Someone may ask, hey, aren't there two treasure ships? How come there are four?

Because Cuba also has treasure ships.

In order to improve efficiency, the Spanish treasure fleet operated separately in the colonies, and then gathered together and returned to Spain under the escort of the powerful Atlantic Fleet.

The hostile countries of Britain, France and the Netherlands naturally coveted the gold, silver, jewelry and rare goods carried by the Spanish treasure fleet.

Only a powerful fleet could deter these robbers, so the treasure fleet had to be escorted by a powerful naval fleet when crossing the ocean, so the shipping of the treasure fleet was carried out on a regular basis.

Generally, in the early spring of each year, the treasure fleet would set sail from Spain to America, and then disperse to Veracruz, Havana, the West Indies, Honduras and other places in Mexico, unload the European goods they brought, and load gold, silver, jewelry or local tobacco, sugar, spices and other precious goods, and then gather in one place and be escorted back by the navy.

Originally, the treasure fleets assembled in Havana and then rode the warm current back to Europe. However, since the British pirate queen encouraged everyone to go to sea to rob, this route has become increasingly unsafe. So in recent times, they have changed to assemble in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, take the southern route through its northwest African colonies, and return to Spain through the Strait of Gibraltar. This way, they spend more than half a month on the sea, but it is much safer.

The treasure ship assembly had a deadline, and any delay would have serious consequences, because any further delay would mean the start of the Atlantic hurricane season, which would greatly increase the chances of the fleet being hit by a hurricane.

Every treasure ship, even if it is not carrying gold and silver, has cargo worth at least hundreds of thousands of pesos. Adding the value of the ship itself, the loss of one would make His Majesty the King heartbroken.

Therefore, the royal family has strict restrictions on the departure and arrival time of the treasure fleet in order to avoid the terrible hurricane. If the departure date is delayed, Tiago and Governor Huelva will not be blamed.

In desperation, Tiago had to leave Havana with a large mixed escort fleet, escorting four fully loaded treasure ships.

He was extremely nervous during the first few days of the voyage. Any sign of a sail spotted by the lookout on the mast would make him panic-stricken and afraid of everything.

But after a few days, they were all false alarms. No ship dared to approach this murderous fleet for fear of being accidentally injured.

Lieutenant Colonel Aguero also advised the colonel to drink a glass of sherry to relax. Even if there were pirates coveting us, they would retreat when they saw such a powerful escort lineup.

Colonel Tiago thought so. I have a total of 24 galleys, four large sailing ships, plus those galleys and caravels, a powerful lineup of nearly 40 ships. It can be said that except for the Atlantic Fleet waiting to set off in Santo Domingo, I am absolutely invincible in the Caribbean Sea.

The Ming people have only five ships. If they dare to come and fight against the rocks with eggs, the result will be nothing. What are you afraid of?

He gradually put his mind at ease and invited Lieutenant Colonel Capone, the commander of the Cuban escort fleet, to his flagship to have tequila tacos together.

If you don't worry about pirates, this section of the voyage is generally quite pleasant, with a favorable current all the way east until you reach the Windward Strait between Cuba and Haiti, where you can head south with a favorable wind again. It was not until the last section that things got a bit strenuous.

But who cared? They weren't the ones rowing the boat.

~~

Colonel Tiago, who was happily eating tacos, didn't know at that time that their whereabouts had been tracked by someone in the distant sky.

How far away was it? The white reconnaissance balloon took off from Inagua Island, 100 kilometers away from them.

Being seen by someone a hundred kilometers away was far beyond people's imagination at the time.

This is the power of science!

All members of the Beidou team memorize a formula: ㄐ=√ㄍ*112ㄑㄇ

In the mathematical symbol system established by Mr. Zhao, * is the multiplication sign, √ is the square root, ㄇ represents meters, ㄑㄇ represents kilometers, ㄐ represents distance, and ㄍ represents height. The last four symbols are all from the Chinese phonetic symbols, and those who have undergone literacy training in Jiangnan Group know them. They are pronounced as 'qi', 'mo', 'ji', and 'ge' respectively, which are no different from the later Latin alphabet pinyin 'q', 'm', 'j', and 'g', except that they are written differently.

This formula is called the 'formula for seeing far from a height' and is used to calculate the theoretically longest distance a person can see when standing at a high place.

It can be easily calculated by the formula that if you want to see 100 kilometers away, you theoretically need to rise to 797 meters. However, the maximum altitude of the hot air balloon stipulated by Zhao Hao is 1 kilometer.

Inagua Island is only 72 kilometers away from the Cuban Northern Passage, so in fact, as long as the balloon rises to 413 meters, it can barely monitor the strait. Of course, the higher it rises, the earlier the enemy can be discovered.

Although hot air balloons usually take off from ships, they only need to rise to a height of 30 to 40 meters and can see 20 to 30 kilometers away, but that doesn't mean they can't fly high. In theory, the sky is their limit, and it all depends on how long the mooring cable can be...

As a result, the Beidou team created a giant cable that is a thousand meters long! It is true that money can move people and it is enough motivation!

Moreover, Lin Feng did not rely entirely on the Beidou team. After she led the fleet to leave Havana, she sailed eastward along the north coast of Cuba for two days and then separated from Zhang Xiaojing.

Xiao Zhuzi led all the warships to continue eastward to Inagua Island at the northern end of the Windward Strait for rest. Inagua Island was still an uninhabited island at that time, and its coast was winding and had many harbors, which was very suitable for the fleet to hide. After crossing the Atlantic Ocean a few months ago, the fleet that encountered a storm rested here. The island has abundant fresh water resources, natural tropical fruits and fishery resources, which left a deep impression on them and named it "Turkey Island".

Because there are countless beautiful flamingos living on the island, the sailors thought their feathers were as beautiful as fire and as delicious as chicken, so they gave it this name...

This is why the Spanish did not find them. Everyone thought that the Ming fleet would flee as far as possible, but who would have thought that they would find an island to hide.

Lin Feng, along with a few old friends, sailed around Havana for a month on a light triangular sailboat with a big red cross flag, monitoring the movements of the Spaniards.

The Spaniards were busy looking for the five Ming Dynasty sailboats. Lin Feng had been in and out of the harbor several times, but they still didn't notice anything. Maybe this is the darkest place under the lamp.

What, where did this boat come from? Oh, we hijacked it on the way from Onda to Havana to exchange hostages.

As for the crew on the ship, do you think privateering is a joke? Besides, Commander Lin is acting like himself. He already treated them to wonton noodles...

So as soon as the Spaniards set out, she discovered them and accompanied them all the way here.

Of course Colonel Tiago had discovered her, but he only thought it was a spy ship of the Caribbean pirates and did not associate it with the Ming fleet at all.

Seeing that they were less than 200 kilometers away from Turkey Island, Lin Feng ordered to stop following the Spanish fleet and Zhang Manfan sailed due east along the ocean current.

That afternoon, the sloop sailed into the deep harbor of Turkey Island.

Under the bright sunshine, the water is crystal clear, and you can clearly see the colorful coral reefs and schools of tropical fish swimming among them. The sky is as blue as jade, and thousands of flamingos are circling and dancing, like flames spreading across the sky. What a spectacular view unique to the Caribbean Sea!

Lin Feng's gaze fell on the front, where he saw his fleet with its black sails hoisted and the skull and crossbones pirate flag fluttering in the wind, slowly sailing out of the harbor.

The Beidou team found her only at 80 kilometers away. Because her ship was small and there was only one of them, she was far less conspicuous than the Spanish fleet.

However, this period of time was enough for the crew to receive the thousands of smoked 'turkeys' hanging on the wooden racks on board. Then they would kill more than a thousand turkeys, bleed them, remove their hair, clean their insides, and carry them on board in bamboo baskets, ready to stew them in the evening to replenish their body...

This is why those flamingos circle in the sky without landing.

So behind the beautiful scenery there may be cruelty.

~~

After Lin Feng boarded the flagship, he immediately convened a combat meeting.

"Is it true that the wind always blows from the northeast in this strait?" Lin Feng asked in a deep voice, pointing a whip at the strait between Cuba and Haiti.

"Yes, otherwise it wouldn't be called the Windward Strait." The captain of the Beidou Squadron nodded and said, "This month's observations have also confirmed that this area is indeed where the northeast trade winds prevail. The wind force sometimes changes, but the wind direction has never changed, and the wind has never dropped."

"Okay!" Lin Feng nodded and asked, "What's the sea condition in the strait?"

"The strait is about 80 kilometers wide and 200 kilometers long. The water is unfathomable, the current is fast, the flow rate is about 130 to 150 kilometers day and night, and there are many eddies." Of course, the Beidou Squadron has not just been observing the scenery from the sky this month. They have already had a relatively clear understanding of this sea area.

"Very good, just what I want!" Lin Feng nodded slightly with satisfaction and told him all the tactics she had thought of along the way.

She is a rare naval warfare genius, and no one can match her in sea robbery, so just listen to her.

"If you all agree, let's do it!" Lin Feng pointed to the side of the strait entrance near Cape Haitien and said in a deep voice: "Turn east and wait for them here! If nothing goes wrong, the four beauties will be able to say good morning to each other tomorrow morning!"

"Hahaha great!" The leaders started to chatter excitedly. They had been taking sea baths and shooting birds on this uninhabited island, and had been waiting for a month. Wasn't this the day they were waiting for?

This is to rob money, there is no need to mobilize at all!

"Remember this, don't let money get to your head. Remember to keep your distance, then they can't do anything to us!" On the contrary, Lin Feng had to whip these money-obsessed guys and said, "When that beautiful woman is separated from the bodyguards, rush over and take her back to be your wife! Remember this, everyone?"

"Remember!" Everyone responded in unison.

"Why don't you get out of here? It's annoying to see you all so greedy!" The biggest miser took out a whip and pretended to hit them, and everyone dispersed.

The only person left in the operations room was Zhang Xiaojing, who had remained silent.

"Xiao Jing, do you have any different opinions?" Lin Feng looked at her.

"I'm just thinking, whether we go east or west, we still have to travel another 60,000 miles to return home. Wouldn't it be a burden to rob so much gold, silver and jewelry?" Zhang Xiaojing reminded softly, "It would be better to sink them all."

"Uh." Lin Feng looked at her and thought, the prime minister's daughter really regards money as dirt. But we ordinary people only love dirt...

"We are at sea, not in the desert. Just replace the ballast stones with gold and silver. It won't be a problem." She touched her nose and said, "Moreover, more gold and silver treasures on the ship will make everyone more determined to go home. They will not give up so easily when they encounter danger, right?"

"Okay, you are the commander and I will listen to you." Zhang Xiaojing said nothing more.

ps. That's all for tonight, go to bed early. Actually it's not too late...