Zuoqiu Hu said to Luan Yimian: "Ni Ling City is the barrier in the north of Ruizhou, and it must not fall into the hands of the people of Xuanguo, you must defend the city with all your heart, and let your cronies guard the four city gates, and you must not be lax." ”

Luan Yimian said: "Remember." ”

Zuo Qiu Hu said to Yu Moyuan again: "Childe, it's too early to crusade against Ling, and our newly recruited generals still need to train diligently, so that they can go into battle and fight." ”

Yu Moyuan smiled and said, "What Mr. said is very true. ”

Zong Yanxiao and ten of his own soldiers disguised themselves as merchants and came to the ferry outside the city, from where they were going to take a boat to Yinghui City.

Zong Yanxiao saw dozens of large and small passenger boats parked on the side of the ferry, he looked at it and jumped onto one of the passenger boats.

"This son, are you going to cross the river?" An old boatman with gray temples asked.

"We don't cross the river, we want to take your passenger boat to Yinghui City." Zong Yanxiao replied.

"Yinghui City?" The old boatman shook his head, "It's a thousand miles away from this ferry, and my boat can't go." ”

"Boatman, send us to Yinghui City and give you double the money, what do you think?"

The old boatman thought for a moment and said, "It's okay to go, but there are few people rowing on my boat, and if I only have four people, you don't think the boat is slow." ”

"Boatman, it's okay to slow down, let's go." After speaking, Zong Yanxiao took his soldiers on the passenger ship.

The boatmen rowed their oars and sailed away from the ferry, and because it was going down the river, the speed was not slow. When the passenger boat came to a narrow river, four or five small boats approached the passenger boat, and in each small boat stood seven or eight strong men, some with short knives and some with long guns.

When the old boatman saw this, he was astonished, dropped his oars and ran into the cabin.

"Boatman, what's going on outside?" Zong Yanxiao asked.

The old boatman replied, "We have met the thieves who have hijacked the ship, so hide your valuable belongings, or they will rob them all." ”

Zong Yanxiao stood up, picked up his sword, and wanted to get out of the cabin, and the soldiers also wanted to go out with him, Zong Yanxiao said: "You stay in the cabin, don't go out yet." ”

Zong Yanxiao walked out of the cabin and said to the boatmen: "You guys go into the cabin and hide in the cabin, and then come out in half an hour." ”

When the boatmen heard this, they hurried into the cabin. After a while, the water thieves boarded the passenger ship and surrounded Zong Yanxiao.

Zong Yanxiao said: "It's not a small courage, you dare to rob passenger ships in broad daylight, you still have time to leave now, if you provoke me, you will die." ”

When the thieves heard this, they burst out laughing, and one of them said, "Don't talk nonsense, take out all the valuable things on your body, or you will be killed." ”

"I have a lot of valuable things on me, it depends on whether you have the ability to take them." As he spoke, Zong Yanxiao drew his sword.

The water thieves brandished knives and guns and swarmed up, and Zong Yanxiao was fearless and fought with his sword. His swordsmanship was extremely fast, and he had no false moves, and in just a while, he killed more than a dozen water thieves, and the rest of the water thieves saw that the situation was not good, and they jumped off the passenger boat, climbed onto the small boat, and used all their strength to shake the oars and fled for their lives.

Zong Yanxiao shouted into the cabin: "Boatman, come out." ”

The old boatman came out of the cabin and saw that the thieves had been beaten away, but Zong Yanxiao was unharmed.

"Childe, you are really a master of swordsmanship! It's a good thing you beat the thieves away, or we'd all be out of luck. The old boatman said.

Zong Yanxiao looked at the shore and saw a wine shop, so he said to the old boatman: "Boatman, if you are hungry, let the boat dock first." ”

The boatmen rowed the boat to the shore, and the people got off the passenger boat and went into the wine shop.

When the bartender saw that a guest was coming, he asked with a smile, "What do you have to eat?" ”

Zong Yanxiao said: "Blanch a few pots of good wine, and then cut some meat." ”

"Sit down, everyone, and I'll go and prepare the wine and meat."

After a while, the bartender brought all the meat and wine, and everyone was a little hungry and began to eat.

The old boatman said to Zong Yanxiao: "Childe, I see that you are dressed like a merchant who travels from south to north, what business are you doing in Yinghui City?" ”

Zong Yanxiao put down his chopsticks and said, "My brothers and I used to do the medicinal herb business, and this time I went to Yinghui City to buy some medicinal herbs. ”

Everyone was drinking and eating meat, and a large group of water thieves broke into the wine shop, led by a tall water thief, with a double knife at his waist, a turban on his head, and a short beard on his face, which looked very imposing. The bartender saw the water thief coming in and hid early.

The leader of the water thieves roared loudly: "Who killed a dozen of my brothers on the river just now? Stand up for me! ”

Zong Yanxiao picked up the wine jug and poured himself a glass of wine, slowly picked up the wine glass, and drank it all. The old boatman was so frightened that he shivered, he looked at Zong Yanxiao with both eyes, and didn't know how to deal with it.

At this time, a water thief recognized Zong Yanxiao and said loudly: "Big brother, he is the one who killed our brother." ”

Zong Yanxiao stood up, stretched, and said to the leader of the water thieves: "I did it, what do you want?" ”

The leader of the water thieves widened his eyes, stared at Zong Yanxiao for a while, and said, "Okay, you dare to act like a man." Today you killed my brother, and I have to avenge you. ”

Zong Yanxiao laughed out loud and said, "I see that you have a good appearance, why did you become a water thief?" If you want to avenge those water thieves, okay, then let's fight, if you win me, my life will be yours, if you lose, leave quickly, don't disturb us to drink and eat meat. ”

"The tone is not small, how can you fight?" The water thief leader's tone was rather disdainful.

Zong Yanxiao thought for a while and said, "Let's go to the wine shop to fight outside, dozens of you will go up together, and fight with me alone." ”

The leader of the water thieves sneered and said, "I can defeat you alone, I don't need my brother to go on at all, let's go outside." ”

Everyone came to the outside of the wine shop, Zong Yanxiao and the leader of the water thieves were ten steps apart, and each pulled out his weapon.

The leader of the water thieves slashed at Zong Yanxiao with two knives in his hand, Zong Yanxiao did not dodge, the horizontal sword blocked the double knives, and kicked the stomach of the water thief leader with his right foot. The leader of the water thieves was also very agile, and one dodged sideways.

The two fought back and forth for twenty or thirty rounds without a win, and each stopped.

Zong Yanxiao said: "I think your sword technique is very similar to the sword technique of the palace forbidden army, could it be that you have been a forbidden army in the palace before?" ”

The leader of the water thieves smiled and said: "You have good eyesight, I did use the sword technique of the palace forbidden army, but I have never been a forbidden army, this sword technique was taught to me by my master, and his old man was a forbidden army in the palace." How? Are you afraid of my knife skills? ”

"Listen, in ten rounds, I'm going to beat you, and if it's still a draw, it's considered like I've lost." Zong Yanxiao said.

"It's kind of interesting, so let's do it again!" As he spoke, the leader of the water thieves raised his sword and killed him again.

When the two fought to the fifth round, Zong Yanxiao flew and kicked the knife in the opponent's left hand away. In the ninth round, he pointed a sword at his opponent's throat.

The leader of the thieves knew that he had lost, he sighed, threw the knife in his right hand to the ground, and turned to leave.

A water thief said, "Big brother, let's just leave like this?" ”

The leader of the water thieves said: "I lost to him, I will do what I say, I can't regret it, let's go." ”

Zong Yanxiao listened, and felt more and more that this water thief leader was not simple.

"Strong man, please stay, what's your name?" Zong Yanxiao asked the leader of the water thieves.

The water thief turned around and said, "I won't change my name, I won't change my surname, Lu Youzhen is also." ”

Zong Yanxiao nodded and said, "My name is Zong Yanxiao, you are also a bold person, why don't you come in and have a drink, let's make friends, how about it?" ”

"Okay, then let's have a few drinks." Lu Youzhen followed Zong Yanxiao into the wine shop.

Zong Yanxiao poured two glasses of wine, and the two of them drank it all.

"Brother Lu, I see that you have a dignified appearance and good knife skills, why do you want to be a water thief here?" Zong Yanxiao asked.

Lu Youzhen said: "I worked as a soldier in the Shengying Marquis Mansion in Yinghui City a few years ago, and later, in order to control the Shengying Marquis Mansion, the general Ling Yi drove our group of government soldiers out of Yinghui City, I had nowhere to go, so I came here to be a water thief and rob some money, but we never hurt anyone's life." ”

"Brother Lu, it's a pity that you have all your skills to be a water thief here. I'll show you a clear way, you go to Ruizhou City, go to Ruizhou Assassin Shi Yu Shengwei, he is recruiting generals, you can go there to serve as a general in the army and build a career. Zong Yanxiao said.

"That makes sense, I'll take my brother to Ruizhou City in a few days. Brother Zong, where are you going? Lu Youzhen asked.

"I'm a merchant, I'm going to Yinghui City."

"Merchant? I think brother, your martial arts are enough to fight, or let's go to Yu Shengwei together. ”

"Brother Lu, I went to Yinghui City to do a business on the order of my father, and when the business is completed, I will go to Ruizhou City to find you."

The two chatted while drinking, chatting very happily, quite like seeing each other and hating each other. When it was almost dark, Lu Youzhen left the wine shop, Zong Yanxiao sent him to the riverside, and the two said goodbye.

Zong Yanxiao took everyone to board the passenger ship, the old boatman lit the lantern, and the passenger boat continued to sail towards Yinghui City.

The soldiers were all asleep in the cabin, Zong Yanxiao didn't feel sleepy at all, he stood on the bow of the boat with his sword, looked at the river at night, and fell into deep thought. He was wondering if the assassination of Ling Ju would succeed this time, and if he missed, he would not be able to avenge his master.