After losing the vest at the beginning, the female general was forced to marry the scheming prince

Chapter 105 The Shipwreck at Night
After the crew came back from purchasing, Qu Chu asked one of the purchasing crew for questioning.

"When we were in Quancheng, the food price was twice as expensive as last year, and the medicinal materials were also much more expensive. How about this town?"

The crew answered her:
"The price of grain in Quancheng is high because of the high price of grain in Huaicheng, and the towns in the Jianghuai area are no exception, they are all expensive.

However, the grain on our ship was purchased ashore when passing through South Vietnam. "

Seeing no one around, the crew whispered again:
"We would also go ashore to buy some grain when we passed through South Vietnam, but we didn't dare to buy more, otherwise the boss would have something to say."

Qu Chu understood.

The owner knew the grain market in Quancheng, and he could pretend not to see the crew bringing grain for his family, but if the crew wanted to use the ship to do grain business, he would naturally not agree.

From this point of view, this owner surnamed Wang is not bad.

"How is the life of the people in the nearby towns?"

The crew shook their heads:

"Over the past six months, the price of grain in the Jianghuai area has skyrocketed, and many ordinary people have no food to eat. Those with affluent families can barely survive, and those with poor families have to flee famine and go to other places."

"Then do you know where these ordinary people have gone?"

"I once heard from a relative of mine that many people fled to Jingcheng, saying that Jingcheng not only has sufficient food and cheap prices, but also lives a good life."

Qu Chu thought for a while. It was dusk when they entered the gate of Jingcheng, and there were many people queuing up at that time.

She felt strange at the time, why is Jingcheng so lively?For this reason, she also asked an old man, and the old man said that most of them were locals.

At that time, I didn't think much about it. Most of the people are locals, so who are the few people?
Now that I think about it, those few people are also different from them. They are all dressed up as ordinary people, and they even bring their families.It seems that the people left at that time were the people from the Jianghuai area.

I also blame myself for not asking clearly.

After the crew left, Ning Youbei and Qu Chu said, "Ah Chu, do you still remember what I told you back then, that King Jing used the common people to make money?"

Qu Chu nodded, she remembered.

After Ning Youbei analyzed it with her, she felt quite complicated and didn't know how to evaluate King Jing.

Although King Jing used the people to make money, he did make people's lives better.

"Then tell me, is there someone secretly manipulating the flow of people from the Jianghuai area into Jingcheng?"

Qu Chu was slightly surprised:
"You mean to say: King Jing intends to allow more people to enter Jingcheng so that Jingcheng can develop better?"

Ning Youbei nodded.

"Jingcheng was originally a poor place with a small population. Now that the economy has developed, the population cannot keep up, so we can only find ways to import people from other places.

However, there are only two most densely populated places: one is the nearby city centered on Yudu, and the other is the Jianghuai area.

If the introduction of population from Yudu is too obvious, it will attract the attention of the emperor's brother prematurely, but Jianghuai is far away from Yudu, as long as the officials in the Jianghuai area don't report it, the emperor's brother will never know about such a thing. "

Qu Chu frowned:

"According to what you said, the emperor has not received any news. Isn't it true that the officials in the Jianghuai area are all in collusion with King Jing?"

"That's not necessarily true."

Ning Youbei explained to Qu Chu:
"Some officials are afraid of being held accountable, so they act as if they don't know anything. And some officials didn't go together with King Jing, but they chose to be wise and safe."

These officials are really...

Qu Chu can only describe them as a vegetarian meal.

……

After restocking with fresh fruits, vegetables and food in small towns, the ship continued on its way.

But that night...

……

On the night of Jianghuai River in October, the moon is cold and the stars are sparse.

Ning Youbei and Qu Chu went to bed early.

This "sleeping" is just sleeping on the bed, not really falling asleep.

After all, it was a strange place, and Qu Chu didn't dare to take off his clothes and go to sleep, let alone sleep soundly.

Qu Chu felt something was wrong lying on the bed, she woke up Ning Youbei.

"Feel it, is there anything unusual?"

Ning Youbei felt it quietly for a while, "There is nothing wrong."

"No, get up, hold on to me later."

Ning Youbei listened to Qu Chu's words very much, got up quickly, and held Qu Chu's hand tightly.

Qu Chu led Ning Youbei to the opposite cabin and woke up Yan Hong, "The ship is sinking, we may have to escape at sea later."

Yan Hong was not nervous when she heard this, but packed up her things and wrapped them tightly with a tarpaulin.

"General, give me your knife."

Qu Chu shook his head, "No, just take care of yourself. If there are wooden boards, you can hold two of them later."

The black iron knife weighs 60 jins, which is too heavy, and the bright red water is mediocre, so if you bring the black iron sword, the hope of escape is slim.

"But what if you want to bring the prince and the big knife?"

Qu Chu took a deep look at Yanhong, silly girl, whoever is important with the knife at a critical time must protect the person first.

However, Qu Chu has a way!

"You don't have to worry so much. I have a solution. You must protect yourself and poison yourself in an emergency."

Although the poison flowing into the sea will have a certain impact on the sea water, but such a large area of ​​sea area, the impact is minimal, so people's lives should be saved first.

When I came outside the cabin, the deck was full of people, all the crew members of the ship.

They stayed on the boat for a long time, and their sense of the boat was naturally much stronger than ordinary people, and they all felt that something was wrong.

Seeing so many people, Qu Chu knew that what he perceived was correct.

"I feel the ship sinking. I wonder if you feel the same way?"

The captain glanced at Qu Chu. They were people who often sailed on the boat. It was normal for them to be familiar with the boat, but they didn't expect that the person in front of them could feel it.

And the speed of feeling is not slower than them.

The captain did not answer Qu Chu's words, but ordered the two crew members: "Go into the water and have a look."

Qu Chu held Ning Youbei's hand tightly and stood on the deck without moving.

Before the crew came up, Yanhong had already moved to Qu Chu's side and said softly, "General, there is movement on the sea."

Qu Chu had seen Yan Hong's astonishing ear power a few times, so he would not doubt it, but asked softly, "Can you hear the sound?"

Yan Hong closed her ears and listened carefully for a while, and was about to speak when the crew member who launched into the water came back.

"Captain, there was a hole in the bottom of our boat and water entered, so the boat slowly sank, but it's too late to fix it now."

There was a small boat ready to escape, and the captain made a decisive decision:

"Let's leave in a small boat first, see if we can find the rest of the boats nearby, and then ask them to come to the rescue together."

There is only this way.

(End of this chapter)