November 20, 13th year of Chongzhen.

The weather is sunny, although it is a cold winter, but the fiery atmosphere of Penglai City actually shows the breath of spring, all the warships and patrol ships are parked in the large military port, the shipyard is unlikely to stop so many giant ships that have been built, and more than five ships are completed, and they glide directly from the shipyard to the next military port.

Penglai City has long been heavily guarded, ordinary people are not allowed to enter the designated area, occupy half of the military port and barracks in Penglai City, the sailors and soldiers are closely waiting, today is the day when the warships and patrol ships officially start sea trials, this is a special day, for the Jiangning battalion, extraordinary.

Because of the comprehensive changes, the Jiangning battalion in Dengzhou, Laizhou and Qingzhou, the structure is different, and the commander has once again become Su Tiancheng, the commander of Jiliao, and the soldiers are completely adapted, and they take it for granted, as for the Jiangning battalion in Liaodong, Hong Chengchou and Qin Sande, the superintendent, in the eyes of many soldiers, they have always needed to obey Su Tiancheng's command.

There are a lot of people who participated in this trial voyage, the officials of the superintendent, the prefect of Dengzhou, Laizhou, Qingzhou, Tongzhi, the governor of the state and county, all came to Penglai City, this is Su Tiancheng's request, he just wants to let all the officials, have a sense of belonging, any big thing that happens here, it is related to everyone, no one can stay out of the matter, Su Tiancheng often admonishes many officials, anyone's efforts are linked one by one, shipyards build warships and patrol boats, etc., for the use of sailors, The construction of Weihaiwei Wharf is to maintain these expenses, not to mention the Yantai base, and the artillery developed is to strengthen the combat effectiveness of the army and the government at all levels. Through its own efforts, it will improve the lives of the people, create a better environment for the Jiangning Battalion, and at the same time make the combat effectiveness of the Jiangning Battalion more powerful, and promote the faster development of Dengzhou, Laizhou and Qingzhou. Without any of them, things are hard to come to a conclusion.

As for the persons in charge of the shipyard and base, there is no doubt that the officers above the commander of the Jiangning battalion will take part in this sea trial.

The ceremony of the trial voyage was very simple, the key was to test the power of the warships and patrol ships, this time the time of the trial voyage was ten days, and the formation of the warships and patrol ships, starting from the Bohai Bay, entered the Yellow Sea. When returning, the formation of ten warships and patrol ships went directly to Weihaiwei Wharf to participate in the opening ceremony of the wharf, and the rest of the warships and patrol ships returned to Penglai City Military Port.

Su Tiancheng wants to personally participate in this sea trial.

Someone once suggested that this time the trial voyage was not to choose Lushun as the destination. Although you are not prepared to attack Lushun, you must also familiarize yourself with the path. Su Tiancheng did not agree, he believed that the main task at present was still peaceful construction, gathering strength, and attacking Lushun too early would be detrimental to the development of Dengzhou and other places. The reason why this decision was made was because Su Tiancheng did not take Houjin's sailors in his eyes, and only in terms of the equipment of warships and patrol ships, Houjin's sailors were not qualified to compete. This is like a cold weapon facing a hot weapon, and there can be no hope of victory.

If the two sides do not need to get close, they can destroy and sink the ships they deal with only by relying on artillery, and such an overwhelming advantage allows the Jiangning Battalion Navy Division to dominate the sea in the shortest possible time.

After dominating the seas, the next thing is the wealth that rolls in.

At that time, Su Tiancheng got on the Penglai No. 1 warship.

The formation of warships and patrol ships, which is carried out in accordance with the suggestions of David and others, each series of fleets, with ten warships, ten patrol ships, five medium-sized Haicang ships, twenty ships form a formation, all the names of the ships are Penglai, and then the serial number is made, the serial number represents the position of the ship in the middle of the formation, for example, the Penglai No. 1 warship, which is a ship in an absolute command position, and the Penglai No. 1 patrol ship, obey the dispatch of the command ship and assist in command.

The three fleets participating in the trial voyage this time were named Penglai, Yantai and Weihai.

Those who will stay in Weihaiwei to participate in the opening ceremony of the port are the warship formation of the Weihai.

Those who followed Su Tiancheng on the Penglai No. 1 warship included Qu Qingze, Deng Hui and others.

The average number of officers and soldiers of the naval division that can be carried by the warships and patrol boats is 500, and the officers and soldiers of the naval division that the Haicang ship can accommodate is 100 people, and the first trial voyage is fully loaded, and the three warship formations can accommodate more than 15,000 officers and soldiers of the naval division.

There is also a detailed division of responsibilities within the water division.

The Ming Dynasty's sailors, in terms of the rank of officers and soldiers, there is no unified standard at all, this is also because of the different understandings of the imperial court, the Ming Dynasty's heyday of the huge sailors, the main purpose is not colonial expansion, but to show off, to give money to others, because the imperial court for the role of the sailors, there is no fundamental understanding, naturally will not take into account the rank of the officers and soldiers of the navy.

When Qi Jiguang resisted the Japanese, he was able to take the main battleship with more than 100 people, and the captain was only the governor of Jiupin, which can be seen from here that the imperial court was not interested in sailors.

It would also be unfair to clarify the officers of the naval division according to the number of people in the army, a giant warship can accommodate a maximum of 500 naval divisions, and according to the requirements of the imperial court for the army's troop allocation, the small banner has jurisdiction over ten sergeants, the general flag has jurisdiction over fifty-six sergeants, one hundred households under the jurisdiction of one hundred and twelve sergeants, and one thousand households under the jurisdiction of 1,120 sergeants, so the rank of the captain of a capital warship is not as good as a thousand households of five grades.

This is certainly not conducive to highlighting the combat effectiveness of the naval division. But if the rank of the naval division officer is too high, it will not be serious, just imagine, when the time comes, after having hundreds of capital warships and huge patrol ships, the captains are all high-grade officers, and the consumption is also huge.

The water division belongs to the Jiangning battalion, and within the Jiangning battalion, the staffing of officers must be the same, and there can be no different officer titles, which is also not conducive to the development of the Jiangning battalion, so after careful thinking, Su Tiancheng made a decision.

The commander of the naval division is half a level higher than the battalions under the jurisdiction of the Jiangning battalion, and in the capacity of the commander of the commander, he also serves as the commander of the naval division, the commander-in-chief of each ship formation, the identity is the commander of the guard, the captain of each main battleship and the captain of the giant patrol ship is the identity of a thousand households, and the captain of a medium-sized Haicang ship is the identity of a hundred households.

Such a configuration also caused a shock in the Jiangning battalion, and all the soldiers understood that the status of the sailor was not ordinary.

As for the first commander of the water division, Sun Chuanting, his identity is even more prominent, the left deputy imperial envoy, the commander of the Jiangning battalion, the commander of the water division, both civil and military, fully reflects the special status of the water division.

There are also some Jiangning battalion officers who do not understand, thinking that the naval division has been at sea for many years, how much role it can play, the main task at present is to defeat the Houjin Tartars, cavalry, infantry and artillery are the most important, the naval division can only assist from the side, it is impossible to play a decisive role, in the face of these discussions, Su Tiancheng did not explain for the time being, he knows very well that for the army, combat exploits are everything that explains everything, and the rest of the words, if they say too much, they are considered to be boasting.

Ignition cannons are a tradition of sailors' departures, and although the likes of Bi Maokang and William have developed percussive guns, the traditional ritual still needs to be maintained.

On the Penglai No. 1 warship, there is a cannon, this cannon is fired in the form of ignition, and there is such a cannon on the command ship of each fleet, which is not used for attacking, but for commanding.

Sun Chuanting personally took the lit torch and handed it to Su Tiancheng.

Su Tiancheng looked at the fleet that was ready to go, walked to the artillery, and lit the fuse.

The artillery fired, the huge roar, was the signal to depart, in an instant, the sea horn sounded, five giant patrol ships and five Haicang ships, the first to set off, followed by the main battleship command ship, on both sides of the command ship, respectively, Penglai No. 1 patrol ship and Penglai No. 2 warship.

With the departure of the fleet, a huge roar appeared, this is the roar of all the officers and men of the sailor, close to a year of training, this time, they finally boarded the real warships and patrol boats, and are about to start cruising, at this time, they are the real sailors officers and soldiers.

Liu Wenxiu, Ai Nengqi and Li Dingguo, all of them were on the Penglai No. 1 warship, such an arrangement, they didn't expect that in the past few months in the Jiangning camp, they were not used to it, to slowly integrated, to complete convincing, when Zhang Xianzhong was defeated by the Jiangning camp, they were not particularly convinced, they always felt that the Jiangning camp had the identity of the government, had sufficient military salaries, and received assistance from all sides, but Zhang Xianzhong was forced to leave Shaanxi and go deep into Shanxi, without any foundation. Therefore, they encountered a complete failure, but in the past few months after entering the Jiangning battalion, they really realized that why the Jiangning battalion is so combative, why the rebel army will be completely exterminated, and what the leaders of the rebel army such as Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Luo Rucai, and Lao Huihui will be planted under the command of the Jiangning battalion.

As an ordinary sergeant, Liu Wenxiu and the other three saw with their own eyes the officers of the Jiangning battalion, and even the commander of the guard, training together with the sergeants below, leading by example, the sergeants pay attention to their own words and deeds, and all they think of is to maintain the honor of the Jiangning battalion, and never allow the harassment of the people.

All this situation made Liu Wenxiu and others understand that Jiang Ningying was so brave and invincible, and their inner thoughts had completely changed, and they completely worshiped Su Tiancheng. (To be continued......)