I

"Hurricane! Hurricane!"

"Find a port to dock!"

"Where's the Portuguese navigator? Ask him if there's a port nearby!"

"..."

The old waterway between east and west, the most dangerous place is the Cape of Good Hope. However, just as the Chinese envoy fleet approached Mozambique, it encountered a hurricane without warning.

It's purely a matter of luck.

With luck, I have traveled along the coast of East Africa for several years without encountering a single hurricane.

Bad luck, one after another. There will even be double cyclones and triple cyclones, and hurricanes can sweep over in teams. It is also possible that one hurricane has just passed, and another hurricane will follow, which can last for more than half a month at the longest.

At this moment, the wind and waves are getting bigger and bigger, and the sky is getting darker and darker.

All the ships headed towards the coast at full speed, wanting to grab 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 navigators recruited from India, who were supposed to prepare for the crossing of the Cape of Good Hope, played their part in advance. The special envoy sent by Said to accompany the ship also guided the fleet to sail towards the nearest good port.

On the flagship, the flag commander hugged the mast with one hand, and frantically played the semaphore with the other, commanding the ships behind to follow.

The wind suddenly became stronger, and the flag was blown directly into the air, and the rope tied around the waist fell to the sea. Suddenly a huge wave hit, and the flag bearer was knocked out in the air. This situation is probably more ominous.

The closer you get to the coast, the more reef islands become.

The sky was getting darker and darker, and the day suddenly turned into evening, and every ship could only continue sailing with the help of a compass.

"boom!"

In the darkness, unable to distinguish things, a warship ran aground unfortunately.

An isolation cabin quickly flooded, and the ship moved forward crookedly. The wind is getting stronger and stronger, and the tilted ship is in danger of capsizing at any time, but they are destined to be unable to get help.

"Your Majesty, tie it with a rope!"

Lu Tianxiang hugged things tightly, but she didn't know what she was hugging. A female officer handed over a rope, and she quickly tied it around her waist, trying to command the rest of the servants, but found that everything was messed up.

A huge wave lifted the ship, and then quickly fell, many crew members also rose and fell, and many people directly hit their heads and passed out.

"Dock, dock, dock, quick quick quick quick!"

Fan Chao yelled loudly, and he didn't know how many people could hear the order.

"General, you have to lower the sails, the wind is too strong, it will blow the boat over!"

"Quickly go down!"

The deck was even more chaotic. The sailors braved the wind and waves to operate, and some people were blown into the sea from time to time. Many of the slaves taken in before had become apprentice sailors after more than 20 days of training, and they were also sent to the deck to help at this moment.

"Dead, dead, dead!"

Pan Wei was trembling with fright in the cabin, and suddenly the boat flew up again. He also flew out by mistake, his brain hit something, and he passed out just like that.

After two full days, the hurricane finally passed through completely.

Because the sailing route is very close to the coast, most of the ships hid in the bay smoothly. However, the exact amount of loss has not been ascertained, and it is finally possible to move at this time.

"General, a mast is broken, and the crew lost 12."

"Send the boat out and see the other ships."

In fact, without Fan Chao sending people to investigate, other ships had already sent people over.

According to some statistics, there are two missing ships and 561 missing crew members. These include not only naval soldiers, but also support personnel and accepted slaves. In addition, most of the surviving ships are damaged and must be repaired as soon as possible.

The ship that Lu Tianxiang and the civil servants were on was fine because of its solid hull. Only some of the sailors were missing, and many were injured.

Fan Chao selected three ships with less damage and searched for the missing ships along the coast.

Near a reef, a large number of planks were seen floating on the sea, apparently a ship had sunk. However, a miracle also happened. Seven people climbed onto the reef and persisted until friendly troops came to rescue them.

I searched for three consecutive days, but found nothing.

The damaged ship, after simple repairs, was taken by Portuguese and Arab navigators to the port of Mozambique further south. There is a Portuguese colony, and there are shipyards that can repair ships. It depends on whether the Portuguese are willing to help, whether they want to collect money or want to eat guns.

...

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 whole ship was obviously turned upside down.

He struggled to climb out, and met his soldiers on the way. Some people are still in a coma, some people have woken up, and they are communicating with each other.

Suddenly, Deng Youzhang heard crying: "The captain is gone, the deputy captain is missing, and the missionary chief can't be found!"

Deng Youzhang quickly crawled over there, and soon saw the dying captain Lin Pingan. A big gash was knocked out of his forehead, and blood flowed all over the floor. It was obvious that he lost too much blood and died.

"There are all of them. Take all the brothers who were injured and survived to the boat for treatment!" Deng Youzhang yelled at the top of his voice.

Not only Deng Youzhang is organizing the rescue, but there are officers in every cabin, and they are issuing the same orders.

After they left the warship, they found out what was going on.

The entire ship was washed ashore, turned sideways on a sandy beach, the masts were all broken, and the sea water had receded to a place seven or eight meters away.

There were only two military doctors left on the ship. While treating the wounded, they asked the soldiers to return to the ship to find medicines and supplies.

After tossing for a long time, Deng Youzhang became the highest military officer, and he temporarily took over the command here.

After repeated counting of the number of people, there are still 165 survivors.

Among them, there were 88 naval officers and soldiers, 73 civilians, logistics, and sailors, and the remaining 4 were Persian slaves doing handymen.

"What should I do?" He Wenpeng asked.

Deng Youzhang said: "Let's rest and recuperate first, remove all the supplies on the ship, and wait for the brothers' ships to come to rescue. If rescue cannot be waited for, after two days, organize troops to investigate the surrounding situation."

Both the navigator and the star-handler are dead, and those who are alive can't even read the compass, and can't figure out the position at all.

After waiting for two days in a row, there was not even a shadow of ghosts on the sea.

Deng Youzhang knew that he couldn't wait any longer, so he selected sailors to supplement his troops and reorganized the troops into a hundred people. Twenty soldiers were left to protect personnel and supplies on the beach, while the remaining eighty soldiers went out to explore the situation.

The terrain becomes higher the farther you are from the beach. Deng Youzhang led people to explore along the coast, but found nothing, so he started climbing again.

This place belongs to the plateau terrain. After climbing up, it becomes relatively flat, and you can see a few small hills from time to time.

"There's smoke over there!"

The watchman held up the binoculars and exclaimed, and then shouted: "There is still farmland, and the rice is planted!"

As soon as this remark came out, everyone was pleasantly surprised.

There were no emperor's personal guards on this ship, and all of them were naval soldiers, who usually fought in leather armor or without armor. The gunpowder was all wet, and the firecrackers could not be used for the time being, so bayonets could only be mounted on them to fight. Some soldiers also used long spears and waist knives.

Eighty naval officers and soldiers advanced cautiously, and more than a dozen people were sent to scout the way.

Soon they came to a village surrounded by rice fields. The aborigines here have brownish-yellow skin, slightly curly black hair, and are relatively short. At first glance, they seem to be of Southeast Asian origin.

When they meet each other, they are very curious, standing there staring at each other.

It's a pity that there is a language barrier, and we communicated in a daze for a long time, and we don't know what each other is talking about.

The aborigines here are very primitive and backward, and they still wear animal skins. There is also some kind of fabric, which is woven from plant fibers. They were more vigilant, and the men were all armed with spears made of stone flakes embedded in wooden sticks.

Deng Youzhang took off his hat and asked a soldier to deliver it to the indigenous leader as a gift.

The indigenous leader is older, I don't know how old he is, he looks thirty or forty years old, and he seems to be fifty or sixty years old. He understood Deng Youzhang's meaning, took the hat and put it on his head, and then turned around very excitedly, and the rest of the natives cheered for it.

The leader called an indigenous man and muttered a few words.

More than ten minutes later, the indigenous man brought the clay pot and presented it to Deng Youzhang as a gift in return.

Deng Youzhang took a closer look and couldn't laugh or cry. The jar was full of sea salt, and it contained a lot of impurities such as silt.

The two sides determined a peaceful relationship, and Deng Youzhang continued to investigate the surrounding situation.

Another half month passed, and there was still no news from the sea. Deng Youzhang almost gave up, leaving a few people squatting by the sea, preparing firewood and weeds in advance, and lighting a fire to report when they saw a ship at sea. As for the rest of the people, they all took their supplies and moved to settle near the indigenous villages.

Indigenous people's staple food, besides rice, also has a kind of rhizome plant.

It grows like a tree, but digs up the roots to eat. And it seems to be poisonous. The indigenous leader asked people to demonstrate that the root should be boiled before eating.

Deng Youzhang felt that it was very novel. The yield of this product was huge. If he could return to China, he would bring 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 cloth on the boat became a commodity, and the natives liked it very much, and brought a lot of cassava to exchange.

There are indigenous tribes farther away. After these indigenous people obtain cotton cloth, they take out part of the cotton cloth and go to further tribes to exchange items. It soon attracted attention that these exquisite cotton cloths attracted more than 200 indigenous troops.

The natives who came to invade were obviously more advanced.

A bronze dagger was pinned to the leader's waist, and the tip of the spear was also made of copper. However, there are very few copper weapons, and most of the indigenous invaders still use stone spears as weapons.

One evening, when the local aborigines were having dinner, more than two hundred invaders suddenly rushed out.

The invaders first threw their spears, and the hit rate was not low, causing damage in an instant. Then he swung the rope again, and the rope threw stones, smashing the villagers' heads and blood.

The aborigines fled in panic, and the invaders rushed over, pulled out the thrown spears, and chased them down, screaming.

They killed the male villagers and captured the women and children alive. He went into the house to search for belongings, constantly moved out salt and grain, and shouted excitedly if he found cotton cloth.

More than 20 male villagers fled to Deng Youzhang's residence one after another.

"Yiliwala..."

The villagers pointed in the direction of their own village, stamping their feet and crying anxiously.

Although Deng Youzhang didn't understand what it meant, he knew he was attacked when he saw the wounded villagers.

"Take up your weapon and put on your armor to fend off the enemy!"

Deng Youzhang led his troops to rescue the village, but encountered the invaders chasing him halfway.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

The gunpowder has been dried and re-sifted for use.

There was a burst of gunfire, and several invaders fell down, while the rest fled in fright, 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 all the rest escaped. Those captives were all killed by angry villagers.

But the village was also destroyed. There were less than thirty adult men left, and the rest were all women and children.

Deng Youzhang called He Wenpeng over: "I'm afraid we won't be able to go back, so let's settle down 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, all of them are women and children. Here, we are all men. It is better to make two places and one place, and move to the village. Those who want to marry a wife and settle down, they can live in the village. The village chooses women as wives. The aboriginals here are not ugly except for their short stature. These aboriginals from outside carry bronze utensils. We have to be careful in the future. Learn to speak the local dialect first, or teach the villagers to speak Chinese. Find Time to inquire again to see if there are any other big tribes nearby."

"Oh, you have the final say." He Wenpeng said helplessly.

This is Madagascar, the central part of the island, where indigenous peoples have already established their own country.

The race is of mixed race, with obvious Southeast Asian characteristics.