Four days later, Shi and Dunzi purchased a batch of cotton cloth and negotiated terms with the chartering firm, and then their small boat followed the fleet of the escort Yuan and Wu Meiniang on the road.

Speaking of which, although the news of Li Su's visit to the Lion City this time was not kept secret, few people knew about the fact that there were Li Zhen and Li Yun's family in the fleet, and for safety reasons, Li Su did not plan to spread the news. So when Wu Shi and Wu Meiniang went on the road this time, except for the escort fleet, all the others were large fleets related to the Qi Palace, and the small merchant ship of Stone They was a special case.

But as soon as their boat had followed the fleet out of port, the stones and piers collapsed to the ground, and then they smirked a few times, and then began to snore. In order to buy this batch of goods and move them onto the ship in four days, the two of them were very busy these days, not only busy during the day, but also had to work overtime at night, and even in the end the money for hiring slaves was not enough, so they went to move it themselves, and finally even the old captain of the ship could not stand it, so they asked the crew of the ship to go down to help, so that they finally finished moving the goods before the ship.

So when the ship left the port, the nerves that had been tense for several days on the stones and piers were finally relaxed, and at the same time all the physical fatigue came up at once, and the two of them fell asleep on the deck, and at last the crew of the ship carried them into the cabin.

By the time Stone and Pier woke up again, it had been more than a dozen hours, and their fleet was almost through the Strait of Malacca. When the two of them recuperated, they were both very grateful to the young man who helped them that night. It's just that I don't know who they are, and I didn't even tell them their names. Obviously, the other party just wants to help them, and does not ask for anything in return. However, this also made Shi and Dunzi even more curious about Li Su's identity, after all, not everyone can arrange for them to enter this fleet. It's just that by the time they knew Li Su's identity, it was already more than ten years later.

And just as they were following the large fleet to the west, in the distant Pacific Ocean, a small fleet was struggling to move eastward, and the entire fleet consisted of only eight ships, which was the American exploration fleet that had left Taiwan for nearly two months.

However, Lu Wan in this fleet now frowned, stared at the chart in front of him tightly, and finally sighed. He carefully put the charts away, and walked out of the captain's room. Lüvan was not in a good mood these days, because there was a problem with the voyage of the fleet.

Originally, after leaving Taiwan, their fleet first went to Manila, and then, after replenishing supplies there, bypassed the Luzon Peninsula into the equatorial currents they had discovered earlier, and the fleet headed east, and it was very smooth at first, because of the season. They didn't encounter much wind and waves, and although the islands east of Luzon were not as dense as those in the South Sea, after a few days of sailing, they still encountered a few large islands. This allows them to worry about supplies.

However, just a month and a half after Lu Wan and his team sailed east, there was an accident, when they happened to encounter a cloudy day. And it was dark clouds for more than ten days in a row, blocking the entire sky tightly. Sometimes I can't see clearly even in broad daylight, which makes everyone feel extremely depressed.

Originally, Lu Wan was also worried about encountering heavy rains. This is not a good thing for the fleet, and on such a cloudy day, the only way to make out the direction is to rely on the compass, but it also happens that on the third day of the cloudy day, the direction indicated by the compass of the entire fleet deviates from the direction of the current.

When they were in Taiwan, Lu Wan and his people believed through observation and calculation that this equatorial current had been going eastward and could reach the coast of the Americas, and in fact the previous voyage also confirmed this conjecture. But now the direction of the compass told them that the direction of the ocean current had actually changed, and now it turned to the southeast, which made Lu Wan also unable to make up his mind for a while, not knowing whether to follow the ocean current as planned, or sail east according to the direction of the compass, after all, America was due east of them, not southeast.

In the end, Lu Wan couldn't make up his mind, so he simply summoned the captains of the eight ships, and everyone discussed it collectively, and in the end, most of them felt that the compass was more reliable, and it was normal for the direction of the ocean current to change, after all, this current was only speculation before, and no one knew if the ocean current could take them to the Americas?

Lu Wan did not fully agree with the opinions of these captains, because he had known in the Navigation Academy that in some special cases, the compass would malfunction, and although the probability of encountering such a situation was very small, it was not impossible, so he preferred to stay where he was for a few days, and it was not too late to wait until the weather cleared the direction. Just looking at the current situation, no one knows when it will be clear, so in the end, Lu Wan had to respect the choice of most people and move forward in the direction indicated by the compass.

However, it turned out that sometimes the truth was not in the hands of the majority, and Lu Wan and his fleet went in the direction indicated by the compass for twelve days, and on the morning of the thirteenth day, the dark clouds in the sky finally dispersed, and then Lu Wan and the others realized that the direction they were going was not due east, but northeast, that is, the ocean current had always been due east, but it was the compass that had gone wrong, causing them to deviate from the course.

This made Lu Wan and them very annoyed, but since the matter had happened, it was useless to be annoyed, and finally after measuring, they figured out the latitude and longitude where they were, and found that they had not deviated too far, and after identifying the direction, they finally returned to the original route again after ten days, and what was even more coincidental was that when they returned to the original route, the compass actually returned to normal.

For this accident that deviated from the course, Lu Wan recorded in detail in the navigation diary, but with the technical means at the time, they did not know the reason for the failure of the compass, until more than a hundred years later, there was an astronomer among the Han people to give the answer, it turned out that that time was just in the sunspot outbreak period, which affected the earth's magnetic field, so that all the compasses of the entire fleet failed, and even almost led to the failure of Lu Wan's exploration trip.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that Lu Wan deviated from the route this time in fact, there is actually a very regrettable place, because if they had walked forward in the original direction for another day or two, then there would have been a huge discovery, but unfortunately they missed it, and it was not until they returned that they finally knew that they had made a big mistake.

Because of this deviation from the course accident, Lu Wan and they wasted more than 20 days at sea, even if their ship returned to the original route later, but they have been adrift on the sea for more than two months, and they have not encountered an island for a long time, coupled with the hot weather, although the food on the ship has been preserved, but a lot of food is still inevitably spoiled, so Lu Wan and they are now facing a food crisis.

"Well, how much food is left on each ship?" After Lu Wan put away the chart, he sent someone to call the ship's material officer to inquire.

"Captain Qiqi, although our ship has tried to load as many supplies as possible, but after all, it has been at sea for more than two months, so there are not many supplies on board, according to my estimates, if the food supply for each crew member is reduced by one-third from now, it can last for about twenty days, as for the fresh water, it is much better, it has been replenished on some islands before, so it can last at least a month and a half." The material officer spoke.

"Twenty days?" Lu Wan frowned, they have been out to sea for such a long time, it is said that they should be about to reach the Americas, but no one knows how long the remaining road will take, in case after twenty days, the food of the fleet is eaten, but the American continent is still nowhere to be seen, I am afraid that it will cause panic among the crew.

"Can you find a way to add some food, like fishing?" Lu Wan finally asked a little unwillingly.

However, after hearing this, the material officer couldn't help but smile bitterly: "The captain doesn't know, I have already counted fishing in the twenty days, and we rarely encounter fish on this route, so we can catch not many fish, unless we can meet an island, generally there will be a large number of marine animals living around the island, if you can find fresh water and edible animals and plants on the island, it would be better." ”

However, when Lu Wan heard about the island, he sighed loudly, since they set sail from the last island more than a month ago, they had never encountered an island again, and because the last island was very small, there was no fresh water on the island, only a group of seabirds lived, so they did not get any supplies on the island.

"In that case, starting tomorrow morning, the daily food supply for the entire crew will be reduced by one-third, and the fishing efforts will be increased, and we will strive to catch more fish to make up for the lack of food!" In the end, Lu Wan finally gave the order, most of the crew were old crews, and they could definitely judge from their experience that there was not much food in the fleet, so this order should not be resisted too much.

However, saving food can only solve a temporary urgent need, and the best way to truly solve the food crisis is to find an island to supplement food, but the sea is vast, and they are the first Han people to arrive here, so no one knows, can they really find an island?

And the news of the food shortage could not be concealed at all, after all, many people knew about the food reserves on the ship, so soon the entire crew of the fleet knew the news, and this also cast a shadow on the hearts of all the crew. (To be continued......)