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The tonnage of the Wuxiang class is 280 tons, which is about half of the Wuyi class, but it requires two-thirds fewer sailors. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 After the launch of the first ship, William fulfilled his wish and appointed Murong Longcheng as the trainee captain of the "Bo Fu".

A middle-aged man came to Murong Longcheng's side and said, "Master, this ship is much slower than that flying clipper boat, but it is much faster than our previous Guangzhou boat. ”

Murong Longcheng smiled faintly: "Bolhu, don't call me the master on the boat or on the shore in the future." I'm the captain of this ship now, so let's call me Captain. ”

The middle-aged man known as Borhu placed his right hand on his chest, bowed slightly, and replied respectfully, "Yes." ”

"Although this ship is slower than the flying clipper ship, it is indeed much faster than the large and small sea masters' Guangzhou ships and fortune ships, not to mention the tattered ones of the Ming court sailors. Moreover, this is only the smallest warship of the Qiongzhou Battalion Naval Division, according to their words, the Navy, which shows the strength and ambition of this admiral. Murong Longcheng said leisurely.

Bor asked in a low voice, "Then you are willing to be driven by him, and follow the work of dogs and horses?" ”

Murong Longcheng looked at the horizon of the sea and the sky, and said calmly: "Bolhu, since I was sensible, we have been running around for all these years, although we have earned some silver by doing sea trading, but it is very difficult to achieve our goal. Although the Ming Court is rotten, there are still three catties of nails in the rotten ship, not that it can collapse. Although the Jurchens of Jianzhou in Liaodong have risen and are the biggest rivals of the Ming Court, it is unlikely that they will enter the Central Plains, even if they have this strength, how can I be willing to be the subordinate of these barbarians. It's this Xia Shen general, but it's interestingly tight. ”

Murong Longcheng smiled: "I really want to see how he, a small general, will pull the emperor of the Ming Court off the throne in the future." Since you can't do it on your own, you can realize it with the help of other people's hands, but you can comfort your ancestors. Compared with the Jurchen barbarians, this general looks much more pleasing to the eye. ”

The task to be carried out by Murong Longcheng this time was to take Lin Yishan, the deputy manager of the shipyard, to receive the ten Guangzhou ships delivered by Cheng Ji Ship Company to the Qiongzhou battalion. Cheng Ji Shipping Company could not afford to build so many ships in a short period of time, but the owner Cheng Youde took the opportunity to spread the word for Xia Nan and subcontracted the order to other shipping companies, which lowered the cost, but reported the market price to Xia Nan and earned the difference. Due to the fact that in the summer, Nan used the governor's official authority to burn down the Dingfeng ship line that patrolled the imperial history, and the other ship lines were silent, and no one dared to question the price, so Cheng Youde took advantage of it.

After arriving in Guangzhou, Lin Yishan, who accompanied him, boarded the ship with several senior shipwrights for inspection. After inspecting the quality of the delivered ships, half of the money was paid, and the people sent by Cheng Ji were responsible for driving the ship to Lingao, and the rest of the money was paid on delivery. Due to the lack of manpower for Cheng Ji to sail to sea, he also borrowed a lot of people from other shipping companies.

The whole process went smoothly, and the next day I set out on the way home. Many of the sailors on the "Bo Fu" were Murong Longcheng's original subordinates, and they began to talk about the mountains in a relaxed mood, and a black sailor said with a smile: "A short journey is about to end like this, and our new captain has not had time to perform, it's a pity." ”

Bor laughed and said, "Silva, your Chinese language is much smoother, and it used to be hard to talk to you. ”

The black man named Silva laughed and said, "No way, master...... The captain has reprimanded me many times, and has made a bet with me that if I speak Chinese well within a year, I will lose 1o gold louis ......"

"Oh? So do you get the bet? ”

"Of course, this 1o gold louis has turned into rum and entered my stomach."

Bol laughed and scolded: "You drunkard, you will die drunk in the barrel sooner or later." ”

Talking and laughing, the fleet has already left the Pearl River and entered the sea, which coincides with good weather, the sun is shining, the field of vision is broad, and the scene within a range of more than ten nautical miles can be seen very clearly.

The sailor in charge of the lookout looked around boredly, expecting that the day would be safe and sound, but a black spot appeared on the sea level in front of him. He watched with wide eyes, and as the fleet advanced, the black dot slowly grew larger, and the mast appeared in view. One, two, three...... It's not one ship, it's several.

The sailor shouted: "There is an unknown fleet ahead!" ”

The chatter immediately stopped, and each returned to his place. Murong Longcheng and Bor suddenly came to the bow of the ship. As the distance approached, even if they were not on the lookout, they could see more than a dozen ships appear in front of them on the left, gathered together, not like a normal sailing merchant ship.

Problematic! With many years of experience in sailing to Japan and Guangdong, Murong Longcheng keenly judged that this was by no means a merchant fleet, and most of it was related to pirates.

"Pass my order, bypass the left forward flotilla, and get ready for battle!" Murong Longcheng ordered, "Inform the captains of those few ships to keep up with us." ”

He preliminarily determined that this was not like waiting for his fleet to ambush at the mouth of the Pearl River, most of them were pirates looting merchant ships, as long as they did not mix, pirates would generally not cause trouble and provoke additional opponents.

Before accompanying Murong Longcheng to join the Qiongzhou battalion, Borhu, Silva and the others were all old seamen who had experienced several fights with pirates, and they were very experienced, and none of them panicked, calmly maneuvering the ships around the few ships in front.

They bypassed the two sides of the conflict in an arc, and as they passed by, they saw that the boats were indeed fighting fiercely, and the shouts of killing were carried along the sea breeze, and from time to time people fell into the water. Due to the fierce fighting, no one really cared about their fleet.

Bol's eyes were very good, he saw the flags on the bow of the entangled two sides, he was shocked, and said to Murong Longcheng: "Childe...... Captain, this is not a pirate robbing a merchant ship, it is a pirate who is on fire! ”

Murong Longcheng raised his eyebrows: "Oh? ”

"The flag on one side of the ship is a Liu character, and on the other side is a Zhu character ......"

"The small group of bandits in the Guangdong Ocean have been wiped out by the Qiongzhou camp, and most of the bandits surnamed Liu are Liu Xiang, and the bandits with these surnames can still fight against Liu Xiang's ......"

"Only Zhucai is old!" Bol picked up suddenly.

"These two groups of people are not fuel-efficient lamps, we are only a small boat, and the rest are civilian ships that have no ability to resist, the only thing we can do is to avoid them, I hope they can't take care of us."

Heaven seemed to favor them as well, until all the ships had rounded the area, and the battle was still going on, and it seemed that there would be no winner for a while. 8