Early in the morning, the day after the bidding for the commercial franchise and mining rights in Jiaozhi ended, Li Yuntian led more than 200 Xiaowu soldiers to the south by boat to Hangzhou, and then to Ningbo via Hangzhou, where he took a sea boat to Qinzhou, Guangxi Province in Dinghai County, Ningbo Prefecture.

Because Zhang Ben was too old to walk from the turbulent sea route, Li Yuntian asked him to wait in Yangzhou City and then rushed to Wang Jian and his party, and after the two met, they went south to Hangzhou, leading the large army of Xiaowu Army from Hangzhou to Guangxi by land.

The reason why Li Yuntian only brought more than 200 Xiaowu soldiers was a helpless move, and more than 200 of the more than 3,000 Xiaowu soldiers were safe and sound when they went south along the canal, and the others were more or less seasick.

The prefect of Hangzhou Prefecture and the commander of the Hangzhou Guard had already led the officials of Hangzhou to greet Li Yuntian on the wharf, and they originally thought that Li Yuntian was going to stay in Hangzhou City for one night, but unexpectedly, Li Yuntian had finished eating the reception banquet set by the Hangzhou prefect and rushed to Ningbo with his army non-stop.

For Li Yuntian, the Ming troops in Jiaozhi who were trapped in the isolated city and resisted stubbornly were now in dire straits, and if he could arrive in Jiaozhi one day earlier, he would be able to rescue them from the siege of the rebels one day earlier.

Dinghai County is a prefecture and county under the jurisdiction of Ningbo Prefecture, located in the southeast coast of Ningbo Prefecture, with an excellent natural port - Dinghai Port, which can dock large ships.

Ningbo City Shipping Division was built in Dinghai Port, which is the most important yamen in Ningbo Prefecture, which is responsible for inspecting and counting the goods loaded and unloaded in the port, and is under the jurisdiction of the Zhejiang Political Envoy.

When Li Yuntian, accompanied by the Ningbo prefect and the Ningbo Wei Commander and other officials, arrived at Dinghai Port in a horse-drawn carriage, there were five large ships with four-story cabins docked in the port, which was very eye-catching at a glance.

There were also more than a dozen smaller boats around the five large ships, all with two or three cabins, which were simply behemoths compared to the nearby fishing boats.

At this moment, the pennant was unfurled on the dock, and thousands of sergeants wearing guard uniforms stood in formation, and standing at the forefront was a middle-aged man wearing a three-grade military robe and looking a little thin.

"Luo Hai, the commander of the Suzhou Zhenhai Guard, see the chief soldier." When Li Yuntian got out of the carriage he heard, the thin middle-aged man hurriedly led several officials behind him to greet him, knelt on one knee and saluted Li Yuntian.

"Get up." Li Yuntian smiled slightly, raised his palm upwards towards Luo Hai, and then his eyes fell on the five large ships with four-story cabins on the dock, and asked with interest, "This is the treasure ship that the Three Treasure Eunuchs took when they went to the West?" ”

"My lord, this one in the middle is the boat of the Three Treasure Eunuchs." Luo Hai bowed slightly and stood beside Li Yuntian, pointing to the largest ship in the middle and said.

"Oh?" Li Yuntian couldn't help but feel a little surprised when he heard this, and couldn't help but glance at the big ship in the middle.

Because Li Yuntian chose to go to Qinzhou in Guangxi by sea, the military pavilion wanted to send him a ship to transport troops, Li Yuntian always thought that the military pavilion would transfer ordinary sea ships to him, and when he arrived at Dinghai Port, he found that it was Zheng He's treasure ship that went to the Western Ocean, that is, the "Zheng He's treasure ship" in the mouth of later generations.

Li Yuntian had never seen Zheng He's treasure ship, but he knew that only Zheng He's treasure ship in the Ming Dynasty was four-storey, and the rest of the sea ships were below the fourth floor.

Therefore, after seeing that the five big ships were four stories high, he immediately knew the identities of the five big ships, especially what Li Yuntian didn't expect was that the military pavilion actually transferred the treasure ship that Zheng He was sitting on when he went to the West, which made him get a surprise.

The so-called Zheng He's treasure ship refers to the large sea ship used by Zheng He to carry goods when he went to the West, and the goods include gifts and items given by the Ming Dynasty emperor to Western countries, as well as tributes and treasures from Western countries to the Ming Dynasty emperor, as well as items obtained by Zheng He's fleet in overseas trade and exchange.

For this reason, this large sea ship is called a treasure ship, which means "treasure ship".

According to records, when Zheng He went to the West, there were 62 treasure ships at the most, and the largest treasure ship was 148 meters long and 60 meters wide, making it the largest wooden sailing ship in the world at that time.

The most striking feature of the treasure ship is that it has four layers of cabins, the nine masts on the ship can hang twelve sails, the anchor weighs several thousand catties, and it takes two or three hundred people to set sail, which can be called the giant of sea navigation at that time.

Regarding the size of Zheng He's treasure ship, "History of the Ming Dynasty? There is a record in the Biography of Zheng He: "To build a big ship, build forty-four and sixty-two."

In the Ming Dynasty, the "National Treasure" said: "There are sixty-two treasure ships, the largest one is 44 zhang long and 18 zhang wide."

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Luo Maodeng's "Records of the West" once recorded in detail the scale of various ship types in Zheng He's fleet, among which the treasure ship was "forty-four zhang long and 18 zhang wide." ”

An epitaph inscription in the tomb of Hong Bao, Zheng He's deputy envoy and Nanjing garrison eunuch, records Zheng He's journey to the West.

The inscription records: "Yongle era, awarded the deputy envoy of the internal transport library, and was given the former name." As a deputy envoy, he commanded the soldiers, and took the Daifuku and other 5,000 material giant ships. He praised the edict and sent the Western countries to the distant people. ”

In ancient times, the material was a unit of capacity, and 5,000 materials were equivalent to the current displacement of more than 2,500 tons, which was simply a myth of shipbuilding in the Ming Dynasty.

The Columbus fleet, which appeared in the Atlantic Ocean more than 80 years later than Zheng He's mission to the West, consisted of only three sailing ships, and the largest Santa Maria was only 100 tons, which shows that the shipbuilding technology of the Ming Dynasty was simply a myth at that time.

It is a pity that during the reign of Ming Xiaozong, due to the struggle between the inner court and the civil official group, under the advocacy of the civil official group, Ming Xiaozong ordered the destruction of all the navigation technology of Zheng He's Western period, including shipbuilding, navigation charts, etc., coupled with various historical reasons, the shipbuilding industry of the Ming and Qing dynasties collapsed, and was gradually overtaken by the Western countries.

"My lord, this is the sailing personnel this time, and they have all followed the Three Treasure Eunuchs to the Western Ocean." Seeing Li Yuntian looking at the five Zheng He treasure ships docked on the shore with great interest, Luo Hai stretched out his hand and pointed at the sergeants standing in line, and introduced to Li Yuntian in a deep voice.

"Don't meet the chief soldier yet!" As he spoke, Luo Hai shouted at the sergeants.

"Meet the Chief Soldier!" Hearing this, the sergeants immediately bowed to Li Yuntian in unison, and shouted loudly.

Li Yuntian couldn't help but nod approvingly when he saw this, it seems that the army led by Zheng He when he went to the West is worthy of being the elite of the Ming Dynasty, and it is not easy to still be well-trained and maintain a strict military prestige.

"Excuse me!" Then, he stretched out his hand and lifted it upward, and said loudly to the sergeants.

"Thank you, sir!" The sergeants replied in unison, and straightened up in unison.

The thousands of sergeants on the dock are from Nanzhili and are veterans who have followed Zheng He to the West.

Although the imperial court has not mentioned the matter of going to the West since Emperor Hongxi ascended the throne, Zheng He, who is the eunuch of the Nanjing garrison, did not dare to slack off, and still strictly trained those sergeants who had followed him to the sea, and if Emperor Xuande sent him to the West again, he could immediately use those sergeants.

It was precisely because of the well-trained soldiers who followed Zheng He to the West that Liu Sheng recruited 10,000 people to go to Jiaozhi to quell the rebellion.

The reason why the military pavilion sent so many people to sail with Li Yuntian was because it was not just a few troop carriers to send Li Yuntian to Qinzhou, but also included logistical supplies and armed escorts, and only in this way could Li Yuntian be able to reach Qinzhou smoothly.

Since Zheng He had already gone to the Western Ocean six times at this time, the fleet that went to sea already had a complete and strict system, and the accompanying personnel were mainly divided into five parts: the headquarters department, the navigation department, the foreign trade department, the logistics support department and the military escort department.

Headquarters: The center of the entire fleet, which makes command decisions on navigation, diplomacy, trade, operations, etc.;

Navigation Department: navigation business, ship repair, weather forecasting, etc.;

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Diplomatic Etiquette, Trade, Liaison Interpreter;

Logistics Support Department: financial management, logistics supply, document drafting, medical personnel, etc.;

Military escort component: responsible for the safety of navigation and military operations.

Moreover, there were five different types of ships in Zheng He's fleet to the West for the people involved.

The first is Zheng He's treasure ship, which can carry thousands of people, and its posture is majestic and unmatched.

The second type is the "horse boat", which is 37 zhang long and 15 zhang wide.

The third type is the "grain ship", which is 28 zhang long and 12 zhang wide.

The fourth type is the "boat", which is 24 zhang long and 9 zhang 4 feet wide.

The fifth type is the "warship", which is 18 zhang long and 6 zhang 8 feet wide.

It can be seen that the ships of Zheng He's Western fleet have a meticulous division of labor, some carry cargo, some carry grain, some fight, and some live, so that they can effectively deal with various situations at sea, and then enable the fleet to reach its destination safely.

Because His Excellency issued a military order to escort more than 3,000 people to Qinzhou, Luo Hai prepared the accompanying ships and personnel according to the standard of transporting more than 3,000 people, which made the number of accompanying personnel reach several thousand.

However, what Luo Hai never expected was that Li Yuntian only brought more than 200 people to come, and the large army had to go to Guangxi by land due to seasickness.

As the number of escorts has decreased, the entourage will naturally be reduced, and the five Zheng He treasure ships were originally used to transport more than 3,000 Xiaowu troops, but now only one is enough, which makes the logistics supply personnel also reduce accordingly.

For the sake of safety, the armed escort personnel remained unchanged, after all, Li Yuntian was a dignified general of Dingnan, in case there was any accident along the way, Luo Hai could not afford this responsibility.

Li Yuntian was in a hurry to Jiaozhi, so he did not stay at the wharf for long, and after saying goodbye to the Ningbo prefect and the Ningbo Wei commander and others who saw him off, he quickly boarded the Zheng Hebao ship in the middle accompanied by Luo Hai.

In order to be auspicious, Li Yuntian gave this Zheng He treasure ship a name - Mingding, hoping that this time he could quell the rebellion in Jiaozhi.

The more than 200 sergeants of the Xiaowu Army enthusiastically took the Mingding number, and gathered on the deck in groups of three or five to talk about the Zheng He's treasure ship moored on the dock, where they had the opportunity to see such a huge sea ship after living inland for a long time, they were all shocked by this kind of giant.

There were a total of 12 ships in the fleet that went to Qinzhou this time, including 1 Zheng Hebao ship, 2 grain ships, 2 ships, and 7 warships, and the supplies brought by the fleet were enough to continue sailing at sea for ten days.

The entourage of the fleet consisted of more than 3,500 people, of whom more than 200 were crew members of the Mingding, more than 300 logistics and supply personnel, more than 700 crew members of the rest of the ships, and more than 2,000 people were escorts.

As they sailed out of port, the fleet began to change formation, with the warships on the outermost, followed by the grain ships and the boats, and the Ming Dinghao in the middle, so as to prevent the enemy from attacking.

Although there are not many ships in the fleet, they are all huge, so they are also full of momentum and look quite powerful, so that the fishing boats in the harbor have avoided them from afar.

Amid the discussion of the fishermen pointing and pointing on the fishing boat, Li Yuntian's first voyage slowly kicked off.