The World of Yellow Sky

Chapter 841 Strange things at sea
The sky is far away and the sea is far away, but the boat of death is light.

The water and the moon pass through the silence of Zen, and the fish and dragons listen to the sound of Sanskrit.

Thousands of sails compete, and hundreds of boats compete for the flow.

On the vast sea, tall warships with khaki flags flying one after another are sailing forward with the help of the sea wind.

Under the blowing of the sea wind, the tall sails cut through the waves, and the entire sea seemed to be covered with ocher flags.

The golden sun shines on the many warships above the sea, covering the sea with a thick layer of gold.

Tang Yuan stood on the bow of the ship, his body swayed slightly with the hull of the ship, his hands didn't rest on any place, but he didn't have the slightest feeling of falling down.

Breathing the warm sea breeze and bathing in the sun, Tang Yuan only felt comfortable.

Flocks of seagulls, howling winds, huge waves, unpredictable wind and rain above the sea, and dangers did not make him feel disgusted at all, but instead made him yearn for the sea even more.

Boarding a ship from the land and sailing into the sea, for ordinary people, leaving the land is full of anxiety.

But for Tang Yuan, returning to the sea is like returning home, as if he grew up in the sea.

Looking around the sea, everywhere he came into view were warships with ochre-yellow banners, which made Tang Yuan feel at ease.

The singing of seagulls reached his ears, and to Tang Yuan's ears, it sounded like fairy music from the sky.

The warship under Tang Yuan's seat is a two thousand lucky ship in the Haidong Navy, and it is the main battleship in the navy.

One of the important reasons why the Han Dynasty did not pay much attention to shipping and the navy was that the safety of ships was not guaranteed.

Ordinary ships can make people feel uneasy, because once they hit the rocks or something happens, the whole ship will sink into the sea.

But the ship under Tang Yuan's feet is not scary at all, because the application of a new technology has greatly guaranteed the safety of the Ming army's ship.

A new technology—watertight compartments—was widely used in the ships of the Ming army.

The watertight compartment is a safe structural design of the cabin, which is designed to be located in the hull.

This technology greatly improves the shipbuilding design and technology of ship safety. In simple terms, it divides the hull into many cabins, so that each cabin has a "waterproof wall" that is not connected to each other.

Once some compartments are damaged and flooded, the water flow will not flow among them, so that the ship can still have sufficient buoyancy and stability when damaged, thereby reducing the risk of immediate shipwreck.

Even if the ship is damaged, there is no need to worry, and it can even be repaired to make it sailable again.

The captain of this ship is now Tang Yuan, who was originally an ordinary soldier in the Taishan Yellow Turban Army.

When he crossed the north, he also crossed the vast sea with the crowd and arrived in Liaodong.

At this time, he found that the place that really suits him is the sea, not the land.

After the establishment of Taipingdao Liaozhou Naval Academy, he also enrolled in the school, successfully passed the screening, and became a naval reserve officer.

After more than a year of training, he graduated from the Naval Academy.

After several training sessions and many new lectures, the Liaodong Navy was divided into two, one for the Liaozhou Navy and the other for the Haidong Navy.

He joined the Haidong Navy, and because of his excellent grades, he became the flagship captain of the fleet.

However, this ship is not under his jurisdiction for the time being.

"General Gan."

Tang Yuan held his head high, clenched his fists in his chest, and saluted.

There is no difference between the military salutes of the Ming army navy and the army.

"It's okay, I just came up to take a look casually."

Gan Ning gave a helpless laugh, and then sat on the wooden barrel on one side.

The wooden barrel was assisted by a rope, and it was still stable.

Gan Ning was leading the navy in Jiangzhou before, but this time he was recruited to Liaozhou.

The order was issued by Xu An, and the reason why this order was issued was that Gan Ning was transferred to Liaozhou all the way.

The main reason is that the naval officers and soldiers in Haidong and Liaozhou are too young.

Now the two naval fleets of Haidong and Liaozhou have a total of more than [-] warships, such a number can already be regarded as the best in the pack.

After the ship has been improved, it is first-class powerful in terms of speed and sturdiness.

But their problem is that they have never encountered a fleet that can compete with them, so they have almost no actual combat experience, and all the theories they have learned are really just theories.

Only a few naval officers had experience fighting pirates.

But the pirates of the entire era are basically a group of shrimp soldiers and crab generals, a mob with no combat effectiveness, and the sea ships they use are pitifully small.

It is completely different from the big pirates who ran rampant in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

The Liaodong Navy has already occupied Tsushima Island at the beginning of this year.

There are only a few islanders on Tsushima Island, plus a few fishing boats, and there is no so-called navy at all.

The reason why Xu An transferred Gan Ning here was precisely because these people had no actual combat experience, and in case of any danger, it would be a big problem to be ready for battle.

Although Gan Ning has no experience in naval warfare, he has rich experience in water warfare, and at least he can respond in time when he is in battle.

Although inland water warfare is different from naval warfare, after all, although the two places are on water, the environment is far from the same.

But the one thing in common is that because of the problems of the times, whether it is inland rivers or seas, it is now all about jumping gangs to fight, and using bed crossbows to attack, or putting down fast boats to launch fire attacks.

Gan Ning is now the captain of this warship.

Gan Ning sat on the barrel, looking at the cut sea water under the boat.

He had only heard about the sea in books before, but Xu An asked him to go to Liaozhou. This was actually the first time he had seen the sea.

Although he had expected it, it was still far beyond his imagination.

Compared with the sea, the Yangtze River is completely insignificant, a world of difference.

The Yangtze River is vast, but you can see the end at a glance.

But in the ocean, after sailing for a long time, it is difficult to see land.

When Gan Ning boarded the sea ship for the first time, he almost couldn't bear to write directly to Xu An, resigning from his post as General of Badong Louchuan.

There is no comparison between warships in inland rivers and sea-going ships.

Even the tallest building boats are eclipsed in front of sea boats.

Especially when Gan Ning saw the [-]-material flagship Liaozhou of the Liaozhou Navy that had just been launched, Gan Ning made up his mind to stay in the navy.

Because of the establishment of the laboratory, there are exhaustive methods, as well as various methods to encourage technology, and the implementation of the craftsman classification system.

The shipbuilding technology of Liaozhou's shipbuilding workshop has continued to progress and develop, and it has become more reasonable, and some shortcomings have been well resolved.

After all, as long as you make a suggestion, you will be rewarded with real money, and you can also improve your craftsman level.

And relying on the two mountain ranges of Daling (Changbai Mountain) and Beishan (Daxing'anling) alone, the shipbuilding workshop has no shortage of wood for shipbuilding.

The ability to make a large ship with three thousand materials is not only due to the maturity of the technology, but also because the keel material is very easy to find.

Gan Ning took out a sheepskin scroll from his bosom.

The islands and directions of this sea area are depicted on the parchment scroll. This is a scroll of sea charts.

There is no paper record because of the waterproof problem.

The sea is turbulent, the weather is unpredictable, and more importantly, there is the risk of falling into the water. Therefore, most of the sea charts are drawn with parchments.

Haidong and Liaozhou do not lack high-quality sheepskin.

He also stayed at sea for about three or four months, and now he has fully adapted to sailing at sea. It is just a sea battle, because of the waves and sea wind, he still has not mastered it, and there is no suitable training object.

If the Han court had a navy, they could fight a battle...

"Ding ding ding ding——"

Just when Gan Ning was thinking wildly, there was a rapid bell ringing from above.

Gan Ning suddenly stood up and looked towards the observation deck.

On the watchtower, a blue flag kept fluttering in the wind.

"An unknown fleet is found in the east?"

"Assemble! Be alert!"

Gan Ning made a prompt decision and issued the military order simply and forcefully.

After issuing the military order, Gan Ning did not panic.

"Each sail is ready to adjust the direction of the sail, and order the folks who control the sculls and oars to be in place."

After all, the observatory saw an unknown fleet, so it was still far away from being recruited, and it would take a long time to actually engage in battle, so there was no rush.

On the ship, although a group of Ming army sailors have very little actual combat experience, they have been trained for a long time.

So after the Gan Ning military order was issued, they were all in place soon.

Although the folks who manipulated the oars and oars were a little poorly trained and flustered, they soon regained their composure.

After all, above the sea, the Ming army's navy has always been the hegemony.

Gan Ning narrowed his eyes slightly, and the sails of the fleet could already be seen above the sea.

"Send a message, I will take a fleet to check, order..."

Gan Ning didn't think much, and quickly issued the military order.

The flag bearers on the watchtower kept waving their flags, and the sailing Ming fleet began to adjust their positions.

A transport ship was in the innermost position, and several warships of the Ming army left their designated positions and sailed towards the east.

They sailed from north to south, and the east was the left side of the fleet.

Under Gan Ning's command, the five warships left the fleet following Gan Ning's ship, and sailed quickly towards the unknown fleet.

After all, Gan Ning was sitting on a big boat of two thousand materials, and at this time, it was going from west to east, and the wind happened to be favorable.

With the help of this wind, the warship under the seat cut through the waves and went away.

Gan Ning stabilized his figure, raised the binoculars in his hand, and looked into the distance.

As it gradually approached, the appearance of the fleet under the lens became clearer.

The ships in this fleet don't look big, there are thirteen ships in total.

Many parts of this fleet were seriously broken, and it seemed that they had been hit by wind and waves.

The flags hanging above the ships are also extremely strange, and the patterns drawn on them are also very strange.

"General."

Tang Yuan came over.

"There are only thirteen small boats. I ordered the ships on the two wings to approach and detain them. I haven't seen any weapons such as bed crossbows yet, but we need to be careful and stop them. If the other party launches an attack, then don't show mercy."

Gan Ning put down the binoculars and issued new orders.

He felt a little weird in his heart, the shape of these warships was completely different from that of the Ming army or the Han army.

The flag was flying, and soon under the military order, the four warships on the two wings accelerated again, and surrounded the two wings.

Seeing that the two-wing warship started to accelerate, Gan Ning held up the binoculars to look into the distance again, and the distance was much closer at this time.

The people on board are clearly visible under the lens of the telescope.

Gan Ning was even more suspicious, because he found that not only the ship was weird, but also the crew on the ship was very weird.

Most of the crew members were tattooed and had strange costumes.

Seeing the Ming army's fleet approaching, these people showed panic on their faces, but they did not drive the boat away.

Soon the four Ming warships surrounded the thirteen small boats, and all the thirteen boats lowered their sails without any other actions.

Among the thirteen ships, the largest one was not as big as any of Gan Ning's sea-going ships.

(End of this chapter)