Half River Autumn Moon and River Spring [Rat and Cat]

The three hurried to Linzhou, Zhan Bai was led by Yan Bei along the way, which saved Zhan Bai a lot of worries. Today, the three of them went to the Luojiang River, and Yan Bei said that they would take a shortcut to change the waterway, and Bai Jintang had already prepared for them. Originally, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were not familiar with water, so they were still somewhat resistant to waterways, especially in unfamiliar land boundaries. As a result, when they went over, they were dumbfounded...

As expected of a big brother, the big brother prepared a warship for them!Battleship!In addition to the imperial court having warships these days, the only one left who has warships and dares to sail aboveboard is probably the Yelan Gang!Sure enough, the leading position in water transport is not just talking casually!

Seeing the surprised expressions of the two, Yan Bei thought that they were afraid of water, so he quickly explained: "The young master said that the two of you are not familiar with water, so you specially ordered this iron-clad warship to be escorted. More than enough, it can carry more than two hundred soldiers, and it can be used in rivers, lakes and seas. The most important thing is the word 'stable'! In recent years, the imperial court asked us that the warship that the Yelan Gang bought the most is this iron-clad warship. You can rest assured that the ship is not only full of supplies and ammunition, but also the crew is the elite of the elite, the most important thing is experience, even if an army comes from the opposite side, we can fully handle it."

After finishing speaking, Zhan Zhao was surprised again, and after a while he said intermittently: "Brother Bai...does he... have too much money?"

They just took the opportunity to go to Linzhou... Is it necessary, so exaggerated?

Bai Yutang glanced at him and raised his eyebrows: "Look, I always say I'm a prodigal, the real prodigal has appeared!"

Zhan Zhao coughed, and looked back at Bai Yutang: You brothers are just as good as each other!

After the two got on the boat, they finally realized for the first time that they could still walk on flat ground on the boat. Even Zhan Zhao, who loves seasickness, didn't feel any discomfort, which made Bai Yutang determined to ask Bai Jintang for a boat. Come, lest the cat will get seasick next time when he comes to the empty island!

Three days after the boat sailed, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang had dinner on board, and were about to go to the deck to catch some wind, when they saw a few crew members on the deck chatting after dinner, seeing Zhan Bai also came, these people were Planning to leave so as not to disturb the two of them, Zhan Zhao hurriedly waved his hands and said, "The deck is so big, you must not leave just because we are here, it will make us feel embarrassed."

An older crew member smiled and said, "Master Zhan is being polite, but since Master Zhan doesn't mind, let's blow some time and smoke a pipe."

Zhan Zhao nodded with a smile, and stood aside with Bai Yutang to enjoy the river view.

"Hey, Lao Mo, have you heard from the person on duty at night that the keel makes strange noises at night these days?"

Lao Mo was the elderly crew member. He was smoking a cigarette. After hearing what the person next to him said, he held back the smoke he was about to spit out. In an instant, he had a sharp cough, and the smoke escaped from his nose all at once. When he came out, he didn't care about his appearance, and hurriedly asked, "What's the noise?"

"I can't say it. I heard from the night watchman that the sound was very strange, as if...someone seemed to be scratching and scratching there desperately. It sounded very creepy...and the sound continued all night until the second day. The next morning it was gone again..."

After listening to this, Lao Mo tapped on the pipe, spat and said, "Don't let him not watch the night well, and arrange some weird things to fool you!"

The person on the side said: "But I heard that more than one person heard it... and they even ran to tell the old captain..."

Hearing this, Lao Mo's expression became serious: "Is this really true?"

The other person saw that Lao Mo's expression had changed, and suddenly asked a little nervously: "Old Mo, as a human being, it is impossible to stay under the water for a whole night... Could it be... Could it be that thing? I heard that this area used to be noisy. After the famine, many people were so hungry that they threw themselves into the river, could it be..."

Lao Mo frowned and didn't answer, just kept smoking.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang who were on the side naturally also heard the conversation of several people, they met each other, Zhan Zhao walked over, and asked politely: "Senior Mo, I overheard the conversation just now, but did you meet?" What's the problem?"

Seeing Zhan Zhao coming to ask, that old Mo hurriedly took off his cigarette pouch and said, "Senior, I don't dare to be that. If Master Zhan thinks highly of me, just call me Lao Mo..."

Zhan Zhao smiled and gestured for Lao Mo to continue talking.

"Master Zhan doesn't know something. I, Mo, have been on the boat with our master for more than ten years. As the old saying goes, if you often stand by the river, you can't get your shoes wet. You've walked a lot on the water. There will always be some strange things.” Lao Mo shook his pipe and continued, “There is a world above the water, another world under the water, a world during the day, and another world at night. Another thing happened... so before we leave the boat, we have to burn incense and burnt paper to pay homage to the three officials of the Water Mansion, and to worship the Prince of Zhenjiang, for the sake of peace along the way."

Zhan Zhao nodded, and several people beside him also echoed softly.

"But after all these things have been done, there is no guarantee that something strange will happen. After all, the gods also have time to watch over us when they are eating, drinking, and sleeping. In our line of work, we are most afraid of two things when we leave the boat. If you encounter it, you should avoid it and never touch it, otherwise, you will commit a big taboo." Lao Mo took a puff of his cigarette, and seeing that everyone was staring at him, he blew out a puff of smoke and said, "This is the first time. It's a ghost ship."

Zhan Zhao frowned: "Ghost ship?"

Lao Mo nodded and said: "You don't do this business, so I don't know. We run on the water all the year round, and we often encounter some ships that have been missing for many years. At first glance, these ships are intact. But there is no one on the boat, not even a living thing, and there is an inexplicable evil spirit from afar, if you encounter this kind of boat, you must turn around and leave, and you must never board the boat to check."

"Since it is a missing ship, why can't we go forward and check it?"

"Because, these are not real ships, they are ghost ships. In the past, some people did not believe in evil and boarded ghost ships, but after getting on board, they found that the most intrusive thing on board was not that there were no people on board, but that it was obviously an unmanned ship. But the tea is being boiled, the dry food is hot in the pot, there are traces of inhabitation everywhere but no living people, as if... like the people living on the boat, not in the same boundary as us... And hey, whenever we go up People who have been on the ghost ship died not long after they came back, so this ghost ship is a big taboo for us, but fortunately, as long as we go around him, there will be no problem..."

All walks of life have their own taboos and rules, others may not be able to understand it, but there is indeed a certain truth, seeing Lao Mo finished the first one, he hurriedly asked: "Then what is the second taboo thing?" ?”

"The second thing is not to fish for dead bodies." Lao Mo's eyes were flat, "Our unwritten rules, when walking on the boat, if you see an unknown floating corpse in the water, you must never fish it up. Then, there must be a scapegoat on this boat, to die for him, so that he can go to reincarnate..."

Unexpectedly, there are so many bizarre rules in the seemingly ordinary boat, Zhan Zhao couldn't help being a little stunned, and looked back at Bai Yutang, only to see that he was frowning all the time.

"Master Zhan, don't think we are ruthless. The rules set by our ancestors are like this. In the water, it is not like on the shore. At least you can see clearly on the shore, but under the water," Lao Mo pointed with a bong. A piece of river water, "Who knows what kind of monsters swim in the dark water under our boat?"

As soon as he said this, a small crew member who was facing the river suddenly yelled "Ah!"

Everyone turned their heads to look at him, and saw that the little crew member turned pale with fright, unable to speak.

Old Mo said: "Xiao Wu, what's the matter with you?"

The frightened little crew member was relieved, and said in a stumbling manner: "Just now...just now, I...seemed to see...something...swimmed past...just, right at Lao Mo When talking about... talking about monsters..."

Everyone was silent, and all of a sudden they turned their eyes to the river. After listening to Lao Mo's words, they looked at the pitch-black river, as if they could really see some huge monster swimming slowly under their boat. Cold sweat.

The crew next to him eased his embarrassment and said, "Did you see some fish swimming past, it scared you."

"No...it's not a fish, how can there be such a big fish...it's like...it's like a black dragon swimming..." Xiao Wu was still a little palpitated, but seeing the calm on the river now, and everyone looked nervous I had to look at him and said, "I'm interested in the fact that the surface of the river is too dark. I might have misread it just now. Lao Mo, leave me alone and continue talking..."

After being interrupted by Xiao Wu, Lao Mo was a little dazed. After being reminded to continue, he patted his head: "Old man, where did I just say? Ah, yes, I don't want to be dead! Master Zhan, just now they I said that I heard a strange sound from the keel at night, you know the keel, it is the ship skeleton that runs through the bow and stern under the bottom of the boat, and is used to support the whole boat."

Zhan Zhao nodded, the keel is the first step in building a ship, and also the most critical step, the firmness, height, draft, wind resistance, and wave resistance of the entire ship all depend on the keel.

Lao Mo continued: "Just now they said that something was grabbing the bottom of the boat, could it be 'that thing', 'that thing' actually refers to the water ghost..."

"Water ghost?"

"Yes, water ghosts are those who died unjustly in the water. After they died, they still had a mouthful of resentment. During the day, they would pretend to be floating corpses. When people on the boat fished them up, they would find a substitute for the dead ghost. After death, he can be reincarnated. For those who have not found a scapegoat, at night, the bottom of the water is cloudy, and they like to cling to the bottom of the boat. There must be someone on guard at night, and if someone is on guard at night, they dare not board the ship, and naturally they can't do harm to anyone..."

"Then...they won't scratch the bottom of the boat, will they?"

"You can rest assured. This is an iron-clad warship. He couldn't catch a hole even after two rounds..."

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone felt that the ship that was running smoothly sank suddenly!

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Lao Mo's words set the flag...