With a dull expression, Long Yuan did not answer, but one of his hands was already behind his back. If Li Tong really saw something, he wouldn't mind finding a place where nobody would see them kill him.

Liu Xiu was very calm and said cheerfully:" That's putting it a bit strongly, Brother Li. Since it's just a joke, why would Zhongbo and I take it seriously!"

Li Tong said indifferently:" Okay, Kidding aside, Brother Long is not a wanted criminal of course, and even if he is, it doesn't matter. Brother Long only needs to hide for a few months, and when the emperor's amnesty is granted, all his charges will be erased."

This was true. Wang Mang could be considered as the emperor who was most fond of issuing amnesty commands in Chinese history.

During his fifteen-year reign, he issued a total of more than 20 amnesty commands, which were calculated on average that once every ten months, so that future generations all joked that in Wang Mang's new dynasty, the killers did need to pay for their crimes. As long as one could escape for ten months, his guilt became innocent.

Li Tong then turned the topic and asked, "Brother Liu, are you from Xiangyang City?"

"No, I am from Cai Yang."

"Cai Yang? Then what are you here for?"

"Join the the Volunteer Army."

Upon hearing this, Li Tong's eyes lit up with excitement and said, "What a coincidence! My elder cousin and I are also here to join the Volunteer Army!"

Speaking of this, he suddenly remembered something and asked:" Brother Liu, your surname is Liu, and you are from Cai Yang. Have you heard of Liu Yan---Liu Bosheng, who is also from Cai Yang?"

Liu Xiu smiled and said, "He is my eldest brother!"

Li Tong stared at Liu Xiu in disbelief with wide eyes in surprise, and asked him uncertainly, "Liu Bosheng is your eldest brother? Your biological eldest brother?"

Liu Xiu laughed and replied, "Liu Bosheng is my biological eldest brother himself!"

Li Tong couldn't help but burst out laughing and picking his thumbs up at Liu Xiu, then he said, "Your eldest brother is now our great hero in Nanyang Prefecture. I heard in the casino that your eldest brother raised five blocks of stone pier with one hand, which stunned the Xianwei officials there."

"..." The news spread too fast, and it was too exaggerated and too far. Liu Xiu smiled dryly and said:" There was not as many as five, but actually two!"

"That's also amazing. I couldn't even lift a block of stone pier with two hands." Li Tong looked at Liu Xiu with a look of excitement, as if he saw Liu Yan himself. Then he said, "By the way, I am from Wanxian County."

Li Tong of Wanxian County?! Liu Xiu thought about it and asked, "I remember that Lord Li of Wanxian County, Li Shouli, has a son named Li Tong Li Ci Yuan!"

"Li Shou is exactly the name of my father, but my father has been absent from the court for many years!"

Now Liu Xiu figured out exactly who Li Tong was.

The Li Family is a noble and respectable family in Nanyang Prefecture. They ran business generation by generation, and generations of businessmen have made fortunes. Li Shou's generation was the generation that gave up the Li Family's business and went into politics, and then served as a Zongshi---an officer specializing in the affairs of the clan---in Chang'an.

Afterwards, no one knew the reason why Li Shou suddenly resigned from his official position to return to his homeland in Wanxian County, go back in the Li Family's saddle, and continue to do the Family's business.

The Li Family was famous for their great family and great business, and Li Tong was famous for his love to help people out. Liu Xiu had heard about Li Tong precisely because Li Tong organized a month-long gruel handout in Wancheng to relieve those affected victims.

Most of the people who participated in the Volunteer Army were like Liu Yan, they came here with the mentality of making a fortune It was well known that the Li family was already very rich, nevertheless, Li Tong still came to join the Volunteer Army. Liu Xiu really couldn't understand the reason why he did this.

Liu Xiu asked, "Brother Li, your family is rich, why do you come to join the Volunteer Army?"

Li Tong said with a smile, "A man's ambition is to be in all directions. If he stays at home all the time and is protected by his parents, he will never achieve great things."

Liu Xiu nodded secretly. Li Tong was born into a famous and respectable family, nevertheless, he was not a playboy, but a man with great ambitions, and he was a man worth befriending.

He was pondering about it when a group of big fellow came towards on the street in front of them, blocking the way of Liu Xiu and the two others.

The man headed looked at the three of them with bad intentions, and said with a sneer, "I mean you guys here, you just cheated in the casino, then you just want to walk quite away from it so easily?"

The three of Liu Xiu looked up. The man who was talking appeared to be eight feet tall, both wide and musclely, with a cloak on the outside and bare shoulders on the inside, exposing his peculiarly high pectoral muscles.

Looking up at the man's face, his eyebrows were born wild, and a pair of big ringed eyes beneathed them, flashed with an aggressive and fierce light.

To his left and right, there were also six or seven big fellows, each with crooked necks and mouths, and all of them did not look straight at people in the eye, but stared at Liu Xiu and the two others with the remaining light from the corner of their eyes.

The people on the streets of Xiangyang City seemed to know this group of people. As soon as they saw them standing on the street, people all hid far away from there. Some pedestrians passing by simply detoured and hid from them as if they were a group of plague god.

Li Tong looked at them up and down, then asked, "Are you all casino people?"

"What if we are?"

"Oh, so the fact is that you couldn't afford to lose. Seeing that we won money just now, now you want to snatch it back!" Li Tong suddenly realized.

When Li Tong's words revealed his intentions, the head of the gang became enraged and said angrily, "You bloke, hand over that dragon coin, and we will be cleared with each othere. If you don't hand it over, humph!"

The big man broke his fingers as he spoke, and a series of rattling and crunchy noises came from his bone knuckles.

Li Tong snorted and said, "I haven't put a dragon coin in my eyes yet, but I, your Father, just don't like you guys enough. You want me to hand over the dragon coin, no way!"

The man in the head was so angry that the seven apertures of his head was foamed with rage, and he roared angrily, "I feel you bloke is wanting money instead of your life, and you can't shed a tear without seeing a coffin, humph!"

Just as he was roaring, he grabbed Li Tong's collar with one hand, raised his other hand swung his fist round in a gesture and assumed a posture to strike down at Li Tong's face.

Li Tong was a child of a wealthy family, and his family owned a lot of followers and servants. He had also practiced martial arts when he was a child. When dealing with the followers and servants of his family, he could always get the upper hand.

Faced with such a few local ruffians, he really didn't take it seriously.

Without waiting for the big fellow's fist to come down, Li Tong beat him to the punch. He first pressed his opponent's arm with his elbow, which made the big fellow's arm bent involuntarily and his body also leaned forward with it. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Li Tong threw a hook from the bottom up, right into the big fellow's jaw.

Pow! His fist hit the big fellow's chin firmly, but the big fellow just wobbled his body slightly before coming out all unaffected and roaring back with a punch. This punch hit Li Tong solidly on his cheek.

The punch that Li Tong hit the big fellow didn't make his opponent hurt much, while the punch that his opponent counterpunched made Li Tong's head buzz a bit. The pain was blinding him and a gold star seemed to emerge in front of his eyes. Then his eyes were dull, his legs couldn't stand and his body was limp downwards.

Liu Xiu could see clearly what happened from the sidelines that Li Tong's moves were good, but unfortunately, his strength was too small, and his ability to resist strikes was too weak.

To put it bluntly, he could not hurt others, but others could easily hurt him.

Seeing that Li Tong was completely vulnerable and unbearable, the big fellow headed was even more ashamed and angry. Just such a handless hairy bloke with a fool's power could still hit his face with a punch. If he didn't get his face back today, how could he still be in front of his brothers?!

Thinking of this, the big fellow's anger started from his heart, and he became wicked. He returned his hand, pulled out a dagger from his lower back, and stabbed towards Li Tong's stomach.

At this time, Li Tong also came back to his senses. When he saw the big fellow light up the knife on the other side, his face changed suddenly, and it was too late for him to break away from the big fellow and dodge the dagger at this time.

Just as the blade of the dagger was about to pierce his lower abdomen, Li Tong thought that he was going to lose his life, but at this moment, the dagger stopped surprisingly and unexpectedly, and the tip of the dagger was almost stuck to Li Tong on his lapel.

On the occasion of a close call, Liu Xiu, who was standing on the sidelines, almost approached the two of them with a single step. And with lightning-fast moves, he struggled to grab and deadlock the wrist of the knife from the big fellow's hand.

Although Liu Xiu was a bit taller than Li Tong, his body looked very thin, and it seemed that he had not much strength, but no matter how hard the big man exerted his strength, the dagger could no longer stab another forward.

He twisted his head, glared at Liu Xiu angrily with his eyes wide open, and shouted sharply, "Let go!"

"In broad daylight, do you want to commit crimes in public? Is there any laws in Xiangyang City?"

"The law? The fucking law is on my side, on your Father's side!" As soon as he pushed Li Tong away, the burly man came out with empty hands and swung his fist towards Liu Xiu's face.

He was fast, but Liu Xiu was even faster than him. Liu Xiu's body was like a gyro. And at the same time, a hand knife cut out from Liu Xiu's hand, unbiased, right into the center of the neck of the burly man.

As he dodged his opponent's fists, there was no intention of chopping out the hand knife. His body just made this move entirely subconsciously.

This was the result of his more than two months of diligent practice and hard work, following the methods taught by Long Yuan.

The human body had memory not only in the brain, but also in the muscles.

By repeating the same several movements over a long period of time, the muscles will gradually produce a memory. So, one day when someone made one of these movements again, his body could complete the next movement without the need to be under the command of his brain, just by muscle memory. And with muscle memory alone, the next action could be done.

The throat was hit by a hand knife from Liu Xiu, the burly big fellow stepped back two steps on his back. He finally stabilized his body, his mouth opened wide, and his face flushed red.

He held on for a moment, and finally could not resist throwing away his dagger, covering his neck with both hands, kneeling on the ground, coughing violently, and the spittle spewing out of his mouth still laced with blood.

It was also thanks to the fact that Liu Xiu had only been practicing for two months. And if he had practiced for a longer period of time, with the strength of his hand knife, he could completely smash the throat cartilage of his opponents.

Seeing that their Laoda was injured, the burly men's followers all roared loudly, some showing their daggers, some carrying sticks, and rushing towards Liu Xiu.

Seeing the situation, Long Yuan leaned his body forward, but soon shrank back, feeling that it was too early to show up and help Liu Xiu out at this time. It would be a good experience for the lord to first practice his hands on these local ruffians, after all, the opportunity was rare, and if the lord was in danger, it was not too late for him to strike again.

Thinking about this, instead of stepping forward, Long Yuan took two steps back to make room for Liu Xiu, but his hand was already touching his waist and grabbing the dagger, ready to help Liu Xiu out at any time.

Liu Xiu's practical combat experience was very pitiful little. At this point in time, facing the siege of six or seven big fellows at once, and on the other side, all had weapons in their hands, Liu Xiu also appeared to be in a state of confusion at the beginning, busy dodging attacks from all sides of his opponents. It was indeed extremely dangerous.

However, Liu Xiu's physique gradually came into effect. Under the siege of these big fellows, his figure looked like a gost, sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right, and he flitted around, just right to defuse the attacks of his opponents.

The more they fought, the more impatient, irritable and furious these big fellows became. On the contrary, Liu Xiu was more relaxed, proficient, and more like a fish in water. And gradually, he was no longer confined to just dodging by means of his boby, and began to make tentative counterattacks.

Long Yuan on the side looked and nodded secretly, and his hand that originally held the dagger also slowly hung down.

Notes:

1 Xianwei 县尉: referring as the name of a local official just below the head of the county in ancient China

2 I, your Father 老子: pejorative slang – a form of address which asserts the speaker's seniority/authority over the person being spoken to, with the intention of demeaning them

3 Laoda 老大: especially a leader of a group of male friends or of a criminal organization