Chapter 128: First Battle Victory
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It was a gloomy day, with rain and snow on the sea. Two simple diesel boats separated from the Fengyi one after another, and sailed slowly and steadily towards the rear of the group of ships against the surging waves.
The boat gradually went farther and farther away, and became smaller and smaller. Twenty minutes later, only two inconspicuous black dots remained at the junction of the sea and the sky. At the same time, ten brightly colored rafts fell into the water one after another, the hum of the engines sounded, and a gorgeous orange dragon swam out.
Fishing is not done in groups. The Giant is troublesome to turn around, and they are about to use a large trawling net. The area where the ship is parked can be said to be contracted by them. Fishing in troubled waters is not realistic. In order to return empty-handed, the Wind Wing and the Ever Leap can only go to waters a little further away.
It can't be too close, nor too far. There is no reference point on the boundless sea. If you are not careful, you will lose your sense of direction and get lost in this vast ocean.
Gu Mengran was well prepared, with a compass, a paper map, and a small theodolite, but he still didn't dare to go too far. After all, the Giant was going out to haul fish, and without its protection, any big wave could push the Wind Wing and the Ever Leap hundreds of meters away.
The sea is beautiful and mysterious.
In front of it, human beings exist like ants.
After sailing northwest for an hour and a half, the two diesel boats stopped side by side in a relatively calm sea with little wind and waves.
It was the first time for everyone to go fishing in the sea. They were very excited.
The chilly sea breeze made people shiver, but Zheng Yijie and Xu Xinghe seemed not to feel the cold. As soon as the boat stopped, they crawled out from under the awning and stood in the wind and snow, shouting at the top of their lungs: "Gu Mengran, Liang Zhao, shall we start now?"
The chill penetrated deep into my bones, as if I had entered someone's freezer, it was extremely cold.
Now that they were here, what else could they do if they didn't start? Gu Mengran sniffed, and he and Liang Zhao, carrying half a sack of bait that they had prepared in advance, crouched down and crawled out of the boat awning.
The sack was filled with a fishy smell, and water was still dripping from the bottom. Xu Xinghe looked at the sack that suddenly appeared in the hands of the two men, his nose twitching slightly, and asked curiously: "What is this, Brother Liang? It smells fishy and unpleasant."
"Bait."
Liang Zhao walked to the side of the boat and handed it over with the sack in one hand.
The sack was very large and contained a lot of things, but seeing Liang Zhaoju lifted it so easily, Xu Xinghe thought it was not heavy and also just stretched out one hand to take it.
Unexpectedly, just as he grasped the mouth of the sack, Liang Zhao let go, and the heavy sack pulled him straight forward. Fortunately, Zheng Yijie reacted quickly and pulled him in time, otherwise he would have to take a cold shower.
After dragging the sack back to the cabin with great effort, Xu Xinghe, who was full of curiosity, couldn't help but untie the rope and take a look inside. It doesn't matter if he doesn't look, but after just a casual glance, he exclaimed: "Wow, such a big fish, such good fresh shrimp is used as bait?"
The finest yellow croaker, the silver pomfret that has not yet melted, big and plump prawns... these delicious seafoods that many people can never have on their dinner tables, are used as bait?
Zheng Yijie also leaned over to take a look, his eyes suddenly widened like copper bells, "Isn't this too extravagant?"
"What can we do? We are not Jiang Taigong. If we don't put out bait, do we have to wait for willing crabs to enter the cage?" Gu Mengran put the sack in the cabin and squatted on the ground to dismantle the crab cage.
Zheng Yijie frowned slightly and complained quietly: "There's no need to be so extravagant. In fact, you can put other baits."
"For example?" Gu Mengran asked him back.
Zheng Yijie: "For example, the internal organs of chickens, ducks, and geese, or fish meat, or fish heads. If all else fails, you can use some small fish and shrimps. It hurts to see such big shrimps."
After listening to his suggestion, Gu Mengran paused for a moment while dismantling the crab cage, and said unhappily, "Why didn't you do that earlier? You only know how to talk after the fact."
It would have been better if he didn't say it. As soon as he said it, Gu Mengran began to feel distressed.
The main thing is that there are really chicken and duck offal in the space, but in front of Xu Xinghe, they cannot be taken out and used directly, so they can only bite the bullet and use fish and shrimp as bait.
The key is that even if you put in such good materials, you may still get nothing in return!
Crab cages are suitable for shallow sea areas, and the water depth of 30 to 50 meters is more suitable. However, the depth of this sea area has increased several times. If you put the crab cage down today, it is a problem whether you can find it tomorrow.
Never mind. If it doesn’t work, just consider it as paying tuition fee.
The new crab cages were disassembled one by one and carefully assembled. Considering the deep water, they added two ropes to the top of the ropes on the crab cages to extend the ropes and ensure that the ropes could stay on the sea surface.
The buoys and floating balls are always a bit small, and there is no place to fix the ropes. Worried that they will not be found tomorrow, Gu Mengran prepared ten inflatable swimming rings in advance, one for each crab cage, and used them with floating balls as a double insurance.
After the crab cages are arranged, finally use scissors to cut the fish and shrimp into pieces and stuff them all into the bait cages. All the preparations are done.
They left late and were inexperienced. After all the hassles, it was already getting dark. The four of them didn't even have time to wash their hands. They immediately drove the boat apart, smelling like fish.
There are not many technical requirements for placing crab cages, just put them down steadily along the sea surface. However, the crab cages that Gu Mengran bought were large, and it was difficult for one person to operate them. In addition, each crab cage needed to be about 100 meters apart, so the boat had to start and stop from time to time.
They hurried as fast as they could and put all the crab cages into the water before dark.
The orange swimming ring was particularly eye-catching. The diesel boat turned around and went back. Gu Mengran looked back and saw that the gray sea surface was also like a donut.
After working for half a day and only putting out twenty crab cages, Gu Mengran still felt unsatisfied.
So he returned to the anchorage in the dark and saw the outline of Fengyi in the distance. He immediately asked Liang Zhao to stop the boat, took out the hand-cast net from the cabin, and practiced casting the net overtime.
Probably because they thought it was interesting, Zheng Yijie and Xu Xinghe also chose to stop the boat and join in. But they regretted it not long after, because this thing looked simple, but it was very difficult to operate in practice.
There are three commonly used methods of throwing a hand net. The simplest method is the Frisbee method. Hold the rope with your left hand, hold the net with your right hand, and throw the net sideways with force like throwing a Frisbee.
Theoretically, the net would fly out with the rope, and as the body rotated, a large net would spread out on the water. But in reality, Gu Mengran gathered strength in his arms and threw it forward violently. The net looked the same in his hand as it did in the water.
Gu Mengran tried all the theoretical knowledge in his mind one by one, including the two-cast method and the turning method. Not only did he fail to cast successfully, but he also got the net tangled because of the wrong casting posture.
A sense of frustration arose spontaneously, and what made him even more frustrated was that after untangling the tangled fishing nets, Liang Zhao imitated his original method of throwing the net with a flying disc and tried it once. He held the rope with his left hand, supported the net with his right hand, leaned back, and suddenly threw it with force -
The fishing net spread out layer by layer in the air like ripples. The lead weight collided with the sea water, making a sound, and then a complete round fishing net entered the water perfectly.
Textbook-level net casting! Gu Mengran stood up and looked at Liang Zhao in disbelief, "No, you have learned it before? How can you succeed in one go?"
Liang Zhao slowly put away the fishing net, shook off the water, and with a smile on his lips, he replied calmly: "I haven't learned it, maybe it's just a coincidence."
"Is it true? Why don't I believe it?" Gu Mengran raised his chin towards him, "Try it again."
"Okay." Liang Zhao simply agreed and started to sort out the net again.
The same posture, the same speed, the same round fishing net entered the water again.
Some people are born to be fishermen. Gu Mengran couldn't help but accept it. He grabbed Liang Zhao's arm and shook it, "Teach me, teach me. Hurry up, I want to cast a net too!"
With his hands full of water, Liang Zhao rubbed his head against Gu Mengran and said, "It's too late. Let's go out early tomorrow. After putting down the crab cage, we will have plenty of time to cast the net."
"No, I won't be able to sleep tonight if I don't learn it!" Gu Mengran insisted.
"Aren't you hungry?" Liang Zhao asked.
Gu Mengran was stunned, and felt it carefully, "It seems a little bit."
"Then go back."
"Walk."
Nothing is difficult in the world as long as you are willing to give up.
…
I didn't sleep well the whole night thinking about the crab pot, so I got up very early the next day. When it was dawn, the four of us were already on the diesel boat, even though we were too sleepy to open our eyes.
I feel cold and sleepy, and I can catch a cold if I’m not careful.
Sitting in the cold cabin, he didn't dare to catch up on some sleep. He had to yawn to get through the one and a half hour journey. When he arrived at the coordinate location, Gu Mengran was already so sleepy that he was half-conscious.
"Meng Ran, wake up Meng Ran...we are here."
Gu Mengran didn't hear a word of what was said before. When the words "We're here" came out, it was like a bucket of cold water poured over his head. Gu Mengran woke up instantly, turned his head and looked around, "Are we here, are we here? Where's our swimming ring?"
It was raining and snowing in the morning, the rain was heavier than the snow, layers of mist covered the sea surface, and visibility was significantly reduced.
There was no sight of the eye-catching orange swimming ring, nor was there any sign of the fist-sized white floating ball. Gu Mengran's heart skipped a beat, and he looked at Liang Zhao with his last hope, "Are the coordinates correct? Is there any deviation? How come there is not even one..."
"The coordinates are correct." Liang Zhao frowned slightly, but soon relaxed his brows. He patted Gu Mengran on the shoulder and comforted him softly, "Don't worry. The rope we left is long, and there was wind last night. It might have been blown away. Let's look around first."
After saying that, Liang Zhao picked up the walkie-talkie and called diesel boat No. 2. Immediately, the two boats dispersed to the left and right and began searching around.
Facts proved that Liang Zhao was right. In less than five minutes, Zheng Yijie and Xu Xinghe found the missing swimming ring and buoy to the left/front of the coordinates.
The swimming rings were large and were easily blown away by the wind. Only eighteen of the twenty swimming rings remained, but the ropes were intact, not a single one was broken. Three of the swimming rings were deflated, but they were still floating on the sea surface, held by another safety buoy.
So far, they are more than halfway successful.
Whether more crab cages can be placed in the future depends on whether these eighteen cages have stock.
After untying the rope and taking the swimming ring back to the cabin, Liang Zhao tied the rope to the hand-cranked winch that he had prepared in advance. One person held the rope and pulled it back, while another person held the joystick to retrieve it. Soon, a huge iron cage successfully floated to the surface of the water.
Gu Mengran was the one responsible for pulling the rope. In fact, he already felt it halfway through that the crab cage was very light, extremely light, and basically no different from when it was put down yesterday.
“Clatter.”
Water splashed everywhere, and a complete crab cage was completely exposed above the water.
Everyone looked over expectantly, and as expected, the crab cage was empty. The bait had been swollen by the seawater and turned into rotten fish and shrimp that had lost their smell, and there was not even a crab leg to be found in the cage.
It was impossible not to be disappointed. Just as Gu Mengran was about to sigh, Zheng Yijie and Xu Xinghe sang in unison:
"Well, other people keep them there for a day or two, but we've only kept them there for one night, so it's normal to have an empty cage."
"That's right. There are still so many left. Let's continue collecting them. If we can catch one today, it will be considered a success."
Not to mention, the anger that was stuck in his chest was relieved a little after the two interrupted each other. Gu Mengran swept away the haze and raised his chin, "No problem, let's collect it first, and collect it together."
There is no disappointment without expectation. Gu Mengran no longer cared and was even ready to try another place. But at this moment, Liang Zhao turned the winch to pull up the second cage. The moment the black cage floated to the surface of the water, a bright blue suddenly flashed before his eyes.
Gu Mengran took a closer look and saw blue crab legs and blue crab claws.
This is - orchid crab.
Giving a little sweet treat just when he had lost hope, Gu Mengran danced with excitement. Although he was a crab living alone in a big house, this at least proved that this method was feasible!
"Pull, pull, pull, keep pulling!" Gu Mengran seemed to be energized and hurriedly pulled the swimming ring again.
It was destined to be an extraordinary day. Almost at the same time, good news came from the ship:
"Orchid crab, woc! Such a fat orchid crab!"
"Brother Gu and Brother Liang, our cage has exploded! This cage is full!"
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