Wang Xinyu asked people to take a map of the world that he had drawn, pointed to the location of the northernmost and later Bering Strait, and asked, "Did you sail to this place?" ”

When the Ming army marched north and went to the lower reaches of the Tongjiang River and Sakhalin Island, Zheng Xi and Zheng Jing stayed in the area of the Outer Xing'an Mountains to develop, while Zheng Jing's cronies Hong Xu, Feng Xifan and Wang Xiuqi and others continued to sail north with their fleets to explore the way for Zheng Jing to open up a new route for Zheng Jing to cross the ocean to North America on the other side of the river in the coming year.

By the way, Feng Xifan, although he was unwilling to let this person stay away from the land of China and go to the distant other side, he was afraid of Zheng Jing, so he still didn't dare to disobey the order, so he could only honestly lead the fleet to explore the way.

Because of this, Wang Xinyu wondered if Wang Xiuqi had already crossed the Bering Strait.

Wang Xiuqi replied: "Lord Wang, judging from the map, it should be over this sea area outside!" It's just that this strait doesn't have a name for the time being, because it was discovered by Feng Xifan first, so it was named Feng Xi Strait. ”

"Feng Xi Strait? This Feng Xifan is really thick-skinned! Hearing the news, Wang Xinyu couldn't help laughing.

"After all, he found out, and we can't say anything if he uses this name, but I think it's better to call it Yanping Strait." Wang Xiuqi said.

"There are already Yanping Port and Yanping City, and then there is another Yanping Strait, wouldn't it be the same name? Since his name is Feng Xihai, let's use this name. Wang Xinyu said. He thought to himself: Although Feng Xifan is not a good person, naming this strait after him is also better than the foreign name of the Bering Strait, after all, he is Chinese.

"If Lord Feng knew, he would definitely be grateful to the prince." Wang Xiuqi said.

Wang Xinyu did not continue the topic, but asked: "Tell me again, what did you see over there after you crossed the strait." Who did you find? ”

Wang Xiuqi replied: "Lord Wang, the lowly party crossed the strait and entered that sea area, where there was ice floe everywhere, whether it was near the shore or continuing north, it was ice. But the amazing thing is that there are still a lot of people living on that snow-covered land! They don't look like red-haired people, but they look a bit like us, and they also have black hair and black eyes. They built their houses out of snow on the snow. Hunt and kill animals on the shore and in the sea, and wear animal fur. But maybe because there are no trees, they eat raw meat that is not cooked. ”

After listening to Wang Xiuqi's description, they did cross the Bering Strait and entered the Arctic Ocean region. The people living along the coast, what would become Alaska, were probably Eskimos.

In fact, the so-called Eskimos are the names given to them by the Indians. The Eskimos were the last group of yellow people from the Asian continent to migrate to the American continent on a large scale, after they went to the American continent. But he was slaughtered and expelled by the Indians, and was driven all the way to the North Pole. And the word Eskimo, in the Indian language, means to eat raw meat.

The Eskimos, of course, did not like the insulting name that the Indians gave themselves, so they called themselves Inuit.

After the fleet led by Hong Xu, Feng Xifan and Wang Xiuqi arrived at the Eskimo settlement. The local Eskimos were initially surprised by their presence, they had never seen such a large ship, let alone an army in armor and armed with fire-breathing weapons. They were very worried that these people who came would not do it to themselves as the Indians had done to them for generations.

Fortunately, Zheng Jing's people are not so cruel. Instead of being cruel to the Eskimos, they went ashore and exchanged their belongings for furs and prey.

The two sides did not understand each other's language, and they could not communicate at all at first, so they could only rely on gestures to communicate. With the deepening of the communication between the two sides, there are some people on both sides who are more sensitive to language and gradually understand some simple words of the other party, and can understand what is said through the other party's mouth shape and pronunciation, and then look at the other party's gestures.

In this way, some people in the Ming army gradually understood a little Eskimo and began to learn more languages. Those who are gifted with language, after at first becoming familiar with a few simple words, progress very quickly, and soon they can really communicate with the Eskimos.

Although there is no translation that is fully proficient in Eskimo, and it will take a long time for that to appear, it does not affect the Ming army's dealings with them.

Ming Jun was surprised to find that the Eskimos ate a kind of meat that resembles beef, both in appearance and taste, but this meat is higher in fat than beef, but the fiber is coarser than beef. Through simple communication of words and gestures, it turned out that the kind of meat that Eskimos ate was whale meat!

The meat of the whale can be eaten, the oil can be lit, and the skin can be made into leather products.

Hearing that those locals could actually catch big whales, Wang Xinyu was also stunned. Wang Xinyu, who has very little knowledge of history, doesn't know at all, in fact, the Eskimos really have a way to catch whales.

"How big a ship do they have? How can you catch those big whales? Wang Xinyu asked.

"Nope!" Wang Xiuqi shook his head, "They used their boat to catch whales." ”

Wang Xinyu was even more surprised, his eyes widened: "The whale slapped with its tail, and their kind of small boat capsized without sinking, how can they pull the whale from the sea to the water?" ”

"Their boat doesn't pull the whales, they just harpoon into the whale and bleed the whale and let the whale die on its own. They waited until the whale had bled to death before dragging the whale back. Wang Xiuqi said.

Wang Xinyu felt incredulous and asked: "If the harpoon is pierced, won't the whale dive and run away?" ”

After Wang Xiuqi's explanation, Wang Xinyu learned that the Eskimos had a special whaling method: they made the harpoon head into a pattern with barbs and could be detached from the harpoon handle, and the harpoon head was attached to a strong animal skin rope, and several air bags made of seal skin were tied to the other end of the rope.

When they spot a whale, they chase it in a kayak, get close to it, throw a harpoon at it, and let the whale swim away with a leather rope and airbag. The whale goes below the surface of the sea and has to come up and spray water after a while. There was blood on his body and several air sacs hanging from him, which hurt and affected the sinking. After a while, the whale had to float up and spray water. Then the Eskimos rowed over and threw harpoons at the whales, and the cycle went on and on, and the whales were consumed alive. The airbags will mark the whale's location and pull it back with a row.

Hearing this, Wang Xinyu finally understood: because whales are mammals, not fish, they have no gills to allow them to breathe in the sea, and they need to come up to breathe. When whales come to the surface and spray water, they are breathing.

Precisely because they have to ventilate. The harpoon was inserted in the body, and there was an air bag on the harpoon to affect the whale's diving, which made it consume more oxygen in vain, so it soon had to come up to ventilate again, and was shot by the Eskimo on the harpoon. This went back and forth many times, and the whale was consumed alive.

Wang Xinyu from later generations knows that the whole body of the whale is a treasure! At that time, the development of the West, after entering the era of the industrial revolution, before the development of petroleum refining technology. The lubricating oil used is based on whale oil!

The technology of petroleum processing is not so easy, although it is possible to decompose oil into light oil, heavy oil and asphalt through local refining, but to separate gasoline, kerosene and light diesel oil from light oil. Separating heavy diesel oil, lubricating oil, and paraffin wax from heavy oil, as well as extracting residual heavy oil from asphalt, requires certain science and technology to achieve.

Before the maturity of petrochemical technology and the maturity of petroleum refining technology. Even the steam engines of the British, the bearings of trains, ships and warships, relied on lubricants made from whale oil! Including the moving parts of the steam engine cylinder. Both have lubricants made from whale oil. It can be said that without whale oil, there would be no industrialization.

So after entering industrialization, Western countries went crazy on whaling.

As things stand, before Wang Xinyu was able to secure an easily exploitable oil field, it was best to use animal fat to make lubricants. When there is an easily developed oil field, light oil (used as a fierce fire oil) and lubricating oil can be refined by local method, but that will be a matter for a later time.

Inspired by the Eskimos, Wang Xinyu immediately thought that a whaling ship could be built to hunt whales at sea, whale meat could be eaten and used to increase meat, whale skin could be used to make leather products, and whale oil could be processed into lubricating oil to solve the problem of lubricating oil used in a large number of vehicle bearings. The baleen whale's baleen can also replace ivory to make handicrafts.

Here is an explanation that some of the fire oil used in the defense of the city is made from oil, and some ordinary oil is made from tung oil and pine resin. Fierce fire oil is more powerful, in fact, it is a kind of flamethrower made by pouring the light oil obtained after heating with oil, pouring into the fierce fire oil tank, which has been invented in the Song Dynasty. Therefore, the wisdom of the ancient Chinese people is still quite high, and the level of scientific and technological development is ahead of the world. Although it began to lag behind by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty has been imitating and even improving Western weapons.

Therefore, without the Manchu Qing stealing China, China would certainly not lag behind the West!

"Build a whaling ship and we'll be able to solve the lubrication problem!" Wang Xinyu said.

In the future, it is certain to develop the petroleum industry, and as long as there is an oil field, light oil, heavy oil and asphalt can be separated by soil method. Light oil can be used as fierce fire oil, and oil lamps can be lit; Heavy oil can be used as fuel and can be used to make lubricating oil; Asphalt builds roads. It's just that before the oil fields are opened, they can only scourge the whales in the sea.

On the wharf of Shanghai Port, a 220-material centipede clipper is parked, and shipbuilders and weapons craftsmen are unloading the artillery, bowl-mouth guns and other weapons on the ship according to Wang Xinyu's request, replacing them with an old-fashioned bed crossbow, and installing a winch on the deck of the ship.

"Yes, that's how the harpoon is made!" Wang Xiuqi instructed several craftsmen to build a huge whaling fork.

This huge whaling fork has barbs on it and a rope attached to its tail and is fired from a bed crossbow. Once the whale is shot, no matter how much the whale struggles, it cannot get rid of the whaling fork with the barb. After the whaling ship shoots the whale, it uses its sail and oars to follow the whale so that it loses blood faster. If the whale is still resisting, it can also launch a second or third whaling fork until the whale is killed, and then use a winch to drag the whale to the stern of the boat, hang a leather airbag, and drag the whale back.

The cables used on the boat to connect the whaling fork and the boat, as well as the cables used to drag the whales, are all cables mixed with silk and linen, which can withstand tens of thousands of catties of pulling force and can pull tens of thousands of catties of whales.

However, because there is no processing equipment on board, this whaling vessel can operate in winter, early spring and late autumn, and cannot operate in the hot season, otherwise the whale will spoil halfway through.

On the docks, people were pointing around the ship, which was being renovated.

"Chop the ship! I heard that this boat is a chopping boat transformed by the king of the South China Sea! Can go out to sea to slay dragons! A middle-aged trader said, pointing to the whaling ship that was being transformed.

A middle-aged woman said, "The king of Nanhai really thinks he is the king of the sea dragon!" The dragon in this sea said to cut it? I heard that the dragon can call the wind and rain, surface the sea to stir up the clouds and make the sun, and the water vapor is steaming for more than ten feet! How big is the ship, which capsized before it was a wave? Can he really kill this dragon? ”

"The king of the South China Sea is even more powerful than the sea dragon king! He is the third prince of Nezha! So the vicious Tartars were all beaten to pieces by him, not to mention the dragon prince in this sea? Another middle-aged woman said.

The modification of the whaling ship was simple, and it took only one day for the ship to be transformed.

Wang Xinyu himself had other things to do, he was about to go to war, he had to inspect the army, insisted on the preparation of weapons and baggage, and could not go out to sea to watch the whaling, so Wang Xiuqi, who had seen the Eskimo whaling, personally boarded the ship to direct the whaling.

Early the next morning, the renovated whaling ship, led by Wang Xiuqi, slowly left the wharf and sailed to the depths of the sea.

At that time, in the East China Sea, because there was no overfishing in later generations, there were many whales in the sea. After leaving the mouth of the Yangtze River, the whaling ship raised its full sail and sailed for about a day and a night, and found a school of whales in the East China Sea, more than 300 miles away from the mouth of the Yangtze River.

"Twenty-six degrees in front of the right, six miles away, find a pod of whales!" The lookout hand was condescending, and he saw a large white vapor from the sea spewing out a whale in the distance, and immediately screamed.

"Sail full! Paddlers paddle with all their might! Burn the wind! Wang Xiuqi shouted.

In the case of a Cinnipede clipper with oars and sails, the speed can reach a high speed of sixteen or seventeen knots, even faster than the clippers, but the galleys can not last at high speed, and the oarsmen can insist on paddling continuously for six or seven hours at most It is very good, so it is still inferior to the clippers in ocean transportation, but the Centipede clippers are not bad for short-distance high-speed sailing, especially in the whaling industry, this kind of galleys are much more flexible than the pure sail clippers. (To be continued.) )

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