Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 663 The Mischievous Kid Can Kill

Hou Anyuan's tinnitus symptoms had not disappeared, and he could not hear what the constable was saying, but at this moment he had only one thought, which was that he must go to the river to take a look.

Despite being heavily armored, Hou Anyuan quickly reached the north side of the fortress after running at breakneck speed.

Here, two river embankments extend into the Xiaoyi River like left and right arms, forming an artificial harbor.

The villagers moored their fishing boats in this dike and collected their catch.

Now, of the three large watercraft moored in this watery area, one is already emitting thick smoke.

Several Han soldiers were still fighting with the bandits who were climbing up the dike.

The riverbank was neither very wide nor very sturdy. Both the Han soldiers and the river bandits fought each other, wading through the water, and people would occasionally scream as they fell into the water.

Five or six small boats had already entered through the gap in the water dike, continuously firing rockets outwards, some of which landed on the water turbines.

Cao Gui shouted from the bow of the ship, "Stop it, all of you! Stop the fucking rockets! Stop it, all of you!"

However, on the battlefield where the shouts of battle were deafening, who could hear Cao Gui's words?

At this moment, Cao Gui looked at the large ship billowing thick smoke, his heart bleeding.

These are all spoils of war! How can we just burn them all?

Thinking of this, Cao Gui couldn't help but feel a little regretful; he shouldn't have had the boats light fires.

Originally, they hoped that the bandits could break through the water dike and set the village houses on fire with rockets from afar. But who would have thought that these bandits were really hopeless? They actually launched a counterattack with rockets just because of a few arrows shot from the waterwheel.

But now that things have come to this, there's no point in saying any more.

Cao Gui had his lead ship veer slightly eastward, leading the other pirates as far away as possible from the other two unburnt waterships, fearing they might catch fire again.

He had originally planned to board the ship by jumping over the gang, but now it seemed better to give up. He would just go ashore properly and then join forces with the bandits to launch a pincer attack on the Han army. After they were defeated, the spoils would be distributed.

These pirates, about to land, ran right into the Han army that had come to their aid.

At this point, Hou Anyuan should theoretically deal with the pirates who were about to land, but he couldn't care less about that now.

Hou Anyuan had felt relieved after seeing that the group of medical school professors had all disembarked and gathered in a courtyard. However, when he looked around the crowd and did not see Xu Erya, he immediately took a deep breath.

Despite his persistent tinnitus, Hou Anyuan stepped forward and grabbed Yang Tan, who was shouting, and yelled, "Professor Yang, where is Dr. Xu?!"

Yang Tan said anxiously, "Dr. Xu is on the ship! We disembarked when the fire broke out, but she said she hadn't collected some records and went back. But it's been almost half a quarter of an hour, and she still hasn't come out!"

Hou Anyuan only vaguely heard a few words, but from Yang Tan's gestures, he roughly knew that Xu Erya seemed to still be on the ship, and he became very anxious.

"Shi Wang! Take some men and deal with the thieves!" Hou Anyuan shouted as he removed his armor. "Doctor Xu is still on the ship. I'm going to rescue her!"

Shi Wang took Hou Anyuan's helmet and put it on, but was immediately overwhelmed by the stench of sweat inside. He couldn't help but lift the helmet collar and ask, "Can you swim?"

The cold wind blew, and Hou Anyuan felt his headache ease slightly, but his tinnitus remained, and he couldn't hear what Shi Wang was saying at all.

After removing all his armor, he tucked a short sword into his waistband and charged toward the watership that was already ablaze.

"Commander can swim!" Wei San tied Hou Anyuan's shawl around his body and said loudly, "Commander once dived into the river to catch fish in order to find food for us, and he could hold his breath for half an hour!"

Upon hearing this, Shi Wang felt relieved, shook his aching fingers, and moved the ring to a different position: "Wei San, protect me! You guys, three to a group, with the armored soldiers in front, block those river bandits!"

On the other side, Hou Anyuan had just run to the dock when he saw the plank connecting the water tanker and the dock sway a few times and fall into the water. The water tanker, which was emitting black smoke, gradually started to catch fire and moved away from the shore.

Upon seeing this, Hou Anyuan not only did not stop, but instead strode forward, stepping on the edge of the dock, letting out a loud shout, and leaping out.

He tried to grab the side of the boat, but his hand slipped and he fell into the water.

Hou Anyuan was not discouraged. He immediately grabbed the protrusion on the side of the ship and struggled to climb onto the ship.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!" Hou Anyuan felt the cold wind blowing, and his wet clothes gradually became stiff. However, his hands gripping the ship's side occasionally felt a burning heat, indicating that some cabins had caught fire.

This made Hou Anyuan feel somewhat flustered.

"No, no, Dr. Xu is a lucky man and will be fine."

Thinking this, Hou Anyuan grabbed the side of the boat, climbed onto the deck, and then covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve, shouting loudly, "Doctor Xu! Doctor Xu!"

At this moment, flames were already rising on the deck and igniting the sails, turning the entire mast into a huge torch, with loud crackling sounds filling the air.

In this situation, not only would Hou Anyuan's ears still be ringing and he wouldn't be able to hear anything, but even if he could hear clearly, he might not be able to hear Xu Erya's response.

"Calm down, calm down! I've been on this ship before!" Hou Anyuan covered his mouth and nose, his mind racing: "I came here to move grain, the study, the study is right here..."

Thinking this, Hou Anyuan immediately turned around, went to the second floor of the ship's tower, and kicked the door open.

Fate did not play a cruel trick on Hou Anyuan; he found the girl lying unconscious on the floor of the study. The girl was dragging a leather bag, which, judging from its shape, contained about thirty or forty books.

The smoke was even thicker here, presumably because Xu Erya had hurriedly put her notes into a leather bag after boarding the ship, but unknowingly suffered from oxygen deprivation, and collapsed to the ground after only a few steps, before even leaving the cabin.

Hou Anyuan rushed forward, helped Xu Erya up, and wiped her face with his wet sleeve: "Dr. Xu! Dr. Xu!"

Seeing that Xu Erya was not moving, Hou Anyuan carried her on his shoulder and then took the leather bag to the deck.

Whether it was because the air on the deck was fresher, or because being carried was painful, Xu Erya coughed twice and woke up.

"Dr. Xu! This bag of books is too heavy! I can't take it with me! I can't take it with me!" Hou Anyuan said, panting, after sensing the movement and placing Xu Erya on the deck.

After a night of fighting and a long period of turmoil, even someone as energetic and roguish as Hou Anyuan felt exhausted.

His hands were trembling, and his whole body felt weak. He clearly realized that if he wanted to save Xu Erya, there was absolutely no way he could carry away these dozens of books.

Xu Erya, also catching her breath, said, "Then don't worry about me. Save these books. There are 125 lives in here. 125 people died, and this is the result! We can't let them be destroyed here!"

"Huh?" Hou Anyuan saw Xu Erya's mouth opening and closing, but he couldn't hear any words.

Seeing this, Xu Erya simply pointed to the leather bag of documents and nodded, then pointed to herself and shook her head repeatedly.

Hou Anyuan understood Xu Erya's meaning, but he could not accept it at all. However, when he glanced at the bag of books, he suddenly remembered Yang Tan's words when he performed surgery on Xiao Sun, and his heart trembled again.

There's always a way to have the best of both worlds!

Thinking this, Hou Anyuan glanced at the black smoke rising from below the deck and the flickering firelight, then turned his gaze to the shore.

By this time, the watership had drifted about ten steps away and could no longer jump back in one step. Moreover, with Hou Anyuan's current arm strength, it would be difficult to throw so many books onto the shore.

These days, books are not only afraid of fire, but also of water. If ink gets wet, it will bleed and spread, and then even a god can't save it.

Hou Anyuan felt anxious as he felt the heat around him, but then he suddenly saw a bundle of cables two steps away and immediately had an idea.

He quickly stepped forward, drew his short knife from his waist, cut off a section of rope, sealed the leather bag with the rope, and then wrapped it around the bag several times.

After wrapping the leather bag into a large dumpling, Hou Anyuan took a deep breath, grabbed one end of the rope, and swung it around in the air a few times. Using its momentum, the bag of documents flew towards the shore like a meteor hammer.

Hou Anyuan didn't even have time to check the results. He immediately bent down and picked up the still unconscious Xu Erya, shouting, "Dr. Xu, cover your nose and breathe through your mouth later!"

Seeing Xu Erya nod and pinch her nose, Hou Anyuan picked her up and jumped off the side of the boat into the water.

The icy river water of early spring quickly filled every part of the two of them, and the impact of falling from a height caused Xu Erya to break free from Hou Anyuan's embrace.

Hou Anyuan closed his eyes underwater, desperately reaching out with his left hand. Once he felt he had grabbed a hand, he immediately swam towards the surface of the river.

"Phew, ptooey, Doctor Xu..." Hou Anyuan wiped his face, grinned, and was about to ask if the other party was alright when he was met with a face full of bushy beard.

When Cao Gui landed, he was knocked into the water by Han soldiers on the shore. He sneaked here, but before he could find his way, he was pulled up by a large hand. He had no idea what was happening and was in a daze.

But the two were only stunned for a moment before they immediately realized that the other was an enemy.

Hou Anyuan was more anxious because he didn't know if Xu Erya could swim. He immediately grabbed Cao Gui's wrist with his left hand, then drew a short knife from his waist and stabbed it forward from underwater.

But Cao Gui is a man who can fight his way through the water. He has experienced too many battles in the water. How could he capsize in a ditch?
When Cao Gui saw Hou Anyuan's right shoulder sink, he knew that this guy was going to make some tricks underwater. He didn't care that his right arm was being grabbed, and he kicked Hou Anyuan's right arm with his legs.

Using techniques underwater is already exhausting, not to mention that Hou Anyuan was already extremely tired. After taking this blow to his arm, the short sword in his right hand slipped out of his grasp.

"You little thief! Do you really think your Grandpa Cao can't kill people?!" Cao Gui grinned maliciously, reached out and grabbed Hou Anyuan's neck, pressing down hard.

Hou Anyuan, disregarding his grip on Cao Gui's right arm, struggled fiercely to his feet.

After struggling in the water for a while and choking on some water, Hou Anyuan was at a disadvantage. He gradually had difficulty breathing and his consciousness began to fade.

At that critical moment, a dagger pierced Cao Gui's nape from behind.

Cao Gui, who had initially gained the upper hand, suddenly turned his head and tried to see who it was. In his last moments of consciousness, he only saw a pale-faced scholar struggling in the water.

"Damn it, I was ruined by Meng'er..." Cao Gui felt a surge of resentment and then lost consciousness.

Hou Anyuan was not much different. He sank towards the bottom of the water in a daze, but was quickly pulled out of the water by someone's arm.

"Huff, huff!" Hou Anyuan felt someone wrap their arms around his chest and swim towards the shore. When his back touched the hard ground, he coughed violently and forced his eyes open: "Cough cough cough... cough, Xu... cough..."

Zhen Baoyu, who had rescued him, said tremblingly, "Don't worry, I... I pulled her up first... The apprentices have already taken her... taken her to change her clothes..."

Seeing that Hou Anyuan was still struggling to get up, Zhen Baoyu simply pressed him down and comforted him, "The reinforcements have arrived, the bandits have been defeated, you don't need to fight so hard. In a little while... in a little while someone will come to change your clothes... Achoo, achoo."

Hou Anyuan didn't actually hear anything, but with the increasingly severe tinnitus in his ears, he finally succumbed to dizziness and exhaustion and passed out.

(End of this chapter)