Chapter One Thousand One Hundred and Six: Shanghai Ship Technology, Xiangfeng Flag and Compass
"Everyone, work harder, adjust the sails, and take advantage of the wind!... The priest in the sky said that if we go faster, we will reward us with gold when we reach the port behind!... Praising gods and Buddhas is truly true. Gold and silver! You have worked so hard for more than ten years, but you are still not worth the reward from the master, which is a piece of pure gold weighing a pound!..."
"Hey! The wind has changed again, blowing from the Kun position to the Gen position?... It's really strange! While sailing eastward, the wind on the sea changes here and there, first blowing from the Xun position (southeast) to the Qian position (northwest), then Then it blew from the Meridian position (due south) to the Zi position (due north), and now it blows from the Kun position (southwest) to the Gen position (northeast)..."
The White Sea is vast in the south, and the glaciers stretch in the north. On this sea far away from the coast, there is only one sailing ship, sailing through the Alaskan waters that have been silent and desolate for tens of millions of years.
On the deck of the bow of the ship, sailmaker Pu Shunfan was holding a round plate in both hands. He stared at the round plate in his hands with wide eyes, and then stared at the "Xianfeng Flag" on the bow of the ship, which is a Root tie. This tie only weighs five liang and can rotate to indicate the direction of the wind, so it is also called the "five taels".
"Lord God! The wind is changing all the way, it's really strange!... It's like... it's like... it's like Uncle Feng has lost a wind top, and it's been spinning and blowing along the south sea along with his hand!... "
Pu Shunfan touched the bun on his head, opened his eyes wide, and looked towards the sea due south, looking at the end of the sea and sky. With so many years of sailing experience, he could vaguely detect the sea in the south from the unpredictable wind direction. , there seems to be something there. It’s like there is an ancient dragon king who is calling the wind and rain on the southern sea, affecting the changes of the sea wind thousands of miles away!
"Oh my God! What exactly is there on the southern sea? In this mysterious and endless East China Sea, in addition to the fairy islands on the sea like Penglai, are there other fairy islands inhabited by ancient gods and Buddhas?..."
Pu Shunfan's eyes were deep and he stared blankly for a long time. Many gods appeared in his mind, including ancient Korean shamans and gods, as well as Confucian gods and Buddhist gods and Buddhas from the above countries.
It's a pity that his eyes can only see the sea a few miles away at this moment, but he can't cross the seven or eight thousand miles of ocean to see the "Sheltered Bay" and "Honolulu" due south. An archipelago where Polynesian tribes have lived for generations.
The Hawaiian high pressure hanging high on that archipelago is the source of all wind directions in the North Pacific, the eye of the wind that is surrounded clockwise by eight thousand miles of wind, a "god" who truly controls the sea breeze in the East Pacific!…
"Suddenly I heard that there was a fairy mountain on the sea, and the mountain was ethereal..."
On the other side, translator Watanabe heard the sailmaker's words, and his expression was slightly moved. He stood beside the high ship's side, looking at the vast and unknown sea, and couldn't help but recite Kazuto's favorite poem by Bai Juyi.
In the hearts of East Asians in this era, the endless East China Sea is not only mysterious and unknown, but also holds too much ambiguity, too much imagination, and circulates countless myths and fairy tales. Although one was born in North Korea and the other was in Japan, they They all grew up in the Chinese cultural circle in East Asia, listening to these similar legendary stories. But they never thought that one day they would be able to go deep into the endless East China Sea and meet some kind of Jiaoman who possesses gold. , and was still being carried away to the Jiaoren country thousands of miles away...
"O Buddha! The moon in the sea has tears, and there are sharks outside the South China Sea... Pearls, sharks?... Gold, glue people?..."
"O Lord God! They are also thousands of miles away, and they are also precious treasures... Could it be that these Jiaomen who row boats in the East China Sea have some connection with the legendary sharks in the East China Sea? And because of this connection, they came to the sea now.
Wanli, determined to find..."
Watanabe Masumi held the golden amulet around his neck, looked at the hummingbird pattern engraved on the amulet, and began to think wildly again. This kind of long voyage is the most draining of one's spirit, and it also makes imaginative thoughts seem to be endless.
The spring water where I lived came out.
However, along the way he saw a barren and desolate coast, with towering icebergs and rolling glaciers. And the largest settlements he saw were small villages with three to four hundred people, and even
It can't be called a port, it can only be called a tribal camp by the sea.
He carefully asked Priest Miji, but from the other party's mouth, he heard that these port camps were actually newly established by the Jiaoman fleet in the more than two years since they came to the west. There were a total of twenty longships.
Only with the support from the back, a long ship crossed thousands of miles and found the Kyushu continent predicted by the "Huangquanjin Great Divine Witch"...
"O gods and Buddhas! The Jiao people's long ships can use expensive cotton to make the entire sail. They are as good at weaving as the legendary sharks!... They have so much gold, cotton and spices, and strange spicy peppers.
…But I don’t know what a real Jiaoren town looks like, rich and prosperous?”
"God bless you! Translator Watanabe, you and Pu Fanjiang are standing together, looking to the south, what are you thinking about?..."
"Ah? Master Mi, the priest!...I salute you!...Praise the Great God of Go Carrot!"
Watanabe Masumi's eyes were wandering and he imagined for a long time. He suddenly came back to his senses until he heard a familiar voice. He quickly lowered his head, pulled Pu Fanjiang along with him, saluted Mickey the Knowledgeable, and praised the name of the Lord God.
Then, he stuttered a little, pointed to the disc in Pu Fanjiang's hand, and answered cautiously.
"Master Priest! We...we are there...looking at the wind direction!...Look at this wind...it has changed again and is blowing to the northeast!..."
"Yes, yes!...Sir! The wind direction has changed again, but a good thing, a great thing!...The ship is heading east, and the wind is blowing to the northeast. As long as you adjust the sails a little, the wind you can borrow will be stronger...The ship can move
Faster, half as fast as before, almost as fast as a tailwind!!…”
Sailmaker Pu Shunfan nodded repeatedly, pointed to the Xiangfeng flag on the bow of the ship, and then pointed to the disc in his hand. He looked happy and gestured in the northeast direction, as if he had seen the golden mountain promised by Mickey.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Hey! This flag-like tie is originally used to indicate the direction of the wind? Tsk! This is really... an exquisite magic weapon!..."
Mikey, the knowledgeable man, curiously looked at the rotating Xiangfeng flag and sighed. Then, he opened his eyes in confusion and looked at the disc in Pu Shunfan's hand. At first glance, there was something on the disc.
The two circles on the inside and outside are engraved with strange patterns and symbols, just like the magical tools inherited by some tribe.
In the outer circle of the disk, twenty-four long grids were drawn with lines. On those grids, there were densely written twenty-four square words. Some of those words were familiar to Mickey, but some of them he had not learned from. Never seen it before. In the inner circle of the disk, there is a pointed pointer, which rotates with the person's movements and always points to a fixed direction. And Mickey looked carefully, and on the grid corresponding to that direction, It is engraved with a neat character "afternoon"!
"Huh? Twenty-four characters? Zi Guichou Gen, Yin Jia Mao Yi, Chen Xun Si Bing, Wu Ding Wei Kun, Shen Geng You Xin, Xu Qian Hai Ren... Pu Fanjiang, what is this?..."
"Ah? Sir? What is this, you ask? This is... uh... that... the twelve earthly branches, the eight heavenly stems, and the four corners of the Bagua!..."
After hearing the priest's question, Pu Shunfan thought for a long time before answering the origin of the twenty-four square characters. After looking at Mickey's reaction and listening to Watanabe's translation, he suddenly realized.
"Sir! What is this, you ask?...This...this is of course...a water compass with twenty-four directions! It's a compass!..."
"O Lord God! You have sailed so far on the sea and you haven't even seen a compass?..."
"What! You have sailed thousands of miles, and you don't even have a compass?!... Oh my God! Bodhisattva! Then what do your clinging tribes rely on to orient themselves on the sea?!"
