A large river wave Lang wide. The wind blows the water and splashes on both sides.

The huge fleet that set sail from Yang'a Wharf in Shangdang County of the Jin Kingdom set sail in high spirits.

Seventy-two paddle steamer transport ships with flat bottoms and square heads and moderate drafts adopted a single-column water formation, with two boats separated by 200 zhang in front and behind, and went all the way down along the smooth channel of the Qin River, until they crossed Vu Duc County, Hanoi County, and entered the main channel of the Yellow River, and then changed to a two-column formation and continued to move eastward.

Why did the fleet not go directly down the Yellow River from the section of the Yellow River in Xihe County, but from the narrow and shallow Qinshui of the river in the east? The river here narrows sharply, the water is turbulent, and the difference between the top and bottom of Hukou Waterfall is as high as several zhang, if the boat goes down from the upstream, it will really turn over and over here, and there is no reason to be spared.

Qinshui originates in the Shangdang Valley area, although the water flow is shallow in winter, but at the turn of spring and summer, because of the abundant rain, all the nearby mountain floods flow into Qinshui, you can lift larger boats, just convenient for the Qingxu army to return home.

Sometimes, Zhao Xing couldn't help but think that if he could take over the two counties of Hedong and Hanoi, then he could form a larger naval division near Dayang County (near the present-day Sanmenxia Reservoir) and sail directly in the Yellow River, creating a golden golden waterway, no longer being troubled by the inability to navigate during the dry season of Qinshui, and importing and transporting large quantities of goods and materials out of the Jin Kingdom.

Zhao Xing has been secretly wondering several times whether he should simply tear his face and send troops to occupy Hedong County and Hanoi County east and north of the Yellow River in the Sili area.

Fortunately, although the water was shallow, it was still able to sail, so Zhao Xing still reluctantly suppressed the desire in his heart and decided to postpone the time of starting the war until it was really unavoidable.

The journey from the Yang'a section to the Wude estuary of Qinshui was only more than 200 miles, but it took a day and a half for the southward fleet. The reason is that the water is shallow and slow, and the paddle steamer does not have enough strength, so it can only rely on the 30 strong men in the power cabin at the stern of the transport ship to move forward with their feet, so it is more time-consuming.

When the fleet entered the Yellow River, the speed of travel was much faster, and sometimes in order to rest the strong men who drove the boats, they could travel long distances at night directly by relying on the current.

At noon on the seventh day when the fleet left Yang'a Wharf, Tai Shici finally saw the welcome flag fluttering on the bank of the Gaotang Yellow River from a distance through the telescope, which also meant that the Qingxu army had finally arrived home.

Located in the westernmost part of Qingzhou Plain County, close to the Yellow River, Gaotang County is a veritable water city, which has existed as an important water conservancy and transportation city on the Yellow River since the Great Qin Empire. Gaotang County is located on the south bank of the Yellow River, and there is an area of 20 miles wide north of the Yellow River that belongs to Gaotang County, and from here to the north, it is the territory of Yuan Shao of Jizhou.

Yuan Shao has always been jealous of Gaotang, the throat city of land and water, and now there is a force of more than 10,000 people stationed in Qinghe Guoling County, north of Gaotang County, looking at Gaotang on the south bank. On the other day, if Yuan Shao made a move on Qingzhou, he must have captured Gaotang first, and then the army crossed the river from here to the south and went straight to Qingzhou Jinan.

When Tai Shi Ci's fleet sailed in a section of Qinshui Hanoi County, it had already been discovered by the people on the shore and reported to the government. However, by the time the Hanoi government sent people to watch, the fleet had already entered the Yellow River, so it was over. Of course, according to the agreement reached between Zhao Xing and Wang Yun at the beginning, the Jin State had the right to use the waterway in the Yellow River Valley, and even if the officials along the road discovered Tai Shici's fleet, they did not dare to act rashly and block it casually.

After entering the Yellow River, the fleet first sailed in the hundreds of miles of river between Jizhou and Yanzhou, and then completely entered the Dongjun River section in Yanzhou, and then left Dongjun and entered Pingyuan County in Qingzhou.

Because the appearance of the fleet was too sudden, and the speed of sailing during the day, even if it was discovered by Yuan Shao and Cao Cao's spies, by the time they reported the incident to Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, who were hundreds of miles away, the fleet had already disappeared.

Even if Cao Cao and Yuan Shao later learned that the fleet going down the river belonged to the Jin State, and calculated to block the fleet when it returned, they would have pounced. Because Zhao Xing had no intention of letting this fleet return to the Jin Kingdom at all, they would be rationed to Youzhou in the future, shuttling back and forth between Quanzhou County in Yuyang County and Qu County in Donghai County, and no longer entering the Yellow River.

The fleet led by Tai Shici docked at the Gaotang Wharf for five days, until all the Qingzhou and Xuzhou soldiers disembarked and removed many large wooden boxes, and several caravans that had already received the news and came to meet them also transported the goods sold by the Jin State to Qingzhou from the wharf.

In these five days, Kong Rong ordered the 2,000 sailors secretly recruited in Le'an, Beihai and Donglai counties near the sea, and quietly boarded Tai Shici's fleet in the flow of people. In the future, after training, this group of young men who are familiar with water will become the first batch of sailors of the Jin State Naval Division, and follow Tai Shici to gallop across the vast sea.

According to the guidance of the old fishermen from Qingzhou, Tai Shici's fleet entered Laizhou Bay after three days, and then after six days around the easternmost mountain of Donglai, Chengshan Gaojiao, and then sailed all the way south, and after another seven days, finally arrived at Qu County in the East China Sea.

On this voyage, when they had not yet entered the sea at first, the men of the Jin Kingdom were still able to move freely on the boat, but once the fleet entered the Bohai Sea, everyone was dizzy. Where have the men of the Jin Kingdom, who were originally responsible for driving the paddle wheel, have seen the rough sea, and most of them are white-faced, vomiting, and seasick and dizzy one by one.

Fortunately, Zhao Xing had the foresight to let Kong Rong help prepare 2,000 sailors in advance, which prevented the fleet from capsizing in bad sea conditions when sailing between the Yellow and Bohai Seas.

The 2,000 sailors were originally the children of fishermen in the three counties near the sea in Qingzhou, and many of them relied on the sea to fish all the year round, and they were accustomed to the sea life in the wind and Langli since childhood. When they boarded the wide, sturdy paddle steamer, they felt like they were walking on the ground and quickly adapted to life on board. In particular, when the fleet later circumnavigated the windless section of the sea that rose three feet without wind, they fully assumed the task of driving the paddle steamers, and many men who were good at making sails jumped freely between the masts like clever monkeys, making a large flock of landlubbers of the Jin Kingdom sigh to themselves.

Tai Shici himself has lived by the sea since he was a child, and the water is very good, so he is not seasick. When the two thousand sailors completely took over the landlubbers of the Jin Kingdom to drive the fleet, he began to pay attention to the outstanding sailors, and prepared to select a group of grassroots officers of the future naval division from among them, and carry out key training in the future.

Although he did not have any previous experience, Tai Shici made full use of the organizational and management knowledge he learned from the lecture martial arts, starting from the most basic training people, but did not take any detours, and conformed to the law of development and construction of a force from scratch.