In the Bohai Bay, where the port of Tianjin is located today, there is a freezing period every year after winter.

However, compared with the coastal waters of Liaodong Bay and the Yalu and Tumen estuaries, this place is still a little southerly after all, and the climate is still much better.

As a result, the ice period here is relatively short, and the ice is not thick, from the end of December each year, there are ice floes and ice formations, and in February of the following year, they begin to melt one after another.

In early November last year, after the imitation of the Dutch plywood ship was built at the Tianjin Shipyard, Shen Tingyang, who was already in a very anxious mood, ignored the opposition of several other promoters and deputy promoters of the shipyard, such as Huang Binqing, Huang Zhongrong, and Chen Zhongguan, and persuaded Zhang Keda, the Governor of the Navy's Governor's Office, who was also anxious, to agree to take advantage of the ice age to go to sea for sea trials in advance.

Counting up, Emperor Chongzhen ordered Shen Tingyang to take charge of Tianjin's shipbuilding affairs, and two years have passed so far.

In the past two years, Shen Tingyang has never been idle, first supervising and leading a large number of strong laborers, day and night in the Dagukou this coastal wilderness saline-alkali land to open docks, waterways, build factories, slipways, and then follow the missionary Van Delie from Batavia to the South Seas, negotiated the purchase of the Galion, and recruited a large number of shipbuilding technicians.

Next, in the nearly one year of Chongzhen's three years, Shen Tingyang devoted himself to the shipbuilding business of Tianjin Shipyard, and he was even more busy day and night.

On the one hand, he asked Huang Binqing, the shipyard to lift, and led a large number of Minzhuang laborers to excavate the third and fourth docks, as well as supporting waterways and sluices;

On the other hand, Huang Zhongrong and Chen Shengguan, the deputy directors of the left and right sides, cooperated with Thomas Dryfort, a shipbuilding expert, to take advantage of the two dry docks and started the construction of two Daifuku-class warships.

However, despite his hard work and eagerness to produce some results, such a thing as shipbuilding is not something that can be seen in a short period of time.

No matter how big the investment, no matter how complete the materials, no matter how urgent the mood is, you have to take it step by step.

In particular, the construction of the first ship was completely copied from the dimensions of the Galion one by one, and there was a slight error, and the objects built by the division of labor and cooperation could not fit together, so they had to be dismantled again and again and reworked.

Fortunately, this repeated rework and run-in also provided a rare opportunity for shipyard officials and technicians such as Deputy Lifter Huang Zhongrong and Chen Shengguan to "learn from Thomas-Dryfort" and other technicians who came to their Dutch East India Company.

In the process of repeated running-in and rework and remake, he also figured out the complete process of the Daifuku-class warship from the laying of the keel to the reservation of gun emplacements, to the installation of the top deck, and the height and layout of the four giant masts during the period.

After the construction of the first Daifuku-class warship was finally completed, the detailed explanation of the construction techniques and processes of the Daifuku-class warship drafted by him was also successfully released.

Not only did the eastern and western technicians in the shipyard have a specific operational reference, but also the unskilled workers in the shipyard recruited from the hungry and disaster victims finally had a decent learning model and could conduct some large-scale simple training.

In early November, the first newly-built Dafuku-class warship of the Tianjin Shipyard on the Dagukou coast, carrying ballast stones equivalent to the weight of 100 heavy Hongyi cannons, smoothly sailed into the open sea of Dagukou from the dock filled with water at the Dagukou Shipyard along the channel that had been excavated by a lot of manual excavation.

In the next two months, Mao Weizhang, the right protector of the Navy Governor's Office, Shen Tingyang, the prefect of Tianjin and the military preparation department, and Thomas Dreyfour, the master craftsman of the Tianjin Shipyard, took the only Daifuku-class warship and sailed along the coast under the escort of Huang Long, the general of the Tianjin Naval Division.

First, he went north to Juehua Island along the coast, and after the preliminary test, he crossed the sea east to Lushunkou, and finally arrived all the way to Yingzhouao, and then returned to Lushunkou at the end of January of the fourth year of Chongzhen.

It was also at this time that the superiority and importance of the geographical location of Lushunkou were fully demonstrated to Mao Weizhang, Shen Tingyang, Huang Long and others.

Lushunkou is the only ice-free port on the Liaohai Sea in the north of the Ming Dynasty that does not freeze all year round.

Even in the coldest winter of the Chongzhen period and later generations, no matter how thick the ice on the sea surface in Liaodong Bay and Bohai Bay was, Lushunkou relied on a warm ocean current from the south to keep it from freezing all year round.

Not only does the open sea outside the Port of Arthur not freeze all year round, but also the small inland sea surrounded by the three mountains of Old Iron Mountain, Golden Mountain and Jiguan Mountain in the Port of Arthur, that is, in the bay where Port Arthur is located, is also free of ice all year round.

It can be said that this is the best natural harbor in the north of the Ming Dynasty.

And this is also one of the reasons why Emperor Chongzhen decided to set up the Lushun Town Guard, and let Li Xin, a Chinese scholar around him, serve as the Lushun Town Guard and concurrently serve as the Imperial History of Denglai Town.

If it weren't for the fact that this place was close to Jianyu's territory, there was still a certain degree of danger, and it was a little far away from Jingshi, which was not convenient for direct control, then Emperor Chongzhen would have set up the shipyard directly in Lushunkou.

However, although the Lushun Pass is good, the channel from the Lushun Pass back to the coast of Tianjin Dagukou was still covered under a layer of thick or thin, large or small sea ice in January of the fourth year of Chongzhen.

During the sea trials of more than two months before, this Daifuku-class warship, which was copied and imitated according to the original appearance of the Galien, although various small conditions continued, but the overall performance had reached Shen Tingyang's expectations.

Everyone, including Mao Weizhang, did not want to be at a critical juncture when they saw that the success of the sea trial would be announced soon, and then they would fall short and fail because they hit the ice.

Therefore, this group of people and horses who participated in the sea trials and escorts of the Daifuku-class warships waited in the mouth of Lushun for more than half a month, waiting for the ice in the Bohai Bay to melt.

It was not until mid-February that the Tianjin Navy ships sent out to survey finally sent back the news, saying that there was no ice floe on the sea west of the old Tieshan Channel, and Mao Weizhang, Shen Tingyang and others decided to return home.

On the afternoon of February 20 in the fourth year of Chongzhen, this group successfully returned to the sea surface of Dagukou in Tianjin, and officially announced the success of the Dafuku-class sea trial to the Navy Governor's Office and the Zhili Governor's Office.

Zhang Keda, the Governor of the Navy Governor's Mansion, and Liang Tingdong, the Governor of Zhili, have been waiting for this news for many days.

Since Mao Weizhang, Shen Tingyang, Huang Long and others took this newly built Dafu-class warship to sea for sea trials, the sea is vast, and there has been no news for many days, whether it is Zhang Keda, the governor of the navy, or Liang Tingdong, the governor of Zhili, they have changed from the initial joy to the apprehension in their hearts.

They are worried that if this is an accident, there is a problem in the sea trial, and if this big ship, which Emperor Chongzhen once had high hopes and invested a lot of money to build, sinks in the sea, then I really don't know how many heads will fall to the ground.

Therefore, when Mao Weizhang, Shen Tingyang and others returned to Tianjin Port with the Dafu-class warship that was basically intact, the Navy Governor's Mansion and the Zhili Governor's Office, as well as the Dagukou shipyard, craftsmen and workers, who were also nervous, were all overjoyed and rushed to tell each other.

On the night of the same day, Zhang Keda, the governor of the left capital of the navy, wrote a note on the success of the sea trial of the Tianjin shipyard's imitation of the Dutch plywood ship, and sent people to Beijing as soon as possible.

Since Zhang Keda took office as the Governor of the Navy, he has always wanted to make a difference as soon as possible, but unfortunately, the newly established Naval Governor's Office has not made much effort to straighten out its relationship with the naval divisions in various coastal areas, and there are not many things for him to do that can produce immediate results and quickly shine.

And this shipbuilding business, which was highly valued by Emperor Chongzhen, became his first priority.

He also knew very well in his heart that this matter was not only highly valued by Emperor Chongzhen, but also an extremely important matter for him, the first governor of the Navy Governor's Mansion.

Now all the maritime forces of the Ming Dynasty, nominally, are naturally at his disposal and controlled by him.

However, he knew very well in his heart that in addition to the Tianjin Naval Division, the Denglai Naval Division, and the Liaodong Naval Division, that is, the Ming Dynasty's naval divisions in the Liaodong Bay and Bohai Bay areas, he could directly command and mobilize them, and other maritime forces, that is, the maritime forces outside this region, he, the number one commander of the Ming Dynasty's naval governorship, could not command at all.

If it is an ordinary sea force, then it is fine, as long as there is no threat, you can leave it alone, but the sailor fleets belonging to Dongjiang Town and the Southeast Zheng clan are the two most powerful sea forces in the Ming Dynasty now!

Any one of them is stronger than the sea power that he, the Naval Governor, can control at the moment.

This point has made him sit on pins and needles all the time.

Fortunately, he has a clear idea of the preparation of the navy, and knows that the key to the strength of the navy lies in the warship.

It is important to have a large number of people on a ship, but it is important to have a large number of people on a ship, and it is not as important as a ship cannon!

As long as he builds bigger, faster and stronger warships, and is equipped with cannons with greater power, longer range, and faster rate of fire, then even if he, the Governor of the Navy, has a firm foothold, sooner or later, he will be able to take the naval fleet of Dongjiang Town and the huge fleet of the Southeast Zheng Clan under his command!