Wang Yu sighed: "We are just suffering from a lack of population! ”

Judging from the current situation, Wang Yu's biggest headache is the limitation of insufficient population, the famine at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the military rebellion, the massacre after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, and the years of war, various factors have accumulated together, making the population from 120 million during the Wanli Dynasty to about 30 million in the early years of Shunzhi. At the end of Shunzhi, it increased again, but if you count all the black households, it actually has a population of less than 50 million.

After Wang Yu took control of the south, after more than ten years of hard work and the promotion of high-yield crops, the population increased to 70 million, but the increase in population was all young children, and it would take several years for these children to grow up.

After Wu Sangui's Northern Expedition, Bahai dug the Yellow River embankment, and the war in the north lost nearly 10 million people.

It is precisely because of the lack of population that Wang Yu used the population of Japan and Vietnam to do things for himself, and now Korea is in Wang Yu's pocket, and the Koreans have also become one of the important sources of population for colonizing overseas, followed by the Mongols who surrendered, and the tribal population of fishing and hunting tribes recruited by Zheng Xun in the north.

The steam locomotive towed the special train and arrived at Shanghai North Railway Station.

After Wang Yu got out of the car with his admiral and personal guards, he rushed to the dock.

"Dashuai, we are going to the South Seas, will those guys in the north take the opportunity to rob us of Jiangnan?" Wu Zhudan asked.

Wang Yu smiled: "With Wang Yuyou and Wang [Fu] Chen, who dares to come and grab our territory?" We didn't have many infantry left in each city, but their morale was high, and if a city was attacked, the elite troops of the king's [auxiliary] ministers would rush to the rescue. The elite troops have fast and mobile cavalry, and we also have railway lines and a network of rivers crisscrossing us, which infantry and artillery can reach quickly! We are sending troops south to expand the territory of China, if those guys dare to attack us, won't that give us an excuse? ”

Li Rui said: "Not bad! Dashuai, with our strength, as long as the king's [auxiliary] ministers can destroy the northern court, and then put King Lu on the throne! ”

"Yes!" Wang Yu nodded and said, "Although it is easy to destroy them, it is not easy to deal with them afterwards, and the war is in chaos, and it is the people who suffer, the population is already very precious, and if you lose the population, this clan will feel distressed." ”

The Shandong ironclad ship, with a displacement of up to 4,200 tons, was quietly docked on the dock, the tonnage of this ship was too large, and it looked like a hill from a distance. The blue-gray battleship was filled with navy soldiers in white uniforms, the ship was covered with colorful flags, and a puff of green smoke came out of the chimney, and it was obvious that the boiler was on fire.

This ironclad ship had a twin 203 mm main gun turret at the bow and stern, and behind the two main turrets, at each of the four corners of the upper deck of the main deck, had a 152 mm secondary gun.

What made Wang Yu feel a fly in the ointment was that the reserved torpedo position was still empty, because the torpedo had not yet been built. Previously, the scientific researchers of the gun factory tested more than a dozen steam gas torpedoes, but they all failed, and the torpedoes either entered the water too deeply, the range was too short, or they exploded in the water in advance. Another point of dissatisfaction is that Xue Fengzuo failed to build a six-barreled hand-cranked machine gun and machine gun, and built an eleven-barreled machine gun and machine gun.

The rate of fire of the eleven-barreled hand-cranked machine gun is also two hundred rounds a minute, and the reason why eleven barrels are used instead of six barrels is to ensure that the barrel of the machine gun does not get hot prematurely. Due to technical limitations, the barrel life is not long, and one barrel can only shoot about 500 rounds, and for the sake of safety, the barrel must be replaced after firing about 200 rounds.

"Handsome!" There was a long shout from the battleship.

All the officers and sailors of the navy lined up in a neat formation to welcome Wang Yu on board.

The whistle sounded, and the huge Ming fleet set sail on the third day of the tenth lunar month in 1674 AD. The flagship Shandong ironclad ship slowly left the dock, and the huge blue-gray hull headed in the direction of Wusongkou, and the two propellers turned up white waves, pushing the giant ship to sail slowly.

On the river, the masts are like forests, and warships of all sizes sail out of the mouth of the Yangtze River, enter the sea, and sail south.

In addition to the two Shandong-class ironclad ships and the four Zhenghe-class ironclad ships, the rest of the large and medium-sized warships were all steam sail dual-power warships, two second-class battleships equipped with steam engines, three third-class battleships equipped with steam engines, and 12 steam sail dual-power transport ships, each of which carried eight oar-sail powered boats, and also carried 500 fully armed marines. In addition, Wang Yu also requisitioned five flying scissor mail ships and fifteen flying scissor cargo ships, which were used to transport army officers and soldiers, weapons and equipment, food and ammunition.

The number of guns was reduced from ninety to forty-two for the second class battleships with steam engines, because of the space and displacement occupied by the steam engine, but two front-loading rifled guns were removed and replaced with two 170-mm rear-loading rifled guns, the twenty-four front-loading smoothbore guns in the gun deck doors were replaced by sixty-eight-pound front-loading rifled guns, and on the deck, two four-barreled 40-mm bang-bang guns and two eleven-barreled 30-mm hand-cranked guns were installed.

The 3rd class battleship was equipped with two 152-mm breech-loading rifled guns and 26 40-pounder front-loading rifled guns in the gun deck.

The fleet, equipped with steam engines and new artillery, sailed south at a speed of eight knots. Smoke billowed from the chimney, and the massive bow split the waves and headed for the South China Sea.

The Southern Expeditionary Fleet, which had set sail from Shanghai, had already entered the early winter and had a little chill, and when it left Shanghai, the officers wore thick woolen uniforms and the soldiers wore thick cotton uniforms. The farther south the ship went, the hotter the climate became, and by the time the fleet anchored in Xiamen to replenish coal, fresh water, and food, the soldiers had already changed into spring and autumn clothes.

The fleet left Xiamen and continued its voyage south. After entering the South China Sea, it was a hot summer, and the soldiers all changed into thin summer military uniforms.

Wang Yu stood on the bridge of the ironclad ship Shandong, looking out at the sea in front of him. He suddenly said as if he had thought of something: "We have been leaving Shanghai for eight days and eight nights, and I don't know if Kang Xiaomazi has arrived in the capital." ”

At this time, Kangxi had not yet arrived in the capital, Liu Xuanchu and Wang Shirong, as well as the Jinyiwei who escorted Kangxi's family, took the land route, at the speed of the year, took the carriage by land, walking about 100 miles a day, from Nanjing to Beijing There are more than 2,000 miles, and the escort team needs to walk for more than 20 days to reach the capital.

At this time, the team escorting Kangxi had just arrived in Xuzhou.