Su Shu looked at the chart produced by staff officer Lu Yuanqi.
He looked at Chief of Staff Cao Zhengyuan and was about to take the route on the chart. He asked worriedly: "Chief of Staff Cao, are there any traps in the sea head that the English have taken out?
They directly selected a route with the worst sea conditions for us.”
Su Shu was very worried. Some people did things that were harmful to others and not beneficial to themselves.
If the governor of the English colony was this kind of person, he would definitely tamper with the charts to disgust them.
Where the road is easy to walk, people have opened the way.
Avoid impassable areas such as mountains, rivers, swamps, etc.
The same is true at sea. In some areas of the ocean, icebergs appear frequently, undercurrents surge, reefs are densely covered, and the sea conditions are extremely complicated. If you are not careful, you will be killed in the sea.
Chief of Staff Cao Zhengyuan heard Su Shu's worries and said confidently: "Xiao Su, you underestimated the strength of the fleet.
Even if our fleet encounters a storm caused by a typhoon, it can rely on the stability of large-tonnage warships to break out of the storm.
The place where we train is the rough Pacific Ocean.
The Atlantic Ocean we are about to cross is not as harsh as the Pacific Ocean.
Not to mention such a large fleet, there are warships dedicated to detecting sea conditions to help each other.
I have seen European records that a small sailboat operated by two people can cross the Atlantic Ocean.
Besides, the English don’t dare to give us fake charts.
On the opposite side of the sea is the English island, unless they are sure that the entire fleet will be destroyed.
Otherwise, the English people would simply not be able to bear our anger.
As long as they are not stupid, they will never do this.
Even if one person makes a mistake, the senior leaders of the British colony will not all make a mistake."
Chief of Staff Cao Zhengyuan's explanation convinced Su Shu.
The fleet itself has strong capabilities, and they also have methods to deal with complex sea conditions. This is the basis of everything.
On this basis, Chief of Staff Cao analyzed the British people's thoughts.
In terms of motivation, they gave no reason for the wrong chart.
Even if the chart is really wrong, it will not have much impact on the fleet, and they can still get back with revenge.
Chief of Staff Cao Zhengyuan made several copies of the chart, and each warship was given a copy of the chart.
He arranged warships responsible for patrols and exploration.
The fleet officially begins crossing the Atlantic.
After more than a year of training, he was already an elite member of the Imperial Royal Navy, and now he is able to cooperate skillfully and complete a variety of naval tactics.
Su Shu put down the sextant and marked the current location of the fleet in the logbook.
The happiest thing for him was that after continuous efforts, he finally learned to use the sextant.
He is no longer an idle person on the warship, he can make his own contribution to the fleet.
Su Shu had not experienced this kind of inner sense of accomplishment for a long time.
Su Shu completed his mission and could move freely.
He looked at the warship, fighting through the waves in the Atlantic Ocean.
The fleet occasionally encountered fully loaded sail cargo ships heading from the west to the American continent.
A normal cargo ship has a very deep draft and travels at a slow speed.
When these fleets saw the Imperial Royal Navy fleet, they hid far away and did not dare to approach the fleet.
When Su Shu saw these cargo ships, they felt that the wind was in the wrong direction, so they immediately abandoned the cargo into the sea and turned around to prepare to escape.
The fleet occasionally encounters cargo ships coming from the southerly route.
The draft of these cargo ships is very shallow and the fleet size is relatively large.
They were obviously transporting bulk commodities, but not wine, cotton or other commodities.
Su Shu occasionally saw skinny and struggling black people thrown directly from these cargo ships.
The person fell into the sea with a splash, like black coal, and quickly sank into the sea.
He immediately recognized that these were cargo ships transporting slaves from the West.
Su Shu knew about Western slave ships. Because the cost of catching slaves was too low, they didn't care about the lives of slaves.
A medium-sized cargo ship can directly carry about 2,500 people. Only about 1,000 slaves survived to the American continent, and nearly half of the slaves died on the way.
Slave ships found weak and sick slaves, or slaves who dared to resist, and threw them directly into the sea.
Su Shu saw Staff Officer Lu Yuanqi and finally finished his work.
He pestered Staff Officer Lu Yuanqi and asked curiously: "Brother Lu, go to the English Colony and introduce me to the local situation."
Staff Officer Lu Yuanqi is responsible for coordinating other warships to cooperate with the flagship battleship Taishan.
Su Shu knew that this kind of training based on quasi-war situations was rare, and he didn't want to disturb other people's work.
Even though he was extremely curious about the situation in the British colony, he did not want to disturb the work of staff officer Lu Yuanqi.
The situation of the slave-catching team was the result of piecemeal information he learned from staff officer Lu Yuanqi in his spare time.
Staff Officer Lu Yuanqi had just finished his work and looked relaxed.
He saw Su Shu's curious and anxious look.
Staff Officer Lu Yuanqi coughed slightly and said, "I only stayed in the British Colony for two days.
Most of them were still with British colonial officials.
What we know about the British colonies is only a drop in the bucket.
Xiao Su, do you still want to know about the situation in the English colony?"
Su Shu nodded and said: "There are many interests in the colony, and the various forces have no place to anchor their interests.
He is best suited to see the underlying logic of how a civilization operates."
"Okay, let me share my humble opinion." When Staff Officer Lu Yuanqi heard what Su Shu said, he agreed in a relaxed tone.
"The British ruled the colony. When they first arrived here, they also sought help from the local indigenous people.
After establishing a foothold, they immediately massacred the local indigenous people.
They believe that indigenous people have natural rights to this place.
If they want to seize ownership of this land, they can only completely eliminate the local indigenous people.
Because a large number of indigenous people were eliminated and the working population was insufficient, cheap slaves from Africa could only be introduced.
The current industry in the English colonies is relatively primitive.
Mainly plantations, mainly growing grain, cotton, coffee beans, and tea.
Minerals have been discovered locally, and there is also the most basic mining industry.
These industries require a lot of slave work.
The British colony was very strict about slave management.
I feel that the empire's management of slaves in overseas governor's mansions is rather strict.
However, local Han people who killed slaves for no reason were also sentenced to exile.
Slaves only need to study Chinese culture seriously, learn basic Chinese, and make contributions.
They can also regain their freedom.
Of course, the most convenient way is for a female slave to marry a freedman, who can redeem her body as long as she pays a sum of money.
The English colonies were completely different. Slaves would always be slaves and there was no hope of regaining their freedom.
The children of a slave will always be a slave, even the children he has with his master will still become slaves.
Plantation owners still beat and scold their dark-skinned children at will and use them like tools.
I also feel that the local people are very stubborn about adhering to the contract.
As long as two people agree to duel, after making a contract.
Even if he dies as a result, this person is not guilty.
The empire is different. If anyone dares to do this, the lightest crime is exile.
Of course, if you want the other party to strictly abide by the contract, you must have equal strength.
The contract signed by two Westerners under the witness of God is unbreakable.
Contracts were not signed between Western plantation owners and slaves.
Even if they do sign a contract, they will not abide by it and can tear up the contract at any time."
Staff Officer Lu Yuanqi expressed his own views. He also introduced his experience in the past two days in brief language.
After Su Shu listened, he returned to the room and began to consider the differences between the two civilizations based on his own knowledge.
He remembered the teachings of his father Su He and all the teachers.
Su Shu kept recording what he was thinking on paper.
The fleet sailed for a while, and he walked out of the room to measure the fleet's position with a sextant.
In his spare time, he had been thinking that the route the fleet was traveling was indeed a safe route. The battleship Taishan was very stable and nothing happened to interrupt his thinking.
Su Shu used the information collected before and what Staff Officer Lu Yuanqi learned this time.
Based on what he learned, he judged that Eastern civilization was very different from Western civilization.
Eastern civilization, represented by the Chinese civilization, often looks at things from a holistic perspective and strives to bridge the contradictions among various classes.
If the royal family has strength and can adjust the conflicts among various strata, the country will have good governance and people will live and work in peace and contentment.
Once the royal family declines and a certain class loses its checks and balances, the country will fall into chaos.
The scholar-bureaucrats lost control and land annexation intensified. This was the main reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty.
The nobles in the feudal towns lost control and the warlords fought in chaos. This was the main reason why the Tang Dynasty collapsed.
Conflicts between various classes intensified, and one of the results was the peasant uprising.
A peasant who cannot survive will never wait to die slowly. He will drag the decaying country with him to perdition.
The decline of the dynasty must go through the stage of peasant uprising.
Western civilization is different. They don't pay attention to the conflicts between various classes.
Instead, through churches, contracts, etc., the scale of conflicts among various classes is limited to a certain extent.
By emphasizing the importance of contracts, all levels can communicate normally.
This also creates strong barriers among various classes.
The farmer who controls the plantation will never let his slaves be equal to him.
The upper echelons of Western civilization have greater control over the lower levels through various methods.
From what Su and Shu learned about Western history, they have not yet had a successful peasant uprising.
When he learned about this situation, he felt a little envious of the system of Western civilization.
Previously, I had the idea of absorbing excellent systems.
After this period of thinking, he discovered the difference in the underlying logic of the two civilizations. Some specific policies can be learned from, but the systems are absolutely incompatible.
Su Shu thought of his father Su He telling the myths about the two civilizations.
He had no deeper feelings before, but now he can see the difference between the two civilizations.
Both civilizations have records of great floods.
The Chinese civilization's response to the great flood was Dayu's flood control.
Dayu led the people to dredge rivers to divert the flood into the ocean and quell the disasters caused by the flood.
Western civilization is completely different. They are building Noah's Ark.
The nobles fled in Noah's Ark, leaving the people wailing in the flood.
It is precisely because of the differences in civilizations that there is a huge gap between the Great China Empire and England in their attitudes towards colonies.
The first colony of the Great China Empire was Luzon Island, which was captured from Spain.
From the Luzon Governor's Palace to the Luzon Province.
The Great China Empire had always treated its colonies as homeland until Luzon became an overseas province.
Western countries such as England treat their colonies as territories that can be plundered.
Their management of the colony is very rough, and they will not conduct more in-depth management as long as they can obtain benefits from the colony.
With this kind of management method, Su Shu believed that as long as the colonies accumulated a certain amount of strength, they would inevitably get rid of the status of being sucked by the suzerain country.
When Su Shu made this judgment, he also had deeper thoughts on the relationship between the Great China Empire and the vassal states.
If the Dahua Empire wants to manage its vassal states well, it must be both strong and soft, and it must not use rough methods.
Su Shu wrote his thoughts into a memorial.
After he returned home, he showed it to his father to watch, proving that he had thought deeply about his journey and was definitely not just playing on a warship.
Su Shu officially came out of seclusion, looking at the unobstructed view of the Atlantic Ocean.
There were also a few seabirds landing on the island of the battleship Tarzan. He could not identify the species of these seabirds. They should be local seabirds in Europe.
If you can see seabirds on warships, it proves that they are not far from the European continent.
Su Shu picked up the sextant. He judged the location of the battleship Taishan and marked it directly in the logbook.
Indeed, as he expected, the fleet was less than a hundred kilometers away from the British Isles.
He reported the news to Chief of Staff Cao Zhengyuan.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Chief of Staff Cao Zhengyuan directly threw away the chart obtained from the British.
"Xiao Su, you are already a skilled navigation officer, now I have a task for you.
Plan the fleet's route to the port of Gibraltar.
Most of the fresh water and food carried by the fleet have been consumed, and they must go to the port of Gibraltar for replenishment."
Su Shu thought carefully and thought that with his current strength, he could easily complete this task.
Now that we are not far from the European continent, even if some problems arise, they can be easily solved.
He picked up the globe and looked for the shortest distance.
The route he planned tried to avoid islands and shores.
Su Shu did not understand the sea conditions here in Europe, so the fleet should try its best to sail in deep sea areas.
Avoid shallow sea areas to prevent warships in the fleet from running aground.
Su Shu quickly planned a route and showed it to Chief of Staff Cao Zhengyuan for review.
After Chief of Staff Cao Zhengyuan read it, he said with satisfaction: "Xiao Su, you have studied very well and are now a qualified navigation staff officer.
He is really very smart. He has mastered so many technologies without ever going to a military school."
Chief of Staff Cao Zhengyuan expressed his sincere praise.
Su Shu was perfunctory but still studied hard. He could see clearly.
"Thank you, Chief of Staff Cao, for your compliment. This is what I should do." Su Shu said humbly.
He was able to learn so many things only through hard work in private.
Su Shu didn't want to live up to his father's expectations, so he put in all his efforts to study, and now he finally used his abilities to gain recognition from the fleet's top brass.
He watched the fleet change its direction and sail along the route he designed, heading for the empire's important ports in Europe.
Su Shu had only seen the situation in Europe in books.
Soon he will get a real taste of what Europe is like.