Reborn Ming Dynasty as Emperor

Chapter 342 The First Step

In a blink of an eye, it has entered the tenth year of the apocalypse. If calculated according to the Western calendar, it would be [-] AD. However, according to the current situation, there still seems to be no sign of chaos.

And there was also a small happy event, that is, the queen Zhang Yan was also pregnant. Although Zhu Youxiao, as the emperor, already had a prince and used this to prove that he had no physical problems, the pregnancy of the queen also showed that the queen Zhang Yan was pregnant. Yan still has the ability to be a mother.

This also indicates that there will still be an eldest son in the future. Although Zhu Youxiao doesn't care about this, it is indeed a happy event for officials who abide by Confucian etiquette.

But Zhu Youxiao didn't have time to visit Empress Zhang Yan. He had been in the Daming Ship Administration Bureau for almost a month now, just to develop the first wooden steam-powered warship in Daming together with Mao Yuanyi.

According to the sketch plan, Daming's first steam-powered warship was not small. In order for it to have enough power, it must have large enough cylinders and boilers.As a result, the entire warship has reached [-] tons and [-] feet in length, but the absolute part is the main body of the double-connected horizontal steam-powered engine composed of boilers and cylinders, and it is mainly placed at the front end of the bottom of the warship. The back end stores a large amount of coal.On the top is a double-layer side turret, and there is a large-caliber gun on the deck, and its firepower configuration is not smaller than that of Fuchuan.

The power is much faster, and the speed is about eleven knots according to modern terms.In short, if it is covered with armor, it can indeed be regarded as the most advanced warship in the Ming Dynasty and even in the world today, and even surpasses the soft-sail ships in the West. After all, the power they rely on is different.

However, the completion of the steam-powered battleship does not mean that it can be immediately applied to the Imperial Guard Navy.

This kind of thing that transcends the times cannot be controlled by traditional boatmen. Even what is a propeller and how to operate it needs to be taught step by step, so that these people can get familiar with it little by little.

Zhu Youxiao was originally from a highly educated background, and he could understand English literature. Of course, even if it was Chinese literature, Zhu Youxiao needed to translate many places.

In many cases, Zhu Youxiao studied it first, and then explained it to Mao Yuanyi after he understood it. Mao Yuanyi figured out a way to overcome a difficult problem after understanding the principle.

In the end, Mao Yuanyi designed a set of modern power conversion (converting the heat energy of water vapor into mechanical energy) device and speed control device, and established the basic operation method of how to start the warship.

But this is also the result of his own experiments many times, so it took a lot of time.

But now, he has to personally teach naval reserve talents such as Gu Sanmazi who have received theoretical basic training at the Royal Military Academy and Daming Ocean Academy.

It took several months before a warship was finally able to start operation in the offshore area of ​​the Bohai Sea outside Jinmen, and only then did Zhu Youxiao give him the name "Zheng He".

The name Zheng He is naturally to commemorate Zheng He who once preached the majesty of the Ming Dynasty on the sea, there is no doubt about it.

However, the Zheng He is not used for combat or even combat training, or even for driving training for the students. Gu Sanmazi and other naval officers will definitely command naval battles in the future, not sail the ship, so they must not Do not step up the training of a group of technical naval officers and soldiers who sail full-time.

Gu Sanmazi and other students who were the first to learn how to operate steam-powered ships soon became the instructors of the Daming Ocean School, and began to train their own technical naval officers and soldiers.

In this way, after more than half a year of work, the first North Sea Fleet with steam-powered warships as its main component was officially established.

Originally, Zhu Youxiao planned to use the East China Sea Fleet as the main fleet of the naval system first, otherwise he would not have established the Daming Ocean School in Nanjing, and the Nanjing Navy with a naval foundation is also in the southeast.

But now the imperial court is in the process of negotiating with Zheng Zhilong on recruitment. In order not to alert Zheng Zhilong, Zhu Youxiao listened to Yang Sichang's suggestion to first establish a major naval force in the Bohai Sea area that his imperial court can control, and then extend to the Yellow Sea. It can threaten Houjin, and it can also go south to control the East China Sea.

Moreover, there are Liaodong Peninsula and Denglai Peninsula guards, which can prevent the navy from being attacked by Zheng Zhilong or other large pirates because of its fledgling in the early stage.

The only flaw is that the North has no other strategic value other than strengthening its control over North Korea.

The fundamental purpose of Zhu Youxiao's establishment of the navy is to break the sway of Zheng Zhilong and other pirates over Daming's sea power, and to break the growing control of the Western colonists over Nanyang, and to transfer a large number of Royal Weaving Bureau and Royal Industrial Company Products are sold to gain more wealth accumulation.

In this era of primitive accumulation of capital, Zhu Youxiao, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, cannot rely solely on domestic demand to make a fortune. After all, old interest groups will be destroyed, and new interest groups will be born.

In a closed social space, affected by the speed of productivity development, wealth will be at a constant value for a certain period of time. If you want to obtain a large amount of wealth resources in a short period of time, and then let all classes in the country enjoy the benefits, you must The only way to alleviate the contradictions is to rely on external plunder.

However, now that the main naval power is established in the North Sea, it means that Da Ming will not immediately participate in the competition for maritime interests in the South China Sea.

In this way, Zhu Youxiao's small actions in the Beihai area did not make Zheng Zhilong, Li Kuiqi and other pirates realize the seriousness of this problem, and under the temptation of Zhu Youxiao's high-ranking officials and rich salary, they also more naturally think that Daming was just preparing for the future attack on the Qing Dynasty.

Because the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Xiong Wencan, who was in charge of recruiting security, told Zheng Zhilong that, and Zheng Zhilong was convinced.

This can not but blame Zheng Zhilong for being stupid. In politics, he is not considered outstanding, and he is not even comparable to his son Zheng Chenggong.

In the original history, Zheng Zhilong first joined the imperial court because of the influence of the traditional idea of ​​returning to the roots of fallen leaves, and later controlled the Longwu regime, but he surrendered to the Manchu Qing because of his own interests, but ended in a tragic end.

If he, like his son Zheng Chenggong, firmly relied on his own advantages in naval warfare, he might be able to start well and end well, and he might be able to establish a country overseas, which is unknown.

More than 3 people from the Fifth Army, together with Gu Sanmazi's original headquarters, plus slightly better officers and soldiers from other southern armies, especially the navy along the Yangtze River, made a total of about [-] people. And temporarily form the North Sea Fleet.

Qin Botong became the commander-in-chief of the Beihai Fleet and the commander of the First Fleet, while Gu Sanmazi was the commander of the Second Beihai Fleet. Li Rusi, who was originally a member of the Denglai Navy and was also a subordinate of Yuan Keli, had studied in the Royal Military Academy like Gu Sanmazi. He is the commander of the Beihai Third Fleet.

The Zheng He was the flagship of the North Sea Fleet, and Qin Botong personally took charge of it.

When the North Sea Fleet was training and expanding in the Bohai Sea, the Royal Weaving Bureau encountered a trouble.

It turned out that while Zheng Zhilong was negotiating with Xiong Wencan, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, he reduced the export volume of the Royal Weaving Bureau, and even lowered the price of the Royal Weaving Bureau on the grounds that the sea was not safe recently.

After hearing this, Zhu Youxiao simply used the enthronement gift of the King of Ryukyu as an excuse to let the Beihai First Fleet, which had been training for three months, go south immediately, and the Beihai First Fleet was responsible for transporting the congratulatory gifts to the Ryukyu Kingdom. In fact, it was transporting part of the goods of the Royal Weaving Bureau to The purpose of the sale of the Ryukyu Kingdom is to take the first step in the sea trade being run by the imperial court itself.

(End of this chapter)