January 27, 1650 is the Spring Festival of the lunar calendar, Gao Junshan summoned his godsons Sun Dahai, Ma Jin, Ma Wen and Liu Wenxiu into the palace before the Spring Festival.

Of course, summoning them into the palace is not just as simple as having a reunion dinner, Gao Junshan has major personnel arrangements.

He appointed Liu Wenxiu as commander of the Navy's Fourth Fleet, Ma Jin as commander of the Navy's Fifth Fleet, and Ma Wen as commander of the Navy's Sixth Fleet.

Let Li Hu, the son of Li Busi, take over Liu Wenxiu's position and serve as the leader of the Cao Gang.

Also appointed was the son of a Red Army friend, Hong Pengju, who was appointed commander of the Navy's Third Fleet.

The commander of the Navy's Second Fleet is Li Shiqi, one of the "Three Navigating Lis."

The first commander of the Navy was the world-famous Zheng Chenggong, of course, Zheng Chenggong was still unknown at this time.

After the candidates for the six fleets were decided, Gao Junshan sent Liu Wenxiu, Ma Jin, Ma Wenju, and Hong Pengju to the Naval Academy for a year of advanced study, specializing in naval command, and being taught by senior Portuguese instructors.

The lively Spring Festival was spent happily in the sound of firecrackers, this year is the Year of the Tiger, Gao Junshan hopes that his navy will be vigorous in this year, vigorously build a fleet, and lay a solid foundation for the future to go to the sea.

……

Quanzhou, Fujian.

Just after the Spring Festival, Zheng Chenggong received the appointment of commander of the Navy's First Fleet. The Admiralty asked him to concurrently serve as commander of the Sixth Fleet until Marvin, the commander of the Sixth Fleet, took office.

Such an appointment is unprecedented, and one fleet commander is in charge of two naval fleets, which also shows the emperor's high trust in Zheng Chenggong.

Zheng Chenggong felt that the burden on his body was not light, after all, he was only a twenty-six-year-old young man.

His father, Zheng Zhilong, cheered him up: "My son has a good future, and my father believes in your ability." ”

Zheng Zhilong was originally a pirate in the East China Sea, and later engaged in maritime trade, dealing with foreigners for a long time, and accumulated a lot of money. He has thousands of large and small ships under his command, and has more than 10,000 naval troops, and often plunders coastal counties such as Guangdong and Fujian.

In the early years of Chongzhen, Zhu Youzhen was unable to exterminate Zheng Zhilong, so he turned to Zhao'an.

In 1628 (the first year of Chongzhen), Zheng Zhilong accepted the appeasement of the Ming court, the official to the governor of Tongzhi, and was named the general of coastal defense, Chongzhen 16 years and into Annanbo, concurrently served as the post of Quanzhou General Army, after Fujian returned to Shun, maintained the original official position, and is now promoted to the deputy commander of the First Fleet, although the official position is lower than his son, but the heart is indescribable.

Who doesn't want their son to be better than Lao Tzu?

In the face of his father's encouragement, Zheng Chenggong asked: "What should the child do now?" ”

Zheng Zhilong said: "The First Fleet and the Sixth Fleet have a lot of people from our Zheng family, so you don't need to worry about command. The most important thing you should do now is to establish your prestige, as long as you build up your prestige, your fleet will be invincible. ”

"May I ask the father, how can the child stand up."

"Killing people is the most direct way to establish prestige, it is not feasible at present, we can only fight a war to establish prestige, and at the same time we can get the emperor's approval." Zheng Zhilong raised a large number of sons, "I don't understand, you are the green onion, the emperor actually took a fancy to you, and gave you a name, so he sent you as his godson." ”

Zheng Chenggong scratched his head and said: "The child doesn't understand either, maybe it's because of our Zheng family!?" ”

At this time, of course, Zheng Chenggong would not understand that later generations would know that he was a national hero who recovered Taiwan.

Zheng Zhilong gave his son an idea and said, "My father can help you keep an eye on the First Fleet, you go to Naha first and take over the Sixth Fleet." In addition, the second prince is also in Naha, he is your classmate and friend, you need to ask him for advice, he will definitely give you a lot of help. You remember, the second prince is equivalent to your master, and he is most likely the future crown prince. ”

Zheng Chenggong said: "The father can stand tall and see far, but the child can't. ”

Zheng Zhilong said: "Today's Chinese Empire is unshakable, so if you are sincerely loyal to the second prince, our Zheng family will have a good future." ”

"The child understands."

Zheng Zhilong said again: "The second prince is still young, and he needs a capable person to assist him, I think the emperor put the second prince in Ryukyu, just to want you to assist him." At present, Taiwan on the other side of the sea is occupied by the Dutch, and the emperor put the two fleets here, obviously to prepare to recover Taiwan, and the emperor handed over the important task of recovering Taiwan to the second prince, which is to let him make contributions and lay the foundation for the future prince! ”

"Father sees far-reaching."

Zheng Zhilong hit the nail on the head and said: "You are the general selected by the emperor to help the second prince recover Taiwan." ”

Zheng Chenggong said: "After listening to his father's words, the child knows what to do in the future. ”

Zheng Zhilong reminded his son: "Before you leave Quanzhou, go to Xiamen first." ”

"Why?"

"A courtier must be thoughtful in everything. Although you are now the commander of the navy, you are still under the jurisdiction of the Fifth Army Corps, and the corps commander Ma Yuanli is in Xiamen. ”

Zheng Chenggong said with a smile: "Father is too cautious, now we all have a transmitter, and a telegram can ask General Ma for instructions, even if you ask the emperor directly, it is not a problem." ”

After all, Zheng Zhilong was scheming, and he instructed his son to bring enough quinine and other medicines during the voyage to prevent attrition.

……

On February 15, Zheng Chenggong led 30 of his soldiers to board the "Wuchang No. 1" warship and headed for Naha.

This fleet has a total of 23 warships, except for the "Wuchang No. 1" for the steam engine ship, the remaining 22 are Zheng family's sea ships, which have experienced many years of nautical tests, of course, currently belong to the first fleet sequence.

"Wuchang No. 1" is the capital ship of the Wuchang class, which is a large ship with a length of 40 zhang and a width of 8 zhang, and its appearance is modeled after the "Xiangyang No. 1", and it is also a three-story deck and a two-story bottom warehouse.

The lowest floor of the ship is the power system compartment, and the second floor is the storage compartment.

The third and fourth floors are the fighting compartments. Like the "Xiangyang-1", it is equipped with artillery, of course, the number of artillery is almost twice as large as that of the "Xiangyang-1".

The fighting compartment is equipped with 22 port guns and 22 starboard guns, and there are three forward main battle guns and three rear main battle guns on the third floor. The main battle gun is a two-zhang long giant Hongyi iron cannon.

The fifth floor is the command cabin and the rest cabin.

In order to meet the needs of the war, the Wuchang-class battleship was designed as an ironclad ship, which would affect the sailing speed, because it was powered by a steam engine, even if the speed was reduced, it was faster than other ships, and the maximum speed at sea was 12 knots.

The ship has a crew of 227 people, including the captain.

The Wuchang-class battleship is also equipped with a damage management team of 30 people, and its mission is three:

First, anti-sinking and anti-sinking; Two; fire prevention, explosion protection and fire extinguishing; 3. Maintain or restore the vitality of weaponry, equipment, and technical equipment.

After Zheng Chenggong boarded the ship, accompanied by the captain, he went directly to the command cabin of the forward cabin, where the cockpit and the lookout platform were concentrated.

The captain of the "Wuchang No. 1" is called Xu Changming, who is a classmate of Gao Zheng Chenggong, and Zheng Chenggong met Xu Changming to be called a senior.

"Ignition and set sail!"

Fleet Commander Zheng Chenggong stood on the command podium and issued the first order to the entire ship.