The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 683 Waterways Connected
On the eighth day of the fifth lunar month, around 5 a.m., the capital city was still shrouded in a hazy dawn, but the imperial palace was brightly lit.

Emperor Wanli is about to lead his army on a campaign, and this time he will be gone for at least a year.

All the concubines, princes, and princesses were reluctant to part.

Although he had personally led military campaigns more than once or twice, in the past, the campaigns had only lasted for a few months at most.

This time was different. He was going to be gone for more than a year and might not be able to return. All the concubines, princes and princesses couldn't help but run to Taiye Pond to see him off.

At 3:45 AM, just as dawn was breaking, the Yuhe Bridge wharf was already packed with people.

As Wanli was about to board the ship, Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan quickly put down Prince Nan, Zhu Changzhi, and solemnly said, "Your Majesty, why don't you let me accompany you? You have brought too few guards."

This time he only brought one thousand Jinyiwei light cavalry and one thousand Imperial Guard light cavalry, and he didn't bring a single Jinwuwei.

Because he was worried that something might happen to Xiao Zhu Changxun.

Wanli shook his head slightly and said, "Don't worry, there are hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the Beijing garrison over there, and I also brought 100,000 Shenji Battalion soldiers with me this time."

If there aren't enough troops later, I will order the naval ships to return and continue to bring the soldiers from the capital garrison over. With my uncle and General Shan by my side to protect me, that's enough.

"As for the palace, you'll have to keep an eye on it. With your uncle and General Shan gone, you're the only real expert left in the palace."

Well, the Crown Prince is also in charge of overseeing the country. If something goes wrong, it will be disastrous.

Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan glanced at Xiao Zhu Changxun and remained silent.

Seeing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun cautiously asked, "Father, when will you be back?"

It's hard to say, this time it's tens of thousands of miles away.

Emperor Wanli shook his head slightly, then patiently instructed, "Xun'er, don't think about these things. You just need to review the memorials and handle state affairs properly."

Now that we have the Flying Dragon Ships, a round trip from the Eastern Capital Command in North America will only take a little over a month. If there's anything you can't handle, just have the Flying Dragon Ships send a message to the Emperor.

Okay, hopefully nothing will be unmanageable.

Xiao Zhu Changxun nodded slowly and didn't say anything more.

Empress Wang was always gentle and virtuous, and never caused Wanli any trouble.

She looked at Wanli with a face full of reluctance, without saying a word.

Princess Rongchang couldn't help but ask, "Father, is it alright to take me with you?"

No female relatives were brought on this expedition.

Wanli shook his head slightly and said, "Yingying, don't worry. Yiming is the commander of the Beijing Garrison. He can just stay by my side. He doesn't need to go to the battlefield."

Is this a matter of whether or not you feel at ease?

We just got married and you're already taking your husband to war!

Alas, there is no way.

Princess Rongchang could only sigh inwardly and remain silent.

The other little princesses started wiping away tears.

Even heroes have their moments of weakness, but their love for their children is ever-present.

This won't do. If the concubines and the little princess start crying, it will be troublesome. We have to leave quickly.

Upon seeing this, Wanli quickly waved his hand and then boarded the ship with Qin Yiming, Li Xuancheng, Shan Sinan, and others.

Soon, hundreds of shuttle boats filed out, crossed the moat, and sped down the Tonghui River, the North Canal, and the Hai River, heading straight for the inner sea.

Around noon, they arrived at the harbor wharf located on the north side of the Haihe River estuary.

At this moment, the sea area within a radius of hundreds of miles around the harbor was filled with naval warships, densely packed and neatly arranged, as if there were no end in sight.

Soon, they boarded the familiar flagship via the dock.

At this time, Yu Zigao, Dong Yikui, Xu Guangqi, Wang Xiangjin, Li Zhizao, and others had been waiting for a long time.

After everyone exchanged greetings, Wanli asked directly, "Kemai, are you ready?"

Yu Zigao nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, everything is ready."

Let’s go.

This journey will take at least a month, and we can talk about anything along the way.

Wanli nodded slightly, then decisively said, "You shall command the fleet to set sail."

Upon hearing this, Yu Zigao hurriedly walked to the bow of the ship and gave the order for the fleet to set sail.

Wanli then gestured for everyone to sit down, carefully examined the latest version of the world map on the table, and then asked, "Zhenzhi, you should be familiar with this route, right? How many days do you estimate it will take us to reach the Eastern Capital Commandery in North America?"

How do you say this?

Li Zhizao thought about it carefully, then said cautiously, "Your Majesty, the journey is too long, it's really hard to say how many days it will take."

Because we brought a shuttle boat, we might encounter a storm at sea, and then the shuttle boat would have to go to the nearest port to take shelter.

If all goes well, the fleet can travel about 1,200 li in a day and night without any problem. We can reach Jinshan in about 20 days and the East Commandery of North America in about 40 days.

It's hard to say given how far it is.

So far, the farthest he has been is Fangzhang Island. It's only about 20,000 li (approximately 10,000 kilometers) from the Ming Dynasty mainland.

The distance between the Eastern Capital Commandery in North America and the mainland of the Ming Dynasty was more than 40,000 li.

There was no other way; he had to go. Without him overseeing the operation, the defense line spanning tens of thousands of miles simply couldn't be built.

Wanli stared at the huge world map again, and then couldn't help but sigh, "If only we had enough flying dragon ships, we could get there in less than a month."

The Flying Dragon Ship is indeed excellent, but unfortunately they have only built six hundred so far.

It seems that after this trip, a new shipyard will be built in Southern Zhili. The production of Flying Dragon ships must be increased so that the vast territory of the Ming Dynasty can be connected by waterways.

Otherwise, it would take one or two months or even longer to make a trip like this, which is very inconvenient.

Wanli thought for a moment, then asked, "Yi Kui, this time you sent your soldiers and their families tens of thousands of miles away from their homeland to guard the frontier. Do they have any objections?"
Have they ever thought about returning to the Ming Dynasty to visit its homeland someday?

Of course I think so; it's hard to leave one's homeland.

After careful consideration, Dong Yikui cautiously said, "Your Majesty, guarding the border is the duty of our border soldiers. No matter how far away, we must go."

As for the future, they would naturally like to return to the Ming Dynasty's homeland if given the opportunity.

However, the journey is so long, taking several months round trip, that most of them probably won't have the chance to return to their homeland.

They will have a chance.

Emperor Wanli slowly shook his head, then solemnly said, "Yi Kui, rest assured, I will have Liangfu develop larger and faster ships."

I will also arrange passenger fleets to travel between the Ming mainland and various overseas military commands, so that all the territories of the Ming Dynasty are connected by waterways.

When they have time, they can take the passenger ships back to the Ming Dynasty to visit.

Could the Ming Dynasty develop even larger and faster ships?

If His Majesty says it's possible, then it's possible.

In the past, it would have been unimaginable to have a ship as large and fast as the Weiyuan.

The Flying Dragon Ship, which is even faster than the Weiyuan warship, has now been built.

Upon hearing this, Dong Yikui said with a look of longing, "Your Majesty is wise. I would also like to return to the Ming Dynasty to see it when the time comes."

Yes, I will definitely help you fulfill this wish.

Upon hearing this, Emperor Wanli immediately began to consider how to build larger and faster warships.

There aren't many factors currently limiting the speed of ships.

In theory, they could simply use a superposition method to install more steam engines and water turbines, making the water turbines spin faster, and the ships would become faster.

These problems don't seem to be too big. Right now, the Flying Dragon Ship only has eight groups of sixteen waterwheels, each about half a zhang long, and the length of the ship on both sides is less than ten zhang.

They could easily build longer, faster ships, equip them with sixteen sets of thirty-two waterwheels, and then continuously increase the gear ratio.

The only problem might be that the water turbine spins too fast, and the current bearings might not be able to withstand it.

However, they could certainly build better bearings.

In other words, with the current level of technology in the Ming Dynasty, even using the simplest superposition method, the speed of the ships could be increased.

The key issue is that making larger ships seems quite troublesome.

Wooden ships exceeding twenty zhang (approximately 33 meters) in length would be difficult to mass-produce, because to ensure the strength of the hull and prevent leaks, the bottom and even the sides of the hull would have to be made of whole planks.

These days, you can still find quite a few trees that are over twenty feet tall, so the Weiyuan warship can still be mass-produced.

The problem is that trees longer than twenty feet are hard to find, so ships longer than twenty feet are difficult to mass-produce.

At the very least, a structure made entirely of wood is not feasible.

However, they could consider using steel plates as a substitute to build a true ironclad ship, where the hull is made entirely of steel plates with rubber seals in between.

This seems theoretically feasible; they can manufacture steel plates of any length now.

However, the weight of the steel plate, which was over twenty feet long, was definitely too great for human labor to lift and assemble.

At that time, it will probably require building a super dry dock, filled with steel beams and hoists.

With something to ponder along the way, Wanli no longer found the journey boring.

However, the journey from the Ming Dynasty mainland to the Eastern Capital of North America was extremely long. In order to save time, they traveled day and night, and except for replenishing fresh water, they basically did not stop at the shore.

When the fleet passed the Eastern Sea Commandery, Wanli Emperor only met with the Eastern Prince Zhu Changluo and his consorts briefly while replenishing fresh water.

As for the North American West Capital, which he had never been to before, he didn't even go ashore to take a look.

Fortunately, it was early summer, the most stable time in the North Pacific, and they did not encounter any major storms along the way.

More than twenty days later, they actually arrived in Jinshan.

More than thirty days later, they crossed the canal in central America and arrived in the eastern waters of America.

More than forty days later, the largest harbor in the East Coast of North America was finally in sight.

(End of this chapter)