The third year of Yongle, the fifth day of June.

Appropriate: travel, marry, groundbreaking, groundbreaking

Zheng He's fleet was at the two wharves of Liujiagang and Chongming Island in Taicang, and the two teams of ships simultaneously pulled anchors and sailed into the East China Sea through the mouth of the Yangtze River.

The two flotillas used the sound of cannons and the hoisting of flags on different masts to communicate, keeping the entire flotilla in step and coordinated in action.

In the era when there were no radio signals, the biggest problem with large-scale fleet sailing was maintaining formation and coordination.

Not to mention the ships.

Let's say there are 200 people on a playground.

One of the two hundred people has a team leader who gives orders, but whether it is between any two people, or between two hundred people and the team leader, they can't talk to each other, only eye contact or body language.

Let these two hundred people march in a formation and try, and within ten meters, they will be in chaos.

When people are messed up, it's a big deal to communicate physically, and it's not a big deal if the passion collides.

If the fleet at sea is out of shape, it will be very difficult, and it will be difficult for the ship to turn around and change direction, especially the larger the ship, the more difficult it is to adjust the course at sea.

And it just so happens that the ships of Zheng He's fleet are all very large.

In Zheng He's fleet to the Western Ocean, there were five types of ships.

The first type is called "treasure ships". The largest treasure ship is 44 zhang 4 feet (about 146 meters), 18 zhang wide, and has a carrying capacity of 800 tons.

This kind of ship can accommodate thousands of people, it was the largest ship in the world at that time, and it was hundreds of years ahead of the whole world.

Zheng He's Daming treasure ship is the largest wooden ship ever built, and even today's people have never been able to build a wooden ship that exceeds this size.

The body of the treasure ship is majestic, incomparable, and standing in front of it, people deeply feel their own insignificance.

It took two or three hundred men to move its rudder, and it was not clear how the shipyard craftsmen had installed it.

The second type is called "horse boat", also known as horse clipper, the horse ship is 37 zhang long (about 123 meters), 15 zhang wide, has eight masts, and its main role is to transport large materials such as carriages and horses.

The third kind is called "grain ship", it is 28 zhang long (about 93 meters), 12 zhang wide, has seven masts, look at the name to probably know its role, grain ship is mainly needed to transport various logistics supply goods.

The fourth type is called "sitting boat", which is 24 zhang (about 80 meters) long, 9 zhang 4 feet wide, and has six masts.

The fifth type is called "warship", which is eighteen zhang (about 60 meters) long, six zhang and eight feet wide, and has five masts.

There is also a type called "water boat", which is slightly larger than our modern boats, which shuttles between the entire fleet, and is suitable for temporary personnel deployment when the fleet is sailing.

Some of the ships of the fleet led by Zheng He were used to carry cargo, some were used to transport grain, some were used for warfare, and some were used for residence.

Nearly 200 large and small ships sailed on the sea, stretching for several kilometers before and after, and the width of the entire fleet was more than 100 meters.

Even in good weather and high visibility, if a person is on a boat at the back of the fleet, even if he stands on the top of the watchtower, no matter how much he stands on tiptoe, he will not be able to see the ship at the front of the fleet.

Therefore, the formation of the fleet adopts a centralized type, that is, more than ten treasure ships are positioned in the center of the entire team and advance in an oval shape.

Why do you want to put the treasure ship in the center?

The treasure ship is the flagship and needs to give orders to the other ships, and only when this majestic treasure ship is in the middle of the fleet, can the other ships see its commands while sailing, and maintain consistency and coordination in their actions.

Ji Yan and Zheng He were on the same treasure ship.

This treasure ship is designed to have an excellent carrying capacity, which can theoretically allow nearly 1,000 people to eat, live and sail on the ship at the same time.

However, because it is a flagship, and the ship is also carrying a lot of gifts, costumes and honor guard facilities, so Ji Yan feels that there are not so many people on this ship, probably only a few two or three hundred people.

The fleet sailed southward for about two or three days, passed through Zhejiang, and arrived at Wuhumen Wharf in Changle County, Fuzhou Prefecture, Fujian.

The entire fleet listened to the flagship's instructions and all anchored here.

Later, Zheng He issued an order that not only the ships should be anchored here, but many people could disembark and be stationed on the shore to wait for follow-up orders.

The reason given by Zheng He was that the officers and soldiers of some guards in Fujian had not yet arrived and were waiting for them to converge.

Ji Yan didn't expect that not long after he went to sea, before he went abroad, the team stopped.

And it looks like it won't be going forward for a while.

And Zheng He's reason is actually a bit untenable.

Indeed, because the fleet must pass through Fujian when it goes south, there is no need for the officers and men subordinate to the various military guards in Fujian to go north to Taicang and then go south by boat.

Ji Yan saw at least a few thousand officers and soldiers at the wharf, listening to the orders and commands, and joined the large army one after another.

However, the integration was completed in a few days.

The fleet remained stagnant and stood by in place.

For Ji Yan, if Zheng He and Wang Jinghong didn't take the initiative to find him, he wouldn't have any chance or way to ask what the situation was.

That's the embarrassment of the consultant, the leader uses you, and the leader doesn't look for you, so you just stay on the sidelines, completely unaware of what's going on.

As a "plug and play" type of consultant, although Ji Yan is happy, he is not completely idle, he is observing everything that is happening so far.

After all, opportunities are always reserved for those who are prepared, and it is a little too late for Zheng He to start thinking when he really finds himself.

On this treasure ship, there is a particularly huge captain's room, Ji Yan has only entered it once, and it is estimated to be the size of most of a basketball court.

During the days when he was moored at the Wuhumen Wharf in Changle, Ji Yan found that Zheng He met with various officers in his captain's room every day.

There are also some who seem to have come from far and wide, and then you can often see scouts constantly reporting various military intelligence statements.

Do you want to use troops in Fujian?

But it shouldn't be.

The only thing near Fujian is Taiwan.

However, Taiwan is now called Dongfan, which was originally the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and Ji Yan has never heard of the current chaos in Taiwan.

Time just passed day by day.

The wind and rain are becoming more frequent and heavier, and the typhoon season is approaching.

If you don't go to sea, you can only wait for a few months of typhoon days to pass, and then it will be October.

One day, as soon as the wind and rain had passed, the sky returned to a clear blue, and although I don't know how long it would last to be calm, at least the dark clouds were not visible to the naked eye.

The whole army assembled, Zheng Hechuan gave the order, the fleet set sail, and the destination was Nanyang Zhancheng.

Two days after the fleet sailed to Zhancheng, the mystery of the fleet stationed in Fujian was solved.

It's not that Ji Yan discovered the reason himself.

Instead, Zheng He summoned him.