Witch Wind

Chapter 159: Mi's Journey (Part )

This year, Dragon Boat Festival.

Early in the morning, on both sides of the river in the Pinghaicheng section, colorful flags were waving and gongs and drums were beating. People on both sides raised their triple- and nine-barreled muskets, and the unloaded muskets were fired in the air, making a 'bang bang' sound.

Hundreds of old-style bronze tiger-crouching cannons were set up on both sides of the river. They were also not loaded with shells, but only with powder bags. They fired loud "bang bang" sounds that could be heard clearly on both sides.

More than one million people gathered on both sides of the river, stretching for nearly a hundred miles.

Jiangdong Province, several neighboring provinces, counties, and wealthy and powerful villages and towns all sent out their own dragon boat teams to gather in the upper reaches of the river. Nearly three thousand dragon boats gathered together to compete for the dragon head championship offered by the Jiangdong Governor's Office and the county and prefecture governments.

The bounty for the trophy is extremely high, and the officials at all levels of government are rarely generous. In addition, the gentry and local celebrities also contribute money to join in the event. If a dragon boat team can win the trophy, everyone in the team can win at least 20,000 to 30,000 taels of silver!
For ordinary people, this amount of wealth is enough to live a life of luxury and luxury, or even provide enough wealth for three generations of grandparents and grandchildren to eat and drink.

For the county, town, or village to which this dragon boat team belongs, it is an extremely glorious, respectable, and "extremely lucky" thing.

According to folk rumors, several years ago, a dragon boat team sent by a village in Jiangdong Province won the championship. Thirty years later, this village grew like mushrooms. In this small village of a thousand people, it produced one Tanhua, six Jinshi, and over fifty Juren and Xiucai!
There are countless legends like this.

Therefore, people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait cheered, clamored, stamped their feet, applauded, and jumped for joy, almost going crazy.

In the upper reaches of the river, nearly a hundred miles away from the starting point of the river's estuary, the dragon boat teams sent by the governor's offices of several major provinces, including Jiangdong Province, Chutian Province, and Yunmeng Province, lined up behind a red rope.

Ten feet behind the dragon boat teams of the governor's offices of several major provinces, the dragon boat teams sent out by several major provinces and dozens of counties were lined up in an orderly row.

Behind the county government's dragon boat team were dragon boats sent by county governments, towns, and even major clans. They lined up in neat rows according to their personal connections, power, and the subtle "relationships" unique to the East.

On the dragon boat, strong and sturdy men with strong arms were waving their oars proudly and waving to the people on both sides of the strait.

People on both sides of the Taiwan Strait also followed suit and clamored wildly.

Although both the rowers and the people on both sides of the strait could only vaguely see each other's blurry figures, this did not prevent them from interacting crazily and venting the passion in their hearts that was about to explode.

On the north bank of the river, on a newly repaired section of the river embankment, amid the surging crowd, several handsome men wearing extremely ancient black robes, tall crowns on their heads, with sleeves and lapels inlaid with gorgeous dark gold and blood-red decorative patterns, and faintly visible patterns of flying dragons and witches on their robes, were pointing at the river.

There were so many people around, and the crowd was so turbulent that even a male bear would be forced to lose its footing and drift with the flow. However, there seemed to be an invisible barrier around these men. No matter how noisy and crowded the people around them, no one could get within ten feet of them.

At noon, nearly a thousand cowhide drums roared on both sides of the river, and more than a dozen dragon boats were supported by a wooden platform, slowly sliding from the Jiangnan embankment to the center of the river. The governor of Jiangdong Province, Jin Santan, dressed in a full set of official uniforms, stood solemnly on the platform, twirling his beard from time to time and nodding to the people on both sides of the river.

When the platform reached the center of the river, more than a hundred rowers roared and waved their oars. The wooden platform was then firmly fixed in the center of the river. No matter how hard the water washed over it, it remained motionless.

Jin Santan bowed to all around, picked up incense, lit it and inserted it into a small incense burner. Then he took out a sacrificial prayer made of brocade and began to recite the sacrificial text in a loud voice.

On both sides of the Taiwan Strait, burly and strong soldiers who had been arranged in advance recited the contents of the sacrificial text in a loud and rhythmic manner.

There was a lot of noise all around, and no one could really hear the content of Jin Santan's eulogy. However, this did not prevent drums and trumpets from strait sides from blasting, and muskets and cannons from blasting, which brought the atmosphere to a new climax.

The men in black robes clearly heard the content of Jin Santan's eulogy.

A young man who was about six feet tall, with a pine-like figure and a crane-like temperament, and was born with extraordinary elegance, suddenly twitched his face, looked sideways at the people around him, and shook his hands fiercely: "What is this? What is this? Dragon boat racing is a bad custom, it is not acceptable, it is not acceptable."

The other men in black robes all laughed.

On the platform, Jin Santan took out a bunch of rice dumplings from a huge basket and slowly threw them into the river.

Then, people on both sides of the Yangtze River shouted in unison: "Duke Qu Yuan, please accept my respect!"

The young man's expression was even more interesting.

The men in black robes smiled even more brightly.

Seeing his companions smiling so proudly, the young man sighed heavily and shook his head, saying, "Forget it, forget it, just be happy, just be happy. I don't think the old ancestor would mind seeing the people in the world so noisy and prosperous. He is clearly alive and well, but he has been 'received'!"

After sighing a few times, the young man also laughed. He suddenly squinted his eyes and looked at the crowd. On several wooden platforms decorated with brocade and brightly decorated, there were those wealthy men sitting on them, holding various telescopes and binoculars in their hands.

These viewing platforms are not accessible to ordinary people.

Those who can go up to this viewing platform must at least be gentry and wealthy merchants who have made great efforts in the Dragon Boat Festival. They must at least donate one thousand taels of silver to the government in order to have a seat on this wooden platform during the annual Dragon Boat Festival and dragon boat race.

However, this year was strange. On these wooden stages, many men in gorgeous clothes tried their best to smile, but their faces were twitching. They were not smiling at all; they were clearly crying!

"It's strange. During such a festive occasion and such a grand ceremony, if one or two people had experienced misfortune in their family, it would be fine if they put on a forced smile. But how come from this glance, there are more than a thousand people on both sides of the river who are forcing smiles but hiding their sorrows?"

The handsome young man tightened his face and lowered his voice: "Could it be that all the local gentry and wealthy families have encountered injustice? Have they been robbed by the royal family? Have they been bullied by the government? Have they been bullied by bandits? It's simply outrageous! If these wealthy people have sad faces, what about ordinary people?"

The young man waved his hand, and the surging crowd naturally parted to the left and right, leaving a six-foot-wide, one-hundred-foot-long passage leading directly to the wooden platform. He put his hands behind his back, and walked over without touching the ground, saying softly: "Everyone, come quickly and take a good look with me to see the administration of the Great Yu Dynasty and their national strength."

"Hey, according to the contract signed by many ancestors back then, if the people of the Great Jade Dynasty are in dire straits... the offerings given to us must be increased."

On the flat ground, a breeze with a faint scent of incense blew. On the platform, a few wealthy men with sad faces, wearing the most gorgeous clothes, but with the most decadent aura, even a little bit of decay and withering, were inexplicably fascinated and walked down the wooden platform by themselves and came to the back of the platform, to a secluded corner.

'Boom'!
Several wealthy men knelt on the ground, and before they could figure out what was going on, they had already kowtowed several times involuntarily.

Several men shivered with severe pain on their foreheads. When they came to themselves, they saw several handsome men standing in front of them. They were dressed in strange clothes, tall and majestic, and their temperament and bearing were very different from ordinary people.

The handsome young man in the lead, with his hands behind his back, looked down at them with his head slightly lowered, and asked in a contemptuous tone: "What are you worried about? Have you suffered any injustice? Tell me, Mi, I will make the decision for you..."

With a cold snort, the young man said softly: "Don't worry, even if the person who harms you is the current Queen Mother of the Great Yu Dynasty, I can still break her big teeth."

"Huh!" Several wealthy men were stunned, not knowing what was going on for a moment. They remained silent and dared not say a word.

The truth is, they remembered clearly that they were participating in this year's Dragon Boat Festival celebration on the wooden stage. They were forcing themselves to smile and chatting cheerfully with a group of gentry and bigwigs of equal status around them. Suddenly, they had no idea what had happened and how they ended up in a secluded corner behind the wooden stage.
Why did they fall to their knees?
Why do they have forehead pain?
These men were all over six feet tall, with majestic figures and otherworldly temperaments. Their clothes were totally out of tune with the current era. It was as if the legendary mountain spirits and gods had suddenly appeared in front of them!
How could ordinary people ever encounter such a thing?
In particular, this young man who claimed to be surnamed Mi actually boasted that he could break all the teeth of the Empress Dowager?

Are you kidding me?
This young man is so handsome, but he is actually crazy!
The current Empress Dowager has been ruling the country from behind the curtain for decades. She has slowly defeated countless princes, dukes and ministers. One by one, their entire families have been executed and they have no right to be reborn:
The current Queen Mother is even more skilled in using the power of the great powers to defeat them. She is extremely skilled in the art of balance. The Western devils in Pinghai City are usually domineering and bully the people of the Dayu Dynasty like wild bears swatting rabbits. Once they talk about the old saint Queen Mother, they are amazed and in awe.

Moreover, the current Queen Mother firmly controls the entire Great Yu Dynasty. Not to mention the billions of common people, the huge Great Yu Dynasty and the mighty army of tens of millions, wow!

You are such a handsome young man, you look no more than sixteen years old, how dare you say such things?

"Our affairs have nothing to do with the current Queen Mother, the Old Saint Mother." A most mature and steady middle-aged man said in a deep voice: "Young man, you must not talk nonsense, so as not to bring yourself into trouble."

The young man surnamed Mi smiled and said, "Since it has nothing to do with the Queen Mother, just tell me what difficulties you have encountered. Could it be that the local bureaucrats deceived the people and seized your property, or even took your wife and daughter away, or even robbed your mother?"

When the young man surnamed Mi said this... several men traveling with him all rolled their eyes.

The mature middle-aged man was silent for a moment, and exchanged glances with a few people around him who shared the same pain. With a few "clicks", hot tears flowed from their eyes at the same time, and lines of clear tears flowed down their cheeks and fell to the ground with a crisp sound.

"Mr. Mi, we have been forced into a desperate situation!" The mature middle-aged man fell to the ground with a thud and began to cry bitterly, telling the young man surnamed Mi about the nightmare he and his group had experienced in the past few months.

Everywhere, the people of the Dayu Dynasty were delighted, and everyone was jumping for joy and cheering.

In the upper reaches of the river, several high-speed inland gunboats were sailing downstream, constantly blowing their whistles.

Look at the flag flying on the inland gunboat. It belongs to the British Navy of the International Concession.

Seeing these gunboats, the people on both sides of the strait went even more crazy - it was obvious that nearly three thousand dragon boats upstream had already set off.

So, in the crowd, gambling vendors of all sizes were running back and forth, constantly taking small pieces of silver, or even a string of copper coins from the hands of the people - during the festival, a little gambling was just for fun, and the people of the Dayu Dynasty did not mind placing a bet on one or several dragon boats.

Over a million people participated in the gambling game, with a total fund of nearly 10 million. Once you bet on the winner of the leading trophy, boom, you’ll have a lifetime of food and clothing!

The atmosphere at the scene was about to explode, but no matter how noisy the crowd was, no one approached this corner. Everyone was waving their limbs and spitting madly three feet away. Even their roars and the roars of nearby muskets and cannons became faint.

The mature man told the story slowly and leisurely.

His surname is Yan, and he is a native of Nanxun Town, Pinghai County, Jieshi County, Jiangdong Province. The Yan family is the earliest aristocratic family to settle in Nanxun Town, except for the Xingtian family of Pingyuan Hall. Relying on the protection of the Xingtian family of Pingyuan Hall, the Yan family has been operating for generations and accumulated tremendous wealth.

In terms of land, the Yan family owned hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land in Jieshi County, Jiangdong Province, and even in several other provinces.

As for mines, the Yan family also has copper, iron, mercury mines in the surrounding provinces, as well as more than 30 tungsten and tin mines that are extremely sought-after in the hundreds of countries in the far west. Each of them can be called a gold mine.

In terms of merchants, the Yan family had five to six hundred shops of all sizes, and there were nearly a hundred caravans traveling to various places in the Dayu Dynasty. There were dozens of large inland sand ships that could transport hundreds of thousands of kilograms of goods.

In terms of power, since the Yan family became rich, they have been trying to move closer to a scholarly family. Today, there are 28 memorial archways for Jinshi in front of the Yan family's ancestral home. The number of Juren and Xiucai who have emerged from the family is more than a hundred. In Fentian City, the capital of the Dayu Dynasty, among the six ministries, the Yan family has a powerful assistant minister.

Especially in recent years, the Yan family has become closer to Xingtian Qingshu, the newly-appointed Earl of Pingbo from the Xingtian clan of Pingyuan Hall.

The Yan family is one of the largest distributors of Xing Tianqingshu's 'Bliss Incense'.

Thanks to this business, the Yan family doubled their wealth in just a few years!
The profits from a few years actually surpassed all the wealth that Yan Jia's ancestors had worked hard to accumulate over the past thousands of years. The Yan family had no choice but to expand several cellars to store the gold and silver that they had no idea how to spend.

With more gold and silver in his hands, this mature man, Yan Houde, the current head of the Yan family, even bought a candidate for the fourth-rank county governor. On weekdays, he went in and out, wearing the fourth-rank official robe, and was followed by dozens of armed servants whose names were on the list of the governor's camp of the Jiangdong Provincial Governor's Office. Tsk, what a majestic and imposing manner!

The world is so beautiful.

Life is so happy.

In recent years, Yan Houde's life is like living in heaven. Even if he were to become a god, he probably wouldn't be willing to change!

However, the nightmare suddenly came last year.

A terrible, cruel, and omnipotent thief emptied all the gold, silver, and old copper coins stored in the six cellars of the Yan family overnight.

This heavy blow almost broke the backbone of the Yan family.

Before Yan Houde could figure out how to explain this devastating news to the clan elders and relatives, the head of the weaving department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Princess Yihe, made another huge demand.

Princess Yihe needs money, a lot of money.

Who is Princess Yihe? She is the backer of the wealthy families who are close to Xing Tianqingshu. They have been able to do a smooth and prosperous business in the past few years, and have been able to get through government offices everywhere without any obstacles, all because of Princess Yihe's care.

When Princess Yihe asked for money, Yan Houde tried his best and gritted his teeth to raise the funds - as a result, he almost emptied the liquid funds on all the Yan family's business accounts!
This won’t work. It won’t work!

We have to make money and make up for the deficit. At the very least, we can't let the elders find out that our cellar has been emptied, right?

Therefore, Yan Houde and a large number of other gentry joined hands with Xing Tianqingshu, and Xing Tianqingshu used various real estate contracts to mortgage huge sums of money in Feiyun Port to buy a huge amount of "Bliss Fragrance" from Maso.

Originally everyone thought that they could make a lot of money this time!
As a result, that damn thief!

He emptied out all the bliss incense!
He emptied out all the cash he earned from the sale of the Bliss Incense!
"Two months ago, Princess Yihe took pity on us and personally led a large group of people to Dongyun. We found Princess Maso, the proprietress of the Dark Whisper Forest. We spent a huge amount of money to mortgage it to the Yingji people again, and obtained a huge amount of money from them. We purchased another batch of Bliss Incense."

Yan Houde murmured, "But, but, this time, before the Jilexiang was even shipped back, on the sea, halfway through, the twelve escort ironclad ships rented from the Yingji people sank, and all the Jilexiang was hijacked... Even the large group of people brought by Princess Yihe disappeared, and only the Princess and Lord Xingtian escaped!"

"Our poor princess, our Lord Xingtian!"

Yan Houde burst into tears: "They were on a small sampan, and somehow the ocean current pushed them back to the Pinghai City estuary. They were exposed to the sun all the way, and both of them were sunburned!"

"They don't know what evil magic has befell them. They have been back for several days and are still unconscious!"

"We are such a distinguished people and have such a high status that there is absolutely no reason for us not to participate in this grand Dragon Boat Festival... We are so upset that we can only put on a brave face and participate in this grand event and celebrate with the people."

"We...are suffering!"

"If this continues, we will not only lose everything, our family will be destroyed, but we will simply, simply... our entire clan will be wiped out and we will not even have a place to bury our bodies!"

(End of this chapter)