The expedition to the New World has been prepared for many years, and as early as when the Feixiang arrived in China, Emperor Zhu ordered the Admiralsimo and the Shipbuilding Department of the Generalissimo's Mansion to secretly prepare for the voyage.

The reason for the secret preparation was that the west coast of the New World in this era was still largely under the firm control of New Spain. New Spain is hostile to non-Spanish ships, and will even sink them - there are no telegraphs or satellites these days, and a sailing ship is gone on the east coast of the Pacific Ocean, and no one can blame the New Spanish authorities! The authorities of New Spain spread their hands and said that they don't know, who can still take the nerve Spain?

If you are on the Atlantic coast, there are still people who can cure the nerves, but on the Pacific side, even the Dutch have no tricks to do with them.

Therefore, Emperor Zhu's New World plan must be kept secret!

In addition to secrecy, it's time to build a large expedition ship!

Because of the hostile position of the New Spanish authorities, small sailing ships were not suitable for expedition ships, and slower Chinese sailing ships were not suitable.

The Flying from the Netherlands was a good fit for a trip to the west coast of the Pacific Ocean, because it was not an expedition ship at all, nor was it an armed merchant ship, but a Dutch naval warship! In this era, the Dutch Navy is the first in the world!

Moreover, the combat effectiveness of this Flying is not weak in Europe, although it is not as good as the Royal Flagship of Spain, nor is it as good as the Maritime Monarch of England, but the deadweight ton of 800 tons is enough to be quasi-first-class, and the armament of forty guns is also powerful. And the speed of this Flying could rank among the top three large and medium-sized warships in Europe at that time!

According to the captain of the Flying Cruise, Dave. Jones's words say that a battleship that runs faster than the Flying will definitely not be able to beat the Flying Flight. And a battleship with more firepower than the Flying will definitely not be able to catch up with the Flying Flight......

In addition, the ship was designed for the high sea conditions of the North Atlantic, so it was very sturdy and able to sail in storms, so it was also suitable as an expedition ship across the Pacific Ocean.

However, Emperor Zhu did not immediately let the Feixiang go on an expedition in the Pacific Ocean, but asked the master craftsmen of the shipbuilding department to imitate the Feixiang with the help of foreign craftsmen invited by the Netherlands.

Because Ji Kun and Li Shaoyou bought a full set of drawings of the Feixiang, the imitation work went relatively smoothly, and by the seventh year of Hongxing, the imitation of the Feixiang, the Henan battleship with a load of 800 tons, was finally completed and delivered to the Ming Navy.

During the delivery and commissioning of the Henan, its original Feixiang has been active in the Pacific theater and has become a fierce rival of the Far East Fleet of the Spanish Navy under the Mongolian flag.

Although the Spanish Navy was stronger than the authentic Ming Navy in all respects, the Dutch were the main players on the Flying Flying, and they had also been trained in the Dutch Navy, and their standard was significantly higher than that of their Spanish counterparts.

And the Flying itself was also more combat-ready than any of the Spanish warships in the Far East. Therefore, in the past few years of sea confrontations, the Feixiang has become the pillar of the Ming Navy, sinking or capturing at least three small and medium-sized Galen ships of the Spaniards.

Its sister ship, the Henan, has not been officially seen since its completion, and not many people even know about its existence.

The ship was not built in a shipyard in Nanjing or Shanghai, but at the highly classified Fujian Shijing Shipyard (a shipyard owned by the Zheng family and the most technologically advanced shipyard in the Ming Dynasty). After the delivery, it has been under the command of Chen Shangchuan, who once served as the first mate of the Flying Navy, and carried out activities in the South China Sea under the flag of the Dutch East India Company.

It was not until April of the ninth year of Hongxing that he secretly sailed into the home port of the Oriental Fleet of the Ming Navy.

When the news of the arrival of the Henan in Dinghai reached Nanjing, Wei Zaode, who had already handed over the position of first assistant to Lu Zhenfei, was summoned to the Laoshan Palace where Emperor Zhu was located, together with Zheng Jiangong, the naval envoy.

When the two arrived at the Imperial Palace of Laoshan Palace, Zhu Cihong was in a meeting with the cabinet. Today, Emperor Zhu wants to discuss with the cabinet the issue of the land certificate of the northern kingdom and the start of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

According to the notes sent by Shi Kefa and the envoy sent by Shen Tingyang, who had already arrived, it can be determined that there are about 100 million mu of unofficial and ownerless farmland in the northern country. In addition, there are relatively high-value forest farms, pastures, coal mines, iron ores and other assets, which can also be converted into land certificates -- that is, these "state-owned assets" are securitized, and then issued to meritorious soldiers and righteous people who followed Emperor Zhu to the south (the righteous people are all registered), and then rational allocation is carried out through the market, and by the way, the securities market is also drummed out......

If such a big mess is done, then the capitalist road in the north will be considered a broad road!

In Zhu Cihong's view, capitalism is nothing more than letting capital be responsible for the productive forces - if the farm loses, you capitalists can cry! In the early stage of socialist reform in the later Celestial Empire, did not they also use "working for themselves" to encourage the workers and peasants? Workers and peasants work for themselves, capitalists run for themselves, and Zhu Cihong is emperor for himself, almost all of them mean the same thing!

Zhu Cihong, who became emperor for himself, was always full of energy, and as soon as the cabinet meeting was over, he continued to summon Wei Zaode and Zheng Jiangong during lunch.

Wei Da Navigator, who was about to become the first person in China to open up the New World, now looks very sluggish, and he is also a lot older, and he is only in his forties and has a white beard.

Zheng Jiangong didn't look happy either—how many years had he been working for the voyage to the New World! When it came to the end, Wei Zaode actually robbed a ready-made, which was too disturbing.

"Sit, sit down...... Emperor Zhu smiled and beckoned to the two.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

"Thank you, sit down!"

Both of them were not polite to Emperor Zhu, and sat down in a big way.

Zhu Cihong smiled and ordered left and right, "Add two pairs of bowls and chopsticks!" He said to Wei Zaode and Zheng Jiangong, "Let's have some food together." ”

He paused, "When will the Henan be able to depart?" How many accompanying armed merchant ships were arranged? How many supplies are you going to bring? ”

"Your Majesty," Zheng Jiangong said, "the Henan can depart at any time. However, this ship is our hole card, can not be easily shown, the minister suggested that Tongzhou Hou first take the flying to the port of Uraga in Japan. After completing the mission in Japan, it will be changed to the Henan eastbound. ”

"Is eastbound risky?" Zhu Cihong had a caring expression on his subordinates, "You can't let the Marquis of Tongzhou miss a little." ”

"Your Majesty, things at sea are never foolproof." Zheng Jiangong said with a smile, "If Your Majesty is not at ease, the minister can go on behalf of the Marquis of Tongzhou." ”

Zhu Cihong smiled and waved his hand: "Xiamen Bo wait next time...... I also know where to go for reconciliation, and I will arrange for Xiamen Bo to go next time. But to get there, you have to hit a nail in the New World! ”

A good place to arrange for Zheng Jiangong is Australia!

Plans to explore Australia are also underway, but it's not easy, you have to get the Americas first—you have to go through the Americas to get to Australia! It sounds incredible, but the reality is so hilarious.

This route is related to the direction of the wind and the currents at sea. If you want to go from East Asia to the humid area of the east coast of Australia, the lowest cost and shortest route is to take the Japanese Warm Current and the Pacific Warm Current to the west coast of North America, and then turn south to the south with the help of the California cold current, and then take the North Equatorial Warm Current to the west - of course, you can't go all the way west, otherwise you will return to the Philippines, but after a period of westward expansion, you have to use the northerly wind, northwest wind, and northeast wind to go south into the equatorial countercurrent, and then drift eastward, looking for the sea breeze that can use the south.

Because the equatorial countercurrent is in the equatorial windless zone, it is a bit difficult to ride the wind south, but it is not impossible, and even if you can't wait, you can drift back to the Americas. Because the equatorial countercurrent turns south near the coast of South America, it can help the ship to sail out of the windless area, and then it can travel west again with the help of the cold Peruvian current, and then use the warm south equatorial current to travel west to reach the east coast of Australia......