Jiang Shuo felt that Pu Pu's body in his arms was slowly cooling down. At this moment, everything in the mountain was quiet except for the sound of the pine waves. He faintly heard the footsteps of someone in the distance. That person was very good at light kung fu and came so fast. , Jiang Shuo gently placed Puo Puo's body on the ground, jumped up to the treetops, and hid in a big pine tree.
After a while, the person arrived under the tree, but it was a girl in red. The girl was surprised when she saw Puo Puo's body, and slowly came closer to check. At this moment, she heard the grass behind her, and another person came. , he is holding a strange weapon, with a long and straight back part, but the head is curled like a hook. The name of this weapon is "Wu Gou", which can be used as a sword and a hook to hold the weapon.
The man yelled: "Who is it!" As he spoke, Wu Gou swept his head aside, and when the girl lowered her head, he reached out his left hand to grab her shoulder.
But the girl didn't get what he wanted. She followed the sword and unexpectedly walked around to the man's right side. She pushed his wrist and actually sent the Wu hook into the sheath under the man's left side. The girl held his wrist and said, "Brother Nan, it's me."
Jiang Shuo had already recognized these two people and said, "Xiang'er, Nan Bage, I'm here!" He jumped down from the tree.
The visitors were none other than Dugu Xiang and Nan Jiyun. Nan Jiyun crossed his hands and saluted, "Young Master, fortunately you are not injured." Then he said to Dugu Xiang, "Xiang'er, why are you here?"
Dugu Xiang did not reply to him, but asked Jiang Shuo: "Who is lying on the ground?"
Jiang Shuo said: "He is a Nestorian Buddhist monk named Puo Puo."
Nan Jiyun was shocked when he heard this and said, "Is this the Nestorian Dharma King Puro?"
Dugu Xiang asked: "Who is this Dharma King? Is he very big?"
Nan Jiyun said: "Nestorianism originated from Persia, and its leader is far away in the main altar of Baha Pagoda. This Puro is the acting leader of Nestorianism in the Tang Dynasty. Nestorians call him 'Bishop', and externally he calls him 'Dharma King'." '." He looked closely at the monk's face and said to Jiang Shuo: "Look, he has a lotus pattern on his forehead and a cross on his head. It means that the teachings are broadcast to the world and bring about the transformation of all things. This is the Nestorian Dharma King. A unique mark.""
Jiang Shuo said: "I didn't expect that he was actually the leader of Nestorianism."
Nan Jiyun said: "Yes, it's just that Nestorianism calls him Dharma King. How did this Dharma King of Pulao die?"
Dugu Xiang suddenly exclaimed: "Ah...Brother Shuo...you weren't the one who beat him to death, right? You're in a terrible situation now..."
Jiang Shuo quickly waved his hand and said: "No, no, Xiang'er, don't talk nonsense..." He then told how he discovered the black ship before, how he went up to eavesdrop, how Puo had a dispute with An Qingxu, how he was sneak attacked, and how he was rescued Here, how could he be entrusted to himself and finally be seriously injured and die.
After hearing this, Nan Jiyun sighed and said, "I didn't expect that this monk was also a loyal and righteous man. Young Master, we should give him a good burial."
Jiang Shuo said: "That's the way it should be. It's just that the big cannibal is still searching for us right now."
Nan Jiyun said: "Don't worry, we have lured them all elsewhere."
Nan Jiyun immediately explained to Jiang Shuo what happened after Jiang Shuo left. No one on the boat noticed when Jiang Shuo first left. Later, Yin Ziqi slapped the board of the boat and made such a big noise. Everyone was a master and It was Lao Jianghu. How could they not notice that they were on the boat when they saw Jiang Shuo leaping out of the ship building and exchanging palms with Yin Ziqi three times. Although they were hundreds of feet away, they knew it was Jiang Shuo based on his skills.
Several people with rich experience in rivers and lakes stayed on their boats and waited quietly to see what happened. Then they saw Yin Ziqi recruiting a large number of people to search, so they secretly got in front of those people and led the men led by Brother Er He to other places. When they saw When they arrived at Jiangshuo and headed south, they lured Er He to the east. Except for Er He, all the people in the group had ordinary skills. They were teased by everyone and no one knew where they were led.
Jiang Shuo said happily: "I wonder why the enemy is so incompetent and we haven't found him yet. It turns out it was Brother Nan who lured them away."
Dugu Xiang pouted and said, "What are you saying? When you got off the boat, there were people lying in wait on the shore, but you climbed onto the boat with all your might..."
Only then did Jiang Shuo think that An Qingxu and Nao Wen were discussing such extremely confidential matters. It was really unbelievable that there was no one guarding the outside of the black ship. Although his martial arts was high, his experience in the world was too little. He couldn't help scratching his head and said: "Then when I get on the ship , why don’t they attack?”
Dugu Xiang pointed at himself with a finger and said with a smile: "Of course I am taking care of it, Xiang'er."
It turned out that Dugu Xiang had already arrived near Jiang Shuo by boat, but he didn't know what to say to get on the boat to meet him. When he was hesitating under the boat, he suddenly saw Jiang Shuo getting off the boat and walked towards the black boat. With Jiang Shuo's skill, he wanted to find the shore. It is not difficult to hide people, but all his attention was on the black ship, but he neglected to check the situation on the shore first. Dugu Xiang has traveled with Ye Ye in the rivers and lakes in the past two years, but his experience is much richer than Jiang Shuo, and he has already discovered the grass. There was someone among them, and her light skill of walking through the stars was really like a ghost at night. The watchman had no time to warn and was knocked down by her from behind, so that Jiang Shuo was not discovered. Later, Brother Erhe naturally discovered a few people who had been knocked down in the grass, but they only thought that it was Jiang Shuo who did it, and they didn't know that there was also Xiang'er.
Jiang Shuo secretly felt ashamed. It turned out that Xiang'er had secretly helped him in the past, and a group of heroes helped him deal with the aftermath, so that he could come and go freely. It seemed that his experience in the world was too little and he really couldn't rely on him.
Jiang Shuo, Dugu Xiang and Nan Jiyun dug a deep hole under the big pine tree together, buried Puo in it, and covered the earth flat without erecting a grave. Jiang Shuo jumped up to the top of the pine tree and penetrated the two fingers of his index and middle fingers. With his finger, he brushed dots on the pine tree, and the bark fell off easily, carving a line of large characters on the exposed trunk - the tomb of Pu Pu, the Nestorian king of the Tang Dynasty, but no one was inscribed.
What he used was the skill of the Shenshu Sword, but it was much easier to carve words on the tree than the senior who used his fingers to carve words on the golden wall. The words were carved on the top of the tree. If you don't jump up the tree, it will be written below. can not see.
Jiang Shuo said to Nan Jiyun: "Let us bury Dharma King Puluo here for the time being. When the throne is passed to the new Dharma King Yis in Chang'an, we will reveal the past and bring them to take out the bones and find a good place for burial."
Nan Jiyun nodded and said, "That's how it should be."
The three people had finished burying themselves, and bowed three more times to the secret grave under the big tree, and then walked back to the shore. They saw that the black boat had already sailed away, and Hun Weiming and others had also returned first. When they saw Jiang Shuo and his entourage came back and hurriedly greeted them. But they were all surprised to see an extra bright girl.
Hun Weiming was secretly amused, knowing that Dugu Xiang must have come to Jiang Shuo behind his parents' back, but everyone in the Cao Gang didn't recognize Dugu Xiang. They just saw that the two of them looked intimate, and everyone understood it tacitly, thinking that if the young master didn't tell us, we wouldn't ask him.
Hun Weiming crossed his hands and said, "Fortunately, the young master is fine. The black ship has left Hongze. I'm afraid it has passed Shanyang and gone south along the canal to Yangzhou."
Jiang Shuo asked: "Who are the people searching on the shore?"
Xiao Dayou said: "Hey... Young Master Wuyou, those people don't have many hard problems, only two of them are better at Kung Fu. If Lu Lang hadn't said not to use force, he just lured them far away, that's all. Lao Xiao has already taken care of the things."
Jiang Shuo asked, "Are they a group of seven?"
Xiao Dayou said: "When the young master said this, it seems to be true."
Jiang Shuo said: "Fortunately, Brother Xiao didn't take action. These people should be from the Yan Army in the North. The seven of them can form a team, which is quite difficult to deal with."
Xiao Dayou said: "Young Master, how do you know these people are from the North?"
Jiang Shuo immediately told everyone what he saw on the black ship.
After hearing this, Xie Yanchang patted the table and said, "No wonder I saw Dong Hu among those people. It turned out to be An's subordinates. I would have killed them all if I had known."
Lu Yuxuan said: "Brother Xie, these thieves are just small fish and shrimps. If they are disturbed and alert the thieves, it will be a bad thing."
Jiang Shuo said: "What Lu Lang said is that it is better not to alert the snake. The plan for now is to go north to inform the Nestorians of the death of their Dharma King. We ourselves must also be prepared. If the thieves really cause chaos, our world will be in trouble." Children must also serve the country and fight against the rebels!"
Xiao Dayou said: "Okay, then we will set sail immediately and go north to Hebian."
Jiang Shuo said: "Brother Xiao, didn't you say that we have to wait until dawn before a tracker comes to pull the weight?"
Xiao Dayou smiled and said: "Young Master, look outside yourself."
Looking outside the boat, the lake surface was shining with golden light, and a red sun broke through the morning fog and rose. However, it turned out that after a long night of hard work, it was already sunrise.
After sunrise, Nan Jiyun said goodbye to Jiang Shuo, took a small boat to the north bank, and took the land route to Beihai County. However, everyone in Caobang wanted to go north along the canal.
Xu Lailian whistled, and several small boats came from Hongze Lake and tied the big ship with ropes. The small boats were narrow but had many rowers on them. Xu Lai gave an order, and the small boats swung the oars and oars together, dragging the heavy boat. Go upstream to Tongji Canal.
After entering the canal, the small boats threw the ropes to the shore. It turned out that these small boats were only responsible for towing the large ships into the canal, but after entering the canal, they had to rely on civilians to pull the ropes up.
There were already more than a hundred trackers waiting on the shore. Xu Lai said loudly from the bow: "Brothers, do you know who is on board the boat today? It is Jiang Suzhi, the new leader of our Cao Gang! Someone wants to ask what this Cao Gang is?" Let me tell you, wait, at the He Xun Tower Conference in Yangzhou, Young Master Jiang surpassed all the others with his skill and morals. Now the four gangs from the North and the South have merged into one gang, which is the Cao Gang! The Young Master has set the rules for segmented water transportation. From now on, there will be no more fights among the boat people in Siqu, do you agree?"
The people on the shore were all from the east side of the canal, and they all cheered after hearing what Xu Lai said. The hundred people cheered together, and the momentum was really big. Xu Lai said again: "Today, the young master is going north to Bianzhou to lead us to dredge the mouth of the river. Brother We must cheer up and let the young master see the spirit of our Song and Bian boatmen!"
Everyone cheered together, pulled up the tow rope, shouted slogans, and pulled the big boat upstream. Jiang Shuo saw that the towpath was a dirt road. The trackers all wore half-sleeves, trousers, and rolled up their trousers. When pulling, Everyone's back was hunched, their bodies almost touching the ground, their two mud legs were on the ground, their calves were almost submerged in the mud, and they had to exert all their strength to make the boat move forward slowly. It was really difficult.
Jiang Shuo had never known that stretching was so difficult. After seeing this scene, he couldn't help but feel compassion and said to Xiao Da: "Brother Xiao, I don't want to take the boat anymore. I'd better go to Bianzhou by land."
