As mentioned earlier, the ship had three levels in all. The level below deck held the cargo hold and the boatmen's quarters, while the passenger cabins above deck were occupied by the Jia Manor party.
Since the second floor was more enclosed, it had been assigned to the women.
Ruan Rong made her way anxiously up to the second floor and immediately ran into two flustered old maids. With a guilty conscience of her own, she did not dare stop them to ask what had happened, instead stepping aside to let them pass.
To her surprise, the two old maids could not even spare the time for proper courtesies. They merely apologized without looking back, then hurried downstairs.
Servants of wealthy, influential households had always placed great importance on propriety. Unless something truly serious had happened, they would never have been this flustered.
Ruan Rong grew curious about what was happening outside, so she went directly to Daiyu's room. As the hostess aboard the ship, Daiyu's cabin offered an unobstructed view of the bow below.
When she pushed open the cabin door, she saw Lin Daiyu, Zijuan, and Xueyan pressed against the window, peering down through a narrow crack. Daiyu was barely managing to remain calm, while the two maids wore frightened expressions.
"What happened?" Ruan Rong strode up behind them and asked curiously, "Look at all of you, as if the sky were falling."
All three women jumped. Seeing that it was Ruan Rong, Daiyu quickly moved aside and said, "Take a look for yourself, Sister!"
Ruan Rong did not stand on ceremony. She went straight to the window, saw that they had only dared open it a crack, and simply reached out to push it wide open before leaning out to look.
On the river, nearly a hundred meters wide, six large grain barges had formed a wild-goose formation and blocked the entire channel. Their decks were packed with dark figures—at least seventy or eighty people—who were shouting curses across the water at the Jia family's burly servants.
"Could we have run into Water Bandits?"
Ruan Rong muttered it casually, but it frightened the color out of the two maids' faces. Xueyan, the younger one, had tears welling up in her eyes.
Daiyu hurriedly shoved Ruan Rong and protested unhappily, "Stop scaring them, Sister! How could there be so many water bandits on the canal? And what water bandits use grain barges? There must be some other reason!"
Then she turned to comfort Xueyan. "Don't panic yet. Once Zhang Momo comes back, we'll know what is going on."
As it happened, Zhang Momo burst in just then. Before she had even caught her breath, she reported, "Don't be afraid, Miss. Those ahead aren't bandits—they're a group of salt merchants!"
The six grain barges turned out to be part of a merchant convoy transporting salt northward. Because they were overloaded and drew too much water, one of them had accidentally gotten stuck on a hidden reef, and its hull had been punctured by a hole neither large nor small.
Seeing that if things dragged on, the entire shipload of salt would be lost, the salt merchants had simply blocked the river, intending to forcibly requisition passing passenger ships and transport the salt to a ferry crossing thirty li away.
Had Jia Lian set out two days later, someone else would have suffered this misfortune. But with Sun Shaozong's help, the Jia Manor party had departed several days early and happened to run into this group of "roadblocks."
The sudden violent shudder of the ship earlier had been caused by the boatmen urgently dropping a four-pronged iron anchor.
If it had been an ordinary passenger ship, it might have backed down upon seeing how outnumbered it was. But the Jia Manor's burly servants considered it an act of charity when they did not bully others with their influence. How could they submit to threats from a few salt merchants?
Thus, after a few exchanged words, both sides began hurling curses at one another.
Jia Yucun had been taking a midday nap in his room. Only after hearing his servants' report did he hurriedly throw on his clothes and rush to the deck. Seeing both sides screaming themselves hoarse with curses, he stomped his foot in anxiety and shouted, "Stop cursing! All of you, stop! Shut up!"
Yet when had the Jia Manor's burly servants ever regarded this "down-and-out nobody" as worth anything?
Rather than quieting down at Jia Yucun's rebuke, they cursed even more fiercely. Someone even deliberately bellowed, "Jia Yucun, Prefect of Jinling, is on this ship! You dog-fucking bastards, get out of the way at once!"
Jia Yucun shook with rage, but there was nothing he could do to them. He could only sidle up to Jia Lian and urge him bitterly, "My Second Master Lian! Hurry and tell them to stop cursing! What will we do if they provoke a disaster?!"
People said, "Like master, like servant," but the reverse was equally true. If even the Jia Manor's burly servants did not take those salt merchants seriously, how could Jia Lian, who had always acted like a First Master, be afraid of them?
"Disaster?"
He curled his lip and sneered. "They dared block a Rongguo Mansion ship? I'd say they're the ones who have brought disaster upon themselves! Once we reach Qingzhou Prefecture, I'll make these damned bastards understand what regret means!"
Jia Lian spoke boldly, but Jia Yucun could only laugh bitterly. He hurriedly pointed at the grain barges ahead and said, "Second Master, perhaps you do not know this, but any ship transporting Official Salt must fly the Salt Administration Office's command flag. Yet these ships bear no markings at all. They must be carrying illicit salt! For them to transport so much illicit salt so openly in grain barges, there must be a powerful figure backing them. They may not fear Rongguo Mansion at all!"
After hearing this, hesitation appeared on Jia Lian's face. Still, for the sake of his pride, he could not bring himself to back down at once.
Jia Yucun quickly pressed on while the iron was hot. "Besides, illicit salt merchants are mostly desperate men. While I was serving in Jinling, I heard several accounts of salt smugglers murdering officials and rebelling. If they are truly driven too far..."
At the words "murdering officials and rebelling," Jia Lian shuddered. How could he still care about saving face?
He immediately jumped up and cursed, "Stop cursing! All of you, stop cursing! Shut the hell up for Second Master!"
His shout had an immediate effect. The burly servants instantly fell silent as cicadas in winter.
However, it was already too late to yield. The five large ships opposite had fanned out and surrounded them, while the Jia family's passenger ship had just dropped anchor and had not yet adjusted its sails to the wind. For the moment, it lay helplessly stranded, unable to advance or retreat.
Only then did the burly servants finally realize that the people they had been provoking were more than a hundred vicious-looking men armed with blades!
They seemed to have had their throats seized. Not one of them could utter a complete sentence, much less display the sharp tongues they had had moments ago.
As the ships drew closer, a fat middle-aged man in a fur-lined sable robe stood on the opposing deck, surrounded by numerous salt smugglers. Pointing and jabbing his finger, he cursed, "What kind of fucking Prefect of Jinling is that? A petty official no bigger than a sesame seed dares put on airs before me?! Later, throw everyone on this ship into the river and wash out those filthy mouths that only know how to spew shit!"
Everyone from Jia Manor changed color at his words. Pampered people like them, thrown into the water in the dead of winter, would be lucky not to die or be crippled for life!
In their desperation, the burly servants found some courage again and hurriedly revealed their trump cards in a babble of voices. "What are you trying to do? The one in charge of this ship is Second Master Lian of Rongguo Mansion!"
"That's right, we're from Rongguo Mansion!"
"Our Second Master's father-in-law is Lord Wang, Commander of the Nine Provinces!"
Each trump card was more impressive than the last, and the servants straightened their backs again. Their words soon began to carry more foul language.
The fat man on the opposite ship burst into laughter. "So that's who it is—the precious son of Jia She, the First-Rank General! Fine, I'll give Rongguo Mansion some face. Other than Jia Lian, throw every last one of them into the river!"
Upon hearing the first half, the burly servants had thought the other side had been frightened and were preparing to seize the chance to swagger some more. Who would have expected the final sentence to turn everything upside down? They were left gaping in terror.
Only then did Jia Lian realize that Jia Yucun had been right. There truly was a powerful figure backing the other side—someone who did not even regard Rongguo Mansion or Wang Ziteng with any concern.
As they spoke, the large ships had already drawn alongside. Working together, the salt smugglers laid gangplanks across the rails, then surged aboard like a tide with blades and spears raised!
The burly servants immediately scattered in panic. Some froze on the spot, unable to move; some cried out and fled into the cabins; some spineless servants even dropped to their knees, babbling cries of "Grandfather" and "Ancestor."
With the situation suddenly collapsing to such a degree, Jia Lian and Jia Yucun both went pale. Jia Yucun in particular regretted it so bitterly his guts turned green. Had he known he would encounter such a calamity, he never would have eagerly come along with Jia Lian!
As everyone trembled in fear, the burly servants who had fled into the cabins suddenly came scrambling back out, rolling and crawling. Every face looked as though they had seen a ghost.
Then a huge wooden pole as thick as a support pillar shot out of the cabin, swaying unsteadily toward the bow!
Thanks to reader "Adventures of a Soul Among Masterpieces" for the tip.
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