Zongwu: The Rise of the Little People

The world outside the city.

Apart from the autumn rain and the sound of dripping, silence reigns.

The fact that the full moon could not be seen had no effect on the joyous mood of the bigwigs at the banquet.

The Jing'an Palace was full of distinguished guests, including the four great families of Qingzhou headed by the Huangfu family of the governor of the state, the Lu family, and the Lin family of Hedong...

All the prominent families and figures in Qingzhou were invited to be guests.

These families and figures all gave face, and even if the main family could not be present, they would send important figures as representatives.

The Qing Party never participated in the struggle for imperial power in the royal family, so most of the local Qing Party officials headed by the Lu family sent representatives to participate.

The Lin family is a chess piece of checks and balances in the imperial court, so they should have been more cautious. However, this time, they went against their norm and all the heads of the family were present.

It is so obvious that they are targeting Prince Jing'an's people. A storm is about to come!

Of course, not everyone follows the unspoken rules, for example, Wei Dong, who came from a Qingzhou official family and commanded the Qingzhou navy, appeared here openly.

Wei Dong's official rank was not very high, but relying on the power of the navy, he dared not treat officials of higher ranks badly in Qingzhou.

With such power, he shouldn't have come in person.

Unfortunately, Prince Jing'an found something on his family, and now he has to become his lackey.

The banquet began with the host of the palace coming out to give a speech and announce the start of the banquet.

Of course, Prince Jing'an had some concerns and did not stay long. He only appeared for a while and then left on the grounds that he was drunk.

Everyone present was smart and knew what he was afraid of.

After Prince Jing'an left, the hall was still harmonious, with singing and dancing, and it was very lively.

Unfortunately, this scene did not last long before noise appeared.

I saw a fat man walked straight up to Wang Quanlin and said in a sarcastic voice:

"Master Wang, I heard that the Wang family has done a lot of business in recent years and is the richest in Qingzhou. I wonder how strong they are?"

This questioning is absolutely a slap in the face.

If Wang Quanlin cannot fight back, his prestige will be greatly damaged.

If he cannot establish his authority and win the support of the people, how can he continue to grow and develop? His idea of ​​controlling the financial power of Qingzhou will become a pipe dream.

What happened here at Wang Quanlin's place quickly attracted the attention of many people.

Everyone has recognized that this fat man is from the Lin family, has a royal merchant background, and is quite powerful.

"Here comes the action!" Many people muttered to themselves.

It's none of your business, just hang it up high.

At this moment, except for a few people who were on good terms with Wang Quanlin and Prince Jing'an's faction, most people were looking forward to the show.

The banquet hall fell silent, and the atmosphere was very depressing.

Wang Quanlin, the head of the Qingzhou Wang family who controls the power and wealth under Prince Jing'an, is being provoked.

This is a blatant suppression of this vassal king.

Wang Quanlin was not conspicuous. He was dressed like an ordinary person in the market. He had no fierce aura and looked like an ordinary rich man.

Being able to develop the Wang family to such a large size, he is certainly not a simple person. He is well-known in Qingzhou for his stern and vindictive character.

"Want to compete with me in financial strength?" A faint voice sounded in the hall.

……

The cavalry has stopped.

Thirty miles outside Xiangfan City.

Zhao Xu just finished speaking.

"Shhhhh..."

Take cover under the sound of rain.

There were reeds on both sides of the road, and chains with claw hooks flew out and hooked onto the horses on both sides of the carriage to guard them.

"careful!"

"Guards, guards..."

Although they were all experienced fighters, they were still unable to face this half-military, half-gangster surprise attack.

The guards were obviously still a little uncomfortable.

Soon, the horses neighed and the legs of many war horses were hooked.

"Bang bang bang..."

For a while, war horses kept falling to the ground and guards were injured.

Fortunately, this is a gravel road, without much water or mud, so the team did not look very embarrassed.

"Dismount quickly and form a guard formation!"

Li Li had left the driver's position and flew to the top of the carriage.

Looking down from above, he quickly spotted the problem and issued orders to deal with it.

Wang Qiang and Wei Xin worked in perfect harmony and quickly organized a defensive formation based on the prompts.

The Taoist monks Minghui and Qingxuan, who were in the last carriage of the team, also flew out.

"Bang bang..."

The two of them moved between the teams, blocking the flying grappling hooks.

After all, the members of the escort team were all elite troops on the battlefield. After a brief confusion, they quickly surrounded several carriages.

Many hidden shields on the roof, bottom and inside the car were also pulled out.

A solid wall was formed in a short time.

Seeing that the surprise attack had failed, the other side no longer hid.

"Kill, kill..."

The shouts and cries of killing shook the sky, and then a black mass rushed out from the reeds in the rain.

At the same time, there were crowds of people in front and behind the road.

At this time, Li Li transformed into a veteran on the battlefield, commanding and dispatching troops and counterattacking at the right time.

"shoot!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa..."

The strong bows and crossbows, the arrows flew across the sky with amazing penetration.

At this moment, Zhao Xu lifted the curtain and took Wang Dongchu and Lu Xu out of the carriage to check the situation.

An invisible force blocked the rain around the three people.

There was no fluctuation in his power at all. This invisible method made Wang Dongchu extremely surprised.

At this moment, the monk and the Taoist priest who had returned to escort, as well as Li Li who was on top of the carriage, and the three second-rank junior masters also glanced over from time to time.

The thieves who rushed over were all strong, with vicious and greedy looks on their faces.

Zhao Xu stared for a moment, then looked at Lu Xu who was silent beside him and asked:

"Lu Xu, where do you think these people come from?"

Although Lu Xu was blind and couldn't see the thieves on the opposite side, he had already judged their origins.

He answered calmly:

"There were no righteous wars in the Spring and Autumn Period. Although Liyang has been unified for many years, the hidden dangers left over from the wars, such as riotous soldiers and horse bandits, have not been completely eliminated."

"Qingzhou is home to the 800-li Chunshen Lake, and there are many lakes and rivers that are intertwined and connected, so it also breeds a lot of pirates. The claw hook chain is obviously used to hook boats..."

Having said this, Lu Xu did not continue speaking.

Zhao Xu sneered: "How can there be so many pirates!"

Qingzhou has the Qingzhou navy. If they were to be wiped out with all their strength, the country would have been peaceful and prosperous long ago.

In fact, most of the remaining bandits have some connection with the powerful people in Qingzhou.

In order to deal with their group this time, the Lin family pulled out the pirates who were under their command as cannon fodder.

Of course, there were still some elite soldiers among these people, who would fight back with bows and arrows from time to time.

Strong bows and powerful crossbows are extremely sharp.

The general cannon fodder among the pirates kept falling down under such attacks, but they still maintained the attack.

If you look closely, you can see that there are some leaders mixed in.

These leaders are obviously different. Each of them has a sturdy build and looks like a martial artist.

And it also comes with a set of equipment.

Leather armor, tempered steel sword, crossbow, iron-studded wooden shield...

Although it is not as good as Zhao Xu's guard equipment, it is still incomparable to ordinary people.

These people are the backbone, leading the bandit team in continuous attacks.

Only these elite leaders holding large shields can rush forward.

Close combat is inevitable.

The enemy rushed to a short distance in front of the formation, and two gaps appeared in the shield formation.

Wang Qiang and Wei Xin organized elite troops to mount the battle.

Suddenly attacked from two directions.

"kill!"