During the long voyage, Hong Tao found another thing that he thought was more interesting, that is, he invited these maritime merchants and the boatmen on the ships of the Southern Song Dynasty to have a tea party on his ship in batches. Everyone is idle, and it is also very lively to talk about their hometowns, the customs of the ports they have been to, and the sales prices of various goods. The words of these people are a window for Hong Tao to understand this era, many things are difficult to see in person, listening to them, although there is no intuitive impression, but can also imagine a lot, very rewarding.

These maritime merchants originally didn't have a good impression of Hong Tao, but after chatting twice, they liked to chat with Hong Tao again, mainly because he could say things that everyone didn't know, and his eloquence was very good, just like telling a story, without stopping for half an hour. And everyone found out that as long as they obeyed the rules on the Hongtao boat, this big man was still very kind. Not only is he very familiar with sailing, but he also has a deep knowledge of doing business, and he can often come up with new ways and ideas worth thinking about. Slowly, small talk turned into a seminar, where people would sit in the captain's room of the Canton and debate how to sell a certain cargo, sometimes with red faces and dirty laughs. Overall, everyone is getting along more and more well.

Both parties are rewarded and willing to communicate with each other, and the journey is less boring. Some maritime merchants let sailors row boats to the Canton every day without waiting for Hong Tao's greeting, and they have become fascinated with arguing and discussing with Hong Tao, and have found a lot of inspiration for doing business. So Hong Tao's status in the fleet is getting higher and higher, from a simple cooperative relationship to a half-teacher and half-friend feeling, at this time Hong Tao has any suggestions, these maritime merchants are willing to sit down, calm down and listen to him explain in detail.

It has been almost 40 days since leaving the port of Guangzhou, and this large fleet has finally entered the Strait of Malacca. Arrived at the sea on the east side of the port of Malacca. However, this time the fleet was in trouble, and flags came from the Zhenzhou and Qiongzhou at the beginning, and a large number of ships were found ahead, and there was a battle taking place, just in the port of Malacca!

"Bang bang...... "With the alarm flag sent from the Zhenzhou, the alarm bell sounded on several other ships in turn....... There was a sudden rush on the deck and on the mast. However, the situation soon calmed down, and once the sailors and officers were in their positions, there was no human voice to be heard on deck, only the whirring of the sea breeze.

"Full sails, formation, flagship takeover!" Hong Tao put down the binoculars and gave the first order, and the six battleships finally hung up their sails, and the speed of the ship was immediately raised. The four battleships in front were all turning into the wind. The Guangzhou and Quanzhou, which were delayed, avoided the cargo ships, accelerated to the front of the fleet, and together with the four ships that circled back, they gradually formed a long snake formation, led by the Guangzhou, and rushed towards the port of Malacca.

"Little brother, why is your lord's ship so fast?" The midshipmen on the six cargo ships had already received the flags on the ships and began to slow down the ship. Get out of the way of the main channel. Looking at the sailing warships that crossed by, the shipwrecks and helmsmen on the cargo ship saw the full speed of these strange ships for the first time. I was so shocked that I couldn't close my mouth.

"Of course it's the boat, if it weren't for you dragging it, we would have been here for ten years! Shhhh "The midshipmen who were stationed on the cargo ship were all teenagers. But they are more fanatical and loyal than other Tan families. No matter what era it is, young people are always enthusiastic, and they are always the first group of people to be bewitched, Hong Tao shamelessly used their passion and brainwashed them.

There were more than 20 small sailing boats scattered on the sea ahead. There are more near the piers in the port of Malacca, and some of them don't even have sails, just two pointed offshore fishing boats. These ships should not be from the port of Malacca, I have never seen so many ships in the port when I came before, so there is only one answer, these ships are here to attack Malacca. Because fireworks had already risen near the dock, the specific battle situation was too far away to be seen.

"Yaya, what should I do at this time? You command, I'll be your herald. Looking at the enemy situation ahead that the lookout on the mast lookout kept transmitting with the flag, Hong Tao put down the binoculars, pinched Weng Ya's neck, and pushed her to the position next to the helmsman, and he stood next to her.

“…… The fleet was dispersed, with two ships to intercept the enemy ships on the inside, and the remaining four ships to attack the enemy ships near the dock. They are docked and have no ability to fight back, so after destroying them, they will encircle and destroy the large ships on the inner side of the channel. Weng Ya has always been using a telescope to observe the situation on the ocean in front of her, and she can also understand the flag language of the lookout, and she has also made her own judgment in her mind based on the navigation knowledge she has learned in the past few years. It's just that Hong Tao suddenly handed over the fleet to her command, so that her little heart couldn't bear it, and even her voice became quieter, not like she was directing a battle, but more like answering the difficult questions raised by the teacher in class, and she wasn't sure if the answer was right.

"Say these words out loud, in a commanding tone! You are now the acting commander of the fleet, and if I am sick or injured, will you just do it and watch the fleet without command? Don't be afraid, just like the usual simulation exercises, this is just a topic, you try to do it well, don't listen to others, just rely on your own brain, I will help you correct it if you are wrong, let's start. Hong Tao let go of the hand that was twisting Weng Ya's neck, cooled down the nervous Weng Ya in a calmer tone as much as possible, and cheered her up again.

"Command! Ship No. 6 followed the flagship to attack the ships on the inside of the channel, and the rest of the ships followed the No. 1 ship to attack the enemy ships at the dock! Right rudder 10, full speed, heading...... Course...... Uncle, I forgot my compass in the cabin......" Weng Ya really looked like that at first, quite like a captain, but shouting and shouting went wrong again, she touched all over her body, and she couldn't find her own simple compass, so she could only bite her lip and ask Hong Tao for help.

"Heading 310, port gunner in position! Silly girl, isn't there a compass on the helm platform! Hong Tao ignored Weng Ya first, and after supplementing the order, he pinched Weng Ya's neck again, and directly sent her head to the helmsman, pointing to the compass on the helmsman for her to see.

"Hey, hey, hey...... My father said that I should study hard and be able to marry Weng Ya as a daughter-in-law in the future, but I think she is a little stupid! Master, can I pick a smarter one? "The helmsman of the Canton is called Ci Mercy, and when you hear this name, you should be able to guess who he is, yes, he is the only son of Cixi. Since he was arrested, this child has been mixed with the children of Jinhewan to learn Chinese and go to school, and has fully integrated into the peculiar social structure of Jinhewan, and he does not take his own children as slaves seriously. Like his father, he is very keen on promotion, and his brain is indeed not slow, he learns everything seriously, and belongs to the kind of person who concentrates on doing what he does and has no distractions. This time, Hong Tao tried to assign as many skilled sailors as he could to other ships, and most of his own ships were made up of boy scouts and new sailors, and this mercy was still an old qualification, and he was a midshipman on the last voyage.

"Smack! Looking at the course, you are still picky, our Weng Ya marrying you is considered your ancestral tomb to be smoky! You're not stupid? How many times have I told you, what the is called master, am I like a slave trader? Do you remember! Hong Tao didn't expect Mercy to laugh at Weng Ya, or laugh in front of Weng Ya, in order to establish authority for Weng Ya, he had to wave his hand and slap Mercy's head to make him rein in.

"Phew! Drowned ghosts are willing to marry you, you're not as tall as me, I'm the captain! I'm going to fine you five barrels, no! Ten buckets of water! Weng Ya is a girl after all, as soon as she heard that a boy said that she was unwilling to marry her, whether she was willing to marry or not, she immediately went crazy, and she was about to rush over and fight with mercy, and she had to use the power in her hands to retaliate.

"Oops...... Come back, you give me good command! You're a girl, you can't be so wild, fight with boys at every turn, they will take advantage of you. And it is not allowed to punish the crew casually, ten buckets of water? Five barrels down, he will suffocate to death, who will drive the boat for you! Keep this account down first, and I'll find him to settle it when I return to Jinhewan. Hong Tao had to temporarily change his role and act as a school teacher, first dealing with conflicts between students, and then talking about the war.

In fact, there is nothing to fight in this battle, the number of ships on the other side is large, but the quality is too poor, there are only three or four ships that can really be called sea ships, and the rest are only stronger than the pointed small wooden boats of the Tan family. A battle of this intensity is not as big as when fighting the Arabs, at least the Arabs have the ability to inflict losses on their fleets, and they are basically hopeless. If Hong Tao hadn't wanted to show his strength to the Southern Song Dynasty merchant ships behind him and the king in the port of Malacca, he wouldn't have fired grenades at all, and he could have sent all these small boats to the bottom of the sea just by hitting them with the hull.

These ships also saw Hong Tao's fleet on the ocean, and at first they didn't realize that these big ships would join the battle indiscriminately, and they still helped the port of Malacca to fight themselves. They know the merchant ships of the Great Song Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty is 108,000 miles away from here, so why should they care about the war here. But when Hong Tao's fleet was speeding up at full sails, they immediately realized that the situation had changed, and they were already prepared, and several large ships in the inner channel were shrinking and approaching, and they wanted to beckon the small boats on the dock to keep an eye on them. (To be continued.) )