Chapter 744 Rescue
On the rough sea, a huge bubble emerged from the water, and a splash of water exploded on the sea. It was the air in the boat, and now it was completely surging up.
The sea breeze continued, and the waves continued. After an unknown amount of time, a few heads finally emerged from the turbulent sea water. Elder Qi and Elder Jin both emerged, and their wet hair stuck to their faces, blocking their sight. Both of them were gasping for breath, and from time to time they spit out a mouthful of salty and bitter sea water from their mouths.
As an island tribe, most of the tribesmen of the Xin tribe can still swim, and Elder Qi and Elder Jin are no exception. At this time, the two of them were desperately slapping and treading water, resisting the baptism of waves.
Elder Qi wiped the seawater off his face, brushed the hair that was stuck to his face back, and looked around. Finally, he saw several figures on the sea surface around him, as well as some bottles and jars floating out of the cabin. He looked at a sealed bucket floating on the sea surface not far away, and swam over quickly and hugged the bucket, which gave his body a chance to breathe.
"Elder, swim over there quickly, let's go to the reef." A little further away, a sailor suddenly emerged from the waves, pointing to a reef in the distance and shouting loudly.
Elder Qi took advantage of another wave to swim above the waves, and then saw the reef in the distance. He shouted hello and swam towards the reef first.
On the other side, Elder Jin, because he was standing on the bow just now, the wave hit his head against the shed pillar when it hit, and the subsequent capsizing incident made him even more confused. At this moment, he was unconscious, but his hands and feet were still unconsciously paddling.
Several sailors saw this and quickly dragged the things around them that could still float on the water, swam over together and dragged Elder Jin onto the reef.
When everyone climbed onto the reef, they counted the number of people. There were only eleven people left out of the seventeen who came. Elder Jin, who was unconscious, also showed abnormalities while lying on the reef. A sailor found that the reef under Elder Jin's head quickly turned red, and knew that something serious had happened. Sure
enough, when he turned over, he saw that the back of Elder Jin's head had been broken. When he touched the wound, he didn't feel like bones, but felt soft instead.
"Elder, Elder Jin has broken his head. I'm afraid he's going to die."
Elder Qi looked at him blankly and his face turned pale. He never thought that it would be an ordinary trial voyage, why would it turn out like this.
When he thought of the advice that Beast Fang had given them just now, he felt a pain all over his body. He really regretted it.
However, there is no medicine for regret. If the ship sank, it would be gone forever. The Xin tribe spent a lot of money and gave up the right to independent currency in exchange for something, but it was gone just like that. It also cost several lives. Even Elder Jin was unfortunately killed, but at least he left a complete body. However, the current situation of everyone is not much better than those who died directly.
Trapped on a reef without even a blade of grass, it is estimated that it will not take long for everyone to die on this stone.
That night, until dark, Shouya did not see the ship coming back. He was still wondering, did the Xin tribe find another place to build a new port? Or did something really happen? Otherwise, why didn't they come back until the evening?
It's not possible that the people on this ship got lost at sea?
This is possible. The wind and waves are so strong during the day. If they are blown to a place far away from the land, without a compass or other means of determining the position, they may really not be able to find the direction to go home and drift to the endless sea.
However, in such a situation, even if their ship did not capsize, they would probably die on the ship.
The next morning, Shouya asked someone whether the boat had returned. After learning that there was still no news, he immediately sent someone to deliver the news to Commander Xin as a kind reminder.
He did this because he was afraid that the Xin tribe would make a fuss about this and put the blame on the Han tribe.
Thinking of this, Shouya wrote about this in a letter and sent a copy to Luo Chong.
Elder Qi and others who were trapped on the reef were also very sad at this time.
When the sun came out that morning, Elder Jin could no longer wake up. Another life was lost, which made the remaining survivors feel depressed.
The wind was still very strong today, and the low reefs could not withstand the impact of the waves at all. Elder Qi and others had no chance to dry their clothes, so they could only helplessly bear the impact of the sea water. However, in order to be more comfortable, they still took off their wet clothes.
But the price of doing so was even higher. It was the end of July, the hottest time of the year. The strong sea breeze swept away all the clouds, and the remaining group of people were all exposed to the sun. The strong light made them dizzy. If they hadn't rescued a bucket of sealed fresh water, they would have died long ago.
Just like that, another day passed, and the news finally reached the ears of Commander Xin. Hearing this news, Commander Xin was also very anxious, and sent a letter to the envoys, hoping that they would send a ship out to sea to search.
But for such a thing, how could the Xin tribe use the Han tribe without paying a price?
After agreeing to allow the envoys to build cargo stations and banks in the eastern part of Zhudao, Shouya arranged a large ship to go out to sea to search for the missing elder Qi and others.
On the third day, three of the ten people left on the reef fell down again, and everyone panicked. These three people either died of dehydration or choked on water in their lungs. In the constant coughing, blood overflowed from the corners of their mouths, and they finally died.
The only seven people left could only survive by eating raw oysters. The good thing was that there were quite a few oysters here, and they could find quite a few if they dived a little deeper.
"Elder, what should we do? If we continue to be exposed to the sun like this, Elder Jin's body will stink, and we... we will all die if we continue like this."
"Woo woo woo (┯_┯)..."
On the reef, some sailors were worried about their lives, and some young sailors were crying quietly, but in the case of a lack of water for days, these people could no longer cry.
"Cry, cry, cry, why are you crying? There is only half a bucket of water left. From today on, we must drink it sparingly."
Elder Qi cursed weakly, sweating all over under the scorching sun. He put his hands on the pergola and tried to look into the distance. It was unclear whether he was comforting himself or the sailors.
"Don't worry, everyone. Our boat capsized just after we arrived at the reef area that day. We must not have drifted too far. We should still be within the fishermen's activity range and not far from the Han tribe's commonly used waterway. If we hold on for two more days, someone will definitely rescue us."
The other six sailors showed hopeful eyes when they heard this.
"Elder, is this true?"
"Of course it is true. Think about it. Two elders of our tribe went missing at sea. The commander-in-chief will definitely not ignore it. Moreover, the last person we saw was the Han envoy. The Han tribe is afraid of taking responsibility and will definitely take the initiative to look for us. So everyone must hold on. We will definitely survive." Elder Qi once again encouraged everyone.
"Yes, everyone will definitely survive."
"We must persist and not give up." The few remaining sailors also gained confidence.
Sometimes we have to believe that when we are in a desperate situation, hope can stimulate people's desire to survive more than objective conditions such as physical strength. After this self-encouragement, the people who were originally listless actually became much more energetic.
"Okay, now I will explain the tasks." Elder Qi thought for a while and suddenly said.
All the sailors looked at him. There was no one left, so what tasks were they still carrying out?
"Everyone will take turns to assign work. Two people will look for food around, and one person will stand on the reef to keep an eye out for fishermen or boats from the Han tribe around. If you find them, call for help loudly. The rest of you who are fine, try to soak your body in the sea water to resist the sun's exposure."
When everyone heard this, they immediately thought that this arrangement was good, so they began to assign tasks, but the good times did not last long. On the third night of the accident, two of the remaining seven people fell down again.
It was not known whether it was due to exposure to the sun or soaking in the sea water for too long, or it was possible that they caught a cold from the sea breeze. Elder Qi and the other youngest sailor developed a high fever that night, their lips turned pale, and their limbs were swollen. It seemed that the two of them would not survive.
The remaining five people who could still move almost collapsed. Even Elder Qi, the backbone, had fallen. They still did not see the so-called rescue. The five people looked at the corpses
around them and the two companions with high fevers. The fear of death began to spread on the reef. "Han envoy, where are we going to look?" In the strait, on a three-masted cargo ship of the Han tribe, Elder Sheng stared at the beast tooth next to him and asked.
"Go to our fixed route to look, otherwise where else can we look? Elder Sheng, your Xin tribe is conducting a trial voyage. Didn't Elder Qi and Elder Jin discuss the route with you in advance? If you knew which way they were going, even if something went wrong, our hope of successful rescue would be greater." Beast Tooth answered and asked again.
"Hmph, I have been in Qingquan Valley all the time, how can I know about the two of them? The Han envoy can look for them at will."
Elder Sheng snorted and turned back to the cabin in the stern. He didn't want to be exposed to the sun on the deck, and he complained in his heart.
I don't know what the commander-in-chief was thinking. He actually asked him to follow the Han tribe's ship to find the two people. He wanted to spend his old age at home. Why did such a trivial matter happen to him?
"Pay attention to the surrounding sea to see if there are any ships or human figures, even wreckage. If you find anything unusual, notify me immediately." Shouya instructed the sailors around him and turned back to the cabin.
"Yes, please rest assured, envoy." The sailors around agreed and stood on the lookouts on both sides of the ship and on the top of the mast to observe the surrounding situation.
The wind was still strong today, at least level 4 or 5, and the waves were two or three meters high. However, the three-masted sailing ship that Shouya was on was 40 meters long, with three decks above the waterline and two poop towers at the stern. Compared with a sloop, it had a very high freeboard. Even if the waves were four meters high, it would never hit the deck, so everyone was relatively relieved.
The big ship sailed towards the exit of the strait in this way, and its destination was also the reef area in the east of Zhudao Island, because that was where the most likely accident would happen. Otherwise, Luo Chong would not have thought of building a lighthouse there.
Lighthouses are usually built in areas prone to maritime disasters. In addition to piloting, another more important task is early warning.
It was not until the afternoon that the sailboat finally arrived near the reef area, but because the big ship had a deep draft, they did not dare to get too close, and they were also afraid of hitting the reef and sinking.
However, with the sound of several collisions, the big ship finally made a discovery.
"Captain, we found it." A sailor immediately came to the poop to report.
"What did you find?" Shouya and Elder Sheng asked in unison, and they looked at each other after asking.
"Reporting to the chief, it's a few sections of green bamboo tubes, which look like they are used to hold water, and there are words on them." The sailor said, and took out three large bamboo tubes with holes drilled and hanging ropes.
Shouya and Elder Sheng hurriedly checked and found several special symbols on them. Elder Sheng's eyes widened and he said excitedly.
"That's right, that's right, it's them. There are words from our Xin tribe on them. Judging from the method and habits, it must be Elder Qi. Where did these bamboo tubes come from? They must be around here."
Shouya glanced at him. Anyway, he couldn't understand what kind of weird characters were engraved on them, but since they had spoken, he couldn't object, so he made arrangements.
"Tell the captain to search around here and be careful of the reefs."
"Yes." The sailor agreed and prepared to go out.
"Wait." Shouya suddenly thought of something and hurriedly stopped the sailor.
"Envoy, do you have any other instructions?"
"Go find my messenger Yingfeng and ask him to send his giant eagle to search around to see if there are any people or ships."
"Yes, please rest assured, Envoy." The sailor retreated again.
The sailboat also began to cruise around the reefs. With the help of the Azuka giant eagle scouting in the sky, they soon found Elder Qi and his men. However, when the sailors on the big ship rowed a small boat and followed the giant eagle to find them, the people on the reef were all unconscious.
The sailors hurriedly loaded all the unconscious and dead people onto the big ship. After some rescue, they finally woke up Elder Qi, but he had a high fever for a day and a night and was now on his last legs. The body of Elder Jin, who went out to sea with him, was swollen and smelly. The other surviving crew members ate hot porridge and burst into tears, crying for their dead brothers.
At the same time in Kaiyuan County, Luo Chong stood on the tower of the inner city, looking at the letter sent by the beast tooth in his hand, with a thoughtful expression.
"How will the Xin tribe deal with it this time?" He couldn't help but think secretly.
Recommend this book "Walking the Heavens from The Deer and the Cauldron", the protagonist traveled through time and space to become Wei Xiaobao, leaving his own legend in the heavens and the worlds. Those who are interested can take a look.
(End of this chapter)
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