"I feel like something is not right..."
Zhu Ping'an said this and walked straight towards Li Shu with a serious expression.
"You...what are you going to do?" Li Shu involuntarily took a step back, crossed her arms in front of her chest, looked at Zhu Pingan warily with her big watery eyes, and her voice trembled a little.
Zhu Ping'an walked straight over without answering. Under Li Shu's alert eyes like a kitten, he walked past Li Shu and came straight to the porthole of the cabin. This was a window facing away from the fleet. If there was any external disaster of swords and blood, it must have come from the direction facing away from the fleet. With the navy escorting in front, they could not get through.
Zhu Ping'an walked to the window, opened it, and with the help of the light from the ship he could see the raging wind and the surging waves. In the distance the sea was as dark as thick ink.
In addition, there was a blood-red smoke invisible to ordinary people on the sea surface outside, which was rapidly approaching from the dark sea surface in the distance.
Zhu Ping'an's eyes widened instantly, and his expression became more serious.
"Oh, Zhu Ping'an, the rain is blowing in." Li Shu couldn't help but pout when she saw Zhu Ping'an opening the window.
"Something is going to happen. Stay in the cabin and don't come out. I'll be back soon." Zhu Ping'an's voice was very serious. He turned and walked towards the cabin door. He had just taken a step when a pair of white hands grabbed his clothes.
"Zhu, Zhu Ping'an, what happened?" Li Shu stretched out her small, white hand and grabbed Zhu Ping'an's clothes. This was the first time she saw Zhu Ping'an so serious.
"There are boats approaching outside. I'm afraid they are not friendly." Zhu Ping'an turned back and hesitated for a moment, but still told Li Shu the truth of his guess. Then he reached out and patted Li Shu on the shoulder, comforting her, "Don't be afraid, I'll go down and make arrangements. Let them be on high alert and I'll be back soon."
Although Zhu Pingan didn't see the boat, the bloody disaster was approaching from the sea. If he said that he saw the bloody disaster, no one would believe it, so Zhu Pingan said directly that there was a boat.
"You're talking nonsense. Why didn't I see any boat approaching?" Li Shu was a little unconvinced and looked at Zhu Ping'an suspiciously.
"My eyesight is better than that of ordinary people. It's natural. There are five or six ships speeding towards us. They chose this time. I'm afraid they are not friendly." Zhu Pingan reached out and patted Li Shu's shoulder. His expression was very serious. "I'll go down and come back soon."
"Boat, what boat?" The little maid looked confused.
"Are you talking about pirates?" Li Shu looked up at Zhu Ping'an, with a bit of panic in her eyes.
"Pirates?!" The little maidservant trembled all over, and her voice was almost crying, "Master... Master, don't leave..."
"If I find out that you lied to me, I will make sure you pay." Li Shu let go of Zhu Ping'an's clothes, then handed him a paper umbrella, hesitated for a moment and said, "You. Come back soon."
Zhu Ping'an took the umbrella, nodded, then turned around and walked out with a serious expression.
The turbid waves were surging, the wind was strong and the rain was fierce. The dark sea seemed to contain the energy to destroy the world...
If we take proper precautions, pirates and the like are not to be feared, but natural disasters are to be feared!!! Zhu Pingan shook his head, threw away the distracting thoughts in his mind, opened his umbrella, and walked downstairs, doing his best and leaving the rest to fate!!!
"Master Zhu."
"Master Zhu, why did you come down?"
When Zhu Ping'an came downstairs, more than 30 people in the cabin downstairs, including sailors, guards, and navy officers, saw Zhu Ping'an coming downstairs. They stood up and saluted Zhu Ping'an with full respect. Although Zhu Ping'an was only a sixth-rank official, for them, this was already a very high official.
Especially in the Ming Dynasty, civil officials have a much higher status than military officials. If they are of the same level, any civil official can point at the nose of a military official and scold him! Even a higher-level military official has no temper in front of a lower-level civil official.
"There is a suspicious ship approaching outside. You should be alert and be prepared to defend against the enemy. If you find anything wrong, send a rescue signal to the navy ahead immediately. In addition, the wind and waves are a bit strong today, so you must be prepared for emergencies."
"Send someone to notify several nearby ships to get ready."
Zhu Ping'an nodded, closed the umbrella in his hand, and gave serious instructions to the sailors and escort navy officers present.
What
Suspicious ship? Prepare to defend against the enemy? Send a distress signal to the navy
And what about the big waves? We need to be fully prepared. What kind of preparations should we make? Our ships have encountered many waves. What is this little wave
The people downstairs looked at each other in bewilderment. Lord Zhu must have been drunk and was making fun of us. If Zhu Ping'an was not a sixth-rank official, these people would definitely push Zhu Ping'an into the water to sober him up. What drunken talk? Really, we have a navy escorting us ahead. Even if we are very brave, no pirates will come to touch our navy's tiger whiskers.
If he wasn't drunk, then Lord Zhu must be too careful about his life. He was frightened by such a small storm.
"how?"
Zhu Ping'an cast his gaze upon the crowd, using his power to oppress others for the first time in his life.
Although he is young, he is quite dignified. Especially since Zhu Ping'an has been so easy-going along the way, his sudden display of dignity is even more impactful.
"Don't worry, sir. We will be ready right away." Everyone lowered their heads. Although they didn't agree in their hearts, they still made preparations according to Zhu Ping'an's instructions.
Soon, two teams came out and told everyone to get ready, put on armor and hold swords, load crossbows and arrows, fill musket ammunition, and rush to the guard posts one by one. Some sailors also set up the two small Portuguese cannons on the ship, and put the five bullets of each Portuguese cannon into the belly.
In addition, two sailors climbed onto the bridge, held up the wind lantern, blew the horn, and sent a warning signal to several nearby supply ships.
Seeing that everyone was ready, Zhu Pingan nodded with satisfaction, gave a few more instructions, held up his umbrella and prepared to go upstairs. Before leaving, Zhu Pingan turned his head and asked, "Do you have any good self-defense weapons?"
A small hand crossbow, six crossbow arrow sleeves wrapped around the hands, and a sharp short knife were presented to Zhu Pingan by two captains. If it weren't for the strict control of the numbering of the bird guns, the two captains would have also wanted to present the bird guns as well.
"I'll leave my safety to you all."
Before leaving, Zhu Ping'an bowed to everyone and spoke sincerely.
Suddenly, a feeling of dying for one's friend came over everyone. Just because Lord Zhu entrusted us with his safety and thought highly of us, no matter if Lord Zhu was drunk or cowardly, we would do our best. (To be continued.)