Densely packed wood covered almost half of the river, and it was endless as far as the eye could see.
The navy's fleet was parked directly opposite the estuary. If they didn't move quickly, they would definitely be hit by a log.
Although the speed of drifting wood is not particularly fast, there are too many of them, and the inertia formed will be very strong. Once it hits a ship, the consequences will be disastrous.
Zheng Chiyuan was still a little confused at first, but now he was frightened and ran over to help the soldiers who were raising the sail pull the rope.
Fortunately, with God's help, the wind has been southerly today. After the sails were raised, the fleet quickly sailed away from the opposite side of the estuary.
Zheng Chiyuan finally breathed a sigh of relief at this time, but he was still scared.
He pointed at the deputy general who came over to report the situation and cursed: "What do lookouts do for food? You don't even see so much wood drifting over?"
When the navy is at sea, the ship is a camp. Even if it is resting, there will always be people on duty to guard it.
As a result, the alert people did not see the wood, which almost caused a serious accident.
"General, you also know how busy everyone has been recently. Now we finally have some rest. I only arranged one lookout in each direction, but this guy fell asleep..."
The lieutenant explained with a grimace.
Since Jin Feng allocated high-speed boats and airships to the Navy, the Navy has successively eliminated several large-scale pirate gangs, scaring the pirates away from approaching the East China Sea area.
Most of the navy was idle and stayed in the sea outside the dock for repairs.
In recent times, the Navy has become a snake oil department. It does not seem to be responsible for anything specifically, but it is busier than all departments.
Workers at other sites have shifts and can get off work after completing their work, but the navy has been busy.
I looked for them when I couldn't finish hauling kelp on Maolang Island. It suddenly rained and it was too late to rush to harvest the drying fields, so I looked for them too.
In short, they are a mobile team that will go to help wherever needed.
Many naval officers are so busy that they can fall asleep standing up, and the lookout facing the west is one of them.
He was brought back from Maolang Island yesterday, and he slept for less than two hours before being arranged to go to the observation deck.
In the afternoon, facing the west, the sunlight reflected on the river was so dazzling that people couldn't keep their eyes open. At first, the lookout insisted on looking at the river every few minutes, but then he fell asleep leaning on the railing at some point.
The deputy general knew that Zheng Chiyuan was angry, so he knelt down on one knee and said: "General, it was my command mistake. I beg the general to punish me!"
"Take the lookouts to the Military Law Hall and get ten military sticks each!" Zheng Chiyuan said coldly: "If this happens again in the future, you don't have to do it. Go back to fishing!"
Zheng Chiyuan also knew that the lookouts worked hard, but they almost caused a catastrophe, so they must be punished.
It's just that he asked the deputy general to take the lookout to the military hall by himself. The deputy general had the final say on how to use the military stick, which can be regarded as being wide-ranging.
The navy was busy for a while, and pieces of wood drifted into the East China Sea.
Zheng Chiyuan still felt a little scared as he watched the dense wood rush past the place where the fleet had just parked.
The wood rushed forward for several hundred meters before slowly stopping and floating on the sea.
Zheng Chiyuan then arranged for the steamboat to drive over, drag the raft onto it, and drive to the dock.
On the leading wooden raft, stood an old man and a child of twelve or thirteen years old.
Both of them were wearing only a pair of shorts, sitting on the raft and gasping for air.
Zheng Chiyuan was startled by the dense wood just now, and the two men were also frightened.
The so-called discharge means bundling the wood and flowing it along the river to its destination.
This job sounds simple, but in fact it is extremely dangerous and complicated. Almost more than half of the discharge workers do not end well.
It's not that they are doing evil or anything, but the discharge is a very dangerous job. Once a large amount of wood moves with the water flow, the inertia is huge, and there is no way to brake. The discharge worker can only avoid danger by adjusting the direction.
Once the river is in a turbulent place, if the discharger fails to adjust the direction in time and hits something, he is likely to sink to the bottom of the river.
Therefore, generally before the discharge, a boat will run ahead to remind the boats parked along the way to give way.
The navy was able to escape the disaster just now, and it was also thanks to these early warning ships.
At this time, the wooden raft has entered the sea, and the two men's mission is completed, and they can take a breath.
It is difficult for a rower to live to old age. This old man is actually only in his fifties, but he is already a leader in the circle of rowers.
Everyone has forgotten his name. Because he is old and has good water skills, other dischargers respectfully call him Grandpa Turtle.
The young man in front of him was an orphan he adopted. He had grown up soaking in the water. Not only was he good at water, he also held his breath for a very long time. Catching fish with his bare hands in the water was just like playing.
Because he was an orphan, no one knew his name, so they all called him Shui Wa.
There was chaos in the south of the Yangtze River some time ago, and there were water bandits everywhere on the Yangtze River. No one asked Grandpa Turtle to let them go, so the two of them basically made a living by diving and catching fish in the water.
Two people with no names survived in troubled times relying on each other.
Later, Qing Xinyao was looking for platoon masters in Sichuan and Sichuan. Grandpa Gui was immediately recommended by his colleagues and made him the vanguard and responsible for the first batch of wooden platoons.
After all, the young man was full of energy. After resting for a while, Shui Wa stood up and looked around curiously: "Grandpa Turtle, is this the sea?"
"Yes, this is the sea!" Grandpa Turtle nodded slightly, and then touched his waist habitually.
It's a pity that there is nothing on the waist.
Seeing Grandpa Turtle's actions, Shui Wa quickly ran to the side and took out a bag made of cowhide from between two logs.
Untie the string and remove a handful of dried beans from the bag.
The cowhide is waterproof and the mouth is tied tightly so that the beans are not wet.
This kind of beans is stewed and then fried. It is very salty and hard. Sometimes when there is no time to eat, Grandpa Turtle will just grab a few and throw them into his mouth to satisfy his hunger and refresh himself.
Over the years, I have developed a habit.
"Grandpa Turtle, the sea is so big!"
Shui Wa handed the beans to Grandpa Turtle: "Grandpa Turtle, they say that sea water is salty, and the salt we eat comes from sea water. Is that true?"
"Would you know if you try it?" Grandpa Turtle said with a smile.
When the water babies heard this, they jumped to the edge of the raft, picked up the sea water with their hands, and drank.
This is how he drank from the river.
As soon as I drank it, I was spit out: "Bah, it's really too salty!"
Grandpa Turtle couldn't help laughing when he saw this: "Shuiba, you have to remember that no matter how thirsty you are at sea, you can't drink sea water, otherwise you will become thirstier and thirstier, and eventually you will die of thirst!"
"Why?" Shui Wa tilted her head and asked, "Isn't sea water also water? Why does it make you thirstier the more you drink it?"