Although the supreme pragmatism himself and the ordinary members of the army sent to Annan did not think that the Burmese side could know in advance that Annan would have the courage to bypass the entire Malay Peninsula to attack southern Myanmar, Huang Zhiting still refused to delay even one more day.

Therefore, after the military parade on this day, after consulting Gao Jing about the recent sea conditions, it was decided to set sail immediately, with more than 20,000 fleet crews and 20,000 army forces, totaling more than 40,000 troops, departing from Golden Port on 126 sea-going ships, aiming directly at Malacca.

Thousands of sails cover the sea, thousands of miles of waves.

Huang Zhiting himself, together with Gao Jing, was the flagship of the Annam Detachment of the Jinghua South Ocean Fleet, which had only been in service for half a year.

The Lang Son was originally named to commemorate the first major victory in the Battle of Lang Son in the Battle of Annam, and it happened that the commander-in-chief of this operation was Huang Zhiting, and the whole fleet felt that the omen was very good, especially the seamen on the Lang Son were extremely excited.

In fact, the navy may be the most "superstitious" branch of the military, both ancient and modern, both in China and abroad. Not to mention that a gust of wind may determine the direction of the war, and sometimes even a wave can affect the outcome of the war, so both at home and abroad, there are different kinds of "superstitious" ideas.

For example, in Chinese history, especially before modern times, there were very few sailor generals with the surname Chen, which is not that the surname Chen cannot produce water war talents, but "Chen" and "Shen" have the same sound, and from the emperor to the sailors, they all feel that it is too unlucky to call.

It is not the first time that Huang Zhiting has gone to sea to take a boat, but it is the first time she has gone to sea with Gao Jing, and it is the first time that she has observed the command of a ship at sea up close.

Originally, she thought that this was a very busy job, after all, there were more than 100 sea-going ships in the whole fleet, and when she left the port, she stood on the bridge and looked around, and found that even the professional Palembang like Golden Port was almost blocked.

But what she never expected was that once at sea, Gao Jing didn't seem particularly busy, and he usually only responded to reports from other ships—reports that were almost always in flag-language and sounded incredibly straightforward.

It is the captain of the Lang Son who really controls the ship's operation, and it is the pilot ship that controls the entire route.

As for the Lang Son and the other three cruisers of the second class, they were always in the very center of the fleet, and the four ships formed a diamond-shaped formation, and the Lang Son was the diamond-shaped front sharp corner.

After three days and three nights of sailing, on the morning of the fourth day, Huang Zhiting, who got up very early, found that Gao Jing had finally entered the "working state" and began to get busy.

However, his busyness is also more eccentric, and he actually writes at his desk.

Or, to be more precise, to record the sea conditions and sea conditions reports sent mainly by the pilot ship.

This situation was beyond Huang Zhiting's expectations, and she took the initiative to step forward to see what Gao Jing was busy with.

At this time, Gao Jing sat behind a large fixed table, on which were placed a number of manuscripts, drawings and albums, each of which was pressed by a paperweight to prevent it from being blown away when the waves were undulating or the sea breeze poured in.

Huang Zhiting stepped forward and asked curiously, "Commander Gao, are you studying?" ”

Gao Jing looked up in surprise, and saw that it was Huang Zhiting, and he was not a little surprised, and said with concern: "Du Tong feels uncomfortable at sea?" The small ones have all kinds of drugs to inhibit sea sickness......"

Huang Zhiting smiled and shook her head: "I'm not seasick, I'm just looking at what you're up to...... Gao Gao Cheng said that you are an expert in navigation, let me ask you more advice. ”

"How dare you." Gao Jing had already stood up at this time, personally moved a chair for Huang Zhiting and invited her to sit down, and then said: "In fact, this kind of thing is nothing more than practice makes perfect, just like reading, 'read a book a hundred times, and see its righteousness', sailing at sea is an experience meal." ”

He smiled and picked up a few pages of paper, handed them to Huang Zhiting, and said: "Please see, these things are divided into several categories, the most important of which is the logbook sent by the captain of each ship. ”

Huang Zhiting was a little surprised: "Do you want to watch it every day?" ”

"Of course, you have to watch it every day, and you have to record it every day." Gao Jing said: "Dutong, the sea is different from the land, sometimes you can't see anything else except the sea and the sky, where you go, how far away from the goal, I'm afraid it's confusing to be someone who has never been to the sea."

For the captain or even the commander of the fleet, it is necessary to record in detail when the ship or fleet has steered, accelerated, decelerated, detoured, serpentine and other actions, as well as the wind direction and ocean currents at that time, not to mention that if there are islands, reefs, etc., it must be recorded clearly, and it cannot be sloppy at all. ”

"Are these records so that the next time you go here, you can predict the risks in advance, or choose a safe route?"

"Yes, but it doesn't stop there." Gao Jing said: "There are many differences between the sea and the land, for example, the road on land, it is fixed, you walk this road in spring, and this road in winter, it is great that grass grows on the side of the road in spring, and it is covered with ice and snow in winter, but this road is always there and will not be moved elsewhere."

But when you get to sea, it's different, the wind direction will be different in different seasons and months, the ocean currents will be different, and the route of the ship at sea will also need to change. The first is to make better use of the wind and currents to save time, and the second is to avoid different risks at different times to ensure safety. Regions, months, etc., can vary greatly if they change slightly. ”

Huang Zhiting asked: "Do changes in regions and months have a big impact?" ”

Gao Jing nodded seriously: "Of course, for example, when sailing in the north, you have to be careful of ice floes in winter, as well as storms caused by cold and warm winds from the north and south. In the south, it is necessary to pay more attention to the dangers of hot currents and storms, dragon spit water (tornadoes), sea eyes and other dangers in spring and summer, in short, they are different. These things require a lot of experience to avoid or deal with. ”

Huang Zhiting frowned and said: "Doesn't that mean that we come here in the spring, and if we don't go back until the autumn, the sea conditions we encounter may be completely different?" ”

"It's definitely different, maybe even very different." Gao Jing said decisively: "In the Nanyang region, there is not much difference between the weather in spring and autumn, but the difference in wind direction is quite large, as for the sea conditions...... This may be true, but at least the currents change. ”

Huang Zhiting said in her heart: This is really much more complicated than fighting on land, no wonder Gao Lang was so cautious, and he was stunned to let me set off after such a large fleet.

However, when she thought that Gao Shishi was so careful, one of the most important points was that she was worried about her safety on this trip, and she couldn't help but show a smile on the corner of her mouth.

Gao Jing didn't understand the meaning of Deputy Dutong's smile, and thought that she was affirming her work, so she immediately said: "But Dutong don't worry, the Nanyang fleet has not gone south to Malacca once or twice, although it was mainly a merchant before, and it didn't go too far, generally only to Malacca City, but we have recruited some sea veterans in Mahacca and the surrounding areas in advance, all of whom have traveled across the West, and many of them have been to Tianzhu, and even a few have even been to Dashi, This time we also brought a lot of these guides, and the small ones were confident that they would be able to get the army safely to Bago and take them back to Annam at any time. ”

Huang Zhiting praised a few words, and then changed the conversation: "You mentioned Malacca just now, but you reminded me that Gao Gao Cheng has always been worried about the Francophone people in Malacca, afraid that they will hinder our operation...... Do you think the Francophile would do that? Or, in case of a fight with the Franc man, are you confident that you can deal with it? ”

Gao Jing seemed to have expected Huang Zhiting to ask this question, or he had already thought about this question countless times, in short, as soon as Huang Zhiting asked, he immediately replied: "According to the master's instructions, for the Franc machine in Malacca, our Nanyang Fleet has always regarded it as the number one imaginary enemy, so the monitoring of the Franc machine fleet and ships in Malacca has never been broken. Specifically, in the small ones, more than a month, and as short as half a month, you will receive reports on the size of the fleet of Malacca's Franc man. The last report in Xiao's hand at the moment was the situation in Malacca City twenty-three days ago. ”

Huang Zhiting was surprised: "With such an intensive investigation, aren't you afraid that the Francophone will be suspicious?" ”

Gao Jing said with a smile: "Don't forget, the Francois are not the natives of the South Seas, they came from the far west from thousands of miles, and the number of people is actually very small compared to the natives, so they need the help of the natives in Malacca, especially the problem of eating and drinking, which gives us enough opportunities to find out all kinds of news at close range." ”

Huang Zhiting asked with some surprise: "Jinghua also controls some natives in Malacca?" ”

"With such a large trade scale in Jinghua, of course there are trading houses in Malacca, and many small countries in the Nanyang region have been vassals of the Ming Dynasty for a long time...... The people of our Celestial Empire stayed in the local area, how can they be compared to those natives, most of them are rich businessmen and celebrities now, at least they have a solid family background, and some natives under their hands are very normal.

In this case, I went to Nanyang, so I naturally got in touch with these people very quickly, and gradually controlled some of them, so that I could use the natives to find out the information of the Franc machine...... By the way, the Franc Robot itself does not have a tight control over the intelligence of its fleet, especially the sailors and so on, and it is quite easy to get some seemingly unimportant information from them. ”

This is somewhat unexpected by Huang Zhiting, but in fact, it is really a true portrayal of the European maritime powers in this era, because the European colonists in this period except for a few missionaries, there are basically few good people, Gao Jing used "prodigal generation" to describe Portuguese sailors, and even for the sake of Huang Zhiting's face after all, he said it very euphemistically.

Perhaps the best adjective for this group of people would be scum.

Since they are all "prodigals", of course Huang Zhiting will not ask in detail, but just bows his head slightly and asks: "So what is the strength of the Francophone in Malacca now?" ”

This time, Gao Jing straightened up and said: "Dutong, before answering this question, we had better divide the name of Franc Ji, according to the old man, into Portuguese and Spanish or Castilian." ”

"Oh...... OK. ”

Gao Jing then said: "The Franco-machine people we usually refer to, that is, those who currently control Malacca, are the Portuguese. These men currently have only four warships in the city of Malacca, and three of them are armed transports. As for their merchant ships, not many remained in Malacca, a total of eleven. Three of them were seriously damaged and were being repaired in the harbor, and two were slightly damaged, which did not appear to be serious and probably not affect the possible operation. ”

Huang Zhiting said happily: "Doesn't that mean that the Buddha ...... The Portuguese were able to fight with a maximum of twelve ships? Our fleet is ten times the size of theirs, and even if this battle is really going to be fought, it will be a sure victory, right? ”

Gao Jing Zhengse said: "If there are only the Portuguese in Malacca, that's for sure, and the small ones think that as long as they see the size of our fleet, they will not dare to fight." But there are two unknowns at the moment......"

He paused and said, "First of all, although the Portuguese are not very strong in the South Seas at the moment, they are very strong in Goa - oh, Goa is located in Tianzhu, which is the largest Portuguese base in the East, and has a governor, whose status is much higher than that of the governor of Malacca. If we have a war with Portugal in Malacca, I don't know if the Goan side will choose to fight in a big way. ”

Huang Zhiting frowned and said, "Suppose they come - can we win?" ”

Gao Jing shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Dutong, we only know that the Portuguese fleet in Goa is much larger than Malacca, but we don't know anything about the specific situation, so I can't answer this question." ”

Huang Zhiting was silent for a while, and then asked, "What about another unknown factor?" Is there another Goa? ”

"Of course there is no other Goa." Gao Jing smiled bitterly: "But the king of Spain is now also the king of Portugal, so the Spanish fleet on the Luzon side may also become the help of the Portuguese, and about a month and a half ago, the little one got the news from the Luzon side, saying that it happened that a Spanish fleet sailed to Luzon from a place called Mexico." This fleet ...... I heard that it was supposed to bring silver to the Spaniards in Luzon, but the fleet was very large, at least forty large Galens. ”

----------

Thank you for the support of the book friend "Cao Face" and "Riding Alone to Shine on Bixin", thank you!

Thank you for the monthly pass support of "System Crash", "Douer 852", and "Yan Yunhe", thank you!