The paddles of these water beasts are made according to the principle that they are ape-like, long, white-haired, and whose paws have degenerated into the kind of cattails of frogs, suitable for rowing in the water.

The pupils were white, there were no black pupils, and the brushes were stimulated by the firelight to shed tears.

Sharp claws slammed into the torches, and a series of crossbow arrows rang out from the boat.

"Brush, Brush, Brush"

"Collapse, collapse, collapse"

The crossbow bolt broke through the air, and this manual crossbow was small enough to be operated by a single person, and the recoil was not strong enough to stun the arm. The bolts were made of stainless steel, no more than three inches long, with barbs hanging from the tips.

These water monkeys have been stabbed in the skull by crossbow arrows, and there is no chance of survival. Most of King Jing's guards are equipped with dark crossbows, and the quasi-head is also quite good, with 100 shots.

The injured water monkey fluttered a few times, making a large splash, and then kicked its legs.

Using the oars to remove the body of the water monkey from the water, the boat continued on its way.

......

In the dark underground river, there is an undercurrent. Under the calm waters, I don't know how many terrifying creatures there are, as well as ocean current whirlpools, underground caves. The peculiar underground form has always been a forbidden area for humans. The earth's crust is no better than the ground, and it is difficult to survey inside.

The water surface became wider and wider, and the dark rocks on both sides of the underground river were much smoother. What seemed like a dark environment was gradually gaining a glimmer of light.

The light lies ahead.

This light is so bright that it is used to seeing darkness, and people lose their minds for a moment.

The sound of the water was heard, and the surface of the water was no longer unwavering, and the river began to flow. A section of the road ahead went upstream, and a group of small boats slid and rushed up. This slope is just a small meaning for Zhou Sheng and others.

Out of this countercurrent, the emptiness and fresh air for a moment are relieved. The darkness just now was too depressing, like the whole person being buried alive in the ground, and the psychological poor had to collapse.

The sun in the sky was still gray, the air was filled with moisture, and the smell of earth after rain was refreshing.

Surrounded by verdant greenery, this is a deep mountain, which is not affected by the climate due to the influence of geothermal heat. Lush, a good landscape.

It was still afternoon, and the small wooden boat emerged from a black crack in a rock wall. The gap is no more than half a meter high, and when it came out just now, the heads of several unlucky guards slammed into it, and now there are several big red envelopes.

......

......

Good mountains, good water, good scenery, this is Daqing Mountain. A barren mountain outside Bianliang in Kyoto, out of here, it is equivalent to leaving Beijing.

The tiger returns to the mountain, the dragon enters the sea, even if there is an army to encircle and suppress it, it is helpless.

King Jing took a deep breath of cold air, and a smile appeared on his serious face. Leaving the oppressive place of Kyoto, his mood is much better.

More than a dozen small boats went down the river, the sound of apes on both sides of the river was bursting, and the wild monkeys in the mountains and forests were very skinned, and they smashed people with stones.

"Squeak"

A golden snub-nosed monkey grimaced, holding a kiwi in its paws, and swerving through the trees.

......

Zhou Sheng and the three of them talked about the itinerary, and the next place to arrive is Qingshui Wharf, from where they will take the waterway down to Jiangnan. First make a big boat to go through a section of the Huaiyang Canal, and when you reach the middle reach, you will find a way to destroy the construction of the imperial court.

The further you go out of the mountain, the smoother the water flow and the wider the water surface becomes. The water in the river is crystal clear, these are groundwater, it can also be said to be deep mountain spring water, which can be used to wash rice for cooking, or to make tea, and the water quality is very sweet.

The surrounding greenery gradually disappeared, the outside of the mountain became cold, the surrounding area became snow-capped mountains, and the river had frozen.

Abandon ship.

packed their bags, and King Jing's guards also abandoned their armor and changed into the costumes of secular guards.

Zhou Sheng looked back at Kyoto, neat houses, square markets, the popularity is boiling, and the prosperity is prosperous. Look ahead, hazy.

"Good scenery in the south of the Yangtze River, but unfortunately, it's not fireworks in March, otherwise there will be a taste of Yangzhou."

......

Clearwater Pier is a small town, Clearwater Town. Although Qingshui Town is a town, it is quite lively, and there is an endless stream of people coming and going from the south to the north. Qingshui Town is close to the Huaiyang Grand Canal, and the transportation is developed, and it is a gathering place for peddlers and pawns.

Relying on the water for drafting, the people rely on this big river for food. Rice, official salt, and minerals from the south are transported to Kyoto through the Huaiyang Grand Canal. It then passed through Kyoto and was transported to the northern border.

Because of the convenience of water transportation and the large volume of transportation, it is more expensive than the land route, so the Grand Canal is also the lifeblood of the north-south economy. The canal is also the main source of water for the population, and the quality of the water is not much different from that of the well water dug from the ground.

In the winter, the southern section of the water is fine, but the section of the water near the Qingshui Wharf has frozen.

Most of the ice is not thick, but a small part is more than a meter thick and can carry hundreds of tons.

"Boom"

More than a dozen massive icebreakers were clearing the ice, and the thinner layers of ice were clattering and crumbling into a mixture of ice and water.

The sheer size of the icebreaker has created its unimaginable weight. It works by crushing the ice by its weight. The driving force for progress is a motorized oar, a mechanized boat invented by the Mohists.

The icebreaker passed, although the water will not flow and freeze, but this bit of ice is not too much of a problem for ordinary merchant ships, and it can be sailed.

Zhou Sheng shook his gaze at the icebreaker at work, the dark hull, which gave people a sense of liliang at a glance, and felt a little interested.

Sailing in a large river in such a boat, in the event of a collision, the icebreaker is absolutely the safest, even a military ship cannot hit this iron lump.

"The icebreaker is powerful, but it is too slow. If the speed of this icebreaker increases and is used in military affairs, then a fleet of large sailors can sweep several oceans."

King Jing stood next to the canal, looking at the scenery in the river, and sighed.

The Huaiyang Grand Canal is several kilometers wide and hundreds of meters deep, and can carry hundreds of tons of carrying capacity.

The Grand Canal is thousands of years old, and the first dynasty to dig it has long since been wiped out in the tide of history, and legend has it that in order to dig the river, that dynasty mobilized the people of the entire country and depleted the treasury.

As for the reason for the excavation, it is also interesting, folklore is that in order to dig this Grand Canal, the king wanted to go to Yangzhou to see the beauties, so he built a huge and rare dragon boat. Ordinary rivers simply could not carry such behemoths, so a large river was dug up. The soil excavated from the excavation of the canal has piled up mountains on both sides of the canal.

Millions of people died and were buried in the mud and sand of the canal. Since then, there have been endless legends of water ghosts in the canals, who have died unjustly and often come out to intercept boats.

Of course, these water ghosts can only be fake, and the water thieves are pretty much the same. Thousands of years of dead bones have to rot into dregs, and they can still come out to scare people?

......

......

Zhou Sheng looked at the ships coming and going on the canal, the big ships with all kinds of sails and business names, shook his head and sighed, sighing for the king who dug the canal!

I believe that His original purpose was also for the transportation and prosperity of the country. But he was unlucky, the canal was dug up, he also hiccuped, and his country was destroyed. However, thousands of years later, the canal prospered thanks to his contributions......

......

The people who responded to King Jing and the others were in the Qingshui Wharf. The shrouding ability of the big net of Junshanhui is too strong, and it exists in all walks of life.

Zhou Sheng looked at the hunchbacked old man in front of him, and his heart was happy!

The old man trembled slightly, his hair was white, but the soles of his feet were wide, and his five toes were spread as far as possible, which was a habit that could only be cultivated in the boat all year round, in order to increase the contact area between the soles of his feet and the surface of the boat.

The old man has a fishy smell on his body, although he has been fishing all year round and has also practiced a few skills, but he is still an ordinary person. Zhou Sheng couldn't understand that such an ordinary old man who fishered at home, what did he run out to make a fuss about, and accidentally kicked his legs, it would not be a loss.

Beside the old man, there was also a timid and cowardly young man, with dark skin, calloused hands, and thick fingers, who looked as if he was the old man's son.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am old and polite, this is my big baby, Yusheng. If you want to take a boat to the south, you have to wait two days. The fleet to the south has not yet set sail, and a single ship does not dare to cross such a long distance, the water is not very peaceful, and there are many pirates, so there must be a large fleet to go together......"

"Hmm!"

King Jing nodded, and things were not in a hurry for a while.

Zhou Sheng and the others lived in Qingshui Town, and lived in Yusheng's house, fortunately, the courtyard was big enough, and as for King Jing's hundred guards, they all went to live in the inn outside.

Yusheng's father has three sons, the eldest son Yusheng, the second son Shuisheng, and the third son died before confinement and died!

This is a very ordinary fisherman, and as for them doing things for Junshanhui, they are just to make ends meet and earn a few copper plates. In fact, even they don't know who they are hosting, only a few nobles from Kyoto, as long as they are entertained.

When a few nobles were sent on the ship to the south, their task would be completed, and by then they would have a few hundred taels of snowflake silver, which would be enough for their income for more than ten years.

For the sake of money, anyone is bold. Zhou Sheng and the others are also fugitives now, if ordinary people are received and reported out, it will be over, and the whole family will be finished.

......

Yusheng's food looks good, and it looks like it's done with care. But no matter how good it is, it's still fish all day long, steamed, braised in red, fried, and salted fish.

It's okay to eat fish and meat in one or two meals, but if you eat too much, you will be sick to your stomach. The conditions are poor, there are no greens, and there are some green onions and wild vegetable leaves floating in the fish soup. The grain is also coarse chaff, King Jing is good at this, and it is only when he eats this thing that he is happy.

Liu Yang and Lord Chen were a little unaccustomed to eating, so they went to eat in the restaurant outside. As for Zhou Sheng, he ate with relish, and a pot of fish soup poured into his stomach. The Yusheng family who watched it widened their eyes, my mother, is that still a person, what kind of stomach is that!

Not to mention fish soup, Zhou Sheng has even eaten mud and stones, and the river has to be a small lake. This bit of food really didn't satisfy his belly.

After eating enough and having nothing to do, Zhou Sheng followed Yusheng to the canal to fish. He doesn't have to practice every day now, it's just a matter of pleasing his mind, and meditation can't increase much strength, so it's better to relax and relax.

Yusheng's father retired, and when he was old, he couldn't catch fish, so he was replaced by two brothers, Yusheng and Shuisheng.

Yusheng has already looked for his mother-in-law and gave birth to cubs. Shui Sheng is still young, only twelve or thirteen years old, not yet old, but it is almost old, after making money this time, his father is ready to find him a daughter-in-law.

On the pebbles of the gentle area of the river, fishing nets are being picked by fishermen with trouser legs.

......

There are a lot of fish in the canal, groups of fish, which cannot be fished cleanly, and there is no problem of overfishing. Most of these fish are miscellaneous fish, worthless, crabs, yellow eels, loaches and the like, they taste good, but the number is too large, and when you get to the market, you can buy a basket with a basket of ten large boards.

Yu Sheng was very respectful to Zhou Sheng, he knew that he was a noble person in front of him, and he could not afford to provoke him. You see the clothes, they are all pure bear skin, and the white bear skin can only be found on the ice field.

Those big white bears are powerful, and it takes a lot of effort for hunters to hunt a white bear, and it is also jishu to keep the bear skin from being damaged. Every bear skin is a lot of money.

When Shui Sheng saw Zhou Sheng's white bear coat, the soft and white hair, the soft fur, smooth as silk, always wanted to go up and touch it. However, he was stopped by Yusheng and reprimanded him in a low voice.

"You are a loser, you can't afford to sell you, that's what you can touch!"

"Brother, I'll just touch it and see how it is different from our Mai, try to warm it up!"

Winter is a difficult time for these fishermen. It was so cold that my ears were frozen and my toes were numb. The clothes sold in the world are too expensive, and many people are reluctant to buy them, so they have to get by and survive the winter.

The river is cold, and you have to fish in order to get food. Fishing in winter is always a little higher than selling in summer, and if you wait until summer and the market is flooded with fish, it is really worthless, and you can buy a basket for a penny.

......

Yusheng's daughter-in-law is pregnant, and she is already a second child, but she can't be idle, and she is weaving fishing nets there with a big belly. There were more than a dozen peasant women around, talking and laughing.

The sound of men's trumpets sounded in the canal, and it was not easy to make a living. Shouting in the big winter can lift your strength. There are even those who sing love songs.

When the women heard their man's voice, they all looked up and saw their own majestic and heroic posture, and their faces were full of excitement. At this time, these women who weave fishing nets always have to laugh a few words, nothing more than a few meat jokes, those hey things in bed at night......