Tang Dynasty Bandits

Chapter 238 Snakes
Once the heads of the various families were reassured, they all promised to provide provisions and supplies to aid the army. Several heads of families whose territories were located near the sea even pledged to contribute a batch of ships and sailors.

These wealthy men didn't raise sailors just to have water fights with their neighbors in the mountain streams; they probably did it to commit murder and robbery without any investment.

This is something everyone understands in their hearts.

At a banquet, everyone is a refined person; who would bring it up without considering the occasion?
With the matter roughly settled, it was time to serve wine and meat.

Inside, the atmosphere was lively and bustling, with people clinking glasses and exchanging toasts.

Autumn is deep, and the lychee season is over, but the colorful fruits are still dazzling.

Besides common fruits like pears, pomegranates, tangerines, and chestnuts, jackfruit, longan, papaya, bananas, and olives are all specialties of Lingnan, which are hard to find north of the Five Ridges.

In addition to a large variety of seasonal fruits, the dishes are also very characteristic of Lingnan cuisine, with a rich selection of wild game.

The Five-Flavor Platter is a platter of deer, bear, rabbit, beef, and mutton; Shengpingjiu is deer and chicken roasted together; Fenzhuang Zhengla Xiong is steamed dried bear meat; and Maogeng is rabbit meat soup.

The clear and translucent "qing huo sui" is a favorite among people in Lingnan. It is made by cooking civet meat into a thick soup, which is then cooled, shaped into a ball, and chopped up before being eaten.

The fragrant pepper-infused snake rolls, the earthworm-shaped rice worms, and the cockroach-like water beetles are so delicious that even seasoned veterans find it hard to put their chopsticks down.

Huang Chao remained calm and composed, eating and drinking, occasionally squinting his eyes to reveal a look of intoxication.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Although it was the bandits who were hosting the dinner, the rebel army was still an outsider in Lingnan. Huang Chao thus adopted the posture of adapting to local customs.

During the banquet, beautiful women sang and played music to entertain the guests, and gorgeous singers acted as hostess, directing drinking games and urging guests to drink.

The tables used at the banquet were all rectangular, with a long, low table on each side for people to sit on. The left side was the seat of honor, where the host sat, and the right side was the seat of honor, where the guests sat.

The singers who were in charge of the banquet were not allowed to sit, and when they were not urging others to drink, they stood on the side of the table where there was no side table.

At first, the heads of the families acted like upright gentlemen, composing poems and playing drinking games in a proper manner. However, as their eyes became blurry with drunkenness, they gradually became restless, spouting lewd jokes and starting to grope the guests.

This was originally a common practice among high-ranking officials and literati for banquets; otherwise, how could there be the saying "a beast in human clothing"?

During the Tang Dynasty, drinking games flourished, and a group of women, known as "drinking prostitutes," provided both drinking companionship and overnight accommodations. They specialized in entertaining scholars at banquets, drinking and playing drinking games while flirting with guests, telling bawdy jokes. After the banquet, if guests made any requests, they would collect a small fee and help them out to share a bed.

In the eyes of scholars in the Central Plains, these were all elegant and refined acts. For the powerful and influential people of Lingnan, they resonated even more deeply with them, allowing them to appreciate the beauty of Chinese culture.

At banquets with many outsiders, female generals like Duan Hongyan from the rebel army would never show their faces, for fear of being mistaken for hostesses and causing fights.

This was common practice in the Tang Dynasty. According to Zhu Wen, when Tian Jun was in Weizhou, he overturned the table and beat people up several times because of this.

The custom of not allowing women to sit at the table in some places in later generations may also be related to the drinking culture of prostitutes that began in the Tang Dynasty.

Overall, the banquet was a resounding success, with both hosts and guests thoroughly enjoying themselves.

As the heads of various families departed with their own thoughts, the rebel army's final assault on Guangzhou drew ever closer.

……

"Immortal Doctor Luo has quite the refined taste. You've only been out of school for a few days, and you're already seeking out me, Zhu."

In a desolate mountain north of the besieged camp, Zhu Wen looked at Luo Yixian's icy face and spoke casually.

The woman opposite was dressed in a snow-white ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress), with a silk ribbon tied around her slender waist. Her fair skin shone with a translucent, jade-like radiance; she was indeed an extremely beautiful woman.

Zhu Wen, however, looked impatient.

This woman had a bad temper and resentment towards Zhu Wen forcibly taking her into his group.

She challenged Zhu Wen to a duel several times, and whenever she lost, she would call it a halt, showing no manners whatsoever.

"I've gained some new insights into martial arts, and I hope you can help me verify them," said Luo Yixian, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

In the past few months, she has been practicing medicine and treating patients in the Grass Army, and has indeed reduced many diseases and casualties.

Moreover, Shang Rang had been poisoned by Shi Pu and was still hoping that she would treat him.

Zhu Wen had no choice but to play along with her.

Luo Yixian formed a sword incantation, suddenly drew her sword, and swung it with such force that the steel surface was like a flowing river of stars, the sword light surging like falling stars.

A chilling, icy aura instantly spread.

Compared to their first encounter, her swordsmanship was indeed faster, each strike as venomous as a snake.

Zhu Wen felt as if his heart was clear and still, and he could see his opponent's movements as if they had slowed down. He could see each move clearly.

He wasn't a peerless martial arts genius like Alliance Leader Wang Xianzhi or Senior Brother Meng Kai, nor did he have the experience of making rapid progress after sudden enlightenment, but he was still considered to have excellent aptitude.

After his decisive battle with Gao Yan, he made significant progress, surpassing even Luo Yixian's abilities in recent days.

The Dragon Sparrow Blade struck first, like a spark igniting a wildfire amidst a sky full of swords.

The cold light of the sword net suddenly receded, and the longsword was pulled back to block the sharpness of the treasured blade.

Zhu Wen's blade suddenly turned, slashing towards Luo Yixian's slender, swan-like neck.

If he was lucky, he could press the blade against Luo Yixian's neck in three breaths. Just then, Zhu Wen suddenly felt his feet sink.

He was suddenly alarmed and tried to leap up, but found that the entire ground was sinking and he couldn't get any leverage.

Amidst billowing smoke and dust, the ground appeared to be swallowed up by a giant beast, leaving a large, dark crater.

He fell several feet down, where there was a slope below. After a brief pause to cushion the fall, Zhu Wen had no choice but to slide down again.

Inside is a cave of moderate size, about ten zhang in diameter, square in shape, resembling a huge cage.

A sliver of light shining down from above allowed for barely any visibility inside the cave.

"Don't worry, Young Master Zhu, there are no outsiders here." Doctor Luo's expression remained aloof: "This is a good place to settle a matter of life and death."

Zhu Wen had seen a sharp glint in Luo Yixian's eyes on many occasions.

He now knew that the other party really wanted to kill him.

"If there's no one else, then there must be something that isn't human."

As they were talking, Zhu Wen heard a hissing sound coming from the darkness.

Many ribbon-like things were wriggling rapidly.

"There are many snakes in Lingnan. You must have used snakebite medicine to lure them here."

Luo Yixian replied, "Fish-scale vine, Cnidium monnieri, and several other auxiliary medicines."

As she spoke, she took a bamboo flute with a red string tied to it from her belt, but the flute produced a metallic sound.

Suddenly, the snakes began to dance wildly and excitedly, rushing towards Zhu Wen like a tidal wave.

“Every time I fought you, I sent people to search for ambushes. It turns out the ambushes were underground.”

When Zhu Wen went north to Guilin to fight Gao Yan, Luo Yixian did not accompany him. Zhu Wen was eager for revenge and relaxed his surveillance on her, so it is likely that she secretly made the arrangements during that period.

Luo Yixian nodded slightly: "I opened my clinic in Fujian a year in advance, and most people would never guess that I was waiting for you. But my father has suffered losses at your hands, so I can only make some predictions about you."

Her words were an admission of her identity.

After Kou Qianzhi was killed by Zhu Wen, Luo Yixian quickly made a judgment that even if the rebel army won again in the Central Plains, it would be difficult to establish a foothold for long and would inevitably move to Lingnan, passing through Fujian on the way.

So she adopted the alias Luo Lingyu and made a name for herself as a medical genius in Fujian beforehand, which was exactly what attracted the bandits to force her to join their ranks.

"I deliberately gave you some false information, but nothing happened. No wonder you're Xue Shuai's daughter."

"Whether you believe it or not, I only want to kill you. I disdain associating with Gao Yan," Luo Yixian said coldly.

"Very good." Zhu Wen showed an approving expression: "I have one more question. Junmei is your friend, why didn't she recognize you?"

It was for this reason that Zhu Wen, though suspicious of her, only confirmed today that she was Qi Kerang's daughter.

The reason he infiltrated the rebel army was to avenge Kou Qianzhi.

"Qi Luoyu was born with congenital toxins and an ugly face covered in bluish scars. Her father had healed the scars when she was very young, but in order to avoid being harassed by men, she pretended that the scars had not been healed, except to her closest relatives."

Her real name was originally Qi Luoyu.

A gentle name, which doesn't match her icy temperament.

Zhu Wen speculated that she probably pretended to be a gentle, quiet, and virtuous lady from a respectable family in her daily life.

An ugly woman with freckles on her face doesn't need to worry about being bullied or cowardly; she can easily be taken advantage of and entangled with others.

What Qi Luoyu revealed in the grass army was actually her true personality and true self.

Ever since he escaped the cave with Duan Hongyan, Zhu Wen often felt a burning sensation in his lower abdomen while practicing martial arts. He suspected that the blood-red bats he had eaten raw might have been the legendary encounter described in the story.

After Gao Yan was executed, Zhu Wen, seeking revenge for his elder brother, was filled with a clear mind and his skills improved significantly. He was confident that if he were to fight Kou Qianzhi now, he could hold his own in a direct confrontation without relying on extraordinary performance.

This means that his hard power has reached the level of "half-step sect leader" like Yang Xingmi.

Meanwhile, Meng Kai, the eldest disciple, was already no less skilled than Kou Qianzhi during the Battle of Songzhou. The reason he was defeated by Kou Qianzhi during the raid was simply because he had fought too many enemies and was exhausted, which allowed Kou Qianzhi to break his momentum.

Later, Meng Kai accumulated his strength and made great progress in martial arts. By the time of the battle south of Dabie Mountain, his strength was already quite close to that of the Four Marshals. Only then could he crush the Kunlun Sect Leader Tie Mole and the Cuiyan Sect Leader Liu Mengyan, who were comparable to Kou Qianzhi, with ease.

During the Battle of Guilin, Gao Yan was able to injure Meng Kai and cause him to fall from his horse. While Gao Yan's sudden enlightenment and rapid improvement in strength were factors, the more crucial factor was that the injury Meng Kai had sustained from Qian Liu's arrow suddenly flared up, causing him to lose strength.

This led to the life-or-death struggle between Zhu Wen and Gao Yan. After the life-or-death battle, Zhu Wen's strength improved significantly.

In conclusion, in terms of sheer strength, Qi Luoyu is no match for Zhu Wen at present.

But if you add the swarm of venomous snakes that she lured in and commanded, then it's a different story.

(End of this chapter)