Chapter 526: Stretching Mountain Road and Bloody Bodhi
The rain was pouring down, hitting the eaves of the house. On the long street in the rain, there was a middle-aged man wearing a raincoat, holding his hand to the horse team.
"...My brother's surname is Zhao, Zhao Si. Thanks to all the people on the road, I have given my brother a bandit name so that he can protect me. Whenever something happens in this area of Luliang, I, Zhao Si, can usually talk to me. Since you guys
I came here the way the big boss did, and the rest of the matter will be taken care of by Zhao. May I ask brothers, what do you call me?"
"You can cover it, this name is not simple." The scholar on the horse raised his hand, "Ning Yi, the Jianghu people sent the bandits to massacre with bloody hands. Next to me is the city-burning gun Zhu Biao, and my subordinates
All brothers have met Mr. Zhao."
The young scholar's voice was slow and steady, but his words were also precise, full of weird Jianghu aura. A young man named Zhu Biao on the horse next to him lowered his head after saying hello, his eyes shining: "City Burning Gun...
What a nickname." The "coverable" man cupped his hands and said, "I have admired you for a long time."
When he walked around Luliang in the past, he had never heard the formal title "Mr. Zhao". After looking at the two of them, he said in his heart: "They look like a few young children..."
The power ecology in the Luliang Mountain area is complex. Although Qingmuzhai has opened its doors for business and has now reached a certain scale, it is still not easy to take the smuggling route in Luliang. Most people have no connections and cannot find anyone to connect them. Basically, it is the same.
It is difficult to get in. This Zhao Si is Qing
One of the guides outside Muzhai. He seems to be in his thirties or forties. He carries a slightly rusty sword on his back, and his eyes are flashing. He also has a somewhat shrewd look. He may not be very skilled in martial arts.
He is tall, but he is relatively easygoing on the road, which may be the reason why Qingmuzhai chose him.
Ning Yi and others came here and left all the carts nearby and converted them into horse teams to carry goods into the mountains. They used the contact information and incisions left by Hong Ti. Although they were related to the boss,
There's nothing surprising about it, it's hard to tell where he got it from.
Zhao Si looked at the caravan along the way, and soon he began to have doubts in his mind. The group of people in front of him obviously came from some big families with backgrounds in the south. Just seeing that the leaders were still young, he knew that they were from big families.
Experienced successor
It must be the first time for the caravan to come here, but looking at the men in the rear team, all of them are strong and strong in martial arts. The spirit of walking may have something to do with the soldiers. At least in Luliang Mountain and beyond.
Nan. It should be considered a half-tailed dragon.
It's just that this kind of strong dragon is often nothing once it crosses the mountain. Those who do business from north to south, especially those who go out of Luliang, do not need to be sharp, but to be able to find a way in any environment.
You have to adapt to circumstances. Otherwise, once you cross the mountain and there is a mixture of fish and dragons, the dragon will really have to coil up and the tiger will have to lie down. No matter how strong a team of one or two hundred people is, it will not be much stronger. What is afraid of it is the young people who lead the team.
, strong and easy to break.
Zhao Si thought so in his heart, but as a leader, he still had to do what he should do. Although Qingmuzhai developed from Luliang Mountain, it still looked like a bandit village to the outside world, but internally it had strict rules and regulations regarding rewards and punishments. In Zhao
In the eyes of the fourth class, these are the rules that the leader "Blood Bodhisattva" learned from the army in the south, but they don't know that the one who set these rules for them is the young man in the carriage behind.
After the two sides met, they walked for another half a day in the rain before they truly entered the scope of Luliang Mountain. This area has rolling mountains, rugged roads, and fewer people living there. It is a completely different place from the south.
Located on the border, Luliang Mountain has not only been in war for many years, but also has another problem: barrenness. With vertical and horizontal loess slopes and sparse vegetation, the harvests of crops grown here are usually not good. Potatoes grown here are relatively suitable for later generations.
It had not yet been introduced into China and there was no shortage of water, but if it rained heavily, it would easily turn into floods.
People living in such places have either left or died. What is left behind is not so much that they are unable to leave their homeland, but that they have no idea of migrating at all. Two hundred years ago, this place was relatively peaceful. Since then, wars and wars have
Grass Valley combed this place year after year. Some people died, and some people hid in the mountains, looking for new places to survive. The total amount of food was not much, and part of it was taken away. What was left could only be eaten.
Cannibalism.
During the famine years, cannibalism was not a strange thing in the mountains. After the Wu Dynasty gradually developed, food was sufficient outside Luliang. Although it is difficult to say that it directly helped Luliang Mountain, in the past few decades, hunger has
There are not many famines that reach the point of cannibalism, but starvation is still the norm. When the total amount is limited, if you want to feed some people, others will starve to death. This is the cruelest law of survival, and it has nothing to do with it.
Human compassion likes and dislikes.
If a person is about to starve to death, he will do anything. This place is like a place where poisonous insects are raised. Over time, most of the order is broken, morality seems to be nonexistent, and there is no morality.
In other words, only survival itself becomes clear. People who survive in this environment are either extremely cruel, extremely simple, or both... It’s not that no one wants to establish order, but
Those who make this effort usually fail and end up in blood and death.
Occasionally they will have some conflicts with the outside world, and occasionally, when the outside army thinks it is profitable, they will come in, find a way to kill a group of people, and then hand it over to the country as the result of the bandit suppression. In this kind of thing, except for the killed themselves,
, basically no one pays attention to it.
In order to survive in such a situation, there is actually not much difference between humans and wolves in the mountains.
"...This mountain is not peaceful anywhere. Outsiders basically can't get in." The rain had stopped, and while walking along the mountain road, Zhao Si pointed around and introduced, "To the west here, there used to be a horse thief.
Zhang Dadu was famous for a while, maybe... two years, and then he died.
, was killed by the second master in the village, and his body hung on the mountain for several months. Less than half a year after the second master took over, the village was gone. Now several groups of people are fighting, but they are all desperate. There is a group of hunters.
We have set up camp there, and they are very arrogant and don’t give face to anyone, so we have to take a detour now.”
"... If you want to say that the one that can be regarded as famous is a little bit northeast. The more famous one is the little thieves Qiu Mengtang. I heard that he has some relationship with the Tiger King. Now he has many people under his command, and he is quite famous. After that, there was Chenjiaqu's 'Luanshan King'
'Chen Zhenhai,' Black Skull of Skeleton Village
Wang Luan Sanlang. After passing our Qingmuzhai, we will probably count the Fang Yiyang brothers from the Fang family... In addition, a group of Liao people came to the north recently. I heard that it was the rout after the fall of the Liao Kingdom.
More than two thousand people have had several conflicts with our Qingmu..."
Zhao Si is a local snake, and he knows the big forces in Luliang Mountain very well. Sometimes a group of people appears on the mountain road, he will go over to negotiate, and after making incisions for a while, the other party will let them go silently. In fact, in such a mountain, it is troublesome.
It's not a big force. It's some small thieves who don't follow the rules at all. When the force is big, there are often rules.
It can be said that only those wolves who eat one meal and ignore the next are very troublesome to shoot and change places. Even if Qingmuzhai has negotiated the rules with them, maybe after a few days, these people will
They had already crossed the mountain and were replaced by another group of people. Therefore, in order to maintain a winding road into the mountain, Qingmuzhai also spent a lot of effort.
From time to time, Ning Yi and others could see wooden piles inserted near this mountain road. Some of the wooden piles still had corpses on them, with skulls and bones. The bones were corroded and inserted into the high loess. This was the most dangerous thing.
There is a barbaric warning line, but there are not many bodies left. It can be seen that there have been fewer and fewer killings recently, and there are more empty pillars that have been standing for who knows how long.
"The leader of the group of people just now is called Huang Yuan. He is trying to fight the evil wolf, but he has to give us face... These places were all visited by the boss with us. At that time, there were heads in the rows, and there was blood everywhere.
There is water flowing down from it, and the entire slope is red." After sending away a group of people who blocked the way, Zhao Si came back and introduced Zhou with a wave of his hand.
He looked around, looking at Ning Yi and others, with a look of contentment on his face, "Now that we are going into the mountains, Mr. Ning has his own team. Naturally, Zhao will lead him. If there are some retail investors, let them wait for a group.
If everyone enters together, we still have to send dozens of people to follow. It is still like this now. The road was even more chaotic at the beginning..."
What Zhao Si is talking about is the situation when Qingmuzhai just did these things. Although Luliang Mountain is chaotic, there have always been cases of smuggling through the customs from here, or it is the brave people who are really skilled in the art who use black darts.
Escort, or some speculation
Merchants who take risks and take risks. Although Luliang is a chaotic place, it is vast and sparsely populated. Once there, they can make a lot of money. It was not easy for Qingmuzhai and others to first contact these merchants. Even if they were locals, in the past
You have to fight several times in one trip.
Later, the business began to grow. Qingmuzhai could provide income and food, and it also expanded rapidly. In order to maintain a relatively stable road, Hongti and others traveled to almost every mountain. Negotiating conditions, saying hello, fighting, killing people, or
Whether it's a small group killing or a big group fighting, in the end, there are basically as many heads as there are wooden sticks inserted along the whole road.
During this period, there were naturally people who wanted a share of the pie, but in fact, only Qingmuzhai had truly opened up the entire road. Most people who wanted to lead a group through would often end up in the mouths of the "wolves" guarding the roadside.
Food. There are also those who are not afraid of heaven and earth. They run to block the road or destroy it in order to extort Qingmuzhai. This is naturally extremely stupid. Not long after, someone led a team to kill them.
"...That's it, I scanned it over and over again, and now, when the name of our Qingmuzhai leader 'Blood Bodhisattva' is mentioned, who dares not to back away!" Zhao Si said while looking at Ning Yi as the horse team moved forward.
He originally wanted to scare this young man with these cruel things, but after talking for a long time, he felt a little boring.
Ning Yi listened to these things with great interest. Hong Ti would never mention these things when she saw him in the past. There were killings with rivers of blood and all kinds of fights. For the "Blood Bodhisattva", who is gradually becoming scary in Luliang
Bandit number, naturally
I have never mentioned Blood Bodhisattva... How much must he kill to get such a nickname... Compared to a good nickname like "Heshan Iron Sword", "Blood Bodhisattva" is obviously a trick name.
, you have to laugh at her when you meet her.
"It's also because of this that from last year to this time, no one in the village was hungry. Because our Qingmuzhai shared the wealth, the nearby mountains were much better off." After all, Zhao Si is still a simple mountain man. At this time
Look at Ning Yi, "Mr. Ning is from the south. You haven't seen people starving to death, right?"
"There was also a famine in the south last year." Ning Yi smiled, "Come to think of it, it was recently reported that your female head is looking for a bride..."
Zhao Si's eyes turned cold: "Is Mr. Ning also interested in this?"
"I really want to see it."
What he said was that he wanted to see it, not to participate. Zhao Si's eyebrows relaxed slightly: "Huh, that's just a rumor on the road. I don't know who is spreading it secretly, so a group of people have been going to the village recently.
Come on. The master's martial arts skills are superb. With a sword in his hand, hundreds of people can't get close to him. How can he be compared to those mediocre people! A competition to recruit a bride, a group of people who don't know how to die..."
He babbled: "From that time to now, when the master has conquered hundreds of miles of Luliang with one sword, many good men and ruthless men have changed their demeanor. The Lu Shang of the year before last was a ruthless person among ruthless people. He was very skilled in martial arts and could kill people.
We disowned our relatives and went to our Qingmuzhai to cause trouble. We were chased by the village leader for a day and a night and then killed. Last winter, the most powerful old wolf leader in the western Luliang line came to see us.
Qingmuzhai has become powerful. They plan to ambush the leader. They chase him all the way in the mountains. The leader has a sword and a torch. He also encounters the most deadly pack of wolves in winter, but he is forced to fight his way out.
, Seven days later, the old wolf master thought that the master was dead, but he was beheaded by the master in front of everyone. Even further away, there was a group of horse bandits in Fenyang..."
Seeing that Ning Yi was interested in hearing such things, Zhao Si was quite proud when he talked about these things about the "Big Boss". Only after chatting for a while did he notice that the look in the eyes of the young master next to him seemed to have changed.
Seeing that he was still smiling, he asked softly: "At this time, do you still want your village master to run outside? What about you?"
"Of course there are people around the village master." Zhao Si waved his hand, "But Luliang Mountain is too chaotic. Some people follow the rules and some don't. It's difficult to explain these things clearly to you... Moreover, our village master's
Let me tell you how high my martial arts skills are. I, Zhao Si, only learned three killing moves from the leader of the village. Only after I came out to do things can I be able to live up to my name. It's hard to tell you this. If you don't take it seriously, you
Just know..."
Being accused of only letting the leader of the village go out to do things obviously made Zhao Si feel a little uncomfortable, so he added a lot of words. Ning Yi smiled and stopped asking. After walking for a while, there was another mountain col ahead, and a group of people in the col was far away.
Looking over here from a distance, Zhao Si made a gesture, then clamped the horse's belly and continued to negotiate.
It was already afternoon, and after walking for a while, everyone camped in a nearby mountain. The hills did not appear barren. There were strange rocks and dwarf trees far and near, not dense shrubs and grass, and a small stream flowing from it.
Winding through the mountains. As the sun set, everyone chose a place with a wide view. They could see the ruins of a village in the distance, which was obviously uninhabited now. Ning Yi stood at the foot of the mountain and watched the sun set.
direction to go.
Zhu Biao came over from a short distance with a gun on his shoulder: "I just fought a few moves with Na Guan. The martial arts here are different from those in the south. They are all trained in life and death fights. The most important thing is the momentum. If an ordinary master is
If you can't withstand that desperate ferocity, you will be killed with two swords, but if you can't, it will be difficult to say."
Ning Yi also smiled: "The sword practice here is not for competition. If you can hold it, they will naturally turn around and run away, and then come back with all kinds of revenge."
Zhu Biao's martial arts attainments are much higher than Ning Yi's, and he naturally understands these things. In fact, although he is talking about Zhao Si's momentum, judging from the cultivation of people like Zhao Si, whether they have momentum or not, in
There is no difference to Zhu Biao in the real fight, mainly because the gap is too big. He chuckled and said, "Brother Ning, are you thinking about Senior Lu?"
"When I first considered Luliang Mountain, I had the idea of smuggling." Ning Yi put his hands behind his back and frowned, "When you open the door to do business, you only look at profits. But with profits as the core, it is difficult to cultivate enough loyalty.
My heart is afraid that a few bosses will join together for profit, and they usually develop very well, but when it comes time to take action, everyone will be timid."
He paused: "So I reminded her at the beginning that the core of the weapon in her hands is the most important. Those who can fight must be controlled with the strictest discipline. And when cultivating cohesion, her personal martial arts and charm
To put it into use, as long as a martial arts master knows a little bit about management, the possibility of being betrayed by others will be much smaller. But now it seems... her charm has been cultivated a little too much. "
Ning Yi's tone was quite complicated when he spoke. Of course he found it interesting when he first entered the mountain and heard all kinds of things. Lu Hong's nickname of Blood Bodhisattva was just a joke. As for things like killing and killing, Ning Yi
Although he longs for a peaceful life, he understands the dark side of the world very well. Only if he listens to the smug boasts from Zhao Si for a long time can he really understand the complicated emotions from it.
"...what Lu Shang, what old wolf master. Of course there is a discount if the cover can be used, but it will definitely not be too fake. How can one person, one sword and one torch face a pack of wolves in the ice and snow, and there are still people chasing behind him? I wish you, brother,
What do you think?" He thought of the scene of the woman facing the wolves in the ice and snow, and for a moment he felt it was quite beautiful, but then he couldn't help but sigh.
Zhu Biao shrugged: "Hmm. I think... wolves are also humane. If there are just one or two wolves, I might be able to scare them away. Senior Lu is so powerful, and ordinary wolves probably wouldn't dare to bite them."
she."
"But it was a world of ice and snow. The wolves had been hungry all winter..." Ning Yi waved his hand. "Her martial arts skills are already high. Speaking of personal charm, she just puts on a show every year. The rest... high-pressure policies, mysticism and so on.
It’s not easy to use, and she also likes to do things by herself. Let her raise a group of people just to do things for her, how can she raise good-looking ones? This time I go over, I have to take a good look at her copycat appearance..."
Zhu Biao worked under Ning Yi for more than a day or two. Ning Yi also taught him a lot. At this time, he curled his lips and smiled, but knew that he did not need to say anything. At this time, he suddenly realized
When I saw something, I looked not far away. Among the sparse poplar trees over there, birds flew out, and then there was a bang, which was not loud. After one sound, it became quiet.
Like a sudden gust of wind blowing across the foothills, half of the more than a hundred people who had started to camp from far and near were startled at this moment and looked over there.
It was almost suffocating silence. In the camp, Zhao Si rushed out, jumped on a big stone, took off the steel knife, and waved his other hand to the back: "Don't panic!" Of course, no one panicked at all.
.
Breathe, breathe, another figure suddenly flashed among the poplar trees, and in the interplay, a short scream of "Ah" was heard. Then, a figure appeared on the tree, and the sound of weapons clashing was heard. Only simple sounds were heard here.
"who!"
"come out--"
"Yeah--"
"Everyone, be careful, you have some ideas—"
Some of these voices were shouted, and some stopped abruptly. The poplar forest was stained with blood, a human head rolled across everyone's sight, and then another corpse with its chest split open was thrown out. Obviously, just now,
, in this small forest, two small groups of people met silently, and then started a short but fatal fight.
Zhao Si still couldn't figure out what was going on. He looked back. In the sunset, the people behind him were scattered among the mountains one by one. Some were holding knives, some were holding guns, and some were holding crossbows. They were moving away silently.
After entering the array, almost no one spoke, and they were solemn and murderous. A few people were still looking at him on the big stone doubtfully. A young man who had talked to him before, who was hiding behind the stone, tilted his head and said silently.
Tell him: If you don't come down yet, why are you standing there?
Further away, the two young men leading the team had also changed their positions slightly, looking at everything below silently and quietly. There was almost no look of surprise in their eyes. In fact, with Ning Yi's character,
In a place as chaotic as Luliang Mountain, there was no way he could only rely on a leader from Qingmuzhai for his safety. Suddenly something unexpected happened and someone had a brain twitch. It might seem troublesome, but it wouldn't cause him to make a fuss.
Looking back again, by the poplar forest, as the body was thrown out, a figure slowly exited the forest. It was a tall man. Zhao Si had seen him in the cavalry today. This man had a scar on his face.
He has a burly figure, a steady pace, and his skills seem to be quite good. In addition, his expression is silent and serious. Even in Luliang Mountain, I am afraid that
I'm afraid it's also a tough idea that others don't dare to mess with. In Ning Yi's team, he serves as the captain of a small team. At this time, the steel knife in the man's hand was stained with blood, and he made a few gestures towards the top, and then walked to a
He was hiding behind rocks, and then several people in the forest withdrew one after another. They were members of his guard team.
"There are three to four hundred people, coming from the southeast..." Zhu Biao interpreted the message from the other party and told Ning Yi. Ning Yi nodded: "Tell Nie Shan and the others to come up."
The Nie Shan in his mouth was the name of the man below. This Nie Shan was originally a small leader in Liangshan. He was cruel by nature and killed many people. Later, in the camp of Dulonggang, he was trained by Lu Hong in martial arts.
Guidance - mainly after being beaten and repenting, martial arts will improve. In fact, most skills, whether martial arts or art, after reaching the bottleneck, can often promote breakthroughs.
Philosophical understanding, that is, the tempering of one's mind. Although the confessions in Dulonggang have their twisted side, they also bring about some extreme fanaticism. Such people, coupled with the subsequent training of small teams,
They were almost like a nightmare in a small-scale sentry-style fight in the woods. The opponent's elite outposts who secretly entered the woods were killed almost as soon as they came into contact.
The movement among the mountains was quiet and orderly. Some people were on guard, others were packing their things, and Nie Shan and others had already come from below. From a distance, when the first group of people appeared in view, Zhao Si saw two people holding arms.
The bow and arrows were nocked, and several figures were shot over in succession. The opponents quickly retreated, but then more and more people came around from the southeast.
"Master Zhao." Ning Yi came closer, "Three or four hundred people can come here at this time. Who do you think they are?"
"Damn it." Zhao Si grinded his teeth, "This is still the territory of the little thieves. I even greeted their people when we passed the col. Qiu Mengtang didn't want his life. He attacked us. What did he think?
!”
With these words in his mouth, Zhao Si glanced around and saw more than a hundred people gathering and moving. The energy and spirit of each person was not disordered at all. He finally confirmed that the background of this group of people was not simple. He gritted his teeth.
, rushed out towards the side where the figure appeared.
"Qiu Mengtang! Master Qiu Village!" He shouted at the figure over there, "I am Qingmu Zhao Si. I am leading the brothers through the border today because I am the master! You have already collected the money to buy the road. What are you doing! You are eating wrong.
The medicine is over! You dare to break the contract with my Qingmuzhai——"
He, a young man in a cottage, dared to challenge the other party. Here was the blood-soaked power of Qingmuzhai. In the warm yellow sunset, a voice came out over there, and it was none other than the little thieves who roamed Luliang.
"Zhao Si, I will stay with the group of people you brought today. I, the little thief, will personally explain to the Blood Bodhisattva what will happen next." The tone sounded a bit lazy, but it was driven by internal force, and it was also because of this
The atmosphere was so solemn and quiet that it suddenly echoed through the entire mountain, with a cold lingering voice, "I only want to say this once, you can leave."
On the mountain ridge, Ning Yi frowned: "I always run into trouble, it's so baffling..." (To be continued...)