Speaking to this point, he wearily murmured to himself, "Sometimes I wonder if I made a mistake back then, if I should have just let him rot in that small plot of land at Lu Ting... I had intended to pull him onto the court’s ship, to put his talent to good use, so how did things go so wrong and end up at this point?"
Wei Heng had no response, and after a long time, he cursed in a low, resentful voice, "An idiot who is only good at infighting, more of a liability than an asset, causing more harm than good!"
Shen Fa raised the wine jug, "Just let him die then!"
Wei Heng lifted his jug to clink with Shen Fa’s and, unable to restrain himself, asked yet again, "Since you’ve thought this through so clearly, you must have some kind of plan, right? Otherwise, why would we follow that old bastard through this ordeal?"
Shen Fa glanced at him and suddenly chuckled wickedly, "A plan? Of course, there is a plan. Let’s just wait for that guy to come, clean up all of the Eastern Factory’s men, let out that evil fire in our hearts, and then stand shoulder to shoulder to entangle that guy, speaking to him nicely. Since your Golden Bell Cover is well-practised, you can go and take the beating when the time comes, and I’ll speak kindly to him on the sidelines..."
Upon hearing this, Wei Heng nearly spilled all the wine in his jug, "Are you serious?"
Shen Fa nodded earnestly, "Truer than true gold!"
Wei Heng immediately put on a mask of agony, clutching at his aching old back and complained, "Who have I offended, to deserve this?"
Shen Fa tilted his head back and gulped down a mouthful of wine, gazing towards the downstream of Bian River. His eyes seemed to penetrate through space, seeing that lonely figure hurrying towards them under the stars and moon, a knife on his back.
He knew that after this was over, his friendship with Yang Ge probably wouldn’t amount to much anymore.
He couldn’t understand where the fault lay— the court wasn’t wrong, Yang Ge wasn’t wrong, so what went wrong?
"Alas..."
He sighed softly in a voice only he could hear, murmuring to himself, "Fate toys with people!"
The night was filled with chaos.
By dawn, the five hundred men of the Eastern Factory had returned without success, only managing to commandeer a few merchant ships as their seats and continued downstream with the current.
Having learned from the events of the previous night, the men of the six bureaus neither went sightseeing nor indulged in romantic pursuits...
But no matter how alert they were, accidents kept happening.
At one point, a ship ran aground, and the hold began to leak.
Another time, dangerous shoals and silted channels required a large crew to be sent to dig out the riverway before the ships could proceed.
By the time they reached the stretch of the river near Huai’an, there were directly seven or eight ships chained together with iron locks, blocking the entire river, cutting off their way forward.
Right.
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It was the very same strategy the Xiang Family had used before, chaining the ships with iron locks.
Even the stretch of river that was blocked was exactly the same!
It was as if they were slapping the faces of all the officials from the six bureaus, telling them, "You offend our second master and still want to pass by our house? Over my dead body!"
Huang Jin, who had been silently repeating "don’t add fuel to the fire" the entire trip, exploded in anger once again. Standing on the merchant ship adorned with the Eastern Factory’s flag, he stamped his feet and bellowed, "This is insurrection! Command the fleet to charge, ram these insolent Lianhuan Fort bandits dead."
The men of the Eastern Factory roared in obedience, drawing out gleaming steel knives and crowding the deck, ready for battle.
In turn, the bandits of Lianhuan Fort on the chained ships were just as unyielding, grabbing all kinds of weapons and hurling abuses and curses at the Eastern Factory men.
Anywhere else, they would’ve surely given way to the Eastern Factory.
But on the Bian River... even Wei’s navy had to pay a toll!
Li Jincheng, flanked by the six stronghold chiefs, walked to the bow of the ship with a bright silver spear held upside down, his face solemn as he watched the rapidly approaching fleet.
Wang Er, with his hand on a large-ring saber, whispered urgently, "Young head of the house, these newcomers are numerous and powerful; I’m afraid we won’t be able to hold them off!"
Li Jincheng replied in a steady voice, "We only target the Eastern Factory’s forces; as long as the other officers don’t step forward, we won’t touch them. Keep an eye on our brothers. If we start to lose, we withdraw..."
Before he could finish, a burst of hearty laughter emanated from the direction of the right bank of the river, "The early bird may not catch the worm... Brothers, aboard the ships!"
Li Jincheng turned around and saw countless burly men, their heads wrapped in red scarves, and armed with sharp weapons, charging out of the woods, amassing a force of at least a couple thousand.
The man in the lead, decked in ostentatious golden attire and wielding a treasured sword, had his face covered with a black veil. Despite the distance, Li Jincheng recognized him instantly.
Seeing the newcomer, Li Jincheng’s tense nerves relaxed, and he laughed heartily as he cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "Hey... you’re quite flashy!"
The man with the black veil across the water laughed back, "Takes one to know one!"