Ah Xu explained the situation to everyone. Everyone knows that saltpeter will melt when it comes into contact with water. Now that we have left the Luoshui tribe for half the journey, we don't want to ruin the luggage after so many days of hard work.
I chose a high ground not too far from the locust tree where I live, and a distance from the river, so even if the river swells, it will not spread to this place. A Xu led people to cut branches directly from the acacia tree as stakes, and simply built a rectangular trellis. In order to prevent it from being blown away by the wind, the leaves spread on it to keep out the rain were firmly fixed with ropes.
Just after laying the leaves on the top, a strong wind came along with a faint smell of burning and the sound of thunder getting closer. The sky was getting darker and darker, and the dazzling lightning seemed to flash across people's eyes.
Aze frowned, put down the cattail leaves in his hand, and nimbly climbed up to the top of the acacia tree. When he saw the distant scene clearly, his pupils were dimmed, and he was facing the branch under the tree, which was being carried on his shoulders, planning to take it back and build a shelter Ah Xu shouted: "Ah Xu, the plain is on fire."
Aze's words were like a switch, as his words fell, all the orcs stopped their movements stiffly, and were stunned for a while, Ayan and Axu climbed up the locust tree at the same time, and when they saw the situation in front of them clearly Can't help but frown.
"Chen Qi, we're going to evacuate here." Ah Xu jumped down with a serious face, and called the orcs who were still looking for Puyegai's shelter from the rain to come back.
Chen Qi pondered for a while, and didn't reply right away, but asked Aze to carry him up the tree to have a look.
The distance has been covered by black clouds, the sky is pitch black, and it is impossible to tell whether it is black clouds or thick smoke. Only a thin orange-red flame shows that the plain is being ravaged by a group of fires.
The fire was still far away from here, so far away that Chen Qi could barely see it with his eyesight, if Aze hadn't said that there was a fire there, even if Chen Qi climbed a tree and saw this phenomenon, he wouldn't think about the fire.
But the wind is blowing from the direction of the fire, and the fire follows the wind, so it is only a matter of time before it comes here.
The sky above the head was also covered by thick black clouds, lightning was already in sight, and heavy rain would fall here at any time.
Chen Qi made some calculations in his mind, and after getting down from the tree, he found Ah Xu, "It will take some time for the fire to come here, and it will rain soon, and it is still a problem whether the fire can be overwhelmed, and the canopy will be set up soon , Make it again and then evacuate." If you leave now, not only this pile of saltpeter, but even the table salt that has been refined with great difficulty will be wasted in vain.
Ah Xu was a little hesitant. Living on the plains, he had seen fires on the plains, and he knew how terrible the fires on the plains were. Once trapped by the fires, even females might not be able to escape. He was afraid of Chen Qi Not understanding the horror of the fire on the plain, he expressed his worries to Chen Qi.
Chen Qi knew what the other party was worried about, and comforted him: "Don't worry, we will leave if we find that something is wrong." Chen Qi estimated that as long as the fire has not come to the front at the speed of a female, it should be enough to escape.
Ah Xu and Ah Yan discussed it. Although they were still a little worried, they finally nodded and reluctantly agreed to Chen Qi's proposal. Ah Yan asked Ah Yu to stand on the top of the acacia tree to keep an eye on the situation of the fire. Signal them when you come into danger range.
When the rain shelter was built again, everyone's movements became more agile. Even though everyone couldn't hide their worries on their faces, the movements of their subordinates were not messy at all, and they were still working in an orderly manner.
The pressure in the air is getting lower and lower, and the humidity is getting higher and higher. The clouds seem to be falling from the sky, making it difficult to breathe.
Luggage containing salt, saltpeter, gypsum and the like that cannot be exposed to the rain have all been placed in the rain shelter. Several strong wooden shelves have been set up in the shed to isolate all luggage from the ground by a certain distance. Tear off the cover and put it on top of the luggage, and carefully stacked a few layers of cattail leaves on the top layer to prevent the luggage from being wet by accidentally dripping water.
The surroundings of the rain shelter are densely sealed with leaves, and the top is fixed with ropes. Even strong winds may not be able to overturn the leaves on the rain shelter.
Chen Qi asked everyone to clean up the weeds around the rain shelter and make a simple firebreak. Even though the orcs were very fast, Ayu, who was always watching the fire on the top of the tree after clearing a small open space, sent out a signal , everyone immediately went back to pick up their luggage under the acacia tree, Aze carried Chen Qi on his back, and the group hurriedly evacuated the area.
A drop of water fell on Chen Qi's nose, Chen Qi stretched out his hand to touch it, looked up at the sky that seemed to have entered the night, another drop of water fell on Chen Qi's forehead, and a bolt of lightning flashed from Chen Qi's eyes However, it didn't take long before there was a deafening thunder, as if it had received a signal, more and more water droplets fell from the sky.
The crowd walked for about half an hour, and stopped when they couldn't see the fire. Ah Xu climbed up a nearby locust tree to check the surrounding situation, and then quickly came down.
The drops of water had already wet his hair and slid down his hair to his face. Ah Xu wiped off the drops of water on his face casually, "It's raining too much, I can't see where the fire is going, but there should be some There is no problem."
"Then what should we do now? Shall we find a tree foot to shelter from the rain?" The rain was getting heavier and more urgent, and it hit the person's face in excruciating pain.
"No, you can't shelter from the rain under a big tree." Chen Qi shook his head, "Lightning may strike the tallest object, so it's not safe to shelter from the rain under a tree."
Chen Qi picked off a piece of cattail leaf, the cattail leaf nearby is not big enough to barely cover his head, he handed the cattail leaf to Ah Xu, and continued: "Tell them to find a place away from the trees to squat down, Try not to let yourself become the tallest object nearby, although these pu leaves are not big, they can barely block the rain."
Ah Xu didn't understand why he didn't use a ready-made shelter from the rain? He had never seen lightning strike a tree, so naturally he couldn't understand what Chen Qi said, and was about to say something.
As soon as Chen Qi finished speaking, another bolt of lightning flashed by, and this bolt of lightning was even closer, almost lighting up the surrounding area like daylight. There was a loud noise, this time the sound was relatively dull, but it seemed to be exploding right next to everyone's ears, followed by a burning smell. Everyone looked in the direction where the lightning disappeared, and saw only a few hundred meters away. A tall acacia tree was split in half, the original green leaves became scorched black, several flames burst out from the trunk, which were quickly extinguished by the heavy rain, and a thick smoke flowed along the trunk Rising, blown by the wind and scattered in the rain.
Ah Xu swallowed his saliva, and looked at the acacia tree he had climbed just now with a little fear. The acacia tree was just a few meters away, and everyone moved away from that location in unison.
"Just do as you say." Ah Xu went to give instructions to others with a pale face.
Everyone took action immediately, and found a relatively open place to squat down. Although the animal skin backpack was waterproof to a certain extent, it was already soaked in the rain. The orcs were not all crowded together, but two or two One group was scattered, and as the rain got heavier, the pu leaves used as hats to keep out the rain had long since lost their effect.
Chen Qi took off his camouflage clothes, and he also wore a vest made of cocoon wool, which is much softer than the camouflage clothes.
Chen Qi beckoned Aze to squat beside him, and then blocked the huge animal skin backpack in front of the two of them. Anyway, the contents inside were already soaked, so it's better to block them from the wind.
After Aze squatted down, Chen Qi put a cattail leaf on the opponent's head, then put a piece on his own head, and then put up the camouflage clothes to cover the heads of the two people, and the rain that had hit people was blocked in an instant. . "Although it's useless, it can at least keep out the rain." Chen Qi said apologetically, pulling Aze towards him. He had never seen rain before, and thought that there was no such thing as rain in this world. If he knew this, he should have made an umbrella.
The distance between the two was very close. When Chen Qi spoke, his breath could spray on Aze's face. Aze's whole body was already soaked by the rain. Now he was talking with Chen Qi, and he could feel his face in between breaths. itchy. He reached out to take the camouflage jacket that Chen Qi had propped up, and moved the clothes towards the other side, but unfortunately the camouflage jacket was not waterproof at all, and there would still be raindrops falling on Chen Qi's body, A Ze couldn't help frowning.
The heavy rain blocked people's sight. Except for the sound of rain, there were bursts of thunder. Everyone squatted in the grass silently watching the lightning passing by from near to far, worrying when it would strike nearby again. Fortunately, it was not until the rain Slowly stopped and did not happen the lightning strike just now.
The rain has been falling for more than three hours at least. After seeing the clouds slowly dissipating, and the thunder is too far away to hear clearly, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and after a brief tidying up, everyone returned At the canopy they built, due to the huge amount of precipitation, the water that hadn't flowed away in the grass accumulated, and a layer of water splashed when they stepped on it.
The canopy built by the orcs worked very well. Except for some top branches and leaves being blown over by the wind, there was no sign of falling apart at all. The fire was extinguished by heavy rain a few hundred meters away.
Because the rain had not completely stopped, Chen Qi only opened a small hole in the canopy. The luggage inside was not wet because it was far away from the ground. The dry firewood and the pottery plate of wild ginger came out, and asked others to change clothes in the rain shelter, while he chose a place where there was no stagnant water and was cleared out to be used as a firebreak, and lit a fire , poured out a large pottery dish before calling it back, put the unused water on the fire and boiled it, added chopped wild ginger, drenched in the rain all afternoon, everyone needed a bowl of ginger soup to drive away the cold.
Ah Xu led someone to count the wet luggage, most of which were plants picked on the road, worried that it would be soaked in the rain for so long, so he spread a clean cloth under the acacia tree, and wiped all the wet luggage. Put everything on it to dry for a while, I can't continue my journey today, at least let the things dry and hope they can still be used.