"Putting ——!" After an order, the three fifteen-pound naval guns on the deck sounded in turn, bang, bang, bang, and the muzzles of the guns violently spit out fire and smoke, and when the sea breeze blew, the smoke crossed the open deck of the Bi Fang, leaving only a faint light shadow.

After the Bi Fang fired, the Ghost Car also fired, it was also aimed at the target of three hundred meters with the waves rippling, maybe the gunner of the Ghost Car was indeed stronger than the Bi Fang, maybe they were too lucky, two of the three shells actually hit the boat as a target, and in the splash of sawdust, there was a cheer on the deck of the Ghost Car, and the sailors shouted Long live.

"Good!" The fifteen-pound guns have been on board for less than ten days, and Xiong Jing was originally worried about the lack of gunner training, but now it seems that this worry is superfluous. The gunner's training time was generally three years, and although there was no gunpowder for most of the three years, the gunner's training continued uninterrupted. "Give them a barrel of wine." Xiong Jing said happily.

"King Xie!" The captain of the Ghost Car is a Yi man, named Peng Mu, who is said to be after Peng Zu, and moved to Yue after the fall of the Peng Kingdom.

"Although the artillery skills are good, you should not act recklessly." Xiong Jing added after the reward. "The sea of the earth was full of warships, three of the Greeks, five of the Romans, and the Egyptians were said to have built forty rows of ships......

The flying shear can sail against the wind, and it is not difficult to reach the Dakhlacles Pillar as long as it crosses the windless zone at 30 degrees north latitude. Then, when the fleet entered the Mediterranean, the first person to meet was supposed to be the Carthaginians. The Carthaginians were originally in North Africa, and after the First Punic War, they opened up the Iberian Peninsula (i.e., the Spanish Peninsula), so when entering the Mediterranean, they would inevitably encounter the Carthaginians.

To the east of the Carthaginians were the Romans. At this time, the Romans held the sea power in the western and central Mediterranean, and although the Roman fleet repeatedly encountered storms and suffered heavy losses, the Romans still gritted their teeth and built warships. To the east of Sicily, that's the Egyptians, the Greeks. This information originally came from Wugou, but Xiong Jing was not as familiar with the Eastern Mediterranean as he was.

"The minister has a matter of disagreement," said Wugou, "why do the countries of Egypt, Seleucus, and the Sea of the Earth have new wings?" ”

"Because of the new style of the Great Wing ...... of the Chu State" Xiong Jing glanced at him and replied without hesitation: "It's from the sea in the earth." ”

Xiong Jing's answer made Wugou Chang and Peng Mu dumbfounded, Wuji, Aristotle IV came to Chu after the Chu State built a new style of big wings, and Wu Gochang couldn't figure out how the new big wings of Chu State came from the sea in the earth.

Xiong Jing looked at their expressions with some worry, afraid that they would be Koreans in the future. A country that has become a colony, relying on the Ming army in ancient times and the U.S. military in modern times to survive Guozuo, likes to boast that it is the first Smecta in the universe.

"The Great King was born to know it, and so is the True Saint King." Wu Gou Chang and Peng Mu suddenly bowed, they arrived in the same direction as Xiong Jing thought it was not the same direction at all, they were shocked that Xiong Jing was able to build a Mediterranean war boat out of thin air.

"Is there really a holy king in the world?" Xiong Jing was a little self-deprecating. The court duel was over, and the state of Chu began to prepare to advance westward. Faced with this result, he felt as if he had been torn apart by the car, and the part that went north and the part that went west were cut in two.

"The Great King is the Holy King." Wu Gou Chang felt this more deeply, because the whole red ocean is just like Xiong Jing.

"Get up." Xiong Jing returned to the topic and continued to advise: "Although the Carthaginians and Rome have stopped fighting, the war may resume at any time, so I should not intervene in it. Although there is artillery, you must not act recklessly and move a strong enemy. ”

"Respectfully and admonished." This is the diplomatic rule of the Mediterranean, and the expression of the unhooked has become solemn.

"Whoever I ask, silver and gold, and horses; Whoever I walk, the boundless sea. Xiong Jing continued. However, if you are plundered by people or block the way, you must resist it. But whether and how to weigh it is up to you to judge. ”

"The minister knows." Wugou's long mind had drifted tens of thousands of miles away, and he had heard of pirates in the Mediterranean. In addition to piracy, when the Egyptian navy was strong, it even went north to control the Aegean Sea in Greece, when most ocean-going merchant ships had to dock at Alexandria, the capital of Egypt, and be heavily taxed.

It is also said that the Egyptians (presumably the ruler of Egypt, Ptolemy III) had a habit of searching any ocean-going merchant ship that would be searched by officials and soldiers, who would take all the books they found. After the Library of Alexandria had made a copy, it returned only the copies of the books, leaving the originals in the library.

Hearing the news has proved that the Mediterranean countries are not small seafaring countries like Pandia, Chuluo, and Zheluo, they are all large ships like Chu, which have hundreds of warships. Sailing in the Mediterranean Sea requires not only great caution, but also timely compromises. Xiong Jing was a little worried about the latter point, but it was useless to worry.

"When you enter the Mediterranean, you should go first to Rome and then to Carthage." Xiong Jing, who was not at ease, had no choice but to arrange the order of the envoys in person. Since the sea power in the Middle Mediterranean was in the hands of the Romans, it was to go to Rome first, not to Carthage.

"Respectfully obeyed." He had no impression of Rome or Carthage, and he had no opinion on which country he would go to first.

"To the Eastern Mediterranean, it is necessary to choose a port." Xiong Jing told the second thing, "It is better to find a suitable island to establish a commercial port, rather than pay taxes to others." ”

"Do you want to borrow it for a cow?" The hook talks about what Neuneum did in Sinhala.

"The land of the ox is the building of the city of Carthage, and the Greeks will know this." Xiong Jing reminded, "Don't rush to build a port, after looking for a port, you must wait for the route to be stable, and the flying shear is not a warship." ”

Just as da Gama gained a foothold in the western Indian Ocean, a foothold in the eastern Mediterranean required at least ten gunboats, two hundred and forty thirty-two-pound guns, and several soldiers. And after gaining a foothold, large-scale trade will inevitably attract attacks from Seleucus and Egypt, and at that time it will be necessary to increase troops to hold the commercial port.

"When you go, you have to think about the future supply of the warships along the way." Xiong Jing explained. The Gluttony and the gunboats were all sailing ships, and their speed was not as fast as that of clippers. "He will fight with the Egyptians in the Mediterranean, and he will have to carry his troops there."

"However, the minister will record the itinerary and supplies along the way." There's nothing that can't be done, and there's no questioning without hooking.

"There are many diseases and epidemics on the continent of Nanzhou, you need to be cautious and cautious, you can't drink raw water, you can't go on a blind date with the natives, especially the rats and mosquitoes in Nanzhou." Tropical diseases are born in Africa, and although they sailed directly from the island of Java to South Africa, it is not known whether the fleet will dock on the western continent of Africa after rounding the Cape of Good Hope.

When he remembered it solemnly, he asked one more thing: "How is the fresh water?" How long can I keep canned bottles? ”

"If the tin can is stainless steel, it will be a year." No hook long way. "It just can't be overloaded."

Fresh water is the most important supply for ocean voyages, more important than food. Unfortunately, the fresh water in the tank often spoils and decays, eventually turning into a green, viscous, disgusting liquid. At this time, it is necessary to add wine to it, without the cover of wine, this liquid cannot be swallowed at all, and even if it is swallowed, it will often cause diarrhea.

After several improvements, the house is now filled with tinplate cans for fresh water. As with cans, the water is boiled, then quickly sealed, and then thoroughly soldered with tin. It's a pity that this preservation method can only be processed in Chu State, and the density of water is not large, and more than one installation not only occupies an already narrow space, but also makes the center of gravity of the ship too high.

"That's all there is to it." Xiong Jing finally said. Compared with the sailors of the Age of Discovery, the fleet of the Chu State was much happier. There is not only canned food, but also canned fresh water, and most importantly, the 'known' world, not the unknown.

The mastery of the wind was also ahead of the Great Voyage. At that time, the Spaniards kept a secret for hundreds of years, that is, the Pacific route, that is, through the north-south monsoon, the east wind belt of trade at about 5 degrees north latitude and the prevailing westerly wind belt at about 40 degrees north latitude. It took thousands of years for the civilized world to completely break through such a small secret.

Three days later, the two latest flying shears boats, the Bi Fang and the Ghost Car, set sail south from Zhu Fang, and after docking in Minyue for the last battle, they will sail directly to the new city of the strait that has just been built at the south exit of the strait, and after replenishing the last batch of supplies, they will enter the Indian Ocean from the Sunda Strait and sail directly to the Cape of Good Hope.

Back to Yingdu, because the court has decided to move westward, the main dynasty before the sacrifice is no longer as much as before, many times in the morning just after the completion of the court, nothing to do and retreat. However, this is only the court, and the shipyards of various prefectures and the whole country have been working day and night. There was no shortage of armor in the Chu army, but the inland river transportation boats were not enough to support the westward expansion strategy.

Wuguan Road is actually a combination of water and land, and the boat can be connected to Shangyi all the way up against the Dan water. Shangyi is Lantian in the past 150 miles, and Lantian is Xianyang in the past 150 miles. Bashui starts from Lantian and flows north into Weishui in the east of Chang'an.

After the Chu army's boat arrived at Shangyi, it could not go further, and the remaining three hundred miles had to rely on horse-drawn carriages. With the width and flatness of the Qin Road, it is not difficult for four horses to carry one and a half tons of grain straw per cart. An army of 100,000 troops, 6,000 cavalry, a chariot for every 20 men, and finally an artillery battalion, totaled 150,000 men, 35,000 horses, and consumed at least 500 tons of grain per day.

The daily loss of a four-horse carriage is 2.7 percent, 300 li is 60 li a day, a one-way journey is 5 days, and the return journey is 10 days, that is, 27 percent of the grain will be lost in the process of transportation. If the grain was loaded from Shangyi, the quantity would not be 500 tons, but 700 tons, about 460 carts, or more than 4,600 carts in ten days.

This is just Shangyi to Xianyang. Even if it is really as Chengjie said, it can be used to defeat the enemy because of the grain, then there must be vehicles to transport the grain and straw from Jiuying and Nanyang counties to the shores of the Han River, and basically the 10,000 four-wheeled carriages prepared for the attack on Qin are just used in the westward advance.

There are enough carriages, but what is lacking is a shallow draft of inland river boats. Because the draft is very shallow and the load of the boat is limited, the number required will be in the thousands. And these boats have to go up the Yangtze River, and then enter the Han River from Xiayi.