"A thousand dragon boats amidst the green silk threads, once they arrive in Yangzhou, never to return.
Perhaps it was heaven's will to open the Bian River; for a thousand miles around, no mountain to be seen.
A large ship bearing the flag of the Cao Gang now headed north along the river.
In these chaotic times in Jiangnan, the Cao Gang had cease delivering southern resources to the Capital; the Imperial command unusually ordered that the goods of Jiangnan be kept for local use. Many of the Cao Gang's lads were now even assisting the official forces to resist the Maitreya Sect. Wan Dongliu's covert identity as a member of the Four Symbols Sect now mattered not—the Cao Gang remained a righteous brotherhood tied to the fate of the officialdom.
This particular ship had few boatmen and only carried personal trade goods for the Wan Family, its direction not toward the Capital, but toward Qingxu instead.
