Chapter 18 Section VI

I don't know how long it has passed, Liu Fengwu only felt that her arms were so sore that she almost had no strength anymore.Suddenly his eyes lit up, and he shouted: "Come on, someone, bring a roll of rope!" A soldier came, with a rope slung over his arm, and he didn't know what to do when he got to the helm.Liu Fengwu said: "Come on, tie one end here, and the people on the right will come over and help pull it right away." The soldier suddenly realized that he threw the rope and tied two or three knots on the tiller. He took the other end of the rope with one hand and shouted, "Brothers, come and help!"

The soldiers outside the cabin could only pull with one hand, but with the help of these five people, Liu Fengwu felt that the strength in his hand was much lighter. He took a long breath, and then turned his head to look outside. Now, the water wall is level with the deck again, that is to say, now that the Horn Breaker has returned to the periphery of the vortex, and turning around again, the Horn Breaker may be able to sail out of the vortex. Liu Fengwu's heart widened, and she was about to imitate Tang Kai and tell a joke, when suddenly there was a loud noise, "bang", and the soldiers outside shouted in surprise.

The tiller is broken! The broken bugle is made of extremely strong wood, and the rudder cabin, as the most important part, is made indestructible.The rudder compartment is triangular in shape, with one point facing the stern, and where the tip of the triangle comes in, there is a gap for the tiller to turn, and the part where the rudder breaks now comes in almost against it, the rudder The tiller, which used to be five or six feet long in the cabin, is now only a little over a foot long. Liu Fengwu's already settled heart suddenly lifted.Now the broken bugle is on the edge of the vortex. If it loses its rudder, all previous efforts will be wasted and it will be brought into the center of the vortex again.

At this moment, many things flashed through his mind, and he was about to rush forward desperately to squeeze the tiller with his body, before he could move, Xu Zhong rushed forward suddenly, and his body was already squeezed into the front corner of the rudder cabin.The rudder was approaching straight, and the tiller was also being struck rapidly, but as soon as Xu Zhong's body squeezed in, the tiller pressed heavily on him, making a sound of bones breaking, and it was stuck, and the rudder Still maintain the angle to the right.But this blow was too powerful, Xu Zhong spit out a bloody arrow and shot straight to the stern of the ship.

Liu Fengwu shouted: "Xu Zhong!" At this time, the broken bugle finally reached the edge of the whirlpool.After turning a few times in the vortex, Liu Fengwu only changed its direction, but the speed of the ship did not decrease at all. When it rushed out of the vortex, the broken bugle was lifted into the air by the waves, as if it was about to fly, almost close to the boat. Flying over ten feet with the skin on the water, he fell heavily into the water again. With a sound of "wow", water splashes several feet high were splashed on both sides of the boat. Finally out of danger!Liu Fengwu was both surprised and happy, and said: "Xu Zhong! Xu Zhong! You did it!"

Although the waves are big now, they have escaped from the vortex, the rudder no longer has such strong force, and it can be easily turned to the right.Liu Fengwu turned the rudder, he reached out to pat Xu Zhong on the shoulder, and said, "Xu Zhong, are you okay?" Xu Zhong collapsed to the ground.Liu Fengwu was startled, and was waiting to see his face, Tang Kai lowered his head to test his breath, shook his head and said: "General Liu, he was crushed to death." Just now in the vortex, the force of the rebound of the rudder can break even the iron and wood tiller, needless to say that Xu Zhong has a body of flesh and blood.He was squeezed until his chest collapsed, he might have died a moment ago, he fell to the ground, but his eyes were still wide open.Liu Fengwu's heart trembled, she bent down and closed Xu Zhong's eyes.

Those soldiers were startled and stopped singing, but the boys and girls were still singing.It's just that they were probably taken aback by the shock just now, their singing was not so tidy, and the two lines of "the soul is back, to see the family" seemed weak. The soul comes back to look after the family.Liu Fengwu recited these two sentences silently, and her heart ached like bleeding. Tang Kai had already stepped out of the rudder cabin, opened the bottom hatch, and shouted: "Someone who knows how to steer, come quickly!" The soldiers of the Water Corps all know how to drive a boat, and the two centuries, Tang Kai and Liu Fengwu, have trained more on the water, and the two teams have one or two masters at the helm.Someone heard the news and came up immediately, Tang Kai said: "You go to the helm immediately."

After he finished speaking, he called again: "Come here, tie up this rudder." The broken tiller was four or five feet long. When it was tied, the tiller was two feet shorter, but it was barely usable.After the helmsman took the helm, Tang Kai patted Liu Fengwu on the back and said, "General Liu, don't be sad. A soldier is going to battle. If he dies, he will be injured. I'm afraid the helmsman has already prepared for it." Liu Fengwu raised her head, but couldn't say anything. Now except for the lights on the ship, the surroundings are pitch black, as if enclosed in an iron box, and the sound of huge waves is all around, deafening.Leaving the vortex, the broken horn no longer rotated with the vortex, but the speed did not decrease at all. It went up and down with the waves, and the people on the deck were also shaken to this side.Now the person at the helm is worse than Xu Zhong, but the boat is still safe and sound.

Liu Fengwu wiped his face, wiped away the sea water and tears that hit his face, and said, "Is our direction right now?" Tang Kai looked at the compass installed in front of the rudder cabin and said: "It's still heading south, it should be right." Yuqingzi's plan was to pass through the strait between Juluo Island and Wa Island, and then turn to the southeast, because the fairy island on the sea he said was originally a rootless fairy island, which only floated with the wind on the sea. Island, half depends on luck.But now that the sky is so dark, even if Xiandao is in front of him, he doesn't even know it.Tang Kai sighed, and said: "It's a narrow escape, General Liu. When we return to the imperial capital, this trip to the sea will take us two or three years."

Two soldiers were dragging Xu Zhong's body out, Liu Fengwu asked anxiously, "What are you going to do?" The two soldiers were startled, Tang Kai said: "General Liu, don't be impulsive, we are burying him at sea now." The so-called sea burial is throwing the body into the sea.When the ship is in the sea, if there are dead people, they must be thrown away immediately, otherwise the plague will spread throughout the ship.Liu Fengwu also knew this custom, but Xu Zhong sacrificed his life to rescue Pojunhao, and he was about to throw away his body, he really couldn't bear it.He said: "But, can't we wait until the storm is over?"

Tang Kai looked at the sky.The sky was pitch black and nothing could be seen.He smiled and said: "General Liu, now the wind is high and the waves are rough, and the sound of the waves is like a golden drum on the battlefield. Wouldn't it be appropriate for the man's body to be buried in the vast waves?" Liu Fengwu stared blankly at the side of the boat, unable to say a word.He always thought that he was already an old soldier, but compared with Tang Kai and other veterans who really crawled out of the dead, he seemed to have just graduated from the military academy yesterday.He didn't say anything, he just gave a military salute to Xu Zhong, Tang Kai also stood up straight at this moment, and made a military salute almost at the same time, at this moment the two soldiers dragged Xu Zhong's body and threw him out of the boat.The waves were too big, and it was impossible to stand on the deck. Xu Zhong's body was thrown out of the boat like a package, and then it was silent, and even the sound of entering the water was covered by the rumbling waves. Tang Kai looked at Liu Fengwu, he was still a little numb, he shook his head, patted Liu Fengwu's shoulder and said: "A lot of things in the world are not what you think. Let this brother be buried at sea, that is the worst thing for him. respect." At this moment, a lightning strike suddenly struck from the sky, and the light was so bright that Liu Fengwu only felt a blur in front of her eyes, but she couldn't see clearly.He suddenly caught sight of something on the right side of the ship from the corner of his eye, but just as he was about to turn his head, his eyes returned to darkness.He wondered if he was dazzled, turned his head to look at Tang Kai, but saw Tang Kai opened his mouth, as if he saw something terrible. There was another burst of thunder, almost exploding overhead, and the rain poured down.On the edge of the flood cloud, although the noise was loud, at most there was only some sea water splashed up, but now it was cold rainwater pouring down from the pocket.The rain drenched Liu Fengwu's already drenched clothes again, and the chill crept up his back. He whispered, "General Tang, what did you see just now?" Tang Kai was stunned at this moment, and said: "General Liu, you also saw it? Then it's not my eyesight?" Liu Fengwu felt a chill soaking through her whole body.Just now, he saw the shadow of a huge ship on the right side of the ship.The ship was almost as big as the Bugle, but it didn't have a single lamp on board. In this sea, if you meet another ship, it is not a thing to be afraid of.But on such a night, in the midst of a violent storm, the strange appearance of this ship is really worrying.Liu Fengwu said: "I saw it too, it was..." At this time, a sailor shouted: "It's a ship!" All the sailors on the deck crowded to the starboard side, Liu Fengwu and Tang Kai also turned to the side, looking into the darkness.It was too dark, and it was raining heavily, so I couldn't see anything clearly, but in the wind that was blowing over, Liu Fengwu could smell a rotten smell in the salty sea breeze. At this time, another flash of lightning flashed across, and as the golden lightning struck down, everyone on the deck screamed in unison. This flash of lightning revealed the shadow of a huge ship, about five or six hundred paces to the right of Pojun, the bow of the ship was facing the hull of Pojun, rushing straight towards it.Although the lightning flashed extremely quickly, they had all seen the ship, and it was definitely not someone's illusion. Liu Fengwu and Tang Kai looked at each other in blank dismay, not knowing what was going on with this ship.At this time Tang Kai rushed to the side of the rudder cabin and shouted loudly: "Turn around! Signal!" The ship was coming towards the broken bugle, and it was logical that with the lightning flashing just now, the broken bugle should have been seen on the ship, but the ship didn't change direction at all, it was still heading straight.A sailor had taken off a hanging lamp to give a signal, but the ship did not change at all, and went straight for the bugle. The waves were raging, and a layer of mist was splashed on the sea surface, which could not be dispersed even by such heavy rain.The ship is now only two hundred steps away from the Broken Bugle, and its silhouette can already be vaguely seen appearing in the mist. Liu Fengwu shouted: "Zhang Fan! Hurry up!" As soon as he drank it, several soldiers froze and rushed over to pull the cable.Raising the sail was really not that easy, but with the help of many people, the mainsail was finally pulled up halfway. Even if it was halfway, when the wind was caught, Po Jun's speed immediately increased, and he began to turn slowly.Halfway through, Liu Fengwu shouted again: "Enough, put it down!" The wind was too strong, and with the mainsail half-drawn, the speed of the boat doubled almost immediately.Now the Pojun and the ship are almost facing each other, but they have already staggered by about two hundred steps, and it seems that they will never collide again.If the sail is pulled up again, I am afraid that the broken bugle will be blown off the mast by the strong wind before it hits it. The mainsail fell down again with a "wow", and the wind brought up made Liu Fengwu's coat, which had become heavy from being wet, also floated up.He held onto the armrest tightly with his hands, feeling like his heart was going to jump out of his throat, and he couldn't breathe.