Chapter 2 Doubts

"What happened? How do you say it?" Li Qi shook his head, threw away his previous distracting thoughts, and looked carefully at the sixth uncle in front of him.

The sixth uncle is the elder of the Paibo Gang and the leader respected by everyone. He is fair, enthusiastic, and experienced, so he has won the unanimous trust of others.

This old man in his forties or fifties has gray hair and a hunched back. Years of tugboats have caused his spine to be twisted. There is an obvious scar from the neck to the back, which can be seen at a glance. It is caused by the friction of the rope for many years.

Most of the old boatmen have these physical characteristics, especially the twisted spine is very conspicuous.

It is impossible to pull a thousand-ton ship with the body without any problems.

"After the river is opened, there will be a reward for the first road, but isn't the original first road the group of people from the strong gang?" said the sixth uncle.

"What's the point of the original plan? Now we are halfway through the river opening, and we have already finished the first line. The governor has seen it with his own eyes. Can they still snatch it? Even if it is revenge afterwards, the strength of the group of people in the Lizhuang Gang is comparable to ours. The competition for the first line has always been based on ability. What's the big deal?" Li Qi was confused.

If this is called staring, then the gangs of boatmen can be said to be staring at each other anytime and anywhere.

It's originally a competitive relationship, and each relies on ability.

"Yes, it was like this before. The Lizhuang Gang was not able to go to war with us. It just lost the river opening once. But just now our spies have news that the people of the Lizhuang Gang did not come to see the river opening today." Uncle Six said.

After saying this, Li Qi frowned.

He noticed something was wrong.

"We are the first, the second is the Water Horse Gang, there is no third, but we always have exhausted people, there are vacancies that need to be filled, there are always people in the Strong Gang who can fill them, but none of them came?" Li Qi touched his chin and said to himself.

According to convention, once you participate in the river opening, even if you can't compare with the first and second in the end, there will always be rewards. There are also people in the Strong Gang who have difficulties in life. When the time comes, one or two gaps of injured people can be filled here, and at least a dozen people can get a reward.

So in the past, when the three gangs competed for the first, if the first could not be grabbed, then the second, and if the second did not get it, most of the time someone would come to join in the fun and try to get a reward.

But now, no one from the Strong Gang came?

No wonder Uncle Six hurried over to him to discuss countermeasures.

There must be something wrong when things are abnormal.

So, he clapped his hands and said, "Uncle Six, I won't go after the rotation. I'll go to the Lizhuang Gang to have a look."

Uncle Six nodded and said, "That's what I mean. You are smart and good at fighting. You are also proficient in Pai Bo Jin. You are second only to me in the gang. I feel most at ease if you go."

Perhaps Li Qi really has a talent for practicing martial arts. Anyway, after getting Pai Bo Jin, he has been stronger than most of the gang members in the past two years.

With his educated and smart brain, he has become the second person in the Pai Bo Gang, second only to Uncle Six.

"Then I'll go first." Li Qi was not a procrastinator, and he immediately stood up.

"Be careful, pay attention to safety, and protect yourself is the most important." Uncle Six warned.

"Don't worry." Li Qi nodded, and then left quickly.

After speaking, Li Qi left quickly.

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During the opening of the river, every household in Lizhou City was preparing things.

Merchants prepare goods and vendors prepare food, all busy with business after the river is opened.

After the river is opened, goods and merchants from many cities in Dalu will gather in Lizhou City, and use the Lishui River to transport them to all directions.

Therefore, the opening of the river is the most important event in Lizhou City in a year, more important than the New Year.

At this time, the whole city is busy with their own things, so there are almost no other idle people on the streets except for the laborers who transport goods and the mailmen who convey information.

So when a man dressed as a boatman wanders around the city, many people cast strange glances at him.

But most of them are curious, and no one comes to meddle in other people's business.

Why bother with a boatman when you are too busy with your own things?

Li Qi, on the other hand, wandered around the street for a while, and then suddenly stopped a vendor who was setting up a stall: "Hey, young man, why are you so surprised to see me?"

The vendor rolled his eyes and glanced at Li Qi: "You boatman, you don't go to the river to open the road, but wander around the street. Why are you looking at you?"

He was not polite, because boatmen were no match for vendors.

The vendors also had their own chambers of commerce under the gathering of different wealthy businessmen. These chambers of commerce generally unified prices in their own industries to stifle competition. Knife and scissors merchants had their own guilds, blacksmiths had their own guilds, and even porters had organizations.

In this world, around a martial arts method, everyone would survive in groups, and boatmen were obviously at the bottom.

"So that's the case, but aren't there many boatmen on the street today? Why are you looking at me alone?" Li Qi scratched his head in confusion.

"Are you crazy? Apart from you, where else can you find other trackers on this street? Come on, if you don't want to buy anything, leave now. Don't delay my work. The river opening will be over soon and people are here. Will you compensate me for my loss?" Seeing that Li Qi had no intention of buying anything, the vendor waved his hand and sent him away.

Li Qi also stepped back immediately, not disturbing him from preparing goods and setting up his stall.

He also got what he wanted.

As expected, under normal circumstances, the trackers must be at the river opening site and will not wander around.

Then, the people from the strong gang neither went to the river opening site nor wandered around on the street...

It can be seen that they did not go out and stayed together.

Most of the ordinary trackers work for a day and eat for a day. They basically have no savings. Even if they do, the number is not much and they can't support them for a few days. It's okay for young singles like Li Qi. After all, one person can feed the whole family and they can save some.

If they are married trackers, the economic pressure is even greater.

If they gather together under such pressure and don't go to the river, and don't hang around on the streets, then this is a big problem.

In this era, what else can more than 200 trackers do together? Could they have a party?

This is not in Chengdu.

Li Qi decisively quickened his pace.

So many people gathered together, maybe it was a swearing-in ceremony or something, he had to go and see what was going on.

He knew that the base of the Lizhuang Gang was next to a tributary of the Lishui River in the city.

The tributaries of the Lishui River spread throughout the city like capillaries, just like the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River, and were the water sources for the entire city.

He quickly rushed to the riverside. The tributaries of the Lishui River that spread all over the city were still frozen, but there was still ice on them.

This was exactly what he wanted.

According to the heat island effect, the local temperature in the residential area will be much higher than that by the river.

This means that the ice here is more fragile.

He found a random tributary, stepped on it, stamped his feet twice, looked around, and saw no one.

Very weak.

Good thing.

He stepped hard, and the ice surface broke.

He decisively fell directly from the crack.

There are three boat trackers in Lizhou City.

The Water Horse Gang's skills are good at endurance, and they are said to be as durable as cattle and horses. They can pull for three hours without stopping, and their skin is thick, and the ropes will not wear out their skin, making them more durable.

The Strong Gang's skills are good at increasing strength. The other two gangs need fifty people to pull the boat, but they can pull it with thirty people.

As for the Pai Bo Gang's skills...

You can also hear from the name that the Pai Bo Gang is good at water. They can pull the boat in the water without standing on the shore.

Li Qi took a deep breath and used the Pai Bo power. Like a fish, he moved quickly under the frozen water.

The frozen ice gave him almost perfect cover. Although he couldn't breathe, with the help of the wave-discharging power, he could stay in the water for 25 minutes without breathing.

And he only needed five minutes to swim to the territory of the Lizhuang Gang.

Soon, he arrived at the waters of the Lizhuang Gang. This was a small alley in the city with a tributary running through it.

The people living in this place were all poor people. A group of tailors and the Lizhuang Gang lived here. Because of this relationship, the clothes of the Lizhuang Gang were much better than those of the other two gangs.

The tailors were not easy to mess with either. They knew how to use flying needles and hidden weapons, and had a good relationship with the Lizhuang Gang. After all, there was no conflict of interest between the two sides, and they lived together, so they formed an alliance and helped each other.

When he got here, Li Qi was much more careful.

He could see that there were some holes in the ice, and fish hooks were sticking out.

They were all poor mud-legged ghosts, living by the water, so of course they had to catch some fish to supplement their family income and have a snack.

But they were all fish hooks, no fishing nets.

Because fishing with fishing nets is the exclusive right of the fishmongers in the city, anyone who dares to use fishing boats and fishing nets privately will be an enemy of the fishmongers in the city. Those fishermen with harpoons are not easy to deal with.

This is the current situation of this world, with clear divisions among various groups and classes.

Carefully avoiding the fish hooks, he swam to a place close to the shore without holes or fish hooks.

Listen carefully.

After another half a quarter of an hour, Li Qi found that the fish hooks were almost motionless.

After discovering this, he simply dived down, caught a fish himself, held it by the water, held the fish gills, swam to the side of the fish hook, and hung the fish on the hook.

The fish lips were pierced, and the fish swam even more wildly!

The fishing line was stretched continuously, and finally even a rod was dragged down.

In the end, no one pulled the fish up.

There was no one on top!

When Li Qi just leaned against the ice to listen for any movement, he heard nothing. At the same time, he also noticed that the fishhook did not swing, so he tried it.

This time, no one pulled the rod, which showed that there was no one on it.

He waited for a while, grabbed the fishing rod that was dragged down, pulled the fish back, removed the hook, and hung it on another fishing rod.

After many uses, it is difficult to catch fish.

The fish was hung three times in a row, its mouth was like a sieve, and it finally got rid of the clutches and fled in terror!

Killing a fish only takes one knife, I have never seen a fish hung three times!

Li Qi finally couldn't hold it anymore.

The two quarters of an hour were almost up, and his hands and feet were frozen stiff in the ice water, and his face was blue and purple.

Even with the protection of the wave force, it was almost at the limit.

After confirming that there was no one above, he found an ice hole for fishing, jumped out of it quickly, and then rolled over and rushed to the shore without delay.

Originally, if there was someone stationed here, he would break the ice from the other side and make a noise to lure the tiger away from the mountain.

But since there was no one, it would be better to just go up.

He was very fast, and the ice was slippery, so he slid over.

After entering the alley, he jumped up immediately, paying attention to the surroundings while running towards the station of the strong gang.

There are residential houses here, but it seems that there are not many people. Just like the previous estimate, their people gathered together, so there are not many people in these outer residential houses.

Just pay attention to the tailors, so he deliberately avoided the tailors' houses and walked in the narrow gaps as much as possible.

There was no one on the street, and he was careful, so he walked all the way without being discovered, and smoothly came to the square where the strong gang usually gathered for discussion.

It is called a square, but it is actually an open space in front of the house of the leader of the strong gang, about 60 or 70 square meters, which is usually used for drying fish and clothes. When there is something, they gather here to discuss.

After all, this alley is the only place that can accommodate one or two hundred strong men.

Li Qi approached carefully, hid his body behind the wall, pricked up his ears, and listened to the sound in the square.

There are indeed sounds in the square, and the trackers are gathered here.

Some trackers are talking, but they don't lower their voices.

After all, they are just boat trackers, and it is impossible for them to have good discipline. A group of people gathered together and did not talk, even college students could not do it, how could we ask the boat trackers to do it?

Li Qi knew this, so he did not even look at it, but hid and listened attentively.

By the way, he took off his clothes and covered his face with them, leaving only his two eyes exposed.

Some strong boat trackers who were closer were talking loudly about what happened today.

"Tell me, can the words of the Taoist priest really be trusted?"

"You have asked this question four times, and the boss believes it. What can you do if you don't believe it?"

"You two are really, how can you not believe it after seeing it with your own eyes? That is a magic! It is much stronger than our body training method. If you have the opportunity to learn the magic, what are you complaining about?"

"Today is the opening of the river! If we don't go to open the river, what if the Taoist priest cheats us? Wouldn't it be a waste of the reward?"

"Stop talking, come out, come out!"

As soon as he said this, Li Qi immediately heard the sound of a group of people getting up, and the sound of doors opening and closing.

What a coincidence that I came here this time. The alchemist... The Lizhuang Gang is related to the alchemist? The alchemist promised to teach the Lizhuang Gang magic?

How is it possible!

Li Qi is very clear about how much this world values ​​"gongfa".

Every gongfa, even the most crude one, is a precious treasure that can be passed down from generation to generation!

So, after hearing this, even he couldn't help but stick his head out of the alley and look at the open space not far away.

As expected, there were a bunch of big men standing in the open space, surrounding the two people in the center of the open space.

A strong man, Li Qi knew, was the leader of the Lizhuang Gang.

A young man, his clothes were cotton, completely different from the linen of the boatmen.

And this young man was holding something that Li Qi was very familiar with.

Isn't that my game console! ? Why is this half here! ?

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