freenovelworld Chapter 441: Escaping the Ship
Chapter 441: Escaping the Ship
On board a ship in Jiangnan Province.
Fang Xiaoxiao stood on the edge of the deck, watching the surging river water, her eyes filled with longing.
So, traveling back to ancient times isn't such a bad thing after all, at least that's how I see it.
After leaving Suzhou, they found a carriage to go to the nearest ferry terminal in Suzhou and boarded a merchant ship bound for the provincial capital of Jiangnan.
Li Wan'er stood beside her, lost in thought.
The scene of leaving Suzhou a few days ago felt like a dream to her, and even now she still feels it's not quite real.
"Xiao Xiao, I feel you're even more powerful than the emperor!"
"Shh, we can't say anything like that. If someone with ulterior motives hears us, we could be beheaded."
"What's there to be afraid of? The emperor is not powerful at all. He only knows how to refine elixirs and cultivate immortality all day long. He doesn't care about the affairs of the court at all. He even caused my brother, the crown prince, to disappear."
"Princess, please stop. We need to learn to be more discreet, okay?"
Fang Xiaoxiao's head was throbbing from the angry princess's antics. If there hadn't been no one around, she probably would have lost several heads just from what the princess had said.
To prevent the princess from saying anything more, she had to pull her back into the cabin.
At the current speed of the ship, barring any major storms, we should reach Jiangnan Province in three days.
Back in the cabin.
Li Wan'er was furious, thinking that Fang Xiaoxiao was too timid, even though she hadn't said anything wrong.
Fang Xiaoxiao lay on the wooden bed, thinking that after arriving in Jiangnan Province, she would first go to Changle County to visit some old friends.
Then, while we're at it, we'll sample some local specialty snacks and also purchase some medicinal herbs needed to make Banlangen (Isatis root) in Jiangnan Province.
Isatis root is a wonderful thing; it can not only treat plagues but also prevent viral colds. According to ancient records, symptoms like wind-cold are caused by viral colds that have been prolonged.
With Banlangen (Isatis root), the chances of impoverished people dying from colds can be greatly reduced.
The saying "Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda" is becoming increasingly valuable.
Before she knew it, she had fallen into a deep sleep.
She was awakened by a series of noisy footsteps.
Fang Xiaoxiao initially thought they were patrolling inside the ship, but instead she discovered a group of hunched figures carrying long knives walking past the door.
How could a decent person walk with a hunched back, unless they were a robber or an assassin?
Thinking of this, her expression changed drastically, and she quickly and quietly went to Li Wan'er's bedside across the room.
"Princess, wake up, wake up!"
Fang Xiaoxiao lowered her voice and nudged Li Wan'er's shoulder.
Li Wan'er was somewhat annoyed at being disturbed from her sweet dream and was about to utter a blaming sound.
Fang Xiaoxiao reacted quickly, reaching out to cover her mouth and making a shushing sound.
"Don't speak, there are assassins outside."
Li Wan'er opened her eyes wide, then blinked to indicate that she understood.
Fang Xiaoxiao then let go of her hand, pulled her quickly to hide under the bed, and took out the black gold dagger that Pei Yan had given her earlier, which could cut iron like mud.
"Squeak!"
The door made a sickeningly loud noise.
Two people quietly entered.
Hiding under the bed, Fang Xiaoxiao saw through the moonlight that the other person was dressed in black and walking towards them.
"no one?"
"That shouldn't be the case. The boss has already checked. There are two women on this ship, and they're said to be very beautiful."
"Could it be hiding under the bed?"
Under the bed!
As they spoke, the two unconsciously bent down to look under the bed.
At this moment, Fang Xiaoxiao and Li Wan'er were both on tenterhooks, and even the dagger she was holding tightly was soaked with sweat due to tension.
1, 2, 3...
The atmosphere was so tense it was suffocating. Li Wan'er was so scared that she covered her mouth tightly with both hands, afraid of making the slightest sound.
Fang Xiaoxiao was in the same situation. She couldn't guarantee that she could fight two people at once and protect the princess beside her.
What to do, what to do!
"Damn, there isn't any!"
"Could it be around here?"
One person checked and found no one under the bed board on the right side, and couldn't help but shout angrily.
Another person chimed in, pointing to their left.
The place where Fang Xiaoxiao and her companion were hiding was under the bed board on the left.
Fang Xiaoxiao took a deep breath to calm her nerves and took out the cartilage powder from her waist.
As long as those two dared to back down, she would not hesitate to throw the muscle-relaxing powder at them.
Just then, a shout came from the doorway.
"What are you two doing? Hurry up and assemble on the deck. Vice General Zhong and the General are here."
"Oh, I'll be right there."
The two men, who were originally going to check under the bed to see if anyone was hiding, immediately gave up the idea when they heard their boss calling out.
The two of them figured that no one would be so bold as to actually hide under the bed, or rather, no one would be so stupid as to do something so foolish.
At this moment, the deck of the merchant ship was densely packed with people dressed in black and holding long knives.
In front of them stood two tall, burly men.
One of the men had a full beard, giving him the image of a rugged man from the grasslands, while the other looked much more refined, though only in comparison to the man with the full beard.
The bearded man was none other than Zhong Zicheng, the man Fang Xiaoxiao had met outside Suzhou.
As for the person beside him, it was their General Wang Weiguo.
Previously, Wang Weiguo's army suffered extremely heavy losses in Suzhou, resulting in the deaths of all 100,000 of his soldiers.
Ultimately, he led his remaining two thousand soldiers to the northern border to seek refuge with the Prince of Zhenbei, where they became sea pirates, mainly robbing merchant ships.
As luck would have it, they learned from their scouts that the ship was a merchant ship bound for Jiangnan Province, which led to the scene of them seizing the ship.
Wang Weiguo is a man around forty-five years old, but he doesn't like to grow a long beard, feeling it's not elegant at all, so he seems out of place among his peers.
But this doesn't mean he's easy to talk to, has bad methods, or is just like a woman.
On the contrary, he was ruthless and unscrupulous in achieving his goals, as exemplified by his use of soldiers in the army to contract the plague.
Military camps generally think about controlling the epidemic as soon as possible, isolating infected soldiers for proper treatment, and cremating them even if they die.
Instead of doing that, he planned to massacre the city by using the soldiers' corpses.
Initially, they simply threw the soldiers' corpses into Suzhou city to allow the people to gradually become infected with the plague. Later, they even threw soldiers who had just contracted the plague into the city, with the aim of increasing the chances of the people in the city contracting the plague.
Later still, the plan was to burn the city down, and the fire burned the city of Suzhou, which had a population of ten million, to the ground.
Such a general is nothing short of terrifying.
Even Zhong Zicheng, as his deputy, felt inferior in this situation.
He looked at the white-faced general and clasped his hands in greeting.
"Reporting to the general, we have obtained a total of over 30,000 taels of silver, tens of thousands of bolts of cloth, and other items, each worth tens of thousands of taels. The total estimated value is around 60,000 taels of silver."
Upon hearing this, Wang Weiguo smiled.
"Excellent, excellent. This is the most satisfying one I've had in a long time."
"It's a pity that that wretched woman ruined my good time. If I had caught her, I would have arranged for hundreds of my brothers to share her bed, and then I would have torn her bones and skinned her!"
Zhong Zicheng naturally knew who the general was referring to.
This person was none other than Fang Xiaoxiao, the culprit who ruined their plan to massacre the city. She was a woman from a small county who had married seven husbands.
According to the scouts, the woman has left Suzhou and is heading to Jiangnan Province on a merchant ship.
Thinking of this, he immediately gave instructions to his subordinates.
"Go, seize all the women on this ship."
Russian qing.
On the deck, more than a hundred women of various kinds were kneeling, some of whom were even from foreign lands. They were incredibly beautiful and alluring, with blue eyes, high noses, and blonde hair.
The crowd erupted in a cacophony of howls, like wolves.
"Quiet down. This deputy general is going to check these people one by one. You all need to shut up, or you will be dealt with according to military law."
As soon as he finished speaking, the room fell silent; no one dared to utter a sound.
Fang Xiaoxiao, on her side, carefully moved her body with the princess, crawling forward on the floor of the room.
Faced with the faint glow of torches outside the door, all we could do was leave this place first.
Fortunately, there were no guards or bandits in the entire cabin at that moment.
So she grabbed the princess and ran towards the lowest level of the ship's cabin.
I recall learning from a wealthy merchant that there was a hidden compartment in the bottom deck of the merchant ship, and a small lifeboat was stored underneath it.
Her plan was simple: row the small boat and leave the area as quickly as possible.
As the saying goes, two fists can't beat four hands, let alone several hundred people.
Faced with hundreds of times more men than themselves, the only thing they could do was prioritize survival.
Soon, the two arrived at the bottom deck and found the hidden compartment.
The hidden compartment was concealed in a corner, covered by clutter underneath.
Take out the silver needle, open the love lock, and you will see a small boat that can just accommodate two people.
She didn't linger, pulling Princess Li Wan'er down with her. To be on the safe side, she even restored the clutter to its original position to avoid attracting attention.
As for the love lock in her hand, she also fastened it upside down in the hidden compartment above her head.
To be honest, after arriving in ancient times, she learned many life-saving skills. For example, she learned how to use silver needles to open love locks from Li Shizhen in Suzhou.
I didn't expect it to come in handy again so soon. The last time it came in handy was when I went to the villa in the north of the city that was filled with corpses.