end song

Chapter 8 Water Village
The next day, Li Xia heard Liu Jinsuo's voice coming from outside the tent.

"Damn, this group of water bandits with birds, hozens, dogs, if I want to catch them, I will chop them to death..."

Now that he said that, Li Xia knew that Nie Zhongyou didn't catch the water bandits.

There were footsteps and conversations outside, and after a while, Nie Zhongyou lifted the curtain and walked into Li Xia's tent, looking him up and down, his eyes were as sharp as a knife, with the intent of scrutiny.

Li Xia then recounted the process of how he met the water bandit and how he escaped from birth.

Nie Zhongyou is a careful person, and asked much more detailed questions than Lin Zi.

At the end, he looked at Li Xia and said, "From the time I saw you to now, in ten days, you have killed five people."

"That's not right."

"What's wrong?"

"We've known each other for eleven days."

Li Xia originally wanted to say that he only killed four people, but changed his words.

Nie Zhongyou thought about it and nodded.

Li Xia asked, "Did you find that water bandit?"

"I didn't find it." Nie Zhongyou said, "I searched downstream along the Yangtze River, but found nothing. Bandits are rampant in this area. I don't know what kind of water bandits they are, nor can I find out where they are located."

Li Xia thought for a while and asked, "Do you have a pen and paper?"

"For what?"

"Let me do the math, maybe I can figure out where they left the Yangtze River from..."

Nie Zhong was looking for a pen and paper.

After that, Li Xia just kept writing and calculating, drawing incomprehensible symbols.

After a while, Li Xia raised his head, spread his hands to a length of one meter, and asked, "How many miles is this long?"

Nie Zhongyou said: "Three hundred strides are one mile, and you are three feet."

"Well."

"When did you see that ship disappear from view..."

Li Xia asked a few questions, then lowered his head to write calculations on the paper, and finally said: "About [-] to [-] miles downstream from Caishiji, is there a tributary flowing into the Yangtze River?"

Nie Zhongyou went to find Han Chengxu again, and brought a map.

Han Chengxu squinted his old eyes and searched the map for a while, then said: "There is a river on the south bank, called Cihu River, which flows into the Yangtze River at the foot of Maozi Mountain."

"Then this water bandit must have rowed the boat into the Cihu River."

"how do you know?"

"It's calculated." Li Xia said.

Knowing his swimming and walking speeds, he can calculate how far he swam yesterday, and then calculate the speed of the river boat. Finally, according to the time when the river boat disappeared in Nie Zhongyou's eyes and the time when it disappeared in his own eyes, You can roughly calculate how far it traveled before leaving the Yangtze River.

Very simple formula.

Nie Zhongyou was confused by what he heard, and in the end he didn't bother to care about Li Xia's calculations, and asked, "How do you know they rowed the boat into the Zhihe instead of abandoning the boat at the shore?"

Li Xia said: "He is in this business, so of course he won't throw away the tools for eating."

Of course Nie Zhongyou knew the truth, but he just subconsciously asked this question to divert the topic from the formula he didn't understand at all.

He stood up, eyes full of arrogance, and said: "Let's go back and kill them..."

~~
Xiaoliangtang.

Here is surrounded by mountains and rivers, surrounded by Daishan, Niangniangshan, Jishan a lake.

The lake is connected to the Cihu River through a small river, and then flows into the Yangtze River from the Cihu River.

The water village of the eighteen monsters in Jiangpu is hidden here.

The water village is not too big, because they are thieves, not rebels.They traveled few but well-traveled routes, and there were only [-] desperadoes in their company, for fear that there would be some noise if there were too many people.

"Why hasn't the Osprey come back?"

The speaker was a middle-aged man dressed as a literati, about 30 years old, with a beautifully trimmed long beard.

His name is Shi Hui, nicknamed "Miao Suan", and he is the second child of this group of water bandits.

This time, Shi Hui was one of the three people who stayed in the water village to guard the house, but he arranged the whole plan by himself.

"Yeah, why hasn't the Osprey come back?" Someone echoed, "Wouldn't that son of a bitch backhand kill him?"

She Ding said: "How is it possible? Osprey's water skills and martial arts skills, even ten puppies can't beat him."

Shi Hui frowned, picked up a crossbow and looked at it carefully.

She Ding sat down firmly and asked, "How is it? Do you think this thing is worth money?"

"It's not worth the money."

"Is that not easy to sell?"

"I'm afraid that this group of people has a lot of background." Shi Hui said, "This is the property of the imperial army."

She Ding said: "That should be very valuable, right?"

Shi Hui ignored this, picked up another seized sword, compared it with the gaped sword, and sighed: "Unusual, unusual... The white-haired rat confessed that those people were officials, In my opinion, it’s not just official posts, it’s the imperial army.”

She Ding patted his thigh and yelled: "So what? Even if his mother is the Imperial Army. I think this shit Imperial Army is no different from the ordinary guards we usually kill!"

"Didn't two brothers die this time?" Shi Hui said, "It's been so many years, when have we suffered such a big loss?"

She Ding was taken aback for a moment, thinking of the two dead brothers again, his eyes turned red, and he cried, "My poor brother."

While crying, he slapped open a jar of wine and spilled it on the ground.

"Lao Liu, drink more if you like..."

Listening to these thoughts, Shi Hui recalled the news he had obtained during the interrogation of Bai Mao. An officer sent a ruthless young man out of the prison...

It was this young man who stabbed the sixth child to death with a single blow?

He turned his head and glanced at the sky, only to see that the setting sun left only the last ray of light on the top of Mount Dai, and it was getting dark again.

Shi Hui couldn't help muttering again: "The Osprey hasn't come back yet."

"Yeah, why don't you come back? Did you go shopping in a brothel?"

"Old Snake, the Osprey is probably gone." Shi Hui mused, "That kid is not simple."

"What did you say?" She Ding said, "Then our Eighteen Jiangpu Monsters have become the Fifteen Jiangpu Monsters..."

~~
"Thirteen left."

Nie Zhongyou pressed the mouth of a water bandit, and slashed across it neatly, wiping the other's neck, and saw that there were soldiers over there who also killed one.

There were also thirteen people on his side, besides Liu Jinsuo and ten soldiers, Li Xia was also brought along.

The injury on Li Xia's foot was not completely healed, but he was able to move, so he followed.

At this time, he was walking beside Nie Zhongyou with a single knife, watching with interest how Nie Zhongyou ordered people to attack a village.

First pull out the two water bandits who were watching the wind, and then arrange people to block the way out. Among them, three crossbowmen were scattered behind to prevent accidents, and the others surrounded the lobby of the village.

It's easy to say, but Nie Zhongyou was able to direct twelve people to act in an orderly and synchronous manner throughout the whole process, which is very difficult.

Ordinary people definitely can't do it. Many people in this world even take two or three family members to go out for a trip, and they will be in a mess and make a fuss. How can they command twelve people?

For example, whoever is walking fast, Nie Zhongyou can order the other party to stop with a look; for example, when he hears a little movement, he can guess the situation of the water bandits at this time and make timely adjustments.

Even a brainless guy like Liu Jinsuo can keep up with the rhythm of the team under Nie Zhongyou's command.

This kind of commanding ability is by no means where Nie Zhongyou learned it, but a precious experience naturally formed through life and death.

Li Xia is learning from his experience.

He carefully kept all the details in his heart, ready to ponder over and over again...

They have quietly walked outside the lobby of the water village.

Liu Jinsuo was holding a gun, half squatting and hiding by the door.

Nie Zhongyou chose the best position to stand still, ensuring that he could see the situation in the hall, but the people in the hall could not see him.

Then he raised his hands high, made a series of gestures, and finally squeezed his throat and whimpered.

"Ouch……"

Li Xia was taken aback.

It was a very charming woman's voice, it was hard for him to imagine that it came from Nie Zhongyou's mouth.

"Where is the woman?!" Someone in the hall shouted, the voice was very excited, "I'll go out and have a look..."

Then I saw a rough man striding towards the outside of the hall.

As soon as he got out of the hall, Liu Jinsuo suddenly pounced, stabbing repeatedly with the spear in his hand, and immediately stabbed the rough man several bloody holes.

"Do it!" Nie Zhongyou shouted violently.

"kill!"

"You little thief has been surrounded, and you can catch him soon! Disarm and don't kill!"

The soldiers rushed into the hall, shouting loudly.

Although it was said that disarming would not kill, Nie Zhongyou had no intention of keeping alive at all. The water bandits who hadn't reacted were still in a daze, and the soldiers rushed up and stabbed them to death.

"Let's go!" A water bandit shouted...

After fighting for a while, seven water bandits rushed out of the lobby.

Nie Zhongyou had expected it long ago, and the three crossbowmen outside immediately surrounded him.

The crossbow arrows shot fiercely, one shot was emptied, and the other two shot down the two water bandits.

Only five water bandits left and rushed to the back of the village.

"There is a stable in the back, and they want to escape on horseback," Li Xia reminded.

Nie Zhongyou didn't answer others' words, turned around and strode away, shouting orders all the time.

"Leave the five of you with minor injuries, seal off the stockade, and the others will follow me!"

Li Xia didn't follow Nie Zhongyou in pursuit. One was that his foot was injured, and the other was that he was not Nie Zhongyou's soldier.

Not far away, a soldier stabbed a water bandit who had been shot down by a crossbow arrow, and blood spattered.

Li Xia turned his gaze again, observing the surrounding terrain, and suddenly thought of one thing... If the water bandits want to escape, they might as well jump into the river if they want to ride away on horseback.

After all, they are water bandits, not horse bandits.

So he walked to the small river and found that Nie Zhongyou had sent another crossbowman to set up defense here.

It shows that Nie Zhongyou also thought of this problem, but there are only so many people...

The next moment, there was a roar in the distance.

"Big brother, second brother, you go! I will stop the officers and soldiers!"

Soon, two figures rushed towards this side.

Sure enough, these water bandits still took advantage of their familiarity with the terrain to play tricks, throw off Nie Zhongyou's pursuers, and planned to escape to the river.

Li Xia was a little impressed that a group of thieves could have such a strategy.

But now, these two people have already rushed towards him.

They meet each other on a narrow road, and the distance between them is getting closer and closer.

Li Xia clenched the single sword in his hand.

Because in the epee competition, only a stab is counted as a point. He is indeed not very good at chopping, which means he is not very good at using a knife...

(End of this chapter)