"Captain! Captain! Open the door, Captain! ”

If it weren't for the fact that it was his own captain's voice, the captain who was writing a letter to his family would have hoisted the crew member who almost knocked on his hatch and whipped him.

"What's wrong?"

"Captain, we... We were... It's blocked..."

"What!?"

The captain was directly stunned, he had been running the line of Dongshan Prefecture for 8 years, and it was the first time he heard that there were pirates in this kind of place?

Doesn't it mean that there is no one at all on the way from Fusang to Liugui Prefecture to Dongshan Prefecture, except for a very small number of natives who claim to be Inuit, where did the pirates come from?

Even if there are pirates, how bold should they be to block their navy's ships in the waters of the ghost city?

You have to know that you don't need to change the course, take out the fireworks and launch them into the sky, at most half an hour, the 5 Zheng He-class ships in the Ghost Harbor can send all those pirates to feed the fish.

"What nonsense, where are the pirates here?"

"No, no, it's not a pirate, it's Zheng He!"

The captain was even more confused, and hurriedly looked up at his main mast, which was indeed the dragon entry flag of the Ming Navy.

"Take me to see it!"

After walking out of the cabin and onto the deck, all the crew members pointed to Zheng He, who was in the direction of the bow of the ship, and discussed. They saw with their own eyes that the Zheng He-class was chasing after it at full speed, and the navigator thought that the other party was passing by, so he amicably got out of the way. Unexpectedly, Zheng Hejie also adjusted the route, and it was obvious that he was rushing towards them.

Just when everyone thought that the other party might want to get close and say hello, Zheng Hejie quickly overtook him, crossed the sea in the distance in front of him, and waved the flag of "stop the boat".

"Captain, that Zheng He-class sampan is gone."

"Sail, anchor!"

A quarter of an hour later, the captain personally pulled a man in the uniform of a naval officer onto the deck of his treasure ship at the side of the ship.

"You're the captain?"

"Yes, sir."

"Turn the bow of the ship and return to the ghost town!"

"Yes, my lord!"

The authority of the rank system of the Ming navy is far greater than that of the Ming army on land, because after the ship goes to sea, no matter what the situation is, the whole ship must be united to cross it. Then it is necessary to cultivate the absolute prestige of the commander, and on the ship, it is the rank of official to crush people.

The captain of the treasure ship, if he dies, he will be from the eighth grade. Although this naval officer is wearing the most basic naval officer uniform, it is also from the seventh grade, and it is two grades bigger than himself.

The two ships returned to the ghost town in less than an hour, and the captain followed the officer into the harbor with great trepidation, and met with the steward of the Ghost City Maritime Bureau, who gave the captain an order to temporarily stop in the ghost town and wait for a new order.

After sending off the captain, the steward of the Maritime Safety Bureau also breathed a long sigh of relief.

Every year, there is only one window period from Daming to Dongshan Prefecture in summer, and it is not impossible to sail in normal times, but the sea conditions at that time will be very bad and very cold, and basically only Zheng He, who is familiar with the route, can sail.

Because Zheng He's soft canvas system can be coated with grease, it can be used reluctantly without fear of freezing. However, the Nanyang-class hard sail will get into the bamboo poles of the canvas support system because of the moisture, and the ice will freeze inside, making the whole sail heavy and difficult to handle, and it is basically unusable. Therefore, in order to return to the Ming Dynasty in late summer and early autumn, the captains of the Nanyang-class treasure ships that transported the people would hurry up all the way to speed up.

The manager of the Maritime Safety Bureau, who was stationed in Liughost City, had indeed sent away more than a dozen treasure ships one after another in the past half a month, and according to the list handed over to him in the spring, this one was the last treasure ship of this year's Minfu fleet.

He didn't know why this treasure ship was so slow to reach the ghost city, but fortunately, the task of finding a treasure ship for Song Yingxing was completed.

The captain breathed a sigh of relief when he returned to the ship, he thought that some of the goods he had secretly smuggled for the trading house in the city had been discovered.

Although the treasure ship belongs to the navy, it is the person in the navy who has the best relationship with the trading houses, the newly rising forces in the Ming Dynasty, and will naturally be slowly eroded by the trading houses. Because the routes of Dongshan Prefecture and Daming are all monopolized by the Maritime Safety Bureau, the captain of the treasure ship is the most corrupted person.

Some goods that were not allowed by the imperial court were smuggled to Dongshan Prefecture by the annual fleet of people. In fact, this point is a semi-open secret on the Daming and Dongshan Prefecture routes, as long as the commercial banks are not too much along the way, no one checks.

But a Zheng He-class intercepted himself with all his might, which really made the captain think that his smuggling had angered the navy, and he was going to lose his head.

According to the original plan, the ship's next stop after leaving Minami Fuso was Kitafuso, and it would not stop in Edo. However, in the Qinglou of Heizhi City in South Fusang, when the captain was in a hurry to return to his room with two Dongyi slave thin horses trained in Yangzhou, five officials from the trading house and the Maritime Safety Bureau forcibly left him behind and asked him to help transport some goods.

At this time, there is still reason in the man. The captain who was anxious to go to Wushan with Dongyi Nu Thin Horse asked if the goods were not too prohibited, and the officials of the Maritime Safety Bureau also accepted the remuneration and agreed after they became shareholders.

That's why they docked at Edo Port.

It was precisely because of this unexpected cargo that his treasure ship was close to full load, and the sailing speed was so slow.

"Captain, isn't it ......?"

"Don't worry, it's not." The captain knew what his navigator wanted to ask, and he was also the one who carried a skinny horse back to the room that day, and knew about the smuggling.

Seeing that it was not something he was worried about, the navigator was relieved.

"Where's that shipment?"

"In the cabin where the Japanese slave girls were kept." The navigator whispered, "I have set up a mezzanine in the cabin, and told the slave girls that they are not allowed to tamper with the contents of the cabin, and whoever dares to move will be thrown into the sea to feed the fish." ”

The captain nodded, relieved. The Japanese woman is notoriously honest, and if the Japanese man gives her a slap in the face, she will only apologize sincerely and see if her man's hand is swollen.

The people of the Ming Dynasty told them not to touch it, and they didn't dare to touch it if they were given ten dares.

The two began to discuss how beautiful it would be to retire and buy a few good-looking Japanese slave girls to return to their hometown, Liu Yifeng knocked on the hatch and walked in.

"Captain, how do you eat at night?"

The treasure ship has the rules of the treasure ship, including how to eat.

How to eat at sea is to be calculated, to calculate the firewood and charcoal, to calculate the speed at which the food will deteriorate, to calculate the consumption of fresh water, to calculate the time of the voyage.

In many cases, the crew is allowed to eat, so as not to explode at sea with the accumulated emotions of the crew.

So Liu Yifeng, who is already a real chef on the ship, came to ask how to eat.

"Well, wait a minute, I'll tell you later."

The captain was so worried about the smuggling of goods that he forgot to dock with the Maritime Safety Bureau, and he didn't know that after he returned to the ghost town, the Maritime Safety Bureau would not care about the food.

But when he returned to the port, he could no longer find the manager of the Maritime Safety Bureau, and he was reporting the situation to the Maritime Safety Bureau of Liughost City.

"Let that treasure ship stay honestly, and then tomorrow you bring someone on the ship to check it out, and find that all the contraband will be brought down for me!"

"Yes, Steward!"

Outsiders think that the management of the Maritime Safety Bureau of the Ghost City is a chore, after all, the hottest time of the year in the Ghost City can only take off the cotton robe during the day, but only the officials of the Maritime Safety Bureau who have been to the Ghost City know that it is actually fat!

Originally, being an official in a bitter cold land was not low, and the accumulated political achievements were also high. And the filial piety of each commercial house is the real reason why this steward has been promoted to the Ming Dynasty and stayed here without leaving.

But it is precisely because of this that he is well aware that there are contraband in every treasure ship of the Minfu fleet that goes to Dongshan Prefecture. Since Lord Song wants to requisition that treasure ship, that treasure ship must be clean!

So the next day, during the day, the people of the Maritime Administration did not listen to the captain's explanation, and forcibly ordered him to drive all the men and slaves out of the cabin and assemble in an open space specially invited by the port.

Then under the desperate gaze of the captain and the navigator, there was a great clean-up of the whole ship, and the smuggled goods were discovered and piled up on the deck.

The people of the Maritime Safety Bureau removed the wooden seal, opened the wooden box, and when they opened the wooden box, the eyes of everyone on board were round, and the crew looked at their captain and the captain with great horror and anger.

"My lord! My lord! Listen to me, this ......"

"Shut up! Clearance first! ”

"Yes, sir!"

The official of the Maritime Safety Bureau also regretted that he had known that this batch of smuggled goods was so tricky, so he would not have dismantled it on the spot. He dismantled it in front of the crew, just to blackmail the captain after creating a fait accompli.

As a result, there was no extortion because this batch of smuggled goods was the largest contraband in Dongshan State, and there was no one.

Bird gun, also known as arquebus.

After Qi Shaobao initiated the military reform of the bird gunner, a large number of equipment was provided in the southern army and the western army of the Ming Dynasty, and the northern army was equipped with more cavalry, and there were Mongols and Jurchens as servant troops, which were only partially equipped, but it was not a new thing in the entire Ming army.

However, the imperial court strictly forbade the transportation of bird guns to Dongshan Prefecture!

This is a contraband that can lose your head!