In November of the 11th year of Chengshun, many warships of the Chu Empire Navy escorted many large armed merchant ships of the Nanyang Trading Company southward.

In addition to them, many merchant ships heading to Southeast Asia also set out with them in order to obtain naval escort, and also to gather together to protect themselves and avoid pirate attacks.

When the autumn and winter monsoons set off, it is the peak period for a large number of merchant ships from the Chu Empire to go to Southeast Asia for trade.

Sailing in autumn will not only benefit from the acceleration of the monsoon, making the sailing faster, but also you will not encounter too many storms, making sailing safer.

However, this does not include the ships of the Liuhe Trading Company. In the summer, the two lucky ships of the Liuhe Trading Company had already sailed to Nanyang in the south monsoon several months in advance. Sailing against the monsoon is more difficult and risky.

, but the competition is also smaller, and relatively speaking, the profits will be more.

By the time the Nanyang Trading Company's fleet headed for Nanyang, Liu Jiaquan had already led the fleet back to Guangzhou against the wind.

When returning, because they were sailing on a fixed route, Liu Jiaquan was able to see the navy's escort warships and many large armed merchant ships from the Nanyang Trading Company.

Looking at the huge Shenghe on the sea ahead, which was much larger than the escorting warships next to it, Liu Jiaquan's face was full of envy and jealousy.

This is a real armed merchant ship!

It can carry thousands of tons of cargo at a time, has powerful naval gun firepower, and can carry hundreds of cargo across the country. With such an armed merchant ship, it can't go anywhere in the vastness of Southeast Asia.

Not to mention Nanyang, he dared to run even to the Indian Ocean.

However, Liu Jiaquan also smiled when he thought about Luohua Shipyard.

Calculating the time, Luohua Shipyard should have completed the basic shipyard construction, and the 1,000-ton sea-going ship I ordered should also have entered the preparation time.

In another year or so, I should be able to get a large-scale ship of 1,000 tons.

If nothing else goes wrong, your Liuhe Trading Company will be the fourth trading company in the Chu Empire to own a thousand-ton large-scale ship.

The previous Songjiang Naval Shipyard, Guangzhou Shipyard and Lishi Shipyard had basically taken over their thousand-ton large-scale ship production capacity by the three major trading companies. It is unlikely that other trading companies will take advantage of these three shipyards for many years in the future.

Obtained a thousand-ton ocean ship in hand.

By taking a stake in Luohua Shipyard, he successfully obtained an order for a thousand-ton large-scale ship, and also obtained the right to prioritize orders.

According to the agreement, the first two thousand-ton large-scale ships of Luohua Shipyard will belong to Liu Jiaquan, and the third, fourth or even fifth ship will depend on the situation!

If there is no problem with the funds and nothing goes wrong at the shipyard, and if the maritime trading company continues to be as prosperous as it is today, then Liu Jiaquan will raise funds and use priority rights to continue to order a third ship or even a third ship.

The fourth and fifth thousand-ton large-scale ships.

If the situation is not good by then, then Liu Jiaquan will naturally not use the priority, and then there will be requests for his trading company to obtain these large-scale ships of 1,000 tons.

In any case, except for the three major trading companies, other trading companies have to follow Liu Jiaquan and eat dust.

Although there may only be a time difference of two to three years or even one or two years, for maritime trade with huge goods value and huge profits, these few years are enough to bring huge profits to Liu Jiaquan.

While Liu Jiaquan was enjoying the beautiful scene after his thousand-ton large-scale ship was put into service, Xia Houjun, dressed in a scholar's robe and holding a monocular telescope, stood calmly on the deck of the Shenghe in the same sea area, using

The telescope observes the surrounding sea.

The surrounding sea is relatively calm, and there are many ships on the surrounding sea, but they are all ships of the Chu Empire.

There are two oncoming blessing ships on the left front. The crew has reported that the two blessing ships are ships of the Liuhe Trading Company, a private trading company with a large number of powerful navigation skills and even combat capabilities.

Xiahou Jun also knew a little bit about this company and even the owner of this company, Liu Jiaquan, because when Xiahou Jun was serving in the Pearl River Fleet, he was ordered to go to sea many times to encircle and suppress pirates along the coast of Guangdong. One of his targets was this

All of the Liu family.

However, Liu Jiaquan was smarter. He went directly to the coast of Vietnam and later registered it as a trading company. Such a big pirate leader suddenly became a maritime trader... It sounds very ridiculous, but in the early years of the Chu Empire

It is very common along the coast.

Most of the dozens of trading companies with ocean-going trade licenses in the Dachu Empire are pirates. Of course, they may not think so. They still think that they are maritime merchants who only commit robberies occasionally...

Not to mention private trading companies, even the 18th Trading Company directly under the Ministry of Industry, the predecessor of this company was the merchant fleet that was split off from Zheng Zhilong's gang!

On the other hand, Nanyang Trading Company and Dongyang Trading Company are relatively pure. The crews are all from the navy, and many of the ships were retired from the navy.

To a certain extent, these two trading companies are actually the second-line fleet of the navy...

"This Liu Jiaquan is quite courageous. He has been running counter-monsoon routes like this, and he is not afraid of something happening one day." Xia Houjun still admires this Liu Jiaquan.

Those who dare to take risks will never be too old, and those who take risks will never be too old.

Except for the two lucky ships of Liuhe Trading Company ahead, Xiahou Jun found no other foreign ships. The rest around them were all his own ships.

His six merchant ships, three in a group, formed two columns and sailed side by side after a certain distance.

At the side and behind are more than a dozen armed merchant ships from other trading companies. They also followed the navy's instructions and listed two columns connected end to end.

The navy's multiple escort warships are scattered in the front, rear, left and right.

Thousands of meters in front of the Shenghe are two cruisers of the Dachu Empire Navy. The distance between them is very large, several kilometers, and behind them are two Jinling-class battleships sailing in two columns.

That is, the Suzhou and the Hantian, and behind them is a frigate.

These five warships formed a relatively large search warning area in front, ensuring that other approaching ships could be discovered in advance.

There is a frigate on the left and right of the merchant fleet, and there is also a frigate in the rear, which are also responsible for the perimeter security.

The navy's seven warships plus six large armed merchant ships of the Nanyang Trading Company loaded with valuable cargo, plus more than a dozen various lucky ships of other trading companies, brought the entire fleet to more than 20 ships.

A fleet of this size is definitely a giant in the South China Sea. Whether it is the Dutch or the Portuguese, unless they all go out in force, it will be difficult for a few ordinary warships to cause any real impact on this fleet.

Sexual threats.

This is also a major feature of the Chu Empire's merchant ships heading to Southeast Asia for trade, that is, they sail together as a group with the navy's escort fleet.

I would rather go slow and toss a bit to ensure safety.

On the contrary, Liu Jiaquan is like this, he just does his own counter-monsoon sailing, and most of the time he sails alone, which is relatively rare.

People like Liu Jiaquan are generally maritime merchants who are relatively confident in their navigation skills and their combat capabilities. There are still relatively few such merchants.

After all, the Liu family are all professional pirates... and although most maritime merchants have occasionally been pirates in the past, they mostly focused on trading.

The difference between them is quite large.

After Xiahoujun observed the surrounding situation and confirmed that there were no errors in the navigation of the six armed merchant ships under his command, he then looked at the sea conditions and weather, which made Xiahoujun feel slightly at ease.

Xiahou Jun is not only the captain of the Shenghe, but also the head of the Nanyang Company's merchant fleet this time. After all, he retired from the navy with the rank of captain. After joining the Nanyang Trading Company, he served as the Deputy Minister of Navigation.

Today, years later, he has been promoted to the director of the Navigation Department of Nanyang Trading Company.

Therefore, Xiahou Jun is not only a captain and a fleet leader, he is also one of several senior executives of Nanyang Trading Company.

Otherwise, he would not have been able to bring six top-notch large-scale armed merchant ships and carry millions of goods across the sea. Ordinary people would not be able to shoulder such a heavy responsibility.

What he has to do is to ensure the safety of navigation, successfully lead the fleet to India for trade, and then return with a batch of various goods purchased from India.

At the same time, we naturally cannot forget to finalize the routes along the way, supply ports, and improve the Indian Ocean routes.

His work pressure is still quite high. If something unexpected happens during this voyage and he loses all his money, he doesn’t know how many domestic businesses will go bankrupt.

Therefore, he was very cautious along the way. Even now, he is still in the relatively safe Nanyang waters and on a fixed route.

When Xiahoujun felt relieved and returned to the cabin to rest, the sailors on the Shenghe were still working!

This is a behemoth with a full load displacement of more than 600 tons, with three mainmasts and a huge and complex sail system.

To keep such a giant ship sailing in accordance with the captain's orders and ensure safety, a large number of sailors are required to constantly adjust the sails every moment.

Adjust the angle of the sail and adjust the number of sails.

When the wind direction changes, the angle of the sail must be adjusted in time to ensure the heading and speed.

When the wind force changes, you should also expand part of the sail or retract the sail to ensure the speed and avoid damage to the sail when the wind force is too strong.

Of course, the weather on the sea is not stormy now, so the sailors' work is relatively easy.

However, this good weather did not last long, and the fleet was hit by larger waves on the second day.

The waves are gradually increasing. If you look down from the sky, the sea surface seems to be quite calm. However, this is an illusion caused by the vastness of the sea and the lack of reference objects.

The actual situation is that the waves are already quite large, and waves continue to hit the Shenghe's hull. When the waves are relatively large, the seawater will directly rush onto the deck.

At the same time, the appearance of waves is inevitably accompanied by strong winds.

Raging winds are not a good sign for sailboats. In the face of strong winds, the sails cannot be opened to a large area, otherwise the mast will break and the sails may be torn

However, the sails cannot be lowered completely, because otherwise the ship will lose power and cannot maintain its course.

If a ship encounters a storm, the best way is not to drift with the current, but to sail with the wind. In the process, some sails should be retained to obtain power. This power is mainly used to maintain the course, otherwise the ship will be blown away.

If the side of the ship affects the waves, it will easily capsize.

Xiahou Jun was already braving the drizzle falling from the sky and constantly observing changes in the surrounding sea conditions.

However, he is not worried at this time. Winds and waves of this level may be dangerous or even fatal for those small offshore ships, but for a big guy like Shenghe, winds and waves of this level are just shaking.

A little more will only cause some trouble for the sailors, but there will be no actual danger.

Not to mention the Shenghe, even several other ships of 1,000 tons or even 700 to 800 tons will not pose any actual danger.

However, it is a bit dangerous for some small-tonnage merchant ships from other trading companies following the fleet. Many of the merchant ships in the trading companies are lucky ships carrying two to three hundred tons of cargo.

Because this kind of lucky boat is small, its ability to withstand wind and waves is also worse.

Looking back at the ships that are sailing hard in the wind and waves, and even looming, you can feel their hardship.

Sure enough, after the wind and waves calmed down, the escorting navy sent a notification that the main mast of a lucky ship was broken in half by the wind and waves, causing serious power loss and serious water intrusion into the hull, requiring repair work on the sea.
To be continued...