Chapter 1023: A Small Accident

In the middle of the night, in the middle hall of the backyard of the Wang mansion with high walls and large courtyards, a breeze with a hint of coolness penetrated the doors and windows that were not tightly closed, stirring the dim candlelight, and a pile of shadows swayed and flickered. The atmosphere was very heavy.

Wang Yan was still wearing a white undershirt, still with his hair disheveled, took a sip of tea, and looked at the strong man kneeling on the ground, covered in dark red blood.

"You said the water bandits didn't accept the benefits, and killed as soon as they got on the boat?"

"Yes, young master. Five small boats came, probably twenty people, not much more than us, and we could still handle it. So Steward Zhao got closer and wanted to negotiate carefully, giving some silver to be safe.

But I don't know how they talked, the bandit leader cut Steward Zhao to death with one knife, and with a shout, he brought people to kill. The change was too fast, the brothers reacted too slowly, and they couldn't kill them. Two people died and they were scared out of their wits, jumping into the river to seek life. The little one fought for a long time, seeing the brothers jump into the river, there was no way, I could only jump with them. If it weren't for the little one's good water, I'm afraid there wouldn't even be anyone to report to the young master."

"According to you, who are those people?"

"How can the little one see clearly, maybe they are those who can't live and become bandits, or maybe they are from water transport, just seeing that our boat is small and people are few and easy to bully, robbing a ticket can make a fortune, and there is no aftermath." This person said weakly, but also filled with righteous indignation.

Wang Yan got up and went to take his pulse, and checked the external injuries. There were several knife wounds and several bruises. It was not easy to run back all the way.

After checking the injuries, he took a pen and paper to write a prescription, and ordered: "Take him down to rest, and let the nanny in the house decoct the medicine tomorrow."

At this time, it is still about common knowledge. Scholars are all versatile. It is not strange that Wang Yan knows a little medical skill. Of course, this is based on the fact that others don't know how high his medical skill is.

Seeing that everyone went out, Steward Wang Fuli couldn't help but yawn: "Young master, what are the arrangements?"

"Give enough pensions to those people, and take good care of their families. For those outside the village, bring their children to the village to study."

"I will arrange it tomorrow. What about the water bandits, young master? We have traveled to Jiangning five times, and finally opened the road, and the manpower is familiar. Now they are all killed, only one came back, and a boat of goods is gone, and even the boat is gone, wasting more than two months of hard work. Why don't you tell Master Ouyang?"

"That is the territory of Jiangning Prefecture, Master Ouyang is the Yangzhou governor, and can't manage the affairs there. Of course, Master Ouyang was once glorious, and can also have influence. But now his situation is not good, and he must not be caught by others. What's more, it's just small water bandits, why use a sledgehammer to kill a chicken?"

"What does the young master mean?"

"Naturally, kill back."

"Absolutely not, young master, the son of a thousand gold does not sit in a dangerous hall, I know the young master is valiant, but..."

"I have made up my mind, don't say any more." Wang Yan waved his hand and ordered, "Kill three pigs tomorrow, the whole village will eat together, select thirty strong men, transport the knives and bows and arrows to the wharf first, and follow me to the boat in the afternoon."

"If they are people from water transport, then it will cause trouble, young master."

"Uncle Fu, remember, water transport is water transport, and people from water transport are people from water transport, and they cannot be confused. Water transport is indeed powerful and difficult to move, but people from water transport can't be moved? Don't worry."

"This world. Young master, rest early." Uncle Fu sighed, arched his hands, and then left.

He is an old man of the Wang family. He followed Wang Yan's father to do things before he got married. Wang Yan inherited the family business, and he followed Wang Yan to do things. Therefore, for his own young master to go out to kill people as a scholar, he was not surprised at all, because in his memory, the young master started to want people's lives when he was fourteen.

Wang Yan didn't want to either. There are still more than two months before the exam. He is still hard-working to maintain the persona of a person who struggles, makes progress, and studies hard.

In the past two months, he only gathered with a group of scholars three times, all of whom were people he wanted to contact and win over. They were all from wealthy families in the local area. These people added together were the opinion representatives of Yangzhou in the future, a serious top-tier social circle in Yangzhou, not comparable to the group of Liu Yun, although Liu Yun also mixed into the gathering, but played a supporting role.

So Wang Yan didn't want to do it himself, but there was no way, there was no one available, and the family background was too thin. In this kind of startup time, he had to go out himself to kill back.

He had a total of two merchant teams, totaling more than thirty people. One team did business in the north of the Yangtze River, and one team did business in the south of the Yangtze River. The failure this time was indeed as the steward said, more than two months of hard work, as well as the cultivation of personnel, all went to waste. Earning money or losing money is not important, what is important is the foundation, breaking the road that just ran out, which has low profit but is always profitable, and is enough to extend the tentacles.

In the past two months, he managed the village well, unified the villagers' thinking, and even during the busy farming season, he took time to conduct some military training.

He also rectified the hygiene in the village. Every family built pigsties, set up nests for chickens, ducks, and geese, paved clean stone slabs, and specially spent money to find the poorest family in the village, letting the old couple do cleaning work in their spare time. Even the small river flowing through the village, Wang Yan organized people to dredge the river.

Such a lot of work, and it caught up with the busy farming season, which really tired the villagers, but they were all very happy. After all, Wang the Good Man opened the granary to release grain, supplemented grain for each family, and cooked meat in a big pot, distributing some meat mince to each family every day, mainly heavy oil and salt soup, supplementing physical strength.

Most importantly, Wang Yan spent money to build a school at the entrance of the village, and invited two poor scholars who had passed the state examination but had no hope of the imperial examination, and were already in their thirties and exhausted their family wealth, having to give up their unrealistic dream of the imperial examination, and earn money to support their families and cultivate the next generation. He subsidized part of the tuition for the students, and each family gave a little bit, so that the dozens of boys and girls in the village could read and open their minds.

Such a village school was established with two teachers giving lectures to the children and Wang Yan giving lectures to the two teachers.

This move was more supported by the villagers than Wang Yan spending money to buy pigs and distribute them, opening the granary to release grain, and rectifying the hygiene in the village. It also tightly gathered the villagers together and twisted them into a rope. He is now responsive to every call, whether he is his tenant or not, he must listen to him.

Before, they didn't listen to him, and it was easy to be made difficult by Wang Fuli. Now, if they don't listen to him, they don't need Wang Fuli to come out, the villagers will make them have no place to live in the village. Wang Yan is truly supreme in Wang Family Village now.

In addition to these, Wang Yan once again produced soap, perfume, etc., and opened a Wang's fragrance shop in the city, just selling these things. There were also some messy aromatherapy, all rubbed by people in the village in their spare time, mixed in to earn black money.

Of course, rich people are not stupid, they can see the quality. For this reason, Wang Yan also recruited a family that made aromatherapy, pulled out a work group for the villagers, and made it with precision.

The main customers, besides wealthy families, were people in brothels, which sold quite black, and were quite popular. After all, this is a group with real purchasing power, not black enough to show the identity of the consumer.

His teacher is Ouyang Xiu, basically the top of the Great Song except for the Emperor. He himself has a great reputation, and he is a representative figure of Yangzhou scholars. It is more than enough to guard such a source of wealth.

All in all, except for the annoying things that just happened, everything is very good.

After sleeping half the night, the next day, the steward selected thirty strong men according to the ranking in the village, from front to back, and Wang Yan talked to them one by one.

In the large open space in front of the Wang family's door, a big pot was set up, and meat was cooked. The children had no heart to study, and the old and young men all came to help. At noon, each family took bowls and chopsticks and ate the big pot rice in front of Wang Yan's house.

The thirty strong men selected were all drinking rare wine in big mouthfuls, eating meat in big pieces, and talking and laughing with their families. There was no life and death, and no last words. They were just saying ordinary words day after day on an unusual day. After eating, they left silently, and might never come back.

Fortunately, during the day, four sloppy people ran back. Wang Yan didn't blame them for not fighting to the death. The enemy had many people, and it was a sudden launch. First, the leading steward was killed, and the battle process of jumping on the boat on the water was also very fast. They all had some bravery, and it was normal to be afraid after only basic training.

So Wang Yan comforted them very kindly one by one, checked their injuries and prescribed medicine, took away the one with the lightest injuries to lead the way, and embarked on the journey of the first battle of the Great Song...

By the wharf of Yangzhou, Wang Yan was in a strong suit, specially disguised, so as not to be easily recognized. After all, he was going to be an official in the future, and he could control these people together, but he couldn't control the fish that slipped through the net. If they met in the future, and things were revealed, although it could be solved, it would take some energy, which was not cost-effective, so it was better to prepare everything early.

He took thirty strong men and boarded two small boats, which were much larger than small sampans, but far inferior to serious cargo ships. They could carry people and were fast.

When the sky was dark, eating dry food for dinner, holding torches, they went up the river like this.

The location of the incident was a section of the river between Jiangning Prefecture and Zhenzhou, which is between Nanjing and Yizheng City later. Jiangning Prefecture is also an important city for water and land transportation, and Jiangning County is the urban area of Jiangning Prefecture, which is the provincial capital of Jiang Nan East Road. Strictly speaking, although Prefecture, State, Army, and Supervisor are parallel units, Prefecture is half a level, or even a level higher than State.

Prefectures are divided into Capital Prefectures and Secondary Prefectures. Capital Prefectures are the four capitals often mentioned in the Song Dynasty, namely Tokyo Kaifeng Prefecture, Xijing Henan Prefecture, Nanjing Yingtian Prefecture, and Beijing Great Ming Prefecture, and the rest are Secondary Prefectures. In modern times, Capital Prefectures are roughly equivalent to municipalities directly under the central government, and Secondary Prefectures are equivalent to deputy provincial-level cities. Among them, important Secondary Prefectures are roughly equivalent to cities specifically designated in the state plan.

Jiangning Prefecture can be ranked.

On such an important water transportation artery, someone dared to rob boats, kill people, and rob money, and I don't know how many "White Stripes in the Waves" (Li Kui's nickname) and how many "Ruan Brothers" there are. No matter how many there are, they are all old birthday stars eating arsenic, urgently wanting to see the King of Hell.

As the saying goes, there is strength in numbers. A hundred miles of water, more than ten people rowed without panic, keeping their physical strength, and arrived at the place where they were robbed last night in the middle of the night.

Tonight, there was fog on the river, and the water was rushing happily. Occasionally, strong men turned the oars to keep the boat stable, bringing up the river water, and falling again, in the quiet fog on the river.

The dim light of the torch, at this time, could not penetrate very far, like the hazy light when the world first opened, and also like the lighthouse guiding souls to fight for crossing on the Nai River.

Wang Yan closed his eyes and sat cross-legged in the cabin with heavy moisture. The blade of the Hanfeng sword, which had not drunk blood for a long time, was placed on his lap, and the scabbard was removed. His slender fingers tapped lightly on the blade.

Because the fingers were upright, the edges of the neatly trimmed nails tapped on the blade, and there was a faint light melody.

Suddenly, rapid footsteps creaked on the wooden boards of the broken boat, and one person bent down at the cabin door. Speaking in a suppressed voice: "Young master, there is movement."

"Tell the brothers to be ready, hold the shields up, and guard against their arrows."

"Yes, young master."

This person who escaped from death and came to lead the way felt very strange. Clearly, the cabin was pitch black, but the young master's eyes and the sword on the young master's knees were bright.

He didn't know that the darkness that was darker than the unclear darkness was brightness...

After a while, arrows really shot from the fog. Wang Yan stood at the bow of the boat, very calmly waving his sword to split the arrows coming towards his head: "Northwest."

As his voice came out, the boat suddenly drifted to the side, and then rushed fiercely into the fog that could not be seen clearly.

Everyone came out to try their luck, otherwise, in such an environment, absolutely no one would run to the river to find trouble. They tried their luck with goods that urgently needed to be transported and turned over, and Wang Yan tried his luck with them.

The sound of the oars violently turning the river water could be transmitted, and the torches that were not extinguished and had some penetrating power also had instructions. The water bandits saw the movement here, and naturally they were very happy. They also saved effort.

Immediately, in the calm lake, a rhythmic whistle sounded, which was their secret signal for communication.

But no more arrows were fired. Whether it was mountain bandits or earth bandits, they were not very rich. It was quite good to be able to shoot two rounds of arrows. After all, these were consumable strategic materials, and water bandits were not easy to get too many. Even if Great Song officers had military weapons for sale, there were so many grass-headed kings, and they were really in short supply.

This is distributed according to rules. The closer to the center, the weaker the strength of various bandits, and vice versa. Except for the battle zone at the border, it is not easy to mix there. Both sides of the battle will sweep it away. Those who can mix at the border have some skills. Grass-headed kings don't have much space at the border, unless they are playing the trick of nurturing bandits to bolster themselves. But obviously, Great Song border generals don't have such conditions.

The reason is stability. The closer to the center, the more stable it must be, and the lower the tolerance for some things. Although they are all economic accounts, they are all losing money no matter how they are calculated, and they are not willing to move easily, but if they are close, it is a provocation to the sensitive nerves of Great Song monarchs and ministers.

So this group of water bandits must be strong, otherwise they wouldn't have the courage to pick up cheap here. But they are definitely not strong, this is a matter that affects the economic lifeline, but if they show their heads, they will be gathered and killed.

However, they performed very bravely. As soon as the two boats collided, someone slashed and jumped over, straight towards Wang Yan's face.

Wang Yan was not in a hurry, opened the slashing knife, and by the way, wiped the neck of this unknown little bandit, and also kicked him into the Yangtze River with a cool kick. Then, regardless of the hard top of the opposite jumping slash, he went to their boat, straight to the back, looking like the person in charge.

The strong men of Wang Family Village behind were also not timid at all. After all, the precious young master was at the front playing with his life. Although the young master's bravery at this time was a bit different from the reincarnation of the literary star they heard about, obviously they had no mind to think about it.

The strong men also followed Wang Yan as quickly as possible, helping Wang Yan share some pressure, although Wang Yan didn't need it at all. After all, this little leader who looked like the person in charge of this boat had been thrown on the broken wooden boat board by Wang Yan like a dead dog.

Seeing this, other little bandits began to jump into the river wisely. At the same time, on the other boat, the strong men of Wang Family Village were quite brave, and there were many people beating few people, and the sound of jumping into the river was also endless.

A battle ended like this. The price was that two strong men of Wang Family Village died, one was seriously injured and saved by Wang Yan, and many others were slightly injured.

The strong men lit more torches, but according to Wang Yan's instructions, they surrounded a circle of straw shields, and all tried to lie down as low as possible.

And in the center covered by the torches, Wang Yan gently used the back blade of the Hanfeng sword to draw on the body of the little bandit leader one by one, until the little bandit leader woke up.

Kneeling on the ground, kowtowing like pounding garlic.

Wang Yan smiled and asked: "Are you people from water transport?"

"It is the subordinate of the younger brother of the concubine of the manager of this section of the river. I heard that I lost a lot of money, so I called us to rob the cargo ships that were alone and weak in the middle of the night."

"Then where is the younger brother of the concubine of the manager of this section of the river? And where are the cargo ships robbed by you recently?"

"The little one is willing to lead the way, begging the hero to spare the little one's dog life."

"Look at your performance, hurry up and lead the way." Wang Yan drew another knife on him.

The so-called coming early is not as good as coming by coincidence. The goods he shot were not many, all of which were cheap for Wang Yan. As for the person who dared to hit his idea, and the little leader who led the way, naturally there was no reason to live.

Considering it comprehensively, Wang Yan did not move the manager, to see if this person was reasonable.

Water transport has always been quite important. Forming cliques is also an inevitable thing. By the Qing Dynasty, it became the Water Transport Gang. But this organizational form has actually always existed.

Because the Song Dynasty's commerce was developed, the transaction volume was large, the need for cargo turnover was large, and the transportation of various official materials, the demand for water transportation was quite large. Because compared to land, the transport capacity is strong and the cost is low.

What's more, the throughput of Bianjing, a world metropolis with a population of 1.2 or 1.3 million, is extremely large. Relying on the supply and consumption of the surrounding areas, it cannot be supplied at all. It is necessary to supply Bianjing with a game of chess across the country.

The officials in charge of water transport are the Dispatch Commissioner and the Transfer Commissioner, who do not belong to each other and are responsible to the Three Departments. A small manager below is related to the lives of tens of thousands of people, and the power is very large.

If this is killed, the impact will definitely not be small, and it is not very good to cause more trouble.

In this way, killing people, robbing money, arranging to sell stolen goods, and waiting for things to change, Wang Yan returned to Yangzhou, it was already seven days later... ===== CHAPTER 1024 =====