When night falls, the lights are on, and there is a piece of silk bamboo and laughter in the courtyards of Mingyufang on the bank of Yangzhou Slender West Lake, and there is a noisy sound of guessing the order and singing and drinking. When a group of female ladies were playing freely, they suddenly heard five or six people shouting in unison at the same time in the south and north of the square: "The customers of the business in the courtyard, the friends who come to spend money to play, everyone listens, we are looking for a person, who has nothing to do with others, and no one is allowed to scream and move." If you don't listen to orders, don't blame us for being polite! ”

After a burst of shouting, there was a moment of silence in the Mingyu Fang, followed by the noise in the courtyards everywhere, the exclamations of women, the screams of men, and the chaos became a mess. At this moment, only a "bang" was heard, and the gate of Lichun Courtyard was slammed open, and seventeen or eighteen big men rushed in. These big men were all dressed in short clothes, with white cloth wrapped around their heads and green belts around their waists, and they held bright steel knives or iron rulers and iron rods in their hands.

During the Qing Dynasty, the salt tax was very heavy, and if you evaded the salt tax and sold illegal salt, you would make a lot of profits. Yangzhou area is the distribution place of Huai salt in Jiangbei, the general outlaws are in groups, tax evasion and salt trafficking, these salt lords are extremely fierce, encounter the officers and soldiers of the brigade is scattered in a hurry, meet the officers and soldiers of the small team, draw a knife to each other if they do not agree with each other, and later it is a gang to form a large-scale salt gang, the government is overwhelmed, and over time it will turn a blind eye to it, let it be natural. Therefore, the local power is very great. It's just that they have always only sold illicit salt, and they don't rob merchants or do other evil things, and they usually buy and sell illicit salt with the people, and they are fair and honest, and they don't bully others, but I don't know why they are so arrogant and domineering today.

After a group of people from the Salt Gang broke in, an old man led by him shouted loudly: "Heaven and Earth will be a friend surnamed Jia. Brother Jia Liu, Brother Jia, are you here? Jia Lao Liu, this afternoon, you are talking nonsense in the tavern next to Slender West Lake, saying that the people who sell smuggled salt in Yangzhou have not planted, and they dare not kill officials and rebel, so they will only smuggle and sell salt and do some small business without courage. You drank the yellow soup and yelled, saying that if you don't accept the smuggled salt seller in Yangzhou, just come to Mingyufang Lichun Courtyard to find you. Aren't we here? Jia Lao Liu, you are a good man of the Heaven and Earth Society, why did you become a turtle with a shrunken head? ”

The rest of the dozen or so salt barons also shouted. But after calling for a long time, no one spoke, so the old man shouted: "The brothers went to all the houses, and when they saw the turtle with a shrunken head surnamed Jia, they invited him out, and this man had a big scar on his face, and he was very recognizable." ”

The salt owls suddenly agreed, and searched room by room. At this moment, suddenly a rough voice in the east wing room said: "Who is shouting here to disturb Lao Tzu's search for happiness?" All the salt lords scolded one after another: "Jia Lao Liu is here!" Jia Lao Liu, get out of here! Dare to insult and insult our brothers in the Salt Gang, what a boldness! The man in the east wing laughed and said, "Lao Tzu is not surnamed Jia, it's just that you guys are scolding the Heaven and Earth Society, and Lao Tzu doesn't listen to it very well." Lao Tzu is not from the Heaven and Earth Society, but he knows that the friends of the Heaven and Earth Society are all heroes. You smuggled salt sellers are not worthy of them to lift their shoes and wipe their buttocks. ”

A group of Salt Gang disciples suddenly shouted in anger, and several men rushed in with swords and iron rods. However, the man in the east wing of the house looked quite powerful, and those big men rushed in, and immediately let out a few screams, and were injured one after another and threw out.

The old man led by the Salt Gang rushed to the door and looked inside, and saw that the person inside had no scars on his face, and it was indeed not Jia Laoliu, so he asked loudly: "Your Excellency is so skillful, may I ask your name?" The man scolded: "What is your father's surname, Lao Tzu will naturally have his surname." Good boy, have you forgotten even your name? ”

Everyone present listened to his scolding and amusement, all of them had strange faces, and one of them, a middle-aged girl in her thirties, couldn't help but "giggle" and laughed.

A group of salt gang disciples were on fire at this time, and when they heard someone making fun of them, one of the salt lords suddenly rushed to the front of the girl and slapped the woman twice, causing the girl to have tears and snot flowing together, and scolded: "Stinky bitch, what's so funny? Laugh at Lao Tzu again and chop up your rotten meat and feed it to the dogs! ”

The girl was so frightened that she didn't dare to speak, but a twelve or thirteen-year-old child suddenly came out of the side of the lobby and scolded loudly: "You dare to beat my mother? You dead turtle, rotten king. When you go out, you will thunder and thunder the sky, and immediately there will be boils on the back of your hands, and rotten through your hands, rotten through your tongue, and pus and blood will be swallowed in your stomach, and your stomach and intestines will be rotten. ”

This child is Wei Xiaobao, it turns out that the girl who was beaten by the salt lord is his mother Wei Chunhua, seeing his mother being beaten, Wei Xiaobao suddenly became anxious, and whether he could afford to provoke the other party or not, he jumped out and scolded bitterly.

When the salt lord heard the viciousness of his scolding, he was furious and stretched out his hand to grab him. I don't want Wei Xiaobao to be small but very flexible and slippery, and he drilled under the crotch of the salt owl as soon as he was short, and at the same time he didn't forget to reach out and grab it, just grabbed the scrotum of the salt owl man, and pinched it hard, only to make the big man squat down and inhale vigorously, and he couldn't stand up in pain for a while.

The remaining few Salt Gang disciples were also quite annoyed when they saw that their brothers had been rectified by a child, and one of them also came over to help catch Wei Xiaobao, Wei Xiaobao relied on his small and flexible body, drilled in the crowd, and at the same time kept scolding on his mouth, the man who was pinched so much that he was almost abolished also stood up at this time, and even picked up a knife to chase and cut Wei Xiaobao in hatred, and everyone was so frightened that they dodged.

Wei Xiaobao saw that he was going to suffer, so he gritted his teeth and ran directly to the house of the big man who injured several Salt Gang disciples, sang and harmonized with the big man, and scolded those Salt Gang disciples. Wei Xiaobao's mother, Wei Chunhua, saw that her son was in danger, and hurriedly stepped forward to plead with those salt lords, but was punched in the face by the salt lord who suffered a loss under Wei Xiaobao, and she immediately fainted.

After a group of salt owls rushed in, the sound of the intersection of blades in the room suddenly made a loud noise, only to hear the sound of "ping pong cawk" endlessly, obviously the utensils in the room were also affected, and there was a lot of damage, which only made the old bustard in Lichun Yuan feel distressed and his face trembled.

At this time, the sound of the collision of blades in the room became faster and faster, and the salt lords shouted loudly, and from time to time someone was injured and screamed. As for the man who fought fiercely with the salt lords, he was silent, just gritted his teeth and fought fiercely. After another moment, the lights in the room were suddenly extinguished, and the room suddenly became dark, and the two sides could only fight with some light thrown in by the door, and the fight became more dangerous.

At this moment, the old man in the Salt Gang suddenly fell out of the room with a miserable scream, sprayed blood, and fainted to the ground. Seeing that the leader was seriously injured, the remaining salt lords were immediately frightened, and they didn't care about tearing up the big man anymore, so they hurriedly picked up the wounded and rushed away.

As soon as the salt barons fled, they heard the sound of footsteps in the room, and a man with a white cloth on his head and a beard like grass and blood stained on his face walked out with Wei Xiaobao's support, and it was obvious that he was also injured a lot. When everyone in the hall saw the man, they were all shocked and scattered, and Wei Xiaobao walked out of the door with the help of the man.

At this time, Wei Xiaobao's mother, Wei Chunhua, was also rescued from fainting, and when she saw this scene, she shouted urgently: "Xiaobao, Xiaobao, where are you going?" ”

Wei Xiaobao said: "I'll send this friend out and come back in a while." ”

Wei Chunhua hurriedly shouted: "Don't go, you come back to me quickly." ”

But Wei Xiaobao just smiled, turned a deaf ear to his mother's words, kept his feet, and helped the bearded man out of the hall. Although Wei Chunhua was extremely anxious, on the one hand, she was afraid of the power of the bearded man, and on the other hand, she had just woken up from fainting, and her body was weak and weak, so she could only watch her son leave Lichun Courtyard with the bearded man.

As soon as Wei Xiaobao and the injured bearded man walked on their front feet, the door of a side room in the west suddenly opened, and a handsome young man of seventeen or eighteen years old walked out of it, and it was Ling Muyun. It turned out that Ling Muyun knew that Lu Ding's plot was about to start since he found the list of wanted people to arrest Mao Eighteen in the city, so he came to Lichun Courtyard every day to drink flower wine, of course, it was limited to drinking flower wine, and it was not possible to stay overnight. waited for three days in a row, and finally let him wait for the play that Mao Shibai befriended Wei Xiaobao.

When he came to the living room and saw Wei Chunhua who was still crying and wiping away his tears, Ling Muyun sighed secretly, pity the hearts of parents all over the world! Stretched out his hand and took out a large silver ingot from his bosom and handed it to her, saying, "Those salt lords will definitely come back to take revenge, and when the time comes, it is indispensable to track down the whereabouts of that person from your son, in case you can't find your son, you will definitely force you, so you better go out and find a place to hide for a few days." ”

Wei Chunhua sobbed and thanked him: "Thank you, Young Master Ling, thank you, Young Master Ling!" ”

Ling Muyun waved his hand, and then walked out of Lichun Courtyard, only to see that there was no figure on the street, presumably Wei Xiaobao and Mao Eighteen had already gone out of the city to escape.

Ling Muyun didn't mean to continue tracking, for him, it was enough to confirm the acquaintance of Wei Xiaobao and Mao Shiba, and there were no unexpected changes in the plot. Anyway, he knew that Mao Shibai and Wei Xiaobao would definitely go to the capital next, and he didn't have to be so troublesome to follow all the way, he only needed to rush to the capital first, and then there would naturally be a chance to meet Wei Xiaobao and them.

Having made up his mind, Ling Muyun walked towards his house, preparing to go home first and sleep well, and it was not too late to leave early in the morning.

(To be continued)