Zhu Yichi, the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty, boarded the Zhenwu ironclad ship, the flagship of the Nanyang Fleet, amid the sound of military trumpets.

came to greet you.

It's the captain of the Zhenwu.

Zhu Yimi, the third son of Emperor Guangfu of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yimian was crowned King of Jin.

This royal title is obviously very noble.

Second only to Zhu Yixin's King of Qin.

And.

Because Zhu Yimian is from Luo Fangmei.

but a son-in-law.

According to the ceremony, he is the second in line to the throne of the Ming Dynasty.

If his eldest brother Zhu Yichi has something to say, three long and two short.

Then the throne will fall on the head of the third son of the emperor.

Zhu Yimian first gave Zhu Yichi a military salute.

Then after putting down his hand, he grinned.

"Big brother!"

Zhu Yichi patted Zhu Yimian on the shoulder.

The age difference between the two is only one year.

They are brothers who grew up together, and Emperor Zhu is not a traditional royal relationship here, the two went to school in the Royal Academy when they were young, and they have a good relationship.

"It's dark, it's thin!"

Zhu Yichi sighed and said.

"Originally, the old man wanted you to go to California to sit down, but you had to get on the ship."

Zhu Yichi shook his head and said.

According to Zhu Daohua's thoughts, his two sons.

The second Zhu Yixin is in Jinzhou, and the third Zhu Yimi is in California.

The north and south roads went west together.

However, Zhu Yimian is a naval fan.

You have to choose the Navy Military Academy.

Soon after graduating, he became the captain of a new ironclad ship - after all, he was a prince, and the Ming Empire was not a commonwealth or republic where everyone was equal.

As a prince, of course, the starting point is so much higher than that of ordinary naval officers.

Now he has become the latest iron-framed warship, the captain of the Zhenwu, the flagship of the Nanyang Fleet.

It can be called a prosperous official fortune, which belongs to yes.

"I myself like to be in the Navy. Then again. If I go to North America, I won't be bullied to death by my second child. ”

Zhu Yimian didn't care, waved his hand and said.

"If you don't go, the second child will occupy the best territory in North America in the future."

Zhu Yichi shook his head and said.

"If you occupy it, you will occupy it, and I can't compete with him anyway. My eldest brother became the emperor in the future, can I still suffer? ”

Zhu Yimi said with a wink.

"You kid"

Zhu Yichi shook his head, and the two walked onto the battleship while chatting.

Greeted on the deck of the battleship were a number of high-ranking members of the South Sea Fleet.

Including Zhang Bao, the governor of the fleet, Chen Huacheng, chief of staff of the fleet, and others.

They saluted the prince one after another.

March 20, 1810.

Shanghai Jiangbei Military Port.

The sky was just dawning.

The roar of the steam engine began to rumble in the military port.

The searchlight is on.

Illuminate the dimly lit military port - it's an electric light!

Electricity has been conquered by the Ming Royal Academy of Sciences.

The Ming Royal Academy of Sciences received a contribution from a mysterious person.

Hans Oster, an academician of the Royal Ming Academy of Sciences from Denmark, discovered the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction on this basis.

In recognition of the contributions of these "mystery scientists".

The Daming Royal Family Foundation funded the establishment of the "Daming Royal Science and Civilization Award"

It is specially used to reward those who have made outstanding contributions to the progress of human science and civilization.

At the same time as the fleet lights came on.

Black smoke began to rise from the chimneys of every battleship.

The boiler of the steam engine was ignited.

The warship began to warm up.

Steam engines, which rely on steam, need to wait for the water in the boiler to boil before the ship can start.

In general.

This warm-up process takes about three hours – it can be raised to an hour in case of an emergency.

Meanwhile.

Inside the barracks of the barracks.

The lights were also turned on.

The trumpets came and went.

Sailors in blue sailors' suits, as well as Marines in red uniforms, lined up and began to board the ship.

For this time press to fight.

The Ming Navy called up a "Eighty-Eight Fleet" and a brigade of marines.

In addition to ironclad ships, the Navy recruited more than two hundred steam-sail hybrid ships to transport materials and personnel just to transport these troops.

At this time.

In Jiangbei Military Port, it is already a race of thousands of boats!

Now the Ming is mainly two fleets.

One is the Oriental Fleet.

Responsible for operations in the Pacific region.

The second is the Nanyang Fleet.

Responsible for operations in the Indian Ocean region.

But.

Although the Admiralty of the Ming Dynasty had two fleet headquarters at the level of army groups.

But there were no fixed ships under these two fleets.

but according to the needs of the combat mission,

Deploy at any time.

It can be increased or decreased at any time according to the needs of the operation.

And now the navy of the Ming Dynasty is in addition to two fleet headquarters.

The main force of the following sub-fleet operations was mainly a fleet composed of eight Zhen-class armored battleships and eight Hong-class armored cruisers, which was jokingly called the "88th Fleet".

Town-class armored battleship.

The displacement is 6,000 metric tons, and the thickness of the armor on the waterline of the ship is 40-80 inches (one inch = 0.3 cm). Two rotating main turrets, the caliber of the main gun reaches 100 inches, which is converted into a modern metric unit of 300 millimeters!

Such a main gun was the crystallization of the highest technology of the industrialization of the Ming Empire.

Since it is the latest ironclad ship, it naturally adopts many new technologies that are different. First of all, the turret of the ironclad ship adopts a rotatable fully enclosed armored turret arranged on the central axis.

This new technology has led to the fact that the caliber of the guns of this new type of capital ship of the Ming Dynasty is smaller than that of the British and French capital ships of the same class.

Two turrets, with a total of only six main guns.

Besides.

Also armed with a large number of rapid-fire guns.

The armored cruisers of the Hong class were much thinner than the battleships.

The displacement reached four thousand metric tons.

There was also no main gun with a large caliber.

The main thing was a large number of rapid-fire guns of thirty-inch caliber.

It was also much faster than a battleship.

There were four such main fleets.

They are stationed in Guangzhou Port, Shanghai Port, Dalian Port and Vladivostok Port.

As for fleets such as the Strait Detachment Fleet, the Coastline Defense Fleet, and the Pacific Route Escort Fleet.

The capital ship is a Wei-class frigate.

The displacement is 1,500 metric tons.

It's fast.

Mainly equipped with rapid-fire guns.

This time the South Seas Operation.

The Daming Navy will dispatch a main force, the "88th Fleet", plus 16 Wei-class frigates of the Strait Subfleet.

Form a massive ironclad fleet and head straight to the Maldives, the main stronghold of the British Navy in the Indian Ocean.

In this era of expensive ironclads.

Even with the national strength of the Ming Empire.

It was quite difficult to get together four "88 fleets".

If you continue to build capital ships, whether it is the town class or the Hong class, you need to add a budget and even issue government bonds.

And.

These ironclads are a product of peacetime - there has been no war on the naval side for ten years.

Can these new ironclad ships fight?

It also needs to be put to the test of battle.

Now, their first test may be coming!

(End of chapter)