Chapter 1003 Going to Sea
During the time when Zhou Xu’s order was sent, another large ship was built at the Nanjing Harbor Shipyard.
But the impact was not big. Then they followed the order and started building the Clippers with all their strength.
In addition, the emergence of enemies at sea also caused their naval forces in the Great Zhou Dynasty to change their previous gradual expansion plan and begin to rapidly expand their scale.
According to their original plan, they planned to take it step by step slowly. When the corresponding ships had begun to be built, they would then begin to recruit the required number of soldiers and train them.
The advantage of this is that it can save labor as much as possible.
After all, the labor force within the Zhou Dynasty is relatively fixed at this stage. If you recruit them to serve as soldiers, the number of internal labor force will be reduced.
But the situation is different now. The appearance of enemies at sea has brought them more urgency, which forced Zhou Xu to start pursuing some efficiency.
The naval force, which was originally three hundred men, was directly expanded to one thousand men in one go. If there is not enough, we will continue to recruit.
It doesn’t matter if there are not enough ships for the time being. Many of the newly recruited soldiers still need to practice swimming and balancing cars, and there is no rush to let them get on the ship for sea training.
By the time they have completed those basic trainings, the Harbor Shipyard must have built more sea-going ships.
Under this premise, in order to improve shipbuilding efficiency, the manpower at the harbor shipyard has undoubtedly been further expanded and more labor has been obtained.
In this way, Zhou Xu’s order made the coastal fortress busy for the entire second half of the year.
At the end of the year, Zhou Xu once again received a report from the garrison in the south. After reading it, Zhou Xu felt thoughtful.
Since then, the unidentified ship has never appeared again.
It is not difficult to see from this that the other party should be a little afraid of them, or that they lack confidence and cannot figure out their details, so they dare not provoke them easily.
【Is it because of the number of ships at sea? Or is there some other reason? 】
In the situation at that time, after all, they, Zhou Dynasty, directly dispatched three sea ships. If the number of ships of the other party was not as good as theirs, they would definitely not act rashly.
As for other reasons...
Zhou Xu is not without any ideas.
Don't forget, there is a ruined city on the southern coast.
The ruins of the city are so close to the sea. It is impossible for the other party not to know that the sea is next door.
A city near the sea will inevitably develop fishing industry, and there will naturally be ships.
What if the original inhabitants of that city were not completely wiped out by the Rat Men, but escaped by boat?
After escaping, he was unwilling to give in and wanted to take back the territory occupied by the rat men, so he came back to inquire about the situation...
Although there is no direct evidence between the two, it can prove that the suspected Japanese ship that appeared on the sea and the city destroyed by the rat people are from the same force.
But think about it from another perspective, is there really such a coincidence in this world that the other party can find them here in this vast sea?
If the other party escaped from here, then everything makes sense.
With his thoughts whirling, Zhou Xu wrote down a new order.
In the spring of next year, we will send out a fleet and start searching for the enemy’s location!
By the time Bai Tu received this order, there wasn't much time until spring began.
Fortunately, as early as when the previous order was issued, the training of their Great Zhou Navy had not slackened. Now that I have received the order, the whole situation is not that urgent. It can only be said that I have already made preparations for this!
In the blink of an eye, the new year is here.
After the Harbor Shipyard expanded its scale and increased its workforce, its shipbuilding efficiency is also quite high.
Now their Great Zhou Navy already has twelve fast ships, plus two large ships.
This battle, spread out on the sea, is quite impressive.
Standing on the military parade platform, Bai Tu was also in high spirits today.
Starting from leading troops to support the southern border and defeating the Ratmen, he finally seized the opportunity and gradually began to show his abilities and was reused. Now he is directly commanding their Great Zhou Navy, which can be regarded as a complete success.
Now their Dazhou Navy consists of one large ship and six fast ships as a fleet, divided into the First Fleet and the Second Fleet, forming two fleets to facilitate more flexible command and dispatch.
A simple search for the enemy naturally does not require the full use of their naval forces.
Bai Tu directly ordered the First Fleet to sail out to perform the mission.
Here, it is worth mentioning that the large ship, which is the main flagship of the first fleet, in addition to transporting the supplies needed for the fleet to sail, is also equipped with two pterosaur riders.
As mentioned before, the pterosaur itself has limited physical strength. If you can't find a place to rest at sea, you will be in big trouble.
This also limits the range of activities of the pterosaur riders on the sea to a large extent, and they do not dare to fly too far.
But as long as their Dazhou fleet cooperates, the pterosaurs can land directly on the deck of the ship to rest when they are tired from flying. This physical problem that plagues the pterosaur riders will naturally be solved.
At the same time, this also allows the aerial reconnaissance capabilities of the pterosaur riders to be more fully utilized in the following operations.
According to the direction in which the other party's ship fled, although they were able to lock in a general position, the sea was endless as far as the eye could see.
How long will the search last with just a few of their ships?
But as long as there are two pterosaur riders assisting, the whole situation will be completely different.
High-altitude reconnaissance is especially useful at sea, because there are no obstacles to block the Pterosaur rider's view.
Not to mention that what they are looking for is not a person or a ship, but an island!
You can easily see it even when flying at high altitude, which is enough to greatly improve their reconnaissance efficiency.
In comparison, the state of the naval soldiers within the fleet is actually more worrying.
Although they have already conducted a lot of simulation training on life at sea in previous training, training is training, and when it comes to practice, there is still a little difference.
This also made it difficult for them to have any leisure time due to the small situations that occurred every day on the ship.
Fortunately, as a leading general, Bai Tu still had some ability. He stabilized the situation in the chaos of the war, and quickly accumulated experience in going to sea, which gradually improved his overall condition.
Just like that, five days passed.
The days at sea are undoubtedly boring. Many soldiers who have never had such an experience before have obviously been affected in their mental state, but each one is still relatively calm. Stay angry.
Seeing as another day passed, at this moment, with the setting sun, a pterosaur rider quickly landed on the deck of their main flagship.
"Report! An island was found ahead. A port was built on the island. There were many ships nearby. Among them was a thirty-meter-class ship with a red flag on a white background. It was very similar to the one that had appeared before. ! ”
(End of this chapter)