The refugees from Daning County sat crowded aboard large cargo ships as the fleet turned southward, the current carrying them steadily along.
Ordinarily, people from the north were not known for their skill on the water, but Daning County lay beside the Xinshui River, and this made its people different from most. Even if they had never rowed a boat or cast a fishing net themselves, nearly everyone had taken ferries since childhood, crossing back and forth often enough that the motion of water no longer felt entirely alien.
The ships swayed and rocked as they traveled downstream, wooden hulls creaking softly beneath their feet, yet surprisingly few of the refugees grew seasick. The river stretched for more than a hundred li, but with the current in their favor, the journey would take less than half a day.
Suddenly, a sharp cry rang out from one of the ships.
"Look ahead, quick, look ahead! There's a bridge! Such a huge bridge!"
The shout spread like fire through dry grass. Refugees scrambled toward the railings, clutching at one another as they craned their necks to see, and only then did they realize that the ships were nearing Dragon Gate Ferry.
The moment the Dragon Gate Yellow River Bridge came fully into view, the refugees fell into stunned silence.
Even those who had been leaning weakly against the rails, faces pale from nausea, straightened at once, their spirits lifted as if the sickness had never existed.
"That bridge is unbelievable!"
"So grand… so majestic!"
"How could anyone build something like this?"
Exclamations rose and overlapped, voices buzzing with disbelief, until a crewman standing at the bow turned back toward them, laughing as he spoke. "Why are you all making such a fuss? This is a divine bridge, carried down from the Celestial Realm by Dao Xuan Tianzun himself."
A collective gasp swept through the crowd.
Then someone pointed frantically toward the eastern end of the bridge. "Look there! At the bridgehead. There's a fortress, gray and white, built right beside it."
The refugees' gazes shifted as one. At Dragon Gate Ferry, a cement fortress now stood firmly in place, its walls pale and imposing, bearing the name Longmen East Fortress.
Stationed there, of course, was Shi Jian.
Last time, when he had carried out what was described as the "meritorious defense of Dragon Gate Ferry," repelling Lao Huihui and the Eight Great Kings, Cheng Xu had even written a memorial on his behalf, one that Cheng Xu himself could barely endure rereading once it was finished. Yet after the memorial was submitted, Wang Cheng'en, Shi Jian's superior, had chosen to accept it at face value and immediately petitioned the court to recognize Shi Jian's achievements, even promoting him to the rank of thousand-household commander.
With the promotion came another four hundred garrison soldiers.
Originally, Shi Jian had commanded six hundred garrison troops. Gao Family Village then transferred two hundred of their own soldiers to him. All told, his forces now amounted to four hundred Gao Family Village soldiers and six hundred garrison troops.
Later, Hong Chengchou, Supreme Commander of the Three Borders, issued a direct order for him to guard Dragon Gate Ferry and prevent bandits from crossing the river. From that moment on, Shi Jian was effectively stationed there permanently.
At this very moment, Shi Jian stood atop the walls of Longmen East Fortress, a telescope pressed to his eye as he scanned the river from left to right. Before long, he spotted three large cargo ships approaching downstream, each one packed so tightly with people that the decks seemed ready to overflow.
His eyes lit up at once.
Without hesitation, he hurried down from the fortress, striding quickly toward the ferry crossing, waving both arms with enthusiasm as he faced the oncoming ships.
Wang Tang leaned out from the bow, laughing when he saw him. "Brother Shi! What's all this? Standing there waving like a lighthouse on the shore."
Shi Jian laughed back. "Are those three ships full of refugees from the north?"
"That's right," Wang Tang replied. "Instructor Xing ordered me to escort these refugees to Puzhou City for resettlement."
Shi Jian's eyes widened. "Instructor Xing's orders, not Dao Xuan Tianzun's?"
Wang Tang paused to think it over. "Now that you mention it, Dao Xuan Tianzun didn't give any specific instructions about where they should be settled."
Shi Jian broke into a broad grin. "Then don't send them to Puzhou. Leave them all here with me."
Wang Tang stared at him, momentarily speechless.
Shi Jian rubbed his hands together, clearly delighted with his own idea. "Look at this place. Dragon Gate Ferry just gained a bridgehead fortress, but the supporting facilities are completely lacking. The nearby towns and villages haven't developed fast enough to keep up. This is a bridgehead that Dao Xuan Tianzun personally ordered us to build and manage properly. If we don't have enough manpower and fail to develop it well, wouldn't that be letting Dao Xuan Tianzun down?"
Wang Tang could only laugh and shake his head. "You're actually trying to snatch people now?"
"I have no choice but to snatch them," Shi Jian said earnestly. "I'm desperately short on manpower here. The only residents we have are some people from Hejin County who wandered over. The moment they see that Hejin County is safe again, they turn around and run straight home. None of them are willing to stay here at the dock and work in peace."
Wang Tang spread his hands. "That's just human nature, isn't it? Everyone loves their home and wants to return to their roots."
"That's not the point," Shi Jian insisted. "The point is that I need people. Dragon Gate Ferry sits right on the riverbank, at the border between Shanxi and Shaanxi. Once bandits start causing trouble, no one wants to come anywhere near this place. Without people, how can we develop it? Puzhou is a major prefectural city, overflowing with manpower they don't even know what to do with. Let me keep these northern refugees. Please."
After listening to his long-winded argument, Wang Tang found himself nodding despite himself. It actually made a great deal of sense.
"Fine," he finally said. "Leave them here with you. I still have several more trips to make anyway. There are about three thousand people in total. I'll bring them all here. That should solve your manpower problem."
Shi Jian was overjoyed. "I knew you were a reasonable man."
"But if Instructor Xing comes looking for trouble," Wang Tang added quickly, "don't expect me to get involved."
Shi Jian waved dismissively. "Instructor Xing is reasonable too. She won't make trouble for me."
With just a few sentences, the two young men completed their quiet division of spoils.
The three cargo ships soon docked at the pier. Long wooden gangplanks were lowered, connecting ship and shore, and the crewmen shouted loudly, "Everyone disembark! From now on, you can settle down and live peacefully here."
The refugees aboard the ships were utterly bewildered.
Earlier, Wang Tang and Shi Jian had been shouting to one another across a fair distance, their voices raised to carry over the wind and water. The refugees had heard every word clearly.
They had heard talk of "snatching people," and none of it made any sense to them. All their lives, they had only heard of local officials complaining about the burden of resettling outsiders, never of officials fighting over refugees.
Why would anyone want to snatch a group of poor, miserable people like us?
They would have to feed us, house us, and even allocate land. That was nothing but extra expense and trouble.
Yet here they were, being fought over.
The refugees stepped onto the dock one after another, spreading out loosely. This first batch, the three shiploads, numbered roughly a thousand people in total. Shi Jian walked up to them with a broad smile and stopped before the crowd.
"Welcome to Dragon Gate Ferry," he said. "Once you're here, you won't have to worry about food or shelter anymore. See that fortress over there? Every day, food will be distributed at the gate. No one here will starve to death."
The refugees' eyes lit up, excitement rippling through the crowd.
Shi Jian went on, his tone warm and confident. "Of course, merely not starving isn't enough, is it? Who doesn't want to live a better life? If you're willing to work, you can earn wages."
That was perfectly reasonable.
The refugees leaned forward instinctively, ears pricked, waiting for what came next.
Shi Jian then produced the standard wage schedule from Gao Family Village and displayed it openly, listing positions across all kinds of trades and labor.
The refugees stared, and then gasped as one.
"What? The wages here are actually this high?"
There was nothing left to hesitate over.
People surged forward eagerly to sign up, voices overlapping, hands raised, and in the blink of an eye, Dragon Gate Ferry gained a massive influx of new labor.
Shi Jian's face split into a grin so wide it nearly reached his ears, while Wang Tang, watching from the side, couldn't help wondering whether Xing Honglang would be angry when she found out. After a brief moment, he shook the thought away.
Ah, forget it.