Before departure, my godson Aquino brought people to the port to see him off. King Tian said to him, "Don't ask for donkeys from now on. Donkeys will bray loudly. Why not give them a more elegant name? Let's call it Luzon."
Aquino nonono
From Cavite to Bintulu Strait, the straight-line distance on land is only 200 miles. We took the waterway, which nearly doubled the distance. Tian Wang’s decision to set off at night was correct. Here, the sun is getting closer and closer to direct sunlight during the day.
, best for sailing at night
Although King Tian said he was not worried about General Su and his wife, he was still very worried about him. At night, he stood on the turtle deck with his clothes on, looking in a certain direction without making a sound.
General Meng also separated from King Tian for a few days. At this time, he also came outside. I was in the cabin and faintly heard General Meng talking to King Tian. General Meng asked, "King, do you know the word for the place Luzon?"
Used the most?”
"Which one?"
"Pull" General Meng said
"How can I see it?"
"You see, I was looking for Tian Zong and his family in the past two days. I went to various places, including Lagupan, Tarlac, Mabalaka, Malapan, Manila...is that the name?
They all have the word "L" in them? As soon as we left Cavite, the first place we visited was called Malagondong, right?"
"That's true from what you said, but why?"
I know that this is because General Meng saw that King Tian was worried about Su Lang and the others, and was trying to distract him by talking to him.
"There are many pigs in the north of Luzon, and they eat and eat all day long; there are many donkeys in the south, and what do they do? Pull carts, pull mills, and pull plows." King Tian was already amused by him and laughed.
At daybreak, another small village was discovered ahead. The sergeant who went out to investigate came back and reported to King Tian: The place is called Kalatagan. After Kalatagan, there is a bay. King Tian said to himself, "He really said it."
, another pull”
At Calatagan, we disembarked from the boat and landed. It was very hot on the boat after the sun rose. We saw large trees growing here. The trunks were straight, about one foot in diameter and thirty feet high. The leaves were as long as roots.
Some of the long feathers have already produced a layer of light red flowers on the top of the tree. From a distance, they look like torches.
King Tian asked everyone to get off the boat, leaving only a few people to guard the boat. Everyone went to avoid the sun under this kind of tree. King Tian asked Song Kuidao, "Do you know what kind of tree this is?"
"Hui Wang, this tree should be the sago coconut tree. If I remember correctly, this tree can also be eaten!"
This sentence caught Tian Wang's attention, and he became interested, "Can you eat it?"
"I went on a trip to this area with my father before, and I thought I saw local people pulling rice out of this kind of tree."
Just as he was talking, General Ji unexpectedly found three locals in the woods. They were neither from Luzon nor from the Ant Country. Each of them picked up two huge wooden barrels. They were filled with white flowers and they didn't know what they were filled with.
What
"Two villagers, I wonder what you picked in the bucket?" Tian Wang asked
"Shumi" replied a slightly younger man.
With Song Kui here, it was not difficult for us to communicate. After talking, we found out that the sago coconut tree we used to enjoy the shade was the source of the rice. The locals cut down the tree before it bloomed, and the trunks were cut.
Cut it into three feet long and cut it in half. It is full of this white stuff. Use a sharpened bamboo tube to dig them out and soak them in a wooden barrel to remove an astringent smell. Then pour out the water and drain.
Dried, the resulting product is called "sago rice"
In order to make us understand, the two of them called three or five companions from the forest. In front of us, they selected a sago coconut tree that had not bloomed and demonstrated to Tian Wang the process of getting rice from the sago coconut tree.
, took out two full loads of "sago rice"
Tian Wang was very happy. He said to us, "At least in this place, our food is not a problem."
After letting the group of people leave, Tian Wang decided to take Mihara and leave after taking a short rest. As a result, we actually stayed here for more than ten days.
During the day, the men picked up axes and saws and went to the forest to cut trees and get rice. We brought all the axes, saws, and chisels we brought from Kobe. We moved faster than the local veterans. Soon we accumulated so much that there was no room to store it.
We used hollowed-out tree trunks, plugged them on both sides, loaded them with tree rice and carried them to the boat. What annoyed Tian Wang and everyone else was that we didn’t have a pot.
"As long as there is rice, there will always be pots, and everything will be there," Tian Wang said. He is always so optimistic and continues to infect us.
Painting them has not been idle these days. The people here are simple and honest, and they are not very hostile to us. Therefore, painting them and the three Xu sisters went deep into the tree together. We were all relieved. The next day
, they brought surprises to our team
All kinds of wild flowers in the forest were transplanted by them, and the flowerpots were the trunks like water troughs left over from the tree rice.
They asked people to use wooden boards to seal both ends of the tree trunks to make flower pots of uniform specifications, which were filled with wet soil from the forest floor. Pots of flowers were moved to the deck of the ship and placed along the edges of the tortoise shells.
A full circle
Tian Wang was inspired by their pioneering work and asked us to transplant not only flowers, but also some low shrubs and evergreen weeds one by one. "In this way, it can not only be pleasing to the eye, but also block the harmful sun, so why bother?"
Not for?"
By the time we left, our big boat could no longer see its original appearance on the water. It looked like a large floating island from a distance, but it was still a floating island when looking up close. The island was full of flowers and plants, with trails crisscrossing it.
We walked along the trail without any problems, and we were quite satisfied with it. There were also a few butterflies that followed us all the way. No matter how far we went, they kept flying on our island boat among the flowers and grass.
In order to prevent these artificial green plants from falling in the bumps of the sea, we spent a lot of effort to build a wooden frame around the "island" along the size of a tortoise shell, and then tied the flower pots with ivy
As long as there are no strong winds above level 6, there will be no problem with the vegetation on the top of our ship.
In this way, the inside of the turtle boat became very livable, and there would be no heat at noon. King Tian threw away the fan and said to us, "This journey seems aimless, but the harvest is not small."
, such a vast sea and sky, it is really more than ten thousand times better than the original fight between you and me, poisoning all living beings."
"King, we feel the same way!" Everyone said in unison
"The next place to arrive is, I think, the Ant Country. It is these small countries that are really harming our Huangyan Island. If I encounter them, I don't want to be merciful this time."
It rained heavily in the evening. Some of the soil in the flower pots was washed down by the rain, and some entered the cabin through the portholes. However, it was not a big problem. But after the rain stopped, someone discovered something.
There are wild geese staying overnight on our island boat