Chapter 153: A Hundred-foot Pole
In the early morning, a thin mist covered the Jianghuai Lakes.
Dozens of small boats formed a crooked zigzag line.
It rained heavily last night and the wind on the river was very strong. Everyone was feeling listless and the boat lines looked quite messy.
"Give in, everyone, give in!"
Someone wearing a bamboo hat was paddling a small boat and shouting along the way, asking the small boats in the middle to move to both sides and clear the river.
A few strong men who were dozing off perked up after hearing this and stopped the men rowing the boat to question them.
"But is it the river officer of the Hebo Office?"
"What? Are you here already?"
A man lifted up his straw raincoat and sat up in the boat.
The boatman shook his head: "No, there are bluefin tuna that are going over."
"what?"
He covered himself with the raincoat again and continued to sleep.
The rest of the people were not interested.
"Take a break, this is a merchant ship, brothers, it's too early to be happy."
"Alas, let's all go. It's boring."
"Liu San, go paddle and get out of the way."
The small boats in the middle moved closer to both sides, leaving a wide river channel.
Three large flat ships sailed out of the mist. After the heavy rain, smoke rose from the hulls, and rain water flowed from the sides of the ships along the ditches into the swamp. The mist stuck to the hulls and condensed into dew.
A typical merchant ship, with a huge bow towering high and the sides rising upward along the hull. The ship is more than ten feet long and about six feet wide. A single ship can carry more than two thousand stones of grain.
Fishermen call this kind of boat "mackerel" because it looks as thick and flat as a mackerel and swims faster.
"Brother, could you please tell me what's going on? Why is there such a big event?"
A bearded steward was leaning half his body over the edge of the boat.
"Don't pry when you shouldn't!"
The manager didn't show much anger after being scolded. He just bowed and said, "Don't blame me, brother. I'm just curious."
"I'm sorry, boss. My brothers are all reckless and I spoke a little rashly. I hope you don't mind. I'll use this money to buy some drinks for you brothers."
A resounding voice came from far away and a coin bag turned into a stream of light, drawing a curve in the mist and hitting the palm of the manager.
After a few leaps, a figure arrived at the boat.
"Gang leader!"
The man who had just spoken stood up suddenly, and the whole boat was shaking.
The other men also stood up.
The steward on the boat took the purse and weighed it in his hand, finding only eleven taels and two cents. He bowed and disappeared over the edge of the boat.
"Boss, did I say something wrong?" the man who stood up first asked hurriedly.
Liu Jie pointed to the flag on the merchant ship going away and asked: "Did you see that flag? What are the words on that flag?"
The man scratched his forehead and shook his head.
"I know you can't read, so I don't blame you." Liu Jie laughed and shook his head. "That's the meaning of Kangji, Tongji and Huiji. The word Ji means it's the ship of Hengren Caravan. Hengren Caravan is more powerful than us, much more powerful. Do you understand?"
The man nodded repeatedly.
"Okay, I know you've been working hard, let the brothers come back and take over." Liu Jie patted the man's shoulder and took out the second money bag from his pocket, "Take the brothers to eat something good and have a few drinks."
Everyone was overjoyed.
"Thank you, leader!"
While the gang members on the small boat quickly passed the message on, cheers were heard from the Jianghuai River.
Dozens of small boats moved towards the shore.
Some people got off the boat, some got on, exchanged shifts with the brothers on the shore, and greeted the other two gang leaders in succession.
"Second Boss, Third Boss!"
Liu Yi and Zheng Tianfu nodded. When the crowd on the shore had dispersed, Liu Yi stepped forward and said, "Brother, have you found a job?"
Liu Jie shook his head: "Fatty Du didn't agree, he just said he would recommend Wen Yang, but it's still unknown whether it will work."
"Damn it!" Zheng Tianfu was so angry that he punched the tree trunk. The thick willow tree exploded into pieces and stuck into the soil. "Half of the silver every year is fed to them, but it's so difficult to get a ninth-rank official position! I really want to roast the fat off that fat guy with fire!"
"Killing officials and killing common people are two different things." The second gang leader Liu Yi sneered, "He dares to control us like this because we are not officials. He is afraid of us, our people, and our abilities."
"At least there is some hope. Fatty Du will stay here for two more years at most. I'll work harder next year and it will be almost done. He will take the benefits and take office elsewhere, leaving us to deal with the next county magistrate."
"I thought that earning so much money every year was a sign of success, but I didn't expect..." Zheng Tianfu was exhausted, "Those officials' children start at the eighth or seventh rank. For us to get a small inspector, we're almost giving away our hearts and lungs."
"Let's not talk about this anymore. Haven't the people from Hebo Police Station arrived yet?"
Zheng Tianfu shook his head: "It's been seven or eight days, and I haven't touched it."
"It's time to go back and forth..."
"It's a good thing that they didn't come." Liu Yi said with a smile, "It means that the official of the Hebo Office is the same as Fatty Du. Who knows where he is drinking. It would be difficult to negotiate if he is really meticulous."
Accustomed to what Fatty Du did, Liu Jie nodded after thinking about it.
Everything should always be discussed first until both parties are satisfied.
If we really can't come to an agreement...
Then you can only find someone else to talk to.
The water is rippling.
The midday sun penetrates the water layer, bending into swaying arcs in the flowing waves.
Liang Qu sat cross-legged on a huge rock, his black hair flying in the waves. His whole body aura was restrained, almost integrated with the rock, and his qi and blood flowed, merging into his marrow.
Several small fish swam by, eating the algae that grew under the boulders.
A shadow silently loomed over the heads of the fish. The fat catfish opened its mouth, stretched out its tentacles, rolled up the small fish before they could react, and threw them out of the water.
Liang Qu opened his eyes.
The fat catfish rolled its eyes back and spit out a precious fish that was pure white with blue stripes on its sides.
After regaining its freedom, the treasure fish displayed an extremely fast escape speed, but unfortunately it was trapped in place by the water current before it jumped out even one meter.
The water waves flowed, pushing the precious fish to Liang Qu's hand.
"Blue-striped fish, the types of treasure fish around Fengbu County are quite different from those in Pingyang County."
Liang Qu reached out and grabbed the blue-striped fish, returned to the boat, gutted it, and shared it among the animals.
[Water Essence +6]
The whole blue fish is not very big, only a little over two pounds. After removing the bones and internal organs, only about seven or eight ounces of good meat are left.
After Liang Qu finished eating the blue-striped fish, he cracked two cockscomb fruits.
It is best to eat three cockscomb fruits a day, and this fruit has excellent preservation effects and can be stored for more than ten days even in midsummer.
Liang Qu had exchanged fifteen coins before he came out, enough to last for five days, and he was almost finished with them.
He added all twenty-five points of water essence to the fusion degree, the precious medicine itself began to take effect, the blood in the body was replenished again, and he refined the blood twice more.
A slight strange feeling arises in the marrow, and it is about to overflow.
Liang Qu's heart was moved.
The warrior's intuition told him that he only needed to refine the blood two or three more times before the blood barrier could be broken!
Not only that.
Liangqu communicates with Zeding, the conditions for the four beasts to evolve.
[ points of water essence can be consumed to evolve the hornwood crocodile into a hornwood crocodile]
[Can consume points of water essence to evolve the tiger catfish into the mighty tiger catfish]
[Can consume points of water essence to evolve the rock crab into the rock crab king]
[Can consume water essence to evolve the Tianshui Centipede into a two-winged Tianshui Centipede]
Liang Qu took out the only two remaining cockscombs and divided them into four parts.
Even if Liu Jie had all the tricks he could think of, he would still drown in the waters of the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers!
(End of this chapter)
