In the east of July, the sun is shining, the sky is blue, the breeze is blowing, the microwave is rippling, and the sea is suddenly like an endless silver glittering fish scale, which is beautiful.

It was at this time that 300 ironclad warships slowly drove out of the Taijiang Inland Sea in a neat formation, and then turned their bows and headed all the way south to the Strait of Malacca.

There was no fanfare, let alone any farewell ceremony, everything was so calm, but it invisibly showed a kind of majestic domineering.

Zheng Chenggong finally set off with the Ming Navy Praetorian Guard Corps, the decisive battle is coming, and the anti-Habsburg alliance powers are doomed to withdraw from the stage of maritime hegemony!

At this time, Zhu Cijiong was holding the telegram sent by Zheng Chenggong in the imperial study of the Qianqing Palace in the capital, and read and looked at it, as if he was appreciating a magnificent poem.

His hands slowly began to tremble, his eyes slowly showed a look of fanaticism, and his heart was full of pride.

It's over, it's going to be over, and Daming will soon become a well-deserved overlord of the sea.

How many years of dreams, how many years of longing, how many years of anticipation, at this moment, is finally coming true!

In other words, what did Zheng Chenggong send him, which made him so excited?

Actually, it's nothing, just a simple sentence: Your Majesty, Weichen has set off.

The tone was so calm, as if he was traveling to Europe.

It was precisely because of his calmness that he proved that he was confident and that he was fully confident that he would defeat the anti-Habsburg powers.

Zhu Cijiong couldn't help but reply to him: The first battle is decided!

The first war will determine the world, the first war will determine the world, the Ming Dynasty has been invincible in the world since then, regardless of the army or the navy!

Just as he was looking at the telegram and his mood was stirring, Bi Maokang came again.

This month hasn't passed yet, could it be that he has already made a bunch of modified subtubes, that is, high-explosive shells?

Of course, it wasn't so fast, he just came to tell Zhu Cijiong that the experiment of transforming the sub-tube had been successful.

He meant to ask Zhu Cijiong to come over and take a look, and if there was no problem, then mass production would begin.

When Zhu Cijiong heard the news, he immediately changed into civilian clothes without hesitation and rushed to the experimental site with Bi Maokang.

He was still full of expectations for high-explosive shells, because he had a hunch that even if the naval battle was won, the powers would not give in easily.

There is no doubt that the fleet of ironclad warships will be able to defeat the combined fleet of the anti-Habsburg powers, but ironclad warships are not omnipotent, and if the enemy retreats into a port full of batteries and fortresses, the ironclad warships will not be able to take them in a short time.

After all, the ironclad battleship is only invincible in defense, and the attack power is actually similar to that of a wooden battleship, and the battleship that deals with the enemy can be invincible with the ironclad full body, but it can't be used against the fort and the battery, because no matter how much the solid cannonball is smashed, it is impossible to smash the fort and the battery.

It would be different if the guns of the ironclad battleship were replaced with high-explosive shells, as long as the number of shells was sufficient, the forts and batteries would still be smashed to pieces!

Ironclad warships are the magic weapon to defeat the enemy, and high-explosive shells are a desperate weapon, and it is likely that this weapon must be displayed before the great powers finally submit.

It was precisely because he was worried that the great powers would not give in easily, so Zhu Cijiong urged Bi Maokang to hurry up and make high-explosive shells, because this thing is very likely to come in handy.

This time, Bi Maokang did not take Zhu Cijiong into the experimental base, but took him to a fortress near the experimental base.

These fortresses no longer belong to the experimental base of the Ministry of Industry, but to the army training base, of course, with Bi Maokang's position, if you want to use it, you just need to say hello.

At this time, a group of Praetorian Guard soldiers had been assembled two miles in front of the fortress, and several experimenters were standing there waiting respectfully, and there was a naval cannon in the middle of them, the one with the base of the battery.

After a simple salute, Zhu Cijiong couldn't help but step forward and take a closer look at the modified subtubes placed next to the naval guns, that is, high-explosive shells.

This appearance is still very different from the shells of later generations, except that the conical warhead in front is a bit similar, and the shell in the back is not the same as that of later generations at all, and the later generations are just a simple copper shell, but what he sees in front of him is a huge naval gun tube.

No matter what the appearance is, as long as the effect is the same, Zhu Cijiong looked at it for a while, then took the telescope from Cao Huachun's hand, and then nodded and signaled, You can start the experiment.

With Bi Maokang's order, the Praetorian Guard artillery skillfully stuffed the modified sub-tube into the mother tube, then closed the gun door and pulled the flint machine hard.

"Boom", a conical cannonball flew out of the muzzle of the cannon, and smashed directly into the fortress in front, the muzzle velocity of this cannonball is not very fast, and there is no whistling sound after it is launched, but after it hits the wall of the fortress, the effect is more terrifying.

With a "boom", the walls of the fortress were immediately splashed with fragments, and Zhu Cijiong hurriedly raised his binoculars to look at the place where the city wall was shot.

Good fellow, a big crater has been smashed out there, and if there are a few more shells like this, I'm afraid the city wall will be blown through!

The artillerymen who participated in the experiment did not stop moving, and immediately after the first shell was fired, they took out the sub-tube that had been fired inside and replaced it with a new one, followed by another cannon.

A pile of rubble was splashed on the walls of the fortress again, and the crater was noticeably deeper.

At this time, because the range of the artillery was not far, the landing point was still relatively fixed, and the running bombs continued to bombard the same place, and when the eighth round was fired, the city wall finally collapsed, revealing a gap of two feet.

"Okay." , Zhu Cijiong couldn't help but admire, even if this new type of high-explosive artillery shell was decided, he immediately made a decision, just according to this, the sub-tube will produce 10,000 first, and the artillery shell will be produced 100,000 first, and strive to complete it within a month.

Immediately afterwards, he took Bi Maokang back to the palace with great interest and told him about the application of new gunpowder, and later he even recruited Sun Yuanhua, the secretary of the military department.

These two can be said to be the Taishan Beidou of the Ming Dynasty's military technology, and they are extremely experienced, as long as they explain the principle of guns and cannons in later generations clearly, I believe that they will be able to create guns similar to those in later generations.

Of course, after all, the industrial base of the Ming Dynasty is not as strong as that of later generations, and it is naturally impossible to fully reach the most advanced level of later generations, but at least it can reach the average level of World War I.

At this time, Zhu Cijiong didn't have any scruples, he directly drew the shape of the gun in later generations one by one, including magazines, warheads, cartridge cases and other details were drawn for them in detail, what semi-automatic rifles, fully automatic rifles, submachine guns, machine guns, mortars, howitzers, etc., etc., as long as he knew, he drew them all in one go.

He talked while drawing, and listed almost all the commonly used weapons in later generations, and he danced and talked heartily.

Bi Maokang and Sun Yuanhua were dumbfounded when they heard it, oh my God, if these things are made, then do you still need to fight this battle, in the face of any enemy, it will be crushed!

Of course, Zhu Cijiong did not expect them to be able to build many weapons in the future generations immediately, he just listed them one by one the development trends of weapons in the future, so that they could have a clear direction.

As long as the direction is right, advanced guns can always be made, and at that time, the Ming Dynasty will be even more invincible.