My Apprenticeship to Uncle Jiu: I Was a Warlord in the Republic of China

Chapter 329: Great Smart Self-Attack Strategy

However, Mo Ying was too conspicuous and scared the people along the way. But after ten days of travel, they finally arrived at Dongting Lake.

After arriving at Dongting Lake, Jiang Li, under the guidance of intelligence personnel, stationed his army on a slope.

After stationing the troops, he called Li Zhendong, the head of the local intelligence department, for questioning.

"Tell me, what is the situation in Dongting Lake and its surrounding area? Is there anything we should pay attention to?"

Hearing Jiang Li's question, Li Zhendong immediately told Jiang Li in detail what they had discovered during this period.

"Reporting to the commander, we have conducted a thorough investigation around Dongting Lake and found that the surrounding terrain is flat, the alluvial soil is fertile, agriculture is developed, and the population is relatively dense."

"In addition, this is also an important fishing area and water transport channel. Because a large number of people make a living by fishing, there are many river temples here. However, I have never heard of the Dongting Lake Dragon King Temple you mentioned!"

When Jiang Li heard that there was no Dongting Lake Dragon King Temple, he asked, "What god do the people here worship? Have you found out?"

"According to our investigation, there are two main gods worshipped by the local people!"

"One is the turtle fairy, the other is a catfish king with a fierce look in his eyes, and as for the others, there are some common people, their beliefs are very messy and unsystematic, and there is not even a temple!"

Jiang Li was very surprised when he heard this. "Normally, shouldn't people usually worship river gods like the Dragon King? Why do people around Dongting Lake worship turtles and catfish?"

Li Zhendong hesitated for a moment, but finally said, "Commander, you may not know that the Catfish King and the Turtle Immortal seem to be real!"

"Local people hold sacrifices every year and festival. The offerings to the Turtle Immortal are not that bad. Some fish, fruits and vegetables will be enough!"

"But the catfish king is not so easy to deal with. He must have livestock. I heard that he needs boys and girls as sacrifices every year. Otherwise, the local fishermen will be attacked by the river gods and end up with their boats destroyed and people killed!"

When Jiang Li heard this, he immediately became alert, "So, there are two monsters in this lake!"

"You should ask clearly, what is the size of the catfish monster? How big a boat can it overturn?"

Li Zhendong continued to report, "According to what we have learned, there was a three-meter-long fishing boat that was hit and sunk by this catfish king. As for its exact size, we don't know!"

When Jiang Li heard that it could sink a ship nearly ten meters long, he thought that this creature must be quite large, so he began to think about how to catch and kill it.

That’s right, it’s killing, not capturing. After all, a man-eating monster cannot be kept alive at all costs and must be eliminated.

But after thinking for a while, he couldn't think of any reliable solution, so he asked again, "Have you ever been in the water? Have you explored the depth of the water? Is there any particularly deep place?"

Upon hearing this, Li Zhendong immediately replied: "Reporting to the commander, we have already sent people into the water, but perhaps because the villagers have already completed the sacrifice, our people were not attacked by the catfish spirit!"

"In addition, after asking the surrounding fishermen, we learned that Dongting Lake has a flood season and a dry season!"

"During the flood season, the lake is wide and deep, but during the dry season, the water is shallow and the lake area shrinks significantly."

"The deepest part is in the center of the lake. It is said that for hundreds of years, the depth of the lake will never dry up, even in the worst drought!"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Li immediately thought that the Dragon Palace must be in the center of the lake, because only there could a Dragon Palace be hidden.

The monster's lair must be there, otherwise, with its huge size that can destroy ships, it would be difficult for it to hide anywhere else during the dry season.

Now that he had guessed where its lair was, Jiang Li decided to go straight to the center of the lake and attack it head-on.

By then, he will have the Dragon Ball to protect him from water, the Xuanyuan Sword at his side, and with Mo Ying's assistance, it should not be difficult to kill it.

Having made up his mind, he immediately sent people to rent merchant ships and cruise ships. After the order was passed down, within just two days, he had collected more than a dozen cargo ships and more than twenty cruise ships.

Such a big noise naturally attracted the attention of the residents in the surrounding towns, although they did not dare to get close due to the threat from the army.

However, since the Chinese people have a spirit of watching the show in their bones, they still watched curiously from a distance, hoping to understand what this army was trying to do.

Jiang Li naturally knew of their existence, but he did not order anyone to disperse them, because he planned to let Mo Ying show up in front of these people to lay the foundation for it to become the god of Dongting Lake in the future.

As the curtain of the truck that Mo Ying was riding in was pulled open, its huge body quickly climbed out of the car, and to the shock of all the people and tourists around, it meandered down to the lake.

Seeing it go into the water, Jiang Li didn't hesitate and jumped directly onto its back. Then, with an order, he took everyone on a boat to the center of the lake.

He stood on Mo Ying's back leisurely, but scared the people around him so much that they cried for their parents.

Although they were far away, people could still see clearly the 14 or 15 meter long thick snake body of Mo Ying and its dark scales that shone with black light.

Some villagers who were closer were not as panicked as the others, because they saw two horns on Mo Ying's head, which were not particularly long. That thing was the symbol of the dragon!

After they guessed that Mo Ying was a dragon, they looked at the army and one of the villagers with a quick mind immediately made a bold guess.

Perhaps Commander Jiang learned that there was a monster in Dongting Lake, so he sent such an army to eliminate the monster.

But they were afraid that ordinary troops could not deal with it, so they invited a black dragon to deal with the catfish monster.

The more this smart man thought about it, the more certain he became that this was the case, so he immediately told the surrounding villagers about his guess.

After hearing the news, other villagers all said that this must be the case, and then spontaneously began to promote Jiang Li.

As for these villagers, how could they believe such speculation so easily? It was because Commander Jiang occupied Hunan.

He quickly defeated the local landlords and tyrants, and reduced most of the agricultural and fishing taxes, greatly improving the lives of local people.

When there was a flood some time ago, Commander Jiang arranged for special personnel to transport supplies and organized these ordinary people to save themselves. Therefore, in the eyes of these ordinary people, Commander Jiang is a bodhisattva-level figure who saves people from suffering.

So when he knew that the people were threatened by monsters, it was only natural for him to send people to help solve the problem.