What that means is, 'Brother, do you want to play? The girl is very pretty...'

The crew of the Ming Dynasty have been drifting on the sea for too long. They have basically relied on their hands for entertainment, and occasionally on "fresh food". They have been holding back for too long.

In fact, when they arrived in Lisbon, they wanted to go play, but they just couldn't eat the red-haired woman. The hair was fine, but the key was the strong smell. It was like a rotten sheep intestine, which could really make a man become a Buddha.

When we arrived in Havana, the situation was much better, the girls here were a little darker, but their hair was pretty and smooth, and most importantly, they didn't have any smell.

Because people love to take baths, although it’s mainly due to climate reasons and they can’t stand not taking baths, but the result is the same.

The skin is smooth, the mouth is delicate, and the user experience is excellent.

Basically, over the past month, whenever the sailors were not on duty, they would hang out in Havana.

The young men on the ship were very popular because of their elegant conversation and aristocratic temperament... well, mainly because of their generosity, and many of them did not return to the ship for a month.

Only those scientific researchers who are immersed in their own world are not affected by the secular world and spend all their time on their research projects.

Sleeping with women is both expensive and laborious? How can it be more important than conducting social observations, drawing maps, and collecting navigational information?

Moreover, after going through so much trouble to reach America, shouldn't we have made every effort to refer to the "Illustrated Guide to Important Plants of the Americas" and collect seeds and tubers of different varieties of precious local plants such as rubber, cocoa, cinchona, sunflower, pepper, tomato, potato, sweet potato, pumpkin... so that we can bring them back to Ming Dynasty for planting?

Isn’t this kind of thing more meaningful than the great harmony of life?

~~

The Havana Bay was calm and peaceful, and the dock was filled with masts and ships of all styles.

However, the huge Chinese treasure ship flying the flag of "Liu Daxia, the Eternal Sinner" was not moored at the pier, but anchored in the center of the harbor nearly one kilometer away from the pier.

According to the Ming people, the ship was too large and had too deep a draft, so it might run aground if it docked.

But in fact, this is in accordance with the Coast Guard regulations. Combat ships are not allowed to moor at non-friendly military ports. They can only take this alert posture and anchor far away from the shore. In this way, if someone plots something bad, there will be enough time to react.

The only two frigates that had been repaired were guarding it on both sides.

Another frigate and a transport ship were still in dry dock. They had just been freed of shipworms and barnacles, had rotten materials replaced, and were being repainted.

There is no other way. As the largest shipping center in America, the shipyard here is very busy. In fact, this is the place with the highest level of shipbuilding in the entire Americas, and it has the only dry dock in the Spanish colony that can build and repair large sailing ships. It is said that the Manila galleons that crossed the Pacific Ocean were also built and launched here, and sailed along South America to the west coast of Mexico.

In such a busy dockyard, it was a great honor for them to be allowed to dock two ships at once.

Someone may ask, when the fleet set out, weren't there five frigates, five transport ships, and ten ships following the Eternal Sinner Liu Daxia?

How come there are only four? Because Hu Jianren can't tell the difference between ten and four!

Okay, this joke isn't funny at all.

In fact, the reason is very simple, there are only these four left.

Although some ships sank, not all of them sank...

This was mainly because a serious disagreement occurred when the fleet visited Mugudushu in North Africa.

At that time, many young masters could not stand the torture of the long journey, including Eunuch Du and the eunuchs. They made an excuse that the eunuch Sanbao had reached the farthest point, and as the younger generation, they did not dare to go further than their predecessors. Anyway, there were no vassal states ahead, so they might as well return home.

Even many of the sailors were homesick, which was understandable, because it had been a full year since they left Pudong.

In the past, their voyages would take no longer than a month, and they were always in the waters of the Ming Dynasty. Now, they were sailing to a foreign land tens of thousands of miles away, and they saw completely unfamiliar customs and people, which made their homesickness almost out of control.

After executing two passengers who tried to burn down the warehouse and force the fleet to return, Lin Feng and Zhang Xiaojing discussed it and decided that they could no longer turn a blind eye to it, otherwise something big would happen when they sailed south to Africa.

Because this is only one-third of the entire voyage, the rest of the voyage will be more difficult. Rather than having a conflict on the ocean, it is better to let go in advance and let those who can't hold on go home.

Zhang Xiaojing asked everyone to think about it for three days. Those who wanted to go back could just go back. There was nothing shameful about it. On the contrary, they could go back with their backs straight. Because they were the Chinese who had sailed the farthest in the past 150 years!

Of course, this record will be broken soon. But if we keep going forward, there will be no chance to turn back...

Finally, after a painful struggle, 250 people chose to go home. They followed Eunuch Du on a frigate and a transport ship and set off on their journey back west.

The remaining four frigates and four transport ships continued to follow the eternal sinner Liu Daxia southward.

One of the transport vessels, the 'Nan Yi Hu', capsized in a hurricane while travelling south through the Mozambique Channel.

Another frigate, the Ningbo, was severely damaged when passing the Cape of Good Hope in high winds and waves and could not continue its voyage.

These are the prices you must pay for your first voyage in unfamiliar waters. You can't completely avoid them by naturalizing a few Portuguese first mates, navigators, etc.

Fortunately, there was a Portuguese stronghold not far from the Cape of Good Hope. There was a shipyard in the stronghold that specialized in repairing ships damaged while crossing the Cape of Good Hope and the Mozambique Channel.

Because the Cape of Good Hope is also called the Cape of Storms, and the Mozambique Channel is called the 'Storm Strait'...

In fact, this stronghold is the Cape Town of later generations. But the Portuguese really did not have the ability to build a city and colonize here like the Spanish did in America.

Just maintaining this long trade line has drained half of his country's manpower. How could he have any more people to colonize?

In another time and space, Cape Town was not officially established until the Dutch took it away from them...

Because there were too few people and the shipyard's repair capabilities were limited, and the Ningbo was too seriously damaged, even if twice the repair fee was paid, it would take more than half a year to repair it.

Of course, the fleet could not wait that long, so they left fifty crew members in the shipyard to repair the ship, and the rest of the crew members and crew members were transferred to other ships. The fleet continued to move north along the west coast of Africa.

Finally, the fleet arrived at the fallen country of Morocco at the beginning of this year, where they met with the newly enthroned Sultan Abdullah and presented many precious gifts from the East.

Abdullah was very happy and immediately agreed to the request of the Eastern guest to establish a trading house in Morocco.

Of course, he would love to be able to directly connect with the Golden Kingdom in the East. But Abdullah couldn't understand why the Portuguese, who regarded the trade routes as forbidden, were not afraid that they would steal their business.

In fact, let alone King Abdullah, even the one hundred special forces personnel left in Morocco and the one hundred marines protecting them did not understand why a trading house should be set up in this faraway northwest Africa?

They asked about the person in charge of this operation, but that person only said that this was an order given by the young master himself, and that we would stay here for two or three years, and that we would have our own tasks when the time came.

Well, it turns out that they came halfway around the world just to do this. The two hundred carefully selected men had no choice but to obey.

Before Lin Feng continued his journey, he left them two more boats. When the Ningbo was repaired, he would rush to join them. In this way, the man would have three boats and two hundred and fifty elite men. No matter what situation he encountered, he could handle it for a while.

So, apart from the "Eternal Sinner Liu Daxia", the only remaining members of the voyage fleet were two frigates and two transport ships. The crew and accompanying personnel were also reduced to a thousand people.

The advantage of continuous weight loss is that the remaining thousand people are all determined and adventurous guys.

In order to better adapt to long voyages, Lin Feng adhered to the principle of "no idle people on the ship". No matter whether they were the young men on board or the researchers, they were all assigned the tasks of washing the deck, peeling onions and washing dishes every day to reduce the burden on the crew and allow them to get more rest time during their shifts.

This order did not meet with much resistance. First, they had been at sea for a year and a half and everyone had almost forgotten their original identities. Second, the young masters were really bored and doing some work was a way to pass the time.

As a result, the effect of "everyone's labor" was unexpectedly good, which made the people who were in the same boat more united. The people on the ship formed a well-functioning machine, and under the leadership of their captain, they continued the next voyage with a more skilled and experienced attitude.

After leaving Morocco, they arrived in Europe. They first visited Lisbon, Portugal, and, with the introduction of a Jesuit missionary, met the young King Sebastian of Portugal.

The 21-year-old king has been in power for seven years, but he still feels like a child.

He was a faithful believer of the Society of Jesus, and dreamed of fighting for the spread of Catholicism like his neighbor, his uncle Philip II. More importantly, he wanted to expand the territory of his empire, rather than just occupying bits and pieces of strongholds and guarding a route like a puppy peeing.

Zhang Xiaojing and Lin Feng also heard that this young king, who was "brought from God by the Portuguese with tears, parades, prayers and alms", seemed to be a eunuch and therefore had no worldly desires. Therefore, he had not married yet and naturally had no children.

This caused Portugal to once again fall into the panic of extinction...

Moreover, the source of the information was very authoritative, as it was revealed by Father Torres of the Society of Jesus after he was drunk.

There is no way. During the long voyage, even the silent priest will become gossipy.

After leaving Lisbon, they planned to explore the Mediterranean, but were expelled by the Spanish Gibraltar Fleet.

The Spaniards also warned them not to go north to visit Britain, France and other countries, because those Protestant countries were more evil than pagans.

If they insisted on going north, they would be attacked by the Spanish Biscay Fleet and would have to bear the consequences themselves.

In fact, they were overthinking. Zhao Hao had already warned Xiao Zhuzi and Lin Feng not to contact Britain and the Netherlands, so the fleet crossed the Atlantic Ocean and arrived in Havana after nearly a month of sailing...

P.S. Although it's just a quick glimpse, it's just like opening a new map, there are too many things to check. No more tonight.