After the agreement, Shen Luo handed the horses to Yu Dadan and his wife to look after, and he paddled the boat towards the river.
Before setting off, Yu Dabing did not forget to give him some detailed instructions, fearing that he might encounter an accident. Shen Luo naturally did not dare to be negligent and wrote down in detail the conditions of each section of the river and the things that needed attention.
The woman even added clean drinking water to the boat, and brought out a few pancakes and some dried meat from home, wrapped them in linen, and insisted that Shen Luo take them on board to eat.
Shen Luo couldn't refuse the kindness, so he smiled and accepted the package.
The small black-sailed boat drifted down the turbulent river. Shen Luo stood at the bow, holding a bamboo pole in his hand, but he did not row the boat. Instead, he felt for reefs in the water on both sides of the boat.
Soon, the boat passed by clumps of reeds as tall as a person and entered a reed forest.
According to Yu Dadan, this section of the river is the most turbulent section of the entire Luanshui River. The speed of the boat was not very fast when it first entered the water, but the speed increased rapidly as it went downstream, so much so that Shen Luo had to start using a bamboo pole to probe the bottom to slow down the boat.
It's just that he was really new to rowing. It was fine in calm water, but in this kind of rapids, even though he was fully focused, he still couldn't avoid bumps and bruises.
"Bang, bang, bang"
The boat drifted east and west, repeatedly hitting the reefs under the river surface, startling the ducks and geese in the reeds on both sides and causing the water birds to fly into the sky.
When encountering some large whirlpools and reefs, he had to try his best to paddle the boat away, otherwise once caught in them, the boat might capsize if he was not careful.
Shen Luo soon became so tired that he was sweating all over and seeing stars, but the water force did not allow him to rest, so he could only grit his teeth and hold on.
Along the way, he paid special attention to the river banks on both sides, observing whether the river narrowed. However, due to the tall and dense reeds in the river, his vision was affected and he could not see accurately. He could only judge as best as possible based on the changes in water level.
After all, where the river channel narrows, the water flow speed will also increase.
Shen Luo drifted like this for seven or eight miles. He did not encounter any rocky beaches along the way, but there were quite a few sandbars in the middle of the river.
His boat ran head-on into two narrow sandbars.
The sandbar was covered with green reeds, which looked like a natural waterway. As soon as the boat entered it, its speed suddenly increased and it rushed out.
With a dull "bang", the boat suddenly shook violently when it rushed out of the reeds.
Shen Luo staggered and almost fell off the bow of the boat.
He held the bamboo pole to steady his body and looked forward. He saw that the bow of the boat had hit a rocky beach that was dozens of feet in diameter. Fortunately, the boat was made of solid wood and was not damaged.
Unlike the sandbars seen along the way, the rocky beach was filled with fist-sized gray-white pebbles and mud, but where the bow collided, there was a brown river reef that was much larger than the other rocks.
Not only is this stone strangely rugged in shape, but only about two feet of it is exposed above the water, with the majority of it submerged underwater.
As luck would have it, the bow of the ship was stuck in a groove of the rock, but fortunately it was not damaged.