Lu Ming

Chapter 255 Primal Salvage
Yu Sibao is the youngest one on board, only 17 years old, 6 years younger than his cousin Yu Chushui.

Yu Sibao, who went fishing with his father at the age of 15, is exceptionally gifted and unmatched in diving. He can fish for crabs in the sea with just one breath.

Today everyone is sailing out to sea as usual.The small fishing village where Yu’s family lives is on the coast of Putian, about 20 kilometers away from Cormorant Island by sea.The Herring cast nets all the way to catch fish, and arrived near Cormorant Island without knowing it.Seeing that it was getting late, Yu Chengde ordered to go to the old place to take shelter from the wind, and planned to return early tomorrow morning.

After the boat stopped at a small bay where everyone often sheltered from the wind, the fishermen continued their hard work: after the fresh fish were caught on the boat, the fishermen had to deal with the harvest anytime and anywhere.Otherwise, under the high temperature of more than 20 degrees in the south on average, raw fish will spoil quickly.

This is the problem: fishermen who go to sea do not have refrigerated trucks and downwind express delivery, and they are not able to deliver fresh fish to the table of the gentlemen.These fish must be preserved after primary processing, such as drying and salting.

Different environments create different races.

During the same time frame, British, French, Dutch and German fishermen were operating in the icy North Sea, the Norwegian Sea and around Iceland.Fatty Atlantic salmon and Atlantic herring are produced in the cold sea, and the North Sea area, which does not see the sun for half a year, is naturally a big refrigerator-this is why the Nordic people can eat chilled salmon at home.

This natural chilled method cannot be done in temperate regions.Therefore, the Han nationality living in East Asia, even the wealthy and gentry class in coastal cities, was eventually forced to develop the habit of eating freshwater fish.The order of people's choices is: they would rather eat spiny freshwater fish than salted fish.

This embarrassing situation continued into later generations.Even after humans invented the refrigerator, the contradiction still exists, but it has shifted—the reason for not eating sea fish has become the price.

In addition to the rich people being able to enjoy the changes in the dietary structure brought about by technological progress, the majority of dicks still can only eat fish heads with chopped peppers and freshwater fish boiled with various strong seasonings. A plate of salmon sashimi for hundreds of yuan is not Poor people can afford it.

After mooring the boat, the fishermen on the Herring started to pickle salted fish in the afterglow of the setting sun.All fish caught must be disembowelled and their internal organs taken out, and then the fish body shall be rubbed with salt grains.

There is a shortage of salt in Fujian. What Yu Chengde and the others are using now is a little private salt cooked in an iron pot secretly in the village.Even so, the amount of salt is not enough, so part of the fish has to be dried by hanging on the rope.

At this time, Yu Sibao would take off his clothes and dive into the bottom of the sea to play.

On the reef coast near Cormorant Island, the sea water is extremely clear.But today, after Yu Sibao plunged into the bottom of the sea, he vaguely saw a dark shadow under the water.After holding his breath and diving down for more than ten meters, Yu Sibao saw a lucky boat dumped on the bottom of the sea.

More than 2 months was not enough time for the boat to be covered with sea sand, so Sibao recognized it as a big blessing boat at a glance.

After turning around and getting out of the water, Sibao took a few deep breaths, and then plunged into the sea again.This time he dived vertically from the top of the ship, so he had plenty of time. Not long after, he got into the poop of the Fuchuan.

There are not many corpses in the stern tower, only one human corpse that has been decomposed and exposed a lot of bones and fish teeth marks is floating on the roof of the cabin.

During the battle that day, almost everyone on the Fuchuan was on deck, so when the ship sank, all the living swam away, and the dead had already been washed away by the current.As for the man in the poop, he was pierced to death by a heavy machine gun bullet a long time ago.

Yu Sibao, a small fisherman in the 17th century, was naturally not afraid of dead bodies.In this era, from the poor to the rich and powerful, those who live to adulthood have countless times more experience with all kinds of dead people than the people of later generations.

So after Sibao entered the cabin, he quickly focused his attention on a slightly metallic object in the corner of the overturned cabin.

The boy's thinking is very simple: all metals are useful.So after he picked up the object, before he had time to take a closer look, he turned around and swam out of the cabin that was soon muddy with sand, and swam all the way to the surface of the sea.

The matter got out of hand, because it was a bronze Buddha that Yu Sibao threw onto the bow for the first time.

After the sand on the surface was washed away by the sea, this 6-inch-high Xuande-style copper Sakyamuni lotus statue shone golden in the setting sun, and at the same time, it also ignited the atmosphere of a group of poor fishermen on the bow. ——Everyone knows that everyone is going to be transferred now, and it is impossible for this little property to be on the sunken ship.

As a result, Four Treasures soon dived into the sea again in the eyes of everyone's expectation.

After going up for the second time, Sibao brought an inkstone, a machete, and a waist card from the dead body.Although the people on board were all illiterate, and no one recognized the tokens of the Zheng family, the machete and inkstone must be worth a few taels of silver, so everyone's mood became more and more high.

On Sibao's last expedition before dark, what he brought back was the ingot of silver and military thorns.

Originally, when he fumbled in the dark and invisible cabin where the mud was floating, he only got the ingot of silver.However, when he swam out of the cabin and was about to float up, he found a dagger stuck in the crevice of the reef outside the boat, so he took the sheep by hand and brought it up with the general thorn.

After getting the black ingot, Yu Chengde hurriedly asked his son to wash his body and get dressed, and brought over the boiled ginger tea with his own hands.

The tea is the worst kind of bitter tea, and the ginger is the wild ginger from the field at the edge of the village.After Yu Sibao drank a few sips of tea, another piece of news that made everyone excited came out of his mouth: there was a large cabinet that was overturned in the poop of the Fuchuan, and he had already touched the position of the lock.

Early the next morning, the Herring stopped fishing, but slowly moved the ship above the sunken ship and anchored.Soon after, Yu Sibao, who was wearing a crotch wrap and a thick cloth belt around his waist, began to enter the water.

Today's Yu Sibao came prepared.Not only could he sink quickly along the anchor chain this time, but there was also a wrought iron awl for picking locks tied to the cloth belt around his waist.

However, good things take time, and more than two months can't turn the lucky boat made of good wood into rotten wood.Therefore, when Yu Sibao touched the cabin and used a wrought iron awl to pick the lock, the door lock made of fine copper naturally remained motionless.

Under the simultaneous action of buoyancy and limited time, Yu Sibao struggled to pry the lock 6 times in the morning, but finally got nothing. Not only did he fail to pry open the cabinet door, but even the wrought iron cone was bent.

After eating at noon, Yu Chengde decisively changed his mind based on his son's description.He first let Yu Sibao dive into the water lightly, and then began to carefully stroke the seams along the overturned cabinet.

(End of this chapter)