Li Tingyu replied nonchalantly: "This is natural, just look at it, Lao Tzu scared out the dung of these thieves!" ”

After speaking, Li Tingyu waved his big hand, and the pro-soldiers behind him made a noise, lined up in two columns, the military boots under his feet stomped wildly, banging sound, and immediately after standing in a column, he stood still like a green pine, his eyes did not squint, the spear in his hand was steadily straight to the sky, and the tip of the spear became a forest, although there was only a team of eighteen people, no one spoke silently, but there was a faint momentum of a behemoth.

Li Tingyu's eyes coldly glanced at the chaotic and distant water thieves on the dock, his eyes seemed to be with knives and guns, and the water thieves who met his eyes couldn't help but feel that the fierce eyes were about to swallow themselves, and hurriedly shifted his gaze left or right, even Wang Tao, who was not inferior, was a little unbearable, and couldn't help but take a step back.

"Strong on the outside and dry on the inside!" Li Tingyu muttered, and then took the lead and strode forward.

As soon as he moved, Wang Huan and Li Yan followed closely, followed by two columns of personal soldiers, twenty people walked in unison, stepped out, and landed on the ground at the same time, the sound of stomping on the ground seemed to be a person stepping, and a neat banging sound sounded on the wooden plank trestle. Such a military appearance and momentum soared into the sky.

Wang Tao's face began to turn pale, he is also a person who knows the goods, and the Ming army has been entangled in this Hongze Lake for many years, when has he ever seen such a strong soldier? If half of the Ming army that came to destroy him had such a military appearance, the rabble under his command would have been wiped out countless times. He seriously doubted that if the more than 20 people on the opposite side rushed over, would he be able to guarantee that he would be able to stop them by relying on the hundreds of water thieves surrounding him? I'm afraid I'll have to put a big question mark.

"Sure enough, the Jianzhou military horse that drove Li Zicheng's Dashun army like a lost dog is the strongest army in the world, and I can't hesitate any longer, if I don't take advantage of this good time to quickly join the Qing court, and wait for others to free up their hands to clean up themselves, it will be too late." At this moment, Wang Tao immediately strengthened the belief that he had already made a decision in his heart, and no longer waited and wavered. He hurriedly straightened his armor, took a few steps forward, and greeted him.

"Wang Tao, the grass people of Hongze Lake, welcome Lord Zuoling." Wang Tao was so anxious that he even changed his name and began to openly call himself a grass citizen.

The faces of the water thieves who followed him changed color, and they looked at each other, they knew very well what the character of their big boss was, that was the hero who didn't pay attention to any officials since the rebellion, and he was afraid that there were twenty Ming Dynasty officials who were killed by his own hands, why did he see the Qing officials today, and he was suddenly frightened and lost his soul like a quail.

Li Tingyu led two columns of soldiers, strode in front of Wang Tao, paused at his feet, stood on his heels, no one behind him gave orders, automatically retracted his feet at the same time, stomped the spear in his hand to the ground, and with a snap, all the soldiers were like one person, standing behind Li Tingyu.

The sweat on Wang Tao's face came out again, he didn't dare to raise his head, this formation was too shocking, the queue of twenty people was only there, but it seemed to have firmly suppressed the team of hundreds of people on his side, look at the people behind him, those guys who are usually brave and fierce didn't even dare to come out, they knew who they were facing.

The army of the Ming Dynasty is rotten and corrupt, not to mention, but Li Zicheng's Dashun army Wang Tao has heard of it, destroying the ancient and decaying from Shaanxi to Beijing, and is about to seize the fierce army of Zhujiajiangshan, such an army is also defeated and won less in the face of the Qing army, so it can be inferred that the Qing court Eight Banners are terrible. And the terrible Eight Banners Army is now standing in front of their eyes.

So Wang Tao bowed his head and bowed his hands, his eyelids drooped, and he saluted respectfully, and now he was convinced, in this short period of time, he had already regarded the Qing army that Li Tingyu pretended to be as a new master who was about to take refuge.

Li Tingyu saw Wang Tao worshipping in front of him like a chicken, and the water thieves standing around him also bowed their heads in the dark, and the knife in his hand had already been put down. Of course, there are also individual bandits who feel unconvinced, and refuse to bow their heads and admit defeat, but under the influence of the atmosphere of worship around them, they also reluctantly bow their heads.

"The play is almost done, it's time to give some sweetness and speed up the progress of the infighting." Wang Huan said in a low voice, his voice was almost inaudible, only Li Tingyu standing in front of him could hear it.

Li Tingyu nodded slightly, so his face changed, his cold expression disappeared like a trick, his face twitched and squeezed out a smile, and said to Wang Tao with a smile that was uglier than crying: "Leader Wang is hard, but he can lead the way and find a place to discuss things." ”

Wang Tao hurriedly said: "Of course, Tuzuo Ling, please come with me, come to the hall of my village and sit down to have a cup of tea first." ”

Li Tingyu nodded slightly, Wang Tao hurriedly turned around to lead the way, and his own water thieves ran away first, to prepare tea and snacks.

As soon as Li Tingyu moved, the twenty people behind him followed suit, and the same consistent footsteps sounded again, and they walked with a bang, passing through a group of frightened and stunned water thieves, following the stone road on the island, and following Wang Tao towards the water thief cottage.

At this time, on the side of the island far away from the dock, Zu Tianci was building a pergola with his hand, looking intently towards this side, and when he saw Wang Tao bowing to Li Tingyu, and Li Tingyu led a small team of twenty people to march away among hundreds of water thieves, his brows furrowed deeply.

Although the distance was too far for Zu Tianci to hear the sound, his body language clearly told him: Wang Tao was very polite to the Qing army generals, or rather, very obedient and deferential.

"Such a good opportunity, why didn't the big boss cut down the Tartar dog, as long as the leader was killed, the rest of the soldiers had to be chopped up by us and thrown into the lake to feed the fish!" A stout man standing beside Zu Tianci shouted: "South boat and north horse, no matter how fierce the Jianzhou dog is, he must be blind on this water." ”

"Kill?" Zu Tianci sneered: "I'm afraid that the big boss won't dare to kill!" Looking at this posture, he was determined to follow the Jianzhou Tartars! ”

"Really? The big boss is going to be recruited by the Jianzhou Tartars? The stout man shouted in disbelief.

"Zubian, we escaped so far, I thought that in the water town south of the Yangtze River, we finally had a place to stay, but I didn't expect the ambition of the Tartar wolf son in Jianzhou, and I was not satisfied with the thousands of miles of mountains and rivers in Liaodong outside the Guan, so I actually hit here, it seems that today, our brothers have escaped." Zu Tianci gritted his teeth, and squeezed out the words from between his teeth word by word: "I don't want to run away either, if I run away again, he's really a fucking dog!" ”

The stout man who spoke was the defeated army and the brother of the same clan who fled from the Liaodong Army with Zu Tianci, this person was similar in appearance to Zu Tianci, with a red face and small eyes, not tall, strong and thick, wearing a sackcloth and covered with several hole leather armor, the difference was that the face was younger, and there was no beard on the face.

"Big brother, I listen to you, today we will go out, the big boss wants to be greedy for wealth regardless of righteousness, from the Qing court, it is he who is unrighteous first, we have nothing wrong, no one can say that we are not righteous!" Zu Bian said angrily.

"Good!" Zu Tianci watched Wang Tao lead Li Tingyu and his party, and began to walk along the road in the direction of the cottage on the island, the more he looked, the more angry he became, Wang Tao's behavior was already very clear, he was already betraying the two and was about to surrender to the Qing court. He clenched the mace in his hand, turned around and jumped onto a boulder.

Behind him, countless dark-skinned water thieves stood silently, these people were poor fishermen in the lake, there was no way to live under the pressure of fishing taxes for many years, and they were forced to join the water thieves, they were the two brothers of Zu Tianci who trained to fight men, and their feelings for the two were far better than those of Wang Tao, who was not familiar with military affairs, so when Wang Tao ordered them to disperse, they still obeyed the orders of the Zu Tianci brothers and gathered around the two.

At this moment, everyone looked up at Zu Tianci standing on the boulder, and Zu Tianci's gaze swept over everyone's faces one by one, his face was solemn, all the people were silent, quietly looking at Zu Tianci who was scanning the audience, the atmosphere was quiet and depressing, like the eve of a brewing storm, dull and palpitating.

"Brothers, the big boss wants to ignore the lives of our brothers, just want to be rich and glorious by himself, my ancestor God gave a life is cheap, it is handed over to the big boss, it doesn't matter if he dies or not, but Lao Tzu is unwilling!" Zu Tianci blackened his face and shouted in a hoarse voice: "Manchu Tartar, what is that?" It's a brute! It's a beast! Say far away, kill my whole family in Liaodong, and poison the people of the Han family outside the Guanwai; Speaking of closer, Yangzhou slaughtered the city and killed tens of thousands of people in the city. Everyone said, are you willing to be recruited by this alien race? ”

"Unwilling!" Countless people shouted in unison.

"Big brother, don't say it! All the brothers are your brothers and sisters, everyone has one heart, you say what to do, everyone will follow you! Zubian was passionate, his red face turned black and red, and he jumped up in front of the crowd with a ghost-headed knife, driving the crowd to be emotional, and it was about to explode.

"Okay, the military heart is available!" Zu Tianci's eyes flashed with cold light, a pride rushed straight to his head from the soles of his feet, the steel needle-like beard on his face stood up, the mace raised to the sky, pointed to the direction of the cottage, and shouted loudly with resentment: "Jianzhou dogs are in the cottage, brothers, as long as we rush over and cut off those eggs, the big boss will naturally change his mind, and our heroes in Hongze Lake will still stand in the world, not bearing the notoriety of enduring humiliation and stealing life, greedy for life and afraid of death, everyone follow me!" ”

The crowd below was boiling, and everyone was shouting loudly, waving the weapons in their hands above their heads, like a pot of boiling water, and the murderous aura was like steam.

Zu Tianci jumped lightly and jumped off the boulder, the water thieves separated a way, Zu Tianci came out of the crowd and took the lead in running in the direction of the cottage, behind him, the crowd converged into a torrent, and followed forward and swept away.

The so-called water thief cottage is built on a small hill on the island, the hill is the highest point of Mudun Island, the whole mountain is a stone mountain, quite steep, there are stone steps up the mountain. There is a small flat land on the top of the mountain, there is a water temple originally, there is a statue of Lao Tzu enshrined, it is said that there is a demon dragon in Hongze Lake to make a monster, it is Lao Tzu who subdues the demon dragon, and the lake is peaceful, since then the fishermen take Lao Tzu as the guardian saint of the lake.

Laozi Temple is just a small temple, a big hall and two ear halls, after Wang Tao occupied Mudun Island, he built a Diao Dou watchtower on the hill, repaired several houses, as a place to usually stay and deliberate, that hall, of course, is the meeting hall.