Zizhulin Port, on top of the port that is gradually improving and expanding at this moment, with a few huge whistles, Huo Gang cut the red silk cloth in his hand, and there was immediately warm applause around him, and what appeared in front of Huo Gang at this moment were five huge cargo ships.

This is the first batch of pure steel warships completed by Dahan, and unlike the previous batches of ironclad ships, this batch of five cargo ships are all real modern steel warships, all of them are made of stainless steel, and their maximum displacement has reached 12,000 tons.

The total length is about 132 meters, the width is 22 meters, the draft of the full load is 9 meters, the full load cargo is 7,000 tons, and the crew only needs about 120 people.

They are somewhat like the overall layout of later bulk carriers, with the only difference being that, beyond the huge chimneys, they retain two mainmasts, the same steel masts, which can be relied on to move forward by sails if the power is completely damaged.

However, the speed is very impressive, even if it is a full sail downwind, the estimated speed is five knots, which also needs to be an empty boat.

It's just that this design is mainly so that the boat can have a certain ability to move in the event of power damage, rather than waiting to die on the spot.

Because these five ships were designed to explore the ocean and the ocean, their cargo holds were carefully designed to reach a maximum range of 8,000 nautical miles, or 14,000 kilometers, if 7,000 tons of supplies were fully loaded, and about 2,000 tons of other cargo could be loaded while maintaining this data.

The voyage almost departed from the port of Shichikuling, then circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope across the Atlantic Ocean and arrived in South America.

However, it is definitely impossible to go like this in the early stage, in order to ensure the safety of all the crew, Huo Gang has already made a plan, starting from the Zizhulin Port, they will go all the way from Xizhou Island, Aden, and then to the Cape of Good Hope, along the way to set up a supply station on the island of Madagascar, and then after bypassing the Cape of Good Hope, set up another supply station in Namibia in the future.

The biggest use of these two sites is to store coal, after all, if you go to South America and don't have fuel, how can you return when the time comes?

The island of Madagascar has been discovered by the military, and they have shipped about 30,000 tons of standard coal to the island.

Now, after these five warships are launched, they can depart from Zizhulin Port at one time, go to the islands of Madagascar, and then return, each ship can carry about 2,000 tons of standard coal at a time.

Don't think that this number is small, five ships can transport about 10,000 tons at a time, and these ships can reach a speed of 12 knots when fully loaded and at an economic speed, and 10,000 tons of standard coal can be transported in about 25 days back and forth.

By the time of the Chinese New Year this year, about 60,000 or 70,000 tons can be transported, and with the coal that has been stored in the local area, there will be about 100,000 tons of coal.

100,000 tons of coal will probably be enough to support the subsequent voyage, according to Dahan's plan, five ships will be replenished enough fuel from Madagascar at that time, and then five ships plus ten sailing ships will go to the Atlantic Ocean together, and after about 7,000 kilometers of advance, ten sailing ships plus one steel cargo ship will vacate the cabins of their ships and fill the remaining four cargo ships with fuel.

From Madagascar around the Cape of Good Hope, and then to the easternmost section of the South American continent is only 9,000 kilometers, after 7,000 kilometers, the remaining four ships still have a range of 14,000 kilometers, and they are only 2,000 kilometers away from the goal, when the coal is enough for them to explore South America, bring back the materials that Huo Gang needs, and then start to return.

It doesn't matter if they don't have enough fuel, according to the protocol, when they return, they will cross the Atlantic, and then go to the coast, and when they find that the distance is not enough, they can concentrate the fuel on a ship, return to Madagascar, and then lead the fleet to the rescue.

In fact, in any case, the fuel is definitely enough.

Moreover, when the ocean-going fleet is exploring, other fleets will inevitably continue to transport coal there, and it is even possible that the second supply point has been opened.

In any case, this must be done, because there are many materials that are native to South America, such as the most important rubber at the moment, but also corn, tomatoes, peppers, peanuts, sunflowers, sweet potatoes, etc., which must be brought back.

With these things, both the folk diet and the industrial system of the Han Dynasty will be improved to a certain extent.

After the ribbon cutting, the five cargo ships that were actually fully loaded had already begun to embark on the journey, and Huo Gang had a meeting with the officials of the Ministry of Continent here.

Among the people who came this time, not only Liu An, but also He Molu also came.

Huo Gang naturally talked to the military people first, because the next military operation of the Han Dynasty may be launched in a year.

"Liu An will talk about the development of the navy." Huo Gang looked at Liu An and said, Liu An, as the commander-in-chief of the Xuanwu Army, has now officially stepped down as the commander of the Xuanwu Army, so as to be the commander-in-chief of the Han Navy, and the navy can be regarded as officially established.

"Yes, chief, at present, there are about 20,000 members in the Dahan Navy, 35,000 reserve members, all reserve members will be officially enlisted in the second half of this year, reserve members come from all over the country, the current basic training has been completed, and targeted training is being carried out."

"According to our plan, the navy will be equipped with about 40 warships in the next five years, which will be temporarily divided into two fleets, the Pacific Fleet, and the Putuoyang Fleet." Liu An said seriously, the so-called Putuo Ocean is naturally the Indian Ocean in later generations, but India does not exist, and the Indian Ocean naturally has no need to exist.

"Well, go ahead." Huo Gang nodded, the speed of this training was already very fast.

"Our two bases overseas, the Xizhou Island base and the Aden Island base, have been built, and Alura City in Africa is basically under our control, although nominally we are only trading there, but in fact, according to our exploration, many surrounding city lords already have ideas about Alura City."

"If they attack, we have a way to get the lord of Alura City, Della, to join our Great Han, and then our Great Han will have the right to fight back there, and then the cities around Alura City will fall under our control."

"According to our battle plan, once it is implemented, we will be able to control the Nile River basin, that is, both sides of the river basin south of the Byzantine Empire, within three months." Liu An nodded.

"Well, I won't participate in the implementation of your military department's battle plan in these aspects, you can make a plan and implement it directly, but don't use rifles and artillery as much as possible, once we do, we will push all the way to the side, whether it is Persia, Arabia, or Byzantium, we will not be able to stop us."

"The Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Mediterranean Sea will all be under our rule." Huo Gang said with a serious face.

Now is not the time to expose the rifle, not to say that the enemy has the ability to prevent after exposure, these things have created an absolute technological generation gap, even if the enemy is exposed, it is impossible to solve it.

But the reason why it is concealed is because once the time is ready to attack, that is, when the Han is going in and out with all his might, and the enemy does not know about this thing, then the Han may completely dismantle the limited rifle force into different groups according to the standard of a regiment of 1,000 people, and a regiment can influence a large-scale battle victory at that time.

Because in the case of ignorance, the rifle can destroy the enemy's will at the fastest speed, and when the time comes, the big man can control the most land with the fastest speed, and completely eat a large area of territory in one go.

And the reason why they are now allowed to take the city of Alura and start to occupy the land here in Africa is to start attacking from several different directions when the time comes.

One line is from Africa, along the Nile River all the way to the north directly across the Byzantine Empire, and finally completely occupy the Suez Canal in later generations, all the way from the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, with the navy as the mainstay, divided into two lines along the coastline left and right, and finally also advanced to the edge of the Mediterranean, the two river basins.

The third route will be from the purple bamboo forest, along the coast into Persia, sweeping across Persia.

The fourth route was from northern Persia to the Caspian Sea, where the city of Bad was currently under construction, and plunged into the core of the Persian Two Rivers Valley, and then turned to the Byzantine Empire in the direction of later Turkey.

The Fifth Route would run north of the Caspian Sea, the dividing line between Eurasia and later Russia, and then straight into Europe.

In the end, the goal of these five routes was to sweep all the small countries in Europe and completely take over the entire Eurasian continent, which was the subsequent offensive plan of the Great Han. Of course, this premise is that Dahan will thoroughly improve the automobile industry, especially trucks.

However, this difficulty is not high, with the large-scale application of coal and gunpowder, mining is no longer a problem, and thermal power plants are also being built, and the current progress of the oil industry is also extremely fast.

In the next five-year plan, the entire industrial system will be completely completed, and there will be no problem in establishing the automobile industry at that time, and with trucks, the transportation of materials will be much easier. Although the trucks at the beginning may not be as good as the later generations to pull dozens of tons, hundreds of tons at a time.

But being able to pull a few tons of material and drive at a speed of forty or fifty kilometers on a relatively flat road also means that it is not a problem at all to control the vast area to be taken next.

So, naturally, it is impossible to expose these things now.

"Yes, none of this is a problem, according to our current intelligence, there are almost no weapons and armor on the African continent, as long as we don't go to war with the Byzantine Empire, we don't have anyone on the continent who is our opponent at the moment." Liu An said seriously.

"Well, well done, after the military bases on Aden Island and Xizhou Island are built, we will also have follow-up supplies, and after taking Alula City, we will prepare to build enough warehouses in the local area, such as food and other materials can be transported in advance."

"I understand that we are not short of supplies at all, but when the time comes, our official system may need a large number of officials." Liu An thought for a while and said.

"This is simple, at present, almost every major official in all departments of Dahan has at least six or seven assistants and secretaries, and these people can become the people who can become the main party in the future, and this number will continue to increase in the next few years. The most important thing for us now is the maritime aspect, and the development of maritime transport will represent an increasing number of areas under our control in the future. ”

"So the dockyard here in Zizhulin Harbor can continue to expand. The construction of the dock at the outlet of the Ganges River basin can also begin. Huo Gang pondered for a moment and said.

"Yes, in addition, there is another point, that is, the Ministry of Industry has revised the latest production plan, I think you can talk to them, I don't want sail ships, the speed is too slow, like steel warships with steam turbines can reach a maximum speed of about 25 knots. This speed means that it takes us less than two days to get from Zizhulin Port to Aden. ”

"And if we go all the way to the heart of Byzantium in the Red Sea, we can get there in only four days. But in the case of a sail warship, the time to reach Aden will be 10 days, and the time to reach the hinterland of Byzantium will be 20 days. Liu An said a little depressed.

"What did the people from the Ministry of Industry say?" Huo Gang didn't know about this matter, there are too many things in the country now, the Han government has the affairs of the Han government, Huo Gang doesn't need to pay attention to these small things, with these things in the current Han Dynasty...... If Huo Gang was in charge like Li Shimin before, he wouldn't be able to finish sleeping all day.

"The people from the Ministry of Industry said that they have made detailed calculations, although the efficiency of steel warships is higher, but they are currently improving the steam turbines driven by coal-fired boilers, burning coal, and although our coal production is increasing, but considering the demand for industrial electricity, the amount of coal needed for thermal power plants is also increasing."

"If we continue to produce steel warships, maybe there will be a shortage of coal, so they reduced the number of steel warships and began to produce a large number of sail warships, although the speed of the man-of-war ships or transport ships is slow, but they can replace the quality with quantity, and they can be made into ironclad ships by wrapping a layer of steel on the outside."

"In the words of the Ministry of Industry, if the quality is insufficient, use the quantity to make up, and it is a big deal to spread the entire Putuo Ocean, and the materials will definitely be enough to transport at that time, and the sail warships do not need to burn coal, until they develop a new oil-fired boiler, a boiler that burns heavy oil, and it can be completely replaced when the time comes." Liu An reluctantly repeated the words of the Ministry of Industry.

"The people in the Ministry of Industry are right, in this regard, not the most advanced is the best, of course, the advanced is indeed good, but for the development of the whole country, the backward should also be used." Huo Gang immediately smiled, he didn't need to think about these questions, naturally there were people from the Ministry of Industry who thought about them.

But when you hear it this way, it obviously makes sense.