Deep in the cave is the pirates' water stronghold, with arrow towers, observation towers, high walls, martial arts halls, weapons depots and other buildings rising from the ground one after another on the water.
However, today's water village is almost in ruins, with large areas of buildings collapsed, and the water surface is like stagnant water with a large number of bamboo fragments floating on it, because the entire water village is made of moso bamboo, the most common species in Jiangzhou Prefecture.
These moso bamboos are very good at antisepsis in places with moisture and moisture, and they are also very cheap. They are found all over the mountains and plains in the mountainous Jiangzhou Prefecture, so they are easy to obtain.
These water villages collapsed into ruins, and there were a lot of debris floating on the water. The boss's sampan was a bit big and could not enter the pirate water villages, so they had to let the sampan dock first, and then the three of them salvaged it from the water.
A temporary bamboo raft was built with moso bamboo roots, and he planned to use the flexible bamboo raft to enter the water village.
Naturally, a lot of time was spent during this period.
It was already afternoon when they arrived at Houchi Village, and it was almost evening outside. Now the world was changing again, the days were shorter and the nights were longer, and it would soon be dark.
Plop
Several people lowered the bamboo raft with a hanging rope and splashed water. Then Jin An and the old Taoist priest descended to the bamboo raft along the rope one after another. The boss of the boat did not follow him. He said that someone stayed on the boat to prevent the fishing boat from being washed away by the current.
Although neither of them believed the reason given by the boat boss, the fishing boat did need someone to watch over it, and the boat boss was someone the county magistrate found for them. Although they suspected that the boat boss might have impure intentions, they couldn't just tear him apart immediately.
fall out.
The first goal at the moment is to find out whether the bodies of the shipwrecked people were washed into Jiutou Mountain along the current.
He left a few kind words and told the boat boss to pay attention to safety. The old Taoist priest held a torch and was responsible for lighting. Jin An was responsible for holding the pole and steering the boat. An old man, a young man and a bamboo raft bypassed the floating debris on the water and entered the dark water like stagnant water.
In the water village.
During the next journey, the two saw many decayed and dilapidated buildings, such as a martial arts hall with a collapsed arena, and an armory with rusted and rotten weapons...
The swords and spears in the arsenal were severely corroded by the coastal water vapor, and the rust residue left a stinky smell of rust and sea salt in the palm of your hand.
The water village is very big. Jin An has been rowing on the pole for a long time, but he still hasn't seen the end. It seems that they haven't even finished half of the way.
The old Taoist priest holding a torch at the bow of the ship couldn't help but mutter: "There are so many debris floating in the sea water here. Is it true that the bodies of shipwrecks would be carried so far by the current?"
Jin An didn't answer. He looked around the water and underwater while holding the pole, paying attention to any disturbance.
After floating on the pole for a while, the two of them smelled a special smell in the air. They were people who often dealt with all kinds of dead people, and they immediately recognized that it was the stench emitted by rotting corpses in summer.
Sure enough, among the debris on the water a few feet away, they found a floating corpse stuck in the debris and unable to move.
The body of the floating corpse was severely swollen by the sea water. It was face down and its back was facing up. The clothes on its body still looked new. Needless to say, the two of them had already recognized that this swollen corpse was the corpse of the shipwreck they were looking for.
Speaking of facing the dead, the old Taoist priest and Jin An were never afraid. The old Taoist priest rolled up his sleeves, picked up a wooden stick on the water, and turned over the floating corpse in front of him.
As soon as the floating corpse was turned over, several fat and big rats ran out from the collar of the clothes, each one two or three times larger than an adult's hand.
These little beasts were used to eating dead human flesh and were very vicious. Not only were they not afraid of people, they even took the initiative to squeak at the old Taoist priest, as if they were annoyed that the old Taoist priest had disturbed their feast.
The old Taoist priest was definitely not afraid of these rats, so he used the wooden stick in his hand to hit the dogs with a stick, driving away the fat rats, and finally turned over the corpse floating in the water.
"Mom!"
The old Taoist priest sucked in a breath of cold air, and was immediately choked by the smell of corpses and coughed. The flesh on the human face is the most tender, and the flesh and blood on the face of the swollen corpse had almost been eaten away by those fat rats, revealing the miserable facial bones.
His face was eaten like this, not to mention his belly under his clothes, which must have been hollowed out by the mice that ran out of his collar earlier.
Wild animals have a habit of tearing open their belly and eating the internal organs first.
First, viscera has the highest nutrition.
Second, internal organs are most susceptible to decay.
Jin An frowned: "It seems that the worry of the Yinxian County Magistrate is not unreasonable. Plague outbreaks are prone to occur in places where rats are common."
Since the floating corpse could not be taken away, the old Taoist priest recited salvation scriptures towards the deceased, and then the bamboo raft continued to move forward.
The bamboo raft stopped and went, and as it went deeper, more and more debris floated on the water. The two of them saw more and more floating corpses stuck in the debris.
Without exception, these floating corpses are the corpses of shipwrecked people, and they have all been severely eaten by rats, becoming the food for the rat infestation in this area.
"The rat infestation here is so serious, and rats are the best at digging holes. If these rats that have eaten dead human flesh are allowed to escape through the holes, some people who don't know the truth will catch and eat these fat rats as voles, and then return home and infect their families."
People, family members will then infect the neighbors in the village, and sparrows will eat things that people have come into contact with. Once this plague breaks out, it will be another catastrophe that will destroy all lives!" The old Taoist priest had a very solemn look on his face.
"We have already encountered five or six corpses of shipwrecked people. I'm afraid there will only be more corpses of shipwrecked people inside! How many corpses of shipwrecked people have been washed into Jiutou Mountain by the sea currents!"
Although there are many pirate villages, they will eventually come to an end.
vomit
The smell of corpses at the end of the water village was so strong and the air was so turbid that the old Taoist priest almost vomited from the fumes. He quickly took out a detoxification pill and put it in his mouth to detoxify. He also handed a detoxification pill to Jin An.
The smell of corpses here is overwhelming. Jin An and the old Taoist priests originally thought that the water village would end up with a large number of corpses of shipwrecks stranded, forming a special environment similar to a corpse accumulation ground or a corpse raising ground. However, when they actually arrived, they found that there were even
Not a single body.
"How is it possible that there isn't even a body?"
"Did we really guess wrong?"
The old Taoist priest refused to give up and held up a torch to illuminate the surrounding area. Indeed, he could not find a corpse. There were a lot of debris and wood chips floating on the water, but he could not find a floating corpse.
"Go ashore first and take a look."
As soon as the two landed ashore, they felt something strange under their feet, as if they were stepping on cotton wool and rotten flesh, without that down-to-earth feeling.
He bent down with a torch and shined it on the ground. The ground was shiny with oil, and black evil water flowed across it. Hissing, the black mud on the ground was corpse water and rotten meat that fell from the dead? But there was no corpse here? The old Taoist priest was surprised at first.
Hu then twisted his eyebrows tightly into the character Sichuan.
"It seems that Jiutou Mountain is more complicated than we imagined."
Jin An raised his finger and pointed in a direction, leading the old Taoist priest towards that place.
Just now, he used his qi-gazing technique to see that the corpse qi was accumulated in that place and never dispersed. It was the place with the heaviest corpse qi in Jiutou Mountain.
He wanted to see what was going on in Jiutou Mountain!