The atmosphere was extremely tense. Li Junxian's palms were sweating, and he said to himself, "Master Hou, what are you doing?" We've agreed to make small talk, but why are we teasing others? You are no longer the best in the world, you are just a weak scholar.
Now you are on someone else's territory. If you offend the other party, wouldn't it be... Although their entire village is holding you high, to put it bluntly, they are a group of gangsters after all. If they fall out, they will become a gangster in the blink of an eye. A pack of wolves is too dangerous.
She quietly winked at Fang Yiai, meaning that if anything went wrong, she would immediately take action to protect the Marquis.
Fang Er didn't see it at all. He stood next to Xiao Rui with admiration in his eyes. He was indeed Brother Xiao. He was so powerful that even if he lost all his martial arts, he could still overwhelm others. What powerful dragon doesn't overwhelm a local snake? fart! I will never believe such nonsense again. Brother Xiao is mighty!
The gangsters in the surrounding water village were also nervous and did not dare to express themselves. It was not that they were nervous that the two sides would fall out and the court would come to suppress the bandits. But we are afraid that what if the two village leaders become angry and let us attack the champion? We really don’t want to have trouble with Mr. Hou! We are all ordinary people, but we are all greatly favored by the Marquis. Take action against your benefactor? Isn't it repaying kindness with hatred?
A big favor? What a great favor? Is it what Xiao Rui said about protecting the country?
No no no!
Just as the brothers from the Lai family said, among the hundreds of thousands of people in the entire water village, young and old, at least 80% were supporters of the Marquis. In fashionable terms, they are fans and fans.
Where is the source? Firstly, the Marquis dared to kill corrupt officials and dignitaries and prayed for the people. Secondly, the Marquis produced countless high-quality seeds. Especially the second one, this kind of merit can be called a living saint! As long as the family is farming, who wouldn't be grateful to Lord Marquis for his great kindness in staying alive?
Although Dongting Water Village depends on water for food, can the complete aquatic production support 100,000 people? More than half of the food rations must be farmed.
In the past, farming yielded small returns and high risks. Every year, a batch of people would starve to death. But what about now? With the use of high-yielding and improved varieties, every household has a surplus of food. Many people even stopped fishing in the river and turned their attention to farming. Fishing became a leisure activity and improved their lives. In the past two years, there have been few reports of people starving to death.
One after another, all are the favors of the champion in front of me.
Not counting the kindness of the Marquis, but just from getting along with each other in the past few days, everyone can also see that although the Marquis is of noble birth and holds a high position, his eyes are really clear when he looks at our gang of water bandits, and there is no trace of reason. We are of low origin and look down upon, but he really treats us as human beings.
It's not like those court officials, Jingxiang navy... and even ordinary people, who look down on us as enemies and mud.
Several other leaders of the water village looked at each other, wondering who was going to persuade them not to start a fight. We agreed to invite Mr. Hou to be our guest so that everyone could see his style. How did it end up like this? We don't want to get into trouble with Mr. Hou.
Just when everyone was tensed up, Xiao Rui turned around and laughed loudly: "Huh...fortunately not! On the one hand, it is the imperial duties, and on the other hand, I am friends with you two. If you have second thoughts, , wouldn’t it be difficult for me to be caught in the middle?”
ah? ? ?
The Lai brothers opened their mouths wide. They never imagined that the Marquis had such a side.
Li Junxian also quickly laughed with him, "Hahaha, you two, Mr. Hou is joking with you. We have been together for many days, and you have taken us to play without any reservation. If you have second thoughts, who dares to be so bold? Right Hou? Master?"
Xiao Rui smiled and nodded, then whispered in Li Junxian's ear: "Fifth brother, when did you become a flatterer?"
Forehead……
Li Junxian's face turned red from holding back.
Xiao Rui stepped forward and patted the Lai brothers on the shoulders and comforted him: "Don't worry, I can feel the good intentions of the two of you. I have no ill intentions. Please disband the Dongting Navy from now on, and everyone will be safe." You make a living by fishing, so stop fooling around to avoid misunderstandings. As for Jingxiang, I have personally informed them that they will not harass Dongting again in the future."
"Okay, we've been around Dongting Lake for a few days, and we have to continue going south. We'll stay one more night today, visit Yueyang Tower tomorrow, and leave the day after tomorrow."
this……
Seeing Xiao Rui and others leaving, the leader of the village, Lai Ji, said anxiously: "Brother, so you say the Marquis doesn't like us at all?"
Military Advisor Laiheng looked ugly and said in a deep voice: "There is still one night left. Let's go back and make a summary. We must find a way out."
The four leaders of the water village whispered: "Brother, military advisor, in my opinion, it is better to just listen to the Marquis. It would be good for us to go home and be ordinary people. The Marquis is different from other officials. The Marquis said that we can be safe." , You are definitely not lying to us. Brothers really don’t want to lick blood with the knife tip.”
"Yes, brother, take this opportunity. If the Marquis leaves and we haven't agreed, then I'm afraid we won't have such a good opportunity in the future. The court can come to suppress the bandits for any reason, and we won't be able to clear ourselves of it." Lao Ba also agreed.
At this time, the third child scolded: "The fourth child and the eighth child, you are weak? We have been water bandits for so many years, don't we live well?"
The fourth child argued: "Yes, we are good, but how many casualties do our brothers have every year? How can we explain it to their families? Although we can make a living by fishing, in the end we have to take care of our families. This small island It doesn’t produce food either, and more than half of the brothers have to farm by the lake. The imperial navy can’t defeat us, but if they really want to suppress the bandits, they don’t need to start a water war with us, they just send people to destroy our fields, leaving us with nothing. We are plowing the fields everywhere, how will the brothers survive then?"
Lao Wu advised: "Everyone, please stop arguing. The reason why my eldest brother and the military advisor took the risk to invite the Marquis over is not only to find a way for the brothers to clear their name, but also to find a job for us."
"Fourth and Eighth, you can be safe if you want, but look at our group? How many of us can plow the fields? Just disband the water village, and the group of brothers below will naturally have no problem, but what about us? We can only fight Sail the boat, anything else?”
The third child said loudly: "Anyway, I can only chop people! Living on the water, I can't even fish."
The fourth and eighth boys lowered their heads in silence.
The leader of the village, Lai Ji, kicked the third child away, "Morality? As a Dongting water bandit, you can eat on the water and don't know how to fish? Is this worthy of boasting?"
The third child patted the dust on his butt and said with a smile: "Ahem, brother, don't I want to express my attitude! According to the original plan, we let the Marquis recruit us, and we can become his soldiers and horses, and the court Regardless of whether I am a navy officer or not, I will continue to work with my eldest brother. But you want us to just lay down our weapons and become common people? I won’t do it!”
"Yes, brother, military advisor, please think of a way again. Please Lord Marquis, brothers have been practicing for so long and suddenly go back to farming. You are not used to it!"
…
Military Advisor Lai Heng sighed and said: "We all know what our brothers are thinking. In fact, our Dongting Water Village seems to have a great reputation, but in fact it is strong on the outside and capable on the inside. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the imperial court has freed up its hands and will start to rectify it in two years at most. The one who came then was no longer the Jingxiang Navy."
"If Lord Marquis comes to suppress the bandits, haha, let alone resist, we might end up not knowing how we died."
ah? No way? Didn't the Marquis just say that he didn't know the art of war? Lao Ba said with a grimace.
Everyone rolled their eyes at him, do you believe this? That's Mr. Hou. Is there anyone in the world who can't do it?
Lai Heng continued: "We originally wanted to take this opportunity to show off and let the Marquis accept us. But now everyone has seen that maybe our plan was wrong and self-defeating, which made the Marquis unhappy. Or perhaps the Marquis was unhappy. I don’t care about us at all…”
"Sigh... In fact, it is a great blessing that the Marquis can agree to our disbandment without asking for any debt. This is not the case a few years ago. A few years ago, people surrendered and surrendered and were rich, but now? Haha... The court may not see it. Yes, there are those guys from the Jingxiang Navy who hate us, and they won’t let us get away with it safely.”
Everyone nodded and said: "Yes, after so many years of fighting, they hate us very much."
"Military advisor, what should we do now?" Everyone looked at Lai Heng.
