One piece of news had gotten the loyal men who had risked life and limb hunting treasure for the Great Xia court last year killed. It had dealt a heavy blow to the court's authority, but Pan Long was not happy.
Instead, he felt a little melancholy.
The outcome was not what he had wanted.
"Can't be helped! How could everything possibly go my way? The result works in my favor, and that's already pretty good..."
With a sigh, he arrived at the ferry landing outside town.
The town where he was staying was called Dragon Rest Ferry, about a hundred li downstream from Heaven's Wrath Gorge on the Heaven-Reaching River.
The Heaven-Reaching River came rushing out of Heaven's Wrath Gorge. As the river widened, its current steadily eased. The terrain here was favorable as well, so a large ferry landing had been built.
Ordinarily, civilian boats traveling down the Heaven-Reaching River began their journeys here. They followed the current through prefecture after prefecture before reaching the sea at Dragon Tail Shoal in Yang Province and entering the Eastern Sea.
Pan Long planned to take a boat east to Yang Province.
Yang Province was the most prosperous of the Nine Provinces. Even during the Warring States era, it had scarcely suffered the ravages of war. Pan Long had spent most of the past few years in remote, impoverished places. He had even slept under the open sky in wild mountains like a savage. It was time he saw the splendor of the human world.
He had seen Yong Province, just about the poorest of the Nine Provinces.
He had seen Yi Province, where the Great Xia Dynasty's hold was just about the weakest.
Now it was time to see where the Great Xia Dynasty was most prosperous.
Only by comparing