Chapter 42 Know yourself and know your enemy
The dinner on the second floor of the official ship continued, Xu Chen was carried back to the room without the main officer, and the men drank more lively.
In Xu Chen's room, after his subordinates left, Xu Chen got up from the bed, picked up the teapot next to the bed and poured a few sips of water, and Xu Chen sat quietly.
A moment later, there was a noise from the window, and there was one more person in front of Xu Chen.
"Childe!" A voice sounded, it was Chai Qi.
"Here, let's talk about it. Xu Chen said lightly.
The official ship slowed down, left the wharf in the evening, and went north along the Ganshui road, the Ganshui flowed downstream, mainly divided into three tributaries, Xu Chen and they went forward along the tributaries of the middle road, and after a few hours, they came to the mouth of the Ganshui confluence into Poyang Lake, a place called Menchizhou.
There is a certain risk of sailing at night, and the rest of the voyage is not long, so rest here for the night tonight, depart tomorrow morning, and arrive at Changshan Island before noon.
As soon as the official ship arrived, Zheng Tai and the others, who had been waiting here for a long time, asked Chai Qi to go up and contact Xu Chen.
After Chai Qi found Xu Chen, Xu Chen ordered him to hide in the dark and observe everyone until this time.
"Yes, Childe. The one named Wang Shuo is a master, and I am not sure that I will win against him head-to-head. "It means that if you want me to be him at any cost, I can do it.
"As for that Hao Dazhi, he is also a master who has built a foundation, but probably because his teacher is not obvious, and his kung fu is a little worse. Chai Qi said.
Sun Tzu's Art of War: "Know yourself and know your opponent, and you will not be defeated in a hundred battles." "For intelligence, Xu Chen is always very concerned, and it is difficult for the enemy to obtain intelligence, but Xu Chen must grasp the situation of his own side.
"As for the others, they are all ordinary men, and at most they know some kung fu. But that group of guards, like those who came from military backgrounds, must know some methods of military formations, and if they really fight, I'm afraid that we will be able to fight for a while. "Chai Qi has seen the teenagers' drills, and he couldn't help but try it, a team of eleven teenagers with bamboo weapons, in the case of Chai Qi's killers, it is difficult to break through the formation of the teenagers, if the teenagers are replaced with special iron weapons, Chai Qi will not be able to please even if he uses all his means.
Not to mention that this is the strength of the teenagers before they did not practice, after more than ten days of training, the teenagers' physique and strength have increased exponentially, after all, it is just starting to practice, and the effect is very significant.
If the two sides do it again now, Chai Qi is estimated to not be able to last a few rounds. This is also the sorrow of the people in the rivers and lakes, no matter how high the martial arts are, there is a degree, in the face of a well-trained army, no matter how strong the martial arts are, there will be times when they fail.
"After talking about yourself, let's talk about the opponent! I think your master Chai Lao must also have some arrangements on Changshan Island, otherwise you won't have to get rid of the second master. Xu Chen said.
"That's right, the master does have some arrangements on Changshan Island, I don't know the specifics, but I still have a few dark line spies in my hands. Chai Qi said honestly, since he has surrendered, he naturally can't be half-hearted, and these days seeing Xu Chen's layout, seeing the other party growing up step by step, Chai Qi also began to have some admiration for himself, a young master.
"Judging from the news from the spies a few days ago, the current situation on Changshan Island is somewhat complicated. Chai Qi said.
"Oh, what's there?" Xu Chen asked, the previous plans were all made according to the information he had obtained before, and now it seems that there is a new situation on Changshan Island, and no matter what, the plan will not be able to catch up with the changes.
The spies reported that after the death of the second boss on the island, a new leader had appeared. ”
"Oh, who is this person?"
It was previously reported that there were three leaders on Truong Son Island.
The big boss Peng Ze is a local young hero on Changshan Island, who is said to be a hero, but in fact he is a character of a ruffian in the countryside, who is idle all day long and does not do his job.
The villagers are all honest farmers, and the most disdainful thing is these gangsters who don't do their jobs, but this Peng Ze is not bad to the villagers, and he has never relied on his own skills to bully the villagers, but has cleaned up those gangsters from other towns, and the atmosphere in the countryside has also been boosted.
However, Peng Ze's actions did not win the respect and love of the villagers, and Peng Ze's life was still tight. I don't do anything to produce, and I refuse to bully my fellow villagers, but fortunately, although I am young, I am also tall and strong. I had to go to the dock to do odd jobs to make a living, but I was not willing to just be a husband, and I didn't work hard, so I was naturally hungry and full.
Until he was twelve years old, Peng Ze suddenly left the village, and the villagers speculated that Peng Ze should go out with a merchant ship to beg for a living, and Peng Ze was an orphan without a father and mother, except for a few familiar villagers who occasionally mentioned him in a conversation, Peng Ze hurriedly withdrew from the villagers' sight like a tide.
It wasn't until several years later that Peng Ze, who had disappeared for many years, came back with a woman in red by his side.
At this time, the business and trade exchanges on Changshan Island became more and more frequent, and more and more merchants poured onto Changshan Island. It has affected the peaceful life of the local villagers.
Originally, at this time, the local government should have stepped in to maintain order. However, the officials only care about collecting taxes and ignoring other things, and it is tantamount to a fool's dream to maintain a long-term tax revenue in a place where order has not even been established.
Sure enough, the merchants saw that the officials on the island had no deterrent power, so they naturally refused to pay taxes honestly, and those people in the rivers and lakes also took the opportunity to start gangs on the island to divide the sphere of influence.
The officials couldn't collect the business taxes, and they couldn't pay the difference when they returned, so they had to target the villagers on the island, so this group of kind villagers became the last victims.
Originally, the villagers on the island relied on the big lake, usually fishing for a living, although the cultivated land on the island is barren, but in the hands of the industrious farmers there is no arable land that cannot be planted, relying on production and fishing, and more importantly, there is no oppression on the island by the big families and the government, in addition to the annual taxes, there are still many surpluses. The villagers lived like a paradise, but this qiē was now broken.
When Peng Ze returned to his hometown, the scene of the sound of chickens and dogs did not appear, but he saw the attic and the busy market scene. I thought that the villagers had lived a prosperous life, and I was happy for the villagers. It wasn't until I turned around for a long time that I didn't find a familiar face, and then I realized that something was wrong.
Finally saw a thin young man who was moving goods on the dock, Peng Ze found out that it was a childhood playmate, and hurriedly went up to ask, the overseer of the dock saw Peng Ze's fierce appearance, and did not dare to speak.
After Peng Ze revealed his identity, the young man cried bitterly, Peng Ze finally understood the truth in the cry of the young man, it turned out that after the oppression of the officials became heavier and heavier, the villagers were unbearable, more and more villagers broke their homes, some of the strength was gone, and those who stayed were villagers who really had nowhere to go.
Even if the young man in front of him hadn't had an elderly and seriously ill father at home, he would have gone out to survive a long time ago.
After knowing the truth, Peng Ze couldn't hold back any longer, shouted angrily, smashed a big stone beside him with one palm, and said, "Wait for me to come back!" and walked away.
That night, the major gangs on Changshan Island were hit by a devastating blow, and Peng Ze beheaded the heads of the major gangs with lightning speed. The power of the foundation building master is undoubtedly revealed, and these gangsters are powerless to parry in the case of a deliberate sneak attack.
On this night, not only these gangs in the rivers and lakes, but also those profiteers and bullies, and the officials of the government were all wiped out by Peng Zeqing.
The next morning, the island's inhabitants had just opened their eyes and were attracted by a thick smell of blood.
When people go out of their homes and onto the street, it's the only street on the island. I saw that in the open space at the end of the street, Peng Ze was holding a blood-stained long knife and staring at the people in front of him viciously, and behind him was a tower-shaped Jingguan built with human heads.
Peng Ze only said one sentence, "Surrender or die?"
No matter how shocking the scene is, it is impossible to subdue these men who add blood to the tips of the knives on the rivers and lakes with just one sentence, where is it possible to be arrested without resisting?
At the beginning, it was some people who looked like leaders who stood up, Peng Ze was not prepared after all, and he wanted to catch the leaders all of them, but it was not possible.
To these people who stood up, Peng Ze's response was a thunderous counterattack, jumping forward, rushing towards everyone like a tiger descending a mountain. The first to bear the brunt of the attack fell in less than a turn, and the leaders saw that Peng Ze was unstoppable, and immediately retreated, but did not flee.
They are all fighting men, naturally knowing that once they retreat at this time, there is only a dead end, the leaders are in the crowd, constantly tricking the people around them to kill forward, and the people in the rivers and lakes are also excited for a while, and they have drawn their knives to kill.
In a blink of an eye, Peng Ze was surrounded by layers, no matter how high his kung fu was, he was afraid of kitchen knives, and as soon as there were more people, Peng Ze was a little overwhelmed. The constant wounds on his body were caused by the sneak attacks of the people around him, although they were not fatal, they could not stop the bleeding during the battle, and after a while, Peng Ze became a bloody man.
Seeing this, everyone became more and more courageous, the situation was critical, and if it continued like this, it was only a matter of time before Peng Ze fell.
At this moment, while the leaders were still immersed in the excitement of the enemy's imminent annihilation, a red lightning bolt lit up beside them, and the last scene the leaders saw was a cold light shooting rapidly, and when the palms touched them, the tip of the throwing knife had already penetrated into the throats of the leaders.
Red Lightning didn't look at them again, obviously quite confident in his methods, and the lightning shot into the crowd, and after a while, a passage appeared in front of Peng Ze.
The crowd was stunned by this sudden turn of events, and when they looked back, they saw that the leaders had fallen to the ground.
As soon as the momentum dissipated, the rout was in an instant.
What remained was a one-sided slaughter, and under the joint efforts of Peng Ze and the woman in red, these frightened Jianghu men were beheaded one after another. When the remnants of the villagers saw that Peng Ze had come back to avenge them, they also walked out of their homes one after another, pouring their vengeful anger on the sinners who had ruined their peachy life.
In the sea of the people's war, these Jianghu men did not hold out for long, and the boats on the outlying islands were also controlled by the villagers, and those Jianghu people who escaped death by luck hid on the island for several days, but they could not withstand the hunger, and came out to surrender one after another.
Peng Ze did not accept a single prisoner, and he showed no mercy to this group of enemies who had ruined his homeland.
Since then, Changshan Island has become a concentration of water bandits, and the villagers have not been afraid of killing officials, these officials have not fulfilled their duty to maintain the township, but have helped outsiders to oppress the township, such an official government is no better.
These surviving villagers also became the backbone of the water bandits on Changshan Island in the future.
This is the big boss on Changshan Island, a true hero who fights for righteousness, it is precisely because of Peng Ze's character and the survival of those water bandits who take the villagers as the main force that Xu Chen will set the strategy of recruiting An.
The second boss on Changshan Island, that is, the one who died in Yuzhang City, was the one who came to defect after Peng Ze fell into the grass. Relying on his own kung fu, he had to grab the second place on the island, of course, because the third leader of Changshan Island, that is, the woman in red, was unwilling to compete with him.
Of course, at the beginning, the second master did not know this.
The woman in red who came back with Peng Ze was named Geng Yanqiu, and at the beginning, everyone thought she was Peng Ze's daughter-in-law, but when they saw them respecting each other, they knew that they were not that kind of relationship.
Geng Yanqiu, the third master, is actually Peng Ze's senior sister, and soon after Peng Ze left his hometown, he met the person who changed his life, his master. Seeing that he was quite old, the master was reluctant to accept him as an apprentice and build a foundation for him, but at that time, his master agreed to Peng Ze's apprenticeship out of other considerations.
When building the foundation, because of his age, Peng Ze endured unimaginable pain for ordinary people, but he still survived in the end, and since then he has become a master, fulfilling his childhood dream of heroism.
As for her senior sister Geng Yanqiu, she is actually younger than him, she has only followed her master to cultivate since she was a child, and her grade of foundation building is much younger than Peng Ze.
After knowing that the big boss and the third boss were not husband and wife, the bandits were fascinated by Geng Yanqiu's beauty, so they had different thoughts.
For those who asked for good words, Geng Yanqiu politely refused, and as for those who wanted to come by force, they were all thrown into Poyang Lake by her broken hands and feet.
After so many incidents, the water bandits realized that the martial arts of this three-master were so strong, and those careful thoughts were naturally all put away, although they would still be obscene behind their backs, but they were respectful on the surface.
This is the information that Xu Chen got before, Peng Ze is a heroic character, dedicated to the villagers, and he will not refuse his plan in the future, as for Geng Yanqiu, he is even more irrelevant, and he is mainly Peng Ze. According to these intelligence analysis, Xu Chen still has great confidence in his plan.
It's just that there seem to be some changes on Changshan Island......