A short trade voyage in the North Sea in August is a holiday-like pleasure, with mild sea temperatures averaging only 17-20 degrees Celsius, making it even more comfortable to feel under the gentle sea breeze.

At this time, the westerly wind is lighter, which can propel the sailboat to sail normally without causing too much wind and waves on the sea, which saves the Maria the rigors of dealing with bad weather and long voyages, and is the most comfortable way for the novice trio who are familiar with sailing.

Lao Wang stood on the deck, holding the railing of the ship, looking at the magnificent picture of the sea and sky, feeling calm and calm, his heart was extraordinarily clear, and he seemed to be able to feel a lot of things that he couldn't calm down and comprehend in normal times.

In the eyes of outsiders, Wang Mancang is now a standard Dutchman, and he also has the iconic half-length red hair, but due to the preparation of supplies and sailing, he has not washed it in the past few days, and it looks a little greasy and knotted.

Mary was different from Wang, she seemed to be a beautiful woman in any environment, and life at sea was very much to her appetite, this woman shaved off her sideburns, revealing a blue and empty scalp, and the long hair on the top of her head was braided into beautiful little dreadlocks, and then several small braids were tied together into a ponytail, which looked neat and neat, and set off her wild beauty to the limit.

The age was still relatively uncivilized, and most seafarers believed that sailing with a woman on board would bring bad luck, and the people on this ship were no exception.

In this regard, Lao Wang resolutely declared that this Alice Hunter was his personal bodyguard, and his spear skills were amazing, and he had to take her, and under this insistence, coupled with Lao Wang being the big financier, the captain had to agree to Mary to go with the ship.

The ship of this voyage is equipped with the captain's own team, surveyors, and helmsmen, all of whom have people in charge, so the navigation skills they have mastered did not come in handy in this voyage, but it is still necessary to observe and learn more on the spot, and lay a solid foundation for the future trial world tasks.

According to the assignment, Takenaka's seafaring skills were steering, Lao Wang's surveying skills, and Mary's remaining gunnery skills.

In the process of sailing, the helmsman is in charge of the direction, and the surveyor is responsible for the course and positioning, and these two roles are one responsible for the general direction of the route, and the other is responsible for the specific operation during the voyage, which is a manifestation of control over the ship and must be filled by one's own people.

As for sea operations, the importance of artillery is self-evident, so you must also master the key points yourself, close combat to meet the enemy, Lao Wang can concurrently serve, plus Mary and Takenaka are also experts in killing, and they can also take care of the past with cooperation, but the invincible uncle team is now a pitiful 3, so they can only make do with the control of the entire ship first, and the navigation props are uniformly placed in the team space, and they can be taken out when necessary.

"Why do you seem worried, Mr. van der Kamp, are you worried that we will not be able to make it to Hamburg?" said the captain of the merchant ship and smiled at the old king.

"If you don't make a profit for a day, you won't feel at ease for a day. Lao Wang also responded with a smile, his tone like that of a Dutch merchant.

"Actually, don't think we're sailors, but I can give you some tips on maritime trade. The captain was a talkative fellow, and seeing that the old king wanted to make money, he spoke.

"Oh, what's your experience? Captain. Lao Wang asked, the faster you make money, the better, and it is of course a good thing that someone takes the initiative to tell you.

The captain blinked and said mysteriously, "Do you know about popular goods and hobbies? As long as you can master the buying and selling of these two commodities, you can make money quickly." ”

Lao Wang's eyes lit up, and he recalled the knowledge preparation before going to the random space.

Hobbies and popular products are indeed worth paying attention to, this age of navigation, has not yet achieved a complete and rapid exchange of information, belongs to the years of semi-scarcity of information, some strange goods, many people may not be able to see in their lifetime, these goods in the European port landing, the tide will quickly rise in the entire European capital market, just like the tea and porcelain in East Asia or the diamonds and gold in Africa, master the buying and selling of these items, a lot of money is certain.

Maritime trade is really done, in fact, it is no different from Lao Wang's selling vegetables, in essence, it is to reduce costs, increase profits, buy high and sell low can be solved, to put it bluntly, maritime merchants are more like a group of people who have more information than ordinary, they will designate routes according to the markets of different regions, understand the products of each region, and then cooperate with procurement channels to complete the dumping of scarce commodities in the form of shipping, and profits will follow.

The captain was right, but Lao Wang had already planned it, and he had no ability to sail far in the short term, and he didn't plan to touch these luxuries and hobbies.

People are kind-hearted, naturally they can't lose their politeness, Lao Wang smiled at the captain and said with a kind smile: "Mr. Captain, thank you, in fact, I am more interested in whether my cargo is safe at sea." ”

The captain was so happy that someone had a chat with him, and immediately he talked about it.

In the North Sea alone, there are several great powers, including the Netherlands, Britain, France and Germany.

At present, Britain and the Netherlands are due to the rapid rise of the bourgeoisie, so that both countries are supporters of Protestantism in terms of religion, and are hostile to Catholic maritime powers, such as Spain, Portugal, Venice, etc., but these countries are competing for supremacy in the New World and the Mediterranean, and for the time being, as a merchant Lao Wang, he does not have to consider privateering.

Of course, the Protestant countries themselves are not monolithic, and the Netherlands and Britain have not yet waged an overt struggle for the sole hegemony of the seas, but secretly, there are many bad things about leaking the news of merchant ships and pretending to be privateers to rob, and secretly restraining each other.

The route from Amsterdam to Hamburg was relatively safe, piracy was almost extinct, and there were few privateers from other countries.

Lao Wang nodded, thanked the captain for his patient explanation, and then walked to the position of the rudder and handed over the information collected since the voyage to Takenaka for a simple analysis.

According to the conclusion of the little guy, this time the world is amazingly large, and moreover, the time will be very long.

Since their squad was able to enter the Netherlands from the real-world Netherlands to the Netherlands during the Age of Sail, other countries could have such entrances in the same way.

Even if it is only a maritime power, there are countless of them, plus those countries that have or have possessed advanced navigation technology, I believe that there will be people who will enter.

For example, China and Japan, in the 16th and 17th centuries, both countries already possessed well-established and advanced seafaring technology, and the Chinese Fukufune and the Japanese Ataka were very famous ships at that time, and they were also quite suitable for the sea, so it cannot be ruled out that there were selectors entering from East Asia.

The objective reason of sailing will also lengthen the timeline accordingly, and as for how long it is, it is impossible to find out the temper of space.

Wang's concern for safety at sea was simple: his choice of loading the ship was almost as risky as that of the brave and greedy Dutch merchants.

In order to reduce the rent, Lao Wang boldly rented a completely commercial ship, that is, a merchant ship that was not armed at all as his own cargo ship, although it was loaded more, but the gambling coefficient was very polarized, and if there was no accident, he would make a lot of money, and if something happened, he would lose a clean one.

Lao Wang's arrangement of goods is also very careful, all merchants are subject to the restriction of special trading licenses, but this, there are exceptions in the merchant's home port, Lao Wang in Amsterdam to purchase any goods is not restricted, so his arrangement is to purchase excellent handmade products in Amsterdam, such as felt carpets, glassware, etc.

After selling to Hamburg, Germany, you can earn purchase funds, and at this time, you can rely on the advantages of your own arms monopoly merchants, purchase a large number of advanced firearms and artillery from Germany, cross Amsterdam and directly dock in Bruges, which is in the middle of the war, and after dumping weapons, buy wood and wheat in Bruges and ship them back to Amsterdam again, so that you can make a lot of money.

The merchant ships continued to sail, and in another day, they would be able to dock in Hamburg, and the three of them would pass the time by honing their sailing skills, and Mary, who was a marksman who often honed her vision and eyesight, stayed for a long time in the watchtower on top of the mast to observe the sea.

The North Sea is full of routes, there are many ships, but the sea is endless after all, if you want to grasp the information of the nearby ocean at any time at sea, you must still solve it through uninterrupted lookouts, Mary's sharp spirit has completely changed the old habit of women not being able to get on the ship in the past few days, and the crew and captain of the ship feel that this beautiful and somewhat handsome woman is in the sea view, which really brings them a lot of convenience.

Everyone enjoyed the warm sea breeze, and in everyone's estimation, the voyage should be uneventful, but Random Space was like a naughty boy with a bad personality, and once again played a joke with the invincible uncle team.

"Wang, Takenaka, pay attention to the sea on the left!" Mary said suddenly in the team channel, and then her voice floated down from the watchtower: "Attention! ”

Lao Wang and the captain withdrew their binoculars at the same time, and observed in the direction indicated by Mary, the distance was too far, they could only see a dozen black dots flying on the sea, what they were, no way to know, yes, yes, it was flying on the sea.

The captain, an old sailor after all, and an experienced seafarer, immediately judged the situation, and shouted at everyone: "Sirens! It's Sirens! All hands out candles, burn wax oil to seal their ears, and remember, there is not a single crem, Monsieur van der Kamp, tell the rudder to keep the bearing, hang the sails, and give me all the cloth on board! Damn it, get moving! Tie me all the panties and handkerchiefs! Hurry up!"

"Siren, that kind of harpy!" Lao Wang asked himself, the random space of the heart really added a lot of gods and monsters, the siren, a mythical banshee, is now being shouted out by the captain of a merchant ship, as if this creature is still treated as a serious marine disaster, this kind of fusion, is really absurd.

"Are we going to run away?" asked the captain who was anxiously giving orders, this guy's series of orders were very decisive, but the words still meant to run for his life.

The captain looked at the weapons merchant like a fool, rolled his eyes, and hurried to the helm without bothering to explain, he was going to take the helm himself.

Lao Wang's problem is indeed redundant, merchant ships, especially Dutch merchant ships, will not have many ways to deal with this situation, because of the lack of armament, when there is danger to the door, they either want to speed up and escape, it is best to escape, or if they can't escape, they simply surrender directly, so that they can save their lives, but no matter what, they will not choose to fight directly with the hostile, their occupation division is very clear, merchants are merchants, and the privateer fleet and navy are in charge of the battle, and they do not need to overstep their responsibilities。

At this time, the Sirens came to Maria, this monster does not want goods, but human flesh, and if they surrender, they will die, so there is only one way left to run for their lives at full speed and pray for good luck.

The crew of the Maria was well-trained, the captain's orders were quickly executed, the main sail of the round-bellied Dutch merchant ship was unfurled, and it was full of wind in an instant, Lao Wang could clearly feel the deck under his feet, and the speed of the ship was obviously raised, and he began to escape at high speed.

However, the dozen or so black dots diagonally behind the stern of the ship were still hanging tightly, and the sirens were winged and flying fast, and by the time Mary sent back the signal from the watchtower, the shadows of the sirens were already visible in the telescope, and it would not be long before they could catch up.

The captain's anxious eyes were on fire, looking at the sirens who were getting closer and closer, they couldn't do anything, these monsters on the sea come and go like the wind, they like to eat human flesh, and their IQ is not low, sometimes they can even hide in the crevices of the reef to ambush passing ships, and they also have a super high tone, launching a sonic attack can often directly shatter the periosteum of the crew, making people dizzy and caught.

Even if they don't use sonic attacks, their strong claws are also killing weapons, hardness and sharpness are no less than steel, when diving from a high altitude to the ship, they can also use inertia to drop powerful stones, this kind of power, the good men of the sea can't afford it, it's over, this time there are more than a dozen at once, and the Maria is finished.

Time does not stop flowing because of the captain's eagerness, that is, in less than 20 minutes, the sirens have reached the side of the ship, and when they look closer, they realize that these monsters are really hideous.

Their upper bodies still retain the shape of human women, naked, and beneficial, but the fangs in their mouths are not related to beauty, their arms are powerful wings, and the length of their spread is about 2 meters, and their lower limbs are completely raptor claws, and the length of their sharp claws and hooks is close to that of ordinary small daggers, which makes people fully understand the consequences of being scratched.

The sirens shrieked and unleashed the first sonic attack on the Maria.

Everyone's ears were tight, even if they were stuffed with wax oil, this terrifying sound still penetrated in, and the periosteum of the people who shook the people was painful, and the sailors were also frightened at this time, and they waved the weapons they had put together indiscriminately, making futile counterattacks.

Seeing that this attack did not work, the banshees immediately pulled up and circled, ready to start diving, they have been doing evil at sea all year round, and they also know what a merchant ship is and what a warship is, for this kind of weak enemy, they don't even carry stones, just fight with their claws.

As the sirens rushed down at high speed, the captain at the helm of the merchant ship let out a long sigh and took off his three-cornered hat, no longer resisting.

He had done his best, but the situation of this battle was too obvious to be able to return to the sky, but it was a pity that the weapon merchant named Onis, the captain was looking for the traces of the old king with apologies, and he was still sorry in his heart, what a good Dutch merchant, it seemed that he could only sink into the sea with his dream of making a fortune, I am really sorry.

However, just in the direction he looked over, wait, what is that?!