Zongwu: The Rise of the Little People

Four days later in the morning.

There was a drizzling rain in the sky.

Since the beginning of spring, there has been more rain.

Zhao Xu stood alone at the stern, holding a pink bag in his hand.

Looking at the Laoshan Island shrouded in spring rain, it is getting smaller and smaller.

"Yesterday's sunny day still makes me drunk, old memories still haunt my soul. I don't know I'm alone at night, fireworks fade away easily and people leave easily."

Zhao Xu felt reluctant to leave the place where he had lived for three years, but what he was most reluctant to leave were the people here.

I chose to leave early in the morning without anyone seeing me off, just to reduce the sadness of parting.

Laoshan gradually disappeared from Zhao Xu's sight.

In a corner of the dock, a girl looked at the sailing sailboat and shed tears silently.

It was a clear and mild April, just after Qingming Festival, at the Liangjie River, at the north bank pier.

Liangjie River is the longest and widest river in East Continent.

It stretches for more than ten thousand miles from west to east, and the Yanzi River is just a younger brother in front of it.

It is precisely because of its vastness and danger that it becomes a natural barrier.

The two sides of the river were separated, and except for some large businesses, there was little communication between the people on both sides.

This river divides the East Continent into two worlds, hence the name Liangjie River.

Since leaving Laoba Mountain, Zhao Xu rushed to Xiangfan City without stopping.

After joining up with the Wang Family Trading Company’s team, they immediately headed south.

It has to be said that water transportation is well developed in the south, and taking a boat is indeed faster than other transportation.

In just over twenty days, they crossed half of Li Yang and reached the north bank of Liangjie River.

There are many commercial ports along the Liangjie River, and each port on the north bank corresponds to a different country in the south.

Even though I live in Chunshen Lake, I am used to seeing all kinds of rivers.

When Zhao Xu saw the Liangjie River for the first time, he was also shocked and exclaimed, "This is not a river, it's clearly the sea."

The Liangjie River is over a hundred miles wide, and you can't see the other side on either side of the river.

The dock where Zhao Xu was at this time was called Wubei Dock, and on the opposite bank was the Wu Kingdom, one of the Nine Kingdoms.

There is a Jinsha River that runs through the Nine Kingdoms and merges into the Liangjie River from Wu Kingdom.

Because of its geographical advantages, Wu State became the richest country among the nine states.

It and Anguo, which has the largest land and population, are known as the two strongest countries among the nine countries.

Zhao Xu's destination this time is the headquarters of the Jinsha Gang located in Jingcheng, Anguo.

The Jinsha Gang is the largest salt gang along the Jinsha River, with tens of thousands of gang members spread across various countries, hence the name Jinsha Gang.

Many years ago, An and Su were at war, Su was defeated, and An seized Su's Yancheng.

The Jinsha Gang, headquartered in Yancheng, took the opportunity to submit to An Guo.

However, salt and iron have been taboos that those in power have wanted to monopolize since ancient times.

Although they surrendered to An Guo, the salt business of the Jinsha Gang was still affected.

In order not to arouse Emperor Andu's suspicion, the Jinsha Gang moved its headquarters to Jingcheng, not far from Andu, and actively expanded other businesses.

The Jinsha Buildings and Jinsha Stacks, which are now spread across nine countries, are new businesses developed by the Jinsha Gang in the past two years.

The focus of the cooperation between Wangjia Commercial Bank and Jinsha Gang is on Jinsha Building and Jinsha Stack, which appeared in the past two years.

Zhao Xu and his party boarded a boat from Wubei Wharf to cross the river, then went upstream along the Jinsha River, passed through Wu State, and entered An State seven days later.

Both Anguo and Wuguo had to defend against foreign invaders from the west, so the locations of Andu and Wudu were relatively west.

Andu is far away from the Jinsha River Basin, so Zhao Xu and his party had to disembark and travel by land soon after entering the territory of Anguo.

After traveling all the way, on the afternoon of the tenth day, everyone saw a city appearing in the distance.

"Captain, Jingcheng is ahead."

Zhao Xu turned his head and looked at Wang Zhong:

"Butler Wang, have you been to Jingcheng before?"

"Two years ago, I went to Jingcheng with my master. The Wang family's business in the south was opened up at that time." Wang Zhong couldn't help but touch his beard when he said this.

Zhao Xu could see that he was quite proud of his pioneering journey two years ago.

"So that's how it is. My uncle is really amazing. He can open up a business in a place thousands of miles away." At this moment, Zhao Xu had a new understanding of Wang Quanlin's business skills.

Hearing Zhao Xu praising Wang Quanlin, Wang Zhong smiled and nodded:

"The master is indeed a business genius."

Zhao Xu looked at the tired and exhausted people and said loudly:

"Brothers, Jingcheng is ahead. The city gate will be closed after dark. Let's make an extra effort and get into the city before dark. Let's go!"

Jingcheng was just ahead. Everyone was excited and followed the team, galloping towards Jingcheng.

After much haste, Zhao Xu and his party finally entered the city before the city gates closed.

Jingcheng is not only the headquarters of the Jinsha Gang, but also the main base of the trading companies that do business with the Jinsha Gang in Anguo.

Although it is not as good as national capitals like Andu and Wudu.

But thanks to its developed commerce, Jingcheng is much more prosperous than ordinary cities.

After entering the city, Zhao Xu and his party went directly to the Wang's Trading Company's base without any delay.

After days of traveling, everyone was exhausted and wanted to have a good rest.

Fortunately, the journey was smooth. After arriving at Wang's Trading Company, Zhao Xu asked Wang Zhong to arrange for everyone to rest, and he also went into the courtyard of the chief steward.

"Scholars are merchants, and they travel back and forth all day long. Wild geese fly north in spring and south again in autumn."

In Zhao Xu's mind, merchants are generally wealthy, spend money lavishly, and live a life of debauchery.

This trip made Zhao Xu change his mind.

It seems that most businessmen only show their generous and heroic side, while the hardships of doing business are buried in their hearts.

Being a traveling merchant is hard. Not to mention the dangers one faces when traveling, just the task of traveling long distances is not easy.

Although he was away from home, Zhao Xu did not stop his practice.

But now that other skills have been perfected, I will focus on practicing traditional Chinese martial arts and weapons.

After dinner, I practiced standing still, swinging swords, stabbing with swords, and boxing.

After finishing the set, Zhao Xu ended his training for today, washed up and fell asleep.

Although Zhao Xu's current level of cultivation means that his body can recover quickly and he is not afraid of running around for days, he still needs a good rest to recover from mental fatigue.

"What a sweet dream!"

In the early morning, as soon as the sky was slightly bright, Zhao Xu's biological clock woke him up.

Just as usual, sit in meditation and practice Qigong, absorbing the purple Qi of the morning sun.

After Zhao Xu reached the peak of the second level and mastered the basic Qi training method, ordinary meditation and Qi training were no longer of any use.

In the absence of other good exercises to assist me, I still insist on meditating and practicing qigong every day with the sole purpose of absorbing the purple qi from the morning sun.

Over the years, Zhao Xu has been absorbing the morning sun's purple energy.

The internal force in his Dantian Qi Sea is now very different from that of people who practice basic Qi training techniques.

Zhao Xu's internal strength has become extremely pure and mellow after being tempered by the morning sun purple energy over the years, and his dantian has also become wider.

Years of contact have given Zhao Xu's internal energy some of the characteristics of the rising sun's purple energy.

Normally, the skills circulate in the body's meridians, and all the meridians in the body are tempered.

The meridians that have been tempered over the years have expanded twice as much as normal.

Although Zhao Xu is now a second-grade cultivator, his internal strength is several times that of an average second-grade cultivator.

Because his internal energy is extremely pure, the power he exerts is far stronger than that of ordinary people.

When Zhao Xu first arrived in Anguo, he did not immediately visit the Jinsha Gang and other chambers of commerce.

On the surface, he leads a reclusive life.

Secretly, the people brought by Zhao Xu had already been dispersed.

Intelligence from various parts of Anguo and the Jinsha Gang.

They are constantly coming together.