On the bow of the America-1 ship, Lu Wan, who was in the prime of life, stood in the wind, looking in the direction of Taiwan with satisfaction. They are now located off the coast of northern Luzon, above the North Equatorial Current, to be exact, where the currents come from east to west, and when they meet Luzon and turn northwest, just enough to return to Taiwan.

Speaking of their sea trial route this time, first from Taiwan to Manila, then south around Luzon, and then turn to the southeast, just to catch the eastward equatorial current, and then they followed the current all the way to the east, but walked for half a month, and when the crew and the new ship were almost run-in, they immediately turned the bow of the ship and went north, entered the north equatorial current to return, and completed the sea trial.

The sea trials not only familiarized the crew with the characteristics of the new ship and the life on board, but also familiarized the crew with sailing in the equatorial current, and when they actually sailed, they would follow the equatorial current all the way east until they reached the Americas, and then returned along the North Equatorial Current after completing the task of collecting seeds and drawing nautical charts.

Lüvan's fleet consisted of eight purpose-built vessels, not particularly large, but extremely sturdy and stable, and with excellent wind and wave performance. Lüvin named these eight ships as Americas I to VIII, and each ship had 50 people, and the entire fleet was 400 people, which can be said to be very large.

Lu Wan looked back at the fleet behind him, his face was full of hesitation, he had made the Americas the most important goal in this life, it had taken years to prepare, and now he had finally completed the formation of the exploration fleet, and next, it was the last step of the past few years of hard work. It's about the real journey of discovery.

Just when Lu Wan was full of ambition, suddenly a topless person walked behind him. The man was scratching around and holding a glass bottle in his hand. It contained a pale green liquid that was being sprinkled on its body.

"Captain, do me a favor, sprinkle some potion on my back, there are too many jumps on the ship, you can lose half a catty of blood when you sleep!" The person who came was Feng Shijie, but he was used to the rich life at home in recent years, and he was a little uncomfortable with the living environment on the ship, especially the jumping and lice. He was tortured even more.

Lu Wan smiled after hearing this, took the anthelmintic potion in the other party's hand, and then rubbed some potion on the other party's back, speaking of which, they have paid enough attention to hygiene on the boat, but the parasites such as jumping and lice cannot be avoided, after all, there is no such thing as a haircut in this era, both men and women have long hair, and there is nothing when this hairstyle is on land. It's just a little hard to take care of, but at sea, it's a big hassle, because fresh water is scarce on board. Therefore, the crew usually don't talk about washing their hair and face, and sometimes they don't even drink enough water, and their long hair is naturally prone to breeding all kinds of parasites.

I saw that Lu Wan, who was rubbing the potion on Feng Shijie, suddenly stretched out his hand. Grab a jumper on the opponent's head, and then use your fingers hard. only heard the sound of 'pop', and this blood-soaked jumping was pinched flat by him.

"The jumping on the clothes is easy to handle. It's a big deal to boil the sea water and soak it, but you can't do anything about the jumping in your hair, unless you're like a monk, you don't grow hair by nature. Lu Wan flicked off the jumping in his hand, and then said with a smile. The monk in his mouth is the nickname of one of the crew members on the ship, because he had a high fever when he was a child, and as a result, he has never grown his hair since, so he was nicknamed a monk.

However, Lu Wan's words reminded Feng Shijie, and he saw his eyes light up and said: "This is a good way, just let me shave my hair, so that even if there are lice on my body, I can quickly remove them." ”

"Huh?" Lu Wan was stunned when he heard Feng Shijie's words, although he was a pirate, he also knew that his parents had never heard of anyone shaving their hair except for those who were monks and monks.

Lu Wan originally thought that Feng Shijie was just joking, so he didn't take it to heart, but what he didn't expect was that when he saw Feng Shijie again the next day, the other party had already shaved his head, and he asked the chef on the ship to order the knife, and he was also from a knife player, so his skills were naturally very exquisite, at least Lu Wan did not have a wound on his head.

"Shisuke, you really did it!" Lu Wan looked at Feng Shijie's smooth head and said speechlessly. In fact, he forgot that although Feng Shijie was a Han Chinese, he grew up in the Wa Kingdom, and Feng Shijie didn't care much about some of the deep-rooted habits and behaviors of the Han people.

"Hehe, how cool this is, and I'm not afraid of lice, fortunately you reminded me, captain, otherwise I really wouldn't have thought of such a good way!" Feng Shijie touched his pale blue scalp and smiled. And the crew members who walked by him saw him, and they were also dumbfounded, in their eyes, this Surveyor Liu, who was second only to the captain on the ship, was also a person who had read books, but he didn't expect him to be greedy for a moment of coolness, and shaved all his hair, could it be that he wanted to be a monk?

However, there are also people who are very much in favor of Feng Shijie's shaving of his head, such as the crew member nicknamed Monk, who raised his hands in favor of this. In the past, he was ridiculed by other crew members because he didn't grow his hair, but now there is finally someone who is bald like him, and Feng Shijie, who is second only to the captain on the ship, which makes him feel proud of his eyebrows, and even preaches the benefits of being bald, such as being clean and not having lice.

But I don't know if Feng Shijie took the lead, or the benefits of the monk's bald head have taken effect, and after a few days, there are really a few bold people who have shaved their heads, in their words, anyway, I don't know how much time it will take to go to the Americas this time, everyone stays on the ship and doesn't see outsiders, it's nothing to be barehead for the time being, and when they come back, maybe the hair has grown.

The above statement really made many crew members excited, after all, they are all perennial boat runners, have been in contact with many foreign people, know that many countries have the custom of cutting hair, in addition, they are also rough people, they have no education, they don't pay much attention to etiquette, plus Feng Shijie and others take the lead, so the crew on the ship was ready to move for a while, and they all had the idea of shaving their heads, after all, it is not a good thing to jump and lice bite people.

However, Lu Wan was immediately startled when he found that the crew members had signs of shaving their heads, and specially convened a meeting of the crew, the content of the meeting was not to let the crew shave their heads, but to let everyone endure it for the time being, and wait until they returned to Taiwan this time, and then officially set sail, and it was not too late to shave their heads. After all, just a few bald heads of Feng Shijie are not conspicuous, but if the fleet returns to Taiwan with a group of bald heads, it will definitely be a matter that can cause a news sensation, and may even attract criticism from some people.

Lu Wan's fleet soon arrived in Taiwan, and then was personally received by Li Su, but when he saw Feng Shijie with a bare head, he was also stunned, he used to think that long hair was difficult to take care of, but he didn't dare to shave his hair short like later generations, after all, with his identity, plus in this era, if he dared to do this, it would be too deviant. Later, after slowly getting used to it, Li Su no longer felt that there was anything wrong with long hair.

But what he didn't expect was that Feng Shijie actually took the initiative to shave his hair because of the annoyance of jumping and lice, and Lu Wan also reported to him that most of the crew on the ship meant this, so I hope he doesn't blame him.

For this kind of thing, Li Su is too late to be happy, how can he blame? After all, after the crew shaved their heads, there were fewer parasites on their bodies, and this also greatly reduced the incidence of infectious diseases.

Even Li Su was still wondering if he should issue a decree to encourage sailors who went to sea to shave their hair, and they didn't have to shave their heads bald, as long as they had short hair, which was trouble-free and clean. However, after thinking about it again, he still gave up this idea for the time being, after all, shaving hair seems to be a trivial matter, but it marks a tradition of thousands of years in the Central Plains, which can only allow people to change spontaneously and slowly, and is not suitable for official forces to intervene, so it is better to let hair shaving develop freely.

Lu Wan, who had returned from the sea trial, reported the situation to Li Suyu, and at the same time, some minor problems encountered by the ship and various aspects were also submitted to the relevant departments to be responsible for resolution, and as a result, it took more than a month to finally prepare everything and the fleet could set sail at any time.

Originally, the fleet was ready to set sail in September, but it was between summer and autumn, and it was also the peak season of typhoons, so in the end, Li Su postponed the date of departure by another month, and by then it had entered early winter, and very few typhoons would form during this period, which was a good time for Lu Wan and them to set sail.

On October 11, the twentieth year of Zhenguan, the exploration fleet composed of eight Americas set sail in Keelung Port, Li Su and Princess Xiao Wenxin saw off the fleet, and the people who had already learned the news spontaneously came to the port to see them off, the entire wharf was full of people, and it was estimated that it should be more than 10,000 people, and this was because of the limited space, there were many people outside the wharf who could not squeeze in, and the other ships in the port were also full of people who came to see them off.

Although they may not know the significance of this trip, people feel that this exploration will be a pioneering feat in the history of navigation, and they naturally want to witness such a meaningful event. (To be continued......)