Deqing Chengtou, Xiong Dachun and Liu Yuan, the two old brothers, the three sons who were cultivated by Liu Chengdong, and Ma Chaobei, who was constantly cutting people in the south of the Yangtze River, all had more or less angry expressions.

Liu Chengdong looked at the three-hundred-year-old arrow tower, and his tone was gloomy, "Do you know why Lao Tzu didn't ask Han Zhao to make a convergence, and he had to kill him back?" ”

"Jiangnan suffered a defeat. Everyone else can run, but we can't. We have been recruiting for less than a year, if we run away, we will definitely be used as a scapegoat by the court, so it is better to fight to the death. ”

The three men suddenly realized. Ma Chaobei, who is in a hurry on weekdays, thought about it for more than a dozen breaths, and also understood the danger.

"Being in Jiangnan, I can't take care of things in Mingyue Village. But now that we have military achievements, some people want to move Mingyuezhuang, so they have to think about it, and Li Xiang can be more relaxed. Liu Chengdong looked at Ying Ming's military camp not far away, and said arrogantly: "We just look very dangerous now, but Jiangnan is not as good as other places, and the court will definitely send reinforcements in three months at the latest." If things are not good, we can also withdraw to Anji County by separate routes. ”

The commanders of the two battalions from the Nanyang Xiang Army ran over, accompanied by Fa Cao.

Fa Cao's anxious voice came from afar, "General Liu, something has gone wrong, there are some military men...... In, in the bullying of women! ”

Liu Chengdong was furious, and went down the city wall with a knife, ready to kill him on the street.

Xiong Dachun and the others hurriedly followed, and there were a few heads involved along the way, no one would be appeased at this juncture: Fang Lajun outside the city is eyeing him, but you can't control your crotch? angered the people and stirred up chaos, didn't it give Fang La's army a chance to cooperate with the outside world?

On the same day, Li Xiang's three ships arrived in Jingzhou.

Not long after the newly built shipyard by the Han River, the assembly line, tolerance control, chart management and time management systems widely used in the Zhuangli workshop were not well learned, so naturally they did not have the energy to develop new ship types.

The shipyard bought timber, and there were only two types of ships urgently built for the caravan in Mingyuezhuang, both of which were flat-bottomed boats. One is suitable for narrow waterways with a load of up to ten tons, and the other is a multipurpose riverboat with a load of up to twenty-three tons.

The first three boats to depart, carrying hundreds of people and a large amount of supplies, were all multi-purpose river boats with square heads, flat bottoms, and warped tails. Because of the rush and in order to save costs, this kind of river boat with large internal space and relatively comfortable ride has a mast, which needs eight pairs of oars to propel against the wind.

After secretly arriving at the mouth of the Danjiang River, Li Xiang and his party headed south in a low-key manner, and the speed of the boat was very slow. Gongzhong prepared the best boat runner for Li Xiang, but during a period of melting ice and snow, the hydrological conditions of the Han River and the Yangtze River were very complicated, the roads were narrow and shallow, and the reefs should be more careful.

Looking back at the north, the hills, towns and farmlands on both sides of the river gradually turned into a gray-black python, and then looked at the little green near Jingzhou, Li Xiang sighed: "The mountains and hills near Jingzhou are constantly green in winter, what is the scene in the south of the Yangtze River?" ”

Old man Sun, who runs boats all the year round, because he is well-informed, especially knows the Yangtze River well, was sent to Li Xiang's side by Li Mengkong, and said respectfully when he heard the words: "The owner of the village." Jinghu South Road and Jiangnan Road are in winter, and the scenery along the coast is indeed very different from that in the north, and the peaks on both sides of the river can see some green. ”

"Now that the snow is pouring in, the river looks black. If it is more than half a month, the river is green, and the flowers on both sides of the bank are blooming, then it is the first-class beauty in the world. ”

Li Xiang patted the old man on the shoulder, "In the previous dynasty, everyone once said that the sunrise river flowers are red, and the spring river is as green as blue." When I saw it with my own eyes, I realized that this statement was true. ”

Old man Sun took the opportunity to make fun, talked about some anecdotes on the Yangtze River or something, and had a good conversation with the owner.

Liu Sheng, who temporarily acted as the head of the guard, held the handle of the knife and kept scanning the left and right, looking like he was facing a great enemy. When the official army entered the village, Li Xiang was shot three arrows in front of his eyes, if something went wrong on the Yangtze River, he really didn't want to be a man.

The dock was near, Old Man Sun raised the flag, shouted twice, and the three boats gradually lined up.

The sails were lowered, the oars were mostly stopped, and the speed dropped steadily.

Originally, the boat on the left side of Li Xiang's boat was the largest room in the stern. Zhang Qingping held the wooden barrel, felt another vibration of the hull, and seemed to start turning, and couldn't help it.

"Wow!" and spit it out again. A man from Cangzhou, and he is not accustomed to water, Zhang Qingping, a warrior who claims to be a sharpshooter, vomited all the way.

Ding Shihang knocked on the door and came in, and when he saw this person vomiting again, he was stunned.

"What are you looking at, haven't you ever seen seasickness?" Zhang Qingping said angrily, and asked the well-behaved junior in front of him to replace the barrel, while he rubbed his stomach. When Ding Shihang returned, Zhang Qingping asked, "Why is the boat shaking again?" Want to turn into the Yangtze River? ”

Ding Shihang looked at Zhang Qingping's painful appearance, laughed in his heart, and hugged his fists and said: "It's not to go straight into the Yangtze River." The master temporarily decided to buy some supplies in Jingzhou and stay for two days before setting off. ”

"Oh ~ what?!" Zhang Qingping stood up, his weak face was full of relief, "The owner of the village is merciful, and you can finally rest on the shore!" ”

The three ships were already lined up, and the Jingzhou official ship, which was responsible for guiding the ships to dock, came up to meet them.

Yang Yingdong was on the front boat, he turned around to confirm that the owner's boat was fine, and then looked at Ding Shihang, who was running around on the last boat, and gloated: "Hey, Zhang Qingping, let him rest with the boating boys earlier, and he has to succeed." I vomited all the way, and I was weak, right? ”

"Zhang's predecessor was born in Jingdong Road, and I heard that he is not accustomed to water, and it is inevitable that he will suffer some hardships." Liu Decheng was called a traitor by his peers, but in front of Yang Yingdong and others, he maintained a good baby style.

coping with it, Liu Decheng was complaining in his heart: You didn't spit it out, but you were also dizzy every day, and you threw everything to the boy me, what is the difference between you and Senior Zhang?

Zhang Qingping and Yang Yingdong are not good at water warfare, and they don't want to hide in the bottom cabin, so they are just doing their best. Matters such as boat operation, training, and defense arrangements were all handled by young people with experience on the water, such as Ding Shihang and Liu Decheng.

Before the first lunar month, the frozen places by the river are melting day by day, and they still occupy a position. The bow of the ship pushed away the ice floe, and several poor ships responsible for breaking the ice at the pier deftly avoided Li Xiang's fleet.

The hull of the ship was staggered, Li Xiang glanced at the icebreaker who was holding a tool similar to a hook and sickle, listened to the sound of "bang-la-la", and said to Old Man Sun: "The officials here are quite capable. The ice-breaking tools used are the same as those of the large and small wharves along the way, but the wharves in Jingzhou are the smoothest. ”

Old man Sun thought about what he had seen in the past, "Lord Zhizhou of Jingzhou does have a reputation for hard work. But ......"

Seeing that the owner of the village didn't mind, but encouraged himself to speak, Old Man Sun expressed his opinion, "It's just that Jingzhou is connected to Jingxiang, Jinghu, Sichuan and Jiangnan, and it is very important in the matter of trade." Every year, in just these two days, hundreds of ships of merchants will pour into Jingzhou Wharf. ”

Getting closer, Li Xiang saw that more than a dozen merchant ships had been moored there, and he couldn't help but have a new understanding of the status of Jingzhou, an important commercial town.

The docks were not very crowded, and there were more porters who cleaned the storerooms and carried goods.

Li Xiang inspected the ship by the supervisor of the Jingzhou wharf and several officials, walked to the side by himself, looked at the Jingzhou city wall reinforced by stone for a while, and then looked at the south bank of the Yangtze River shrouded in mist.

Before he could be hypocritical, Li Xiang was awakened by the noise. Looking from where Li Xiang was, it turned out to be Zhuang Ding who got off the boat and was making noise.

In order to keep a low profile, the soldiers of the elder battalion and the guards called themselves "Zhuang Ding" as long as they left Mingyuezhuang.

Zhang Qingping just got off the boat, his legs were a little weak, and he always felt that the ground on the dock was uneven. Yang Yingdong pretended to be calm, but his swaying walking posture revealed a lot of things.

The first time Da Niu took a boat, it was okay to take people to rock the oars in the stable bilge, but now he was excited by the cold wind when he walked out of the cabin and almost fell into the water. The big cow that needed the support of the brothers to get off the boat was not the worst, and more than a dozen landlubbers vomited and fell on the bed, and they could only be carried into Jingzhou City.

Li Xiang was speechless, looking at Fang Weiliang and Cheng Clerk, who were arguing with a few dock officials, and thought: We must strengthen the rotation of the fleet, and try to cultivate more young people with good water skills. If one day Lao Tzu wants to run from the Yangtze River to the sea, how can he take a flock of landlubbers?

Fang Weiliang and the Cheng Clerk finally reached an agreement with each other, and Li Xiang vaguely saw that the Cheng Clerk stuffed something into the sleeve of the supervisor. When Fang Weiliang and the others came to the front, Li Xiang asked, "What are you arguing about?" ”

"The superintendent said that we have brought too many weapons, and we have to report it to Lord Zhizhou...... In fact, I just want to get more jiaozi. There are discrepancies in the rules of the wharves in various parts of the Great Zhou, so there is room for these people to extort copper money. "The clerk is obviously clear about this kind of thing, and it is estimated that when he was a servant in the past, he did a lot of extortion tricks.

Fang Weiliang's narrow eyes seemed to be about to close, "The restrictions on the possession of weapons by the small people in the Great Zhou are sometimes tight and sometimes loose. There is no limit to the likes of axes, hooks, forks, sticks, whips and hammers, abduction meteors, and Pu Dao Zen sticks. Of course, crossbows and armor are strictly forbidden, and many large cities do not allow bows and arrows, knives and guns, two-handed swords, axes and other weapons in the streets. ”

"The meaning of the officials and several rulers changes three times a day. In the past 100 years, there have been cases where people in border areas were not allowed to hold weapons, and there were times when the court encouraged people to practice swords, bows and horses, which was really chaotic. ”

"Now, the governor of a place can get involved in such things. I only have a single knife and a bow and arrows on my ship in Mingyuezhuang, which is not a taboo, but if I really go to the official mansion, I will have to waste time and spend more money. Ships on the river are rarely equipped with guards and weapons, and as long as those supervisors and officials have a good sense of proportion, they will not worry about having no way to make a fortune. ”

Fang Weiliang is worthy of being well-read and strong, and the owner of the village admires it in his heart.

The officials who were also not welcomed in the village and were not good things widened their eyes, and the sense of crisis after seeing Fang Weiliang was even stronger: This Fang Weiliang is not a good stubble, Lao Tzu wants to make contributions in Jiangnan, and he has to work hard!

At the west gate of Jingzhou, the people who carried the hand-carry, the burden-carrying people, the chicken carts, and the cattle carts were lively and lively, queuing up to enter the city.

The cold has passed, and the beginning of spring is coming. Jingzhou City is about to usher in a new round of prosperity, inns and restaurants, Qinglou restaurants, and warehouse businesses are opening one after another, and the stewards clean up the storefronts according to the rhythm of previous years, and greet the acquaintances on the opposite side, wishing each other wealth.

The mist is the filter of the warm sun, covering the ancient city of Jingzhou with a warm yellow veil.

The gentry and people who entered the city rushed to their respective destinations, and Li Xiang and his entourage were also caught in the crowded flow of people and entered Jingzhou City.