This time, Hong Tao stayed in Cape Town for not long, only five days. If he hadn't reposted goods on the ship, he wouldn't even want to stay for five days. It's not that he wasn't used to the food here. In fact, the food here is similar to that of Jinhewan in the past few years. With Matini, the food must not be too bad. There are a lot of things to play with. After having horses, Hong Tao and Wen Nan could take a group of slave soldiers to the north to chase prey every day, and then shoot them with darts and crossbow arrows. No one cares about how much they want to kill.

But Hong Tao was not very worried about Carl Fort. If Carl had half of Metini's scruples, he would not be worried about it. That guy was too straightforward and was easily fooled by others, especially by his relatives and friends. Hong Tao was most worried about Frederick II. If this emperor's cousin wanted to fool Carl, then Carl would be in danger. I hope he could be more careful.

With four ships of cargo, Hong Tao bid farewell to Mettini and Cape Town Port and once again embarked on a voyage north. This time, God didn't give him too much. There were storms on the road from Cape Town to the Lie Islands, and the four ships were blown away no less than three times. Fortunately, these captains and sailors were experienced and experienced old-fashioned. Every time, Hong Tao was worried and rushed to the scheduled assembly site on time. In addition to losing several sailors and several sails, they also needed to be fully guided.

In the last month of 2018, the Jinhe River finally entered the Strait of Gibraltar with three armed cargo ships. This voyage gave Hong Tao a new understanding of the salmon-class cargo ship built by Jinhe Bay. Although this ship is not as fast as the Jiaosha class, it is indeed a good long-distance cargo ship. Not only is it good to have good seaworthiness and moderate loading. It also saves one-third of the number of sailors than the Jiaosha class. Although it has lost a few knots of speed, it is already good as an ocean-going cargo ship. If it can be built more, it will be a group of good helpers who can travel all over the world. Large-scale naval battles cannot be fought, and there is no problem when robbery ships.

"Dangdang...Dangdang..." Not long after entering the entrance of the strait, the alarm bell of the lookout hand rang again, and the flags showed that there was a sailboat sailing in the same direction directly in front of the fleet, with a speed of only 3 knots.

"Don't get close first and see what flag it hangs!" Jinhe took three armed merchant ships. Hong Tao had to act carefully. Although he was armed, it was a merchant ship after all, and it was a full-loaded merchant ship. It was better to cause less trouble.

"It seems to be Captain Carl's whaling ship... without a flag..." The lookout hand observed for a while, but still couldn't understand that the sailing gear in front of the ship looked like the composite sail of Jinhewan. He had also seen Carl's whaling ship, but he could not determine who the other party was based on the sailing gear alone.

"Notify the merchant ship to accelerate, let's catch up and take a look!" Hong Tao felt that it was very likely that it was Carl's whaling ship. This composite sail technology has not yet spread and ordinary people can't play with it.

I am destined to meet each other thousands of miles away! The ship in front is indeed Carl's whaling ship. After hearing the sound of cannons coming from the sea behind me, the 100-ton brig sailboat not only did not run away, but instead lowered its sails. Other ships are hard to recognize. The appearance of the Golden River is unique in the world. The flags on the whaling ship are constantly repeating: I am Carl! This is my territorial waters!

"It's more than a thousand miles away, and it's so destined to be! Old Ka, you seem to be in a bad mood. Look at this ragged person." Seeing Carl again, Hong Tao couldn't help but twitch, even wondering if Carl Fort had fallen, otherwise why would Carl not even have a pair of shoes? His torn clothes were full of holes, and he was not as good as the slaves in Jinhewan.

"Very good! Very good! What else can I wear on the boat? I didn't look at the almanac this time when I went out. I caught up with three storms in a row. I almost blew the boat to the shore and broke it. I finally had to withstand the storm. Someone dared to rob me... Alas, now I know how difficult it was to lead everyone to build Jinhewan. I had to do everything by myself, but I was so worried. Mia and the children were all fine?" Carl also knew that he looked quite miserable now, but the reason was not that there was something wrong with Carl Fort, but that he went to sea to catch whales.

"I originally wanted to bring them here to see you, but I was afraid that it would delay the children's studies. This time it took a year. They had to work in class when they went back. The child was thin-skinned and couldn't stand it. Let's talk about it in two years. I said, why did you eat up all your whale by sharks? You only had a bone rack left and you could use it for hair?" Hong Tao patted Carl's shoulder. This was the real old guy. He had followed him from the beginning and hadn't seen him for more than a year. He really missed him a little, but when he saw it, there was nothing to say.

"Hehehe, this is the method of whaling that I invented by Carl! I cut the whale oil directly in the sea and boil it on the boat, put it in a barrel, and then pull the remaining bones and meat back. This way, I can catch three whales at a time and then return, which saves trouble!" Carl was quite proud of his invention.

"Who is unlucky to be a sailor on your boat! Can that thing be left to boil whale oil on the boat?" Hong Tao didn't think that Carl had any clever idea. He tried this method on the Predator at the beginning, but it was just a try. The smell was too big and the smell was so smelly that no one could live on the boat.

"It's good to get used to it, hehe, they can eat meat every day after I go out to sea, and they all rush to get on the boat. Look, it's okay to plug the nose with this." Carl disagreed with Hong Tao's concerns. He took out two things from his nostrils and threw them into the sea. It's worthwhile to live with his nose blocked on his whaling ship.

People in this era are really pretty. It doesn’t matter if the emperor of the Empire is mixed with lice and bugs all day long. He can still eat meat on a smelly boat all day long. In fact, this is the mainstream of this era. People like Hong Tao first think about whether it is hygienic or not, and whether it is clean or not is the alternative. But his alternative has successfully cultivated a group of small alternatives. Every time the sailing school is on vacation, the children return to Jinhe City, and the city becomes lively, and every family is cleaned up. Those students who have been deceived by him since childhood have developed the same odor as him.

"How is this year? Did the Saracens in the north come to rob your fortress? Just stand and don't move... it's too smelly!" Looking at a Carl with a foul smell all over her body, Hong Tao had to change to the top and stand. Carl may have been used to smelling it, and didn't realize why Hong Tao stood in front of him and followed him up.

"No, the tribal elders on the other side of the strait organized a negotiation, and the three of us sat together to explain everything clearly. I promised not to interfere with the sailing of ships on both sides of the strait, nor to expand the territory northward. They pretended not to see me, and would also restrict their subordinates from coming here to harass. Now Christian jihadists are constantly attacking in the north, and these Saracens don't care about me. In fact, we have a good relationship, even better than my compatriots. The Saracens need a large amount of whale oil and meat supply, and even buy whale skins to make armor. In addition to whale bones and whale baleen, I left them to make bows and crossbows,

The oil produced by the whole whale was basically sold to them. They paid me gold and slaves. If it was not enough, they would use food, fruit, and women to replace it." Hong Tao really underestimated Carl. No one was stupid. He inherited his cousin's tradition of being good at getting along with foreign races. Not only did he not treat the Saracens as an enemy, but he also made the trade between the two sides very vigorously. Of course, all this was carried out in secret. On the surface, he, the Earl of the East, who was granted by the Pope, was also a hero who invaded the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula in Christ's world, which greatly inspired other Christians to continue to fight against pagans on the peninsula.

"I brought you a few cannons this time. From now on, you don't have to rely on crossbows to defend the city. Put them on the top of the city, and they collapsed and fell apart." After hearing Carl's story, Hong Tao finally settled his heart and dared to put the cannons, a sharp weapon, in Carl Fort.

"Aren't you always afraid that the cannons will be learned by them? I can't guarantee that the people here will definitely not tell others, otherwise let it go." Carl still understood Hong Tao's concerns very well. He was unwilling to guard several cannons all day to lure others to think about it. Although he didn't know the allusion of the guilt of possessing a treasure, he could figure it out.

"It's okay, come and see the cannons I brought you, which are different from before..." Hong Tao took Carl down to the artillery deck and pointed to several round sticks wrapped in whale skin in the corner.

"...Why is it black? It looks so ugly!" Carl opened a package himself and looked carefully with the light of the oil lamp. It was indeed different from the previous cannons, but he still couldn't see the trick inside.

"This is cast with iron, not copper. Even if others know the appearance, they will not cast it in a short time. However, it has a disadvantage, which is that it is easier to rust than copper cannons, so it usually needs to be wiped with whale oil, especially in the barrel." Hong Tao felt that the Rodman casting method was already very, very high-end technology in this era. If there was no professional explanation and provide complete data, it would be difficult for Europeans to make it come out, and even if these cannons were given to them as samples, it would be useless. Moreover, once the iron cannons were used to make the Europeans' ideas wrong, they would also use iron to cast cannons, which would be difficult to change for a while. It would be safer than putting the copper cannons in Carl Fort.

"There are always so many harmful things in your mind, but I like it... Hahaha, the sun finally comes out. Look, that's your Carl Fort! How about it? It's already built, I still think it's ugly!" Carl was too lazy to think about so many twists and turns. As long as Hong Tao said it, he would think it was a habit that has been developed over the past ten years. While rubbing the grease on his hands on his clothes, the two of them walked back to the deck. At this time, the sun teared through the clouds and illuminated the mountains on the north side.

(To be continued.)
Chapter completed!