The spring river water had warmed, and a batch of transporting catamarans departed from the port of Zicao City, fully loaded with pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and corn. They rapidly drifted down the stream toward the estuary of the Tarsus River, 400 li away. Once they reached the small town at the estuary, the fleet would unload the food they carried and load up crude iron farm tools and implements, then row or even tow back to Zicao City against the current.
In previous numerous round trips, they could only bring back half a boatload of ironware, but this time, an unusually large amount of ironware had been transported from the Black Rock Mountain iron mine, just fifty li west! They also encountered another naval fleet returning thousands of mining slaves from the Zicao Legion's expedition to the Mistec Coast!
