On the third day, the fleet sailed out of the treasure ship, the horse ship, the grain ship, the boat boat, and the war ship, and the five ships formed a team and sailed west towards the Gulf of Siam. Wang Hou knew that this was according to the plan, escorting the Siamese envoys back to China, and naturally there were also ships to trade, and if it went well, there would be seven days to reach Siam.

On the morning of the fifth day, while the fleet was moving, Sect Master Liu saw that the "Tian Yuan" in front of him suddenly slowed down, followed by the gong, trumpet, and screw horn sounding at the same time. Wang Hou was watching a few people playing cards, and when he heard the movement outside, he couldn't help but be stunned: these sounds are usually only used for communication at night, and it is definitely not normal to emit them at this time, could it be that he met Chen Xiong's fleet?

Everyone hurriedly ran to the command room on the bow tower, only to see Sect Leader Liu's face confused. The effort was not great, and the two warships that were originally following the "Tian Yuan" turned around slowly and headed this way, and on the main deck of the warship, Tang Jing shouted loudly: "The general army has an order, the hurricane is coming, all ships lower their sails and slow down!" After Sect Leader Liu responded loudly, the warship continued to sail to the rear, transmitting orders.

Subsequently, Sect Leader Liu asked several elders around him to send orders down separately: slow down! Sail down! In a short time, three or four hundred sailors poured out of the main deck, shouting trumpets to lower all twelve sails in turn. Just now, the sky was clear, but the sky changed, a strong wind blew, and clouds piled up on the sea in the distance.

The thought of the hurricane five days ago gave everyone a sense of foreboding. The prince in Liu Hanyan's arms came out, stretched out his head and looked around, looking particularly nervous. Wang Hou frowned, looked at the sea in front of him, and said to everyone in the room: "It seems that things are not good, I will go to the 'Tian Yuan'." Without waiting for the crowd to answer, he jumped out of the porthole. Sect Leader Liu was startled, and he didn't understand why Wang Hou wanted to jump into the sea.

After being stunned for a moment, he came to his senses, stretched out his head to look, and saw a man in white walking on the sea, waving his arms, flying forward quickly, and he was even more stunned, and asked, "Is that person Hou'er?" Liu Hanyan's face was full of pride: "Of course it's him, what's the big deal, I can do it too." "Sect Master Liu only said casually as his daughter, and he didn't know that because of the Buddha lamp in Lushan, he could indeed fly.

Half a mile between the ship, Wang Hou even applied a few styles of "there is a skill to divide the wind", "the boat goes endlessly" has been close to the "Tianyuan", a type of "who can shrink the ground", exerting force on the hull, he took advantage of the situation to go up to the stern, the stern is more than 40 zhang away from the bow, a few ups and downs, Wang Hou has reached the bow, opened the hatch and entered the command room of the treasure ship.

There were only three people inside, all with their backs to the door, facing the sea through the portholes. Hearing the sound of the door being pushed open, one of them asked without looking back, "Why, came back so soon?" "Chief soldier, it's me." Hearing Wang Hou's voice, the three of them turned around at the same time, Zheng He, Nanhai Gong and Yin Yang Guan all looked serious.

Nanhai Gong scolded: "This ghost weather, the hurricane that has just passed, why is there a hurricane coming?" The yin and yang official responded: "The weather is so changeable, could it be related to mermaids?" "Now you can't advance, you can't retreat, you can only pray for the protection of the sea goddess." Zheng He said as he turned around and bowed to the statue of the sea goddess.

It was the first time for Wang Hou to enter this command room, and in addition to the statue, there was a square table in the center of the room, which was covered with nautical charts. On the left side of the square table is a huge water compass, the outer plate is a rosewood square plate, and the inner plate is a round steel plate, on which are engraved the twenty-four directions of the sexagenary branch.

In the center of the disc is hollowed into water, and a magnetic needle floats on the water, which can rotate freely with the change of direction, and once stationary, the magnetic needle points north and south. On the right side of the square table, there is a wine jug-shaped leaky cylinder, and there is constantly fine sand leaking out of the cylinder eye, which is the ship's taximeter, and the leakage is a watch, and each shift can sail for about 60 miles, and the downwind or headwind will increase or decrease accordingly according to the wind speed. There are also several "star-pulling plates" of various sizes and an ivory block about two inches long and missing all four corners.

The shape of the water compass is almost the same as that on the "Tianzhu", but it is much larger and more accurate. Wang Hou was watching, and he heard Nanhai Gong shouting, "It's coming!" Here it comes! Wang Hou turned his head to look, only to see that the black clouds that had accumulated just now were pressed over, and the wind was blowing harder, with a chill.

Nanhai Gong shouted: "Quickly pass the order, let all the people on board enter the cabin, close the portholes, the storm is coming!" Tang Jing hadn't come back yet, Zheng He was about to go out, Wang Hou stopped him: "Chief soldier, I'll give an order." Then he walked out of the bow tower and shouted in a deep voice, "The commander-in-chief has an order, the storm is coming, close the portholes, and all the personnel return to the cabin." The sound was heard ten miles away, and it was clearly heard on every ship.

Dark clouds swept in the torrential rain, the deck that fell overhead made a crackling sound, the wind grew stronger, and the sea in front of the ship swelled, and the hull of the ship was jolting. Fortunately, the ship had already lowered its sails, and it was all up to the rudder to maintain a slow pace and sail against the wind. Nanhai Gong's expression became more and more serious, sometimes looking at the waves, sometimes at the water compass; The fine yarn inside the hourglass is still flowing unhurriedly.

At this time, it was not yet noon, but the sky suddenly darkened, and it seemed that a greater wind and rain were brewing. Zheng He's face was gloomy, although every captain has undergone strict training and can master and use all kinds of equipment on the ship, but in the face of unknown winds, it is courage and courage that are considered!

Suddenly the wind increased sharply, and the huge lang that rolled up rushed fiercely, and the command room was six stories high from the water, and the water splashed in, Wang Hou was about to step forward to close a few of them, but was stopped by Nanhai Gong: "Don't worry about it, you must see the wind clearly." After pausing for a moment, he added, "Give the order to go down, turn left for two minutes, and move forward according to the position!" "The water compass is engraved with twenty-four markings, the departure position is due south, the Xun position is in the southeast, and the position is between the departure position and the Xun position, immediately adjacent to the southeast direction.

Wang Hou gave the order like the previous time, and this time, with the help of the wind, the voice came farther. At this time, the wind rotated from right to left, and after the order was given, the bow of the ship was sailing against the wind, and after a while, the treasure ship had turned slightly to the left and maintained a certain angle with the direction of the wind. Wang Hou looked at it, the ships behind were all operating in the same way, and the entire fleet was facing the wind in the same direction, but the wind was too strong, even if there were many sailors, they could not keep moving forward and struggled on the sea.

The Yin and Yang Officer shouted: "Nanhai Gong, the wind is too strong, can we let the ship retreat?" Before Nanhai Gong could speak, Zheng He reprimanded loudly: "No, if you go with the flow, you must deviate, it will be more dangerous, you must resist the wind." After a short period of panic, Zheng He was calm at this time.

In the command room of the "Tianzhu", Sect Leader Liu made adjustments to the ship according to the instructions from the front. Liu Hanyan and the others returned to their rooms, and they knew that not only would it not help them in the command room, but they would affect the command.

It was dark inside, Zhuang Zhaoxue lit a candle, and the light flickered. Several people took turns worshipping the statue of the sea god Niangniang, and Liu Hanyan kept chanting: "The sea god Niangniang, you are also surnamed Lin, you must bless us safe!" Jin Minhui shouted loudly: "It's okay, it's okay, when we were in Tianjin Wei, the sea god Niangniang has been blessing us, it doesn't matter, we will definitely be fine." I don't know if I'm comforting others or comforting myself.

As soon as Jin Minhui's words were finished, she only heard a "pop", and the room suddenly became pitch black, thinking that the Bafang candlestick slipped off the table and fell to the ground. The boat was jolting even more violently, and even the clattering of the hull could be heard, and the rooms of several people were on the third floor, and the sea slapped the hull and pounced on it, knocking on the porthole to make a peeling sound.

Dark clouds covered the ground, and in the command room of the "Tian Yuan", Nanhai Gong was still staring at the front with full attention, and through a ray of light, he identified the direction in which Hailang was coming. Because the wind was too strong for all the wind lamps to be lit, Nanhai Gong took the colorful flags that were placed aside and stretched out the portholes to attract the perception of the wind direction and judge the direction of the water.

Zheng He stared at the water compass, communicated with Nanhai Gong from time to time, and then asked Wang Hou to pass on the order and make timely adjustments. It's just that the wind is getting stronger and stronger, and if the boat doesn't advance, it will retreat, and the treasure ship has begun to retreat in the struggle, but it still remains neat and uniform, and it is not chaotic.

According to the size of each ship, there are dozens of sailors and officers and soldiers ranging from dozens to hundreds of people, at this time the fate hangs by a thread, no one dares to be lazy, everyone is divided into two groups, take turns to shake the oars, take turns to rest, there are also many people kneeling on the deck, knocking the sea god Niangniang to bless, more timid, hiding to the side can not help crying bitterly.

I don't know how long it took, the wind gradually subsided, and Nanhai Gong's body went weak and fell to the ground. Wang Hou was startled, and quickly helped him up, Zheng He also came over with a tired face, and knew that Nanhai Gong was not in danger, presumably due to too much fatigue. A wisp of true temperament entered, and Nanhai Gong slowly opened his eyes: "Pass the order, the wind has passed, so that everyone doesn't have to rock the oar, let the boat drift on its own, just don't leave the team...... At this time, the route has been chaotic, and it is estimated that there will be a two-day journey back, and it will be said at dawn. ”

Wang Hou gave an order, picked up Nanhai Gong, went down to the third floor with Zheng He and Yin Yang Guan, put Nanhai Gong on the bed, and covered the quilt. Zheng He said: "The general has worked hard, do you want to rest here or go back to the 'Tianzhu'?" "It's almost time to apply, and there is still an hour before dawn, chief soldier, you hurry up and rest, and I'll go back." Wang Hou arched his hand and walked out of the room.

The lights on the main deck were on at this time, Wang Hou stood on the stern, the sea breeze no longer had the previous mania, and it was a little cool on his face. The fleet gradually lit the wind lanterns, and as far as the eye could see, it was so warm and quiet, giving people a sense of steadiness, because he was still worried about the safety of Liu Hanyan and others, Wang Hou didn't think much about it, and immediately jumped into the sea.

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