"Ah Jiao, you are my uncle's first helper, and my uncle wants to keep you with me all the time, but the small fish and shrimp are still young, so I don't worry about letting them stay here." This is our forward base, and it is so close to the Arabs, if we lose it, it will affect our development plan, and you have to help your uncle do this work. When I return from this voyage, I will leave your Uncle Ka's ship behind, and let him accompany you. When I come back next year, I'll change his eyes and take you away. "Hong Tao wants to take Bo Jiao away, he is not only his relative, but also has the best ability to execute and understand. But Kabalan can't do without him here, and if he is unstable behind him, he can't go out steadily.

"I just have something to tell my uncle, and I heard from the Arab merchants who came here to sell their goods that someone has already targeted Kabalan, not the Arabs of Lao Mai's family, but another group. Last month, there were two ships hanging around outside the harbor, flying an eagle flag, and their movements were suspicious, and as soon as the Zhenzhou approached them, they ran north, and I did not chase them. If my uncle wants to go to the west, he should be more careful of the ships with the eagle flag, the people of the old Mai family said that those Arabs are from the Red Sea, and they are very powerful, and the ships that were sunk by us last time are theirs. Bo Jiao also knew that Hong Tao did not have a superfluous captain in his hands, and he was also an adult, so he no longer bothered about the voyage, but reported the recent situation of Cabalan Port.

"Well, my uncle has known about them for a long time, and now I don't have time to deal with them, you must be careful here, and you must not be negligent. In addition, my uncle has to remind you that even if you already have children, don't trust the people here, including the people of Lao Mai's family. They're just our partners, not our own people, you know? Don't lose your life because you are gullible, that would be too unjust. It's not just your life, there are dozens of Tanjia sailors on board. You are the captain of the ship, and you have to think about everything in your every move. Okay, your father-in-law is here, go and carry the weapons in the cabin to the shore, Lao Mai, you also go ashore. Ask your people about the situation here. "Hong Tao is still quite satisfied with the work of Bojiao, he has a boat, dozens of people, has been watching here for two years, it is not easy to make people and ships safe. This also solved a lot of trouble for himself, helped himself through a shortage of people and ships, as long as he can resist until next winter, he can free up his hands to consolidate the strength of the port of Kabaran and the Strait of Malacca.

The convoy was in the port of Cabalan for only two days. After unloading all the goods on the ship, they began to play with life's supplies, just boiling fresh water and sealing them, and used up all the clay pots in the warehouse in Port Cabaran, and this was not the end, the Golden River still carried a large number of clay pots, and continued to load. Hong Tao ordered every ship to carry as much fresh water as possible, and he was preparing for the voyage. Others may not understand his seemingly crazy behavior, but he must insist on it. Because this voyage had to pass through the graveyard of the sailing ship, the equatorial windless zone.

The equatorial windless belt is a sea area with the equator as the center and up to 1,000 kilometers wide within the range of five degrees of north and south latitude. It basically circles the earth like a belt, and this sea area is hot all year round, high humidity, heavy rain, little wind or quiet wind. Where is the 5th parallel? It's about a hundred kilometers south of Ceylon, which means that if you want to go south, you have to go out of the port of Kabalan. It's almost into the equatorial windless zone. How wide is this windless belt? One latitude in the equatorial region is almost equal to one hundred and eleven kilometers, and the further you go to the poles, the longer the distance at one latitude becomes, because the earth is not round, but more like an orange. The ends are a little flattened. Five degrees from north to south, that is, more than 1,100 kilometers, and there is little or no wind in most areas, and for sailing ships, this is the place of death!

At the beginning of the Age of Discovery, there were countless shipwrecks, one of the most cruel of which was to die of thirst. At that time, people did not know the existence of such an extreme climate as the equatorial windless zone, and if you rushed into it without sufficient preparation in advance, it would be like walking into a death swamp, unable to move forward or backward. Until the fresh water on the ship was drunk, and then he was sunburned alive by the great sun in the sky.

In these aspects, Hong Tao has a natural golden finger, and he does not intend to prove the truth that has been proved by countless people in later generations with their lives. This knowledge can help people as well as harm people, and if this knowledge is used in war, Hong Tao can completely bury a fleet of the enemy without firing a single shot, and the burial will be so clean that not a single figure can be seen.

"Today I'm going to give you a new lesson, it's very, very important, it's a matter of life and death for the whole fleet, so be sure to listen carefully. If, in the future, whoever wants to lead the fleet into the five areas between the five degrees north and south latitudes, between the 25th and 35th degrees north latitude, between the 55th and 65th degrees north latitude, between the 25th and 35th degrees south latitude, and between the 55th and 65th degrees south latitudes, he must pay attention to the fact that the wind force within their range is very small and there is no fixed wind direction, especially the annular belt of the fifth degree north and south is the most extreme, which is called the equatorial windless belt. The equator is the zero latitude line, the maps I used to show you are flat, today I tell you a new knowledge, in fact, the earth we live in is not flat, but a sphere, just like this, it is called a globe! At noon the day before sailing, Hong Tao summoned the captains, first mates, and navigators of the other four ships to the officers' canteen in the bilge of the flagship, gave them a lesson in world geography, and at the same time brought over the big round ball made of whale baleen and whale skin in the captain's room, and told everyone that this big round ball that was painted with colorful colors was not his own toy, but the earth under his feet.

"Stop! Don't raise your hand, don't ask me why we don't fall if we're under the ball, you just need to listen today, just need a word of the record, let the doubts in your heart be kept, and you will have the opportunity to prove it later. I'm not fooling you, but if one of you wants to go around the ball one day, he'll find that he's going to sail and come back to the starting point. So, the earth under our feet is not a flat ground, but a very, very large ball, so big that we can't even feel it. When Hong Tao said that the earth under his feet was round, someone below immediately raised his hand to speak, but Hong Tao refused. As for the question of why the earth is round, Hong Tao can't explain it to them, because the amount of knowledge involved is too great, and it may not be able to finish talking about it in a year. Instead of talking to them for a long time and not being able to make them understand, it is better to tell them how to prove this truth and let them explore it for themselves.

"Okay, the earth is round or square, let's put it aside for the time being, this is not the point I want to say, the point I want to say is to let everyone remember these five windless belts, especially the middle one, it will kill everyone if it is not done well. In the future, whoever needs to cross this windless zone, no matter what direction you are heading, must cross due south and north, and at the same time carry more than three times the freshwater reserves, and from the day you enter the windless zone, the freshwater ration system will be implemented in the whole fleet, the strictest rationing system, not a drop of fresh water can be wasted. ”

"Some people may ask me how scary I am! What I want to say to you is that even if you do what I say, I can't guarantee that you will make it out alive. But there is also good news, which is that there is plenty of rain in this area, and this is the second important point I want to tell you. As soon as you enter the windless zone, put everything that can hold water on the deck, and set up a canvas to collect rainwater, which is an additional supplement in addition to drinking water, and I don't limit how you can use it, but I hope you don't take it lightly. Okay, that's all for today, I wish us a smooth journey tomorrow, let's go! "Hong Tao's geography class was very short, it ended in less than half an hour, but it had a very big impact on these people. They all frowned, left the Golden River with heavy expressions, and returned to their ships with a stomach full of doubts and nervousness to prepare for tomorrow's voyage.

In the early morning of the next day, while the port of Cabalan was still asleep, the fleet moored outside the harbor suddenly became busy, and then, under the leadership of the huge body of the Golden River, one by one, slowly left the berth one by one, and sailed due south. The sentry on the dock fort must have noticed the movement of the fleet, but he would not give any warning, because this fleet with the rat flag has always been like this, no one will notify if it does not enter the port, does not report, and constantly changes berths. The only one who knew what this fleet was doing was the captain of the Zhenzhou who was parked alone outside the harbor, who had already received a report from the captain on duty, and was standing on the stern tower at this time, looking at the big ship farther and farther away with a look of regret and yearning.

Hong Tao's voyage plan was very simple, that is, to take the fleet from the port of Kabalan to the south, smoothly pass through the equatorial windless zone, and then turn around and head west, taking advantage of the southeast trade wind belt in the southern hemisphere, along the 10th parallel of south latitude to the east coast of Africa. Once on the east coast of Africa, he would send a Shark-class warship along the coastline to explore the hydrology and find a suitable river, and then establish a new supply point near the estuary of the river. This supply point is intended for the replenishment of the fleet that has just emerged from the windless zone, and at the same time, it can also be used to replenish fresh water when sailing from south to north, and then start the arduous voyage. (To be continued.) )