On the second day of the delivery of various sea ships, a large number of materials were loaded with these sea ships, countless things, which were continuously taken out of the warehouse and transported to the ship, a little slower, after all, this is not a ship developed for the purpose of modern ports, they also follow the old way of manpower loading and unloading, and set various lifting devices of the navy, which has a huge improvement in loading and unloading, but will not improve too much.

In order to ensure that the departure on the specified day, the Dinghai Navy used a large number of cranes and manpower, and it took 8 hours to load 140,000 materials onto the ship, while the army was prepared in advance, just carrying personal belongings, and boarded the ship on the morning of the third day, which was also the day stipulated before, and quietly left the port at the auspicious time in the morning.

It was an expedition, an expedition heavily armed, of course, the fewer people who knew the better, and the huge fleet soon went deep into the depths of the sea, and did not take the traditional course, but continued eastward, towards the ocean.

This is an expedition, an expedition to a distance of thousands of kilometers, because it requires a large amount of military force, and most of the ships need to sail directly, rather than the traditional way of sailing, with the help of the relay of one port after another, and do not go deep into the depths of the sea.

The Ryukyus are too important for the Dinghai Navy, and this expedition is also a huge test, for the Dinghai Navy, as long as this time is feasible, it will be a new height.

Standing on the ship, Zhou Zhong and Sun Ji, the two of them were full of ambition, their own understanding, coupled with the wish given by Zhao Xin, made it clear to them that this was a voyage that could be recorded in the history of the Dinghai Navy.

After careful consideration, Zhao Xin also considered the relationship in the future, Wang Xue and Zhou Chong, Zhou Zhong is better in all aspects, and he is also the most correct choice to master Ryukyu.

In the next year or two, Ryukyu will become the real growth point of the entire Dinghai Navy, and as long as Zhou Chong develops smoothly, he will definitely become the first civilian official of the Dinghai Navy.

Wang Xue, who was standing in the port, looked at the fleet, the fist in his hand clenched slightly, he lost the opportunity to take the lead, and he might lose most of the opportunities, but the opportunity is to be prepared, and the complaining people will never get the best opportunity.

If Zhao Xin knew that Wang Xue had such thoughts, he would definitely be very pleased, a Ryukyu is very important now, but is he the whole of the Dinghai Navy?

Zhao Xin never planned to rely entirely on the sea to gain a foothold, and the original plan was only to gain a foothold on the ocean, and then turn to the land, and even in a sense, even the island may not be the largest in the Ryukyus.

Because of the relationship between geography and status, the Dinghai Navy has no way to stretch out its hand to land for the time being, and even recruits personnel, and on the premise that there are more personnel to a certain extent, it also needs to make up for it to avoid irreparable things.

For a certain period of time, the development of the Dinghai Navy can almost only go to the sea, Ryukyu is the largest island in China, but Hainan Island, located in the south, is only a little smaller than him, not to mention, there are other islands.

The development of the sea and the development of islands is the set purpose of the navy, and only when there is enough accumulation in the ocean can it be able to dominate the mainland.

At sea, it is not just talk, but when the navy of the navy and the volume of transportation of all kinds develop to a certain extent, the action on the sea must start in the established direction.

When the Dinghai Navy forms a sail warship of 200,000 materials and has almost 1 million materials for transportation, the Dinghai Navy will definitely expand to the north.

Others don't know this, but Zhao Xin knows it clearly.

On the map of Asia, there are many islands, but there are not many that are really called big islands.

There are many islands in Southeast Asia, which are a little far away from the Northern Song Dynasty, maybe after taking East Asia, they will consider this, take Southeast Asia, and open to Oceania, under the premise of having sail warships, that distance is hardly a problem.

In addition to Southeast Asia, there are no huge islands in the south, relative to the south, the north, is the real treasure, Dinghai because of Zhao Xin's location, he must develop overseas, under such a premise, Ryukyu and Hainan Island, which has become here, the largest island, but there is no near China, it does not mean that there are no other places.

To the north, there is a Jeju Island, although this island is not big, but not far from the north, located in an important place, and has the habit of perennial breeding, as long as it is well developed, it is a huge support for the Central Plains.

Further north, the whole of Japan, all of which are islands, even if you don't want to conquer Japan directly, you won't touch the Japanese mainland, but you can conquer Hokkaido.

Although Japan has four islands, Hokkaido is the largest island in Japan and the 21st largest island in the world, which is equivalent to the two islands of Ryukyu and Hainan combined.

This largest island in Japan, now, does not belong to Japan, historically, in the Han Dynasty, Hokkaido was attached to China, during the Tang Dynasty, even got canonized, in history, until the Ming Dynasty, with the decline of the Ming Dynasty, was annexed.

At present, there are only a few indigenous people in Hokkaido, and on the map of Japan, there are only Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku, and the Japanese rarely cross the strait to Hokkaido.

If the Ryukyus and Hainan Island are the focus of naval development at the present stage, Hokkaido is the focus of development towards the maritime stage.

Climatically, Hokkaido's winter is closer to the mainland, and snow falls, but the four seasons are more distinct, making it more suitable for farming and grazing.

On the premise of not alarming the Northern Song Dynasty, this will be the biggest harvest of the Dinghai Navy, not to mention, there is also a fishing ground, even in later generations, the point of gradual flooding of marine fishing, the Hokkaido fishing ground is also a world-class fishing ground, supporting a considerable amount of Japan's economy.

Bearing the identity of Zhao Xin, he will definitely go to the mainland, under the premise that the land route cannot be passed, taking the sea route is the most correct choice, from the periphery, the vast northeast region, and even the Siberian region, with a huge land.

In high latitudes, cold winters are nightmares brought by nature, and in high latitudes, winter is a Jedi, in the snow, which is the Jedi of life.

Low temperature, for people who do not have strict measures to keep warm, it is really a nightmare, the grassland and some nomads, can live in high latitudes, physique is one aspect, all kinds of animal skins are also the key.

Even if it is the natural environment of this era, how many animal skins there are, even if the wild animals of the entire forest and grassland are killed, and how many clothes can be obtained, the nomads do not have many personnel, and it is almost impossible to form an army with animal skins.

This problem, itself, has not been solved much, and it will not be gradually solved until after the Yuan, but Zhao Xin is a traverser, even if he doesn't have to look at it, the popular warm clothing in this world has already told the answer.

Fur, cotton clothes, down jackets, the fur of the former, is the magic weapon of this era, nomads, to resist the cold, in the grasslands of high latitudes, without this, in winter, there is almost no way to go out of the city.

Cotton clothes, is the crystallization of the farming nation, with cotton, the pace of farming, will spread from the middle latitude to the high latitude, only the cotton clothes to withstand the cold, can live in the tundra, relying on a few months, a short warm season, harvest a season of grain.

Down jackets were first used in the Tang Dynasty, when some poor peasants collected feathers and made jackets, which would not be worse than ordinary warm clothes, but they were only used in a small number of places and were not popular.

The most recent record is that in 1920, in the early years of the Republic of China, a clerk surnamed Ding saw a record in the newspaper that began to collect the fluff among the duck feathers and goose feathers, and eventually this product was called down, but it was not produced in various countries, so it was not included in the list.

After that, it was the new century, with the use of various new materials, the emergence of some new clothing materials that are not easy to leak, so that the duck down is more sealed, and the down jacket has become the standard equipment in winter, and has become the mainstream with light weight and good warmth.

However, there are many problems with the latter two, although cotton has appeared, under the promotion of the Dinghai Navy, it has begun to be gradually promoted, but it will take time to form a scale, at least three to five years.

Duck down and goose down, but you can, in the south of China, there is a large number of ducks and geese tradition, these people do not like things, waste into treasure, this is a kind of creation in itself, but unfortunately an important problem is the problem of leakage down, even in the new century, is also an important problem of down jacket.

The reason why down keeps warm is because it is on the body of a duck or goose, which comes into contact with water, and in the cold season, it can make the duck or goose float on the water and maintain the temperature of the body.

These fluffs are extremely fine, and will not be like cotton, intertwined with each other, itself is a whole, this fluff, are individuals, a little bit of a gap, can leak out of the middle, the warmth of down, even on the same cotton and animal skin, but if not sealed well, slightly miss some fluff, warm performance, will be greatly reduced.

Traditional cotton cloth, even if it is very small, is difficult to seal eiderdown, only new materials can do.

All kinds of new fabrics will not appear until the petrochemical industry has advanced to a certain extent, but in this era, there is one material that can have enough fineness, and that is silk.

The diameter of silk is much smaller than that of cotton thread, and as long as it is constructed with silk thread, it is also fine enough, and as long as it is woven as tightly as possible, the production of down jackets can be completed.

However, the cost is a little large, and the process needs to be adjusted to a certain extent.

Research in this area, the process of industrialization, and the development of various machines, have been going on, and if, on a large scale, there is a problem, the down jacket with a silk liner will definitely appear.

In the future, when a large number of eiderdown and cotton clothes gradually become the main clothes of the Dinghai Navy, the impact of cold weather on the Dinghai Navy will be reduced.

The bitter cold may still be one of the insurmountable difficulties, but it will not become a forbidden area for life, and on the premise of reducing non-combat attrition as much as possible, he will inevitably go north

The nomads in the north will always be the biggest threat to the Dinghai Navy, replacing the Jurchens of the Liao State, who are now operating in the White Mountains and Black Waters, and the even more invincible Mongolia, at this time, is still a vassal of the Liao State, and the vast steppe is their homeland.

Knowing that they could develop in the next few hundred years, and even threaten the Central Plains, of course Zhao Xin would act, and his actions were not passively defensive

With the combination of longbow and fortress, the cost will be greatly reduced when guarding the nomads, and under the premise of maintaining defense at a fixed few points, especially after taking the control of the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun and the Great Wall, the safety of the entire Northern Song Dynasty has been guaranteed.

Whether it is Jurchen or Mongolia, without obtaining the technology of the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, it is a nomadic people.

In the entire history of China, only the Liao, Jin, Mongolia and Manchu Qing are the best in terms of technology, in a sense, high-end products, and weapons or something, which are overpowering the Central Plains peoples.

The first three are all because of the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, and the latter is because of the Northeast, after the Northeast was developed in the Ming Dynasty, the Northeast in a sense, the technical level of the Han people is very high, the early Manchu Qing Dynasty, not to mention the standard armor, even ordinary iron is difficult, but after indulgence again and again, after victory after victory, they network a large number of Han people.

Scholars, technicians, and ordinary peasants, the structure of the Manchu Qing Dynasty underwent a stage change, from a nomadic rogue to the most threatening force in the Ming Dynasty, which has to be said to be sad.

As long as the sixteen states of Youyun are not lost, the Northern Song Dynasty can not only have a considerable number of war horses, but with the help of technology, it will no longer be passively beaten, and the combination of longbow and fortress will also hold the defense line for a long time, but the threat of nomads will always exist.

Take advantage of their weakness to defeat them, perhaps, such a cancer as a nomad cannot be solved at one time, but Zhao Xin's policy is different from the traditional policy.

The weak environment of the grassland and desert allows them to feed a limited number of people, once the nomads lose a lot, it takes time to recover, and this time is the opportunity for Zhao Xin to develop and grow, especially the emergence of the railway, so that the space of the nomads will be further compressed, and after being completely expelled from Asia, it is impossible to come back.