After the preparation of the prison boat dedicated to transporting Qu Hao, the boatmen propped the boat away from the river bank and rowed in the direction of Liuhe downstream. Qu Hao looked at the position of the sun in the sky, it was just past noon.

Worried that Qu Hao would escape, the soldiers not only tied Qu Hao's backhand, but also tied his feet, and several soldiers carried him up when he got on the boat.

This is a larger ship, a total of six soldiers are responsible for escorting, Qu Hao's front and rear standing two soldiers, they all stand with spears at their right feet, their backs facing Qu Hao, the front two look ahead, the back two look at the back, the two seated soldiers put their spears on both sides of Qu Hao's buttocks, sit on the left and right and clamp Qu Hao tightly, so that he can't move.

And Wang Xiaoqi sat in the position between the soldiers in the rear and the boatmen behind, and as soon as he got on the boat, he looked sleepy.

Qu Hao's belongings, except for the gold nuggets and copper coins that were seized, were put into a sack as evidence and placed on the ship.

There were also two boatmen on board, standing in the bow and stern. plus Qu Hao and Wang Xiaoqi, a total of ten people.

Qu Hao sat on the prisoner boat, looked at the boats coming and going on the river, and silently said goodbye here. The Hanyue in front of him, the prototype of Yangzhou, a place that he loves and hates. Here are the footprints of him and Meng Yaoai, as well as the conspiracy of the shipwrights and the pursuit of the soldiers.

The breeze blows slowly, the river ripples, and the boat moves forward in the wind in a gentle rocking. The autumn breeze on both sides of the Yangtze River, the fallen leaves withered and yellow, and the chill made Qu Hao even more discouraged, lamenting that his life was being swept away by the wind and rain, and the fallen leaves were drifting away.

He knew that if he was sent to Liuhe, there would be no good results, and maybe he would really be divided into five horses as the county Yin said, because killing those two post soldiers was an unforgivable felony for the ruler. Although he was forced to kill the two soldiers after being chased and killed, the right to speak was in their hands, and his own life was like an ant to them. It's just that they want to find out if there is really a spy and where the spy came from, so they will issue an arrest order instead of a hunt order, and it will make them feel very troublesome to send a death row prisoner to Liuhe.

In Liuhe, there was no one he knew, and no one knew him. Of course, perhaps the soldier who wasn't killed by the spear he threw would recognize him, but that recognition would only hasten his death. His life and death have no other value other than being the talk of other people's after-dinner meals. With the exception of the executioner, everyone else was a spectator, and they would surround him, happily watching how he was humiliated, how he died miserably, and then thrown into a mass grave for a dinner fought over by wolves or wild dogs, because there was no one to collect his body.

However, Wu Rong's appearance and his call to stop the county Yin from killing him gave him a glimmer of hope. Wu Rongli persuaded the county Yin to send him to Liuhe, there must be his purpose, and his brother's matter is still in my ears.

The ship had traveled for two hours, and it was not very far from Liuhe.

Two awning boats appeared side by side, and two boatmen stood in the bow of the boat to carry the boat. Qu Hao felt a little strange as to why a long bamboo pole could be used to prop up the boat instead of rowing with oars in such a deep river.

The boatmen of the awning boat sang a ballad while sailing slowly:

Qingqing Zijin, leisurely my heart; Even if I don't go, Zining won't make a sound?

Qingqingzi Pei, I think about it; Even if I don't go, Zining won't come?

Pick and choose, in the city; Not seen for a day, like March.

is so comfortable and relaxed, it seems that this is a paradise without contention.

When the two boats saw a boat coming from behind, they separated from each other on the left and on the right, giving way to the waterway in the middle.

The prisoner boat swaggered into the waterway, and the three boats were no more than a few meters apart.

The three boats had just moved forward in parallel when a whistle was heard, and the four boatmen on the two boats, whose faces were not clear, quickly raised their bamboo poles and stabbed at several soldiers standing on the prisoner ship in a cross-attack manner.

The four soldiers were caught off guard, and before the spears in their hands could come to the ground, they were respectively stabbed by the spearheads on the bamboo poles and poured into the water, only then did Qu Hao see that one end of the bamboo poles hidden in the water was equipped with a bronze spearhead.

When the two seated soldiers saw that they were not in a good mood, it was not easy to even get up, let alone take a spear, so they had to turn over and jump into the river and swim towards the shore with all their might, while the two boatmen, one in front of the other, stood there at this time, not daring to move.

Wang Xiaoqi saw that the soldiers had fallen into the water, and he was worried that his life would be in danger, so he hurriedly jumped into the water and swam towards the riverbank. He has a good water nature, and he swims far away in a while. But before he could breathe a sigh of relief, a harpoon flew from the canopy and plunged it into his back precisely, only to see that he struggled a few times and did not move, the blood was full of water, and his body floated in the water, only the harpoon pole stood upward, like an empty flagpole.

The four attackers ignored the soldiers in the water, pulled the canopy boat over, and then jumped into one of the boatmen from each of the two boats to the prisoner boat, and cut the ropes on Qu Hao's hands and feet with a knife.

Qu Hao knew that he was the one who saved him, and after letting go of the rope, he took the sack containing his things in his hand, and jumped into the canopy boat with the boatman who saved him.

The people on the canopy boat saw that Qu Hao had boarded the boat, and then quickly rowed upstream.

Only then did the boatman on the prisoner's boat react and rowed the boat to save people. First of all, he scooped up the soldiers who had been stabbed by the bamboo spears one by one, and when he looked at them, two of them were dead, and the other two were only injured. The two soldiers who jumped out of ship saw that the canopy boat was gone, and they also swam back, and then salvaged Wang Xiaoqi, seeing that he had already died of anger.

After finishing these things, I looked at the two canopy boats, and there was no trace of them.

The prisoner ship had no choice but to turn back and sail in the direction it had come. They don't know what kind of punishment awaits them when they lose their prisoners, so they can only accept the arrangement of fate with their heads down.

Two canopy boats rowed quickly upstream.

Qu Hao saw that they took the risk to save his life, and he didn't know how to repay him.

"The name of the righteous man? Rong Quhao repaid the grace of saving his life in the future. ”

"Mr. Qu doesn't have to be polite, we are also acting on the orders of the master, and we don't need to repay."

"I know who you ordered me to save me, and I will repay your master, but that's another matter. I must know your names as well, at least so that I will always remember who gave me a second life. ”

"Okay, my name is Wu Jiang, and I am Wu Rong's younger brother." Subsequently, Wu Jiang introduced the other three boatmen to him one by one.

Wu Jiang knew that he was still hungry, so he had already prepared a meal for him to eat, and took a bag of dry food to him, and then asked Qu Hao: "Mr. Qu, where are you going?" ”

Qu Hao thought for a while and said, "Send me to Shucheng." ”

Although I know that it is not easy to find Ji Jiao's father and son, how can I find out the whereabouts of Meng Yao if I don't find them? Qu Hao didn't want to give up any chance.

The canopy boat traveled to the place where Qu Hao was in distress last time. Qu Hao suddenly saw that there was a very hidden entrance near the last docking, which was not visible on the shore at all, and it was easy to be ignored in the river. Qu Hao immediately asked Wu Jiang to sail the boat into this entrance, and when he went in, he saw that the awning boat of Ji Jiao's father and son was parked inside, and Qu Hao was overjoyed.

Qu Hao got off the boat here, and Wu Jiang handed a bag containing gold nuggets and copper coins to Qu Hao, and said to him: "Mr. Qu, this is the entanglement that my brother left for you, you must accept it." ”

Qu Hao opened it and saw that there were more than a dozen pieces of gold, and he only took half of the gold and all the copper coins, and wanted to distribute the rest of the gold to the brothers who saved him.

Wu Jiang couldn't resist Qu Hao's insistence, but he also refused to accept Qu Hao's gold, so he could only bring them back.

Qu Hao took out the copper flute sword and lighter from the sack, loaded the money and dry food brought by Wu Jiang, waved goodbye to a few boatmen who saved his life, and then got on the canopy boat of Ji Jiao's father and son.

After this test of life and death, Qu Hao felt a lot more mature. The tolerance of Wang Xiaoqi almost cost his own life, this lesson is too profound.