"Will I be able to overcharge Karl then?" Medini probably already had a choice in his heart, which was deliberately disgusting Carl.

"Yes, I will give you this privilege, other merchant ships pay taxes according to the rules, as long as it is Carl's family, the tax rate is completely up to you!" Hong Tao patted the black fat man on the shoulder, which was regarded as a thank you to him.

"Hey, hey, hey...... When I left him, he couldn't go back home, and he couldn't leave home! Martini held out a fat finger and shook it at Carl, his face full of smugness. In fact, Martini really doesn't want to stay, what is there to wait for in this place, and there is danger. But he understands that this is his greatest opportunity, and if he doesn't pay a price, he may not be trusted by Hong Tao in his life.

"He's a nice fat guy, and hopefully I'll see him alive next year." Half a month later, when the crew had finished building a small wooden courtyard at the foot of Signal Mountain, they all boarded the ship, leaving only twenty sailors and supplies. It was already far away from Table Bay, and Carl was still holding the telescope to look at the lonely black fat man standing on Signal Mountain, and then muttered to Hong Tao, who was also holding the telescope.

"Pray and pray for him, this is the closest to your house, and your god is most likely to help him." Hong Tao put down the binoculars, and Martini was performing his prayer ceremony on the top of the mountain, whether he was praying for himself to be favored by the gods or praying for the fleet to be protected by the gods, it is estimated that there are both, and he will be unlucky to go home without any of them.

For seafarers, life and death are much more indifferent, mainly because they see too much. It's hard and hard to want to get along on a ship for a few years without changing people. Although it is relatively safer to be a sailor for Hong Tao. But it's not 100% safe. There are also people who die during the voyage for various reasons. For example, when they were sick, wounded, fighting, or whatever, their bodies were wrapped in canvas and heavy objects, and thrown into the sea from the stern of the ship, and all they got was a boatload of silence and a stone monument on the hill of Jinhe Bay, and nothing else.

Martini's departure only made Hong Tao not very accustomed to it for a few days, and he had to erase the appearance of this black fat man from his heart first, because there was an abnormal situation on the supply point in Madagascar, and the two warships were still there. The signal flag was also issued correctly, but there were more than a hundred people on the shore, blacks, locals!

"Little fish, why did you catch so many slaves and come back? Where do we have so much food to feed them! Besides, who agreed to you going to the African continent to capture slaves! Were there any casualties? As soon as Bo Yu and Po Shrimp climbed onto the flagship, Hong Tao pinched one in one hand and pushed them both into the captain's room. These two children usually make themselves the most worry-free, and they are more sensible than Weng Ya, how can they just give them some free space. I'm going to get myself in trouble.

"I didn't go to the mainland to catch it, it's on this island. There are several villages on the east side of the island. Didn't you say let's go around the island, we thought that since they had already seen our ship, we couldn't leave them to report to others, so we took them all back. They don't waste much food, there is a kind of tree with fruit on it, and there is something like flour in it, and they can use that with some rice to make porridge for them to drink, and then give them some salted dried fish, I think they are very happy. It's just that we don't have too many iron chains on the boat, and there is a carpenter on the shrimp boat who made a kind of wooden shackles, which is also very useful, you see, they are all working, and none of them escaped. Boyu knew that Hong Tao might have misunderstood, so he quickly told Hong Tao the origin of these people.

"People on the island? How many people are on this island? I'll take a look at ......" Hong Tao was taken aback after listening to Boyu's story, and quickly ran to the porthole, picked up the binoculars, and looked at the shore.

"I said, it's them...... But there are so many people, you can't kill them all, right? Forget it, take them away, take a little with each boat, it's not a big problem. It's just that it's useless to get so many Indians back, they can't even catch fish! After a few glances, Hong Tao understood that these people were not black Africans, although they were also very dark, they should be considered Asians. That's right, it's Asian, who came from the Indian peninsula, and later Hong Tao once traveled to Mauritius, that small island is next to the island of Madagascar, and the race is very similar to the Malagasy people, most of them are mixed descendants of Indians and blacks.

“…… Uncle, I want to be the same as Brother Jiao, take the boat here to help the company watch, don't worry, I can do what Brother Jiao can do, I and Xiao Shrimp can be changed once a year, we are all adults, I don't want to go home. Boyu made Hong Tao complain, and the two of them looked at each other, mustered up their courage, and put forward their request to Hong Tao.

"Huh...... The idea is very good, but I'm a little anxious, you're only sixteen this year, and Xiao Shrimp is only fifteen, so you have to exercise with your uncle. And this is just an introduction in the future, even if there is no here, uncle, I want to come anyway. We have to tidy up our own house now, and then talk about this side, so ah, let's go back with me honestly, I'll give you half a month to build the proposed dock, and then we'll go home. Although Hong Tao would not throw a half-old child thousands of miles away to guard a broken port, he was still very pleased that Po Yu and Po Shrimp could have this idea. Willing to go out and not be around their parents and family is a good thing for these Jinhewan children. But a good thing is a good thing, and you have to grasp this degree, and you can't do things that are too risky. Again, the rice should be eaten one bite at a time, no matter what the reason, it is better not to take risks if you can, and if you can lose less, you will lose less, there is no need for that.

For Xiao Yu and Xiao Shrimp, Hong Tao's decision cannot be changed, even if they are unhappy, they must follow the order meticulously. They know very well what kind of virtue their uncle is, if they don't listen to it, there will be a less pleasant trick in the future, and they don't have the idea of resisting at all. This skill was learned from my uncle, I originally thought I was a character, and I became a captain in my teens, but through this voyage, they found that they had only learned a skin, and they were still far away from their uncle, so be honest and obedient.

With the assistance of the sailors and craftsmen of the Golden River and the other two ships, the construction of the pier was accelerated. To tell the truth, Hong Tao looked down on these new slaves, their previous living environment was too superior, they could eat without doing anything all day, and they were in the tropics, so they developed a kind of inertia, they couldn't work at all without whipping, and they couldn't do it with a whip, and they had to be trained slowly. However, Hong Tao did not go to be this villain himself, nor did he let other captains be slave leaders, and this task was most suitable for Cixi to do. In a few months, these slaves will know what it means to work, and then they will miss the days of being slaves under these captains, it will be heavenly.

One hundred and thirty-five days, after leaving the port of Guangzhou for a full hundred and thirty-five days, Hong Tao's fleet finally left the island of Madagascar, headed straight north, and re-entered the equatorial windless zone, ready to return home. If you don't leave, there are still two merchant ships waiting to return to Guangzhou, Hong Tao told Bo Jiao to wait for five months, and if he can't go back, he will escort the Southern Song Dynasty merchant ships back. Now it seems that the time to rush back is not too rich.

In fact, the equatorial windless belt is not particularly scary, and when you know that it exists, with sufficient preparation, it is not scary at all. Walking slowly is really slow, but there is no danger at all, just take a vacation, as long as the course is okay, one day you can climb more than 1,000 kilometers. With the last experience, the sailors on the ship are not so nervous, and some things will be relieved after one time, what should everyone do. It just so happens that there are quite a few new sailors on the ships, aren't they idle all day long? Come on, three times a day, from the captain to the ordinary sailor, all the strength in the body is exhausted, and there is no time to ponder, every day is to eat, practice, sleep......

Twenty-five days, this time a few days faster than when I came, I saw the wind, but unfortunately it was a northeast wind, and it entered the trade wind belt, and if it turned directly to the east, it had to keep turning and sailing in a zigzag pattern. Rather than turning directly east, Hong Tao let the fleet sweep across the Somali cape and continue north. He had to make a circle, first entering the northern Arabian Sea with a northeasterly crosswind and high speed, and then turning south and cutting diagonally along the Indian peninsula to the port of Kabaran. Although there were many more routes, the route was full of crosswinds, high speed, and less steering, which was relatively not much slower, but saved a lot of effort on the part of the sailors.

"If you don't say that good deeds will be rewarded, Lao Wen, remember to remind me that you will do more good deeds in the future!" Just two days after the wind came out of the equator, Hong Tao was woken up from his sleep, and the lookout on duty at night found that there were a large number of ships sailing at 300 degrees on the port side, and the distance was about ten nautical miles. Hong Tao pondered the location of this sea area, and actually grinned. The current fleet is on the eastern side of the Gulf of Aden, and the position of the opposing fleet is near the Yemeni coastline, and their course is northeast. What does this mean? This indicates that a large fleet is coming out of the Gulf of Aden, and the destination is likely to be any port in the Persian Gulf or in the northern or eastern part of the Arabian Sea. But what does that mean?

"Why does the gentleman say that? Does this have to do with doing good? Wen Nan, who was woken up by the alarm bell, rubbed a pair of confused eyes and asked Hong Tao the same. (To be continued.) )