In the tenth year of Yuan Sui, on the ninth day of the eighth month, there was white dew. The sky hung low and fog locked the autumn river.
In the blink of an eye, it had been more than half a month since the Ye Kingdom fleet went to sea. However, not long after leaving the port, they encountered a dense fog that lasted for several days. They stopped and went, and their forward speed was greatly reduced. But the fog refused to
Dispersed, such a situation not only made the most experienced sailors unable to identify the direction, but also caused all the soldiers on the ship to start talking.
After nightfall, the huge fleet was inevitably completely dispersed in the thick fog. Therefore, each ship had to temporarily lower its sails and anchor, and temporarily anchored in the Tianwu Strait to wait for dawn.
The Tiannu Strait is a narrow sea area between Wanzhou mainland and Hailing Island to the west. It is also the only way for ships to go east to Zhangzhou. However, throughout the ages, this road has not been so easy to travel.
Although the unpredictable strong winds in the Chanying Sea have become much gentler in the strait, the clouds that come with the wind are blocked here by the Leiyin Mountains on the west coast of Wanzhou, turning into continuous rain.
Next. For most of the year, it is hard to see sunny days in this sea area. Even in warm summer, it is always as cold as winter under the water.
The fleet is currently located in the most dangerous section of the strait. The channel is winding and covered with reefs, and countless ships, large and small, have been wrecked here. Therefore, this strait has been given an unknown name by the sailors.
——Kaizuka.
What is even more worrying is that even the most experienced sailors on the ship have never seen the sea fog as thick and unwilling to disperse easily in decades of being at sea.
The dark and deep night at sea was like an endless nightmare, making people who had been nervous panic all day long. Finally, some of the soldiers couldn't stand it any longer. Not long after the ship stopped, a man was seen rushing onto the deck with crazy shouts.
, seemed to have seen something terrible in the lower cabin, and completely collapsed.
Although Qi Ziyin, who was going out to sea with the ship for the first time, was also very scared, after looking at each other, he still chased after the sergeant one after another, and worked together to push the sergeant back to the deck before he jumped into the sea.
Go up. I just heard the other party mumbling vaguely about "Black Water Messenger" and so on, but the other party refused to say more no matter how hard I pressed.
The young man in white was worried that fear would spread like wildfire on the ship. He did not want to wait for the acting commander Xie Xun to arrive, so he reached out and picked up a torch, and walked with his companions towards the dark cabin.
The wooden stairs creaked under the feet of the two of them, and the soldiers crowded in the cabin also retreated to both sides in panic, leaving a passage. All the way to the lowest level of the cabin, Qi Ziyin saw that the door of the cargo cabin in front was also crowded by an unknown crowd.
It was full of things, but no one dared to go in to investigate. The faces of the soldiers were also full of panic, as if this was where the incident happened.
"What did that sailor do on the ship just now? Where was he before he went crazy?" The young man approached the crowd and asked.
Just then, someone came up and saluted: "My lord, Lao Ying is the quartermaster on this ship, and I am from the same hometown. Just now he was planning to go to the cabin to get some ingredients, but for some reason he suddenly went crazy.
Yes. Could it be because of the heavy fog that something unclean got into the ship?"
"Don't talk nonsense about unclean things!"
Qi Ziyin immediately shouted and stopped. But even though he said this, he couldn't help but feel a little confused in his heart. He was delayed for a moment, and when he turned his head again, Jiang Yan beside him had already sneaked into the cargo hold first.
"Be careful!"
The slightly worried reminder from his companion came from behind the black-eyed boy, but it did not stop him. He just lit the torch and leaned forward. Since the Qiqiao Festival, he has been living in Mo Lingwei Camp, Tong Ning Yue and Qi Ziyin never met again. And the sudden order to go out made him have no time to think about it, so he had to follow the young master on the ship and go to sea.
After boarding the ship, Jiang Yan also wanted to chat with Qi Ziyin several times, but he didn't know how to speak. In addition, the sea conditions were complicated, and there were constant drills after leaving the port, so the two never found a suitable opportunity to explain some things. He didn't know whether the other party knew what happened in Jia Yunzhai that night, and he didn't know what the young man in white had in mind to ask the king to order him to be the escort for the army.
The black-eyed boy shook his head vigorously, temporarily putting aside the chaotic thoughts in his mind. Soon, he saw a bag of cucumbers scattered on the ground in front of him, many of which had been eaten until only a short and thick one was left. Small handle. There is a row of neat tooth marks left on the small handle. It looks like it must have been eaten by someone.
Jiang Yan immediately decided to continue exploring deeper into the cargo hold. However, before he had gone far, a figure suddenly jumped out of the thorn in the darkness. It turned out to be a girl with red hair and a voice like a warbler.
The other party was like the last child found in a hide-and-seek game. He jumped up to Jiang Yan with joy and said with a smile: "Oh, you are finally here, little Stutterer. I was just thinking about when will I be discovered?" !”
"Ning Yue?!" The black-eyed boy deliberately went to sea without telling the girl. When they met unexpectedly, he suddenly recalled the drunken scene in Jia Yunzhai that night, and turned away with some embarrassment. He dared to look into the other person's eyes, but his voice was frighteningly loud, "How did you get on the boat?!"
"Oh, little Stutterer, why are you so fierce? I thought you would be very happy to see me."
Ning Yue, who had been holding back for many days in the cargo hold, was extremely excited to see her companion at this moment. Her eyes were as crescent-shaped as crescent moons, and she still said with a smile, "I sneaked in by hiding in the cart transporting grain. But you two, why did you leave without telling me even half a word about going to sea?"
Jiang Yan wanted to say that he wanted to take this opportunity to calm down for a while, but he still swallowed the words and changed the topic: "Everyone is here, why are you talking about this? Yue'er, have you been talking about it these days? Are you just going to sleep in this warehouse?"
"Otherwise? I haven't even seen a living person in the past few days, and I'm almost suffering from internal injuries, so today I want to ask the quartermaster to take me directly to find you. There is something very, very important. I have something to tell you!"
The red-haired girl told the truth, but the general in front of him didn't seem to listen to her at all. He just frowned and scolded: "That's nonsense! Do you know that the quartermaster was frightened by you and almost jumped?" Out of the sea?"
"Ah? Soldiers are so cowardly. No wonder he screamed and ran out as soon as I said something. But little stutter, you'd better take me out quickly. This cabin smells like sweat. The smell and musty smell are so suffocating for people.”
Seeing that Jiang Yan was angry, Ning Yue quickly pretended to be disgusted, stuck out her tongue and begged, turned around and walked out of the cabin. The black-eyed boy couldn't bear to hear the other party's coquettishness, and couldn't get angry for a while, so he had to follow. later.
Qi Ziyin, who was following closely behind his companions, clearly heard the conversation between the two, but did not show up. Instead, he turned around and exited the cabin first, explaining something to the onlookers. After the nervousness in the crowd eased and gradually dissipated, , he tried his best to smile brightly at the girl who had just emerged from the cabin.
"Zi Yin, why didn't you come in with Little Stutter just now? What happened at sea? Why did the ship stop after just a few days of walking?" The red-haired girl pulled the other person over with a smile, not giving him any lessons at all. Chance.
"Now that the fog is thick, we and the other ships are separated. In order to avoid running aground on the rocks, we have to anchor and wait for the fog to dissipate, so that we can continue moving forward——"
Seeing Ning Yue at this moment, the boy in white didn't know whether he should show joy or surprise. But after just a few explanations, he suddenly heard a loud shout above his head:
"A battleship was spotted three miles away on the port side!"
The early warning from the sentry on duty at the masthead made all the officers and men on the ship become nervous instantly. They all stood on the side and looked around. With the weak firelight in the cabin, they saw the blue-gray in front of the left bow of the ship. In the thick fog, a black figure slightly lower than the pointed boat at my feet gradually emerged. It was indeed a square sailing ship without any flags!
"Is it a ship that got lost in the queue? The ships with horizontal sails in the army are all fast ships used for attack. They should be in the front line. How come they suddenly sailed to the left front of the flagship?"
Qi Ziyin had already done enough homework before setting off, and he knew the formations commonly used by navy masters. However, before he could finish his words, General Yan beside him shook his head:
"Probably not. All the ships in our phalanx have stopped in the evening. If they don't lift anchor, they will never move suddenly. Has that ship ever moved from just now to now?"
Xie Xun, commander of the building ship and acting commander of the fleet, also walked up to the three of them at some point and took over the conversation, but his tone revealed deep concern: "They have been getting closer to us, but there is no light on the ship. Any lights, I don’t know how to distinguish the direction in this dense fog, can actually shuttle through my dense formation as usual. I had just ordered the sentry to send out the light signal, but the other ship did not make any move Respond."
"Then I would like to ask General Xie to immediately mobilize his manpower and row a boat to find out what's going on!" The young man in white could not help but frown, intending to take the initiative.
However, Jiang Yan stared at the shadow in the sea and reminded in a low voice: "Zi Yin, I always feel that this ship is coming very strangely. If it is like the night when Baisha Camp was attacked, it will be filled with Pengguo The deadly blue flames, the consequences of getting too close will be disastrous..."
Although it was just a guess, as soon as he finished speaking, he heard a loud roar in the thick fog, and a dazzling light actually flashed on the opposite ship. However, the light was not like the strange blue light emitted when the deadly kerosene was ignited. Purple, on the contrary, is like a thunderbolt falling during a thunderstorm, incandescent like lightning.
The light in front of him was so bright that it illuminated the surrounding sea for a while. However, the light was fleeting and disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye. Then, there was another sound coming from the moored sailing ship in the thick fog. There were loud noises one after another, like bursts of muffled thunder, which made people feel tight in the chest.
After the rumble, several spherical objects emerged from the thick fog, and suddenly hit the boat beneath everyone's feet. A series of sounds of shattering wooden boards were heard on the left side. Until then,
Only then did everyone realize that those spherical objects were actually solid iron balls the size of sand bowls, just like projectiles fired from stone cannons, only faster and more destructive!
It turns out that the opponent has already ambushed in this sea area, preparing to attack secretly, trying to catch a turtle in a jar!
"Enemy attack! Turn off the lights! Be on guard!" Qi Ziyin finally came to his senses and took the lead in shouting the order.
The war that came without warning also made Jiang Yan feel his heart beating faster. His voice was hoarse, like a tight string that had not been oiled for a long time, but he still raised his arms and shouted: "Come a few people and follow me up the stone."
Artillery, prepare to fight back!"
Unknowingly, the young man's body was soaked with cold sweat, and his bones were cracking when he held Xiao Tianmo. However, facing such unheard-of weapons on the enemy ship, even though he had martial arts skills, he still had no confidence at all.
Word.
Ever since he started practicing martial arts with Xiang Baili, the black-eyed boy had fantasized about what he would look like one day when he led troops into battle. But he never expected that when that day actually came, he would be so panicked.
.It was like dancing on the tip of a knife, knowing that he could not control his fate, but there was no way out. But he knew in his heart that if he was not careful at the moment, he would be defeated without any suspense.
What frightens him even more is that the two closest friends he cares about most are also on the ship at this time, their lives hanging by a thread!
In the chaos, the soldiers hurriedly followed the black-eyed boy and rushed to the three stone cannons on the deck of the building. To prevent seawater erosion, the stone cannons were covered with a thick layer of oil paper. But before everyone could
When he took it off, he saw that fatal flash of light lighting up again in the thick fog!
The lights in the cabin that had not yet been extinguished seemed like a clear target set up for the opponent in the sea. As the projectiles with a sharp whistling sound passed over Jiang Yan's head, the last words he heard in his ears were
The words were Ning Yue’s exclamation not far away:
"Be careful little stammerer!"
Before the black-eyed boy could respond, the iron bullet had already hit the stone cannon just a few feet away from him. The wooden cannon frame cracked with the sound, and countless debris along with large and small parts immediately fell on Jiang Yan.
, like a huge wall that collapsed, burying him and the dozen or so sergeants who were accompanying him!