The rain was blowing, knocking down the eaves, and on the long street in the rain, the man who gave up his hand to the horse team was a middle-aged man in a coat.

“…… The brother's surname is Zhao, Zhao Si, thanks to everyone on the road to give face, give the brother a bandit number, and cover it. Whenever there is something in the area of Luliang, if you look for me Zhao Si, you can generally say something. Since a few of them came over by the way of a big boss, the next thing will be wrapped up in Zhao. Dare to ask the brothers, what do you call it? ”

"Cover it, it's not a simple name." The scholar on horseback arched his hand, "In Xia Ningyi, the people of the rivers and lakes sent the bandits to the bloody slaughter, and the one next to him is Zhu Biao, the burning city gun, and the brothers below, have seen Zhao Gong." ”

The young scholar's voice was slow and coherent, but he also spoke with a clear and clear look, full of strange and strange atmosphere. A young man named Zhu Biao on a horse next to him lowered his head after greeting him, his eyes lit up: "Burning City Gun...... What a nickname. "That" can be covered" arched his hand and said: "Long admiration." ”

He used to walk around Luliang, but he had never heard of the literary and crepe title of "Zhao Gong". After looking at the two of them, he said in his heart: "It's like a few chicks......"

The ecology of the forces in the area of Luliang Mountain is complex, although Qingmu Village has opened its door to do business, and now it has a certain scale, but it is still not easy to take the smuggling road of Luliang. Ordinary people have no relationship, and it is basically difficult to get in if you can't find someone to match. This Zhao Si is one of the guides outside Aoki Village, he seems to be thirty or forty years old, with a slightly rusty knife behind his back, and his eyes are flickering. also has a bit of a shrewd look, belonging to the kind of person whose martial arts may not be very high, but he is relatively open on the road, which may also be the reason why Aoki Village chose him.

Ning Yi and the others came here, and they had already left all the carts nearby and turned them into horse teams carrying goods into the mountains. They used the same contact methods and incisions that had been left behind by red grapes. Although it belongs to the relationship of the big boss, there is nothing surprising, and it is difficult to say where the relationship was found.

That Zhao Si looked at the caravan along the way, and soon he had a plan in his heart, and the group of people in front of him were obviously from some big families with backgrounds in the south. Just look at the leaders are still young. knew that he should be the successor of the big family. It should be the first time for the caravan to go this way, but looking at the men in the rear team, all of them are not weak in body and martial arts, and the spirit of walking may have something to do with the soldiers, at least south of Luliang Mountain. It's a half-tailed dragon.

Merely. This type of strong dragon. Once you have crossed the mountain, it is often nothing. Those who come from the south to the north do business, especially those who go out of Luliang. What you need is not sharpness, but improvisation that can find a way in any environment. Otherwise, once you cross the mountain, in the case of mixed fish and dragons, it is really the dragon that has to be coiled, and the tiger has to lie on its stomach, and the team of one or two hundred people, no matter how strong it is, is not strong, and what I am afraid of is that the young people lead the team, strong and easy to break.

Zhao Si thought so in his heart, but as a leader, what should be done still has to be done. Although Qingmu Village was developed from Luliang Mountain, it still seems to be a bandit village from the outside, but it has been extremely disciplined and rewarded internally. In the eyes of Zhao Si and others, this was the rules that the big boss "Blood Bodhisattva" learned from the army in the south, but they didn't know that it was the young man in the carriage behind them who set these rules for them.

After the two sides converged, they walked in the rain for half a day before they really entered the range of Luliang Mountain. This part of the country is surrounded by mountains, rugged roads, and fewer people, and it is not the same place as the south.

Located on the border, Luliang Mountain has not only been in the midst of war for many years, but also barren. The vertical and horizontal loess slopes, sparse vegetation, the crops planted here, the harvest is usually not good, the potatoes that are relatively suitable for planting here in later generations have not yet been introduced to China at this time, and the water is not very scarce, but if it encounters heavy rain, it is easy to turn into floods.

The people who live in such places are either gone or dead, leaving behind not so much because they can't leave their homeland, but because they don't have the idea of migrating at all. Two hundred years ago, it was relatively peaceful, but since then, wars and grassy valleys have combed through the area year after year, some people have died, and some people have taken refuge in the mountains, looking for a new place to survive. The total amount of grain was not much, and some of it was robbed, and the rest was cannibalistic.

During the famine, it was not strange to eat people in the mountains and wilderness. After the gradual development of the Wu Dynasty, outside of Luliang, the food was enough, although it is difficult to say that it directly helped Luliang Mountain, but in the past few decades, there have not been many famines that have starved to the point of eating people, but starving to death is still the norm. If the total amount is limited, if you have to feed some people, the other part will definitely starve to death. This is the cruelest law of survival, regardless of human compassion or dislike.

If a person is in a state where he is about to starve to death, he will do anything. Over time, most of the order has been broken, morality has become nonexistent, and no one has talked about morality, only survival itself has become clear. The people who survive in this environment are extremely cruel, extremely simple, or both...... It's not that no one wants to establish order, but those who do it usually fail, ending in blood and death.

Occasionally, they would have some conflicts with the outside world, and occasionally, when the outside army felt that it was profitable, would come in and find a way to kill a group of people, and then hand it over to the state as the result of suppressing bandits. Such a thing, except for the person who was killed, basically no one paid attention to it.

If you want to survive in such a situation, there is actually not much difference between people and wolves in the mountains.

“…… In this mountain, no matter where it is, it is not peaceful. Outsiders are basically inaccessible. The rain has stopped, and in the process of moving along the mountain road, Zhao Si pointed to the surroundings and introduced, "To the west of here, there used to be a horse thief named Zhang Da Belly, and the scenery has been beautiful for a while, probably ...... Two years, and then he died, he was killed by the second master in the village, the body hung on the mountain for a few months, the second master took over for less than half a year, and the village was gone. There's a bunch of hunters who have set up camp over there, and they're so arrogant that they don't give anyone face, so we'll have to take a detour now. ”

“…… If you want to say that it can be counted as a number, it is a little northeast. The more famous is the little ringing horse Qiu Mengtang, I heard that he has something to do with the Tiger King, and now he has a lot of people, and he is very powerful. After the past, there were Chen Zhenhai, the 'King of Troubled Mountains' of Chenjiaqu, and Luan Sanwolf, the 'Black Skull King' of Skull Village. After our Qingmu Village, we will probably count the Fang Yiyang brothers of the Fang family...... In addition, there has been a group of Liao people in the north recently, and I heard that it was the rout of the Liao after the fall of the Liao State, and there were more than 2,000 people. Follow us Aoki. I've had a few conflicts......"

Zhao Si is the head snake of the land, and he is a treasure of the big forces in Luliang Mountain. Sometimes there is a group of people on the side of the mountain road, and he will go over to negotiate, after making an incision for a while. The other party also let him go silently. In fact, in such mountains. It's not the big forces that are in trouble. It's some little rattle horses that don't follow the rules at all. When there is a big force, there are often rules to talk about, and only those who finish eating the last meal do not care about the next meal. A wolf that changes places with one shot is very nerve-wracking. Even if Aoki Village had agreed with them, maybe in a few days, the gang would have died on the hill and been replaced by another group of people. Therefore, in order to maintain a crooked road into the mountain, Aoki Village also spent great effort.

Many times, Ning Yi and the others could see the wooden stakes inserted near this mountain road, and some of the wooden stakes still had corpses and skulls. The white bones and corrosion are inserted in the high loess, which is the most barbaric warning line, but there are not many corpses, which shows that there have been fewer and fewer killings recently, and more are just empty pillars that have been erected for an unknown period of time.

"The group of people just now, the leader is called the yellow ape, and he is a bad wolf, but he also has to give us face...... These places were all fought by the big boss with us at the beginning, when a row of human heads flowed down from above, and the whole dirt slope was red. After sending a group of roadblockers, Zhao Si came back, waved his hand to introduce the surroundings, looked at Ning Yi and the others, and his face was quite complacent, "Now that I want to enter the mountain, Ning Gongzi has his own team, naturally Zhao is a certain person, if it is some retail investors, let them wait for a group of people to enter together, we still have to send dozens of people to follow, and now it is like this, this road was even more chaotic at the beginning......

What Zhao Si said was the situation when Aoki Village had just done these things. Although Luliang Mountain is chaotic, but the situation of smuggling from here has always been there, either it is a real master of art who is bold and dares to take the black dart a few ways, or some opportunistic businessmen who take a risk, although Luliang is chaotic, after all, the land is vast and sparsely populated, once it passes, it can also make a lot of money. It was not easy for Aokizhai and others to contact these merchants when they first approached, even if they were locals, they had to fight several times in the past.

Later, the business began to grow, and the Aoki Village was able to provide income and food, but it also swelled rapidly, and in order to maintain a relatively stable road, Hongti and others ran almost all over the mountains. Talking about conditions, greetings, fighting, killing, or small killings, or big fights, in the end, there are basically as many heads as there are sticks planted on the whole road.

During this period, there are naturally those who want to get a piece of the pie, but in fact, only Aoki Village really opens up the whole road, and ordinary people want to lead the team to pass guò, which often becomes the food in the mouths of the "wolves" guarding the roadside. There are also those who are not afraid of heaven and earth, and run to block the road, or destroy it, and want to blackmail Aoki Village - this is naturally extremely stupid, and soon after being led by someone to kill the door.

“…… That's it, sweeping over and over again, and now, when it comes to the name of our Qingmu Village master 'Blood Bodhisattva', who dares not to retreat! The horse team moved forward, Zhao Si looked at Ning Yi as he spoke, he wanted to use these cruel things to scare this boy, but after talking for a long time, he felt a little bored.

Ning Yi listened to these things with relish, and when Hongti saw him in the past, he would not mention these things, what kind of killing was like a river of blood, all kinds of firefights. Naturally, he didn't mention the "Blood Bodhisattva", which gradually became scary in Luliang. Blood Bodhisattva ...... What kind of Cheng dù has to kill people to have such a nickname...... Compared with the good nickname of "River and Mountain Iron Sword", "Blood Bodhisattva" or something, it is obvious that it is a dragon name, and you have to laugh at her when you meet.

"Because of this, from last year to this year, no one in the village has ever been hungry. Because of the profit sharing of our Aoki Village, the nearby mountains are also much better. After all, Zhao Si is still a simple mountain man, look at Ning Yi at this time, "Ning Gongzi came from the south, he hasn't seen anything about starving to death, right?" ”

"There was a famine in the south last year." Ning Yi smiled, "Speaking of which, the recent news from the Tao has that your female head wants to recruit relatives......

Zhao Si's gaze turned cold: "Isn't Ning Gongzi also interested in this?" ”

"I really want to see it."

He said he wanted to see, not to participate. Zhao Si's eyebrows and eyes were slightly relaxed: "Hmph, that's just a rumor on the road, I don't know who is spreading it in secret, so that a group of people are rushing to the village recently." The big master has superb martial arts, a sword in his hand, and it is difficult for hundreds of people to get close, how can those mediocre people compare! Tournament to recruit relatives, a group of things that don't know how to die......"

He chattered: "From that year to the present, the big boss has a sword that spans hundreds of miles across Luliang, and how many heroes and ruthless men have to change their style. Lu Shang the year before last. The ruthless of the ruthless. The martial arts are strong, and the six relatives who killed people did not recognize them, and they went to our Aoki Village to make trouble, and they were not chased by the owner of the village for a day and a night and then killed. Last winter. The most powerful old wolf who crisscrosses the western veins of Luliang sees that our Qingmu Village is powerful. The design is to ambush the big boss. Chase and kill all the way in the mountains, and the big boss has one person, one sword, and one torch. also encountered the most deadly wolves in winter, and was killed by the big boss out of a bloody way, seven days later, the old wolf owner thought that the big boss was dead, and was cut off by the big boss in front of everyone. Farther away, there is a horse bandit in Fenyang......"

Seeing that Ning Yi was interested in hearing about this kind of thing, Zhao Si was quite complacent when he talked about these things of the "big boss". It was only after chattering for a while that he noticed that the expression in the eyes of the young man beside him seemed to have changed somewhat, and he still smiled and asked softly: "At this time, do you still want your village master to run outside?" What about you? ”

"There are naturally people around the owner of the village." Zhao Si waved his hand, "But Lu Liangshan is too chaotic, some people talk about the rules, some people don't, it's hard to tell you these things clearly...... Moreover, how high is the martial arts of our village master, tell you, I, Zhao Si, have only learned three killing moves under the village master, and after coming out to do things, I can cover this name, these are difficult to tell you, if you don't open your eyes, you will know......"

was accused of only letting the owner of the village go out to do things, which obviously made Zhao Si feel a little uncomfortable, and added a lot of words. Ning Yi smiled and stopped asking. After walking for a while, there was another col ahead, and a group of men and horses in the col looked at this way from a distance. Zhao Si made a gesture, then clamped the horse's belly and continued to negotiate.

It was already afternoon, and after a while, the group set up camp in a nearby mountain. The hill was not barren, but there were strange rocks and low trees, not dense shrubs and grasses, and a small stream meandering through the hills. As the sun sets, everyone chooses a place with a wide field of vision, and in the distance you can see the ruins of a village, which is obviously uninhabited now. Ning Yi stood at the foot of the mountain, looking at the direction in which the sun was setting.

Zhu Biao walked over from not far away with a gun: "I have made a few moves with that cover just now, the martial arts here are different from those in the south, they are all practiced in life and death, and the most important thing is momentum." If the average master can't bear the desperate ruthlessness, he will be killed with two knives, but if he can't bear it, it's hard to say. ”

Ning Yi also smiled: "Practicing knives here is not a competition, if you hold it, they will naturally turn their heads and run, and then come back with all kinds of revenge." ”

Zhu Biao's martial arts attainments are much higher than Ning Yi's, and he naturally understands these. In fact, although what he said was Zhao Si's momentum, in terms of Zhao Si's cultivation, whether there was momentum or not, in the real moves, there was no difference to Zhu Biao, mainly because the gap was too big. He smiled and said, "Brother Ning, are you thinking about Senior Lu's affairs?" ”

"When I first considered Luliangshan, I was smuggling." Ning Yi put his hands behind his back and frowned, "Open the door to do business, and what you look at is profit." But with profit at the core, it is difficult to cultivate enough loyalty. I'm afraid that several bosses will be combined for the sake of interests, and they usually develop very well, but when it's really time to make a move, everyone is timid. ”

He paused: "So I reminded her at the beginning that the armed core in her hands is the most important, and those who can fight must use the strictest discipline to control it, and when cultivating cohesion, her personal martial arts and charm must be used, as long as a martial arts master knows a little bit of management, the possibility of being betrayed by others will be much smaller." But now it seems...... She is a charmer, is she a little too cultivated. ”

Ning Yi's tone was quite complicated when he spoke. When I first entered the mountain, I heard all kinds of things, although I thought it was funny, but Lu Hongti's nickname of the Blood Bodhisattva was only used as a joke. As for things like killing and killing, although Ning Yi longs for a peaceful life, he has a deep understanding of the dark side of the world. It's just that Zhao Si's complacent boasting has been heard for a long time. Only then will the complex emotions really be precipitated from it.

“…… What Lu Shang, what an old wolf master. Of course, there is a discount if it can be covered, but it is certainly not too fake. What is one person, one sword and one torch, against a group of wolves in the ice and snow, and there are people chasing and killing behind, Brother Zhu, what do you think? He remembered the woman's scene against the wolves in the ice and snow, and for a moment he felt quite beautiful, but then, he couldn't help but sigh.

Zhu Biao shrugged: "Hmm." I think so...... Wolves are also human. If it's just one or two wolves, I might be able to scare them away. Senior Lu is so powerful, ordinary wolves, it is estimated that they dare not bite her at all. ”

"But it was freezing and snowy. Wolves who have been hungry for a winter......" Ning Yi waved his hand. "Her martial arts are already high. When it comes to personal charm, just put on a show every year. The rest...... High-pressure policies, mysticism is not useful, and I like to do it myself. Let her raise a group of people to do things for her, is it possible to raise good-looking ones? This time, I have to take a good look at the appearance of her cottage......"

Zhu Biao has been working under Ning Yi for more than a day or two, and Ning Yi has also taught him a lot of things, pouting and smiling at this time, but he knows that he doesn't need to say anything. At this moment, he suddenly noticed something, and his eyes looked not far away, and among the sparse poplar forests over there, there were birds flying out, and then there was a bang, not loud, and then it was quiet.

Like a gust of wind blowing suddenly through the foothills, half of the more than 100 people who began to camp near and far were shocked at this moment and looked over there.

It was almost suffocating silence. In the camp, Zhao Si rushed out, jumped on a boulder, untied the steel knife, and waved his other hand to the back: "Don't panic!" "Of course, no one is panicking at all.

Exhale, inhale, among the poplar trees, there is a figure suddenly flashing, intertwined, there is a short scream of "ah", and then, a figure appears on the tree, and the sound of weapons fighting. Only a simple voice could be heard.

"Who!"

"Come out—"

"Ahh

"Everyone, beware, the idea-"

Some of these voices shouted, and some stopped abruptly. The poplar grove was stained with blood, a human head rolled into view, and then another corpse with its chest split was thrown out. Obviously, just now, in this grove, two small groups of people met silently, and then a short but deadly fight ensued.

Zhao Si couldn't figure out what was going on, so he looked back. In the setting sun, the people in the rear scattered among the mountains one by one, some people with knives, some with guns, some with crossbows, silently set up the array, almost no one spoke, and the murderous atmosphere was solemn. A few of them were still looking at him suspiciously on the big rock. A young man who had spoken to him before, hiding behind a rock, tilted his head and said to him silently: "Why are you standing on it if you don't come down yet?"

Farther away, the two young men who led the team had also changed their positions slightly, silently and quietly looking at Yiqiqi below, with almost no surprised looks in their eyes. In fact, with Ning Yi's character, in such a chaotic place as Luliang Mountain, it is impossible for him to only hope for safety on a leader in Qingmu Village, and suddenly there was some accident, someone had a brain twitch, it seemed that it might be troublesome, but it was not enough to make him make a fuss.

Turning back, at the edge of the poplar forest, a figure slowly withdrew from the forest as the corpse was thrown out. It was a tall man, and Zhao Si had seen him in the horse team today. This person has a scar on his face, a burly figure, a steady pace, and his skills seem to be quite good, coupled with his silent and strict expression, even in Luliang Mountain, I am afraid that it is a hard idea that others dare not mess with. In Ning Yi's team, he served as a squad leader. At this time, the steel knife in the man's hand was stained with blood, and he made a few gestures upward, then walked behind a mess of rocks, covered his figure, and then, several people in the forest withdrew one after another, and they were members of the team responsible for guarding under him.

"There are three to four hundred people, coming from the southeast ......" Zhu Biao interpreted the message from the other party, and said to Ning Yi, Ning Yi nodded: "Pick up Nie Shan, they come up." ”

The Nie Shan in his mouth is the name of the man below. This Nie Shan was originally a small leader in Liangshan, fierce by nature, killing a lot, and later in the camp of Dulonggang, he was instructed by Lu Hongti in martial arts - mainly after being beaten, after repentance, martial arts have improved. In fact, most of the skills, whether martial arts or art, after reaching the bottleneck, what can promote breakthroughs is often philosophical comprehension, that is, the tempering of the mind. The confessions in Dulonggang certainly have their distorted side, but they also bring with them an element of extreme fanaticism. Such people, coupled with the training of the team as a team later, and the small-scale combat in the woods, they were almost nightmarish, and the elite of the outpost that the other party sneaked into the woods was killed almost as soon as they came into contact.

The movement between the mountains was quiet and orderly, some people were on guard, some people were packing up their things, and Nie Shan and the others had already come from below. Far away, when the first batch of people appeared in the field of vision, Zhao Si saw that there were two people here with bows and arrows, and they shot over several figures in a row, and the other party hurriedly retreated, but then it became more and more numerous, and came around from the southeast.

"Fourth Master Zhao." Ning Yi approached, "At this time, there can be three or four hundred people coming, who do you think?" ”

"Fuck." Zhao Si grinded his teeth, "This is still the territory of Xiao Xiangma, and I greeted their people when I crossed the mountain pass." He Qiu Mengtang doesn't want to die, do it to us, what do you think, damn it! ”

Saying this, Zhao Si glanced around, and saw that more than 100 people were gathering and moving, and the spirit and spirit on each person were not disordered at all, and he finally confirmed that it was not easy for these people to come from. Gritting his teeth, he rushed out to the side where the figure appeared.

"Qiu Mengtang! Qiu Zhai Lord! He shouted at the figure over there, "I am Aoki Zhao Si, and it is the meaning of the big boss to take the brothers through the customs today!" You've already collected the money to buy the road, what is this for! You're taking the wrong medicine! Dare to break the contract with my Aoki Village-"

He dared to shout with the other party as a younger brother in the cottage, and this side was the bloody power of Aoki Village. In the warm yellow sunset, a voice came out from there, it was the little ringing horse that crisscrossed Luliang.

"Zhao Si. The group of people you brought, I will stay today, and after that, I will tell the Blood Bodhisattva in person. The tone sounded a little lazy, but it was driven by internal forces, and it was also because the atmosphere here was solemn and quiet, and for a while, it resounded throughout the mountains, rolling up a cold aftersound, "The words are only once, you, you can go." ”

On the mountain, Ning Yi frowned: "It's really inexplicable to always encounter things......" (to be continued......