What the king of this small port of Malacca thinks, Hong Tao doesn't care at all. If it weren't for his own lack of manpower, he would have sent ships and men to turn them all into slaves, at least they would have been colonies. That broken city was not as big as Jinhe Bay, and a few grenades were thrown into it, and the battle was over.

Now Hong Tao is concerned about the sea conditions ahead, and if he goes four or five days ahead, he should enter the Andaman Sea, from the Andaman Sea to the west, that is, the Indian Ocean, the real transoceanic voyage is about to begin, and what awaits him in front of him, Hong Tao has no bottom in his heart. Don't look at what he said to Luo Youde, Old Man Rong, Bo Fu, Bo Zhu, and the crew and sailors for sure, in fact, it is still very risky to take four ancient galleons to play this kind of transoceanic voyage.

The name of the Indian Ocean is not yet available, because there is not even India, and it was not until the 16th century that the Indian Ocean was officially named. The ancient Greeks called it the Eritrean Sea, which means the Red Sea, but they probably never came to the Indian Ocean at all, and only returned to the Arabian Peninsula. The Arabs called this area the Arabian Sea, and their eastward expansion was strong, with Islam and Buddhism at loggerheads in Southeast Asia. It can be seen that the Arabs had already begun to explore eastward a long time ago.

Hong Tao has crossed the Indian Ocean several times in his previous life, some when he sailed his own sailboat, and also when he drove the Mouse Superman, both in summer and winter, and has studied the climate here. In general, crossing the Indian Ocean in the summer is not a good option, especially from east to west. Because the Indian Ocean has a monsoon climate, in the northern seas, the summer monsoon is southwesterly. It was also rainy. Sailing from east to west is tantamount to going against the wind. And what about winter. The wind is northeasterly, sunny and rainfall. That's why the big food merchants were blown all the way to Japan by the southwest wind in the summer. They lived in China for a few months, had enough fun, had enough fun, bought the right goods, and were blown all the way back to the Arabian Peninsula by the northeast wind in winter.

Sounds like an easy thing to do. In fact, not all Arabs can blow over the boat if they want to, and such a long journey, with occasional stops along the coastline for supplies, is still unlucky without accurate charts and basic surveying techniques. Therefore, the Arabs are a team of sea ships as soon as they come, and there are very few single ones, and even if there is, it is estimated that they have escaped by luck in the face of a big storm.

Hong Tao has no supply points on the Indian Ocean coast, and even if he does, he doesn't plan to take a detour along the twisty coastline. If that's the case, how can you reflect the value of yourself as a traverser? So be it. When the fleet reached the Andaman Sea, and as soon as he turned the northern tip of Sumatra, he waved the flag to three other ships: the flagship pilots, after the Zhenzhou is broken, keep a distance of one nautical mile, and assemble at the third rendezvous!

"Right rudder 10, full sail, tell the boat behind me my order!" When the other three ships had received the flags of the order, Hong Tao walked up to the stern with a shy stride, stood next to the steering wheel, and gave further instructions to his two deputies, Moyu and Po Shrimp. Now is the time for him to perform, the previous voyages were all commanded by the Boyu and Po Shrimp brothers, plus there are ships in front of him to lead the way, he basically doesn't care much about the course.

"Right rudder 10, full sails! Watchtower Banner Message! When Boyu heard Hong Tao's order, he immediately shouted in a sharp voice. He is 12 years old this year, and his brother Bo Jiao, he knows a lot more at the age of 12, since he was 7 years old, he has been playing small sailing with Hong Tao, and he has been studying seriously for several years, and his nutrition is more adequate than Bo Jiao. Now he is an old sailor, and he can fly the explorer back and forth between Ximao Island and Jinhe Bay, and his cousin Po Shrimp, who is half a year younger than him, is the same, and even taller than him. For this, Boyu is always obsessed, and in his opinion, it is ideal to grow to the size of his uncle.

The four sailboats, under the leadership of the flagship, slowly raised their full sails, and the course was slightly to the northwest, so that the side wind turned into a crosswind, and the speed of the ship was immediately raised, and the heavy bow split the waves, tilting the hull slightly to the right, and sailing towards the depths of the vast sea.

This 1,500-kilometer sea route is probably the most thrilling section that everyone in the fleet has ever experienced except for the waves. Every day from morning to night, there is a strong wind, the wind speed level is almost 10 meters per second or more, and the wind force is six or seven magnitude. What is the concept of this wind speed? If you're on land, thick branches will be blown back and forth, power lines will whine, and it's already difficult to open an umbrella. When you get to the sea, it is a white expanse between the sky and the earth, the waves will be blown by the wind, all splashes, the wave height is about three or four meters, the swing range of the ship dozens of meters long can reach 40 degrees, the bow of the ship has just been raised, and it looks like it is plunged into the bottomless abyss. If you don't get seasick, don't look at the bow of the boat, stare at it for a few minutes, and you'll vomit.

The wind is strong, so it is said that you should ride the wind and waves. Wrong! Whether it is a headwind, crosswind or downwind, the stronger the wind and the higher the wind speed, the more the sail has to be lowered, otherwise the mast will not be able to stand it, and everyone will be dumbfounded. How to sail in a strong wind is a test of a captain's level, he must not only have an understanding of the wind and wind speed, but also understand the condition of his own ship, which can not only make full use of the wind to provide enough power for the ship, but also not to break the mast, leaving plenty of margin.

The reason why Hong Tao wants to be the flagship is not as simple as leading the way, but more importantly, to replace the other three captains and help them choose the state of the sails. All four ships used the same batch of wood, so the performance is basically the same, thanks to the pine and hardwood in Jinhe Bay that was burned by wildfires and dried naturally for more than a decade. Even trees cut down in different batches have different properties after different periods of drying.

Since the four ships have similar performance and loading capacity, Hong Tao can use his sailing experience to the extreme and sail in formation with them. Every command on the flagship was transmitted by the lookout on the top of the mast to the next ship in flags, one to one, and the four ships were all commanded by Hong Tao alone. With the same course and the same number of sails, the speed is naturally about the same, and the whole formation can be maintained very well. At the same time, the captain of each ship can observe how the sails should be used, how the masts should be protected, and how effective formations should be carried out in such sea conditions.

At night, three large strings of lanterns are hung on top of the three masts, which are also specially made, with a thin whale skin on the outside, a clever spinner ball on the inside, and a round candle and counterweight in the middle. No matter how the lantern shakes, the candle will never fall over, and even if the lantern is turned over, the candle will still be flushed. Relying on a simple change in the number of lanterns, combined with the Morse code, simple sentences can still be transmitted to each other, this is the thirteenth-century maritime night communication device that Hong Tao pondered, the effect should be good. Of course, there is a premise for this, whether it is a flag or a light signal, it needs the help of the weather. If the sea conditions are too bad, cloudy and rainy and foggy, then you can only ask for more blessings, once you break away from the formation, don't bother to find other ships, just sail to the nearest rendezvous point and wait.

Another fourteen days passed, and the seabirds finally appeared in the sky, and it was not far from the land or the island. If Hong Tao's sextant is not wrong, then this should be around 7 degrees north latitude and 83 degrees east longitude, and the island of Sri Lanka is likely to appear in front, which should be called Lion Country or Ceylon. As for whether lions are born here, Hong Tao is not sure, anyway, there should be no lions here in the future.

It is the southernmost point of the Indian continent, and has been a source of rubies, sapphires and cat's eye gemstones since ancient times. In fact, they all bullied the Great Song Dynasty maritime merchants rarely ran so far, these gems were exchanged for spices from Ceylon in the middle, and they had already made a fortune, and then they were brought to the Great Song Dynasty and made a lot of money. So Luo Youde said that the big food merchants who came to the Great Song Dynasty were all extremely rich, whether they lived in Guangzhou or Quanzhou. Can they not be rich, they make money twice along the way, and whoever does this kind of business will also get rich.

Now Hong Tao is helping the Song people to smash the trade of the Arabs, I couldn't control how you made money before, but now I'm Hong Lunbu and Hong Zhelun, so give me a break. In the future, this maritime Silk Road will be surnamed Jin, and only the sea ships authorized by Jinhe Company are allowed to run, and ships from other countries will have to pay taxes to Jinhe Marine Resources Management Co., Ltd. if they want to run! If you don't dare to pay one, the fleet of the security company will sink you in minutes, the goods will be confiscated, people will be taken away as slaves, and you will evade taxes! Are you afraid?

What, you say this is the high seas, why pay taxes? You are unreasonable, don't you see the first article in the rules and regulations of Jinhe Company, all the sea areas within the captain's sight are the territorial waters of Jinhe Company. Oh, if you don't admit this rule, it doesn't matter, hit you once, and you'll know next time, not only do you know it, but you also remember it very clearly, and you can't forget it for the rest of your life.

What, you said you wouldn't do business with Jinhe Company? This is all such an old-fashioned method, and I dare to use it. The security guard of Jinhe Company got on the ship to manage the ocean, and when he got off the boat, he was the city manager! Or is it the same sentence, are you afraid of the chengguan who pushes the cannon away?

Which country dares to say that it does not do business, grenades are served every minute, as many ports as there are for you to blow up and burn down, and if you have the ability, you will move all the residents to the interior, and not a piece of the board will enter the sea. If you don't have this ability, you will honestly open the port to me, and you have to sign an unequal treaty, and you have to get a few pieces of concession or something. As for which country to choose first, Hong Tao hasn't thought about it yet, that thing is the development trend in the future, and the current strength of Jinhe Company is not enough to be so strong. (To be continued.) )