On a summer morning, thin mist lingered over the river. Beneath the veranda of the public office at Sikou Pass's ferry crossing, the three parties who were about to go their separate ways, along with many chiefs and officials from the Eastern Territories, were having their customary corridor meal.
Now, meals beneath the public office verandas were an institution inherited from Great Zhou, common in the army and the various offices of the Eastern Capital. They counted as a basic benefit of government service or soldiering, and the expression "eating the government's rice" came from this... Allegedly, the reason Dragonhead Zhang had beheaded Duke Niu in Liang Commandery was that the bastard had once skimped on the Crouching Dragon Guard's corridor meals in the Eastern Capital, earning the resentment of Dragonhead Zhang, Wang Zhen, and their fellows.
A joke was naturally just a joke, but it showed how much ordinary clerks and public employees valued their corridor meals.
As for the Exorcising the Dragon Gang, probably because it had retained so many of Great Wei's local officials and public facilities from the outset, it had continued this institution early on and developed it further-because of Zhang Xing's personal insistence and habits, senior officials and chiefs of all kinds followed his example, often joining these meals themselves and forming the habit of discussing government affairs before and afterward.
In fact, the Exorcising the Dragon Gang had a saying, "No Taboos Under the Corridor." It meant that things people normally found awkward to say, dared not say, or had no opportunity to say could be brought up at these times with the understanding of superiors and colleagues. Those in high positions could also use the occasion to float ideas and observe reactions.
Returning to the present, the atmosphere at that morning's corridor