After Zhu Youxiao arranged this matter, he sent a message to Huang Kezhang, asking him to send cadets from the Ming Royal Naval Academy to form an ocean-going fleet and prepare to go to the Americas to find rubber tree species. As for the ships of the ocean-going fleet, all of them use Fuku.

At this time, the largest shipyard was the Qingjiang Shipyard, which was located along the canal between the Qinghe River in Shanyang, Huai'an Province. There are four large factories in Jingwei, Weihe, Zhongdu and Zhili, a total of 80 branches, the factory area stretches along the canal, the total length is more than 20 miles, the scale is extremely large, before the Apocalypse Dynasty, about 600 ships are produced every year.

After Zhu Youxiao ascended the throne, he specially rectified the Qingjiang Shipyard, killed or demoted some officials with bad deeds, and specially sent Jinyi guards to garrison here. Experienced shipwrights were then concentrated in the four major factories, while the other branches were sold to private operators.

This practice is unprecedented, but it does have an effect. Because the Qingjiang Shipyard was originally state-owned, what ships were built, when they were built, and what the price was, were all controlled by the imperial court. This gave officials the opportunity to get their hands on the job, and it also caused the shipbuilding capacity of the entire shipyard to be insufficient.

After such a change, the branch factory was privately owned, which reduced the burden on the imperial court, and flexibly formulated shipbuilding strategies, so that the number of ships built in peacetime reached 650 in the second year of the Apocalypse, which was only the number of ships built by the branch in a year.

The main factory and the four major factories were drawn by the imperial court to specialize in the manufacture of large warships. By the end of the fifth year of the Apocalypse, thirty-six Daifuku ships had been built. The largest of them, the Fukubune, is about 90 paces (136 meters) long and 35 paces wide. The smaller ships and canopy boats could be 70 paces long and 20 paces wide, and could be loaded with a total of 24 guns (2 in the bow and stern, 10 on each side), and their firepower was stronger than that of the three-masted gunboats.

Zhu Youxiao named the three largest fortune ships Daming, Zhonghua, and Dahan. In addition, there are three rushing ships and three double-canopy boats, forming the Daming ocean-going fleet.

At this time, the naval ranks formulated by Colonel Zhu were also officially promulgated. The military ranks of the Ming Navy are divided into three categories: officer rank, warrant officer rank and soldier rank, of which warrant officer is a special category, neither officer nor soldier, is an independent category, mainly responsible for professional and technical service and corresponding management work, not leadership responsibility.

The rank of officer is divided into nine ranks: admiral, lieutenant general, major general, colonel, lieutenant colonel, major, captain, lieutenant, and second lieutenant. Warrant officers are divided into first, second, and third class warrant officers, and warrant officers actually have no relationship between superiors and subordinates, mainly according to seniority. Navy soldiers are divided into six grades: sergeant, sergeant, corporal, veteran, recruit, and private.

The military ranks are established, so the ranks of each general will also be formulated, Yan Siqi and Zhang Qianfang were appointed vice admirals, while Zheng Zhilong, Chen Houfu, Gui Shuzhen, Zheng Zha, and Dai Chunfeng were all appointed as rear admirals. The generals of Dongjiang Town and the Guards who were transferred to the Ming Royal Naval School were appointed to positions ranging from colonel to captain according to their original rank in the Guards.

In this way, Yan Siqi became the commander of the Ming Luzon Navy, and the Daming Ocean Fleet was composed of Zhang Qianfang as the commander of the fleet, leading a large group of students from the Ming Royal Naval Academy, plus students from the Geography, Agriculture, Astronomy and Liberal Arts Departments of the Beijing Normal University Hall Research Institute. In addition to Zhang Qianfang, who is the commander, who has the rank of lieutenant general, the highest below is none other than Colonel Mao Qiwu of the Military Survey and Statistics Bureau.

This arrangement has puzzled some people, but some smart people have seen that after this ocean voyage, they are afraid that a large number of colonel-level and even general-level officers will pour out of the fleet, so they are gearing up and preparing to make a contribution this time, so that they can be promoted to real generals as soon as possible.

Zhu Youxiao thought about the geography he had learned in his previous life, if he started from Quanzhou and went east, he could reach Mexico at this time, but there was no nautical chart for this route, and it was not urgent to open up this route now, so he decided to go to Manila first, and then go to South America according to the captured Spanish nautical charts and the nautical charts provided by the Portuguese.

The Daming ocean-going fleet set sail in Quanzhou, Zhang Qianfang obviously did not go back in a short time, his whole family saw him off in Quanzhou, his daughter cried silently, her face was full of tears, and she kept wiping. Zhang Qianfang's father shouted: "What are you crying about, your father is doing something that no one has done for thousands of years, you should be happy." It was only after he finished saying that tears were already shining in his eyes.

Zhang Qianfang was in high spirits, he clenched his fists and said to the Quanzhou officials and people who saw off them on the dock: "Go here, you must find what you need for the emperor, after this route is opened, our goods in Quanzhou can be marketed in more places, and then you can earn silver in the Americas." Say goodbye to all of you, and we'll see you next year. ”

The ocean-going fleet first sailed from Quanzhou to Dayuan, and the students vomited happily along the way, so the fleet rested for a day while in Xiamen. The students landed on the island with their feet limp before they let out a sigh of relief, but they shuddered at the thought of the longer sea voyage ahead.

Zhou Yanru cheered up the students and said: "Don't be afraid, the emperor said that you will get used to it slowly, and when you get to Luzon, everyone will not vomit anymore." "The ocean-going fleet needs a person who knows history, and he was smart, so he asked Ying to go out, and was appointed by Zhu Youxiao as the chief officer of the fleet in charge of the army, and his status was only below Zhang Qianfang. And Zhang Qianfang, because of family reasons, has great respect for the literati, and is extremely respectful to Zhou Yanru, who was born as a champion.

Sure enough, before Luzon, some students had already fully adapted to the wind and waves at sea. Zhu Youxiao finally chose Song Yingxing to enter the fleet, because Song Yingxing was as careful as a hair, and Fang Yizhi was clever, but Fang Yizhi was too young after all, and far away from the Ming Dynasty, Song Yingxing should be more suitable for the task of finding new species.

Before leaving the big member, Song Yingxing was already in good spirits, and he didn't have the color of the earth when he was in Quanzhou. While encouraging his fellow students, he has begun to habitually record what he has seen and heard since he went to sea.

On this day, the fleet sailed about 100 miles from Manila, and the first scout ship issued a flag: A warship of unknown nationality was found ahead.

Since it is of unknown nationality, it is obviously an enemy, and Zhang Qianfang was overjoyed to receive the report. Since the war in Japan, he has not fought for a long time, so he is naturally happy to see the hunt.

The flagship, the Daming, raised the flag: the gunboats moved closer to the flagship, the Dahan was in front of the enemy ships, and the Zhonghua with students remained in the rear of the fleet.