In October, the temperature in Guangdong has dropped significantly, but it is much warmer than in the north, but in the middle of the night, it is still a little cool, and the wind blowing on the river is strong, which only makes a few black-clothed people hiding in the reeds by the river tremble. The reeds around have long been withered and yellow, and they are covered with dew, and people hide in them from time to time to get stuck to the dew, and the muddy mudflats under their feet make people very tired.

There were only flakes of black clouds in the sky, and the moon obscured by the black clouds only showed a small half of its body, emitting a bleak moonlight. The reeds were so dark that no sound could be heard, except for a few "cooing" sounds from unknown birds.

Several black-clothed people have been lurking here for a long time, but no one is impatient because of the long wait, but has been squatting there without moving, and when their legs are numb, they only stretch their legs forward slightly, rubbing their hands, but they don't stand still.

"Yawn!"

Xu is cold air entered his body, and a man in black endured it a few times and finally couldn't help it, and sneeze uncontrollably, so frightened that the people on the side quickly turned around and glared at him.

The man in black who was sneezing blushed when his companion saw it, and muttered a little disappreciatively: "Who will come here in the middle of the night, fourth brother, don't worry, we've all been here a few times, the Qing demon is not strict with this area, no one comes to patrol, and no movement will be heard." ”

The black-clothed man called the fourth brother snorted slightly when he heard this: "It's always right to be careful, if you really let the Qing Demon find out, a few of us don't care about our lives, but what about the affairs entrusted to us by thousands of households, and what about the thousands of people in the city?" ”

As soon as he heard that the fourth brother had moved out of the thousands of households and thousands of people in the city, the man in black who sneezed suddenly stopped squeaking, and lowered his head with some guilt.

Seeing this, the fourth brother didn't count the man anymore, and gestured to the other people. Everyone immediately turned around and continued to stare at the river motionlessly, as if nothing had happened just now.

The river was so dark that nothing could be seen. On the riverside, there was a burst of river water crashing on the shore, and the river breeze had a unique fishy smell on the river.

Another half pillar of incense passed. A man seemed to see something, but he didn't look carefully, he looked at it carefully, and whispered with some excitement: "The ship is coming!" ”

As soon as they heard that the boat was coming, several people in black hurriedly looked at the river, and sure enough, there was a black thing in their sight that was slowly sailing towards the river.

A few more people stared at the black thing for a while, confirming that it was the back of a boat. The black-clothed man who called the fourth brother breathed a sigh of relief, and commanded as he got up: "Old rule, the two brothers of the Song family stay here, and the others go with me." ”

"Hey!"

The black-clothed people responded, and they got up one after another and followed the fourth brother to the river. After touching the river, seeing that the boat was about to dock, the fourth brother suddenly stopped, looked around again, and then pinched his throat and learned the bird's call: "Coo, coo"

Others scattered around vigilantly to observe the movement around them. After the fourth brother called twice. Someone in the rowing boat also responded with a "cooing".

Hearing the other party's response, the fourth brother really put his mind at ease and said to his subordinates: "It's them." Walk! Then he stood there waiting for the boat to come to shore

Tonight, the wind was strong on the river, and the boat was tossing and turning on the river, but fortunately, it was an old sailor who operated the boat, and there was no danger all the way, and it landed safely. There were four people on board, it was dark and I couldn't see clearly, and there were several bags of things piled up in the cabin, covered with sackcloth, I don't know what they were.

After seeing the fourth brother and others waiting on the shore. One of the people on the boat jumped down, and there was no nonsense when he got closer. directly asked the man in black called the fourth brother: "Fourth Qi, is the silver ready?" ”

Qi Laosi nodded slightly. He said in a muffled voice: "Ready, one thousand taels, no more, no less." After a pause, he glanced into the cabin, "What about you?" ”

The man who got down from the boat pointed to the cabin: "It's all here, absolutely no problem." ”

"Count the silver, and it will be delivered without any problem."

Qi Laosi motioned to several of his subordinates behind him to untie the cloth bag wrapped around his waist in front of the man.

The man took a few cloth bags on the ground and passed them in his hand one by one, and then chuckled: "It's not wrong." Then he turned back and instructed his companions on the boat, "Carry five bags for them." ”

"Why are there only five bags?" When Qi Laosi heard that the number was wrong, his face changed greatly, and he said angrily: "Wang De, what do you mean, it has always been ten bags before!" ”

"Ten bags?"

The man named Wang De smiled and said: "Qi Laosi, the current market is different, you can only buy five bags of silver for a thousand taels of silver, if you don't want to, brother, I will let the boat go, and we will do this business in the future!" ”

When all the people in black heard Wang De's words, they couldn't help but scold, and the fourth Qi Lao stared at Wang De with a frosty face: "Wang De, you want to hurt brotherhood if you make this play!" ”

"You are in Cao Ying, I am in Han, what kind of brotherhood are you talking about?"

After saying this, Wang De was also a little weak in his heart, afraid that Qi Laosi would turn his face with him, so he changed his words and said: "Qi Laosi, don't blame me for this, it really means above, you also know, it is not okay for the brother to do this business without support, if the brother does this business by himself, it doesn't matter, but there is someone above the brother who presses it, and that person wants to be ruthless, most of the silver has to fall into his pocket, plus the recent investigation in the sailor camp, the brothers can't deal with you in vain with their heads, and they can't get into their own pockets." So this price has to be added up, not only this time is so much, next time it will be this price, if you want more, the money has to be doubled! Otherwise, you will find someone else! ”

Hearing this, the man in black who was sneezing earlier said angrily: "Who else can we find besides you!" ”

The other men in black were also glaring angrily, eager to raise their knives and step forward to chop off this black-hearted Wang De.

Wang De didn't even glance at the men in black, but said disdainfully: "That's your business, I don't care." ”

Qi Laosi frowned, signaled his subordinates not to move, stared at Wang De and said in a deep voice: "Wang De, you don't value brotherhood, you must always talk about the rules of the road." ”

"I am a soldier, you are a thief, there are no rules between you and me, I said Qi Laosi, you will be content, and I Wang De is a lonely person who dares to put his head on his belt and do this deal with you, change others, you ask which one of the sailors dares? If this thing leaks out, the first one to die will not be you, Qi Laosi, but my Wang De! ”

Speaking of this, Wang De didn't want to be wordy, and asked directly: "To buy or not to sell, you give a quasi-word!" ”

Qi Laosi stood there silent, thinking about the instructions of the thousand households to him before coming, and then thinking about the impact of these bags of silver on the thousands of people in the city, after half a ring, he finally gritted his teeth and said: "Buy!" ”

"That's right!" Wang De smiled, clapped his hands and ordered the people on the boat: "Carry it." ”

"Yes."

The three people on the boat were busy moving the pockets in the cabin to the shore, and in a blink of an eye, the five big bags were placed on the shore, and then the three of them turned around and turned on the boat.

"Next time you bring more silver, if you have money, you will have salt!"

The salt was given, the silver was also collected, and Wang De didn't dare to delay here any longer, in case the green battalion soldiers who called the patrol saw it, his head would immediately fall off, and he was about to open his mouth to say that he was leaving, but the words suddenly changed in his mouth, and he asked: "Qi Laosi, I said that your Taiping army has been besieged in the city for half a year, I'm afraid that the city is about to run out of food, right?" ”

"Do we have any food to do with you?" Qi Laosi is on fire because of Wang De's price increase, how can he have good words for him.

"Hey, although I only recognize money and don't recognize people, but after all, I have eaten in a pot, and there is always affection, so I will send you a good word, and while the city is not broken, I will quickly disperse and leave. If others can't run away, can you run away? If you really have to wait until the city is broken, then you will have no place to run if you want to. When Wang De said this, there was really a bit of sincerity on his face, and he really didn't want to see Qi Laosi die in the city.

Qi Laosi said in a sullen voice: "You don't have to worry about my affairs, you can leave when you get the silver, and remember to come back in three days." ”

"Yes, if you really want to leave, I can't do it, but when the old thieves besieged the city last year, the sins created in this Xinhui City are not small, if you run out of food, hehe"

Wang De didn't explain what he said, but Qi Laosi couldn't hear what he wanted to say, he raised his eyebrows at the moment, and said angrily: "Our Taiping Army is either a demon, or we will not do anything to eat people even if we starve to death!" ”

"People are going to be hungry, what can't they do?"

Wang De shook his head, "But I think you haven't run out of food yet, otherwise you wouldn't have asked me to buy salt, but rice, even so, how long can you last?" Xinhui is a dead city, don't expect someone to come to save you, and my brother also explained to you, salt, brother, I can get a few bags, but the food, brother really can't get it, even if you get it, these bags of food can't stuff your teeth, so you can do it yourself. ”

Qi Laosi did not speak with a dark face.

Wang De knew that Qi Laosi had worked in Li Ding*, so he thought about it and said, "For the sake of the silver, I'll send you another news." ”

Qi Laosi was a little puzzled: "What news?" ”

Wang De's mouth was open, and he said a message that made Qi Laosi stunned, and he said: "Li Dingguo and Sun Kewang have started a fight. ”

"The lord of the country and the Xifu have fought?" Qi Laosi was stunned and didn't react for a long time.

"I've got the news for you, brother, I'm leaving, oh, by the way, go back and give me a head to you, it's that thief Xiucai who says hello, if he wants to run away, he can find me then, the price, hehe."

After Wang De finished speaking, he no longer paid attention to the stunned Qi Laosi and his men, turned around and got on the boat, and after a while, the boat was far away from the river, and disappeared into the night in a blink of an eye.

"Fourth brother, is the news that the lord of the country and Xifu are fighting is true or false?" The man surnamed Zhu, who sneezed before, also worked with Qi Laosi in the Great Western Army, so he was very worried about whether the lord of the country and the Xifu really fought.

"It's mostly true, Wang De won't fake this kind of thing, it's not that we didn't know that the relationship between Xifu and the lord of the country was not very good when we were working under Xifu before."

Qin Laosi sighed, the lord of the country and the Xifu are really going to fight, isn't this Ming Tianmo really going to collapse?

"The country is going to fight with Xifu, so don't our Taiping army really have no reinforcements to save it?" Looking at the dark river, the man surnamed Zhu had a bitter face. (To be continued)