Daming female local tyrant

Shen Wan and Cheng Ze waited in Fengshu Town for Feng Guangsheng to lead someone to find Jing Lan.

Feng Guangsheng originally brought six to seventy people to Fengshu Town, and later borrowed more than 70 people from Chen Lizheng, adding up to nearly 100 people, hired seven or eight boats, and went separately to Qingfeng Town and Fengshu Town to Yangzhou to find scenic spots. Lan's whereabouts.

Five or six days later, all the people who went out to look for Jing Lan came back. They did not find Jing Lan's whereabouts, but only found a few floating corpses downstream. These floating corpses were all killed when the boat sank that night.

Everyone gathered together to discuss, and they all thought that Hong Ze was the only one who hadn't investigated, and Jing Lan was probably there.

Shen Wan said: "Then find a way to go to Hongze to find out Jinglan's whereabouts. In short, if you live, you must see people, if you die, you must see the corpse, otherwise I will not give up."

Feng Guangsheng went out to find people these few days, and heard the local people say that Hongze was dangerous, so after Shen Wan said so, he said that if they only had their current manpower, they wanted to enter Hongze to inquire about Jinglan. It must be bad luck.

Cheng Ze thought for a while and said: "Didn't Chen Lizheng say that there is a businessman who has made good friends with the barbarians in there to sell goods, why don't we spend some money to buy him, and ask him to help us find out if my sister is in Hong Kong when he goes to sell goods?" Ze. Elder Sister is a Han Chinese. If she really broke into Hongze, the local barbarians would not know about it. If you inquire a little, you will be able to find out the whereabouts of my Elder Sister."

Feng Guangsheng originally wanted to say that if the eldest lady had been in Hongze for five or six days, she might have been cooked and shared by those barbarians.

Thinking of the tragedy, Feng Guangsheng's heart trembled.

However, in front of Cheng Ze and Miss Shen, he dared not speak out.

Chen Lizheng was also invited to discuss with Shen Wan and others. Now he heard what Cheng Ze said, and said: "It just so happens that the barbarians buy Chinese firecrackers, fireworks, salt, sugar, wine, cloth, etc. every year before the fifteenth day. In Maple Town, there is a grocery seller in Fengshu Town who hires a boat to sell the goods. The family of the grocery seller in Maple Town is on the east side of the town. The man’s name is Cui Qi. A barbarian who fell into the water, and the barbarian later sworn brothers with him. With this relationship, Cui Qi stopped being a fisherman and changed to selling groceries. Every year, he went to Hongze to sell a few cargoes in exchange for the barbarian's medicinal materials, skins and other goods. Business is still booming. Tomorrow is the fourteenth, why don't you ask him to help you find out that the eldest lady of the Lu family is in Hongze."

Shen Wan and the others were overjoyed when they heard this, saying that in this way, they would definitely be able to find out about Jing Lan.

Then Shen Wan asked Chen Lizheng, when did this Cui Qiyian go to Hongze.

Chen Lizheng: "The fourteenth day of the first month, the first day of May, the first day of September, and the first day of December."

Shen Wan pondered: "In this way, there are only four days in a year when Han boats can go to Hongze. If we find out where Jing Lan is, we won't go with the boat, and the next time will be on the first day of May. Nothing happened to Jinglan being imprisoned by those barbarians, and tomorrow is the best day to rescue her. If there is a delay, Jinglan might just wait until May [-]st..."

Cheng Ze: "Yes! Sister Wan is right, then, tomorrow we will go to Hongze together to find out the whereabouts of my sister!"

"No, third young master, you can't go. You are the hope of the Lu family. The old lady told me to take good care of you and not let you take risks easily. This time, let the old man go with his men!" Feng Guangsheng said .

Shen Wan also spoke, she and Feng Guangsheng had the same idea, to tell Cheng Ze not to go, to stay in Fengshu Town to wait for news, otherwise no one would deal with other situations.

She said she went with Feng Guangsheng.

"Sister Wan, it is extremely dangerous to go to Hongze, you are a woman, so don't take risks lightly!" Cheng Ze stopped after hearing this.

Shen Wan resolutely said: "No, I must go, no matter whether Jing Lan is alive or dead, I have to see her, otherwise I will not be able to live in peace in this life."

This time, after Elder Sister was washed away by the river and disappeared, Cheng Ze keenly felt that Shen Wan's love for Elder Sister was not as simple as a friend in a boudoir.Chengze has also heard of women grinding mirrors, and there is a custom of marrying golden orchids in the south. They say they are sisters, but they eat and sleep at the same table and sleep together like a husband and wife.If other women were like this, Cheng Ze would find it ridiculous, but when it was his elder sister and Shen Wan's turn, Cheng Ze inexplicably felt that they were quite compatible.

Shen Wan came from the Shen family, the head of a prominent family in Jinling, she was very talented and beautiful, her elder sister was also a beautiful woman, and capable, the two of them together were simply picturesque.

Something happened to my elder sister, Shen Wan wanted to find her regardless of her own safety, Cheng Ze could completely understand.

Therefore, Cheng Ze also supported Shen Wan to go.

Feng Guangsheng brought the silver and went down to see Cui Qi led by Chen Lizheng. Cui Qi hesitated for a while, and after accepting Feng Guangsheng's 500 taels of silver, he also agreed to take them to Hongze tomorrow.

However, he also made a request. When they arrived in Hongze, they could not run around and they had to discuss everything with him.Otherwise, if he is caught by the barbarians, his life and death have nothing to do with him.And there should be no more than five people with him, otherwise the barbarians will be suspicious, and they will act as buddies to help him carry the goods.

As for Feng Guangsheng's request to help find out the whereabouts of the eldest lady of the Lu family named Lu Jinglan, he would also ask his brother.

Feng Guangsheng agreed, and told Shen Wan and Cheng Ze when he went back, they went to pick two nurses brought by the Lu family who were very good at fist and kick, and asked Chen Lizheng to find someone who was familiar with the local terrain and good at water. people.

At five o'clock the next day, Shen Wan disguised herself as a man in coarse clothes, and followed Feng Guangsheng and others onto the boat hired by Cui Qi.

Cui Qi hired five boats, loaded with groceries such as salt, sugar, cloth, wine, etc., and sailed towards Hongze at dawn.

From Fengshu Town to Hongze, it is about a hundred miles away by water and down the river.

Cui Qi’s five ships were all decorated with black flags with a flower snake embroidered in the middle. He told Feng Guangsheng and others that his barbarian brothers had asked for this flag from the barbarian leader, and only with this flag could they be Make sure that the boat is safe and can reach the barbarian water village safely.

He also said that when the boat travels thirty or forty miles from the Sancha River towards Hongze, there are already barbarian spies watching in the dense forests on the mountains on both sides. If they see a boat without a black snake flag, some barbarian sailors will go into the water. Pull the mechanism hidden at the bottom of the river to capsize the boat.

After the ship capsized, those who survived were captured by the barbarians, either imprisoned as slaves, or sacrificed to the gods and fed to snakes.

If Miss Lu was lucky enough to be imprisoned and become a servant of the barbarian leader, she would not die.

These words gave Shen Wan a little more confidence in finding Jing Lan in Hongze this time.

Cui Qi's boat finally arrived at the barbarian's water village safely at dawn.

The gate of the water village was pulled up under the command of the little barbarian leader, and five ships sailed into the water village one after another, and docked at the pier inside.

As soon as the ship docked, the barbarians blew the horn to inform the people in the entire village that the Han Chinese cargo ship was coming, and everyone could come here to barter for the goods they needed.

Cui Qi and the others set up long tables by the pier, and placed the goods they brought on them, except for the wine jars, which were not brought ashore.

Early in the morning, Cui Qi told Shen Wan and the others that the leader of the wine barbarians in this wine jar will ask someone to move them out later, because barbarians are not allowed to drink alcohol on weekdays, and they only offer sacrifices to gods on the fifteenth day of each month. A barbarian can get a bowl of wine to drink.

Therefore, the barbarian leader's subordinates can come and remove these wines in a while, and there is no charge for these wines. It can be regarded as a tribute to the barbarian leader every time he returns to Hongze to sell the goods.

Shen Wan looked at those big wine jars, each jar weighed at least fifty catties, and twenty jars of wine was one thousand catties.

Although they are all very common wines, they cost only a few tens of pennies a catty, and they cost dozens of taels of silver.

Excluding the wages and boat hire, it’s no wonder that Cui Qi said that he would only make a hundred and eighty taels of silver if he sold the goods and sold them back.

Feng Guangsheng offered 500 taels of silver, and Cui Qi dared to take the risk of bringing them to Hongze, because those barbarians told Cui Qi that they should not bring anyone who is not a seller into Hongze, otherwise they will be found out and they will be punished in the future. He is not allowed to enter Hongze to sell goods.

Except for Shen Wan who stayed in the cabin, Feng Guangsheng and others went to the pier outside to help Cui Qi sell goods.

When the barbarians came to exchange things, they always talked to Cui Qi. After Cui Qi looked at the goods they brought, he ordered Feng Guangsheng and others to weigh the goods.

After being busy until noon, those barbarians dispersed and went home for dinner.

Feng Guangsheng and the others also rested and went back to the boat to eat some dry food.

Cui Qi left with his sworn brother. He told Feng Guangsheng and the others that he would go to his brother's house for lunch and come back an hour later to continue selling.

Shen Wan and the others were anxiously waiting for Cui Qi to come back on the boat, because they entrusted him to inquire about Jing Lan from his barbarian brothers.

Cui Qi finally came back. He stepped into the cabin where Shen Wan and the others were, and told them some good news in a low voice: "...About seven days ago, the sailors here in Hongze brought back a Han woman from the river. About sixteen or seventeen years old, when she was about to be fed to the gods, the saint on the holy mountain took her away. She said that the girl was sick and too thin, and the saint wanted to recover her and feed her more meat before feeding her to the gods. I The appearance of the Han woman I heard from my brother is very similar to the young lady of the Lu family you are looking for, so I conclude that your young lady is not dead yet, she is on the holy mountain."

As soon as these words came out, Shen Wan let out a long sigh of relief, clasped her hands together, looked up at the sky and worshiped, murmuring in her mouth that she thanked the gods and Buddhas for their blessings and that Jing Lan was still alive.

"Where is the holy mountain? How far is it?" Feng Guangsheng asked immediately.

Cui Qi shook his head: "I advise you not to think about going to the holy mountain to find someone. There are barbarians heavily guarding it, and the holy girl has two snakes, who stay by her side all day long. If someone goes to the holy mountain, the two A snake will warn the saint, and it will also gather a group of snakes to besiege strangers, so that strangers who go up the mountain will fall into the belly of the snake or be bitten and die."

As soon as these words came out, Shen Wan and the others were shocked and turned pale.

Feng Guangsheng frowned even more, and said: "What should I do? I know where the eldest lady is, but I can't go to rescue her. Is it possible that I can just watch her die in the belly of a snake one day?"