Chapter 152 The Flying Dutchman
As Su Ze expected, the Deer King set up the gunpowder magazine on the dock.
The Deer King obviously did not think that someone would take the initiative to attack Dong'ao Island.
Su Ze quickly recorded the layout of the dock in his sailing diary. Dong'ao Island was indeed a very good location for an attack.
Because of the existence of the lagoon, King Lu's fleet is crowded in the port. Once an explosion occurs at the dock, almost all ships will be affected.
The exit of the lagoon is narrow, which is not only a port to protect the stability of the ships, but also a pocket formation. Once an explosion occurs, all the ships will be squeezed together as they rush out of the lagoon.
Su Ze had already made a plan in his mind, and the only problem now was how to drive the explosive ship to the edge of Dong'ao Island.
On Dong'ao Island, this desolate island became a paradise for Japanese pirates.
King Shika even drove his slaves to build a castle tower on the island to fulfill his dream of becoming a "Daimyo".
Just when building the castle tower on the cliff, dozens of people slipped and fell to their deaths.
The Deer King wears a large suit of armor and a ghost mask. He is as feared as an evil ghost in hell.
And King Lu also enjoyed this feeling of being feared. Daming's cowardice and incompetence made his ambitions expand. This time when he came to Fujian, King Lu was not satisfied with robbing a lot of property. Now he has other ambitions.
King Lu is interested in Penghu.
How big is Kagoshima, and how big is Penghu? If you can occupy Penghu, then you will not be an ordinary local daimyo among the Japanese pirates, but a "general" who can go to Luo to open an army.
However, Penghu is still blank now, so King Lu wants to plunder more people and use these Ming slaves to develop Penghu.
King Lu came to Fujian this time and was fully prepared. The gunpowder magazine alone was full, and he even spent a lot of money to buy twelve cannons from the Nanman (Westerners). There were enough cannons on the Centipede. Four ship-borne guns, the last ship that defeated the Ming army relied on the Centipede.
Speaking of this flagship, this is a super battleship built by King Lu who spent all his savings and hired Japanese shipbuilders and Xiyi shipbuilders to work together.
When sailing on the sea, the sails can be spread. When high-speed sailing is required, the sixteen pairs of oars can provide a speed exceeding that of an ordinary sailboat and quickly catch up with the enemy.
King Lu was most proud of the fact that as long as an enemy was found at sea, no one could escape from the Centimaru's pursuit.
After the Quti people and the Japanese pirates completed their transaction, they sailed back in their fleet. Su Ze and Lin Mojun finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Repo was very satisfied with the result of this transaction. Su Ze heard her conversations with her tribe members, and Su Ze also knew what the deal between these crooked people and the Japanese pirates was about.
drug.
This result is also reasonable. In troubled times, the most valuable thing is naturally medicine.
The crooked-hoofed people wandering on the sea must also lack medical treatment.
An idea came to Su Ze's mind. He walked directly to the bow of the ship and said to Je Po in the language of the Crooked Hoof people: "
We, the Changning Guards, can sell you medicine in the future."
The Crooked Hoof men behind La Po drew out their sabers. La Po looked at Su Ze with cloudy eyes. She was very confused, how could this Ming Dynasty scholar know the language of the people with crooked hoofs?
Jepo had never seen a foreigner speak the language of the Crooked Hoof people, and Su Ze didn't look like a descendant of the Crooked Hoof people.
Su Ze continued to speak in stammering Quyu: "We in Changningwei have medicine, and we can sell it to you." Repo waved her hand, and the tribesmen behind her put down their swords
. Look, he has just learned the Quyu language.
Did you learn it these past few days? Is there such a genius in this world?
Je Po no longer delved into this issue, but became interested in the deal proposed by Su Ze.
The Qutu people are short of medicines for more than a day or two. There are not many forces willing to trade with them and sell them medicines. Japanese pirates are one of them.
Most people in the Ming Dynasty regarded them as beggars and second-rate traders on the sea, so they colluded with Japanese pirates.
As for medicinal materials, they were rare in the Ming Dynasty itself and were not available in ordinary coastal villages.
Repo looked at Su Ze and said, "What medicine do you have?"
Su Ze said, "We at Changningwei have all the common medicines for treating wind and cold, and I also have a magic medicine."
"Magic medicine?"
Su Ze nodded and said: "This magical medicine can relieve pain and dispel cold. As long as you have cold and fever, taking this medicine can cure the disease." The
temperature difference at sea is large, and you often need to go into the water. Cold and fever (cold) is the most common disease.
The magic medicine Su Ze mentioned was exactly what Lepo needed. She looked at Su Ze and said, "What do you want?" Su Ze asked, "When will you next trade with
Japanese pirates?"
"In ten days."
" I want you to drag two ships from Changning Guard to Dong'ao Island."
La Po looked at Su Ze, and Su Ze stared at her. After a long time, the leader of the Crooked Hoof people said:
"I want to see the medicine first. ."
"No problem, you can test the medicine as soon as you get to the shore."
During the rest of the voyage, the Crooked Hoof people looked at Su Ze with strange eyes, but Su Ze looked back calmly, which made these Crooked Hoof people confused. He didn't dare to look directly at Su Ze.
After a while, a crooked-hoofed woman came to Su Ze with her child in her arms and said in the crooked-hoofed language: "
Repo said you have medical skills, please save my child."
The crooked-hoofed woman put down her baby in sobs. With the crying child in his hands, Su Ze looked at his Level 3 medical skills and had no choice but to pick up the child and start treating it.
After touching the child's hard belly and hot forehead, Su Ze's Level 3 medical skills also confirmed that the child's illness was a gastrointestinal cold caused by intestinal obstruction.
Su Ze said to the child's mother: "Find some oil."
The crooked-hoofed woman quickly found some oil. Su Ze pointed to the child's butt and said: "Pour the oil in from here."
The woman was stunned. , but when he saw the crying child, he followed Su Ze's instructions.
After a while, the lubricated intestines expelled the dry stool. After a while, the child stopped crying, the heat on his body disappeared, and he fell asleep in his mother's arms.
[Treat Children, Medical Skill +10, Level 3, 15/300]
The Crooked Hooves woman thanked Su Ze profusely and stuffed a handful of shells into Su Ze's hand.
Lin Mojun said with a smile: "This is the crook's money, you can keep it."
Since Su Ze cured the first patient, all the sick crooks on the ship have found Su Ze.
During the second half of the return voyage, Su Ze was treating these people with crooked hoofs. Her eyes looked at Su Ze more and more kindly.
Su Ze was surprised at how high the disability rate among these people with bent hoofs was. There were so many people with bent hoofs missing arms and legs. Lin Mojun thought it was very normal: "It is easy to get malignant sores when you are often at sea. These people with crooked hoofs are disabled because of malignant sores."
Malignant sores?
Su Ze quickly understood that these were marine Vibrio vulnificus infections.
Bacteria at sea are completely different from bacteria on land. In the course of thousands of years of evolution, humans have no protective mechanism corresponding to bacteria at sea.
Marine Vibrio vulnificus is a bacterium widely distributed in the sea. People who live at sea for a long time are definitely likely to be infected by this bacterium.
This kind of bacteria is very terrible. It develops very quickly after infection. Even if it survives the infection, it will cause limb necrosis and disability.
Su Ze naturally had no way to cure this kind of disability, so he could only teach them some methods of debridement and prevention of secondary infection, and some basic hygiene knowledge.
By the time they arrived at the shore, Su Ze, who had cured the Crooked Hoof people's illnesses all the way, was worshiped as a miracle doctor by the Crooked Hoof people.
His Level 3 medical skills were also successfully upgraded to Level 4.
After docking at Changningwei, Su Ze asked Lin Liangjun to bring the commonly used medicines from the medicine house to the dock, and then ordered him to bring the bottle of salicin from his bedroom.
There happened to be a feverish patient on the Quturen ship, so Su Ze dissolved salicin and let him take it.
In this era of lack of medicines, the human body's resistance to medicines is very low. After taking salicin, the patient immediately fell asleep quietly. He was sweating all over and his forehead was no longer hot.
At this moment, all the crooked people on the ship knelt down in front of Su Ze. This could no longer be described as superb medical skills. Su Ze was simply like a god descending to earth!
La Po said to Su Ze: "Mr. Su, as long as it is what you ask us to do, we Quho people are willing to do it!" "
As long as you trade with the Japanese pirates normally, you can tow our two ships to Dong'ao Island. It's over."
The Quho people's fleet docked at the edge of Changning Guard. Lin Mojun arranged for people to carry the food to the ship, while Su Ze soaked in the shipyard.
Anyway, it is a one-time explosion of a gunpowder ship. It does not want the comfort and durability of sailing. It only needs the ship to be able to rush to the port of Toao Island with the wind and explode.
It doesn't even matter if it is intercepted. As long as the Japanese pirate ships gather together, it will still be effective.
Under such low requirements, Changningwei's craftsmen worked at full capacity, and Su Ze arranged the ship repairmen from the New World to the dock, and finally built two ships.
Su Ze looked at the two small boats moored at the port. The two boats were larger than ordinary fishing boats and looked like small merchant ships transporting goods on the seaside.
The cabin has been filled with sand equal to the weight of gunpowder and weighed down with rocks. Today is the day for the two ships to test sail, and it is also a test between Su Ze and Lin Xianzong.
The shipbuilders gathered on the beach next to the dock. Even the craftsmen who built Su Ze's clipper boat didn't think Su Ze's boat was feasible.
At this time, the boat was knocked crookedly by the waves on the sea, which was far less stable than the Yong boat built by Lin Zongyuan.
Captain Alfonso was also sitting on the rocks. Even from the perspective of Western shipbuilding techniques, Suze's ship was too strange.
With a long and narrow hull, too many sails, and an unbalanced hull front and rear, Captain Alfonso guessed that the ship would capsize as long as it sailed.
Su Ze stood on the boat, pulling the rope with his hand, looking at the wind direction of the weathervane and preparing to adjust the direction of the sail.
Lin Xianzong stood on the Yong boat and was also making preparations for the voyage.
The craftsmen on the shore are calibrating the hourglass. This time is not only a navigation test, but also a measurement of the speed. The accurate detonation time must be reserved based on the speed of the ship in order for the blasting ship to return to its maximum power.
There was a sound of gunfire, and both Su Ze and Lin Xianzong pulled up the sails.
The large horizontal sail was raised, and the jib of the mast was also opened. As the sail was opened, the "clipper ship" that was originally floating and swaying on the sea gradually began to accelerate.
The Yongchuan built by Lin Xianzong spread its sails like bamboo curtains smoothly, and the Yongchuan sailed to the open sea with the wind.
But at this time, all the eyes of people on the shore were attracted by Su Ze's clipper boat.
After sailing, the ship actually showed surprising stability. The high-pitched bow just broke through the waves. The sharp-bottomed cabin hidden under the water had little draft and received very little seawater resistance.
Like a riding bicycle, driven by the full sail of the wind, the clipper boat sailed smoothly on the sea, far surpassing Lin Xianzong's Yong boat.
Lin Mojun also stood up. The ship built by Su Ze was faster than Changningwei's lucky ship and sailed very smoothly.
Captain Alfonso was even more shocked. He had never seen a ship with such speed in Europe. Captain Alfonso often traveled at sea and knew the significance of such speed.
Time is money at sea, and such fast ships can deliver messages between ports and deliver urgent cargo.
Although Su Ze said that the load capacity of this kind of clipper ship is not large, it is not fast enough!
Moreover, valuable tea, spices and silk are not heavy in themselves. If we can build larger flying shear merchant ships, how much money can be made!
Compared to Captain Alfonso's optimism, Su Ze, who was panicking about the sails, knew that this ship was far from being a clipper ship.
A real clipper ship can sail at a speed of ten knots, but the speed of my own ship is far from that.
What I built myself can only be regarded as a merchant ship similar to the principle of a clipper ship, and it is also a one-time use.
Because the draft is shallow, the ship will rise into the air when encountering wind and waves. This short-term rise will put huge pressure on the bottom of the ship. Su Ze has already heard the sound of the wooden planks at the bottom of the cabin being overwhelmed. If it continues sailing like this for half an hour, the ship will It will fall apart.
A true clipper boat requires high-quality wood for the keel and steel structure reinforcement.
Moreover, the sails of one's own ship are not the sails of a clipper ship. A clipper ship requires a large number of complicated sails, so this one can only be regarded as a poor imitation.
But it is enough for use. It is a one-time blasting ship and does not need to sail for a long time.
As a front wave rushed over, Su Ze's clipper boat took off and flew through a perfect curve in the air.
The waves flew past Su Ze. The feeling of flying and stalling was really exciting.
When the clipper boat landed back on the sea, cheers came from the dock. Su Ze looked back and saw that he had reached the end of the race.
Su Ze lowered the sails and adjusted the bow of the boat to return home.
[Sea Racing, Navigation Skill Experience +20, Level 1, 20/100]
The shipwrights on the dock enthusiastically congratulated Su Ze, and the stubborn Lin Xianzong also lowered his head.
Su Ze said to Lin Xianzong: "Uncle Xianzong, this ship of mine cannot sail far away. In the future, it will be up to you to build a high-speed ship that can truly transport cargo." Lin Xianzong raised his head and said: "Don't worry, Ze! I will definitely take care of you.
" Research!"
Captain Alfonso also came over and said: "Su, your boat is really great! I have never seen a boat sail so fast!" "You must give it a nice
name. This ship will definitely stay in the history of shipbuilding!”
Su Ze looked at the clipper boat on the shore and said with a smile: "Let's call it Flying Dutchman."
(End of Chapter)