In the 24th year of Guangxu, there was a severe drought along the shores of Poyang Lake. The imperial court ordered Anqing Mansion in the south of the Yangtze River to transfer 10,000 stones of grain to help Jiujiang Mansion in disaster relief.

The person in charge of escorting the grain boat was the Anqing Mansion Caobiao Yunqian Bai Xian Temple. He took an iron ship and led 20 green battalion soldiers to open the way, leading 20 grain boats up the river day and night.

Hukou County Governor Luo Qingzhang got the news early, and early that morning, he led a team to greet Shizhong Mountain. It was late autumn, and a thin layer of fog floated over the lake surface.

Bai Xian Temple ordered the fleet to come ashore and did not disembark. He only stood at the bow of the boat, his fists clasped in his hands, and shouted, "Lord Luo, forgive me for being rude! Now I have left four boats of grain to save the lake mouth. I have to go forward to deliver food, so I will say goodbye."

Seeing this, Luo Qingzhang hurriedly boarded a small boat parked on the shore and personally delivered the prepared wine and food to the ship of Bai Xian Temple, saying, "President Bai Qian, will you let my theft camp escort the fleet out of the country?"

Bai Xian Temple glared at him and asked, "What, is it not peaceful within the jurisdiction?"

Luo Qingzhang replied: "It's always been good. It's only because of the continuous natural disasters in recent years that two major scourges have appeared on the lake in the territory, so President Bai Qian must be more vigilant. To go there, you must pass through the shoe mountain in our county. There are a lot of herons in the mountain, and they often attack the boats, which is a harm to the lake."

Hearing this, Bai Xian Temple laughed and said, "I have so much food, and I'm afraid I won't be able to feed them? It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. What harm is there?"

Luo Qingzhang said: "Since last year, a group of thieves has gathered on the surface of the lake, reaching more than 60 people. The leader is called the Ma Zhan Gang, who is in his early 40s and is nicknamed the'Butcher of the Horse '. They kill without blinking an eye. These lake thieves use the sparsely populated Pingfeng Bay as their lair and often appear on Poyang Lake to loot passing ships. The government has cleared the lake many times, but they have all escaped."

Bai Xian Temple said indignantly: "At the moment of the catastrophe, such rats are so rampant. I specially brought 20 brothers and guards from the firearm battalion this time. If I encounter them, they will come and go!"

After the words were finished, Bai Xian Temple gave an order, the iron ship rang three times, and the fleet "clattered" and pulled the sails off the shore.

The fleet entered the hinterland of Poyang Lake, and the surrounding fog was billowing, like a fairyland on earth. Suddenly, the deputy general watching with a single telescope on the side of the ship reported: "President Bai Qian, there is a sharp bend ahead."

Bai Xian Temple looked at it, seventy or eighty meters ahead, there was a hill winding into the lake, causing the lake to suddenly turn a big bend here. Only because the fog was too heavy did he find it near.

Bai Xian Temple hurriedly ordered: "The fleet yawned and bypassed this mountain." Led by the pilot iron ship, the fleet began to move slowly against the hill.

After passing the hill, the line of sight widened again. In the dim, I saw two fishing boats parked on the water in front of me, each with a strong man on board, fishing in the net.

You Bingyong shouted at the bow of the boat: "If you see the disaster relief fleet, don't get out of the way, you are courting death!"

Unexpectedly, the two fishermen were unmoved and still dragged the net unhurriedly. The iron ship could not avoid it and crashed straight into the net across the lake. Almost at the same time, the two men jumped up and jumped into the water.

Although the mesh that was entangled in the bow was torn to pieces, it still hung firmly, making the boat almost stop. It seems that both ends of the mesh were fixed to the bottom of the lake with wooden stakes. Bai Xinci yelled in the dark that it was not good, and was about to to rush over at full speed. Suddenly, he heard a gunshot in the harbor, followed by a shout of killing, and rushed out of more than a dozen fishing boats, each of which stood three or four shirtless men with steel knives.

"There is an ambush! Protect the grain ship." Bai Xian Temple shouted. Unfortunately, the matter was urgent, and the distance was too close, and the soldiers on board had not yet reacted. The lake bandits had already rushed forward, and one by one they jumped on the iron ship, and the two sides started hand-to-hand combat. At this time, the muskets could not be used at all, and the lake bandits were extremely fierce. Although the soldiers fought back hard, they were outnumbered and hacked to death one after another.

Bai Xian Temple held a musket and shot again and again, knocking down three or four pirates in a row. Suddenly, a man rushed up from the back of the iron ship, with a fleshy face and thick black hair on his chest. It was the Ma Zhan Gang. Ma Zhan Gang shouted, "Mr Bai Qian, surrender, I will spare you from dying!"

Bai Xian Temple's eyes spewed fire, and he raised his hand to shoot at the Ma Zhan Gang, but the barrel of the gun made a "click" and there was no gunpowder. The Ma Zhan Gang laughed when they saw this.

Bai Xian Temple threw a musket and pulled a steel knife from his waist to meet the enemy. At this time, he was surrounded by a large number of lake thieves. Seeing that the situation was over, Bai Xian Temple raised its head to the sky and screamed, raised its knife to its neck and wiped it, and fell into the water.

The Mazhan Gang laughed wildly and shouted proudly: "Brothers, with these dozen ships of food, we have enough to survive this year's disaster!" The bandits waved knives and sticks and cheered in unison.

At this time, the master of the Ma Zhan Gang reminded: "Gang Master, it is too early to celebrate success. I believe that soon the body floating on the water will be found, and Luo Qingzhang will definitely chase it with all his strength."

Hearing Luo Qingzhang's name, the Mazhan Gang said bitterly, "I swear I can't stand this person! If he comes after me, I will just settle the old account with him!"

In the twelfth month of last year, the Ma Zhan Gang was ambushed by Luo Qingzhang, and most of the brothers were killed and wounded. At that time, if it wasn't for the brothers blocking the knife for him, he would have died in that melee. After the Ma Zhan Gang narrowly escaped, they vowed to make Luo Qingzhang pay his debts with blood.

The master was afraid that the Ma Zhan Gang would act out of emotion, so he advised: "It's not too late for a gentleman to take revenge for ten years. If the grain ship is robbed in Luo Qingzhang's jurisdiction, he will definitely be implicated. At that time, the court will blame us, won't it save us the trouble. For today's plan, let the brothers quickly set sail and return to the flag pier."

The Mazhan Gang pondered for a moment, nodded, and ordered: "Brothers, whoosh!"

Soon, the lake thieves boarded the grain boat, restarted the sails, and rushed into the depths of Poyang Lake with the wind.

Luo Qingzhang got the report that the grain boat had been robbed, and it was like a thunderstorm. He immediately gathered people to take the boat to the mouth of the depression, looking at the bodies floating on the lake, knowing that it was another "good thing" done by the Mazhan Gang, and couldn't help but sigh: "Bai Xian Temple didn't listen to the hard advice and went its own way, so it was such a tragic disaster."

Luo Qingzhang was so anxious that he asked his subordinate, "Is there a good way to deal with it now?"

The subordinate said: "For today's plan, the only way is to immediately lead the brothers of the bandit camp to ride a trail to Liyuzui near Shoe Mountain, which is the only place for the lake bandits to return to the lair. Set up an ambush there, maybe there is a glimmer of hope."

Last year, Jiujiang Mansion dispatched two cannons to Hukou County. Luo Qingzhang placed them in Liyuzui and sent 20 police officers to guard them. Because of the deterrence of the two cannons, lake thieves generally did not dare to cross Shoe Mountain Lake to commit crimes in the waters near the city.

Luo Qingzhang ordered: "Come with me quickly, no matter what, you must take back the grain boat!"

When the Ma Zhan Gang attacked from a distance and approached the waters of Shoe Mountain Lake, it was nearly noon and the fog began to dissipate.

Master was a little anxious and reminded: "Gang Master, be sure to let the brothers speed up and try to cross Shoe Mountain Lake before the fog clears. You know, the two cannons in Liyuzui are incomparably powerful."

Ma Zhan Gang nodded and said, "Master is right. It's just that the brothers are tired all the way, and it may be difficult to speed up. It seems that we can only break into the shoe mountain lake."

Master shook his head and whispered to the Ma Zhan Gang. The Ma Zhan Gang nodded repeatedly and praised: "Master, this plan is very good!"

Soon the grain fleet entered the waters of Shoe Mountain Lake. Although the fog did not dissipate, the Shoe Mountain in the water and the carp mouth on the shore were vaguely visible in the hazy.

Someone shouted from the mouth of the carp: "The fleet on the lake heard it, come ashore quickly and be inspected. Otherwise, we will shoot."

At this time, the Ma Zhan Gang was wearing the official uniform of President Qian embroidered with rhinos, wearing a gold ceiling with yin patterns and standing on the bow of the boat, holding a shelf and scolding: "Are you blind? I am the Anqing Mansion's water transportation operation Qianzongzong Temple, and under the order of the imperial court, I escorted grain to Xingzi, Duchang, Poyang and other places for disaster relief."

The man on the shore asked, "Do you have any customs clearance documents?"

Ma Zhan Gang shouted: "I have just handed it over to Luo Zhi County for inspection in the county seat. Now the official business is urgent, forgive me for not being able to dock for inspection."

The people in the bandit camp on the shore heard what the Ma Zhan Gang said, and saw that he was wearing an official uniform, while everyone else in the fleet was dressed as a soldier, so they did not dare to pursue him.

The fleet quickly left the carp mouth and began to circle along the shoe mountain. Ma Zhan Gang got out of danger and was in a happy mood. They ordered each boat to take a jar of good wine. For a while, more than a dozen boats drank boxing, which was very lively.

Xu was disturbed by the noise, and two strange bird calls suddenly came from above the shoe mountain. I saw two herons, one large and one small, flying up from the cliff and slowly swooping towards the fleet.

The lake pirates all recognized the bird and shouted, "The 'Begging Bird 'is here." Master hurriedly said, "Master, let's get people to feed." People on the water called Shoe Mountain Heron a "Begging Bird".

Who knew that Ma Zhan Gang drank a little too much wine? Not only did he not throw away the food, but he pulled out a captured musket and said, "It's good, I'm about to test the power of this musket." Raising his hand, a shot was fired, and with a "bang," it just hit the smaller heron. Immediately, a white feathered goddess floated in the air like scattered flowers, and the heron screamed and fell straight into the lake. Another larger heron followed with a mournful cry, quickly uplifted, "whoosh" flew to the top of the shoe mountain, and began to "wow wow" around the shoe mountain.

As soon as the Ma Zhan Gang left Liyuzui, Luo Qingzhang arrived with more than 30 hunters on fast horses. Knowing that the grain boat had passed, Luo Qingzhang was so anxious that he stomped his feet again and again: "I waited a step slower."

Luo Qingzhang said to his subordinates: "If the fleet passes Shoe Mountain, the water is open, and the waterway extends in all directions, then it will be more difficult to catch the thieves. Hurry up and prepare the boat, we will go around the North Face of Shoe Mountain along the lake and try to intercept the fleet."

Soon, eight small boats, loaded with thieves, sped away.

Entering Shoe Mountain, he suddenly heard a gunshot, and then saw a huge heron hovering on the top of the mountain screaming. Luo Qingzhang couldn't help but cry: "It must be those lake pirates who shot the birds, it's really God who helped me!"

At that moment, the Mazhan Gang was holding a musket in their hands and feeling complacent. Suddenly, many herons flew out of the walls of the shoe mountain, covering the sky and the sun, with white flowers, rushing towards the fleet.

The Mazhan Gang was shocked and cried, "Quick, brothers, grab the guys." But before it was too late, the birds, like raindrops, led by the leading heron, rushed recklessly towards everyone on the iron and grain ships. The pirates shot, slashed with knives and sticks, but killed one, and countless others rushed up, and it was impossible to prevent them. Some of the pirates had their eyes pecked out, and some of their bodies were pecked and bloody.

Ma Zhan Gang's musket had no gunpowder, and it was too late to fill it. And the leading heron kept staring at him, kept rushing towards him, pecking out his left eye at once, so painful that the Ma Zhan Gang shouted "Ow" and fell on the deck.

Ma Zhan Gang rolled painfully and rolled into the cabin. Unexpectedly, before he closed the cabin door, the leading heron flew into the cabin with a flock of birds and pecked at him non-stop. After a while, more birds crowded into the cabin, and soon Ma Zhan Gang was pecked to the bone.

From a distance, Luo Qingzhang saw such a tragic situation and shook his head repeatedly. He picked up a fire letter, lit it and threw it into the air. The catcher on the shore got the signal and fired two shots in the direction of Shoe Mountain. The circling birds were frightened, "crashing" scattered, and gradually fell back to the cliff of Shoe Mountain. For a while, the lake was calm again.

Luo Qingzhang commanded the catcher to quickly row the boat towards the grain fleet. After counting, only a small amount of grain in more than a dozen boats was eaten by birds, and most of them were still intact. Luo Qingzhang secretly rejoiced that after boarding the iron ship, he had the undead lake pirates carried on to the small boat and transported back to the county for treatment. At this time, the body of the Ma Zhan Gang was carried out of the cabin.

Luo Qingzhang couldn't help but sigh: "These thieves do a lot of evil, and the sky can't spare him!"

Strange to say, since then, there has been no incident of a heron hurting people in this area. So far, both evils on the lake are flat...