Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 678
On the vast sea, a three-masted lucky boat was loaded with tea from Daming, sailing southward with the wind and waves.

After the ship was loaded with cargo in Guangzhou, it added some fresh water, rice, grain, vegetables and fruits in Qiongdao, and then continued to sail along the coast.

The ship is a merchant ship of the Jinghai Company. Because of the background of the Five Loyalty Army and the company has a shipbuilding workshop, the company has developed very rapidly. There are a hundred ships of the company operating in Nanyang. Can be bigger.

For merchants, ships are not a problem. Qiongdao has not yet been developed, and there are many giant trees suitable for shipbuilding. Hundreds of thousands of sea-going ships can be built in a short period of time, but sailors, boatmen, and pilots cannot be cultivated in a short period of time.

Wang Yan has been running Guangdong Hai for three years, and he has only cultivated so few people.

Along the way, the ship did not encounter any strong wind and waves. Although the wind was not favorable at this time, since the Song Dynasty, China has mastered the sailing technology of "wind from all directions, but the head does not enter", which means that as long as it is not against the sky, Wind coming from the other seven directions can make the boat move forward by adjusting the sail surface.

The wind blows sideways, blowing the sails, and the sailor adjusts the sails. The ship is a little bit sideways, and it seems to be swaying.

At this time, the sailors on the watchtower were watching the sea vigilantly. The sailors gathered on the deck, and they were all armed with weapons, not only swords, but also firecrackers and rockets. There were also twelve Franc cannons on board.

Wang Yan previously allowed the merchant to equip the merchant ship with firearms. Other merchants were worried about training, but the Jinghai merchant did not have this concern. Most of the guards on board were soldiers who had retired from the army or former pirates. Equipment is very skilled.

With these people joining, the Jinghai Merchant Company became the first maritime merchant of the Ming Dynasty to occasionally make a fortune. However, they still had some bottom line, and all they robbed were cargo ships from Western Yi or Nanyang countries.

On the deck, the pilot is a scholar named Wu Shizhao, in his 30s, from Leizhou, who failed the examinations many times, and his family was poor. In order to support his family, he had to give up the imperial examination and join the chamber of commerce. In fact, he was always a little unwilling.

For this navigating job, one needs to be able to read sea charts, understand monsoon tides, know astronomy and geography, and be able to use oceanic astrology, which is difficult for ordinary people to learn, so anyone who is proficient in these is the treasure of the Chamber of Commerce, and the reward is extremely high.

Wu Shizhao took the advantage of being a scholar and was more or less proficient in arithmetic, so he quickly learned these things. The Chamber of Commerce also gave him a very high salary, and he could catch up with the seventh-rank magistrate, but he didn't have this ambition. He still wanted to be a gold medal one day Title.

Although Guangdong has changed a lot in the past few years, people's ideas have changed very slowly.

In the corner of the deck, there was a man with a sword and a bow and arrow on his back. He was a retired soldier from the Wuzhong Army. His name was Han Hua.

He stood behind Wu Shizhao, staring blankly at the compass and chart in his hand. He obviously wanted to learn, but Wu Shizhao was unwilling to hand it over to him. He looked up at the sky and silently estimated the ship's position in his heart. Location.

Suddenly Wu Shizhao put away the chart and compass, turned around and walked to Xiang Chuan Boss, Han Hua saw a trace of disappointment in his eyes.

The boss of the boat also had a seedling knife hanging from his waist. He was standing on the boat tower, looking at the sea with piercing eyes. After crossing the sea off Champa, we are about to enter the Gulf of Siam."

Hearing this, the captain of the boat couldn't help tightening his belt, took off the seedling knife, then pulled out one section and inserted it back, raised his head and shouted to the sailors on the watch bucket, "Wang Fugui, we are coming to Heyi's territory soon. Be smart, old man!"

On the bow of the mainmast, a sailor with tanned skin and shiny skin immediately replied: "The shopkeeper puts his heart in his stomach, the seabirds flying in the sky are so small that he can count even his hairs!"

The Dutch controlled Malacca and blocked the shipping lanes for Ming merchants to go to Tianzhu, so they could only transport the goods to Chumphon, the narrowest state of Siam in the Malay Peninsula, and hand them over to local merchants for resale.

This is equal to the benefits of trade, and being divided into half by the Erdao businessmen, it was a great loss for the merchants of the Ming Dynasty, so they always wanted to get through Malacca and enter the Tianzhu trade.

The Gulf of Siam is no longer under the control of the navy of the Ming Dynasty, and Siam has basically no coastal defense at all, and it can be regarded as an area without kingly law.

Both the pirates and the Dutch knew that the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty would transport their goods here, so they often robbed the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty in this sea area, and maritime trade took great risks.

The navy wants to take a berth in Champa, also in order to expand its influence to the Gulf of Siam and ensure the safety of commercial routes.

At this time, the sailors and guards on the ship listened to the conversation, and the atmosphere immediately became tense, and everyone cheered up. The gunner got up and took out a bucket of medicine from the ship's cabin, and loaded the ammunition in Francine's gun. Picking up the weapons around him, or squatting down to make a simple cupping pot, the boss of the boat walked to the side of the boat and stared at the sea.

Wu Shizhao didn't seem to care much about this. He didn't really integrate into the crew. After finishing his job, he sat on the cargo with one foot and read a book.

Han Hua walked up to Wu Shizhao's side at some point, "Wu Xiucai, if you encounter a pirate ship and your sword has no eyes, you can hide in the barn."

Wu Shizhao knew that Han Hua wanted to learn the technique of foreign astrology, but he was all focused on the imperial examination, and he didn't think much of a group of Qiu Ba, so he didn't want to talk to them much.

"Thank you for the reminder!" Wu Shizhao responded coldly, then lowered his head to read the book again.

Han Hua stood for a while, but didn't have anything to say. She smiled awkwardly and walked to the side. One of his guards was very dissatisfied when he saw it. He threw the half-strapped rocket on the deck and stood up. , "A sour scholar, what's so great, who do you think you are, bigger than His Royal Highness~"

Han Huaman stepped forward a few steps and stopped his subordinates, but at this moment, Wang Fugui suddenly shouted down from the main mast, "Boss, there is a boat ahead!"

Hearing the sound, the guards and sailors on the deck all stood up, and the boss of the ship immediately put the knife in his waist, rushed down the ship building in a few steps, walked under the mainmast, and climbed directly to Wangdou.

After a while, the boss of the boat came to the watchtower and asked, "Where is it?"

Wang Fugui pointed, the captain of the boat supported the watch with one hand, and built a pergola on his forehead with the other. Looking in the direction Wang Fugui pointed, he saw several sails in the distance leaking out of the sea level.

Some of the people below ran to the side of the ship to look around, while others raised their heads and waited for the boss on the ship to explain the situation.

At this time, the gathering was too far away, the captain of the boat looked at it for a while, but he couldn’t see clearly, and couldn’t distinguish between the enemy and the enemy. He looked at it for a long time, put down his hand, and then said to the people below: "Be prepared, adjust the sail first, and seize the upper hand!"

　Thank you Yuedong Woxin for your reward, thank you for your monthly pass and recommendation.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)