Chapter 176 Battle of Liyang - Part 6 (1/2)
Chapter 176 – Battle of Liyang - Part 6
After they passed the fire forest, they sighted the intersection of the river. One path led to the east as expected from the map. However, the other one led to the north.
The northern branch of the grand Yellow River should not have existed here!
Furthermore, the water current carried all of their boats toward the northern path, which was the wrong path.
”Steer the ship!”
”We can't! The water current is too strong!”
They could not do anything against the sudden rapid current. All of their ships were dragged to the northern waterway.
”Shit! What now?”
”Don't panic! It doesn't matter! We will have to land on the west shore for now.”
The soldiers tried to steer the ships to the shore, but they encountered yet another strange sight.
A young man was sitting by the east shore at the opposite site where they were trying to go. He dipped both his hands into the river water. For some reason, the river seemed to be absorbed by the hands at a terrifying speed, as if they were a giant hole that devoured everything that came into contact with it, creating the rapid current they were facing.
The river water was being drained by his hands!
The water current was nothing but water going down the sewer holes!
Before they snapped back from the strange sight, the sounds of flying objects came at them.
*BOOM*
Boulders, rocks, and sharp ballista arrows slammed on the surface of the water. One of the stones sunk a ship from the group of 5 scout boats.
”We're under attack!”
*BOOM*
A second barrage with hundreds of head-size stones crashed onto the scout ships, cracking the woods which began leaking water.
*BOOM*
The third barrage sealed the fate of these boats. All of the scout soldiers had to abandon ships and jumped into the river to dodge the incoming attacks.
However, unlike the paranoid soldier who took off his armors and clothes before he jumped into the river, these men still wore heavy iron armor, iron boots, arm guards, and other clothes. The texture of their clothes absorbed water, making themselves heavier.
With all those extra weights on themselves, the soldiers sunk to the bottom of the river without a chance to swim on top of the water.
…
Tong swiped away the dark mud and various kinds of fishes which gathered onto his hands. The black dusk, dirt, and gooey stuff were the condensed living microorganism which could not be stored into the inventory, such as planktons, germs, virus, and parasite eggs. They got stuck onto his skins because of the [Inventory]'s suction force while he took in the Yellow River water into a slot of his inventory spaces.
He watched the sinking ships with a frown. In his radar map, one of the white dots managed to reach the south side of the shorelines.
'One has escaped. But that guy went to the other side of the river.'
'Beyond that territory, it should be the old Puyang.'
'It should take a while before Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun get the news.'
Confirmed that only one of the scout soldiers survived, he signaled the troops to stop firing the trebuchets other siege weapons.
...
In the previous day, he had made a new discovery about this [Inventory] skill while he was touching the river water.
He could store natural water in the river directly!
Tong tested it with the earth soil instead of water that day. He managed to absorb a chunk of 1 cubic meter of land soil for each use.
Since storing and taking out items from his inventory did not consume his lifespans, he started digging the ground, exploiting the feature of his [Inventory] skill.
As Tong planned out this project, he decided not to connect the new channel with the river before it was completed because it would hinder his digging job.
Tong started out by digging down one meter in depth and a hundred meters in width. It began with the small depth at first, so Tong could draft the layout of his new river at will. He leisurely absorbed the cubic-block soil, stones, and mud into his inventory as if he was playing Minecraft.
Many soldiers wanted to help, but Tong made them stood guard in case they were somehow hit by a surprise attack. Tong had seen Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun in action and he knew about their experience and their deeds in his timeline history. Letting down his guard against these two elite generals was not a good idea.
After five days of playing real-life Minecraft in this world, a new branch of the river took shape. This water path carried the stream 10 kilometers to the north. This water channel ended at the edge of Taihang Mountain Range, which was the natural barricade that separated Ji Province and Bing Province in the northern regions.
This new river branch would cut off the pathway from Henei City to Liyang City once it was finished. The only way to reach Liyang was to cross this new river, or they had to sail on the original Yellow River.