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Text Chapter 568: Off course

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    With Li Min's identity, he would naturally not deceive two fledgling small businessmen. Four days later, Shitou and Dunzi purchased a batch of cotton cloth, negotiated terms with the merchant who rented the boat, and then their boat followed to protect the Yuan family.  , and Wu Meiniang's fleet set out on the road.

    Speaking of which, although the news of Li Min's visit to the Lion City was not kept secret, few people knew about the fact that Li Zhen and Li Yun's family members were in the fleet, and for safety reasons, Li Min had no intention of sending them to the Lion City.  The news got out.  So when Wu Shi and Wu Meiniang set out on the road this time, except for the escort fleet, the others were all large fleets related to the Qi Prince's Palace. Shitou and his small merchant ship were a special case.

    But just after their boat followed the fleet out of the port, Shitou and Dunzi suddenly collapsed to the ground, then giggled a few times with "haha", and then started snoring.  In order to buy the goods and move them onto the ship within four days, the two of them were very busy these days. Not only were they busy during the day, but they also had to work overtime at night. In the end, they even had insufficient money to hire slaves, so they  I went to move it myself. In the end, even the old captain on the ship couldn't stand it anymore and asked the crew members to go down and help. Finally, he finally finished moving the goods before the ship sailed.

    So when the ship left the port, Shitou and Dunzi's tense nerves for the past few days finally relaxed, and at the same time all the physical fatigue suddenly came back. As a result, the two of them fell directly on the deck and fell asleep. In the end,  The ship's crew carried them into the cabin.

    By the time Shitou and Dunzi woke up again, it was already more than ten hours later, and their fleet was almost passing the Strait of Malacca.  After Shitou and the two regained their spirits, they were both extremely grateful to the young man who helped them that night. However, they didn't know who he was and didn't even tell them his name. It was obvious that he just wanted to help them.  They didn't ask for anything in return, but this also made Shitou and Dunzi more curious about Li Min's identity. After all, not just anyone could arrange for them to join this fleet.  But by the time they knew Li Min's identity, it was already more than ten years later.

    Just as Shitou and the others were following the large fleet to the west, in the distant Pacific, a small fleet was struggling to move eastward. The entire fleet only had eight ships, which had already left Taiwan.  Two months of exploration of the Americas.

    But now Lu Wan, who is in this fleet, is frowning and staring at the chart in front of him.  Finally, he let out a long sigh, put the chart away carefully, and walked out of the captain's cabin.  Lu Wan was not in a good mood these days because there was a problem with the fleet's navigation.

    After leaving Taiwan, their fleet first went to Manila.  Then after replenishing supplies there, they bypassed the Luzon Peninsula and entered the equatorial ocean current they had discovered before. The fleet headed east. It went very smoothly at the beginning. Because of the season, they did not encounter any big problems.  Wind and waves, coupled with the fact that the islands east of Luzon are not as dense as those in the South China Sea.  However, after sailing for a few days, they still encountered several large islands, which allowed them to not worry about supplies.

    But just a month and a half after Lu Wan and the others sailed eastward, an accident occurred.  They happened to encounter a cloudy day at that time, and there were dark clouds for more than ten days in a row, blocking the entire sky so tightly that sometimes they could not see clearly even in broad daylight.  It makes everyone feel extremely depressed.

    When I came to Luwan, I was worried about a heavy rainstorm, which would not be a good thing for the fleet.  Moreover, on such a cloudy day, the only way to identify the direction was with a compass, but coincidentally, on the third day of the cloudy day, the direction indicated by the compass of the entire fleet deviated from the direction of the ocean current.

    When they were in Taiwan, through observations and calculations, Lu Wan and others believed that this equatorial ocean current continued eastward and could reach the coast of America. In fact, the previous voyage also confirmed this conjecture.  But now the direction of the compass told them that the direction of the ocean current had changed, and now turned to the southeast. This made Lu Wan undecided for a moment. He didn't know whether to follow the ocean current as planned or follow the direction of the compass.  Keep sailing east, after all, America is due east of them, not southeast.

    In the end, Lu Wan couldn't make up his mind, so he simply called the captains of the eight ships together. After collective discussion, most of them felt that the compass was more reliable, and it was normal for the direction of the ocean current to change. After all, they had been right in the past.  This ocean current is just speculation. No one knows whether the ocean current can take them to America?

    Lu Wan did not completely agree with the opinions of these captains, because he knew from the navigation academy that under certain special circumstances, the compass would malfunction. Although the chance of encountering such a situation was very small,  It's not impossible, so he prefers to stay where he is for a few days, and it's not too late to leave until the weather clears and the direction is clear.  Just looking at the current situation, no one knows when it will clear up, so in the end Lu?We have to respect the choices of most people and move forward in the direction indicated by the compass.

    However, it turns out that sometimes the truth is not in the hands of most people. Lu Wan and his fleet moved in the direction indicated by the compass for twelve days. On the morning of the thirteenth day, the dark clouds in the sky finally dispersed, and at this time  Lu Wan and the others discovered that the direction they were heading was not due east, but northeast. In other words, the ocean current had always been heading due east. Instead, there was something wrong with the compass, causing them to deviate from the course.

    This made Lu Wan and the others very upset, but since what had happened, there was no point in being upset. After finally measuring, they found out their longitude and latitude, and found that they were not too far off. After identifying the direction, they found out that they were not too far off.  Finally, ten days later, they returned to the original route. What was even more coincidental was that when they returned to the original route, the compass returned to normal.

    Regarding this off-route accident, Lu Wan recorded it in detail in his voyage diary. However, with the technical means at the time, they did not know the cause of the compass failure. It was not until more than a hundred years later that a Han astronomer  The answer was given. It turned out that that period happened to be during the outbreak of sunspots. As a result, it affected the earth's magnetic field, causing all the compasses of the entire fleet to malfunction, and even almost led to the failure of Lu Wan's exploration trip.

    It is also worth mentioning that Lu Wan actually deviated from the route this time and there is a very regretful thing, because if they had walked forward in the original direction for a day or two, they would have made a huge discovery. Unfortunately,  But they missed it, and it wasn't until they were returning that they finally realized they had made a big mistake.

    Because of this off-route accident, Lu Wan and the others wasted more than 20 days at sea. Even if their ship later returned to the original route, they had been drifting on the sea for more than two months.  , they haven't encountered an island for a long time, and the weather is hot. Although the food on the ship has been preserved as much as possible, a lot of food will inevitably spoil, so Lu Wan and the others are now facing a food crisis.

    "How is it? How much food is left on each ship?" After Lu Wan put away the charts, he sent someone to call the supply officer on the ship to ask.

    "Captain, although our ship has tried its best to load more supplies, it has been at sea for more than two months, so there is really not much supply on the ship. According to my estimation, if each crew member is reduced by three  If we have one-third of the food supply, we can still last for about twenty days. As for fresh water, which is much better, we have replenished it on some islands before, so we can still last for at least one and a half months." The supply officer said.

    "Twenty days?" Lu Wan frowned. They had been out at sea for such a long time, and they should have arrived in America soon, but no one knew how long the rest of the journey would be. What if the fleet's food supply would be gone after twenty days?  If the American continent is still missing after eating it all, it may cause panic among the crew.

    "Can you find a way to increase the food, such as fishing?" Lu Wan finally asked unwillingly.

    However, after hearing this, the supply officer couldn't help but smiled bitterly and said: "The captain doesn't know something. I have already included fishing in my calculation of twenty days. In addition, we rarely encounter fish schools on this route, so we can catch  There are not many fish there, unless you encounter an island, there are usually a large number of marine animals living around the island. It would be better if you can find fresh water and edible animals and plants on the island."

    However, when Lu Wan heard about the island, he sighed heavily. Since they set sail from the last island more than a month ago, they have never encountered an island again, and because of the size of the last island,  It is very small, and there is no fresh water resources on the island. There are only a group of seabirds living on the island, so they do not get much supplies on the island.

    "In this case, starting from tomorrow morning, the daily food supply for the entire crew will be reduced by one-third, and fishing efforts will be increased to try to catch more fish to make up for the lack of food!" Lu Wan finally gave the order.  , most of the fleet are old crew members, and based on their experience, they can definitely tell that there is not much food in the fleet, so this order should not be met with much resistance.

    However, saving food can only solve a temporary emergency. If you want to truly solve the food crisis, the best way is to find an island to supplement food. However, the sea is vast and they are the first batch of Han people to arrive here, so no one knows  , can you really find an island?

    The news of the food shortage could not be concealed at all. After all, many people knew about the food reserves on the ship, so soon the entire crew of the fleet knew the news, and this also put a layer of worry in the hearts of all the crew.  shadow.
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