After leaving the Gold Coast, the fleet sailed for several more days in the Gulf of Guinea and entered the coast off the coast of Angola. As the fleet slowly sailed into the westerly wind belt, the otherwise calm sea became choppy. The battleship, which usually seemed incomparably tall and stable in the harbor, was now like a leaf in the turbulent water, rising and falling and stumbling on the raging waves, as if the fleet would be broken to pieces by the waves the next moment.

After this period of adaptation, Wickham did not react as much to the long voyage as he used to. Even if the boat was shaking harder, he was only slightly dizzy. In order to learn the pure Chinese Mandarin, Stanton Jr. moved to the warship Jackal with the permission of Lord Margarny and his father, Baron Stanton, to facilitate Wickham's teaching.

At this time, the little guy was sitting upright in the officer's canteen room, repeating the Tang poems written by Wickham over and over again with a suffocated accent. In order to spread the culture of the Great Celestial Empire by the way, Wickham took great pains to write down not only the Tang poems that he had memorized well in his previous life, but also the enlightenment reading materials such as the Three Character Classic, and then taught it to Xiao Standong word by word.

If a Qing Chinese saw the simple Chinese books written by Wickham, they would be surprised, because these characters are not "zheng" characters, but some simple characters commonly used in cursive calligraphy. That's right, if according to the standards of China in this era, Wickham can be described as an out-and-out illiterate, because this guy only knows some commonly used traditional characters, and now it is helpless to use the simplified Chinese characters of later generations to teach little Standon.

"At the beginning of people, their nature is good, their sex is similar, and their habits are far away. If you don't teach, your father's fault is ......", Xiao Si Dandong stared at the "tadpole text" on the paper with some pain, only to feel that his head hurt badly. He couldn't understand why the same word was in different words, not only the pronunciation was different, but even the meaning had changed! This made little Standon, who was accustomed to the Latin alphabet, a lot more difficult to learn.

Little Stendon angrily left the Wickham manuscript on the table and complained: "Brother Wickham, why is Chinese so difficult, these characters are simply more difficult to understand than the hieroglyphs written on Egyptian straw sandpaper." And no matter how hard I try, I can't pronounce your smooth pronunciation. Brother Wickham, am I stupid? ”

Wickham is also deflated, every time he thinks of the little guy's nondescript Chinese pronunciation, it is simply a magic sound. But he really couldn't think of a good way to correct the little one's pronunciation. Wickham knew that it was difficult for foreigners to learn Chinese, but he didn't expect it to be so difficult.

"Alright, little Stannon, Brother Wickham always knew you were working hard. It's just that Chinese is quite complicated and not so easy to learn. When you arrive in China, I will definitely find you a real teacher, and you will also have the opportunity to talk to real Chinese. Although the learning progress is very slow, Wickham really doesn't want to discourage a child's enthusiasm for learning, and hurriedly comforts him.

Xiao Stanton rubbed his chin in his hand and muttered, "Each of these words has a different pronunciation, which is really dizzy." Why don't Chinese write with the Latin alphabet and indicate the pronunciation and tone, I think that in that case, Chinese will be easier to read. ”

When Wickham heard the little boy's complaints, his mind flashed like lightning in the night, and he seemed to think of something he had missed in the past! That's right, didn't later generations invent the peerless artifact of Hanyu Pinyin, this method of using the Latin alphabet to phonetize Hanzi, is a great progress in modern Chinese linguistics!

The emergence of Hanyu Pinyin has shortened children's enlightenment education by several years, and has made an indelible contribution to China's education. Perhaps, by adding Hanyu Pinyin to the Chinese characters, Xiao Si Dandong's Chinese learning will be much easier, at least to correct his strange accent. Anyway, Hanyu Pinyin is borrowed from the Latin alphabet, and he is not afraid that Xiao Si Dong will not be able to understand it.

As soon as he said it, Wickham almost couldn't wait to pick up a piece of white Swedish letterhead, write down Hanyu Pinyin on it, and annotate Pinyin on the handwritten version of the Three Character Classic. Seeing that Brother Wickham was too busy to take care of him, the child's heart was restored again, and he ran to the deck to play.

Recently, what Dandong likes to do is to listen to the sailors talk about the world, which involves customs from all over the world, which is simply unheard of, which opened his eyes. The sailors knew who the boy was, and they were happy to brag about what they had seen on their past voyages, so they didn't look impatient.

It took about a morning for Wickham to complete the pinyin annotation of the Three Character Classic, and everything was done by hand, and the efficiency was naturally not much faster. Wickham thought to himself that maybe after arriving in China, he could leak out the artifact of Hanyu Pinyin, which could be regarded as a contribution to the education of the motherland.

At this moment, Major Blair William walked in with little Stendon and a group of naval officers, and said to Wickham with some mockery: "Lieutenant Wickham, I said why can't I find you, it turns out that you are here." There's still a little time left for lunch, but I didn't expect you to be in such a hurry? ”

After a period of getting along, the captain of the "Jackal", Major Blair William, found that Wickham was a very good person to get along with. In addition to the last attempted mutiny, Wickham has been firmly on his side, avoiding the imminent riot. This made Major Blair William very fond of the young Marine Corps lieutenant officer.

Wickham owed, feigned displeasure, and said, "My Mr. Major, don't mention that damn food again." To be honest, the green silk tess wafting in the clear water really make me lose my appetite. "It's been a few days since the voyage, and the fleet spends most of its time in tropical waters, so the water in the tanks on the warships has begun to deteriorate. Those spoiled fresh water, drinking always has a rancid and smelly question, it is simply hard to swallow.

Major Blair William shrugged his shoulders, sat down in the main seat, and said with a smile: "Lieutenant Wickham, I told you a long time ago, mixing some rum in the water will give you unexpected effects. At least when you drink water, you won't be like going to the gallows. With that, he burst into laughter with a group of naval officers.

Little Stendon staggered to the seat next to Wickham and sat down, and said in the tone of a little adult: "Major William, Brother Wickham just doesn't like to drink rum, and those made from cane sugar residue are as strong as the vodka of the Russians. If you could contribute your Bordeaux wines, I don't think Brother Wickham would drink that weird-smelling rancid water. ”

Drinking Bordeaux wine as plain water, His Majesty the King is not so extravagant, right? The thought of the few bottles of French wine he had in his captain's room made Blair William ache a little. I don't know how little Stanton, the little guy, found those bottles of wine that he had hidden so well. Forget it, the little guy actually took the bottle of wine with a few officers with an excited face, causing the officers on the ship to remember his bottles, which was really a big loss.

For the little kid's maintenance of himself, Wickham still felt a burst of warmth, and he didn't teach the little guy in vain. Wickham looked at Major William's pained expression, and continued to joke with him: "I think Mr. Standon Jr. is very right, I think that a gentleman as generous as Major William would never be distressed by the swishing stinking water of a poor man who goes to sea for the first time for a few bottles of wine." With that, Wickham winked at Major William, who was already on the verge of collapse.

Blair William sighed in his heart, thinking that these two guys, one big and one small, are a perfect match! But no one should bother with his few bottles of wine, not even Lord Margarny. He doesn't have any hobbies, he just likes to have a few sips, and now that France is in turmoil, it is not easy to get good quality wines. Major William didn't want those bottles of treasures to be ruined by a few guys who only knew how to drink cows.

"Don't make up your mind about those bottles of wine, it's chilling to think of the days without the company of fine wine, and I just have these bottles in stock." Blair William was a heavy drinker, and it was better to kill him than to have one.

Captain Thomas, the first mate, who was sitting down, also interjected in a rare way: "It is said that wine is the best gift God has given to mankind, and it is also the closest companion of sailors. By the way, I don't know when my dear chef will serve the food, but I can't wait. After saying that, everyone laughed again.

At this moment, the sailor on duty, Zhang Chang, hurriedly pushed open the door of the officer's canteen and shouted to Blair William: "Mr. Captain, the lookout has found an emergency, please come out and take a look." When he had finished speaking, the boatswain noticed that the officers in the dining room were looking at him dissatisfied, and soon realized his recklessness, and hurriedly saluted the crowd.

A trace of dissatisfaction flashed on Blair William's face, and he said in a somewhat stern tone: "What does it look like to be flustered!" Remember, even in the event of an emergency, the invincible Royal Navy cannot be shaken! Say, what the hell is going on? "Whoever is interrupted in the middle of a conversation may not be in a good mood.

The boatswain was taken aback by the captain's tone, but the military situation was urgent, so he had to bite the bullet and say: "Mr. Captain, the lookout on the mast has reported to me that there is an unflagged ship in the sea ahead, plundering merchant ships flying the flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain!" Mr. Captain, do we need to go over and help with the siege? ”

Blair William was a little surprised, now the strength of the Royal Navy ranks first in Europe, but he didn't expect that there would be pirates who were not long-sighted and dared to rob the merchant ships of the Kingdom of Britain! Later, he will let the bandits who are not long-eyed know that the tiger whiskers of the Royal Navy of Britain are not something they can pick up at will.

Major William put on his tricorne hat and said in an apologetic tone: "Sorry gentlemen, it seems that we will only be able to have lunch after the battle is over. "The officers certainly have nothing to complain about, and as members of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, it is also their duty to protect their merchant ships.

PS: Readers, if you want to know what the naval battle is like, you can go and watch the movie "Battle of the Angry Seas".