Chapter 496: Human Stick

The night watchman's sudden bellow jolted the entire ship awake.

Everyone scrambled onto the deck and peered around in all directions, but under the bright moonlight there was nothing — only the rustling reeds and the river water.

Finding no one, and hearing the watchman insist there had been a figure, the grim-faced old boatmaster spat over the side and said fiercely, "Probably just a few petty thieves — everyone stay sharp!"

After this, the atmosphere aboard instantly grew heavy. In the late Ming, social order had collapsed and bandits roamed everywhere, let alone here in the Pearl River Delta, a region dense with waterways.

Everyone on the boat today, apart from He Biandan, had spent years traveling the rivers and lakes, and knew full well how vicious river bandits could be. So now they were all terrified, and the more timid shop assistants had already hidden themselves in the cabin, too scared to come out.

But since things had already come to this, they could only grit their teeth and endure the night: the nearest village was still several li away, and the people there would neither open their doors at night nor send anyone to help, so those on the boat were now completely isolated and helpless.

There was nothing to be done; they could only blame the reef at the river bottom — otherwise, under normal circumstances, the boatmen would rather die than stop in a place like this.

Yet there is a rule called Mofei Dinglü, which in plain Chinese means whatever you fear will come — at midnight, figures appeared again under the moonlight, and this time there were quite a few of them.

This time the night watchman didn't even dare to shout. There were barely a dozen people on the boat in total; dealing with two or three petty thieves was one thing, but if they really ran into a large bandit gang, that was far beyond what their handful of men could handle.

Before long, those several figures vanished again.

By now, most of the people on the boat realized that tonight was likely going to mean trouble.

After several such nerve-wracking cycles, the hour had reached the latter half of the night. Apart from the clueless He Biandan, who had seized another chance to wolf down two rice balls, everyone else was beginning to panic: in the reed thicket across from them, countless shadowy figures could be seen shifting about.

"Young fellow, come here."

At this moment, Shopkeeper Wu, who knew full well that something was bound to happen tonight, once again secretly pulled He Biandan, whom he thought highly of, into a corner: "Today's affair may well implicate you. Young fellow, listen well — if a large band of bandits emerges shortly, you run, and run as far as you can. If you still have the heart later, go find me at the White Family General Store in Zengcheng."

Only then did He Biandan realize the gravity of the situation. But just as he opened his mouth to ask, "Shopkeeper, if I run, how will you get away?", a sharp whistle rang out through the night sky. Immediately after, lights blazed up all around, and from the reed thickets on both sides of the Fuping, over a dozen sampans shot out, crowded with men holding torches, and in an instant they had the Fuping surrounded.

"Run, young fellow, run!"

Shoved by Shopkeeper Wu, He Biandan jolted into action and immediately leaped from the boat, dashing obliquely toward the reed thicket, his hand still gripping that tool of his trade.

The next moment, just as He Biandan was about to plunge into the reed thicket, he dug in his heels and slowly backed out again — torches had suddenly flared up within the reeds as well, and a row of figures wielding knives and axes slowly emerged.

In this moment, the Fuping was surrounded by a bandit gang numbering sixty or seventy in total.

"Gentlemen, this old man is the shopkeeper of the White Family General Store in Zengcheng; the proprietor is Provincial Graduate Bai of Zengcheng County. I know not which bold heroes stand before me today — please, declare your name."

Shopkeeper Wu had spent half a lifetime in business and had encountered situations like today's a few times before in his career, so he was not overly flustered and, following protocol, first declared his affiliation.

In such circumstances, a bandit gang with some connection would generally not make things too hard for the people on the boat. After all, most Sitting Tigers lived off collecting tolls — a shootout with a local merchant convoy? Gangs like that had long since been wiped out.

What Shopkeeper Wu feared most now was running into roving bandits. Roving bandits who crossed prefectures and counties never considered the consequences; murder and plunder were their standard procedure.

The next moment, a sinister voice rang out: "Let it be known to you all — we men never change our name wherever we go: Lao Qi of Guaitou Wa."

Hearing this, Shopkeeper Wu felt slightly relieved: Guaitou Wa was a stretch of reed beach nearby, where a gang of bandits had long been entrenched, and he had heard of the big boss Lao Qi's reputation. Though he had never dealt with these men, they were at least locals — it seemed everyone's lives could be spared today.

With that thought, he called out in reply: "So it is Seventh Master Lao of the Sand Stockade — may I ask what guidance you have for us?"

"Heh heh, Zengcheng's Provincial Graduate Bai — heard of him, heard of him." That sinister voice sounded again: "But Master Bai has never paid his respects at this shabby temple of ours before, so today there'll be no clutching at the Buddha's feet. Listen up on the boat — if you know what's good for you, submit quietly and be taken, and things will be handled by the rules afterward, sparing us the use of blades. If any of you dare bare your teeth at us men, we'll hack you dead, you damn fools!"

"We yield, we yield!" After exchanging a glance with the boatmaster, Shopkeeper Wu knew that surrender was the best possible outcome, and so he declared their submission on the spot.

In a bloodless situation like this, the bandits usually wouldn't mistreat their captives. Afterward, as long as word was sent back, Provincial Graduate Bai would naturally find an intermediary to ransom them, so Shopkeeper Wu hurried to yield.

Hearing the people on the boat declare their stance, the surrounding bandits prepared to paddle their sampans over and take control of the cargo ship.

Unexpectedly, the next moment, an incident occurred.

A great shout came from the shore — He Biandan swung his carrying pole and began fighting the bandits.

This was the young man's first time in such a situation, and his heart was already panicked; when he then heard talk of surrender, he completely lost his head. Not knowing how things would unfold, He Biandan thought he was about to be caught by the bandits and planted as a lotus flower, so he swung his pole and tried to fight his way to an escape route.

Although He Biandan launched a sudden attack, there were over a dozen bandits before him — could they really let him slip away? The young man was quickly surrounded. Under the bright torchlight and moonlight, He Biandan shouted repeatedly, swung his pole in wide arcs, and fought the men around him into a tangled brawl.

Yet once the fighting started, He Biandan proved surprisingly impressive. The young man was tall, long-limbed, and agile; swinging his pole in full circles, he struck fiercely back and forth, and the bandits with knives and axes could not breach his defense circle in the heat of the moment — two of them were even knocked down by He Biandan through carelessness.

This skill of He Biandan's had been honed through daily practice. Every trade had its territory, and porters were no exception, so the young man had often fought with his carrying pole against others.

In this way, He Biandan rampaged like a mad tiger through the crowd, charging left and thrusting right, and in a short time he had actually beaten down three or four bandits. Had he not been unfamiliar with the terrain, he might well have broken through.

Shopkeeper Wu, standing at the prow, was burning with anxiety and kept shouting: "Young fellow, stop fighting! The proprietor will pay silver later and will surely ransom us — this old man guarantees it!"

He Biandan heard the shouting, but by now he was riding a tiger and couldn't dismount; all around him were flashing blades and axes, and one hit would cost him his life, so he could not stop.

The bandits, seeing that He Biandan wouldn't listen to reason, grew impatient. Soon two men carrying three-eye blunderbusses stepped down from the sampans and walked over, ready to settle this fool with lead shot.

Unexpectedly, that sinister voice rang out again: "Don't hurt this one — use the net!"

Hearing the Great Boss's order, several more men came down from the sampans. The next moment, a hemp net, reeking of fish and filth with a few salted fish still hanging from it, was thrown over him. Poor He Biandan, whose valor had surpassed the Three Armies, was finally trapped by the fishing net, then kicked to the ground as men rushed over, rolling several times on the ground... Now He Biandan had become a human stick.

A human stick naturally met no good end: fists and feet rained down on He Biandan, beating him until he howled in agony.

After taking enough of a beating, He the Human Stick was tossed onto a sampan, and then Shopkeeper Wu and the assistants were herded aboard as well.

The bandits handled this kind of situation with practiced ease. After escorting the captives, now turned into ransom tickets, away, the cargo from the hold was quickly brought out and distributed among the sampans and boats. At the moment the eastern sky showed the white of a fish's belly, a whistle sounded, and the sampans, clustered like a school of sardines, vanished into the reed thicket, leaving behind only a solitary wrecked boat and the token of the Guaitou Wa bandit gang — left for the rescuers to see, to facilitate negotiations for the ransom.

Guaitou Wa was not far from where the Fuping had run aground; otherwise the bandits could not have arrived so quickly for such a sudden incident. So after threading through the twisting, maze-like reed thickets for a while, Lao Qi's bandit gang returned to their lair.

Guaitou Wa, covered with a scattering of broken bamboo huts and grass sheds, was hard for outsiders unfamiliar with the waterways to find. Once the bandits reached their territory, they first locked all the ransom tickets into a special wooden-palisade "human pen," then began unloading the cargo.

At this time, He Biandan, still in human-stick form, was simply left lying on the open ground, surrounded by legs and feet coming and going, and from time to time someone would kick him again for being in the way.

After unloading the goods, the bandit gang cheerfully began preparing a victory feast: today's job was like a pie falling from the sky — they had obtained their spoils without the hard work of lying in ambush and shedding blood, so of course they had reason to celebrate.

The next moment, tinplate-packaged liquor and canned goods were picked out from the cargo, bonfires were lit, and fish and wind-dried chicken were skewered on branches — the feast began.

And He Biandan the human stick was finally rolled over with a shove of someone's foot to the Great Boss.

The Great Boss, named Lao Qi, looked to be not very old, around thirty or so. This man had long, narrow eyes, a pale beardless face, and a solid, muscular build — his whole appearance carried a dark, sinister air.

But when Boss Lao saw He Biandan, just now untangled from the fishing net, a smile appeared on his face: "Brat, not bad moves. What do you do?"

"Porter." He Biandan, his face bruised and swollen, no longer dared to act rashly and answered honestly after getting to his feet.

"Tall, good fighter, fiery temper... Brat, you've chosen the wrong trade — you're not cut out to be a porter." Boss Lao chuckled, then handed over a bowl of fiery erguotou liquor: "Work for me, and I guarantee you'll eat well and drink well, and later I'll find you a woman to cool your fire. How about it?"

"Don't drink — one sip and I'm out." He Biandan, watching the river bandits pop open can after can of pink luncheon meat and dump it into the pot, was already drooling: "Feed me my fill of rice, and let me eat meat!"

"Haha!" Boss Lao laughed heartily: "Still a virgin, eh — I like that! Go eat your meat, and after you're done I'll give you a joining bonus in a red envelope."

The next moment, He Biandan charged toward the table piled with chicken, duck, fish, and meat, whereupon he was beaten up again by the veteran bandits. After learning the rules, the young man was finally given a wind-dried chicken and began tearing into it ravenously.

Crouched in a corner gnawing on the chicken, He Biandan stole glances, carefully studying the pen where the captives were held.