Pawn Crossing the River

"Without further ado, we'll set off right now." Qiniang put away the map and walked resolutely.

Qi Xuansu finally understood. No wonder Qiniang was so interested in it that she did not hesitate to go to the imperial capital in person. In the final analysis, money and silk moved people's hearts.

Qi Xuansu was thinking again, his name is really amazing, Xuansu, which means black and white, can symbolize Taoist Tai Chi at the top, and confirm his situation at the bottom. Now he is half bathed in light and half hidden in darkness. During the day, he participated in discussions and discussed the moral ethos of Taoism. At night, he changed his identity and participated in the struggle between secret societies.

He also somewhat understood why Qiniang did not develop in the Taoist sect. Not to mention that she was greedy and stingy, and could easily be labeled as morally corrupt. His temperament was the type of person that the Fifth Generation Grandmaster hated the most. When Qiniang was still a girl, the Five Dynasties Great Master was in power and all the eccentrics were driven away. Qiniang was destined to have no chance with the Taoist sect.

The two of them left the tavern, and Qiniang held Qi Xuansu's wrist.

For a moment, Qi Xuansu felt that everything around him was quickly moving backwards like a fleeting light. He could not see anything clearly. He only knew that he was moving quickly.

When the two of them stood still again, Qi Xuansu staggered and almost fell forward due to the strong inertia.

Qiniang stood firm, took off her sunglasses, took out a mask of a first-class member of the Qingping Society and put it on.

Qi Xuansu also took out his B-class member's mask and put it on, thinking that among the three A-class members, he, the B-class member, would become the most special one, as if he was the leader.

Then he looked around and saw that the two of them had left Nancheng and arrived outside the city.

I just don’t know where exactly it is.

Not long after, two more people arrived here, namely "Meng Xingyun" and "Taichang Yin". The two of them had known for a long time that the "Jincuo Dao" was the son of the "Seventh Lady", so they were not surprised and just nodded slightly to Qi Xuansu.

Look at the Buddha's face without looking at the monk's face.

Qi Xuansu was about to respond, but was interrupted by Qiniang: "Let's talk business without further ado. In one hour, the silver ship from the Inn will be arriving. Usually it is escorted by a Tianzihao man in person. Now is a special time. Sometimes, the inn may send more people, but it’s nothing, just let them go.”

Qiniang naturally has this confidence. Let alone a top-notch waiter, even a "cook" with three top-notch waiters may not dare to take advantage of Qiniang's skills.

"Meng Xingyun" coughed softly: "We can't just dismiss the matter casually. We might as well kill them all to comfort the spirit of 'Green Shirt Wet'. After all, we are mainly here for revenge, and the rest are just incidental."

The Privy Council member still wanted to show off.

"Taichang Yin" did not speak.

Qiniang said "hmm", a little perfunctory, and then said: "Speaking of which, it is a fluke that I can know the traces of this silver ship. The people in the Inn have always been secretive, false and true, true and false, the Grand Canal There were so many ships coming and going that I couldn't keep an eye on them all day. For this reason, I spent a lot of money to buy a guy from the inn, Tian Zi Hao, who was related to the Tian Zi Hao guy in charge of the rhyming silver ships. Qiu, you want to use my hand to get rid of your enemy."

Qi Xuansu secretly said that it seemed like there was infighting everywhere, and the "Inn" was no exception. At the same time, he once again explained why Qiniang took 40%.

"Meng Xingyun" and "Taichang Yin" didn't say anything. In fact, they both received the same amount of money. "Meng Xingyun" actually spent the extra 10%. After all, the emperor is not short of hungry soldiers and can only spend money. Let your subordinates work hard and make no mistakes.

Qiniang waved her hand: "Let's go."

The post road outside the Imperial City leads directly to the dock of the Grand Canal. Every year, more than 30,000 watercraft from the imperial court and government officials docked here. As the year draws to a close, the crowds of trucks and trucks coming to pick up goods on the pier are even more noisy. Even though it’s already dark, lanterns are still hanging and they are busy.

Theoretically, this is the end point of the Grand Canal, but there is also a section of the canal that connects to the moat of the Imperial Capital. After passing the gate, you can directly enter the Penglai Pond in the city, but this is a treatment only available to royal tributes.

The so-called Grand Canal was opened near Jinling Prefecture when the state of Wu was fighting for hegemony in the Central Plains during the Northern Expedition of Qi State before Zulong had unified the world.

A canal was dug to divert water from the river, which was called Hangou in history. Based on this, successive dynasties continued to develop and extend from north to south. Especially after the second large-scale expansion and renovation in the Jin Dynasty, by the Wei Dynasty, it was basically connected to the south of the Yangtze River. and the Imperial Capital, known as the Grand Canal.

The Grand Canal traverses four states, eleven prefectures, and twenty-three counties, with a length of more than 3,600 miles. Jiangnan produces two-thirds of the world's grain. It relies entirely on this river to transport grain to the imperial capital, so this river is worthy of Said to be the lifeblood of the entire dynasty.

The Imperial City has a population of one million, all of which rely on this Grand Canal for supply. The last few batches of grain and silver shipped to the Imperial City, as well as various tributes to support the palace expenses, must be transported quickly before the winter solstice, otherwise the river will snow and freeze. , that is, you missed a huge mission.

Therefore, the river entering Zhili was full of boats, which actually caused congestion in the river. In addition, the night was dark and a layer of fog arose, making bumps and bumps unavoidable. However, people were still rushing to sail at this time. Most of them are official servants working for the yamen. They are used to bullying the people. Once they encounter them, they are not willing to give up easily.

As the saying goes, to be an official is to have the prestige of being an official. Scores are for display. Without them, it would be like walking in fine clothes at night, which is boring. Some people are just petty officials before they become officials, but they have already developed great official power. They have a far-reaching vision, wandering around in all directions, lifting the sky and spraying contemptuous air from their nostrils. Small anger cannot be tolerated for a moment, and the fury of thunder must be kept constant. hair.

At this time, the people in the two boats collided with each other as they fought for the way. The two leaders were standing on their respective boats and yelling curses.

"Blinding your eyes, we are Taicang's grain ship! You delayed our grain transportation and deprived the Imperial City of food. Can you afford it?"

"You are blind! Stop trying to scare me with this. This is a ship belonging to the Jiangzhou Division of the Ministry of Revenue. It is loaded with Cao Yin that will be sent to the Ministry of Revenue for storage this year, and then it will be given to all the officials in the capital. How dare a Water Transport Ministry compete with us for this year's salary?"

When the two sides disagreed, they started to take action, poking at each other with poles and shouting curses at the same time.

There was a fight here. In the night, there were shadows and the sounds of ships fighting in the distance and near.

Just as the people on the two boats were locked in a stalemate, another large boat came from behind. In order to clear the way, the sound of cannons and cannons was heard on the boat, and a large ball of fire could be seen shining above the river in the night.

The fighting officers and ships stopped fighting and looked in the direction of the sound.

Although through the night fog, a huge black shadow could still be vaguely seen. It turned out to be a huge three-story building ship.

When you get a little closer, you can see a huge lantern hanging on the boat, with the three characters "Qingluan Guard" clearly written on it.

Getting closer, you can see the black "Qingluan Guard" flags on the ship fluttering in the wind and making a hunting sound.

No matter which yamen's boat it was, they all stopped yelling and hurriedly ordered the boatmen on their boats to steer the boats to both sides of the river.

Qingluan Guard's big ship occupied the middle of the canal and moved forward unimpeded.

Many experienced boatmen vaguely discovered that the draft of this building ship was a bit too deep. But it was already dark at this time, and it was hard to see clearly, so no one thought much about it.

A tall figure walked out of the ship's building and stood on the ship's deck.

This is Qingluan Guard Qianhu.

He looked at the lights in the direction of the dock and breathed a sigh of relief.

This errand is finally over.

The Sento-sama turned around and returned to the cabin. At this time, in the cabin on the first floor, apart from a few chairs, there were large boxes neatly stacked and stacked. The curtains were drawn around them to block them tightly to ensure that they could not be seen from outside. in.

There was another person in the cabin, leaning against the big box, sitting there with his eyes closed. There were several empty wine jars randomly placed beside him, and there was even a special wine jar for "drunken life and death".

After Qingluan Guard Qianhu came in, he glanced at this person and said, "We'll be there soon, but it's a pity that we can't drive directly into Penglai Pond."

The man opened his hazy drunken eyes and muttered a vague "hmm", not sure if he heard it.

At the same time, above the night, four heavenly beings were overlooking the Grand Canal and the pier. It was Qiniang, Qi Xuansu, "Meng Xingyun", and "Taichang Yin"

.

Around the four people, there was a cloud of smoke blown out by Qiniang using the "Ban Mian Sou", which completely obscured the figures of the four people, making it difficult for even gods to detect.

Qi Xuansu looked at the full canal and couldn't help but said: "Can we still turn around?"

"Don't worry, the mountain man has his own clever plan." Qiniang was confident.

Since Qi Niang said this, Qi Xuansu didn't ask any more questions. He just waited for Qi Niang to give the order, and he was the first to rush forward as a pawn. He was the only warrior, and he was junior and had the lowest status. What he did was this.

Qiniang looked at "Meng Xingyun" and asked, "Are your manpower ready?"

"Don't worry Qiniang." "Meng Xingyun" said, "They are all capable people. I specially transferred two big stalls here. I also have people at the Caoyun Yamen."

The so-called big stall owner is a role similar to the leader of the Beggar Clan. From this point of view, "Meng Xingyun" controls more than one Cao Clan force, and also has the connections of "Taichang Yin". This is the dual identity of the Qingping Society The advantage lies in.

"Very good, you send the signal immediately after we succeed."

Qiniang looked at "Taichang Yin" again and said: "Prepare the maximum range of 'Tai Xu Illusion', don't let others see it."

"Taichang Yin" nodded, crossed his legs in the air and entered meditation, and Qiniang's smoke came from

Through the darkness of night, a circle of invisible ripples spread, and the "Taixu Illusion" quietly enveloped an area of ​​more than ten miles in radius, but the people inside were unaware of it.

These magical powers vary from person to person. At that time, Nanhua Daojun's "Taixu Illusion" could even hide the entire Jade Capital.

In fact, Qiniang also knows this kind of method, but Qiniang never takes action unless she can, and has to use others to do it.

Qi Xuansu didn't need Qiniang's instructions, and his body sank and fell downwards.