1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 603 The End of the World ([-])
"The azimuth of the heading has shifted, mainly because the compass pointer has deflected two compass points to the southeast." Lu Zusheng said with some frustration: "What's even more bizarre is that the same is true for the planetarium. Although, a few days ago, I passed The nautical astronomical clock calculated and found that the position of the fleet was deviated, but I thought it was the sun's azimuth observation that was wrong, so I still used the compass and planetarium as the standard."

"Who knows, I looked at the compass and planetarium again today, and found that the pointer returned to normal, and then checked my calculations with the nautical astronomical clock yesterday. We are now three degrees southeast of the original route. This means that we may Missed the island discovered by the Dutch."

"How did this happen?" Dong Fengshan frowned, "The nautical tools are damaged, so it doesn't mean that both of them are broken at the same time....Could it be some crazy sailor who did it?"

"Probably not." Lu Zusheng shook his head and said, "I think it's the rising stars at night that make the compass pointer deviate. It should be a phenomenon of geomagnetic deviation."

"Geomagnetic bias phenomenon?"

"Well, the king once said that the stars and the moon in the sky sometimes cause the magnetic force of the earth to shift." Lu Zusheng explained: "It is also mentioned in the "Mengxi Bi Tan" written by Shen Kuo in the former Song Dynasty that the Fang family used magnets to grind Needle-pointed, it guides; but Chang Weidong, not Quannan. This is probably the reason.”

"Hehe, you know a lot!" Dong Fengshan laughed dumbly, "What should we do now?"

"I suggest to adjust the course directly to the northwest. Let's go to the Vanua Island (Fiji sub-island) discovered by the Dutch." Lu Zusheng said with a wry smile: "However, it may take another ten days or half a month."

"Half a day's rest today should temporarily boost the morale of the officers and soldiers." Dong Fengshan turned and left, "If this happens again next time, you'd better let me know in advance. You can't be careless when sailing on the sea."

"...Yes, Lord Admiral." Lu Zusheng felt ashamed and ashamed.For more than a month, relying on my own navigation and positioning technology, there have been almost no deviations from the route, which made me a little blindly arrogant.

After Dong Fengshan left, Lu Zusheng lay down on the fixed table and began to recalculate the revised route distance and the exact position of the fleet.

For Lu Zusheng's momentary negligence, Dong Fengshan did not give a severe reprimand. He believed that the other party must feel ashamed in his heart, and this young man should have his own pride and self-esteem.In this way, the exploration fleet may miss the small island that can be docked for repairs, and the officers and soldiers who are extremely exhausted will have to continue to stay on the ship for a longer period of time.

It was night, and the fleet was advancing slowly in the breeze.At this time, the course has turned to the northwest, ready to find another island discovered by the Dutch in the northwest direction a few years ago.

After dawn, the sailors on the ship shouted loudly, saying that countless small tunas were found swimming nearby, and many seabirds were flying in the air.Dong Fengshan then ordered the watchman to closely observe the surrounding sea. He suspected that there was a small island or an atoll nearby.However, it is very difficult to find these small islands and atolls in the vast sea.

But after a whole day passed, none of the fleet officers and soldiers found any land on the sea, and the sailors seemed a little disappointed.

On the second day after adjusting the course, the good weather that lasted for more than ten days seemed to be coming to an end.The sky is leaden gray, and there is a faint prelude to the storm, but at this time the sea is as calm as a mirror.

A lot of aquatic plants appeared near the place where the fleet was driving. After they were salvaged and carefully identified, Dong Fengshan threw them into the sea again with some disappointment. Those aquatic plants did not float over from a certain land, but real seaweeds.

In the evening, when heavy rain came, Dong Fengshan ordered all the fleet to lower their sails and lower their masts.In addition, the sailors were ordered to place some of the empty buckets on the deck, so that they could catch the rainwater and replace the drinking water that had changed color.

The rain was heavy, and there was also a strong northwest wind, which not only drove the boat to the southeast, but also the waves in the sea kept lifting and throwing the boat, as if trying to swallow everything on the sea.

On February 2, the weather became very clear, and at noon, the lookout on the ship suddenly reported loudly that he had seen land.Dong Fengshan still couldn't believe it, and deeply suspected that the guy on the mast had seen too many scenes at sea, and his eyes had hallucinations.But as the watchman shouted, some impatient officers and soldiers on the ship eagerly climbed up the mast and rigging, wanting to confirm the good news as soon as possible.

"Admiral, it's a piece of land!" Lu Zusheng excitedly shouted to Dong Fengshan: "We have indeed found a piece of land!"

Dong Fengshan held the binoculars tightly with both hands, looked at the dark land in front of the ship on the right, suppressed the excitement in his heart, and ordered calmly: "Send a signal flag to Fengqing 1, let's go there and have a look. !"

The two armed exploration ships turned around and headed towards the land at full speed.They didn't care what was there, they needed land, fresh water to drink, and fresh vegetables.

In the evening, the exploration fleet gradually approached that piece of land—in fact, it was a small island to be precise. In the twilight, it looked dark and mysterious.For the sake of safety, Dong Fengshan did not issue a landing order, and planned to temporarily stop by the sea.After dawn tomorrow, come to visit this land that everyone is eager to board.

After dawn, more than [-] sailors carried muskets and landed in three small boats.Not long after they landed, they disappeared into the dense jungle.Dong Fengshan and all the officers and soldiers stood by the ship's side, anxiously waiting for them to investigate the situation before returning.

However, in less than a quarter of an hour, the sound of gunfire from the shore was suddenly heard, and everyone on board immediately became tense.More than 20 brothers stationed on the shore rushed into the jungle with muskets after leaving two of them to guard the boat.

The sound of gunfire on the shore was intermittent, and the officers and soldiers on board were a little nervous, staring anxiously at the jungle on the shore.

"It shouldn't be a big problem." Dong Fengshan showed a relieved smile on his face, "The sound of musket firing is very rhythmic, which proves that the brothers on the shore can control the situation. In addition, this small island is so remote, there should not be any powerful ones." Force. And our armed sailors have already landed in thirty or forty, so it is definitely not enough to occupy the island, but if we want to protect ourselves and return to the ship, it should be safe."

Sure enough, less than an hour later, sailors came out of the forest one after another, dragging a few black and thin natives in their queue.

Dong Fengshan also landed on the island in a small boat, found the officer leading the team, and asked about the specific situation just now.

It turned out that the armed sailors who went deep into the forest to investigate the situation on the island happened to meet a group of local aborigines who were picking wild fruits.In a friendly manner, the sailors tried to give the gifts prepared in advance to the natives in exchange for their favor, so that the fleet can land smoothly later and take a short rest here.

Unexpectedly, after receiving the gift from the sailor, several natives turned around and ran away.Seeing this, some other natives thought that their companions were being attacked, roared, and attacked with wooden spears.They first threw wooden spears, accompanied by stones and coconuts.

The sailors were suddenly attacked, and then returned fire.After killing several natives, the rest fled into the jungle.

Without the slightest hesitation, the leading officer immediately led the armed sailors to find the direction in which the aborigines were fleeing, and chased after them.But the jungle on the island is dense, and after chasing for less than a quarter of an hour, all the aborigines disappeared into the jungle without a trace.However, during the pursuit, the sailors shot and killed more than a dozen natives one after another, captured three of them, and dragged the captives all the way to the shore.

Looking at the aborigines who were only wearing grass skirts of leaves, Dong Fengshan shook his head. The folk customs of these uncivilized aborigines are not simple at all.We just wanted to stay on this island temporarily to rest for a few days, but we dared to carry out an attack.

With the opening of the temporary camp on the shore, the sailors on the two exploration armed ships landed one after another. However, considering the armed conflict with the local aborigines, the officers and soldiers were told to maintain a certain degree of vigilance during the rest period.

Perhaps deterred by the powerful muskets of the officers and soldiers of the exploration fleet, the natives on the island never appeared again.Of course, it is also possible that they are hiding in the dense jungle and spying on such a group of "robbers" from the outside world.

During the rest period, Dong Fengshan sent armed sailors to conduct a detailed inspection of the area within a mile around. Except for a temporarily abandoned aboriginal camp, there were no other major discoveries. There seemed to be no sign of advanced civilization on the island.This shows that the island may not have been discovered by any Western forces before, and the Qi State Exploration Fleet was the first person to arrive in the "civilized world" here.

On February 2, after some rest and reorganization, the exploration fleet was preparing to leave here for Viti Levu.Before leaving, Dong Fengshan named the island they discovered as Relay Island (that is, Niue Island, which was first discovered by later Cook), and buried a stele of Qi State in their temporary camp, announcing that The island will be owned by the Daqi Kingdom in the future.

(End of this chapter)