"Rong Weng Weng is right, you Han people are too bad! You taught the salamander all your wrestling skills, my son doesn't know anything, he is bullied every day! As soon as Carl mentioned his son, he was even more angry, he was killed by Hong Tao, but he didn't want his son to let Hong Tao's daughter also die, this thing is still genetic!

"That's to blame you, the father, who told you not to wrestle? You can teach your son how to fencing, but I warn you, if that little boy of yours dares to stab my daughter in the eye with a stick, I'll give your son to Martini as an adopted son, and you can figure it out yourself! Let's go...... Dad is going to teach you wrestling, this is our family heirloom, and if you learn it, you can bully other children, okay! "There is no such slippery father as Hong Tao in the world, he not only bullies others, but also takes the initiative to bully others from educating his children, not ashamed but proud.

"Master, master, wait...... I really made a mistake this time, if I take the initiative to confess, can I not be punished? Hong Tao was about to go to the beach to play on the beach with his three children in his arms, when Carl came over again, trying to squeeze a frightening smile on his face.

"If you have something to say, put away your smile, you see, my daughter made you cry! Oooooooo......oo Don't cry, don't cry, when you become a queen in the future, you will take the personal guards to hack this big red beard to death! Carl's face, as long as he doesn't shave every day, can scare crying children, squatting in the wild in the middle of the night, like a wild wolf, a pair of blue not blue, green and green eyes brushed with red light, Hong Tao's little Hong Fan in his arms saw him and immediately turned from joy to sadness, wow wow howl.

"I ...... Hey, hey, hey...... Whoa, whoa, whoa......" Karl wiped his face and put the smile back. I looked left and right. It's the same as being a thief. I turned my head over again, and I couldn't say any more as soon as I said a word, and bared my teeth, which scared Hong Fan to cry again.

"Hey! Old card, don't bring such a play! If we have an opinion, let's say it directly, if we are not convinced, we will see you on the beach, you can't play yin! "Hong Tao is so annoying, he doesn't like to coax children very much. This time I came back out of guilt, and I forcibly took on the work of taking the children to play every day. Now Karl's actions really him off, and he grabbed Carl by the neck and was about to walk to the beach.

"I don't wrestle...... I don't wrestle! I drove the boat from Cape Town to the north...... "Carl is not as faceless and skinless as Hong Tao, and it is okay to be beaten by Hong Tao on the beach, but when it is rumored, children will laugh at him."

"How far have you gone?" Hong Tao let go of his hand, Carl's answer could not be said to be too surprising, for a person who knew that home was ahead, it was difficult not to resist probing, Hong Tao had taken this layer into account when he had been appointed to be the commander of the supply fleet.

"Less than two hundred kilometers...... The more you go, the more desolate it becomes. There was not a single figure on the shore, and I didn't dare to ......go any further," Carr told Hong Tao about his journey north along the South African coastline. The expression is very lonely.

"I knew you couldn't help it...... I don't blame you for this, if I were you, maybe I would have walked 500 kilometers, and in this respect, you are a coward. Well, let's wait for Cixi's report, and if there is no more southward invasion by July, and if there is no sign of a large-scale southward invasion, I will accompany you home to see. Let's go together in two ships, even if we can't come back in case of an accident, the fleet of Jinhewan is still there, enough for them to protect themselves. Hong Tao looked at Carl, not too reluctant in his heart. A big man thinks about his hometown, his wife, his brothers, his children, and his parents every day, but he hasn't gone back for nine years, and when he sees his hometown getting closer and closer, he is already very worthy of himself if he can escape without taking the boat. I can't patronize my own comfort, and I can't patronize any righteousness, Carl is the person who helped him at the beginning, without him, there might not be the current Jinhewan, he just thought about it like this, it has been delayed for almost ten years, no matter how you say it, you have to satisfy him, at least it is worthy of his friendship with himself. Hong Tao doesn't want others to be worthy of him, but as long as possible, he is not willing to be sorry for others.

"Can I wait a little longer...... Why don't you get busy with your ...... first" Karl was a little out of his mouth, his eyes had betrayed him, but his mouth was still fake polite.

"That's it, but I warn you, you know about it, and no third person knows about it. When I leave, I will tell Cixi why we are going, otherwise let the people on the board know, let's not think about leaving, and don't blame me for turning my face ruthlessly and not admitting it to death. You only have your own family to take care of, but I have to take care of the lives of thousands of people here, you know? Hong Tao is not fooling Carl to play, since he has thought about it, then he is ready to put it into action. In fact, he has long wanted to go around Europe, and he has had this idea since the day the Jinhe was launched. Not only Europe, but also the Americas, he wanted to go, and expeditions were more in line with his interests than burning, killing and looting.

"Hey, hey, hey...... This is for Zehu to play, don't grab it, you brothers, I'll go pack up my boat first......" Listening to Hong Tao's answer, Carl was completely relieved, he finally waited for this day, so happy that he didn't know where to put his hands and feet, let alone what words of thanks. Seeing Sai Fei and Hong Zehu grabbing the necklace to play, he immediately took out an egg-sized transparent stone from his pocket, stuffed it into Hong Zehu's little hand, and then ran towards the dock with a smoke, laughing while running, no different from a stupid X.

"Holy! It's a rough diamond, right? Xiaohu, your bearded uncle went to Cape Town this time, and tortured your black fat uncle, I'm afraid that even his family background has been copied...... Oh yes, you haven't seen that fat black uncle yet, have you? Hurry up and grow up, and when you grow so tall, I will take you on a big boat to see him. He's so much fun, there are deer as tall as a tree, an elephant with a long nose, and a cat the size of a Wagyu cow......" The transparent stone that Karsei gave to Zehu attracted Hong Tao's attention, and he took it and looked at the sun, it was not like a crystal, it was more like a rough diamond, but it was not carved, and there was a layer of minerals like rock sugar on the outside.

Seeing this thing, Hong Tao remembered Martini and the dozens of craftsmen in South Africa, and then began to teach the children about African geography. In this respect, he is very similar to his father, he always likes to tell his children things that they don't understand very well, whether they can understand it or not, he wants to teach his children everything he has, for fear that they will learn less.

"Uncle Wen, do you think you can wrap a layer of copper plate on the bottom of the Jinhe? The sea temperature here is too high, and a layer of barnacles grows in more than half a year, which is too troublesome to clean up. "Hong Tao is indeed a water life, he was with the boat when he sailed to sea, and returned to Jinhe Bay for vacation, but he still couldn't let go of the boat. Since you want to go on a long voyage, you have to prepare in advance, there are not many things that can be improved on the Jinhe at present, only the bottom of the ship still needs to evolve.

Barnacles and other sea creatures like to cling to the bottom of the boat, and as long as they stick to it, they grow like crazy, growing faster than those on reefs and docks. This is because ships always sail in the sea, and for this filter feeder, the food is invisibly a hundred times richer, and the growth rate is naturally much faster. But they were happy, and the sailboat was unlucky. Not to mention what kind of corrosion these sea creatures will cause to the hull, and not to mention that they provide a comfortable living space for ship maggots, just saying that they increase the resistance of the hull should be cut with a thousand cuts!

The warships in Jinhe Bay basically sailed into the Jinhe River every six months or so, using the tidal principle, sitting on the bracket at the bottom of the river, exposing the bottom of the boat, and then manually descaling the bottom of the ship. The crew, like the oyster fishermen, held a small shovel in their hands and shoveled out the marine creatures attached to the bottom of the boat little by little. Since it can't work all day, a ship requires at least dozens of crew members to shovel for days, which is time-consuming and laborious. If you don't shovel, the speed of the boat will go down, and it will get slower and slower. For a sail battleship, it takes a lot of energy to increase the speed of a section, but many times, this energy is canceled by sea life.

In order to deal with these sea creatures, humans have come up with countless solutions. For example, the exterior of the hull is painted with highly toxic substances, or the outside of the hull is simply pasted with asphalt and the like. But these methods are not very effective, and over time, whether it is toxic substances or asphalt, they will be neutralized by the seawater, and marine life will stubbornly cling to the hull. Until the 21st century, this problem has not been completely solved, and it has to be said that the vitality given by nature is too tenacious.

One of the simplest and most effective of these methods is to cover the entire or part of the bottom of the ship with a thin layer of copper plate. Copper, a metal with little activity, strong corrosion resistance, is not too afraid of seawater immersion. Moreover, the surface of the copper plate is smooth, and it is not easy to be attached to marine organisms. At the same time, the bottom of the ship has a copper plate, which can also strengthen the strength of the structure, reduce the resistance of the current, and really increase the speed of the ship.

It's just that this method also has a big drawback, that is, it is expensive! Too expensive! Copper ore is very unevenly distributed in the world, and the reserves are not as large as iron ore, and it is not as easy to mine and smelt as iron ore, so whether in ancient or modern times, it is considered a relatively expensive metal, or the ancient people would not use copper as currency. In later generations, there was a silver standard, a gold standard, in fact, a little earlier, it was the copper standard. Using copper plates to lay the bottom of the ship is equivalent to filling the bottom of the ship with copper coins, and everyone can understand what this is for in later generations, but in the eyes of today's people, this is not a pure loser! (To be continued.) )