Dongwan Pier, a private room on the second floor of Yingke Teahouse.
The window facing the river was wide open, but the river breeze couldn't blow away the smell of cheap water pipe tobacco and sour sweat in the room.
Several one-hundred-tael silver notes were slammed onto the table by a rough, large hand.
Zhao Laosi, a foreman of the Tongji Transport Society, lifted a coarse porcelain wine bowl, took a big gulp, and casually wiped the liquor from the corner of his mouth.
He gritted his teeth and spat fiercely.
"Pockmarked Chen is just a piece of worthless trash!"
"The Silver Accountant gave him a full five hundred taels of settlement allowance to lead the blockade of the South Pier, and what happened?"
Zhao Laosi slammed his hand on the edge of the table, shaking the wine bowl.
"He couldn't even stir up the South Pier. It was broken up by a few words from that guy surnamed Xu from the Shuicheng Hall!"
A few bare-chested foremen beside him echoed in agreement.
"Exactly, thirty-seven large grain boats! The written suspension documents were sent out, but they couldn't hold up!"
"Now all the boatmen at the South Pier have run to hand in their water tokens. Our job of blocking the river is completely ruined!"
"If the main hall investigates this, none of us will be able to escape!"
Zhao Laosi grabbed a handful of peanuts, stuffed them into his mouth, and chewed vigorously.
"Ruined is ruined, anyway, the silver is already safe in our pockets."
He pushed the silver notes on the table toward the men, lowering his voice.
"Take it, this is your share! Hurry up, divide it, and go home to sleep. If the sky falls tomorrow, the main hall will hold it up."
"Since The Silver Accountant dared to order the river blockade, there must be a big shot backing him up. It's not for us errand boys to worry about."
The men looked at each other, rubbed their hands, and were just about to touch the silver notes.
Bang!
The wooden door of the teahouse's private room was forcefully smashed open.
The porter responsible for gathering information in the city scrambled into the room and fell directly at Zhao Laosi's feet.
The porter gasped for breath, unable to spit out a complete sentence.
Zhao Laosi kicked the porter and furrowed his brow into a knot.
"Rushing to reincarnate! Can't you see we are dividing the money? Roll out, catch your breath, and then come in!"
The porter hugged Zhao Laosi's leg and howled, his voice filled with terror.
"Fourth Brother! Something huge has happened! The capital gazette just issued!"
The foremen stopped their movements and turned to look.
Zhao Laosi put down his wine bowl and sneered.
"What does the capital gazette have to do with us on the water? Is the Emperor coming down to pull the trackers himself?"
The porter swallowed a mouthful of bloody saliva hard.
"The Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Earl Chengyi, Lord Xu, overturned the Minister's mansion right in the Golden Throne Hall in front of the civil and military officials!"
"The Imperial City Department mobilized, directly sealed the Guanghui Bank, and the head steward Shang Zhong was flayed and hung in the imperial prison!"
The teahouse fell silent for a moment.
The foremen looked at each other, completely unable to understand the complicated details.
Zhao Laosi scratched his scalp, looking irritated.
"Earl Chengyi? This old man has nothing better to do. Why is a high official like him interfering in our transport affairs?"
"Guanghui Bank fell, so Pockmarked Chen and his gang's debts are cleared, right? No wonder they ran so fast!"
The porter scrambled up from the floor on all fours, his eyes wide open.
"The gazette says clearly that Earl Chengyi overturned the Minister's mansion in court to protect his own son!"
Zhao Laosi was stunned for a moment, grabbed the wine bowl on the table, and asked nonchalantly.
"Who is his son?"
The porter's lips trembled, his teeth chattering.
"The hall master of Shuicheng Hall, Xu Wuyou!"
Crash!
The coarse porcelain wine bowl in Zhao Laosi's hand smashed onto the blue brick floor, scattering shards and cloudy liquor everywhere.
Even the breathing in the private room stopped.
The hands that had just reached for the silver notes uniformly retracted and were tightly tucked into their shirts.
No one dared to touch those light pieces of paper on the table, afraid of touching some deadly bad luck.
Zhao Laosi's clothes on his back were instantly soaked in cold sweat.
He tore open his collar and pulled out a stack of red-stamped suspension documents from the inner pocket of his clothes.
These were the death warrants The Silver Accountant had given them during the day, the proofs to distribute to the boatmen below.
Zhao Laosi's hands trembled as he stuffed the stack of documents directly into the charcoal brazier nearby.
Flames leaped up, quickly engulfing the paper, turning the black and white into ashes.
Zhao Laosi looked at the pile of ashes, the corner of his eye twitching madly.
"From today on, if any blind fool mentions blocking the river again, I will personally pull out his tongue!"
"That is the eldest young master of the Earl's mansion! What do we have to fight with? Even our lives wouldn't be enough to fill the gaps in their teeth!"
...
The scene shifts back to the South Pier, Shuicheng Hall.
The sky was completely dark, and the river breeze blew into the long street with a bit of chill.
Normally at this time, thick beef tallow candles would have been lit in the main hall, and the sound of the accountant clicking his abacus beads could be heard half a street away.
The gang members would be drinking and playing guessing games in the courtyard, boasting about what they had seen during the day.
But today it was eerily quiet.
Xu Wuyou stepped into the main gate of Shuicheng Hall.
No lamps were lit in the main hall; it was pitch black.
More than fifty people were standing in the courtyard.
Gang members, accountants, estimators, all neatly lined up in two rows according to their rank.
Yet no one made a sound, not even a cough.
Xu Wuyou stopped, swept his gaze over the crowd, and took a step forward.
The crowd on both sides uniformly took a half step back, their movements stiff.
Xu Wuyou took another step forward.
The crowd retreated another half step.
They always kept a distance of ten feet from Xu Wuyou, and no one dared to approach.
That sense of distance was the instinctive fear of commoners facing high officials and nobles.
Xu Wuyou walked through the crowd and sat down in the main seat of the hall.
He unfastened the sabre at his waist and placed it heavily on the table.
"It's dark, why is no one lighting the lamps to report the accounts?"
The courtyard was dead silent.
After a good while, Pang Yu rubbed his hands and slowly edged out from the front of the crowd.
His knees bent uncontrollably, making him half a head shorter.
Pang Yu stammered, his voice clearly trembling.
"Hall... Hall Master, rumor has it outside that you are the eldest young master of Earl Chengyi's family."
Pang Yu swallowed, emboldened enough to lift his eyelids for a peek.
"Is this... true?"
Xu Wuyou bent his fingers and knocked twice on the table.
"It's true."
Thump!
Lao Zhou's knees directly hit the blue brick floor.
This sound became a signal.
The more than fifty people in the courtyard followed suit and knelt down in unison.
No one used the martial arts custom of cupping fists and bowing anymore.
All fifty-plus people bowed low and kowtowed.
"Greetings to the Eldest Young Master!"
Pang Yu, kneeling at the very front, saw the fear on his face gradually fade away, replaced by an uncontrollable fervor.
"The Earl's mansion! The backer of our Shuicheng Hall is the Earl's mansion!"
Pang Yu waved his fists and shouted loudly.
"Hall Master! With the golden signboard of Earl Chengyi's mansion, our Shuicheng Hall can walk sideways across the thirty-six piers in the capital region!"
"What Tongji Transport Society, what Guangyi Firm, they are nothing but farts!"
"Tomorrow, we will take our men and seize the Tongjin Lock. From now on, the rules on these waters will be dictated entirely by our Waterway Hall!"
"If anyone dares to disobey, we will crush them with the weight of the government's authority!"
Infected by Pang Yu's excitement, the gang members below raised their heads, their eyes gleaming with a predatory green light.
It was the extreme thirst for and blind worship of power typical of the lowest rungs of the underworld.
Xu Wuyou sat in his armchair, quietly watching Pang Yu's performance.
He reached out and picked up the teacup from the edge of the table, its contents long since turned cold.
Crash!
The teacup shattered against the green bricks right by Pang Yu's feet.
Pang Yu's fanaticism instantly caught in his throat, and he froze in place.
The atmosphere in the courtyard plummeted back to the freezing point.
The green light in the gang members' eyes quickly extinguished, and they lowered their heads once more.
Xu Wuyou stood up and kicked over the desk in front of him.
The sturdy wooden desk smashed into the ground and snapped cleanly in two, making everyone shudder.
"Throw your weight around?"
Xu Wuyou strode down the steps, stopped in front of Pang Yu, and glared down at him.
"How exactly do you plan to throw your weight around? By collecting protection money? By forcing trades?"
"Do you think that with the backing of the Earl of Chengyi's estate, you can act like living kings of hell on the docks, smashing open the bones of those lowly boatmen to suck out their marrow?"
Terrified, Pang Yu frantically waved his hands. His lips trembled so much he could barely speak.
"Hall Master... I... I didn't mean that..."
Xu Wuyou grabbed Pang Yu by the collar and hauled him forcefully off the ground.
"Let me tell you, the Earl of Chengyi's estate belongs to the imperial court! It is absolutely not the private weapon of the Waterway Hall!"
Xu Wuyou let go, and Pang Yu fell hard onto his backside, gasping for air.
Xu Wuyou turned around, his cold gaze sweeping over everyone kneeling in the courtyard.
"Matters on the water will continue to be handled according to the rules of the water!"
"If anyone dares to use the Xu family's name to bully the markets and exploit the common people on the docks, you won't even have to wait for the authorities to arrest you. I, Xu Wuyou, will be the first to revoke your waterway token and personally send you to the execution block!"
"As for having a backer, I, Xu Wuyou, absolutely do not mind if you all stand tall with your backs straight!"
"Do you understand me!"
The furious shout exploded in the night sky.
The fifty-odd men were so frightened they pressed their heads tightly against the ground, not daring to breathe loudly.
The brief spark of fanaticism had been extinguished by a basin of ice water, leaving not a single ember behind.
All that remained was a bone-deep reverence and submission.
Only then did they realize that the man before them was no mere bandit coming to claim the docks as his mountain fortress, but a true superior who held the power of life and death.
He was terrifyingly clear-headed, completely immune to being blinded by the flattery of his subordinates.
Xu Wuyou walked back up the steps, pulled from his sleeve the confession bearing the old boatman's thumbprint, and slapped it down onto the broken desk.
"Lao Zhou, light the lamps."
Several tallow candles were quickly lit, illuminating the main hall.
Xu Wuyou reached out and tapped the confession.
"The Waterway Hall is no one's private army. We act according to the laws of Great Qian and the rules of the docks."
Xu Wuyou drew his sword from the table, the blade glinting coldly in the candlelight.
He then sheathed the sword with a crisp, metallic clack.
"The transport gang must rely on reason and rely on the law! Absolutely not on the privileges of my Xu family!"
The courtyard was dead silent.
More than fifty gang members, accountants, and appraisers all remained in a prostrate, kowtowing posture.
The flickering candlelight stretched Xu Wuyou's shadow immensely long, pressing down heavily upon the heads of everyone present.
