Capital Datang

As Li Yin, he naturally wouldn't lie to two fledgling small businessmen. Four days later, Shi Shi and Dunzi bought a batch of cotton cloth and negotiated terms with the chartering firm, and then their boat followed to protect Yuan Shi , and Wu Meiniang's fleet is on the road.

Speaking of which, although the news of Li Yin's visit to Lion City this time was not kept secret, few people knew about the fact that there were Li Zhen and Li Yun's family members in the fleet, and for safety reasons, Li Yin did not plan to send them to the Lion City. The news got out.So this time when Wushi and Wu Meiniang set out on the road, except for the escorting fleet, all the others were large fleets related to the Qi Palace. Shitou and their small merchant ship were a special case.

But just after their boat left the port with the fleet, Stone and Pier suddenly collapsed to the ground, then giggled a few times with a 'hehe', and then snored.In order to buy this batch of goods and move them onto the ship within four days, the two of them have been extremely busy these days. Not only are they busy during the day, but they also have to work overtime at night. I went to move it myself, and in the end even the old captain on the ship couldn't stand it anymore, and asked the crew on the ship to go down to help, and finally moved the goods before sailing.

So when the ship sailed out of the port, the tense nerves of Stone and Dunzi for several days finally relaxed. The ship's crew carried them into the cabin.

By the time Shitou and Dunzi woke up again, it was already more than ten hours later, and their fleet was almost passing through the Strait of Malacca.After the two stones recovered their spirits, they were both very grateful to the young man who helped them that night.It's just that they don't know what their identity is, and they didn't even tell them their names.It was obvious that the other party simply wanted to help them and did not ask for anything in return.But this also made Shitou and Dunzi more curious about Li Yin's identity. After all, not everyone can arrange them to join this fleet.It's just that when they knew Li Yin's identity, it was already more than ten years later.Capital Datang 568

And when Shitou and the others followed the big fleet to the west, in the remote Pacific Ocean, a small small fleet was struggling to move eastward. A two-month expedition to the Americas.

But now Lu Wan in this fleet frowned, staring at the chart in front of him, and finally heaved a long sigh.Put the nautical chart away carefully, and then walked out of the captain's room.Lu Wan is not in a good mood these days, because there is a problem with the fleet's navigation.

Originally, after leaving Taiwan, their fleet went to Manila first, and then after replenishing supplies there, they bypassed the Luzon Peninsula and entered the equatorial current they discovered before. The fleet headed east all the way, and it was very smooth at the beginning. , because of the season.They didn't encounter too much wind and waves. In addition, although the islands east of Luzon were not as dense as those in Southeast Asia, after a few days of sailing, they still encountered several large archipelagos.This frees them from worrying about resupply.

However, after Lu Wan and the others sailed eastward for a month and a half, there was an accident. At that time, they happened to encounter a cloudy sky.Moreover, for more than ten days in a row, there were dark clouds covering the top, blocking the entire sky tightly.Sometimes I can't see clearly even in broad daylight, which makes everyone feel extremely depressed.

Originally, Lu Wan was worried about a heavy rainstorm.This is not a good thing for the fleet, and in this kind of cloudy day, the compass can only be used to identify the direction. direction, but deviates from the direction of ocean currents.

When they were in Taiwan, Lu Wan and the others thought through observation and calculation that this equatorial ocean current was going eastward and could reach the American coast. In fact, the previous voyage also confirmed this conjecture.But now the direction of the compass told them that the direction of the ocean current had actually changed, and now it turned to the southeast. This made Lu Wan momentarily uncertain whether to follow the ocean current as planned or follow the direction of the compass. Sailing east all the way, after all, America is due east of them, not southeast.

In the end, Lu Wan couldn't make up his mind, so he simply called the captains of the eight ships together. Through group discussions, most people finally felt that the compass was more reliable, and it was normal for the direction of the ocean current to change. This ocean current is only speculation, and no one knows whether the ocean current can take them to America?

Lu Wan did not fully agree with the opinions of these captains, because he knew in the Nautical Academy that under certain special circumstances, the compass would malfunction. Although the probability of encountering such a situation is very small, It's not impossible, so he is more inclined to stay where he is for a few days, and it's not too late to wait until Tianqing clarifies the direction.Just looking at the current situation, no one knows when it will clear up, so in the end Lu Wan had to respect the choices of the majority and follow the direction indicated by the compass.

However, it turns out that sometimes the truth is not in the hands of the majority. Lu Wan and his fleet marched forward for twelve days according to the direction indicated by the compass. On the morning of No. 13, the dark clouds in the sky finally dispersed. It was only then that Lu Wan and the others discovered that the direction they were heading was not due east, but northeast. That is to say, the ocean current was always heading due east, but it was a compass problem that caused them to deviate from the course.

This made Lu Wan and the others very annoyed, but since the incident had already happened, it was useless to be annoyed. Finally, after measuring and finding out their latitude and longitude, it turned out that their deviation was not too far away. After confirming the direction, They finally returned to the original route after ten days, and even more coincidentally, when they returned to the original route, the compass returned to normal.

Lu Wan recorded the accident in detail in his nautical diary, but with the technical means at that time, they did not know the reason for the failure of the compass. It was not until more than 100 years later that an astronomer among the Han Chinese gave a detailed explanation. The answer, it turned out that that period of time was just in the period of sunspot eruption, which affected the earth's magnetic field, causing all the compass of the entire fleet to fail, and even almost led to the failure of Lu Wan's exploration trip.

It is also worth mentioning that there is actually a very regretful thing about Lu Wan's departure from the route this time, because if they walk forward in the original direction for a day or two, then they will make a huge discovery, which is a pity But they missed it. It wasn't until they returned home that they finally realized that they had made a big mistake.

Because of this off-course accident, Lu Wan and the others wasted more than 20 days at sea. Even though their ship returned to the original route later, they had been drifting on the sea for more than two months. They hadn't encountered an island for a long time. In addition to the hot weather, although the food on board had been preserved as much as possible, a lot of food was inevitably spoiled, so Lu Wan and the others were now facing a food crisis.

"How about it, how much food is there on each ship?" After Lu Wan put away the chart, he sent someone to call the supply officer on the ship to ask.

"To the captain, although our ship has loaded as much supplies as possible, after all, we have been at sea for more than two months, so the supplies on board are really running out. According to my estimation, if we reduce the number of crew members by three With one-third of the food supply, it can last for about 20 days. As for fresh water, it is much better. It has been replenished on some islands before, so it can last for at least one and a half months." The material demand officer said.

"20 days?" Lu Wan frowned. They have been out at sea for such a long time, and they should reach America soon, but no one knows how long the rest of the journey will be. What if the fleet runs out of food after 20 days? However, if the American continent is still missing, it may cause panic among the crew.

"Can you find a way to increase some food, such as fishing?" Lu Wan finally asked unwillingly.

However, the material demand officer couldn't help but smiled wryly after hearing this: "The captain doesn't know, I have already included fishing in the 20 days I counted, and we rarely encounter fish schools on this route, so we can catch more fish." There are not many fish, unless you encounter an island, there are usually a lot of marine animals living around the island, if you can find fresh water and edible animals and plants on the island, that would be even better."

However, when Lu Wan heard about the island, he sighed heavily. Since they set sail from the last island more than a month ago, they have never encountered an island since then, and because of the size of the last island, The island is very small, and there are no fresh water resources on the island, only a group of seabirds live, so they don't get any supplies on the island.Capital Datang 568

"In this case, starting from tomorrow morning, the daily food supply of the crew will be reduced by one-third, and the fishing efforts will be increased to try to catch more fish to make up for the lack of food!" Finally, Lu Wan gave an order. , Most of the fleet are old crew members, and based on their experience, they can definitely judge that there is not much food in the fleet, so this order should not receive much resistance.

However, saving food can only solve the urgent need for a while. If you want to really solve the food crisis, the best way is to find a supplementary food island, but the sea is vast, and they are the first batch of Han people to arrive here, so no one knows. , Can I really find an island?

And the news of the food shortage cannot be concealed at all. After all, many people know the food reserves on the ship, so soon the crew members of the entire fleet knew the news, and this also cast a layer on the hearts of all the crew members. shadow. (to be continued...)