Chapter 00156: Water Bandits (Part 1)
# Water Bandits (Part 1)
Chapter 156
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 156: Water Bandits (Part 1)
Dayong Calendar
Year 1154, Seventh Month.
Yue Prefecture Kingdom, southern side of the Jiao River.
A large ship sailed steadily on the tranquil water's surface.
The lanterns hanging on the ship had the character 'Tang' written on them.
This wasn't the Tang of the great Tang Dynasty, but rather indicated that the ship's owner was surnamed Tang.
It should have been a calm and starless night, but at this moment, one could see small boats quickly emerging from the nearby reed marshes, one after another, and almost simultaneously, they pulled up alongside the large ship.
Not long after, piercing screams shattered the night sky.
The boatmen all shouted, "Water ghosts!" trying to awaken the people on the ship who were still in their dreams.
"Water ghost" was the local term for them; in reality, they were water bandits.
These people were excellent swimmers.
They specialized in appearing at night.
After a round of burning, killing, and pillaging, they would vanish into the reed marshes.
Their movements were secretive and hard to trace, which is why people called them water ghosts.
They climbed aboard from their small boats, or even from the water itself.
As soon as they got on, they brandished their gleaming blades and began killing everywhere.
One glance at such a large ship revealed it belonged to a wealthy family, full of riches to plunder, so naturally, the water bandits fought with all their might.
The awakened boatmen and servants were not completely helpless.
They all grabbed swords and shields to fight the water bandits.
If they were to surrender without a fight now, there would basically be no chance of survival.
"Young Lady! Young Lady!"
A maidservant frantically knocked on the door.
Soon, the Tang family's young lady emerged, draping some clothes over herself as she opened the door.
"Young Lady, there are water ghosts!"
"Don't be afraid. We just need to drive them back."
This young lady of the Tang family was named Tang Lianyu.
Although she was a young lady from a wealthy family, she wasn't the soft and cowardly type who would only scream when faced with trouble.
Upon hearing the news, she grabbed a small dagger and led her trembling maidservant onto the deck.
Just then, a dark figure pounced from the side, grabbing the Tang young lady's hand and said with a lecherous smile:
"Little girl, you're fair-skinned and quite pretty. Come have some fun with big brother."
"Let go!"
The Tang young lady's almond-shaped eyes widened, and she shouted without a trace of fear:
"You were born as humans, yet you do things worse than pigs and dogs. Have you no shame!"
"Haha, in a moment, big brother will show you what shame is."
In the midst of the struggle, a loud 'bang' was heard.
The water bandit pulling the Tang young lady's eyes went wide, and he collapsed limply to the ground.
Amidst a puff of smoke that was faint in the night, Tang Lianyu turned to face the water bandits fighting on the deck, and said sternly:
"All of you, scram! Otherwise, the unique hidden weapon in my hand won't be merciful!"
The water bandits had indeed never seen such a situation, and were all a little frightened.
At this moment, with a sneer, the water bandit leader, carrying an iron-ringed broadsword, walked onto the deck.
"What unique hidden weapon? A musket is a musket. Do you really think us men have never seen one?"
Now Tang Lianyu was a little flustered.
She quickly pointed the gun at him.
The latter was not afraid in the slightest and shouted:
"That little girl's musket can only fire one shot. Get her now, everyone!"
Tang Lianyu hadn't expected that among these countryside water bandits, someone would recognize a musket, and even know that it could only fire one shot.
She immediately panicked.
But just at this moment, a water bandit who had just climbed over the ship's rail, before he could even let out a wild laugh, was kicked away on the spot, his body bouncing twice on the deck...
–‐‐——–‐‐——
A short while earlier, Yang Yiyi was squatting on a black-canopied boat, looking up at the moon.
Originally, she wanted to look at the stars, but the weather wasn't very good today, so she could only look at the moon.
It wasn't that Yang Yiyi had nothing better to do.
It was because Li Chengxi had previously told her to pay close attention to the things around her, and she might be able to comprehend a Divine Technique.
Of course, the term "Divine Technique" was something Yang Yiyi had imagined herself.
Right now, Yang Yiyi had a kind of unconditional trust in Li Chengxi.
Whatever Li Chengxi said, Yang Yiyi would definitely believe, so on the boat, aside from occasionally stretching her limbs, she spent almost all her time observing.
Yang Yiyi was already used to sleeping early and waking up early.
When she was at her sect, she always got up before dawn to practice her cultivation and chop firewood, then start a fire to cook.
So while Zheng Yinping and Li Yingluo were still asleep, she was already up watching the moon.
And at this moment, she heard a faint commotion.
Yang Yiyi stood up and looked in the direction of the river.
She saw a large ship stopped on the water, surrounded by what seemed to be a circle of small boats.
"Young Lady, don't look. Those are the local water bandits."
The boatman rowing the boat was one of Zheng Yinping's people, having been undercover in the Yue Prefecture Kingdom for a long time.
He knew what was happening at a glance.
"There are many water bandits on this Jiao River. But as long as you pay them off, you can pass safely. They usually don't resort to violence easily."
"Why doesn't the government do anything?"
"The government?"
The boatman pursed his lips.
"These water bandits are run by the government officials. The money they collect is split with the local officials, and the government provides cover for the bandits. Occasionally, when they encounter someone who doesn't know the rules, the bandits will teach them a lesson. Otherwise, it would be difficult to collect money in the future."
Yang Yiyi was extremely shocked to hear this.
Simple-minded as she was, she had never imagined that government officials would actually collude with bandits.
"Young Lady, don't show yourself later. This humble one has already made the arrangements. When we pass by, we just need to give a shout and they won't bother us."
Perhaps their voices were a little too loud, or perhaps because the black-canopied boat was getting closer to the large ship, the sounds of fighting and screaming became clearer, waking up Zheng Yinping and Li Yingluo who were resting in the cabin.
The two of them glanced at the large ship from the bow of their boat, their gazes lingering for an extra second on the Tang character lanterns hanging on the ship.
"Something's not right. That's a ship of the Tangfeng Merchant House. They're old hands on the Jiao River. It's impossible for them not to know the rules."
There might be a problem here, but generally speaking, it was best not to get involved.
Yang Yiyi didn't mind, but Zheng Yinping and Li Yingluo were still being pursued by the Plum Blossom Guard.
Causing trouble in the territory of an enemy kingdom was obviously not a good idea.
But Zheng Yinping glanced at Yang Yiyi, who was eager to go and help, and said to the boatman:
"Pull closer. You hide on the boat. We're going up to help."
Zheng Yinping wasn't so warm-hearted as to want to right wrongs for strangers.
If they were in their own kingdom's territory, she wouldn't have to think twice, but in an enemy kingdom, while being hunted, they should try to avoid getting involved as much as possible.
"This Tangfeng Merchant House is quite large. Their ships can travel unimpeded in the Yue Prefecture Kingdom. Doing them a favor can help us cross the border smoothly."
The Plum Blossom Guard indeed hadn't caught up yet, but the problem of how to cross the mountain pass was a big one.
With just a black-canopied boat, trying to cross the border secretly was a fool's dream.
Their mountain passes had water gates; it was impossible to get through.
Zheng Yinping's original plan was to find a way to bribe the local military officers once they arrived, but now that they've encountered a ship from the Tangfeng Merchant House that could act as a 'free pass', it was naturally safer to go with them.
The boatman wanted to say a few more words, but he knew his young lady's temperament, so he could only urge them to be careful, and then steered the rudder to approach.
Before the black-canopied boat had even pulled alongside the large ship, Yang Yiyi, who couldn't wait any longer, leaped into the air and jumped directly onto the high ship's rail.
This was the effect of the Fish Leap Technique.
This lightness skill had two advantages: one was jumping high, the other was being able to cross water.
But this lightness skill was still very crude.
It couldn't achieve the feat of 'crossing a river on a single reed'.
She could only hop twice on the water's surface before running out of strength and falling into the water.
However, the high-jumping advantage was still worthy of praise.
Yang Yiyi really was like a fish leaping out of the water; she shot up with a 'whoosh'.
Just as she saw a water bandit climbing up with a long-handled saber, Yang Yiyi simply went up and kicked him away, landing steadily on the deck herself.
Looking at the astonished eyes of the desperate water bandits and boatmen on the deck, Yang Yiyi felt like she was already a great hero.
She gathered Qi in her chest and shouted with a voice like thunder:
"Stop! You petty bandits dare to rob a civilian ship in broad daylight! Is there no law!"
Everyone couldn't help but look up at the sky.
Right now, it seemed to be the middle of the night...
(End of this chapter)
