The rooster crowed, the sun rose, the first baby cry broke the silence of the morning, the people in Bishan town rose one after another, Uncle Tian, who planted crops, walked towards the field with a hoe, Aunt Sun, who sold tofu, and her beautiful girl set up a stall at the door of the house, and the children of each family jumped together to go to the teaching hall, passing by the tavern, and did not forget to make a grimace at the storyteller in front of the door.

The "bandits" on Nanbi Cottage also woke up from last night's drunkenness, and the guards at the door were replaced by the other two. The big boss in the middle room has already dressed himself up beautifully, as if yesterday was like a dream, quietly gone,

In another room in the middle room, a slender teenager was reclining on the bed, snoring, and the smell of alcohol still smelled from his clothes. About half an hour later, the door was suddenly kicked open, and the boy subconsciously woke up from the bed.

The boy yawned, stretched, and stood up with a very reluctant expression.

"I said, eldest sister, can't you call it, you have kicked the door I don't know how much. “

Xu didn't have the pain in his feet last night, and he walked with a limp.

"Don't talk about this, hurry up, there is a "financial road" today!"

Mu Qing stood at the door in a cyan dress, completely devoid of last night's drunkenness, and looked at the young man levelly.

Chen Changxiao was a little excited when he heard this, he hadn't been to a merchant ship in this place for two months, and as a bandit, he hadn't robbed for two months, and he was also mixed up (Chongqing dialect, meaning poor).

After changing his clothes, he walked with Mu Qing.

"Cailu" means to collect "tolls" from merchant ships passing through Nanbi Town. Nanbi Town is located in a remote area, almost isolated from the outside world, if you want to go to the next market town or city, you have to sail along the Nanbi River for at least three days and three nights, so most of the people here live by farming, hunting or fishing for a living, for money, they have no desire at all, anyway, there is no use.

At this moment, the meeting room of the cottage on the south wall was full of people, and Mu Qing and Chen Changxiao were sitting on the left and right in front of them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, at midnight today, a small merchant ship will pass through the town of Nanbi, and everyone will go to the old place at the end of the day to ambush them. Be careful, only rob food and clothing, not money, and do not hurt others. “

"Yes, boss. ”

Everyone said in unison, Chen Changxiao turned his head and glanced at Mu Qing, and smiled lightly at the corner of his mouth.

Mu Qing and Chen Changxiao are not related, Mu Qing is twenty-five years old, when he was eight years old, Mu Qing's family went out fishing, and when they were about to return, they saw a basket floating on the river, and found that it was a baby with a wooden plaque hanging around his neck, which was engraved with the word "Chen". When he was picked up, he was already dying, and he should have been drifting on this river for a long time, so Mu Qing and his wife took him home, raised him, and named him Changxiao, taken from the famous sentence of the world, "The long road is long, and the love of Xiao will reach the sky." It is a metaphor that the child will be able to return home as an adult as soon as possible. Unfortunately, when Mu Qing was sixteen years old, her parents died of illness one after another, and Chen Changxiao, who was eight years old, was naturally ignorant, so Mu Qing depended on him alone, but fortunately, the people in the town were very kind and always helped them. When he became an adult, Mu Qing took Chen Changxiao up the mountain to hunt and live, and later recruited some fellow Chinese to build a Nanbi cottage, which was dedicated to robbing passing merchant ships and distributing some materials to the poor townspeople here, also in order to repay them.

Since Chen Changxiao knew his life experience, he has always been very grateful to Mu Qing's family, especially his sister, although the two are always quarrelling, but they have never been serious. Sometimes, he even thinks that if it weren't for Mu Qing's too much age, he would want to marry her as his wife, of course, this is just a joke, Chen Changxiao is not so vulgar.

After assigning the task, everyone grabbed their weapons and prepared to go. Chen Changxiao learned some boxing and kicking from his elders who were good at hunting since he was a child, and he was invincible in the cottage at a young age, so Chen Changxiao only rushed to the front to fight.

"Changxiao, this merchant ship doesn't seem to be the same as before, be careful and good. ”

"Okay, big boss. If it's okay, I'll go down first. ”

Chen Changxiao went in and out of Mu Qing's words, because he had heard them countless times.

At noon, Chen Changxiao stood in front of a boulder engraved with "Nanbi Town", this is the entrance of Nanzhen, and the place of action is above the entrance of Beizhen, where there is a cave, and it is also the way for the merchant ship to go north after passing through the town, which is also to avoid the suspicion of the merchant ship to the town.

Mu Qing and the others walked along the mountain road, while Chen Changxiao walked towards the town alone, every time.

Entering the town, each household has begun to cook rice, the faint smoke wafts out, the aroma of rape in the pot enters the nose, Chen Changxiao opened the folding umbrella in his hand, and the dragon flying and phoenix dancing on it said "Chen Er is in charge". The corners of his mouth were slightly raised, and he stepped away.

"It's Chen Erjia!"

The uncle holding a cigarette at the door of a family recognized the young man at a glance. As soon as the words came out, they went out to visit from house to house.

"Uncle Qin, you look in good health!"

"Hahaha, do the Chen family have time to sit today?"

A few small talking, attracting several children to surround the boy, all of them smiling.

"Good noon at Erjia Chen!"

"Hello folks!"

The simplicity and kindness of the townspeople made the boy feel very good. Passing by the door of Aunt Sun's room, I saw her handing over a large piece of tofu with kindness.

"Chen Erjia, take it to make up for your body. ”

"The eldest lady just keeps her daughter, and goes to the city to find a good family with a beautiful appearance!"

Hearing the young man's words, the daughter of the Sun family on the side hid shyly in the door.

Chen Changxiao smiled and walked forward. From a distance, I saw the old storyteller in front of the tavern in front of the tavern, dressed in burlap clothes, holding a square piece of wood in his hand, knocking on the table from time to time, and talking endlessly.

"I said old man, everyone knows the history of the Great Yuan Dynasty, and he also talks about what he did, change his way, so as to attract guests!"

Chen Changxiao stood in front of the old gentleman and heard the story of the Great Yuan Dynasty again. The children around him also pointed at him.

"This old gentleman talks like this every day, and his ears are so annoying!"

"Chen Erjia's words are bad, good stories must be told all the time, children understand very well, don't listen to them. ”

The old gentleman shook his head. "If the Chen family doesn't come in and have a drink, how about I discuss it with the second family?"

The old gentleman was very excited when he saw Chen Changxiao, and the young man usually had nothing to do, so he went down the mountain to listen to him tell stories, and became a frequent visitor of the old gentleman.

Chen Changxiao waved his fan and said, "Thank you for your kindness, it's just that Changxiao has something to do today, and I will discuss it another day." ”

"Oh, that's a word, please go slowly. ”

After greeting the people in the town and saying goodbye, the old gentleman naturally guessed that the young man must be going to rob the ship, looking at Chen Changxiao's distant back, brushing his white beard, smiling lightly, full of indescribable kindness to this young man.

......

The warm wisps of golden sunlight shine directly on the earth, looking up from under the tree, every leaf is crystal clear, the green leaves lie on the winding and withered roots, the young man stands at the entrance of the dense forest, turns around and looks back at the town at the foot of the mountain is full of wood and clay brick houses, the house is in order between the houses, the adults and the old people and children are busy wiping their heads and wiping their sweat, but they are happy, quite a bit of paradise. Chen Changxiao put away the folding fan in his hand, showed a good-looking smile on his face, and said to himself:

"The northern part of the Celestial Empire was plagued by barbarianism, the southeast merchants and merchants rebelled against the fact that merchants were not as good as thieves, and the Xuanmen hundred schools fought each other openly and secretly for the sake of resources. But here, it's very comfortable. ”

"But I don't know how long I'll stay in this town. ”

As soon as the words fell, Chen Changxiao's eyes looked straight into the distant sky, and his eyes were full of scorching light that was not easy to find. After being distracted for a while, Chen Changxiao turned around and rushed towards the forest, but in just a few blinks, he disappeared.

A section of the Nanbi River all the way to the north is sandwiched under two vertical high cliffs, from the entrance all the way to the inside, the width of the river is getting narrower and narrower, until only one boat can pass through, there is a cave at the end of the entrance, the top stone of the cave mouth hangs upside down, like the appearance of a wolf's mouth, crouching here, is bound to swallow the river and break the river, so that it is mighty.

If you want to pass through the river, this hole is a must, and naturally Mu Qing and others are also robbing ships here.

In the blink of an eye, it was the end of the day, Chen Changxiao, Mu Qing and others had already met at the entrance of the cave, and they were walking towards the cave, all with knives and hammers, all of them were hot-blooded men.

Entering the cave, the people in front of them raised their lit torches, which immediately illuminated a dark space, and several bats attached to the wall flew away. In the middle of the cave is a deep river, on both sides of which are wide flat land and various small holes, and the top is the same sharp stone as the cave entrance, but the roots are very thin, as if they could fall down at any time. There is a light opening at the front of the cave, which is the exit of the cave hundreds of meters long.

A group of people walked to the middle of the cave. Mu Qing was very skillful in directing everyone's arrangements, and the burly men standing at the front were all gearing up, looking like they were about to show off their skills. The two burly men came out of a hole with two bags of content, which were hooks, and threw them to the side of the boat, and they all went up.

"Ah Yan, Ah Shi, next month is the day for you to go down the mountain to marry your daughter-in-law, do a good job this time, my boss will give you a lot of silver!"

"And Xiao Wang, the daughter who likes Aunt Sun said, I will call the shots for you and keep you happy!"

Mu Qing said and smiled to everyone, and the two burly men Ah Yan and Ah Shi, who were standing at the front, were quite tender, and slowly said the word thank you. Xiao Wang, who is at the back, is sixteen years old this year, and I saw that he was slightly thin, with a thin face and long hair, and his height was half a head shorter than Chen Changxiao, but he stood straight. Xiao Wang fell out with his family last year and said that he wanted to go to the mountain to join the bandits, to do righteous things, rob the rich and help the poor, for this matter his father almost broke his legs, not that he was not used to the Nanbi bandits, but it would be very dangerous to do this business, and the merchants would naturally not be stupid and did not want to rob, so they would arrange for the cultivation masters to protect each other all the way on the merchant ship, and there were many brothers who were disabled in recent years, and even lost their lives. However, this little Wang is stubborn, and the next day he ran away from home and went to the mountain, Mu Qing knew that he had to ask Xiao Wang to go back, but Xiao Wang just refused, and Chen Changxiao couldn't cry or laugh.

At this time, Xiao Wang's face was a little red, and he said that when she was fifteen this year, and sixteen next year, I would go to ask her for marriage. Everyone in the room laughed.

"Okay guys, get ready, wait for the ship to come. ”

"Howler!"

At the sound of the order, everyone walked towards the small dark cave and hid it. In addition, there is a huge rope net in the river, which is pulled by two huge ropes left and right, extending towards the dark holes on both sides of the riverbank. This mechanism is learned from one of the "River Tricks" created by the courtiers of the northern generals, and it is natural that Chen Changxiao turned over the storyteller's study to find this one. For this reason, the old gentleman moved the study to the basement, for fear that he would come again and disturb his study.

After a long time, it was already sunset, and the quiet air became tense, and I faintly heard the sound of the river rolling outside the cave, and a black dot appeared at the entrance of the cave, slowly driving inside.

The hull of the ship is medium-sized, the hull is mainly woodcut, and there are various patterns carved around it, and a broken dragon head at the sharp corner of the bow is particularly conspicuous, and the ship is full of boxes of various sizes, and the bottom of the ship is crushed by countless white sprays of different sizes.

Mu Qing whistled and signaled that everyone was about to start acting. Chen Changxiao looked at the merchant ship that was about to come in, his brows furrowed slightly, as if something was indescribably wrong.

The piercing white light hole was gradually blocked by the sharp bow of the ship, and the huge hull slowly approached Mu Qing and the others. A moment later, as soon as the merchant ship came directly opposite everyone, Mu Qing was about to order the mechanism to be opened, but he didn't expect the ship to stop by itself. The crowd did not hear the order of the big boss, and they did not act.

Faced with this strange big ship, Chen Changxiao felt more and more that something would happen, and he gradually noticed that there was no one on the boat.

For about half an hour, the ship did not move, and neither did the crowd. Everyone was suspicious, could it be that some high-ranking people found them in the ship, and when they threw themselves into the net, it can be seen that this ship is not a good ship, and it is even a little dilapidated, and at a glance it is clear that it is some worthless cargo.

"Ship hijacking!"

Mu Qing finally ordered, and the footsteps suddenly sounded, and a row of hook ropes was thrown out neatly, hooking the side of the boat to the railing, and everyone's arms exerted great strength, pulling the saint to step on the hull of the boat, Chen Changxiao was the first to arrive on the boat, and the three-and-a-half-foot long sword on his waist was drawn, but he found that the ship was empty, only twenty or so rectangular boxes were neatly arranged, without overlapping, and each box was covered with a red cloth, and the people who came one after another were also very curious.

Chen Changxiao's pocket trembled, and he reached out and took it out, it was a wooden card engraved with the word Chen, the word Chen faintly glowed green, Chen Changxiao knew that this was the origin of his surname, but this wooden card had such a spiritual glow, which had never been done before. Just thinking about it, Xiao Wang stepped forward and picked up the red cloth with a sword, revealing the box, and everyone was shocked at this moment.

The red cloth was cut open, revealing that it was actually a coffin, and then, a gust of wind blew from all directions, and it was bitterly cold. Slowly, all the red cloth was blown up and fell down the river, revealing all the coffins.

"This ......!"

Chen Changxiao's mind suddenly flashed over a picture. Pupils constricted violently.

"This ship is not a merchant ship, it is a necromantic ship!"