Chapter 715 One Two Three Four Five Six Seven

After nightfall, taking advantage of the east wind that blew up at dusk, the boat carrying Li Dalang and his companions traveled at a speed two minutes faster than usual.

The boatman saw Li Dalang standing at the bow of the boat looking at the Shen family's boat ahead, and quickly picked up his lantern and went over.

"Master, it's chilly at night, you shouldn't stay outside in the wind."

Li Dalang did not answer the boatman's question. Instead, he stared at the shimmering water illuminated by the rising moon and asked, "Boatman, when will we reach Taipu River tonight?"

The boatman, holding a lantern, stood behind Li Dalang. Although he was puzzled, Li Dalang was the one who paid the bill, so the boatman honestly replied, "With this east wind, we should arrive around midnight."

After Li Dalang nodded, he stopped talking.

Seeing this, the boatman didn't dare to offer any more advice. Just as he was about to hang the lantern on the support pole at the bow of the boat, Wang Dadan and Gao Haiping came over.

Gao Haiping thanked the boatman for hanging up the lantern, only to see the boatman shake his head and go to stand guard on the side of the boat, three or four steps away from the three of them.

The boatman had been making a living on this water for over a decade, and naturally, he noticed the strangeness of Li Dalang and his group along the way.

But as the saying goes, Li Dalang is the owner, the one who pays the money. The boatman, in order to earn this money, would rather listen to him than say anything more or less.

Gao Haiping and Wang Dadan imitated Li Dalang and looked ahead at the three-story Shen family ship. Wang Dadan moved closer to Li Dalang and whispered, "Boss?"

Li Dalang then turned around and looked at the way Wang Dadan and Gao Haiping were looking at him, and said one word: "Wait."

They waited and waited until past midnight (9:00 PM - 11:00 PM). As the river widened, Li Dalang suddenly blew a puff of air onto the lantern on the pole.

The lights went out, and although the clear moonlight could still illuminate the area, it was considerably darker.

By this time, the boatman who had been guarding the side of the boat had already fallen asleep, wrapped in thick clothes. The boatman's son at the stern watched in surprise as everyone who had been in the cabin ran out one by one.

Just as Li Dalang had said in the afternoon, all of the dozen or so men had changed into all-black clothes, and even the long knives and other weapons that had been hidden in the wooden box earlier were now hanging at their waists and in their hands.

"Boss, the brothers are all ready."

Li Dalang remained standing at the bow of the boat, looking ahead. Hearing the voice, he only nodded and did not respond.

With a "squeak," the bright red flamingo flowers in the southeastern sky burst into flames!

Upon hearing the sound, Li Dalang and his group all placed their hands on their weapons. Some of the more impatient ones even drew their swords from their sheaths and held them horizontally in front of their chests.

The movement of the letter flower startled the dazed boatman. The boatman, who opened his eyes, and the boy who ran over from the stern looked at Li Dalang and the others in surprise.

Under the moonlight, one can only make out the general shape, but the blade's cold, gleaming edge, even under the moonlight, is unmistakable.

The boatman was an old hand who had been sailing on this river for over a decade. When he saw the soldiers' instinctive murderous glares, he knelt down without saying a word.

The boatman's son also knelt down. The boatman, with his head touching the deck and his eyes closed, mustered his courage and said, "We didn't know what you were doing, sir. We're blind tonight; we can't see anything and we can't remember anything."

Where can Li Dalang find the air traffic controller, the boatman, and his son?

At this moment, the Du family army, which had been hiding in the distant grassy area, launched an attack on the Shen family's three-story Fujian ship and the small boats on both sides.

Li Dalang and his group weren't very close, but those who practiced martial arts could still hear the "whoosh" of arrows flying through the wind if they listened carefully.

Shouts of battle rose up, adding much sound and color to the shimmering river surface.

Li Dalang stood at the bow of the boat, raised his right arm to signal to his brothers behind him, and immediately the dozen or so men dispersed. Several men went to the stern, and men also took up positions on both sides of the boat. Wang Dadan and Gao Haiping stood on either side of Li Dalang, each holding a knife.

In fact, according to the original arrangement from above, Wang Dadan and Gao Haiping were originally Li Dalang's deputies and had the responsibility of protecting him.

Gao Haiping looked at the boatmen who were still kneeling on the ground and shouted, "You three go into the cabin and hide. Swords have no eyes, so be careful."

The boatman and his son scrambled back to the cabin and slammed the door shut.

With the help of the east wind, the ship drifted towards the Shen family's merchant ship. The closer it got, the clearer the shouts of battle and the sounds of clashing weapons became, and the smell of blood also wafted over.

Just as Li Dalang was considering whether to board Shen Jiafu's boat by using the gunwale, a small boat rowed from the southeast. The people on the small boat, carrying lanterns, called out to Li Dalang, "Are you the Li brothers?"

The people on the small boat stopped when they were five or six feet away. Only then did they hear Li Dalang say, "We want to ride the east wind and go east."

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven."

Haha, let's go, let's give Du's army a hand.

The people on the small boat used the pole to propel themselves into the river and flew from the side onto the Shen family's Fu boat. After Li Dalang received the correct code and confirmed that the people on the small boat were the secret agents of the Bad People, he said to his brothers on the boat: "Fifteen and Sixteen, stay and guard the boat. The rest of you, come with me to the Fu boat."

The soldiers that Li Dalang brought out on the mission were all highly skilled. Li Dalang used the side of the Fu ship to fly directly onto the ship, while the others also used their own special skills.

Some used flying ropes, some used ropes hanging from the ship, and some even stepped on their brother's shoulder to fly onto the Fujian ship.

A reaping of human lives thus began without any warning.

On Shen Jiafu's ship, Li Dalang, Wang Dadan, and Gao Haiping, back to back and forming a defensive triangle, each brandished a long knife and fought against the rebels on Shen's merchant ship.

Thankfully, Shen Jiafu was willing to light a lamp on his boat; otherwise, it would have been impossible to tell whether the other side was friend or foe.

After a long period of chaotic fighting, just past midnight, the resistance on Shen Jiafu's boat gradually ceased.

Wiping the blood droplets from the tip of his knife, Li Dalang pondered everything he had seen since boarding Shen Jiafu's boat.

Although Li Dalang and his men had already noticed during their surveillance that at the Sixteen Bends, there were quite a few people with fair skin but wearing hemp clothes carrying wooden boxes onto the Shen family's boat, Li Dalang guessed that these people were probably members of the Shen family disguised as laborers.

They were preparing to slip away unnoticed, heading directly downstream to Fujian, and possibly from Fujian to the south.

This is a smokescreen for the Shen family to escape from the Tang Dynasty!

Li Dalang also reported this news to the Bad Guys' contact point, but it wasn't until he returned to the ship and read the contents of the sealed letter that Li Dalang dared to confirm his guess.

At the same time, Li Dalang also realized that while they were the people in the open, there were also some members of the criminal gang who had discovered this matter and made arrangements in advance.

However, looking at the corpses of his privately kept soldiers lying on the deck, Li Dalang still couldn't figure out when these soldiers had boarded the ship.

You should know that they followed the Shen family's caravan from Shule to Chang'an, and then from Chang'an to Jiangnan East Circuit.

When exactly did these private soldiers board the ship?