52 degrees north latitude, Heilongjiang.
Towering white mountain, magnificent Black Water, and the boundless deep forests all stretched together across the vast, wild land of Outer Northeast. The gloomy sky had piled up layer upon layer of dark clouds, so damp they seemed about to drip water. And the mighty Heilongjiang, in this August flood season, was wantonly showing off its surging, rushing power!
"Splash! Splash! Splash!..."
Three long-prowed Galleys were slowly rowing southward upstream along the broad river. On the flagship, the Great Snow Wolf, forty burly tribal warriors strained at the oars, sweat beading on their necks. And the Kingdom Warriors in Leather Armor with great bows on their backs, the Jurchen armored soldiers, were packed thickly across the deck, as many as the oarsmen.
In truth, once this batch of oarsmen could row no more, the warriors would take over the oars and keep rowing with all their strength. Moving from the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang toward the upper reaches was just this difficult. As for the sail on the Galley, it could hardly borrow any wind at all. Still, no matter how difficult the water route was, it was always far easier than cutting straight through deep mountains, dense forests, and swamps!
In this savage end of the fifteenth century, across the three-thousand-li expanse of Outer Northeast, waterways were the most convenient roads—perhaps even the only roads passable on a large scale! And the fish catches, irrigation, and herds brought by the rivers also made almost all the large tribes settle around river channels.
Of course, the camps of the various tribes were usually set some distance away from the dangerous Great River, or else simply built on hilly high ground along the river. Because every spring, midsummer, and late autumn, the repeated ice floods