On March 26, 1728, as spring returned to the earth and everything was recovering, seven large ships slowly moved in the harbor where the ice had gradually melted, and left the dock one after another.

On the shore, countless relatives waved their arms, with a sad look on their faces, and said goodbye to the people on the boat.

Once this is gone, it may be difficult to see each other again.

Some officials and gentry paused reservedly on the pier under the umbrella cover, smiling and watching the ship slowly move away.

On the other side, the general of the Great Qin Navy Division still looked at the ironclad ship that had been dragged behind with a shocked expression, under the sunlight, the thick cannon barrels were glowing with a cold light, and there was a palpitation in his heart for no reason.

If this is a hit, won't everyone of us and the others be turned into a pile of powder, and there will be no bones left?

The reason for this thought, Gain, the Qin-Ming War broke out.

And the pseudo-Ming has always been the little follower of the Qi country.

With the Korean War, the entire Shandong coast instantly turned into a war zone.

Because, according to the report of the clippers patrolling the sea, the warships of the puppet Ming also began to roam in the nearby seas, faintly threatening the entire northern coastal area.

It is true that the fleet of the Great Qi royal family, whether it is my Great Qin or the Pseudo-Ming, does not dare to move lightly, even without the escort of this ironclad ship, it can sail safely in the waters around Great Qin.

However, the people of Qi took such great pains to transfer such an extremely powerful ironclad ship to escort them, most likely to deter them, Qin and Ming.

It's just that you guys are going to fight, don't endanger the merchant ships that our Qi country transports to and from here!

Qi is strong at sea, the ships are strong and the guns are sharp, and the people of Daqin know it. But now witnessing the appearance of an ironclad warship not only caused a huge shock to the generals of the Qin State Navy in Penglai Port, but in fact, it was a subversive feeling for almost everyone in this world.

God, how can this steel warship float on the sea?

With its tall hull, solid armor, mighty barrels, and speed not inferior to that of a wooden sailing ship, this is simply a dragon of the sea that can run amok all over the world, and it is the existence of the world's top predator among surface warships.

I think that my Great Qin Naval Division has been developing for more than ten years, and has built more than 100 large and small ships, but the largest scale is only more than 800 tons, which can be described as a huge ship.

However, if it were listed on the side of this ironclad ship, it would be like a child.

It is conceivable that as long as this ironclad battleship does not get caught in a close-range dogfight, it can basically ensure that it can sink the enemy on the opposite side without damage.

With the rise of Qi's maritime power, both the generals of the army and the navy in the Qin State, as well as the officials and gentry who did not know military affairs, knew that today's naval warfare was no longer the same as in the old days.

In the past, when there was a naval battle, it was nothing more than two ships meeting each other, and then guns, bows and arrows flew together, and soldiers brandished war knives, crossed the side, and slashed each other. With the development and progress of guns, naval warfare once again evolved into a slight distance, firing guns and cannons at each other, throwing fire oil at each other, and then waiting for an opportunity to engage in combat.

Decades ago, when the ships of the Qi State crisscrossed the sea and dominated the South Seas, the larger warships and more powerful artillery became the evidence to measure the strength of the sea.

In the face of this battleship covered in iron armor, looking at its appearance, it looks indestructible. All the traditional tactics of the past are simply unusable.

In addition, it is too tall and too big, and even if the two ships are connected, it becomes extremely difficult to jump into the gang.

It's out of reach!

It also appears to be equipped with a sharp, tapered ramming device in the bow, which it should be able to use to slam the opposing ship if nothing else.

Of course, the most shocking thing for everyone was the more than ten cannons, which were too long, too thick, and too big, and they would definitely shake the mountains when shot.

It can be said that such an ironclad battleship of the Qi State directly compares all the ships of our Great Qin.

Think about my Great Qin Dynasty, I have been sneaking around for more than ten years, constantly copying all kinds of sail warships, and only then have I accumulated a little bit of poor sailor ships.

Even so, in the face of the provocation and coercion of the puppet Ming warships from time to time, he also hid in Tibet all day long, either in the Jiaozhou (now Qingdao) water village, or in the Yangtze River, and only occasionally cruised in the southeast sea. However, when it approached the waters of North Korea, it hurriedly turned around and returned, cautiously, lest it be annihilated by the puppet Ming navy.

What a grievance, what a helplessness!

After spending so much money, it turned out that it was not able to control the sea supremacy in the northern seas and even in the Korean seas!

If there is a border provocation with the Qi State, no one needs to mobilize a large number of fleets to attack, just send such an ironclad battleship over, I am afraid that they will be able to sink all the ships of our Great Qin Naval Division.

Alas, with the passage of time, the sea superiority of the Qi State is getting bigger and bigger, and I'm afraid that it will be difficult to surpass it even if I have exhausted all my efforts.

Regardless of the fears of the officials and generals of Penglai County about the ironclad ships of the Qi Kingdom, the fleet carrying the envoys of the Daqi royal family visiting Qin left the port and quickly sailed towards the southeast along the coastline.

After passing through the mountain corner, it immediately turned around, south-east, spitting billowing smoke, galloping through the sea.

The fleet traveled for less than half a day before encountering sporadic Northern Ming warships.

Obviously, from the beginning of the Korean war, the Northern Ming navy made a big attack and gathered in the northern seas, one to provide flank cover for the Ming army entering Korea, and the other to cut off the possible sea supply of the Qin State, forcing the Qin army to travel thousands of miles from the land direction to transport troops and supplies to Korea.

These Beiming warships patrolling the northern seas maintained due respect when they encountered the Qi fleet, not only frequently waving greetings and salute flags, but also accompanying them all the way, accompanying them for more than ten miles to protect them, which can be said to have given the Qi people enough face.

In addition to an ironclad ship accompanying the escort, this Qi fleet also has two steam-sail escort gunboats, which are also considered very strong armed forces in this sea area, providing sufficient psychological security for the accompanying several transport merchant ships.

After the fleet arrived in Shanghai County, it stopped for two days and replenished some fresh water food.

By the time it set sail again, the fleet had grown to more than a dozen ships, including a number of passenger (immigrant) merchant ships, in addition to merchant ships carrying large quantities of cargo.

The fleet traveled for a few more days and arrived at Canton, where some accompanying ships remained, but more merchant ships joined the fleet.

Three days later, leaving the Pearl River estuary, the fleet further expanded, gathering nearly 20 large and small merchant ships, heading in the direction of Annam.

On 24 April, the fleet arrived at Nam Binh (present-day Cam Ranh, Vietnam), the headquarters of the Governorate of Annam, in just five days.

As far as Fan Agui, who took the boat for the first time, from the time Penglai boarded the ship to the present arrival at the border of Annan, the whole person was always in a dizzy state, and after getting off the boat, he couldn't tell the direction of the southeast, northwest, and northwest at all.

The excitement and excitement that had just been on board the ship immediately became sluggish as soon as the ship sailed into the depths of the sea.

Yes, he was seasick.

He and a few Fan clan brothers who were preparing to go to Qi Country together were holding a spittoon and vomiting so dimly that they almost wanted to vomit out all the bitter gall in their stomachs.

The big ship rocked and shook at sea, and they vomited and vomited in the cabin, dizziness, nausea, and even various symptoms such as heart palpitations, anxiety, and fatigue.

Three or five days later, maybe he got used to the situation at sea a little, or maybe he had too little food in his stomach, Fan Agui finally stopped vomiting again and again, but the whole person was still dizzy, and his brain was almost not sober.

After more than 20 days at sea, what he was most looking forward to was to dock and anchor. Although his legs were so soft that he could barely stand and walk, he felt that even lying on the ground of the dock and feeling the solidity and stability of the earth was ten thousand times more comfortable than lying in the dreary and dirty cabin.

The ship they were on was a large ocean-going passenger ship with a displacement of 2,400 tons, fully steam engine driven, with a speed of 14-16 knots, more public activities on board than a cargo ship, and good first and second class cabins.

But unfortunately, Fan Xingbao only bought them the cheapest third-class ticket, and had to live in a cramped bilge.

In fact, compared with the mixed passenger and cargo migrant ships of a few decades ago, the special passenger ships they take now are in much better conditions in terms of riding environment and food supply.

Back then, when the Qi government launched a large-scale immigration campaign, a single trip from the mainland to the mainland of Hanzhou was carried out, and the passenger mortality rate was as high as 15%-20%. In the cabin, a bunch of people huddled together, no beds, let alone seats, all lying on the floor, vomit, feces, sewage on the floor, sour, sweaty, musty, flooded the cabin.

Sailors would dump one or two corpses into the sea almost every day as the ships sailed, and the ports and supply points of the seas from Annam, to the islands of the South Seas, and then to the mainland of Hanzhou, were filled with seriously ill migrants along the way.

Although, later, the Qi State successively built a number of special immigration ships, but the conditions were not much better, it was nothing more than that the cabin was not stuffed with all kinds of groceries. But in order to accommodate more immigrants, the space on several decks was compressed to just over a meter high, and rows of bunks would be crammed into dozens of people in each compartment, making it extremely difficult to turn over.

Like today's ocean-going passenger ships, even the worst third-class cabins have at least a separate bed for passengers - although this bed is still very narrow, and it is still three floors, so that people will not roll over and roll onto others.

Qi passenger ships have strict safety requirements in terms of anti-sinking, fire prevention, and life-saving, and generally adopt the construction mode of multiple watertight cabins, and are also equipped with several lifeboats. At the same time, it has also made certain improvements to the comfort of shaking, shock absorption, sound insulation, etc., so that passengers can feel a little comfortable during long-distance voyages.

The vast majority of this kind of passenger ships sail on a regular route, so the people of Qi generally call this kind of passenger ship a liner.

In order to avoid being affected by the monsoon and ocean currents, the passenger ships put into operation by several transportation companies in Qi are basically all steamships or sailboats, so that their timeliness has a certain guarantee.

If you don't make many stops along the way, just replenish fresh water, food and coal, a steam passenger ship can reach Jianye in just over 30 days from Guangzhou, twice as fast as a traditional sailboat.

However, in order to maximize the benefits of passenger shipping, such scheduled liners generally call at the more important ports along the way.

As the garrison of the Governorate of Annam, the anchorage of the Annam Fleet of the Qi Navy, and the largest trading port in the region, Nanping naturally attracted many merchant ships from the south to the north to anchor here.

Nanping Hotel, Nanping Hotel, Timber Trading Market, Annam Grain Trading Center, Imperial Bank Annam Branch, Annam United Bank Headquarters, Hanzhou Insurance Company Building, Navy Annam Fleet Headquarters, Annam Financial Bond Trading Center, Nanping Hospital, Navigation Lighthouse, Mazu Statue, Babel Tower and other large buildings all made Fan Agui, who first came to Nanping, dizzy, almost dazzled.

The windows of the buildings reflected the dazzling sunlight, the horse-drawn carriages on the streets rumbled past one after another, the soldiers of the Qi State in straight military uniforms walked proudly, the big-bellied merchants looked arrogantly in all directions, the busy citizens dressed coolly, hurriedly ran through the market, and the cowering Annan natives looked around blankly.

Oh, and those beautiful women, wearing simple horse-faced skirts, wearing a fresh light-colored shirt, and bulging chests, Fan Agui couldn't help swallowing a few mouthfuls of saliva when she saw it.

This is the country of Qi?!

"This is the territory of the Governor of Annan of Great Qi, and there are still 108,000 miles away from the Han Continent itself!" Fan Xingbao looked at the carriage in front of him, the carriage was luxuriously decorated, supported by cavalry in front and behind, and accompanied by two teams of heavily armed gendarmes, and the royal nobles who were traveling with them were welcomed into the city to rest by local military and political officials.

"108,000 miles apart?" Fan Agui was surprised, "Why is it so far away, and it is also the territory of your Qi country?" ”

"I dominate the two oceans, and the territory I occupy is naturally vast." Fan Xingbao said proudly: "On the other side of this world, I still occupy many territories in Daqi. I'm afraid you don't know, my Daqi territory, from east to west, spanning tens of thousands of miles, every place can see the sun hanging high at different times, never setting! ”

"It is nonsense to say that the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening, which is a natural phenomenon of the heavenly cycle. How can we hang the sun high and never set? Is this day still your Qi country's failure? ”

Fan Agui scoffed at Fan Xingbao's words, although we are poor, we are not fools, even if you Qi Country is rich, you can't let the sun hang in the sky all the time!

Why?

Money can make ghosts grind, is it true that your Qi country is rich enough to make the sun never set?

"......" Fan Xingbao was stunned for a moment, and then defended with a white face: "What do you know?" All of us live on a big ball, and when the sun rises, it can only illuminate part of it, and the rest is the night. And the territory occupied by our Qi country is covered with the entire earth, and this sun can illuminate the territory of our Qi country when it goes around. ”

"Fourth brother, you are all here...... Nonsense. Fan Agui grinned, "Do you think, if we live on top of a big ball, won't the people who live below fall down with a gurgle?" ”

"......" Fan Xingbao almost spurted out a mouthful of old blood when he heard this, "Agui, the earth we live on is very big, and all of us do live on it." Moreover, the earth is still rotating, and it has to revolve around the sun...... you have to explain it to you! One by one, I don't understand anything! ”

“……”

Seeing Fan Xingbao's angry appearance, Fan Agui and several brothers of the same clan looked at each other, wondering if they had brushed his face and made him unable to hang his face.

Heck, that's a big deal.

When they arrived in Qi State, they were unfamiliar with the place, and they still relied on others for everything, so they couldn't be offended.

"Fourth brother, are we still convinced of you? You say we all live on a ball, then we live on a ball. Even if you say that when we arrived in the Qi Kingdom, we lived in the Jade Emperor's Lingxiao Treasure Palace, then it would be fine. ”

"Fuck off!" Fan Xingbao was amused, picked up his hand and brushed it on Fan Agui's head, "It makes me seem to be telling you the story of "Journey to the West"!" ”

"The story of "Journey to the West", we have heard a few paragraphs in the teahouse in the town. Why, is there one in Qi country? ”

"Of course." Fan Xingbao said disdainfully: "What you have in the Qin State, we also have in the Qi State. What you don't have in Qin, we all have it! ”

"Oh......" The accompanying Fan family children nodded busily.

That is, the country of Qi is rich and known to the world.

This is rich, but isn't it all the stuff that has been purchased?

"Come on, find a place to eat. These days, the food on the ship is really hard to swallow. Taking advantage of the two days when the ship was stationed, it was a good life to make a tooth sacrifice. ”

“……”

“…… Together, together. ”

Seeing several brothers of the same clan looking at him with blank eyes, Fan Xingbao waved his hand arrogantly.

"It's not your expense. …… Brother, I invite you! ”

(End of chapter)