America is not Europe, especially the West Coast, where productivity is very backward. Otherwise, it would not have become a pure buyer of the sailing ship trade. It is commonly said that the only thing left is money.

But even if you have plenty of gold and silver, almost all the materials have to be transported from thousands or tens of thousands of miles away. Due to limited transportation capacity, it will take an unknown amount of time to get them ready again.

In addition, the lack of craftsmen was also a big problem - according to reports from New Spain, more than a thousand skilled craftsmen died in the fire in Acapulco, and another thousand were taken abducted.

Today, there are less than a thousand craftsmen left in the whole of Acapulco. And most of them are not shipbuilders. Most of them drive nails, make cannons, twist cables... Because these jobs don't need to be done near the dock, the workshops are located far away from the sea, allowing these craftsmen to escape.

The largest number of shipbuilding craftsmen, who were in a hurry to meet deadlines, lived and ate in the shipyard, and as a result, they were all caught up in the mess.

On the contrary, the vice king was worried that the black slaves and Indians who did manual labor in the dock would cause trouble at night, so every evening after work, the guards would drive them to a slave camp far away from the shipyard area to spend the night, and as a result, all of them were safe.

But what's the use of that?

On the other side of the ocean, according to the latest intelligence brought back by the galleon, the Ming people were migrating to Luzon in large numbers. By the spring of 1576, it was estimated that there were more than 200,000 Ming people in Manila, and they had established a stable rule there.

Now the host and the guest have switched places, and we are on a long expedition. If we are not fully prepared, we will surely die a miserable death.

Admiral Leon had been in the navy for most of his life, and he could roughly judge that the Ming people's surprise attack on Acapulco was enough to delay the expedition by three to four years.

Admiral Leon was so depressed when he thought that he would have to spend the next few years in Mexico hugging cactus tacos.

He was so angry that he ordered his troops to head north at full speed to catch that damn ghost ship!

Yes, it must be the ghost ship!

I am a Spanish admiral with extraordinary martial arts skills. How could an ordinary pirate treat me so badly? It must be a ghost ship!

However, he went all the way north along the coast and did not encounter the damn ghost ship. When he arrived in Veracruz, he learned that the Ming fleet had already gone west into the ocean.

He wanted to pursue the enemy deep into the ocean, but he was powerless.

His fleet had been sailing from Santo Domingo for more than a year, and had not yet undergone a major overhaul, so the condition of the ships was already extremely bad.

Veracruz was looted by the Ming people again, and was unable to carry out long-distance voyages for supplies.

The crew were extremely tired and were looking forward to going ashore in Mexico to have a good taco. If he dared to say that he was going deep into the Pacific Ocean, they would hang him off the mast.

The admiral could only stare at the ocean with the colonel and marvel at how amazing the ghost ship was.

The standard 'sigh of despair'.

~~

On the tenth day of the eighth month of the fourth year of the Wanli reign, Lin Feng's fleet set out on its return voyage from Veracruz, Mexico.

The journey across the Pacific was a pleasant one because we were well prepared.

Since the days of the galleon trade, the Spanish have made countless trips back and forth across the Pacific Ocean, proving that this journey, though seemingly long, is very safe.

Especially since the return journey is a direct sailing down the river, with the help of trade winds, it only takes three months to reach Luzon.

Well, sailing for three months without seeing land is enough to make a person broken.

Last year, when they crossed the equatorial calm belt from the Caribbean Sea to the mouth of the Amazon River, they did not dock for 72 days, which drove the determined crew to the point of committing suicide.

This time it's longer...

But this time it is not a big problem for the local crew members because they are going home!

This is completely different from facing the unknown journey.

Moreover, he completed the difficult task, made additional contributions, and returned home with a fortune.

The excitement and the constant secretion of dopamine are enough to make them happy every day. They drink and brag every day, and imagine the happy life after returning home. The days pass by easily.

Lin Feng was worried that the thousand black and white pairs on the ten Spanish sailing ships would collapse under high pressure, endure mutual disgust, loneliness and fear, and in the vast blue sky, especially the Spanish craftsmen at the bottom.

She wanted to take them back and present them to her master, so how could she let them go bad?

Zhang Xiaojing said that it was not difficult, because those problems were caused by idleness. People who have nothing to do will feel lonely, so let them study!

How can scholars sit alone in their study and make guns... oh no, study alone for more than ten years? Because learning makes them happy.

As long as you keep studying hard, what difference does being on a ship make between being on land?

So she sent Liu Yishou and a group of crew members who were fluent in Spanish to teach them to read and learn Chinese every morning after the black and white crew members had finished tidying up their rooms and mopping the decks.

"When a man is born, he is inherently good..." the teachers recited this sentence in the classroom on the deck.

"Human beings are pigs, and their blood is from castration..." the old blacks and whites repeated it with their tongues slurred.

"Natures are similar, but habits make them different!"

"Sexual orientation is gay, think carefully!"

In addition to being able to read, they also had to be able to write. The teachers asked them to practice writing on the deck with their fingers dipped in water. Anyone who dared to be distracted or slack off would be whipped and not given food.

Only those who study hard can have lunch.

In the afternoon, the Marines will conduct military training, mainly to help them get rid of the bad habits of urinating and defecating anywhere, being unhygienic and undisciplined, and to train them to have the good habit of obeying orders and reporting everything.

The most important thing is physical training. Don't think that you can't move around on the deck. Standing at attention, marching, push-ups, burpees... training without equipment can also make them tired.

This is not to improve their physical fitness, but to make them too tired to think about anything else and their brains go blank. This way, it will be easier to replace individual will with the collective will that the trainer hopes for. This is the "deprivation orientation" in human resource management, which belongs to the category of social science pioneered by Mr. Zhao.

After finishing the physical training in the evening, the black and white students could not rest yet. They had to hurry up to review their lessons because they would take an exam the next day and be ranked. The top students would receive a reward, such as a can of food or a piece of whale oil soap. The bottom students would not only not have food to eat, but also be whipped if they were the last three times in a row.

As a result, the black and white people were trapped in the fear of having no food to eat, being whipped, and picking up soap every day. They were exhausted after completing a day's tasks and had no energy to care about the world outside the ship.

What is loneliness? Can you eat it? If not, get out of here…

~~

Two months later, on October 12, the fleet finally set foot on land again.

To be precise, they just landed on an island, which was still some distance away from Luzon.

This is not a coincidence, but the ocean currents will definitely bring them to this archipelago, but not necessarily to Saipan, Guam, or Tinian.

In 1521, Magellan arrived at the archipelago during his voyage and stayed on the island for several months. During this time, he had a very unpleasant relationship with the locals, and it is said that the fleet's supplies were repeatedly stolen by the natives.

In short, Magellan had a very bad impression of this archipelago, so he named it Islas de los Ladrones, which means the Island of Thieves.

But the stigma does not detract from the importance of this place, which is located right on the route of the great sailing trade. And what is commendable is that the islanders number as many as 100,000 people, who can grow rice, make pottery, and are good at shipbuilding. They are divided into classes, have the custom of black teeth, and use the 13-month lunar calendar.

They were able to provide adequate supplies to passing fleets, which was very important for long voyages, so when the Spaniards set foot on Guam again in 1565, they drew a cross on the beach to declare that the land belonged to the King of Spain.

In October of the same year, the Spanish also established a trading post in Guam as a stopping point for large sailing ships on their route from Acapulco Port to Manila.

Therefore the crew remained alert as they landed, with their guns loaded.

However, their worries were in vain. There were only a few dozen Spaniards on the island, and the real masters were the indigenous people called Chamorros.

In fact, the Chamorro people didn't know that they had been occupied by Spain.

In another time and space, it was not until a century later that Spain officially declared the archipelago its colony and sent troops to it. The brutal conquest war lasted for thirty years, and the Chamorro people were reduced from 100,000 to 5,000 before they were gradually conquered and assimilated by the Spanish.

The Spanish rewarded the Chamorros, who had saved their lives and given them supplies, with 300 years of occupation and rule, exactly the same as they had given the Americas.

Therefore, even in Guam, the Spanish have no power at all. They just set up a trading post, exchanged supplies with the locals, and then stockpiled them to provide supplies for the sailing fleet.

Seeing this huge fleet coming from the east, the Spaniards were naturally inexplicably surprised.

But their strength was not enough to fight against a rock, so they certainly would not seek death. They simply closed the door and ignored what was happening outside, regardless of what their husband had done wrong.

The local Chamorro people warmly welcomed Lin Feng, Zhang Xiaojing and their party. Compared to the short, smelly and rude red-haired devils, they obviously welcomed the Ming people who looked more similar, had more civilized manners, and had more similar culture and living habits.

After less than ten days of rest on the island, the fleet made some supplies and then hurriedly set off again. It was almost the end of the year, and who wouldn't want to seize the time and go home for the New Year?

When thinking of home and the New Year, everyone is eager to return and does not want to delay for even a moment!

So they headed west at full speed with full sails. Half a month later, on the seventh day of the winter month, the fleet arrived at the entrance to the Luzon Islands - the San Bernardino Strait between Luzon Island and Sanmiao Island.

This was the name on the nautical chart when we set out. Now on the map of the South China Sea Group, this place has been renamed Dongmen Strait.

It means the eastern gate of Luzon.

At the northern end of the Dongmen Strait, on the southernmost cape of Luzon Island, a new tower-style lighthouse was built. One look at its style reveals that it was a Ming Dynasty building.

This is the Luzon Governor's Office which was built this year. Its function is similar to that of the Eluanbi Lighthouse in Kenting. Both are fortress complexes that combine navigation, meteorological observation, typhoon warning, and defense against pirates.

After confirming their identities, the lighthouse displayed the message "Welcome Home"!

From this moment on, they officially returned home.

P.S. I have finished writing the voyage around the world, and I am quite satisfied with it. I just feel very tired mentally, so I will take a day off tomorrow to rest. I will also think about the subsequent plots. After all, it has been two years since our Mr. Zhao last appeared, and I am a little out of memory.

There will be no update tomorrow.