Global colonization began with Ming Dynasty pirates.

It's understandable that Uncle Fu is worried about the lack of supplies. After all, the Lin family used to purchase supplies from various places, but now that everyone has become a wanted criminal, the channels can't be restored for a while, so he feels that there is a big problem.

But what Uncle Fu didn't consider was that the Lin family's status had changed. As pirates, they had many things to worry about, but they shouldn't have to worry about not having supplies.

"We still need to recover our fighting strength as soon as possible, otherwise we won't be able to bite through tough nuts."

The impact of the government's surprise attack on the Lin family went far beyond the loss of some supplies and personnel.

The main force of the Lin family, Lin Hao's father and uncles, were all injured, and the remaining uncle is best left unmentioned. The entire team has lost its leader.

In addition, the Lin family's guards, who were the ship's protectors when they went to sea, have now suffered more than half of their losses, leaving the Lin family's ship with almost no fighting force besides the sailors. Under these circumstances, it would be difficult for them to find a kind-hearted person to beg for alms.

In other words, although the Lin family still has a few ships, the combat power they can muster is very low, and they cannot even meet the full combat readiness requirements of a large ship.

Thinking of this, Lin Hao felt agitated. Although he appeared calm and composed in front of Uncle Fu and the other teenagers, seemingly in complete control, Lin Hao actually had no confidence whatsoever.

But there's no way around it; if you start to doubt yourself, the cohesion of the whole group will be greatly reduced.

After quickly finishing his breakfast, Lin Hao told Lin Yi the meeting time and then headed to his room.

Lin Hao's room is a small wooden hut on the far east side of the base. It was originally used to store miscellaneous items, but Uncle Fu cleared it out yesterday to serve as Lin Hao's temporary residence.

There are only a dozen or so wooden houses on the island, but fortunately they are all quite large, so most people share them. Only Lin Hao is not used to sharing with others, so he specifically asked Uncle Fu to choose a very small wooden house for him to live in.

The cabin was very small, only big enough to fit a small bed and a desk; there was no room to even turn around.

Lin Hao went to the desk, opened the drawer, revealing a locked wooden box. He took out the key and opened the box, inside which were several books neatly arranged.

Lin Hao chose one of the books and opened it. It was filled with strange writing, including Chinese characters and some inexplicable symbols.

This is a booklet that Lin Hao has compiled over the past few years in his spare time, constantly sorting out fragments of his memories from later generations in order to prevent forgetting. It is written in four completely different languages: Chinese, Pinyin, English, and Italian. Almost no one in this era can fully understand it.

He learned English in school, and Italian when he was sent to Italy to pursue girls. Thinking about it, Lin Hao couldn't help but feel nostalgic for his life there. Tsk tsk, Italian girls were really something else—fair-skinned, big, and tender. He just wondered if European girls in this era were as appealing as those in later generations.

After a moment of contemplation, Lin Hao refocused and began searching through the booklet.

Soon, a record and several drawings came into view.

"A single whale can provide at least 10 tons of whale meat and about 5 tons of whale oil; whale skin can be used to make leather."

"In this way, with just one whale, there's no need to worry about food for months."

Lin Hao took out paper and pen and drew out all the tools needed for whaling, then marked their dimensions.

Unlike whales in later generations, whales in this era have not been overfished. With current whaling technology, even if Lin Hao were to hunt them with abandon, it would not affect their population.

What truly brought whales to the brink of extinction was the invention of modern whaling cannons and whaling ships.

Even in later times, when all countries tacitly agreed to stop whaling, a few shameless countries, such as Japan, continued to hunt whales relentlessly.

"Europeans can catch them, the Japanese can catch them, so why can't Lin Hao catch them? That's settled then, we'll use whale meat to make up for the lack of meat!"

After locking the booklet again, Lin Hao took the drawings to Uncle Fu.

"Uncle Fu, could you please have blacksmith Li forge more than 20 of these weapons for me according to the blueprints? Also, could you have carpenter Guo forge the same number of sealed wooden barrels and a large quantity of water containers? I need them within three days."

Uncle Fu took it and saw that it simply depicted a spear, but unlike others, it had barbs and a blood groove at the front and a ring at the back.

"Young master, this thing doesn't seem difficult to forge, but the blacksmith and carpenter are both helping with the construction of the house and can't spare the time right now. What do you think of this schedule?"

"Finish mine first! We can take our time with the wooden hut. Let's build some thatched huts to make do for now. If all else fails, we can squeeze in. This is the most important thing; it's about whether we'll have enough to eat in the future."

Hearing Lin Hao say this, Uncle Fu understood. This was the solution the young master had given. Although he didn't understand it at all, out of trust in Lin Hao, he nodded and said, "Okay, this old servant understands. I'll go find Li the blacksmith right away."

With the preparations for whaling arranged, Lin Hao felt much more at ease. As long as they could catch a whale, the crisis they faced would be reduced by half.

Moreover, after Lin Hao decided to go whaling, he suddenly realized that whaling, a high-difficulty but low-risk activity, seemed to be just right for the teenagers under his command, and was an excellent training opportunity.

This gave Lin Hao, who had been worried about how to train the boys' boat handling skills, an instant idea: to use whaling to train the navy.

......

"Assemble!" With a sharp whistle, all the boys gathered from all directions and lined up in front of Lin Yi. In less than three minutes, everyone had assembled.

The mornings were originally the time for these teenagers to study with Lin Hao, but Lin Hao has now canceled this part of the study and moved it to the evening.

As for the daytime, we must seize the time to train and build up combat effectiveness in the shortest possible time to make up for previous losses.

"stand at attention"

"At ease"

Looking at their synchronized movements, Lin Hao nodded again. Four years had passed, and he had spent a great deal of time and effort. Finally, they looked quite professional. These people would be the foundation for his future success.

"Very well. From today onwards, everyone will come with me to the ship. You must become combat-ready as quickly as possible, or the imperial navy will take everything back from us! Do you understand?"

"Understood!" The crowd's reply was still unified and forceful.

"Very good, very energetic. Now come with me to the Fujian ship." Lin Hao nodded in satisfaction and then led everyone towards the bay.

There are six boats moored here, but apart from two larger ones, the others are mostly small fishing boats that can only fish in coastal waters and cannot fish in the open ocean.

The two larger ships were also of different sizes. The smaller one was the Haicang ship that carried everyone back last night, while the other was the mainstay of the Lin family's shipping business, a medium-sized two-masted Fujian-style ship.

Although this two-masted Fujianese ship is not a very large vessel, it is still quite magnificent when viewed up close.

This Fujian-style ship is narrow at the bottom and wide at the top, with its bow and stern raised high. It has a small square bow and a wide stern, and the stern also has a tall tower, making it look like a city wall.

The ship is 64 feet long, which is about 20 meters, and 18 feet wide, which is about 6 meters. It has two masts: a slightly smaller foremast in front and a mainmast behind. The mainmast is made of cedar wood, 64 feet long and 5 feet 2 inches in circumference.

"Come on up, everyone. From today onwards, you will all be eating and sleeping on the ship. You must familiarize yourselves with this ship as soon as possible."