Chapter 21: Encounter with Murder

  New book uploaded, seeking recommendations, collections and comments, Lao Bai wants to rush higher

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  The salt workers had already walked to the front, looking at these poor men holding bamboo poles with sharp heads pointing in their direction, feeling extremely ridiculous. This road was already quite wide and seven people were standing in a row without any problem. Li Meng and his group were crowded together, standing ten abreast, just enough to block the way.

  "You poor devils, with so much private salt, even if we were to exterminate your entire clan of nine generations, it would still be too light a punishment! And yet you're still standing there like fools, holding onto your bamboo poles. Kneel down and kowtow at once, or Grandfather might just spare your dog lives!"

  In fact, the extermination of the nine clans is a bit exaggerated, but strictly speaking according to the salt law, Li Meng and his dozen or so people were beheaded on the spot, which was enough to qualify. When the salt worker said this, the people around Li Meng became even more tense, no one dared to relax, and when things came to a head, they could only listen to Li Meng's orders.

  Those salted fish looked at the shouting effect is not big, thought that these people are indeed frightened silly, of course, the salted fish never thought that these ordinary people would have any resistance.

  Looking at the other side still holding the bamboo pole, the salt shopkeeper who shouted earlier suddenly felt a bit embarrassed, raised his single-edged sword and waved it around, threatening:

  "You damned poor guys, really don't know what's good for you..."

  The several salt dings behind him said with some impatience and in a coarse voice:

  "Why bother with them, just wait and behead a few of them later, they'll be too scared to be dishonest."

  These salted fish had already regarded these poor military households as fish and meat on the chopping board, they were only one or two steps away from the bamboo poles. The salted fish's words fell into Li Meng's ears without exception, Zhao Neng, Chen Liu Zi and others did not panic, but instead gripped their bamboo poles more tightly.

  The three salted eggs in front took big strides with their knives and prepared to push aside the bamboo poles in front of them, cursing as they went.

  "What's still blocking here, you stupid thing."

  "Charge! Forward thrust!"

  Li Meng shouted loudly, his arms exerting force, the long bamboo pole in his hands stabbing forward at those three salt dings. His companions beside him were now tense to the extreme, and upon hearing Li Meng's words, they subconsciously followed suit without hesitation, their arms swinging, the bamboo poles darting out swiftly.

  Hearing a loud shout from the opposite side, several salt sellers who were walking forward were startled. Just as they were about to curse, they suddenly saw a bamboo pole flying towards them with a whistling sound.

  The key point is that all bamboo poles are sharp-headed...

  The sound of "hiss" continued to rise, and the three salt workers standing in the front were pierced by these sharp bamboo sticks. It was summer, and they were recruited without official registration, wearing only single-layer clothes, with no defense at all, how could they withstand these sharp bamboo sticks.

  Incidentally, the sharpened bamboo stick was once used by Qi Jiguang to deal with Japanese pirates, whose long swords were unable to withstand it. This thing is called a bamboo spear in Japan and is also considered a weapon. It's often used by farmers and bandits...

  The only thing these three people could do was let out a heart-wrenching scream, and then the holes on their bodies sprayed out fresh blood, directly collapsing to the ground dead.

  A foolish poor man holding a foolish bamboo pole, in the blink of an eye these poles have become murder weapons, and blood is still dripping from the sharp tips.

  The several salted fish behind were also stunned, and the people around Li Meng's side were in a bad state. Looking at others killing people and themselves killing people was completely different, that is, Chen Liu's state was slightly better. The older Zhao Neng and the younger Wang Hai were both panting heavily, their faces pale, and their bodies shaking with increasing amplitude.

  They're doing all right, the ones in the back row are already vomiting, Li Meng is also feeling unwell, the thick smell of blood is overwhelming, and there's a corpse in front of him. This is only his second time encountering such a scene, but Li Meng tells himself not to panic, he shouts loudly:

  "Don't panic, don't panic, steady, steady, lean on each other, move forward, one step, two steps, three steps, charge!"

  The salt workers behind had not yet reacted, their only action was to stumble backward, under Li Meng's loud shouting, these people rushed up a few steps, all of them mechanically thrusting out with force, the sharp bamboo spearheads, thin summer clothes, the result was all the same.

  Again there were several mournful cries, and on the ground there were several corpses. If these rascals had circled around, jumped out of the road and turned back to attack Li Meng and his men, they might not have been without a chance of winning. However, these scoundrels who only cared about money and wealth, what lofty fighting spirit did they have? Caught off guard, seven of them fell down, and the remaining five had only one thought in mind - not to fight desperately, but to flee.

  Yan Dingba's legs were pulled back and he ran away, Li Meng shouted loudly:

  "Everyone chase after them, don't worry about the salt carts behind, not a single one can be let off!"

  He held a long bamboo pole in his hand, took big strides and rushed out for several steps, catching up with one of them. Although he was still four or five steps away, the length of the bamboo pole made up for it. With a "plop", he poked through to a refreshing coolness.

  Li Meng directly threw down the bamboo pole and chased after him in big strides, with the waist knife already drawn out. To deal with the fleeing person whose back was completely exposed, all he needed to do was launch a bold attack.

  Chen Liu's footsteps were extremely fast, and he was still able to surpass Li Meng while carrying a bamboo pole. He caught up with one of the salt smugglers and let out a loud shout as he stabbed downwards. Chen Liu's pursuit had some ferocity to it, but upon seeing that he couldn't outrun his opponent, he turned around and swung his knife in an attempt to chop at the bamboo pole. The knife was only three feet long, while the bamboo pole was ten feet long, making it impossible for him to cut down the person wielding it. His goal was simply to try and sever the bamboo pole, thereby rendering his opponent's weapon useless.

  He succeeded, cutting off the tip of Chen Liu's bamboo pole with one knife, but the tip was a bevel, cut by the knife, still a bevel, sharp as ever. The bamboo pole changed from ten feet to eight feet long, still unable to reach Chen Liu, but Chen Liu's strength was sufficient. The momentum of the bamboo spear did not decrease, and it pierced directly into the opponent's chest. That salted Ding let out a loud roar and immediately settled the matter. On the other side, Zhao Neng and Wang Hai also caught up with one person, two guns fell at the same time, that person didn't even make a sound, and died instantly.

  The last salt lump ran very fast, just listening to the few miserable cries behind him, knowing that his companions were dying one by one. The footsteps behind him never stopped, and he was so flustered that he couldn't help but turn his head back for a look.

  But saw Li Meng raised his waist knife and slashed down...