The rain was pouring down, hitting the eaves of the house. On the long street in the rain, there was a middle-aged man wearing a raincoat, holding his hand to the horse team.
"...My brother's surname is Zhao, Zhao Si. Thanks to all the people on the road, I have given my brother a bandit name so that he can protect me. Whenever something happens in this area of Luliang, you can usually talk to me, Zhao Si. Since you guys
I came here the way the big boss did, and the rest of the matter will be taken care of by Zhao. May I ask brothers, what do you call me?"
"It can be said that this name is not simple." The scholar on horseback raised his hand and said, "I am Ning Yi, the Jianghu people sent the bandits to slaughter with bloody hands. Next to me is the city-burning gun Zhu Biao, and my subordinates
All brothers have met Mr. Zhao."
The young scholar's voice was slow and steady, but his words were also precise, full of weird Jianghu aura. A young man named Zhu Biao on the horse next to him lowered his head after saying hello, his eyes shining: "City Burning Gun..."
What a nickname. "That's enough to cover it." He cupped his hands and said, "I've admired you for a long time."
He used to walk around Luliang, but he had never heard the formal title "Mr. Zhao". After looking at the two people, he said in his heart: "They look like a few young children..."
The power ecology in the Luliang Mountain area is complex. Although Qingmuzhai has opened its doors for business and has now reached a certain scale, it is still not easy to take the smuggling route in Luliang. Most people have no connections and cannot find anyone to connect them. Basically, it is the same.
It is difficult to get in. This Zhao Si is one of the guides outside Qingmuzhai. He seems to be in his thirties or forties. He carries a slightly rusty sword on his back. In his eyes, there is something flashing.
He has a somewhat shrewd look, and he belongs to the kind of person who may not be very skilled in martial arts, but is quite capable on the road. This may be the reason why Qingmuzhai chose him.
Ning Yi and others came here. All the carts nearby had been left behind and replaced by horse teams carrying goods into the mountains. They used the contact information and incisions left by Hong Ti. Although they were related to the boss,
There's nothing surprising about it, it's hard to tell where he got it from.
Zhao Si looked at the caravan along the way. Soon he started to have doubts in his mind. The group of people in front of him obviously came from some big families with backgrounds in the south. Just seeing that the leaders were still young, he knew they were from big families.
The experienced successor. It must be the first time for the caravan to come here, but judging from the stature of the men in the rear team, their martial arts are not weak, and the spirit of walking may have something to do with the soldiers, at least
South of Luliang Mountain, it can be regarded as a half-tailed dragon.
However, once these powerful dragons cross the mountain, they are often nothing. Those who do business from north to south, especially those who go out of Luliang, do not need to be sharp, but to be able to find a way in any environment.
You have to adapt to circumstances. Otherwise, once you cross the mountain and there is a mixture of fish and dragons, the dragon has to be coiled and the tiger has to lie down. A team of one or two hundred people. No matter how strong it is, it will not get anywhere. The only thing to be afraid of is the young person who leads the team.
, strong and easy to break.
Zhao Si thought so in his heart, but as a leader, he still had to do what he had to do. Although Qingmuzhai developed from Luliang Mountain, it still looked like a bandit village to the outside world, but internally it was very strict about rewards and punishments. In Zhao
In the eyes of the fourth class, these are the rules that the leader "Blood Bodhisattva" learned from the army in the south, but they don't know that the one who set these rules for them is the young man in the carriage behind.
After the two sides met, they walked for another half a day in the rain before they truly entered the scope of Luliang Mountain. This area has rolling mountains, rugged roads, and fewer people living there. It is a completely different place from the south.
Located on the border, Luliang Mountain has not only been in war for many years, but also has another problem: barrenness. With vertical and horizontal loess slopes and sparse vegetation, the harvests of crops grown here are usually not good. Potatoes grown here are relatively suitable for later generations.
It had not yet been introduced into China and there was no shortage of water, but if it rained heavily, it would easily turn into floods.
People living in such places have either left or died. What is left behind is not so much that they are unable to leave their homeland, but that they have no idea of migrating at all. Two hundred years ago, this place was relatively peaceful. Since then, wars and wars have
Grass Valley combed this place year after year. Some people died, and some people hid in the mountains, looking for new places to survive. The total amount of food was not much, and part of it was taken away. What was left could only be eaten.
Cannibalism.
During the famine years, cannibalism was not a strange thing in the mountains. After the Wu Dynasty gradually developed, food was sufficient outside Luliang. Although it is difficult to say that it directly helped Luliang Mountain, in the past few decades, hunger has
There are not many famines that reach the point of cannibalism, but starvation is still the norm. When the total amount is limited, if you want to feed some people, others will starve to death. This is the cruelest law of survival, and it has nothing to do with it.
Human compassion likes and dislikes.
If a person is about to starve to death, he will do anything. This place is like a place where poisonous insects are raised. Over time, most of the order is broken, morality seems to be nonexistent, and there is no morality.
In other words, only survival itself becomes clear. People who survive in this environment are either extremely cruel, extremely simple, or both... It’s not that no one wants to establish order, but
Those who make this effort usually fail and end up in blood and death.
Occasionally, they will have conflicts with the outside world, and occasionally, when the outside army thinks it is profitable, they will come in, find a way to kill a group of people, and then hand it over to the country as the result of the bandit suppression. In this kind of thing, except for the killed
Itself, basically no one cares about it.
In order to survive in such a situation, there is actually not much difference between humans and wolves in the mountains.
"...This mountain is not peaceful anywhere. Outsiders basically can't get in." The rain had stopped. While walking along the mountain road, Zhao Si pointed around and introduced, "To the west here, there used to be a horse thief.
Zhang Dadu was famous for a while, maybe... two years, and then he died. He was killed by the second boss in the village, and his body hung on the mountain for several.[,!] months. It took less than half a year for the second boss to take over.
, the stronghold is gone, and now several groups of people are fighting back and forth, all trying to save their lives. A group of hunters has set up camp there, and they are very arrogant and don't give face to anyone, so we have to take a detour now."
"... If you want to talk about the ones that can be considered famous, a little bit in the northeast, the more famous one is Qiu Mengtang, the little rogue. I heard that he has some relationship with the Tiger King. Now he has many people under his command, and he is quite famous. After that, there will be the Luanshan King of Chenjiaqu.
'Chen Zhenhai,' Luan Sanlang, the 'Black Skeleton King' of Skeleton Village. After passing our Qingmu Village, we will probably count the Fang Yiyang brothers from the Fang family... In addition, a group of Liao people came to the north recently. I heard they are from the Liao Kingdom.
After the death of the army, there were more than 2,000 people in the rout, and they had several conflicts with our Qingmu..."
Zhao Si is a local snake, and he knows the big forces in Luliang Mountain very well. Sometimes a group of people appears on the mountain road, he will go over to negotiate, and after making incisions for a while, the other party will let them go silently. In fact, in such a mountain, it is troublesome.
It's not a big force, but some small thieves who don't follow the rules at all. When a force is big, there are often rules to be followed. Only those evil wolves who have sex and don't care about their next meal, and just shoot and change places are very annoying.
It was nerve-wracking. Even if Qingmuzhai had agreed upon the rules with them, maybe after a few days, this group of people would have died across the mountain and replaced by another group of people. Therefore, in order to maintain a winding road into the mountain,
Qingmuzhai also spent a lot of effort.
From time to time, Ning Yi and others could see the wooden stakes inserted near this mountain road. Some of the wooden stakes still had corpses on them, with skulls and bones embedded in the high loess due to corrosion. This was the most dangerous thing.
There is a barbaric warning line, but there are not many bodies left. It can be seen that there have been fewer and fewer killings recently, and there are more empty pillars that have been standing for who knows how long.
"The leader of the group of people just now is called Huang Yuan. He is trying to defeat the evil wolf, but he must also give us face... These places were all visited by the boss with us. At that time, there were heads in the rows, and the blood flowed from them.
There is water flowing down from it, and the entire slope is red." After sending away a group of people who blocked the way, Zhao Si came back, waved to introduce the surroundings, and looked at Ning Yi and others with a look of contentment on his face, "Now we are going into the mountain.
, Mr. Ning, who has his own team, will naturally be led by Zhao. If there are some retail investors, let them wait for a group of people to come in together. We still have to send dozens of people to follow. This is still the case now. At the beginning, this road was
It’s even more chaotic…”
What Zhao Si is talking about is the situation when Qingmuzhai just did these things. Although Luliang Mountain is chaotic, there have always been cases of smuggling through the customs from here, or it is the brave people who are really skilled in the art who use black darts.
Escorts are either some opportunistic businessmen who take risks. Although Luliang is chaotic, it is vast and sparsely populated. Once you get there, you can make a lot of money. It was not easy for Qingmuzhai and others to first contact these merchants.
Even if you are a local, you have to fight several times during one trip.
Later, the business began to grow. Qingmuzhai could provide income and food, and it also expanded rapidly. In order to maintain a relatively stable road, Hongti and others traveled to almost every mountain. Negotiating terms, saying hello, fighting, killing people, or
Whether it's a small group killing or a big group fighting, in the end, there are basically as many heads as there are wooden sticks inserted along the whole road.
During this period, there were naturally some people who wanted a share of the pie, but in fact, only Qingmuzhai had truly opened up the entire road. Most people who wanted to lead a group through would often become what the "wolves" guarding the roadside said.
Food. There are also those who are not afraid of heaven and earth. They run to block the road or destroy it in order to extort Qingmuzhai. This is naturally extremely stupid. Soon after, someone leads a team to kill them.
"...That's it, I scanned it over and over again, and now, when the name of our Qingmuzhai head 'Blood Bodhisattva' is mentioned, who dares not to retreat!" Zhao Si said while looking at Ning Yi as the cavalry team moved forward.
He originally wanted to scare this young man with these cruel things, but after talking for a long time, he felt a little boring.
Ning Yi listened to these things with great interest. When Hong Ti saw him in the past, he would not mention these things. There were killings with rivers of blood and all kinds of fights. For the "Blood Bodhisattva", who is gradually becoming scary in Luliang
Naturally, the gangster’s nickname was never mentioned. Blood Bodhisattva... How much must one kill people to get such a nickname? Compared to such a good nickname as "Heshan Iron Sword", "Blood Bodhisattva" or something like that is not a given.
It's obviously a bit of a trick name, so you have to laugh at her when you meet her.
"It is also because of this that from last year to this time, no one in the village was hungry. Because our Qingmuzhai is so rich, the nearby mountains are much better." After all, Zhao Si is still a simple mountain man. At this time
Look at Ning Yi, "Mr. Ning is from the south. You haven't seen people starving to death, right?"
"Last year there was also a famine in the south." Ning Yi smiled, "Come to think of it, it was recently reported that your female head of the family is looking for a bride..."
Zhao Si's eyes turned cold: "Is Mr. Ning also interested in this?"
"I really want to see it."
He said he wanted to see it, not to participate, and Zhao Si's eyebrows relaxed slightly: "Huh, that's just a rumor on the road. I don't know who is spreading it secretly, so a group of people have been going to the village recently.
Come on. The master's martial arts are superb. With one sword in his hand, hundreds of people can't get close to him. How can he be compared to those mediocre people! A competition to recruit a bride, a group of people who don't know how to die..."
He rambled: "From that time to now, the master has conquered hundreds of miles of Luliang with one sword. How many good men and ruthless men have changed their demeanor after hearing the news. The Lu Shang of the year before last was the ruthless among ruthless people. He was very skilled in martial arts and could kill people.
He disowned his relatives and went to our Qingmu Village to cause trouble. He was chased by the leader of the village for a day and a night and then killed. Last winter, the most powerful master of the Luliang West Line, Old Wolf, realized that our Qingmu Village was getting bigger and planned to ambush and kill the leader.
Chased all the way in the mountains, the boss had one man, a sword, and a torch. He also encountered the most deadly pack of wolves in winter, and was killed by the boss. Seven days later, the old wolf master thought that the boss was dead.
As a result. [,!] As a result, he was beheaded by the head master in front of everyone. Even further away, there was a group of horse bandits in Fenyang..."
Seeing that Ning Yi was interested in hearing such things, Zhao Si was quite proud when he talked about these things about the "Big Boss". Only after chatting for a while did he notice that the look in the eyes of the young master next to him seemed to have changed.
Seeing that he was still smiling, he asked softly: "At this time, do you still want your village master to run outside? What about you?"
"Of course there are people around the village leader." Zhao Si waved his hand, "But Luliang Mountain is too chaotic. Some people follow the rules and some don't. It's difficult to explain these things clearly to you... Moreover, our village master's
Let me tell you how high my martial arts skills are. I, Zhao Si, only learned the three killing moves from the village master. Only after I started working did I have the ability to live up to my name. It’s hard to tell you this. If you don’t take it seriously, you
Just know..."
Being accused of only letting the leader of the village go out to do things obviously made Zhao Si feel a little uncomfortable, so he added a lot of words. Ning Yi smiled and stopped asking. After walking for a while, there was another mountain col ahead, and a group of people in the col was far away.
Looking over here from a distance, Zhao Si made a gesture, then clamped the horse's belly and continued to negotiate.
It was already afternoon, and after walking for a while, everyone camped in a nearby mountain. The hills did not appear barren. There were strange rocks and dwarf trees far and near, not dense shrubs and grass, and a small stream flowing from it.
Winding through the mountains. As the sun set, everyone chose a place with a wide view. They could see the ruins of a village in the distance, which was obviously uninhabited now. Ning Yi stood at the foot of the mountain and watched the sun set.
direction to go.
Zhu Biao came over from a short distance with a gun on his shoulder: "I just fought a few moves with Na Guan. The martial arts here are different from those in the south. They are all practiced in life and death fights. The most important thing is momentum. If an ordinary master is
If you can't withstand that desperate ferocity, you will be killed with two swords, but if you can't, it will be difficult to say."
Ning Yi also smiled: "The sword practice here is not for the purpose of fighting. If you can hold it, they will naturally turn around and run away, and then come back with all kinds of revenge."
Zhu Biao's martial arts attainments are much higher than Ning Yi's, and he naturally understands these things. In fact, although he is talking about Zhao Si's momentum, judging from the cultivation of people like Zhao Si, whether they have momentum or not, in
There is no difference to Zhu Biao in a real fight, mainly because the gap is too big. He chuckled and said, "Brother Ning, are you thinking about Senior Lu?"
"When I first considered Luliang Mountain, I had the idea of smuggling." Ning Yi clasped his hands behind his back and frowned, "When you open the door to do business, you only look at profits. But with profits as the core, it is difficult to cultivate enough loyalty.
My heart is afraid that a few bosses will join together for profit, and they usually develop very well, but when it comes time to take action, everyone will be timid."
He paused: "So I reminded her at the beginning that the core of the weapon in her hands is the most important. Those who can fight must be controlled with the strictest discipline. And when cultivating cohesion, her personal martial arts and charm
To put it into use, as long as a martial arts master knows a little bit about management, the possibility of being betrayed by others will be much smaller. But now it seems... her charm has been cultivated a little too much. "
Ning Yi's tone was quite complicated when he spoke. Of course he found it interesting when he first entered the mountain and heard all kinds of things. Lu Hong's nickname of Blood Bodhisattva was just a joke. As for things like killing and killing, Ning Yi
Although he yearns for a peaceful life, he is very aware of the dark side of the world. Only after listening to the smug boasts from Zhao Si for a long time can he really understand the complicated emotions from it.
"...what Lu Shang, what old wolf master. Of course there is a discount if the cover can be used, but it is definitely not too fake. How about one person, one sword and one torch, facing a pack of wolves in the ice and snow. There are still people chasing behind, I wish you brothers,
What do you think?" He thought of the scene of the woman facing the wolves in the ice and snow, and for a moment he felt it was quite beautiful. But then he couldn't help but sigh.
Zhu Biao shrugged: "Well, I think... wolves are also humane. If there are just one or two wolves, I might be able to scare them away. Senior Lu is so powerful, and ordinary wolves probably wouldn't dare to bite them."
she."
"But it was a world of ice and snow. The wolves had been hungry all winter..." Ning Yi waved his hand, "Her martial arts skills are already good, and speaking of personal charm, she just puts on a show every year. The rest... high-pressure policies, mysticism and so on.
It’s not easy to use, and she also likes to do things herself. Let her raise a group of people just to do things for her. Do you want to raise good-looking ones? This time I go over. I have to take a good look at her copycat appearance..."
Zhu Biao worked under Ning Yi for more than a day or two. Ning Yi also taught him a lot. At this time, he curled his lips and smiled, but knew that he did not need to say anything. At this time, he suddenly realized
When I saw something, I looked not far away. Among the sparse poplar trees over there, birds flew out, and then there was a bang, which was not loud. After one sound, it became quiet.
Like a sudden gust of wind blowing across the foothills, half of the more than a hundred people who had started to camp from far and near were startled at this moment and looked over there.
It was almost suffocating silence. In the camp, Zhao Si rushed out, jumped on a big stone, took off the steel knife, and waved his other hand behind: "Don't panic!" Of course, no one panicked at all.
.
Breathe, breathe, another figure suddenly flashed among the poplar trees, and a short scream of "ah" was heard among the interlaced trees. Then, a figure appeared on the tree, and the sound of weapons clashing was heard. Only simple sounds were heard here.
"who!"
"come out--"
"Ah ah--"
"Everyone, be careful, you have some ideas—"
Some of these voices were shouted, and some stopped abruptly. The poplar forest was stained with blood, a human head rolled past everyone's sight, and then another one whose chest was split open. [,!] The corpse was thrown out.
Apparently, just now, in this small forest, two small groups of people met silently, and then started a short but fatal fight.
Zhao Si still couldn't figure out what was going on. He looked back. In the sunset, the people behind him were scattered among the mountains one by one. Some were holding knives, some were holding guns, and some were holding crossbows. They were moving away silently.
After entering the array, almost no one spoke, and they were solemn and murderous. A few people were still looking at him on the big stone doubtfully. A young man who had talked to him before, who was hiding behind the stone, tilted his head and said silently.
Tell him: If you don't come down yet, why are you standing there?
Further away, the two young men leading the team had also changed their positions slightly, looking at everything below silently and quietly. There was almost no look of surprise in their eyes. In fact, with Ning Yi's character,
In a place as chaotic as Luliang Mountain, there was no way he could only rely on a leader from Qingmuzhai for his safety. Suddenly something unexpected happened and someone had a brain twitch. It might seem troublesome, but it wouldn't cause him to make a fuss.
Looking back again, by the poplar forest, as the body was thrown out, a figure slowly exited the forest. It was a tall man. Zhao Si had seen him in the cavalry today. This man had a scar on his face.
He has a tall body, steady steps, and seems to have quite good skills. Coupled with his silent and serious expression, even in Luliang Mountain, he is probably a tough guy that others dare not mess with. In Ning Yi's team, he serves as a small team member.
It was the responsibility of the captain. At this time, the steel knife in the man's hand was stained with blood. He made a few gestures upwards, then walked behind a pile of rocks to cover his body. Then, several people in the forest withdrew one after another. It was him.
A member of the team responsible for vigilance.
"There are three to four hundred people coming from the southeast..." Zhu Biao interpreted the message from the other party and told Ning Yi. Ning Yi nodded: "Assist Nie Shan and the others to come up."
The Nie Shan in his mouth was the name of the man below. This Nie Shan was originally a small leader in Liangshan. He was cruel by nature and killed many people. Later, in the camp of Dulonggang, he was trained by Lu Hong in martial arts.
Guidance - mainly after being beaten and repenting, martial arts will improve. In fact, in most skills, whether martial arts or art, what can promote breakthroughs after reaching a bottleneck is often philosophical understanding, that is, the tempering of one's mind.
Although the confessions in Dulonggang had their twisted side, they also brought with them a certain element of extreme fanaticism. Such people, coupled with the subsequent training of small teams, would fight in small areas like sentries in the woods.
They were almost like a nightmare. The elite outposts who sneaked into the woods were killed almost as soon as they came into contact with them.
The movement among the mountains was quiet and orderly. Some people were on guard, others were packing their things, and Nie Shan and others had already come from below. From a distance, when the first group of people appeared in view, Zhao Si saw two people holding arms.
The bow and arrows were nocked, and several figures were shot over in succession. The opponents quickly retreated, but then more and more people came around from the southeast.
"Master Zhao." Ning Yi came closer, "Three or four hundred people can come here at this time. Who do you think they are?"
"Damn it." Zhao Si grinded his teeth, "This is still the territory of the little thieves. I even greeted their people when they passed the mountain pass. Qiu Mengtang didn't want his life and attacked us. What did he think?
!”
With these words in his mouth, Zhao Si glanced around and saw more than a hundred people gathering and moving. The energy and spirit of each person was not disordered at all. He finally confirmed that the background of this group of people was not simple. He gritted his teeth.
, rushed out towards the side where the figure appeared.
"Qiu Mengtang! Master Qiu Village!" He shouted at the figure over there, "I am Qingmu Zhao Si. I am leading the brothers through the border today because I am the master! You have already collected the money to buy the road. What are you doing! You are eating wrong.
The medicine is over! You dare to break the contract with my Qingmuzhai——"
He, a young man in a cottage, dared to challenge the other party. Here was the blood-soaked power of Qingmuzhai. In the warm yellow sunset, a voice came out over there, and it was none other than the little thieves who roamed Luliang.
"Zhao Si, I will stay with the group of people you brought with you today. I, the little thief, will personally explain to the Blood Bodhisattva what will happen next." The tone sounded a bit lazy, but it was driven by internal force, and it was also because of this.
The atmosphere was so solemn and quiet that it suddenly echoed through the entire mountain, with a cold lingering sound, "I only want to say this once, you can leave."
On the mountain ridge, Ning Yi frowned: "I always encounter trouble, it's really inexplicable..."