The difficulty of walking through the jungle was far more than Lorraine imagined.
After the advance supply fleet converged in the Trinity River, the landing forces finally solved the problem of limited transportation capacity.
Every soldier can sit on the ship and go upstream. He doesn't have to go deep into the dangerous jungle. He doesn't have to challenge the appetite of terrible beasts such as forest beetles and leopards and those colorful peerless poisonous insects with his own luck.
However, this does not mean that the next journey will be smooth and easy.
During the dry season, the navigation environment of the San Juan River is worse than everyone expected.
The water depth at the mouth of the river is still two to three meters. When we reach Trini Bay, the suddenly widened river has only a limited one meter left.
If this depth is constantly challenging the draft limit of 10m and 15m, and there is a slight change in the riverbed, these vital large ships are very easy to run aground.
What's more, the river rich in aquatic organisms is as green as oil and not clear. Even if the water depth is shallow, it can't be seen with the naked eye.
How is the riverbed? Compliance with navigation standards?
All kinds of invisible and unknowable suspicions kept the landing forces in a state of trembling. Not only did they not improve their speed significantly, but even their spirit gradually returned to the high-pressure state on the first day.
Nelson was acutely aware of the team's concerns.
He negotiated with Lorraine and Spencer and assumed the heaviest responsibility as usual.
The procession was adjusted, and Nelson and his guard moved to the dahlia, becoming the pioneer of the whole fleet.
As long as the ship is sailing, five sailors will stand at the bow of the ship and probe into the temporary brace in a radial shape, 3 meters forward and 1 meter down, just in line with the draft and turning distance of dahliju and cactus.
After dahlia, the cactus followed suit, followed by the previous fleet, controlled by Bator.
Lorraine and his verdant dewdrop fell to the end of the team to monitor the almost impossible pursuit. He also had a new hope, Mr. live animal who had completely completed his training, Spencer's adjutant, Lieutenant freemani.
Sleep in the river at night.
Today is the seventh day of going upstream. The fleet marched to Les Bay.
Les Bay is a continuous bend in the middle of San Juan River, and the current washes out a beach on both banks.
In the wet season, the water flow here should be fast, otherwise the rainforest plants with such tenacious vitality will not let go of this nutrient rich silt beach and mud land.
But now is the dry season.
The chaotic water flow is smooth without waves, rolling mud and smoke, and there is no agitation.
Indigenous sailors say the beach is a common drinking point for rainforest animals and a natural hunting ground for American crocodiles.
This kind of social predators often lie in ambush underwater and hide in caves. Their natural protective color and quiet habits make them very difficult to be distinguished by human eyes, but once they act, they will burst out great power, and the speed is far beyond people's imagination.
For the sake of safety, Lorraine suggested that the overnight accommodation point should be set on the river far from the beach, and all ships should be wrapped with cables to build a relatively stable floating island, with large ships outside and small boats inside.
This is to protect those fragile boats.
The fully loaded boat has a deep draft and the freeboard is less than 20 cm from the water surface. The state of no shelter leads to the lack of protection of the people on board. Once the predators raid, the 14 people on board don't even have room to escape.
Busy, until midnight.
Most of the soldiers who are physically empty and mentally tired have fallen asleep on the crowded ship.
The large ship normally leaves 4 to 6 people on duty, while the small boat has no space to be on duty, and the crew is not able to undertake the duty.
The long-term tension makes them very tired. They can't even turn on the light at night. Only absolute darkness can give them a moment of breathing.
Lorraine was the star of the night. He made a circle around the ship like an island. He returned to the green dew and saw lieutenant freemani with a lantern and a gun on his back, standing like a pine.
Take off your gun, land, kick your legs, stand up!
When lieutenant freemani saw Lorraine coming back, he suddenly perked up and shouted in his moving voice that could lure parrots: "good day, sir!"
Lorraine was nearly shaken off the board.
With a dark face, he flew up and landed on the deck: "Lieutenant freemani..."
"Yes, my Lord!"
"I am not your official, whether subordinate or position..."
"That's why it's called adult, adult! It's heartfelt worship and respect. It's very different from transactional respect, adult! Please learn from it, adult!"
Lorraine looked at him playfully: "it sounds like you still don't understand my preferences. Report to batona tomorrow. You need to go back to the furnace."
Freemani's face changed greatly and his voice suddenly dropped 16 degrees: "I... I'll go to observe the water surface now... Mr. President, don't let me feed mosquitoes again..."
The training is not thorough enough
Looking at freemani who fled back to his post, Lorraine shook his head and climbed up the top cabin.
The turquoise dewdrop is a sloop type in Bermuda. It has the characteristic rear deck cabin of the sloop type. The superstructure is only half a layer. Even if the turquoise dewdrop is raised, it only raises the cabin roof.
The upper deck of the traditional sloop type is independent, without joint tail and against both sides, just like a box protruding from the deck.
The verdant dewdrop adopts Bermuda's high-speed design, the lateral berthing forms a fluid inclination, and the stern end extends to directly cover the whole raised stern, so that it has better windward performance.
Therefore, the cabin with green dew is more like the stern cabin of a large ship. The top of the cabin is the rear deck, which is the most spacious and open place on the whole ship.
Lorraine saw a slim figure on the cabin roof, dressed in a smock and hood, bent one leg and sat in the direction of the river, watching the blurred moonlight silently.
Haina
Since Nelson's visit in lusina, Lorraine and Haina have been in a strange cold war.
Lorraine is angry that Haina locks the door without his consent. Haina... It is estimated that Lorraine accepted Nelson's invitation without completely recovering.
Anyway, they haven't spoken seriously since then.
During the bad encounter on Mayes Island, the two did not communicate directly. They swam the coral kingdom and excavated the wreck ruins, while Haina didn't even show her face.
At the mouth of the San Juan River, they said a few words, but broke up unhappily.
Since then, even the most basic eye communication between the two people has been closed, just like two close parallel lines, independent and non-interference with each other.
Boom! Woman!
Lorraine looked at the moonlight with disgust, walked to Haina with her head up, took out the star shaped shell found at the bottom of the sea from her arms, and stuffed it into Haina's palm.
Haina looked down suspiciously.
Under the moonlight, the star shell glowed with pearls, just like a rainbow like color plate with breathing. The light and shadow flowed and the light and shade turned.
But all the colorful things are just a foil. In the center of Xingbei, a dark red ink like mark has become the end of all light and shadow, attracting all eyes.
"Is this... You carved it?"
"Born."
Haina's eyes lit up, bright as gemstones, brighter and more gorgeous than the shining star shell and the bright moonlight.
"Where did you come from?"
"I can't think of anyone other than you who is suitable for visiting Poseidon garden... Anyway, go to bed early."
The topic seems to be over again.
Lorraine stood stiffly for a while. He didn't speak, nor did Haina.
The silence lingered. Lorraine pressed the handle of the knife and simply turned around. Then he took a step. Suddenly, he felt something grabbed his trouser legs.
"About that day..."
Haina's voice is as thin as a mosquito. It's not even as noisy as mosquitoes in the rain forest.
"Yes..."
"Crocodile! Crocodile dragged Charles away!"
Suddenly, the exclamation cut through the sky, and in the middle of the package around the boat, a shrill scream broke out at the unprotected boat.
Lorraine was stunned.
Just a moment later, he suddenly started, took off the wind lamp hanging on the inboard and threw it at the dark boat.
The weak fire whirled in mid air and crashed into the head of an unlucky bullet, which went out in an instant.
Just before the fire went out, Lorraine saw at least 20 gray brown crocodiles with narrow snouts rolling on the water, like tangled muscle fibers.
"Thousands of defenses..." Lorraine pulled out his knife with a clang of his teeth. "Haina, go and inform Nelson and Spencer."
"Freemani, fire, engage!"