Nanming Engineer

Chapter 30 The White Dragon in the Waves
Wang Huan was still bowing his head in self-reflection. Li Tingyu beside him had already spoken. This soldier was full of arrogance. After sinking his dantian, he suddenly spoke, and his voice suppressed the noisy shouts around him: "This general is the official under the command of Prince Yu of the Great Qing Dynasty." Bai Qizuo leads the general Tu Hai! The ignorant little thief dares to shake the tree with ants, so hurry up and back down, listen to the king's order!"

The real sound was like a thunderbolt, like a thunderbolt. Wang Huan, who was standing close, felt a prickly pain in his eardrum, and almost lost his footing.

The small boats around and the crowd standing on the shore were all shocked by the roar of a lion. At this moment, the voice has fallen, but the lingering sound is still there. The ending sound of "Ling" is still echoing in the air. Apart from the echo, there is no one If they dared to speak again, the scene immediately quieted down, and the ferocity of the water thieves when they rushed out was simply suppressed by Li Tingyu's roar.

All the water thieves stood still, looking at Li Tingyu who was standing on the bow like a god, and Li Tingyu raised his head proudly, with his helmet on and his armor on, his hand on the handle of his knife, his eyes were fierce. It seemed that he could wipe out tens of thousands of water thieves by jumping on the shore alone.

High on the island, under that big banner, the two leaders standing at the forefront of the crowd looked relaxed at first, and there were twenty official ships in front of them, which were cargo ships rather than warships, and they were strangled to death. There are only five hundred people here, and there are no less than two thousand fighters on my side. No matter how you look at it, they are all fat sheep sent to the door.But when Li Tingyu yelled, even though the two were far apart, the yell sounded like it was coming from beside him, shaking the two of them bouncing.

The leader of the water thief, Bailong Wangtao in the waves, was sweating profusely.

He is nicknamed the White Dragon in the Waves. Of course, his water quality is excellent, because he has been pampered for a long time, his skin is white and tender, but he has a short, fat body, round head, round face, small eyes and thin eyebrows, and a big nose that stands out on top of his mustache. Above, he was wearing a leather helmet, chain mail, and a sword hanging from his waist. The outfit matched his figure and appearance, which seemed incongruous no matter how you looked at it, as if a businessman insisted on being a soldier.However, those who are familiar with him know that this person looks ordinary on the outside, but on the inside he is extremely tough, killing people without blinking an eye, and the sharp sword hanging at his waist has beheaded countless heads.

Wang Tao stretched out his hand to wipe the cold sweat streaming down his face, and said sideways, "Second brother, the Eight Banners soldiers of the Qing army are really not like the useless waste of the Ming army. Judging by the ability of this assistant leader, it seems to be very powerful."

The one he called the second child was Zu Tianci, the second master of the pirates and a veteran of the army. This man was full of muscles and knots, and the coarse linen clothes on his body stretched as if they were about to be torn. He was not tall, about the same as Wang Tao, but Much stockier, with a simple and honest face, with a beard like a steel needle, he looks a lot like a blacksmith.

Zu Tianci used a mace, the length of which was much higher than his height. At this time, he threw the iron rod on the ground, and the end of the iron rod sank three inches into the ground with a "thump", and said harshly, "Boss!" No matter how powerful he is or not, my ancestors have a deep blood feud with the Jianzhou Tartars, and if I can't get along with them, I will never be recruited by the Qing court!"

Wang Tao hurriedly said: "What did the second child say? I didn't say that I must be recruited by the Qing court. It's just that the envoy of the Qing court who came a few days ago told us that. It's not up to the three brothers to discuss whether to accept it or not." Let’s make a decision, and now they are coming to buy a boat to cross the river, let’s deal with them first, and then it’s not too late.”

Zu Tianci snorted and stopped talking.

Wang Tao coughed, cleared his throat, took a step forward, and secretly lucked out. After he felt his breath rise, he opened his mouth and shouted loudly at Li Tingyu on the boat: "I am a hero in the water. Taxes and corvees are unbearable and there is no way to survive, so they become bandits, but they have nothing to do with the Qing army, and have never hindered the Qing army, I don’t know what is the purpose of Master Zuoling to lead the troops here?"

Li Tingyu snorted, and said angrily: "Intent? I sent an envoy the day before yesterday, don't you guys understand my intention?"

This sounded unkind, but Wang Tao was convinced after hearing it. The envoy who came a few days ago seemed to be sent by the Qing army. When he thought that the envoy's main intention was to buy a big ship from them, Huaihe River, but intentionally or unintentionally revealed that he wanted to recruit the Hongze Lake water thieves, and he could not suppress the excitement in his heart. Recruiting them meant that his identity would finally be cleared, and he was hiding in this lake. After so many years of fighting and killing, I finally saw the hope of returning to the wealthy life in the past. Money is not the only thing, but more important is the status. I think back when we were prosperous, even the prefect of Huai'an had to sell me three points of face. That feeling of glory , finally got a chance to find it again. Now the country seems to be changing hands. The Ming Dynasty is about to fall as the sun sets in the west. If you rush to join the Qing Dynasty, the benefits you get may be even more prominent than before in the Ming Dynasty.

He was very happy in his heart, but when he turned his head and saw Zu Tianci, who had bruised veins on his forehead, Wang Tao frowned. If the envoy of the Qing army arrived that day, if he hadn't tried his best to stop him, this Zu Tianci would probably be on the spot. The envoy's head was about to be beheaded. With him around, this move might not be so easy.

Thinking of this, Wang Tao hurriedly shouted: "Since that's the case, please leave the soldiers and horses on the lake, how about sending someone ashore to explain in detail?"

Zu Tianci jumped up beside him.A black face was flushed red, and he said angrily: "The boss! What do you mean? Do you really want to be recruited by his mother?"

Wang Tao patted him on the shoulder, and said unhurriedly: "Second brother, I know the grievances between you and the third child and the Jianzhou tartars, but it's not right to start fighting without talking about it like this? It's really a big brigade. The Qing soldiers are coming, and we are not enough. Don't worry, I know it well, you go down and the third child and bring the children to set up defenses, don't let them take advantage of our unpreparedness and make our dumplings, and leave the matter here to me."

Zu Tianci continued in a muffled voice: "The head of the family, Zu Bian and I all died at the sword of the Jianzhou Tartars outside the pass, and my two brothers escaped from Liaodong alone. You took them in and settled down here. Of course, this life is entrusted to you, and you will not hesitate to go up the mountain of swords or down into the sea of ​​fire, but if you want to seek refuge in Jianzhou, you should leave this place first, and then please don’t blame my brothers for not going with you!"

As soon as these words came out, it was clear that Wang Tao had lost face, and the water thieves surrounding the two immediately whispered to each other, discussing in low voices.Wang Tao's face turned red and white, his eyelids twitched, and anger surged from his belly and rushed straight to his forehead.But he also knew that the current occasion was not the time to talk about such things, so he tried his best to suppress his anger and said in a cold voice: "Second brother, go down first! Let's discuss this matter slowly."

Zu Tianci glanced at Wang Tao, clasped his fists at him, bowed his head and said, "Okay!" He turned around and strode away.

Wang Tao's face turned cold as he watched Zu Tianci's leaving figure, and his hand holding the sword hilt tightened.

Although Li Tingyu on the boat was far away and couldn't hear the conversation between the two of them clearly, he saw the scene clearly. He saw that the two blushed and their necks swelled as if they had an argument, and finally broke up unhappy. With a grin, he smiled and looked around side.Wang Huan, who was beside him, also saw it clearly, looked at Li Tingyu, and said with a smile: "My lord, it seems that things are simpler than we thought. These water thieves have many conflicts when it comes to recruiting security. We haven't talked to them yet. To put it bluntly, this is internal strife.”

Li Tingyu also smiled and said: "The counselor has a good plan. The local thieves are the most loose inside. As long as this alienation plan comes out, maybe we can defeat the Hongze Lake water thieves who are causing the officers and soldiers a lot of headaches without us taking action." .”

Wang Huan reminded with a smile: "Yes, my lord, you haven't talked to the white dragon in the waves yet."

Li Tingyu patted his forehead, turned his head and rushed to the shore and shouted: "General of the Qing Dynasty, are you still afraid of your failure? Okay, you disperse the gang of shrimp soldiers and crab generals. I will leave the soldiers and horses on the boat and come ashore to talk to you in detail!"

Wang Tao was overjoyed and quickly issued orders, causing flags to fly randomly. He withdrew the small boats that were grouped on the lake and dispersed them into the reeds on the island. Apart from twenty water boats on the lake, there were only two or three boats wandering in the distance. sentry boat.

After a while, a water thief came running from the shore, sweating profusely, bowed and said: "The owner of the lake, the second master and the third master refused to disperse, and stayed on the boat with people."

Wang Tao stared at the lake, and sure enough, he saw a group of small boats gathered together, leaning far away on the side of the island, there were many people on the shore, and their weapons were flashing, as if they were watching this side.

Wang Tao snorted coldly and said: "Let them go, send someone to watch them, and report to me immediately if there is any change, it will be bad if they alarm the Qing army."

The water thief who reported the letter was stunned, and subconsciously asked: "Beware of the second and third masters? Shouldn't we guard against the Qing army on the lake?"

Wang Tao was furious, slapped the water thief on the face, slapped a strong and strong man in a circle, and cursed: "It's your turn to speak? If you tell you to go, go fucking!"

The water thief was dazed by the slap, and ran away in response to the sound.

Wang Tao was full of anger, gritted his teeth, and led a group of water thieves behind him, down the small hill and headed in Li Tingyu's direction.

On Li Tingyu's side, they put 20 ships together, called all the officers from thousands of households, Wang Huan gave them careful instructions, and arranged for Ma Quan to stay on board, and Li Tingyu took the lead with [-] people including Wang Huan and Li Yan. Take a boat ashore.

There is a relatively large wharf on Mudun Island. Li Tingyu's tank boat leaned against it steadily, and a group of people disembarked in a file. Wang Huan followed closely beside Li Tingyu, and Li Yan followed with his knife on the other side, like humming two Protect Li Tingyu the same way.

The pier was already full of people, and the white dragon Wang Tao in the waves was the leader standing in front. He had already seen Li Tingyu's boat approaching the shore, rolled his eyes, turned his head and said to the water thieves secretly: "Show out your knives, hold up your knives. High point, don't let the people of Jianzhou look down on us."

Everyone understood, drew their knives out of their sheaths one after another, and raised their heads high in a panic. Standing in the shadow of the knives, Wang Tao felt a lot more at ease, squinted his eyes, and looked towards the pier.

As soon as Li Tingyu and others got off the boat, they saw the actions of the water thieves. This thought was simply not worth mentioning in the eyes of a veteran who was used to fighting.So everyone looked at each other and smiled. Wang Huan saw that everyone was ignoring the swords and guns, and he became more courageous. He smiled at Li Tingyu and said: "Sir, since the water thieves want to give us a blow, we can't show weakness."

(End of this chapter)