Chapter 307: The Replacement of Sects

There are strong men on the water, and spirit monsters underwater.

Unless Lu Xinqing grew wings, there was no way to escape in heaven or on earth, so he had to answer the questions obediently.

Liang Qu recorded them one by one in the volume.

He was accustomed to recording key information on paper, browsing back and forth, which made it easier to summarize clues and patterns than thinking in his head.

"Wait, you said earlier..."

Liang Qu circled two places with a wolf-hair brush, asking Lu Xinqing to explain in detail.

Lu Xinqing broke into a cold sweat on the spot, kowtowed like pounding garlic, and immediately spilled the beans, saying whatever he had.

Having been underwater once, Lu Xinqing didn't dare to deceive, but in his panic, he still had the heart to expose less of the evil deeds he had committed, striving to survive.

He really didn't expect Liang Qu's insight to be so sharp; Lu Xinqing, a man in his thirties, standing in front of him was like not wearing clothes, completely naked.

No wonder others could be masters, while he could only be a water bandit.

Lu Xinqing thought.

Liang Qu barely accepted Lu Xinqing's change in attitude.

The root of reading is not in increasing knowledge, but in the development of logical thinking.

Liang Qu hadn't been in the academy for long, but the good education he had received in his previous life made his logical thinking ability much higher than ordinary people, so it wasn't difficult to find loopholes.

Coupled with the assistance of the Ear-Knowledge Technique, he could tell whether Lu Xinqing was "guilty."

"What forces are there in Huazhu County? Including surrounding towns, pick the powerful ones to talk about."

"Forces?" Lu Xinqing pondered, "In the past, the county should have been the three major martial arts halls, the Shahe Gang, and the Zhenyuan Escort Agency, right? Five unique ones, all with great Wolf Smoke experts.

Later, it was said that rebels were making trouble, and several forces all slumped; the three major martial arts halls all collapsed, some ran, some scattered.

The Shahe Gang had many boats, so they escaped, and when they returned, they originally had a trend of dominating, but the small one heard that the Shahe Gang was also dealt with a few months ago, it is said..."

Lu Xinqing raised his eyes slightly, observing Liang Qu's reaction.

Liang Qu frowned: "Why look at me, continue!"

"It is said... the government made the move, several experts all died, and a large group of people were washed out in the middle, but the water transport of the Heishuihe cannot do without the Shahe Gang, so a part was left to maintain water transport, not killed off..."

Government, Shahe Gang?

Liang Qu associated it with the Whale Gang, calculated the time, and roughly guessed what was going on.

The Whale Gang incident led the River Bo Office to carry out a major cleaning of the fish gangs in the entire Huaiyin Prefecture.

The Shahe Gang probably just happened to hit the muzzle of the gun and became a certain merit recorded on the volume.

"The reason for the collapse, the small one has heard a bit, it is said that the Shahe Gang leader took a concubine in early spring and caused trouble!"

Liang Qu was stunned: "How so?"

Lu Xinqing got excited: "The lord doesn't know, that concubine was originally the sweetheart of a certain young master surnamed Liang, who would have thought that the Shahe Gang leader would snatch love with a horizontal sword, take the first step to cook the raw rice into cooked rice, that young master Liang loved but couldn't get, was angry and ashamed, how could the small Shahe Gang withstand..."

"Fake."

Liang Qu denied it in one bite.

"Fake?"

Lu Xinqing didn't believe it; the young man in front of him had a high rank and strong strength, but no matter how powerful, he was ultimately an outsider, how could he know it was fake?

It was just that due to the current situation, Lu Xinqing didn't dare to refute.

He slandered that officials protect officials.

"Continue, which three of the three major martial arts halls?"

"Panshan, Zhu family, and Qinghe."

"Qinghe?" Liang Qu asked, "Then have you heard of a person named Pang Qinghe?"

"Pang Qinghe?" Lu Xinqing chewed twice, his face revealing realization, "The lord is talking about Lin Guanzhu Pang, right? Lin Guanzhu Pang was the original hall master of the Qinghe Martial Arts Hall! He had a reputation in our Huazhu County, a Wolf Smoke martial artist, a great expert!"

"Then the Yan Martial Arts Hall?"

"Yan? Seems to have heard of it, should be in Huangsha Town? The hall master had two sons, both martial artists, later they also collapsed.

Anyway, the martial arts halls in Huazhu County collapsed seven or eight out of ten, and those with ability didn't stay, all went to other places, and the merchant ships on the Heishuihe were much fewer.

After that, there were more and more water bandits, causing merchant ships to be even more afraid to walk, and the brothers had a harder and harder time eating, so they lost their minds when they saw the lord coming."

Liang Qu nodded slightly, clearing up some clues.

Martial arts halls are a feature of the Great Shun Dynasty, almost every county has them.

Whether a county is strong or not basically depends on how many big and small martial arts halls it has.

In essence, martial arts halls are a substitute for sects.

Great Shun trampled on the rivers and lakes; only a very small number could retain the sect system, such as the Five Great True Traditions, while the rest slowly evolved into various martial arts halls.

Martial arts halls have many benefits; one is facing the common people, mostly for money, with low thresholds, which can effectively expand the base of martial artists; with a large base at the bottom, the benefits are self-evident.

Second, the relationship within the martial arts hall is not tight; apprentices pay to learn skills, a buying and selling relationship, far less than the hierarchical system that exists in sects, and it is easy to form a sense of identity after entering.

Martial arts halls are difficult to form local forces, effectively reducing the difficulty of centralization, and thus the pressure on the bottom-level common people will not be so great, further promoting population development.

Furthermore, they cannot form forces, so the platform provided is ultimately limited; most people lay a good foundation and will naturally look forward to a larger platform. Where is the larger platform?

The imperial court!

River Bo Office, Three Judicial Departments, Demon-Hunting Division, joining the army... there are many paths.

The imperial court is equivalent to a super-sized sect, netting all the talents in the world.

For this reason, Great Shun has always encouraged the development of martial arts halls.

Huazhu County was blood-washed by the Ghost Mother Sect, its vitality was greatly damaged, most of the martial arts halls disappeared, the corresponding support system and downstream structure gradually became unsustainable, further affecting the lives of the bottom-level people.

The strong men who could originally rely on delivering medicine and running errands to eat lost their jobs and could only think of other ways; water bandits, mountain bandits, and hooligans increased, and the increased banditry further affected trade, a vicious cycle.

The situation in Huazhu County became clearer and clearer.

"You were originally from the Panshan Martial Arts Hall?"

"How did the lord know?"

Lu Xinqing was shocked; from meeting Liang Qu until now, he had never said he was from the Panshan Martial Arts Hall, let alone displayed the Four Tips Technique!

"I have my own news channels."

A shadow of awe covered Lu Xinqing's heart; he only felt that Liang Qu was mysterious and abnormal, as if he had the ability to hear people's thoughts.

"You are from the Panshan Martial Arts Hall and a four-pass martial artist; why did you become a water bandit?"

A four-pass martial artist is not a small person; he can enter the martial register, and in small villages and towns, he can be called a master.

Couldn't think straight?

Lu Xinqing's face froze: "The small one did enter the Panshan Martial Arts Hall, but the Four Tips Technique is not taught to non-lineage members... The small one wasted seven or eight years and still couldn't get recognition, so I had to secretly... steal the learning..."

"You have quite some guts, ran away?"

Lu Xinqing chuckled awkwardly.

Stealing martial arts is a big taboo; let alone Huazhu County, the surrounding counties couldn't tolerate him.

After the incident, Lu Xinqing originally wanted to run to another prefecture in one breath, but he lacked travel expenses on the way, so he had evil thoughts and robbed boats on the Heishuihe.

Never thought the first ticket would rob a father and son returning to their hometown to get married, a full eight taels of marriage money!

Having tasted the sweetness, thinking that going to other places would also be a black household, Lu Xinqing didn't stop and hid on the Heishuihe to be a Ghost-Faced Water Bandit, living by robbing boats, only robbing small ones, not big ones, and actually mixed out the nickname Ghost-Faced Dragon.

"What about that father and son?"

"Dead."

"Dead?"

"No, no, no, the lord don't misunderstand, I didn't kill them." Lu Xinqing hurriedly explained,

"I robbed them and let them go; two days later I found out that after they were robbed by me that day, they knew the marriage was ruined, and they were unwilling, so they went to rob others!

Robbery, once there is one, there is two; they also followed to become water bandits! But they weren't as clever as me, and in less than three months, they were caught by the government and sentenced to death!"

Liang Qu was silent.

"Taking wealth with a human face, ten years of accumulation is not enough; taking wealth with a ghost face, one day of collection is more than enough.

A blade of an inch, if it is in someone else's hand, then I fear them; if it is in my hand, then they fear me..."

Lu Xinqing pondered carefully and nodded vigorously: "Yes, yes, that's the logic! The lord is a water bandit..."

Liang Qu swept a glance at him, and Lu Xinqing cursed himself for being a fool, hurriedly crawling on the ground: "Listening to the lord's words is better than reading for ten years!"

After a while.

"Are there no women in your stronghold?"

Awei had gone into the water stronghold to investigate; there were no imprisoned people inside.

"Women? No." Lu Xinqing shook his head, "Just us dozen brothers."

"Can you hold it?"

"Usually all go to the town to solve it; this kind of thing can be solved by spending some money, spend a little, doesn't cost much money.

Let alone there are none in the stronghold, even if I run into them when robbing boats, I don't let the brothers touch them.

Beautiful women are mostly rich and noble, and the rich and noble have power; I'm afraid of causing trouble; if I open a gap and can't control them, I just don't open it."

Lu Xinqing could be a water bandit for more than three years; he had his own survival logic.

But walking by the river often, how can one not get their shoes wet; not every survival logic can be right.

Once it's wrong, it's the scene before his eyes. ===== CHAPTER 308 =====