Qiongzhou is known as the miasma land, a little away from the coast, is the mountains and forests, the old forest that grows for tens of millions of years is full of poisonous snakes and beasts, especially the invisible miasma, the Han people often dare not go deep. The agarwood armor in Qiongzhou is the world, the deeper the mountains and old forests, the rarer it is, and the southern merchants can only go into the mountains to collect incense from the Li people who live in the deep mountains*, and the Li people can only enter the mountains to collect incense after worshipping the mountain gods. If you encounter a really dangerous place, you must also choose a place that is as guarded as jade to pick, so as not to anger the mountain god.

The residence where Li Ruobing, a degraded official, lives in an extremely simple place, and it is difficult to even call a house, with a dozen branches supporting a non-round and non-square gap, covered with banana leaves and thatch, which are unknown local branches in Qiongzhou, and straw mats are spread on the ground. This thatched hut is ventilated, and sometimes snakes and scorpions and other poisons crawl in, and if you burn incense from time to time to drive away mosquitoes, it is even more uninhabitable.

Li Ruobing is fashionable in Beijing and has never seen the real high-grade agarwood, at this moment near the water building first to get the moon, the agarwood here is much cheaper than in Beijing, curiosity bought a few pieces of partridge spot to ignite, only burned a little, the house is full of fragrance and graceful, until the end of the burn, there is no slightest burnt. Unconsciously amazed, there are all this treasures in the world, he counted the population of his family, and bought a copy for his parents, younger brothers and sisters, and even Zhao Xingde, and I don't know if he has the life to bring this thing back to the capital.

In the past few days, Li Ruobing has become accustomed to falling asleep in the miasma and the sound of the sea tide, and according to the practice of degrading officials, he is not allowed to act in official documents in Qiongzhou, and he reads the sage scriptures he carries with him every day. A gentleman is cautious, and if he retreats, he is alone, but he is also comfortable. Since I arrived in Qiongzhou, there is one person I have to visit, that is, Mr. Huang Zhoushan, who was also belittled in Qiongzhou.

Not far from him, the place of Huangzhoushan's denunciation was beside a port, where many fishing villages were inhabited by boat people and merchant sailors who lived on the sea all year round. The land next to the fishing village is still flat, and gradually there are multiplying people living and cultivating it, slashing and burning, planting sugarcane and jute, etc., sugarcane is refined into good sugar sand, jute weaving, and every year there are sea ships with grain, salt and iron, etc., to collect sugar sand and linen, and sell them to the Central Plains, or to unknown countries beyond.

In this contemptible place, there are not even a few officials, and the imperial court is at ease with the officials who have belittled them here, and they can move around on the island at will, as long as they are not afraid of losing their official status, they can escape by sea. Li Ruobing searched all the way to the past, and came to a small village inhabited by locals, only to see a hut, in which dozens of children of all ages sat down, and two or three Zhoushan gentlemen dressed like sailors, Huang Jian, who had gray hair, was wearing a homespun robe woven from local jute, and was writing a cypress board with a piece of charcoal.

Li Ruobing read Mr. Wang's book, "Love and educate Li Shou, and the minister Fu Rongqiang." "Returning to the king with the guests" is the words in the thousand-character text of the Central Plains children's enlightenment, and the corners of their eyes suddenly became a little moist. Huang Jian and Li Ruobing had met in the capital, and they had heard that he had also been reprimanded here, so they nodded and smiled at him at this moment, stretched out his left hand slightly to the side, and motioned for him to sit down. With Mr. Zhoushan's reputation and seniority, Li Ruobing has nothing to do with sitting in this enlightened classroom. He sat down next to a slightly neatly dressed boatman, who turned to him and smiled in friendliness, his white teeth slightly bared. Li Ruobing couldn't help but be stunned, the food eaten by the barbarian people here was extremely coarse, and the teeth of the young and middle-aged people were intact. "Could it be that other rogue officials can't do it?" Li Ruobing thought in his heart, just because Mr. Zhoushan was still lecturing, it was inconvenient to ask out loud.

The sea breeze is gusting, Huangzhoushan is old and strong, the tone is sonorous and powerful, the professors are all Luoyang Zhengyin, and the grass hall is silent. Li Ruobing secretly sighed: "What the six ancestors of Zen Buddhism said, without fake external objects, my heart is a pure land. As it is, Mr. Zhoushan's pampered and unfazed cultivation is in the wilderness, and his heart is like a pure land, and this place has become a paradise. ”

While he was sighing, there was a commotion in the village not far away, and some people shouted: "Run, the pirates are coming!" ”

Although the Guangnan Road Patrol Sailor often patrols the sea areas around Ruluozhou and Shitang in North Jiujiu, and can even sail to the far seas such as Huanzhou Country and Dazhou Ocean, but in the vast sea, it is difficult to distinguish between merchants and bandits, and some seagoing ships are bandits ashore, and they sail away when they rob the village. There are many large and small ports here, boat people, and many villages where people live and live, and it is really difficult to take care of them, and the location of this fishing village where Huangzhoushan is located is a bit remote. It is the object of those pirates who like to wash and plunder, although the oil and water are not large, but they can always grab a few women, or get some food and other supplies.

Li Ruobing's face also changed, and the town where the officers and soldiers were stationed recently was also dozens of miles away, and he was about to get up and pull Huang Jian to take refuge for a while. As soon as the warning shout fell, a dozen tanned-skinned and fierce-looking men appeared outside the cottage with short knives.

The bandit affirmed that he was a native of Annam, and Li Chaoyelang was arrogant, and brazenly captured the three cities of Qinzhou, Lianzhou, and Yongzhou in the Great Song Dynasty, and slaughtered tens of thousands of people in the Great Song Dynasty. Song Guoan's southward camp deployed commanders who were greedy for life and afraid of death, afraid of the miasma in the south, and after the great victory over the Jiaozhi army, he made a proposition and accepted a letter of surrender from the king of the Li Dynasty of Jiaozhi and easily withdrew the army. Since then, the people of Jiaozhi have thought that the Great Song Dynasty is weak and easy to bully, and even the Jiaozhi pirates who beg for a living at sea will rob the Song Realm from time to time.

The first time Shen Ming observed this humble fishing village in the nearby grass, he stared at the only decent grass house, and rushed over almost without a moment's delay, and finally blocked the grass hut There were still a dozen people in the grass house who did not escape. He decided that Huang Jian, Li Ruobing, who were dressed more neatly, and the young man next to Li Ruobing was a wealthy family with a better family, and he was secretly happy in his heart, and put the short knife in his hand against Huang Zhoushan's chest, and shouted: "Where is the money and grain hidden, say it quickly, otherwise I will kill you." More than a dozen bandits around him also shouted one after another, threatening everyone in the cottage, and several children were so frightened that they cried loudly, and their faces sank, and they immediately asked their men to kill the crying children first.

When the sea bandits were about to make a move, the man next to Li Ruobing turned pale and shouted, "Wait! I have something. He shouted out a cross-toe word, and as he shouted, he pulled it into his arms. The bandits understood at that time, and they were not busy killing, and a pirate with a crescent-shaped scar on his face immediately walked over with a cruel smile, and as soon as he stretched out his hand, he was about to catch the young man.

The young man took out an iron pipe-like thing from his arms and aimed it at the bandit, the man was stunned, and at this moment, he only heard a bang, which shocked the earth, and the bandit screamed and fell to the ground on his back, seeing that he was no longer alive.

Just when everyone was in shock, the young man took a step forward, put the fire gun in his hand against Shen Ming's head, and threatened viciously: "If you want to die, teach your subordinates to do it!" ”

He saw a big hole in his accomplice's chest, and the man was dead, and the blood was still gurgling, and he couldn't help but tremble, "Stand back, stand back, put down all the knives." Seeing this, the accomplices around him dared to approach. At this time, a second leader of the pirates named Ruan Ji had occasionally seen the fire gun, and remembered that if this thing was not loaded with a powder bullet, it could only be fired, and said in a loud voice: "This little white face is cheating, and the fire gun can only be fired once, everyone is side by side and chops him up." ”

The big boss let him abandon the knife, and the second boss let him fight, this gang of bandits all looked at each other, not knowing who to listen to, and the affirmation rolled his eyes slightly, and seemed to be a little suspicious. The young man suddenly became angry, his left hand choked his neck, and his right hand took a gun and slammed it on Shen Ming's temple, and then nailed it there with a fire gun, and drank: "If you don't believe it, come here, just kill this leader, and the second leader is good at the top!" The blood on the forehead of Shen Ming immediately flowed out, and he secretly said that this little bastard has a lot of strength, and listened to the words of his second master, stared at Ruan Ji fiercely, and shouted: "No one is allowed to come, otherwise I will sink him into the sea and feed the sharks." ”

The words of the man holding the firearm just now inadvertently hit Ruan Ji's heart, he glanced at the henchman beside him, and said loudly: "Big boss, this little white face is cheating, this firearm can only sound once!" Then he beckoned left and right: "Let's go up together and cut this kid." Seeing that a few of his henchmen were still hesitating, Ruan Ji had already made up his mind to take advantage of the chaos to become a big boss, holding a short knife in his hand, and forced forward step by step, sneering: "You little white face is cheating, uncle, I don't believe ......" Before the words fell, with a whoosh, an iron crossbow arrow hit the back of the head, and he didn't scream, so he threw himself on the ground.

The man exhaled at this time, put away the firecracker, and sighed: "I didn't expect a few thieves to know the firecracker." He kicked Shen Ming to the ground and said in a deep voice: "It's not the first time to kill an innocent person, right?" At this time, from behind the nearby houses, in the grass, more than 20 people dressed as boat people came out, each holding a strong crossbow to the pirates in the grass hut, and slowly approached.

Someone shouted, "Don't you drop the knife yet? ”

More than a dozen pirates hesitated slightly, the man's face sank, his left hand was unknown and pressed down, and the surrounding immediately fired a volley of crossbow arrows, which would be shot by more than a dozen pirates, leaving only the leader of the bandits, paralyzed on the ground, the man said leisurely: "Robbed my Li Sihai's head, count you as a kind." Shen Ming exclaimed, "Huh? That Li Sihai's face changed suddenly, he stepped forward quickly, flew up and kicked at his temple, and the affirmation didn't know how to dodge, and Shengshengmu was kicked to death by this person there.

Seeing that all the bandits were punished, Li Sihai waved his hand to let his subordinates clean up the corpses, turned to Huang Jian and said: "Under Li Sihai, the cursive words are free, and Mr. Zhoushan is frightened, and I ask Mr. for forgiveness." His face was as usual, and he didn't have the murderous aura that he had just executed more than a dozen pirates in one fell swoop.