: The Wind and Waves

Wanghai Town, Mingzhou, Wengshancheng. Zhao Quan stood on the earthen wall, looking at the densely packed ships at the port not far away, looking up at the moonlight in the sky from time to time, and his face showed anxiety. It turned out that after Zhao Yingong led the central army and the vanguard to Taizhou, the weather changed. The storm and waves on the sea were much stronger, and Zhao Quan dared not take the risk to go out to sea. However, so many ships gathered in the port are not only very risky, but also easy to leak news. Although Zhao Yingong's surprise attack on Taizhou will be known after all, it will be a benefit of delaying one day. This Wengshan City is located on Zhoushan Island in the northeast of Dinghai County, Mingzhou. Its land is across the sea from the estuary of Cixi, and the terrain is very important. Because it is hanging alone in the sea, the island's fresh water, wood and other resources are very rich, and the eastward rush to Deng, Lai

Many business trips to Qiongya south pass here, which can easily become the nests of sea bandits. So Mingzhou's presidency migrated all the residents of the island to the inland, leaving only 300 garrison soldiers in the city of Wengshan. The remaining residents on the island were basically living around the city, most of them were the families of the garrison soldiers, and most of the remaining ones made a living. The shoreline of Zhoushan Island was twisted and there were many natural ports, so Zhao Quan drove a portion of the ships shipped with good material to the Zhoushan Island. On the one hand, it could diversify the risks, and on the other hand, the island was sparsely populated, and most of them were Mingzhou garrison soldiers, so there was no need to worry about leaking the wind. However, the weather has been bad these days, and the sea was very strong. Zhao Quan tossed and turned and couldn't sleep at all for the military rations, so he came out to check the sky in the middle of the night.

"The moon is dizzy and the wind is moist and rainy." Zhao Quan looked at the moonlight for a while, and felt a halo flashing faintly next to the crescent moon. According to the weather proverb he heard when he was young, it was clearly a sign of a strong wind the next day. He shook his head in disappointment, stretched out his left hand to calculate the day when Zhao Yingong left the army. He couldn't help but put his hands together and prayed to the gods and Buddhas, hoping that the weather would improve quickly so that the ships would go to sea so as not to delay military intelligence.

Just as Zhao Quan was praying to the gods and Buddhas, a fleet was jogging on the sea. These ships were all flat-bottomed sand ships. They were common ships transporting short-distance cargo between the rivers and seas in Liangzhe. These ships were quite dripping, and the waves often hit the cabins, which showed that the cargo they shipped was not light.

"Quick! Lower the sails on the boat. The wind is too strong. If you go like this, you will be afraid that the boat will overturn." The shrill shouting was blown intermittently by the sea breeze, as if the person who was calling was pinched by someone's throat.

As if to confirm the authenticity of the sound, the hull made a terrible creaking sound, and even the most fearless man on the sea would be frightened to his face when he heard the sound, which meant that a part of the ship was breaking.

More than a dozen men rushed to the deck. Although they couldn't stand firmly on the violently bumpy boat board, they still struggled to rush towards the mast, trying their best to untie the sail so that the main sail could descend. But the sea breeze blew the sails bulging, entangling several sail cables together, how could they be untie for a while? Seeing that the mast was deforming increasingly under the violent pulling force, and it was possible to break at any time.

"Go and get the sword and axe quickly and cut off the rope." A man behind him shouted sternly. After hearing this, everyone suddenly realized and went to take the sword and axe. The leader suddenly woke up and turned around and bowed to the man who had spoken before, saying, "General, why are you doing something up? The storm is so strong, what if you fall into the sea?"

"So what about the general? A family on this boat is just a small soldier, letting you, the captain, dispatched." The man smiled. At this moment, a flash of lightning flashed across the night sky, and the lightning flashed on the man's face. He saw that he was tall, rough, and wearing a robe on his body. It was Chen Zhang who was on the boat. Before the lightning was extinguished, a loud noise was knocked down. Although everyone on the boat was strong, he could not help but be afraid before the vast power of the sky, and his hands and feet stopped.

But Chen Zhang seemed to have no feeling of the power of the world. He snatched a long axe from the side, rushed towards the mast, and laughed and scolded, "The monkeys don't move anymore, where are they so capable on weekdays?"

These crew members were all made of Chen Zhang's or those fangs. Almost all of them fought from the north to Liangzhe in the past. They were not absorbent, but they almost vomited out all the bile as they were bumping on the boat. Ninety percent died. Now it would be good to be able to stand firm on the surface of the ship, let alone cut off the sail cable. It can be seen that the leader looks like this and has arisen another force from somewhere. He rushed to the mast and wielded his sword and axe to chop the sail cable.

With the thunder and lightning in the night sky, the heavy rain fell down like a torrent, and instantly it made everyone wet. The raindrops as big as soybeans were mixed in the wind, making people's skin hurt. The sail cable was originally made of dozens of thick hemp twisted together, and then applied with asphalt grease. It was very tough. Even if you chop with a sword on weekdays, it would not be easy to break, let alone on the bumpy deck, it would be cut in a hurry. A man was impatient, so he simply jumped to ask his partner to tie himself to the mast, fix his body, and then waved his sword and axe to chop hard, which cut most of the sail cable.

The man became more and more excited and shouted loudly, his arms seemed to have added a thousand pounds of strength. The Park Knife in his hand was also happy. Suddenly, he heard someone beside him shouting to be careful. Before he could react, he felt a black shadow flash in front of him, and then his neck hurt, his eyes turned dark, and he fainted.

Chen Zhang could see clearly on the side that the sail cable had been cut off by 70% or 80% and could no longer bear the huge pulling force. With a bang, the sail was broken into two pieces. The force of the sail was probably not enough to be pounded under the strong wind. The broken sail cable swept across the deck like a huge whip and immediately swept the two soldiers into the sea. He saw that he would definitely not be able to survive in the storm. The man tied to the mast was very lucky. He was swept by the end of the sail cable and was knocked unconscious.

The sail cable was cut off, and the wind was still not diminished, but the bumps of the ship were much smaller. It was no longer as terrifying as before. Everyone on the boat breathed a sigh of relief. He remembered that his companions fell into the water before. Even the iron-killed men who were used to life and death could not help but feel sad. Seeing this, Chen Zhang had to force himself to cheer his subordinates and said, "As long as you can go back alive, everyone will be considered one, and Chen will treat him as his biological brother. If he treats him half a bad treatment, the gods and Buddhas in the sky will definitely be spared. He will never be reborn after entering the Avici Hell."

In the Tang Dynasty, Buddhism was extremely popular. Everyone believed it like Chen Zhang, and even if they had reached this point, there was no way out. After a while, everyone's mood improved a little, and they began to clean up the houses on the deck, and their morale improved a little. Chen Zhang then breathed a sigh of relief. He was taking such a dangerous situation on this sea. If the soldiers mutiny, there would be no way out.

Chen Zhang went down into the cabin and carefully sootheed the seasick and weak soldiers. He knew that this raid would have more power, and the large fleet would easily lead to doubt. So in order to install more soldiers on each ship, he actually reduced the sailors on the ship to only two or three, and used his own soldiers to temporarily replace the rest of his work. Unexpectedly, almost all his personal soldiers were northerners, and they were all heroes in the battle, but when he arrived at the sea, he fell 70% to 80% of them. As a result, he made a lot of mistakes in the sea, which made the captain and genuine sailors in the fleet frustrated. He didn't even notice any changes in the weather at sea. He hit the wind and rain, almost losing his life.

Chen Zhang waited until he comforted the soldiers and came to the deck. He saw that the wind and rain were still there. However, after the sails were lowered, the bumps of the ship had improved a lot. However, after all, they were riding on a flat sand boat, and the waves around him kept coming up, soaking the busy sailors on the deck were wet.

"Captain, where are we now? How far is it from Mingzhou?" Chen Zhang walked to the captain's side and asked in a low voice.

The captain's face was covered with water and was full of misery. After finally understanding Chen Zhang's question, he couldn't help but curse in his stomach: "If Fei Er forced me to force me, why did I go out to sea in this unlucky weather? It's so stormy now that I can't see the distance shore and the stars. How can I know where I am now?" It turned out that the Chinese compass and other instruments in the Tang Dynasty had not yet matured. During navigation, crew members usually sailed along the coast and judged their location by the terrain on the shore. In such windy and rainy weather, it was night, and it was difficult for crew members to judge their location.

However, Chen Zhang respected him in the fleet, and the captain had to answer his questions, so he had to evade: "Before dark, we have already passed the Beidu River. I believe that it is not far from Wanghai Town at this time, and we should be able to arrive tomorrow at the latest."

Chen Zhang also guessed seven or eight points when he heard the captain's tone, but in this vast sea, he didn't understand the art of navigation. Besides who else the captain could count on, he simply pretended to be confident and shouted loudly to the soldiers on the ship: "Everyone should work harder. The captain said that it would be only twenty miles away from the port at most. It would be arriving tomorrow night at the latest. At that time, he would be rewarded with five pieces of silk and everyone would have a share. Let everyone have fun for one night." Seeing everyone's appearance, even if they were on the shore, they would have to rest for two days before they could do it. So he wrote a blank check first to keep his morale first.

When the soldiers on the boat heard this, they responded, and even the dying person in the cabin shouted weakly. It was not for the favor, but because they heard that they could leave the damn ship and could keep their feet on the ground, and they couldn't help but feel extremely happy.
Chapter completed!