Li Zhaoji carried his own knife, ran around the deck and shouted, not afraid at all, an order was issued, quite orderly, this calm and fearless appearance made many people feel at ease. Although these sailors, mainly poor fishermen in the South Seas, could not operate guns, they were experts in handling boats.

Liu Mingde was familiar with the route and currents, and Chen Liuzi operated the sail line first-class, and with the cooperation, the Dongfang completed the turn in front of the Ming army's naval division in the shape of a goose.

"Haha, idiot, how stupid it is to sail against the wind!" On the bird boat, Lin Cha saw the Dongfang turn to the southeast, and couldn't help laughing, which caused a burst of echo from the henchmen around him. At this time, the wind direction is southeast, and it is inconvenient to sail against the wind.

Although European ships have surpassed the Ming ships in terms of ocean-going performance and speed, in terms of dexterity, it is more convenient for Chinese ships equipped with rigid sails, after all, Chinese ships are to be used along the coast in complex conditions, especially when the wind is headwind, foreign ships are extremely inconvenient, and some tall Galen sailing ships cannot even sail against the wind.

Only Li Yerong on the side was silent, and the turn of the Dongfang in front of him was seen by him as it was, and Li Yerong felt very wrong.

Li Yerong is very familiar with the Yahat ship, and it stands to reason that turning against the wind will not be able to do so dexterity anyway. He felt that it might have something to do with the mysterious sailing ships hanging between the masts on this mysterious ship, and the sails under the bow smit, which he had never seen before.

The fact is that during the period of going north, Li Zhaoji and Chen Liuzi and others carried out a wide range of changes to the sail line of the Dongfang, adding a spinnaker, a schooner and a diagonal truss sail, and even the bow mast was transformed into a two-stage type, and the increased bow sail can raise the bow and break the waves, and a series of sundit sails allow the ship to make more reasonable and effective use of crosswinds, not only turning more agile, sailing against the wind, but also taking a zigzag route, which is extremely flexible.

In just a quarter of an hour, the Vostok made two turns in front of Lin Cha, drawing a perfect zigzag on the sea surface of the yellow and blue border, which made Lin Cha, who had just asserted that the ship could not sail against the wind, extremely unhappy.

"Beat the drums, order the strikers to board the ship!" Lin Cha was annoyed and embarrassed, and ordered directly.

His boat is also powered by the wind, and he can also sail against the wind, but the scene in front of him has proved that he cannot catch up with his opponent by relying on his own ship. But most of the fleets under his command were galleys, with several long dragons and fast crabs, which used sails to advance in peacetime, and could paddle in and out in wartime, and the speed was extremely fast, and the sailboats could not catch up, let alone zigzag.

As the drums sounded, the oars on both wings lowered their oars, and as the long oars split the waves, the oarsmen made a neat trumpet, even if it was against the wind, and the people on the Vostok could hear it.

Li Zhaoji clenched the long knife in his hand, quietly waiting for the broadside battle, he understands sailboats, but he doesn't know how to use them at all, now sailing against the wind, it is a matter of time before he is caught up by these galleys, at this time, Chen Liuzi came over and said seriously: "Big brother, look at it, we will be able to leave safely." ”

Under the command of Chen Liuzi, the Dongfang was like an agile dolphin, completing a perfect turn on the sea, and headed towards the northeast again, moving forward with full sail, the wind speed was steady, and it soon reached the fastest speed.

Liu Li in the bow of the boat held a rope in his hand, one end in the sea, he kept putting the rope, and recorded the knot on it in his heart, this is the speed measurement method taught by Li Zhaoji, after a simple calculation, Liu Li shouted: "Seven sections, at least seven sections." ”

Li Zhaoji frowned, his heart was still slower, and the speed of the galleys chasing behind him was obviously more than nine knots, and the distance between the two sides was not far, and the relative speed of more than two knots could catch up before the oarsman's physical strength was exhausted.

Bang bang.

The chasing dragon ship had already begun to fire, and Li Zhaoji did not panic at all, beckoned the bird-gunners not to fire, and opened the deck hatch, contacted the gun emplacements on the lower deck, and ordered them not to fire either.

After a while, two long dragons approached from both wings, and Li Zhaoji did not wait for them to get closer, and immediately ordered: "Fire!" ”

Bang bang, boom!

The Vostok came directly with full firepower, all the six-pounder guns and arquebuses completed a salvo in a short time, the whole ship made a strong vibration, and a cloud of white gunpowder smoke enveloped the Vostok, but it was torn apart by its huge body, and the big ship broke through the fog.

Several huge water columns were stirred up on both sides of the Dongfang, enveloping the two long dragons, and their power was far greater than everyone present imagined.

The two dragons were not hit, but immediately fell into confusion, one began to circle the sea, and the other slowed down, apparently deterred by the fire of the Vostok, and the rest of the large and small galleys did not dare to approach, while the Vostok left the battlefield smoothly, completed the turn in front of these ships, and went straight to Lincha's boat.

There was already chaos on the bird ship, and many people were howling in fear, but Lin Cha grabbed the iron helmet and buckled it on his head, because at sea, he was only wearing leather armor, and when he saw the enemy ship rushing straight forward, he was not afraid, and shouted: "Prepare to meet the enemy!" ”

But the Vostok, which had no intention of approaching at all, made a turn in front of the side of the birdship, threw the stern at the enemy in a beautiful arc, and then, taking advantage of the southeast wind, sailed in a southwesterly direction, and then turned again, and then sailed in a zigzag shape to the Longgu waterway.

From the encounter between the two sides to the final separation, which lasted for nearly an hour, the Vostok showed its agility, consumed the physical strength of the oarsmen, shocked them with a salvo at the critical moment, turned to disengage, and resumed course.

"Traitor!"

On the bird boat, Lin Cha was already furious to the extreme, and his face turned the color of pig liver. Obviously, his side was a Ming official ship, and it was clear that his side had an advantage in troops, but he was still escaped by the enemy, especially when the enemy turned in front of him, which made him feel a great humiliation.

Lin Cha's eyes were fixed on the Dongfang, and he suddenly struck out, slashed the knife on the mast, and roared hoarsely: "Traitor, this official is inseparable from you, and he will definitely cramp and peel you." ”

However, this impotent fury was torn at will by the sea breeze, but it was his knife that slashed at the tung oil-soaked mast, cutting so deep that he could not pull it out for a while, which made him even more embarrassed.

Vostok.

Li Zhaoji got out of the lower cabin of the stern, closed the door, and barely blocked the wailing of the wounded inside. ”

This was the only casualty of the Vostok in this battle, and it was an unlucky bastard, and when the cannon was fired, it happened to pass behind a six-pounder gun, and was hit by a cannon tail bead and broke a leg on the spot.

Li Zhaoji saw Chen Liuzi and the others looking at him excitedly, either smirking or rubbing their hands in a cramped manner, and was immediately puzzled: "What's the matter with you, looking for me to ask for a reward?" ”

Chen Liuzi shook his head and gave a thumbs up: "Big brother, you are really a god!" ”

Li Zhaoji was even more puzzled: "Sixth son, the boat was driven by you, and the road was pointed out by Brother Liu, and my credit is less than one-tenth of the two of you." ”

"Without this good ship, we wouldn't be able to get rid of the official army." Chen Liuzi said excitedly.

Liu Shun also nodded heavily: "Leader, you are really the reincarnation of the Dragon King, you are like a fairy, a few days ago, you asked us to re-sew the canvas rope, increase the support of the rope sail and the like, I thought you were rich, you have no place to use it, a good canvas, it is all high-quality goods made of sisal, why use it to squander."

When I saw it today, the leader was really prescient, this broken ship, modified by you like this, not to mention the speed, the steering is also so agile. ”

Liu Li also hurriedly said: "Yes, Chief, we have followed you, but we have learned a lot of work, and I will tell you that I have worked as a shipwright in Guangzhou and Macao, and I have also built foreign ships. ”

Only then did Lee Siu Kee understand that this was what they meant, and they admired their understanding of the various systems of sailing ships. Li Zhaoji naturally wouldn't tell them that this was the scientific knowledge of the later generations possessed by the traverser, not the reincarnation of some dragon king, the descent of a bodhisattva or something like that.

However, Li Zhaoji is also glad that he has been fond of sailing since he was a child, and he has assembled models of 18th and 19th century sailing ships such as clippers and sail battleships. You must know that the improvement of the sail mast system is the accumulation of hundreds of years of experience, and Li Zhaoji used the design of the last sail battleship in the early 19th century to renovate this 17th-century ship, which will naturally make these illiterate guys shocked.

But he also knew that the design and internal structure actually depended on the experienced carpenters and sailors on board.

"Come to the captain's room, let's discuss where to go next." Li Zhaoji said to everyone.

Not long after, several important people appeared in the captain's room, and Liu Mingde said directly: "Boss, we can't go to Macau." ”

This is obvious, according to the initial plan, Li Zhaoji is going to take the Dongfang to Macao, because there are many goods on the Dongfang, and you can go to Macao to inquire about the price first. Of course, it's more important to fix the ship and buy some firearms and stuff.

Macao is an ideal first stop because it does not refuse foreign ships to come, and the berths are relatively deep, so it will not provoke the covetousness of the local government of the Ming Dynasty and the pirates of the Pearl River Estuary, so it is an ideal first stop, and Lee Siu-kee also wants to recruit some men in Macau.

But this encounter with the official army, although it was successfully separated, the situation of the Orient was known by the officials and soldiers, even if it was a fool on the other side, they also knew that the Orient was a foreign ship, and the first thing to figure out about this ship was to go to Macao Port.

"Now, I can only go to Hong Kong." Liu Mingde took a puff of dry tobacco and said helplessly.

"Can't you go to Neilingding Island?" Obviously, Lee does not want to go to Hong Kong for the time being.

Because it is a place where pirates haunt, it all depends on who has the big fist, and Neilingding Island is a place where black and white meet, pirates and maritime merchants are haunted there, otherwise it would not have been selected by the British East Indy Company as a distribution center for smuggling opium and chips two hundred years later.

"It's okay on weekdays, but Chief, you have also seen the posture of the officers and soldiers today, they can't get to such a position on weekdays, and they don't have so many men and ships. Now that it is so strong, and it is far away from Guangzhou to sweep the sea, Neilingding Island will definitely not be able to be saved. ”