Yang Bo, the secretary of the ministry who has been in the prime minister for more than 40 years, died of illness due to illness, although the first emperor was in mourning, the court affairs were not disordered in the slightest, and the cabinet ministers quickly voted to draw up a new candidate for the secretary of the ministry, when the palace newspaper was transmitted to Guangdong, Chen Mu wrote two congratulatory messages with humble and gentle words.

Beijing Ministry of Officials, Zhang Han.

Beijing Military Department Shangshu, Tan Lun.

This is about the limit of what Zhang Hanshi's career can go.

When the court reached the turn of the old and the new, Chen Mu stayed in Nanyang Chen Mansion for a few days, feeling the changes he brought to the world, and he estimated that Gao Ge Lao would come to play with him.

The dark tide of the capital is surging, just like the Pacific Ocean, which is not very peaceful.

In this vast ocean, named after Magellan, which is located in the windless belt of the equator, a fleet led by Lin Manjue and Zeng Xishun, the chief and deputy commanders of the Guangdong battalion, approached Guam, and nine large and small warships and grain ships marched eastward in a line formation.

On the 500-material big shark ship, the deputy commander, Zeng Xishun, walked quickly across the deck with his sword, and said to Lin Manjue, who was holding a telescope in the bow of the ship and looking into the distance: "Brother, it's not far away, right?" ”

In the past, the more than 400 soldiers of this fleet were all villagers, and they were villagers at the junction of Guangdong, Huguang, and Fujian provinces. Lin Manjue and Chen Laidao put Lin Dayuan is from the same clan, they killed bandits in the local area, and their military achievements were very heavy, so they were transferred to Chen Luan's command.

Chen Luan, who has never taken the martial arts exam, is not a military household, or a rural warrior, so he naturally welcomes these rural warriors who have also broken out of the wilderness.

In the past, in Pingyuan County, Lin Manjue was a thousand township warriors, since the county magistrate Wang Hua ordered the local township Yong to form a village to protect themselves, the Lin clan built towers and houses in the local area, just like a small castle, the clan craftsmen built bird guns and stone cannons, but when they heard the bandits, they struck and guarded, and often crossed the border to attack thieves.

The scale of the southern clan fighting has always been very large, Qi Jiguang first recruited Yiwu mining soldiers to watch a weapon fight from a distance, and the ferocity shocked Qi Shuai, who killed the widow without blinking, and this is why the Qi family army that later shocked the world.

Lin Manjue is similar, and even in the use of firearms, they are more powerful than Yiwu miners, the reason why Chen Lan organized a total of people is because the women and children under Qianchang's command are all old and weak, let them stay in the place, and transfer these more than 440 people to go south with him.

However, the local soldiers also have the disadvantages of the local soldiers, they are not afraid of fighting, but they are afraid of going to sea when they see little of the world.

After floating on the sea for more than a month, the battalion soldiers were in a panic.

Lin Manjue also panicked, he looked at the simple and clear nautical chart in the cabin more than once at night, wondering if he was going in the wrong direction...... He had never seen such a sea, and he had walked for a whole month without seeing the slightest land.

"It should not be far away, let the brothers on the boat be careful from tomorrow onwards, and stop fishing." Lin Manjue was quite bottomless when he said this, Guam was so much on the chart, even if the direction from Chen Laidao was only a little off, it could be hundreds of miles away from this side, he got off the telescope and asked in a deep voice: "How far does this ship go in a day?" ”

"The wind is too light, and the ship does not dare to spread its sails, and it will not be changed." Zeng Xishun counted with his fingers and said, "Between one hundred and fifty and two hundred miles a day? ”

The Ming people measured the speed of the ship and the ancient Three Kingdoms period of the Soochow speed measurement method is the same, people drop the wood chips at the bow of the ship, and then run to the stern, such as the wood chips arrive first, the speed of the ship is faster than the people, and the call is more; When the wood chips arrived, no one ran fast and couldn't call for more.

Day and night are ten watches, and the normal speed of one watch is sixty miles, and overseas due to wind and waves is often slower than one, not to mention that Lin Manjue is worried about getting lost and does not dare to open the sails.

"It should be almost there, and if you can't go east for three days, if you can't see Guam, you will go north for three days, and if you can't see it for another six days to the south, you can only return it."

His soldiers were already very panicked, if they continued like this, something would happen, and their ships only had two months' food left, and a windy day was approaching, and if there was an accident, more than 400 people would be buried in the ocean.

From Chenlai Island south to the southernmost tip of Luzon, and then turning east, they had sailed up and down for 6,000 miles, and they could not see anything in all directions, only the blue sky and blue sea, and even the seabirds could not be seen as the voyage progressed, and the most terrible thing for sailors was the unknown.

"It's okay brother, the brothers shouldn't panic at night, Chen Shuai is really amazing, the fishing gear behind the little shark boat is complete, catch a green dragon playing in the water, more than 200 catties, and the soup has begun to be made on the big grain boat."

The green dragon playing in the water is not a snake, it is a turtle with green hair on its limbs, head, dorsal armor, abdominal armor and tail, which is extremely rare.

"Don't slaughter this thing if you encounter it again, stuff the bottom ballast of the ship, and go back to offer it to the marshal." Lin Manjue looked at the east with a gloomy face, and scolded in a depressed manner, "I don't know if I can find them in his mother's Xiyi...... Is there still incense? ”

"Yes, yes, and you want to open the altar to worship the Taoist lord?"

"Bye-bye, before going to sea, General Deng gave a hexagram, saying that there was no danger." Lin Manjue scratched his forehead, wiped his face and said: "This kind of dead work, nine boats can go back to three, even if my Lin San'er incense is not burned in vain!" ”

Lin Manjue actually had some hope in his heart that he couldn't find Guam, and getting lost and going back was nothing more than receiving some punishment, but if he found it, he would have to wait for the opportunity to land on the island to find out the enemy's situation, but seventy percent of Fandeng Island would be discovered, and then it would be a desperate job to chase the north and chase the north.

He didn't want to find Guam, but after finding it, he had to go to the island, otherwise he would be unwilling.

This is because he is afraid, but he is not afraid of death, he has led his people to fight thieves and kill bandits for more than ten years, and he has never been afraid of death. These young men were brought out by him from Pingyuan County, and when the time came, Weng Yu in the township wanted to ask him for dolls, and he was more afraid of facing those elders without face than guns, knives and guns.

After a while, the wood carving Chen Mu was like a red and colorful wooden carving on the bow of the ship, and now Fujian and Guang go to sea to worship this, in fact, few people know the origin of the Dragon and Tiger Xuantan Zhenjun, most people have never seen Chen Mu, not to mention today's standard wood carving, even if Chen Mu himself comes to him may not be able to recognize, people will worship the god of wealth and the god of the sea, and it has become one of the coastal beliefs.

The followers of the Dragon and Tiger Xuantan Zhenjun were mainly military and businessmen, and began to circulate with the script, and gradually seized the incense of the Tianfei Temple.

Lin Manjue led the sailors on the ship to solemnly bow three times and knock nine times, it is strange to say, just after worshipping the statue of the god less than half an hour, the soldier holding the telescope on the mast watchtower shouted loudly: "Boss, boat, red fork boat!" ”

In the past, the coastal Ming army called the Portuguese big black ship with two decks called the plywood ship, but now their own shark ships generally have two or three decks, and their own ship has become a plywood ship.

This exclamation startled Lin Manjue at the bow of the ship, and he took out his binoculars and looked at them, and saw two ships on the sea in the distance, one large and one small, sailing south towards them, and he asked in a loud voice: "Just two?" ”

"Just two, nothing else!"

"Catch up, we also play with this cannon, the big ship is useless, sink it and follow the boat to smash the nest!" Lin Manjue had all his hair, rushed into the cabin like a gust of wind, held a leather backpack and stuffed it into the arms of the deputy general Zeng Xi Shun, and said: "You don't have anything to eat, take a small boat to the C-flag grain ship, the grain and grass are enough for you to return to Chenlai, there is a star map in the bag, be sure to hand over the marshal with your own hands - play the flag in a line formation, put the sails full, check the artillery, prepare for war, and drink the green dragon and play in the water tonight!" ”