The Black Sails of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 2 Star-Tracing Technique

Lin Qian ordered her men to deal with the bodies and bloodstains on the deck, and then commanded the Fujian ship to turn due south and sail away from the area.

The crew members followed their original assignments, weighed anchor, and raised the sails. Soon after, the sound of waves crashing against the bow could be heard.

Suddenly, a deep, muffled voice said, "Brother Lin, Macau is to the west, why are we heading south?"

The speaker was a man with a Shandong accent, wearing only a single pair of trousers in the biting sea wind, his muscular upper body bare, making him stand out conspicuously.

This man was named Lei Sanxiang, and he was the third oldest among the seven sworn brothers.

Seeing Lei Sanxiang approach Lin Qian, Bai Langzai also moved closer, his right hand on the hilt of his knife behind him, staring intently at him.

"We're not going to Macau," Lin Qian said calmly.

Lei Sanxiang frowned, took a step forward, and shouted, "What do you mean? The ship's prow says Macau."

"Don't worry, Third Brother. From here, sailing south for at most twenty days will take us to Luzon, a colony of the Franks. I've been there before. This ship of goods can be sold for double the price there."

Lei Sanxiang's brows relaxed upon hearing this, but he still asked with concern, "But what about the boat's propellant..."

Lin Qian stared at Lei Sanxiang for a moment, then smiled and said, "Third Brother, would people like us care about a boat license?"

Lei Sanxiang was stunned for a moment after hearing this, then, remembering that they had just hijacked the ship, he scratched his head and laughed, "That's true... Brother Lin's brain is still the best. I'm going to get back to work."

Lin Qian pulled him back: "When we were lining up just now, thirteen people were particularly hesitant. They were forced to join. Third Brother, you need to keep a close eye on them..."

Then Lin Qian told the names of the thirteen people.

After several days on the ship, Lin Qian had memorized the names and appearances of everyone on board—a skill he had honed from starting from scratch in his previous life.

Lei Sanxiang wrote down the name, responded, and left.

After he left, Bai Langzai also released his grip on the knife hilt and took a step back.

Lin Qian could see Lei Sanxiang and Bai Langzai's movements clearly from the corner of her eye.

The seven of them didn't know each other before boarding the ship, and they still don't know each other's backgrounds. Although they have become sworn brothers, they are always wary of each other.

Human hearts are a den of demons.

Lin Qian shook her head, stopping her wild thoughts, and ordered that all the boatmen who had taken the knives be promoted to foremen.

These people were the quickest to defect to Lin Qian, whether out of anger at the boat captain's exploitation or greed for money. At least they were more loyal than ordinary boatmen and could supervise them.

Meanwhile, the boatmen with knives were scattered throughout the ship, making it inconvenient for them to gather together and discuss how to overthrow him.

After sailing south for two hours, Lin Qian ordered the sails to be lowered and the anchor to be lowered. The crew returned to their cabins to rest, and the captain distributed the wine to all the crew members.

The sailors, having received their drinks, happily returned to their cabins. They had just endured a bloody night and were still tense; alcohol was the perfect anesthetic.

Moreover, at night, visibility is poor, making it easy to get lost. Therefore, these days, people usually stop to rest at night and only sail during the day.

After watching the boatmen return to their cabins, Lin Qian turned and went into the captain's stern.

Successfully seizing the ship was only the first step in the plan; there was still a long way to go before one could breathe a sigh of relief.

Compared to the crew cabins where more than a dozen people were crammed into three bunk beds, the sterncastle was extravagantly luxurious. Not only was the space enormous, but it was also fully furnished with all sorts of furniture, making it no different from the bedroom of a wealthy landowner.

Lin Qian searched through the boxes and wardrobe.

They found a box of silver, about one hundred taels, which was the boat captain's private property.

At the bottom of the silver box was a ship's sign, which listed the ship's size, crew, cargo, and other information. The port of destination, "Macau," was particularly eye-catching.

Compared to Macau, going to Luzon was riskier, but for Lin Qian, the benefits were much more than just earning more money.

Although Lin Qian said that everyone could leave as they pleased after the silver was distributed, Luzon Island was isolated overseas, and if the crew wanted to return to the Ming Dynasty, they had to return with the ship.

Once they're back on the ship, refusing to let them leave wouldn't be considered breaking a promise.

Unfortunately, there's one important thing I haven't found yet when I want to go to Luzon—the star chart.

Unlike the Ming Dynasty captains who navigated the seas with their navigational songs, Lin Qian didn't have the ability to reach Luzon with just a few rhymes and experience. Without a starboard to determine latitude, he became like a headless fly once he entered the open sea.

Therefore, Lin Qian carefully searched every inch of the room again.

Half an hour later, they indeed discovered a cavity under one of the ship's planks.

Lin Qian pried open the ship's plank with a dagger and, by the candlelight, was both amused and exasperated. Underneath the plank lay an astonishing number of "small objects," including several types of horn figurines: straight, curved, spiral, made of wood, and jade.

Besides these, there were various Burmese bells, sulfur rings, sheep's eye rings, and many other things that Lin Qian couldn't name.

The surface of the few corner pieces placed on top still had a slightly fishy water stain.

Lin Qian cursed her bad luck and covered the boat with the planks.

The captain's room has been searched, but the fire captain's room remains unsearched.

The fire chief was the navigator in later generations, and his cabin was below deck, near the bow.

The ship's fire captain was a trusted confidant of the captain and always carried a knife. So, as soon as the hijacking began, Lei Sanxiang killed him. In Lei Sanxiang's view, since they were heading west from Macau and would arrive along the coastline, there was no need to keep the fire captain alive.

Lin Qian took the knife and went out. As soon as she pushed open the door, she saw a figure outside. She immediately took a step back and held the knife horizontally in front of her.

"It's me," the figure said.

By the moonlight, Lin Qian could see that the man was Bai Langzai.

Lin Qian put down the knife, maintained a safe distance, and softened her tone: "Why don't you go to sleep?"

Bai Langzai said expressionlessly, "I'll keep watch for you. These people are not trustworthy."

Lin Qian smiled and said, "Thank you for your thoughtfulness."

"Don't get me wrong, it's all about the money. If you die, it'll cause a lot of trouble."

Although his tone was cold, Lin Qian found this straightforward offer of help for money to be far more believable than the brotherly camaraderie of others.

"Alright, then come with me to the captain's cabin."

Bai Langzai didn't say anything and silently followed behind Lin Qian.

Upon reaching the bow of the ship, Lin Qian went down into the cabin and searched around, while Bai Langzai stayed on the deck.

In the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Lin Qian came up from the cabin carrying a stack of wooden planks, with a yellowed booklet tucked into his waistband. This was the star-gazing board he was looking for.

Lin Qian carried the star-gazing board to the bow of the boat and stacked the planks together from largest to smallest, forming a pyramid shape.

He picked up one of the planks, stretched out his arms, aligned the bottom edge of the plank with the sea level, and then looked for the North Star.

Seeing that the North Star was still some distance from the top edge of the plank, Lin Qian replaced it with a larger plank until the North Star appeared perfectly at the top edge of the plank.

Then, Lin Qian took down the yellowed booklet and looked up the data.

Bai Langzai was a Tanka person and very curious about navigation. Seeing this, he couldn't help but ask, "Have you ever used the art of stargazing?"

"Hmm," Lin Qian replied casually as she flipped through the booklet.

A look of shock flashed across Bai Langzai's eyes.

During the Ming Dynasty, the art of astronomy for navigating the oceans was a secret maritime technique. It is said that the eunuch Zheng He used this technique when he sailed to the Western Ocean.

The Tanka people, who make a living by boat, should theoretically be the ones who need the most astronomical knowledge to cross oceans.

However, this skill was a closely guarded secret, and since the Tanka people were considered of low social status in the Ming Dynasty, they had no way of learning it.

Lin Qian flipped through the booklet and, based on the star chart used, determined that this place was twelve fingers high at the North Pole, and since the North Pole of Macau Port was also twelve fingers high, she could deduce that this place was approximately 23 degrees North latitude.

After simple verification, the results were determined to be basically accurate.

Compared to the sextant, the accuracy of the star gazing method is slightly lower, but it is sufficient for navigation to Luzon.

Lin Qian looked up and met Bai Langzai's gaze. A thought flashed through her mind, and she roughly guessed what he was thinking. She smiled and said, "You want to learn?"

What was considered incredibly mysterious by the people of the Ming Dynasty was, in Lin Qian's eyes, nothing more than a simple application of trigonometric functions.

Specifically, given the lengths of the two legs of a right triangle, the angle is calculated using the arctangent function, with the formula θ = arctan(b/a). Then, an approximate value is obtained using a Taylor series.

Since Polaris is located on the extension of the Earth's rotation axis, there is no need to consider factors such as seasons. The approximate angle calculated is the current latitude.

The fire chief's booklet records the types of wooden boards used for observing Polaris at different latitudes.

Most of the Ming Dynasty sailors did not understand trigonometric functions, so they could roughly determine their latitude by comparing the size of the wooden board with the booklet.

(End of this chapter)