The waterway on the side of Seagull Island was hidden very well. Due to the fact that there were too many hidden reefs and reefs near the waterway, ships passing by did not dare to get too close to it. Even fishing boats had to maintain a distance of at least one mile to avoid accidentally hitting these hidden reefs and reefs and causing the tragedy of sinking the ship. Therefore, it was naturally difficult to discover the waterway that was deliberately hidden.
The disguise of the waterway was two thick tree trunks that were four to five meters long. Many aquatic plants were tied to these thick tree trunks. These aquatic plants were two meters tall and completely blocked the entrance of the waterway. They were connected to the same aquatic plants on both sides of the waterway and looked flawless. As long as one did not get too close, one would not be able to see any problems at all. Only when one was dozens of meters away would one be able to see this very hidden flaw clearly. Ang Lee had binoculars in his hand, so he could naturally discover this hidden flaw from a distance.
"As long as we push these two tree trunks away, even medium-sized merchant ships can enter the paddy field. If the technology is good enough, I'm afraid even large ships can enter."
Chen Fugui looked at the hidden waterway in the distance and said.
Ang Lee nodded and said, "Chen Long, send a few soldiers to sneak off the ship and sneak into Seagull Island from the water. Remember, you must be very careful. There must be pirates on the island."
Chen Fugui hurriedly added, "Be careful of poisonous insects. This island is full of poisonous insects. This is also the reason why many people are unwilling to get close to Seagull Island. Otherwise, the pirates would not be hiding here."
"Poisonous insects? What kind of poisonous insects? Are they very poisonous?"
Ang Lee asked.
Chen Fugui said, "There are many kinds of poisonous insects. This island is almost full of trees. In places where the trees are too dense, there will naturally be a lot of poisonous insects. I happen to have prepared a lot of detoxifying herbs on my ship. They can be used this time."
Ang Lee nodded. After the soldiers got off the ship, he ordered the whaling ship to leave Seagull Island temporarily. He planned to return after four hours. After all, staying here would arouse the pirates' suspicion.
The soldiers had to swim a mile to reach the shore after getting off the ship. However, this distance was nothing to the soldiers under Ang Lee's command. They could swim to the shore very quickly. In order to prevent being discovered by the pirates, they naturally did not swim near the waterway. Instead, they swam in another direction. The waves there were bigger and it was easier to cover the soldiers when they reached the island.
"Assistant Minister Li, I just received news that a whaling ship on the right has found two whales."
Chen Fugui suddenly said excitedly.
................... Let's get off to a good start..............................................
. More than ten miles away, a whaling ship had already begun to track the whales. More than a dozen of Chen Fugui's subordinates began to operate the whaling crossbows. Every bolt was aimed at the whales in the distance. However, in order to really hit the whales, they had to get close enough. The closer they were, the easier it was to hit them. The more they could pierce into the whale's body, making it more difficult for the whales to break free from the whaling crossbows.
The whale's body was very large, and its speed in the sea was naturally not slow. Although the whaling ship's speed was already very fast, it was still left behind by the whale. The more it chased after the whale, the farther it was from the whale. It was precisely because the whale's speed was not slower than the whaling ship's that when whaling, many ships would often act together and surround the whale from different directions to increase the success rate.
Of course, the whales' countermeasure was not just speed. They also had the ability to dive. Once a whale dived into the water, it was not easy to find the whales. Although whales also needed to breathe, they did not need to breathe all the time. Hiding underwater for a quarter of an hour was not difficult for the whales.
Sure enough, perhaps realizing that it was being targeted by humans, after running for a while, the whale suddenly dived into the water quietly and disappeared without a trace. This made the whaling ships that were chasing after it helpless. They could only continue to chase after it based on their guesses.
"What, the whales dived and disappeared?"
Ang Lee was very dissatisfied. It was not easy to find a whale, but it disappeared just like that. This made Ang Lee very disappointed.
"However, the location where it disappeared and the direction it went before it disappeared have been confirmed. According to the whales' habits, when it appears again, it is very likely that it will be near our ship. We just need to wait for it."
Chen Fugui said.
Ang Lee nodded in agreement and said, "Then let's wait here! Everyone pay attention to the surface of the water and try to find the traces of the whales in advance. "
After that, Ang Lee personally picked up the binoculars and carefully searched the surface of the sea to find the traces of the whales. Although he knew that it was not so easy, how would he know if he did not try?
After about a quarter of an hour, two more whales appeared on the surface of the sea. It was obvious that they were the two whales that had dived into the water before. At this time, these two whales were near the whaling ship that Ang Lee was on. The distance could be said to be very close. If they were any closer, they would almost hit the whaling ship. This made Ang Lee feel very shocked.
"What are you waiting for? This is such a good opportunity."
Ang Lee said loudly.
"Assistant Minister Li, two whales, and the largest kind. I'm afraid that our ship can't handle them all. We can only hunt one, and this is also a certain risk."
Chen Fugui said nervously.
Obviously, whaling was not a fun thing. There was still a lot of risk in it. It was not rare to be accidentally injured by a whale. Since ancient times, there had never been a whaling ship that was destroyed because of killing whales. Moreover, it had happened more than once or twice.
Chen Fugui was still very nervous about the two behemoths in front of him. After all, even if he had hunted whales for many years, such a huge whale still shocked him. And such a huge whale usually appeared only one. This time, two appeared at the same time. How could this not make him nervous? Although he was confident that he could kill these two whales, if these two whales went crazy and collided with Ang Lee, he was afraid that Ang Lee would blame him.
"Kill the smaller one."
Chen Fugui ordered his subordinates to prioritize killing the smaller whale. This way, the pressure of hunting would be reduced.
Soon, three whaling crossbows were fired at the same time. In the blink of an eye, they hit the smaller whale. At the same time, the whale's howl was heard.
The whale was shot by the whaling crossbow. Naturally, it was unwilling to be hunted by humans, so it struggled desperately and pulled the whaling ship away from its original direction. What was more frightening was that the other whale suddenly dived into the water and disappeared. This made Chen Fugui's heart skip a beat.
He had encountered such a situation before. Generally, after a whale was killed, the other whale would not take the opportunity to leave. Instead, it would try its best to rescue the other whale or take revenge on the humans who killed its companion, such as hitting the whaling ship. This was the main reason why whaling ships had to have a certain tonnage. If the ship was too small, it was estimated that the whale's tail would sink the whaling ship. The larger the whaling ship, the safer it would be when facing whales. At least, there was no need to worry about being hit and sunk by a whale.
"Boom …"
Chen Fugui's worries came true. After the larger whale sank into the water, it indeed launched an attack on the whaling ship. Moreover, it launched an attack from the bottom of the ship. With such a charge, it directly caused the whaling ship to shake violently. Everyone on the ship was shocked. It felt as if the ground was shaking and the mountains were shaking.
"It's a whale. This whale is attacking the whaling ship."
As soon as Chen Fugui's voice fell, there was another boom. The bottom of the whaling ship was hit by the whale again. Moreover, the impact was stronger each time. Obviously, this whale was so angry that it had almost lost its mind. It seemed that it would not stop until the whaling ship was sunk.
The successive collisions made everyone on the whaling ship panic. One whale was still pulling at the whaling ship, while the other was tormenting the bottom of the ship. If a hole was created in the bottom of the ship, the whaling ship would be scrapped. Once the whaling ship sank, the people on the ship would be buried at the bottom of the sea.
"This whale is really tormenting. We'll kill it together later. This time, we have to kill two whales. This harvest is very good. It's really worth the trip!"
Ang Lee said excitedly.
Although the whale was wantonly hitting the whaling ship, Ang Lee was not too worried. This type of whaling ship was personally designed by Ang Lee. Its performance was naturally advanced enough. There were a large number of watertight compartments inside. Even if one part was damaged, it would not cause the whaling ship to sink. Even if many parts were damaged, it would not be a big problem. Ang Lee was very confident about this.
As for killing the other whale, there was even less pressure. Although this whale was very lively now, it would greatly consume the whale's physical strength. When the whale was tired later, it would be time for the whaling ship to show its power. In this way, they could only harvest two whales a day. It was not a wasted trip.
It had to be said that the physical strength of whales was still very strong. After going back and forth for a long time, whether it was the smaller whale that was shot or the whale that was tossing around at the bottom of the ship, their endurance was very long. All of them had been tossing and turning for a quarter of an hour without stopping. At this time, another two whaling ships approached and aimed at the whale that had not been killed that occasionally showed its head, preparing to give it a fatal blow.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh …
Because it had consumed a lot of energy, the whale that hit the bottom of the ship needed to frequently float to the surface to breathe. When the whale floated to the surface to breathe, it happened to encounter a whaling ship that had rushed over to support it. The whaling ship took the opportunity to attack the whale directly.
There was no doubt that this whale, which had consumed a lot of physical strength, could not avoid being killed. It was easily captured by the whaling ship. Although the two whales were still struggling, causing the nearby seawater to be dyed red, they could not really get rid of them.
The whaling ship's ropes were very strong. At the same time, there were also many barbs on the whaling crossbow. Once these barbs entered the whale's body, it was impossible for the whale to break free. Moreover, every struggle was accompanied by a piercing pain and a large amount of blood loss.
At this point, there was no doubt that the two whales would be caught. It would just take a little more time to wear down the strength and vitality of the two whales. When the whales were exhausted, it would be time for the whales to be fished out.
After persisting for an hour, the two whales finally could not hold on any longer. They no longer had the strength to struggle. Because the two whales were too large, it was impossible to fish them out to the deck. Therefore, the whales could only be tied to the side of the whaling ship with ropes and then brought back to the port to be dealt with.
"Assistant Minister Li, the port of Tianguang Port is too small. I'm afraid it's not easy to deal with such large whales. There's so much whale meat that we can't consume it all."
Chen Fugui said.
Ang Lee said with a smile, "What's there to consume? I have 3,000 soldiers and horses under my command. These two small whales can support us for a few more days of rations."
The weight of these two whales was about thirty tons, and there were three thousand soldiers under Li An's command. If they were to divide the meat evenly, each soldier would only get twenty kilograms of whale meat. Twenty kilograms of whale meat could be finished in half a month, and there would be no waste at all.
The whales that Ang Lee hunted this time were the largest blue whales. Although the two blue whales were not the largest among the blue whales, they were not small. They were enough to make Ang Lee and his people excited for a few days.
The blue whale was the largest animal in the ocean. At the same time, it was also the largest animal on the planet. Although it was huge, it did not look very fierce. The food of such a huge whale was actually the extremely small krill.
In order to maintain the huge consumption of its body, the blue whale could swallow about two million krill at a time. It needed to eat at least four tons of krill every day, and at most eight tons. It was almost the weight of an elephant. From this, it could be seen how amazing the appetite of this animal was. It could be regarded as a super glutton.
The blue whale was a super behemoth. Its mouth had two rows of plate-shaped tentacles like a sieve, and its stomach had many folds like the bellows of an accordion. It could expand and contract at will. This way, it could swallow seawater and krill together. Then, it would close its mouth and discharge seawater through the gaps in its tentacles. After that, it would filter out the small fish and prawns and swallow them. In addition, the blue whale's food included other prawns, small fish, jellyfish, diatoms, and various plankton. It did not only eat one type of food.
As the whaling ship that Ang Lee was on had been hit by the whales many times, after the whales were caught, the two whales were carried by the other two whaling ships. The whaling ship that Ang Lee was on was not responsible for carrying the whales. Moreover, Ang Lee still needed to go to Seagull Island again to pick up a few of his soldiers and figure out the situation on Seagull Island.
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