On a sunny morning, the sea outside the east coast of Mingzhou Bay, Zhoushan Port, and the pier was hustle and bustle. The sea boats that were ready were about to start anchoring and sailing to the sea, and went south with the sometimes unpredictable northwest wind.

The Zhou Kingdom and Persian delegation who had been waiting here for more than a month in Hyacinth finally waited for the time to go out to sea. A large group of people came to the dock and boarded different sea boats respectively.

The gifts carried by the mission and the materials required for navigation were loaded yesterday. As long as the personnel boarded the ship, they could set off immediately.

The fleet would pass through Fuzhou Houguan and arrive in Guangzhou Fanyu. There, they would meet with the Persian ships on the Persian mission, head to the South Ocean together, pass through the strait called "Malacca", and then turn to the West, and head to Persia in the extreme west.

During this voyage, the fleet would pass by the Tianzhu area and berth at the famous harbor "Tamaridi". The monks who accompanied Zhiyuan and others would get off there and go to the Buddhist holy land of Nalanda Temple to study and further study.

At this moment, Zhiyuan, who was boarding the Shanghai boat, looked back at the dock, looked at the scenery of Zhoushan Port, looked around, and took a deep breath.

Navigation is risky, and once the ship encounters a shipwreck, he can only leave it to fate. He will not know if he can arrive in India safely after he leaves.

And he didn't know whether he could return to the Central Plains in this life.

Looking at the familiar and unfamiliar Zhoushan Port, Zhiyuan closed his eyes, as if he wanted to imprint the scene in front of him in his mind so that he could recognize his departure port from afar when he returned in the future.

On the side, two officials were registering the monks who boarded the ship and confirming that all the boarders had obtained permission from the Maritime Bureau. This was not to prevent anyone from sneaking out of the country, but to ensure that the beds on the ship and the food could be fully allocated.

This time, the emperor sent envoys to the Persian and Roman countries in the extreme west, allowing monks to sign up and accompany them. After the approved monks boarded the ship, they would be treated as "inclusive food and accommodation".

Of course, for monks who are dedicated to Buddha, as long as there is a place to stand on the boat, as long as there is food to fill your hunger and water to quench your thirst, it doesn’t matter whether the treatment is good or not.

During the Jin Dynasty, Monk Faxian went to Tianzhu to seek scriptures and seek Dharma. When he went there, he took a land route. It took many years to travel through mountains and rivers to reach Nalanda Temple. When he came back, he took a sea route and took a sea boat across the country. He encountered many obstacles on the way, which he survived by himself.

Now the monks who went to India were riding on the court's sailboat. When they returned to the Central Plains, there were also sailboats from the Nanyang Trading Company. The conditions were many times better than those of Faxian back then.

Many monks were excited when they thought they were going to Tianzhu. Looking at the sailing ships on both sides, everyone was full of expectations for the holy land of Nalanda Temple.

Under the towed by man-row tugboats, the sea boats left the docks one after another, and then sailed out with the help of wind. Many sea boats in the port area made way out and watched the large fleet leave.

However, there were several unique brig ships, following the fleet from both far and near, and also heading towards the outer sea.

These ships stopped and stopped. The two mainmast sails on the ship were folded up and filled with sails, which looked a little strange. There were many people gathered on the deck, and I don’t know what they were busy with.

Jiyuan looked at the boats with fun, the busy sounds on the boats, and the intermittent shouts, as if he saw the toddlers, as if he saw the careful appearance of the first-time horse rider.

Sure enough, the officials on the side told the passengers about the identities of the ships in front of them: they were all training ships from the Maritime Navigation Academy. The students took a boat to sea to learn how to manipulate new sailboats.

"Everyone has seen these ships. The shape of the ship is a brig schooner. In fact, it is the same as the common sea ships, but the sails are a little different. They are soft and made of canvas."

"A schooner can sail against the wind, and a hard sail can cover all sides of the wind, but it is heavy, so it cannot be made too big, because the masts cannot bear it, so the compromise is to use soft sails. Let's see, are the masts of these ships much higher than those of ordinary sea ships?"

"When the mast is high, the sails can be made larger, and when the wind is high, the boat will be faster."

"Of course, it's a bit troublesome to retract the soft sails, especially the reclaiming sails. They are not as fast as hard sails. If you cannot reclaim the sails in time when encountering strong winds, it is easy to get into trouble. Either the mast is blown off or the sails are torn apart by strong winds."

"Soft sails require more people to operate, which means that wage expenses increase. Generally, merchant ships are not rare to use. Soft sails are used more frequently in ocean-going sea boats, so they need a lot of sailors."

"How to manipulate hard sailboats and soft sailboats requires veterans to teach them step by step. Now that the sea trade is booming, qualified sailors are short of. It is too slow to rely on the ship owner to lead the team, so there must be a sailing school."

"Students are allowed to enter school, including food and accommodation, but after graduation, they must work for the Liangyang Trading Company fleet for a certain period of time before they can be free."

Listening to the detailed explanation of the officials, many passengers suddenly realized that some of them knew that each weaving department now has a "textile school" to train textile workers for each textile factory.

Now the Maritime Navigation School of the Maritime Trading Company is cultivating a large number of sailors for the Liangyang Trading Company, and the increasingly large trading fleet means that wealth is coming.

Some officials on the same boat knew that the proportion of the income from maritime trade in the court is getting higher and higher. It is precisely because of the profits and taxes brought by maritime trade that the court has the confidence to implement various policies.

As everyone was talking, the fleet had already left Zhoushan Port and sailed southward on the endless sea.

Seabirds flew up and down around the ship, making crisp sounds from time to time. The sea breeze blew on the face, making people feel refreshed. Passengers who were enjoying the scenery of the sea and sky suddenly found several ships behind the fleet.

The speed of those ships was very fast, and the distance between the two sides was obviously gradually shortening.

When the ship is approaching, everyone can see clearly that these ships are completely different from the styles of the ships they are on.

The hull is narrow and long like a canoe, and the mast is towering. Each ship has five mainmasts, with sharp bows and a mast poked forward, with a spinnaker on it, connected to the first mainmast.

The sails stand up like feathers, the sails are shaped like sails, the material is soft sails, with black base, and there are huge five-petal white flowers on them, which looks very eye-catching from a distance.

These fast-sailing ships rushed towards the fleet like wolf rushing towards the flock, but then passed through the outer edge of the fleet and formed a column and parallel to the fleet.

The horn sounded at our own fleet, and the five-masted fleet opposite also sounded at the same time. Both sides were greeting each other like friends they met by chance halfway.

The official who was just explaining the maritime affairs to the passengers, saw these five-masted ships and said excitedly: "Everyone is lucky, you can meet the patrol yaksha!"

Yasha is the name of an evil ghost in Buddhism. This evil ghost is quick and fast. If the ship is named after this, it seems to have some meaning, so a monk asked: "Survey the sea yaksha? Does it mean that the ship is very fast?"

The official nodded: "Yes, this kind of five-masted sailboat has a very fast speed. It is used as a warship by the Maritime Bureau. It is very powerful to pursue pirates. As long as you are targeted by such a ship, the pirates will be unable to fly."

As he spoke, he pointed to the mast of the opposite clutch: "They used soft sails. It was very troublesome to retract the soft sails and required a lot of manpower. However, these five-masted clutchs made more warships and there were many soldiers on the ship, so it doesn't matter that there were too many people and a lot of wages."

"This kind of ship runs fast and has many soldiers. It sways everywhere in the seas of the two oceans. Those evil pirates are targeted by such ships and will never be able to escape. Therefore, this kind of ship has a nickname called 'Sea Shooting Yasha'."

When many people heard this, they were a little surprised: "Are there many pirates? They have to patrol the sea yaksha and wander around?"

"Hi, there were too many in the past, but now at least there are not many in the Beiyang Sea... These fast ships are sometimes used as cargo ships... So now these ships are not necessarily transporting soldiers, but also cargo."

As the clerk spoke, he started to show off: "I heard, I just heard that in the future, the large cargo ships of the Liangyang Trading Company will use this type of ship."

"The cost of shipping will drop significantly by then, and merchants who do maritime trade will be happy."
Chapter completed!