It has been five days of day and night, and it is about 100 miles away from Bianzhou City, and when Xu Cun and his party approached the boundary of Zhengzhou, they slowly turned to the direction of the river in the night.

Far away from the battlefield, the garrison of the Caizhou army by the river is not as tight as the front line, after all, Qin Zongquan has transferred most of the troops to the flesh and blood mill in the northern suburbs of Bianzhou, although there is no pursuit and interception, but if you don't alarm the local defenders, you have to find a way to cross the river quietly, the pontoon bridge and the ferry don't have to think about it, the twenty-two men are still wearing eye-catching military uniforms, and the sentry guard will be full of flaws if he interrogates a little.

The big river in front of you is different from the ordinary rivers and lakes, surging and surging from the plateau, wrapped in thousands of heavy sediment and mighty, like a yellow dragon lying across the earth, the people on both sides of the river drinking water, irrigation farmland, all rely on the gift of the river, for thousands of years, by countless literati and ink praise;

"The Yellow River is thousands of miles of sand, and the waves are blowing from the end of the world."

"The Yellow River falls into the sky and goes to the East China Sea, and thousands of miles are written into the chest."

……

At the same time, it is an unruly river. Originally, the river, the river, the Huai, and the "four desecrations" of the river went their own way, but the big river was often tyrannical and overflowing, like an unreasonable evil man, or seizing the Ji into the sea, or seizing the Huai into the sea, and now, it is completely encroaching on the lower reaches of the Jishui River.

It rushes with a domineering and brutal rush, and the dark tide swells under the turbulent surface of the river, roaring loudly like an arrogant giant, ready to mercilessly devour any intruder.

Since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, there have been as many as nine floods in the great rivers that can be found in history, especially during the period of Emperor Xuanzong, since the beginning of the 14th year of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, almost every one or two years, the river will flood, drowning thousands of people at every turn, and submerging tens of thousands of households. The most recent flood occurred in the 14th year of Yizong Xiantong, the river burst its banks, nearly 10,000 hectares of affected fields in Kanto and Henan provinces, and the people were displaced and homeless.

In the face of a roaring river, with no boats and no bridges, and it was a period of high water, the water was deep and rapid, so it was not easy to lead his 20 brothers to cross the river safely!

Just when Xu Cun was staring at the river and was at a loss, Meng Hu led a short and sturdy brother to the front. This dark-skinned, wooden-skinned man has been in Xu Cun's camp for more than a year, and he is in Meng Hu's team, because he is usually silent, so much so that Xu Cun doesn't know his name until now.

After listening to Meng Hu's introduction to Xu Cun, I learned that this man's name is Zhang Cheng, a native of Shaanzhou, who grew up by the big river since he was a child, and has excellent water quality.

Zhang Cheng was honest by nature, and he was a little nervous in the face of Xu Cun, and he was silent for a long time before he said with a bare face: "Boss, I have a way, maybe I can cross the river." Xu Cun was worried about crossing the river, and when he heard this, he was overjoyed, and hurriedly beckoned Zhang Cheng to sit down and talk in detail.

It turned out that Zhang Cheng's hometown was poor, and many poor people wanted to cross the river, but they were reluctant to pay for the ferry.

Now they are in the barren mountains and have nowhere to find the gourd, but the clever Zhang Cheng has come up with a clever method.

It is to collect all the brothers' sheepskin water bladders, empty them, and tie them together with all their strength to make a large "waist boat". Then take the grass and rattan and twist it into two ropes, first Zhang Cheng tied the rope, held the waist boat to cross the river, and then fixed a cable on the opposite bank, and then used another rope to pull back the waist boat, and the other brothers who could not know the water could tie the waist boat and pull the fixed cable to cross the river, and then take back the waist boat, and then cross the river in turn.

Xu Cun glanced at the sheepskin water bladder on his waist, and suddenly opened his mouth, and slapped his palm excitedly, he was also in his father's collection of books when he was a child, and read the "Book of Jin" compiled by Fang Xuanling, among which "The Biography of Cai Mo" has "Sex is especially cautious, everything must be guarded, so people say: 'Cai Gong has sailed and taken off his waist boat. '" of the record; There is also a record of "losing a boat in the middle of the river, a pot of gold" in the ancient book "Crane Guanzi" of the pre-Qin Dynasty, which shows that the method of "waist boat" crossing has existed in ancient times.

Xu Cun thought about it for a while, and felt more and more that this method was feasible, and his heart was very happy, and he hurriedly ordered Zhang Cheng to rush to make the "waist boat", and asked Lu Ben to take people to prepare ropes......

At midnight, the moon was bright and the stars were scarce, and on the side of the big river that was inaccessible, Xu Cun and everyone stared intently at the river. The Zhang Cheng brothers had gone down the river alone and began to swim across, watching him drift away with the current, slowly turning into an inconspicuous black spot, floating and sinking on the river. The speed of the great river is very fast, and it is impossible to cross it in a straight line, but can only go down the river and stab through it.

Suddenly, a huge whirlpool appeared in the river, and the black dots were entangled; Everyone on the shore exclaimed again and again, and saw Zhang Cheng, who looked incomparably small in the river, could only helplessly rotate with the whirlpool, and in an instant, he had completely disappeared.

Since Zhang Cheng began to cross the river, Xu Cun has been hanging with a heart, and now seeing the honest Zhang Cheng brothers fall into the whirlpool, life and death are unpredictable, he suddenly felt cold hands and feet, and shouted at Meng Hu to quickly pull the rope to save people.

At this moment, the sharp-eyed Hu Si pointed to the downstream river in the distance and shouted excitedly. Xu Cun followed the guidance and looked over, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the black shadow that had disappeared just now had gotten rid of the whirlpool, crossed the middle riverbed with undercurrents, and swam quickly towards the opposite bank......

The process of crossing the river in the back is very smooth, Zhang Cheng's self-made waist boat is not comparable to ordinary gourds, more than 20 inflatable water bladders are very buoyant in the water, and Zhang Cheng responds on the other bank, the rest of the brothers did not use an hour, they all crossed the river in the night, Hu Si, who was injured in the shoulder, also crossed the river safely under the escort of the brothers, and the weapons and dry food were also tied to the waist boat several times and pulled across the river, but the iron gun was too heavy and could only be discarded, Meng Hu was a little distressed and scolded by Xu Cun a few words, and then he was thrown aside.

……

After crossing the river, Xu Cun and his party still walked day and night, all the way to the south and walked for several days, the further south, the more mountains, the weather became hotter and hotter, the march at night became more and more difficult, and they did not go far after walking all night, especially the dry food they carried was almost exhausted, there was no food, and the brothers' spirits were not as high as a few days ago, seeing their exhausted appearance, before dawn, Xu Cun ordered the brothers to camp and rest.

When it was dark, when Meng Hu counted the team, he couldn't find Lu Ben, and ran over in a panic to report to Xu Cun: "Brother Lu is gone." Xu Cun nodded, but his expression was very calm; I'm not going to hurry tonight," Ben'er went down the mountain to explore the way for us to live. Xu Cun looked up at Meng Hu, who was a little uneasy, and stretched out his hand and pointed in the direction of Junzhou City in the distance.

……

The night has ended, but the city of Junzhou in the distance is not depressed, the lights outline the scene of a long street, and you can vaguely see the tall bell and drum tower in the city. This was under the rule of Zhao Dexu, the queen of Shannan Dongdao, and was nominally under the command of Qin Zongquan. Because it is far away from the center of political interests, although there have been wars in Junzhou City from time to time over the years, they are not as frequent as those in the Central Plains.

Shirtless and barefoot, wearing only a pair of tattered linen trousers, and carrying a bundle of firewood on a bamboo pole, he wandered around the city pretending to be a firewood seller. The wealth of Junzhou City can be seen at a glance, in this chaotic situation, there are still wine shops selling at night on the streets, and prostitutes with red lights hanging high.

From time to time, a few rich sons in silk shirts walked by, Lu Ben first turned his head to look, and then turned away with interest.

"Gotta find the fattest one!" Lu Ben thought silently.

The Yang Ji soup cake shop on South Street has closed, and the shopkeeper Lao Yang is about to close the store, when he turns his head and sees Lu Ben walking towards him, he feels a little strange.

The nearby firewood sellers all go to the mountains to cut firewood before dawn in the morning, and rush to pick firewood into the city before noon to sell. Lao Yang is a kind-hearted person, and after looking at Lu Ben, he expected that this was a poor man, and he was afraid that he would not be able to return home if he did not sell firewood; Anyway, the store will have to burn firewood tomorrow, so he beckoned to him and asked, "Young man, how much do you sell these chopping firewood?" ”

Hearing that someone was taking care of the business, Lu Ben hurriedly came over and said with a smile: "Give a bowl of soup cakes and it will be done", Lao Yang looked at Lu Ben's smiling little eyes, thinking that this young man was afraid that he was hungry, so many chopping wood only needed a bowl of soup cakes, he couldn't help but feel soft in his heart, sighed and said: "Wait, I'll do it for you." Lu Ben followed up with firewood, stacked all the firewood neatly, and watched Lao Yang reopen the fire and start making soup cakes.

After a while, Lao Yang brought a bowl of mutton soup cakes, and he could smell the fragrant smell from a distance, and kindly added an extra piece of sheep tail, and a thick layer of mutton fat floated in the soup cake bowl.

Lu Ben's eyes lit up when he saw the layer of oil flowers, swallowed his saliva, took the pottery bowl and thanked him, and he didn't care about the heat, Hula Hula ate it, ate clean soup cakes, and asked Lao Yang for a bowl of water and talked: "Shopkeeper, where is there anything to play in Junzhou City?" Lao Yang was stunned when he heard this, looked at Lu Ben's poor and sour appearance, and couldn't bear to hit him, so he dealt with it sarcastically: "Uncle Fan's Chunyan Building, Taibai Liquor Shop, Jiutong Gambling House, Uncle Qi's Liuxiangyuan, Zhiwei Building......" "Go back early when you're full, don't hang out here!" After speaking, Lao Yang began to clean up the dishes and chopsticks, and put on a posture of sending people away.

Lu Ben said with a smile: "The shopkeeper is a lesson, a lesson!" Hurriedly got up, walked out of the soup cake shop with a bamboo pole, and watched Lu Ben walk away, Lao Yang spilled the remaining half bowl of water on the case, and muttered and scolded: "It looks like a shrewd but a crazy man, and the poor hanger still wants to play?" Wasted my sheep's tail in vain......"

Fan Jiutong, who used to be a well-known playful idler in Junzhou City, was so idle that his father and mother died, and he was a prodigal son that no one could look up to. I didn't think about it, in the past few years, he took advantage of the chaos to make a windfall, and slowly became the leading wealthy man in Junzhou City, with the largest wine shop, prostitution and gambling house in Junzhou City.

Lu Ben, who was kicked out of the store by Lao Yang, stood on the street, stretched out his tongue and carefully licked the mutton fat at the corner of his mouth, and sucked them back into his mouth, then smashed his mouth and muttered: "This, fat enough!" ”

……

The famous Chunyan Building, a crazy man came tonight, carrying a bamboo pole bare, and was about to break in, and the old bustard hurriedly sent a few teapots out.

didn't think about it, it was okay if he didn't pick it up, but he stumbled in front of the door, holding the bamboo pole and not leaving.

How do you do business with the door in the way? The teapot went to fight, and he didn't know how to dodge it, ignoring the blood bubbling on his head, just squinting a pair of small eyes and smirking, how mad he looked!

The old bustard was afraid that he would make a lawsuit and lose his life, so he had no idea, so he hurriedly sent someone to invite Uncle Fan.

Fan Jiutong was playing money in his gambling house, and his luck was booming, but he heard that someone was making trouble in Chunyan Building, so he hurried over with a few thugs, and when he came to the door, he saw that it was just a crazy man messing around, so he scolded a few big teapots angrily: "Idle pigs?" A crazy guy can't help it? ……”

Unexpectedly, without waiting for Fan Jiutong to finish scolding, the crazy man spoke, "You are the one who eats...... What barrel? Fan Jiutong was stunned for a moment, thinking that he was not a crazy man, but he deliberately came to find fault.

Lao Fan is also used to being confused, and he is not rash to make trouble, he first takes a few closer steps to take a look clearly, and his face is very raw, and he is sure that he is not a local splasher, so he plays a sideways.

"Where did the madman come from? Running to your Fan Ye's door to find bad luck, is it to die? Fan Jiutong shouted angrily; Hehe, sir, I'm already dead! Seeing that the main owner was coming, Lu Ben picked up the bamboo pole and walked over with squinted eyes. Seeing the crazy man approaching, several thugs hurriedly took out the guy and copied it in their hands, but before they could set up their position, a sharpened bamboo pole had been properly inserted into Fan Jiutong's pipa bone.

"Hehe, the master likes pipa bones!"