On the sea hundreds of miles east of Luzon, a fleet of seven medium-sized ships was sailing rapidly in the direction of Luzon, led by the Americas No. 1, Lu Wan was very excited to stand on the bow of the ship, holding a telescope and looking ahead, although he could not see Luzon for the time being, but it did not affect his excitement at all.

After leaving the Americas, after more than two months of sailing, the American exploration fleet finally came to the sea not far from Luzon again, which made the whole fleet jubilant, and many crew members even supported their thin bodies, and like Lu Wan, they held the side of the ship to look west, and many people were even more excited and tearful.

When they left the newly discovered Hawaii, they were still very optimistic that the return trip would be much easier, and that they could return to Taiwan early if the wind and water were smooth. But apparently they were overly optimistic.

As the fleet moved forward, Lu Wan and the others were surprised to find that they encountered the same problem as before, that is, there were almost no islands along the way, and the fresh water and food on the ship were consumed a lot, and finally they had to reduce their rations, and even some corn seeds brought on the ship were also allocated for food.

But even so, the food in the fleet was still very scarce, and the medicine in the fleet had been exhausted, and there was no way to replenish it along the way, so the crew of the fleet suffered from hunger and disease, and dozens of people have died as a result.

To make matters worse, just a dozen days ago, the Americas IV in the fleet crashed into a reef, resulting in a large hole in the bow and a damaged keel that could not be repaired. In the end, the Americas IV had to be abandoned, and the crew and supplies were transferred to other ships.

But even in such a bad situation. Lüvin still protected the seeds of various crops brought from the Americas very well, although in the end they were divided into a part and eaten. But a considerable part of each type of seed is left behind, which can be bred when he returns to Taiwan, which also puts Lu Wan under great pressure, after all, many crew members have long been hungry for the edible seeds on the ship, and there have even been incidents of stolen seeds from crew members.

For this kind of theft, Lu Wan naturally punished him severely, after all, the ship has not yet run out of ammunition and food, although hunger tortures people. However, these seeds can bring great changes to Datang and Taiwan, and may save the lives of hundreds of people in the future, so there must be no loss.

But now that Luwan has finally come to an end, as Luzon approaches, the ship's crew has finally regained most of their senses, and even many people are already imagining what kind of courtesy they will encounter when they return to Taiwan. In this case, the unbearable hunger seems to be less important.

"Captain, look no further, at the current pace. We'll not be able to get to Luzon until tonight, but after dark, we can't go any further, because there are a lot of reefs around Luzon. I can't see the channel clearly, so I can only wait until tomorrow morning to dock again! On the bow of the Americas One, Feng Shijie was holding a wooden sea bowl. Walked briskly.

Now Feng Shijie looks dark and thin, wearing only a pair of cownose shorts all over his body. The bare upper body exposed two rows of emaciated ribs, and the original shaved hair grew back. It wasn't very long, and it was unkempt, and it looked messy, and his eyes and cheeks were deeply sunken, so it seemed that he was suffering from hunger as well.

Lu Wan also felt a little tired in his eyes at this time, and when he heard Feng Shijie's words, he turned his head to look at it, but said with a smile: "Shijie, what are you holding in your hand, why do I smell so good?" ”

Feng Shijie laughed when he heard this, stretched out his hand and stuffed the sea bowl into Lu Wan's hand and said: "This is the fresh fish that was just caught today, and then the kitchen made fish soup, ready to let the big guy have a good cooked meal, and also have the strength to control the boat, don't have any accidents in Luzon!" ”

Lu Wan felt a little hot when he received it, and when he looked down, it was indeed fish soup, but he hadn't drunk it for a long time, and he forgot the taste of the fish soup, but then he asked with some surprise: "Why is the kitchen on fire, hasn't the fuel on the ship been used up a long time ago?" ”

Feeding on ocean-going fleets is a big problem, and ships usually carry a lot of dry food, such as dry and hard bread, stone-like salted meat, large barrels of pickles, and so on. When Lu Wan and his fleet left Taiwan, they still carried a lot of coal on board, and the crew could occasionally eat a cooked meal, but then it ran out, if it encountered an island, it could store some firewood, but the firewood was not resistant to burning, and it was generally used up in a few days, like when they came back from the Americas, the firewood brought by the ship had long been used up, and they did not encounter the island, so the ship had been out of fire for a long time.

Feng Shijie smiled after hearing this: "Isn't it about to dock, many of the crew's torn clothes are bad, plus there are still some broken wooden barrels and wooden shelves in the warehouse, these things are also thrown away when they get to the shore, so it is better to burn them as firewood now, and they can also cook a hot meal for everyone." ”

"Hahaha~, you guys really know how to use waste!" Lu Wan laughed, and then picked up the fish soup with both hands and drank it, not only was there a lack of food on the boat, but even the seasoning was used up, so nothing else was added to the fish soup except salt, but now it is already a rare enjoyment to be able to drink a sip of hot soup, so Lu Wan also drank it extremely sweet.

At this time, the ship's galley also began to beckon the crew to eat, in addition to fish soup, there were also fried fish and corn dough, the fish was freshly beaten, and the cornmeal was the last bit of food that could be found on the ship, and before the meal, the crew had been told that except for those seeds and plant seedlings that must not be eaten, this was already the last food on the ship, and if you wanted to eat, you had to work hard, and when it came to Luzon, everyone could eat whatever they wanted!

As a result, this naturally aroused great enthusiasm among the crew, and after a rare full meal, they all put their greatest enthusiasm into their work, which also made the ship more agile and even faster, and by the evening Luzon was already in sight.

It was a pity that Lu Wan did not find the port, and it was already dark, and they could not see the channel at all, so they could only stop and rest for one night, and the next morning as soon as it dawned, the crew of the fleet set sail again hungry, and it took nearly two hours to finally land, and then everyone went ashore to rest, while hunting and gathering food.

After eating a delicious game meal on Luzon, Luvin took out a detailed map of the Luzon Islands, and then found a small port closest to them, after a day and a half of sailing, they finally arrived at this small port called Balaire, this port has more than 5,000 people, only a few hundred Han Chinese, the rest are mostly local natives, and there is also a navy with two medium-sized warships, and Luvain's return is naturally warmly welcomed by the city lord and admirals, At the same time, they also reported the news to the capital city of Manila as quickly as possible.

Luzon is still in charge of Yanbei, he was also pleasantly surprised after hearing the news of the return of the American exploration fleet, Lu Wan and they have been gone for a year and a half, and there is no news, many people have already guessed that this exploration failed, and even Li Su is a little discouraged, and he is already planning to hold a collective funeral for the entire fleet, but he didn't expect that at this juncture, Lu Wan and they finally came back.

At that moment, Yanbei immediately sent someone to report the good news to Taiwan, and he also rushed to Balaire in person, speaking of which, Malaire is in the north of Manila to the east, and it is not very far from the land route, but it is necessary to bypass most of the islands by sea, so Yanbei ignored the bumps in the land route and rushed to Balaire by horse-drawn carriage.

In addition, the news of Lu Wan's return was also known by some well-informed businessmen, as soon as these shrewd guys heard the news, they immediately threw away the business at hand, and then rushed to Balair overnight like Yanbei, and even some people hoped to meet the people of the fleet before Yanbei, so that they could grab some benefits, otherwise when Yanbei's assassination arrived, they would not have a chance.

Profit is indeed the catalyst of omnipotence, and indeed a few merchants arrived at Balair before Yanbei, and then these people immediately contacted the fleet, hoping to buy some of the specialties brought by the fleet from the Americas, and of course, if the fleet was willing to sell some American crops, they were also willing to pay a sky-high price to buy.

This exploration of the Americas was financed by Li Su and some big businessmen, so everything brought by the fleet should belong to the patrons behind it, so the transactions that these businessmen privately proposed to the fleet were simply digging into the corners of Li Su and other funders.

Fortunately, Lu Wan still knew this clearly, so he didn't pay attention to these businessmen who blatantly dug into the corners, and even confined all the crew members to the ship, not allowing them to contact outsiders, mainly because they were worried that individual crew members would not be able to stand the temptation of these businessmen, so they would do something unwise.

It was also Lu Wan's caution that made the interior of the entire fleet still maintain the same appearance as when Yanbei first landed, and the seeds and seedlings of various crops brought by Yan Bei were also very intact, which made Yanbei finally breathe a sigh of relief. Immediately after that, Yanbei transferred another army to protect the fleet, registered everything on the fleet, and then sent the list to Taiwan as soon as possible.

And when Li Su received this list, the brows that had been urgent for this time finally relaxed. He had been getting bad news since the rebellion in Java, and the situation in Java was getting more and more chaotic, which made him feel a little troublesome, and he had been distressed for days, and now there was finally news that had improved his mood. (To be continued......)