The last month of winter ended, spring returned, and Wang Yang left Jingzhou.
As the poet of old had said, "My old friend bade farewell to Yellow Crane Tower in the west, and sailed down to Yangzhou through the blossoms and haze of the third month."
The third month, with its blossoms and haze, warm sunshine and gentle breezes, and willow fluff drifting along the banks, was the best time to travel down to Jiangnan.
Wang Yang, Le Pang, and Yu Yuling traveled together aboard three large boats and two small ones, taking Xiao Shan, a retinue of servants and guards, and their belongings and household goods eastward down the Yangtze River. Along the way, they visited famous cities, sought out delicacies, bought curios, explored flowering landscapes, roamed mountains and waterways, and composed verses amid rosy clouds and mist. They enjoyed themselves immensely.
That day, they passed Pengze County and entered Yuzhou. Here the river suddenly broadened, while the mountains on either bank grew ever more rugged and precipitous, no longer gently rolling as before. Dark cliffs thrust up from the earth like swords and halberds. Clouds billowed between them, gathering and dispersing by turns. Sunlight pierced the clouds and struck the river, shattering into ten thousand golden scales that dazzled the eye.
Amid all that gold, sandbars large and small lay scattered like stars in the sky and pieces on a chessboard. Reeds covered them, their fresh green growth like soft carpets. Clumps of sweet flag grew in the shallows, purple flowers in full bloom. The small boat scouting ahead threaded through the reed beds, startling flocks of waterbirds into fluttering flight. Their cries rose and fell, lingering for a long while.
The sight left Le Xiaopang and Yu Yuling feeling lighthearted and refreshed. Together, they went to find