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Ysabel, HPC, Jaya, Lao Qianbei, Anh, you are welcome. Bocah, while I agree with you, I always feel that those are their individual focus. XZL was not interested in politics, while KZ was VERY interested. DongBin, thanks. I will try my best. Here's the very first post of Book 7. Xu Xiong, but you remembered small details like that.

Book 7 Chapter 1 - Two Lords of the Yangtze River

The salt boat left the ocean to enter Yangtze River against the stream.

‘Knock! Knock! Knock!'

Following the knocking on the door, Xu Ziling's voice replied from the inside, "Come in!”

Kou Zhong pushed the door and entered. Seeing Xu Ziling sitting cross-legged on a chair by the window, he laughed and said, "You, this kid, are really diligent.”

Xu Ziling replied indifferently, "I have a very bad feeling; there will be trouble tonight.”

Kou Zhong sat down across from him; nodding his head, he said, "I came here to tell you exactly that, the enemy has caught up with us, two ships are hanging on our tail. I really wish I could turn around and have fun killing them.”

Xu Ziling smiled and said, "Fighting power is at the bottom of our list. What crafty idea do you have this time?”

Kou Zhong shook his head and swayed his noggin as if he was reciting something, "Knowing me, Kou Zhong, am not like Xu Ziling. We can never sit quietly on a boat without inviting others to look for bad luck. But if there are that kind of shameless people around, if we don't have the guts to fight, then we have the guts to burn their ship or drill their boat. Otherwise our salt goods will be in jeopardy.”

Xu Ziling said, "Kou Bangzhu must give considerations to Duan Yucheng, those four kids; otherwise, even in lifting or other menial jobs, Kou Bangzhu will have to toil your precious hands.”

Kou Zhong let out a bitter laugh and said, "I am begging you! Please stop speaking using that kind of sarcasm to make fun of me! Naturally I will give them consideration. As the Bangzhu, if I don't cherish my underlings, who would want to throw their lives in for me?”

Xu Ziling also felt that his tone was a bit too excessive. "Just consider me in the wrong!” he said apologetically, "What brilliant scheme are you thinking?”

Kou Zhong made himself comfortable, leaning back on his chair he stretched out his legs, and said, "After dark, we will make our first move by getting rid of those two ships following behind us …”

Xu Ziling laughed and said, "You are not thinking of scuttling other people's ships, are you?”

Kou Zhong was upset. "You guessed it again,” he said, "Speaking about underwater skill, who could surpass us? Those four guys are making preparations as we speak. When we get out of the back of the cabin later, they will release a great amount to thick smoke to interfere with the enemy's line of sight, and then we'll seize that chance to go underwater, we'll take care of the enemy's ships, one per person. This time we are going to use the real tool to bore a boat. Based on our Two-Dragon of Yangzhou's divine skill, with two, three strikes we should be able to … huh?”

Rapid footsteps were approaching, flustered and exasperated, the short, small, but highly capable Bao Zhifu blurted out outside the door, "Two Bangzhu, the situation does not look good, the enemy's catching up with us.”

The two three-mast ships behind them were only about forty zhang away, and were closing in really fast; evidently their speed was a lot faster than their boat.

Presently the river course was deep, and the stream rapid; both banks were dangerous towering precipice, with the water closer to the edge full of dangerous reef, very steep. Obviously the enemy had already picked this exact place to launch their attack early on.

That night the moon was really beautiful, the turbulence reflected the moon and the stars' splendor, like millions of slivery snakes dancing on the surface of the water; it was extremely wild and enchanting.

Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong stood at the aft, focusing their eyes to look, and saw that the observation platform on each ship were packed with dozens of people, all were also looking at and pointing at them.

When the two boys' gaze fell on the decks of the enemy's ships, they could not help sucking a mouthful of cold air, because each ship had at least several men with drawn bow pointing at them, as well as several catapults.

How could they fight this battle?

Kou Zhong's eyes flashed a cold murderous look. "I wonder whose ships are they?” he asked no one in particular in a heavy voice.

The slender and handsome Duan Yucheng, who was in charge of the helm, heard him and called out, "They should be Dajiang Hui's [Great River Society] warships. Their best trick is that they are able to turn fast, which other helmsmen are not able to do.”

Dajiang Hui was one of the Eight Gangs Ten Societies; they achieved their fame in Jianghu early, which was by no mean an easy feat. Their Gang Leader and his deputy were the ‘Dragon Lord' Pei Yue and ‘Tiger Lord' Pei Yan, two brothers, famous to be vicious and merciless. Even as early as they were still in Yangzhou, the two boys had already heard about their notoriety; it's just that they did not expect that as soon as they entered the Yangtze River they already came across these vicious people.

Kou Zhong nudged Xu Ziling and muttered, "His granny's Niang, we can't beat them fair and square, what can we do this time?”

Although ever since their debut they had already anticipated encounter with enemies who wanted to invade their territory, but they only thought about little clowns in groups of three or squads of five, or perhaps one or two martial art masters who wanted to curry Li Mi's favor, never this kind of big troop formation.

The enemy basically did not give them any chance to have a close combat.

Xu Ziling spoke nonchalantly, "Abandon ship!”

Kou Zhong was staring at the enemy ships, which were about twenty zhang away by now; stunned, he asked, "Won't that mean this batch of salt will come to naught?”

Xu Ziling said in amazement, "Zhong Shao, why does your brain suddenly become so slow? The one abandoning the ship is the two of us. Don't you see that every one of the enemies is equipped with wet suit and harpoons? Apparently after sinking our ships they are going to go underwater to capture us. Then why don't we jump into the river one step ahead, so that the enemy won't need to waste arrows, sling stones, and the burning oil?”

Kou Zhong slapped his forehead; applying his internal energy he shouted toward the enemy's ship, "Pei Yue, Pei Yan, are you, a snake and a cat, going to poo or pee here?”

A cold snort came from the enemy's ship.

The two boys shivered in fear; the opponent's snort was loud and clear, but not excessively shrill, evidently he had a deep internal strength, definitely not someone they want to mess around with. If on top of that there were also other martial art masters plus more than two hundred warriors with deep water skill, equipped with net, bows and arrows, their chance of getting capture was a hundred percent.

Another dull, stuffy voice from the enemy's ship on the left said, "The two of you must be tired of living; death is near at hand and still dare to blurt out offending remarks. If you are a bit smarter you'd immediately stop your boat. Do you think that our Dajiang Hui is as friendly as those Haisha Bang people?”

The two boys focused their power into their eyes, and saw the speaker to be a tall and sturdy man, with baldhead, broad face, and thick lower jaw, wearing black robe, looked rather lofty, and only around forty years old.

But the one really attracting the two boys' attention was a twenty-something man in purple clothes standing to the left of the baldhead. This kid was tall and thin, but sturdy, the bridge of his nose was high, but rather flat. His look was actually not bad, it's a pity that his eyes were unusually small and narrow that they seemed to pull his face together, so they did not match his overall appearance, which gave people a very uncomfortable feeling.

The reason the two boys paid a particular attention to him was because inside this man's narrow eyes, the pupils were gleaming with unusual shine, evidently it was because his internal energy was a notch above the man who has just spoken; definitely a rival difficult to deal with.

This moment, Ma Gui, whose face was full of pimples came behind the two boys to report, "We are ready to release the smokescreen anytime!”

Kou Zhong was greatly delighted. "Watch for my signal!” he said.

Ma Gui received the order and left.

To divide the opponent's attention, Xu Ziling laughed aloud and said, "Stopping the boat so that everybody can be intimate with each other is a must, but I wonder which Dajiang Hui's Dangjia [the one in charge] is speaking?”

The baldhead shouted coldly, "I am Pei Yan. If you are tactful, immediately lower your sail and stop the boat, otherwise we will attack. If that happens, don't blame our Dajiang Hui for not showing any mercy.”

The young man in purple clothing let out a shrill laughter before saying, "Currently Kou Xiong and Xu Xiong are very valuable; otherwise, how could you move Pei Er Dangjia to toil for ten days and ten nights to follow your trail? However, unlike other people, we don't capture you to be presented as a gift, we only hope to collaborate with two gentlemen, to start a great undertaking.”

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling exchanged a glance; they understood now that the opponents were after the ‘Duke Yang Treasure'.

Noticing the enemies had been closing in for ten more zhang, Kou Zhong shouted, "Sire, who are you?”

Pei Yan answered for him, "You guys really have eyes without eyeballs, that even Changbai [mountain] number one martial art master Wang Baogong's only Gongzi, the ‘Thunder Saber' Wang Kuijie Gongzi you don't recognize. How could you roam the Jianghu?”

Pretending to be greatly astonished, Kou Zhong responded, "I wonder if Bi Xuan and Ning Daoqi recognize Wang Gongzi? Won't that mean that they should not have roamed the Jianghu?”

Pei Yan's original intention was to flatter Wang Kuijie, but hearing Kou Zhong's remark, he was stumped.

Worse yet, Wang Kuijie was embarrassed.

Realizing that the opponent might turn embarrassment into anger, Kou Zhong hurriedly issued an order to release the smokescreen.

Sure enough, the sound of drums arose from one of the enemy's ships; everybody bent their bows with arrows at the ready; as soon as the ships were getting closer, they would shoot.

With continuous creaking noise, more than a dozen stone, about a chi-square each, were shot first from the trebuchet, and flew high up in the sky toward them. At the same moment, four windows closest to the water at the aft of their boat suddenly opened, four streams of black smoke erupted out.

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