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The immense ability of the ancient continents to drift has given the African continent a peculiar place to its place. It separates the Atlantic and Indian oceans, and makes Asia and the Middle East a gateway between the Eastern and Western worlds.

Any nation that has occupied this pass for a long time has controlled the throat of the trade between the East and the West in the long river of history, and has also become the common enemy of the Eastern and Western worlds, and has created an incomparably splendid culture at the intersection of civilization and wealth. Whether it is the westward strategy of the Han Dynasty or the Tang Dynasty in the East, or the subsequent Western Crusades, the fundamental reason still points to the Silk Road paved with gold.

The fierce wars have continued since the time of the Roman Empire, and while the land battles were being sought, countless Europeans also tried to find a route to the East from the sea. But Africa, an ancient land sandwiched between the eastern and western continents, has been putting people's wishes back for thousands of years.

As early as the Carthaginian era in North Africa, there are legends about Black Africa in the south, and ancient parchment texts even record how a group of Carthaginian sailors sailed to the southernmost point of Africa and spent the winter there. In the story, the temperature here is so high that people can burn it into charcoals, and only the natives who can withstand the heat can survive.

In any case, for the Kingdom of Portugal, eager to find the "Oriental Spice Route", even if the sea could be boiled, the exploration of the route around the southernmost point of Africa to India was unstoppable and almost uninterrupted from the mid-15th century, until the end of the 15th century, when the navigator Dias officially accomplished this feat.

The southernmost point of the African continent, where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet. This sea of strong winds and sinister currents makes it one of the most dangerous shipping routes in the world.

June 12, 1622.

It has been more than half a month since leaving the port of Sofala in East Africa, and following the Keegaris Current off the coast of East Africa, Yan Xiaosong's fleet finally reached the waters of the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. The strange currents along the coast and the turbulent waves set off by the strong westerly jet current led the entire fleet to be extremely slow, and the slightest carelessness could lead to a total annihilation.

Unlike the smooth road, the storm has lasted almost all day. It never stopped, and in the howling wind and rain, the experienced Portuguese sailors tied themselves to the deck with ropes. Tightly pulling the ropes, communicating with each other using only body language, supporting the ship to cross one wave after another. Struggling to move forward.

More than 40 Portuguese or Spanish merchant ships undulated and swayed from crests to crests like helpless fallen leaves, each time a few seemed to be swallowed up by the blue-black water, and then burst out of the sea a few seconds later to catch their breath.

On the largest Portuguese armed merchant ship, in the VIP room inside, an oil lamp shook violently on the ceiling, regardless of the presence of a Portuguese general, the once fearless Spanish Navy Lieutenant Caterina, who was huddled in Yan Xiaosong's arms with a pale face, trembling in horror.

"Your Excellency. I have to say that we have encountered the most unfortunate weather of the season, and I will wait for the storm to pass, and we will abandon those seriously injured merchant ships, otherwise we will all be dragged down! ”

The Portuguese general Ricardo said with a stern expression. Even though he desperately tried to maintain his appearance, shaking the hull of the ship made him clutch the hatch with great grace.

"How many are there?" Yan Xiaosong endured the strong discomfort in his abdomen and hugged his fiancée in his arms tightly.

"Of the four, two of which have only one mast left, I'm going to have them find a suitable shore to repair it themselves, and then come back. May God bless them! Ricardo's helmet flew out at this point. A messy head of dirty hair obscured his face.

Four? More than 400 people to be abandoned?

Ricardo put it mildly, in fact, whether he could land smoothly was a question, such a move was actually a choice to give up, and the lives and deaths of more than 400 people, including the crew, were abandoned.

Yan Xiaosong's face twitched slightly, and he opened his mouth and moved several times, but he didn't say anything.

"So...... We pray that God will let this storm pass soon! Seeing that the other party was still stubborn, the Portuguese admiral could only sigh slightly and left the VIP room.

"Yan, can we survive?" Caterina felt dizzy and couldn't see clearly, but she was tugging at the corners of her clothes, her voice trembling.

"Yes! Everyone has to go back alive! Yan Xiaosong used a little strength in his hand, and pulled a blanket over his fiancée, "When we return to North America, we will get married, Katarina!" ”

"Okay, God will bless us......" Caterina was already dazed, and actually fell asleep quietly in such a big storm, it is possible to say that she fainted.

Inside the flagship, on the gun deck converted into a manned cabin, hundreds of Ming Dynasty immigrant men were all holding something that could be held with pale faces.

The sea pounded against the hull, pouring in through the cracks in the gun doors and down the deck to darker corners.

In the darkness, people shivered, vomited, and then continued to shiver and vomit. A few frail older men were already dying in the corners, a few were nervously banging on the planks and shouting nonsense about going home, while more young men were clutching at what could stabilize their bodies, their heads bowed and their mouths clenched.

Yu Shan didn't know where he found a rope, tied one end to an empty wooden barrel, and the other ended around himself countless times, and then lay on the barrel with his whole body shivering.

On one side, Qiao Yan grabbed the pillar that supported the upper deck, his body shrunk on the ground of the gun deck, and the other hand clasped a nearby iron ring.

"It's over, it's over, Qiao Yan, I'm going to die, Qiao Yan, I'm going to die." Yu Shan muttered weakly, as the hull of the ship swayed, and his body turned back and forth on the barrel, like a grinding disc that had lost control.

"You're going to die...... The dog can't spit out ivory from its mouth......" Qiao Yan also responded weakly, raising his hand and grabbing Yu Shan's leg dangling, "Yu Shan, let's talk about it, how did you say that Mr. Yan's ancestor floated to a beautiful place?" ”

"Maybe it was blown over...... I don't want it. I don't drink the porridge anymore, and you don't want Cuiya......" Yu Shan muttered in confusion.

Another big wave came, and the cabin was filled with human bodies. As soon as the barrel overturned, Yu Shan rolled directly from under Qiao Yan's nose to the end of the gun deck, knocking down countless people along the way.

Next door to Yan Xiaosong's cabin, in the larger flagship VIP cabin, the "pacification envoy" Chang Kun and his wives and concubines also hugged each other tightly. The floor was in a mess, and it seemed that a certain daughter or wife and concubine couldn't care about holding the bucket anymore, and spit directly on the ground.

"Husband"

"Daddy!"

The chaotic shouts made Chang Kun feel even more pessimistic and helpless. Looking at the family members crowded around him with expressions of imminent disaster, Chang Kun felt regretful and died. What kind of bullshit relocation appeasement? I knew that I chose to stay when I was in Tianzhu, so as not to feed the fish with no bones left in this way.

"The ancestors of the Great Zhou Dynasty are on top. If the descendants of Chang Kun survive this catastrophe, they will sacrifice three sacrifices to their ancestors and revive the Great Zhou Dynasty......"

Pulling his wife's clothes with one hand and holding the shoulders of the pregnant concubine with the other, Chang Kun wore his hair and squeezed in the middle of his wife and concubine and daughter very undisciplinedly, relying on the body's body cushion, which was the most stable.

The wind and waves instantly became a little stronger, and the huge impact made the hull even make a terrifying creaking sound. There is a god three feet above his head, as if God is punishing his own inadequacy? Chang Kun's face turned pale. He closed his eyes again: "Hey...... If I don't die, I can fight with the puppet Ming and rule the river......"

As soon as these words came out, the hull shook violently again, and a daughter rolled directly to the hatch, and a concubine fainted directly.

"Heaven is pitiful. If I, Chang Kun, can see the light of day again, then the revenge of the Zhu family for destroying the country and winning the crown will not be avenged! Chang Kun was ruthless and made the last big move.

The shaking gradually lessened, and I don't know how much time passed, but when Chang Kun stood up tremblingly, he actually felt calm under his feet.

A huge fleet of ships rolled over the last waves. As if breaking through a barrier, it crashed out of the storm zone. For a while, the sky suddenly opened up, the sky was sunny and the sky was full of clouds.

The whole fleet floated steadily on a blue and peaceful sea, and the sailors on board, almost at the same time, burst into earth-shattering cheers, broke free from the ropes, and jumped on the deck.

In the cabin, all the Ming Dynasty immigrants stood up with tears streaming down their eyes, looking at the vomit and damage in the cabin, and all of them raised their heads and howled as if they were not dying.

Chang Kun stood stupidly in the middle of his wife and concubines, looking at the cabin floor with a puzzled expression.

The flotilla passed through the storm zone, and the flagship's lookout sent a message that the flotilla had rounded the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and was now heading northwest.

After a day and a night of strong winds and waves, there were 42 ships left in the fleet that had returned to Brazil, two armed merchant ships of smaller tonnage were nowhere to be found, and more than 200 people, including sailors, had been swallowed up by the ocean.

In addition, nearly 100 Ming immigrants were killed in the crowded stampede caused by the storm, and almost every ship, there were victims carried out of the cabin. To prevent the disease, the carcasses were simply wrapped in cloth and thrown into the sea.

For Europeans who are running on the sea, this may be their fate, and returning to the sea is also a kind of rest. But for the Ming refugees who had spent their lives on land, the scene would be even more desperate than the storm that preceded it.

Dying in a foreign land, with no bones left, will probably become a shadow buried in their hearts forever.

On 28 June, the flotilla entered the port of Benguela in the Portuguese colony of West Africa.

As one of the earliest colonies established by the Kingdom of Portugal in southern West Africa, Benguela had a certain capacity for ship repair, and under the construction of the Portuguese General Ricardo, the fleet with various large and small damaged ships decided to take a break here and take stock of the losses. Plans to recuperate in the port of Luanda, further north, were forced to change.

Of the nearly 4,600 Ming refugees who set out from the port of Calicut in India, in addition to the group of seriously ill people who continued to be left behind in the port of Sofala in East Africa, nearly 300 more were lost on the route around the Cape of Good Hope. Now, as soon as more than 4,200 Ming refugees came ashore, they were all nested in makeshift rest camps, and everyone was depressed.

Fortunately, there were no major problems in the warehouse during the storm, and all kinds of supplies and goods carried were relatively complete.

I have to say that in the world of the 17th century, oriental traditional Chinese medicine was still the most effective treatment method in that ignorant era, coupled with the large number of medicinal materials that Yan Xiaosong deliberately instructed Yan Siqi to prepare, the fever infection and water and soil discomfort along the way were controlled within a bearable range.

As for the scurvy of the sea, which had frightened all European navigators for centuries, there was not a single case of scurvy in the face of the quiet local diet. This surprised the Portuguese captains, and they all asked questions with strange expressions. Unfortunately, in the case of language barriers, almost no one notices certain details.

Even though European navigators were vaguely aware of the relationship between the seafaring diet and scurvy as early as the 17th century, they did not find a real solution. Until the middle of the 18th century, the Scottish naval medic James Murphy was the son of a Scottish naval officer. Linde's discovery that drinking orange, lemon or vegetable juice could treat and prevent scurvy laid the foundation for later generations to finally uncover the causes of scurvy and vitamins. James. Linde himself became the founder of hygiene in England and influenced the development of preventive medicine and nutrition.

It has been calculated that if the average sea voyage time were increased by a fifth before the advent of scurvy prevention and control, the development of modern civilization in the whole world would be doubled!

Ten days of rest, barely repairing most of the ship's damage, and a little more than a month before reaching the port of Recife, Brazil. As soon as he thought of the stage feat that was about to be completed, Yan Xiaosong regained his confidence.

At night, Yan Xiaosong took Katarina's hand and walked by the harbor, at this time there was no cloud in the night sky of southern Africa, and the bright moon and stars were unobstructed.

"Yan, why did you go so far to take these people to your country? I don't think they want to be with you. After a life-and-death test, Caterina finally spoke out a question she had been hiding in her heart for a long time.

Looking at his fiancée's face quietly, Yan Xiaosong lowered his head and lifted a small pebble: "Maybe we're afraid of being lonely, or maybe some of us just regard these as a game......

"Games?! God, what a terrible game! So many people died for one game! Caterina covered her mouth in surprise, "The Kingdom of Spain is different! We travel to spread the supreme glory of Christ! ”

"Is there a difference? We are all just pawns on the big chessboard of this historical game. ”

There was a flute sound in the distance, coming from the camp of the Ming Dynasty immigrants, Yan Xiaosong listened quietly and stopped talking.

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