Farmhouse Green Plum

Chapter 645 Processing

The couple was excited for a while, but Chen San suddenly slapped his forehead and said in frustration, "Oh no, the anchor dropped."

Having said that, he immediately reached out to take his raincoat, intending to go again.

His wife quickly held him down and said, "In such heavy rain, you're going all the way here just for an anchor. Are you crazy? Go to sleep first and we'll talk about it in the morning!"

As he said this, he took the purse from his hand and went to hide the silver.

Such a large silver ingot must be hidden away and must not be discovered! And this purse, wow, it is embroidered with silver thread.

She stuffed it under the camphorwood box that came with her dowry, but then felt uneasy and took it out again. She gathered up the bed curtain and stuffed it into a crack in the wall behind the bed. She also asked Chen San to pick up a stone and stuff it outside.

When she went to sleep, she could reach out and touch the stone through the tent, which made her feel at ease.

The four-claw iron anchor was not cheap when it was bought. Chen San was still thinking about it when he suddenly got such a large sum of money. He did not sleep well for half the night and got up before dawn the next day to look for it.

The heavy rain has stopped, but the rain is still flowing in the nearby ditch with a loud noise, and it sounds like it is still raining heavily.

Chen San did not carry the fishing lantern, but headed towards the river bay with the help of the few dim stars in the sky.

When he was almost there, he suddenly heard someone talking. Having just received a large sum of money, he was like a frightened bird and became alert in an instant. He looked over and found that it was the big brothers of the Cao Gang. He became even more cautious and did not dare to make any noise to let them know.

These bastards are very bad. When they make mistakes in transporting grain and suffer serious losses, they often take advantage of us, the common people.

It was clearly their own boat that hit the enemy, but they were shouting that it was the people who hit their boat. They just wanted to admit that they were unlucky. They couldn't even pay compensation. They would be taken to the government for punishment and all the money and food losses on the entire ship would be blamed on them.

Not only did they receive a beating and go to jail, but they also had to pay the government hundreds of taels of silver. With their family's financial resources, they could not afford it.

Chen San retreated slowly and carefully, comforting himself that the anchor was lost in the water and those bastards would not be able to find it.

It doesn’t matter if we find it, people won’t look down on our simple anchor.

The canal soldiers searched carefully with torches, but the rain was so heavy last night that all traces were washed away. Even the reeds were blown into a mess by the wind. It was impossible to guess which direction the people had escaped from by looking at the fallen bodies.

After fighting in the rain all night, the soldiers were tired, hungry and cold, and gradually became lazy.

Seeing this, the leader waved his hand to call back his troops and took his team of ten people back to report.

The four canal boats were parked in a mess, with corpses entangled between the planks and bobbing with the turbid waves. Several corpses of canal soldiers in uniform were stuck on the side of the boats, their limbs swaying strangely due to the current, like torn puppets at a temple fair.

There were corpses everywhere on the decks on the shore. Even though he was born in a small military camp and was used to seeing blood and killing, he still felt a chill down his spine at this moment.

He couldn't help but feel fortunate that Chu Dajiang didn't carry much private property on the boat. His boat was much faster than the other boats, and there were only two boats following him.

Otherwise, if he had 45 canal boats under his command, they would not have dared to take action last night.

Fortunately, it rained heavily last night, and now even the blood water nearby has become much lighter.

Xiaoqi stepped on the blood and boarded his own canal boat, knelt on one knee and reported: "Captain, I am incompetent. I searched the reed marshes and found nothing."

As soon as he finished speaking, Scar's roar rang out from above: "Useless! Why did you come back without finding them? Keep looking! If you can't find them, I'll throw you into this Grand Canal to feed the fish!"

Xiaoqi nodded in response, stood up and ran out.

A soft sigh echoed from the cabin, and a middle-aged man dressed as a scholar in the corner said, "It rained heavily last night, and all traces have been washed away. Why bother making things difficult for them, Captain?"

Scar had great respect for the scholar, and his attitude immediately softened. He smiled bitterly and said, "I don't want to embarrass them, but given the current situation, sir, do you have any solutions?"

The scholar sighed lightly. Man proposes, God disposes. He never expected that there would be such a heavy rain, which forced Chu Dajiang to go ashore to take shelter. Otherwise, on the Grand Canal, these people would not be able to escape even if they had wings.

"Let them dispose of the bodies first. Leaving so many bodies here, if people see them at daybreak, all our efforts will be wasted."

Scar tried his luck and finally shouted, "Let's deal with the body first!"

The small flag officer outside seemed to be pardoned. He waved his hand and told his subordinates to get back to work. He then went to the shore to pass on the message to his colleagues who had returned to report, and everyone started to carry the bodies together.

After all the bodies were moved onto the boats, Chu Dajiang's three boats were rowed to a deep water area, holes were drilled in the boats, and some of the bodies were tied with ropes, loaded with heavy stones and sunk. In this way, the boats took on water much faster.

On Scar's boat, the scholar handed him the compiled list. The names of the dead were crossed out, and there were only eleven people left.

Scar took it and took a look, still furious. Among the eleven people, nine were from the Zhang family.

The Zhang family had only two guards, and the rest were either scholars or the elderly, the weak, women and children. How could he not be angry when so many of them escaped?

"What a bunch of rubbish! They can't even do the smallest thing!" He couldn't help but curse again.

The scholar in the corner rubbed his brow and said helplessly, "Zhang Yunzhi was well prepared and on guard against us. We have to deal with Chu Dajiang and the others first, so we can't blame the people below."

After a pause, he continued, "Those servants of the Zhang family are fine, but Chu Dajiang and Chu Dahe must be found."

Hearing this, the furious Scar suddenly sneered. He had fought with Chu Dajiang face to face, and Chu Dajiang's escape could be said to be entirely his responsibility.

Chu Dahe is Chu Dajiang's brother from the same clan. Although he is only a sixth-rank centurion, he is his true confidant. The two of them know a lot about the Cao Gang.

If they were allowed to report this to the court, it would be like suppressing one problem but causing another to arise.

The scholar seemed oblivious to Scar's embarrassment and continued his analysis, "It was just one night, with a heavy rain and a pregnant woman with them. I figured these people wouldn't be far away. They could find a reason to carefully search the surrounding fishermen. Who knows, they might be hiding somewhere.

There are also nearby Qiji Town, Mijiapo, and Acheng Town. If we search them one by one, we will eventually find them."

After listening to the scholar's analysis, Scar's restless heart finally calmed down a little. Yes, the two sides of the canal had been managed like an iron bucket by them. They were just a group of scholars, women and children. Are they still afraid that they can't be caught?

He took a breath and said, "I'll leave this to you. I'll report to the commander-in-chief and ask him to find a way to seal off the city."

The scribe agreed.