Dai Zong wanted to say something else, but Li Jiqian stopped him and said, "Just follow the price Brother Xu said.? ?"
Brother Xu said, "This big brother is very happy when he sees it. Then it's settled." Then he greeted the waiter and started to move the wine.
The guys were also quick and quick. After a while, all the wine was put on the same cart and covered with rice. The smell was so well concealed that you couldn't smell it at all. Even though Dai Zong didn't want to, but since Li Jiqian had spoken,
They could only pay the bill with money. Brother Xu collected the money and asked a waiter to follow them with a cart to where Li Jiqian was.
Just when they came out, Dai Zong pointed to the person who had just passed them and said: "This person should also be here to buy wine. I have seen him here before. But he can't buy it today.
"As he was talking, the man seemed to look back at them. But Dai Zong didn't pay attention.
On the way, Dai Zong still felt unwilling. He avoided Brother Xu's clerk and quietly said to Li Jiqian: "Brother Li, why don't you let me continue to counter-offer when the price of Xu's price increases?"
Li Jiqian said: "Dai Zong, first of all, isn't it normal to adjust the price according to the market situation? People have also said that there is no need to worry about selling wine these days, and your counter-offering is of no use. It is a waste of time."
"Second, I listen to what you said. In fact, you don't have much friendship with this person named Xu. It's just a relationship between a wine seller and a wine buyer. There is no need to sell your face, so the counteroffer must still be
waste time."
"Third," when talking about the third point, Li Jiqian lowered his voice and said: "We are pirates with a criminal record. Although we don't go ashore very often, we probably have no conflicts with the people here. Most of them don't know us, but we are in a different place.
, it’s better to be careful.”
Dai Zong listened to Li Jiqian's words and agreed that what he said was reasonable, but he still muttered: "Brother Li, your analysis of the matter is very sound, but why can't you just put it on yourself? It's so dangerous to go to Pingjiang, why do you have to go?
"
After listening to Dai Zong's words, Li Jiqian reached out and patted him on the head and said: "I'm talking about your business, why are you talking about me? And the reason why I want to go to Pingjiang is completely different from yours, so don't make blind comparisons."
."
A group of people pushed the cart out of the market. Sure enough, all the servants were celebrating the New Year at home today, and not a single one was here to check. Some people also set off firecrackers, which could be heard from a distance, and the whole environment was filled with Chinese New Year atmosphere.
atmosphere of.
Li Jiqian was walking and talking to Dai Zong. But just when they were approaching the place where Ming Dynasty specially prepared for them, the vassal businessmen who came to Ming Dynasty to do business, another person suddenly said: "Brother Li, you
Look at the person in front of you, does he seem to be waiting for us?"
When Li Jiqian heard this, he looked forward and saw a man standing at the gate of this large place, as if he was waiting for someone.
Li Jiqian said: "It should be waiting for someone. But it's not necessarily the person waiting for us, right? It's impossible. We don't know the person, so why is he waiting for us? Even if we are talking about business, we are not celebrating the New Year.
I came here to talk."
But as the group of them got closer and closer to the place where they lived, the man actually took the initiative to greet him. Li Jiqian said doubtfully: "Are you really waiting for us?"
While they were talking, the man had already stood in front of them, and the man pushing the cart also stopped.
At this time Dai Zong said: "Aren't you the one who just went to buy something from the man named Xu?"
The man said: "Yes, I also went there to buy wine. But when I went, Old Man Xu said that the wine had been sold out and there was no more wine today."
"I just remembered that I was there just now and saw you when I walked in. I have seen you before and knew that you went there to buy wine, so I guessed that you bought the last bit of wine. So.
I found you, and I hope you will share half of the wine with me, and I will pay you according to the price, no, double the price." His last sentence should have been in a questioning tone, but he used it in a very definite and unacceptable tone.
It was said in a questioning tone.
If he had spoken kindly, Li Jiqian might have agreed to share half of his drink, but he spoke so arrogantly, Li Jiqian was unhappy, and he raised his head and wanted to retaliate.
But Li Jiqian suddenly noticed that there seemed to be something wrong with the man's right eye. Then he looked carefully and found that his right eye seemed to be blind. Li Jiqian immediately said: "Your right eye is...?"
The man said calmly: "I can't see anything in my right eye."
This person is the one-eyed wolf who is following Xiao Zhuo. He is also a drinker. He often goes out to buy wine on weekdays, so he knows that Old Xutou is selling wine. He is also happy without alcohol, as long as it is not important
The occasion was all about drinking, even though he had to act as a guard that day.
At first, everyone else couldn't stand him, but once he was drunk and escorted, and someone was ambushing them to attack them, no one dared to have any objections.
Li Jiqian saw that the one-eyed wolf was blind in one eye, probably due to the injury he had sustained during the fight between the rivers and lakes, so he didn't want to argue with him, and said, "Looking at you like this, I'll give you twenty bamboo tubes of wine, and I won't take the money."
"
But the one-eyed wolf said: "Twenty bamboo tubes are less than half of the wine you bought, right?"
Li Jiqian replied: "Yes, not enough."
The one-eyed wolf said: "I don't need you to give it, I will pay you, but I want half of the wine."
At this time, Dai Zong couldn't help it anymore and said: "Why are you like this! Our eldest brother thinks that you are also a good drinker, so he gave you twenty bamboo tubes with good intentions, but you have gone too far. Do you think we are easy to bully?"
Li Jiqian hurriedly stopped Dai Zong and said, "Shut up." But in his heart, Li Jiqian also felt that what Dai Zong said was reasonable, so he said, "My brother is straightforward, but the truth is this. Brother, he insists on letting us buy it.
Isn’t half the amount of wine inappropriate?”
The one-eyed wolf said: "Then you are determined not to hand over half of the wine?"
Li Jiqian was also aroused and said, "So what?"
The one-eyed wolf said: "Well, I see that you have also practiced martial arts. Let's compete. If I win, you will give me half and I will give you the money according to the price; if I lose, I will turn around and leave.
How about it?"
Li Jiqian also has a brave and aggressive temperament. Today he felt that if he endured it again and again, he would become a coward, so he said: "Okay, what is the comparison?"
The one-eyed wolf said: "It's just a fight for some wine. I've run out of wine and I just want to find some wine to drink. So don't use weapons. Let's compare with fists and kicks. Let's stop there. How about that?"
In fact, the reason why One-Eyed Wolf made such a suggestion was mainly because in this place, it would be very troublesome if someone was killed, especially if he had to kill four people. It must be a big case. Although One-Eyed Wolf
He is willing to do things like drinking and hurting people, but he doesn't want to cause too much trouble. Moreover, he is now Xiao Zhuo's buddy. Xiao Zhuo treats him well and he doesn't want to disturb other people's business.
Li Jiqian was challenged to the door, so naturally he couldn't give in. He said: "Okay, that's it." Then he put down what he was holding and started to prepare for a fight.
The one-eyed wolf also posed, ready to fight. The sound of firecrackers rumbled not far away, as if it was the background sound of a stage.
After both sides were ready, they both rushed forward and started fighting. Both of them were very skilled in boxing and kicking, and it was hard to tell them apart.
But at this moment, many people came out from the place behind them, which was the place specially prepared for the merchants of the vassal state. Although it was not dark yet, these people also held torches and seemed to be ready at any time.
Ready to light up.
The two stopped fighting immediately. It was not like they had any grudges. Although the one-eyed wolf liked drinking very much and would do things to hurt people just for drinking, he did not want many people to see him fighting. He planned to wait until they all left.
Then continue.
But then Li Jiqian, who was opposite, said, "It's my little sister, what are you doing here?"
Li Shaer walked up to him with a torch and said, "Brother, so you are here? Why don't you go back quickly?"
It turned out that Li Sha'er had been waiting at home for a while. Seeing that it was getting dark and Li Jiqian hadn't come back yet, she became worried. When she told the others about the matter, they were also a little worried. After all, Li Jiqian was a famous person on the wanted list.
, so everyone divided half of them out to take a look, and were prepared to escape at any time if they were exposed.
Li Jiqian understood the reason for his expression and immediately told his sister the reason why he was here. Then he raised his head and said to the one-eyed wolf: "This man whose name I don't know, you see it is impossible for you to take away half of the wine."
.so you……"
The one-eyed wolf knew that there was no chance as soon as he saw this posture. Although he considered himself to be highly skilled in martial arts, he could not fight a group of people alone, so he turned to leave.
But at this moment, another group of people came out, waited for a while at the gate of the residence specially prepared for the merchants of the domain, and walked towards the location of the one-eyed wolf.
The one-eyed wolf narrowed his good eye and looked at the people coming, and then found that the person leading the way was Xiao Zhuo. It turned out that Xiao Zhuo also saw that the one-eyed wolf was not there, so he ordered many brothers to go out and look for him to see if he was on the road.
I was drunk and unexpectedly saw a one-eyed wolf at the door.
Xiao Zhuo asked about the reason and said to the one-eyed wolf: "If you are short of wine, there is still wine in the store, just let me know. Why fight with others over this matter."
The one-eyed wolf was naturally not very convinced, but because Xiao Zhuo treated him well, he could only remain silent.
At this time, Li Jiqian said to Xiao Zhuo: "Brother, since it's just such a small matter, how about we go our separate ways?"
Xiao Zhuo also felt that there was no benefit in continuing the confrontation here, and there was no major conflict between the two sides. He was about to say a few words. At this moment, a voice came from behind Xiao Zhuo and the others: "Your people are like this
You have sinned against us and you want to leave like this?"
Xiao Zhuo immediately looked back, wanting to know who was speaking. At the same time, he wanted to explain.
But Li Jiqian reacted quickly, especially since he was not a serious businessman, but they were pirates, so Li Jiqian immediately changed his face and said: "What, you want to bully us because of the large number of people? Although we are small,
But they are not easy to bully. We don’t have any big hatred, so why be so aggressive!" After all, they only have one shop, while the other party has sixteen shops. Even if they randomly pick a few people, there are more than half of them.
Just as Xiao Zhuo was about to explain, someone behind him said, "We're bullying you just because we have more people. What's going on!"
Xiao Zhuo found out who was speaking this time, and immediately knocked the man unconscious with three punches and two kicks, and then said to Li Jiqian: "Brother, it's a misunderstanding, it's all a misunderstanding. Those two sentences just now must be from my opponent."
The undercover agent ambushing my house said that we are willing to retreat." However, a burst of firecrackers suddenly sounded, and Xiao Zhuo was afraid that Li Jiqian and the others did not hear it, so he said it again.
But how could Li Jiqian believe what he said? Li Jiqian sneered and said, "What? Fortunately, someone worked so hard to ambush an undercover agent in your house, just to expose something that may not be possible? Do you think I'm stupid?"
Xiao Zhuo also knew that the other party would not believe what he said. After all, it was too bizarre and no one would believe it. However, Xiao Zhuo still said: "One-eyed wolf, whether you believe what I say or not, we have more people than you, so you can't
Will you actively provoke a fight? In that case, why not regard what just happened as a misunderstanding and believe what I say?"
The one-eyed wolf also knew that there were few of them, so the other party's behavior was unexplainable. Even if he wanted to overpower them, he wouldn't slap himself in the face.
At this time, their people had also recognized that the people opposite were Xiao Zhuo's people. There was no way, their business alliance accounted for more than half of the silk, and everyone was paying attention to the raw silk shops.
That is even more unexplainable. They obviously want to do business here for a long time and would not take the initiative to provoke group fights.
So after much thought, Li Jiqian thought that maybe the person who was ambushing Xiao Zhuo and the others as an undercover agent really had a brain twitch, so he said, "Okay, then you go back first."
Xiao Zhuo had no intention of continuing the confrontation and retreated as instructed.
Li Jiqian breathed a sigh of relief. But at this moment, a group of people came from the side, quite a few of them, and looking at their clothes, although it was already dark, it could be seen that they were from the government.
Then a man walked out from the group. Judging from his clothes, he was an unofficial official. This man came over and said, "What is going on with you?"
Xiao Zhuo replied: "Your Excellency, we have nothing to do. We just went out to buy New Year's goods and happened to meet them here. I don't know them."
The unofficial official asked again: "It's all lies. You have been here for a while. I looked like we were about to fight, but in your words, it was just an accident."
Xiao Zhuo said: "Everything I said is true, sir! As for the fact that we stayed here longer, it was mainly because some of us who were drunk accidentally bumped into people over there, so we had a few words
There was a quarrel, but it was not an attempt to fight."
"Sir, it's the Chinese New Year now, who would fight on such a day?"
The unofficial official seemed to believe it, but he still said: "You each have a leader and follow me to Lord Tiju to tell the difference."
At this time, Li Jiqian, who had been silent just now, suddenly felt that he had figured out the reason for what happened today: the Ming government wanted to arrest their group!
Someone probably recognized him in the market this afternoon, so he immediately reported it to the government. Even though the government has sealed it, I heard that the person who promoted the Shanghai Shipping Department was a very serious and responsible official. I heard that
Pirates hang out here, and they are famous pirates on the wanted list. They definitely want to catch him. Catching him will be more effective than catching a thousand nameless pirates. It is a great political achievement.
However, during the Chinese New Year, it was difficult to mobilize the army, and many soldiers could not gather together for a while, so a tight encirclement could not be formed, and there was no guarantee that he would be able to catch him if he was captured head-on.
So I set up such a trap to get myself into the trap. First, it was very abnormal that someone was waiting for them at the door to ask for a drink. I gave a third and was still not satisfied; then a group of people came over and asked what the reason for this was.
, and then they pretended that there was an undercover agent among them, but in fact it was because the government officials hadn’t arrived yet, so they were trying to think of ways to stall for time, right?
Xiao Zhuo wanted to do business here for a long time. Although arresting himself was not his original intention, he did not dare to offend the Ming government and could only cooperate.
Now that I think about it, in fact, if his own people had not come out, Xiao Zhuo would have used their many people to arrest him just now. There were only three of them in total, so they couldn't resist.
But Xiao Zhuo saw that many of them were coming, so he was unwilling to sacrifice his own troops just to cooperate with the government. As for sending soldiers from the government to his men to pretend to be guards, those of them who had been pirates for a long time were
You could tell at a glance whether they were officers or soldiers, so it was definitely impossible to see a bunch of officers and soldiers waiting here stupidly. The government must have known about it, so they didn't do it.
So in the end, the government sent a low-ranking official over to trick him into following them alone, and Xiao Zhuo also cooperated. If he hadn't been alert and waited alone, someone would probably have caught him. As for
It doesn't matter if all his men run away. Catching one of his men is a great achievement. What's more, most of them will definitely be captured.
And one more thing, today is New Year’s Eve. Most people will relax their vigilance today and not be so alert. And there are many people setting off firecrackers and fireworks. They use fireworks to notify the people staying on the ships at the port.
, or the person staying behind the ship uses fireworks to notify them, which can easily be ignored.
In fact, there were still problems with Li Jiqian's reasoning, but Li Jiqian, who had already learned a lot, ignored these problems.
Li Jiqian had made up his mind and gestured to the people around him. The people around him were surprised when they saw his gesture, but after all, they had been drifting at sea all year round, so they still had basic qualities. They didn't speak, they just gestured to each other to tell each other.
All people are ready to do what they need to do.
Li Jiqian made a few gestures and pretended to come out and follow this unofficial official. As expected, Xiao Zhuo also came out and wanted to follow this official.
The unofficial official also turned around and said, "Follow me and go see Lord Tiju."
But he didn't take a few steps when he heard rapid footsteps coming from the side behind him. Although the sound of firecrackers was very loud not far away, his ears were very good and he heard it. But he turned around and wanted to say something just now,
He felt like his neck was being held by someone, and he couldn't breathe. He stretched out his hands to open the arms holding his neck, but it was of no use.
Xiao Zhuo was also surprised and immediately put on a defensive posture.
Li Jiqian ignored him and looked back at his people. Immediately, someone among their people lit up fireworks to notify the rest of them.
After all, they were people who had worked with Zhang Shicheng back then, and they knew several methods of arranging fireworks that were unknown to the public, which made their fireworks unique. As long as they were carefully distinguished, they could still be distinguished.
Li Jiqian can only pray that the other two people can tell the difference. Those who stay in the accommodation specially prepared for the merchants of the vassal state should be more vigilant, but those who stay on the ship may not be so.
All Li Jiqian's men also took out knives or bows and arrows. Li Jiqian took the unofficial official hostage to meet with his own people, and then fled to the port on the river. It would be great if they could board the ship smoothly or capture another ship.
Most people can escape; if they can't get off the boat, they can only disperse and break out, swim to Chongming Island, find their small boat hidden in the reeds on Chongming Island, and escape.
Xiao Zhuo was a little at a loss: Are they going to kill officials and rebel? No, it's such a trivial matter?
Xiao Zhuo said: "Brother, let's sort out this matter in front of Master Tiji. We can only fine you a little money. It's not a big deal. But if you kill an official and rebel, things will be different. If you don't want to
It’s the same thing if I pay all the fines and fines.”
Li Jiqian glanced at him and thought to himself: 'Still trying his best to deceive!'
But Li Jiqian didn't speak. He had to save every ounce of energy now, even if it was just to say a word.
Li Jiqian reunited with his people, and then saw that the same fireworks as the ones they had just lit were set off from the accommodation specially prepared for the merchants of the feudal state. The accommodation allocated to them was also set off.
Li Jiqian whispered: "Hurry up and join them!" Then the group of people ran towards the wall where they were. Not long after they first lived here, they had already figured out the terrain, the deployment of the officers and soldiers, and where to run.
There was a plan, and now they were running towards that plan.
Xiao Zhuo and his people had no idea what was going on and did not dare to move. They stayed where they were. Xiao Zhuo just went back to gather with his people because they were afraid that the government would mistakenly think that they also wanted to kill officials and rebel, so they moved
