Lake Tai covers an area of ​​36,000 hectares, and its boundless shadow is reflected in the sky.

There are many small islands in the lake, dotted among the mist and rain. The islands are covered with dense forests and reeds taller than people**.

It's simply a perfect den for pirates.

'Carefully hide the location of your nest, and you will be safe in Taihu Lake.'

This is the experience that Yu Liu, the "Divine Turtle of Taihu Lake" who has lived on Taihu Lake for half his life, learned from his predecessors.

For the past twenty years he has kept this iron rule in mind and has always been willing to spend more time than others to hide his whereabouts.

Therefore, most of his colleagues who went into the water with him were fed to the turtles in Taihu Lake, but Master Yu Liu not only survived, but his business grew bigger and bigger.

It was precisely because he was cautious and low-key that he was chosen by the big boss on the shore, who provided him with weapons and protection, so that he did not have to worry about being wiped out by the government and the army.

Correspondingly, he has to obey the orders of the big boss and do some shameful things for the other party.

Generally speaking, it includes hijacking ships and stealing goods, extortion and threats, which are the business scope of the Taihu Lake bandits, so they are naturally familiar with it.

However, Yu Liu knew the pros and cons and knew that the people the big boss wanted to deal with were not ordinary people.

Therefore, whenever there was such an activity, he would personally plan the action plan, be extra careful to discipline his subordinates, and never create unnecessary trouble, expose his identity and his base, so as to avoid being sought for revenge.

For example, a few days ago, he received a secret order from his boss, asking him to intercept the grain ship sent by Wu Ji from Yixing.

Yu Liuye was unwilling to provoke the wealthy and powerful Wu Ji, but he had to obey the boss's orders. He could only order his subordinates to cover their faces with black cloth, not to call each other names, and not to kill people at will.

After the hijacking was successful, he ordered all of Wu Ji's men and sailors to be driven into the cabin and locked up, and asked his men to drive the five grain ships back to their base.

Then he arranged his subordinates to keep a strict watch day and night, and not let Wu Ji's men show their heads at all times to avoid exposing their location.

Walking along the wild pier into the deep forest, there are several simple bamboo houses, which are the lair of Master Yu Liu and his pirates.

Their lair was very simple because they only gathered together when committing a crime and would disperse immediately after they succeeded.

I suddenly transformed myself into an honest fisherman of Taihu Lake. Even if your troops searched the entire Taihu Lake, I could still fish under your nose.

When the government troops advance to suppress the bandits, they become civilians; when the government troops retreat, the civilians become bandits again. This is the fundamental secret that has enabled Yu Liuye to persist in this business for more than 20 years.

At this time, in a bamboo house in the center, a copper kettle was sitting on a charcoal brazier, and water was boiling in the kettle.

Next to the brazier stood a greasy low table, on which were placed two fat chickens, two salted ducks, a package of marinated mutton, and a few pig's trotters that had been gnawed until only the bones were left.

Master Yu Liu rolled up his trouser legs and sat on a piece of tiger skin. He held a shallow wine bowl between three fingers and clinked it with the four leaders under his command.

"Dry!"

The five drank the rice wine in their bowls. A big black fat man wiped his mouth with his sleeve and sighed, "This is the life I'm living in. I'm bored at home all day."

"Hehe, the boss has become more cautious in the past two years. This is only the third deal this year, right?" A scarred burly man muttered while chewing a chicken bone.

The other two also nodded, obviously not very satisfied with the harvest in the first half of the year.

"What do you know? Don't you see what the trend is this year?" Yu Liuye said slowly while picking his teeth, "Those wealthy families are fighting each other. On the first day of the first lunar month, there was a fire in Huzhou, and then the whole Taihu Lake was in chaos. I don't know what medicine they took, but they have to fight to the death."

"If we, the little guys, don't restrain ourselves at this time, we might end up being used as pawns by others and die without knowing how." Yu Liuye said with a gloating smile:

"The 'Hunjianglong' gang in the south and the 'Shuishangfei' gang in the west just ran into the gun muzzle and were all fed to the turtles."

"So this time, the boss won't be worried?" asked the older leader.

"First, I have rejected the boss several times, so I can't refuse him again." Yu Liuye said leisurely, "Second, I have checked the situation. Wu Ji is a Huizhou merchant with its headquarters in Yangzhou. He doesn't have that much influence in Suzhou."

"Besides, once they hear the ransom we want, they'll know what's going on." Yu Liuye picked up the wine bowl and asked his men to fill it up. "Even with the ship, the cargo and the people, it's not worth more than 10,000 taels, but we want 100,000 taels. Is this a legitimate kidnapping?"

"Not proper." The four leaders shook their heads together.

"Can they give it to me?"

"We can't give it to you." The four leaders continued to shake their heads. "One hundred thousand taels of silver would take several ships."

"Unless you kidnap Madam Ye, they won't give it to you even if you kill them."

"So that's why." Yu Liuye was very proud of his wisdom and clinked his wine bowls with his men. "They will know right away that we are doing things for others. Every wrong has its perpetrator and every debt has its creditor. As long as we don't hurt their people, they won't bother us too much."

"We can spare the lives, but we can't take the food back." The four leaders shouted, "If we sell these five ships of food, plus the three thousand taels of silver awarded by the big boss, we will have enough to have fun for a while."

"Of course." Yu Liuye smiled faintly. "The rules still need to be followed. You can't miss a target when you make a move."

In fact, the real reason why he was willing to take the risk was that the big boss gave him five thousand taels of silver.

He took out two thousand taels to distribute to the bandits below, and the remaining one thousand taels were divided among the five of them.

What do you mean there are still two thousand taels? No way? You heard it wrong.

Just as Mr. Yu Liu was feeling secretly proud of himself, he heard a burst of hurried footsteps.

The five men quickly grabbed the weapons at hand, but saw that the people who broke in were the men who were sent out for patrol.

"Is your mother dead? You ran so fast, you scared me to death." The scarred man threw the axe in his hand.

"Boss, Boss." The subordinates ignored him and reported to Yu Liuye: "Wu Ji paid the ransom!"

"Oh?" Yu Liuye was stunned for a moment, then he remembered that today was the third day. The deadline for paying the ransom had arrived.

Because he had no hope, he even forgot about it.

"How much did you pay?" several leaders asked impatiently.

"There are so many boxes, I can't even count them all." The subordinate's face flushed with excitement. "Boss, hurry up and get them! There's so much silver piled up on the island, I'm worried sick!"

"Can you see clearly that it is silver?"

"Yes, all of them!" the subordinate replied in a trembling voice, "After digging it up, we saw that it was all white silver."

"Hiss..." Master Yu Liu gasped in surprise and almost sucked a duck bone into his throat.

"Hiss..." The four big bosses also gasped and stood up impatiently and said, "Boss, they really gave it to me!"

"Go get the silver, Boss!"

"I'll gather the brothers right away!"

"Don't be impatient!" Master Yu Liu sat as steady as a mountain and said in a low voice, "Be careful, there may be a trap!"

"If you lose your life, no amount of money will be of any use." The usually steady Yu Liuye asked the subordinate in a deep voice, "Is anyone watching you?"

"Don't worry, Boss. There is absolutely nothing." The subordinate shook his head decisively and said, "Before returning, I followed the Boss's instructions and made several detours. Anyone who was watching would definitely find me."

ps. Second update, please give me monthly votes and recommendation votes