Under the moonlight, Lu Ming, He Mojun and Guo Younan walked slowly to the willow trees at the entrance of the village.
Guo Younan deliberately fell behind by a few steps, apparently having received instructions from He Mojun and knowing that his wife had something to say to this former brother-in-law.
He accompanied her out just to avoid people seeing his wife and her ex-brother-in-law together at night, which would cause gossip.
Lu Ming sighed in his heart and thought to himself, Brother, seeing that your former sister-in-law has found a man who loves her and obeys her every word, are you relieved, or are you feeling complicated
"Third son, there is another question." Seeing that there was no one around him, He Mojun stopped and sighed softly, "If, I mean if, you and Hei Laoliu really reached an agreement, I might have some problems here."
Lu Ming said nothing and waited for her to continue.
"You know, old jackal?"
Lu Ming nodded. The three largest gangs in Black Mountain were Hei Laoliu, Lao Chai and Xuanfengma. The rest were groups of three or five people who occasionally came out to rob people or steal in villages and could be ignored.
Among the three major gangs, Hei Laoliu is the most powerful, Lao Chai is the most sinister and cunning, and Tornado Horse is the most elusive.
Hei Laoliu has eight Vajras under his command, and they have the most firearms.
The old jackal's bandits are small but elite, known as the Thirteen Taibao and Yizhanghong. Together with the Thirty-Six Travelers, there are a total of forty or fifty bandits.
The Whirlwind Horse relies on its ability to come and go like the wind. There is a kind of horse in the Black Mountain, a mountain beast, locally called the Black Mountain Colt. It is extremely fast in the mountains, and the Whirlwind Horse can tame this mountain beast. It is said that there are more than a hundred bandits, and everyone has a Black Mountain Colt as a mount, but they usually don't go out in full force. The most that have been seen at one time is only a dozen or so.
Lu Ming temporarily chose Hei Laoliu as his target because firstly, he had less blood debt and his hands were relatively clean; secondly, he abided by the rules he set; thirdly, the other two families were at a great disadvantage.
The Old Jackal Gang consists of a small but fierce group of bandits. They are difficult to manage and they all want to gain huge benefits. They are not as easy to deal with as the ordinary bandits led by Hei Laoliu.
Moreover, the Old Jackal gang has a lot of blood on their hands. They once massacred an entire family of a wealthy man, even sparing no children as young as three years old.
The whirlwind horses seem to be trying to fool the villagers. They are not easy to catch, but their actual fighting power is probably limited. There may be only a dozen of them, or at most twenty or thirty.
Hearing He Mojun asking about the old jackal, Lu Ming smiled and said, "The Thirteen Taibaos were punished with a hundred scars, and the Thirty-Six Travelers guarded Guanzhong!"
"Do you know the red jackal?" He Mojun asked.
Lu Ming nodded: "I've heard of it."
The Thirteen Protectors are the thirteen adopted sons of the old jackal, all named after wolves, tigers and leopards. There is also Yi Zhang Hong, who is the old jackal's wife, called Red Chai. It is said that she has fair skin and beautiful looks. She likes to wear red and is extremely seductive. She is good at using a pair of Mauser pistols and her marksmanship is as good as a god.
He Mojun sighed: "Here is the trouble. I once deliberately made friends with Hong Chai and had a secret agreement with her. I will ask the city's security team to help the Old Chai Gang to get rid of Hei Laoliu. Hong Chai promised me that by then, my Jingyang Mine will only need to pay her 50,000 yuan a year for security fees."
"Now, if you want to reach an agreement with Hei Laoliu, I'm afraid she will think I'm treacherous, or even think that everything was your idea."
"That woman is as pretty as a foxy woman, but she's very scary. Every time I think of her, I get chills on the soles of my feet. The femme fatales in novels are far inferior to her."
"It seems that Old Jackal has established a relationship with the city police force. Even the money given to others was taught by Red Jackal. She hopes that our two families can work together. With the name of my Guo family coal mine, the police force will have a legitimate reason to act."
Lu Ming nodded: "I understand."
"Okay, it's good that you know this. If you reach an agreement with Hei Laoliu that damages the interests of Lao Chai, and my secret agreement is void, they will definitely retaliate like crazy. In addition, the city's police force has Lao Chai's backing, so you have to be careful too."
Lu Ming looked at He Mojun and smiled: "I didn't expect that you would have the courage to get involved in the fight between gangs."
He Mojun sighed softly: "I also know that it's just trying to get the skin of a tiger. In the end, the wolf left first and the tiger came behind. But there is no other way. This is the only way. I hope there will be some changes in the future."
Lu Ming nodded, "Sister-in-law, let me tell you the truth. According to my latest intelligence, I'm afraid Hei Laoliu won't cooperate with me."
"Okay, I asked you out just to tell you about this. Also, I think you should want to meet him." He Mojun looked at Guo Younan who was standing in the distance with a complicated expression.
Lu Ming was silent.
…
In the early morning, there seemed to be dense gunfire coming from the northwest of the town, but soon everything became quiet again.
Lu Ming spent the whole morning with Yaya. Yaya was well educated by He Mojun. Although she was young, she acted like a little lady. She liked playing with "Third Uncle" very much, but she acted like a little adult. Whenever her Third Uncle performed magic for her, she would tell him stories in return.
During this period, Liu Sili was also notified and came to Jingyang Town.
In the afternoon, Li Xiaoerduo came and said that Liu Ye was waiting for Boss Lu at the foot of Cuiyun Mountain, twenty miles away.
Lu Ming asked Li Xiaoerduo to lead the way, and took Liu Sili and He Mojun, as well as Heitou, Sun Bo and others, and drove the jeep and sidecar motorcycle.
However, the road to Cuiyun Ridge was blocked, so they got off the car beside a stream and walked. Led by Li Xiaoerduo, they walked several miles along the mountain road and crossed the valley. The scenery in front suddenly changed, and they saw the shadowy figures of people in front of a small woods.
When Lu Ming and his group got closer, they smelled the aroma of meat. They saw several burly men roasting a wild beast next to a grove of trees.
Li Xiaoerduo shouted loudly: "Sixth Master, here comes the idea. There is a cannon inside, so let's go with the flow!"
Lu Ming smiled. "Cannon head" means sharpshooter. With the advancement of the times, it can also be said to be a sniper. Li Ba has sharp eyes. He knows what the long box that classmate Zhao never leaves is.
After getting off the bus, classmate Zhao didn't follow me just now and now he is nowhere to be seen.
To go with the flow means to ambush.
A black man as big as an iron tower was coming towards me, stroking his bald head. He looked just like what was described in the storytelling, with an indigo face, red eyebrows, copper-bell eyes, and a very fierce look. If a child saw him in the daytime, he would surely be scared and cry.
"Boss Lu!" The big black man came closer and bowed.
"Sixth Boss!" Lu Ming also smiled and bowed.
The big black man was stunned for a moment, then laughed out loud: "Then Boss Lu and I are still a family!"
The accent here, Liu and Lu, are a bit similar.
The big black man pointed to the campfire and said, "Come, come, come. I just came across a calf. Let's taste its meat first. It's so tender! This calf is not afraid of tigers. It's unlucky. It has horns not even an inch long and suddenly jumped out to butt me! Haha, now, why don't you give me some delicious meat?"
Liu Sili and He Mojun didn't know why they were brought along, but Li Xiaoerduo was urging them to go, and since Lu Ming had asked, they wouldn't refuse.
They were already nervous when facing this legendary bandit, and now they were even more frightened when they heard Hei Laoliu's unfriendly words.
He Mojun looked at Lu Ming's calm expression, and was even more puzzled. What on earth had his uncle experienced in the past few years? Facing such a fierce bandit, he was not panicked at all, or could he hide his fear well
Lu Ming smiled slightly at this time: "If you want to eat this calf, it's not cooked enough. How long do you have to roast it? I'm afraid I'll starve to death and won't be able to eat it."