On the first day of November in the thirteenth year of the Apocalypse, Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi, accompanied by Zhang Qiang, Xu Xingxia and others, went to Tianjin to observe the construction of new ships. It's not that Li Xuanqing doesn't believe in the strength of the shipyard, but that this ocean voyage is too important, and it can even be said that once the voyage is successfully completed, it will not only be a matter of discovering a new continent, but will subvert the basic cognition of everyone in Datang at present. After all, in this era, except for later generations such as Li Xuanqing and his wife, almost everyone is still following the geographical understanding of the ancients that "the sky is round and the place is round". And if the new ocean-going voyage can really start from the east and finally cross the Atlantic, and appear in Tessie, it means that the opposite of the south will really be realized in reality. All this is not only a test of the perseverance of the sailing crew, but also a great test of the performance of the ships currently built by the Empire. After all, in such a voyage of tens of thousands of miles, if there is a problem with the ship, it means that the entire fleet will be wiped out.

However, when the two arrived at the shipyard, they discovered that the largest and most technologically powerful shipyard in the empire had unwittingly possessed the capacity to build ships for long-distance voyages, and it was also growing larger. At least the new design of the new boat, which is currently being built on the slipway, not only has a complete innovation in the propulsion system and power system, but also gradually moves closer to the shipbuilding concept of later generations in some designs.

"It seems that you have really put a lot of thought into the design of the ship this time, not only to modify the ship type, but also to put thought into the placement of the power system." Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi said with a smile after reading it: "After canceling the paddle wheel, if you rely on dual-shaft and dual-rudder propulsion, the power is enough to support the ship to go further." Li Xuanqing nodded and said, "When is it expected that this ship will be launched for sea trials?" ”

"In February next year. At present, because the slipway and dock of Tianjin Shipyard are basically under construction, we can only adopt a new method to carry out, the whole ship is divided into several independent parts, and then built in sections and finally assembled in a unified manner. Therefore, except for the keel, which needs to be formed at one time, the others are built and assembled in various workshops and then shipped out and merged one by one. Zhang Qiang's self-conscious explanation made Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi feel extremely surprised, and sure enough, modular manufacturing has revealed clues. Although Zhang Qiang did not see the advantages of his seemingly helpless emergency method at this time, it is undeniable that this method will be able to be quickly promoted in a short period of time after the success of the first attempt. After all, the farther away the power of Datang radiates, the demand for transportation will inevitably be greatly increased. Especially when Li Xuanqing has decided to relax the export restrictions on the first generation of power ships, that is to say, a large number of ships will be phased out in the future, so the newly vacated market share and the new growth space brought by economic development are enough for all the current shipyards to build at full capacity. Moreover, Dalian Shipyard and Tianjin Shipyard also need to undertake the task of renovating warships and building new warships, so it is really too late for such a huge new ship to rely on several other shipyards. If you are poor, you will think about change, this sentence is not false at all. So Li Xuanqing said immediately after Zhang Qiang finished speaking: "Arrange a special person to record all the processes of segmented manufacturing, and then study it carefully, and you will definitely be able to use it in the future." ”

Li Xuanqing's words Zhang Qiang didn't understand a little, but after the New Year, he couldn't wait to participate in it in person at that time. This not only brings a significant increase in the construction efficiency of the shipyard, but also greatly improves the utilization rate of the slipway and dock.

In addition to the Tianjin and Dalian shipyards immediately dispatching shipwrights and technicians to learn the construction and design methods of this new type of ship, Zhang Qiang also arranged to sort out the overall manufacturing process and modification methods of the twin-shaft and twin-rudder propulsion system, and assigned part of it to the Shanghai shipyard for modification tasks, and also to several other private shipyards, including Xu Xingxia's Liuqiu Shipyard. In order to keep up with the level of Tianjin factory in time, their technical strength can keep up with the level of Tianjin factory.

After inspecting these, Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi returned to Chang'an with peace of mind, and began to adjust the steel industry for adjustment, and vigorously promoted the new steelmaking method and new steelmaking furnace of the Yuwenjia family, so as to have a sufficient amount of steel supply when the shipbuilding boom came in the future. Xu Xingxia and Zhang Qiang, on the other hand, personally selected the crew of the voyage, purchased supplies and other food needed along the way, and took into account the long duration of the voyage and the management factors between the crew. After Zhang Qiang reported Qiaoxi, Xuan Yingwei also participated, and arranged for some Flying Eagle Brigade soldiers and members of the Secret Guard to participate, and even transferred a lot of weapons and equipment to prevent having enough strength to defend themselves when they were attacked when necessary. If it weren't for the fact that the navy ships had not yet been refitted, I was afraid that Hu Xiaosi would have to come to Guo Chongtao to escort a warship.

In this way, after the launch and outfitting of the research ship named Ocean No. 1, all the materials and personnel began to set off from all over the country to the Tianjin shipyard, and some of the crew members even followed the shipwrights throughout the whole process to facilitate the performance and operation of the new propulsion system in advance.

At the end of March of the 14th year of the Apocalypse, Tianjin Port was still frozen, but it could not stop the lively scene of Tianjin Port. Two high-powered ice-chisels sailed over the sea outside the harbor, relying on their sharp skates to break the frozen sea, so that the new white-painted ship with sails was smoothly dragged out of the dock by tugboats and docked at the port dock. Countless people and supplies began to flow to the ship via drawbridges and conveyor equipment, where they were sorted and stored. This new type of ship, with a total tonnage of an astonishing 11,000 tons, is already the largest tonnage ship built in the Tang Empire. There are even enough docks to be able to dock.

The materials that lasted all day were continuously transported to the ship, and after the high-quality smokeless charcoal used by the warship filled the coal bunker, the sound of "woo" began to sound from the ship, and a thick black smoke gradually emerged from the three integral chimneys, and after the power system was slowly started, in the evening night, the ship began to slowly set off south, first arrived in Shanghai, where it made a slight adjustment, tested the performance, and by the way, picked up the personnel of the Xuanyingwei and the Flying Eagle Brigade who boarded the ship there and then went south to Shantou, After there, cross the island of Liuqiu and head to Luzon. The Navy will arrange special warships and logistics fleets to follow the whole process. After making sure that there are no problems, they will depart from Luzon alone and travel east along the route near Luzon that has been excavated.

Zhang Qiang and Xu Xingxia waited at Shantou Port for the arrival of the behemoth and personally boarded the ship for inspection, and only after confirming that it was correct did they arrange a grand sailing ceremony to send off Ocean No. 1 to experience a new journey. The grand ceremony lasted more than three days before ending with the re-departure of Ocean 1. Today's Tang Empire's ocean transportation is no less than the dominant railway transportation in China, and the imperial people from the coastal areas have become the biggest beneficiaries of this increasingly prosperous wave. In places like the South Seas, Luzon, the Western Ocean, and even Persia and Egypt, these young people made the ship their home, and wherever the ship went, their home was there.

Ocean No. 1 departed from Shantou, and began to take advantage of the wind direction to gradually break away from the winter northeast monsoon, and then hung up the sails, turned off the steam engine, and sailed without power. The reason why Xu Xingxia and Zhang Qiang were needed to be transferred from all over the world was that all the crew members on the Ocean 1 needed to be proficient in the operation of two different power plants: sail and steam engine. In this way, the steam engine can be turned off when the wind direction is right, and the consumption of coal can be reduced, and Xu Xingxia even considered manual operation in extreme conditions to propel the ship forward. Although this preparation was stopped by Li Xuanqing, Xu Xingxia, who came to think about things quickly, still asked all the crew to have this kind of psychological preparation.

Because Luzon Island is not far from the southeast coast, although the current population of the empire has only exceeded 200 million, some people still settled on Luzon Island, and established a port city on Luzon Island as the basis for the empire to rule this island. In addition to traveling to and from the mainland, it is also the starting point for eastward exploration, and there are frequent maritime expedition ships and naval warships all year round.

After making its final replenishment here, Ocean 1 set off again in mid-March of the 14th year of the Apocalypse and embarked on a voyage to the vast eastern ocean. Although the journey was not smooth, in fact, the Ocean 1 turned north-east shortly after heading east, avoiding the hot and windless areas along the way, and began to sail between the equator and the ecliptic. In a tailwind situation, to move the 10,000-ton ship, all the sails on the ship's nine large masts must be hung up to provide enough power, but for the Ocean One, which does not know how many unknown journeys lie ahead, it is more important than anything else to save more coal to avoid having enough power in extreme situations. Moreover, ancient China actually had sufficient solutions to the common diseases that were easy to commit during ocean voyages. Moreover, in addition to the self-stockpiling of soaked bean sprouts, during the voyage, they can also continue to catch seafood along the way to supplement the needs of various vitamins in the crew's body. And after the islands encountered along the way, they will also stop for replenishment, and these islands in the tropics have enough fresh fruit supplies, so similar to the frontal sepsis encountered in Europe when they sailed around the world in later generations, even if they don't need Li Xuanqing's reminder, the crew of Datang has enough ways to deal with it.

Except for the occasional islands, most of the eastern ocean is a vast ocean. After more than a month of travel, the Voyage No. 1 broke into the western Pacific islands, where the Flying Eagle Brigade also conducted secret explorations on several of the more populous islands, but gave up after finding no special places. These places were almost a feast for all the crew, except for the abundance of fruit, and almost nothing useful was found, not even the gold that the Dark Guard had so much to think about. So although the locals even thought that the gods had descended and worshipped, there was hardly any claim for it other than the replenishment of fresh water and fruit in these places. Even on the charts of the voyage, the location and approximate island area are simply marked, leaving nothing left.

After crossing this dense island, and taking almost everything it could with it, the Ocean 1 set sail again, this time no longer finding a large number of islands large and small almost every day as before, and Ocean 1 found nothing at all during the ten days of continuous sailing. For a whole month in April of the 14th year of the Apocalypse, there was nothing but the occasional seabird, but fortunately this generation had abundant rain, and after initially realizing that there might be no island replenishment, Ocean One began to ration food, and things like fruit were even eaten directly into jam to increase the storage period, and also activated precipitation replenishment when it rained. In this way, after the whole month of April, the Ocean 1 finally saw land after a difficult voyage. What no one knew at this time was that they had arrived in a new land. When the Eagle Brigade and some crew members came ashore to reconnoiter close to this area, they found that it was a narrow piece of land, with the sea in both directions and a large area of land connecting the north and south. There are also indigenous people on it. This time, however, the Dark Guard found a large amount of gold in the area. The local indigenous people have gold in their hands that makes everyone blush. After a brief discussion, the elite crew of the Dark Guard, led by the Eagle Brigade, went into the jungle with weapons in hand to attack the natives and loot large quantities of gold. Although the scale of the conflict was small, the Flying Eagle Brigade and the Dark Guard quickly left, and after heading south with the fleet, they re-established a place to replenish fresh water and set sail again. This time, when replenishing, everyone obviously found something different, the flora and fauna in this place have exceeded everyone's cognition, and even a large number of fruits picked from everyone dare not use it, and they must be tested by the accompanying military doctor before they dare to use it.

However, after staying here for a few days and recording the details and geomorphological features of the place, except for taking some specimens with it, the others went straight south without making any further moves. After discovering the new continent through the northern route, Zhang Qiang and Xu Xingxia decided to sail south if they could find the mainland after sailing eastward, and try to find one thing that Li Xuanqing had inadvertently said, that is, the two extremes of the north and south are cold places, that is, if Ocean No. 1 encounters cold weather similar to the extreme north one day when it sails south, it can return. It was Li Xuanqing's words that made Ocean No. 1 continue to go south after seeing the southern tip of this continent in July of the fourteenth year of the Apocalypse, and in the following half a month, it really encountered the situation that Li Xuanqing said, and then turned around and returned, but after finding supplies near an island at the southern end of the New World, they did not return as they said, but planned to bypass the mainland to see the location of the previous robbery of gold, after all, that place is surrounded by the ocean on both sides of the east and west.

In this way, the whole Ocean 1 continued its voyage from south to north, and after two months of stopping, it found the entire narrow road to the east of an archipelago on the isthmus, and once again armed the natives and robbed them of a wave of gold and supplies, and then began to set off east. This time, the crew followed Xu Xingxia's previous decision to complete the last task, to find out whether there were those strange worlds in the Classic of Mountains and Seas in the farthest east. However, after several months of sailing, they came to a mysterious location, and the people they encountered on it actually made the Dark Guard recognize the figure of the Heavenly Sect among them. And after the subsequent landing, the Secret Guard even contacted the local Secret Guard. Only then did they learn that the voyage, which lasted until the first month of the fifteenth year of the Apocalypse, had finally arrived in the Iberian Peninsula, which was unacceptable to everyone.

However, fortunately, after Xuan Yingwei contacted his colleagues on the road, the news of the Ocean One was quickly sent back to China, and the Ocean One also entered the Mediterranean Sea to Egypt under the guidance of the dark guard, and returned to China through the newly opened canal. At this point, a vigorous ocean voyage has completed its final steps in confusion.