Lu Ming

Chapter 497
A loud shout from the night watchman alarmed the whole ship.

Everyone ran to the deck to look around, but there was nothing under the bright moonlight, only the rustling reeds and river water.

Finding that no one was found, and hearing from the night watchman that there was a figure, the serious-faced captain of the boat spat on the boat, and then said harshly, "Maybe it's just a few thieves, be more vigilant!"

After that, the atmosphere on the boat suddenly became tense.At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the social order collapsed, and bandits were everywhere, not to mention the Pearl River Delta, which is densely covered with water networks.

The people on the boat today, except for He Biandan, have been in the rivers and lakes all year round, so they naturally know how powerful the bandits are.That's why everyone was terrified, and the timid shop boy had already hid in the cabin and dared not come out.

But things are already like this, and everyone can only endure the night: the nearest village is still several miles away, and the people there will neither open the door at night nor send people to help, so the people on the boat can now say is alone.

There is no other way, if you want to blame, you can only blame the rocks at the bottom of the river, otherwise, the boatmen would not stop at such places even if they were killed.

However, there is a law called Murphy's Law. In Chinese, it is what one is afraid of. At midnight, figures appeared again under the moonlight, and this time there were several figures.

This time the night watchman didn't even dare to shout.There were only a dozen or so people on board, and it was okay to deal with small thieves of three or two, but if they encountered gangsters with many people, it was simply not something they could handle.

After a while, those figures disappeared again.

Now most of the people on board realized that there might be trouble tonight.

After a few rounds of surprise and surprise, the time has come to the middle of the night, except for the silly He Biandan who found an opportunity to eat two rice balls, the rest of the people have already started to panic: the reeds on the opposite side are indistinguishable. Know how many figures are shaking.

"Young student, come here."

At this time, the shopkeeper Wu, who knew that something would happen tonight, secretly pulled He Biandan, who he was very optimistic about, to the corner again: "I'm afraid that today's incident will involve you. Young man, listen carefully, if you come out later If you are a gangster, then you run as fast as you can. If you have the heart later, you can find me at the Baijia grocery store in Zengcheng."

It wasn't until this time that He Biandan realized the seriousness of the problem.But at the same time he opened his mouth to ask, "I ran away, the shopkeeper, how do you get away?" There was a loud whistle sound in the night sky, and then, the surrounding lights were brightly lit, and from the reeds on both sides of the Fuping In the bushes, more than a dozen sampans suddenly sprang out, and there were many men holding torches standing on them, and they surrounded the Fuping in an instant.

"Run, junior, run!"

After being pushed by shopkeeper Wu, He Biandan jumped out of the boat immediately, and burrowed into the reeds in the slanting thorns. He was still holding the eating thing tightly in his hand.

The next moment, when He Biandan was about to enter Luwei Cong, he stopped, and slowly retreated - a torch was suddenly lit in Luwei Cong, and a row of figures walked out slowly with knives and axes .

At this moment, Fuping was surrounded by gangs with a total of 70 people.

"Everyone, the little old man is the shopkeeper of the Baijia Grocery Store in Zengcheng, and the proprietor is a native of Baiju from Zengcheng County. I don't know who is going to meet you today, so please show your name."

Shopkeeper Wu has been in business for half his life, and he has encountered things like today several times in his career, so he didn't panic at this meeting, but followed the rules to show his name first.

Under such circumstances, generally friendly gangsters would not embarrass the people on board too much.After all, most land tigers live by collecting tolls, fighting with local caravans every day?This team is long gone.

Shopkeeper Wu is most afraid of encountering bandits.Bandits who cross states and counties don't think about the consequences at all. Killing and stealing goods is a standard action.

The next moment, a gloomy voice sounded: "I want to teach you to know, whether our men can change their names or surnames, Guitou Walaoqi will be it."

Shopkeeper Wu felt relieved when he heard this: Guitouwa is a reed beach nearby, where a group of thieves have been entrenched for a long time, and he has also heard of the reputation of the big boss Lao Qi.Although I have never dealt with this group of people, they are locals after all. It seems that everyone's life can be saved today.

Thinking of this, he replied in a loud voice: "So it's Mr. Lao Qi from Shazhai, what can I tell you?"

"Hey, Zengcheng Bai Juren, I've heard of it." The gloomy voice sounded again: "But Master Bai has never paid homage to our ruined temple in the past, so he can't hold Buddha's feet today. Listen, sensible ones, if you are honest, you will be arrested without a fight, and you will follow the rules later, and you will not have to use a weapon. If you dare to bark your teeth with our men, you will be hacked to death!"

"Admit it, admit it!" After looking at each other, shopkeeper Wu and the boss of the ship knew that surrender was the best result, so they confessed on the spot.

In a situation like this where there is no blood, usually the bandits will not make it difficult for them to be captured.Afterwards, as long as the letter is sent back, Bai Juren will naturally find a middleman to redeem him, so shopkeeper Wu hurriedly confessed.

After hearing the statement of the people on board, the bandits around were ready to row the sampan over to control the cargo ship.

Unexpectedly, the next moment, an accident happened.

Hearing a loud shout from the shore, He Biandan picked up his pole and started fighting with the bandits.

It was the first time for the young man to experience this kind of situation, and he was already flustered, but when he heard that he was about to surrender, he completely panicked.He Biandan, who didn't know the follow-up development, thought he was going to be caught by the thieves to plant lotus, so he picked up the pole and tried to find a way to escape.

Although He Biandan made a sudden attack, there are more than a dozen bandits in front of him, can he really allow him to escape?So the young man was quickly surrounded.Under the bright torches and the moonlight, He Biandan yelled and shouted, threw off his airs, and fought with the people around him.

Unexpectedly, after this fight, He Biandan was impressive.The young man was tall and had long arms and quick movements. He swung his shoulder pole round and beat back and forth fiercely. The bandits with knives and axes couldn't break into his defensive circle in a hurry, and two of them were accidentally knocked over by He Biandan.

He Biandan's hand is also trained in normal times.You must know that all walks of life have territories, and porters are no exception, so young people often fight with others with poles.

Just like that, He Biandan rushed left and right in the crowd like a mad tiger, and he knocked down three or four bandits in a short time.If it weren't for the unfamiliarity of the terrain, he might have been pushed out by him.

Shopkeeper Wu standing at the bow of the boat was very anxious at this moment, and kept shouting: "Young man, don't fight anymore. If you turn around, the owner will pay you money, and you will be able to redeem us. I will guarantee you, old man!"

He Biandan heard the shouts, but now he was already on the verge of riding a tiger, surrounded by dangling knives and axes, and he would die if he got hit, so he couldn't stop.

The bandits here saw that He Biandan didn't listen to persuasion, so they became impatient, and quickly got down from the sampan with two three-eyed guns, and when they came over, they were ready to use lead to solve this stupid hat.

Unexpectedly, the gloomy voice sounded again at this time: "Don't hurt this person, use the net!"

Hearing the words of the big master, several people came down from the sampan.The next moment, a fishy and smelly hemp net with a few small salted fish hanging on it was buckled over.Poor He Biandan, who won the championship bravely, was finally covered by a fishing net, and then he was rushed over and kicked down, and rolled a few times on the ground. Now He Biandan became a stick.

Naturally, the human stick did not end well: the raindrops of fists and big feet landed on He Biandan, making him scream.

After suffering enough beatings, He Renstick was thrown onto the sampan, and shopkeeper Wu and his assistants were also chased up.

The bandits are already familiar with handling this situation.After the captives who had turned into meat tickets were taken down, the cargo in the cabin was quickly moved out and scattered on the sampans and small boats.At the moment when the eastern sky appeared pale, the group of sampans disappeared among the reeds with a whistle, leaving only a solitary broken boat and the token of Guitouwa gangsters—this is Show it to the rescuer, so that the other party can negotiate the redemption.

Guitouwa is not far from the place where the Fuping ship ran aground, otherwise the bandits would not have come so fast in such an emergency.So after walking through the winding and lost reeds for a period of time, Lao Qi and his gang returned to their old den.

Guitouwa is covered with dilapidated bamboo huts and thatched huts. It is difficult for outsiders who are not familiar with waterways to find it.When the bandits arrived at the ground, they locked the butchers in a special wooden fence "human circle" and then started unloading.

At this time, He Biandan, who still maintained the shape of a human stick, was just thrown in the empty field, with legs and feet walking around beside him, and he would be kicked again from time to time if he felt that he was in the way.

After unloading the goods, the gangsters happily began to organize the celebration banquet: today’s outing is considered pie in the sky. Everyone got the spoils without working hard to ambush and fight. Of course, there is a reason to celebrate.

The next moment, tinplate-packed liquor and cans were picked out from the cargo, the fire was lit, fish and wind chickens were strung on the branches of the tree, and the banquet began.

As for the person sticking to the shoulder pole, he was finally pushed and rolled to the front of the head.

The head of the family named Lao Qi doesn't look very old, in his 30s.This person's eyes are narrow and long, his face is white and beardless, his muscles are strong, and he looks like a haze.

However, Master Lao had a smile on his face when he saw the He Bianbao that had just been uncovered from the fishing net: "Shangzi, you are good at it, what do you do?"

"Porter." He Biandan, who had a bruised nose and swollen face, didn't dare to do anything wrong this time, and answered honestly after standing up.

"You are tall, skilled, and have a bad temper. If you are in the wrong profession, you are not a porter." Shopkeeper Lao Qi smiled and handed over a bowl of Gan Lie's Erguotou: " How about following the master, making sure you are popular and drinking hot food, and then find a woman to let you vent your anger later?"

"Don't drink, pour it when you drink it." He Biandan saw that the water bandits were pulling open cans of pink luncheon meat and pouring them into the pot, drooling: "Take care of the food, eat the meat!"

"Haha!" Shopkeeper Lao Qi laughed a few times: "It's still a baby, I like it! Go eat meat, and I'll send you a red seal after eating."

The next moment, He Biandan rushed to the table piled with chicken, duck and fish, and then he was beaten up by the old gangsters. After learning the rules, the young man got a chicken and started to gnaw fiercely.

Squatting in the corner while gnawing on the chicken, He Biandan stole a few glances at the fence that locked people in.

(End of this chapter)