In the early summer of the forty-seventh year of the Wanli reign, the weather was not yet too hot. The Battle of Sarhu had just ended. Because of Henry Young's brainless four-pronged attack along a three-hundred-li front, the Ming Dynasty's forces were defeated one by one by the "wild boar skins" who concentrated their superior cavalry at speed, resulting in this decisive battle outside the pass ending in Ming defeat. The elite field troops of the Ming army outside the pass were almost completely wiped out; even among the four main generals, three died in succession. From then on, they completely lost the initiative on the Liaodong battlefield, were forced onto the defensive, and thus began nearly thirty years of fierce fighting between the Ming and Qing outside the pass...

To be precise, it was twenty-six years.

There was still plenty of time!

William Young's mood immediately improved a lot.

At least he was still living in the prosperous era of the Ming, even if this prosperity was already waning, it was still much better than the "sweet potato" era.

Standing proudly at the bow in the night wind, he watched as Yin'er Bay drew closer and closer ahead. The number of grain transport boats along the shore increased, soon becoming as densely packed as the docks at Tianjin, stretching forward as far as the eye could see. These Jiangnan boats, heavily laden with grain, sat much deeper in the water than the shallow boat beneath his feet. They could only sail here with the rising tide, then unload their cargo into warehouses on shore. In the coming days, a fleet of lighter boats would continuously transport this grain to Tongzhou. These grain boats were different from civilian vessels; they were all escorted by the military, each with several soldiers and hired boatmen. They had priority passage on any river section, and if the waterway became crowded, all civilian boats had to give way.

This was the lifeline of the capital.

“What happens when it freezes?”

William Young asked.

“It just freezes, of course. Every year, thousands of boats get stuck on this Bai River.”

Helen Howard replied.

After speaking, she picked up a long oar—also called a pole—and handed it to William Young...

“Get to poling!”

She gave him a push as she spoke.

The lowest rank of boatman, or you could say laborer, William Young, together with the other sailors, poled the shallow boat—barely more than three feet deep—over to the shore and stopped. Charles Howard sent sailors ashore to buy wine and meat from a familiar restaurant, while Helen Howard cooked a few fish herself. This counted as William Young's initiation ceremony, though Charles Howard didn't say exactly what his job would be. Although this trip was just to deliver a batch of goods to the capital, it was obvious that a law-abiding merchant would never take in a fugitive. As for the cargo they were transporting, it was all very ordinary stuff—mainly barrels of rapeseed oil, some of which had already been unloaded in Tianjin, plus a small amount of miscellaneous goods like dried locust flowers.

This had been shipped from Hejian.

From Hejian, they took the Yudai River waterway to the Huitong River, also known as the Daqing River, then passed Yuanjiakou, continued downstream into the Sanjiaodian. At this time, Sanjiaodian was a huge lake, covering the entire area west of Tianjin. This lake, which has disappeared in modern times, received water from the entire Daqing River and Yongding River systems—the latter also called the Hun River, which split into two branches, one flowing directly into Sanjiaodian, the other joining the Daqing River at Yuanjiakou. In the end, almost all the rivers south of Beijing, nearly half of northern Zhili, flowed into Sanjiaodian, then entered the North Grand Canal, or Bai River, at Dingzigu. This inland waterway system extended all the way to Qingyuan, covering a vast area from Zhuozhou in the north to Zhengding in the south. The Baiyangdian familiar to modern people was just a part of it.

But only a part.

Baiyangdian was much smaller than Sanjiaodian.

However, Sanjiaodian's period of prosperity lasted only from the late Ming to the early Qing. By the time of Ma Ge, the construction of the Yongding River embankment caused all the silt carried by the river to pour into Sanjiaodian, which was eventually filled in bit by bit.

But at this time, it truly rivaled Liangshan Marsh.

After eating and drinking his fill, William Young fully displayed the qualities of a good companion—never asking what he shouldn't, sleeping when he should. After all, after a day of running around, he was a bit tired.

The next day.

“Aren't we leaving yet?”

William Young asked, a flatbread in his mouth.

“No rush, let's wait a bit longer!”

Charles Howard replied, keeping up his good-natured smile.

But he was definitely not a real good guy. The man was all muscle and scars, and one arm looked a bit thicker than the other—obviously from years of drawing a heavy bow. William Young didn't believe for a second that he hadn't killed anyone.

“Haven't you eaten enough? Like a starving ghost!”

Helen Howard said, giving William Young a smack.

“If you can eat, you can work. Only when you're full can you work well!”

Charles Howard said with a laugh.

As they spoke, a familiar-looking passenger boat slowly approached from downstream. Charles Howard immediately called out, and William Young and the others quickly poled their boat into the channel. Because there were so many grain boats here, the already narrow river was blocked into a water alley, and they happened to meet that boat head-on. The old steward of the Wang family came out of the cabin, looked at them, then smiled and greeted Charles Howard on the deck.

“Master Huang, what a coincidence!”

The old steward said.

“Steward, after you!”

Charles Howard replied with a beaming smile and a bow.

“We're traveling together, so we can look out for each other on the way. Xiao Si, bring two lanterns for Master Huang, and hang ours out as well!”

The old steward said.

It was obvious this was exactly what Charles Howard had been aiming for.