prosperous age

The Ming fleet began to deviate to the right and gradually disappeared from the sight of the Spanish fleet.

However, the general on the ship took out a box and began to measure their current position on the sea. He also marked it on a detailed map and recorded it in the "Mission Route".

The "Diplomatic Itinerary" recorded by the Ming government is actually a navigation log that often appears in Western navigation, which records what happened along the way.

If it is a particularly serious incident, a special and detailed record will be made for future reference.

Yin Zhengmao just stood aside and watched coldly. He was not familiar with these matters and naturally would not interfere.

While the Ming fleet was making the record, the commander of the Spanish fleet in the east was also ordering people to record what had just happened.

Just as the Ming Dynasty did, they recorded in detail the number of Ming navy warships they saw, especially more than a dozen gunboats that looked very new.

“Commander, I feel it is necessary to inform the Governor-General of the Philippines and the Governor-General of Mexico.

This fleet should be the one that the Ming Dynasty is going to send to the Middle East and Africa. It is said that they went there more than a hundred years ago. "

The fact that the Ming Dynasty once again sent a fleet to the Western Ocean was still a secret to most of the Ming people, but most of the coastal merchants knew the news because some of the large Fu ships in the fleet were loaned to the court by these merchants.

Yu Dayou took away most of the Ming navy's large ships, and the rest were distributed in various places. It was difficult to build so many large ships in a short period of time, so naturally they could only borrow them from maritime merchants.

The news spread among maritime merchants and naturally reached the ears of European merchants trading in Laiyue Port.

Well, the interests of the Middle East had little to do with the Kingdom of Spain, as the Pope had already awarded the trading rights there to Portugal.

"The Ming people are really amazing. They were able to build so many warships in such a short time, even though they don't look that great."

On the treasure ship, the fleet commander nodded in agreement. He had just recorded the encounter between the two countries' navies on the sea in the navigation log.

"When the fleet passes Cebu, send someone to tell the garrison on the island to pass on the news that we saw more than ten new warships from the Ming Dynasty to Manila. We don't have time to waste on this kind of thing."

After the fleet commander finished speaking, the staff officer nodded and said, "I'll pass it on."

"Although we know they might be a Ming fleet heading to the Middle East, we must be prepared for any eventuality. All lookouts must be on high alert these days to prevent the Ming navy from tracking our journey."

Until now, the Pacific route has only been controlled by the Spanish and has been classified as top secret.

It is still a round trip once a year, but with the rise of maritime trade, in order to keep this golden waterway secret, the Pacific route was changed to once every two years since the early seventeenth century, with a larger fleet formed to transport goods.

The objects of confidentiality were gradually expanded from the Portuguese at the beginning to the Netherlands, Britain and other countries, including the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, the Spanish treasure fleet returned to Mexico by sailing directly north from Manila. After reaching the northern tip of the Philippines, it crossed the Babuyan Strait into the Pacific Ocean and continued to sail northeast until it arrived to the east of Japan.

Here, they can take advantage of the Japan Current and the North Pacific Current, and take advantage of the westerly winds to successfully reach the coast of North America.

With the help of the California cold current, we can reach Mexico and arrive at the port of Acapulco in Mexico in just over two months.

Because of transportation needs, the Spaniards at this period were much more interested in Mexico than the vast United States in later generations.

The Spanish only established a number of strongholds along the coast of the United States, but they still had deep roots in Mexico.

After all, large sailing ships could cross the Gulf of Mexico, where solid colonies could be established, and transportation would be much more convenient than in the United States, which is more than 4,000 kilometers long from east to west.

This is why it has always been called the Gulf of Mexico instead of the "American Gulf". Later, the United States finally changed the name of this place on the American map.

But in this era, this huge bay was made for Mexico.

In fact, in later generations, airplanes and large cargo ships taking off from southern China heading to the United States would also choose this route, that is, they would not fly directly east, but first fly north, then east from the latitude close to Japan, which would save more distance.

We have to admit that the Spanish navigator and explorer Urdaneta was indeed a genius. He actually found the most scientific route across the Pacific Ocean.

Of course, the route from Mexico to the Philippines is not this one. Instead, it takes the Peruvian cold current and the north and south equatorial warm currents. Starting from Mexico, you just go directly west.

This route is longer and takes more time.

But now the situation has changed. The northern part of the Philippines has been occupied by the Ming Dynasty. In order to avoid the Pacific route being discovered, they can only detour to the south, enter the Pacific Ocean from the southern Philippines and then sail northeast to avoid the Ming people's activity area.

At this time, the legendary British privateer and navigator Francis Drake followed Magellan's route, crossed the South Atlantic from Britain, and arrived at the east coast of South America.

Then, of course, we headed south to find the mysterious golden channel known to Europeans - the Strait of Magellan.

Unfortunately, when his galleon, the Golden Hind, arrived at the entrance of the Strait of Magellan, he discovered that the Spanish had already established a stronghold there and prohibited all non-Spanish ships from passing through.

As a last resort, Drake had to take the Golden Hind and continue sailing south along the coastline of Tierra del Fuego.

The Strait of Magellan is not the sea between South America and Antarctica, but a narrow strait between the South American mainland and Tierra del Fuego and nearby archipelagos.

Through here, you can enter the Pacific Ocean safely and quickly from the Atlantic Ocean.

At this time, this place was completely monitored by the Spanish, and ships from other countries were prohibited from passing through.

In the eyes of the Spaniards, Drake's bold move was undoubtedly a way to seek death.

Continuing the voyage southward, there was not only extreme cold and bad weather along the way, but also floating ice from the Antarctic continent on the sea, all of which brought great danger to this journey.

Every time the Spaniards sailed south and arrived here, they thought they had reached the end and could not go any further because the weather was so bad that it had exceeded the limits of human activities.

So, they finally chose to give up looking for a passage at the southernmost tip of South America, and instead stick to the Magellan Strait, which had already been discovered and confirmed to be safe, to enter the Pacific Ocean.

At this time, Drake was struggling with extreme weather. He could no longer use modern navigation instruments to determine their position. He only knew roughly that they were sailing along the coastline.

Before, they had been planning to sail in the south-west direction, but now their route is heading west, then gradually north, and gradually away from the southernmost tip of the earth.

Finally, when the Golden Hind woke up again, Drake saw the sun in the northern sky and the temperature seemed to rise.

He rushed out of the cabin shouting excitedly, waking up the other crew members, and everyone rushed to the deck to cheer.

After a burst of excitement, they still didn't know where they were, so they took out the navigation instruments to measure and determine the location of the ship.

God knows, just last night at nightfall, they all thought that this journey south might have reached the pole of the earth, and perhaps they would be frozen to death in this place.

Unexpectedly, after just one night, they seemed to have managed to get out alive.

Just as Drake was directing the crew to determine their location, the lookout who had climbed up the watchtower suddenly pointed to the east and shouted loudly.

"What do you see?"

Perhaps he was too excited, the lookout was a little incoherent at this moment, but he just kept pointing to the east, ignoring Drake's shouts.

After shouting several times, the lookout finally responded and pointed to the east and shouted, "Over there, there is a continent. I can see the coastline."

"Continent, coastline."

Drake's heart skipped a beat, just when he thought that their ship might have turned around unconsciously last night and taken them away from the Devil's Sea.

Yes, it is the Devil's Sea, the air is cold, there are huge winds and waves, and icebergs seem to be everywhere on the sea. All of these are taboos for sailing.

However, when he looked up and saw the sun, he suddenly realized something.

He walked quickly to the crew members who were measuring the position and asked loudly: "Can you tell me where we are now?"

"Observing, wait a moment, Captain."

A crew member answered while observing the numbers on the instrument, then lowered his head and reported the data to the crew member next to him who was in charge of recording.

Drake had no choice but to walk aside and look at the nautical chart laid out on a simple wooden table.

Drake stretched out his finger and ran it across the several points that had been marked.

Yes, the sun was always behind them, not in front of them.

"It doesn't seem right."

Just then, Drake heard the crew member responsible for calculating the position muttering softly.

"What you said is wrong."

Derek yelled at him.

"The first calculation showed that our current position should be 57 degrees south latitude and 60 to 70 degrees west longitude. But it's not correct, according to the nautical chart."

The crew member was still frowning, and he picked up the charcoal pencil again and began to recalculate their position.

"Is it possible that the place we passed through was the southernmost tip of this damn continent?"

Drake finally spoke out his inner guess.

Well, the non-stop level 8 gale is simply a nightmare for sailors of this era.

This is the Drake Passage. The pressure difference on both sides of the strait is 12 millibars, which causes the dry and cold air from the Antarctic continent and the relatively moist and warm air from the American continent to exchange north and south.

The Antarctic Convergence Zone passes through the middle of the strait near 60°S, where the easterly circulation and the westerly circulation converge.

The Drake Passage is world-famous for its raging waves. Because the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans meet here and it is located at high latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, storms dominate the Drake Passage.

All the hurricane waves from the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans seem to be gathered in the strait, with wind speeds above level 365 8 days a year.

In later generations, even a 10,000-ton ship would be shaken like a leaf in the rough sea.

Therefore, the Drake Passage is called the "murderous westerlies", "storm corridor" and "Devil's Strait". It is a veritable "corridor of death" and countless ships have capsized on the seabed here in history.

"Maybe, we can get to the other side of the New World without having to go through the damn Strait of Magellan."

The crew member temporarily put down the charcoal pencil in his hand and said something, looking to the right, because at this time many crew members who were active on the deck had gathered excitedly on the starboard side, pointing in that direction and shouting.

"Continent, the New World."

At this time, there was no Tierra del Fuego, and Europeans still called South America the New World.

This was not Drake's first time arriving in the New World. In fact, he had crossed the Atlantic Ocean, reached the Caribbean Sea, and arrived in Central America ten years ago.

And now, his Golden Hind is heading south along this route to find a route into the Pacific Ocean, trying to recreate a British circumnavigation of the world.

Yes, Drake's hatred for the Spanish made him always try to find ways to help Britain defeat Spain and replace him.

"Continue to calculate our position, although I really don't want to pass by there again."

Drake patted the crew member on the shoulder and said that he had walked to the starboard side of the Golden Hind.

"Yes, Captain."

Although they also wanted to go over and take a look, the crew members just completed their work diligently.

Drake, who was standing by the side of the ship, suddenly thought of something and turned to the lookout on the watchtower and shouted, "Be careful to guard the surroundings and prevent the Spanish from discovering us."

"Yes, Captain."

The lookout had recovered from his excitement and answered loudly.

"We're gonna be rich, guys."

Drake suddenly shouted loudly to the crew around him.

"Huh? What?"

"Who did the captain say got rich?"

The sea breeze was still howling, and amid the cheers of the crew, Drake's voice was not clearly heard by the excited crew around him, so they asked each other.

"I said, we are going to get rich, it's us."

Drake yelled again.

"Captain, we are lucky to have made it out alive. Why should we make a fortune? Do you think you can become a millionaire by writing a book about our experiences? Haha."

Right next to Drake, a bald sailor with a red nose laughed loudly.

"If that waterway existed, would Her Majesty spend a huge sum of money to buy it?"

Another bearded crewman asked hesitantly.

The Golden Hind, itself the private property of Queen Elizabeth, was now used by Drake.

Being able to get this newly launched large ship to go out to sea itself carries the Queen's hopes.

Yes, for Drake, robbing Spanish ships was more profitable than any other business.

For the Queen, allowing Drake to complete the circumnavigation of the world in the Golden Hind would not only provide the British with a complete nautical map, but her most important hope was to enable Drake to establish diplomatic or trade relations with China and India in the East and break the monopoly of Spain and Portugal.

"They thought we either died in that devil's sea or returned in disgrace."

Drake then solemnly spoke to the crew members around him, and everyone knew who "they" referred to.

All the way south, Spanish warships searched for and attacked them.

But not only did they survive, they also robbed two small Spanish merchant ships.

Drake pointed to the front and said, "There have never been any ships other than the Spanish there. As long as we are fast, we can get countless wealth when they are off guard." (End of this chapter)