Lord: Start with a book of Water Margin

Chapter 408 Chance Encounter
Because he had a family and nothing urgent to do, Shi Qian did not rush him. He walked and stopped along the way, covering no more than thirty to fifty miles a day.

Xu Sheng was only six years old. He was very excited in the first two days. He often got out of the carriage and sat in Xu Ning's arms, letting Xu Ning hold him as he continued on his way. Unexpectedly, he caught a cold on the third day. Although it was not serious, Shi Qian did not dare to be careless. He traveled a long way and found an inn in Wuqiu Town to rest. He invited the doctor in the town to prescribe medicine.

In the past two days, Shi Qian and Xu Ning have been getting along well.

Xu Ning was determined to go to Liangshan Prefecture to achieve something successful, so he naturally paid a lot of attention to Liangshan Prefecture and Zhao Zhen.

That evening, Xu Ning was just coming out of the pharmacy with some cold medicine he had prepared when he saw two Taoists and a few Taoist boys walking in front of him.

Xu Ning didn't care. He only became interested when he saw that the group had checked into the largest inn in town.

After all, how could a monk or Taoist not go to a temple to rest, but to an inn to make a living? Seeing that they were staying in the same inn, I listened carefully to what the Taoist and the innkeeper said.

The two men's accents were from Shandong. After they settled in, Xu Ning went to the counter to start a conversation.

The shopkeeper naturally recognized these two generous guests, so when Xu Ning pretended to ask which temple in Wuqiu Town was efficacious and had great monks and Taoists, and asked for an amulet for his child, the shopkeeper immediately pointed to a place.

Then he said, "What a coincidence! Today, a group of Taoists are also staying at the inn. But it's strange that these people are probably not proper monks. They don't even leave their Taoist names, but use their lay names instead."

Xu Ning said, "Looking at their attire, they are well dressed. I'm afraid they are scammers. I don't know what their names are. If we meet them next time, we must not let them cheat us."

"Let me see. Hey, one is Dong Kai and the other is Yu Zhiwang."

Xu Ning was shocked when he heard this, and he took note of it but kept it to himself. He chatted for a while and said, "Boss, I'll go see how my son is doing after taking the medicine."

Having said that, Xu Ning got up and went to the guest room at the back.

Xu Ning did not go to his own room, but pushed open Shi Qian's door.

Shi Qian poured a cup of tea and asked, "Brother, is my nephew's cold better?"

"Almost done, we can set off tomorrow. Today I went to get some medicine and ran into two embarrassing people downstairs."

Shi Qian asked, "Who is it?"

"They were two Taoist priests with four Taoist children. They did not stay at the temple but came to this inn. I asked the innkeeper and found out that the names they left were Dong Kai and Yu Zhiwang."

After hearing this, Shi Qian lowered his voice and said, "Brother, do you suspect these two are Qingzhou thieves, the [Suzaku God] and the [Xuanwu God]?"

Xu Ning nodded: "I'm afraid it's these two. Didn't my brother say that a nursery rhyme has been circulating in Bianjing City recently? I wonder if it was spread by these two people?"

Shi Qian said, "If only one person has the same name and surname, it's understandable. But if two people are the same, I'm afraid they are the leaders of the Qingzhou bandits. It's not easy to take action in the city. If these people are really the leaders of Qingzhou, if we can capture them, not only can we figure out the source of the nursery rhyme, but it will also be a great achievement. What do you think, teacher?"

"That's what I was thinking. How about we set off early tomorrow and find a secluded place ahead to intercept these people?"

Shi Qian said: "Teacher, everything else is fine, but these two people have Taoism skills. If they start to use magic, I'm afraid we two will not be their match."

"Brother, do you know their method?" "Teacher, can you see the gourds on their backs? I heard from the great official and Mr. Gongsun that these two people learned the method of [Yellow Dragon Taoist] Wu Jiao. The gourd contains a black wind. When chanting a spell and offering it, it can blow up sand and stones. Combined with the black smoke, it can make people's eyes squint. There are paper people, paper horses, yellow and black beans mixed in it, which turn into heavenly soldiers and generals. When they hit you, they have a hundred pounds of strength. In addition, these two also have some martial arts, which is nothing compared to Taoism."

After hearing this, Xu Ning asked, "Is there any way to break their magic?"

"I have heard from Mr. Gongsun that this kind of Taoist method of summoning gods is most afraid of filth. Pig, sheep, dog blood, feces, urine, menstrual blood, etc. can break the Taoist method. If you eat raw meat and garlic beforehand, it can also make it unable to work."

Xu Ning heard this and said, "In that case, why not try to feed it meat? If we can break its magic, it will be easy to capture the two leaders."

At that moment, the two of them were discussing how to get the two of them to eat and drink, but they couldn't come up with any good ideas for a long time.

The two had to go to the lobby to look for an opportunity, but they didn't expect that the two Taoists were real Taoists, but the Taoist children were not real Taoist children. These two looked handsome, but they were all old thieves.

When he was in Tokyo, he could still abstain from meat, but after leaving Bianjing, he could no longer hold back. Not only did he order meat and wine, he also did not remove the stinking and unclean condiments that were forbidden by Taoism, such as onions, leeks and garlic. He ordered a full table and went to the private room upstairs.

This was not only the case in Wuqiu Town. These people dressed as Taoist children were all very smart. In order to curry favor with the two leaders, they treated them to good food and wine on the way back.

When Xu Ning and Shi Qian saw each other, they smiled.

The two of them ordered some wine and food. While the waiter was serving the dishes, Shi Qian placed a dozen large coins on the table and asked, "Brother Xiaoer, do these Taoists know which Taoist temple this is? They don't look like monks."

The waiter said, "Who knows? The shopkeeper also said that these people don't look like monks, so we should be careful and not make any mistakes. Just now, when I went upstairs to add water, these two Taoists and Taoist children were eating with their mouths full of oil. But these people will only stay for one day and will leave tomorrow, so you don't have to worry about it."

Shi Qian said, "The road is not peaceful right now. Tomorrow, please get up early and prepare food. We will leave before them to avoid any trouble."

The waiter picked up the money on the table and asked, "When do you plan to eat, sir? I'll prepare it in advance."

"It's time for dinner at 4am. I'll have to trouble my second brother to take care of and feed the horses."

"Don't worry, sir. I'll take care of it."

On the second day, Xu Ning, Shi Qian and his party got up early, had breakfast, harnessed their horses, and set off.

The two men walked for more than twenty miles and found a large forest. They hid the carriage inside and lay in ambush nearby.

After waiting for more than an hour, I finally saw the six people who had arrived late.

Xu Ning and Shi Qian were standing on the road, each holding a hook-and-sickle spear and a broadsword. Dong Kai and Yu Zhiwang saw them and shouted, "Where did you come from, you ignorant thieves? How dare you come to provoke me? Get out of here, or I'll chop you into pieces."

Xu Ning laughed loudly and said, "How ridiculous! You two damn thieves, instead of hiding in Qingzhou, you come here to cheat people. Today, the master is going to capture you two and bring you to Liangshan to show your merit."

Dong Kai and Yu Zhiwang were both surprised when they heard this. They thought they had been exposed, so they took weapons from the Taoist boy.

(End of this chapter)