Humans have been hunting whales for a long time, but in the north, whaling is still a blue ocean industry.

Thinking of this, Zhao Tai did not rest, decided to take a look at the fishing boat first, and asked: "Where is the boat? Take me to take a look."

Sun Li pointed to the distance, "Those two ships!"

Zhao Tai immediately followed Sun Li and walked towards the fishing boat moored on the shore in the distance.

In the strait between the East China Sea Islands and Haeju Island, dozens of fishing boats and warships are moored on the east side of Haeju Island.

Most of these ships are two-masted ships, and there are also a few flat ships. They were also borrowed by Zhao Tai from the Southern Song Dynasty navy, and they had to be returned to the Southern Song Dynasty after three months.

Zhao Tai couldn't help but ask: "How is our navy training?"

Sun Li was a little embarrassed, "Ms. sir, my brothers are all from the north. Now we can only barely stand on the boat, and there is no training!"

As he spoke, he raised his hand and pointed to several sailboats sailing in the strait, "That is our navy."

Zhao Tai looked over and saw several ships sailing on the sea, with soldiers standing on the decks. They did not practice other projects, but sailed through the strait.

Zhao Tai couldn't help but ask: "The strait is not wide enough, why can't we train outside the sea?"

Sun Li explained: "My lord, the wind and waves are light inside the strait, but the waves outside are big, and the brothers can't bear it."

After listening to Sun Li's words, Zhao Tai knew that his navy was still far from forming combat power.

Fortunately, the navy is not needed to fight Mongolia now, and they have enough time to train.

Zhao Tai did not blame the progress of the training and said with a smile: "Take your time! If you can stand firm now, you will be able to fight on the ship in the future!"

Sun Li said: "But the navy of the Song Army will have to go back in two months!"

Zhao Tai pondered for a while, "Don't worry about this, I will figure out a solution when the time comes!"

Although Zhao Tai's need for the navy is not very urgent, if he can master a navy that can be used, he will undoubtedly have a slight initiative in strategy.

Now there is no doubt that the Mongols are in an offensive posture, while the Jin Kingdom and the Southern Song Dynasty can only passively defend.

In this case, it doesn't matter even if the Mongols are defeated many times. As long as the Jin and Song armies fail once, they will suffer heavy losses and may even be in danger of losing their country.

At this time, if there is a strong navy, Zhao Tai can send the navy to attack Hebei and Liao when the Mongolian army goes south, preventing the Mongols from going south with all their strength.

In addition, if the resistance against Mongolia fails, he can also sail out to sea and create a new world overseas.

If the Song Navy navy left after only three months, then they really wouldn't have learned anything.

When Sun Li heard Zhao Tai say that he would find a way, he felt relieved.

At this time, the few people stopped talking and walked along the coast, finally stopping in front of two sea ships.

Sun Li pointed out: "Ms. sir, these are the two ships."

Zhao Tai looked at the two ships and had to admit that the shipbuilding technology of the Song Dynasty was very advanced.

The two fishing boats are more than thirty meters long, have three masts, and have a towering helm at the stern. They can be called warships.

The ship was not out to sea at this time, and except for the watchers, fishermen and sailors were not on board.

Sun Li asked the people on the boat to put down the long board, and Zhao Tai boarded the ship with them and stepped onto the slightly shaking deck.

"Ms. sir, this is the ship owner we invited, Zheng Yingbo!" Sun Li led an old man to Zhao Tai, who was looking east and west.

"Little old man, pay homage to your husband!" The old man was a little surprised to see young Zhao Tai, but he still saluted immediately.

Each of these two fishing boats has an owner. They signed a contract with Cathay Trading Company to contract the ship to go out to sea to hunt whales.

In the future, if someone wants to go out to sea to hunt whales, they can choose the fishing boat provided by the contractor company, or they can choose to bring a boat to join.

"No gift!" Zhao Tai waved his hand and walked over to take a look at him. His skin was dark and rough, and his trouser legs were rolled up. It looked like he had been out at sea all year round, blown by the sea breeze and exposed to the sun. "Has Mr. Zheng ever hunted whales?"

Zheng Yingbo shook his head, "I go fishing all year round, but I have never caught a whale."

Zhao Tai patted him on the shoulder when he heard the words, "It doesn't matter, whales are also fish!"

Zheng Yingbo couldn't laugh or cry after hearing Zhao Tai's words. Although he had never caught a whale, he had seen it on the sea. How could it be an ordinary fish?

Zhao Tai naturally knew that whales were not actually fish, so he just said this to comfort them.

At this time, Zhao Tai looked around and carefully looked at the deck of the ship, and saw a crossbow bed placed on the bow of the ship.

Zhao Tai walked over, touched the crossbow bed, looked at the arm-thick crossbow arrows, and couldn't help but admired: "This thing is great!"

Sun Li said: "This was removed from the city wall and brought over before the Mongolian army captured Haizhou. Captain Zheng said he needed this for whaling, so we put him on it."

Zheng Yingbo said: "The little old man heard from people in the south about whaling in the south. He knew that they used large crossbows to shoot whales and then dragged them back to the harbor, so he came to this crossbow bed."

Zhao Tai nodded slightly, "We do need a crossbow bed. In addition, the whale's body is huge. If the weather is hot, it will rot easily. You have to prepare iron pots, charcoal for oil refining, and salt on the ship."

The weather is hot now. If the captured whale dies and the fishing boat is far away from the land, it needs to be processed directly on the boat. Otherwise, it will be highly decomposed when it is brought back.

Zheng Yingbo said: "Don't worry, sir, these things are available in the cabin. We also prepared a lot of wooden barrels to store grease."

Zhao Tai saw that the ship had been prepared, and looked around again. He felt that he had nothing to add, so he asked, "When can we go to sea?"

Zheng Yingbo said: "We are basically ready now, and we can go to sea in two days!"

Zhao Tai nodded with satisfaction, "If you successfully capture the whale, I will reward you heavily!"

At that moment, Zhao Tai watched for a while and then told Zheng Yingbo to set off early when he was ready and get a batch of grease for him as soon as possible.

At this time, Zhao Tai disembarked, and the ship sent by Li Zhongquan to Haeju had already arrived on the other side.

Zhao Tai looked from a distance and saw that the Haizhou Mongolian army did not seem to be embarrassing them, but instead made a deal with them.

This made Zhao Tai ponder. It seemed that Li Fen had no intention of fighting after the disastrous defeat in Huainan.

Zhao Tai couldn't help stroking his beard and began to think about how to get Li Fen to start a rebellion in Mongolia in advance so that he could take advantage of it.

He vaguely remembered that Li Fen started the Mongolian rebellion after the death of Mongke Khan, a war for the throne broke out within the Mongolian people, and when Kublai Khan and his younger brother Ali Buge were "two Khans".

At that time, Li Fen saw the civil strife in Mongolia and felt that there was an opportunity to take advantage of it. He also believed that the northern princes would join him in raising troops, so he decided to resist Mongolia.

Looking at it this way, there is obviously no condition to instigate rebellion against Li Fen now.
Chapter completed!