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Wang Junlin followed Du Haiwa's example and stared at the stars in the sky for a long time. His eyes felt sore, and the stars were confused with each other, making it difficult to distinguish them one by one.
He knew that Du Haiwa used the "spell of holding the stars" to determine the direction. Sometimes Du Haiwa would look at the compass fixed in front of her eyes.
Du Haiwa is obviously a leader trained by Nie Xiaoyu, so he will never be confused when looking at the stars in the sky. For Du Haiwa, although the stars in the sky are extremely vast, the stars are like grains of sand in the eyes of others.
It was innumerable, but in his eyes, it was as familiar as the lines on his palm.
"That's the Big Dipper."
Du Haiwa watched while making sure that there was no problem with the sailing direction of the ship, and then she gave some instructions to the navy officers and soldiers next to her. In fact, Du Haiwa was already a regiment leader in the navy, with 500 people under his command.
, there are 4,000 naval personnel sent to the two new islands this time, including four captains, eight regiment leaders, forty centenarians, and two hundred fire chiefs, so the regiment leader can be regarded as a senior general.
"Look, what does the Big Dipper look like when connected together? Doesn't it look like a spoon for drinking soup?"
"Yes, it really looks like a spoon." After looking at it carefully, everyone nodded.
Du Haiwa raised her finger to point to a row of stars in the sky, drew dotted lines with her fingers, connected them, and called out their names one by one.
"Following the direction that my finger traced, these seven stars are called Tianshu, Tianxuan, Tianji, Tianquan, Yuheng, Kaiyang, and Yaoguang. You don't need to remember these names, but you must remember the shape.
If you are familiar with it, you should at least be able to tell it right away when you look up."
After everyone nodded in agreement, Du Haiwa said again: "Look again, you can find a straight line between Tianxuan and Tianshu located on Doukui, and then extend the distance 5 times in the direction of Tianshu.
Stars so bright that they eclipse all the stars."
After everyone looked at it carefully, they suddenly realized that it was true, and there was actually some life in the dead sea.
"That is the Northern Star. It lives in its place and is shared by all the stars. Our ultimate goal in identifying the Big Dipper is to accurately find the Northern Star, and then use the Northern Star to confirm the position of the north."
"That's it." Zhang Tiangang, who was listening with some fascination, looked as if he suddenly understood.
The sea is vast, boundless, and you don’t know what is east or west. There is the sun during the day, but at night, you have to rely on the stars. Polaris is the natal star of every navigator. It is located at the North Celestial Pole and its position almost remains unchanged. You can rely on it.
To identify the direction, the "star-pulling technique" that Du Haiwa wants to teach everyone, to perform calculations around the North Star, is the most commonly used method.
"At this time, there is no moon to compete with the light, and there are no clouds to block it. It is a good time to use the star-pulling technique. Everyone should try the method I taught you the day before yesterday."
On the big ship Wang Junlin was on, in addition to his hundreds of guards, there were a total of four hundred naval officers and soldiers. According to the basic requirements of Wang Junlin's navy, if you want to become an officer above the regiment leader, you must learn the art of star-drawing. Now there are
By chance, Du Haiwa, who was the most proficient in the art of star-pulling, taught him this art. The four centenarians and the fire chiefs on the ship all learned it seriously.
Everyone is holding a "star board", which is made of peach wood. There are thirteen pieces in total. Together they look like a fan. The largest one has thirteen fingerboards and the smallest one has one fingerboard. This star board is of course
It was written by Nie Xiaoyu. She originally had more advanced things, but they were limited to the poor knowledge level of people in this era and could not understand them at all, so she re-researched and formulated such a simple and easy-to-learn and easy-to-operate star guide.
plate.
The centenarians and fire chiefs are no strangers to the star board. They have already been trained on the snake island. At this time, they hold the center of one end of the star board in their left hands, straighten their arms and look at the starry sky.
The board surface is perpendicular to the sea level. Observe the height of Polaris from the sea level. The height is different and can be adjusted using thirteen boards.
Next to each person, there were two navy soldiers as assistants. One held a fire for lighting, and the other wrote down the observed data on paper for him.
It was not easy to complete the measurement on the rickety deck. After the measurement, everyone returned to the cabin. Based on the measured height, they used several mathematical formulas in their minds to calculate the angle between Polaris and the ground.
, and then give the result to Du Haiwa.
After Du Haiwa checked them one by one, he ridiculed those who failed to measure accurately, asked them to go out and retest, and praised those who calculated more accurately.
Speaking of arithmetic, it has become a knowledge that ordinary soldiers must master to become officers above the fire chief. Military training classes have always been held on Shedao. In addition to teaching the officers literacy and learning tactics and strategies, the main focus is on arithmetic.
Wang Junlin noticed that those who calculated correctly were praised and looked happy, while those who calculated incorrectly looked depressed.
Wang Junlin was happy to see that these people were so motivated to study, knowing that this was the result of the reward and punishment system he and Nie Xiaoyu had previously studied and formulated.
After the star-pulling technique, Du Haiwa took out a wooden disk as big as a head from the cowhide backpack she carried, placed it on the wooden platform in front of her, and said: "This is called the latitude disk, and it is the most difficult one in navigation.
Knowledge point. If everyone can learn the calculation method of dimensions, according to our navy's regulations, even if the ability in other aspects is poor, we will be given treatment equivalent to that of the group leader. So far, the first batch of personnel trained by Siren
Among them, only nine people have learned the method of calculating latitude through the dimensional disk. As long as everyone learns this method, they can regard the sea as a smooth road and never get lost."
During the three-day visit to Snake Island, Wang Junlin saw this thing in Nie Xiaoyu's hands. According to Nie Xiaoyu, the latitude disk she finally made was not like this. Unfortunately, no one could learn it, so she studied it again
This creates such a latitude disk that can just be integrated with some contemporary Taoist knowledge.
"This latitude disk structure is divided into two parts, the sky disk and the turf. The large square disk outside is the turf, and the round disk inside the turf is the sky disk."
"Among them, there is a dou ladle in the sky disk, which refers to the Tiangang. The second one is the twelve stars, with the twenty-eight constellations and four-dimensional bureaus listed in the middle. And the land is the twelve stars, eight stems, five elements, thirty-six birds, heaven gates, earth doors, people, gates and ghosts.
The road ends at the fourth corner."
Du Haiwa was one of the nine people who learned how to operate the latitude disk. While introducing him to the fire chiefs and centenarians who looked at him with admiration, he compared the celestial disk with the previously measured data one by one.