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"The Kunpeng caravan has completed the task, please show the prince!" In the hall of the branch of the Monkey Island Port Ocean Trading Company, Wang Shishan saluted and said to Geng Jingzhong!

"Hey, uncle, it's just the two of us here, don't want these false courtesies! Sit down! Geng Jingzhong said while waving his hand. This Kunpeng caravan came back from completing the mission ahead of schedule, which was indeed a big surprise for him!

Twenty large sea ships were moored in turn in the Monkey Island Port, originally Geng Jingzhong was going to let them enter the military port, but after thinking about it, it was better to anchor in the Monkey Island Port. First, there are many warehouses here, so you don't have to worry about having no place to put them; Second, there are many workers on the dock here, and it is convenient to unload the goods. The fleet sailed over, and from afar they saw the flags sent by Geng Jingzhong, and then docked in the port one after another to start unloading.

"Uncle, it's only been twenty days since I sent a message, and I originally estimated that it would take at least seven or eight days for you to arrive!" Geng Jingzhong asked suspiciously.

"Originally, according to the normal acquisition method, this would be the case, and it may not be collected in another ten days and half a month. But I thought of another way, let those businessmen take the initiative to trade with us, so that the speed of acquisition will be faster! Within six days, thirty ships were filled. There's still a lot of food there, enough for us to transport it again!" Wang Shishan said excitedly.

"Oh, come up with a way to tell me!" Geng Jingzhong was even more curious, and took the initiative to ask.

Then, Wang Shishan said what he had explained to Xu Shan to Geng Jingzhong again, and then looked at Geng Jingzhong directly. Look at him and he didn't get angry. "Okay. That's great! Uncle, you're really good at this. It's a bit of a white wolf with empty gloves, in fact, those people don't know that we want to take Luzon Island, this promise can be given to the Hai family, the Li family, and the Pan family, and don't think about anything else! When we take Luzon, I'll have to settle accounts with them! ”

"Just now, uncle, you said that there is still a lot of grain on Luzon?" Geng Jingzhong suddenly thought of another key point. I couldn't help but ask.

"Yes, Shizi. Luzon Island is indeed a treasure land, and just our Chinese manors can produce so much grain. Most of the native Luzon residents have poor farming skills, many farmers lack farming tools and livestock, and their paddy fields lack irrigation facilities, so their paddy fields can only be harvested once a year. If we take Luzon, we will produce more grain every year in the future! ”

"So that's the case, more specific situation. You still need to investigate carefully, and there is plenty of food there. After this batch of grain is unloaded, let the fleet set sail again and bring another batch back, so that I can be completely relieved! Geng Jingzhong nodded and said.

"Don't worry, Shizi, this time they took the initiative to ask us to cooperate, and several merchants who were originally going to sell grain to the Spaniards also transferred the grain to us! I have already agreed with Xu Shan that he will be responsible for continuing to purchase grain there, and I will be in charge of transportation. You can basically go back and forth once in half a month! ”

"Okay, brother-in-law, you can watch and do it, anyway, remember one thing in Luzon now, don't mess with the Spaniards. The situation of this disaster is special, and presumably the Spaniards will not be embarrassed by the Chinese on the island. Wait, in less than a year, we will be sitting in the Spanish Doge's palace and drinking! ”

It is said that Geng Jingzhong and others sat in the hall drinking tea and chatting, but Wang Zhenbang led the naval soldiers to start fishing work at sea. The Navy has turned into a fisherman, and it's a joke to say it. In order to be able to fish better, the naval officers and men prepared a lot of things. Most of the ammunition in the hold was cleared, and all the vacant spaces were placed in large wooden barrels, ready to be used for fish.

The deck of the battleship was filled with all kinds of tools, fishing nets, javelins, and harpoons, and the soldiers were divided into three groups, and the helmsmen and sailors of the ship were in their respective positions, and the original gunners and sailors, who knew how to fish, were responsible for fishing, and those who could not were ready to slaughter the fish they caught, and then put the meat into large wooden barrels and sprinkle salt on it.

Except for the three detachments stationed at Pingtan Military Port and Nanri Island, all other naval warships were dispatched. Even these battleships did not gather together, but each detachment of the fleet dispersed in one direction and began fishing. All the warships are piled together, but they can't let go of their hands and feet, which is not conducive to fishing.

On Wang Zhenbang's side, he took the Zhenyuan and the first squadron to the east, that is, the location of East Dog Island and West Dog Island. He clearly remembered that when Shimazu Hisao came to attack Mawei in the past, when he stopped at the two islands, he sent people to explore this place many times. I know that in this area, there are often big fish. These big fish aren't just sharks, they're whales. Since he wants to fish, then he catches some big ones, and his face is good-looking.

However, he did not hide his secrets, and informed all the warships that they could look for big fish to catch, but if they found a school of fish, they had to go to the net, and they could not pick up sesame seeds and lose watermelons. Other warships were equipped with the same equipment. In fact, it is very simple to say, it is nothing more than fishing nets, javelins, and harpoons. It's just that in Wang Zhenbang's team, there is one more special piece of equipment - a bed crossbow! This one was borrowed from the Marine Army, and it was put in the warehouse for a long time and was useless, but fortunately it was well preserved, otherwise it would have rotted long ago!

There were a total of twelve bed crossbows, which were placed on four fifth-class warships. Although the third-class battleship is large, it is inconvenient to move, and the speed is not as good as that of the fifth-class battleship. Placing a bed crossbow on a Tier 5 battleship will both quickly kill the whale and prevent the whale from pulling the rope attached to the javelin. After these bed crossbows were borrowed, they were installed in the bow of the ship, and the original guns were removed to catch fish, which was a waste of using cannons, and besides, cannons could not catch fish!

"General, can we do this? In case there were no fish over there, we didn't catch many fish when we went back. It doesn't look good in front of the rest of the brothers! Chen Degang, the captain of the Zhenyuan, said worriedly.

"What kind of heart do you have? I just didn't find any whales. There are also a lot of fish in that area, and they are absolutely indispensable. Besides, how big the whale is, as long as you can catch a whale, one can top 10,000 other fish, how much meat is that! Besides, this whale skin can also be used to make a leather coat, and whale baleen can also be used to make a bowstring, hey. It's all you suing me! ”

"Yes, but no one has ever caught this whale, no one knows if your method will work, if it doesn't work, it's not a waste of time!" Chen Degang was still very worried and continued. He is right, in the past, no one in the coastal residents had ever eaten whale meat, and this information was also passed down by word of mouth in the past. It is estimated that some whale washed up on the shore and was then killed, at sea. It is true that no fisherman has ever killed a whale. Most of the whales were seven or eight meters long, and when they swam over. It's like a big reef approaching, not to mention the ordinary fishing boats, even the ships of Geng Jingzhong's offshore fleet, as long as they are hit by whales, I'm afraid they can knock the boat apart, even if they are swept by the tail of that thing, it is estimated that they can't stand it!

At this time, in the team composed of the First Fleet and the Yuanzi Fleet, the soldiers were still a little stunned, hunting whales? Who saw who first shot? Whales are something they often see when they are training at sea, and there are indeed many whales in the nearby waters. However, because of its size, most of the warriors have a sense of awe for it. The whaling industry is indeed underdeveloped in Chinese history, there has never been an industry at all, and the Chinese have no tradition of eating whale meat in history, so there are very few people who know how to hunt whales in this era.

Wang Zhenbang didn't understand, but he had observed whales many times, and he had also thought, this thing is so big, if you want to kill one or two to taste the taste of whale meat, how should you start? Then I thought of bed crossbows, but they were navy, they only had artillery on board, and they weren't fishermen, so I didn't think much about it. This time, it was a coincidence, and it was just enough to be real. The javelin on the crossbow was similar to that of a pikeman, but with curved hooks on either side of the spear, like a harpoon. The back of the javelin was drilled and a rope was threaded, which was coiled in a circle and was a hundred meters long.

Wang Zhenbang didn't tell Geng Jingzhong about this whaling in advance, in fact, he didn't think there was any need to say it, anyway, it's fishing, as long as you can catch fish and meat! If Geng Jingzhong had known about this matter, maybe he could have proposed more and better proposals. After all, in many TV news, documentaries and some literature in later generations, there are still a lot of things to learn from in this regard.

If the whale is too big, whether it is a blue whale or a sperm whale or something, and then let the whale crash into the warship, even if it is the huge size of the third-class battleship and the thick bulkhead, it is possible to be knocked out of the big hole, but Wang Zhenbang did not consider this at all, the reason is that every time they go out to sea and meet a whale, the whale will swim away quickly and never approach them.

This whaling operation was regarded as a test of hands, and if it was successful, he would go back and let the craftsmen make bed crossbows again, which would be specially used for whaling. Even if you don't catch a whale, it's good to catch a shark, and Fujian's fish balls are a must, and a small part of them are made with shark meat.

Their warship, when it encounters ordinary whales, should still be able to hunt and kill, but because no one has done this, they don't know the bottom of their hearts. The fleet went straight to the east, and after sailing for an hour, West Dog Island was already in sight, but at this time, Wang Zhenbang, who was constantly observing on the battleship, also found traces of whales. If Geng Jingzhong was here, he would definitely admire the abundance of marine life resources in this era, along the way they saw groups of dolphins at sea, and also found a lot of sharks, but Wang Zhenbang didn't care, he only wanted to kill two big whales now. It must have been a kind of vanity, but fortunately, in an hour, they spotted a group of whales looming on the surface of the sea.

In fact, it is very simple to identify whales, which has been learned in primary school Chinese texts in later generations. In fact, whales are not fishes, but mammals, and they have many characteristics that are different from fish. They cannot remain in the water all the time, and must surface every once in a while to "breathe". When the whale emerges from the surface, it will first violently exhale the old air in its body, and then suck in the fresh air. Because the warm air in the whale's body contains a lot of water, the moment it is spit out, this water differentiates into vapor, and when it encounters the cold air outside, it immediately condenses into water droplets, so people see it like a fountain, which is like the white breath exhaled when people breathe in winter.

"Quick, the order for the battleship to be dispatched, thirty degrees north-east, there is a large group of whales moving!" Wang Zhenbang saw several pillars of white air from the telescope, and immediately asked the flag commander to give the order.

White gas erupted from time to time on the water surface in front of them, and these white gases became Wang Zhenbang's best guiding target. Four fifth-class battleships equipped with bed crossbows received orders to quickly approach this group of whales, and it is still impossible to tell what kind of whale it is, but it is definitely not small in size. This place is already very close to West Dog Island, they are not a professional whaling ship in the future, there is no way to deal with the captured whales on the ship, and there is no way to divide the whales, close to the island, one of the big advantages is that after the harvest, the whales can be quickly dragged to the island for division.

There are eight whales seen in this group now, roughly speaking, it looks a bit like baleen whales, but the size is not very large, the longest one is about fifteen meters, close to half of the fifth-class battleship, and its weight is estimated to be enough for twenty tons. The others are not small, and it seems that they have not seen juvenile whales. This was their first whale hunt, and they encountered such a huge whale, which was indeed quite a challenge for these novices. (To be continued......)

PS: Take the time to go to the previous chapter first, and there is another chapter in the evening, more than 7,000 words today!