Chapter 4: Delay in returning home

Just when Hu Carp was worried about the fare, there was a rapid drum beat from the water.

Immediately afterwards, I saw more than 60 ships of all sizes rushing in a neat formation from upstream to downstream. Among these ships are more than ten large ships, both in shape and in the flags displayed on the ships, which are located in the middle of the fleet; In addition, there are more than 30 medium-sized ships, of which more than 20 are closely surrounded by the big flags, and the remaining dozen ships with messy flags are also scattered around; In the end, more than a dozen small ships were left to guard the outskirts of the fleet.

At this time, I saw the leader of the fleet instructing his subordinates: "The river in front turns around, send a signal to tell the boats, slow down, disperse, and pass through here quickly and orderly, as long as we pass here, the thieves in the rear will not dare to pursue again, and we will be safe." ”

The men took the order, and as the speed of the fleet slowed down, the rapid drumbeat got closer and closer, and then a group of more than a dozen medium-sized ships was seen rushing quickly from the upstream.

"Report! The thieves are chasing after you! ”

"Hurry up and invite the leaders of Fei, Lu and other families to come over, and say that I have something important to discuss."

After a while, after several of the leaders had boarded the main ship, the noisy chatter stopped. Immediately, the old man who led the team before began to speak: "Everyone, the situation is urgent, everyone here has gained a lot from this trip to Shudi, and the news has leaked accidentally, and the thieves have obtained our whereabouts, and ambushed us upstream, and all the caravans have suffered losses, and more than half of the guards have been killed or wounded." In order to return safely, we temporarily formed this fleet and helped each other, which broke out of the encirclement; However, this group of thieves is not dead, and has pursued for nearly a hundred miles on this great river. In order to ensure safety, the boats had to pass one by one, and we waited here until the thieves in the rear were about to catch up with us. There are two strategies that can be passed here: one is that the temporary caravan will be disbanded from then on, and each family will depend on their ability and luck if they want to go here; Of course, after dispersing, in order to get through this place safely, the stronger caravans can pick the weak caravans to attack, scuttle their merchant ships on this big river, block the river, and ensure that everyone is far away. With that, the old man raised his triangular eyes and glanced at everyone, and as he spoke, he picked up the tea bowl and took a sip lightly.

Everyone present, you look at me, I look at you, and I said in my heart that all the caravans present are the strongest in your family, if this is the case, I am afraid that we will all have to die in the belly of the fish. Seeing that everyone did not speak, the old man put down the tea bowl and said: "Another strategy is that everyone is still a unified caravan, and we will discuss together to sacrifice a few merchant ships, scuttle and sink at the bend in front of us, and block the river, and after the thieves clean up the river, I am afraid we will not know where it is." Of course, before the sink, each family quickly transferred important goods to other ships, what do you think? ”

Everyone looked at each other, helpless, and had to bow their heads under the eaves, so they had to say: "It can only be like this, everything is arranged by Cai Lao." ”

Hearing this, the old man surnamed Cai continued: "In this case, my Cai family caravan will set an example, we will send a ship, and we will contribute the Cai family Xuanzi E merchant ship." After that, everyone's eyes twitched as they looked at the medium-sized ship that had been nearly scrapped by the slap in the previous battle. Immediately, the five caravans present that did not have an advantage in strength and power all "took the initiative" to "contribute" ships, and a total of six ships were contributed, including the ships of the Cai family.

Then, the old man surnamed Cai said: "Don't be depressed about the families who sacrificed the ships this time, after the next proposal goes to Jiangling, the families will jointly fund and compensate each family for a new ship, as for my Cai family, forget it, how about it?" "It looks like a discussion, but it's more of an order. Without waiting for everyone's reply, he issued an eviction order, "Okay, hurry up, everyone go back and prepare." ”

When Hu Li, who was standing at the water's edge, heard the sound of drums, he found a big tree and climbed up and hid. Hiding in a tree and looking out into the water, he saw a neatly arranged fleet rushing downstream, and when it was far away, it began to slow downstream, turning the formation of the fleet into a queue and heading downstream. There was another flotilla far behind the flotilla, and the drums came from this flotilla, which was only far behind it, and from time to time a few small boats were sent forward to harass it.

The flotilla in front, passing a sharp bend across the great river, came out of the flotilla six medium-sized boats, dropped anchor in the river, and scuttled themselves here.

As the forward fleet moved away from here, the rear fleet also moved away from here after sending people to search for the cargo on the sunken ship, and the water surface returned to calm.

Looking at the several sunken ships leaking out of the water, Hu Li couldn't help but think: "If you are not mistaken, this should be the fleet of water bandits and caravans, and the caravan in front of you should not be a group of people, and the most powerful group of people in the caravan and the water bandits seem to be in waves." Hehe, I'm pretty good at playing. But it inspired me. ”

"It seems that this world is not peaceful, and I don't know where this is? What kind of world is it? I thought it would be good to go home directly, but now that I think about it, I think it's sloppy, at least I have to know what kind of world this is. ”

After Hu Li's idea was understood, he went ashore to look for rattan, peeled the skin, and rolled it into a large bundle of rope. Tie one end to the rocks on the shore and the other around his waist, and after tying it, he swam towards the wreck. He wants to search the wreck again, and the people in the rivers and lakes call it a corpse.

After a while, Hu Li moved all the supplies he had scavenged from the sunken ship to the shore. He found a total of materials from the wreck: two pottery kettles (broken but not affecting the use), a number of pottery bowls, a machete (slightly broken and curled blades, repaired to make do with it), two pairs of harpoons, small half pockets of coarse salt (scattered on the deck of the warehouse), small half pockets of sorghum rice (also scattered on the deck of the warehouse), a dozen torches (used), two pieces of flint and steel (don't ask how you know the flint at this time, there are pottery kettles, pottery bowls and other items found in the place where this thing was found, it should be the kitchen, and there are scratches on the flint, Hu carp tried it casually, there were sparks), as well as most of the unknown oil in half of the jar, and a number of wooden boards.

When Hu Li carried all these things to the shore, it was getting dark, so he lit a bonfire, washed a little sorghum rice, and planned to boil a pot of porridge in a clay pot.

Hu Carp, who was boiling porridge, found a problem: this sorghum rice has not been hulled, and there is no oil and water to cut the throat.

This is not to blame Hu Li, in his previous life (for convenience, it will be called in the previous life), where have he eaten sorghum rice, let alone eaten, except for seeing it on the Internet, he has not even seen it in reality; And in this life, there is an old Taoist priest to take care of, where can I know these things in ordinary times?

Just when Hu Carp sighed at the sorghum porridge, a snorting sound came from a distance.