Flagship South Seas, gun deck.

The boatswain blew two whistles, and Liu Jinqing immediately rolled over and jumped from the hammock, carefully avoiding the 12-pounder cannon fixed under the hammock.

The boatswain, armed with a short club, walked in turn between the two rows of naval guns. The interpreter behind the boatswain translated the order into Chinese: "It's time to shift over, move quickly, whoever is the last one, today's toilet will be washed by him." ”

The training worked well, everyone quickly climbed out of the hammocks, and the boatswain nodded in satisfaction, not seriously arresting anyone to wash the toilet. He turned and pointed to the hourglass, "Each group will send someone to pick up the food immediately, you have 20 minutes." ”

Liu Jinqing is in a hurry, and he should be on duty today. He immediately went out of the column to the stairs, lined up according to the group hammock number, and walked to the galley on the lower deck. The meals have been divided, and each group has two buckets, one for rice and one for food. Liu Jinqing looked down and saw that there was a pot of salted meat and vegetables stewed in the vegetable bucket. Picking up the vegetable bucket and rice bucket, he took three steps and walked back to the position of the group, and the brothers were waiting for him.

According to the rules of the ship, the blindfolded meal was quickly completed, and more than half of the time had passed. A few people hurriedly moved, and gobbling up was no longer enough to describe their eating.

There isn't much rice, just enough. The dish doesn't taste good either, but no one cares. Unlike others in the same group, Liu Jinqing has eaten fine meals. He was born in an ordinary gentry family in Ningbo Prefecture, Zhejiang, and his father was a court official of Henan County. Although it is difficult to call it rich, it was once a well-off family. But all this was ruined 2 years ago, Luoyang, where his father was an official, was captured by Li Chuang, and King Fu's family died. When his uncle was killed, the Son of Heaven was furious. After the officials blamed, they gave the black cauldron to his father. The father was killed, the whole family was registered, and the mother also died in worry, leaving Liu Jinqing alone in the family. Liu Jinqing, who lost his source of livelihood, had to go on a sea ship like countless poor people along the coast of Zhejiang to earn a hard meal.

Over the past two years, he has traveled several seagoing ships and seen many lives and deaths, which has made him much more mature than before. Although the food in front of me tasted bad, it was better because there was enough oil and water, and it was already the best meal in recent years.

The lord of Jincheng promised the new sailors that as long as he worked hard, he would be able to get a piece of land in Taipei after retiring. Who in the Chinese does not value land, land can be handed down, and the importance cannot be replaced by any property.

From the beginning of the ship, Liu Jinqing felt a great impact. The novelty of the Hongyi plywood fell second, and what shocked him the most was that the Hongmaoyi, including the leader, slept with the cannon at night. Life on board the ship was also full of military training, and in the first few days he was not less beaten by boatswain's short sticks. Fortunately, he has a strong learning ability, and after a week, he is rarely beaten, and the brothers in the same group now have to be beaten at least 3 times a day.

Thinking of the boatswain's stick, Liu Jinqing ate a little faster. The dishes and chopsticks are all made of bamboo, and the sailors put the dishes and chopsticks into the rice bucket after eating. Others picked up the Bible grinding stones around them and prepared for the first job of the day, washing the deck. Liu Jinqing picked up the cutlery and walked to the bow deck, where he had to wash the cutlery. Cleaning the dishes is the focus of the ship's sanitation duties, and the warship inspector will check the cleanliness of the tableware from time to time, if the inspector catches the dishes and chopsticks and does not wash them, it is not a matter of the boatswain knocking a few sticks, and it is very likely to be dragged to the deck to whip.

"Liu, wait a minute." The boatswain walked over to their group, mingled with many Chinese on a daily basis, and he now spoke a few words of simple Chinese.

The boatswain casually appointed one of the sailors in the group to wash the dishes, "Liu, you come with me, the Admiral wants to see you." ”

In the envious eyes of everyone, Liu Jinqing followed the boatswain to the deck. Today it was a Japanese breeze, and the Nankai folded most of its sails and sailed slowly through the bay. Several European officers were holding various measuring instruments, and Liu Jinqing only knew the measuring ruler in them. A foreigner dressed as a scholar spreads out his drawing paper and sketches the bay with a carbon pen.

In the distance, a beacon fire on the shore had been lit, and black smoke was clearly visible. Several offshore vessels hurriedly turned around and fled into the harbor.

Liu Jinqing went up to the stern, saluted the military salute, and stood solemnly.

Shou Xiang put down the binoculars, "Jinqing, is it Wenzhou in front?" ”

Liu Jinqing replied loudly: "Yes, my lord, it is the beacon of Wenzhou Weihai who guards the thousands of households that ignites the beacon fire. Continue to go up more than 30 miles from the mouth of the Oujiang River, and it is Wenzhou City. ”

Measuring latitude and depicting the terrain, there are people on board the Nanhai who are in charge. In his hand was a very simple Ming Dynasty folk atlas. The booklet does not contain any map elements, but simply records the navigation landmarks of the entire Ming coastline.

"It's really an interesting chart," Shou Xuan flipped to the map of Wenzhou, and on a page of paper, he drew the shapes of several island peaks. The combination of a few lines is as simple as it gets.

Shou Xuan carefully compared the landmarks in front of him and asked Liu Jinqing: "The island in front of you is Nanqi?" ”

There is still Beiqi Island in the north of Nanqi Island, and the nautical chart ** has the lines of Nanqi Island outlined from three different directions.

"The north and the south swallow each other, and the ship goes south to see this trip." Shou Xuan shook his head, he couldn't see this angle.

"Look at this shape in tandem to the northwest." This can be had, and the order adjusts the direction to find an angle consistent with the nautical chart observation of Nanqi Island.

"Nanqi is the ground of Wenzhou." Shou Xiang found that if he followed the current angle, he would find a direct route to the mouth of the Oujiang River.

Shou Xu was very satisfied, and he said to Liu Jinqing: "This booklet you brought is very useful, and I will reward you." ”

Liu Jinqing habitually bowed, "Jinqing wants to be useful to the great cause of Jincheng, and he doesn't dare to ask for rewards." ”

By this time, the boatswain had already rang the ship's bell, and the sailors stood face to face on the deck and saluted each other to complete the handover. Successive sailors quickly went up to their respective posts, some went to the lookout, someone was responsible for arranging the sails. As a newcomer, the sailors in Liu Jinqing's group handled the Bible stone washing deck.

Liu Jinqing saluted again, "My lord, my brothers have started to work, I should be with them, if they can't finish their work because of a small number of people, everyone will be punished." ”

Orderly was slightly surprised, most people were able to run away from the job of washing the deck.

"There you go."

Liu Jinqing turned around and left. There was a hint of appreciation in Shou Order's eyes as he looked at his back, in this era of basic illiteracy, intellectuals always quickly stood out no matter where they were.

Shou Xiang constantly adjusted the position of the hull at the mouth of the Oujiang River, and repeatedly compared it with the two landmarks on the simple nautical chart. A few short phrases based on graphics are very important for navigation, and as a foreign ship, he does not know where there are reefs and where there are waterways.

And on this chart, not far in front of the Yueqing Sea, the most significant waterway landmark there is Daludao. In the southern part of Oshikashima, it is written "Deer Hoof Shenshui", which means that there is a reef called Deer Hoof. Between Oshikajima and Deer Shoe Reef, there is a special sign that reads, "This gate can be used to cross boats." ”

Although the chart is not brief, and much of the information needs to be carefully mapped and confirmed by the orderly fleet, and the depth of the water must be measured on its own for the route, its value is still enormous.

Shou ordered handed the chart to Harris, "Copy 4 copies and send them to the whole fleet." Have each captain survey and map the channel markers and channel depths in the charts separately. ”

Because the fleet still has to go north, it is impossible to stay in the sea of Wenzhou for a long time. After completing the chart comparison, the fleet continued north.

In the Haidao Sutra, there is only one sentence on the sea surface of Wenzhou, "After one day, go to the Haikou of the Pingyang Inspection Division of Pingyang County, Wenzhou, to Phoenix Mountain and Tongpen Mountain, prevent hurricanes from the southeast, and abandon the middle mountain in the late harvest." ”

Since the southeast wind is mentioned here, then it may be that the southeast wind is the most important factor causing the shipwreck, and then you can take shelter from the wind in the middle of the mountain.

The fleet's primary mapping of the bay, recording the latitude and combining it with the descriptions of the routes in these Ming Dynasty charts and sea classics were the basic materials for this voyage. Of course, this collation work is very primitive, and there is no accumulation of hydrological data such as tidal range, current, velocity, waves, etc., but it is a good start.

Wenzhou was followed by Taizhou, and with the fleet sailing, the Panshiwei and Songmen guards lit beacons one after another in the coastal guards. Looking through a telescope, almost every Acropolis has several harbors with some infrastructure, and these military ports are also open to merchants. The continuous construction of the Ming Dynasty along the coast for 300 years provided conditions for the merchant ships of the north and south that could not be compared with those of previous dynasties.

Shou Xiang did not have time to survey the coastal areas of every county in Zhejiang, even if it would take several years. This time we were able to explore only a few major estuaries.

To the north of the Oujiang River is the Lingjiang River. Taizhou Prefecture is more than 50 kilometers upstream of the Lingjiang River waterway in Linhai County, Gongwei Lingjiang Estuary is the Songmen Acropolis on the south bank and the Haimen Weihaimen on the north bank. These coastal guards now have no warships capable of going to sea to fight, and they are barely able to protect themselves. Only the Songmen Water Village under the Songmen Guards has soldiers in the battalion and some warships, but even if the beacon fire is full of sky, the order is not seen in the Songmen Water Village There is a warship that dares to go to sea.

Then there are the Momogisa Shouyu Thousand Households, the Jian Jumping Thousand Households, and the Ishiura Thousand Households.

There are a lot of reefs on the sea surface of Zhejiang, and the sea conditions are complicated, and the Ming Dynasty implemented a relay pilot system here, and each guard will have fishing boats and sailors waiting to be hired. Merchant ships sailed inshore here, relying on the pilotage of local sailors. There was no pilot for Shou Order, and he did not dare to approach the shore, but only passed by the coast at a distance. The beacon fire was finally extinguished for the time being.

The third place is Ningbo Prefecture, first of all, Dongda Muyang in Xiangshan County. The fleet re-approached the coastline, and the Chang Acropolis had been left behind. On the shore again, beacons were lit. The East Dameyang waterway is marked as Fengji Mountain, which is the same as before, and the shape of Fengji Mountain is mapped from different angles, and compared with the nautical charts to find a suitable waterway. There is Charity Tai O, which is the Xiangshan Port in later generations.

Then there is the Juexi Thousand Households, bypassing the chaotic reefs near Qingmen Mountain, and arriving at the sea off the Qiancang Thousand Households and Dasong Thousand Households one after another. Shuangyu Island, which plays an important role in China's maritime history, is on the starboard side of the Nanhai.

Leaving the coastline, there is already Zhoushan Dinghaiwei in front of you. There are several important waterways in the vicinity, the most important of which is Putuo Mountain.

There is a temple of the heavenly concubine where the incense is flourishing in Dinghaigang, but whenever the sea ship arrives here, it will stop at Dinghaigang and enter the temple to burn incense and pay tribute. If you don't fight a battle, you will definitely not be able to go to the island to burn incense. Many Chinese sailors on the battleship knelt on the deck at this time and kowtowed in the direction of the Tianfei Temple.

Vigilante observed the Protestant troops around him, and the non-commissioned officers' reaction to this, thanks to the usual propaganda, seemed to be accustomed to it. No one showed a dissatisfied expression, which made Shou Xian feel relieved.

At this point, the battleship turned to the northwest, crossed the mouth of the Yongjiang River, and sailed into Hangzhou Bay from the middle of Ningbo and Dinghai. Dozens of wolf smoke were pulled up behind the fleet, and the fast horse must have sent the news of the approaching ship to Hangzhou.

Hangzhou Bay is also a sea area that is not conducive to navigation, and it is not allowed to sail in an orderly manner. Forget about the coastal states and counties under the stimulus, there is no need to go to the provincial capital to tease the governor and political envoys.

The next time Zhapu and Jinshanwei went, the fleet turned north-east and sailed directly to Shanghai.