The river's current was swift, but not alarmingly so. The Boatman, however, seemed perfectly at ease, singing a mountain folk song as he steered the vessel.
Along the way, Zhao Ci listened as Chen Hui explained a fair bit about the Hanling Waterway.
Lingge was bordered by water on two sides. On one was the Grand Canal, which had been in operation for many years; on the other was the Hanling Waterway.
The former was well-maintained and managed by the Government Office, making it relatively safe. Although the tolls were quite high, larger merchant companies shipping goods would always choose the Grand Canal.
However, those who couldn't afford the tolls would risk traveling the Hanling Waterway. The Cao Bang would still extort protection money from them under various pretenses, but it was still significantly less than the official tolls.
The Hanling Waterway had a high accident rate, but merchant ships that paid protection money to the Cao Bang rarely ran into trouble.
