Chapter 54

"Uncle Chen, are you ready?"

"Coming, coming."

In the courtyard, Chen Qingjiang sorted out the fishing nets and followed Liang Qu to the pier.

Chen Qingjiang didn't forget what Liang Qu said, that he would take him to a place where fish gathered to fish. Since yesterday, he had stayed at home and hadn't even stepped out of the door.

"Uncle Chen, do you still go to town to sell fish after catching them?"

"I went the first two days, but the weather is getting colder and colder, and the fish are thinner than me, so I don't plan to go anymore, it's not worth it."

Liang Qu said: "Then don't go starting today."

Senior brother said that the Mountain Ghost can kill a two-pass martial artist, and its strength is high. It prefers martial artists with vigorous blood and energy. Even he, a martial apprentice who hasn't entered the pass, is not taken seriously. But a gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall. If you can avoid taking risks, don't take them.

Yixing City is fifteen or sixteen li away from Pingyang Town. There is a main road, and it is quite wide, and there are many people coming and going, but there are forests on both sides. Maybe the Mountain Ghost is hiding inside, waiting to attack travelers on the road, especially Uncle Chen, who catches fish in the early morning and rushes on the road before dawn, which is even more dangerous.

Liang Qu came with the horse team this morning and didn't dare to travel alone.

"What happened? Is it related to that person named Lu Shaohui?"

Chen Qingjiang is honest but not stupid. Hearing this, he immediately remembered the dead martial artist.

Martial artists are rare things.

As a town, Pingyang Town can have so many martial artists, all because Yang Dongxiong took the lead.

The martial arts hall has been open for more than twenty years, and many people in the county have made special trips to worship at the Yang Family Martial Arts Hall.

Over time, martial artists increased. Once there are many martial artists, there are many medical clinics, and there are many people who need to do things and serve. They all need to eat and live.

Pingyang Town has developed a population of tens of thousands over so many years, which is almost the same as a county town, and it is more or less inseparable from this reason.

With a large population, it in turn promotes more people to learn martial arts, complementing each other.

Therefore, if it were other places, the number of martial artists would be cut by at least half. Suddenly dying one is definitely not a small matter.

"Mm, a senior brother of mine went to see it and said it was killed by a monster. Now the monster hasn't been caught yet, so be careful."

Chen Qingjiang nodded in agreement. Anyway, he didn't plan to go to town to sell fish, so if he didn't go, he didn't go.

Arriving at the pier, Liang Qu jumped several times and jumped onto an awning boat, no longer the original small sampan.

He slept in the martial arts hall last night and came to the pier early in the morning to ask Lin Songbao for his boat back. The tattered sampan was left to the fishing pier.

Sampan is "three boards", two waterproof compartments separated by two partitions in the middle, divided into three parts, and nothing else.

This awning boat is much larger than that broken sampan. The total length of the sampan is only three meters, and the width is less than one meter, but the awning boat is five meters, and the width is more than one meter.

The boat edge is higher, and it is not easy for waves to hit in. The boat cabin is paved with a layer of red lacquer boat boards, covered with mats, and also equipped with pillows made of bamboo and wood.

The boat awning is one point two meters high, with a total of eight fans on both sides, four of which are fixed and four can be opened and closed. It is woven from bamboo strips, sandwiched with bamboo leaves, shading from the sun and blocking the rain, and it is also very firm. Because it is painted black with smoke coal and tung oil, it is called an awning.

Sampan becomes an awning, which can be called a major equipment upgrade, bird gun changing to cannon.

With an awning to block the wind and rain, Liang Qu can live directly on the boat in the future if it is inconvenient to go home.

"Eh, Ashui, you got your own awning boat back?" Chen Qingjiang was surprised, and then reacted, "Oh, you are different now, Scabby Zhang doesn't dare to do anything to you anymore. Speaking of which, I haven't seen Scabby Zhang for a long time. He didn't pay the autumn tax a while ago, and he wasn't caught when he went home to catch people. He was judged as a refugee by the government. Do you know about this?"

"I don't know. This boat was given to me by Lin Di of the fishing pier. He said Scabby Zhang sold the boat to him. Lin Di wanted to please me, so he returned it to me."

"Oh, that's also a good thing." Chen Qingjiang pondered, "This Scabby Zhang, the boat is sold, I'm afraid he really took the money and ran away. I don't know what he went to do. Could it be that he went to be a bandit?"

Liang Qu's expression remained unchanged and urged: "Forget him, a local ruffian, let's go quickly."

Chen Qingjiang heard this and untied the boat, following closely behind Liang Qu's boat.

The awning boat is much larger than the sampan. It stands to reason that it should be more laborious to row, but because of the unique long oar structure of the awning, hitting the water on both sides is not only faster and more stable, but also more labor-saving.

Liang Qu has been practicing martial arts for more than a month and is about to break through. His strength is much greater than that of an adult. Rowing feels more relaxed and comfortable, and the boat doesn't even shake.

It is said that a fisherman with superb skills can put a dish of fennel beans on the edge of the awning boat and eat while rowing without spilling a bean.

Two awning boats traveled fast on the water one after another.

Liang Qu was immersed in the pleasure of galloping on the water, and Chen Qingjiang behind him couldn't keep up, shouting to wait for him.

But Liang Qu would stop even without shouting, they had arrived.

"Ashui... your strength is really great." Chen Qingjiang was quite out of breath, "Are we here?"

"Right, it's here, there are a lot of fish in this water area."

"Then I'll cast the net and try."

"Wait a minute, I'll sprinkle something."

Liang Qu pretended to take out a small box, dug out a ball of mud from it, squeezed it tightly, and threw it into the water.

"What is this?"

"Bait I asked Master for, it has great attraction to fish schools."

"There is such a good thing?"

It's just ordinary yellow mud. Liang Qu used it to cover up the eyes and ears to reduce the possibility of exposure, and also to give the two beasts time to drive the fish, making a signal action.

After sprinkling the "bait", Liang Qu immediately notified the two beasts under the water through the spiritual link to drive the gathered fish schools over.

After about a quarter of an hour, Liang Qu let Chen Qingjiang catch fish.

Chen Qingjiang caught the fishing net, swung his body, and the fishing net spread perfectly on the water surface.

"Hahaha, so many fish, really so many fish!"

Chen Qingjiang dragged the fishing net up with great effort. There were more than twenty big fish inside, visually estimated to be about forty wen.

In winter, the amount of one net!

Liang Qu compared it in his heart. It was indeed faster than the fat catfish catching fish alone.

A quarter of an hour, more than twenty big fish, Ah Fei alone would have to go back and forth seven or eight times to finish spitting, which would take a small hour.

"Ashui, hurry, your bait, come again."

"Alright."

One ball after another of yellow mud, one net after another of big fish.

Chen Qingjiang was so happy that he couldn't close his mouth, and he was so tired that he was sweating profusely, but he couldn't bear to rest for a moment.

What he was fishing for was not fish, but silver, white silver!

"Uncle Chen, it's almost enough."

"No, there are still so many fish," Chen Qingjiang was so tired that his hands and feet were numb, but he still wanted to continue fishing.

"We didn't bring a fish basket, the compartments are full, we can't put them down."

"Full?"

Chen Qingjiang was in a trance. Two boats were full in three or four hours?

He came back to his senses and muttered: "So many fish, it must be five or six hundred wen."

"I just saw two small trout, about the same, Uncle Chen, wipe your sweat, be careful of catching a cold." Liang Qu threw over a cloth towel, "It's the same tomorrow, there is plenty of bait, if it's not enough, we'll match it, let's go back first."

Five or six hundred wen, split equally, three hundred wen per person, seven taels of silver a month.

The most critical thing is that Liang Qu can free up more time to do other things in the future, fishing to make money, and no longer need to go out on the boat to pretend.

In the future, if there is a chance, he can pull more people in to form a "fleet", and the income can double, but the candidates must be cautious.

Liang Qu thought of the meal last night and felt emotional.

Unknowingly, he had separated from labor and became a privileged class. He didn't have to do anything every day to get money, the source was stable, and many people doing business were not as good as him.

Living in a luxury house, raising beautiful maids, it's really not a dream, it's just around the corner.

Chen Qingjiang looked at the boat cabin, full of regret.

He had lived for thirty years in vain and had never caught fish so happily. The fish were like crazy, actively drilling into the net. If they came a few more times, they would have to take them to mend the net.

Two awning boats docked one after another and stopped.

Just after tying the boat rope, Liang Qu heard someone shouting at him on the pier.

"Ashui, you are finally back, hurry back and see, someone is looking for trouble at your door!"