The next day, Li Xia heard Liu Jinsuo's voice coming from outside the tent.
"Damn, these bird-bearing, hozen, dog, and water bandits need me to catch them, and I'll chop them to death..."
Now that he said that, Li Xia knew that Nie Zhongyou had not captured the group of water bandits.
There were footsteps and conversations outside. After a while, Nie Zhongyou opened the curtain and walked into Li Xia's tent. He looked at him up and down, his eyes as sharp as a knife, with the intention of examining him.
Li Xia then recounted the process of how he met the water bandits and how he escaped.
Nie Zhongyou was 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 have known each other for eleven days."
Li Xia originally wanted to say that he only killed four people, but he changed his words.
Nie Zhongyou thought for a moment and nodded.
Li Xia asked: "Didn't you find the water bandits?"
"Not found." Nie Zhongyou said: "I searched along the Yangtze River downstream and found nothing. Bandits are rampant around here. I don't know which bandits they are, and I can't find out where they stay."
Li Xia thought for a while and asked, "Do you have paper and pen?"
"What is it for?"
"Let me do the math. Maybe I can figure out where they left the Yangtze River..."
Nie Zhong went to look for paper and pen.
After that, Li Xia just kept busy writing calculations and drawing incomprehensible symbols.
After a while, Li Xia raised his head, spread his hands to a meter long, and asked: "How many miles is it so long?"
Nie Zhongyou said: "Three hundred strides are one mile, and yours is three feet."
"Well."
"When did you see the ship disappear from sight..."
Li Xia asked a few questions, then lowered his head and wrote calculations on the paper. Finally, he said: "Is there a tributary that flows into the Yangtze River about thirty to forty miles downstream from Caishiji?"
Nie Zhongyou went to find Han Chengxu again and brought a map.
Han Chengxu squinted his old eyes and searched on 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 bandit should row the boat into the Cihu River."
"how do you know?"
"It's calculated." Li Xia said.
He knew how fast he was swimming and walking, so he could calculate how far he swam yesterday, and used this to calculate the speed of the river boat. Finally, based on the time it took for the river boat to disappear in Nie Zhongyu's eyes and the time it disappeared in his own eyes,
You can probably calculate how far it traveled before leaving the Yangtze River.
Very simple formula.
Nie Zhongyou was confused after hearing this, 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 branch river instead of abandoning the boat on the shore?"
Li Xia said: "I'm in this business, so of course I 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 calculations that he didn't understand at all.
He stood up, his eyes full of awe, and said: "Let's go back and kill them..."
~~
Xiaoliangtang.
It is surrounded by mountains and rivers, surrounded by Daishan Mountain, Niangniang Mountain and Jishan Mountain, and is surrounded by a lake.
The lake is connected to the Cihu River through a small river, which then flows into the Yangtze River.
The water village of Jiangpu's Eighteen Monsters is hidden here.
The water village is not that big, because they are thieves, not rebels. They take a small and precise route, with only eighteen desperadoes as a team, for fear that if there are too many people, they will make a fuss.
"Why hasn't the Osprey come back yet?"
The speaker was a middle-aged man dressed as a scholar, about thirty years old, with a long beard and a neatly trimmed beard.
His name is Shi Hui, nicknamed "Miao Suanpan", and he is the second eldest son of this group of water bandits.
During this ship robbery, Shi Hui was one of the three people who stayed in the water village to look after the house, but he arranged the entire plan.
"Yeah, why hasn't the Osprey come back yet?" Someone echoed, "You won't be killed by that bastard, right?"
She Ding said: "How is that possible? With Osprey's aquatic nature and martial arts skills, even ten brats can't beat him."
Shi Hui frowned, picked up a crossbow and looked at it carefully.
She Ding sat down with a golden sword and asked: "How is it? Do you think this thing is valuable?"
"It's not worth it."
"Isn't that easy to sell?"
"I'm afraid that these people have a lot of background." Shi Hui said, "They belong to the Forbidden Army."
She Ding said: "That should be very valuable, right?"
Shi Hui ignored this, picked up a captured single sword, compared it with the gapped single sword, and sighed: "Unusual, unusual... The white-haired rat confessed that those people were official servants,
I think it's not just an official mission, it's a forbidden army."
She Ding slapped his thigh and yelled: "So what? Even if they are fucking imperial guards. I think this bullshit forbidden army is no different than the ordinary guards we kill!"
"Didn't two brothers die this time?" Shi Hui said: "In so many years, when have we suffered such a big loss?"
She Ding was stunned, then thought of the two dead brothers, his eyes turned red, and he cried: "My poor brothers."
While crying, he opened a jar of wine and poured it on the ground.
"Lao Liu, drink more if you like..."
Shi Hui listened to these thoughts and recalled the news he got during the interrogation of Bai Mao. An officer went to the prison to take a cruel young man out...
Is it this young man who stabbed Lao Liu to death with just one sword blow?
He turned his head and took a look at the sky, only to see that the setting sun left only the last ray of light on the top of Daishan Mountain, and it was getting dark again.
Shi Hui couldn't help but murmured again: "The Osprey hasn't come back yet."
"Yeah, why aren't you back yet? Did you go to a brothel?"
"Old Snake, I'm afraid the Osprey is gone." Shi Hui muttered, "That boy is not simple."
"What did you say?" She Ding said: "Then we Jiangpu's Eighteen Monsters have become Jiangpu's Fifteen Monsters..."
~~
"Thirteen left."
Nie Zhongyou pressed the mouth of a water bandit, slashed the enemy's neck with a sharp knife, and saw a soldier over there and killed one of them.
There were also thirteen people on his side. In addition to Liu Jinsuo and ten soldiers, he also brought Li Xia with him.
The injury on Li Xia's foot has not healed yet, but it has not damaged any muscles or bones and does not affect her walking.
At this time, he was walking beside Nie Zhongyu with a single sword in hand, watching with interest how Nie Zhongyu commanded people to sneak attack on a village.
First, the two water bandits who were on lookout were removed, and then manpower was deployed to block the way out. Three crossbowmen were scattered behind to prevent any accidents, and the others surrounded the lobby of the village.
It sounds simple, but during the whole process, Nie Zhongyou was able to direct twelve people to act in an orderly and synchronized manner by relying only on his body movements. This was a very difficult thing.
Most people definitely can't do it. Many people in this world will get into chaos when they go on a trip with two or three family members. How can you command twelve people?
For example, if someone is walking fast, Nie Zhongyou can order the other person to stop with a look; for example, if 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 team's rhythm under Nie Zhongyou's command.
This commanding ability was definitely not something Nie Zhongyou learned from, but a valuable experience that was naturally formed through life and death.
Li Xia is learning from his experience.
He carefully kept all the details in mind and was ready to ponder them again and again...
They had quietly walked outside the water village lobby.
Liu Jinsuo held a gun and crouched half-hiding by the door.
Nie Zhongyou chose the best position to stand, 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 groaned while holding his throat.
"Ouch……"
Li Xia was surprised.
It was a very charming woman's voice. It was hard for him to imagine that it came from Nie Zhongyou's mouth.
"Where did this woman come from?!" Someone in the hall shouted in an excited voice, "I'll go out and take a look..."
Then I saw a rough man striding towards the outside of the hall.
As soon as he came out of the lobby, Liu Jinsuo pounced and stabbed the rough man with a spear in his hand, stabbing several bloody holes in the rough man.
"Do it!" Nie Zhongyou shouted violently.
"kill!"
"You little thieves have been surrounded, why don't you just surrender and capture them! Disarm them without killing them!"
The soldiers shouted and rushed into the hall.
Although he said he would disarm but not kill, in fact Nie Zhongyou had no intention of leaving alive. Those water bandits who had not reacted were still in a daze, and the soldiers rushed forward and stabbed them to death with three swords and six holes.
"Let's go!" A water bandit shouted...
After fighting for a while, the seven water bandits fought their way out of the lobby.
Nie Zhongyou had already expected that three crossbowmen from outside would immediately surround him.
The crossbow arrows were fired, one shot missed, and the other two shot down two water bandits.
There were only five water bandits left running towards the back of the stockade.
"There is a stable behind, and they want to escape on horseback." Li Xia reminded.
Nie Zhongyou did not answer anyone else's words, turned around and walked away quickly while giving orders.
"The five of you who are slightly injured will stay and seal off the village. The others will follow me!"
Li Xia did not follow Nie Zhongyu. Firstly, his foot was injured, and secondly, he was not Nie Zhongyu's soldier.
Not far away, a soldier stabbed a water bandit who was shot down by a crossbow, and blood spattered.
Li Xia turned his eyes again, observing the surrounding terrain, and suddenly thought of something... If the water bandits wanted to escape and ride away on horseback, it would be better to jump into the river.
After all, they are water bandits, not horse thieves.
He then walked to the 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 he only had so many manpower...
The next moment, a roar came from the distance.
"Big brother and second brother, you go! I'm stopping the officers and soldiers!"
Soon, two figures ran towards this side.
As expected, these water bandits took advantage of their familiarity with the terrain and used a trick to attack from the east to the west. They threw off Nie Zhongyou's pursuers and planned to escape to the river.
Li Xia was a little surprised that a group of thieves could have such a strategy.
But now, these two people were already running towards him.
We meet on a narrow road, and the distance between us is getting closer and closer.
Li Xia clenched the single sword in his hand.
If he is not good at chopping, it means he cannot use a knife...