Zhao Lie didn't know all the difficulties in Shidao, but he could think of it, but his trip to the South China Sea was really not easy. After the storm, the most painful thing for him was the loss of sailors, this is a good hand that was finally trained, at this moment when everything was starting, when Zhao Lie, a talent/special professional talent, was most desired, each of them was very precious, and the loss was just a loss in the artillery battle with the Dutch, but he didn't expect a storm to take their lives, it was really distressing.

Zhao Lie's fleet stumbled to the southernmost uninhabited island of the Babuyan Islands, just south of this island is the Babuyan Strait, it is in the middle of the strait, between the fatigue of the officers and men, and the situation of the Dihan, the fleet stayed in the south of this island, and the soldiers went to the island in batches to rest, after all, some patients can only recover their strength and recover their health when they go ashore and are on the ground.

The sailors hastened to completely refurbish the Dihan, and the other two Dutch warships have been named Ma Yuan and Geng Yi. The two merchant ships were renamed Taihu Lake and Qinghai Lake. This was not an easy task, and they had to exhaust almost all the supplies to repair the broken ships, barely reaching eighty percent of the condition they were in when they set off.

Zhao Lie sent four clippers to cruise the east and west ends of the Papua Strait, the strait between the island and Luzon, which was the only way for American treasure ships to come to Manila, and after crossing the Pacific Ocean, because the strait between Samar and Mindanao in the Philippines was densely packed with reefs, so the merchant ships preferred to detour through the Pabuyan Strait and reach Manila from east to west.

Most of the gold and silver in the Americas were transported back to Spain by treasure ships, but a quarter would reach Manila, because the extravagant Spanish aristocracy was in dire need of tea, raw silk, silk, and porcelain from the Eastern Empire, which was related to their clothing and their faces. In the seventeenth century European aristocratic circles, there were no clothes cut from Ming silk, and there was no Ming porcelain to entertain guests, are you embarrassed to call yourself a nobleman, that is, there is no aristocratic fan, and you will be ridiculed as a hillbilly. In addition, due to the large amount of silver from the Americas into Europe, silver was greatly depreciated in Europe, and the large silver mines that did not have large silver mines but used silver as the currency were expensive, that is, the purchasing power was very strong, and it could bring huge profits to the Spaniards.

In this way, more than one million taels of silver flowed to the Ming Dynasty every year, and returned to Europe in exchange for raw silk, silk, porcelain, and tea. Since the Pacific Ocean blows from the Americas in the summer, the Spanish silver ship departs from the Americas in the summer and comes to Manila at the end of the summer, and the transportation period is very concentrated, that is, it comes to Manila in just three months, which is Zhao Lie's opportunity. Now Zhao Lie's only worry is that the Spanish fleet has arrived in Manila, so his trip to mobilize the crowd will be in vain, but he has already done his best to rush here, and the rest will be left to the thief.

After ten days passed, the Dihan was finally repaired, Zhao Lie happily named it Feng Yi, the tired soldiers rested, the sails and masts of each ship were completely repaired, and the entire fleet could no longer see the traces of the storm except for the large patches on the sails.

The flotilla was restored, the sailors were reinstated, and after a series of rests on the island, the vast majority of the men recovered and reinvigorated, so that every day the fleet was ready to go, and the clippers cruised on both sides of the strait every day, looking for the shadow of the Spanish fleet.

The Spanish galleon of 1,000 tons of Princess San Louis and the 800-ton José also sailed at a speed of five knots on the sea, with the 600-ton San Juan frigate in front and the 550-ton Santo Domingo and Havana on both sides.

The Princess St. Louis' massive nose skewer mast pointed diagonally ahead, four towering mainmasts, all eight sails outstretched, and its massive hull divided into five decks, it and the José moved slowly like behemoths of the sea.

"We haven't heard from them yet." Fleet Commander Abelardo asked.

"No, Your Excellency. We have no news of them at all. Angelo, the captain of the Princess St. Louis, replied.

They were talking about the frigates Anita, Palawan, Cologne, which lost contact with the storm half a month ago.

Although the Pacific Ocean is still the Pacific Ocean of Spain, however, the damned Dutch and English have already reached the Far East, and it is a matter of time to enter the Pacific Ocean, so he lost half of the escort force, Abelardo was a little uneasy in his heart, a little hesitant, just thinking that Manila was really not far from Abelardo, who had been adrift at sea for more than three months, still decided to arrive in Manila as soon as possible, and his desire for land overcame that trace of unease, he believed that God he had always believed in would bless him to arrive safely, besides, Damn the British, it's impossible to send too many forces to the Far East.

Zhao Lie, who has been stationed on the island for more than 20 days, is anxious, one is afraid that the Spaniards in Manila will find out that there is a mysterious fleet here, after all, Manila still has a Spanish fleet in Manila, if it fights with the Manila fleet, there is a loss, what to take to plunder the treasure fleet, fortunately this is not on the channel from Manila to Daming, there are really no Spanish ships passing by these days, and the other is that he is afraid that the treasure ship has already arrived in Manila, he is waiting for an empty one, and moreover, the concern of his family also makes him anxious.

On this day, Zhao Lie, who was bored, decided to take the Flying Shark to patrol the east entrance of the strait, which was better than waiting in Weiqing stupidly, and did not see any ships on the way to the east, Zhao Lie sighed, Europe has entered the Age of Discovery, but the people in the Far East are numb to the ocean, or afraid of the ocean, it is really the barbaric era of the Far East navigation.

The Flying Shark found nothing at the east entrance, Zhao Lie ordered to sail southeast for an hour, Zhao Lie held the side of the boat with the undulation of the waves, the blue sky and white clouds, surrounded by seabirds, flying shears to cut the sea, so that Zhao Lie had the illusion of returning to modern times.

A seagull boldly stopped on the front skew-sail mast, Zhao Lie looked at it, it was also curious to look at everything on the ship, until a sailor passed by and alarmed it, it flew up and circled, whiskered, maybe curiosity overcame fear, it landed on the mast again, Zhao Lie laughed silently, maybe only on the extremely boring sea people will find the cuteness of animals.

"My lord, I still haven't found the ship." Said the boatswain.

Zhao Lie let out a long sigh, it might be another boring day.

"My lord, there are a lot of Galen ship shadows found in the south." From the lookout came the shouts of sailors.

"Return." Zhao Lie's heartbeat intensified and ordered, finally came, Zhao Lie didn't need to look to know that only the treasure fleet could come here and now, even if it wasn't, then grab a ticket, and you can't come in vain.

"Captain, just now the lookout said that the north seems to have found the shadow of the sail, but in a blink of an eye, it is gone." Boatswain Joao said.

"Oh," Anglo was surprised, the sea was not on land, there was no shelter, since he saw the shadow of the sail, how could it be that he disappeared in an instant. "Isn't it dazzling, how can it be lost in a blink of an eye. However, it is better to strengthen the vigilance, the Dutch people have been too annoying in recent years. ”

"Yes, Captain." João stepped out of the cabin and gave the order.

Anglo looked at the sea through the porthole, and was about to reach the Babuyan Sea, and finally arrived.

When it was almost time, Abelardo, who was also watching the sea in the cabin, let go of most of his heart and immediately calculated the harvest this time. There were forty tons of silver, fifty thousand gold coins, and three hundred kilograms of various precious stones on the two ships, of which twenty tons of silver were not in the accounts given to the king, which was the private silver of him and Mene, the governor of New Spain, as the commander of the Acapulco fleet in the Americas, he owned twenty percent, and the rest belonged to the governor, of course, in Manila, he had to share some of the money of the governor of Manila, but after Manila was full of silk, silk, porcelain and spices, he could make another profit, a lot. Well, it's time to buy a large plantation in Acapulco, Mexico. For a while, Abelardo had the eagerness to get to Manila.

Zhao Lie's return trip from the Flying Shark was downwind, and the Flying Shark drove at full speed of fourteen knots, and when it was three or four miles away from the fleet, Zhao Lie ordered the Flying Shark to fire its only two cannons.

When boarding, Zhao Lie saw that the fleet began to set sail and organize the formation, Zhao Lie came to the side of the Weiqing, and boarded the soft ladder in a dinghy.

The fleet was divided into two parts according to the prior planning, Peng Yue, Zhou Yafu, Geng Yi, Ma Yuan, Feng Yi, Taihu and Qinghai Lake went west to prepare to intercept the fish that slipped through the net, Wei Qing, Huo Quai, Chen Tang, Li Guang, Xingkai Lake, Hongze Lake, Weishan Lake, and Gaoyou Lake sailed eastward, turned around and headed west near the east entrance, and the ship lowered half sails.

ps Thank you for your rewards from the aborigines of the Great Wilderness, Hai in the Sun, Haizi Lighting, Chang Zhao, Wendao Kexia, Man Ye, Qin Ang, Wu Tianya, Yu Jia, Xijing Sishao, begging for money, etc., thank you for not giving up, thank you.

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