This fishing ground is still the deep-sea area on the northeast side of the Xisha Islands, where does the fishing flood come from this year, and it will basically be the same place next year. The children and grandchildren of these fish have one navigation software in their heads, and they never have upgrades. Hong Tao was not interested in fishing sardines, and he didn't see a big whale group on the sea, so after Hong Tao put the old man Rong on Ganquan Island, he left on the Predator in the name of looking for whales.

Heading east from the Paracel Islands to the mouth of the river we saw last time, it only takes two days. Hong Tao was also followed by Bo Xiaosan, Bo Jiao, Chen Qihong, Huang Lang, Huang Tao, Wen Lao Er and his three sons, except for Bo Jiao and Carl, everyone else was on the boat, they did not rush to the sea, but the first pioneers. Hong Tao wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to catch the sea, send them to their destination first, and then sail back to the fishing grounds, by the way, hunt one or two whales, divide the whale meat with the Tan family who drove the sea, and bring the rest back to Ximaozhou.

"Wember, it's a good ship, it's much better than the original one, and if it's full sails, it can be even faster." Hong Tao not only changed the shotgun this time, but also changed the sextant in his hand, the compass and the rectangular ruler on the chart table were also replaced with copper and silver alloy materials, which were heavy and textured, and the accuracy was much stronger than the original hand-carved. With the equipment at hand, Hong Tao can already roughly calculate the speed of the ship, the mainsail and the front spinnaker are all raised, the side and rear winds can run 11 knots, if the sail is raised again, 15 knots is no problem, but I don't know if the strength of the bow is enough, and I don't dare to try it now.

"If it didn't have so many ribs and thick planks, it would have gone faster!" Wen Lao Er was very proud of his work, although he did not agree with Hong Tao's suggestion at the time, but now he has forgotten it selectively.

"If it weren't for so many ribs and thick planks, I wouldn't dare use it to chase whales!" Hong Tao despises this hard-mouthed old man, if he loses, he loses, and he talks so much nonsense.

"When will you build the fifteen-zhang ship you said?" Wen Lao Er has nothing to quibble about this issue, facts speak louder than words, using dense ribs instead of partition plates, although the water compartment is lost, but thickening the board can also ensure the safety of navigation, the hull weight is a little more, but it can be used to chase whales, which is very applicable. There were already two sailboats that he had never seen or thought about had been built from his hands, and Wen Lao Er couldn't help but yearn for a greater challenge. As a craftsman, the greatest sense of accomplishment is to have a good product from your own hands.

"It's up to you, when the local pine material can be used, let's start building a big ship when we want, now let's let Uncle Wen slowly build a third ship." Hong Tao also wants to sail on a galleon in one day, but unfortunately, the rice has to be eaten one bite at a time.

"It will take at least half a year, and the freshly cut down trees will have to be soaked in water for a few months, and then slowly dried in the shade. Wen Lao Er was immediately a little frustrated, no matter how tall, thick, and straight the trees in the place Hong Tao said, they were all for nothing now, and they couldn't be used.

"Hey, by the way, I remembered, there was a mountain fire in that place before, and a lot of wood in the inlet was blackened, but I don't know if it can be used after soaking for more than ten years?" Hong Tao also felt that a year was a bit too long, and when he thought about it, he remembered the big trees he saw in the river.

"As long as it's pine, don't be afraid! The thousand-year-old pine underwater, the 10,000-year-old tung on the beam, the pine is not afraid of water. As long as it doesn't burn into the wood, it's a good thing that the skin is too hot, how much wood is there? "This time it's the turn of Wen Lao Er to despise Hong Tao, don't look at shipbuilding, he can't talk about wood, Hong Tao can't be.

"There are probably dozens...... The thickest one is one meter long...... It's more than four feet thick, but the treetops are burned black, and most of the underneath are not too dark. Hey, I'm just talking about it, let's go to the place and see it! Jiao, go hang up the sails, we're going to run faster. Hong Tao talked for a long time, and he didn't know what the situation was, so he just acted. I didn't find a reason to risk hanging out the sails before, but now the reason is that I have to hang it up to try the effect.

"It won't flip!?" When the huge sail was blown into a big bulge by the side wind, the sailboat's head was lowered and immediately began to accelerate, and at the same time, the hull also changed from a slight side deviation to 20 degrees, and even an old style like the Yellow Sea couldn't help but be a little worried.

"It's not going to turn over, it's just that the waves are a bit big, it seems that I have to talk to Uncle Wen about how to reduce the longitudinal swing of the boat on the next boat." Watching the sail pull the bow of the ship into the sea again and again, enduring the waves rushing up from the bow of the ship and slapping heavily on his body and face, Hong Tao remembered a later shipbuilding technology, the fin reduction, but it is not clear whether the current process can be made, and he should try it when he finds time.

With sails and the right wind direction, the Marauder can reach a top speed of 16 knots, and even if the wind direction is not always the right sail, it has an average speed of 12 knots, and even if it has to slow down at night, the 1,000-kilometer range will be more than 2 days. This time, the flood wave measured very accurately, only about half a degree away from the destination, and after a little adjustment to the north, he found the estuary.

"How? It's a good place! I plan to set up camp at the bend of the river, even if the flood hits the other side during the rainy season, and there is a small river that can be used as a source of drinking water. "Since the Predator entered the mouth of the river, the people on board have been silent, and they have all looked at the woods on both sides of the river in a daze, and their faces are full of smirks.

"The terrain in the north is higher, and there have been wildfires, so it's best to grow crops!" Huang Hai quickly found the position in his mind, and the direction chosen by Hong Tao was the same. The forests on the south bank are too dense, and it is very difficult to open up land in this primeval forest, and even if it is all cut down, the land needs to be matured, and it will not be used in a short time.

According to Hong Tao's plan, these people who came first should set up a simple camp on the north bank of the bend of the river, the houses and walls are all made of wood, there are not many other here, that is, there are many trees, and the woods on the north bank that have just grown for about ten years are just the right thickness, and they don't even need to peel off the bark when cut down, and sawing into two pieces is a good building material. After a few of them cleared out the camp and built two houses that could live in people, Hong Tao could send the follow-up personnel over.

"If you find someone approaching, you will greet them with a crossbow, and if you can, you will insist, and if you can't hold on, you will get on the boat and wait for me at the mouth of the river, and it is estimated that I will be able to return in five days. At night, you must send someone on duty to don't let people sneak attack, and pay attention to those poisonous insects in the woods. "Unload the two boats and supplies towed behind the Predator and put them on the shore, Hong Tao is about to return with Bo Jiao and Carl, for the pioneers who stay here, Hong Tao always has endless words, for fear that they will be negligent somewhere.

"Don't worry, when it comes to the way to make a living, you and I are not children, we have seen a lot of winds and waves, and the wicked have not been encountered, you can deal with it with a firewood knife and harpoon, with this thing, you can put down as much as you want!" Huang Hai held an axe in his left hand and a crossbow in his right hand, and pointed to the bundles of wooden crossbow arrows on the ground, very sure. These Tan people were not honest farmers, and the sea brought them endless suffering, but also gave them a fierce character. For the sake of their land and life, killing people is not a burden on their hearts, and maybe these two old men also made a cameo appearance as a pirate when they were young.

The luck of this return voyage was not very good, not to mention the wrong wind direction, and the whales did not encounter it, and they returned to Ganquan Island all the way back, still empty-handed, and as a last resort, Hong Tao had to take those pilot whales to open the knife. This three- or four-meter-long small whale can basically solve one with two crossbow arrows, and they don't have to wait for their own weakness, they are directly dragged up with a cable, and they are surrounded by the small wooden boats of the Tan family, and they will die with a hook harpoon.

Hong Tao just circled around the sea to find the target, and when he found it, he chased it and shot it to death, and naturally there was a boat behind to drag the whale carcass to the island. There were also people who slaughtered it on the island, and all the blubber was put aside, which was needed by Hong Tao, and the rest of the whale meat was cut into pieces and loaded into small boats. The killing lasted for two and a half days, and it was not until the afternoon of the next day that most of the small wooden boats of the Tan family were stacked with two or three pieces of whale meat, and Hong Tao stopped his search in this area, loaded the blubber into the Marauder's cabin in a small boat, and began to return with everyone.