"Boss--" The rower's cry was interrupted by several arrows, one of which slammed into the mast, and the other two shot through the reed sail and landed on the river a few steps away from the bow of the ship.
"Quick, start immediately and move the goods to the side of the ship. I'll throw them down as soon as I give the order!" The leader turned around and shouted,
The reef was right in front of him. The leader turned the bow of the boat and tried to go around it. When turning, the deck shook violently, and the full sail made a tooth-aching sound. The black rocks are full of pits, and the dog can clearly see that they are covered with river snails of different sizes. He turned his head and looked into the leader's eyes, which were full of determination and no despair.
"Throw it down!" the leader shouted loudly, nodded and pushed the cage filled with copper bars into the river, splashing water all over the sky, followed by the second and third one. At the same time, the rocks also lay across the river. Between the soldier and the boat, the opponent's view was blocked.
"Quick, jump down!" The leader stuffed two small bags into the arms of the teenagers and urged: "Hold your breath after entering the water. When the pursuers pass, you can climb to the rocks. The rest is up to God. Can’t help!”
The dog jumped into the water, and the river water hit his face and poured into his nose and mouth. He choked, drowned, and didn't know where he was. He tried his best to control his fear, relaxed his hands and feet according to the leader's last instructions, let himself sink into the river, and waited as long as possible until he could no longer hold his breath before surfacing. He spit out the accumulated water, took a deep breath, and looked around for the pursuer's boat. After a while, he finally found his target, which was dozens of meters away and was shooting arrows at his own boat.
"Agou! What should we do now?" The cat rowed over, his face covered with water droplets, whether it was river water or tears.
"Swim to the reef first and rest for a while!" the dog whispered.
"Then what?"
"Then?" The young man looked confused, and he didn't know how to answer his companion. After a moment, he shook his head: "Then it depends on God!"
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The bronze mirrors on the tables illuminated the oil lamp on the wall, but most of the flower hall was still shrouded in shadow. I guess the situation is not good! Cao Sengnu could see it from An Taishun's eyes - he didn't eat or drink, and coughed uneasily from time to time. From time to time, someone slipped in and whispered news to him.
When someone came in from the side door for the third time, Cao Sengnu was eating mutton. He saw that the speaker was covered in sweat and dust, and there was a whip mark on his face. Although he tried his best to lower his voice, Cao Sengnu could still hear most of it clearly. : "Report to the leader, so far, the goods from Boss He's boat in Flea Bottom have not been delivered. Also, Liu Ze, who was patrolling the river this afternoon, caught a small boat, but I don't know if it is Boss He's boat!"
"Go check it out!"
"yes!"
"Also, if it is confirmed that Liu Ze caught the boat, give him a message and ask him to give a price. How much will it cost before he is willing to spit out the goods!"
"This -" the speaker looked troubled: "Master, Liu Ze is a famous ruthless man. It may not be that easy for him to set a price!"
"It doesn't matter, just tell him that the owner of this batch of goods is unusual. If he doesn't want to cause big trouble, he can just pay for the delivery!"
The speaker left. An Taishun poured himself a glass of wine and drank it all in one gulp. The strong wine stained his cheeks, and there was a bright and fanatical look in his green eyes, as if they were burning with fire.
"Did something happen?" Cao Sennu asked.
"Yeah!" An Taishun didn't try to fool him: "It's the boat that escorted the copper bars. The other boats have arrived safely. My people are stepping up the investigation to confirm whether they encountered a patrol boat or were corrupted by them!"
"There are twenty-seven ships in total, and one of them has an accident. This loss is acceptable!" Cao Sennu picked up a dried date and put it into his mouth: "Brother An, there is no need to be so anxious!"
"The only thing that can be loaded on the boat is copper bars!" An Taishun said with a bitter smile: "If it is used to mint money, it will cost tens of thousands at least. Brother Cao's family may not care about the big business, but An can't afford it!"
"That ship of copper ingots is naturally not a small amount!" Cao Sengnu said: "But the most important thing is to open up this line. I don't hide it from Brother An. Before leaving, the big shot once warned that the loss in ocean voyages is It is inevitable that as long as this road can be opened, it will bring an ocean of wealth. Compared with this, the loss will be nothing!"
"Yes, yes!" An Taishun said yes, while raising the big man behind Cao Sennu a little higher. He gritted his teeth: "Brother Cao, can you tell me who the big man behind you is? Which one?"
"Now is not the time!" Cao Sennu said with a smile: "Brother An, please sort out this matter first, and then let's talk about it!"
"Yes, yes!" An Taishun said yes, while secretly scolding Cao Sengnu for being arrogant when he became powerful and making himself official. But at the moment, the situation is stronger than others. He confessed his crime and went out. Just as he was about to press for questioning, he saw his slave coming in from the outside: "Master, there is news about Boss He!"
"Say it quickly!" An Taishun was overjoyed when he heard this: "What news!"
"Boss He encountered a government patrol boat in the river. The cargo on the boat was so heavy that he couldn't get rid of it, so he threw the cargo somewhere in the river, and then let two children on the boat jump off the boat and escape. The two children lay on the rocks. After half a day, I took a fishing boat ashore and brought the token to the agreed place!"
Hearing that the goods on the ship were thrown into the river, An Taishun couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief. Those wooden boxes were filled with copper bars and were extremely heavy. They would not be washed away by the river, and there was no need to worry about being damaged by soaking. As long as they were salvaged as soon as possible, they should still be able to survive. Retrieving most of them is at least much better than falling into the hands of the government patrol. After hearing this, his opinion of Boss He on the ship also improved a lot: "What about Boss He?"
"The two kids said that when they fell into the water, they only saw the patrol boat still chasing Boss He's boat. As for what happened next, they don't know! But overall, it should be more serious than bad!"
"Yeah!" An Taishun nodded: "Well, Boss He is a character. His life was given to us. We can't let him die in vain. Bring some money and go on a cruise. Let’s see if we can get the person out, and if he dies, give him a good coffin so that he can be buried in peace!”
"Yes, Master! Where are the two dolls!"
"Bring it to me first!"
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"You two come with me! Just answer whatever the old man asks you later, and don't talk nonsense!"
"What about the other people over there?" Dog asked: "If they are caught by the patrol boat, they will only die. They died for your goods!"
"That's why I told you not to talk nonsense!" The man stopped: "Remember, boy, you are asking for help now! If you talk like this, no one will help you!"
The dog clenched its teeth and its eyes flashed with gloomy fire. The man sighed, squatted down and grabbed his shoulders: "Boy, in your opinion, your relatives and friends died for goods, but in the eyes of the rich, It was you who took the money and messed up his affairs. If you don't want them to lose their heads, the first thing you must do is learn to lower your head and don't do stupid things, do you understand?"
"Understood!" Gouer finally lowered his head: "Don't worry, I will do anything for them!"
"That's good!" The man patted the boy's shoulder gently, turned and walked forward, with the dog following closely behind. As the road continued, he began to find that he was lost, and new flowers and rockeries appeared around him. , pond, and monastery. He could not imagine that a family would need such a large residence.
"We're here. You two are waiting at the door. I'll go in first and let you know!" the man whispered, and then he walked in. The cat hurriedly came over: "Agou, this house is too big, I'm a little scared!"
"What are you afraid of!" The dog scolded in a low voice: "Don't you want to rescue the leader and the others?"
"I think, will these people help us?" Mao'er asked in a low voice.
"Yes, if they don't save the leader we won't tell them where the copper bars fell into the water!"
"Yes, those coppers are very valuable, and they won't be able to part with them!" Mao'er also became excited.
"Come in!" The man came out again, lowering his voice: "Remember what I just said, don't do stupid things!"
The dog nodded and entered the door. The flower hall was filled with the fragrant aroma of spices, and the flames danced in six bird-shaped oil lamps on the exquisite bronze lamp holders. Two men were sitting behind a table, which was filled with wine and food. Two musicians were kneeling behind the screen playing the piano and sheng. The maids in brocade clothes shuttled between them like flowing water, constantly bringing fruits and dishes, replacing the almost unused dishes. Dishes that have been moved. If he hadn't witnessed it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have been able to imagine that anyone could live in such luxury.
"Are you Boss He's man? Do you know where the goods were dumped in the river?"
The person who asked the question was Hu Shang, who was sitting in the main seat. Gou'er forced himself to straighten his chest and said loudly: "Yes, I remember where those copper bars were thrown off the ship from, but you have to remove our people from patrolling the ship first." Save it from your hands, otherwise you won’t know, right, cat!”
"Yes, don't even think about it!" Cat repeated quickly, as if it was an echo.
"You bastard!" Upon hearing this rude reply, An Taishun's eyebrows immediately rose. He was about to call someone to drag these two ignorant boys down and torture them severely. But Gou'er shouted loudly: "I know you want people to torture me and force me to speak, but you have to know that I am not the only one who knows the location. The boss also knows that if the government knows the location from them, those goods It will be taken away by the government. The longer you torture me, the lower the possibility of getting it back!"
An Taishun was stunned. He felt that his throat was being strangled by an invisible hand. As a businessman, the law of profit first had penetrated into his bones, making him calm down immediately.
"That's it!" Cao Sengnu stood up: "You take us to retrieve the goods immediately, and we will do our best to rescue Boss He and the others, how about that?"
"Who are you? Do you mean what you say?" Gou'er looked curiously at the man who stood up to speak. He was sitting in the guest's seat. He looked to be in his early twenties, much younger than An Taishun. Generally speaking, an organization Age is directly proportional to status.
"I am the owner of those goods!" Cao Sengnu smiled and said, "Is this enough?"
The waves on the river are rough and the waves are turbulent.
"It's right there!" The dog pointed to the right: "Can you see it clearly? That's the rock, right there!"
An Taishun squinted his eyes, but still could only see a blurry black dot. Is this kid playing tricks on us? He glanced at the boy suspiciously and finally decided to give it a try.
"Lean over and take a look first!"
With the sound of the whistle, the long oar slapped the water, driving the speedboat upstream. As the distance got closer, the blurry black spot became clearer and clearer, and finally turned into a black reef emerging from the water. Seeing the reef, An Taishun's face became much better, which made what the young man said much more authentic.
"Is it right here? You remember correctly, right?" An Taishun asked.
"That's it!" The dog pointed at the rock and shouted, "Look, there are traces of me on the rock, that's it!"
An Taishun looked towards the reef, and sure enough, there was an obvious "ten" on the reef, which was obviously drawn out by humans just now. He suddenly let out a sigh of relief and said: "Okay, drop the anchor immediately and send someone to go into the water to salvage it! If you only go into the water once, you will be rewarded with three hundred coins, and if you find a box, you will be rewarded with ten coins! If there is any injury or death, you will be rewarded." Fall on me!”
As the saying goes, a big reward must be a brave man. Although there were no professional divers at that time, there were still divers who relied on searching for various seafood clam shells. In order to stay underwater for a longer time, there were also primitive scuba diving machines. Diving equipment. They had worked hard all year round, but their income was no more than ten guan. When they heard An Taishun's reward, they all went into the water to search. After more than an hour, someone found a cage. He tied the rope tightly and dragged it up. Sure enough, it was a cage. The cage that was thrown away at that time. An Taishun immediately cashed in the reward with ten Guan Zumo copper coins. Seeing that An Shuntai's words were true, everyone jumped into the water enthusiastically. By nightfall, twenty-two cages had been fished out, and 70% to 80% of the cages that had fallen into the water had been fished out.
"Brother Cao, let's go back and rest first! I asked them to salvage here all night, and they will definitely fish out all the goods that fell into the water!" An Taishun had been blowing the river wind all day, and he was already a little tired, but because of the The big shot behind Cao Sennu didn't dare to slack off at all. Now that most of the goods had been salvaged, and there were clues to the rest, his energy had slackened.
"Salvage overnight?" Cao Sengnu said with a smile: "That's not necessary. The cage won't have legs, and it won't be able to escape if we salvage it tomorrow morning. It will be bad if someone has an accident with the black cloth in the middle of winter! You can have someone prepare better Vegetables and rice, let these people have a good meal, rest early, and then come back to salvage tomorrow!"
"Brother Cao really has the heart of a Bodhisattva!" An Taishun hurriedly flattered him. Just as he was about to let someone lift the anchor and go back, someone suddenly shouted: "A ship is coming, it seems to be a government patrol!"
(End of chapter)
