Chapter 529: Martial Master Ah Chou
At the Prince of Qi’s residence, the staff member Qiao Zhongkui handed a letter to Prince of Qi Yang Ling, “Your Highness, this is a handwritten letter from Gao Zhu, the chairman of the Baoguo Council, to your Highness!”

Yang Ling wiped out Shi Wansui’s 50,000-strong army, and his ambition and arrogance became extremely inflated. He still gave some face to the Guanlong nobles, but as for the National Protection Association, he simply looked down on it.

Yang Ling said unhappily: “I don’t want to see it, what does he want to do?”

“Your Highness, Gao Zhu begs Your Highness to keep your promise and give Bohai County and Pingyuan County to them!”

In order to gain the support of the Baoguo Association, Yang Ling had promised to cede Bohai County and Pingyuan County to the Baoguo Association to restore the country. But the situation has changed now. Yang Ling has defeated the imperial army and he is arrogant. How could he possibly cede land to the Baoguo Association again?
Yang Ling’s heart suddenly became murderous, and he said coldly: “How can I allow others to sleep soundly beside my bed?”

At this moment, Yang Ling decided to kill all the members of Baoguo Society and completely eliminate them.

Qiao Zhongkui offered a suggestion: “I heard that the National Protection Association has summoned members from all over Hebei to Gaotang County to prepare for the establishment of a nation. Gaotang County has piled up money and grain like a mountain. This is a great opportunity. Your Highness should decisively send troops to annihilate the National Protection Association in one fell swoop.”

Yang Ling nodded, “Sir, you are right. If these rebels are not eliminated early, they will become trouble in the future!”

Yang Ling immediately sent his trusted general Liang Pusa to lead 20,000 cavalrymen to attack Gaotang County, Qinghe County, to completely wipe out the base of the Baohui Party and kill all the members of the Party.

The Baoguo Society had been lurking behind the scenes, but since the rebellion of Prince of Qi Yang Ling, the Baoguo Society and Yang Ling reached an alliance agreement, and the Baoguo Society officially stepped out from behind the scenes and established its bases in Qinghe County and Gaotang County.

Recruiting began a month ago, and soon more than 10,000 people were recruited, divided into ten armies, led by Hao Xiaode, Liu Badao, Sun Anzu, Zhang Jincheng, Dou Jiande and others.

But the Baoguo Party never dreamed that Yang Ling would go back on his word and turn against them. Just as Gao Zhu asked Yang Ling to fulfill his promise, Yang Ling’s knife came towards them.

When Gao Zhu received the news that the army was approaching and that the King of Qi’s army was already thirty miles away, Gao Zhu hurriedly ordered his cousin Gao Cong to lead the army to fight, while he himself fled hastily to the south with his confidants.

On the banks of the Yellow River, Gao Zhu received news that his army of more than 10,000 was defeated by the Qi Wang army and fled in all directions. The Qi Wang army had already occupied Gaotang County, and thousands of members of the National Protection Association and their families who did not have time to escape were all killed.

Gao Zhu couldn’t help but burst into tears. He trusted Qi Wang Yang Liang too much and summoned all the members of the Baohui Society from all over Hebei to Gaotang County, wanting to roll up his sleeves and do a big job. Unexpectedly, he was caught by Yang Liang.

Wang Bo advised: “Master, we still have some foundation in Qi County. Why don’t we go to Qi County to develop and take advantage of the opportunity of the confrontation between the court and the King of Qi to quickly establish our own foundation.”

Gao Zhu wiped away his tears and looked at his men. There were only a few dozen of them left, and they were all in a panic. He could only nod and said, “Let’s cross the Yellow River first!”

Taishan Martial Arts School in Licheng County, Qi County, is the martial arts school opened by Qin Qiong. It has thousands of apprentices and more than sixty martial arts masters. It is currently one of the three largest martial arts schools in the entire Shandong area. Whether it is the income from teaching apprentices or the income from various escorts and guards, it is second to none among all martial arts schools.

Qin Qiong taught his disciples real talents and gave every warrior entry-level pills, similar to the Xiao family’s Tiger and Leopard Pills and Xiao Huan Dan. As long as you study martial arts in his martial arts school for more than one year, you can basically reach the first level of warrior or the fourth level of martial arts. Those who join the army are all captains or above. More than half of the constables in Licheng County came from Taishan Martial Arts School.

In addition, Qin Qiong himself helped the poor and the weak, and helped others out of justice, which made him more and more famous in Qi County. Qin Qiong opened several weapon shops, and he gradually became one of the powerful people in Qi County. No force dared to underestimate him.

At noon that day, a young martial artist ran into the martial arts hall and shouted, “Everyone, come and watch the fun! There’s a good show going on at the county government office!”

The martial artists were having a meal. When they saw the young martial artist coming in, they hurriedly said, “Here comes the plague god Ah San!”

The young martial artist ran over and said, “The people over at the county government office are making trouble, why don’t you go and have a look?” At this time, someone couldn’t help but sneer in a low voice, “If you stand on the street and shout a few times, I guarantee there will be hundreds of people surrounding you to watch the fun!”

The young man suddenly got furious. He turned around and looked around. All the martial artists lowered their heads to eat. He didn’t know who said that just now?

The young man chuckled, “Whoever was mocking me for being ugly just now, stand out, I promise I won’t beat him to death!”

Seeing that he was angry, everyone dared not say a word. He was not threatening them, he was really beating them with a stick.

This young man was none other than Cheng Yaojin, whom Xiao Xia had once asked about. His nickname was Achou, and he was extremely ugly, with dry and yellow hair like straw, and two black birthmarks stuck on both cheeks like bats. In addition, he had a pair of brush eyebrows, triangular eyes, a garlic nose, and a bloody mouth. He was as ugly as could be.

Cheng Yaojin and Qin Qiong are cousins. Cheng Yaojin has been a troublemaker since he was a child, causing his family a lot of headaches. That year, Qin Qiong returned to Qi County from the capital, passed by Jibei County, and went to Dong’a County to visit his aunt.

It happened that Cheng Yaojin led a group of scoundrels to steal the government’s oxen and kill them to roast meat, and was wanted by the government. The aunt asked Qin Qiong to take Cheng Yaojin away. Qin Qiong wanted to open a martial arts school and needed manpower, so he took Cheng Yaojin to Qi County.

Although he became a martial artist, Cheng Yaojin was also restless. Although he didn’t fight as often, he still got into a lot of other troubles. Cheng Yaojin had three hobbies: drinking, gambling, and watching the fun. He drank to his heart’s content and liked to show off his abilities. He gambled without manners and liked to default on his debts. He watched the fun and liked to stand up for the weak, but he always turned small things into big ones.

For example, when he first came to Qi County, he watched others quarreling. As he watched, he started to quarrel with them. In the end, he was defeated by others, so he became angry and broke the other person’s leg with a stick and ran away.

It was originally just a small quarrel, but he turned it into a big deal with one blow. He could not be found, and the other party in the quarrel had to consider themselves unlucky and pay dozens of strings of money.

Fortunately, with Qin Qiong’s discipline and education, Cheng Yaojin has grown up over the years and is not as reckless as before. Qin Qiong sees that he is born with great strength and speed, which is a rare talent in martial arts, so he taught him three and a half extremely practical axe techniques.

His axe skills were very simple and could be used to split heads, pick front teeth, dig ears, and also had a half-trick for cutting hands. Everyone could learn it after just one look, but no one was as good as him. The key was that Cheng Yaojin was born with great strength and was extremely fast.

Today is salary payment day, and Cheng Yaojin took the money and was going to gamble, but he came across a lively event on the way. After watching it for the whole morning, he felt hungry and came back to eat.

Cheng Yaojin walked forward, picked up two big steamed buns from the table, sat down and started to eat. He picked up the soup spoon and scooped a spoonful of meat into his mouth. As a result, he ate too fast and couldn’t help sneezing loudly. “Ah, sneeze!” His snot, saliva and steamed bun crumbs sprayed all over the plates on the table. The other martial artists were stunned. After a while, they angrily slammed their bowls on the table and turned away.

Cheng Yaojin didn’t take it seriously. He thought it would be best if others didn’t eat, and all the dishes on the table belonged to him.

Not long after, Qin Qiong arrived. Naturally, a martial artist went to complain. Qin Qiong could do nothing about his brother. Everyone in the martial arts hall, whether a martial artist or an apprentice, hated him. They called him the Plague God Ah San behind his back and asked Qin Qiong to drive Cheng Yaojin away. However, Qin Qiong could not bear to do so.

Every time Cheng Yaojin got into trouble, Qin Qiong would scold him severely, but Cheng Yaojin was very thick-skinned and would accept it modestly but would never change.

“Sanlang, what happened to you today that made everyone unable to eat?”

Cheng Yaojin burped and said, “Brother, you can’t blame me this time. I just sneezed, and they were narrow-minded and refused to eat. What does it have to do with me?”

Qin Qiong saw that all the dishes on the table had been eaten up and the basket of steamed buns was empty. He felt helpless and said to Cheng Yaojin, “County Magistrate Li asked me to introduce a few more constables to him yesterday. Otherwise, you can go! I will talk to the county magistrate and let you be a small leader.”

(End of this chapter)