Chapter 43: Jie Feng
The leader of the Beggars' Sect, Jie Feng, is one of the ten great masters of the righteous path. He is proficient in the Beggars' Sect's orthodox martial arts, the Thirty-Six Moves of the Dog Beating Stick Technique, which has subtle changes and wonderful techniques.

Zai Fuwang is a character who is both good and evil in the martial arts world. Compared to a man of the world, he is more like a businessman.

In his mind, making money is the top priority.

A set of Arhat Subduing Tiger Fist is so powerful that ordinary people can't get close to it.

If these two people collided, not only Tianjin, but the entire northern martial arts world would be shaken.

It’s a pity that the two announced the duel too hastily, resulting in many people in the martial arts world not having time to arrive at the scene.

Only a very few people are as lucky as Ou Zanghua and his four companions.

However, when these very few people got together, plus the disciples from both the Cao Gang and the Beggar Gang, their numbers were still so large that they were busy with arms waving and sweat pouring down.

Fortunately, Ou Zanghua and Qu Yang were very talented and squeezed into the front row in the crowded venue.

Looking inside the venue, an area had been cordoned off, with a large flag erected on each side, one reading "Cao Gang" and the other "Beggar Gang".

The members of the Cao Gang wore uniform black clothes with a red circle on the cuffs, making them easy to identify.

The Beggars' Gang has people wearing all kinds of clothes, including big men dressed like strong men, old beggars wearing tattered clothes, and even middle-aged people wearing brocade clothes.

Qu Yang explained in a low voice: "Since the eighteenth leader of the Beggars' Sect, Senior Hong Qigong, the conflict between the Clean Clothes Faction and the Dirty Clothes Faction has intensified. Over the years, they have split up and reunited, and no leader has been able to resolve it. However, when it comes to dealing with the outside world, the two factions can still advance and retreat together."

Ou Zanghua was speechless. It was really unbelievable that a problem had been dragged on for more than three hundred years and still not been solved.

"The man wearing beggar's clothes and with white hair sitting in front of the Beggars' Sect flag is the Beggars' Sect leader, Jie Feng."

"The person behind him is the deputy gang leader, Zhang Jinao."

"Behind them are two of the four Nine-Bag Elders of the Beggars' Sect, Xu Shaosheng and Zhou Yingfang."

"The two young men next to them are the two messengers of Qinglian and Bailian."

"Except for the two Nine-Bag Elders Zhao Wenhua and Xifeng Ning, and the Kung Fu Transmission Elder Dong Buyu, all the other experts of the Beggars' Sect have arrived."

Then, Qu Yang pointed to the Cao Gang and continued, "Since Zai Fuwang took office, the Cao Gang has recruited 18 good fighters in 10 years through recruitment and accumulating merit within the gang. They are known as the 'Eighteen Riders of Yanyun'."

"Those present today include Qi Sibo, Li Hongda, Zhang Chen, Li Xinran, and Wu Changxun."

"In addition, the Cao Gang has two deputy gang leaders. Fang Duzhi is good at making money and is highly respected, but he himself does not know martial arts. The other one, He Xun, is an abandoned disciple of Shaolin. It is rumored that his strength is not inferior to Zai Fuwang. Fang Duzhi did not come today, so the bald man is He Xun."

Ou Zanghua couldn't help but glance at Qu Yang. With such a memory, why don't you just hang around in the underworld and take the imperial examination with me?

But then again, if the Eighteen Riders of Yanyun of the Cao Gang are all masters of the same level, then their foundation is quite solid!

Fortunately, Zai Fuwang only wanted to make money, not fight and kill in the underworld.

Otherwise, Zuo Lengchan would have an opponent.

The Thirteen Guardians of Songshan VS the Eighteen Riders of Yanyun

It's quite interesting.

At this time, the deputy leader He Xun suddenly turned his head to look to the side. Qi Sibo's five men stood up one after another. The Cao Gang disciples immediately turned around, clasped their hands together, and shouted in unison: "Carrying the righteousness on your iron shoulders, Chicheng casts golden glory! Welcome to the leader!"

The next moment, a big man walked out with the gait of a dragon and a tiger.

This man had a dignified figure and a handsome appearance. His eyes shot out cold stars, his eyebrows were as curved as painted, his chest was broad, and he had an imposing manner that could not be matched by ten thousand men. He was the leader of the Cao Gang, Zai Fu Wang.

Zai Fuwang pressed with one hand, and the Cao Gang disciples lowered their arms in unison and stood in a straddle position again.

"Greetings, everyone." Then, Zai Fuwang bowed to everyone present and forced a smile on his serious face, as a greeting to the people in the martial arts world.

"I'm sure you've all heard why we're gathered here today. But I think we still need to clarify the truth before we can decide the winner. What do you think, Gang Leader Jie?"

Zai Fuwang looked at Jie Feng and asked indifferently.

"Of course," Jie Feng nodded, "It will also allow fellow martial artists to see the true nature of your Cao Gang!"

As soon as these words were spoken, they immediately aroused dissatisfaction among the Cao Gang, but Zai Fuwang just stretched out his hand to suppress them, and everyone stopped talking.

From this, we can also see how much say this person has in the Cao Gang.

"In the tenth year of Zhizheng, when the world was in turmoil, the leader of the Cao Clan, Ouyang Minglou, reached an agreement with the leader of the Beggar Clan, Shi Hongshi, with the idea of ​​supporting each other."

"The Beggars' Gang provided the personnel and the Canal Gang provided the money to build new docks in Tianjin, Linqing, Weizhou and other places to load and unload goods and maintain the canal transportation."

"After that, the three generations of Cao Gang leaders, Ouyang Xiao, Ouyang Xunbei, and Nangong Mingbin, raised the salaries of Beggar Gang disciples more than ten times."

"But the Beggars' Sect disciples are ungrateful. They don't know the weight of the cargo when unloading, deliberately put too little cargo when loading, and even sank the boats, causing the river to be blocked! They do all this just to make the Cao Gang give up the dock."

"Jie Feng, am I telling the truth?"

Jie Feng stood up. Although he was a little shorter than Zai Fu, his momentum was not inferior at all. "Humph! This is nonsense. We, the Beggars' Sect, would never do such a thing as drilling a boat to block the river. This is your false accusation. Your purpose is to overturn the agreement reached between Sect Leader Ouyang and Sect Leader Shi!"

"In order to make money, your father Wang has disregarded the rules set by the leaders of the Cao Gang and the Beggar Gang."

"Zai Fuwang, you are betraying your master and ancestors!"

Then, the two sides started arguing. What Ou Zanghua didn't expect was that most of the people in the martial arts world stood on the side of the Beggars' Sect.

In Qu Yang's words, a real man should put loyalty first and keep his promises.

Since our ancestors have set the rules, the younger generations should abide by them.

This situation exists in all sects and schools. Everyone guards their own piece of land, fearing that it will be snatched away by others.

It can be said to be the underworld version of 'the laws of our ancestors cannot be changed'.

But in Ou Zanghua's opinion, the Rencao Gang has been making progress, but the Beggars' Gang sticks to the rules and has no ambition to make progress, and it also holds others back. It's good enough that they can tolerate two generations of gang leaders.

At this moment, Ou Zanghua suddenly understood why the Clean Clothes Faction and the Dirty Clothes Faction within the Beggars' Sect had always existed and neither had swallowed up the other. Perhaps the main reason was the inaction of successive gang leaders.

There's no way to reason with them. Everyone has their own opinion and no one can convince anyone else.

Then let’s get started!

With pressure from the imperial court, and especially in a military stronghold like Tianjin, it was naturally impossible to start a large-scale operation.

The two sides agreed to a best-of-three format.

The two fighting parties can only send their own disciples and are not allowed to ask for outside aid.

Otherwise, with the financial resources of the Cao Gang, if it were Ou Zanghua, they would definitely go to Heimu Cliff and Shaolin Temple to spend money.

Build a golden house for the oriental girl and let her (her?) play with the golden house and pavilion.

Gilding the body of the Buddha in the main hall allowed Master Fang Zheng to feel his deep affinity with Buddhism.

In this way, the civilian players of the Beggars' Sect can see what it means to 'spend money to make people stronger'!
(End of this chapter)