The rivers in the south of the Yangtze River are vertical and horizontal, the water network is dense, and there are many steep places, so water piracy is rampant, countless water thieves crisscross the south of the Yangtze River, with the help of small boats and lakes and islands to plunder the merchants, sometimes it is simply lawless, and even the official ships of the imperial court dare to rob.

Although these people are just a group of rabble, but the number is huge, in the heyday of the Taihu Lake water thieves, Poyang Lake water thieves, West Lake water thieves, these three groups of people have tens of thousands, and the others combined, a total of more than 100,000 people rely on this water piracy to make a living.

In order to fight against the government, many water thieves also formed an alliance, known as the 36 consecutive villages in the south of the Yangtze River, which is naturally a mixture of fish and dragons, there are strong beams who rob houses and houses on weekdays, thieves who steal chickens and dogs, there are evil bandits who kill people and oversell goods, and do not leave a living mouth, and there are heroes who do chivalrous deeds and righteousness, robbing the rich and helping the poor, but most of them are shameless by the world, and they are the targets of the government's key crackdowns.

Taihu Lake is between Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang, Jiangsu people think that Taihu Lake is their own lake, and people in northern Zhejiang also think that Taihu Lake is their own lake, with Suzhou and Wuxi in the north, Huzhou and Changxing in the south. Fortunately, it is not a national border, otherwise war would have to break out, which also shows that the people of the two provinces have a special fondness for Taihu Lake.

It is said that there were 36,000 hectares of Taihu Lake in history, the scale of 800 miles around, known as 48 islands, 72 peaks, the lakes and mountains, reflecting each other, its natural beauty without carving, has the name of Taihu Lake in the world.

The Taihu Lake water thieves can be traced back to the Tang and Song dynasties, and the source of the composition is very complex, including professional robbers who rob homes and houses, as well as desperate criminals, and part-time fishermen.

In June of the third year of Kangxi, Admiral Shi Lang believed: "Zheng Jing escaped to Taiwan, if he did not extinguish it as soon as possible, so that he would gather a lesson, and the two islands would be reverted to theft." Taking advantage of the fact that the people's will is not fixed and the military situation is still weak, they should attack Penghu and attack Taiwan. The four seas are one, and the border people are safe. ”

Jiangnan is an important source of taxes and wealth in Chinese history, and it is also the money bag of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and a large part of the so-called hardcore crops of the children of the Eight Banners come from Jiangnan.

In order to ensure the stability of the money bag, Kangxi asked Shi Lang to clean up the water thieves in Jiangnan and other places, and the thriving water thieves were wiped out.

Originally, there were 23 groups of water thieves of all sizes on Taihu Lake, but in Shi Lang's many clean-ups, the Taihu Lake water thieves were torn apart and scattered, and since then they have been in a slump and entered the most difficult period. Fortunately, Shi Lang later began to prepare for the conquest of Taiwan and stopped the attack on the Jiangnan water pirates, and the Jiangnan water thieves had a chance to survive.

Xiao Cai was very familiar with the river network around Taihu Lake, and the strength of the Manchu Qing Masters was relatively weak, so they could not carry out a large-scale interception and search, so Wu Qiang and others entered Taihu Lake all the way along the Xu River.

After less than two days, under Xiao Cai's driving operation, Wu Qiang and others came to Jiaoshan Cottage.

Through Xiao Caidao's introduction, Wu Qiang learned that the so-called Jiaoshan Shan Village is just a foothold for the water thieves, and the water thieves are basically boats.

Especially after Shi Lang launched a crackdown on the water thieves in Jiangnan, the situation is even more so, anyway, the river water network is all over the south of the Yangtze River, as long as the water pirates have a boat in their hands, they can go around fighting, where can they not settle? This smacks of guerrilla warfare.

Jiaoshan is just a small island in Taihu Lake, Wu Qiang through observation, found that Jiaoshan Shan Village does not even have the most basic fortifications, obviously the water thieves do not plan to operate Jiaoshan, and have settled here for a long time.

There was a temporary simple wharf from the shore, and Wu Qiang saw everyone standing on the wharf from a distance to greet them, including Yu Qingyan, Ling Xiuzhu and Jiang Fang, who were waiting for them, as well as Gu Jixuan and other people from the Heaven and Earth Society who he knew.

Through Ling Yuqiang's narration, Gu Jixuan and the others already knew that they could escape and ascend to heaven, thanks to Wu Qiang's sacrifice to save him. After Wu Qiang came ashore, Gu Jixuan and others expressed their warm and sincere thanks to him.

Only then did Wu Qiang see that all the people who thanked him should be the people of the Heaven and Earth Society, and those other people should be the people of Jiaoshan Cottage.

Xiao Caizhi took Wu Qiang to a sturdy middle-aged man and introduced, "Brother Wu, this is my father." ”

The middle-aged man preemptively arched his hand and said: "The warrior is polite, Xiao Fangguo, the owner of the Xiajiao Mountain Water Village." ”

"Your name is Little Rice Cooker?" Xiao Fangguo's accent made it difficult for Wu Qiang to hear other terms.

Probably when Gu Jixuan and others first came, they also encountered such a problem, and now when they heard Xiao Fangguo introduce his name, they were heard as a homonym for a small rice pot again, and they still couldn't help laughing, and some people even covered their mouths and turned their heads, afraid that they would laugh out loud in public.

"Brother Wu, you heard it wrong, it's not a small rice pot, my father's name is Xiao Fangguo." Xiao Caizhi hurriedly corrected his father's name to Wu Qiang word by word, after all, his accent was not so strong.

Xiao Fangguo didn't care, and pointed to a man beside him to introduce Wu Qiang: "This is the cousin below, Xiao Fangtong, the second master of our Jiaoshan Water Village. Xiao Fangtong also greeted Wu Qiang with his fists.

Gu Jixuan and others have already made the martial arts powerful in Suzhou City, and with their own strength, they single-handedly entered the tiger's den in Longtan, hijacked the officials of the government, bravely saved the Heaven and Earth Society and others escaped from the ascension, and told the leaders of Jiaoshan Shan Zhai about it.

Although the Heaven and Earth Society and the Taihu Lake Water Thieves belong to two camps, they still work together to fight against the government, and often carry out some cooperation. For a hero like Wu Qiang, he naturally admires him very much.

"Little rice bucket?" This is really someone else's accent problem, please forgive Wu Qiang, and once again heard someone else's name out of a homonym.

This name is not as good as a small rice pot, and someone next to him even let out a slight laugh, Xiao Caizhi's face was a little unsightly, Xiao Fangtong just smiled awkwardly, pulled over a more energetic young man next to him and introduced: "This is the dog Xiao Anbang." ”

"Small chopping boards? Haha......" Wu Qiang finally couldn't help laughing, he really didn't expect that the names of the people of the Xiao family were more funny than the other, and the four strange names were put together, and they were all related to the kitchen.

Xiao Cai's face turned green, and he said with some dissatisfaction: "Brother Wu, are you here to entertain our Xiao family?" ”

Wu Qiang hurriedly held back his laughter, and said: "Brother Xiao misunderstood, I have no such intention, it's just that your name is too different, it will inevitably make me have some associations." (To be continued.) )