My Father in Law is Lu Bu

Immortals by the River”.

Liu Mang did not want to talk about the poem anymore or he would fall into a trap.

Jia Xu also decided not to pursue the subject as people would feel unwelcome from being exposed.
The ship travelled quickly and Xinye quickly disappeared from view.
They then reached a fork.

“Your Majesty.
There is a fork up ahead.
Which road should we take?” The boatman asked

“Which road?” Liu Mang did not know much about the river.
There could be plenty of turnings that appear along the way.

“One is the main road with many ships around while the other is a side path.” The boatman explained.

“Which one would get us to our destination faster?”

“The side path would be faster.”

“Then we would take the side path.” Liu Mang chose without hesitation.
The boat then turned towards the shortcut.

Jia Xu then suddenly noticed a familiar small boat on the river.
Feeling doubtful, he went towards Liu Mang and said, “Milord.
That small boat seemed to be following us.” He did not notice the boat earlier because there were plenty of other boats around.
However, it now became obvious that there was a small boat behind them.”

“Since when have they been behind us?” Liu Mang frowned.
“Send someone to go and investigate!” It was best to exercise caution, even more so since Liu Mang did not have many men with him.

“Understood” Jia Xu nodded and then ordered a few sergeants to get the boatman to stop the boat.

“Sigh.
What is there to see? Isn’t that just a fishing boat?” The boatman grumbled.
Such a small boat is usually used for fishing and occasionally as transportation.

“A fishing boat?” Liu Mang was not too good with water.
He didn’t even know how to swim very well.
How was he supposed to tell whether that was a fishing boat?

“Your Majesty.
Look on top of that small shack over there.
Can you see a net?” The boatman pointed.
“That is a fishing net.
Right now, they should be ferrying someone over which is why they kept the net.
You can also see those two birds at the side of the boat.” The boatman then pointed at the black birds.

“Those are crows.
The fishermen use them to help catch fish.” The boatman explained.
The ‘crows’ were actually cormorants.
They are able to go down to the water to catch fish.
Fishermen usually bring tamed cormorants with them when they go fishing.
A snare is usually tied to their throats so that they become unable to swallow fishes.
The bird would then return to the fishermen to have the fish removed.
When encountering even bigger fishes, the cormorant would work together and once their job is done, the fishermen would remove the snares and feed them small fishes.
It was a fascinating and effective method.

“Using birds to fish?” Liu Mang was fascinated but he had the fishing boat investigated anyway.

“Hey! What are you doing?” A white clothed scholar shouted in anger as the boatmen tried to explain himself to the soldier.
After some time, they found out that it was truly just an ordinary fishing boat ferrying a person across.

“Perhaps Wenhe is making a huge fuss over nothing.” Liu Mang laughed at himself at the futile effort.
Although Liu Mang only had a few people with him, that small fishing boat could not have more than him in numbers.
Guan Hai and Zhou Cang were also around to protect him.

“Milord.
It is better to be prudent.” Jia Xu did not know why but he felt as though he was being watched the entire time.

“Haha.
Let’s go.
Xiangyang is not far.
We would arrive within a day.” Liu Mang patted Jia Xu’s shoulder and entered the cabin.

____________________

I butchered the poem several times until I found an already translated version.
Thank you, KS Vincent Poon.