My Daming New Empire

Page 347

However, his understanding cannot be directly translated into orders, and everything needs to be guided by the guide who is most familiar with the local sea conditions in this era.

Zhu Zhanji pays close attention to every navigation order. He doesn't need to give orders himself. He just needs to correct some minor mistakes at certain times.

Although these guides are not as familiar with the ocean conditions around the world as Zhu Zhanji, but in terms of regional location, their understanding is no less than Zhu Zhanji, or even clearer.

For example, Zhu Zhanji certainly did not understand the reefs and navigation routes in the Philippines as carefully as they did.

After mastering the new type of map surveying and mapping, every soldier trained by Habayashi on the fleet drew a standard scale chart.

Three days later, the fleet finally broke out of the reef area in the western Visayas.This is the most complicated sailing route between southern Luzon and the Palawan Islands. There is no guide to lead the way, and even Zhu Zhanji does not know the division of the reef.

However, after entering the Sulu Sea, the mood of the fleet not only did not relax, but became more tense, because after entering the equatorial low-pressure area, many soldiers' bodies became uncomfortable.

Because of their strong bodies, the soldiers rarely fell ill, but those civil servants, female relatives, and clan members fell ill by hundreds at once.

The hot climate made many people unbearable, which also made the princes of the five countries worried, for fear that Zhu Zhanji would cancel his trip to Sulu and Boni.

When the Ming Fleet arrived in Luzon, apart from the envoys who returned with the fleet from Yingtianfu, Sulu Kingdom and Boni Kingdom, including Majapahit Kingdom and Maluku King, Jima Cilang Kingdom, all sent princes to welcome Zhu Zhanji one line.

The Sulu Kingdom is a maritime country in the Sulu Islands in southern Luzon. Their territory roughly includes the Palawan Islands, the eastern part of Borneo, the Sulu Islands and some islands in the east.

This country is like a federation, which is governed jointly by three kings, among which the Eastern King is the most respected.

The Boni Kingdom is the Brunei area of ​​later generations. They were originally a vassal state of Majapahit, but later became independent and became a country of their own.

The king of this country, Manaragana, admired Daming the most. In the sixth year of Yongle, he brought the queen and the prince with more than 150 people to visit across the sea, and was warmly entertained by Ming Chengzu.

After Manarajana arrived in Yingtian Mansion, seeing how prosperous Ming Dynasty was, it was as if the whole country had surrendered to Ming Dynasty, but Zhu Di and the civil servants felt that Boni Kingdom was too poor, so they didn't want it.

Manarakana visited Nanjing for more than a month, and unfortunately fell ill. Although he was carefully treated by the imperial doctor, he died of a serious illness in the Nanjing Huitong Hall.

Before he died, he left his last words: I hope my body will be buried in China.It means that you can't be a Daming person in life, but you have to be a Daming ghost in death.

Zhu Di followed King Boni's last wish when he learned about it, and buried King Boni in Shizigang in the south of Nanjing City with the ceremony of burial. monument.

He also named Ahmed, the son of Manaragananai, to inherit the throne, and sent someone to escort him back to the country.Before leaving, Ming Chengzu Emperor Zhu Di held a farewell banquet for him and presented him with gold and silver.

Ahmed asked Zhu Di to give him a surname to express his respect for Daming. Zhu Di took their king Sudan as his surname and gave him the surname Su.

Jimacilang is the general name of some tribes based on Mindanao in later generations. There is no complete national system there, and it is still in a slave society and is very backward.

They sent people to greet them, and they also wanted the Ming Fleet to take some trading ships and trade with them.Their country is extremely backward. Except for the rich copper mines, they have some copper products, and they don't even have iron knives.

The Maluku Kingdom is the Spice Islands area of ​​later generations, and they are also the countries with the closest trade with Ming Dynasty.Because of their weak national strength, they couldn't resist the aggression of other countries. These years, they have been seeking to fall into the arms of Ming Dynasty and get protection from Ming Dynasty.

Majapahit is different. They used to be the most powerful country in Southeast Asia. Although they have been expelled from Sumatra and Borneo due to the rise of Majapahit and other countries, they still occupy the rich eastern Java.

They were also the only country that did not send a prince to greet them, but their envoys followed in the fleet.

Their worries are actually unnecessary, because Zhu Zhanji knows that he doesn't have many opportunities to go abroad, and this may be his only trip to the West, so he will go no matter which country he goes to.Even if these countries cannot be brought into the arms of Ming Dynasty now, the foundation must be laid.

However, this kind of intention cannot be shown too clearly, and these countries cannot be made aware of his intentions and show a more urgent attitude.

This is mainly due to the current Daming who just regards them as a burden and doesn't want to talk to them at all.

Zhu Zhanji was accompanied by hundreds of literati and thousands of literati, who also opposed these countries joining the Ming Dynasty and increasing the burden on the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Zhanji is not in charge at this time, and he does not have much say in this regard, let alone confront them.

After entering the Sulu Sea, both Ma Xin and Shen Dai'er fell ill.This kind of low air pressure combined with humidity and heat makes most people living in the north unaccustomed to it.

What's more serious is that many soldiers suffer from severe skin ringworm.

The cabins where they live are very stuffy and the sanitary conditions are poor. Such ailments cannot be avoided.

Now the third and fourth floors of the stern of the flagship where Zhu Zhanji lives are all surrounded by cloth curtains, and all the female relatives are only closed for activities on the fourth floor, and then the soldiers can sleep on the deck when they are resting.

In this regard, the Ming Fleet has accumulated a wealth of experience during four voyages to the West.A lot of medicines for treating various scabies and skin diseases were prepared, so although there were many sick soldiers, it did not affect morale.

What affects morale the most is the slow speed of the ship. The previous fleet was galloping, but the current fleet seems to be crawling.

From Luzon to Sulu Kingdom.But two thousand miles, about the same as the distance from Quanzhou to Luzon.However, it took less than five days to travel from Quanzhou to Luzon, and it has not reached half of the five days.

At this time, Zhu Zhanji, Wang Jinghong and the sailing masters also discussed the use of soft sails, but his conversation with Wang Jinghong made him cancel his plan to experiment with soft sails.

Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, there have been many exchanges between the East and the West.The hard sails of the East and the soft sails of the West have their own advantages and disadvantages, and it is not without reference to each other.

The advantages of Chinese hard sails are: easy to operate, can be raised with a pulley, requires fewer people, and takes less time to raise the sails. It is especially suitable for offshore and river trade.Secondly, hard sails are suitable for large ships, while soft sails cannot be carried on large ships.

The disadvantages are: since there is only one support point, the area of ​​the sail is limited, and the extensive use of wooden skeletons also limits its ability to eat wind, so the speed is very slow and the efficiency of cross-ocean sailing is low.Then the hard sail can only be lifted to the top once, and the sail power cannot be adjusted according to the situation, which is not good for naval battles and crossing islands.

Advantages of western-style soft sails: strong wind and many support points, so the area can be larger, and the speed and load have great advantages. In addition, even if the soft sails on the same mast are section by section, the sail force can be adjusted according to the situation. The advantage of this is that it is conducive to naval battles and avoiding reefs, and the second is that it can travel safely and slowly when encountering minor storms.

The disadvantages are: the operation is complicated, a large number of crew is required, and the sailing time is long. Since the 16th century, the sails of Western large ships have been composed of square sails, Latin sails and gaff sails. There are many modules and cumbersome procedures. The pulleys can only be used to adjust the ropes and cannot directly raise the sails.Moreover, the minimum number of sailors required for soft sails is more than three times that of hard sails, which is the biggest disadvantage compared with hard sails.

Mixing soft and hard sails would require various trials and re-masting, which is not yet ready.

At least wait until you arrive at the old port, try to modify a few ships first, and find out the best combination before you can try it on a large scale.

After assigning this task, Zhu Zhanji stopped playing tricks and hid on the small deck behind the flagship every day to escape the heat in the shade.

Life at sea is extremely boring, especially when the ship is so slow.Everyone is a little depressed, and even mahjong and poker can only alleviate this depression.

Especially these women, they have no freedom at all on the ship and can only live in a small world.

At this time, the fleet held a series of competitive competitions, including fighting, knife array, spear array, shield array, shooting, artillery and other items.

Although it is still in the preliminaries stage, all kinds of events are enthusiastically sought after by the fighters, especially the fighting competition. Even the preliminaries have attracted countless soldiers wanting to watch.

The fleet of [-] warships stretched for hundreds of miles when sailing.In order not to disrupt the sailing formation, the order ship would pick up soldiers watching the battle from each warship every day, and then they would spread the results of the game to the entire fleet.

In order to compete for the two places to watch the battle every day, the soldiers on each ship were also competing with each other, all of which raised the morale of the ship a lot.

In this warm atmosphere, the fleet finally arrived at Jolo Island, the capital of the Sulu Kingdom.

Jolo Island is located in the middle of Borneo and Mindanao. Although the area of ​​this small island is less than [-] square kilometers, it guards the throat of the entire Sulu Islands.

More importantly, this island is composed of volcanic ash deposited by extinct volcanoes. Except for a few extinct volcanoes, the entire island is a large piece of fertile farmland.

Because it is located in the equatorial windless belt, there is no strong wind, no natural disasters and man-made disasters, and the almost daily rain can nourish this fertile island.

Therefore, although the area of ​​this island is small, there are countless people who can support it. Since the ninth century, it has become the center of the Sulu Islands.

When Daming's fleet arrived here, the fleet was welcomed by the Three Kings of Sulu and almost all the citizens. When Zhu Zhanji saw the people kneeling on the shore below like worshiping gods on the flagship, he couldn't help it. Think of Magellan 100 years later.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Magellan of Spain was blown to Cebu by a typhoon because of a storm.Chief Humabang led [-] indigenous people to welcome him warmly.

The local natives warmly welcomed them and voluntarily baptized by the Spaniards, becoming the first Filipino Christians.