Where is my warship?

The next morning, after accompanying the boys through their morning exercise as usual, Lin Hao had breakfast and then hurriedly went to the dock.

Here, the Lin family's original bird boat is now ready.

This time, Lin Hao only brought Lin Qi, Lin Shiyi, and Lin Shisan with him; the others stayed on the island to work.

Of the two who went to the trading hall, Lin Liu went to Manila with the fleet, while Lin Qi accompanied Lin Hao on behalf of the trading hall.

When Lin Hao and his men boarded the ship, they discovered that his third uncle was already on board.

"Third Uncle, weren't you training new sailors? Why are you on this ship?" Lin Hao asked curiously.

"What, can't I be on the ship? This ship is also my Zhan Tang's warship, of course I have to be here. Besides, these kids are all new and clumsy, how can I not keep an eye on them?" Lin Chengfeng said with a smile.

"No, what I mean is, are you coming with me too? What about here then?" Lin Hao pointed to the other two ships in the bay.

All the skilled sailors in the family have been sent to Southeast Asia, and the rest are newly recruited. Although they are all fishermen from the coast and are good swimmers and boatmen, operating such a large sailing ship is different from operating a small fishing boat. It requires long-term training, and Uncle San has been busy with this these days.

"Hmph, you have the nerve to say that." Uncle Three snorted coldly, feigning anger, and then said in a huff:

"We agreed that I would lead the War Hall's warships to dominate the seas. Now look at me, I only took over the War Hall two days ago, and today, the four largest ships are gone. Of the remaining five, two were used to purchase all sorts of random things for you, and now you've taken one away, leaving only two broken-down ships. I, the leader of the War Hall, am not as prestigious as the captain of a large Fujian ship."

"Hahaha, so that's what it is! Uncle, you've wronged me!" Lin Hao immediately shouted that he was innocent.

Once the ship had anchored and was ready to depart, Lin Hao and his third uncle stood at the side of the boat. Lin Hao pointed to the east side of the bay and asked, "Third Uncle, do you know what's over there?"

Lin Chengfeng looked up and immediately said irritably, "Isn't this the lousy shipyard you started?"

"Hehe, this is no dilapidated shipyard. Although it is rudimentary now, the warships it produces will dominate the entire Ming Dynasty sea area." Lin Hao stretched out his arms with great pride, as if he wanted to embrace this world.

"Isn't it strange, Uncle? Why send the ships everywhere instead of concentrating them to rob one big time? Speaking of which, we've been pirates for so long, we've never actually robbed a ship at sea, have we?" Lin Hao asked with a smile.

"Well, that's true. Although we sent four ships to Southeast Asia, the remaining five are enough for 'business.' Hao'er, are you sure you trust your third uncle's abilities?" Lin Chengbi said helplessly.

Lin Hao still didn't answer directly, but turned to ask again, "What does Third Uncle think of this bird boat we're standing on?"

"This bird boat?" Lin Chengbi was taken aback, then smiled and said, "This is a good boat, much faster than other boats. It's just a bit small; it would be better if it could be bigger."

"How fast is it? How much faster is it than our other Fujian-style ship?" Lin Hao then asked.

"Hmm... I haven't actually calculated it, but a rough estimate is probably one or two quarters." Lin Chengfeng said, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"Let's assume the difference is as fast as two knots. Then the lookout on the mast of the bird ship can basically determine the type of the other ship within a range of 15 kilometers at the farthest and 10 kilometers at the closest."

Now that we have both known conditions, let's assume we use our fastest bird-shaped ship as a pirate vessel to go hunting, while the enemy has a ship of the same model as our Fujian-style ship. Then, the enemy is blind and only starts to flee when we've reached 10 kilometers away.

Lin Hao smiled and looked at Lin Chengfeng, saying, "Then, Uncle, with so many advantages, how long will it take us to catch up with them?"

"This..." Lin Chengfeng was completely baffled. He couldn't possibly figure this out, but he was unwilling to admit defeat, so he started counting on his fingers.

Lin Hao didn't urge him, and just stayed with him as they enjoyed the sea breeze.

As the bird ship sailed out of Dongluo Island Bay, the sailors turned the sails and rudder, and the bird ship immediately made a sharp turn, heading towards the sea to the east.

Lin Chengfeng counted on his fingers for a long time before finally figuring it out. He hesitated and said to Lin Hao, "Hao'er, the answer is... three hours, right?"

"Third Uncle's calculations are quite accurate." Lin Hao nodded with a smile, then said to his Third Uncle, who was letting out a long sigh of relief, "But Third Uncle, didn't you notice the problem?"

"What problem?" Uncle San was still immersed in the excitement of solving the difficult problem.

"Look, we've already assumed so many favorable conditions for us, but it will still take us three hours to catch up with them. If we make even the slightest mistake along the way, the pursuit will fail."

"This process has taken so long, Uncle, what do you think our chances of successfully hijacking the ship are? If it were our Fujian ships chasing after the other side's similar Fujian ships, how long would that take?"

"Um... that'll probably take a day. But isn't that how a chase at sea goes?" Lin Chengfeng said helplessly.

In fact, he understood now. This wasn't his first time going to sea; he had previously led the Lin family's ships on maritime trade trips many times.

You encounter pirates many times, but most of the time, they give up after a while.

Only when they were extremely unlucky, blocked, or the wind was bad, would they occasionally be caught by pirates once or twice, but they always managed to survive thanks to their excellent ship protection capabilities.

This situation was great when he was a merchant, but it was terrible when he became a pirate. It was so hard to catch them. Lin Chengfeng thought about chasing after a ship all day long, getting exhausted, and then the other party slipping away under the cover of night. His face turned green.

"Is being a pirate at sea really that difficult? How do these pirates survive?" Lin Chengfeng asked helplessly.

In fact, whether in the East or the West, pirates needed a bit of favorable timing and location to catch up with merchant ships. For most pirates, their ships were not much different from merchant ships, so the speed difference was entirely reflected in the load capacity.

However, this slight difference in speed turned the chase into an endurance challenge, something that not everyone can do.

This is why sloops were so popular with pirates after they matured; for the first time, a ship could systematically outpace those larger ships in terms of speed.

In the past, only rowing sailboats could do this, but those things need to be rowed to reach their top speed, and by then they wouldn't have the strength to fight back.

"Now you should understand, Uncle. It's not that I don't want you to rob ships; I'd like to do it without any investment, but I won't take the risk like those pirates." Lin Hao shook his head with a smile, his words full of disdain.

"So?" Lin Chengfeng's eyes lit up. He knew his little genius was going to give him a surprise.

"So I designed a new ship for my third uncle, a pirate warship that is faster than the bird ship and has a better ability to sail against the wind. Any merchant ship that is targeted by this warship will definitely not be able to escape."

"Then we'll leave all this trash to the merchant guild to run trade routes. Real men ride the fastest warships and fire the biggest cannons. We'll make every merchant ship in the world surrender at the sight of our flag."

Lin Hao's words ignited Lin Chengfeng's passion, and he slammed his fist hard on the ship's deck. "Damn it! Hao'er, you're right. Let's give this crappy ship to Second Brother. But... where are my warships now?!"

"Warships, right now, are they still made of wood?" Lin Hao said quietly.