Since it is winter, the water surface of the Yangtze River is relatively calm, and a merchant ship is sailing quietly on the river.

There is a saying that "the white emperor of the dynasty is among the clouds, and the thousands of miles of Jiangling are returned in one day".

It only took half a day for the merchant ship to reach the boundary of Jingzhou, and since it was late at night because it was an evening departure.

This merchant ship is neither big nor small, plus the caravan minions are only more than fifty people in total, and the merchant ships that are bustling during the day are quiet after the minions fall asleep in the middle of the night.

The winter in the south is not too cold, but a breeze on the river also made Liu Yao shiver, and her originally tired body instantly woke up.

Liu Yao is more able to endure hardships, and fell asleep directly on the ground with the little minions on the ground of the merchant ship, and the same is true for Wen Yang, the awake Liu Yao saw that Wen Yang was still asleep on the ground through the moonlight shining through the cabin window, so he wrapped himself in clothes and walked out of the cabin.

I wanted to stand on the bow of the boat and stay quietly for a while, but I didn't expect to see another person also standing on the bow of the boat, and after a closer look, it turned out to be the merchant.

During the day, Liu Yao didn't communicate with these people after he got on the boat, and he just took advantage of this time to greet the businessman Jia and take a ride on someone's downwind boat, so I have to thank you anyway.

So Liu Yao walked to the bow of the boat, stood side by side with the businessman, and said, "Thank you, Mr. for borrowing the boat!" ”

Seeing that the merchant was only in his early twenties, quite young, and did not have the demeanor of the treacherous forces of other businessmen, Liu Yao had a good impression and called him Mr.

The businessman was meditating with his eyes closed, and suddenly heard someone talking next to him, and when he opened his eyes, he saw that it was the young man who was on the boat during the day, and quickly waved his hand and said: "I am a lowly businessman, don't call me Mr., meeting is fate, I won't lose anything by carrying a strong man, and I have become popular, why not do it?" ”

This era was divided into four classes, and the status of merchants was the lowest.

Liu Yao saw that he was so easy-going, so he wanted to chat more, and pass the time that was difficult to transition late at night, so he said: "I don't know where Mr. plans to go to Jiangdong to do business, if there is no peaceful place today, Jiangdong is still calm." ”

The merchant stood alone at the bow of the boat, and there happened to be a lack of someone to chat with, so he opened his mouth to chat: "I plan to go to Wucheng County in Wu County, my brother is an official in Wucheng, and now the people of Shu are not happy, and it is more convenient to go to Wucheng to have my brother take care of it." ”

Hearing him say that the people of Shu were not happy, Liu Yao was silent for a moment, and did not refute, Liu Yao was very clear about the current situation in Shu, the common people really had food, and they had to fight for years after year if they couldn't eat enough.

Seeing that Liu Yao was silent, thinking that he was not interested in his own affairs, the businessman found another topic to continue chatting, and asked, "Where is the strong man going to go in Jiangdong?" ”

As soon as he heard him call himself a strong man, Liu Yao suddenly cried and laughed, looked at his body, where did he look like a strong man, so he replied: "Sir, don't call me a strong man, let me be so uncomfortable, my name is Liu Yao, there are indeed some people in Shu who are not happy, this is not with fellow villagers and brothers to go to Jianye to find a way out." ”

The businessman smiled and said: "Brother Liu, if I call you a strong man, you are not comfortable, then you call me Mr. It will make you uncomfortable, my name is Wan'an, just call me by my name." ”

Liu Yao also smiled awkwardly when he heard this: "Since this is the case, it will be abrupt." ”

"Jianye is the capital of Jiangdong Wuguo, many years have not experienced war, I have been to Jianye several times to sell Shu embroidery, it is very prosperous, it is really good. But does Brother Liu have old friends and relatives in Jianye? Wan An heard that Liu Yao was going to Jianye, so he asked.

Liu Yao scratched his head, he had never been to Jianye in his life, how did he know that Jianye had any relatives and old friends, and he was just panicking, he didn't expect Wan'an to inquire about this, and replied helplessly: "I don't have any relatives or friends in Jianye, so I can only take one step at a time, but there will be no less stuttering." ”

What Liu Yao doesn't know is that strictly speaking, he really has a lot of relatives in Jianye, his grandfather Liu Bei married Sun Quan's sister, according to the generation, Liu Yao still has to call the current emperor Sun Xiu an uncle.

Wan An nodded and said, "If you can't find a good livelihood in Jianye, you can come to Wucheng to find me, and I may be able to help you too." ”

It turned out that Wan An was a good intention, but Liu Yao was a little wrong to blame him, so he arched his hand and said, "Thank you Brother Wan An!" ”

Liu Yao was about to say a few more words to Wan An, when he suddenly felt a murderous aura gradually approaching, I don't know when he started, he already had a sixth sense, which was a kind of awareness of danger honed on the battlefield.

Wan An on the side was about to speak again, but saw Liu Yao's face showing a panicked expression.

Liu Yao hurriedly stretched out his hand and pushed Wan An to the ground, and the two of them lay on the bow of the boat as fast as they could.

Wan An was taken aback by Liu Yao's sudden move, and when he was startled, he saw a feathered arrow deeply embedded in the mast behind him, and the tail of the arrow was still shaking.

"Shhh It's dangerous! Seeing this feather arrow, Wan An was directly shocked into a cold sweat, and quickly wiped his forehead with his hand.

Before Wan An could finish speaking, Liu Yao yelled again: "Be careful! ”

In an instant, dozens of feather arrows were fired in unison, and the two of them immediately leaned down and shrank their bodies under the baffle at the bow of the boat, which was able to dodge these dozens of feathered arrows.

A bell rang around the merchant ship, Wan An was frightened and his face turned pale, he had traveled south and north for many years, and he knew the origin of this bell sound.

In the waters of Jingzhou on the Yangtze River, there is a rampant and domineering thief, called the Jinfan Thief, who uses the splendid as the sail and the bell as the number, and specializes in plundering the merchant ships passing in the Yangtze River, and sometimes even the official ships of the imperial court.

However, the reputation of this brocade thief is not too bad, and it can be regarded as a relatively principled among the pirates, never robbing the poor people, just for the sake of wealth, rarely killing innocents indiscriminately, and the money obtained is distributed to the poor except for their own use.

The founder of the Jinfan thief was surnamed Gan Mingning, and was later accepted by Sun Ben, the little overlord of Jiangdong, as a general.

However, since Gan Ning died in Yiling, his descendants no longer served Jiangdong, but returned to the waters of the Yangtze River to operate their old business, and the Jinfan thieves began to appear in Jingzhou again.

Because each of them was extremely good at water and was quite familiar with the waters of the Yangtze River, the official army of Jiangdong and the official army of Wei sent troops to suppress it, but they all returned in vain.

One by one, the small boats slowly approached the passenger ship, and there were no more than seven or eight people standing on each small boat, but there were more than a dozen small boats, and it was estimated that there were about a hundred people.

At the bow of the small boat stood a thin man with a resolute countenance, but rather a rather dark complexion, a string of golden bells around his neck, and a ring-headed knife in his hand.

This person's name is Gan Zhuo, he is twenty years old, but he has become a tyrant in the waters of Jingzhou on the Yangtze River.

In the past few months, Shu has suffered from war, and many people have fled to Jiangdong with their families.

But the Haikou also had to eat, and soon the sail thieves couldn't make ends meet, and that night, the little minions saw a large merchant ship on the water, and they thought that the owner of the ship would definitely not be an ordinary person, so they reported to Gan Zhuo.

Gan Zhuo personally took more than 100 brothers to prepare to take the merchant ship together, and while the crew was asleep at night, they could be caught off guard without knowing it, as long as they obediently handed over the money, the Jinfan thieves would not kill

But unexpectedly, when he was about to approach the merchant ship, he saw two people on the merchant ship actually standing on the bow of the ship chatting, in order not to be discovered, Gan Zhuo had to order to shoot these two people first, but the two people dodged.

Gan Zhuo didn't care about being discovered, so far, he could only forcibly grab the boat, and ordered loudly: "Sons, quickly take the boat with me!" ”

The Jinfan thieves screamed, the distance from the merchant ship was getting closer and closer, and the little minions who were still sleeping in the cabin were all awakened, Wen Yang rushed out of the cabin with a big iron halberd first, but saw Liu Yao and the merchant turtle lying on the board of the ship, surrounded by feather arrows.

Seeing that there was no blood on Liu Yao's body, Wen Yang breathed a sigh of relief.

Wan An has been trading in the river for many years, and he has also developed a character that is not shocked by changes, and soon recovered his looks, shouting at his little minions: "Go and shake the pulp!" Let the boat rush quickly! ”

Since the merchant ships enter the Yangtze River from the water and travel down the river in the direction of the current, there is no need to shake the paddle at all, as long as the direction is controlled.

Hearing Wan An's order, a group of small minions hurriedly went down to the cabin again and shook the paddle rod as fast as they could.

The speed of the merchant ship was noticeably faster, and it rushed straight forward, and the small ship of the brocade thief was like a candle in front of the merchant ship.

Gan Zhuo stood at the bow of the boat, a smile on the corner of his mouth: "Want to rush over?" It's not that easy! ”

I saw that the sail thieves took out a bundle of ropes from their bodies, and the ropes were tied to three hooks that stood outward, and under the leadership of Gan Zhuo, the sail thieves threw the hooks directly to the ship after approaching the merchant ship.

This kind of hook can be fixed as long as it is placed on the slightly angular plank, and Gandra took the lead, picking up a hook and throwing it at the bow of a merchant ship.

The hook fell on Liu Yao's side and almost hit him, but fortunately, Liu Yao was quick and immediately twisted his body to avoid the hook, and the hook slid a few times and buckled on the board.

Gandra jumped up from the boat with a rope in one hand, and climbed up the wall of a merchant ship directly along the rope like a wall in a movie, and climbed up the bow of the ship in a matter of moments, as did the other sail thieves.

Liu Yao hadn't reacted to what was going on, only to see a sturdy figure fall in front of him.

Frightened, Liu Yao and Wan An got up one by one, Gan Zhuo glanced at the two of them contemptuously, and slashed with the ring knife in his hand.

Fortunately, Liu Yao was wearing a knife with him, which came in handy at this time, and he quickly pulled out the saber from his waist to meet him.

With a loud sound of metal intersecting, Liu Yao retreated to the side of the boat with a slump, almost falling down, and his palms were numb from the shock.