War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

"Take back your meaningless orders, Uncle Friedrich. We don't need these animals to prove our strength."

As Franz talked, he walked to the toolbox and picked up an iron bucket and a shovel. He also found a rope and tied it around his waist, and then went straight to the side of the boat.

Seeing his eagerness to try, the bystanders around him felt very strange and puzzled. Oshio Shanyin seemed to have thought of something, but thought it was too ridiculous and gave up. Just when she was stunned, he jumped out.

In fact, this was Franz’s dream in his previous life.

He jumped out from the side of the ship and landed just on the whale's back. Of course, this strange intruder was like an ant to this huge baleen whale. It didn't mind this uninvited guest's visit. On the contrary, it deliberately slowed down to avoid throwing him away.

His behavior caused exclamations, and the people on the ship desperately shouted to pull him back, but they were sternly refused. After that, Franz's actions accelerated everyone's heartbeats. He picked up the shovel and started to smash the forehead of the sea monster.

Everyone thought Franz was crazy. He actually wanted to kill such a huge ancient beast with a shovel. However, the whale that was attacked did not fight back or try to get rid of the tiny human on it, but instead made a strange cry.

Franz was actually using a shovel to pluck barnacles, parasites that often appear on large baleen whales. The reason why they jumped out of the water so frequently before was to get rid of these burdens.

Given how tightly the barnacles glue themselves together, the whales' efforts are doomed to be in vain. There is only one final outcome for being parasitized by barnacles, and that is death, but before that, they will experience a long period of pain.

Barnacle damage is fatal to whales, as well as ships, but it is a delicacy for foodies who can enjoy it.

The Archduke's strange behavior aroused great curiosity among the entire fleet members. Unless they saw it with their own eyes, they would find it difficult to believe that there really is such a "crazy" person in the world.

They witnessed his agility as he walked about on flat ground, jumping from the back of one whale to another to the exclamation of onlookers.

These gentle ocean giants did not attack this tiny visitor from beginning to end, but instead circled around him.

Franz also carried barrel after barrel of barnacles to the ship via ropes until the cleanup was complete. He put the shovel back into the bucket, sat on the giant whale and slowly moved forward with the waves. He seemed to be in a much better mood.

The surrounding warships had quieted down at this time, and the officers and soldiers were like riding a roller coaster, from the initial panic, to the later amazement, and in the end there was only silence, leaving endless emotions. It turns out that there are really people in this world who are different.

At this time, the leading female whale suddenly let out a scream, and then the entire group of whales became restless, trying desperately to drive this "little friend" away.

The method was to keep spraying water at him. Although this seemed to be a very interesting game in the eyes of others, he could feel the restlessness of the entire whale group.

Franz returned to the ship, and Friedrich no longer knew how to communicate with his nephew, so he could only say.

"Are you a monster?"

"Of course not, but we don't have time to discuss this anymore. There seems to be some bad omen ahead." Franz said.

"Is it a sea monster? Don't worry, with our powerful ships and cannons, what can even the Kraken do to me?"

Friedrich's subjective consciousness told him that a monster was coming, which made the passionate commander chatter.

To be honest, Franz really doesn't know what there is in the sea that can scare these behemoths. After all, theoretically speaking, adult large baleen whales should have no natural enemies. Of course, this is only based on the common sense of future generations.

Suddenly a pod of whales swam in front of the Venetian and tried to steer the giant ship in another direction.

"It's unbelievable! What are these beast friends of yours doing?" Friedrich asked.

"I don't know. Is there some natural miracle ahead?" Franz asked.

"It's Calcutta!" Oshiosugin said excitedly while holding the map carefully and looking at it. At this time, she had completely regarded Franz as a "god", or some kind of supernatural existence.

At this time, suddenly a large number of seabirds flew from the southwest and passed over the fleet. The sea also became lively, with a large number of fish surging crazily towards the east (the direction they came from), jumping out of the water and splashing in the waves.

"what on earth is it!"

The strange natural phenomenon made Friedrich murmur in his heart. But changing direction now would mean not being able to reach Mumbai on time and delaying the trip.

"I think it's safer to just follow the whale's lead."

At this time, Franz's words seemed to have magic power. For the first time, the sailors and officers on the ship moved beyond Friedrich, the captain and commander, and began to act.

"Well, it seems we were kidnapped by these damn whales!" Friedrich complained. After all, he felt that his authority had been challenged and he always wanted to find some face to come back.

"Uncle Friedrich, maybe you will be grateful to them later. Even if nothing happens, it doesn't matter. Let's just treat it as an intimate contact with the ocean nature."

At this time, Calcutta was the center of British-ruled India, serving as both a political and economic center. It was also the largest port in the eastern part of the vast British South Asian colony and the center of the entire linen textile industry. Its urban population was once close to Four hundred thousand.

Faced with increasing demands, the British began their own ambitious plans to build a direct railway to Peshawar and a telegraph center to the Indian subcontinent.

In addition, this city in the Ganges Delta in eastern India is also the largest opium trading center in Asia and the world.

There are nearly 400 Chinese living in this city. They are either tea farmers who were deceived or opium merchants who came here to trade.

After several hours of sailing, the whales acting as "navigators" indeed led Franz and his party to Calcutta. After completing their mission, these intelligent creatures screamed again as if saying goodbye to someone, and then quickly dived into the sea and disappeared without a trace.

"It seems that we are going to be fleeced by the British twice, which is really unpleasant." Friedrich laughed at himself, he was still worried about the matter of docking in Calcutta.

In fact, after leaving Malacca, based on the amount of supplies carried on the ship, there is no problem in flying directly to Mumbai.

But if you stop in Kolkata, it is very necessary to replenish enough food, water and fuel. The same is true for Mumbai later, otherwise it would be impossible to support the port of Mombasa.

Mombasa is a port in eastern Africa. It was an important trading port more than 3,000 years ago. It was also one of the farthest ports visited by Zheng He in the Ming Dynasty.

But unfortunately, there is no coaling station here, which means that Franz's steam battleship will be at risk of being shut down. But in order to successfully reach the Cape of Good Hope, enough fuel must be left, so the subsequent voyage from Mumbai to Mombasa must rely on wind power.

The prerequisite is that the fleet has enough supplies to avoid capsizing in the vast and endless sea. At this time, the Cape of Good Hope was one of the most dangerous routes in the world. This was not because of the elusive local pirates, but because of the terrible westerly storm.

This place is also known as the "Cape of Storms". The most famous natural phenomenon in the area is the "killer wave". The wave height can be close to 20 meters, like the top of Mount Tai, which can easily tear large merchant ships into pieces.