Brother Zhu Youxiao

"It can be said that how many times have you been in spring and autumn..."

In Tianjin Port at the beginning of winter, a familiar voice sounded above the port.

The person standing at the port sighing is Xu Xiake who returned to Beizhili by train from Sichuan.

As if to celebrate a feat that is about to begin, Tianjin in the winter month rarely ushered in a ray of sunshine through the thick clouds.

This ray of sunlight illuminates the North Zhili Tianjin Port Wharf. Under the blue-gray sky, a large area as huge as a hill is looming in the harbor, filling the entire port and wharf continuously.

This behemoth is an ocean-going fleet consisting of more than 400 sea-going ships.

The huge masts on the ships stood densely in the harbor like the towering trees in the primeval forest, and the countless sharp masttops pointed directly at the slightly blue sky.

The twelve largest ships in this huge fleet have a displacement of 24 tons. The ships are [-] feet long, [-] feet wide, and loaded with [-] cannons. The largest wooden sailing ship in the world.

Excluding the twelve first-class warships, there are 36 second-class warships with a displacement of more than 320 tons, more than [-] third-class warships with a displacement of more than [-] tons, and more than [-] tons. [-] four ships, with a displacement of more than [-] tons, are Huangdian cargo ships used as fleet supply ships.

A total of more than [-] artillery pieces were loaded on these ships, and about [-] elite naval officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were on board.

In their cabins, in addition to the supplies necessary for navigation, they are also full of various materials produced in 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 in the 16th year of the Apocalypse, on this day, the largest ocean-going fleet in the world, mastering the best navigation technology, and possessing the most advanced shipbuilding technology... the ocean-going fleet of the Ming Dynasty successfully converged.

This time, Xu Xiake is still leading the team on the voyage, and he will be in charge of all diplomatic, trade, and publicity matters of Ming Dynasty along the way.

As the general in command of the fleet temporarily, Huang Fei, the governor of the navy's governor's mansion, undoubtedly became the best candidate.

This is the third voyage of Ming Dynasty to the West, and its scale is larger than the sum of the previous two, and their goal and route are to complete a global voyage.

The route includes but is not limited to sailing south from Daming Tianjin, passing through Ganbozhi, Siam, Sulu, and Boni, and then passing through the old port, arriving at the Little Western Ocean, and deterring Persia, Ottoman and other countries along the coast of the Little Western Ocean.

At the same time, this time they will also start Ming Dynasty's first official visit to European countries. The ship will patrol the Mediterranean Sea and go north along the English Channel to visit the Nordic countries, discuss trade in European coastal countries, and build imperial stores there. .

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

After everything is settled, the fleet will go to the east coast of North America, where some troops will be stationed depending on the situation. At the same time, it will go south and circle around South Asia before arriving at Qi State. Qi State will be responsible for all the supplies needed for the fleet to return to Daming.

At the same time, Xu Xiake will also leave the fourth battalion of soldiers and horses belonging to Qi State to station in Qi State.

This 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.

Da Ming will use this fleet as his eyes looking into the depths of the ocean, and see the vast new world beyond the continent on the other side of the ocean.

This fleet is a truly invincible fleet, with a total tonnage of 92 tons. Although nearly 65 tons of them are cargo ships equipped with less than five artillery pieces, the tonnage of combat warships still exceeds that at this time. The combined naval power of all European countries.

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

Building such a fleet naturally cost a lot of money, and its appearance almost wiped out the entire family of the Ming Navy.

But Huang Fei, as the captain of the navy, was very excited about this.

"This is the Ironclad Ship..."

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

The destroyer Qiyunshan has a displacement of 23 tons. This is an iron-clad ship powered by pure steam. The entire warship is 62 feet long and the hull is very wide. [-] miles per hour.

As the first metal steam ironclad ship in the Ming Dynasty, the ship's armor is about three inches (96 mm) thick, and the inner lining is twelve inches (384 mm) thick. The entire ship has a crew of [-] people.

In terms of equipment, the ship is equipped with thirty fifty-jin cannons (sixty pounds), fourteen on each side of the ship, and one on the bow and aft decks.

This kind of artillery, which weighs only [-] kilograms, has a range of five miles.

In terms of the protection of European wooden sailboats, as long as a hit is made, the ship can only wait for death.

Needless to say, the power of the weapon is such that such an armor thickness can withstand the shelling of 68-pound or even [-]-pound naval guns in this era, and it can also resist explosive gunpowder very well.

In addition, a three-inch-thick armor plate was also arranged around the conning tower for protection. In terms of protection alone, such a warship can completely challenge a country's navy with sufficient ammunition.

Of course, the practicality is directly proportional to the price. The cost of such an armored destroyer has reached 22 taels, and this is still the case when Daming independently built it.

In terms of the purchasing power of silver in this era, this warship is enough to hurt many countries, as powerful as Spain, and its current annual income is only 2000 million taels.

But for Daming, orders for a destroyer worth 22 taels came like snowflakes.

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

Looking up at the Qiyunshan, Huang Fei restrained his excitement and asked the officials next to him, pretending to be calm.

This official was about thirty years old, and he was the head of the Naval Manufacturing Bureau of the Armament Academy.

Faced with Huang Fei's question, Director Xu shook his head: "This is just a destroyer, with cruisers on top, frigates and supply ships below."

"Based on the technology of the Manufacturing Bureau, there is no problem with destroyers and supply ships below [-] tons, and frigates below [-] tons, but there is no technical support for cruisers above [-] tons."

"There are so many twists and turns, is there any difference?" Huang Fei asked with restrained excitement, and Master Xu also explained for him after hearing this.

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

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

"According to the speed of the Tianjin Shipyard, it will take about nine years for all the [-] ironclad ships to be launched."

"Nine years?" Hearing this time, Huang Fei was at a loss for words.

For him who is used to launching hundreds of wooden sailboats in a year, it is obviously uncomfortable to spend nine years waiting for a hundred warships.

But when he turned his head to look at the warship and thought of the power of the warship described by Director Xu, he immediately became happy again.

With a hundred warships like this, he can completely sweep the countries with them.

"Besides, this time I will travel around the world with Xu Xiake, and it will take at least three years to complete this trip. When he comes back, there may already be a fleet for him to use."

As soon as Huang Fei thought of this, he started to walk around the dock where the ironclad ship was built. Not long after he walked, a commander also ran all the way into the dock and found Huang Fei who was strolling in the yard.

"Captain, you can board the ship and leave the port."

"Understood." Hearing what the commander said, Huang Fei waved his hand to show that he knew. At the same time, he did not forget to turn his head and look at the "Qiyunshan" that was still under construction.

Then, with a feeling of reluctance, he left the dock of Tianjin Shipyard, boarded the main ship of the fleet for the third voyage to the West with Xu Xiake, sailed towards the depths of the ocean, and gradually disappeared...

"1504 million taels of silver per year..."

When Xu Xiake and Huang Fei started their third voyage to the West, Zhu Youjian had a headache holding the shipyard report in his hand.

The 10-ton supply ship costs 25 taels, the destroyer averages 14 taels, and the frigate averages 390 taels, totaling 150 million taels, paid in nine years, 500 taels per year.

This is not difficult for Daming, but it is not the case for Qi.

In this order, Qi State has one destroyer, three frigates and six supply ships, totaling 1207 million taels.

For the fragile finances of Qi State, which is currently relying on Zhu Youjian's salary and the gold and silver produced by Qi State, the expenditure of 1207 million taels is not a small amount.

Good brother Huang has nothing to do with it. According to the situation, Qi will go bankrupt sooner or later, or reduce the number of transported machines.

If you don't want to do this, you can only ask Qi to increase the amount of silver mining. Fortunately, there are a lot of silver mine reserves in America, and there are more easy to mine.

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

More than 5 naval soldiers and more than 9000 artillery pieces are not only used to protect themselves, but can also be used to measure the land area of ​​Qi when necessary.

For the American trade, Zhu Youjian has prepared a lot, such as cleaning up some things that Ming can't use.

These things include more than 100 warships with a tonnage of less than 10,000 tons, five 2+ flintlock guns in stock, and more than [-] backward iron cannons.

Zhu Youjian is going to use these things to make a deal with European countries.

That is to give up the American colonies. If they are unwilling, it does not rule out that Zhu Youjian will use other means.

Interrupting trade and blocking routes... These are all methods that can be used.

It's just that how the talks go will depend on the attitudes of all countries after seeing the Ming Dynasty Ocean Fleet.

"The ironclad ship has come out, and the fleet should be subdivided."

Zhu Youjian murmured, and then took out a blank world map, and he wrote the names of the fleets in various sea areas with a pen.

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

A total of twelve fleets, according to the three-three progressive system of the Ming army, from cruisers to destroyers, to frigates and supply ships, Ming needs a total of at least 370 two warships.

This is based on the minimum calculation. Under normal circumstances, at least two hundred combat warships and four hundred supply ships are required.

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

Until it is impossible to hide, Daming will choose a direct showdown and let Europe honestly do business with Daming.

With the size of Europe, the longer the delay, the wider the gap between the two sides.

With the current situation and speed, even if Ming Dynasty does not make a move, the feudal lords will become a powerful alliance with a population of over 20 million and a military strength of over 200 million in [-] years.

With this size, Europe can't even beat the feudal lords, let alone challenge the authority of Ming Dynasty.

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

But the premise is that Daming cannot have civil strife, so a person who can stabilize the situation is particularly important.

"Calculating the time, Ran'er should have arrived in Zhongzhou..."

Zhu Youjian spoke suddenly, and Wang Chengen nodded when he heard the words.

The thoughts 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.

Zhong County, an ancient city located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, has a history of more than 700 years. It borders Wanzhou in the east, Dianjiang in the west, Shizhu in the southeast, Fengdu in the southwest, and Liangping in the north.

As several important cities guarding the upper waterway of the Yangtze River, this place is not as famous as Yiling and Badong, but since Qin Bangping was granted the title of Marquis of Zhongzhou, this place has received the blessing of the Western Army's Governor's Mansion and the construction of the Chief Secretary of Sichuan.

According to the terrain of Zhongzhou, Qin Bangping expanded the main city on the basis of Zhongzhou's original foundation, and at the same time built a military camp on the island across the river in the north, and built a fort across the river in the east.

In other words, the Yangtze River is surrounded by Zhongzhou, the Zhongzhou Military Camp, and the Zhongzhou Fort. As long as a checkpoint is set up here, it is impossible for any materials from Chengdu and Yunnan to be transported to the south of the Yangtze River through the Yangtze River waterway.

"This place is easy to defend and difficult to attack, but it is also easy to fight."

Arriving at the border of Zhongzhou, Qi Wulong left the southern army on the east bank, and he and Liu Shun escorted Zhu Ciran across the river with more than a hundred Jinyi guards.

Standing on the deck, Qi Wulong commented on Zhongzhou as a general, while Zhu Ciran on the side of the deck asked curiously: "You say it's easy to defend but hard to attack, so why is it easy to fight?"

"Please look, Your Highness." Qi Wulong pointed to the fort on the east bank and the barracks on the north bank:

"The Yangtze River is wide, and the warships under 24 tons of the imperial dynasty can sail into the Yangtze River to bombard the forts. In the seventh year of the apocalypse, the king of Qi stipulated that the artillery for the inland forts should not exceed ten catties, and the artillery for ships should not exceed [-] catties."

"In other words, although the fort is covered by fortifications, this waterway can pass ships with 24-jin naval guns."

"Once such ships flood in on a large scale, they will be able to contain the Liangjiang Fort, and the Liangjiang Fort's artillery is limited. At this time, it only needs a large army to launch shelling and charging from any direction, and any fort will be taken down."

"After taking down the fort, relying on the Yangtze River water transport, any fort can be loaded with artillery shells weighing more than 24 kilograms. With the distance of three cities, they will cover the range of the 24 kilogram artillery."

"This kind of attack may cause serious damage to the ship, but it can conquer Chungju in a short time."

Qi Wulong talked about his own opinion, and it can be seen that after [-] days of getting along with each other, Zhu Ciran successfully joined the ranks of his "friends".

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

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

The best way is to use some military theory he saw from his uncle to engage in bribery.

Ironclad ships, infantry vehicles, aerial suppression, saturation strikes...

All kinds of knowledge that Zhu Ciran had read before were told by him. Although Zhu Ciran could not lead troops to fight by himself, he spoke in a set way.

Coupled with his social artifact "four-wheeled vehicle", within ten days, Qi Wulong's attitude towards him has improved a lot, and after 20 days, the two have become like friends.

Qi Wulong is the No. 1 descendant of the three generations of the Qi family. As long as he is identified correctly, the Southern Army will basically be taken down by Zhu Ciran.

Therefore, facing Qi Wulong's answer, Zhu Ciran also pretended not to understand to improve Qi Wulong.

"According to what you said in Nanshan (table word), as long as you master the navy, wouldn't you be able to sail 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 well, the Southern Army, Eastern Army, and Western Army will basically be restrained."

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

"Currently, there are only two ordnance bureaus in the country that can produce rifles and bullets, namely Shuntian Ordnance Bureau and Yingtian Ordnance Bureau."

"Except for these two Ordnance Bureaus, the other Kunming Ordnance Bureaus, Shenyang Ordnance Bureaus, Guangzhou Ordnance Bureaus, and Xi'an Ordnance Bureaus can only produce gunpowder, artillery, and stone bombs."

"The two ordnance bureaus control and store ammunition. When there is no battle, the number of bullets in the hands of each sergeant is limited to about [-]. During shooting training, it can reach [-] bullets, but after one training Then it went back to thirty coins."

"Although the strength of each army except Shangzhi is basically around 12, their daily ammunition is only enough to maintain a medium-sized conflict with a scale of less than 5."

"On the contrary, Shangzhi, although it has been abolished, still has 21 troops, and because they directly control the northern and southern Zhili, they are fighting against the backs of the two major ordnance bureaus."

"Therefore, once a war breaks out, the two major ordnance bureaus can maintain the number of bullets in the Shangzhi army at [-] for a long time."

"With three times the amount of ammunition, it's easy for Shangzhi to sweep all the armies."

Qi Wulong felt a little aggrieved when he said this, but he also understood why King Qi made such an arrangement.

Shangzhi was originally an army serving the imperial power. The other four armies may rebel, but Shangzhi rarely does.

Take the case of Lin Dan Khan’s invasion of the bandits five years ago, if Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Ciran were not in Yanshan, but on the border of any one of the five armies, the southeast, northwest, and navy, then what happened to Lin Dan Khan was fundamentally wrong. will not be discovered.

It is very likely that after Lin Danhan hits Dading Palace, Zhu Youxiao has not received the news that Lin Danhan has entered the bandits.

But it is impossible for Qi Wulong to tell Zhu Ciran about this kind of thing, because he has to think about the Qi family.

Once Zhu Ciran knew about this, as the heir apparent, he could ask Zhu Youjian to disrupt the power 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 own shortcomings to others.

"So as long as you master Shangzhi well, even if the navy makes a mess, you can easily clean it up?"

Zhu Ciran knew little about marching and fighting, but he still learned a lot about the strategy in the general direction, because Zhu Youjian asked him to do so.

As a future emperor, he doesn't need to know how to fight, but he must know logistics and the strategic goals of the dynasty.

He doesn't have to worry about how to complete the tactics. He must know the logistics, so as not to meddle like many emperors in the Ming Dynasty. As for the strategic goal, it is similar to a progress bar.

The emperor knows what his strategic goal is, so he only needs to pay attention to the progress of the war and analyze the situation in a progress manner.

As long as he knows that the progress has been increasing, the emperor will not rush to fight.

For example, in Hong Chengchou's battle of Songjin, the progress has been increasing, but Chongzhen can't wait, thinking about speeding up, then speeding up can only annihilate the entire army he added.

Zhu Youjian doesn't expect Zhu Ciran to become a famous general. As long as he doesn't micromanage, then with the quality of the Ming army, he can fight the world with his hands in his pockets and his legs without any pressure.

"Li Dingguo should be the Shangzhi general my uncle left me..."

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

During the twenty days of conversations with Qi Wulong, Zhu Ciran could clearly feel that there was a big gap between Qi Wulong and Li Dingguo.

Although Qi Wulong was eight years older than Li Dingguo, he didn't analyze many of his uncle's tactical arrangements very thoroughly.

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

The only thing that Li Dingguo couldn't see clearly was Zhu Youjian's strategic arrangement.

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

This is a flaw in his history, but after Zhu Youjian's deliberate training and continuous intelligence feeding, Li Dingguo's strategy is far stronger than many generals in Ming Dynasty even if it is shorter than tactics.

He is only 16 years old, and there is still a lot of room for improvement. In addition, Zhu Youjian told Zhu Ciran to get close to Li Dingguo when he was young. Even if Zhu Ciran is a fool, he should know that Li Dingguo was left to him by his uncle. The grandfather's trump card in the army.

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

"People from the Qin family are here!"

When he was itching, Liu Shun's words brought him back to reality.

On the pier in the distance, hundreds of soldiers of the Western Army in armor had gathered, the leaders were a man and a woman who were over fifty, and several 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..." Zhu Ciran took a deep breath, tried to relax himself, and went through the process of how to deal with everyone in his mind.

Under his relaxation, accompanied by a deep "bang", the ship docked...