Even in winter, Singapore's proximity to the equator keeps temperatures in the mid-thirties, and this small, rainforested island is nothing surprising, just at the mouth of a gorge at the southern tip of the peninsula, from which boats can cross the broken Straits of Singapore and sail into Malacca on the western side of the peninsula.

Because of the king's order, the fleet quickly put down the boat and sent people ashore, and when the cement was not dry, the four sides of the stone were written in gold and Greek from Wuji—no one understood Greek, and the craftsman just drew the Greek letters as if they were drawing—and wrote together: The island of the king of Chu will be enjoyed by his descendants forever."

At the same time, the Mountain Ghost and the Gluttony took turns replenishing fresh water on a river in the Malay Peninsula to the west of the island, mapping the Straits of Singapore and the Strait of Malacca. A four-foot-high concrete pillar was poured on a small island in Karimun Besar, opposite the southwest of the Malay Peninsula, as a lighthouse.

The island is less than 10 nautical miles from the westernmost point of the Malay Peninsula, and it is only fitting that ships coming from the east will have to make a northward turn to enter the Straits of Malacca, and that ships coming out of the Strait will have to turn east. Because the simple lighthouse could not be manned, a circle of mirrors was inlaid at the top of the lighthouse, and the pillars under the mirrors were painted with yellow and red paint about a zhang, and after these things were done, the fleet sailed into the tsunami along the increasingly violent northeast side.

The fleet completely disappeared into a strait more than 500 nautical miles long, and only a few naked natives escaped from the rainforest. Never before had a big ship coming from the east, people who had never seen before stepped off the ship in shining armor, and they had erected something on the island in addition to hanging canal water from the big ship.

The natives who had hidden in the dense forest saw everything the fleet had done, but they did not dare to come out. It was only when the fleet was far away that they took a closer look at what the stranger had left behind. Compared to the lighthouse on the other side of the sea, the four half-man-high Le stones are inconspicuous, and the mirrors that reflect the sunlight make people curious and intimidating.

On the Glutton, the Malay natives screamed at the Malays who were not aware of what he had left behind, and he kept reminding the lookouts on the mast to pay attention to the reef. When he was in the South China Sea, the Gluttony once staggered with a reef, and he was so frightened that he didn't dare to take a breath, and only after passing through the sea area did he call the lookout down and scold.

Because of this experience, he became more cautious, especially in a place like the strait, which is densely packed with islands and reefs. The fleet sails only during the day, and anchors after sunset, but does not go ashore or rarely goes ashore.

The Strait of Malacca is about 900 kilometers long, narrow in the south and wide in the north, trending southeast to northwest. The monsoon blows from the northeast, and the huge sail is fifty-four degrees to the bow, which is the maximum angle at which the girder turns.

The side support cable on the mast is like a 'eight', the mast is erected in the middle of the 'eight', and the cross truss is horizontal in front of the mast, at the upper end of the 'eight', like a 'claw' character at the upper end. There is also a front support cable in front of the mast, if you look sideways, the front support cable and the mast form a 'Bu' word, and the cross truss must be below the front support cable, otherwise the canvas will be blocked by the front support cable, and can not be expanded downward.

The cross truss turns left, turns to a certain angle, the front part of the right side of the cross truss is bound to be blocked by the front support cable, and the left rear part is held up by the left branch cable to retreat; If you turn right, it means that the front part of the left side is blocked by the front cable, and the right rear part is blocked by the right cable to retreat. Fifty-four degrees is the limit of the corner, and it can't be more.

As for why a clipper with the same sail can reach 38 degrees (the angle between it and the bow) and thus achieve headwinding? In addition to the improved rigging, another important reason was the taller mast and narrower hull of the clipper, which allowed the side support cables to form a steeper 'eight' angle. If there is no angle between the side support cable and the mast, and it is completely parallel to the mast, the cross truss can be turned to zero degrees or close to zero degrees. In other words, the smaller the angle between the side support cable and the mast, the greater the angle of rotation of the cross truss and the smaller the angle formed with the bow.

The hull width of the glove cargo ship and gunboat is almost twice that of the clipper ship, and the minimum angle between the transverse beam and the bow is also twice that of the clipper. However, if the angle between the cross girder and the bow is not below 40 degrees, it is impossible to use the Bernoulli principle to achieve true sailing against the wind.

The fleet was now glad that the wind was coming from the northeast, and the bow was heading northwest. According to the principle of downwind sailing, the sail must divide the angle formed by the wind and the bow equally, so that the efficiency of the sail can be maximized, but because the transom can only turn to fifty-four degrees, the sail cannot divide this angle equally, and the speed becomes extremely slow, four knots when it is fast, and only two knots when it is small.

Mu Zhi and the others, who were in charge of piloting, did not know how long the entire strait was, but in his heart, going northwest would always sail out of the strait. Compared with the navigators of the Age of Discovery, the greatest advantage of the captains and navigators of the ships of the Chu State was that they sailed in the known world, rather than exploring an unknown world, and they only needed to explore some details.

The sailors were in a very stable state of mind from the moment they set out, and there were many pleasures in sailing, one of which was the seabirds that constantly circled the fleet, and the wave of flying fish that crossed the surface of the sea was the second; There are also unpleasant things, the Strait of Malacca in winter is very calm, there are no storms, there is not much fog, only some fog at the mouth of the Tamsui River at sunrise and sunset, but during the monsoon transition period, the strait is often cloudy or rainy.

The rain was always annoying, and the heat and humidity also caused vegetables and fruits to rot quickly, and at the suggestion of the witch, the ship began to eat canned fruit. Although vitamin C is lost during the heating process of canned fruits, the lost vitamin C is mostly retained in the juice of canned fruits, especially acidic canned fruits.

On the ninth day of the distribution of the canned fruit, the lookout of the Mountain Ghost sailing ahead noticed that the mountains on the port side island had suddenly turned westward, and the strait was getting wider and wider, and after the third day, the mountains had completely disappeared into the vast sea, and the sea had washed over the northernmost reef and several islands in the distance of the reef.

"This is Aceh?" On the deck of the Gluttony, the captain of the ship Wugou and Mu Fang glanced at each other and asked.

"Yes." He nodded and replied. Aceh is opposite to Singapore, one guarding the northern exit of the Strait of Malacca and the other guarding the southern exit of the Strait of Malacca. It's just that most people know about Singapore, and few people know about Aceh.

"Herald, landing." As the captain of the ship, Captain Wu ordered the landing, and the fleet was to be stoned here and an improvised lighthouse was erected, just as in Singapore.

"The captain has an order, and he will land quickly." The order of the head of the hook was passed down, the mountain ghost was the first to turn, sailing to Aceh, which was still a wilderness, and the document of the gluttonous did not forget to carefully write the pigeon news, and after the review by the head of the hook and the absurdity, the two pigeons flew to the northeast with the pigeon news of the fleet sailing out of the strait, which was the direction of the Chu State.

When the carrier pigeon flew to Yingdu, which was more than 3,000 kilometers away, Xiong Jing had just arrived in Jiujiang. Rice was harvested in October, and the millet rice in the field had been harvested at this time, and Xiong Jing asked Sun Yu as soon as he arrived in Wuyang: "What is the yield per mu?" ”

"The king, the yield per mu is less than one stone." Yin Sun Yu lived in Wuyang, instructed immigrants to plant millet rice, and personally measured the yield of millet rice after harvesting. It's a pity that, after all, it's newly reclaimed wasteland, and the yield per mu is worse than that of the field.

"Is rice less than a stone?" Xiong Jing still had a little expectation, and asked with a smile if it was rice.

"The king, Nasu also." Sun Yu himself shook his head, "This minister's crime." ”

"What are your sins?" Xiong Jing looked at the field after the harvest, which had been plowed and planted with wheat. After the wheat harvest next year, it will be planted again, which is equivalent to three kinds in two years.

"The minister is indeed guilty, please ask the king to punish the crime." The more tolerant Xiong Jing was, the more Sun Yu felt guilty.

"You are not guilty. The land that was first cultivated was already barren, and the pond was contiguous and saline-alkaline, so it would be good in a few years. Xiong Jing roughly knew the reason for the low yield in his heart, and he thought of Yuedi and Wudi at the same time, where there are also pond Ze contiguous areas, and the newly cultivated Xintian is estimated to be the same. What about the food and clothing of the common people? Can it be sustained? ”

"Okay." Sun Yudao. "Although the harvest is small, it can be planted widely, and the wheat will be edible in April next year, and the people will not be hungry, but it will ......."

"So what?" Xiong Jing looked at him. "Not enough acres?"

"Exactly." Sun Yudao. "From today's point of view, there are no more than 80,000 households that can be relocated in Vietnam, and no more than 200,000 households that can be relocated in Jiangxi. In addition, the farmer also needs to cultivate the cattle. If there were no cattle, it would be difficult to cultivate so many acres. ”

"Ploughing cattle?" Xiong Jing shook his head when he heard this. Jiangnan has always been a fire cultivator, what kind of cattle are used.

"Yes." Sun Yudao. "Each household has more than 100 acres of fields, and there are five people in each household, and they can't cultivate it with all their might."

"How many ploughing cattle are there in the Chu State?" Xiong Jing felt that he couldn't solve the problem of ploughing cattle, just like he couldn't solve the problem of war horses for a while.

"Less than 100,000," Sun Yu also knew that the peasants of Chu had fewer cattle than other countries. "Therefore, the minister asked the king to order people to buy cattle in other countries, and then strictly ordered that the cattle should not be killed."

"How can you order someone to buy a ploughing cattle?" Xiong Jing Road. "The peasants who moved here were poor, and the price of cattle ranged from thousands of dollars......

"Please ask the king to let the Jia people lend money to the farmers to buy cattle, and the money for buying cattle will be repaid every year." Sun Yudao.

"Where can I buy ploughing cattle?" Xiong Jing asked.

"Qi Guoke." Sun Yu replied. "The minister has ordered people to go to Qi to buy cattle."

The big animals all came from the north, and the country of Qi was the main road. When Sun Yu spoke, hundreds of ploughing cattle were waiting to pass the pass, mooing and screaming, and a person dressed as a scholar was blocking several Qi officials.

"Tariffs have always been one hundred, why one hundred and five today!" Yushi's face was angry, and there were Chu people and Qi people behind him, they only dared to look at it but didn't dare to speak, and they hoped that Yushi could reprimand the customs officials and lower the tariffs.

"On the orders of Linzi, the tariff will start from one hundred and five today, what can I do?" The official at the head looked at the Yushi in front of him and was a little afraid.

"Humph! Chuqi has an alliance first, how can tariffs be increased? Today, this honor is out of one hundred. He said that he threw the tariff that had been calculated earlier to the customs officer, and then let the shepherd boy who drove the cattle drive the cattle out of the customs, and the merchants cheered when they saw this.

"You wait, you wait......!" The officials were in a hurry, but those ploughing cattle had already rushed out of the checkpoint.