"It's really a few springs and autumns......"

At the beginning of winter, when a familiar voice sounded above the port, Tianjin port.

The person standing at the port and sighing was Xu Xiake, who took the train from Sichuan to Beizhili.

As if to celebrate the imminent beginning of a feat, Tianjin in the winter moon ushered in a rare ray of dawn through the thick clouds.

This sunlight illuminates the Tianjin Port Wharf in Beizhili, and under the blue-gray sky, the shadows in the port longingly reveal a large area as large as a hill, which continuously fills the entire port and wharf.

This behemoth is an ocean-going fleet of more than 400 seagoing vessels.

The huge masts of the ships stood densely in the harbor like towering trees in the primeval forest, and countless sharp masts pointed to the slightly glowing blue sky.

The twelve largest sea-going ships of this vast fleet, each with a displacement of three thousand tons, were twenty-four zhang long, six zhang wide, and carried one hundred and eight guns, and they were the nucleus of the entire fleet and by far the largest wooden galleon in the world.

In addition to these 12 first-class warships, there are 36 B-class warships with a displacement of more than 2,000 tons, more than 108 C-class warships with a displacement of more than 1,500 tons, and 324 Huangdian cargo ships with a displacement of more than 2,000 tons as fleet supply ships.

These ships were loaded with more than 9,600 guns and about 54,000 elite naval officers and men of the Ming Dynasty.

In their cabins, in addition to the supplies necessary for navigation, they were also full of various supplies produced from the Ming Dynasty.

These materials include, but are not limited to, silk, porcelain, tea, white cloth, spices, brown sugar, white sugar, and other materials.

On the ninth day of the winter month of the sixteenth year of the Apocalypse, the world's largest ocean-going fleet with the best seafaring technology and the most advanced shipbuilding technology was ...... The Daming ocean-going fleet successfully converged.

This time, the person who led the team to the West was still Xu Xiake, who would be responsible for all the diplomacy, trade, and propaganda matters of the Ming Dynasty along the way.

As the admiral of the temporary command of the fleet, Huang Fei, the governor of the naval capital, has undoubtedly become the best candidate.

This is the third voyage to the Western Ocean, and its scale is larger than the previous two combined, and their goal and route is to complete a global voyage.

The route includes, but is not limited to, setting sail from Tianjin in the Ming Dynasty to the south, passing through Gan Pozhi, Siam, Sulu, and Boni, and then passing through the old port to reach the Lesser Western Ocean while deterring the Persian, Ottoman and other countries along the coast of the Lesser Western Ocean.

At the same time, this time they will also open the first official visit of the Ming Dynasty to European countries, the ship will patrol the Mediterranean Sea at the same time, along the English Channel north, visit the Nordic countries, and negotiate trade in the European coastal countries, and build a royal store in the local area.

Finally, Xu Xiake will discuss with the Portuguese aristocracy the ownership of the Brazilian colony, build a royal store in Portugal, and alleviate the country's inflation.

After everything is negotiated, the fleet will go to the east coast of North Asia Melica, retain part of the army according to the situation, and at the same time go south to circle South Asia Melica, and then arrive at Qi State, which will be responsible for all the materials needed for the fleet to return to Daming.

At the same time, Xu Xiake will also leave four battalions of soldiers and horses belonging to the Qi State to garrison the Qi State.

The voyage is expected to take three to five years, and it can be said to be the largest and longest voyage in the world in this era.

The Ming Dynasty used this fleet as an eye to look into the depths of the ocean, and to take in the other side of the ocean, the vast new world beyond the continent.

This fleet was a truly invincible fleet, with a total tonnage of 920,000 tons, of which nearly 650,000 tons were cargo ships armed with less than five guns, but the tonnage of combat warships still exceeded the combined naval strength of the European countries at that time.

The tonnage of a fleet of the first class alone is approximately equal to the total tonnage of a conventional fleet of European countries.

The formation of such a fleet naturally costs a lot, and its appearance has almost hollowed out the home of the Ming Navy.

But in this regard, Huang Fei, as the governor of the navy, felt extremely excited.

"This is the ironclad ......"

In the Tianjin shipyard, when Huang Fei's voice sounded, he was looking up at a warship under construction.

The destroyer Qiyunshan, with a displacement of 4,500 tons, is a purely steam-powered ironclad ship, the whole warship is 23 zhang long, the hull is very wide, the maximum width of the board reaches 5 zhang, the draft is 1 zhang and 9 feet, and the maximum speed is 62 miles per hour.

As the first metal steam ironclad ship of the Ming Dynasty, the ship was about three inches (96 mm) thick in armor, twelve inches (384 mm) thick in the inner lining plank, and had a crew of 306 people.

In terms of armament, the ship was armed with thirty fifty-pound guns (sixty pounds), fourteen on each side of the ship, and one on the bow and one on the stern deck.

This kind of artillery shell alone weighs 60 catties, and the firing range reaches five miles.

In terms of the protection of the wooden sailing ships of the Europeans, as long as one shot hits, the ship can only wait for death.

Needless to say, the strength of the weapon is that such a thickness of armor alone can withstand the shelling of sixty-pound or even sixty-eight-pound naval guns of this era, and it can also resist explosive gunpowder very well.

In addition, three-inch-thick armor plates are also arranged around the control tower for protection, and in terms of protection alone, such a warship can completely take on a country's navy with sufficient ammunition.

Of course, practicality is directly proportional to the price, and the cost of such an ironclad destroyer has reached 220,000 taels, which is still under the condition that the Ming Dynasty built independently.

In terms of the purchasing power of silver in this era, this warship is enough to make many countries feel pain, as powerful as Spain, and the current annual income is only 20 million taels.

But for Da Ming, the destroyer of 220,000 taels of silver, the order flew like snowflakes.

"Master Xu, is this the largest ironclad ship?"

Looking up at the Qiyun Mountain, Huang Fei resisted his excitement and pretended to be calm and asked the officials next to him.

This officer, who is about thirty years old, is the head of the Naval Manufacturing Bureau of the Armaments Academy.

Facing Huang Fei's inquiry, Director Xu shook his head: "This is just a destroyer, there are cruisers on top of it, frigates and supply ships below." ”

"With the technology of the Manufacturing Bureau, there is no problem with destroyers and supply ships under 5,000 tons, and frigates under 1,500 tons, but cruisers of more than 5,000 tons have no technical support for the time being."

"So many twists and turns, does it make any difference?" Huang Fei asked excitedly, and Director Xu explained it to him when he heard it.

After explaining, Huang Fei understood the differences and characteristics of the four types of warships, and at the same time he also asked: "How long will it take for the navy to equip all such warships?"

"It depends on Your Highness...... Director Xu pushed his glasses: "At present, His Highness has asked Cao Bingbi to place an order for ten destroyers, thirty frigates and sixty supply ships. ”

"At the speed of the Tianjin shipyard, it will take about nine years for all of these 100 ironclad ships to be launched."

"Nine years?" Hearing this time, Huang Fei was speechless for a while.

For him, who was accustomed to being able to launch 100 wooden sailing ships a year, it was obviously uncomfortable to spend nine years waiting for 100 warships.

However, when he turned his head to look at the warship, and when he thought of the power of the warship described by Master Xu, he instantly became happy again.

A hundred such warships, he could completely sweep through the countries with them.

"Besides, this time I want to travel around the world with Xu Xiake, and it will take at least three years to go down this circle, and when he comes back, maybe there will already be a fleet for him to use."

As soon as Huang Fei thought of this, he walked around the dock where the ironclad ship was built, and not long after he walked, a commander also ran all the way into the dock and found Huang Fei who was taking a leisurely stroll.

"Governor, it's time to board the ship and leave the port."

"Got it." Hearing the words of the commander, Huang Fei waved his hand to show that he knew, and he did not forget to turn his head to look at the "Qiyun Mountain" that was still under construction.

Immediately afterwards, with reluctance, he left the dock of Tianjin Shipyard, boarded the main ship of the fleet that went to the Western Ocean for the third time with Xu Xiake, sailed towards the depths of the ocean, and finally gradually disappeared......

"One thousand and four thousand taels of silver a year......

When Xu Xiake and Huang Fei began to go to the West for the third time, Zhu Youzhen had a headache with the shipyard report in his hand.

The cost of a 5,000-ton supply ship is 100,000 taels, the average cost of destroyers is 250,000 taels, and the average cost of frigates is 140,000 taels, totaling 13.9 million taels, which will be paid in nine years, 1,544,500 taels per year.

This is not difficult for Da Ming, but it is not the case for Qi State.

In this order, Qi has one destroyer, three frigates, and six supply ships, totaling 1.27 million taels.

For the fragile finances of the Qi State, which is currently relying on Zhu Youzhen and the Qi State to produce gold and silver, this expenditure of 1.27 million taels is not a small amount.

The good imperial brother has nothing to do, and according to the situation, sooner or later, the Qi country will have to go bankrupt, or reduce the number of machinery transported.

If you don't want to do this, you can only let Qi increase the amount of silver mining, but fortunately, there are many silver reserves in the Americas, and there are more easy to mine.

This time, Xu Xiake went to the West, no matter whether he could reach a deal with the Portuguese rebels in the American colonies, it would not affect the Qi country's local silver mining.

More than 50,000 naval officers and more than 9,000 artillery pieces are not only used to protect themselves, but also to measure the land area of Qi when necessary.

For the sake of American trade, Zhu Youzhen prepared a lot, such as cleaning up some things that the Ming Dynasty could not use.

These include more than a hundred warships with a tonnage of less than two thousand tons, as well as more than 500,000 flintlock muskets in stock, and more than 20,000 backward iron cannons.

Zhu Youzhen is ready to use these things to make a deal with European countries.

That is to cede the American colonies, and if they are unwilling, it is not ruled out that Zhu Youzhen will use other means.

Disruption of trade, disruption of shipping routes...... These are the means that can be used.

It's just that how it is discussed, we still have to see what the attitude of various countries is after seeing the Daming ocean-going fleet.

"The ironclad ship is out, and it's time for the fleet to subdivide it."

Zhu Youzhen muttered, and then took out a blank world map, and he used a pen to write the names of the fleets in each sea area.

Bohai Fleet, Yellow Sea Fleet, East China Sea Fleet, West Daming Sea (Pacific) Fleet, East Daming Sea Fleet, South China Sea Fleet, Small Western (Indian Ocean) Fleet, South Sea Fleet, North Sea (Sea of Japan) Fleet, South Atlantic Fleet, North Atlantic Fleet, Mediterranean Fleet.

The entire twelve fleets, according to the Ming army's three-three progressive system, from cruisers to destroyers, to frigates and supply ships, the Ming Dynasty needed at least 372 warships.

Under normal circumstances, at least 200 combat warships and 400 supply ships are required.

However, the scientific and technological strength of the Ming Dynasty is sufficient, even if it is an ironclad ship, as long as the Europeans are driven back to Europe, the Ming Dynasty will hide the ironclad ship east of Malacca for a long time.

Until the time when it is impossible to hide, Daming will choose a direct showdown and let Europe honestly trade with Daming.

With the size of Europe, the longer it drags on, the bigger the gap between the two sides.

With the current situation and speed, even if the Ming Dynasty does not make a move, the feudal domains in twenty years will be able to become a powerful alliance with a population of more than 300 million and a military force of more than 2 million.

At this scale, Europe can't even defeat the vassals, let alone challenge the authority of the Ming Dynasty.

The "China fever" in this plane will only continue until the Han Chinese become the mainstream population of the world.

But the premise of the premise is that the Ming Dynasty cannot be in civil strife, so a person who can stabilize the situation is particularly important.

"Calculate the time, Ran'er should be in Chungju......"

Zhu Youzhen opened his mouth suddenly, and Wang Chengen also nodded when he heard this.

The minds of the two flew to Zhongzhou, thousands of miles away, in an instant, and at the same time, the Gongwei Battalion of the Southern Army led by Qi Wulong also escorted Zhu Ciran to the outside of Zhongzhou City.

Zhongxian, an ancient city located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, has a history of more than 1,700 years, it is adjacent to Wanzhou in the east, Dianjiang in the west, adjacent to Shizhu in the southeast, Fengdu in the southwest, and Liangping in the north.

As several important cities guarding the upper waterways of the Yangtze River, this place is not as famous as Yiling and Badong, but since Qin Bangping was named the Marquis of Zhongzhou, this place has been blessed by the Western Military Governor's Office and the construction of the Sichuan Political Division.

According to the topography of Chungju, Qin Bangping expanded the main city on the basis of Chungju's original, and at the same time, he also built a military camp on the island across the river in the north and a fort on the other side of the river in the east.

In other words, the Yangtze River is surrounded by the Chungju, the Chungju military camp and the Chungju Fort, and as long as a card is set up here, it is impossible for any materials from Chengdu and Yunnan to be transported to Jiangnan through the Yangtze River waterway.

"It's easy to defend and hard to attack, but it's also easy to fight."

When he came to the border of Zhongzhou, Qi Wulong left the southern army army on the east bank, and he and Liu Shun escorted Zhu Ciran across the river with more than 100 brocade guards.

Standing on the deck, Qi Wulong evaluated Zhongzhou as a military general, and Zhu Ciran, who was on the side of the deck, was curious when he heard this: "You said that it is easy to defend and difficult to attack, so why is it easy to fight?" ”

"Your Highness, please see." Qi Wulong pointed to the east bank fort and the north bank barracks:

"The Yangtze River is wide, and warships of less than 1,000 tons in the national dynasty can sail into the Yangtze River artillery battery, and in the seventh year of the Apocalypse, King Qi stipulated that the use of artillery in inland batteries shall not exceed ten catties, and the artillery of ships is twenty-four catties."

"That is, although the battery is covered by fortifications, this waterway can pass ships with twenty-four pounds of naval guns."

"Once there is a large-scale influx of such ships, it will be able to contain the Liangjiang Battery, and the Liangjiang Battery has limited artillery, and at this time, it only needs a large army to launch an artillery bombardment and charge from any direction, and any battery will be taken."

"After taking the fort, relying on the water transportation of the Yangtze River, any fort can be loaded with artillery with more than 24 catties of shells, and with the distance of three cities, they will cover the range of 24 catties of artillery."

"If you fight like this, you may cause serious damage to the ship, but you can conquer Chungju in a short time."

Qi Wulong said his opinion, and it can be seen that after getting along for more than 20 days, Zhu Ciran has successfully mixed into the ranks of his "friends".

Zhu Ciran has no other skills, but his ability to watch people put down dishes is first-class.

How to get close to a pure military general like Qi Wulong, Zhu Ciran has a hundred ways.

The best way to do that was to use some of the military theories he had seen from his uncle to get bribed.

Ironclad ships, infantry co-ordination, air suppression, saturation strike......

All kinds of knowledge that Zhu Ciran had seen were told by him, although Zhu Ciran couldn't lead his troops to fight, but his words and words were one set of words.

Coupled with his social artifact "four-wheeled vehicle", in just ten days, Qi Wulong's attitude towards him has improved a lot, and after twenty days, the two are already like friends.

Qi Wulong is the first person of the three generations of the Qi family, as long as he eats him correctly, the southern army will basically be taken by Zhu Ciran.

Therefore, in the face of Qi Wulong's answer, Zhu Ciran also pretended not to understand to promote Qi Wulong.

"According to what you said in Nanshan, as long as you master the navy, wouldn't you be able to navigate the Yangtze River waterway?"

"Yes......" Hearing Zhu Ciran's words, Qi Wulong also sighed:

"Although I don't know why His Highness left such a gap, I think that as long as the imperial court controls the navy, the southern army, the eastern army, and the western army will basically be controlled."

"Of course, the most important thing is to go straight." Qi Wulong said, and also took a rifle and said:

"At present, there are only two ordnance bureaus in the dynasty that can produce rifles and bullets, namely the Suncheon Ordnance Bureau and the Yingtian Ordnance Bureau."

"In addition to these two Ordnance Bureaus, the other Kunming Ordnance Bureau, Shenyang Ordnance Bureau, Guangzhou Ordnance Bureau, and Xi'an Ordnance Bureau can only produce gunpowder, artillery, and stone bullets."

"The two ordnance bureaus controlled and stored the ammunition, and in the absence of a fight, the number of bullets in the hands of each sergeant was limited to about thirty, and it could reach a hundred during shooting training, but after one training it returned to thirty."

"Although the strength of each army is basically about 120,000, except for the upper ranks, its daily ammunition is only enough to sustain a medium-sized conflict with a scale of less than 50,000."

"On the contrary, Shangzhi, although it has been abolished, there are still 210,000 troops in Shangzhi, and because they directly control the north and south of Zhili, they are fighting with their backs to the two major ordnance bureaus."

"Therefore, once the war breaks out, the two major ordnance bureaus can completely maintain the number of bullets in the upper army at one hundred for a long time."

"With three times the amount of ammunition in the base, it is easy for the upper straight to sweep through the armies."

Qi Wulong felt a little aggrieved when he said this, but he also understood why King Qi arranged it this way.

Shangzhi was originally an army serving the imperial power, and the other four armies had the possibility of rebellion, but Shangzhi often had very few of them.

Take the incident of Lin Dan Khan's entry into the Kou five years ago, if Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Ciran were not in Yanshan at that time, but on the territory of any of the five armies, the southeast, northwest and the navy, then Lin Dan Khan's matter would not have been discovered at all.

It is very likely that when Lin Dan Khan has reached Dading Palace, Zhu Youxiao has not received the news of Lin Dan Khan's entry into the palace.

But this kind of thing, Qi Wulong couldn't tell Zhu Ciran, because he had to think about the Qi family.

Once Zhu Ciran knew about this kind of thing, with his status as the prince, he could completely ask Zhu Youzhen to disrupt the forces of the Qin and Qi families, which would undoubtedly weaken the influence of the Qi family.

He is a pure general, but no matter how pure he is, it is impossible to expose his shortcomings to others.

"So as long as you have a good grasp of the upright, even if the navy is in chaos, it can be easily cleaned up?"

Zhu Ciran didn't know much about marching and fighting, but he still learned a lot about the strategy of the general direction, because Zhu Youzhen asked him so.

As a future emperor, he may not know how to fight, but he must know the logistics and the strategic objectives of the dynasty.

He doesn't have to worry about how to complete the tactics, he must know the logistics, so that he won't interfere like many emperors in the Ming Dynasty, and the strategic goal is similar to a progress bar.

The emperor knew what his strategic goals were, so he only needed to pay attention to the progress of the war and analyze the situation in a progressive way.

As long as he knew that the progress was growing, the emperor would not rush to war.

For example, Hong Chengchou's Battle of Songjin, obviously the progress has been rising, but Chongzhen can't wait, thinking about speeding up, then the acceleration can only wipe out the whole army by himself.

Zhu Youzhen doesn't expect Zhu Ciran to become a famous general, as long as he doesn't do a little manipulation, then with the quality of the Ming army, there is no pressure to fight the world with his hands in his pockets and legs.

"Li Dingguo should be the direct general left to me by my uncle......"

After knowing the importance of Shangzhi and the Liangjing Ordnance Bureau, the first person Zhu Ciran thought of was Li Dingguo.

In the conversation with Qi Wulong in the past 20 days, Zhu Ciran can clearly feel that there is a big gap between Qi Wulong and Li Dingguo.

Although Qi Wulong is eight years older than Li Dingguo, he does not analyze many of his uncle's tactical arrangements very thoroughly.

On the contrary, with the same tactical arrangement, Li Dingguo can often explain most of the arrangements very clearly after a moment of silence.

The only thing that makes Li Dingguo a little unclear is Zhu Youzhen's strategic arrangement.

Zhu Youzhen also commented that Li Dingguo was "good at tactics and short at strategy."

This is a problem in his history, but after Zhu Youzhen's deliberate cultivation and constant intelligence feeding, Li Dingguo's strategy is far stronger than many generals of the Ming Dynasty, even if it is shorter than tactics.

He is only sixteen years old, and there is still a lot of room for improvement, plus Zhu Youzhen told him to be close to Li Dingguo from Zhu Ciran when he was a child, Zhu Ciran should know even if he is a fool that Li Dingguo is the hole card left by his uncle for his father to turn the tables in the army.

Thinking of this, Zhu Ciran immediately remembered that he hadn't seen Li Dingguo for more than a year, and he couldn't help but feel a little itchy in his heart.

"The people of the Qin family are here!"

When his heart was itching, Liu Shun's words pulled him back to reality.

I saw that hundreds of armored Western soldiers had gathered on the dock in the distance, and the leaders were a man and a woman who were over fifty years old, as well as several general soldiers in their thirties.

Needless to say, the identities of these people should be Qin Minping, Qin Liangyu, Ma Xianglin, Qin Gongming and others who rushed back to Zhongzhou.

"Huh ......" exhaled a deep breath, Zhu Ciran tried to relax himself, and went through the process of how to deal with everyone in his mind.

Under his relaxation, with a low "bang", the ship docked......