Black-Haired Suppression in Wuhan
"And that was how a black-haired ban came down on Wuhan Port."
"I mean, come on. Isn’t that a bit much just because their feelings got hurt?"
If they’re pissed enough, they’ll kill you over it. That was just how Murim worked.
"So instead of hiring more people and launching another punitive expedition, they’re taking it out on innocent black-haired folks. Pathetic."
Tsk tsk.
These damned Central Plains barbarians.
All day long, they went on about the lofty morals of Confucius and Mencius or whatever the hell.
Did your precious Confucius and Mencius actually tell you to do this, huh!?
"......"
Geom Mujin clicked his tongue at the pettiness of the Central Plains barbarians, and the old man quietly shut his mouth.
"Old-timer?"
From that strange silence, I felt something off.
"Wait, don’t tell me...?"
"Ahem... well, you see... it’s not exactly a situation where I can blame the merchants’ guild outright..."
The old man spoke up, looking awkward.
What came out of his mouth was shocking.
The Wuhan Merchants’ Guild hadn’t imposed a suppression decree from the beginning.
Workers had rebelled and seized merchant ships? And they were black-haired people, no less?
Sure, it was surprising, but not enough to make this much of a fuss.
The Yangtze had long been plagued by those eighteen damn pirate forts of the Yangtze River 18 Water Sects.
So what if there was one black-haired pirate band on top of that?
What was the big deal in this Central Plains backwater?
Merchants were no less battle-hardened than martial artists, so they tended to have nerve to spare.
Those who didn’t were simply weeded out.
Of course, if a caravan had suffered at the hands of a black-haired pirate band, their feelings might be different, but that alone wouldn’t move the entire guild.
"Even when the punitive force lost back then, the merchants were only spitting at the black-haired ones and cursing them out. It wasn’t this bad."
That was already terrible enough, but the fact that this was considered mild was depressing.
Still, how had things ended up like this?
"Well... some of the other caravans started siding with the black-haired pirates."
The black-haired ones had originally learned the waterways of the Yangtze by trailing caravans and watching from the sidelines.
Knowing which currents were fast and which were rough, they launched attacks on merchant ships with lightning-fast steering techniques.
But the same was true for the other caravans.
After all, the original source of the steering skills the black-haired ones had stolen came from the Wuhan caravans themselves.
When both sides fought on even footing, there was only one thing that mattered.
Power.
Unless one side had overwhelming force, combat was unavoidable when you were robbing people.
-You barbarian bastards!
-You dare target our caravan’s ships!? I’ll turn you into fillets!
However fierce and hardened the pirate band was from life at sea, they weren’t in a good situation by any means.
The caravans had hired martial artists too.
Normally, they should’ve been crushed or at least suffered heavy losses.
But then a variable appeared.
Gurgle-!
-Kheh!?
-W-what the hell is wrong with my stomach all of a sudden...!
-I-I’m coming...
A nightmare-like sound rang out over the deck in the middle of battle.
-Now! Help the black-haired pirate band!
-Those guys can’t move anymore!
As the warriors’ lower bodies bent inward like they’d been cursed into slutty, knock-kneed submission, chaos erupted behind them.
It was the black-haired people who had boarded the merchant ships.
After the Black Revoluuuuution, there had been no more overt discrimination like the suppression decree, but wages and workload had not changed one bit.
Then, moved by the black-haired pirate band, they decided to join them.
But loyalty in words was always hollow.
-These shits here are proof of our loyalty. Please accept us!
-Nice... no, got it. From today on, you’re part of our black-haired pirate band.
Modeling themselves after the black-haired pirate band and unleashing diarrhea-inducing medicine, they betrayed the caravans, delivered the merchants and warriors, and enlisted in the pirate band.
It was a tragedy caused by trying to save on labor costs and keeping the same workers instead of hiring new ones.
Up to this point, it was understandable.
Whenever bandits rose up, there were always followers who sided with them.
But the problem was...
-Please take us too!
-We’re offering the cargo from this ship!
After that, black-haired traitors kept appearing, eager to join the black-haired pirate band.
The caravans weren’t completely brain-dead either, so they did some screening.
Things like not letting black-haired people accompany the caravan, or searching their bodies.
The first was manageable, but the second wasn’t.
"They overlooked who they were entrusting with the management of the very ships they rode on."
Cleaning the algae and moss that grew on the bottom of the hull and along the seams had always been the black-haired workers’ job.
For them, carving tiny grooves into the ship’s surface and hiding medicine there was nothing difficult.
And so the black-haired pirate band quickly grew its numbers through voluntary applicants and membership fees.
Once things reached that point, the Wuhan Merchants’ Guild went into emergency mode.
Lately, word had started spreading that the black-haired pirate band would accept allies even if they weren’t black-haired.
That was a serious problem.
You expect a proud Central Plains citizen to go under a barbarian?
Well.
Even if their brains were soaked through with Hua-Yi supremacist nonsense, when faced with a barbarian who was stronger and richer, their instincts still went, “Da-ge! Da-ge! Da-dage!”
It was a fact recorded in the Watermelon Dao.
Anyway, that rumor made the caravan heads clutch their scalps.
If banditry was about black-haired people only, that would be one thing.
But if money was tight and there was a blade nearby, anyone could become a bandit in an instant.
Before, they only had to suspect the black-haired ones.
Now, if things went badly, they’d end up suspecting everyone except themselves.
After long deliberation, the guild made its decision.
-As of now, all black-haired people are to be excluded from Wuhan Port.
They would expel the black-haired workers already employed and raise shipping fares for black-haired people.
It was a scorched-earth measure that would fill the positions with Central Plains people whose wages were higher than black-haired workers’—but there was no helping it.
Better than trying to save a few coins and losing your fortune and your life.
"...That’s how it is."
"......"
After the old man finished explaining, I was left speechless for a moment.
So that was the Wuhan Merchants’ Guild’s reasoned discrimination.
Handling things like that instead of simply improving black-haired workers’ treatment was still pretty messed up, though.
Anyway, what the hell do I do now?
I felt stuck.
From the sound of it, everyone had black-haired hate running thick in their veins.
If I wanted to take a ship, I’d probably have to pay a full million gold.
I’m not broke, but...
I’d been around Murim long enough to afford that much.
I just hated being blatantly ripped off.
The fastest route from Hubei to Yunnan was to take the Yangtze and cross into Guizhou.
There was also the option of detouring through Sichuan next door.
Sichuan’s beyond the line, though.
That was the place even Li Bai had cursed out for being too rugged.
And besides, I still hadn’t solved my issues with the Tang Clan, so I wasn’t exactly eager to go there.
...Should I just cross on foot like before?
With leaps across rooftops, flying swords...
As I agonized over whether I’d have to pull some ridiculous stunt like when Plum-Blossom Sword Beauty chased me, the old man suddenly spoke.
"By the way, where were you planning to go?"
"...I was headed for Hunan Province."
"Oh! Well, that works out nicely."
The old man clapped his hands and said,
"We were just planning to head to Hunan Province ourselves."
"We?"
"?"
"Kkii?"
The old man, the child, and Sodam all tilted their heads at the same time.
"Well, that introduction was a bit late, wasn’t it? I’m this kind of person."
He took a small business card from his robes and handed it to me.
A business card in Murim.
Something inside me twitched.
Guh, ggh... this kind of thing is supposed to be so un-Murim...!
With great difficulty, I steadied myself and looked at the card.
Black Eel Fleet.
Captain So Goonhak.
Fleet...?
That was what the card said.
"You’re the captain of the fleet?"
Geom Mujin asked in a small, surprised voice.
He just looked like some neighborhood grandpa. That was unexpected.
Even in modern times, it was hard enough to open a tiny convenience store abroad, so this was quite the feat.
"Ahem, well, yes."
The old man cleared his throat and puffed himself up.
He probably never dreamed he was standing before a living legend of black-haired self-made success.
"So? Interested in boarding?"
With his fingers, he pointed toward a ship moored in the harbor.
It was a medium-sized vessel, just barely larger than a small one.
"Hah! A spot just opened up, and it’ll be perfect if you, your daughter, and your pet all come aboard."
"Just opened up?"
We stared blankly at the ship.
Just how aggressively had they used space expansion? The thing was practically empty, like a ghost ship.
So this wasn’t about sincerely helping me at all—it was about recruiting passengers.
"Do you charge a million gold per person here too?"
If so, I was out.
"Of course not. I’ll only charge three hundred thousand gold per person, and that’s me being fair."
"The official price at the last place was two hundred thousand."
"...Ahem. This is a price adjusted for the current economy."
It was a bit of a markup over the official rate, but compared to a million gold, it was practically a bargain.
"Fine. When does the ship depart?"
"Why, it’s just about time! Hurry aboard. You’re a lucky one, you are."
"......"
So Goonhak, who took the gold coins from Geom Mujin with a Buddha-like smile, guided us onto the ship.
Once aboard, I found that, contrary to expectations, there were three passengers already aboard and three crew members.
"Jang, raise the anchor. Hwang, and Kim, spread the sails."
So Goonhak gave the crew their orders.
"But at a fare this low, is it really okay for you to take me on?"
If he was the fleet’s owner, he should technically be affiliated with the merchants’ guild.
"I’m half an outcast from the guild, so it doesn’t matter much. What have those guys ever done for me?"
He’d joined because if he didn’t, they would make his life miserable with their territorial bullshit, but that didn’t mean he’d gotten any special benefits.
In other words, he saw no reason to obediently follow their orders.
"E-excuse me, fleet captain, is it really true that this ship won’t be attacked by the black-haired pirate band?"
One of the passengers asked him.
What was that supposed to mean?
"Don’t worry. Those black-haired pirate bastards are vicious, sure, but they don’t lay a hand on other black-haired people."
He pointed to the black strands mixed in among his mostly white hair.
"Some kind of fellow-feeling, you mean?"
"What fellow-feeling? They’re just a bunch of thugs who do nothing but rob people."
So Goonhak frowned.
There was anger in his voice.
"They just want to use me to divert suspicion."
When everybody else gets robbed and only one ship stays oddly untouched?
That naturally draws suspicion.
And if they shared the same black hair, that suspicion would only run deeper.
So that’s why that bearded bastard said that earlier.
"Hah? Still, don’t worry. Whatever their reasons, the fact remains they won’t mess with my ship."
Then, gathering himself, he reassured us.
Flap-!
As the sails opened, the ship began moving forward.
"Now, set sail!"
And so the ship bound for Hunan Province departed.
The wind was favorable, and the current was gentle.
At this rate, we’d reach Hunan Province in no time—
"Stop! We’re the black-haired pirate band!"
—like hell we would.
Jinxing it was the worst.
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