The Ming Dynasty in the first month of the year is still in the joy of the New Year, and Zhu Youxiao has already begun the next plan. Zhu Youzhen's level of knowledge is enough to be a teacher in school, naturally it is impossible to waste his time there, for the sake of his future health, Zhu Youxiao decided to send him to Wudang Mountain in Hubei to learn Wudang's martial arts and health exercises, and told him that it was limited to three years. Zhu Youxiao himself practiced the kung fu he brought from his previous life, but he only beat Li Jinzhong when he got rid of the eunuch entanglement, and after that, he just practiced a strong body, and did not conduct too much research, as for the method of internal strength and health preservation, he did not understand it at all, thinking of the situation that Zhu Youzhen might face in the future, it is best to let him have a relatively strong body foundation, and now the most authentic internal strength and martial arts should be the best in Wudang, so I discussed this matter with Zhu Youzhen.

Zhu Youzhen understands his brother's expectations of himself very well, and he is determined to never live up to his brother's expectations, and at that moment, Luo Sigong sent a subordinate from Jinyiwei to be a disciple of Wudang, and accompanied Zhu Youzhen all the way south to find Wudang Mountain to learn art.

Besides, Zhu Youxiao sent Zhu Youzhen out to learn art, and he began to think about what would happen this year. While he was thinking, Luo Sigong came in to report that according to the information from Fujian 800 miles express, the red-haired devil occupied the Penghu Islands and cut off the communication lines between Taiwan and the mainland.

Zhu Youxiao finally remembered that it was in the first month of this year that the Dutch warships defeated the Ming army guards on the Penghu Islands with their sharp artillery and occupied a series of islands here. Prior to this, Dutch armed merchants had occupied this place, and were later expelled by the Ming army, but this time it was the Dutch naval fleet that came, and as a result, they completely occupied the entire Penghu Islands. Historically, the Ming army fought hard for eight months after two years, and both sides were exhausted, and finally the Dutch army withdrew from the Penghu Islands, but occupied the island of Taiwan, and it was not until Zheng Chenggong finally recovered the whole of Taiwan.

Now that Zhu Youxiao has come to this world, he naturally cannot wait until two years later to take back the Penghu Islands, he must immediately recapture the Penghu Islands, and send troops to occupy the island of Taiwan.

Qi Jin, who was training in Qingdao, was urgently recalled to Beijing by Zhu Youxiao, who asked Qi Jin what extent the training of the East China Sea Fleet had reached and whether it could officially participate in the battle. Qi Jin's answer was no, because the training of the East China Sea Fleet was now only a short three months, most of the soldiers could only guarantee that they would no longer get seasick, and only a small number of veterans could fire their guns accurately, and it was irresponsible for the lives of soldiers to participate in formal battles without more than a year of formal training. Zhu Youxiao thought about it and asked Qi Jin, if he set off from Qingdao now, fought pirates while training along the way, replaced training with war, and waited until June to arrive in Quanzhou, Fujian or Xiamen to replenish supplies, would he be able to participate in the war? Qi Jin thought for a while and replied, this can be tried, after all, there are many veterans on the ship, and it is also a good training method to let veterans bring new recruits to fight instead of training, and at the same time, it can also clean up the pirates along the coast by the way, which is a good thing to kill two birds with one stone.

On the tenth day of February in the third year of the Great Tomorrow Apocalypse, the flag fluttered in Qingdao, and more than 10,000 naval soldiers of the Daming East China Sea Fleet led by Qi Jin began to set off for the first time.

Qi Jin's heart was also full of apprehension, for the current fleet of this scale, after all, Qi Jin had never experienced it. In the past, Qi Jin also participated in naval battles with his uncle's Qi family's army, but after all, he was not personally commanded, and the size of the fleet was not as large as it is now, the warships were not as advanced as they are now, and the tactics of the fleet were relatively simple. However, this time he went to sea to fight, but the emperor said that there would be fewer and fewer opportunities to board and fight in the future, and more often than not, the enemy's warship had been destroyed at a long distance, so that the other party had no chance to board the ship at all.

According to the pre-made plan, the whole fleet is divided into three detachments, each steam-powered ironclad warship is arranged at the forefront as the vanguard of the detachment, responsible for withstanding the opponent's firepower, breaking the enemy's battle formation, impacting the enemy's flagship and destroying, so that the enemy loses confidence in combat, and the wooden-hulled warship behind is responsible for covering the safety of the ironclad battleship from being attacked by the enemy, and the camera expands the combat results of the ironclad ship.

The Daming East China Sea Fleet was slowly marching southward, and along the way, Qi Jin constantly asked the fleet to change all kinds of formations, practice various tactical changes, and make advance arrangements for possible battle forms, such as how to respond urgently when the enemy suddenly attacked, how to concentrate three ironclad ships to carry out a coordinated attack when encountering the enemy's large fleet, and how to annihilate all the smaller enemies. Qi Jin has been thinking about Zhu Youxiao's advice, this time we must think of annihilating all the warships of the Netherlands, and we must not let them slip through the net, because the ironclad ships of the Ming Dynasty are still in the preliminary test stage, and they cannot let the Western countries see such advanced ships, lest they be vigilant, which is very unfavorable to the naval war in the future, after all, people have gone through too long of naval warfare, and when all the warships of the Ming Dynasty are equipped with ironclad warships to sweep the Western fleet, then they can fully show their strength.

In mid-March, the slow-moving Ming East China Sea Fleet arrived at Hangzhou Bay, which is now one of the more developed cities of the Ming Dynasty. After a month's voyage, the East China Sea Fleet took a break here, replenishing some necessary fresh water, shells, guns, medicine and other materials, which have been transported here by the Ming Royal Trading Company through the Grand Canal, and the soldiers should also take a good rest here, after all, after a month's voyage, the soldiers' bodies are also very tired.

On the first day of April, it was a fine day, with a warm southeast wind blowing in the sky, looking at the seabirds that were not flying in the distance, and the lookout soldiers tried to observe the scenery of the sea with binoculars. It is said that it is the scenery, but it is actually the self-comfort of the lookout, no matter who it is, as long as you observe the boring sea in the distance for a long time, you will feel visual fatigue. In this era, the lookout on the ship is undoubtedly the hardest, whether it is a good weather with a good wind and sunshine or a bad weather with a bad wind and rain, the lookout has to sit on the watchtower and carefully observe the sea conditions on the sea. Especially when he arrived at the sea south of Hangzhou Bay, Qi Jin did not dare to have any carelessness, he was afraid that the lookouts would be too tired and not observe carefully, so he should use the system of replacing each lookout soldier after being on duty for half an hour to ensure that every lookout soldier can have enough energy to work.