.Chapter 798: Sea breeze (middle)

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

The sky is dark, the clouds are rolling, the sea is dark, and the waves are surging. Storms swept across the vast sea, causing waves of monstrous giants. With that earth-shaking sound, it declares that the supreme power of nature is on this boundless, boiling sea surface, a fleet is struggling hard. These giants who are usually powerful seem so thin and small at this moment, so vulnerable, as if a giant pounces on them and can easily drag them into the rolling waves.

However, if you have a pair of wise eyes, you will find that although these ships are shaking and in danger in the giant *, they are not waiting to die under this extremely powerful force. The sailors on each ship sacrifice their lives to fight the storm under the command of the captain.

Even the connection between them was not separated by the boundless darkness and the surging waves. Each ship had a special lookout hand, staring at the stern of the largest ship with a thousand-mile mirror, counting the changes in the highlights there, and conveying the commands of the fleet leader to their respective captains as soon as possible. In short, in order to deal with various smooth and unsmooth situations, they had a complete set of night signal languages, which was to convey these highlights to each ship.

Each highlight is actually a huge oil-paper lantern, with a burning torch in it; behind each torch, there is a metal parabolic mirror fixed. If it is sunny, it can easily transmit light to thirty miles away. But now the wind and rain are too heavy, and the vision is already very poor. In addition, even the torch soaked in grease must be covered with a lantern. The light suddenly converges, less than one-tenth of the usual ones, and you must use a thousand-mile mirror to barely see the flagship several miles away.

Under such harsh conditions, it is the time when the fleet commander is the most tested. He must understand the wind direction, wind speed, ocean currents, rainfall, as well as the difference in displacement and speed of each ship in the fleet. Comprehensive judgment, and constantly change the course and speed of the fleet, so that the fleet can avoid the most dangerous wind and waves, and prevent the ship behind from falling behind... On this vast ocean, as long as a ship falls off, for the fleet, it will be lost in a vast ocean without a route and boundless road.

At this moment, the life and death of the entire fleet was all in the hands of the flagship captain. With the light of the fury wind lamp, he could see that he was not old and should not be over thirty years old. Although the deck was shaking violently, he still stood there motionlessly, pursing his lips tightly, staring at the front with firm eyes, showing a mature and firmness far beyond his age.

At this time, the storm was even stronger, and the sea was surging. After a while, it rushed towards their ship. The waves rolled over and the hull shook violently, and even made a trembling moan. Even the most experienced sailor showed a timid expression. The first mate and the sailor came to the captain's room and asked the young captain to cut off the foremast, otherwise the possibility of capsizing was extremely high.

But the captain refused their request and instead ordered the rudder to turn south and west and sail with the wind... This is a great adventure, because once this is the case, it is equivalent to handing over control, and the strong wind determines where they will be blown. Once they deviate from the route, run away from the reefs, get lost, or even cause the ship to be destroyed and people to die due to the speed of the ship. This is unpredictable.

The deputy advised him to think about it again. If he cut off the mast and tied the front and back thousands of kilograms of stones into the sea, he could at least make the ship more stable.

"Silly, although our ship is strong, it has too much load and too deep draft. If it slows down and gets hard, the hull will definitely not be able to withstand the surging waves." The captain finally changed his face, pulled out his sword, waved it down hard, and cut the railway line: "Don't say anything again, those who dare to disobey my order will be killed."

At this time, a general wearing Shanwenjia also focused on his head: "As long as the captain's orders."

Seeing that the two people with the highest status agreed, everyone knew that there was no change, so they had to turn around with a silly face and stagger out of the cabin.

Seeing the signal sent from the flagship, the captains on the other ships were unbelievable and all thought that the man was crazy. But the flagship had adjusted its course and suddenly accelerated to the southwest, not giving them time to think. In order to avoid falling behind, they had to curse loudly while ordering to turn around and follow.

Crack - A flash of lightning flashed through the sky, illuminating the dark sky, but saw huge sea boats on the sea, following the typhoon wind direction, cutting waves, and moving forward rapidly towards the southwest direction - under the strong wind, manpower no longer plays a role. Although the sailors on the deck are still tied and fixed by the command of the sailors, and although the eldest mate has led people to jump the auxiliary sail to the best angle, under the power of nature, this is just a drop in the bucket... It depends on where the typhoon will take them-

Everyone is praying devoutly, Mazu, Guanyin Bodhisattva, Virgin Mary, God will forgive us

In this dark torture, the young captain always stood up like a javelin, and there was no panic on his face. When the sailors looked up, they would see his calm and steady figure as if he was as stable as Mount Tai. They felt less panic and said in their hearts: 'It seems that they can escape this disaster...'

I don’t know how long it took, although the wind was still roaring, the waves were still roaring, and the dark clouds were still covering the surroundings, everyone clearly felt that they were getting farther and farther away from the danger. Because the roaring waves gradually weakened, the roaring typhoon became much smaller. Although the waves were still surging and raining, they could all see that they had gradually left the dangerous area.

"Mazu has appeared", "Hallelujah", "Amitabha..." The sailors knelt on the deck and kowtowed to their respective faiths.

"Actually they really deserve to thank you." The general wearing Shanwenjia walked to the captain with a relaxed expression and said, "It seems you are right."

"Help me unlock it first." The captain grinned his teeth and said, it turned out that he tied himself to the pillar, no wonder he could stand so steadily.

"But I'm still curious." The general asked while untiing the rope for him and holding him in a chair, "You decide to exercise with the wind, whether you have confidence or luck."

"We won't joke about the lives of more than 2,000 people." The captain rubbed his sore waist and back and said coolly: "When you encounter a hurricane, you must not stop the boat. You can only pass through the semicircle of the wind."

"How do you know that you can escape by following the wind?" The general said in confusion: "What if you are caught in?"

"After seeing too many waves, I know that this thing has a temper to touch." The captain said: "This kind of hurricane has a wind eye, which is swirling from south to north. The west wind blows in the north," he said, and said in a circle counterclockwise: "Then according to this, the northwest wind, the north wind, the east wind, the southeast wind, the southwest wind... I observed that it moved northward, so that it should be kept at its tailwind, and it should be opposite to the direction of the wind eye movement, so that it can sail sideways and gradually leave the hurricane."

"Forget it..." The general was dizzy when he heard it. He could not understand the winds in the east, west, south and north, so he had to give up and said, "Just get out of danger."

"I dare not say that early. If the wind eye changes direction, we will be completely helpless." Looking at the sailor who has already relaxed, the captain said lightly.

"..." The general said depressedly: "You can't be so irresponsible."

"You should continue to pray that we can get to Luzon smoothly." The captain closed his eyes, and after a while, he made a long snoring sound.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the captain woke up, there were already rays of light in the east, the wind completely stopped, the sky was blue, and the sea returned to its calm green.

After stretching his waist, the captain walked to the observation deck and looked at the stern of the boat. One, two, three, four... all five sea boats were there. He finally felt relieved. After accepting the cheers of the sailors, he signaled them to hurry up and clean the deck and repair the damage to welcome the next storm. He poured a glass of Western whiskey, leaned against the railing, looked at the vast sea surface, breathing the warm sea breeze, and whispered in his heart: "It's great to be alive..."

At this moment, he recalled the afternoon when he first left his hometown and went to Macau to make a living ten years ago. At that time, he had no big name, only his nickname was Afeng.

The original Macau was just a small fishing village called Hao Jingao. It was named after the two bays in the north and south, which were round like oyster shells... also called "Oyster Mirror". I heard that it was the Franchise man and the government who rented it out, and the nice name "Macao".

It’s not just the place name changed. The original small fishing village disappeared. Instead, it was replaced by tall houses, wide roads and crowded streets, and the bustling businessmen on the streets. Many strange clothes and strange-looking aliens from the sky came here with strange smells and countless rare inventions, and exchanged their fresh things for soft and smooth silk, fragrant and attractive tea, and exquisite ceramics as thin as cicadas’ wings...

The sunshine that day had the unique salty taste of the ya tropical, shining on his still tender face. His young and curious eyes did not blink, fearing that he could see this bizarre world. But when he came to the dock, standing in the shadow of the tall sea boat, looking up at the side of the ship that covered the sky and the mast that held the sky, there was finally nothing else in his eyes.

He couldn't help but reach out and stroke the rough cable, his heart beat violently, and a strong premonition burst out, which was his destination in this life. At the age of seventeen, he came from his hometown of Raoping, Chaozhou to the Shiliupu Pier in Macau, walked onto the largest sea boat, became the lowest-level sailor, and also had his own large size - Li Benma, a name that was soon terrifying.

At first, the intern sailor Li Benma had a very ordinary career. He washed the decks, pulled cables, painted paint every day, and poured water for the bosses to wash their feet. If this continues, he would do it step by step, and became the chief sailor or the chief mate for ten years, or it could not be achieved. But the times did not give him the opportunity to follow the steps. At that time, the war between the Japanese pirates and the imperial court had reached a fierce point, and normal business could not continue at all. Moreover, the successive victory of Xu Hai, Chen Dong, Ye Mazi and others in Zhejiang made the maritime merchants see better opportunities to get rich - if they don’t have to trade, they can get rich by robbing directly. If there is no danger, I believe that no one in the world can do business. Therefore, many maritime merchants who used to specialize in smuggling have transformed into the 'green forest on the sea', including Li Benma's ship owner, Lao Weng.

Because of his wit and courage, and his talent for naval battles, the trainee sailor Li Benma quickly stood out among the pirates and was appreciated by the old man Tai. At the age of 20, he became the leader of his main ship and established a great reputation in the Fujian-Guangzhou generation. After the old man Tai died of illness, he continued his career and became the leader of this pirate.

Unlike ordinary pirate leaders who only think about eating large pieces of meat and sharing gold with large scales, Li Benma is a visionary and thoughtful person. He knew that by burning and killing ordinary people would have no future, and would sooner or later be wiped out by officers and soldiers, so he made up his mind to change the livelihood of the green forest on the sea. Perhaps because of his experience from "Water Margin", he raised the banner of "using to seek the land to help the poor, killing corrupt officials and supporting honest officials", and chose Penghu Island as a base to recruit poor people and expand the team. Taking advantage of others' obsession with robbery, he actively expanded maritime trade. After a few years, he was under the jurisdiction of more than 300 ships and more than 40,000 people. He also crisscrossed the sea and never killed innocent people indiscriminately. The money he earned was divided equally by the ministers and supported by the public, and his power gradually expanded.

However, at this time, the situation changed. Chen Dong and Ye Ma successively awarded the title of the head, and Xu Hai accepted the recruitment. Even the old ship owner escaped from death. Not only did he not take revenge, he still accepted the recruitment of the court. Lin Feng also wanted to follow them, but Xu Hai was unwilling to do so. The strength of this young man expanded too quickly. If he was not eliminated as soon as possible, he would have to grab the food in the future. So Wang Zhi fabricated evidence that he colluded with the Japanese in an attempt to occupy Taiwan, hoping to attract the anger of the government... Of course, it was not entirely unfair to Li Benma. His subordinates did have all races, and there was also an elite Japanese ronin team, whose purpose was indeed easy to arouse suspicion.

At that time, Hu Zongxian, the governor of the Southeast, also needed constant battles to maintain his position, so he regarded him as his main opponent in the late stage of his leadership in the anti-Japanese war. First, the general of Fujian Qi Jiguang crossed the sea to destroy his old nest in Penghu Mountain. He made a comeback and was defeated by the successor General Hu Shouren. He fled to Qian Ao and asked for peace in the court, but Xu Yunyi, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, did not allow him. Li Benma, who had no base, had many ships and broad soldiers, could only travel between Fujian and Guangxi. As a result, the Ming Southeast Navy, joined forces with the Wufeng fleet to encircle and suppress. Wang Zhi's adopted son Mao Haifeng personally led the clutch to chase Tamsuiyang and sank him on the ship. The whereabouts of the Japanese chief Li Benma were unknown.

This is the official record of Li Benma. No one knows what happened next. Everyone thinks that he will definitely die, including himself who was seriously injured and fell into the water at that time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

However, when he woke up, he found himself lying in the Macau city where he set sail. Outside the window was the memorable Shiliupu Pier. A row of huge sea boats were quietly docked beside the pier, which seemed much more advanced than the ships back then.

After recuperation for a while, when he recovered almost, a scholar named Mr. Kaiyang appeared in his room accompanied by two warriors.

Without greetings, Li Benma asked directly why he wanted to save me.

"Because you are very valuable." Mr. Kaiyang did not hide it: "So we bribed Mao Haifeng and stepped forward as soon as your warship sank. Fortunately, we rescued you."

"What's my value?"

"You are the most talented navigator I have ever seen. You have strong leadership, calm, confident, ambitious, and very young." Mr. Kaiyang looked at him with his eyes shining and said, "I want to accept you as his disciple."

"What are you doing?" Li Benma looked at the man suspiciously and said, "It's not a hero who hides his head and reveals his tail." He thought to himself, are you worthy?

"Since you are going to accept you as your disciple, of course I won't hide it from you," Mr. Kaiyang said lightly: "My name is Zheng Ruozeng, you may have heard of me."

"You are Hu Zongxian's aide." If the two big men were not eyeing him, Li Benma would probably jump up and strangle him to death, and said, "It was you who gave advice there that killed my brothers."

"Wrong, I have been away from the Grand Marshal for several years." Zheng Ruozeng said with a sad look on his face: "And the Grand Marshal has also been discharged from his armor and returned to his fields."

"What is your identity now?"

"President of Nanyang Company." Zheng Ruozeng said lightly.

"Nanyang Company, I haven't heard of it..."

"Newly established." Zheng Ruozeng looked out the window and said, "This pier, and all the ships on the pier, belong to this company."

"It's not small..." Li Benma narrowed his eyes and said, "The most advanced sea ships and fifty cargo ships are all just launched."

"No," Zheng Ruozeng nodded and said, "It seems that there are no sequelae in my brain, and I am very relieved."

"..." Li Benma rolled his eyes and said, "Is Nanyang Company belonged to Franji?" He didn't believe it even if he was beaten to death. This poor guy was the owner of this company.

"No," Zheng Ruozeng said lightly: "I'm going to tell you that the boss is a wealthy family in the southeast."

"Nine Masters?" Li Benma frowned and said, "Forget it, I won't ask anymore. It will be no good for me if I know too much." As he said that, his face darkened and said, "My subordinates and the people who follow me, how about now?" His expression became obviously nervous.

"Haha, don't worry, it's great," Zheng Ruozeng smiled and said, "Jingluo Shen accepted their surrender and placed them in your hometown, re-registered them, and live a peaceful life in the future... You can go back to see them at any time. Yes, you have been pardoned when you go back openly."

"Really?" Li Benma's thoughts turned, his eyes tightened, and he stared at Zheng Ruozeng and said, "It seems that Nanyang Company has a lot of energy."

"That's right," Zheng Ruozeng nodded and smiled, "How about you, have you agreed to be my apprentice?" As he said, lobbying, "It's great to be my apprentice. Not only will you not beat and scold you, but you will also raise you to another level. And after you become a disciple, you can also arrange for you to enter the company and be the head of the navigation department..." As he said, he pointed outside and said, "These ships are under your command."

After chatting for a long time, Li Benma rolled his eyes: "Do I have a choice?" Not to mention that those subordinates and the people are his bonds, just talking about the strong fleet outside is enough to arouse his ambition to set sail again.

"Haha, too." Zheng Ruozeng smiled and said, "By the way, what do you call you in the future? Is it a galloping horse?"

"..." Li Benma thought to himself that this man was shameless. Before he became a disciple, he claimed to himself first, but he was too lazy to bother with him. He thought about it and said, "The name Li Benma has become history. My original surname is Lin and my nickname is A Feng, so just call me Lin Feng."

---------------------------segmentation---------------------
Chapter completed!