Great Song Dynasty Writer

Chapter 30 Jiangchuan Haozi
There were two horses harnessed to the front of the carriage, their bridles tied with red tassels, and their horseshoes were brand new. They snorted loudly, and their hooves made clanging sounds when they stepped on the bluestone slabs.

The driver is an old master employed by the county government all year round. He wears a Fanyang hat, a green cloth belt around his waist, and never cracks the long whip in his hand easily. This is also the dignity of an official. It would be bad if he drove too fast in the city and disturbed the people.

Generally speaking, if it is a business trip, there must be guards to lead the way, but this time it is not a formal business, so the entourage is kept simple, with only four personal attendants wearing dark blue official uniforms, holding whistles and machetes.

Although their number was small, firstly, since there had been peace for many years, it was basically impossible to encounter bandits in the Sichuan Basin. Secondly, these people had all been trained on the northwest front with Li Pan, and their combat effectiveness was quite reliable.

All in all, it is already quite famous in Shu.

On the way to the outside of Hejiang County, the common people along the way would give way to the side of the road when they saw the black lacquered carriage and the uniforms of the officers. If the gentry saw them from afar, they would straighten their clothes and bow.

Lu Beigu sat in the carriage, listening only to the clatter of horse hooves and the shouts of the officers outside. He suddenly realized that this was the embodiment of power, even if it was only the most peripheral section in the bureaucratic system of the Song Dynasty.

After leaving Hejiang County, the official road extends infinitely along the south bank of the Yangtze River.

At the Fawang Temple outside the city, many market workers in short shirts were decorating this temple, which was built in the early Tang Dynasty and was rebuilt to be even more magnificent after being damaged by wars.

Dozens of people climbed up two rows of ladders and began to hang up a forest of colorful banners, which were embroidered with Buddhist scriptures or auspicious patterns. They all looked to be made of silk, which shows the grandeur of the Dharma King Temple.

"It's almost the Buddha Bathing Festival." Lu Beigu heard people outside say.

After passing the Fawang Temple and walking further, you will reach the wilderness. Because of the mixed residence of Han and Yi people, you can often see bamboo houses built by the water, with roofs covered with thick thatch, and dogwood and dried river fish hanging under the eaves.

Sometimes barefoot women would walk along the river carrying bamboo baskets filled with freshly picked wild vegetables. When they saw the government carriages passing by on the official road, they would lower their heads to avoid them, but they could not help but look up to take a peek, feeling their imposing presence.

Now in late spring, most of the mountain peach blossoms on both sides of the official road have faded, and scattered pink and white petals are stuck on the moist moss.

When the carriage passed the boundary marker of Hejiang County, it met a group of tea drinkers resting by the roadside. They were wrapped in straw raincoats soaked in tung oil, and the tea bags clamped on bamboo backs were piled higher than them, emitting a refreshing fragrance with a bitter taste.

"Qingming tea——"

The leading tea drinker was not afraid of the accompanying sword-wielding guards. Instead, he waved his handkerchief and shouted at the carriage: "Sir, would you like to take some new shoots with you?"

Li Pan naturally didn't bother to pay attention, so Lu Beigu politely lifted the carriage curtain and waved.

Soon, the sound of carriages and horses appeared, and the wheels of the carriages and horses were moving further and further away, leaving deep ruts on the bluestone slabs.

As we approach Luzhou, the Yangtze River has many more islands in the middle of the river. The road on the south bank is no longer flat, and large mountain ranges begin to appear. Looking out from the carriage, we often see the figures of woodcutters appearing and disappearing in the clouds, and the sounds of axes and cuckoos blend together.

The next afternoon, we finally arrived at the ferry on the south bank of Luzhou City.

Here, they would take a large ship and send the carriage to the north bank, and then continue along the official road towards Chengdu Prefecture.

Li Pan said with admiration as he looked at Lu Beigu who was studying the "Examples of the Book of Rites" borrowed from Xue Zheng.

"Don't read for now. Come down and get some fresh air. The boat won't arrive from the other side for a while."

"Yes."

Lu Beigu, who was immersed in the book, suddenly realized that they had arrived in Luzhou so quickly.

A group of people are at a tea stall near the ferry.

At this time, several women were leading children to pick mulberry leaves. Occasionally, red agate-like mulberries were revealed among the tender green leaves, attracting the children to tiptoe to reach them.

Lu Beigu took the green rice dumpling sold at the tea stall handed to him by the officer, and when he bit into the glutinous rice dumpling, he could taste the scent of the mountains. This food was made with rice flour mixed with juice of young mugwort, which was only available around the Qingming Festival, and wrapped with roasted walnuts (i.e. walnuts) and wild honey.

He originally thought that this kind of food was only available in the south of the Yangtze River, but he didn't expect it to be available in Sichuan as well.

But it is not surprising. After all, Qingtuan is one of the cold foods of the Cold Food Festival that originated in the early Tang Dynasty. Bai Juyi left a poem in Chang'an that year: "Qingtuan shop on Cold Food Festival, willow branches are low in spring."

It seems that the Tang Dynasty emperors traveled to Shu frequently, so it is normal for them to bring food like green rice balls with them.

"This is?"

Amid the clamor of the ferry, the deep and powerful call pierced through the river breeze, attracting Lu Beigu, who was biting a dumpling, to look in the direction of the sound.

On the riverside, a wooden boat loaded with salt bags was slowly leaving the shore.

The ship was extremely deep in the water, with the bow pressing down on the waves. The helmsman at the stern held the rudder tightly, while more than ten trackers were lined up on the side of the ship. They were shirtless and hunched over, with the coarse hemp ropes cutting deeply into the flesh of their shoulder blades, leaving dark red blood marks on their bronze skin.

The leading bugler was a thin old man with a hoarse but penetrating voice.

"Rain falls from the sky and the ground slides down—Hey!"

"Walking on pebbles and digging sand with hands—Hey!"

Every time he shouted, the trackers responded in unison, their footsteps making a heavy echo on the slippery pebbles.

The words in the song were rough and straightforward, and the voices of the trackers were not uniform, some were even hoarse and out of tune, but the desperate spirit made Lu Beigu's heart tremble.

He saw someone slip and kneel in the shallows, and was immediately pulled up by his companion with one hand. Someone's shoulder was rubbed by the rope, but he just spat on the wound, rubbed some mud and sand, and continued to exert force.

"The hemp rope broke my spine—Hey!"

"The wife is waiting for the rice to be cooked - hey!"

The river breeze wrapped in water foam hit his face, and Lu Beigu suddenly discovered that the deeper rhythm hidden in the sound of the horn was not the neat and orderly rhythm of literati poetry, but the wildness of the ups and downs like the river.

The old man who leads the group sometimes draws out his voice and sometimes speaks in short and abrupt tones, and the responses of the trackers also fluctuate in pitch and fall, secretly matching the rhythm of the pulling.

"Did you hear anything?" Li Pan, who was also biting the green dumpling, asked vaguely.

Lu Beigu said seriously, "When you hear the long note, it's like gathering strength to tighten the tow rope. When it's short, it's like pushing off the ground together to exert force. When it stops suddenly, the tow rope vibrates with a 'hum' sound, and the boat leaps forward several feet."

At this time, the big boat that pulled their carriage across the river also arrived.

A one-eyed old boatman came to the tea stall at the ferry and urged them to get on the boat. The old boatman was not in a hurry. He first asked for a bowl of tea, then spat out a mouthful of tea foam and grinned at Lu Beigu.

"Young man, did you get the point? This is the 'Jiangchuan Haozi'. The waterway above Luzhou is full of hidden reefs, and we have to rely on this breath to keep moving forward!"

As he was speaking, a whirlpool suddenly appeared on the river bank and the wooden boat tilted violently.

The rope was instantly stretched into a straight line and was about to break!

"Lord Dragon, pull the sail rope--" the old man's shout suddenly rose and almost broke.

"Brothers, put your lives on the line—Hey!!!"

The trackers simultaneously leaned sideways against the rocks on the edge of the river bank, digging their toes into the cracks in the rocks, and the blood vessels in their necks bulged out like earthworms.

The ship shook violently in the stormy waves, and finally broke out of the whirlpool with a "creak".

Someone's shoulder was scraped off by the tow rope, and drops of blood splashed on the pebbles, which were soon swallowed up by the rising river water.

------

① A temporary laborer employed in the city.

(End of this chapter)