The fleet passed quickly on the river, soon leaving Sansha behind. Now there are docks and residents on Sansha. Under normal circumstances, boat captains will rest here for a night. Because beyond Sansha is the sea. There are unexpected storms on the sea, and sailors always have to save some strength.
But the same thing is that troops and patrols were stationed on the island in the morning. Zhang Liuwang did not want to rest ashore on Sansha just to avoid trouble. This is the quality a general leader should have.
The fleet went out to sea, and before the sun went down, Zhang Liuwang found a small harbor with familiarity and barely managed to squeeze ten ships in! Zhang Liuwang then inspected each ship one by one and greeted other leaders before letting the sailors rest. But only half of them get a chance by the good luck of drawing lots!
There is a small village not far from the shore. Zhang Liuwang stopped here several times before when he was smuggling goods. Moreover, many seafarers also stopped here, so the small village always had many guest rooms and wine and meat. Although there is not much food and wine, it is still better than eating dry biscuits on the boat! The bed wasn't particularly comfortable either, but at least it wasn't wobbly! .
Early the next morning, the fleet pulled anchor and set sail, heading north according to its previous route. At the beginning, everyone was still wary, for fear of encountering government troops or pirates. But as the boring days at sea began, everyone slowly let down their guard. Those with errands go to work, while those without errands sit on the bow of the boat and brag, and even play cards and roll dice!
This point also reflects the difference between Chinese and Western sailing boats. Western sailboats are fast but complicated to operate the sails, so they require a large number of sailors, and other jobs also require people. Therefore, with the same carrying capacity, Western sailboats require far more sailors than Chinese sailboats. .
So a problem arises: trap hundreds of energetic men on a ship, facing the boundless ocean all day long. If things go on like this, they will go crazy! People will become violent and aggressive! Even in the early days of the Age of Discovery, there was an internal fight that killed most of the people on the ship!
So the Western captains thought of a way, that is, to consume their energy with non-stop labor! Let everyone fall asleep once they leave their posts, and similar problems will not occur! Therefore, non-stop work every day is a fixed part of a sailor's life!
Come on, the deck needs to be wiped down and polished with pumice stone! Every rope must be coiled, from the outside to the inside! All rusty areas need to be sanded clean! All metal parts must be polished to reflect light! Go pump out the water in the cabin again!
For this reason, the sailors made up many songs to curse this kind of life. But this kind of life has also further promoted the development of the navy, and various corresponding regulations have also made them more combat effective!
The Chinese-style sailboat is different. The Chinese-style hard sail is easy to operate and can adapt to winds from all directions! If you are an experienced sailor, you can maintain a certain speed even in headwind conditions!
Coupled with the unique watertight compartments and sealing methods of Chinese sailboats, there is basically no water leakage in the cabin. There is no need to pump water regularly like Western sailboats, so the demand for crew members is relatively small.
And under the condition of lack of manpower, the captains will naturally not let the sailors work to exhaustion. Therefore, compared with Western teams, the Chinese fleet team is indeed lagging behind in terms of cleanliness and institutionalization!
At this time, Zhang Liuwang was sitting on the bow of the boat watching his three men throwing dice. The win or loss was not big, and they only had one penny each time. It was purely to kill time.
There are rules on Zhang Liuwang's boat: you can play, but you can't gamble! He had seen too many sailors lose all their rewards before returning to the voyage, and some even lost to the point of borrowing debt, so they even drew their swords against each other, so he set this rule. .
At this time, Liu Xiaoman crawled out of the cabin, walked to him and sat down next to him, saying, "Take a look around the cabin, there's nothing wrong!"
Zhang Liuwang nodded and said: "That's good! We must not forget the rules when running in the sea. These rules are to save our lives!"
Liu Xiaoman hummed and said: "Boss, you are reciting your sutra again! We have been running on the sea for so many years,
Still don’t know? "
Zhang Liuwang opened his eyes and said, "What's the matter? Are the wings stiff?"
Liu Xiaoman immediately apologized and said, "I don't dare, I don't dare!"
Seeing that Liu Xiaoman relented, Zhang Liuwang said proudly: "I'm sorry you kid doesn't dare!"
After he finished speaking, he stretched and said, "It's been so quiet these days since we were running around, I'm not used to it!"
Hearing what he said, not only Liu Xiaoman laughed, but even the three sailors who were throwing the dice also laughed! One of the sailors said loudly: "Boss, isn't it quiet this time? Tai made money easily, and my boss is happy too! We can also get money!"
In fact, Zhang Shunping asked several other people to arrange this fleet! This is also the first time that Liansheng has shipped goods to the north by sea, so I am very willing to spend the money! The wages from foreman to sailor are 30% more than usual! And if possible, they will sign in the Liansheng account after this transportation is over, so they are very excited about anything!
When Zhang Liuwang heard what the sailor said, he smiled and said: "It must be good! After all, we also look forward to living a peaceful life, but we don't have any confidence in our hearts!"
Liu Xiaoman said: "Boss, why don't you give up? Uncle Wu Ning killed so many pirates some time ago, how can anyone dare to come out to rob now? Our trip will definitely be uneventful!"
Zhang Liuwang sighed and said: "I'm not worried about anything else, I'm just worried about the officials and the big families in our family! They are now trying every means to block the sea ships going to Tianjin from south to north, and they have already spoken out. Who knows? We are not allowed to take jobs from the north! So I am afraid that the North-South conflict will become fierce and our livelihood will be ruined!"
At this time, the sailors stopped playing dice and turned around to sit with Zhang Liuwang. One of the sailors said: "But what does this have to do with us, boss? We are just hired by others, that's all! And the Dong Neng family has the ability to buy so many goods. Let them make trouble on their own when the time comes, don't delay us Just make money!"
Hearing this, the other two sailors nodded in agreement. After all, to them, it has nothing to do with them how the men fight, as long as they work and get money!
