"Where is the Portuguese pilot? Ask him if there is a port nearby!"
""
The most dangerous place in the old east-west waterway is the Cape of Good Hope. But the Chinese envoy fleet encountered a hurricane without warning as soon as it approached Mozambique.
This is purely a matter of luck.
If you are lucky, you will travel along the East African coast for several years without encountering a single hurricane.
If you are unlucky, there will be one after another. There may even be a double cyclone or a triple cyclone, and the hurricanes can form a team to sweep over. It is also possible that just after one hurricane has passed, another hurricane will follow, and it can last for more than half a month at most.
At this moment, the wind and waves are getting bigger and bigger, and the sky is getting darker and darker.
All the ships were heading towards the coast at full speed, trying to seize the time to dock and enter the port. There is no need for a big port, just a small natural port that can avoid wind and waves.
The Portuguese pilots recruited from India were originally preparing to cross the Cape of Good Hope, but now they played their role in advance. The envoys sent by Said to accompany the ship also guided the fleet towards the nearest good port.
On top of the flagship, the flag-bearer held the mast with one hand and frantically waved the semaphore with the other hand, instructing the ships behind to follow.
The wind suddenly increased, and the flag-bearer was blown up. The rope tied around his waist fell to the sea. Suddenly a huge wave hit, and the flag-bearer was knocked unconscious in the air. This situation is probably a disaster.
The closer you get to the coast, the more rocky islands become.
The sky was getting darker and darker, and the day suddenly turned into evening. Every ship could only continue sailing by relying on the compass.
"boom!"
In the darkness, unable to distinguish between things, a warship unfortunately ran aground on the rocks.
An isolation compartment quickly filled with water, and the ship was advancing crookedly. The wind was getting stronger and stronger, and the tilting ship was in danger of capsizing at any time, but they were destined to be unable to get help.
"Mom, tie it with a rope!"
Lu Tianxiang hugged the thing tightly, not knowing what she was holding. A female official handed her a rope, and she quickly tied it around her waist. She wanted to command the other attendants, but she found that everything was in chaos.
A huge wave lifted the ship, and then fell quickly. Many crew members also rose and fell, and many people hit their heads and fainted.
"To the shore, to the shore, to the shore, quickly, quickly, quickly!"
Fan Chao roared and shouted, but it was unclear how many people could hear the order.
"General, you have to lower the sails. The wind is too strong and it will capsize the ship!"
"Quickly surrender!"
There was even more chaos on the deck. The sailors were operating in the wind and waves, and from time to time some people were blown into the sea. After more than 20 days of training, many of the slaves who had been taken in before had become trainee sailors and were now sent to the deck to help.
"Dead, dead, dead!"
Pan Wei was trembling with fear in the cabin, and suddenly the ship flew up again. He also missed and flew out. He didn't know what hit his brain, and he passed out and fell unconscious.
It took two full days for the hurricane to finally pass through.
Since the navigation route was very close to the coast, most of the ships successfully hid in the bay. However, the exact amount of damage has not been ascertained. At this time, they were finally able to move.
"General, one mast is broken and 12 crew members are lost."
"Send the boat out and look for other ships."
In fact, Fan Chao didn't need to send people to investigate, other ships had already sent people over.
According to some statistics, two ships were missing and 561 crew members were missing. Among them were navy soldiers, logistics personnel and slaves. In addition, most of the surviving ships were damaged and needed to be repaired as soon as possible.
The ship that Lu Tianxiang and the civil servants were on was not seriously injured due to its strong hull. Only some sailors were missing and many people were injured.
Fan Chao selected three lightly damaged ships and searched for missing ships along the coast.
Near a reef island, a large number of wooden planks were seen floating on the sea. Apparently a ship had sunk. However, a miracle happened. Seven people climbed onto the reef island and persisted until friendly forces came to rescue them.
We searched for three days and found nothing.
After simple repairs, the damaged ship was taken by Portuguese and Arab pilots to the port of Mozambique further south. It was a Portuguese colony and there were shipyards that could repair ships. It depended on whether the Portuguese were willing to help. They had to collect money.
Still want to take a shot.
Deng Youzhang woke up with pain all over his body, and when he opened his eyes, he felt something was wrong.
The objects in the cabin were all upright, and the entire ship was obviously upside down.
He struggled to climb out, and met his soldiers on the way. Some were still unconscious, while others had woken up, and they were communicating with each other about the situation.
Suddenly, Deng Youzhang heard crying: "The captain is gone, the vice-captain is missing, and the missionary director can't be found!"
Deng Youzhang quickly crawled over there, and soon saw the captain Lin Ping'an who had expired. There was a big hole in his forehead, and blood flowed all over the floor. He apparently died of excessive blood loss.
"We have them all, carry all the injured brothers off the ship for treatment!" Deng Youzhang shouted at the top of his voice.
Not only was Deng Youzhang organizing the rescue, there were officers in each cabin giving the same orders.
After they left the warship, they discovered what had happened.
The entire ship was washed ashore, rolled over on a beach, its masts were all broken, and the seawater had receded to a distance of seven or eight meters.
There were two military doctors left on the ship, and while they were treating the wounded, they asked the soldiers to return to the ship to find medicines and supplies.
After struggling for a long time, Deng Youzhang became the highest military official, and he temporarily took over the command here.
After repeated head counts, there were still 165 survivors.
Among them, there were 88 naval officers and soldiers, 73 civilians, logistics personnel, and sailors, and the remaining 4 were Persian slaves working as handymen.
"What should I do?" He Wenpeng asked.
Deng Youzhang said: "Rest and recuperate first, move all the supplies off the ship, and wait for the brothers' ships to come for rescue. If we cannot wait for rescue, we will organize troops to explore the nearby situation in two days."
The navigator and star-finder were both dead, but the living people couldn't even read the compass and couldn't figure out the position at all.
After waiting for two consecutive days, not even a ghost was seen on the sea.
Deng Youzhang knew that he could no longer wait foolishly, so he selected sailors to replenish his troops and reorganized the troops into a hundred men. He left 20 soldiers to protect people and supplies on the beach, and the remaining 80 soldiers went out to explore the situation.
The further away from the beach, the higher the terrain becomes. Deng Youzhang led people to explore along the coast, but found nothing, so he started climbing again.
The terrain here belongs to the plateau. After climbing up, it becomes relatively flat, and you can see several small hillsides from time to time.
"There's smoke over there!"
The lookout held up his telescope and exclaimed, and then shouted: "There is still farmland growing rice!"
As soon as this statement came out, everyone was surprised.
There are no emperor's personal guards on this ship, all are navy soldiers, who usually wear leather armor or fight without armor. The gunpowder is wetted, and the muskets are temporarily unusable, so they can only fight with bayonets. Some soldiers also use long spears and
Waist knife.
Eighty naval officers and soldiers advanced cautiously, and more than ten people were sent to explore the way.
Soon they came to a village surrounded by rice fields. The indigenous people here had slightly brown skin, slightly curly black hair, and were relatively short. At first glance, they seemed to be of Southeast Asian descent.
When they met each other, they were very curious, standing there with big eyes and small eyes.
It's a pity that we don't understand each other in the language, so we communicated in a confused manner for a long time, and we didn't know what each other was talking about.
The indigenous people here are very primitive and backward, and they still wear animal skins. They also have some kind of cloth, which is woven from unknown plant fibers. They are more vigilant, and the men all carry weapons, spears made of wooden sticks embedded with stone flakes.
Deng Youzhang took off his hat and asked a soldier to deliver it to the indigenous leader as a gift.
The indigenous leader was older. He didn't know how old he was. He looked thirty or forty years old, but also seemed to be fifty or sixty years old. He understood what Deng Youzhang meant, took the hat and put it on his head, and then turned around in a circle very excitedly.
The natives all cheered.
The leader called an indigenous man and muttered a few words.
More than ten minutes later, the indigenous man brought a clay pot and presented it to Deng Youzhang as a return gift.
Deng Youzhang took a closer look and immediately found that the jar was filled with sea salt and contained a lot of sediment and other impurities.
The two sides established peaceful relations, and Deng Youzhang continued to explore the nearby situation.
Another half month passed, and there was still no news from the sea. Deng Youzhang almost gave up, leaving a few people squatting on the beach, preparing firewood and weeds in advance, and lighting fires when they saw ships on the sea to report the news. As for the rest of the people, they all took them with them.
With the transfer of supplies, they settled near indigenous villages.
In addition to rice, the staple food of the indigenous people is also a root plant.
It looks like a tree, but the roots are dug up and eaten. And it seems to be poisonous. The indigenous leader asked someone to demonstrate that the roots must be boiled before eating.
Deng Youzhang found it very novel. The yield of this product was huge. If he could return to China, he would take it back and plant it.
He also gave this food a name. The roots are like sweet potatoes and the branches are like trees, so he named it "cassava".
The cotton on the ship became a commodity, and the natives liked it very much and brought a lot of cassava to exchange.
There were indigenous tribes further afield. After obtaining the cotton cloth, these indigenous tribes took out some of the cotton cloth and went to tribes farther away to exchange items. Soon they attracted attention, and these exquisite cotton cloths actually attracted more than two hundred indigenous troops.
The natives who came to invade were obviously more advanced.
The leader wore a copper dagger on his waist, and the spear tips were also made of copper. However, there were very few copper weapons, and most of the indigenous invaders still used stone spears as weapons.
One evening, while the local natives were having a dinner, more than two hundred invaders suddenly came out.
The invaders first threw spears, with a high hit rate, causing immediate casualties. Then they swung ropes, and stones were thrown from the ropes, injuring the villagers' heads and bleeding.
The indigenous villagers fled in panic. The invaders rushed over, pulled out the spears they had thrown, and chased them with shouts.
They killed the male villagers and captured the women and children alive. They also entered the houses to search for property, constantly taking out salt and grain. If they found cotton cloth, they would scream in excitement.
More than 20 male villagers fled to Deng Youzhang's camp one after another.
"咿婷Wow"
The villagers pointed in the direction of their village, stamping their feet and crying in panic.
Although Deng Youzhang didn't understand what it meant, when he saw the injured villagers, he knew they had been attacked.
"Take up arms and wear armor to defend yourself against the enemy!"
Deng Youzhang led his troops to rescue the village, but met the invaders chasing him halfway.
"Bang bang bang bang!"
The gunpowder has been dried in the sun and sifted out again for use.
There was a burst of gunfire, and several of the invaders fell down. The rest were frightened and fled in fear, thinking that the Datong army was using witchcraft.
This battle was a complete victory, killing more than 60 invaders, capturing more than 20 invaders alive, and the rest fled. Those prisoners were all killed by the angry villagers.
But the village was also destroyed, with less than thirty adult men left, and the rest were all women and children.
Deng Youzhang called He Wenpeng over: "We're afraid we won't be able to go back, so let's settle here."
He Wenpeng was silent, thinking of his wife and children at home.
Deng Youzhang sighed and said: "There are not many men left in the village. They are all women and children. We are all men here. It is better to make two places together and move them to the village. Those who want to marry a wife and settle down can go there."
Women are selected as wives in the village. Apart from being short in stature, the natives here are actually not ugly. These foreign natives actually carry bronze utensils. We must be careful in the future. Learn to speak the dialect first, or teach the villagers to speak Chinese. Find
We’ll have time to investigate again and see if there are any other big tribes nearby.”
"Oh, you have the final say." He Wenpeng said helplessly.
This is the island of Madagascar. In the central area of the island, indigenous people have already established a country.
The race is mixed and has obvious Southeast Asian characteristics.