The sacrificial ceremony was very grand. After all, worshiping Mazu was an extremely important matter in the minds of the people of Min, so a lot of people were mobilized.
There were as many as nine ships carrying tributes and ritual music on the sea. Two of them collided with the imperial envoy's ship. Roughly speaking, at least sixty people fell into the sea due to the shipwreck or while trying to rescue their companions.
The guards brought by Shen Chen and Wei An had to jump into the sea in large numbers to rescue people.
Even so, not everyone could be rescued - the wind was too strong, the waves surged up one after another, and many people were swept away without even the chance to call for help.
Suddenly, there were overwhelming cries and calls for help from the shore.
One fisherman's wife fainted while she was pregnant.
There was also an old woman who fainted and cried because her son was swept away by the waves, and then she woke up and cried out to the sky again.
There was a sound of wailing.
In such an atmosphere, someone suddenly pointed at Wei An, who was standing on the boat with his cape on and facing the wind, and shouted coldly: "There are women over there! It was the imperial envoy who brought these plague gods and angered the Queen Mother of Heaven! It was they who destroyed the sacrificial ceremony of Mazu! We have no way to survive..."
At the end of his speech, he actually burst into tears, as if he had encountered some great injustice and disaster.
In fact, his crying really made many people panic and at a loss. Yes, Mazu was their sea goddess. In a place like theirs that depended on the sea for their livelihood, offending the sea goddess was tantamount to cutting off their livelihood.
Many people began to feel indignant and stared at the ship not far away with red eyes.
Some people wiped their tears and accused: "Could it be a witch? In all these years, we have never had such a big incident here. We have never heard of any problem with the boat used for worshiping Mazu..."
Most of the people were easily instigated, and they couldn't help but break out in cold sweats when they heard this.
Yes, maybe she is a witch...
Some people began to take the lead in throwing stones and whatever they could find at the boat, preventing the imperial envoy's boat from docking, while shouting at the witch and the plague god to stay away.
Wen Xiu was so angry that she couldn't speak: "What do you mean by witch or not?! She said such harsh words! She didn't provoke them in any way, why are they so vicious?!"
Yuqing, who was always good-tempered, couldn't help it. She cursed and sneered: "She's a witch? If she really is a witch, she would be the first to eat up those indecisive people like them!"
That being said, with so many people on the shore, Wenxiu and Suping still persuaded Wei An to go back to the cabin first.
Wei An refused. He stood straight and looked at the people on the shore. He said calmly, "If we go in now, it will be even more difficult to explain. Someone is trying to stir up the people's emotions. This so-called ceremony of worshipping Mazu is actually just a trick to deal with us and make the people hate the imperial envoy."
Shen Chen hummed, turned his head coldly and glanced at Liu Biping who was still sitting like a mountain at the end of the sea of people, and a sneer appeared on the corner of his mouth: "What are you talking about? There is no need to hide, just save people openly."
Wei An no longer paid attention to the ridicule and shouting on the shore, and arranged for people to rescue the people in an orderly manner. After the rescue, he arranged for the old doctor to see the patient.
There was one person who had already stopped breathing. The old doctor asked the guard to hold the person upside down and run wildly on the boat. The person was actually shaken and coughed violently, spitting out a lot of water.
The sounds on the shore gradually went from loud to quiet.
Everyone saw that the imperial envoy and the girl known as the witch were both concentrating on saving people.
The imperial envoy was so young, and looked like a playboy, but he was very serious when saving people, and he could even take their pulses. With his help, several people who had lost their voices were knocked out of the water, and they lay on the deck vomiting.
They are alive, at least those who were rescued and brought aboard by the guards were rescued seriously.
The shouting and cursing of the people gradually died down.
It was only at this time that Wei An straightened up and ordered Xue Song: "Use your kung fu to shout louder and ask Governor Liu, the governor of the area, how long he is prepared to watch the fun."
Xuesong was eager to hear this, and immediately shouted at the top of his voice: "Governor Liu! Our Lord and Princess ask, have you had enough of watching the excitement? Are those who fell into the sea the people under your rule? They fell into the water and crashed into the boat, and you don't care about the safety of the imperial envoy, and you don't care about the safety of your people either?!"
The people, who had gradually calmed down, immediately turned around and stared at their governor.
The people on the boat who were speaking were not wrong.
The Governor is obviously their parent official, but now something has gone wrong in their sacrifice and so many people have fallen into the water, but the Governor did not save them and instead stood by and watched the joke!
How can he be a parent official?!
Liu Biping's eyebrows twitched heavily.
This Wei An is really sharp-tongued!
It's indeed a difficult character to deal with.
He immediately closed the book on his knees, stood up, frowned and said: "All soldiers, listen up, rescue the people! The imperial envoy's ship has a problem, do your best to repair it!"
He paused, and continued, "I just saw the Imperial Envoy was so enthusiastic about saving people that I forgot to move. Damn it! Damn it! The Imperial Envoy is really capable. With so many guards... he told me to go into the water, and I was so overwhelmed by the Imperial Envoy's majesty that I forgot my duty. Damn it!"
When he said this, it seemed as if Shen Chen had already prepared for bringing so many guards with him to go into the water to rescue people, as if he had known that something would go wrong with the sacrifice.
Mr. Hu winked at the people on the shore.
Someone immediately agreed: "Yes, yes, there was a typhoon blowing for several days before, and because the typhoon was so strong, many people and fishing boats were damaged. Everyone was preparing for the sacrificial ceremony and praying for Mazu to appear. It was such a coincidence that we just happened to run into the imperial envoy..."
Although the imperial envoy saved people, it seems that it is not wrong to say that they are plague gods and that they brought the disaster.
For a while, the people were still very angry and resentful towards Shen Chen and the others on the boat.
Regardless of whether Shen Chen and his team saved people or not, it is true that their arrival disturbed the Mazu sacrificial ceremony, and they made the sacrifice a failure.
Saving lives now would be a waste of time.
Old Madam Wei on the boat couldn't help but sneer: "Liu Biping is really thoughtful in using the gods and ghosts to cause trouble. He really thinks highly of us and even dares to use their own gods to set up a trap."