Chapter 779: The Road to the South (Part 1)

Jiujiang, in Liuzhou.

The cargo ship was going down the river.

"Ugh..." Gongshu Jin lay by the window and retched for a while, but only vomited a mouthful of sour water.

"Drink some ginger soup, I asked the cook to make it." Gongshu Feng handed a water bag to his brother.

He didn't expect that this cousin who had no blood relationship with him would get seasick.

The ship they took was already a good lion ship, not only wide and large, but also with cabins in the middle of the hull for people to sleep. But even so, Gongshu Jin vomited a lot when passing through the rapids, and he hasn't eaten properly for almost two days.

Gongshu Jin took the water bag and drank it reluctantly. Then he let out a long breath and sat down slowly. "How long will it take us to reach Jinxia City?"

"I asked the boatman. Huiyang City is not far ahead. After Huiyang, it will take at most one and a half days to enter Shenzhou." Gongshu Feng said, "There are ice boats without sails in Shenzhou. I heard that the speed is several times that of ordinary boats. We just need to change to ice boats and reach Jinxia in one day."

"Ice boat?" Gongshu Jin frowned slightly, "It's not winter now."

"That's what the boatman said. Even in the hottest July and August, these boats can run back and forth on Jiujiang."

"Is this also something that the Mo family has made..."

"I don't know. But it is absolutely impossible to do this with mechanical technology alone." Gongshu Feng shrugged, "Whether it is true or false, everything will be revealed when we reach Shenzhou."

Gongshu Jin nodded and stopped talking.

He turned his eyes to the window again.

Gongshu Feng naturally knew what his younger brother was looking at. In fact, this was what he had seen the most in recent days. Whenever he looked at the river bank, he could see a group of ragged refugees slowly moving south. There were dozens of them at a time, and hundreds of them at a time. These migrants who didn't know where they were going had yellow faces, skinny hands and feet, and even fell on the road while walking. Sometimes he even had an illusion that he was not looking at his own kind, but a group of animals similar to humans.

"Is this really Liuzhou?" After a moment, Gongshu Feng heard his younger brother whisper.

It was not surprising that he had such doubts.

Because according to what they knew, Liuzhou was a very rich area in Qi State, second only to Shangyuan in the capital.

"It should be right." Gongshu Feng replied softly, "I have written down every town I passed."

"Where are they going?" the younger brother asked again.

"This... maybe a place to stay?" To be honest, this was the first time Gong Fengwang had seen such a situation. When he was in Xu State, he rarely left Dadu. He either stayed in the Ministry of Industry or in his own machinery yard. With the popularization of mechanical water wheels and wooden oxen, Dadu has always been the most prosperous city in the six countries. There are people wandering the streets, but they are basically lazy, disabled, and ruffians. It is easy for him to avoid seeing them.

"Hey, where are they going?" Someone suddenly interrupted, "In fact, they don't even know where they are going."

Gong Shufeng turned around and saw the middle-aged man next door leaning against the door with a pot of rice wine in his hand.

He was also one of the passengers on the cargo ship. His surname was Mo and he seemed to be a businessman.

The rooms on the ship were small, soundproofed, and had no privacy. The two brothers were used to it.

"Mr. Mo." Gongshu Feng bowed his hands. "You said they don't know? Then why do they want to go?"

"Because if they don't go, they will die. Since they will die anyway, why not go and see."

"If they don't go, they will die?"

"You...are not from Qi, right?" The middle-aged man looked at them for a few times.

This made Gongshu Feng's back tighten.

According to the plan, their new identity is a small family from a remote town in the capital area. Because their family has changed drastically and they are in urgent need of money, and they learned from the Shenjin Daily that they accept people who feel the world, they decided to try their luck in Jinxia. With the Privy Council paralyzed and the examination for scholars cancelled long ago, this reason is completely justifiable.

"Of course we are from Qi." Gongshu Jin coughed twice, "Why do you say that, sir?"

"Forget it, where you come from has nothing to do with me." The other party shook his head, as if he didn't want to dwell on this issue anymore, "After the defeat of the Privy Council, the court is now torn apart. The local tyrants are vying for power and money, and they don't care about the local civilians. In the past, there were government constraints, but now there are no constraints, so these people can naturally do whatever they want, and the people can only choose to flee."

"So... this is all Jinxia City's fault." Gongshu Feng said in a deep voice.

"Oh? What you said is quite interesting." Mr. Mo glanced at him, "Instead of blaming the robbers, you blame the people who are against the robbers? As far as I know, the situation in Jinxia is much better than here, at least everyone has enough food to eat."

"But you also said that there were government constraints before. In other words, weren't they the ones who let the robbers out?" Gongshu Feng retorted, "If Jinxia didn't rebel and let the Privy Council take over the local governments, this wouldn't have happened."

The other party suddenly showed a half-smile, "Do you think everything will be better if you hand it over to the Privy Council?"

Is there anything wrong?

Gongshu Feng said stubbornly, "That's right."

"After all, they are a rich family." Mr. Mo opened the wine pot, raised his head and took a sip, "But now... it's hard to say whether we are rich!"

"Sorry, we are just from an ordinary family-"

"Ordinary people don't carry leather water bags with them." He waved his hand and interrupted, "And the shoes, your soles are too clean... If you want to hide your identity, you should use more care."

After speaking, the man shook the wine bottle and walked out of the boat house.

The brothers looked at each other.

They had already put on the simplest linen clothes before setting off, leaving not a single jewelry or pendant behind. In order to match their status, they only carried the most basic travel expenses and a package of dry food, and even the machine tools that they rarely left behind. The tool kits were all left in Shangyuan City.

I thought this would be perfect, but unexpectedly, an ordinary businessman on board the ship saw the flaw.

Gong Shujin glanced at the water bag in his brother's hand and said, "I'm afraid this thing will be thrown away."

"Do you even need to change your shoes?" Gong Shufeng raised his feet with some embarrassment. These cloth shoes were much worse than the soft deerskin boots he wore every day. In order not to irritate his feet, he deliberately stuffed two more shoes into them. It's just a soft pad, but I didn't expect that the cloth shoes themselves had problems in the end.

At this moment, a shout suddenly came from the bow of the ship.

Gong Shujin stood up and looked around, only to see a gray-white city wall not far away from Zuo Xian. Long iron cables were stretched on the Jiujiang River, and many ships piled up on both sides, forming a dense forest of masts. At the same time, several fast boats were approaching the cargo ship. The man standing on the bow wearing official robes shouted loudly, "Stop the ship! Get inspected by Huiyang Mansion!"