My Daming New Empire

On this day, he studied the information obtained from Ceuta last year, trying to find out the possibility of how to get to the "green country" by sea.

Last year, the Marin army besieged Ceuta. Henry led reinforcements to Ceuta and spent 3 months there.

It was during this time that Henry learned from prisoners of war and merchants that there was an ancient and busy trade route that could pass through the Sahara Desert and reach the "green country" with lush forests and fertile land in 20 days.From there African pepper, gold, ivory can be obtained.

The Portuguese were inexperienced in crossing the desert by land, so Prince Henry had a bold idea to reach the "green country" by sea.

Moreover, this plan was approved by King Joao I, and he funded him with three thousand gold coins as funds.

Because he slept late, he didn't get up until three days in the morning, and his servants also knew his habits, so they never dared to disturb him until noon.

However, when the Ming fleet came to the sea off San Vicente, the panicked servants rushed into the stone house where Henry lived.

"His Royal Highness, Your Highness, Fleet, Boundless Fleet!"

Henry is a scholar-type prince with a gentle personality, but he also has the quirks of a literati, and he doesn't like his life rhythm being disrupted.

He was woken up from the bed, looking very unhappy, and whispered: "Damn, I only slept for less than six hours, because I was woken up by you, my work efficiency will be more than half today. What fleet? From where? came here?"

"Your Highness, I don't know!" The servant was about to cry. "I have never seen such a big boat, nor have I seen so many boats. We probably don't have so many boats in the whole of Portugal."

Henry was startled, he didn't bother to ask any more questions, and ran out barefoot.

San Vicente is a cape in the southwest of Portugal. There are only a few places with gentle beaches, and most of the places are cliffs 20 meters above the sea.

Because of such easy-to-defend and difficult-to-attack terrain, it has also become the home port of the Portuguese fleet.

He rushed out of the yard, and saw the dazzling sea, densely packed with boats.

He had never seen this kind of ship before, they had a huge body shape, and the sails on the ship were not soft sails, but hard sails.

Henry, who is proficient in ship design, was very surprised. How could such a hard sail make the ship run?

But it seems a little wrong to think about this issue at this time!Who should he pay more attention to?He was sure it was not the ship of any nation he knew, not even the heathens, who had no such ships.

And they don't have such strength. If they have so many ships, they won't occupy Ceuta.

At this time, a huge battleship left the fleet and approached the shore.

He had never seen such a huge battleship, and this ship was almost equal to him standing on the 20-meter cliff.

The largest ship in Portugal is only [-] tons, and only two ships have been built, which are used as cargo ships.But this ship is definitely ten times bigger than their biggest ship.

His heart was beating violently, his mouth was dry, and he felt a little out of breath.This fear from the soul stems from his ignorance. In his cognition, it is impossible to imagine that such a huge ship can be built.

He wobbled and almost fell.But it woke him up.He said hoarsely, "Go and get my telescope."

Ten years ago, the Dutchman Hansley Pohl superimposed two lenses to create a telescope. Many countries quickly went to Venice, where they ordered a large number of convex lenses and made their own telescopes.

But because the lens is very difficult to polish, the cost of the telescope is very expensive.

As a prince, Henry only had a telescope, which was stored in a box on weekdays.

The attendant quickly came over with a box and handed it to him.He opened the box, connected the two wooden tubes to form a long wooden tube, and placed it in front of his right eye.

Using the distance adjustment between the two wooden barrels, he quickly saw the big ship in the camera.

The first thing he observed was the five flags flying on the ship, two yellow flags embroidered with strange animals, but one was slightly larger and the other was slightly smaller.

The patterns on the other two flags were incomprehensible. They seemed to be the same, but one was red and the other was blue.

There was another banner he could read, a sun and a moon.

Now he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. He was sure that this was not the flag of any country he knew, and the other party would not necessarily bring war.

"Quick, bring me that silk dress, and lead my horse by the way, I want to go to the pier immediately."

While Henry was busy dressing up here, Zhu Zhanji's flagship still slowly approached the coast of Sagres.

But when he was still two miles from the shore, his flagship lowered its sails and lowered its anchor.

Several warships guarding the flagship spread out, and a sand ship carrying Minister of Rites Jin Chun and Dashi Tongshi slowly approached the port.

There were about a hundred warships and dozens of fishing boats moored in the port. At this time, they all began to raise their sails in a panic, and dozens of them came out to meet them.

Although there is a huge difference in strength, they do not lack the courage to face the enemy.

When Jin Chun saw the approaching ship, his face was calm, without a trace of nervousness. Instead, he curiously asked Qian Zhuang, the commander of the First Fleet of the Navy who was escorting him. "The opponent's warship looks much smaller, and it seems that the national power is not strong. Why can they defeat the Marlins and make the Marlins dare not fight anymore?"

Qian Zhuang said with a smile: "Marin is big and weak, Portugal must be similar to a small country like Dongying, because it is poor and its people are tough!"

Although it was only a ship coming, Qian Zhuang was not afraid of the opponent's use of force.

The soldiers on the ship were all elite, and the other side lacked muskets, and no matter how many ships there were, it would be difficult to cause them any harm.And as long as the opponent dares to use force, other ships will quickly rescue them. If the opponent does not have artillery, they can only become targets.

A large ship of about [-] shi on the other side approached, Qian Zhuang said without the slightest worry: "Let them come over and prepare to hook up."

The hook is an essential tool in the boarding battle. Each ship will have two mechanical hooks, and the hook spears in the hands of the soldiers on the deck can also pull the opponent's ship closer.

When the two ships were 20 meters away from meeting, the crews of both sides were cautious and marched along the wind for a while before preparing to join the ship.

Two hooks flew out of Da Ming's ship suddenly, and shot directly into the opponent's deck.This startled the opponent, but it was the opponent's general who saw that this weapon was only used to tow the ship, so the soldiers didn't shoot.

Immediately after shooting the hook, the crew sent a length of the thick cable, hung it on a pulley above the deck, and twisted the capstan.

The cable behind the hook is slowly tightened, because there are pulleys fixed on the deck, the center of gravity is relatively low, and the consequences of pulling the boat and rolling over will not occur.

When the two ships were only three or four meters apart, the soldiers on both sides on the deck became tense and raised their spears to each other.

But at this time, the generals of both sides stood up and eased the tension between the two ships.

The opposing general was a strong man with a big beard. He put his hands on his chest, bowed slightly and asked, "Guest from afar, what can I do for you?"

Through two translators, Jin Chun understood what he said, and thought to himself: The other party looks like a barbarian, but his manner of speaking is relatively civilized!

He put his hands flat on his chest, bowed to the end, and then said: "We are envoys from the Eastern Daming, with entrustments from the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and we have come to your land to convey the light of civilization to you."

Of course Zhu Zhanji taught these words, otherwise Jin Chun would not have said such pretending words.Confucianism always emphasizes modesty and moderation.

But this time it was for the afternoon, so Jin Chun twitched a bit, accepted Zhu Zhanji's suggestion, and acted a little more arrogantly.

The director of Honglu Temple translated the words to the director of the big cannibal, and then the director of the big cannibal passed the words to the other general.

If normally, Sera would have raised the long sword in his hand immediately when he heard a Da Shi dare to say such a thing.But now he is just an interpreter, and seeing the other party's fleet, his heart is terrified.

But even so, he still felt as uncomfortable as eating a poop.

However, although he is a Portuguese nobleman, he is not the captain of the fleet.There is Prince Enrique here, and the coach Alkin above, it is not his turn to refute.