The negotiations between Song Guofu and Yang Shida under the ship were not known to the people on board. When Yang Shida came back, Zhang Shunqing and Fan Jin turned around and went back to the cabin, not knowing that below, Uncle Lang and the two had an argument and almost broke up.

Unlike Song Guofu, Yang Shidaneng, as the second-generation leader of the Yang family, always has his own work ability, and his vision of people is not bad. Although I don't know Zhang Shunqing's true identity, it can be seen that his background must be from a wealthy family, a noble family, and Fan Jin is also very affectionate, and it is impossible to commit to the Song family as a concubine. Moreover, this person is Feng Mingqi's guest, and he already needs to think about the face of this Baimen Fengsi.

Originally, Feng Mingqi dominated the southeast martial arts with a strong force, and he was a leader in the chivalrous forest, and he taught many disciples, and he also had some influence on the gentry and merchants, but a big businessman like the Yang family didn't care about him. However, the research of the cowpox prescription has made Feng Mingqi's identity suddenly increase several times, and he can already enter the hall and participate in the New Year's banquet of Wei Guogong, even a rich man like the Yang family does not dare to offend such a person casually now.

Although the cowpox formula has not been officially promoted, the Xu family has already spread some rumors in order to build momentum. In addition, the Yang family also knows about some people as test subjects, and knows that this method of preventing smallpox is basically successful, and it may be popularized in two or three years. In the court, the credit is naturally the Xu family, but in the people and even in the rivers and lakes, it is Feng Mingqi who has more prestige.

Ordinary people, warriors, and people in the green forest can all face the threat of smallpox. Once this recipe is popularized, Feng Mingqi can be regarded as a figure like a Buddha in the folk family.

Businessmen have always attached importance to the prestige of the people, and once people like Feng Mingqi spread unfavorable news to the Yang family among the people, business would not be good. In contrast, Song Guofu, the brother-in-law, can not help the Yang family much, and after weighing it twice, he naturally won't really come out to help Song Guofu.

The two had a few small conflicts, and Song Guofu saw that nothing could be done, so he had to take care of the sluice gate and open it to let it go, and let the Yang family's fleet go.

As soon as the boat passed through the lock, it was Feng Si's ability, and someone had already taken his name sticker to go ashore to pay homage to the guests, and soon some big men in short or strong suits came on the boat to meet him. After eating, drinking, talking and laughing, a large number of coolies and slender men came on the shore to pull the fiber across the river.

These people are all rough people, with loud voices and vulgar words, and although Fan Jin and Zhang Shunqing do not show up in the inner cabin, they can also hear the voice. Zhang Shunqing said: "I really didn't expect that Yijie Jianghu Cao Reckless would have such a great ability. I thought that no matter how we rushed to Beijing this time, we would miss the time, but now it seems that as long as the surname Yang doesn't have so many pestering relatives, we will not only miss the exam date when we enter Beijing, but also arrive a few days early. ”

"Yes, Feng Lao's name is really useful, as soon as the canal sees the phoenix flag, the slender sailors give face, pull the fiber of this boat first, and other ships must give way. Not to mention, he really got into it for the sake of us, otherwise it wouldn't be so fast. These guests, maybe some of them are people in the green forest, and the favors owed to them may have to be repaid with blood in the future. ”

At this moment, Feng Mingqi's voice came from outside:

"Huo Laosan was killed? There are talents in the rivers and lakes, and they have led the wind and waves for three or five years. I really didn't expect that a murderer like Huo Laosan would also be cut down. I thought that this time in Beijing was smooth, but now it seems that I really have to be more careful. ”

A few people with thick throats outside talked about other stories in the rivers and lakes, but they didn't pay attention to the matter of the rivers and lakes. After a while, Xue Wu walked into the cabin, only to learn from her mouth that this was really bad news related to herself. The waterway is not very calm, and there are already boats that have been robbed by bandits. Although no one was injured, many belongings were lost, and several female dependents were taken captive.

The original water boss from Yangzhou to Huai'an, who was also a water hero Huo Tieshou, who was very compatible with Feng Ming, died in the green forest fire. Now it is still unclear who the leader of the thieves in this water area is, and even old rivers and lakes like Feng Mingqi are a little confused about the situation.

Since Yongle Jingjing, the capital was set in the north, and the rice and grain materials mainly relied on the south, and Cao Yun became the main artery to maintain the normal operation of the empire, and the safety of the canal was also highly valued. However, this canal is too long, and there are a large number of water networks and ditches along the way, no matter how hard you put your heart, there will always be people in the green forest who will do anything about the daily turnover of materials on the canal.

Moreover, for most of the poor, the Chinese New Year is like a pass. Every New Year, some people are forced to commit suicide because they can't pay their debts, or they take risks and become robbers. In the criss-crossing water network in Huai'an, there has never been a shortage of heroes who have played the banner of Tianxingdao and engaged in murder and goods.

In these years, long journeys are already a dangerous thing, and for scholars or women, this danger is even higher. Generally speaking, this kind of green forest thief is no threat to the daughter of the Prime Minister's house. But at the moment, Zhang Shunqing and Fan Jin are walking, and they don't know that they will be in the government along the way, and the protective force around them is, in the final analysis, Feng Mingqi's father and daughter plus the Yang caravan's own guards, if they really encounter water thieves, it is still a little dangerous.

Fan Jin frowned and asked, "In this way, it is indeed a bit dangerous, otherwise, we will simply go back to Yangzhou and wait in the city for a few days." Since the leader of the water thieves has changed, it is not easy for Feng Lao to talk about friendship, so I think it is better to ask the government for military escort. ”

Zhang Shunqing shook his head and said, "It's not appropriate." The government is acting slowly and abnormally, especially in the year, no one in the yamen is willing to work, let alone suppress bandits? Even if they were really forced to send troops, it would be just a false story and would not play a role. ”

Xue Sufang said: "Actually, the officers and soldiers in Yangzhou are fine, if they really fight, they can fight, but it is worth it." The officers and soldiers in Yangzhou were mainly salt merchants who supplied money and grain, protected the salt flats, and then the safety of the salt merchants. Let them pull a team out to suppress bandits, you can't say you won't do it, but you can't guarantee it with no amount of heart. That's right, let's keep going, just be careful. After all, we have a lot of manpower, so we are not really afraid of robbers. ”

Fan Jin said: "Sure? ”

Xue Sufang smiled, "According to what my godfather said, the so-called friendship is also typed." If he hadn't subdued Huo Tie and them at the beginning, how would they become friends? If you have kung fu on your body, you are not afraid of people's concerns. If it's a big deal, give them some color first, and let them know that this is not a bone to gnaw on. Give them some more benefits, and they will be safe. ”

Fan Jin frowned and said, "Most of these water thieves are farmers who are hungry and cold, and they don't even have warm clothes on them. The cotton cloth on these boats is as important to them as grain, and they can fight hard for these cloths. It's very troublesome to fight with this kind of person. ”

"If you want cloth, give it to them. In fact, the godfather was entrusted to protect these ships from going to the capital smoothly, so that they would not make a big mistake, rather than not being able to make a mistake. Turning along the way, the cloth falls into the water and gets wet, or encounters wind and waves, do we have to take responsibility? Therefore, at the beginning of the order, the godfather will ask the host for a reasonable loss amount, and we are not responsible for the loss of cloth within this limit, which includes the road purchase money. But if you can't give us the money to buy the road, then they will think that we are too weak and want to eat us. Only by subduing them first, and then giving them a little cloth, can this friendship be established. ”

Fan Jin nodded and smiled: "Feng Lao Hero is worthy of the old rivers and lakes, Fan admires it, so I can rest assured." If those two boats also have old rivers and lakes like Feng Lao, there will be no accidents. ”

Xue Sufang said with a smile: "There are only a few domestic slaves in my own family on those two boats, and I have learned a few fists and sticks, but I haven't gone through the battle formation, and I don't understand the rules of the rivers and lakes. Now the most important thing is to prevent the robbers from tying up the meat tickets, and if a hostage falls into the hands of the other party, things will be very difficult. There are a lot of people in the entire fleet, but the masters are limited, and the godfather wants to make a dispatch and move the important stewards on each ship, the second master of the Yang family, and some of the guards who can really fight to our ship. To ensure that there is no accident on this main ship, the chaos of the crowd will inevitably disturb the rest of the young lady, so please ask the eldest lady to include more. ”

Zhang Shunqing nodded and said: "I understand, there is no harm in expedient measures, and please let Feng Lao inform them, check it yourself, don't bring some indiscriminate people to me to make noise." ”

Xue Sufang nodded and said, "This shouldn't be." This second master of the Yang family is also terrible, but fortunately, he doesn't know what to do, just tell him once. ”

Yang Shida's personality is not bad, although he also thought about teasing Zhang Shunqing, but after touching the wall a few times, he knew that it was enough to stop, and turned to attack Xue Sufang. He himself couldn't be idle, he brought a woman with him, and he had a good appearance and good temperament, but he was crying when he got on the boat, and he was occasionally beaten and scolded, and he was very troublesome.

Later, I found out that this was a gambler's wife, and her husband owed the Yang family's usury, and the person escaped, and the wife was caught to pay off the debt. said that he went to the Yang family to be a subordinate, but Yang Shida took the opportunity to dominate his body. Women are strong and refuse to submit, and it is said that Yang Shida loves her as well. After understanding the reason, Zhang Shunqing was even more disgusted, but this kind of thing belonged to the gray area in Daming, and she was not easy to intervene, so she had to see it out of sight.

Xue Sufang knew what he meant, "Second Master Yang is a little reckless, but he is not confused. As long as the words are pointed, he will naturally know where the scale is. Of course, the eldest lady and Fan Gongzi should also be aggrieved, as long as they cross the waterway from Huai'an to Xuzhou, the rest will be easy to do. ”

In the afternoon of the same day, the stewards and men on each boat began to move. Yang Shida was the last to move over, he was used to business, he saw a lot of things, and the robbers didn't kill him, but he wasn't afraid of anything. On the contrary, he loudly declared that he had learned martial arts, and he didn't care even if he encountered robbers, which was quite effective in calming people's hearts.

Compared with them, Fan Jin was much more serious, first called Guan Qing and Fan Zhigao to make arrangements, and then went to the deck to discuss the deployment with Feng Mingqi, and when he came back, it was already dinner time. He and Zhang Shunqing's meals were usually eaten by themselves behind closed doors, and the meals on the table were extraordinarily rich.

Seeing him come back, Zhang Shunqing asked: "Why is Fan Lang so concerned about this group of thieves, no matter how powerful they are, they are nothing more than water thieves." The scale of our fleet is not small, there are hundreds of young and strong men, and there are masters like Feng Lao. There will also be soldiers patrolling the canal. As long as the water thieves can't get it easily, it will be difficult to get out, and they don't dare to fight the idea of such a large fleet. ”

"That's not the case, the Yang family has a lot of nursing homes, and there are also masters in it. However, the masters of the Land of Ascending Flat are different from the people here. There are skills in cultivation, but most of them talk to people about their hands, they are not desperate, they rarely see blood, and they don't kill people. The situation here is much worse, the salt merchants and city dwellers are better, and the countrymen are more difficult to make a living. If you are lucky enough to enter the city and break into the dock, you may be able to eat, but most of them are in the countryside, and most of the time they rely on the sky to eat, and most of the time they are not full. It is possible to use a knife for a steamed bun, and kill people for a bite of food, drink, and death. People who come out of such an environment, martial arts cultivation is another matter, and they will work hard. Once the robbers make a move, it doesn't matter if they lose one or two ships, but the lady's daughter can't afford to lose, how can I not care. ”

Fan Jin sat down and said: "If it is me who is in charge, I will simply give up a boat as a bait, concentrate my forces on our boats, and fight to be robbed by them one or two boats, and the people will retreat after getting the benefits." In the future, we will spend more money on some and ask the officers and soldiers to come forward and level them. The relationship between the Yang family is that of Huang Enhou, a lieutenant in the garrison, and he is not a whole road with the Xu family. They will give face when I talk to someone, but it is also to give face, and they will not listen to me for such a big matter. He invited me to go because he knew that I had done military affairs in Luoshan and knew how to march and set up the army, so he asked me to command the deployment. Just kidding, with this amount of manpower, and not trained officers and soldiers, what kind of reliable formation can be deployed? It's almost the same, but it still depends on Feng Lao's kung fu to really fight. ”

Zhang Shunqing looked at his waist, his brows furrowed slightly, and he immediately relaxed, and asked casually: "Fan Lang's sword, it seems to have changed?" ”

"Yes, Brother Liu gave me that is a treasure blade, which is extremely sharp, and I gave it to Miss Xue. She has a lot of strength, and the bow can shoot four buckets with one stone, so it's no problem to use that sword. The fight mainly depends on her and Feng Lao, and one more sharp weapon will be more certain, so the sword and her sword will be exchanged for the time being. ”

"Oh? Is that so? Do you want to change it back in the future? ”

Fan Jin stepped forward with a smile and took Zhang Shunqing's hand, hugged her into his arms and said, "What's the matter, you're jealous?" ”

"No, just ask. Miss Xue is kind to me, how can I eat her jealousy. ”

"Not only jealous, but also lying. Obviously, when you saw the two of us changing swords, you thought of the exchange table and wrote it down. If you're over, we'll just change it temporarily, and we'll change it back when we get to Tianjin. Since the lady doesn't like it, I don't use this sword, I have a sword! ”

As Fan Jin spoke, he pushed Zhang Shunqing away, and took out the swords and short guns that came with the boat and spread them on the table. "Supposedly, our ship is all from the Yang family, and the guards are the most useful ones of the Yang family. But Wanli is afraid of one, once something happens, I can protect you with these. ”

Zhang Shunqing was originally a talented woman, but she was not interested in martial arts, and she didn't have a good impression of the martial arts group. But seeing Fan Jin fiddling with his weapons, a sense of security arose, as long as this scholar was by his side, he would be safer than the protection of 100,000 troops.

This is probably the sense of belonging that comes after becoming a relative. No matter how much she didn't want to admit it, she also knew that she was eaten by him. Even if he really had something unclear with Xue Wu, he would probably only hate Xue Wu and would not hate him.

Wrapping around Fan Jin's waist from behind, leaning her head on Fan Jin's back, the girl said, "I'm sorry...... It's the concubine who is jealous. ”

"It's not jealousy, it's love, I understand. Women love men, just as men love women, and there is exclusivity. I don't blame you. ”

"Platoon...... It's weird, Fan Lang always has a lot of strange words and phrases to say, anyway, it's good if you don't blame me. Also, you give me Xue Wu's sword, and you are not allowed to use it. ”

"What do you want a sword for, you don't know martial arts."

"If you don't know martial arts, you can also use it for dancing. Although I can't dance with a sword, I can dance with a sword, and after dinner, will I dance the sword to Fan Lang? If you don't dance well, Lang Jun will teach me. What she can do for you, I can do it, in short, you are not allowed to take her sword, the hilt you hold is what she has held, not like shaking her hand, this is absolutely not good. ”

Fan Jin smiled: "You say this makes me a little scared, do you know, after Brother Liu gave me the sword, I practiced every day, and I touched it...... You say that, I can't eat dinner anymore. ”

Zhang Shunqing couldn't help but laugh and said: "What's this, Hanlin Feng is also an elegant thing, I'm happy to see it." ”

While the two were talking and laughing, there was a knock on the door, and the man said outside: "Is Fan Gongzi here?" Yang Shida came to visit, and I think it was still a little hasty to deploy the defense. I brought Nanjiu, let's have a good talk? ”

At the opening of the door, Yang Shida, who was dressed in a brand-new robe, with a golden hairpin on his head and seven treasures embedded in his belt, saw Fan Jin walking out with a fire hammer in his hand. With a smile on his face, Fan Jin asked very kindly, "Brother Yang, did you bring wine?" That's the best way to come in and have a drink, right? ”

His eyes slipped past Fan Jin, and he saw the beautiful lady who had been thinking about it for a long time looking out with a shining sword in her hand, but her eyes were sharper than the sword, colder than the north wind howling outside. On the table, there was a sparkling sword, and then Fan Jin smiled brightly, his white teeth were as sharp as the blade, although his eyes were kind, but coupled with the shaking fire gun in his hand, Yang Shida always thought of something terrible.

laughed a few times, hurriedly waved his hand and said, "Count...... Forget it, I remember that there is something to do, farewell! Let's drink it another day. ”

I almost trotted all the way back to the room, and the woman in the room was still crying, but he didn't care about adjusting it, just sitting there wiping cold sweat, and kept muttering: "Crazy, both are crazy!" It's even scarier than a robber! ”8)