousands of sails passing before him.

So be it—time travel!

The most important question now was how to survive in this era.

Late Ming Dynasty!

Judging by the looks of things, the chaos hadn’t started yet. On this imperial artery, grain barges were still coming and going in an endless stream, boatmen shouting out their chants with full vigor, and there was no sign of panic on the faces of the merchants that would come with great upheaval. Even the officials and soldiers still strolled about leisurely...

So leisurely as to be utterly defenseless.

“The setting sun is infinitely beautiful, but it’s near dusk!”

He sighed.

“A beggar trying to recite poetry, huh!”

A mocking voice came from the side.

William Young looked up speechlessly at a merchant ship docked nearby. It was a passenger boat, with a small house-like cabin at the back. In front of the cabin, an Old Butler watched coldly.

Armed family retainers stood guard on both sides.

Several sailors on the deck looked at him with ridicule.

At this moment, his appearance was indeed pitiful—his clothes were patched together from several pieces of tattered burlap sack, and most of them were in rags, barely fit to be called rags at all. There was a conspicuous scar on his face, his feet were shod in worn-out straw sandals, his whole body was filthy, and his hair was a matted mess...

“Judging people by their looks,”

William Young said.

“Damn dog, looking for a beating!”

The sailor who mocked him shouted angrily.

The other sailors immediately held him back. They could tell from his accent that he was from the south. Although William Young looked like a typical beggar, being a beggar didn’t mean he was easy to mess with...

At least not for outsiders.

The local beggar chiefs truly couldn’t afford to provoke the real gentry, but bullying a few out-of-town merchants was easy enough. After all, they were organized. The Tianjin docks were a chaotic mix of powers: various canal shipping guilds from all over, the newly risen Luo cult, smuggling gangs kept by local gentry, and even the beggar gangs—truly a mix of all sorts. These out-of-town ships weren’t easy to mess with either; in fact, they always traveled in groups, and these sailors all belonged to canal guilds, usually traveling in convoys of a dozen or more ships. If a fight broke out, a single order could summon hundreds of armed men.

But to start a fight over a few words would be unwise. Who knew if this beggar would come back with a gang of beggars to cause trouble?

“The tide’s coming in!”

A shout suddenly rang out in the chaos of the dock.

The sailors immediately sprang into action.

William Young looked up to the right and saw the white line where two currents collided at the river’s fork moving forward.

The river water, pushed in by the sea, collided with the river water flowing down due to the terrain at this famous river mouth, quickly generating surging waves—waves that could reach up to five meters high. Then the current split in two: one branch pushed the grain barges on the North Canal forward, carrying them all the way to Beicang, or even as far as Yangcun; the other swept along the South Canal, reaching as far as Yangliuqing.

The tide never passes the Three Yangs.

Yangcun, Yangliuqing, and Yangfengang.

The three endpoints of the Tianjin sea tide.

The waves stirred up by the clash of river and sea quickly caused panic on the South Canal. The muddy spray, like a cavalry charge, swept across the not-so-wide river, and all the boats docked at the wharf rocked violently in the waves...

“Miss, get back to the cabin!”

A sudden cry of alarm rang out.

William Young immediately turned his head and saw a young girl excitedly stepping out of the cabin.