On the day of departure, the group set off before dawn. This time, Huang Long handled a total of four loads of goods for Dongmen Qing, and he and Wu Chuan were good shoulders that could pick up two loads by one person, but at this time, it was only one person to pick one load, Zhang Wei helped to pick one load, and the remaining one load was for Dongmen Qing to pick.

Dongmen Qing has practiced martial arts, and his strength is good, but the style of carrying the burden is not the same as the strength of the competition, and the children of the martial arts family may be able to fight ten with one, but they may not be able to pick up the burden well. In the past few days, Wuchuan has taught Dongmenqing's skills, one of which is how to carry the burden, but although there are some tricks to carrying the burden, but the more important thing is to grind, Dongmenqing, who has only been grinding for two days, picked up the burden and felt a shoulder headache and dull steps without walking a few steps, but Zhang Wei and they didn't come up to help, and there was also the meaning of honing him. Dongmen Qing carried the burden and followed Zhang Wei to a secret berthing to get on the boat, this way pressed his shoulders enough, and it was easy to get on the boat, he was already tired and sweaty, Wu Chuan patted his shoulder and smiled: "Brother, this ability to carry the burden can be practiced more in the future." Dongmen Qing's face turned pale, he hummed twice, and nodded.

They got into the boat, and when they arrived at Huyu, it was already dawning, and Dongmenqing looked at the surroundings, and saw seven or eight large sea ships outside the port facing northeast, either three masts or four masts, the largest of which was five masts! Zhang Wei pointed to the five-masted ship and said, "Look! That's Hong Dizhen's boat! ”

Hong Dizhen's big ship was built by him at a great deal of expense last year, with a length of 15 zhang and 7 feet, a width of 2 zhang and 8 feet, and a depth of 1 zhang and 5 feet, with a total of 25 cabins, five front and rear masts, the largest one is 7 zhang 2 feet high and 6 feet 5 inches thick. The ship is equipped with four pairs of rudders, three of which are spare rudders, 36 oars, four large iron anchors weighing 5,000 catties, and eight large brown ropes, each one foot thick and one hundred zhang long. In addition, there are two spare boats and 14 water storage tanks. Such a large ship, which cost as much as 3,500 taels of silver, took nine months to complete.

This ship Wu Chuan and Huang Long saw for the first time, both of them swallowed their saliva when they saw it, Wu Chuan whispered: "When can there be such a big ship, then I would rather live for ten years!" ”

Huang Long gritted his teeth and said, "Yes! There will definitely be! ”

I heard Liang Fang on a three-masted ship beckoning: "Brother Zhang Wei! Brother Wang Qing! Fast! This way! ”

There are rules for how to move goods from small boats to big ships, Dongmen Qing knows that there are these rules, but he doesn't know how to do it.

Zhang Wei told Dongmenqing that each big ship is from the owner of the ship, and there is a financial deputy who is in charge of the ship's financial arrangements; One person in charge of the affairs of the ship, paging orders on behalf of the owner; There is a treasurer, who is in charge of the ship's weapons and combat equipment. And there was one who was in charge of the mast, and his name was Aban; The head and two pillars of the pipe block; The head of the staff, the second officer, and the two helmsmen who are in charge of the rudder. Finally, there is one of the most important people in the whole fleet, called the fire chief, who is in charge of the compass, and the distance of the sea route and the direction of the ship must be commanded by him! At certain times and in certain regions, the captain of the fire is even the captain of the ship.

The ship that Dongmen Qing boarded this time was also Hong Dizhen's, but it was not the five-masted main ship, but another three-masted merchant ship. They got on the ship and settled the goods and occupied the space, Zhang Wei, Huang Long, and Wu Chuan said goodbye to go down, and Dongmenqing was about to be sent to the shore, but Zhang Wei grabbed him and said in his ear: "Don't show your face all the time, don't forget that this is Hong Dizhen's fleet!" If you have nothing to do, hide in the shadows and wait until you find out the environment on the ship before making plans! Huang Long Wu Chuan also only nodded, in order to show the meaning of "cherish".

Although Dongmen Qing was very reluctant in his heart, he was not good at acting too dependent, and after the three friends jumped off the deck one by one, he told himself: "From now on, you have to rely on yourself for everything!" After adjusting his facial expression, he ran to Liang Fang and asked him if he wanted help. Liang Fang saw that he was well-behaved, and smiled: "No, no." But then a little gloom appeared on his face.

Dongmen Qing asked, "Uncle, what's wrong?" ”

Liang Fang sighed: "I still have the last load of goods, it was your cousin-in-law who found me to pick the house, but it hasn't arrived yet, alas-" His net worth is much higher than that of Dongmen Qing, and he no longer needs to carry the burden himself.

Dongmen Qing patted his chest and said, "I don't dare to say anything else, but the person my cousin-in-law is looking for will definitely not make a mistake!" ”

Liang Fangdao: "Yes, yes, I can also trust him, otherwise how would I help his business?" However, a businessman like him who pursues security believes in the principle that seeing is believing, and as long as he has not touched his goods, he cannot be completely assured.

Dongmenqing followed Liang Fang to look westward, at this time the water in the direction of the mainland is full of small boats, all the boats are seaside people, or to help merchants transport goods, or to sell grain and clean water, in the place where Dongmenqing can't see, there are not many old people and children helping these smuggling maritime merchants to look at the wind - these smuggling merchants are their food and clothing parents, living on the poor and narrow ground on the Fujian coast, they can only live a good life by relying on the influence of commercial forces. It is precisely because the whole society depends on the economic system of maritime trade that the officers and soldiers who come to raid smuggling will be discovered as soon as they enter this area, and it is precisely because of this kind of national cover net that the smugglers can come and go without a trace. Only by understanding the dependence of this coastal society on maritime trade can we understand why the coastal people of Fujian and Zhejiang provinces hate the imperial court's policy of banning the sea!

The last small boat to arrive was an old lady of sixty or seventy years old, who rocked the boat to the side of the big ship, picked up a heavy load of goods and hundreds of pounds of things in one hand, and stepped on the wooden bridge to get on the boat as if it were walking on the ground. Although she is old, none of the sailors around her stepped forward to help, this is not a disregard for her, but a respect for her! The old lady dropped off her cargo on the deck, took the money from Liang Fang, who received it, and jumped into the air, landing impartially in her boat. The sailors on the boat and the people on the shore all applauded when they saw it, and the old lady laughed twice, saluted the crowd around her, and then rocked the boat away.

Dongmen Qingzheng was amazed, but he heard the people around him shouting: "Lord Hongbo is here!" ”

I saw more than a dozen small boats open in the west, when the first one was larger, the other dozen or so smaller, the largest ship in the bow stood a fat man in brocade robes, his face was the face of Maitreya Buddha, and his stomach was Maitreya Buddha's belly. "Lord Hongbo!" He also smiled and raised his hand to signal to everyone, and this smile was also like that of Maitreya Buddha, very amiable.

Liang Fang also pointed at him and said to Dongmen Qing: "Oh! Get to know each other! This is the Dragon Palace Maitreya Hong Di Zhen Hongbo Lord! Brother Wang, if you come to Japan with us this time, even if you can't make any money, it will be worthwhile to meet a big man like Lord Hong. ”

In fact, there is no need for him to say it, Dongmen Qing has already guessed that this person is Hong Dizhen, although he has a smile on his face, he is not half excited in his heart, on the contrary, some are just afraid of it! He even wanted to run back to the cabin to hide, but in the end he held back and mixed in with the crowd on the deck to wave to Hong Dizhen.

Fortunately, Hong Dizhen didn't get on this ship, but went directly to his five-masted big ship.

Liang Fang said: "Okay, okay, after sacrificing Mazu, you can start the boat, I hope this time it will be smooth and profitable, and make a fortune." ”

I heard the three cannon shots on the five-masted ship, and several Aban on the mast of the ship shouted together: "Sacrifice Mazu!" Reward the god of the sea! ”

As soon as they heard the worship of Mazu, all the sailors' shipkeepers stood in line according to the rules, and all the ships were on par with Hong Dizhen's big ship, and Dongmenqing followed behind Liang Fang, lined up with the crowd, and came to the back of the ship led by the owner of the ship.

At the back end of the ship, there is a two-story yellow house, the upper floor is placed with edicts, and the lower floor is for Mazu. Because the sea is now banned, this ship is a smuggling ship, so the place where the edict is placed on the upper floor is empty, and only Mazu is enshrined on the lower floor. Space on a sea ship is more expensive than gold, but every big ship will not spare the place and not build this yellow house.

Under the leadership of Hong Ditong, all the men on the sea burned incense and prayed, begging Mazu to bless them with smooth sailing and safe comings and goings. At this scene, whether it was Dongmen Qing, who was giggling at home, or Gongsun Huozi, who was full of philistine, became pious, and did not dare to have a half-blasphemous demeanor. After worshipping Mazu, the sky was already bright, and the fire captain on the main ship looked at the wind on the sea, calculated the direction, and said, "It's okay!" Hong Dizhen ordered the sail!

"Go to sea!"

"Go to sea!"

"Go to sea!"

The big ship sailed along the monsoon and waves to Japan, full of hope for the Chinese people in the coastal sea.

Some blind experts and scholars in later generations tried their best to argue that the Chinese nation is a continental nation lacking the spirit of the sea, but they did not know that in the long history of China, there was another moving scene that they did not know or deliberately ignored - this is not Zheng He's Western-style political show, but the courage and ambition to fight for his life and find wealth and future in the wind and waves of freedom!!

——————

Flowers!