On land, it is said that "looking up the mountain means running away from the horse", and there is a similar feeling at sea.
Obviously Jinghua's large fleet was discovered by the Spanish warship's lookout for a long time, but until Alfaro's lifeboat quickly moved forward and was finally picked up by Jinghua's people and sent to the flagship, the distance between the two fleets seemed to be much closer. In fact, the distance between the two fleets seemed much closer. I'm afraid it will take half an hour to really make contact.
A short while later, on the Jinghua Expedition Fleet flagship "Lang Son", Gao Jing quickly walked into the bridge command room where Huang Zhiting was - in fact, it is not called a bridge in this era, because the bridge itself is steam It was a term that appeared in the paddle steamer period, but because the people in Jinghua were influenced by the name Gao pragmatism, and Gao pragmatism was a dabbler, it appeared early.
"Capital, the other party sent an envoy over. He claimed to be a missionary and said he knew General Gao and Third Master. Do you want to see him?"
"General Commander Gao" refers to Gao Mengnan, the general commander of the three towns of Ngai An, Hue and Quang Nam, and the third master refers to Gao Wuqin - he originally worked as a third-level servant in the sixth house of the Gao family. All high-pragmatic servants, according to the customs of this era, It is customary to call his younger brothers "Sou Ye", and so-and-so is his or her profession.
However, this "third master" is just a customary title, because after Gao Wuguan was adopted to Gao Gong, Gao Wuqin should actually be the "second master".
Huang Zhiting originally didn't want to see any messenger. Even if the other party really had something to do, she thought Gao Jing would just go and talk to him. However, since the other party claims to know Gao Mengnan and Gao Wuqin, the situation is different. It is necessary for her to meet them. This is determined by the principle of "identity equality".
Another point is that Huang Zhiting feels that Gao Pragmatic's attitude towards missionaries seems to be pretty good, and she doesn't want to be out of step with Gao Pragmatic on this matter.
"Then let's meet, but I don't know how to speak in French. Does the fleet have an interpreter?"
"Everyone is joking. The minimum number of people who can serve as interpreters in the expedition fleet is no less than a hundred people." Gao Jing chuckled.
Huang Zhiting was stunned for a moment: "Why do you bring so many Flemish interpreters?"
"Well, everyone has misunderstood. It's not that there are so many interpreters, but that there are so many people who can serve as interpreters." Gao Jing explained: "The Nanyang Fleet itself is mainly engaged in maritime trade. People in the fleet will say There are many people who speak Castilian and Portuguese languages. In addition, there are also more than 30 Guangdong and Annan bosses on the ships that came with us this time. I would say there are no less than a hundred people. 'It's already very conservative."
"That's it." Huang Zhiting understood, nodded and said: "Then let's find one on the Lang Son nearby. Does the other party speak Spanish?"
"It should be so." Gao Jing spread his hands and said: "Most of these missionaries can speak the language of more than one country. The one who comes now calls himself 'Alfaro' and is the president of the 'Franciscan Acting Province of Manila'. But he just spoke in Chinese with the little one...but he’s not very proficient, maybe he’s new here.”
Huang Zhiting nodded and said: "It's not surprising that he can speak Chinese. Father Luo Mingjian, who met with the high school minister before, speaks Chinese very well. I heard that he has also practiced calligraphy in the past two years. The third master even praised him once I told him that the writing was somewhat decent."
Although Gao Wuqin is only "at the level of a student" in the words of his elder brother Gao Pingshi, the academic style of the Gao clan in Xinzheng is there, and his handwriting is still good. Since Gao Wuqin could praise Luo Mingjian's calligraphy as "somewhat impressive", then it was indeed quite impressive, so Huang Zhiting was not surprised that the Reverend Alfaro who came today could speak Chinese.
Gao Jing then sent someone to invite Alfaro to the bridge, and also arranged for an interpreter. Although Alfaro could speak Chinese, his level was not as good as that of Luo Mingjian, who came to the Ming Dynasty earlier. Who knows whether he might have misspoken. thing?
Alfaro has been looking around since he boarded the ship. He is not unfamiliar with sea ships, but he found that Jinghua's ship was very different from the Jinghua "armed merchant ship" he had seen before.
The biggest feature is: this is definitely a battleship, a complete battleship.
Of course, it is too simple to discover this, because this Lang Son is the only ship in the entire Jinghua Expedition Fleet with two decks of guns. No country has the luxury to treat a ship with such powerful armament as a merchant ship, and the flagship of the Spanish Treasure Fleet does not transport cargo.
Alfaro noticed that the armament of this warship was very special. It seemed to be particularly inclined to a certain type of artillery - at least the open-air deck guns he could see so far were all of the same class and model, with exactly the same size and shape.
Although Alfaro is not a soldier, he is obviously not a military blind person. He can tell from the appearance of these artillery pieces that these are all long and heavy artillery pieces. They are well-made and well-maintained. They can even be said to be very new. They may have been in service not long ago. .
He couldn't help but feel a little strange in his heart, because at this time in Europe, even warships could not be equipped with only one type of artillery, especially not only one long and heavy cannon. He judged that either the other light guns were not loaded on the deck gun level, or the warship had no intention of dealing with small ships from the beginning of its construction, and had not even considered joining forces to fight.
"Could it be that this warship will never perform a mission alone? It will never encounter pirates? How can its designer, builder and owner have such confidence?"
Alfaro's train of thought went astray. In fact, the Lang Son class warship had other artillery. The guns on its lowest deck were mainly light artillery, and the design purpose was to target pirate boats. The middle layer and open-deck guns are all long and heavy guns - higher shipboard positions can shoot farther.
However, Alfaro noticed something when he boarded the ship just now. The deck gun on the bottom of the battleship was too low, only more than one meter above the sea level.
This kind of design is rare in Europe. Unless it is a galley warship in the Mediterranean, if it is in the Atlantic Ocean, it will be easy for the artillery to be flooded in this position. It seems that the sea conditions in the South China Sea should be relatively gentle, otherwise the opponent will It can't be designed like this.
But this design also has advantages, that is, it can push the center of gravity of the entire ship downward, and the hull structure will not be too high, which not only enhances the seaworthiness of the warship, but also reduces the possibility of being hit in a naval battle.
All in all, the design of this warship is based on the sea conditions of the South China Sea in all aspects. It can and can only exert its full combat effectiveness in sea areas with less wind and waves. It will definitely not be useful if it goes to Europe.
Alfaro also noticed that there were artillery shell boxes neatly placed on the deck of the warship, but the gunpowder boxes were not placed. This showed that the other party was prepared for war, but did not intend to start a war immediately. This made him a little lucky and felt that he had made the right trip.
The last thing he noticed was the rigging of the warship. When he saw the rigging of the Lang Son's mainmast, he was inexplicably surprised: Why is their rigging so simple?
Indeed, compared to the crushingly complicated rigging of European soft sails, the rigging used by the "Gao's hard sail" was so simple that he was speechless.
If the rigging of European-style soft sails is a college mathematics problem, then the rigging of Gao's hard sails is definitely not beyond the junior high school level in complexity, and may even be in the elementary school level.
But the more complicated the rigging is, the better. On the contrary, the simpler the rigging is, the better while ensuring the effectiveness, because complex rigging will only cause trouble whether in wartime or in peacetime. The simple operation of the rigging is also a big advantage of the hard sail system - because the characteristics of the hard sail ensure that it can catch the wind well without having the people below to pay attention to the sail operation at all times.
This is like saying that if a soft sail scores a perfect score in sailing, the overall attributes may be calculated as 100 points, but the upper limit of a hard sail may only be 90 points.
However, the problem is that the vast majority of users of soft sailing boats cannot achieve a perfect score. A score of 60 is considered a pass, and a score of 70 is already good. And those who can guarantee a 70-point level in actual combat are even rarer. They are definitely the performance of an elite navy.
The hard sail is different. Although its full score may only be 90, the passing mark for normal operation is 80 points. It is not difficult to maintain a score of more than 80 in battle. As for the hard sail having to go to fight in the Atlantic, that is Another thing is the problem of production materials.
In fact, in later generations, sailing battleships have become legendary. All sailboats used in sailing regattas on the sea have used hard sails, but they use new chemical materials. This also proves that as long as the materials pass the test, hard sailing ships are actually the best. Nice sailboat.
Of course, Gao Pragmatic could not produce the chemical materials of later generations. He only strengthened the properties of hard sails by relying on unexpected discoveries when he was working in Guangxi. In the sea, Jinghua's sails must be the best sails.
It's a pity that Alfaro didn't have the opportunity to observe it up close, or even have time for him to study it, because he was quickly invited into the command room.
Alfaro was shocked when he discovered that the supreme commander of the opposing fleet (by mistake) was a woman in military uniform. There are various "levels" of monarchs in Europe such as queens, duchess, and countess, but there are really few female generals.
This made him not even know how to salute for a moment.
Fortunately, the interpreter beside him knew "Fanggui" very well and immediately introduced him in Castilian: "Father Alfaro, the lady in front of you is Huang, the deputy chief of the Annan Metropolitan Division of the Ming Dynasty. She is a noble with a hereditary territory of more than 10,000 square kilometers, and her family has a long history of hereditary nobles for hundreds of years. Today, the total hereditary territory of the Huang family is approximately more than 40,000 square kilometers. His subjects number nearly one million, and his family’s standing army, which is capable of conquering and fighting, has more than 40,000 people.”
Alfaro was taken aback and asked in a confirmation tone: "Ms. Huang's family has a standing army of more than 40,000 people?"
The young man who temporarily acted as interpreter smiled elegantly and nodded: "Yes, priest. I know you are surprised, because when the Italian War broke out, the King of France brought 20,000 troops and almost overturned the whole of Italy. . But I can ensure that what I just introduced is completely factual. In fact, Vice Governor Huang himself has a standing army of almost 20,000 people, and the combat effectiveness of these people has been demonstrated in the Annan Conquest War - if you know, forgive me As for the Battle of Shanshan, because that battle was personally commanded by Deputy Dutong Huang."
Alfaro looked shocked, then hurriedly stepped forward, walked directly three steps in front of Huang Zhiting, knelt down on one knee under the suddenly cold eyes of the wolf soldiers, lowered his head, and praised humbly and loudly: "Sincerely With the most respectful greetings from me, Pedro de Alfaro, I dedicate it to Joan of Arc of the East. Your bloodline is extremely noble, your achievements are extremely dazzling, and your beauty is unmatched by anyone who can see you. My appearance must be the Lord’s greatest favor to me.”
In the command room, even people who didn't understand Castilian could see the politeness of the people, but they were a little dissatisfied with the visitor just kneeling down on one knee.
And Huang Zhiting couldn't understand why this man had a flattering look on his face and muttered a long sentence, but he just knelt down on one knee. He couldn't help but frowned slightly and asked the interpreter: "It's just a greeting, why did he say such a thing?" Long?"
The interpreter was a little embarrassed and asked: "This... Dutong, do you want to interpret them all?"
Huang Zhiting suddenly misunderstood, and her face became serious: "Why, what treacherous words did he say? Translate them all."
As her tone turned stern, the surrounding wolf soldiers immediately put their hands on their weapons, and the air in the command room seemed a bit colder.
The interpreter did not dare to delay and quickly translated it word for word. As a result, everyone in the command room couldn't hold back their laughter, and Huang Zhiting herself couldn't laugh or cry either.
What's going on with this priest? It seems that I am already in my old age, why do I speak so frivolously, and actually say to a girl who has not yet left the court that your beauty is unparalleled, and that being able to see your face is a gift from God to me?
She was suddenly worried that if she didn't take serious punishment on this matter, would Gao Lang be angry if he found out?
Fortunately, just when murderous intent began to appear in her beautiful eyes, the interpreter seemed to realize something and quickly explained: "Du Tong, can you please allow me to say a few more words?"
Huang Zhiting was temporarily stopped by him, glanced at him, and replied coldly: "Say."
"The Joan of Arc that the priest is talking about is one of their European heroines, just like Hua Mulan and She Taijun. She has a very high status among the people and is called a saint (at this time, the Vatican has not yet canonized Joan of Arc). Holy). In addition, the customs of these Fan people are very different from our Ming Dynasty. When they praise female nobles, they often praise the beauty of the other party. This is not disrespectful to them. If you... uh."
As the interpreter spoke, he suddenly realized something and quickly stopped.
Huang Zhiting's complexion improved a lot after hearing his explanation, but the last moment made her suspicious again and asked: "What if?"
The interpreter immediately hesitated and turned his attention to Gao Jing. Gao Jing looked confused and frowned: "If you have something to say, just say it. See what I do. I don't understand what they are saying."
The interpreter had no choice but to bite the bullet and said: "If you...well, if you are willing to return the gift according to their rules, you only need to stretch out your right hand and let him kiss the back of your hand. "
It seems that the level of this interpreter is not completely up to standard, because there are actually many things to pay attention to when kissing hands, and it often depends on the situation.
First, it usually only happens in the upper class, so this is no problem; second, it is rarely targeted at unmarried women, but of course this is not absolute, especially when the age difference between the two parties is such a big difference; third, if the woman’s status If it is higher, the man not only needs to half-kneel, but he cannot actually kiss the back of the other person's hand, just to show it. Finally, generally speaking, whether to kiss the hand or not depends on whether the woman has actively extended her hand to lower her hand. If you don't take the initiative to lower your hand, the man can't take the initiative.
But this interpreter was obviously half-experienced on this issue, or he had heard or seen it from elsewhere and didn’t really understand it.
As a result, Huang Zhiting's tone suddenly became as cold as ice, and she said coldly: "I would rather start a war."
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