Not long after traveling, the sky turned dark and the ship had sailed into the depths of Yunmeng Ze. In the pre-Qin Dynasty, Yunmeng Ze was vast and boundless. In later generations, the river changed its course and the lake was filled with land for thousands of years. Yunmeng Ze gradually shrank and was divided into countless areas. The small lakes are no longer as vast as they were in the Qin and Han Dynasties, but the large and small lakes on both sides of the Han River channel are connected, and their influence is still there, so the locals are still used to calling it "Yunmengze". As the boat sailed here, we saw the number of islands and sandbanks gradually increasing in the Han River, and small river forks kept protruding from the surrounding reed marshes. Pei Min held on to the railing and looked at the unknown waters and the five fishing boats following far behind. He thought to himself: He must be cautious these nights, arrange more manpower to watch the night, and set sail to rush to Xiangyang as soon as possible during the day. As soon as the county arrives in Xiangyang, they can immediately mobilize some naval troops to capture all the people on the fishing boat and interrogate them slowly. I was calculating how many days it would take to reach Xiangyang when I suddenly heard a whistle, and then I saw countless dinghy boats sailing out of various ports. The dinghy boats are small boats that look like grasshoppers. Each boat carries only a few stones and has a sail on it. There are no tents, only two or three people sitting there, rowing and rowing.
Pei Min quickly called Chen Xiandeng and asked, "Colonel Chen, you have been walking this way for a long time, do you know these water thieves?"
It's getting late now, and it's time for serious fishermen to close their nets and return. Where can they get out of the boat? These people's clothes were similar to those on the big fishing boats. They were rocking the boat closer to the five fishing boats. They must be in a group. It seems that they are definitely not good people! Therefore, Pei Min bluntly called him a thief.
Chen Xiandeng was in his early thirties. In these years of peace, military equipment had been slack. This captain Chen had eaten a lot of fat and had a bloated body. He was really sorry for his title of "Xianden". Even though he was submissive in front of Pei Min, he usually He is also a ruthless person who relies on water to make ends meet. He often embezzles money and food, and colludes with officials and gangsters. However, the group of people in front of him are obviously not the water thieves he is familiar with. At a glance, there is no one there. Realizing that he was also annoyed, thinking to himself who the leader of the water thieves here was, how could they not follow the rules of the rivers and lakes, and dare to follow Master Chen's boat? When Pei Min asked, he scratched his head with his fat finger and said in confusion: "Under the mark It is also strange that the waterways in Xiang'e are complicated. There are few merchant ships and most official ships are transported by water. Moreover, now that the saint is coming to the court, the world is at peace, and the people are living and working in peace and contentment, how can anyone be a thief? It is rare for a lower official to take the Shannan Cao Road. It has been more than ten years, not to mention bandits and bandits, not even petty thieves have been seen in these years."
Pei Min knew he was talking nonsense and really wanted to grab him by the collar and ask him, since there are no thieves in the world, what is going on in front of him? But he finally restrained himself from having an attack. Pei Min was a general on horseback and was not familiar with things on the water. If he wanted to fight on the water, he would have to rely on this person. He just said: "Order the soldiers to hold lamps and illuminate the water to see if the thieves do anything." .”
Chen Xiandeng took the order and ordered the soldiers to light the lamps. Finally, he said to Pei Min: "Don't be anxious, Mr. Pei. Although there are many sailboats, we are not afraid of him."
At this moment, Li Bai and He Zhizhang also walked to the side of the ship and asked Chen Xiandeng why? When talking about the boat, Chen Xiandeng became more confident and said with a little hand: "Everyone, please see, the side of the boat is only more than a foot above the water. Our boat is equipped with a railing, and it is light-loaded at the moment. It is higher than The water surface is nearly ten feet long, steep and thick, and even if the boat gets close to my boat, it will definitely not be able to climb up."
Pei Min glanced at him and said, "The thieves don't need to climb on my boat when they get close to it. Can't they just scuttle the boat?"
Chen Xiandeng smiled and said: "Don't worry, Mr. Pei. Not to mention that the ship is solid and cannot be penetrated by ordinary chisels. Even if it is really drilled out, there are more than a dozen cabins under the ship, which are isolated from each other. Even if a few cabins are flooded, it will not cause any damage." It sank, but we shot down from above the ship, with bows and arrows, and in a short time all the thieves were wiped out."
Everyone calmed down after hearing this. Pei Min was tired of his boastful tone and waved his hands: "Even so, don't be careless. There are many thieves, so we must take more precautions."
Chen Xiandeng sang "Hey" and took the order to leave. Pei Min also called on the Jinwu guards he had brought to put their knives and crossbows at their fingertips and be ready for war at any time. If there was any trouble, the boastful Chen The school captain and his Zhe Chongfu soldiers could not be counted on.
After a while, the sailors hung up wind lanterns on the four corners of the official ship. The wind lanterns were made of bronze and had built-in candles. The lamps used on the ship were made of white wax mixed with butter. They burned longer and were harder to extinguish than oil lamps. . The outer ring of the pewter lamp is equipped with a bronze lampshade, which can be rotated to open and close. It can not only protect against rain and wind, but also can be rotated to gather candlelight and illuminate a designated area. It was already dark now, and the wind lantern could only illuminate the water surface twenty steps away around the official ship. Even if the lampshade was adjusted to gather the light, the furthest distance could only reach a hundred steps. The night was getting darker and darker, and I saw that the boats behind me were about to escape into the darkness. Suddenly I saw a firelight in the darkness, and then a short time later, the stars everywhere started to light up. It turned out that the boats behind me were raising their fires for illumination. It seems these people don't want to be invisible.
Of course, the fishing boats following the big ship couldn't afford white wax. The torches they used were made of thick coarse cloth wrapped around pine branches and soaked in grease. They were very simple, but they were superior in number. They illuminated most of the river at one time, and only a few of them were lit up. I saw several fishing boats busy starting to lower their nets. The fleet stretched across the entire river. The river here was about a hundred steps wide, and the fishing boats were twenty steps apart. The small boats were lined up closely among the fishing boats. The fishermen throw the fishing nets to the surrounding dinghy boats, and then pass them to adjacent boats until the fishing nets on the entire river are connected together like an iron chain across the river.
Immediately afterwards, everyone on the official boat saw an even weirder scene. Fishermen on the five fishing boats actually pulled out several bulls from the cabins, and then used torches to drive the bulls into the river. Cows are born with water nature. When they are driven into the water, they kick their hooves in panic and lift their heads out of the water, making "moo" sounds from time to time.
Jiang Shuo said, "Hey, are you sacrificing a cow to the river god?"
He looked at this strange scene, feeling scared and curious at the same time. He couldn't help but pick up the side rail and take a closer look.
He Zhizhang shook his head and said: "The cattle used for sacrifice are called 'Yiyuan Dawu'. According to Tang law, cattle are not allowed to be used for non-important official sacrifices, and the number of cattle used for sacrifice has a fixed number. It must be recorded in detail in the government office before it can be slaughtered. Private use of cattle for sacrifice is never allowed." . This group of people does not seem to belong to the government. Even the government would never perform animal sacrifices in the middle of the night in a place where there was no village or shop before. It must be a private slaughter."
Pei Min said: "It is a serious crime to slaughter cattle without permission, let alone so many of them?"
He Zhizhang turned around and asked Chen Xiandeng: "There are many Yi people here, and their customs are different from those of the people in the Central Plains. Is there a local custom of sacrificing cattle at night?"
After hearing this, Chen Xiandeng spread his hands and said: "Xiaguan is not a local, so I can't say for sure, but Xianguan has been working in Xiang'e for many years and has never heard of such a custom."
After hearing his answer, He Zhizhang was not satisfied and thought to himself: "Slaughtering a cow privately and offering sacrifice is a serious crime. It must be done very secretly. You may not know that such a custom exists."
The pine branches used for the torches on the small boats were extremely oily. Each boat raised the fire at the same time, and the smoke rose and accumulated, causing the river surface to become foggy and hazy. After a while, the people, boats, and cattle behind them disappeared into the fog. Only a faint moan could be heard, which made people feel even more bizarre.
Suddenly, the sound of "moo" became more rapid, and everyone on the boat was shocked and confused. It was strangely quiet on the water surface, and they didn't know what was going on behind them. At this time, a gust of river wind blew away the smoke from the torch. Jiang Shuo was surprised and said, "Why are there so many dead trees on the water?"
Everyone looked and saw that there were indeed a lot of dead trees on the river, but if they looked carefully, these dead trees did not drift with the current, but actually floated towards the frightened cows in the water. The people on the boat were holding torches or various tools, and they looked like they were waiting for the enemy. Pei Min looked from a distance and saw that most of these people were holding long-handled weapons, mostly harpoons and the like. There were also long-handled weapons that looked like Mo knives and mountain axes. These people had hidden military blades. They were probably thieves. No doubt about it.
At this time, a piece of dead wood was close to one of the cows. The cow was extremely frightened and kicked its hooves desperately trying to get away from the dead wood. However, the "dead wood" suddenly rose up, revealing rows of sharp teeth and biting the cow's throat. "Dead trees" also appeared one after another, surrounding the cow and biting it. It turned out that these "dead trees" were actually six or seven feet long earth dragons. The earth dragon is the river crocodile. Because of its short snout and the shape of a pig nose, it is called "Pig Po Dragon". However, this earth dragon is mostly found in Jiangzuo, Huainan and western Zhejiang. I didn't expect to see such a kind in the hinterland of Jianghan. There were many local dragons chasing and biting the cattle, and the river surface was like a boiling oil pan, and there was chaos.
"Yes, yes." Chen Xiandeng suddenly shouted: "I know what they are doing. It turns out they are poachers. No wonder I don't recognize them." After the words were spoken, he suddenly realized that something was wrong. Isn't this right? Is it equivalent to saying that you recognize the local bandits? Fortunately, no one seemed to notice. Chen Xiandeng coughed twice to resolve the embarrassment, turned to He Zhizhang and said: "The villain's ancestral home is Mingzhou Prefecture, Huainan. There are many earth dragons in that place. The people call it Pig Po Dragon. According to legend, the earth dragon The skin can be used to make a drum, which is called a drum..."
He Zhizhang said: "Yes, there is a saying in "Daya·Lingtai": 'In discussing drums and bells, in music, I have developed a new style. When the turtle drum meets, the Mongolian turtle plays it.' It is talking about this drum made of turtle skin."
Chen Xiandeng nodded hurriedly and bowed and said: "Imperial Master He has learned a lot and has a strong memory. I admire you very much. However, the ordinary earth dragon cannot actually be called a dragon. Its skin is also rough and uneven, making it difficult to make a drum skin, but it can be made into a scabbard. Leather armor or combat boots are lighter and tougher than cattle and sheep leather armor. In Jiangzuo states and prefectures, people are strictly prohibited from hunting and killing privately, and all harvests must be turned over to the government. However, local wealthy families often recruit private soldiers, and they have a lot of interest in the skin of the deer. There is a huge demand, so some people will go deep into Jianghan to hunt and kill earth dragons. Although dragon slaying is not legal here, there are few arrests in the local state capital."
Chen Xiandeng continued: "But these people don't seem to be experienced people. In winter, earth dragons dig deep holes on the river bank to hibernate. It is because of their skill in digging holes that they are called 'earth dragons'. It is late autumn now, and earth dragons can see it." It's time to drill a hole, the leather is as dull as dust. Where can I sell it at a good price? I need to wait until the next spring has passed..." He suddenly realized that he had said too much and hurriedly shut up and stopped talking. .
Upon hearing this, Pei Min and He Zhizhang knew that Captain Chen seemed to be engaged in this business regularly, and most of the poachers were thieves, so he didn't know about it. However, Pei He and Pei He were not interested in intervening in the corruption of local officials. Now that they knew that these people were a gang of bandits poaching earth dragons, they felt relieved, knowing that the other party was indeed not interested in their ship, and all the previous mysterious behaviors were just Because of this illegal activity they did.
Chen Xiandeng said to Pei Min in a low voice: "We have a small number of soldiers. I think it is not appropriate to start a fight at this moment. After arriving in Xiangyang, it is better to report to Zhechong Mansion to send troops to suppress it."
Pei Min nodded and said: "We have the emperor's mandate and we have no time to be entangled in such a small matter."
Although Chen Xiandeng had the word "Xiandeng" in his name, he did not have the courage to "climb the dead first". He was afraid that General Pei would be jealous and wanted to order him to fight against the bandits, so he stepped forward to offer advice. At this moment, Pei Min stated that he would not intervene in this matter. This made him breath a huge sigh of relief. He ordered the sailors to speed up their sails and get rid of the bandits while they were hunting the earth dragons.
Jiang Shuo suddenly said: "That's not right..."
Chen Xiandeng turned around and said angrily: "What does this little kid know? Just go and play."
Jiang Shuo ignored him and continued to talk to Pei Min: "Although I am a child and have never seen poaching, I have also seen fishermen fishing. I think hunting is the same in the world. You need to catch what you catch." Come on the boat, but look, after the people on the boat killed the earth dragon, no one went to fish it up and let it sink to the bottom of the river. But where did it come from?"
Pei Min looked over the railing and found that this was indeed the case. The people on the boat killed the earth dragon and let it sink. Everyone was focused on killing, as if killing was the purpose, not hunting for skins. Pei Min often went hunting in the mountains to keep time for Peiping. He knew that hunters in the mountains would use ropes to catch the animals and then strangle them in order to peel off the intact skins. They rarely used knives unless they had to, just because they stabbed them. Torn fur is worthless. It is reasonable to hunt earth dragons, but this group of people killed earth dragons without any scruples.
At this moment, the earth dragon was so mad that he was killed. He no longer cared about the cattle, but wanted to attack everyone. However, the ships were arranged tightly like a military formation, serving as horns for each other, helping each other in attack and defense. Although the earth dragon was fierce, he could not get on the ship, and everyone Cooperating with the encirclement and suppression, countless earth dragons were all covered with wounds, their stomachs were broken, and their intestines were rolling in the river. The river was temporarily dyed red with blood, like a boiling sea of blood from hell. Even if these earth dragons were stabbed to death... It is difficult to take out the skin and sell it after salvaging it.
Everyone on the official ship was stunned when they saw this scene. The sailors were at a loss for a moment. They stood there and forgot to control the ship. At this moment, they encountered an undercurrent in the river, and the water flow suddenly changed. The official ship turned sideways along the current. The boats quickly sailed toward the side and approached a hundred paces. Everyone in the small boat was suddenly startled, and they all stopped and looked at the big boat. When Chen Xiandeng saw this scene, he felt a chill go down his spine. Although the rule of three hundred steps between the two sides was set by Pei Min. Pei Min told the small boat not to approach the official ship, but he did not say that the large ship could not take the initiative to approach the small boat. However, when the other party was killing the earth dragon, it approached. This was really not a wise move on their part. Chen Xiandeng hurriedly scolded the sailors to row their oars and get away from the killing field as soon as possible.
The sailors were about to separate and maneuver the boat when they suddenly heard a loud roar. The official boat shuddered violently. Everyone was shaken off the deck and fell again. Chen Xiandeng couldn't help being shocked. He knew that the official boat was a flat-bottomed boat and the most stable. At this moment Although it was not loaded with cargo, the empty ship weighed more than a thousand pounds. Even if it sailed into the sea, it would not be so bumpy. Looking down at the calm river, I didn't know what had lifted the official ship.
