Since returning from a long voyage in the north, Hong Tao has not sailed far away. It’s not that he doesn’t want to, but that he can’t. There are not enough sailors. If he takes away all the skilled sailors, the other boat can’t even train and can only wait. This kind of European sailing boat is good, but it depends too much on skilled sailors, especially sailors, which almost won’t be able to do anything. Although there are many young men in the new chanting family, they can drive boats alone on the sea, but when they arrive on the big sailing boat, they have to learn a lot from scratch and get familiar with them from scratch.

Whether it is the rules or operating methods on the ship, they have to be developed bit by bit. This kind of development has to be solved by short-distance sailing again and again. Therefore, even if Hong Tao is very annoyed, he has to pinch his nose and take most of the new sailors out for a day or two without any trouble. This work has to be done quickly, because the Wen family's shipbuilding process is becoming more and more mature, and the number of workers in the shipyard is also increasing. It can already be built with two ships together, and the cycle is still about half a year. In other words, in summer, two new ships need to be launched.

Originally, according to Wen Laoer's opinion, he wanted to build a larger ship, 50 meters long, two decks, and a displacement of about 1,000 tons. This ship was drawn by Hong Tao, mainly for use as a gunboat. However, this suggestion was rejected by Hong Tao himself. It was not that he doubted the Wen family's shipbuilding ability, but that it was useless to build such a large ship for the time being≥≯. Because there is no suitable weapon to use, you can't even install a slingshot to catch anyone. If you use a slingshot, it is more suitable for fast cruisers like the Haibo. It has one deck, and it is also convenient to use a slingshot. If you have two decks, how to launch the next layer is a problem.

If you want to use this kind of multi-deck warship, it’s better to wait for Qi Zu and his friends to get the cannons out. Now the blacksmiths have never given up on the test of casting cannons with bronze. With the ship-mounted blacksmiths in the Mongolian navy, they can provide them with some useful ideas. Hong Tao believes that as long as they provide them with enough raw materials and manpower, they will sooner or later test qualified cannons, which will not be a hundred times at a time! Anyway, there are copper mines here, and tin and lead are not valuable, so you can go and buy them in the Southern Song Dynasty. It’s hard to make a fuss.

In June, Bo Xiaosan brought news to Hong Tao that he had returned to Guangzhou from Lin'an. He was very interested in Hong Tao's desire to squeeze sugar and sell it. He was waiting for Hong Tao to go over and talk in detail in Guangzhou. So Hong Tao simply brought out both warships, and it was still sailing for sailors. He was about to sail on a midway. It happened that the typhoon season is now. Hong Tao planned to let these new sailors experience what a huge wave is. Sailors who have not been beaten by the big winds and waves are not qualified sailors.

Hong Tao's wish was soon realized. After leaving Jinhewan for more than a day, he encountered a tropical storm. The sea and sky turned into lead gray, and there was no clear wind direction at all. The wind was everywhere. The waves like hills threw the big ships dozens of meters long like sandbags. No one on the boat was not vomited, including Hong Tao himself. There was no way. Seasickness cannot be completely avoided. It can only be said that the degree is better. If you vomit, it will not affect your food and drink, and you will not feel dizzy.

At this time, I knew why the sail drivers were important. They had to put away the sails on one side on the top of the mast with a swaying range of more than ten meters back and forth, and had to tie them up. Hong Tao himself had also used the mast. The feeling was just like standing by a building a few hundred meters high. The sea water below swayed around and wanted to vomit after watching for a long time. Although there were safety ropes to use, there were still two novices who were not obedient. They thought that taking a few steps was only a few seconds, and they would be fine if they pulled the rigging himself. As a result, a big wave came over, and the hull shook, and the two people on the mast were thrown away. In front of nature, it was useless to rely on their hands alone, and they could not catch them no matter how hard they had.

"Hiss... Little fish and shrimp, you see it. This is the consequence of not listening to your uncle." One of the sailors fell into the sea and disappeared. The other fell on the side of the boat. The bones were smashed and made a cracking sound of broken wood. Hong Tao, who was standing in the stern building, could hear it clearly. This sound made his teeth itch. The man must be helpless, but he had to take the opportunity to educate the fish and shrimp. These two children were as old as the berthed in the past. Hong Tao took them on the boat as trainee officers. At the same time, there were six or seven children in their teens, both men and women. At this moment, they were standing in the stern building and tied themselves firmly to the side of the boat with safety ropes.

"Uncle, that's my cousin... His family has just gone to school shortly after." Bo Xia not only had itchy teeth, but also itchy all over her body. While reporting to Hong Tao what he observed, he touched his safety rope with his hands, for fear that he would not tie it tightly.

"It's useless that your grandfather is useless. No one knows the sea. It only knows the people who listen to their uncles. What do you think?" Hong Tao looked at the sailor on the deck and threw the sailboat who fell to death directly into the sea, and looked back at the group of children behind him.

"I think my cousin is the most powerful. I listen to my cousin!" The girl from the Weng family is the sweetest and good at flattering her.

"Hehe... Weng Ya is right. Can you find a man as powerful as your cousin to marry you?" Hong Tao felt happy. Although he was only a child in his 10s, he felt that Weng Ya was right.

"I will marry my cousin when I grow up. Chen Wengweng said that all the local high-ranking officials can marry several wives. The cousin is even better than the local high-ranking officials, and should marry more than them!" Weng Ya felt that this flattery had hit the right position, and she laughed at Hong Tao, so she slapped him again.

"...You Chen Ounmu is also an unstoppable old man!" Hong Tao's smile immediately froze. What does his grandfather teach in school? Why do you have the knowledge of marriage and funerals? It's a bit too early to tell a child in his teens?

The storm lasted for an afternoon and stopped until evening. No one could find any other at Haibo and Hongyu. At this time, Hong Tao was excited again, quickly took out the sextant, pointed at the stars in the sky, and taught the children how to use the constellations and the moon to locate the longitude of the ship. They have learned this thing more than once, but the effect of sitting in the classroom reciting the formula is definitely not as good as having experienced the storm, and the boat was blown to where it was blown.

Want to find a port? This is an exam question that Hong Tao gave to his child. You can't memorize the formulas just by understanding them. You still have to know how to play the sextant. It's useless to play the formulas and sextant. There is also a comparison table between the moon and the stars. You should know all of these. Even if Hong Tao passes the test, these things are still one step away from the longitude, and they are calculated using trigonometric functions. At this point, Hong Tao hasn't taught anyone, it's not that he is unwilling to teach or cannot teach. Facing a group of people who can't play simple equations in junior high school, it's too difficult for you to let him learn trigonometric functions.

When the Hong Yu slowly entered the estuary of the Pearl River, he found that the Haibo had already stopped at the berth. It was obviously not all necessary to have a tail. This storm not only caused casualties to the Hong Yu, but also caused damage to the Haibo ship. Due to the slow sailing speed, a horizontal radius of the Haibo front mast was blown off. Fortunately, there was a rigging blocking it, and the sailor was also very lucky. He broke his arm and his life was not seriously damaged after tied to the ply. A horizontal radius had no big impact on the Haibo. After the storm, the crew would replace the new horizontal radius. As long as the main mast is constantly and the hull is not damaged, the Haibo sailboat will not lose its ability to move.

Repair slowly. Anyway, there are no ships here in Guangzhou Port in this season. Everyone knows that strong winds are likely to occur in the sea in summer. Few merchant ships will venture to the South Ocean. Even if they learn to walk around the side of the yellow croaker, the ocean trade in this era is once a year. Go south in winter and return in summer. Every year around the twelfth lunar month and August fifteenth, it is the most lively season for southern ports. The eastern coast is better. Boats going to Japan and the Korean Peninsula can run twice a year. There are monsoons swaying in winter and summer, so it is considered a good wind no matter how you go. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!