Volume 1 Jiangdong Fengyun Chapter 54: Chance Encounter
"Master Gan..."
"kindness?"
"Um... General Gan, a fleet has been spotted ahead."
On the Yangtze River, a scout from the former water fort came to Gan Ning in a small boat to report something. Because he called out in a fluent way, Gan Ning glared at him.
"Fleet? Didn't I tell you not to attack the fleet again?" Gan Ning said unhappily.
"No, no, General Gan has misunderstood. It was I who discovered that the fleet was not a merchant caravan, but seemed to be... an army! Judging from the draft of the ships and the size of the fleet, there are about four to five thousand people." said the scout.
"Four or five thousand troops? Do you have any flags? Where are they going?" Gan Ning asked hurriedly.
"It was too dark, and I couldn't see clearly, but there were definitely no obvious flags. It must be heading north!" said the scout.
"Bei... so fast?" Gan Ning asked in surprise.
They had also heard before that Zhang Xun, under Yuan Shu, led his troops to "annihilate" Bai Tu.
Because of this, many of the leaders of other water strongholds were in turmoil, and some even wanted to go back on their word. As a result, they were purged again by Gan Ning - that's why they came back nearly half a month later than expected.
However, even though Gan Ning had confidence in Bai Tu, he did not expect that Zhang Xun would be defeated and forced to flee north in panic so soon!
Apart from this, Gan Ning could not think of any other possibilities. After all, Baitu only had three counties and was not yet firmly established. It was impossible for it to train so many soldiers and actively attack northwards...
There is only one possibility - Zhang Xun's defeated troops!
"I wanted to help them in this critical moment... Pah, Yuan Shu's idiots!" Gan Ning muttered, and then said to the scout: "Immediately tell everyone to come to my boat within half a minute and tell them that I, Gan Xingba, have something important to say!"
"Yes, I am here to inform all the 'generals'!" The scout emphasized that it was "generals" and not "boss".
Gan Ning, who had just made a slip of the tongue, was so angry that he almost flipped his boat over. The scouts quickly paddled the sampan to retreat...
Before long, we saw "captains" in armor passing by and jumping over to small boats.
But there were two others who flew over directly...
One of them was wearing a black battle armor, with thick arms like two arm shields, dark skin, and facial features that looked as tough as if they were cut by a knife or an axe, and a slight beard.
The other one was wearing grey armor, which at first glance looked similar to the basic wooden and stone armor, but upon closer inspection, one could see that he had everything that the gilded armor had!
Even the low-key helmet on his head seemed to be in the shape of a bamboo hat, and his young face also looked a little dull...
"Xingba, why are you looking for us so urgently? Is there some good news?" asked the black-armored general. Another gray-armored general who seemed dull and low-key also looked over.
"Hahaha, brother Youping, brother Gongyi... don't be anxious, let's wait until everyone is here! It will naturally be a great thing. It seems that we can do a big thing first before surrendering to my lord!" Gan Ning said.
The ones called "Youping" and "Gongyi" were the leaders of two other gangs of pirates in the Yangtze River - Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin.
Nowadays, the "Jinfan Bandits" are the leader of the Yangtze River, but there are two other similar groups of pirates, namely the "Commoner Bandits" Jiang Qin and the "Brave Bandits" Zhou Tai.
Gan Ning's Jinfan thief was known as the strongest among the Yangtze River pirates. He himself was also the bravest in the Yangtze River, but due to his personality, the one who had the highest reputation and was trusted by the leaders of various water strongholds was the commoner thief Jiang Qin.
Zhou Tai was known for his reckless fighting and his subordinates were all desperate criminals. Their number was the smallest among the three major thieves, but no one dared to provoke them.
With Gan Ning's bad temper, he had conflicts with Jiang Qin and Zhou Tai before, especially with Zhou Tai, the two had fought to the death, but later, with Jiang Qin's mediation, the two became friends after the fight.
This time, Gan Ning was on the Yangtze River, persuading various water forts to join. In fact, the most important thing was to persuade Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin, and the others were all "persuasion (physical)".
"Haha, to be so loyal to you, Xingba, I think Mr. Bai must have some outstanding qualities. Qin is also looking forward to it." Jiang Qin said honestly.
"Not bad, not bad." Gan Ning tried his best to keep his expression unchanged so that they would not know that he was convinced by Shu Jin.
Soon, the former heads of the other seven or eight water forts, now dubos, also arrived.
"We have called you all here this time because we have a 'big deal'. As long as we succeed... you will be able to show your face when you join our lord in the future!" Gan Ning said.
"Huh? Xingba, didn't you say... Mr. Bai has repeatedly warned us not to do business without capital?" Jiang Qin asked doubtfully.
"Hahaha, Brother Gongyi, you don't know. The big business I'm talking about is naturally not with the caravan, but with the army! Not far away , there is a group of three to four thousand Huainan defeated soldiers. They must have been defeated by the lord and are hastily fleeing north. We just need to cut them off on the river..."
This is the section of the river where the water flow is relatively slow. In Gan Ning's opinion... it is a godsend!
After listening to Gan Ning's words, not to mention Jiang Qin and Zhou Tai, the other dukes all changed color.
"General Gan..., are you saying that our lord has defeated Yuan Shu of Huainan?" a dubo asked nervously.
"Although Yuan Shu doesn't have much ability, he relies on his good family background and has been a local resident in Huainan for so long that he is not easy to defeat. But I have said it before, with the ability of my lord... and General Lu, a mere Zhang Xun can be defeated in a snap!" Gan Ning said.
The uncle obviously wanted to retort, "Didn't you say the same thing in the evening?"
Previously, Gan Ning wanted to lead them to rush to Qu'a's aid and provide timely assistance. However, several leaders changed their minds and did not dare to confront the powerful Yuan Shu. Instead, they wanted to surrender to Yuan... As a result, they naturally became food for the fish in the Yangtze River.
"What? What do you think are the other possibilities? Could it be that Zhang Xun won a great victory and sent thousands of messengers back to report the good news?" Gan Ning said disdainfully.
"Okay! I think what Brother Xingba said makes sense this time. Besides, there are only businesses without cost, but no business without risk in the world!" Zhou Tai said at this time.
Gan Ning glanced at him and wanted to say - Don't act like a big shot just because you look old. You are obviously one year younger than me!
Seeing that Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin also agreed, the other dukes, either out of pressure or out of a desire to give it a try, all agreed to Gan Ning's plan. At this time, less than half an hour had passed since Gan Ning received the news.
Not long after, Zhang Xun was awakened by his men on the boat, which made him even more tired as he had already had a nightmare for half the night!
"Are you looking for death? Why are you yelling?" Zhang Xun said angrily to the messenger.
"General, no, it's bad! It's the Yangtze River pirates..."
It would have been fine if he hadn't said this , but once he mentioned it, Zhang Xun became even angrier - how could I, a famous general of Huainan, have fallen to the point of being robbed by pirates?
