On May 17th, the sky was gloomy and a little rainy.

At noon, the fleet of the Eight Sages Mansion of the Song Dynasty set off the Sakaimachi Harbour.

My four ships followed them quietly and waited until they left Osaka Bay. They continued to walk south, bypassed Kyushu Island, and went to the Jiangnan area of ​​the Song Dynasty. We went through the Kii Peninsula and towards the east of Japan.

After raising the copper lamp, expressing thanks to Uncle Zhao on the ship with a common signal, the five large ships that were mingled at the end of their fleet slowly left the Eight Xian Prince's Mansion fleet, mixed with the four ships on our side, and quickly sailed out of the Seto Inland Sea.

The nine large ships were loaded with all kinds of cargo, which made us feel so hot that we could not wait to return to Liuyin Harbour immediately so that our families could see our achievements.

But there is also a big real problem, we, together with the farmers and craftsmen, have only about one thousand, one hundred people, and nine large ships sailing, and almost the number of sailors that need to be rowing is so many.

And if we go boating and encounter pirates or something, who do we rely on to operate weapons and resist the enemy's attack?

There are only so many people in our body. If a problem occurs, it is very serious. It is equivalent to a person who can only carry a piece of gold worth a hundred kilograms, but you tied four pieces of gold worth a total of four hundred kilograms on it. If you encounter a criminal, he can easily kill you who can't move with one knife and then steal your gold.

But we have to leave a few ships in Sakaimachi, first escort the ships and cargoes, and then take more people to transport the remaining ships and things home... This method is not to mention that everyone will strongly oppose it, and I dare not do this myself. The consequences of doing so are very likely that the ship will disappear after returning, the goods will disappear, and then I will be in a tragedy.

Everything is the most important thing in your own hands!

In order to bring the ships and cargo that were overeating back to Liuyin Harbour, we had no other choice but to go to sea and take one step after another.

Nine such large ships are already considered a considerable force in the Japanese waters. Ordinary pirates will not harass them, but if they encounter some famous people who are themselves pirates, they will still be unable to avoid being surrounded and annihilated.

So last night, I found several tailor shops in Sakaimachi's market and asked them to create more than fifty super-large flags. The flags with red background and black letters were embroidered with the banners such as "Da Song" and "Magic General Zhang". When we left the sight of the Eight Sages' Mansion fleet, we immediately inserted the flags into the front and back of the nine large ships.

In this way, it really looks a bit like the posture of the Song Dynasty caravan I saw.

So, generally speaking, some knowledgeable daimyos will not come to move our fleet.

Although the Song Dynasty was not very powerful in cavalry and infantry, it was traversing the sea and was absolutely invincible. The super ships we saw before were said to have more than twenty such super ships in the two large navy armies of the Song Dynasty. Not to mention anything else, just driving these super ships out, the Japanese Daming wherever they go would have to tie them up and kneel on the ground, begging not to scatter their anger on themselves.

Of course, these cannot completely prevent accidents from happening, so we decided last night not to go to the east coast of Tokyo Island, at least to be very far away from Tokyo Island.

Then we will not go to Jinqing Strait again. The four ships were already a little dangerous, and the nine ships were even more eye-catching. The key is that our combat effectiveness has dropped by almost 100% compared to before, and basically the end of being discovered is the end of the game.

Therefore, our final decision was to arrive at the northernmost end of Honshu Island and continue walking northward until we surround the east of Honshu Island, then walk towards the northwest of Kōnai Harbour, and finally cross the Kōnai Harbour to the south, so we went back to the Liuyin Harbour in a long circle.

The plan is very large. No one has walked this route before. The reason is that the sea east of Essay Island is said to have strong typhoons and strong storms all year round. It is not distinguished from morning and evening, sunny and rainy days. It comes every now and then, making the surrounding fishermen can only make a living by fishing for 10 or 20 miles along the coast, and never dare to cross fifty miles away.

After I formulated this plan, Haneda Kataki was quite opposed. He said that he might as well dock at the northern end of Honshu Island first, and then send a boat back to ask Baye and the others to pick us up. There were more than 20 large and medium-sized ships and 5,000 elite naval sergeants, so he would definitely be able to rush out of the obstruction of Hatan and Tsuga.

I only asked Haneda Katada five words, and then he and the friends who nodded repeatedly, shut up: "What after breaking through the obstacles? What should we do next? Are we qualified to compete with the Hatan army and the Tsukashi army for hegemony in the sea? All our strength is exposed at that time, how can we still develop quietly? Now we are beginning to taste the sweetness of marine trade. What should we do if we lose marine trade, the development of the entire Liuyin Port?"

They couldn't answer my question because we were indeed not ready to turn against the Hatan Army and Tsukashi, nor did we have the strength to turn against the Hatan Army. Tsukashi had to endure it.

Therefore, after walking out of the Kii Peninsula in the morning, we drove directly eastward until a day later, after walking straight for two hundred miles, we would stop going eastward and then head straight to the north.

An important reason for supporting me to do this is that it is now mid-to-late May, and it is the mid-summer season in Japan that begins to enter the mid-summer season. Then when we spent seven or eight days sailing to the place that is equal to the southeastern end of Essay Island, the mid-summer of Essay Island began to come again.

Walking northwards happens to be the weather getting hotter and hotter, which makes the extremely cold areas in the north without any hard icebergs. It can support us to safely bypass the northernmost part of Essay Island, bypass the Kōnei Harbour, and arrive at Liuyin Harbour.

Unlike when we came to Sakaimachi, we are now heading for the wind, and the goods reprinted are several times higher than before. With the wind alone, even if the two masts are using the wind, the speed is almost not as high as fifteen miles per hour. Therefore, we allocated about one hundred sailors per ship, all of which were divided into two shifts, rowing twice a day for more than six hours to make up for the shortcomings of this speed.

At the end of the day, Hongdu and three other uncles, who had rich experience in sailing, said they could sail almost 150 miles. Thinking about the cargo on our ships, it was the fastest during this kind of headwind period.

Each ship is specially equipped with a group of people serving food and drink, and observe and contact other ships of the fleet, so one hundred sailors have become real coolies. They are so tired that they eat after the boat is finished, and then climb onto the bed to sleep, not even wanting to do anything else.

Fortunately, in addition to keeping wine, we also have some ginseng that is a little less vintage. The ones that last 10 or 20 years are not enough to save lives, and can be used to replenish their vitality and motivation. That is more than enough. Let these sailors drink a large bowl of ginseng soup every day so that they can hold on to the boring and repetitive work.

Even my friends and I were responsible for cooking on the "Bahuang".

A lot of fresh water, vegetable, rice and wheat were added to Sakaimachi. It seems to be a good idea now, because in addition to eating some delicious sashimi, we eat rice, stir-fry dishes, or steamed buns for the rest of our time, which greatly enhances the physical strength and energy of the sailors. No matter how tired they are, they will crawl over and eat their fill and go to bed and rest.

However, such days were so hard. After eight days of departure, I discussed with the three uncles and gave everyone a day off to bask in the sun, drink, eat meat, brag and chat on the deck... which also relieved their nerves.

Sure enough, the next day, they regained their motivation and continued to row the oars desperately, working hard to get home one day earlier.

Before we knew it, we had left Sakaimachi for twelve days. According to Uncle Hongdu's calculations, we should have left the scope of Honshu Island at this time. Now to the west of us, it is Xiayi Island.

During the sailing process, it is far from enough to have a compass and is just an auxiliary tool. What really works depends on the experienced helm leader.

Among all the people in our Sanguo Village, if you know the most about sailing, it is naturally Hongdu. According to Dad Lauren, Uncle Hongdu has never been lost on the sea or lost his direction.

Hong was not only experienced but also very smart. On the twelfth night, he began to issue orders with a copper lamp, allowing all the ships to travel northwest with our "Bahuang" until he saw the land.

"Smack it..."

“Gagaha~~”

"Pushpeng..."

Late at night, when I was still sleeping, suddenly these strange noises and the slight shaking that followed woke me up from my sleep.

I was puzzled and uneasy, and I quickly ran out with my friends who were also awakened, and ran to the deck to look into the sea.

Xiaoxun and Dai'er were also surprised, but I firmly refused to let them go out of the cabin. The two little girls could only sit on the bed with their mouths pouting and listen to the situation outside.

Hongdu was alone on our boat. Haneda Katsukaku and Dorao both went to command other ships. At this moment, he and a group of lookouts were also holding the ship wall, stretching their heads out from the small hole above, and looking down.

However, the sea surface at night was as dark as ink. No matter how you shine the copper lamp, you can't see the situation below.

We just felt the noisy sounds ringing everywhere, and our ships were swaying gradually intensified as if something was constantly bumping into it. (To be continued...)
Chapter completed!