It is actually quite profitable to buy goods like Jiang Zhen and sell them in various villages, but there are not many people who choose to do so. At least none of the seafood merchants in Hecheng County who went to buy goods with Jiang Zhen choose to do so. Yes, because doing so is actually dangerous.
The little trader chooses the goods and only sells them in the familiar villages. It is definitely not dangerous. After all, everyone knows each other. People who are too poor, such as Wang Haisheng before, are rocking a broken boat to go to unfamiliar places. , it is generally not dangerous, after all, even if such a person robs, he will not be able to make much money.
But a small businessman like Jiang Zhen who brought a batch of goods to a completely unfamiliar place...
Most of the people in this world are honest people, but there is never a shortage of robbers and bandits, and those robbers and bandits like to rob the most are small businessmen like Jiang Zhen.
Small businessmen generally don't bring too many people, and it's easy to deal with, and they certainly have no power or power, and if they are robbed, they have no ability to cause trouble to those robbers and bandits. They can only admit that they are unlucky, and if they are killed...
This year, I died in a different place. When I died, I died. Even if my family tried to look for it, I couldn't find anyone. As for the official report... If someone I didn't know died, who would report to the official
Even if it is reported to the official... The official government usually just throws the corpse into the mass grave.
If there is such a rampant bandit group that gathers dozens or hundreds of people, and these people still cause trouble, the government may send someone to destroy it, but that kind of thing where a few people get together to grab a small businessman , the government will not care at all, and they will not be able to catch anyone.
The people who stopped Jiang Zhen this time were a small group of water bandits.
They were just ordinary people around here, but they didn't like to work in the fields, so they began to do some crooked things. First, the owner stole a chicken and the west family beat a dog or something. Later, after robbing a small businessman, they found out about the robbery. The money came quickly, much better than stealing chickens and dogs, so he simply became a water bandit.
They have two boats, and they take turns looking for robbery targets in this waters, and they specially pick the small merchants who carry the goods. Although they did not become rich by robbery, they can usually eat big fish and meat. The days were very happy.
And this time, they were eyeing Jiang Zhen and Wang Haisheng.
These two people knew at first sight that they were foreigners. Not to mention a lot of goods on board, and most of them also had some money in their hands. If they robbed them, they could make a fortune.
"You obediently hand over all the money and goods, and we will let you live. If not... There are too many people drowned in this river!" The leader of the water bandits said, already waiting for Jiang Zhen and Wang Haisheng Both of them handed over everything.
Small businessmen like this basically dare not resist them.
However, Jiang Zhen is an exception.
Jiang Zhen has always known that the ancient times are not as safe as the modern times, but he did not back down because of this, he only dared to do business in the city, because he knew one thing, that is the land of Jiangnan, except for those who specialize in selling illicit salt. , In fact, there is no big gang of robbers.
There are many wealthy families and big landlords here, and they will not allow large groups of robbers and bandits to appear on their own territory.
As for those small bandits... who can't even get a steel knife, Jiang Zhen is actually not afraid.
His boat not only brought his homemade weapons, but also some small things such as lime powder, even in danger, there is always no problem in escaping.
"Jiang... Jiang Zhen... what should I do?" Wang Haisheng asked tremblingly. He had encountered water bandits who even wanted to rob him when they were hungry. At that time, he had no money anyway, so he simply let people board the boat and search them. Man, it's true that nothing was found from his boat.
But now... they have not only goods on board, but also silver and copper plates, and there are two boxes of copper plates alone!
"What else can I do? Hurry up and take out the money!" A water bandit laughed.
"Their boat is pretty good, let's have it too." Another humane said.
The moonlight tonight is very good. The lake surface is very beautiful under the moonlight, but these bandits laughing and laughing in the moonlight are terrifying.
The leading bandit looked at Jiang Zhen's boat and said with a smile: "This boat is not bad! Come over here, search us and leave, and leave everything else!"
These people didn't take Jiang Zhen and Wang Haisheng seriously at all. With one mouth, they took all Jiang Zhen's belongings.
Jiang Zhen's eyes narrowed slightly, while observing the surrounding situation, at this moment, he suddenly heard some whimpering.
That... sounds like a woman's cry? Jiang Zhen glanced at the cabin of the ship that hit him, and suddenly started.
Taking a bamboo pole from the boat, Jiang Zhen directly stabbed it towards the abdomen of a person on the boat.
Now that the weather has warmed up, these people don't wear much. When the bamboo pole that Jiang Zhen deliberately sharpened was tied, the man's abdomen suddenly bleeds.
In Hexi Village before, Jiang Zhen was very careful when dealing with people. The medical conditions are very poor these days. A small wound can be killed if accidentally infected. Since he doesn't want to kill people, he naturally has to be careful.
But for such water bandits, there is no mercy.
The water bandit who was stabbed by Jiang Zhen screamed and fell back immediately, losing his ability to move. The people around him were startled, and before he could react, Jiang Zhen had already jumped to them with a bamboo pole. on board.
Jiang Zhen swept one of them into the water with a bamboo pole, and shouted at Wang Haisheng, "What are you doing? You can't fight?"
Wang Haisheng... He really doesn't know how to fight.
But it wasn't like he couldn't do anything.
He also took a bamboo pole and used it to jab when someone from another boat tried to attack him.
At first, he was a little scared, but after discovering that the water bandits on the boat were also afraid of his bamboo poles, he was also ruthless: "You bastards, I will kill you! I will kill you!"
Compared with Jiang Zhen, Wang Haisheng actually hates these water bandits even more. He has always lived on the water, and he has not rarely seen those water bandits robbing and killing people. He had fought before, but the oars all the year round gave him a lot of strength, and now he can't get close to a bamboo pole.
It's just that they have bamboo poles and the boats of the water bandits have similar ones. One of them came out with a bamboo pole for a boat punting. However, at this time, Jiang Zhen threw the bamboo pole again, grabbed the boat pole in this man's hand, and pushed it. Pulled, just grabbed the bamboo pole from his hand and hit him on the neck.
Even the officers, soldiers and yamen have not received special training these days, let alone these water bandits. Jiang Zhen let them see blood when they came up, and later killed several people one after another, which immediately scared the rest of the people.
"There are only two of them, so what are you afraid of!" The leader of the group of water bandits scolded the people around him. He was very tall and fierce, and he was not as afraid of Jiang Zhen as others.
It's just that he is not afraid, but the people around him are afraid: "We are only two of us..." The leader is humane, and just as they were talking, another person was given to Jiang Zhen with a long bamboo pole. poked...
They... this is a tough stubble!
Of the five water bandits, two were swept into the water by Jiang Zhen and ran away, but the rest were subdued.
When subduing the leader of the water bandit, even Jiang Zhen took him several times, and finally even fell into the water with him, but Jiang Zhen has always been able to swim. People took it.
After tying the four captured water bandits together, Jiang Zhen began to search their bodies without hesitation, and asked Wang Haisheng to go to the cabin where he had heard some movement before.
Wang Haisheng responded, and carefully lifted the curtain of the cabin and walked in. As a result, he had just entered the cabin, and he ran out in a panic after a while: "Jiang Zhen, inside... there is someone inside!"
"There are people inside, what's wrong?" Jiang Zhen was a little puzzled. The people inside should not be water bandits. Why is Wang Haisheng so scared
Jiang Zhen walked over and opened the curtain, looked around cautiously, and then frowned.
By the moonlight, Jiang Zhen discovered that there were two naked women lying in the cabin...
The two women's hands were tied, and there was probably something in their mouths, and they could only let out some intermittent whimpering.
These two women are definitely not the wives of the water bandits. Most of them were snatched by these water bandits and kept in the cabin as tools for venting their desires.
Jiang Zhen saw that there was a quilt beside them, so he took it and put it on them, cut the rope around their wrists, and found two candles to light, and then he could see the appearance of the two women.
One of them is older, it is estimated that they are 27 or 8 years old, and the other is younger, at most 20 years old. The two of them are actually quite average, but they are not bad in the country.
The two women tightened the quilt given by Jiang Zhen, took off the cloth ball in their mouths, and finally burst into tears with a "wow".
"Where are you from, and why are you on this ship?" Jiang Zhen asked.
The two women were still crying, and after a while, the older one finally spoke: "Sir, I am from a nearby village, and I was tied up when I went out to visit relatives..." She said, cried again.
The other woman was still crying. At this time, the previous woman said: "This girl next to me was originally doing a small business with her husband, but she was robbed and her husband was thrown into the river..." She It would be earlier if they were tied up. Before they would let her go and let her cook and do laundry, they knew something.
As for why they looked like that today, it was because they wanted to run away and were caught.
"When a person dies, nothing is left. The most painful thing is your parents and relatives." Jiang Zhen said when he looked at the woman who had been silent all the time. There was something wrong with this person's state. Jiang Zhen was really afraid that she would commit suicide.
On the other hand, he doesn't know how to enlighten people... In fact, he felt that he didn't blame women for encountering such unfortunate things, but obviously others would not think so, and these women themselves would not think so.
"I have children at home, so I won't seek death." The older woman said, pulling the remaining woman to speak again.
"You guys pack up." Jiang Zhen heaved a sigh of relief and left the cabin.
"What are we going to do now?" Wang Haisheng asked when he saw Jiang Zhen come out, and glanced at the cabin with a complicated expression. He was taken aback as soon as he got in, and then he ran out in a hurry, and didn't dare to go at all. Looking at the two women inside, Jiang Zhen stayed inside for a while.
This... Jiang Zhen has Zhao Jin, isn't that good
"We'll talk about what to do tomorrow morning." Jiang Zhen said, then took a knife and walked towards the leader of the water bandit.
He still knows a little bit about extorting confessions by torture.
After knowing that these water bandits had killed people, Jiang Zhen showed no mercy to them, and naturally brought out some real guys during the torture, which was considered to have dug out all the old bottoms of these water bandits.
These water bandits have an old nest, but most of the money they grabbed is carried with them and placed on the boat.
According to what they recruited, Jiang Zhen finally found more than 200 taels of silver and some copper coins and jewelry from the two ships.
When Jiang Zhen left the Jiang family, he had thirty-seven taels of silver in his hand, and he spent some to give Wang Haisheng twenty taels, but he had only a dozen or so. capital.
He later earned some and used some to give the Zhao family ten taels of dowry. Now, including the goods on the ship, the total is only sixty taels of silver. Of course, if he can sell all the goods and sell them for the price, about Can have seventy or eighty taels of silver.
He tossed for so long, he couldn't even sleep well, and he still only had so little money. Now he just spent a night trying to rob a few water bandits, and he got more than two hundred taels of silver all at once.
If he goes back and uses the money to buy land, he can buy paddy fields and two acres of dry land, and he will no longer have to worry about starvation... Of course, he does not intend to use all the money to buy land.
Jiang Zhen moved the heavy money to his boat, and went to see the two women again: "What are you going to do?"
"Let's go now." The older woman said, Jiang Zhen saved her, she was grateful, but she was also a little afraid of Jiang Zhen, afraid that she would be imprisoned again, so she wanted to leave soon .
Jiang Zhen actually wanted them to leave quickly. He and Wang Haisheng were both family members, so it was not good to keep such two women.
"Okay." Jiang Zhen nodded and threw a bag to them: "This is for you."
These water bandits have a lot of jewelry in their hands. He didn't want these things, and it was troublesome to deal with them. He simply gave them to these two women... They suffered in the end.
The two women's clothes were still on the boat. After they put on their clothes, they supported each other and left in the dark.
Jiang Zhen looked at the sky and said to Wang Haisheng, "Let's send these people to the yamen."
It is better to send these people to the yamen. Of course, he will not send them personally. After all, compared with these miserable people, he is more like a robber at the moment.
Still, he could get them into town and leave a note, couldn't he