Mantra

Chapter 44

When Lei A Niu and his tank boats arrived at the boundary of Shandong, they were caught up in a rare drought that had not happened in many years. The canal channel was silted up, and the tank boats had difficulty moving forward.In some sections of the voyage, the tank boat can only be pulled by the trackers, barely moving forward.

But when the fleet arrived at the boundary of Jining, the day suddenly changed.

As planned in advance, as soon as the ship arrived in Jining, the original red land turned into lightning and thunder in an instant.At noon, which was as dark as a dark night, torrential rain mixed with bean-sized hail poured down in an instant.

This torrential rain caused the canal to overflow with the yellow soup that was originally mixed with dust and mud. As the water rose, the waterway became smooth in an instant.

This is a good time for the fleet to get out of trouble, and Lei Aniu and the others have been delayed in Shandong for too long. Taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, A Niu's fleet did not hide from the wind and rain, but took advantage of the rapid current to move quickly. Going north, trying to make up for the lost voyage.

But as the saying goes, "haste makes waste", in this turbulent and temporary water flow, it is extremely difficult to control the speed and direction of the ship. Coupled with the dual effects of the howling wind, the tank boat quickly had an accident.

Just when Lei A Niu pulled back the rope with all his strength, he suddenly felt a sway under his feet, and then saw the helmsman on the tank boat suddenly change his face!He yelled "No!"
Immediately, under the action of the turbulence, his own tank boat scraped against an oncoming black-covered boat.

The tank boat is much bigger than the black-topped boat, so the shaking itself is not serious, but the small black-topped boat that can only be used to carry people is much more unlucky.

Lei A Niu suddenly saw that the black-covered boat swayed violently a few times after being scratched, and then "gurgled" into the water.

The black-covered boat and its helmsman quickly sank amid hysterical shouts.

A Niu looked at the person struggling helplessly in the pouring rain, and wanted to stretch out his oar to save him, but was stopped by his stick.

The head of the Cao gang stretched out his hand and gave Lei A Niu a big mouth, and then grabbed the water oar, and only threw down a sentence: "Go boat!"

"It's the one we bumped into!" Lei A Niu retorted unconvinced.

But at this time, the club head pulled out the box cannon from his waist, and pressed it viciously on Leia Niu's forehead, and repeated: "Go for me!"

The ferociousness of the stick made all the sailors and Zhengfu completely speechless, which meant very clearly that not only would they die, but they must speed up.

In silence, the fleet left in clusters.And the boatman who was struggling and cruising in the water quickly disappeared into the rain.

After the rain cleared, Lei A Niu felt his heart jumping as he thought about the shocking scene.He was greatly stimulated in his heart, and recalling the ferocity of the bow just now made him even more terrified and restless.

Because of this, Lei A Niu was restless in the cabin, so when the stick asked people to go to the cabinet to raise the sail, he was the first to rush out.I want to use labor to distract myself from my fear and attention.

So, A Niu ran out of the cabin while cooperating, raised his head to look for the rope for hoisting the sail on the cabinet pole as he spoke.

But when he raised his head, he was so shocked that his eyeballs almost fell out.

Because he suddenly saw that there was actually a person standing on top of the one-foot-two-high cabinet pole.

At first, Leia Niu thought his eyes were blurred.

But when he took a closer look again, it was clearly a man in homemade clothes.

Lei A Niu looked at the man on the pole, and immediately peed his pants in fright. He yelled "Pole ghost!" and ran into the cabin to call the stick.

It turned out that Lei A Niu thought he saw the legendary "pole ghost" in the sea.

The so-called pole ghost is a legendary unjust dead ghost who appears on sea ships in foggy weather.

According to legend, that kind of ghost was transformed by the crew members who drowned during the voyage. They often appear in dense fog, standing on the top cabinet pole of the sea ship with their heads bowed, staring at the whole ship with round eyes. .Occasionally, he would call out one or two voices to avenge his "unfortunate death".

Nalei Niu thought of the wupped boat that had been overturned just now, and his first reaction was that the drowned helmsman in that boat had turned into a pole ghost and came to them to claim his life.

With such an idea in mind, Lei A Niu could still stay there, so he immediately ran back to the cabin, rolling and crawling.

In the cabin, the first thing he saw was the "stick head" of the Cao Gang who was pushing the boat and Zhenwei

Ah Niu grabbed the stick by the corner of his clothes and said hysterically, "Pole ghost! The helmsman of the black boat turned into a ghost and came to claim his life!"

As soon as the leader of the tank boat stick heard the "pole ghost", he was not afraid, he immediately pulled out the box cannon with a black face, and ignored Lei Aniu's kneeling begging for mercy, he just lifted him up and called two more The helper is about to go out to "catch ghosts".

However, at this juncture, something happened that made everyone's eyes wide open.

That stick ghost came in by himself!

In a daze, Lei A Niu thought his eyes were blurred, and he saw a black shadow "floating" in from the hatch of the ship.

The shadow was indistinct, and after swaying around at an extremely fast speed in the cabin, it suddenly stood still.When everyone looked closely, they were surprised to find that it was a thin and stern man with a green face and beard, but his whole body was wet.

In the dim light of the oil lamp, Ah Niu immediately recognized that the shadow that floated in was undoubtedly the "ghost" on the cabinet pole!

Half of the sailors in a boat were frightened and paralyzed.

But the stick head of the boat looked at the "ghost", but suddenly he laughed. He put away the box cannon, cupped his fists slightly at the blue-faced man and said: "This big brother is very skilled, you have something to discuss with us? Why? How about pretending to be a ghost?"

The blue-faced man's eyes were very sharp, like two lights in the dark night. After scanning the dark cabin, he answered the stick and said, "Do you want to run when you bump into someone on the boundary of Jining? Do all the people do this?"

The man's words caused the "boat-pressing club head" to open his eyes wide, which made Leianiu even more inexplicable.

A Niu, who had just recovered from the "haunting" emotion, really couldn't figure out how this man got on the boat, and why he stood so steadily on the chest of two battles.

But what he couldn't figure out the most was, what kind of capital does such a thin man have to dare to challenge Cao Chuan?Even if you can stretch out your hand, don't you know that two fists are no match for four hands?Isn't he afraid of foreign guns and cannons?
And the development of the next thing was exactly as Ah Niu expected.

As soon as the stick saw that the comer was not friendly, he took out the box cannon again.

The villain with a stick head first filed a complaint, scolding the boatman who fell into the water for hitting them on his own initiative, and he deserved to die.

Then, the stick head pressed the box cannon against the face of the blue-faced man, smiling viciously.

But at this moment, the expressionless green-faced man suddenly stretched out his hand and handed Cao Gang a stick.

The boss was dumbfounded when he saw the object handed to him by the blue-faced man.

In his hand... was a clip box of gun bullets.

The club head immediately realized what the man meant, he hurriedly retracted the gun, and hurriedly looked at it. There was no doubt that his gun case was empty.

The appearance of this blue-faced man immediately shocked everyone present.

How fast can a person be able to disassemble the clips in other people's hands in a trance when entering the cabin... No one dares to think about it.

Seeing the reversal of the situation, the club head gave up at that time.His complexion turned into a smile like flipping through a book, hehe accompanied him.

"I don't want anything else!" The green-faced man stretched out his hand, threw the bullet back to him, and said to the club head, "Six foreign dollars, the money to hit the black-roofed boat."

He is a formidable person, and he speaks confidently. The blue-faced man showed his "capability" before he made a request. Naturally, Cao Gang did not dare not listen. At that time, he took out ten foreign money and respectfully handed it to the man.

After the man got the money, he didn't leave immediately, but continued to look at the stick head coldly and sneered slightly.

In the eyes that are as sharp as a knife, the stick is uncomfortable to be looked at.

"You've taken all the money! Why don't you leave!" the stick asked tentatively, boldly.

The blue-faced man was still smiling, and after a while, he opened his mouth and said in a startling way: "You are not from the Cao Gang, and this water boat... is not carrying food for human consumption!"

These words were like dropping a thunderbolt in the crowd.

Not to mention that Lei A Niu, who had already seen something strange, was shocked and angry just because of the well-known club head and bow, and was extremely resentful towards this talkative man.

At that time, there were three or four people on the scene who took out daggers and other guys, and they were about to smash to death just waiting for the order from the club head.

The dark cloud covered the gloomy face of the stick head, but he was afraid of the skill of the man in green, but he did not act rashly.

The head of the stick suddenly clasped his fists and said, "What's the name of this brother? Why do you need to go through this muddy water?"

But the man's answer made everyone's eyes widen.

The man replied: "I don't want to care about what you are escorting. I just feel sorry for these Zhengfu..."

The meaningful words of the blue-faced man made Zhengfu like Lei A Niu feel heartfelt murmurs.

All of them couldn't figure out what this man meant.Everyone couldn't figure it out even more, what else could be transported on this tank boat instead of rice for people to eat.

What else can there be in the sea tank besides rice?
What was even more unexpected was that the blue-faced man turned and left without saying anything.

However, when he was about to leave, he suddenly reached out and patted the shoulders of Leia Niu and the other conquerors, and only said meaningfully to them: "Take care..." and left the cabin.

Leia Niu followed the man and was the first to chase him out.But what he didn't expect was that even though he chased him out immediately, the man had disappeared.

The bow and the poles of the cabinet were empty. In the calm after the rain, it seemed that everything just now was like a dream.

Just when Lei A Niu was surprised, he suddenly felt a strange texture in the palm of his right hand.

A Niu hurriedly looked down, but was surprised to find that there was an extra piece of paper in the palm of his hand, and there were two words written in ink on it.

Ah Niu could not read, but he reacted quickly.

Immediately, A Niu quickly restrained the inexplicably appearing note, and at night, he found a companion who had the same fate as himself but was roughly literate to read the note.

The man told Leia Niu that the words on it were... run away!

Lei A Niu knew that the blue-faced man must have given him the note inadvertently, and only his elusive skills could do it all.

The appearance of this note undoubtedly aggravated Ah Niu's doubts and fears.Besides, he had long doubted the real purpose of this water transport.The yellow talismans and copper coins and swords on the heads of those ships, and the sinking rice in the sea tanks with a heavy musty smell are all so strange and weird.

A Niu is a man who can take it up and put it down. He felt more and more that the form was wrong. After weighing the pros and cons, he made up his mind that night. After a little hesitation, he felt that he wanted to paddle when he got up at night It is safer to run away. I would rather not earn money than continue to follow the boat, otherwise I am afraid that the gain will not be worth the loss.

So in the middle of the night, Lei A Niu got up in a hurry, trying to escape in the dead of night.

However, at the moment when he left the aisle and passed by Mi Cang.But suddenly he heard a different voice in the originally silent corridor in front of him.

"Pa-ta..." The sound was crisp and dry, like the sound of porcelain colliding and falling.

After hearing that sound, the vigilant Leia Niu stopped advancing.He pricked up his ears and looked at the straight corridor in the cabin.

"Click..." There was another crisp sound.

This time, Lei A Niu could hear it clearly, and the voice came from the end of the corridor where he was, in the dark chaos, as if something was about to move.

Lei A Niu was dumbfounded. He suddenly understood that he was in a dilemma. Although the darkness and strange noises in front of him were terrifying, if he went back to the cabin, it would be tantamount to sitting and waiting to die.

But when Lei A Niu had no way to advance or retreat, he suddenly heard a faint voice behind him.

The voice said coldly: "What are you doing? Want to run?!"

Lei A Niu was frightened by the sudden scolding from behind, he immediately turned his head and looked at the man.

The person who appeared behind him was the stickhead of his own boat.

The head of the stick was sleepy, but still had a fierce expression on his face. When he was talking to Leia Niu, he had already slowly pulled out the cannon box at his waist.

That's no joke.

Seeing that he couldn't escape, Leia Niu was immediately frightened by the momentum of the stick and the musket.He pointed directly at the muzzle of the gun, knelt on the ground, opened and closed his mouth, and wanted to say something to beg for mercy, but he couldn't say it dryly.

But just when Lei A Niu wanted to cry but had no tears, and wanted to argue silently, the unique sound of broken porcelain rang out again at the end of the dark corridor.

"Crack, crack..." This time the voice was crisp and long, as if... the sound of a chick breaking its shell.

Hearing the voice, the face of the club head changed suddenly!

"Not good! It's coming out..." Bangtou frowned and stared, and said this inexplicably, and at the same time gave up his threat to A Niu.

While speaking, he turned his gun, took off the slightly moist yellow talisman from his neck, and walked towards the direction where the strange sound sounded in the dark.

The figure of the stick head quickly disappeared into the dark night completely.

After a moment of silence at the end of the corridor, gunshots erupted!

Amidst the gunshots in the chaos, Ah Niu crawled on the ground, not daring to raise his head at all. He was completely blinded by this inexplicable encounter, and he didn't dare to take any action other than hugging his head to save his life.

After the gunshots quieted down, Ah Niu slowly raised his head.

Immediately afterwards, Lei A Niu was completely terrified by what he saw in front of him!

(End of this chapter)