In September, the northern part of the Ming Dynasty has already entered late autumn, but it is still very hot and humid here in the Nanyang area.

Even the seagulls became lazy in the scorching heat, and they just hovered high in the air, lazily watching the ships that came by on the sea.

This is a small fleet, and to say that it is small does not insult them, because this fleet not only has two warships, but also two sixth-rank warships.

Since Yang Feng established the Fujian Naval Division, he has assigned the types of warships, from the first class to the sixth class, and the tonnage, purpose, firepower and even the number of personnel of each class of warships are clearly divided.

As the smallest sixth-class warship, its tonnage was only a pitiful 450 tons, and its full load displacement was only 550 tons, which in later generations was at best comparable to small fishing boats, and even now, warships of this tonnage are generally only used for delivering messages and escorting ships.

At this time, on the deck of this newly launched sixth-level battleship, Ning Shuisheng was wearing a brand-new azure military uniform and standing beside the helmsman, raising the telescope in his hand to keep observing the movements ahead.

Yes, this is the rank of captain that everyone in later generations is familiar with, and this military rank system has just been popularized in the Jiangning Army for less than a week.

Before introducing this set of military ranks, Yang Feng had also thought about it for a long time. You must know that there is such a thing as military rank in today's Ming Dynasty, and if you introduce the military rank system into the Ming army, it will inevitably cause a great sensation, and even become an excuse to attack yourself because of the plan of the court, especially those civilian officials.

But after thinking about it again, Yang Feng still thinks that the introduction of the military rank system is still very beneficial.

In fact, since ancient times, China has had titles such as marshal, general, and captain, which is actually the prototype of military ranks in later generations.

After arriving in the Ming Dynasty, Comrade Lao Zhu also formulated detailed ranks for the martial arts, such as Dr. Ronglu representing the first grade, the hussar general of the second grade, the general Zhaoyong of the third grade, and the captain Zhaoxin of the sixth grade.

However, these ranks can only be called the Wusan rank, at best it is only an honorary title, and this kind of Wusan rank is not useful at all except for receiving some more pitiful Yulu, so it is very necessary to introduce a military rank linked to the military position and official rank.

With the continuous expansion of the scale of the Jiangning Army, Yang Feng felt more and more that the old system of the Ming Dynasty was becoming more and more unsuitable for the Jiangning Army, so a few months ago he wrote a long letter to Zhu Youxiao, stating the urgency and necessity of introducing a new military rank system, and applying for the implementation of the Jiangning Army.

Zhu Youxiao thought about it for a long time after receiving Yang Feng's recital, and agreed to Yang Feng's proposal, and after receiving Zhu Youxiao's reply, Yang Feng, who had been waiting for a long time, immediately began to implement the rank system in the Jiangning Army.

The military rank system implemented by the Jiangning Army is actually similar to the later Chinese military rank system, which is divided into 10 levels, such as general, colonel, and lieutenant, and the only difference is that the military rank of colonel has been changed to a brigadier general in the Western system.

As for why he is not called a colonel, this is purely a personal preference, anyway, in this time and space, Yang Feng can indeed do whatever he wants about certain things.

Ning Shuisheng only took more than two years to become a captain from an ordinary sailor, which is simply a fantasy in the later life, you must know that in the later life, if you want to become a captain, you don't have to think about it for more than ten or even decades.

But here it is different, first of all, in any case, it is certainly much simpler to command a sail warship than a modern warship. Secondly, due to the frantic expansion of the Fujian Naval Division, the training speed of officers can no longer keep up with the speed of warship construction.

Taking the Fujian Navy Division as an example, last year more than 10 shipyards including Mawei launched a total of 58 sail warships, including fourth, fifth, and sixth class warships, and in addition to the more than 20 second- and third-class warships purchased by Yang Feng from modern time and space, the Fujian Navy Division had nearly 80 more warships in one year.

The commissioning of so many warships has greatly strengthened the strength of the Fujian Naval Division, but it has also brought great trouble to Lu Guangbiao and Liu Xiang, and the Fujian Naval Division simply does not have enough officer reserves.

This kind of thing is not a problem at all if it is put on the old naval powers such as Spain, Portugal or the Netherlands, and it is like a game to select dozens of captains or hundreds of officers at all levels to supplement the new warships with their talent pools, but it is troublesome for the Fujian naval division, which has been in the army for less than three years.

In order to receive these equipment, Lu Guangbiao and Liu Xiang had to grit their teeth and promote the low-level officers who usually performed well or had good ability to various important posts.

Take Ning Shuisheng as an example, he was only a gun commander a month ago, and he was suddenly promoted to a captain, although he was only the captain of a sixth-level battleship with the smallest tonnage, but for a naval officer, this was the greatest recognition of him from above.

This time, the captain of another sixth-level battleship that came to Cebu Island to carry out reconnaissance missions was also a guy who was quickly promoted, and the two rookies who were on a mission for the first time were carefully directing their respective warships to approach Cebu Island at the moment.

Ning Shuisheng put down the binoculars and rubbed his eyes, which were a little astringent because he had been observing for too long. He took a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it, took a deep breath, and took a long puff of thick smoke from his mouth.

This mission is actually very simple, and it is very suitable for him as a rookie captain, but he is still very worried, and he is always thinking about how to deal with various things that may come his way along the way.

In the past, when he was on a mission, he only needed to carry out the captain's orders, and then command his gunners to fire at the enemy ship, and other things had nothing to do with him. But now that he was responsible for the lives of the 180 sailors on the entire battleship while thinking about how to complete the mission, he felt the pressure on his shoulders become heavy.

"My lord, discover Cebu Island at 30 degrees and 6 nautical miles on the port side!"

At this moment, the voice of a lookout was suddenly heard from the mast overhead.

Ning Shuisheng immediately threw the half-burned cigarette butt in his hand into the sea, raised the telescope hanging on his chest and looked left, and soon a faint coastline appeared in the telescope.

"Pass my orders, three on the left side, hang the sails full! Notify the Seahorse on the right of the message and let them follow! ”

"Understood...... Hang full sails, left rudder three! ”

After repeating the order, the helmsman on the side adjusted the rudder to the left, and the whole battleship tilted slightly to the left, and many sailors working on the deck felt a slight pause in the battleship under their feet, and their bodies also leaned back, and the battleship suddenly flew forward!