Above the Pacific Ocean, dozens of black smoke were like pillars, reaching up to the sky.

On the blue sea, dozens of giant ships with iron armor beside them parted and rolled in waves, moving their steel bodies. These ships of the Ming Navy, with their guns and strong ships, lined up in two columns, hung the sun and moon flags that were hunting and moving. Between the two columns, there were still twenty or thirty huge cargo ships and passenger ships, which at a glance knew that they were temporarily recruited, and the Daming naval flag with the red sun and moon on a blue background was also hung on the passenger and cargo ships. Some Ming infantrymen wearing grass-green military uniforms and large military caps were holding their arms on the bow side of these civilian ships, pointing at the majestic ships escorting them, and their young faces were full of pride.

The Daming Navy ships escorting these civilian ships are all new ships that have just been launched - the legendary "Daming Dumpling Ship"!

Although Daming's industrial strength has been ranked first in the world for many years, this does not mean that Daming is the first in all industrial categories, and the shipbuilding industry of Daming is the second in 10,000 years, and the United Kingdom is the first for a long time! It was not until the past two years that the shipyard construction projects promoted by Daming's "Thousand Ships Plan" were completed and put into operation one after another, and Daming's shipbuilding capacity surpassed that of the United Kingdom and became the world's first.

The world's No. 1 shipbuilding capacity, of course, has the world's No. 1 "dumplings"!

However, this "dumpling" can't be placed casually, and there can't be too many "backward dumplings", otherwise it won't be eliminated in a few clicks, and it won't be able to be drawn. Therefore, in the early days of the war, the shipbuilding industry of the Ming Empire did not invest frantically in the heroic level, but built quite a lot of civilian ships - behind the shipbuilding industry of the Ming Dynasty is not as good as that of the British, it is that the shipping industry of the Ming Dynasty is not as good as the United Kingdom. Therefore, the total tonnage of civilian ships retained by the Ming Dynasty is also less than that of the United Kingdom.

And the role of civilian ships in a world war that requires the projection of troops over long distances is quite huge!

Therefore, in the first two years of the war, shipyards around Daming built a large number of "Nandao Ships", "Nanyang Ships", and "South Oil Tankers". Among them, the "Nandao Ship" is a passenger ship, which is the prototype of the six aircraft-carrying frigates.

The "Nanyang ship" is a bulk carrier, with a standard displacement of 15,000 tons and a full load of 25,000 tons, and is also divided into two types: fast Nanyang ship and slow Nanyang ship, the former can reach a maximum speed of 23 knots, which can keep up with the activities of the main fleet. The maximum speed of the latter is only 15 knots, and it can only transport goods on a daily basis, but it is also indispensable!

The "southern tanker" is, of course, a ship carrying oil. It is also divided into two kinds of fast and slow, and the standard row and the tonnage of the full load are also similar to the "Nanyang Ship". Among them, the slow-moving southern tankers are carrying crude oil from Borneo, Sakhalin and Sumatra. The fast south tanker transports refined oil, including heavy oil, gasoline, diesel, aviation kerosene and so on. These fast tankers also have a speed of up to 23 knots, which can fully keep up with the fleet and are the "wet nurses" of the large fleet.

In addition to these three kinds of ships used to transport troops, cargo, and oil, Daming's shipbuilding industry has also provided the Ming Navy with a large number of special ships with engineering, maintenance, medical, surveying, and communications in the past two years.

Although these ships are not combat ships, their significance to this war cannot be overemphasized.

And at the beginning of 1832, the batch of "dumpling ships" that had been opened and designed by tender before the outbreak of the war finally began to be "out of the pot" in large quantities!

Although the Ming Dynasty had built a lot of hero-level, Zhongwang-level (including Shuzhongwang-class), and emperor-level before this, those battleships that were only used for emergency purposes were not really used to compete with the British Empire for world hegemony, although the performance of these "emergency ships" was also quite outstanding.

The real first-class dumpling ship of the Ming Dynasty is a standard row of 25,000 tons, a full row of 31,500 tons, and a maximum speed of 27 knots.

And that's not all!

There is also a derivative ship in the First Emperor-class, which is the Guangdong-class aircraft carrier developed on the basis of the hull of the First Emperor-class - this is a real fleet aircraft carrier with a straight through deck and an inclined deck!

The order given by the Admiralty of the Ming Dynasty is 8 ships!

That is, based on the battleships and air carriers of the First Emperor-class hull, the Ming Navy ordered a total of 20 units!

At the same time that the shipbuilding engineers of the Ming Dynasty designed the "First Emperor" class, the development of the "Great Zhou" class battleship based on the 75,000 horsepower main engine system used by the First Emperor class, with a standard displacement of up to 30,000 tons, a full load displacement of 37,000 tons, equipped with 8 twin 360 mm main guns, and a speed of up to 25 knots, was also started at the same time, and soon after the completion of the design of the "First Emperor" class, all the design work was also completed.

The "Great Zhou" class battleships' first ship "Da Zhou", the second ship "Daqin", and the third ship "Dahan" also completed sea trials in June 1832, and joined the Pacific Fleet, the Nanyang Fleet and the Western Fleet of the Ming Navy respectively, and became the flagship of these three fleets!

The admirals of the Great Fleet of the Ming Navy in this era are really too happy on the "flagship selection problem", they have only "played" the First Emperor class and the Guangdong class not long ago, and now they have changed to the "Great Zhou" class. The standard displacement of 35,000 tons, the full load displacement of 42,500 tons, equipped with 8 twin 380 mm guns of the heavy battleship "Daming" class, has now completed the design, the first ship "Daming", the second ship "Datang", the third ship "Dasui" start date has been scheduled, at most 24 months, the admiral of the three major fleets of the Ming Navy will have to change the flagship again. This is almost catching up with the speed of the rich N generation to change cars!

Now, the Ming naval formation, which escorted an entire division of the Ming Army's Southern Continental Expeditionary Corps to Pearl Harbor, was composed of the battleship Daqin, the aircraft carrier Guangxi, and the "Kong Ming" with a standard row of 13,000 tons and a full row of 16,000 tons, as well as dozens of other large and small ships.

And all of these ships, without exception, are brand new, and none of them are more than a year old. That is, the dumpling ship that has just been commissioned.

Zhuge Weidao's general's flag is the commander's flag, and now it is hanging on the mast of the "Great Zhou", hunting and flying. He went back to Daming not long ago, first, to attend the meeting of the chiefs of general staff, which is now in a state of war with eight countries, including Britain, India, and the United States.

Of course, Daming has to hold a meeting here to discuss what to do next?

And the conclusion of the meeting, of course, was to carry out as soon as possible the battle plan for the capture of the southern continent, that is, Australia.

As long as this continent is seized, the Ming court will be able to give an explanation to the people in the country. And the people saw such a big victory, and they were willing to continue to support the imperial court in the war. With the industrial strength of the Ming Dynasty, as long as there is the support of the people, the Ming Dynasty can afford to fight the next large-scale war.

And his second mission is to meet his new flagship, the battleship "Da Zhou", and the aircraft carrier Guangxi, which is destined to be lost to the Pacific Fleet, and some other new warships.

So at this time, Zhuge Weidaozheng, together with Mu Zhongjun, the admiral of the Southern Continent Army of the Ming Dynasty, and Zheng Guoxian, the deputy admiral, stood side by side on the starboard deck of the battleship "Great Zhou", looking at the rough ocean in front of him, and laughing loudly about the strategy of sending troops to the southern continent......

In the eyes of the three of them, the time is fully ripe to conquer the Southern Continent!

(End of chapter)