Looking north towards the rivers and mountains

Chapter 68 Interception (Bonus chapter for the grandson of Alliance Leader Aiwen)

Shao Shuyi and his group stayed for three days.

On the morning of the 14th, Wang Huadu, who was "visiting relatives" in the village, returned.

By this time, the sea bream had moved to a body of water surrounded by reeds. The water here was no more than six or seven feet deep, so large ships could not enter or approach it, and it was very well hidden, making it difficult to see clearly from a distance.

Outside the reeds, the water rippled gently, creating a tranquil atmosphere, while inside the reeds, a somber air prevailed.

"My uncle went to the market dozens of miles to the south to sell vegetables, asking around along the way," Wang Huadu said. "He asked more than a dozen people, but most of them didn't know anything about it. Only three people said they had seen it."

One of the sights was during the felling of reeds. Three canal boats were sailing south, almost skimming the shore, proceeding cautiously. It was probably early morning of the ninth day, four days prior.

Another person also saw it, but there was only one boat. It sailed directly into the harbor, bought a lot of food, paid the village's wealthy man a sum of money, and drew water from the well. They even asked if there were any women they could sleep with, offering money in return.

The third person's account was inconsistent, mentioning one ship at one moment, two at another, and three at another, and the timing was uncertain, so it is not credible.

Brother Shao, that's the situation. I think those three ships are probably already at the sand quarry by now. Otherwise, Shao Shuyi would remain noncommittal, only saying, "Not bad, you dog slave, you're becoming more and more organized in your speech, and you can even distinguish between truth and falsehood."

""

Wang Huadu feigned displeasure and snorted coldly, saying, "I've been smart since I was a child, it's just that I didn't study. If I had studied, I would already be in the Kunshan Prefecture government office, issuing a warrant to arrest you."

Shao Shuyi couldn't help but laugh.

After a moment, he slowly put away his smile and said, "This place is only a few dozen miles from the sand pit. It's not difficult to get there; we can get there tonight. However, I intend to ambush and intercept the Zhou family's fleet returning here."

"One boat ambushing three boats?" Wang Huadu exclaimed, his eyes wide.

"Be serious." Shao Shuyi tapped his head and said, "The Zhou family's fleet can't sail far out to sea; it can only sail near the shore."

I'll wait in the water near the shore; the chances of catching them are high.

"What if they travel by day and rest by night and miss it?" Gao Daqiang asked.

"Nothing is certain," Shao Shuyi laughed. "That Wang Wu also went on that trip once before, two years ago. Back then, there was no such thing as traveling by day and resting by night. Besides, if we really miss it, we can turn back and start looking again. The drilling boats are faster than the Zhou family's fleet, so maybe we'll find it. If we really can't find it, we won't let this trip be in vain. We can turn around and head south, straight to the sand quarry, buy some smuggled salt to sell back home, how about that?"

Gao Daqiang was silent for a moment, then slowly nodded and said, "Brother Shao has considered it very thoroughly. Indeed, there's no certainty in this matter. Just do your best, and leave the rest to fate."

Yang Liu hesitated for a while, drawing everyone's attention—especially Wu Heizi and the Qi brothers—before finally nodding: "Alright, let's go with this plan."

Shao Shuyi glanced at him but didn't say anything.

Yang Liu was scared and was deliberately trying to attract attention to make himself seem important.

What is he afraid of? Interesting.

******

The waiting time is agonizing.

Especially in the evening, a strong wind picked up at sea, making everyone feel a deep chill.

On this day, Shao Shuyi borrowed a small boat from his uncle Wang Huadu's family and rowed around the nearby sea.

Visibility was not very high, and the waves were quite large.

This has both advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage is that the Zhou family's fleet may be able to sail closer to the coast, but the disadvantage is that they will be harder to spot.

The vast ocean provides the best cover, and coupled with the low visibility, the situation looks even less optimistic.

Back on the drilling ship, Shao Shuyi wrapped himself in a blanket to rest, but he was preoccupied and found it hard to fall asleep.

For a moment, he wondered if Wang Wu's confession alone could bring down Sun Chuan. The answer was no; he needed more irrefutable evidence.

If they fail to defeat Sun Chuan this time, even if they clear their name of the fabricated charges, they will inevitably face even more frenzied retaliation next time, and it is hard to say whether they can withstand it.

Lost in thought, Shao Shuyi gradually fell asleep.

The waves gently rocked the boat, and he slept very soundly.

There was still no movement all day on the 15th.

On this day, Kong Tie took two boatmen and sailed south in a small boat. They drifted for more than ten miles, but found nothing except a few small fishing boats. So they returned at dusk.

There was still no movement on the morning of the 16th.

Just when everyone was listless and drowsy, Wang Huadu, his cousin, and Wu Heizi, who had sailed south in a small boat to "fish," returned and waved from afar.

"They're here!" shouted a seaman on lookout duty, his voice trembling slightly, but also filled with excitement.

"Raise anchor, hoist sails!" Shao Shuyi jumped up and gave the order.

The anchormen immediately rushed to the bow and worked hard to turn the winch, pulling the stone anchor out of the silt at the bottom of the water.

The Yabans acted almost simultaneously, raising a heavy bamboo sail.

"Don't be impatient, let's bring them back first." Looking at Yang Liu and Gao Daqiang, who were rushing excitedly towards him, Shao Shuyi smiled slightly and said.

He was actually very nervous, but he absolutely couldn't show it at this moment, because his every word and action would directly affect the morale of the entire crew.

The wait for Wang Huadu and the other two to return was very long.

This is a characteristic of naval warfare: the distance may seem short, but once you actually set sail, you find that you've only shortened the distance by a tiny bit over time.

During the Age of Exploration, there were even times when two ships would chase each other, getting so close that they could see the figures of people moving back and forth on the other ship, but it was still very difficult to shorten the distance.

When Shao Shuyi brought back Wang Huadu and the other two, he also saw a black dot appearing on the southern horizon.

Even without binoculars, you could see that there were three boats, moving in a triangular formation, carefully heading north along the coastline.

The wind gradually picked up, and waves surged in, crashing violently against the hull.

Waterbirds soared into the sky, reeds scattered and danced in the air, and the sea bream began to move.

The newly painted boat resolutely pushed aside the reeds blocking its way, traversing the water's surface filled with grass stems and reeds, its speed increasing rapidly.

The wind blew incessantly, providing the boat with ample power.

The reeds on both sides rustled, as if bidding farewell to these warriors heading off to war.

When the drilling ship crossed the last winding stretch of water and entered the wide open sea, everything became clear.

At that moment, the fourteen people on the Drilling Wind Sea Loach ship cheered and rubbed their hands together, while Cheng Ji sighed and silently strung the bow.

******

When Sun Chong was woken up, he was only halfway through his erotic dream.

In that beautiful dream, he and his aunt, Madam Liu, were making love and enjoying themselves immensely.

A few days later, unable to resist her love for him, Lady Liu poisoned her uncle Sun Chuan and transferred her family property to his name. From then on, the two lived happily ever after.

Who would be willing to give up such a beautiful dream? Therefore, he was actually very angry when he was interrupted, but when he heard the ship manager's report, it was as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head, chilling him to the bone.

"Are they coming for us?" he asked in a low voice as he hurried to the bow of the ship.

The ship's steward did not answer, but simply gazed silently to the north.

The sailors on board also received the news, but without orders, they could only continue rowing against the current, driven by inertia.

Yes, they are now sailing against the wind and current, which is very difficult.

The sails had long been furled, and the sides of the boat were covered with wooden oars. When they rowed in unison, the sound of their oars was deafening, creating a magnificent sight.

The smoother the journey south, the more difficult the return journey north; it's all predestined.

Of course, because there is a large amount of freshwater flowing into the area near the mouth of the Yangtze River, the ocean currents can sometimes be very complex, but today their luck was obviously not good, and they encountered people with unclear intentions when they were at their most difficult time.

Because they were moving towards each other, the distance between them kept getting closer.

The ship's foreman stared wide-eyed at the Wind-Drilling Sea Loach.

Sun Chong clenched his fists instinctively, extremely nervous.

As the sun gradually moved to its zenith, the distance between the two sides grew closer.

The ship's steward blinked hard, and whether it was his imagination or not, he seemed to see several reflections of weapons.

"Turn left and row toward the shore," the ship's foreman finally decided.

If the commander is granted a general amnesty, he should immediately go and issue the order.

The sailors were in a panic and worked for a long time before they managed to turn the bow of the ship slightly to the west and head towards the northwest shore.

The two ships behind followed suit and turned in turn.

The Drilling Sea Loach continued south at full speed, and after the Zhou family fleet began to turn, they also changed their rudder and sailed in a south-southwest direction, seemingly intending to cut directly into the Zhou family fleet and disrupt and scatter them.

Amidst the storms and waves, everything sounds simple, but in reality, it's quite clumsy, slow, and time-consuming to operate.

The Zhou family fleet turned sharply, and one of the two ships at the back almost capsized, but it was only by a narrow margin that it managed to stabilize.

The other ship was even more unlucky; under the strong winds, its mast broke in half with a "crack".

Half of the mast slammed heavily onto the sea, creating towering waves.

The sails covered half of the ship, catching the sailors off guard. Countless sailors were knocked to the ground or rolled into the sea.

Sun Chong was stunned by what happened next, so much so that his mind couldn't process it for a moment: Wasn't this a ship that had just been repaired? How could it be in such poor condition in the strong wind?

The ship's foreman was even more shocked than him and immediately ordered the entire ship to turn around and return to meet the wrecked vessel.

If the two hundred shi of Goryeo goods were lost, Zhou She, in a fit of rage, might kill his entire family.

Although the sailors were unwilling, at sea you can only obey the captain's orders unconditionally, so they began to struggle to maneuver the ship and try to make a sharp turn.

"Boom boom boom—" The stirring sound of drums rang out on the sea.

The people on the Wind-Drilling Sea Loach finally stopped hiding their true intentions. They beat their war drums, shouted loudly, and with swift and powerful movements, forcefully charged into the triangular core area surrounded by the three canal ships.

Waves splashed and white foam flew everywhere.

"Damn it! Damn it! Get closer! Go all out!" Wang Huadu shouted from the deck.

The battle almost instantly escalated to a fever pitch.

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