Xue Laixiang told Captain Gu that the water depth of the Holo Harbor Wharf is eight feet, which is a deep-water port, but the length of the ruler in this era is not the same as that of the old world, especially the measurement units of the maritime merchants are even more confusing.

After Zhu Beiguo personally consulted Xue Laixiang, he finally converted the units of measurement on both sides upside down, and concluded that the Pride may barely be able to dock, but the Nicole is completely impossible.

And according to the current hydrological data, let alone getting on the dock, even in the open sea of Holo Harbor, it is unknown whether the water depth can allow the Nicole to sail smoothly, so it is necessary for the Nicole to send a survey boat to explore the way ahead, and tentatively move forward while surveying.

Therefore, Captain Gu finally decided that in addition to sending a survey boat, the Pride would also be used as a pilot survey ship to open the way for Nicole, and let Xue Laixiang Pride be the pilot to let Nicole get close to Holo Harbor as much as possible.

The Pride will fight to get directly to the dock.

……

Early in the morning of July 5, 1657, Hollow Harbor.

The tropical sea is characterized by the morning mist over the beautiful island of Jolo, and the port is very tranquil and empty above the pier, which is located on the strait side of a large island to the south and an archipelago to the north, and the large island to the south is the island of Jolo.

According to the information provided by Xue Laixiang, there are at least 200,000 people on the island, most of them are concentrated in a radius of more than 50 miles near the port, and there is a city on the hill less than a mile south of the port, which has a tall city wall.

Slightly different is that there are additional forts on the four walls, especially in the direction facing the sea.

The whole city is two miles in radius, a street axis runs through the north and south, and the south of the city is the inner city, which contains the palace and the residences of the nobles.

This is the nominal supreme ruler of the Sulu Kingdom, the capital of the Eastern King Sudan Unduhara, the city of Holo.

However, at this time, the city of Holo actually had two rulers, one of whom was the titular king of the east, and the prime minister, Suhabi Datu, was the real ruler of the kingdom.

And this person is also the mastermind behind the trouble of the Xue Laixiang brothers.

The reason is that Xue Laixiang bypassed Lord Suhabi Datu and went directly to the agent of the East King - he sold the musket from Hongmaoyi to a eunuch from the palace of the East King, and it was not until a long time later that Xue Laixiang knew that the eunuch was actually a close attendant of the East King......

In the early morning, the fog that is common in the tropical land-sea area covers the vicinity of the Sulu Islands, resulting in very poor visibility and shallow seas, which makes the Nicole's voyage extremely inconvenient.

Given that the visibility on the sea surface was only less than a kilometer, Gu Jin reduced the speed of the Nicole to three to four knots for safety.

This was with Pride leading the way two kilometers away, and when the fog made Pride hazy, Nicole's speed would drop below three knots. As a result, the entire fleet travels at a speed like a turtle crawling.

Despite this, after the fleet began to enter the offshore waters of Holo Harbor early in the morning, it was still gradually approaching its destination, plus Xue Laixiang was in the cockpit of the Pride as a guide for Li Sanduo at this time, and the Pride also released a small boat in front of it to measure and move forward, so the Nicole finally approached the port from the sea area west of Holo Harbor.

At eight o'clock in the morning, on the Nicole lookout at this time, the lookout could already see through the fog with the naked eye, and vaguely saw the mountainous archipelago in the distance......

At this time, the pier of Holo Harbor was quiet, and not far from the pier, on the sea, there were three rows of rows of rows of paddles cruising on the water, and two rows of wooden oars were sticking out of the low portholes, and they were slowly undulating and flying to the rhythm of drums.

There was such a foggy weather in the morning, which was nothing more than ordinary for the Lord Governor of the Levy Ship of Holo Harbor.

These three sloops on the sea belonged to Lord Suhabidatu, the prime minister of Sulu.

From last night until early morning, the sea near Holo Harbor has been foggy, and the sky is also dark and uncertain, especially at night, there is no visibility.

Obviously, this is a good day for the cunning islanders and cunning maritime merchants trying to smuggle goods close to the beach by boat, and therefore the busiest time for the tax collectors in these ports.

Anti-smuggling is what the Governor likes to do, after all, in this Sulu country, the Prime Minister has a monopoly on power, so this is actually a good day for the Prime Minister and the Governor to fill their pockets.

You must know that His Majesty only has tax collectors on the docks of the port, and on the sea outside the port, it is the sphere of influence of the Prime Minister.

Now, the Governor's mood is quite relaxed, because from last night to now, he has gained a lot, except for the half of the seizure handed over to the Prime Minister's Mansion, the rest of the part, most of the rest will be the Governor's and his own soldiers.

As for how much of the part will be handed over to the treasury after returning to the docks, it will all depend on the mood of the Governor.

The Governor was now sitting on the helm and taking a pleasant puff of hookah, and in less than half an hour the sun would dispel the fog, and they would be able to return to harbour to rest.

The cruising pulp boat was not fast, and on the helm platform at the rear of the deck, the drummer lazily beat a leather drum and banged ...... Boom...... Boom...... Boom...... Like a lullaby, the tempo was so slow that the Governor's eyelids were heavy, and he wanted to doze off.

However, the forty slave paddlers on the ground floor could not sleep at this time, and their ankles were shackled, which were then chained to a row of stakes, and under the leather whips of the slave overseers, the slave oarsmen were forced not to leave their posts without permission.

The long wooden oars stretched out to the sea through the oars' openings, and the slaves' only task was to silently follow the rhythm of the drums on the deck, raising and dropping the oars and rocking them again and again, and the cycle was endless......

Woo –

A low, rugged horn from the lookout of the mast of the row-row boat woke the sleepy Lord Governor, who opened his eyes with some annoyance, and looked to the right and left with a frown, apparently trying to find the guy who disturbed his dream.

However, at this moment, a personal soldier wearing a gray-white cloth robe, a brown belt around his waist, an arquebus on his shoulder, and a green turban wrapped around his head ran from the front.

The soldier bowed respectfully, then pointed to the distance and said something to the Governor, who picked up the monocular that he had placed beside him and followed the fingers of the soldier.

The haze in the distance had not yet cleared, but the visibility was poor, but by careful discernment, the Governor could barely see a ship faintly in the fog through his binoculars.

Yes, there is indeed a ship there.

So the Governor adjusted the magnification of the telescope again, and finally saw the shadow of the ship in front of him.

The ship was quite large in size, with a somewhat slender hull, and the most unusual thing was that the deck was almost straight, and although there were two masts on the deck, there were no sails!

The ship lay so loud in the distance, almost motionless.

Seeing this, the Governor was a little puzzled, and he turned his head to look at the soldiers around him, trying to find an explanation from the soldiers, but several of the soldiers around him also looked at him with a confused expression.

It seemed that there was no answer from the fools, so the Governor had to pick up the binoculars again and take a closer look.

In any case, the Governor was quite well-informed, he had seen all kinds of ships in his life, but the ship in front of him was very different, the straight and slender hull was completely different from the Beiyang, Toyo, Hongmaoyi and the big hut ships that he had seen in his lifetime.

That's not all, he suddenly found that there was no gun door on the side of the ship!