"You have to take advantage of the river tide to drive the boat into the Qiantang River! Lao Wen, what did I say, he just wanted to take us to death! The river tide is like a thousand troops, and the water wall is several feet high, how can these small boats compete? Luo Youde listened to Wu Yong's explanation, but instead of being relieved, he jumped up from the recliner. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info he was a person who had seen the river tide, and was deeply shocked by this wonder of nature, and did not believe that the battleship could be unscathed in the tide.

"Oops...... Don't shout, don't shout, I'm fishing, can you have some quality, listen to Captain Wu finish speaking? Hong Tao finally turned around, he thought Luo Youde's voice was too loud and noisy.

"Boss Luo, you may not know that as early as when my grandfather and father were in their generation, there were people on the riverside who drove boats to the tide to the tide to beg for color. Sometimes catching up with high rollers can earn you a year's worth of expenses in one day. Later, the official family made an order to replace the boat performing on the water with the large ship of the sailor. When Your Majesty and I brought up this matter, I also hesitated, but Your Majesty was right, those ships that flattered me were only a dozen tons, or flat-bottomed sand ships, and our warships were several hundred tons, so they were naturally much more stable. And after experiencing a typhoon at sea, the river tide is nothing at all, as long as you find the right channel and don't let the boat be washed by the tide to the shallows, you can rush to Lin'an City in one breath along the tide. It's really not very difficult, I don't dare to talk about anything else, most of my dozens of brothers are children who grew up by the river, and they all eat together in the sailor, and they all know where the waterway is with their eyes closed, and we will ensure that you arrive in Lin'an City safely. Wu Yong disagreed with Luo Youde's statement, and when Hong Tao approached him to discuss this matter privately, he felt very risky at first. But when you think about it, it's really nothing. No matter how big the river tide is, it is not as big as the wind and waves at sea, and the river tide has a fixed direction, which is better controlled, as long as the ship is strong enough and the river is familiar enough, this method is indeed perfect.

"But won't many people watching the tide along the way find us?" Luo Youde still thinks that this matter is a bit outrageous, more than 20 warships are not a small number, even if the Virginia-class ship is low, but after all, it is a warship of more than 200 tons, it is not big at sea, and it is a giant in the river, how can it hide people's eyes?

"Go in at night, with the guidance of Captain Wu, let's take advantage of the night to arrive at Lin'an City, and we will dock before the end of the day." Hearing that Luo Youde was so stubborn, Hong Tao finally couldn't help it, tied the cable in his hand to the side of the ship, lit a cigar, and personally went into battle to convince this stupid man who didn't learn and didn't know how to do it.

"Why do you have to be in the middle of the day? The palace doors are locked at night, so it is better to choose the palace door at the time of the day, and wait for the palace door to open before rushing in. Luo Youde found another place that he thought was inappropriate and proposed a change.

"Brother Luo, Yin Shi is the most suitable, at this time, the officials are waiting for the court in the court, and the people are asleep, which has the least impact. On the 18th of August, there will be a grand court meeting in the imperial court, and officials who are not only in Lin'an will participate, but also officials from nearby prefectures and counties will also go to court. After dawn, the ministers will follow the official family to the river to worship the tide god, and then watch the sailors make the tide. This is when the raid is most effective. As for the matter of locking the palace door, I think Brother Hong doesn't care if there is a door or not. The boxes in his cabin are full of explosives, and you must have used them when you dug the canals, what kind of palace gate can resist their power? In this regard, you and I are far from Brother Hong, so let's not mix them. Wen Nan was also tired of hearing it, why is it so difficult to understand such a small matter. It's better to explain it to Luo Youde by himself, if Hong Tao is allowed to say it, he will definitely have to demean Luo Youde with a gun and a stick. Both himself and Luo Youde are victims on this issue, and they must help each other.

“…… Today is the fourth day of August, and there are still thirteen days before the tide, can we catch up? Luo Youde still doesn't give up, he wants to carry out the lifting of the bar to the end.

"Hey...... Come on! Hurry up, help me pull, don't let it run, it's our lunch! Wen Nan and Wu Yong couldn't answer Luo Youde's question, but the only person who could answer suddenly jumped up like a fire burning his ass, even threw away the cigar in his hand, and rushed to the side of the boat in a big step, untied the cable that served as a fishing line, kicked the side of the boat with his feet, and pulled back with grinning teeth, shouting while pulling back.

"When is this coming, and there is still idle fishing!" Luo Youde and Wen Nan didn't move, not because they didn't want to help Hong Tao, but because they really didn't have the strength to do it, and now they are both sick numbers.

"Yes, this vast sea, when will it be a head!" Wen Nan also has the same feeling, he has been afraid of taking a boat in the past two years. It turned out that when I followed Hong Tao to Europe, I took a big sea boat, which was slower, but steady. Unlike the Americas and Virginia, they run fast at sea and sway greatly, just like sitting on a swing all day, 24 hours a day, for more than a month, except for a few people, no one can stand it.

"Minister Wen, Boss Luo, don't worry, I guess we're almost there. You see, Your Majesty has caught a fish, which means that we are not far from the island and the mainland. If it is in the ocean, His Majesty never fishes, and he cannot catch it. Wu Yong didn't go to help Hong Tao pull the rope, because a few sailors had already rushed up, and there were not so many people standing on the side of the ship. Hearing Luo Youde and Wen Nan's emotion, he comforted the two of them from a professional point of view.

“…… It's so hateful! He knew it was coming in the morning, but he just wouldn't tell us! How can there be such people in the world? "This time it's Wen Nan's turn to get angry, Hong Tao's habit of taking other people's pain as fun makes him hate it so much.

Wen Nan didn't blame Hong Tao, he did know that he was about to get there, not by experience, but by science. Since the longitude and latitude line, the sea has become a Go board, coupled with a more refined sextant, Hong Tao can refine the latitude and longitude to the grade, that is to say, the error is plus or minus more than ten kilometers. This accuracy is an hour in and out of the sea, which is very accurate for navigation.

However, Hong Tao's destination is not the entrance of the Qiantang River, nor the Shengsi Islands, at this time the front of the fleet is not the mainland, but an archipelago, a very large archipelago, it is called the Japanese archipelago in later generations, and the destination of the fleet is in the southwest corner of the Japanese archipelago, located in the southernmost tip of Kyushu Island, Japan's four islands, there is a place called Tanegashima. The person who currently rules here should be the Shimazu clan, and as for whether there has been a change, then Hong Tao doesn't know. The last time he cruised here was fifteen years ago, and Cixi's intelligence network did not cover all of Asia.

No matter who is in charge, Hong Tao will stop here for a few days, and if he is willing to receive him, he will talk about it and discuss it, and if he is comfortable serving Emperor Hong, he may throw you a bag of gold sand before leaving. It doesn't matter if you don't like to receive it, just replace the gold sand with bullets. Anyway, it's all metal, it's essentially the same, the difference is that the gold sand is paid after the fact, and the bullets are given first as soon as they meet.

Hong Tao had only two purposes for the expeditionary fleet to dock at Tanegashima, one was that the fleet needed to rest, and after a long voyage, even sailors and passengers would be very tired. The fleet is going to war, and the softening body is definitely not conducive to fighting, so it is necessary to find a port to stay for a few days. The second is to make up time, now there are still 12 days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the distance from Tanegashima to the mouth of the Qiantang River is only a little more than 1,000 kilometers, with ordinary cruising speed, three days is enough. There is no point in going too early, and it is easy to be discovered by the Great Song Water Master.

As for why he didn't choose big ports like Osaka, Kagoshima, and Yokohama, it was mainly to avoid the merchants of the Kanagawa Empire. Japan, as a country relatively close to the Golden River Empire, has been trading between the two sides since the establishment of the Golden River Empire. Although it has been a long time since they left the empire, according to the character of the Jinhe Empire, as long as there is a port for trade, they will lay eggs. The larger eggs are the patrol fleets stationed, and the smaller ones are the intelligence stations of the Ministry of Supervision, depending on the scale of trade and strategic position. As long as it is a valuable port, no matter how big or small, there will always be an egg.

Tanegashima produces nothing but a little grain, so naturally there will be no large-scale trade. There are no big ports here, only small fishing villages. So the chances of the Golden River Empire laying eggs here are almost zero.

Hongtao doesn't need a big port, and the repair of the fleet doesn't have to be a bustling city, and the supplies are all carried on the battleship, and the people on the battleship can't eat the food of the locals until the last resort. This is the rule set by Hong Tao for the navy, not for the sake of not committing any offences, but for the fear that the food is not clean, and if it causes infectious diseases at sea, it will be all over. Moreover, the small fishing villages here are relatively easy to control, especially at the southern end of the island, where there are not even merchant ships, and it is very secluded.

"This place must belong to the Ryukyus, right? Your Majesty seems to have brought me here, will the Royal Navy be active in this area? "Wen Nan can also look at the charts, he himself is very familiar with Japan, can also speak Japanese, when he was captured by Hong Tao, it was on the way back from Japan.

"It should belong to Japan, who knows. The Royal Navy won't come here, and there is not much trade in the Ryukyu Islands, at most a supply depot on Naha Island will be enough to control the entire archipelago. "Hong Tao is not afraid of running into the warships of the Royal Navy, and a small-scale fight is just a good time to test whether the Royal Navy has regressed in recent years and whether there are any new weapons. But he didn't think there would be a Royal Navy here, because there was no strategic value here, and as long as the Imperial Ministry of Defense was not stupid, it would not build a base in the vicinity.

(To be continued.) )