Wang Wu was born in a family of farming and reading, but he didn't read well from a small school, he didn't plough the fields well, and he only liked water life when he grew up. He has been drifting with his father on the waterways of the Xinjiang River since he was a teenager, and has long been trained to become a skilled boatman. But since his father was in distress and died in a shipwreck, the family has no money and money, and Wang Wu has no financial resources to be the owner of the ship, so he can only work hard for other shipowners.

They had four cargo ships in their fleet, more than thirty shipwrights. The captain is the captain himself, Wang Wu is the head of the block, and he and Chen Jiu, who pulls the head of the fiber, get double wages.

During the Tang Dynasty, when the world was chaotic, the bandits, gentry, river tyrants and ruffians on the waterways all liked to make up their minds and wanted to go to the fleet to get a handful.

At that time, if the man who was the boss of the boat did not have a few brothers who were not afraid of death, and did not have a few good guns, then you would not be able to stand at all if you wanted to eat on this waterway. Among the shipwrights, Wang Wu studied in a private school for several years with his ninth uncle, and he was bold and flexible in trouble, and his actions were swift; There are a lot of flowers and intestines, and there are a lot of ghost ideas.

Chen Jiu is a person on the ferry at the entrance of the cave, born tall and big, his legs are thicker than the local poles, and the green tendons on his legs are like earthworms, which looks strong. The body blank is almost as powerful as the cow gao in the opera. When sailing, the person who pulls the head must be fierce and have a steady heel. Chen Jiu has a brute force, not only can he pull the fiber, but when the ship is in distress, he can stand firmly on the ground like a stake and drag the boat, preventing the cargo ship from sliding down the rapids, resulting in a capsizing accident. What's more, when he encounters a fight, even if there are more than ten men, he can't get close to him. There are also Wang Wu and Wang Qiang's archery skills are accurate, and they are good in water, and they are not afraid of death, so the two of them are deeply relied on by the boat boss.

Once, on the Xishui River, because there were many boats in winter, the boats on the river were too crowded, and it was easy to have accidents. At that time, some local river tyrants took the opportunity to collude with officials and set up a checkpoint at the mouth of a long beach, nominally to maintain order on the water, but in fact to take the opportunity to extort passing ships in order to accumulate wealth for private individuals. Wang Wu and the people on the fleet were not convinced, and the checkpoint station did not allow their cargo ships to clear customs, and the fleet was forced to anchor under the beach, delaying the transportation time for three days and three nights. The boss of the boat knew that he couldn't afford to delay if he went on like this, so he took Wang Wu to find the people at the checkpoint and said that he couldn't do it, and he fell out on the spot

When it was anchored until the fourth day, the fleet wanted to force its way through, and it was convenient to entangle nearly a hundred people to besiege it. On the spot, Wang Wu picked up a board axe from the bow of the boat, and Chen Jiu took a helm handle from the stern of the boat and stood on both sides of the ship's boss. The other party relies on his own large number of people and is a tyrant on the water, and a few people led by him will start to pull the boat boss.

Wang Wu and Chen Jiucha opened their hands to block them, those people took a few steps back, and the others immediately surrounded them. At this time, Chen Jiulei roared:

"Phew! If you want to fight in a group, you can only find me Lao Chen! ”

The other party saw Chen Jiu standing there like a mountain, and they all took a few steps back and didn't dare to come forward again.

The boat boss saw that the other party was stopped by Chen Jiu's bravery, and immediately ordered everyone: "guy!" ”

The boatmen ran to get the bows and arrows out of the boat and drew the bows to the bridle. The people on these ships were all a group of bloody men, and some of them were the descendants of the brave men who had been stationed in the camp. In the past, they had never been afraid of the bandits around the village, and of course if you asked them to fight with others, they had never been afraid of anyone at all. At the moment of tension, the local county officials sent someone to mediate.

Later, the other party saw that the boatmen in the upper reaches of the Xinjiang River could not be subdued, and felt that the boatmen in the upper reaches of the Baixin River were arrogant, and they were afraid that it would not be good for them to make things bigger. As a result, the checkpoint station held an attitude of calming things and did not dare to make things difficult for this fleet again. Because of this incident, Wang Wu and Chen Jiu won the heroic titles of "Wang Ban Axe" and "Chen Helm Handle" respectively in the fleet.

Another time, Wang Wu accompanied the boat boss to the teahouse on Yangzhou Street to play dominoes. Wang Wu doesn't like to play cards, so he just sits next to the boss and drinks tea slowly. At that time, there was a young master wearing a spinning silk robe, leading a group of gangsters who wanted to bully outsiders, and forced Wang Wu to pay for them to buy wine and drink.

The captain glanced at those people, and said unhurriedly to the leader: "Brother, take out your two-handed poles and accompany my brother to wrestle a game." You just have to use your hands to pull his hand, and if you can win him, I will immediately pay for my brother and invite you to go to the restaurant. ”。

At that time, Wang Wu was stunned, so he just stretched out his thick arm like a hammer and erected it on the table. And the ruffian who was the leader only dared to peep at Wang Wu twice, and as a result, he led a group of people to walk away in a gloomy manner.

The new river is like a cyan belt, lingering in the mountains and mountains. Sailing is generally hard to get on the boat, and dangerous to get into the water.

When boarding a ship on the water, when encountering a steep shoal in Long Beach, it is usually impossible to send a cargo ship upstream of the dangerous shoal with only one boat's slender man. This had to wait until the slender men of the other ships arrived, and they all put the fiber splitter rope on the tie on the main fiber rope, and pulled the cargo ships one by one to the beach. The orders of the slender man are generally divided into the upper beach, the lower beach and the flat water, and what kind of order the ship is in.

A call was given to the force, and the slender men relied on obeying the orders of the captain or the head of the ship. Wang Wu was the lead singer when he shouted the trumpet. He stood on the bow of the ship and shouted a trumpet, sometimes shouting with his hands dancing, leaning forward and backward, shouting the trumpet and the bow of the ship could go forward a step or two; Sometimes he stretched the penny in his hand into a bow, and for every foot of the bow of the boat, his body was a few inches closer to the plank; Then, when the back is about to approach the board, immediately stand up and continue to hold on; He still has to keep yelling: "Hey-ho-hey!" Hey-ho-yo! ”

Sometimes Wang Wu first opened his throat and sang: "Silly girl!" ”

The boatmen followed him and shouted, "Hey! ”

Wang Wu sang: "Your brother is back! ”

The boatmen shouted, "Hi-yo".

Wang Wu sang: "Come to the beachhead to pick me up!" ”

The boatmen shouted: "Hey, hey, hey!" Hi Yo Yo! ”

Listening to Wang Wu lead the singing, the boatmen imagined that there would be a woman like a flower in front of them, standing at the beachhead with a smile waiting for him, taking him home to sleep with him at night and sleeping comfortably.

The cargo ship moved slowly on the beach, and sometimes Wang Wu shouted long and loudly, or led the singing; Sometimes he struck the plank with his heel like a drum and made a rhythmic sound. The trumpets echoed in the valley, and the slender men shouted trumpets, sang songs, and pulled ropes.

When they heard the order to go to the beach, they all lay down together, their heads dragged forward, and the soles of straw shoes woven with hemp tendons under their feet also kicked hard on the stones or dirt pits on the road, and all of them pouted their buttocks and hunched their waists, holding back and pulling forward desperately. Wang Wu was the most beautiful one in the fleet, and his voice was rough and high-pitched, and the slender man could refresh his spirit when he heard it.

Sometimes they walk on the riverbank, sometimes on the lawn, sometimes halfway up the mountain, sometimes on the cliff. Many of the sections of the road are rugged and steep, and there is no path at all. They walked on the cliffs and steep slopes, and if the current on the beach was too strong, and the boat was swept back by the water and could not control the danger, they were forced to take the big axe on the bow of the ship and quickly cut the rope of the rope, so as to save the lives of the slender men on the shore. Otherwise, the rope will drag the slender men on the shore like hanging a string of zongzi, and drag them down the steep slope of the cliff to fall to death and injury.

When the fleet reaches a section infested with bandits, the slender men generally need to carry their bows and arrows on their shoulders while pulling the fiber, so as to be prepared to prevent the bandits from robbing the river.