Going upstream, the boat speed was very slow, and we only entered Tuzhou Prefecture at dusk the next day.
It was the flood season, and when we entered the territory of Tuzhou Prefecture, the water surface of the Yangtze River was quite narrow, making the water in this section of the river turbulent, and messy floating objects such as dead grass, broken branches and leaves swirled down the river.
Two corpses floated in from afar. It was not surprising. Since this morning, dozens of floating corpses had been seen floating upstream. At this time, without any additional instructions from Lin Fu, the boatman on the front boat took the long bamboo.
The floating corpse was hooked on a pole, looking for objects that could verify the identity and sent it to the big ship.
"It's a bronze plaque. The floating corpse also floated from Qingyang. He was a scholar and his surname was Cui." Ge Cunxiong, the little loach master, handed the tooth plaque taken off the floating corpse to Lin Fu.
The floating corpse had already been pushed down the river with a bamboo pole by the boatman. Lin Xulu was afraid of bad luck, so he looked over and took a look, but did not take the bronze plaque.
"The flood disaster in Qiupu this time is not small." Lin Mengde came over and took the bronze plaque and sighed. The floating corpses encountered in the river today were all drowned, and they were all from the river bank under the jurisdiction of Qiupu Prefecture.
Counties in the south came.
"Natural disasters and man-made disasters will never stop." Lin Fu sighed softly and asked someone to put the bronze plaque away. Maybe it will be useful in the future.
Generally speaking, when local floods occur, the government will organize private boats to salvage floating corpses along the river. Lin Fu and the others can encounter dozens of floating corpses along the way. It is foreseeable that many people drowned in the Qiupu flood.
In the previous dynasty, Jiangnan was divided into Jiangnan East County and Southeast West County. When Taizu founded the country, most of Jianghuai was merged into Jiangnan East County and was called Jiangdong County. Jiangnan West County was renamed Jiangxi County. Qingyang County is located to the west of Qiupu Prefecture.
The mountainous area is the dividing line between Jiangdong and Jiangxi.
Judging from the household registration of the floating corpses in the river, heavy rains and floods in the mountainous areas west of Qiupu are likely to cause flash floods in the mountainous areas in the eastern part of Jiangxi County. However, the floods in the eastern mountainous areas of Jiangxi County mainly discharge into Poyang Lake, the capital city.
It will take many days to flow out.
Thinking of this, Lin Fu raised his eyes and looked at the river bank. There were several groups of riders following the fleet on the bank, and there were also a few black-capped sailing boats at the tail. He wondered if there were any water villages like those in Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province.
The power is hidden within.
"Are we going to stop here for the night, or are we going on another journey?" Big Loach Master Ge Cunxin stood on the stern deck of the Dongyang and asked loudly across the water.
Lin Fu looked at the reed marsh to the north for a while, then asked Lin Mengde beside him: "Is it here?"
"Yeah." Lin Mengde nodded and confirmed.
"Then let's stop the boat for the night." Lin Fu asked Ge Cunxiong, the little loach master who was following him, to inform the boats to prepare to dock.
"Where to stop?" Lin Xulu asked Lin Fu. He saw that there were many suspicious people on both sides of the bank along the way. According to him, he should continue sailing at night, so that he could enter the Yuxi River before noon tomorrow and return early.
Dongyang, this heart will be able to rest as soon as possible.
"Come to the north shore." Lin Fu asked all the ships to go to the north shore and anchor near the shore to prepare for the night.
The Yangtze River turns a corner here, forming a large stretch of river beach on the north bank. During the dry season in winter and spring, these river beaches are exposed to the water. At this time, during the flood season, this large river beach and wasteland does not enter the water.
, grows into a large green reed marsh.
Lin Xulu looked at the unusually lush reeds on the north bank of the river. After the sun sank into the distant mountains, the reeds were endless and dark in the twilight. Lin Xulu thought to himself: If there were dozens of pirate ships hidden in the reeds, they would not be able to detect them.
It was getting dark, and several campfires were lit on the shore. The riders who had been following them all dismounted and prepared to spend the night on the shore. They knew that no one from the ship could be sent ashore to drive them away, and they followed them unscrupulously, just like the people on the shore.
Like a wolf pack of prey, they don't know how to pounce and bite, but patiently look for opportunities. On the other hand, the few boats that are tailing behind are afraid of a sudden attack here, so they don't dare to get too close and stop far away.
After a simple dinner, Lin Xulu went back to bed and lay down for a while.
Listening to the sound of the wind, the sound of waves chasing each other, and the soft sound of drizzle hitting the canopy of the boat, I couldn't sleep peacefully. I sat up, put on my boots, and opened the cabin door, only to find that most of the lights outside the cabin were out.
, only a solitary lamp under the cabin awning still emitted a faint light, and even the figures of the soldiers on duty on the deck could not be seen clearly. There seemed to be many people standing on the bow of the ship.
It was dark all of a sudden. The rain fell in the river, sparkling the light, and the reed marsh was completely dark. The campfire on the river bank was also extinguished by the rain, and it was not known whether the following riders had moved to shelter from the rain.
"Where are the lights? Who is responsible for watching the lights? How come they are all turned off?" Lin Xulu saw two black figures coming over. He thought they were boatmen on duty and asked loudly, "How can you look at the night? At this time, let the pirate ship take advantage of the darkness.
How does it feel?"
"Third brother, I asked someone to put out the lights." Lin Fu's voice came from the darkness.
Lin Xulu was a little embarrassed, touched his nose, and was about to ask Lin Fu why he turned off the lights, when he heard a slight strange noise coming from the depths of the reed marsh. He looked over warily, but it was pitch black deep in the reed marsh, what?
I couldn't see anything, but the noise became more and more obvious.
Enemy attack! This thought instantly occupied Lin Xulu's mind. He walked to the side of the ship and turned around to ask Lin Fu: "Old Seventeen, did you hear any sound?"
"There is a boat in the reed swamp..." Lin Fu said.
Lin Xulu wanted to say something else, but then he realized that all the military guards on the ship were wearing raincoats and standing on the deck. He thought that Lin Fu had noticed something strange in the reed marsh and had arranged something, so he calmed down and stared at the noise.
From where it came from.
When Lin Xulu saw clearly that the six Wu Peng boats came out of the reed swamp, the six boats were only nearly twenty steps away from the Dongyang. At this time, the first boat hung out an oil lamp. Although the light was dim
, but when the two sides got closer, Lin Xulu suddenly found Lin Jiyuan in military uniform standing neatly on the bow of the ship.
"Why are Ji Yun and the others hiding in the reeds?" Lin Xulu asked in surprise.
"I asked Jiyuan and the others to come here," Lin Fu patted Lin Xulu's shoulder, "We set off from Jiangning. On the shore, there were several people in the river who bit us and followed us. The waterway to Dongyang will not be quiet.
Everyone should be careful along the way; I'm afraid there will be more people targeting the mouth of the river. When Jiyuan and the others get on the boat, we will go back to the mouth of the river immediately, and Jiyuan will escort you on the next waterway to Dongyang."
Lin Xulu's mind was a little knotted. He couldn't figure out why Lin Fu made such an arrangement. He thought to himself: Could it be that he had known that someone would be harmful to the mouth of the river, so he deliberately moved the military guards away from the mouth of the river to lure the snake out of the hole. What was he going to do now?
Bringing the military guards back just in time to kill them?
The rope ladder was lowered from the boat. Lin Jiyuan, Chen Shouyan and the two hundred or so villagers who had been brought to Dongyang to serve as Gu Wuchen's guards climbed up the rope ladder to "Jiyunyi". Zhou Pu and the little Loach Master Ge Cunxin led the military guards down the rope ladder to Wupeng.
On the boat, the whole process was carried out by a weak copper oil lamp, in an orderly manner and without any chaos.
"You are similar in stature to me. I give you this official robe to let the people watching you know that I am still on the ship." Lin Fu gave Chen Shouyan the blue official robe he had changed out of earlier and climbed the rope ladder down to Wupeng.
Get on the boat and say, "When we hide deep in the reed marsh, you will immediately lift anchor and set off to lead away all those watching on the shore and in the water."
The waterway to Dongyang will not be peaceful either. Lin Mengde and Big Loach Master Ge Cunxin stayed on the boat and did not go back with Lin Fu. While Lin Fu and the others were transferring to the six awning boats and hiding deep in the reed marsh, Lin Mengde
Then he ordered the sails to be set sail.
************
"The boat is moving, you son of a bitch, Lin Fu is really cunning, I thought they were going to stop the boat here for the night, but they suddenly wanted to get rid of us when it was dark..."
On the river bank, under a simple shelter built with oilcloth and a few bamboo poles under the weeping willows, two men squatted and stared at the reed swamp. Although the sky was dark, there was some weak reflection in the river, and they could barely see through the rain curtain.
We arrived at Dongyang and waited for the vague shadow of the ship. Dongyang lifted anchor and set sail, and we could see the general scene on the shore.
"Quick, tell everyone to pack up their horses and get ready to go. We can't lose them this time." A man spat, rubbed his hands, tied his saber straight, and ran to untie his mount from the willow tree.
Lin Jiyuan and the others were going down the river in a mastless black-topped paddle boat. When the boat was full of people, the roof of the cabin was no higher than the green reeds in the water. Lin Fu would use this reed swamp to secretly cross Chencang, and various houses on the shore would conduct reconnaissance.
The sentry was not aware of it at all, not to mention that they never expected that Lin Jiyuan and Chen Shouyan had been convinced that they had returned from the front line of Dongyang County for a few days, and they had led Xiang Yong to hide in this reed swamp for a whole day and night.
The river boats following there were farther away from Jiyunshe and the Lin family fleet, and Lin Fu cleverly placed other boats on the periphery to block the view. It was even less clear that Lin Fu would choose to do something here. At this time, he saw Jiyun.
The She and Lin family's fleet suddenly lifted anchor and set sail. They also quickly called out the boatmen and sailors and followed Jiyun She's fleet upstream.
The boat travels on the river. There are no reefs or sharp rocks in this section of the river. Although traveling against the current is quite slow and troublesome, it does not require any manpower. It is okay to keep track of the following fleet; the scouts on the shore are riding horses, and the road is smooth after the rain.
It was also very muddy, and it was really a torture to travel on a rainy night, but this time they were more worried about losing the boat.
Fortunately, in the early morning when the sky was bright, both Jiyunshe and the Lin family fleet appeared in sight. The soldiers on the ship were still well-dressed and well-dressed as before. Apart from the fact that they suddenly set sail at night, there was nothing else suspicious about them. They were dressed in blue.
"Lin Fu" in official robes still stood on the bow with a saber tied around his waist.