After rebirth, the Queen and I are on the run.

Chapter 1188 Helping with one's life
The foreman, Uncle Hong, glanced in this direction and quickly ordered, "Stop going out to sea, set up an incense table, and worship the Heavenly Emperor."

This isn't superstition; it's just that the water pressure is a bit off today, so we need to stop and go to the sea tomorrow in a different spot. Once the water pressure is stable, it won't kill anyone.

“Come on, register the names of the deceased. Master Chen and Master Huang will give each of them fifty taels of silver, a thousand catties of grain, a small boat, and when the eldest son grows up, they will also help him get married and carry on the family line.”

This is the price agreed upon by the Chen and Huang families with the Hong family; it's very generous, which is why so many people are willing to risk their lives for them.

"Yes." Hong Lai responded, registered all the diving craftsmen who died today, collected their belongings, and then instructed, "Prepare the small boat. After we pay our respects to the Jade Emperor, send them back to their village to handle their funeral arrangements."

"Yes," the boatman replied, his voice choked with emotion.

"Uncle Hong." Old Master Chen, Old Man Huang, and Hundred-Household Zhou all came over to worship the Jade Emperor and offer compensation to the deceased.

Seeing Zhou Baihu, Uncle Hong and the craftsmen from the deep sea felt much more at ease.

With the imperial court's centurions around, their work of diving into the sea to retrieve fish bones was supported by the imperial court; these lives weren't lost in vain.

After returning to the village, he can also give the deceased's family an explanation.

Zhou Baihu was the man sent by the Duke of Yan to escort You Dafu and his entourage down to Lingnan Prefecture.

"Captain Hong, all the diving engineers, all the shipwrights, thank you for your hard work. His Majesty and the Duke of Yan will remember your contributions." Commander Zhou solemnly gave them a salute from the Wei army.

Uncle Hong nodded and told them that the water pressure was not right today and that they had to stop.

Zhou Baihu and the others said, "Hong Tou is an expert, we'll listen to Hong Tou."

Uncle Hong was very satisfied and gratified. This time, the imperial army did not force them to continue diving for pearls at sea to their deaths. They were much more reasonable than when they went to sea to dive for pearls during the Ningkang era.

"Come over and light some incense," Uncle Hong called to them.

Grandpa Chen and his team of divers, boatmen, and other crew members worshipped the Heavenly Emperor together.

After the prayers were completed, the eldest son of the Chen family immediately had his family members bring out four boxes.

"The silver, the ship deed, the grain exchange certificate, and the promise to marry a new bride are all inside. The Chen and Huang families have already affixed their seals. You just need to fill in the deceased's name."

"Hmm." Uncle Hong took the box, opened it, checked it one by one, and then had Hong Lai, who could read, write down the names of Gui Ping and the others.

Finally, Uncle Hong pressed his fingerprint on the document, and the matter was considered settled.

"Disembark and escort the official home!"

With a shout, the bodies of the dead, bound with the reward they had earned with their lives, covered with white cloth, were put into small boats and taken ashore by the boatmen, then sent back to the village for their funerals.

"Uncle Chen, this distance is still a bit too deep. Let's shorten the rope by five meters; that will save lives," Uncle Hong suggested.

Upon hearing this, Grandpa Chen didn't hesitate: "Okay, shorten it by five meters."

If shortening the rope makes it impossible to retrieve the porous sponge, then the rope should be shortened back to thirty meters.

In short, one should not be too rigid in doing things; one should be lenient when necessary.

"..." Zhou Baihu wanted to try, but ultimately didn't say it.

"Thank you." Uncle Hong clasped his hands in thanks to Grandpa Chen.

Boom boom boom!
"Hong Tou orders: Rest today, rice is the meal!"

"Aww, time to eat rice!" The divers and boatmen were overjoyed, for being able to eat rice dispelled the grief of their fallen comrades.

It's no wonder they were excited; they're fishermen who usually eat a lot of seafood, and eating too much seafood can actually make them thin.

It's true that the more I eat, the thinner I get. If I want to survive, I have to go ashore and exchange rice with farmers.

But rice is expensive, so they only exchange it for something to nourish their bodies. Eating rice freely is something they can only do during the Lunar New Year.

Old Master Chen was heartbroken. He said to Huang Laowu, "Uncle Huang, have my fourth brother-in-law send over a dozen more boatloads of rice."

Huang Laowu shook his head: "There aren't that many left. Recently, our Huang family has been eating taro and kudzu root powder for one meal a day. The rice and various grains have been transported to the Northeast." Chen Jia Da Ye's heart was bleeding, and his hands trembled: "Since my fourth brother-in-law became an official, his soul has changed. He's become much more generous and upright."

Huang Laowu said, "At most, send five more small boats."

"Sure, but it has to be this year's freshly harvested rice; it tastes much better." Old Master Chen hurriedly agreed, fearing that even these five small boatloads of rice wouldn't be enough.

"I'll take care of it right away." Huang Laowu also felt sorry for the divers and boatmen, so he immediately sent a small boat ashore to the Huang family's branch store to ask for rice.

Zhou Baihu took a small boat to the large pharmaceutical ship where Dr. You and his men were, and told Dr. You about Hong Tou's plan to shorten the ropes.

"Shortening the rope shortens the diving depth, but can it still retrieve porous sponges?"

Dr. You nodded: "It's possible to catch them. The pharmaceutical brochure that Qin Dongjia gave us states that these porous sponges generally live in the sea at depths of 10 to 50 meters. It's just that the deeper you go, the more you can catch. So even if you catch fewer, it's still possible to catch some."

Whose life is not life?

The diving experts in Lingnan have already been very helpful. Are you really going to send soldiers with knives to force them to go down into the sea 20 or 30 meters deep?

Then they wouldn't be considered Eastern Desert people?
Zhou Baihu felt relieved and looked at Doctor You, who was covered in a white cloth coat, and asked, "Doctor You, how is that bacterium doing?"

Speaking of this, Dr. You became very excited and praised Zhang Songyu: "The telescope that Madam Zhang sent was a great help. Although we couldn't see very clearly, we did see something alive, which must have been a bacterium."

"Such a thing really exists! Master Qin didn't lie to us... Waaah, we're saved! Our Great Wei is saved! We'll be remembered in history!"

"..." Zhou Baihu took a step back and said, "Doctor You, calm down. We haven't even made the first batch of medicine yet."

We've only found the bacteria.

The new drug that can cure the plague uses the metabolites of the bacteria.

Doctor You looked at Commander Zhou with a deep gaze: "You're not a medical student, you don't understand... Discovering something new is already a great achievement for protecting the world."

and……

"If we find the bacteria, it proves that Qin Dongjia's method is feasible. If we continue down this path, we will surely be able to develop a new drug to combat the plague one day."

Zhou Baihu wanted to sneer: "Doctor You, the Wei people in the Northeast don't have that much time to wait for us... Hurry up, if we can make the new medicine an hour earlier, we can save hundreds of thousands of Wei people from being slaughtered by the plague."

but……

"You still need to rest; you can't afford to collapse."

Zhou Baihu kept repeating himself, bombarding him with both positive and negative statements. Coupled with the humid and stifling weather in Lingnan Prefecture, he felt like he was going crazy.

The next day, Uncle Hong and his men changed to a different sea area, preparing to dive and retrieve the water flake bones.

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get it done today either.

Boom boom boom!
Boom boom boom!
The drums sounded again, and the Chen family members shouted, "A storm is coming! Turn the boat and go ashore to avoid the storm!!"

Shouts continued, and all the boats headed towards the shore.

Zhou Baihu was completely dumbfounded... How come it's another typhoon? They've encountered five typhoons in less than two months since they arrived in Lingnan Prefecture.

Uncle Hong said, "There's nothing we can do. The weather is like this. Let's get ashore quickly and go back into the sea to fish after the wind passes!"

After reaching the shore, we still had to continue running inland.

“These bamboo mat houses are uninhabitable; they’ll be overturned. We need to go to a sturdy ancestral hall to avoid the wind disaster!”

Boom boom boom boom!

Less than two hours after Zhou Baihu and his men arrived at the ancestral hall, thunder roared and the wind howled.

Three days later, when they went to the beach again, the bamboo hut was gone, leaving only a messy empty space.

However, the sons of Chen Huanghong and his family brought over rolls of bamboo mats and began to build bamboo mat houses.