Chapter 49: Exploring the River
After the agreement, Chen Luo handed over the horses to Yu Dadan and his wife for care, while he carried the boat and swung towards the river.
Before leaving, Yu Dadan did not forget to give him some advice, for fear of something unexpected happening to him, so he naturally did not dare to neglect it. He recorded the situation of each section of the river in detail and the matters that need to be paid attention to.
The woman even added clean drinking water to the boat, and brought out a few pieces of pancakes and some jerky meat from home, wrapped in linen cloth, and insisted on sinking and taking them to the boat to eat.
It was hard to refuse the warmth and affection, so he also smiled and took the package.
The black-topped boat drifted down the turbulent river water, sinking and standing at the bow of the boat, holding a bamboo pole in his hand, but not supporting the boat, but exploring the reefs in the water on both sides of the boat.
Soon, the boat passed by a clump of reeds that were tall and tall, and entered a reed marsh.
According to Yu Dadan, this section of the river is the most turbulent section of the entire Luanshui River. The speed of the boat is not too fast when it enters the water, but the speed of the boat increases rapidly as it goes downstream, so that when it sinks, it has to start to use bamboo poles to slow down the boat.
But he was just a matter of raising a boat, and it was nothing on the calm water. In this torrent, although he was fully focused, he was still inevitably bumped.
"Bang, bang, bang"
The boat was swaying from east to west, constantly hitting the reefs under the river, shocking the ducks and geese flying in the reeds on both sides and the water birds soared into the sky.
When encountering some large vortexes and reefs, he had to try his best to push the boat away, otherwise if he was involved, he would be in danger of overturning the boat if he was not careful.
Chen Luo quickly became so tired that he was sweating all over and his eyes were filled with stars, but under the pressure of water, he could not allow him to rest, so he could only grit his teeth and hold on.
Along the way, he paid special attention to the river banks on both sides to observe whether there were any narrowing places in the river channel. However, because the reeds in the river were high and dense, his vision was affected and he could not see it accurately. He could only judge as much as possible based on the changes in the water potential.
After all, the water flow rate will also accelerate when the river channel is narrowed.
Shen Luo has been drifting like this for seven or eight miles. I haven’t encountered rocky beaches along the way, but there are quite a few sandbanks in the heart of the river.
His ship plunged into two narrow sand shores.
The sandbank was covered with green reeds, as if a natural waterway was clamped out. As soon as the boat entered it, its speed suddenly increased and it rushed out suddenly.
With a dull "bang", the boat suddenly shook violently as it rushed out of the reeds.
The sunken body staggered and almost fell from the bow.
He held the bamboo pole, stabilized his body, looked forward, and saw that in front of the bow, it hit a rocky beach with a radius of dozens of feet in size. Fortunately, the boat was solid and not damaged.
Unlike the sandbanks I saw along the way, the rocky beaches were covered with fists-sized gray pebbles and mud, and where they collided with the bow, there was a brown reef much larger than other stones.
Not only is this stone rugged and weird, it is only two feet high and exposed on the water surface, but more parts are hidden under the water.
The bow of the boat was stuck in a groove of the strange rock, but fortunately it was not damaged.
Chen Luo looked at the river banks on both sides for a moment and found that the rivers on both sides had narrowed significantly when they arrived here, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.
"The narrowing of the river channel, rocky beaches, and underwater reefs, it seems that this is the place." Chen Luo murmured.
According to Yu Yan, their ancestors found the nameless book under a rocky beach. Now this place is very consistent.
I thought it would take a good search, but I didn't expect it to take too much effort.
Chen Luo threw the bamboo pole onto the rocky beach, leaned over and tied the rope tied to the reef on the bow, and pulled it hard, and after confirming that the boat would not float away with the water, he sat in the cabin and fell backwards.
He had just walked all the way, and he was already exhausted. Not to mention going down the river to find Tianshu, he had no strength to jump off the bow of the boat.
After resting for a long time, after eating some dry food, I finally took a breath and stood up again.
He took out a bundle of hemp ropes as thick as a thumb from the cabin, tied them firmly to the reef, wrapped them around his waist twice before jumping off the boat and coming to the rocky beach.
The rocky beach is almost elliptical in shape, consistent with the direction of the water flow, narrow from east to west, and slightly narrow from north to south. The reef stands at the west end of the rocky beach, standing next to the stone, and looking into the river.
I saw the river water dark, with a faint smell of mud, white waves shining beside the rocky beach near it, and whirlpools of different sizes floating on the river surface in the distance, and there was no way to see the situation under the water.
He calmed down a little, poked out one foot, and walked carefully towards the water.
As a result, the rocks around the water were loose and they suddenly slipped down after a little force.
Chen Luo suddenly stepped on the air and fell into the river with a "thump".
The river water here is quite deep. He was buried in the water. He was suddenly rushed by the turbulent river water. His back hit the huge rock. He couldn't help but open his mouth and choked into several large mouthfuls of river water mixed with mud and sand.
In panic, he struggled and turned around, grabbed the huge rock and climbed upwards, poked his head out of the water, took a sudden breath, and then coughed violently.
"Ahem..."
After a while of sinking, I felt relieved. I reached out and wiped the river water on my face, and I felt a little shocked.
"This place is really dangerous, but if it weren't for this, the Wuming Heavenly Book wouldn't have been here for so long, and no one would have found it." Chen Luo thought so, and his desire for the Wuming Heavenly Book became stronger and stronger.
This time, he took a deep breath before pinching his nose, sank into the water, holding the huge rock behind him with one hand, and exploring it little by little under the water.
After entering the water, he slowly opened his eyes, but found that the water quality in the river was a little turbid, and he could not see too much, nor could he see too far. He could only rely on the assistance of the reefs to touch the bottom of the river as much as possible.
What surprised him was that the riverbed was quite deep, and when he stepped on the mud and sand at the bottom of the river, the breath he was holding was no longer enough.
He endured the suffocation and tried to widen his eyes to look at the bottom of the river under the rocky beach. In a hazy way, he saw the mud caves that seemed to be invisible in the depth, and could not see them in detail. He hurriedly reached out to explore.
After only a short while of touching him, his long-term holding back made him dizzy and his chest dull, so he could only hold the piece and climb up little by little and return to the water.
He sucked the air in a deep mouth, and his chest was undulating violently.
After the breath calmed a little, he plunged into the water and sank towards the bottom of the river.
This time, in order to stay at the bottom of the river for a while, he sinks much faster. As soon as he reaches the bottom of the river, he immediately starts to explore under the water.
It was just that the bottom of the water was dark and there was mud and sand. The eyes could do little to help. The sinking could only be like a headless fly, touching it randomly.
After a while, his breath was exhausted and he had to return again.
After recovering a little, I hurriedly plunged into the bottom of the river and began to explore under the rocky beach.
After a few rounds and turns, when he fell to the water to ventilate, his whole body was tired and cold, and his lips were a little purple.
He held the reef and looked slightly up at the west sky, and found that the sun had begun to slant west.
“Try again…”
Shen Luo's eyes condensed, and he took another breath. His whole body sank down again and dived towards the bottom of the river.
He had almost touched all the mud caves and caves under the reef. He walked around the stones and swam towards the south side of the rocky beach, touching the riverbed with his palms on it.
Chapter completed!