Fortunately, the collapse of Smoke Dock City started from a relatively good location near the river bank. After all, the center of the city was burned more severely.
When the collapse gradually spread to the city walls, there was still a slight buffer in the middle. Yang Rui's Scaled Soldiers were also somewhat prepared.
Most importantly, the collapse gradually spread from the center to the periphery, creating a huge squeezing force that pushed all the people in the water, including the scaled aquatic soldiers, a great distance away from the Wei River. The scaled aquatic soldiers that participated in the rescue at the periphery were not trapped by the collapse of the small city.
Although the collapse of Smoke Dock City caused some NPCs to be crushed to death, it allowed a large number of NPCs to escape from the danger of the sea of fire. This could be considered as the game system's favor to the NPCs trapped in the city.
The large number of NPCs that fell into the water, even if they couldn't be rescued by the Scaled Soldiers that were pushed far away, it wouldn't be too big of a problem.
Smoke Dock City was originally made of wood. At this moment, there was no lack of wood and planks in the water. The NPCs that fell into the water only needed to stretch out their hands and grab a piece of wood to temporarily save their lives. As long as the Scaled Soldiers came to the rescue, these NPCs would finally be rescued.
Only a small number of the old and weak were directly swept away by the water due to the violent impact of the collapse. This situation was just like the previous collapse, it was a small number of people.
When the huge waves from the collapse of the city receded, Yang Rui's Scaled Soldiers began to display their excellent swimming ability and pulled out the NPCs that had fallen into the water one by one.
After about three hours of hard work, the scaled water soldiers finally managed to save most of the NPCs from the messy Wei River. In the end, they managed to fill up the dozens of small and medium sized boats, but there were still more than half of the NPCs that they couldn't fit.
Yang Rui sent out a small number of boats to escort the boats that were filled with NPCs to the stronghold in Xinfeng County. The remaining boats and navy stayed behind to look after the NPCs that were temporarily settled by the shore.
Yang Rui didn't have the time to chase after Li Ge's retreating troops. At the same time, he didn't have enough manpower on land.
Although the scaled water soldiers were very brave in the river, they were not necessarily good at fighting on land. Especially when they were facing the Xiliang army, which had a large proportion of cavalry. Yang Rui was even less confident.
At the end of the day, the limited functions of the Sky Castle still brought a lot of inconvenience to Yang Rui. In the current storyline, Yang Rui's strength had been greatly affected. He could only watch helplessly as there were many troops in the Sky Castle, but he couldn't use them.
Under such circumstances, Yang Rui could almost predict that the process of participating in the plot this time would be very difficult to be as efficient as the previous plots. Naturally, the harvest would be relatively inferior, but it was also a normal thing.
For this reason, Yang Rui had already made a general judgment and would not be unprepared because of the changes in the situation. Under such circumstances, Yang Rui also had a new plan. It was just that he hadn't fully considered it yet.
In the remaining half of the day, Yang Rui's remaining scaled water soldiers waited for the boats to send them to the shore. At the same time, they explored and cleared the upstream waters until they reached the shore near Chen Cang.
The Wei River above Chen Cang was very different from before. It was very turbulent, and the width of the river had suddenly decreased by a lot. It was no longer suitable for large and small boats to navigate. Yang Rui's troops stopped here.
Of course, since the upstream waters were no longer suitable for navigation, there was basically no possibility of other forces on the water. The threat from the upstream of the Wei River was basically eliminated by Yang Rui's navy.
In the process of investigating and clearing, Yang Rui's navy met with some scattered resistance. However, under the pressure of so many large boats, these scattered forces naturally could not cause much of a stir. They were all easily defeated by Yang Rui's navy.
At the same time, Yang Rui's navy once again found over a hundred boats. Although most of them were fishing boats, it was more or less enough to carry the remaining NPCs.
On the morning of the second day, Yang Rui's navy once again found a few small fishing boats near the dock. They barely managed to carry all the remaining NPCs. Without waiting for the boats returning to Xinfeng to receive them, they directly set sail and headed towards Xinfeng.
The total number of NPCs rescued by the Scaled Soldiers did not exceed 10000. The previous batch had already transferred over 4000 NPCs. If not for the fact that all the large boats were almost fully staffed, a few large boats would have been able to carry the rest of the NPCs.
Now that the NPCs rescued from Black Dock City were sincerely convinced and deeply grateful, they were all willing to submit to Yang Rui. Naturally, they would listen to Yang Rui's orders and were also willing to follow Yang Rui out of this troubled land.
Because they were going downstream, the speed of the boats was naturally much faster. Along the way, they encountered a large boat that came to receive them. All the surviving NPCs were transferred onto the large boat, so the speed of their journey was naturally much faster.
By the time Yang Rui's troops arrived at the Yellow River near Xinfeng County, it was not long after night had fallen.
Under such circumstances, Yang Rui did not disturb the NPCs in Xinfeng County. He ordered the Scaled Soldiers to set up tents on the shore nearby and arranged for all the surviving NPCs to be settled in. They would be resettled in the city the next day.
Time passed very quickly and in the blink of an eye, it was already the afternoon of the second day. Only then did Yang Rui manage to settle all the surviving NPCs in Black Dock.
These NPCs were different from the original NPCs in the city. Most of them were maids and servants and were unable to survive on their own. After submitting to Yang Rui, they also needed to be supplied with food from the treasury.
Because of this, the already limited food reserves in Xinfeng City became even more strained. Yang Rui's need for food once again became urgent. Yang Rui had already thought of this point from the very beginning.
Disregarding the lack of food, Yang Rui also had the intention of controlling Xinfeng County, as well as Zheng County and Huayin, all the way to Tong Pass.
In terms of topography, the line that Yang Rui chose was the corridor that one had to pass to enter Yongzhou from the east of Chang 'an City. As long as he controlled it, it was almost equivalent to guarding the passage to the east of Chang' an City.
At the same time, this narrow and long region was distributed near the Yellow River, making it convenient for Yang Rui's powerful navy to display its might.
If they could control Tong Guan, they would undoubtedly gain the initiative in the series of plots in that area.
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