Qi An thanked the inquirer, threw the uneaten half of the bun to the wild dogs on the roadside, and planned to leave the town. After only a dozen steps, I heard a commotion around me, and many people walked towards the square in the center of the town, talking as they went.

"Hurry up, hurry up, the Four Horse Gang and the Iron Sword Gate are going to fight again!"

"Last time, it was Zhao Tiejian, the master of the Iron Sword Gate, who had a slight advantage, but this time I don't know who can win!"

"Most of them are still Zhao Tiejian, this person became a martial arts sect more than ten years ago, and now it is even more unfathomable, the Four Horse Gang is just relying on a large number of people, if you talk about the strength of the strong, it is still inferior to the Iron Sword Gate!"

"Not necessarily! The Ma brothers of the Four Horse Gang are not fuel-efficient lamps, and they are no worse than Zhao Tiejian when they join forces! Not to mention that there are so few people in the Iron Sword Sect, and there are no masters except Zhao Tiejian, if you really want to fight, I am still more optimistic about the Four Horse Gang!"

"This is very true! Last time, Zhao Tiejian won quite hard, and he also hung up the lottery, besides, I also heard that the four brothers of the Ma family have recently practiced a new trick, and they already have a grasp of dealing with Zhao Tiejian!"

"I can't say that, the Iron Sword Gate and the Four Horse Gang have been fighting for many years, and in general, the Iron Sword Gate still has the advantage, with more wins and fewer defeats, and it is not easy for the Four Horse Gang to win this time!"

"Don't guess! Who wins and who loses, won't you know after the fight?"

"Hurry up! grab a good position and see it clearly, maybe you can learn a few tricks from it!"

"Let's ——! Walk"

Qi An is obsessed with martial arts, and he likes to watch people compete in martial arts on weekdays, and when he heard these conversations, he immediately became interested, and he walked to the square in the crowd, and at the same time listened to the conversations of others, and roughly figured out the background of the two sides.

It turns out that there are two relatively large gang forces in this town, one is called the Iron Sword Gate and the other is called the Four Horse Gang. The owner of the Iron Sword Gate is called Zhao Tiejian, who is a very powerful martial arts master, and the Four Horse Gang has four gang leaders, all surnamed Ma, who seems to be brothers of the same clan, and the big gang leader is called Ma Banshan, who is the highest among the four brothers, and is also a powerful figure in the martial arts sect, and his three brothers are much worse, just the level of ordinary martial arts.

The Four Horse Gang fought countless times in order to fight with Tiejianmen for control of the town, but most of them were won by Tiejianmen, so when Qi'an entered the town, the people of Tiejianmen still collected taxes and fees for entering the town.

The Great Qian Dynasty was not strict with the management of ordinary people, and Emperor Qiandi personally sat in Zhongzhou, while the eight major prefectures of Jiao, Qing, Mo, Yan, Ru, Xue, Chu, and Lin were under the control of the eight kings, and the imperial family did not interfere.

The eight kings with different surnames are all life and death brothers who fought with the Great Qiandi Emperor, and they were the founding heroes, and later they split the soil and sealed the king, each occupying a state of land, establishing their own power, and the power is in a corner, which is equivalent to the existence of the princes, and the world is called the Eight Heavenly Kings.

However, the Eight Heavenly Kings could not completely control a state, because in addition to the Great Qian Imperial Family and the Eight Great Princes, there were also many powerful forces, such as those huge Xiuzhen sects and powerful Xiuzhen families. Many of these forces possess strength that is not inferior to or even surpasses that of a certain royal palace, and even the Daqian royal family does not dare to despise them, and can only appease them, not suppress them, otherwise if they unite, it will be enough to overthrow the rule of the Daqian Dynasty. And these powerful family or sect forces naturally have to divide some territory, so although the entire Daqian Dynasty is nominally a country, in fact it is not an absolute centralized rule, but rather a division of princes, like a plate of scattered sand.

This phenomenon has continued to the state, county, county, town, and village, and no matter where it is, almost all of them are intertwined with power, and the relationship is intricate, and various sects, gangs, families, and organizations are fighting endlessly for profit. To put it bluntly, this is a world where the law of the jungle is the strongest, and whoever has the strength can make the rules. I think that at the beginning, Emperor Qiandi also relied on his powerful force to unify the world and establish the Great Qian Dynasty, and the battle between the Iron Sword Gate and the Four Horse Gang was just a microcosm, such a scene was constantly happening in various parts of Kyushu, but those big forces disdained to compete for this kind of deserted town, so it became a performance stage for weak folk warrior gangs.

The Daqian Dynasty was divided into nine states, the imperial family sat in Zhongzhou, and the remaining eight states were controlled by the eight royal palaces. Each state is divided into several counties, and those prosperous county towns are almost all controlled by powerful sects and Xiuzhen families, and the county towns have become the target of competition for small sects and local families. The larger county towns were fought over by those second- and third-rate small sects of Xiuzhen, while the smaller towns had less oil and water, and most of them were snatched by the Jianghu sects composed of warriors, and sometimes there were even bandits patronizing, and the slaughter of villages and towns occasionally occurred.

The purpose of fighting and fighting is ultimately for profit, and controlling the town can increase income, and you can set up a name to collect various taxes, such as the city tax, business tax, transaction tax, residence tax, protection tax, etc., which is a huge economic source, so the control of the town is fragrant and sweet, and there are often various forces fighting openly and secretly because of this. Some sects are more amiable and reasonable, so they negotiate cooperation, joint management, and formulate profit sharing, while others like to fight bravely and fiercely, and they are ambitious, so they have to fight to the death with swords.

The Iron Sword Gate and the Four Horse Gang are in between the two situations, they are incompatible, there is no possibility of cooperation, but they rarely engage in large-scale fights, just set rules with each other, every three months they send their masters to conduct a competition, the winning one can gain control of the town for three months, and the failed one can only lie dormant and recuperate, waiting for three months before fighting for the male and female.

Today is the day when the Iron Sword Gate and the Four Horse Gang fight, and it can be regarded as a grand event here, Qi An came just in time, you can join in the fun, and by the way, you can also see the tricks between Wu Zong, after all, Wu Zong is also a hero in the countryside town, and he will not make a move easily, and it is rare to have the opportunity to observe it with his own eyes.

Before the warring parties arrived, the town square was surrounded by water, and the Qi'an people were small and nimble, and with a little skill, they squeezed into the front row and took up a good position, sitting cross-legged on the ground and waiting for the opening.

Seeing that it was noon, two groups of people came from the east and west ends at the same time, and the crowd that had been waiting for a long time got out of the way.

There are more than a dozen big men from the east, all of them are as strong as a cow, and the worst are martial artists, and the men led by them are dark and burly, and their momentum is obviously much higher than the others, which is obviously the realm of martial arts.

This person is about forty years old, bearded and angry, quite majestic, probably Zhao Tiejian, the master of the Iron Sword Gate, but because of this, he is carrying a black and heavy giant iron sword in his hand, the blade is more than five feet long, two palms wide, and the tip is flush without a blade, not quite like a sword, but a little like a huge iron ruler.

There are more people from the west, about twenty or so, tall, short, fat and thin, they are all martial artists, and there are four thin and tall men at the front, with restrained momentum, calm steps, similar appearances, and roughly similar dresses, it seems that they should be the four leaders of the Four Horse Gang. These four people are naturally also martial arts sects, and the momentum exuded by each one is not inferior to Long Wu, the leader of the sand bandits encountered by Qi'an.

The four brothers of the Ma family are dressed exactly the same, and they all have a pair of short handguard hooks hanging from their waists, with a total length of no more than one and a half feet, with a hook at the front end, a halberd at the back end, and a sharp cone at the tail.

Zhao Tiejian's gaze turned around on the four brothers opposite, and finally fell to one of them: "Ma Banshan, your four horse gangs have lost several times in a row, and you still don't give up?"

Ma Banshan didn't have any expression on his face, took the three Ma family brothers to step forward a few steps, and said calmly: "Don't talk nonsense, let's see the real chapter under your hands!"

Zhao Tiejian's face changed, and he shouted, "What's the matter? Could it be that you four brothers are going to join forces to deal with me again this time?"

Ma Banshan took off his waist and held the double hook in his hand, and smiled at the yin owl: "What's wrong?"

Zhao Tiejian sneered, and also clenched the big iron sword in his hand: "You are just a defeated soldier under Zhao, why be afraid?"

"In that case, come on!"

The four brothers of the Ma family each showed their weapons, stood in four directions, and surrounded Zhao Tiejian in the center. The Iron Sword Gate and the rest of the Four Horse Gang all stepped back some distance, giving up a large open space in the middle.

Seeing this posture, Qi An secretly wondered in his heart: Isn't it Zhao Tiejian who wants to fight four with one?

Sure enough, Zhao Tiejian was known as the number one master in Qinghe Town, although he was in the same realm as the other four people, he was not afraid of battle. Qi An even heard the private discussion of the onlookers, in the last competition, Zhao Tiejian fought the four Ma brothers alone, and finally won the victory, just paying the price of minor injuries.

However, this time, the Ma brothers were obviously prepared, and from the expressions on their faces, they were all relaxed and calm, and they were quite confident. The strongest Ma Banshan took the lead in making a move, and the double hooks were cut out in a row, Zhao Tiejian was not in a hurry, and pushed the iron sword in his hand forward, relying on the advantage of the wide sword body, and easily resisted the opponent's attack.

The remaining three Ma family brothers were not vegetarians, and they followed closely and attacked Zhao Tiejian one by one. And Zhao Tiejian lifted his weight lightly, and danced a heavy big iron sword to the water, even if the four brothers of the Ma family attacked the storm, they did not achieve anything.

The onlookers watched with relish one by one, and the good deeds also pointed and discussed softly, and gave one or two cheers from time to time.