twin moon

Chapter 74

In the tenth year of Yuansui, on the ninth day of August, Bailu.The sky hangs low, and the fog locks the autumn river.

In the blink of an eye, it has been more than half a month since Ye Kingdom's fleet went to sea.However, shortly after leaving Hong Kong, 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 dissipate. Such a situation not only made the most experienced sailors unable to distinguish the direction, but also made all the soldiers on the ship talk a lot.

After nightfall, the huge fleet inevitably dispersed completely in the dense fog.As a result, the ships had to lower their sails and anchor temporarily, and temporarily moor in the Tiannu Strait, waiting for the dawn.

The Tiannu Strait is a long and narrow sea area between the mainland of Wanzhou and Hailing Island on the west side of it, and it is also the only way for ships to go east to Mizhou.It's just that throughout the ages, this road has not been so easy to walk.

Although the unpredictable wind in the Chanying Sea became much milder in the strait, the clouds that came with the wind were completely blocked by the Leiyin Mountains on the west coast of Wanzhou, and turned into continuous rain. Down.For about half of the year, it is difficult to see sunny days in this sea area.Even in the warm summer, it is always as cold as winter under the water.

The current location of the fleet is the most dangerous section of the strait, the waterway is densely covered with hidden reefs, and there are countless ships of all sizes that have been wrecked here.Therefore, this strait was given an ominous name by the sailors—sea mound.

What is even more worrying is that even the most experienced sailors on board have never seen such a thick sea fog that does not want to dissipate easily in decades of going to sea.

The dark and deep sea night is like an endless nightmare, causing people who have been tense to panic all day long.Finally, some of the soldiers couldn't stand it any longer.Not long after the ship stopped, I saw a man yelling madly and rushing to the deck, it seemed that he saw something terrible in the lower cabin and completely collapsed.

Qi Ziyin, who was going out to sea with the ship for the first time, was also very scared, but after he exchanged a glance with Jiang Yan, he chased after him one after the other, and pushed the soldier back to the deck together before he jumped into the sea superior.He only heard the other party mutter something vaguely about "Black Water Messenger" and so on, but the other party refused to say more no matter how much he asked.

The young man in white was worried that fear would spread like wildfire on the ship, and he didn't want to wait for the acting commander Xie Xun to arrive, so he reached out and grabbed a torch, and walked down the dark cabin with his companions.

The wooden stairs creaked under the two people's feet, and the soldiers crowded in the cabin also retreated to the sides in a panic, avoiding a passage.Walking all the way to the lowest level of the cabin, Qi Ziyin saw that the door of the cargo cabin ahead was crowded with unknown crowds, but no one dared to rush in to investigate.The faces of all the soldiers were also full of horror, as if this was where the incident happened.

"What did that sailor do on the boat just now? Where was he before he went crazy?" The young man approached the crowd and asked.

Suddenly, someone came forward and saluted: "Young master, Lao Ying is the quartermaster on this ship, and I am from the same town as me. Just now he was planning to go to the cabin to get some food, but for some reason he suddenly went crazy Could it be that something unclean got into the boat because of the fog?"

"What unclean thing, don't talk nonsense!"

Qi Ziyin stopped immediately.But even though he said this in his mouth, he couldn't help but feel a little nervous in his heart.Just like this, it was delayed for a while, and when he turned his head away again, General Yan beside him had already slipped into the cargo hold first.

"Be careful!"

The companion's slightly worried reminder came from behind the black-eyed boy, but it didn't stop him, he just lit a torch and leaned forward.Since the Qiqiao Festival, he has been living in the Mo Lingwei camp, and he has never met Ning Yue and Qi Ziyin.And the sudden command to go out left him with no time to think about it, so he had to follow the young master on board and set out to sea.

After boarding the ship, Jiang Yan wanted to chat with Qi Ziyin several times, but he didn't know how to speak.Coupled with the complicated sea conditions and constant drills after leaving the port, the two have never been able to find a suitable opportunity to speak clearly.He didn't know whether the other party knew what happened in Jiayunzhai that night, and he didn't know what kind of thoughts the white-clothed boy had in order to ask the king to order him to be the guard of 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, thick stalk remained.There is still a row of neat tooth marks on the small handle, which seems to be eaten by someone.

Jiang Yan immediately decided to continue to explore the depths of the cargo hold, but before he could go far, a figure suddenly jumped out from the slant in the darkness, it was a girl with red hair and a voice like a warbler.

The other party seemed to be the last child to be found in a hide-and-seek game, jumping up to Jiang Yan with joy and smiling, "Oh, you've finally come, little stutterer. I was just wondering when I would be discovered !"

"Ningyue?!" The black-eyed boy deliberately went out to sea without telling the girl, but when he met unexpectedly at this time, he suddenly recalled the scene after getting drunk in Jiayun's studio that night, and turned his face away in embarrassment. Dare to look into the other person's eyes, but speak in a frighteningly loud voice, "How did you get on the boat?!"

"Oh, what are you doing so fiercely, little stutterer? I thought I would be very happy to see you."

Ning Yue was extremely excited to see her companion after being held back in the cargo hold for many days, her eyes were crescent-like, she still said with a smile on her face, "He sneaked in by hiding in the grain truck. But you two, why didn't you even tell me a word about going to sea and then left?"

Jiang Yan originally wanted to say that he wanted to take this opportunity to calm down for a while, but he swallowed the words back, and then changed the subject: "The boss is here, why are you talking about these things? Yueer, have you been talking about it these days? Have you been sleeping in this warehouse all this time?"

"Otherwise? I haven't even seen the face of a living person a few times 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 spoke truthfully, but the general Yan in front of her didn't seem to be listening to her at all, he just frowned and scolded: "It's just nonsense! Do you know that the quartermaster almost jumped because of your scare?" the sea?"

"Huh? The soldier is so timid. No wonder he ran out screaming as soon as I made a sound. But you better take me out soon, little stutterer. The cabin is full of sweaty smells." The smell and the musty smell are almost suffocating."

Seeing that Jiang Yan was angry, Ning Yue quickly pretended to be disgusted, stuck out her tongue again and again begging, turned her head and walked out of the cabin.The black-eyed boy couldn't hear the other party acting like a baby, and couldn't get angry for a while, so he had to follow behind.

Qi Ziyin, who was following closely behind his companion, clearly heard the conversation between the two, but he didn't show up. Instead, he turned around and got out of the cabin first, and explained to the soldiers onlookers.After the tension in the crowd eased and gradually dissipated, he tried his best to squeeze out a bright smile at the girl who just got out of the cabin.

"Ziyin, why didn't you come in with Xiao Jieba just now? What happened at sea? Why did the boat stop after just a few days of walking?" The red-haired girl smiled and pulled the other party away, not giving him any lessons at all. Chance.

"Now the fog is thick, and we are separated from the rest of the ships. In order to avoid hitting the rocks, we have to anchor and wait for the fog to clear, so that we can continue to move forward—"

Seeing Ning Yue at this moment, the boy in white didn't know whether he should show joy or surprise.But after only explaining a few sentences, he suddenly heard a loud shout from above his head:
"Three miles away on the port side, a battleship was found!"

The warning from the guard on duty on the masthead made all the officers and soldiers on the ship tense instantly, and they all stood on the side of the ship to look.With the help of the faint fire in the cabin, they really saw a dark figure slightly lower than the steeple ship under their feet gradually revealed in the blue-gray fog in front of the left front of the ship. It really was a ship. A galleon with no flag flying!
"Is it a ship that got lost in the queue? The ships with horizontal sails in the army are all fast ships for attack. They should be in the front line. How could they suddenly sail to the front left of the flagship?"

Qi Ziyin had already done enough homework before setting off, and knew the formations commonly used by boat masters.However, before he finished speaking, Jiang Yan shook his head:
"Probably not. All the ships in our phalanx stopped at dusk. If they hadn't lifted the anchor, they would never have moved their positions suddenly. Has that ship ever moved since just now?"

Xie Xun, the commander of the buildings and ships and acting commander of the fleet, also walked to the side of the three of them at some point, and took over the conversation, but his tone revealed deep worry: "I have been moving closer to us, but the ship has not lighted up. I don’t know how to distinguish the direction of any light in this dense fog, but it can shuttle through my dense formation as usual. Just now I ordered the sentry to send out the light signal, but the opponent’s ship did not do anything. Respond."

"Then please General Xie immediately mobilize people to paddle a small boat to find out what happened!" The boy in white couldn't help but frowned, planning to take the initiative.

Jiang Yan stared at the shadow in the sea, and reminded in a low voice: "Ziyin, I always feel that this ship is too strange. If it is like the night before the Baisha Camp was attacked, it is full of Peng Guo The deadly blue flame, the consequences of getting close to it easily will be unimaginable..."

Although it was only speculation, as soon as he finished speaking, he heard a loud bang in the thick fog, and a dazzling light really flashed on the opposite ship.It's just that the light was not the strange blue-purple light that was emitted when the deadly kerosene was ignited. Instead, it was like a thunderbolt falling during a thunderstorm, as incandescent as electricity.

The light in front of him was so dazzling that it even illuminated the surrounding sea surface for a while, but it was fleeting, and disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.Immediately afterwards, another loud noise was heard from the anchored square-sail boat in the dense fog, like bursts of muffled thunder, which made people feel tight in their chests.

After the rumbling sound, several spherical objects also came out of the thick fog, and suddenly slammed into the boat under everyone's feet.There was a series of cracking sounds on the left side.It wasn't until this time that everyone realized that those spherical objects were solid iron balls the size of sand bowls, just like projectiles shot by stone cannons, only faster and more destructive!

It turns out that the other party has already ambushed in this sea area, preparing to sneak attack secretly, and catch the turtle in the urn!
"Enemy attack! Turn off the lights! Be on alert!" Qi Ziyin finally came to his senses and took the lead in ordering loudly.

The war that came without warning also made Jiang Yan feel his heart beating faster.His voice was hoarse, like the tight strings of a piano that hadn't been oiled for a long time, but he still raised his arms and shouted: "Come on, a few people, join me in launching the stone cannon, and prepare to fight back!"

Before he knew it, the young man was drenched in cold sweat, and his knuckles creaked as he held Xiao Tianmo.However, in the face of such unheard-of weapons on the enemy ship, although he has martial arts skills, he still has no confidence at all.

Ever since he started practicing martial arts with Xiang Baili, the boy with black pupils has been fantasizing about what he will look like when he leads troops into battle one day.But he never expected that when this day really came, he would be so panic-stricken.It's like dancing on the tip of a knife, knowing that you can't control your destiny, but you have no way out.But he knew in his heart that as long as he was a little careless right now, he would be defeated without any suspense.

What frightened him even more was that the two closest friends he cared about the most were also on board at this time, their lives hanging by a thread!
In the chaos, the soldiers hurriedly followed the black-eyed boy to the three stone cannons on the deck of the large ship.In order to prevent seawater erosion, the stone cannon was covered with a thick layer of oil paper.But before everyone could take it off, the deadly flash appeared again in the thick fog!

The lights in the upper cabin that had not yet been extinguished seemed to be a clear target for the opponent in the sea.As the projectile with a sharp whistling sound passed over Jiang Yan's head, the last words he heard were Ning Yue's exclamation not far away:

"Little stammer, be careful!"

Before the black-eyed boy could respond, the iron bullet had already landed on the stone cannon just a few feet away from him.The wooden gun mount shattered at the sound, and countless debris accompanied by large and small parts immediately overturned Jiang Yan's body, like a huge collapsed wall, burying him and the dozen or so sergeants accompanying him!

(End of this chapter)