On the Chaohu Lake under the night, a huge fleet was sailing southeast. This fleet was the fleet that Huai'an's No. 1 businessman Chengliang entered. The fleet would enter the Xihao River from the east of Chaohu Lake, and then enter the Yangtze River from the Xihao River to the east. On a large ship similar to a pleasure boat in the middle of the fleet, Cheng Liangzhi sat on the wine table on the second floor, with all kinds of delicacies on the table, and there were two beautiful maids on his side.

The reputation of the richest businessman in Huai'an was not for nothing. No matter when or where, Cheng Liangru always tried his best to enjoy his life, to be precise, it should be extremely luxurious. His property was said to be at least 20 million. The fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty during the Chongzhen period was only 4 million taels, and the property that Cheng Liangru could earn the fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty for several years. Of course, his expenses were also quite large. In addition to being extravagant and squandered, all kinds of management were indispensable. Whether it was the Governor's Office of the Grain Transport, the Governor's Office of the North Zhili, the Southern Zhili Office, the Shuntian Mansion, the Yingtian Mansion, the various governor's offices on both sides of the canal, they all needed to be managed in place. In addition, Cheng Liangru also took out silver as most merchants back then, and provided scholarly disciples to study.

The study cost in the Ming Dynasty, and generally poor families could not afford it at all, so many scholars were supported by merchants. Once those people were on the list of gold and became officials, they naturally had to repay the merchants who offered them and tried their best to reduce and exempt the business tax. The Donglin Party was the scholars who were supported by merchants.

On the dark lake, a fleet of ships without any lights suddenly appeared in front of the Cheng family fleet, which scared the boatmen's door: "What are you doing? You don't light the lights at night? Suddenly, it popped up from the front and almost hit the boat!"

The sudden fleet was almost all small sampans, but the number was very large. The fleet of small sampans did not set up torches and did not even lanterns, and they were just sailing on the lake. No, it was obvious that they came for themselves. They did not light the lights, and their fleet was brightly lit. How could it be that they could hit their own fleet?

Thinking of this, Cheng Liangliu was scared and sweated: "No! The one who came must be the water bandit!"

On the small sampan, Zhang Shuheng gave a wink to his brothers in the guards, and then ordered: "Prepare to attack, remember, don't kill Cheng Liangjin, this person is still useful."

Zhang Shuheng was in accordance with Li Guodong's request and could not kill Cheng Liangjin, because this time he killed him, which means he would grab more than 100,000 taels of silver. Cheng Liangjin's family property was at least 20 million taels of silver. To kill him for a few more than 100,000 taels of silver, it would be like killing a chicken to get eggs. It would be better to save his life first and find a full opportunity to blackmail him out in the future. This time, Zhang Shuheng planned to kidnap Cheng Liangjin and let his family pay a ransom of one million silver.

The attacks on the Cheng family's fleet were not only Zhang Shuheng's personal guards, but also more than 2,000 water bandits incorporated by Li Guodong. These water bandits who lived in rivers and lakes were familiar with the water terrain on the north bank of the Yangtze River. The activities in this area were simply familiar to them. According to the agreement between Zhang Shuheng and the water bandits, after they seized Cheng Liangjin, the water bandits took the people away and extorted ransom. After receiving the ransom, the water bandits had to give 7% of the guards and leave 30% of them themselves.

The leader of the water bandit was named Guo Zefu. He was originally a water bandit in Chaohu. Later, after being defeated by Wang Quan's navy, he accepted the call and secretly became the officers and soldiers of Wang Quan's navy. However, on the surface, they were still water bandits in Chaohu.

Guo Zefu and his team's original weapons were very poor. Since they were recruited by Wang Quan, their weapons have been updated. They have been replaced with excellent swords and guns, equipped with water armour armor made of wood and bamboo, and a few people have six-pound pointed red tassel helmets, but most of them still have a headscarf wrapped around their heads.

"Go up! Kill all the guys and guards!" Guo Zefu shouted in a loud voice.

Cheng Liangjiu on the ship was already in chaos. In fact, when he was a teenager, he encountered water bandits and horse thieves more than once, and he was able to deal with it every time. However, as he grew older, Cheng Liangjiu, who had become used to enjoying himself, was no longer as good as before, and he was so scared that he was at a loss.

"Master, hide quickly." The loyal old slave came up and said.

It was too late. Hundreds of men in black jumped from small sampans to the large ship of the Cheng family caravan. These men in black were agile and were obviously good. Every man in black rushed in front was holding a powerful crossbow. The man in black holding a crossbow squatted down. More than a hundred crossbow machines shot arrows in turn. These crossbowmen were very accurate in archery. Each arrow flew out, and a fellow or guard from the Cheng family caravan was nailed to the ship by arrows.

The crossbowman who shot the crossbow arrow did not load it anymore, but threw the crossbow machine, pulled out the knife and rushed to the big ship.

The man in black in front killed the big ship, and there were several archers in black behind. They used bows, not crossbows. The rate of fire of the bow was much faster than that of the crossbow machine. After shooting one, he could shoot another arrow with a bow. Eight archers followed hundreds of swordsmen, constantly shooting cold arrows, shooting the most powerful guards in the Cheng family caravan one by one.

Soon, the big ship that Cheng Liangzhan was completely controlled by the man in black.

Guo Zefu walked onto the big ship with a swagger. Looking at the captive kneeling on the ground and holding his head in his hands, he shouted loudly: "Is that Cheng Liangru? If you don't say it, I will kill all the people I caught! Don't blame me for being ruthless then!"

Changing into the guard clothing and trembling among the crowd, Cheng Liangru, who heard this, shivered all over and soon recovered his calmness. He knew that what the water bandit leader said must be just to scare him. The bandits need hostages and kidnaps to extort more money. Since the other party knew his name, it must have been for kidnaps. Therefore, it is impossible for the water bandits to kill everyone. If they are caught, then the others will be killed.

Although Cheng Liangling only shook slightly, Zhang Shuheng, who was mixed in the crowd, saw it.

Zhang Shuheng, who had a black cloth on his face, walked to Guo Zefu and whispered a few words in his ear. Guo Zefu nodded while listening, then suddenly pointed at a person in the crowd and shouted: "Come on! Pull that guy out for me!"

Seeing the bandit leader pointing at him, Cheng Liangjin was so scared that he collapsed on the deck, with a wet piece under his pants.

Two water bandits came up, dragged Cheng Liangjin, who had fallen out of the crowd, dragged him outside and threw him at Guo Zefu's feet.

"Don't hurt our master!" The loyal old slave rushed out, but was stopped by several water bandits.

"Please, don't hurt our master. If you want to kill me, kill me." The old slave couldn't move forward, so he knelt on the ground in a hurry and kowtowed to Guo Zefu and begged.

Guo Zefu looked at Cheng Liangru who was leaning against his feet and sneered, "This man is tender and tender, and he is pretending to be a servant? Humph! No matter how you look, you don't look like this! Come on! Take this guy down, and you can't let him die! Others, except for this loyal slave and those maids and beautiful maids, all of them were cut down!"

The old slave was pulled aside and tied up tightly. Tong Chengdi was blindfolded and brought onto a boat. Guo Zefu planned to share the eight captured women with Zhang Shuheng, but Zhang Shuheng scolded him back: "It's useless to take these women, so it's better to take all of Guo Dazhu's family back."

"Thank you Zhang Baihu!"

Zhang Shuheng glanced around the captured ships and said, "Some of the prisoners have seen me, and no one of these people can be kept. You can take them into the bottom cabin later and burn the ship."

"promise!"

"Also, fake cigarettes cannot be kept, they will be burned."
Chapter completed!