"(Hall diàn) Your Majesty!" A line of ancient men in neat leather armor saluted respectfully.
Ren Baqian nodded with a smile, and then looked at the short and strong young man at the front of the line, as if thinking of something, there was some reverie in his eyes.
He smiled and asked, "One Piece?"
"Master!" The young man smiled a little embarrassedly.
This young man is the freshman Chao Zhong who almost dropped out of school after watching "One Piece".
"Ten years have passed in a blink of an eye!" Ren Baqian said with emotion, and seemed to be able to vaguely see the scene where the boy stood in front of him and said that he wanted to drop out of school.
Although the great ideal of dropping out of school to become the One Piece was unsuccessful, a seed was planted in his heart.
Now that seed has finally taken root.
After learning that the imperial court wanted to build steel ships and explore the sea, he volunteered to join it.
"Let me introduce you." Ren Baqian said with a smile.
"yes."
"This is Zhenbo, and there is Zhentao, 142 meters long, 12 meters wide, 3380 tons of displacement, 3760 tons of full-load displacement, and a speed of 19 knots... 122 people on board... The maximum speed is 19 knots, and the battery life At 12 knots, up to 30 days…”
While listening to Chao Zhong's words, Ren Baqian approached and reached out to touch the steel shell of the Zhenbo, which was cold to the touch and had a fishy smell.
After boarding the boat along the gangway, the front immediately opened up.
The blue ocean gradually turns black as far as the eye can see.
"Troposphere, how much do you understand now?" Ren Baqian asked looking into the distance. The troposphere is the sharp edge of this world's ocean, and it is also a layer of barrier for this world's ocean, blocking the footsteps of human beings and firmly restricting human beings to the land.
The troposphere generally appears at a distance of several kilometers to tens of thousands of meters from the coast, and there is no trace of it from the outside. However, it is filled with countless chaotic and turbulent undercurrents a few meters below the sea surface, as if countless hands are tearing. Getting within the confines of the troposphere makes escape almost impossible.
Even if a steamship with a steel shell is trapped in it, it is difficult to escape.
Not to mention the myriad of strange marine life in the troposphere, which is also a huge danger to ships.
"The research institute of the observatory has placed observation devices underwater several times. Although it quickly lost news under the weird water surface, it is not that there are no discoveries."
"The undercurrent in the troposphere does not know what it contains, but it has a little influence on the signal, and the undercurrent is very fast, and in a short period of time, the observation device will be drawn to a place where the signal cannot reach.
Under the ocean, there seems to be something affecting the currents, we found a lot of eddies under the water, which is a big reason for the undercurrents...
The ocean is very deep, and there seems to be a huge crack under the water surface 10,000 meters away, as if cut open by a sharp ax... "
"The range of the troposphere is still unknown. The detection range on the sea has exceeded 300 kilometers, and it still hasn't broken through the troposphere... And 300 kilometers away, there are turbulent undercurrents in the air above the ocean, and some extremes often appear. Weather... The drones that the observation station explored towards the outer area several times were destroyed three hundred kilometers away."
Ren Baqian already knew most of the (situation) situation before, but he still needs to listen to Chao Zhong's introduction.
"Start the boat, let's take a look and let me see your level." Ren Baqian said.
"Yes!" Chao Zhong ordered everyone to prepare with a proud look.
"Have you learned how to swim?" Ren Baqian suddenly asked with a smile.
Chao Zhongbiao froze for a moment, and then said awkwardly: "I have suffered a lot in order to learn how to swim."
Most of the ancient people are landlubbers, and they are still the kind of weights that sink to the bottom when they enter the water.
It's okay if it's close to the coast, and you can walk out directly underwater with your body steady, otherwise it's a dead end.
The pioneers of this batch of navy suffered a lot on this, and they don't know how much sea water they drank.
Not long after, the Zhenbo whistle sounded.
"It actually moved!"
"Tsk tsk, without sails or oars, it can be done!"
"Rely on the waves... all rely on the waves..."
Quite a few onlookers on the shore who came to see the freshness showed surprise expressions when they saw the iron-clad boat that had been parked here for several days suddenly start moving.
The boat didn't go too far, but it was more than nine kilometers, and when I looked back, I could still see the shore, and the boat stopped.
At this time, the ocean has taken on a dark blue color, and a little ahead, the ocean has turned black.
"Your Majesty, the troposphere is ahead."
Ren Baqian nodded and stared at the sea in front of him. Except for the change of color, he couldn't see much difference. Although there were waves on the sea, it seemed relatively calm.
"Put markers in." Ren Baqian ordered.
"Prepare to release markers." Chao Zhong shouted immediately.
After a while, the boat threw a red wooden ball into the distance, with a diameter of two meters. This kind of wood is very dense, and it just fell below the water surface after being thrown into the water.
Soon, Ren Baqian saw that the sea seemed to be irritated. Although there was not much change on the surface, the wooden balls under the water surface began to move quickly and irregularly under the water surface at a high speed.
This is the effect of the undercurrent under the water surface.
But for a moment, the wooden ball suddenly shattered as if being concentrated by a heavy hammer, and turned into countless wooden pieces that continued to float and sink in the water.
Here is the power of the undercurrent, under the power of countless undercurrents, it can even deform steel.
Huge waves suddenly broke out on the sea, and a huge "strip" suddenly protruded from the water.
It looks like the tentacles of an octopus, protruding out of the water at a height of more than 30 meters, twisting and swinging on the water, and there is a huge mouth full of sharp teeth on the upper end.
"This kind of "one piece of firewood" is everywhere under the water surface." Chao Zhong said. "Ben (body shēn) is not particularly strong, but there are too many of them."
This is not a tentacle of a huge monster, but the main body is like this.
After speaking, he picked up a bow from the side, bent the bow and set an arrow, an arrow pierced the air, pierced into the shaking hand, and suddenly a big hole appeared.
Blue blood sprayed everywhere.
The surface of the sea suddenly churned, and the tentacle frantically flapped around.
Even a large hole is not fatal to this kind of creature.
And compared to its body size under the water surface, the volume above the water surface, which is already like a huge monster, only accounts for one-third.
"A piece of firewood?" Ren Baqian turned his head in doubt, the name made people feel awkward no matter how they heard it.
"Hey, that's what we call them in private. People at the Observatory call them alien leeches." Chao Zhong laughed.
"A lot of this kind of thing is underwater?"
"Many, everywhere."
"With such a body type, they need a lot of food, right? Do they have so much food?"
"There are more marine life groups under the water than expected, especially those undercurrents, although they are turbulent, they also bring a large number of fish from a distance."
"How can this thing not be torn apart by the undercurrent under the water?"
While listening to Chao Zhong's answer, Ren Baqian nodded slightly from time to time.
Looking into the distance, he sighed in his heart: It seems that there is a long way to go to solve the mystery of the ocean.
But this time is not the most important thing, the most important thing at present is to find a route along the coastline.
As for whether the goal can be achieved, no one knows now.
Although this ocean looks very deep, there is a troposphere on the outside and a coastline on the inside. There is only such a curved path for ships to pass. No one knows if it will be stuck by a reef somewhere.