Great Tang Southern Emperor

Therefore, Li Zhen had no choice but to dissuade those businessmen by means of suggestions and advocacy, but unfortunately everyone agreed on the surface, but when it was time to go to sea, they still went to sea, completely taking Li Zhen's words as air.

When it comes to nautical trade, one has to talk about Yuezhou Port. Nowadays, Yuezhou Port is really busy. There are almost no stops when ships come and go every day, and there is even a phenomenon of ship congestion, which has caused many economic loss.In order to solve this situation, Li Zhen even opened Quanzhou Port in Quanzhou to share the traffic.

It's a pity that although Quanzhou Port is not inferior to Yuezhou Port in terms of scale, and Quanzhou is closer to the north, it is more convenient for the transportation of goods (Quanzhou was the largest port in the world in the Yuan Dynasty, which has been listed in history books) .But it may be because Yuezhou Port has a better cargo distribution system and corresponding equipment, or other reasons. In short, the flow of merchant ships in Quanzhou is far less than that of Yuezhou, or even half of that of Yuezhou. But even so, Quanzhou last year It also contributed nearly 300 million in tax revenue a year, becoming the second largest taxpayer in Lingnan after Yuezhou. Even if it is placed in the cities of the entire Tang Dynasty, it is enough to rank in the top ten.

Speaking of Quanzhou and Yuezhou, we have to mention the Lingnan Naval District. At this time, the Lingnan Naval District is not the only naval district in Datang. After the construction of the Lingnan Naval District is completed, the Bohai Naval District with the Dengzhou Fleet as the main It has also been established, and even the Jianghuai Naval District and the Vladivostok Naval District have also been completed, but there is no doubt that in terms of strength, the Lingnan Naval District is the strongest in the entire Datang.

The reason is not because the Lingnan Naval District was established the first time, nor is it because the Lingnan Naval District is one of the few in Datang equipped with two Class A fleets (except for the Bohai Naval District in the entire Datang mainland, this is currently the only one equipped with two The navy of the Class A fleet, the rest of the Huaihai Navy is a strong fleet, the Vladivostok Naval District even has only a Class B fleet, and the Hangzhou Naval District that has not yet been built has only a Class A fleet), let alone because of the Lingnan Naval District Guarding the two major economic centers of the Tang Dynasty, the business is busy and the reason is that they are very rich.

The real reason is actually very simple: Don't look at the rise of other naval districts one by one, each is more powerful than the other. In fact, the above fleets are all defensive fleets. It's just a half-defense. Although they have the qualifications to expand their territory, they have conquered Hokkaido and a part of the northern part of Honshu Island in the past five years, but their main task is not this, but to defend the Bohai Sea coastline Safety, this is their most fundamental task.

But the Lingnan Naval District is different. Their main task is to eliminate pirates—yes, with the great development of the navigation industry, the brothers of the great navigation have also appeared, and because of the huge profits of the navigation industry, more and more People no longer go to sea to do business, but stay on the necessary routes and plunder the passing supplies. The Lingnan Navy District has accumulated a wealth of experience by fighting pirates. Although the losses in naval battles are not small, but However, the combat power has soared in a straight line, and it has opened a distance from the following naval districts.

But the pirates are not stupid. After being wiped out by the navy, they realized the threat of the navy to themselves, so they quickly changed their tactics. Some sea merchants were even born pirates. Maritime merchants can become pirates immediately when there is no one around, posing a great threat to major shipping lines.Even later, pirates generally have dual identities, and they will quickly become maritime merchants again after looting. Therefore, even if the navy encounters them, it is usually difficult to justify them. In addition, the current means of communication are not developed. As a result, even if there is an attack, it is difficult for the navy to know immediately, let alone destroy it.

Fortunately, the wisdom of the people is infinite. At a gathering of maritime merchants organized by Li Zhen, someone proposed the concept of a logo. If the team encounters pirates and loses, the government can also trace the clues through these commodity imprints and avenge them. After all, the pirates will definitely not keep the goods in their hands. Circulation, these signs will fall into the eyes of interested people and even the government. The government can follow the clues to find clues to pirates, and then wipe them out... Even Li Zhen has to admire this person's genius. Isn't this the embryonic form of a trademark?I really didn't expect that the birth of the trademark was actually used to guard against pirates.

It’s just that the trademark method is destined to only be applied to some products, because the trademarks of some products are easy to remove (for example, steel ingots, even if you cast a mark, people will take the furnace to melt it again, and there will be nothing left?) or It is impossible to put a trademark on it (for example, iron ore, each ship has tens of millions of ores, if you put a trademark on each piece, it will be exhausting), and the pirates are on guard, so this method can only Put an end to the normal circulation of these commodities, but no one cares about them on the black market-although the prices of commodities on the black market will be suppressed very low, but the pirates themselves do business without cost, as long as the prices are not really excessive, they Generally, they will not refuse to sell.

Chapter 1056 Naval Status

Chapter 3 State of the Navy

In order to prevent pirates, and also to develop the navy so that the Tang Dynasty can go further in the future, the imperial court spared no effort in building the navy and spent endless wealth. Not only stationed a large number of fleets in the local fleet, but also deployed them in various overseas territories. Fleets of various sizes.

For example, the Spice Islands are now the most important spice supply base in Datang. Every year, the spice tax alone exceeds 300 million guan, which is comparable to a Quanzhou.It's just that the profit of spices is too great, it can be called another cash cow of Datang Finance, and it is the one that is continuous and inexhaustible.Therefore, it is often plundered by pirates. In the past five years, the Spice Islands have experienced more than ten times of large-scale looting.

In addition, the Spice Islands are too big-not because of their large size, but because they are too widely distributed.Although the Spice Islands are an archipelago, they are actually divided into two parts, the north and the south. The longest distance exceeds [-] nautical miles, especially the Banda Islands in the south of the Spice Islands, which is also divided into the Spice Islands by Li Zhen. It also made it more difficult for the Spice Islands to patrol the fleet. Often the fleet did not respond after the enemy attacked the coast, causing great losses to the Spice Islands, and this is one of the reasons why some people are unwilling to settle in the Spice Islands— —Although it makes money, it is too insecure.Therefore, a fleet is no longer enough to guard this place, and Li Zhen has also written to the court, intending to add another fleet to the Spice Islands.

However, although there is a fleet here, there is no naval district - because there are too few people here, except for the merchants who planted spice gardens here and some workers who settled here, the rest are only natives.

After all, the Spice Islands are too far away from the mainland of Tang Dynasty. It takes more than half a month to travel by boat. Unless they are really unable to survive and have nowhere to go, no one will come to live here—but now Whether it is Southeast Asia, Tianzhu, Borneo or even those small and big islands in the middle of the ocean, there is a lot of vacant land. It is better to live anywhere than here, especially now in the early days of colonization. As long as you work hard enough, you can earn money by doing anything. Since money can be made anywhere, why do they have to travel so far?As a result, even if there are endless profits here, few people come to settle here.

The people who really live here are mostly for profit. After all, the price of spices is there. Even if Li Zhen gives various preferential policies, there are no more than 20 Tang people here. The development brought great difficulties, and Li Zhen had no choice but to send some prisoners up. However, the Tang Dynasty has been governed by Qingming these years, and a prosperous age is coming, and there are too few criminals. Last year, there were only More than 20 death row prisoners, this is simply a miracle, it is incredible.

Later, in order to increase the population, Li Zhen even exiled some petty thieves, but even the number of thieves was too small, and she was still powerless to develop this place. In the end, Li Zhen could only let it go. Well, let them develop slowly by themselves. With the important specialty of spices, they will eventually be able to develop one day.

However, after giving up the construction of the Spice Islands, Li Zhen brought Zhang Jianzhi back - there were only less than 20 people in the area, and it was a waste of resources to let Zhang Jianzhi manage him. He is a prime minister and should be released. in a more important position.

In addition, a Nanyang Naval District was also established in Nanyang, which is also the largest naval district in the entire Datang, with a full three fleets, all of which are Class A.But this is not all the naval power in the Nanyang Sea area, because in addition to the Nanyang Naval District, Pei Xingjian's Sanfoqi Governor also has a fleet in his hands, which is mainly used to defend the Strait of Malacca, and it is the only one he can take the initiative to attack. In addition, Du He's Governor of the Gundam State also has a Gundam Fleet in his hands, which has the same function as Pei Xingjian.

Then there is Tianzhu. In fact, Tianzhu was the place with the most fleets at the beginning-three years ago, there were a total of six fleets here.

Because Tianzhu had just been conquered at that time, and the big cannibals didn't know where they got the news, they actually carried out a large-scale invasion here, dispatching a full [-] troops on land, trying to grab a piece of meat from Datang.But unfortunately, Datang is not easy to mess with. Facing Datang's defensive troops, the [-] troops did not take advantage of it. On the contrary, they were severely punished by Datang. After leaving half of the people behind, they retreated in embarrassment.

It's just that after being defeated this time, Dashi was obviously not convinced, so he sent his own navy to harass Datang at sea. At first, Datang was unprepared, and within a month, they actually let them sink and capture more than a dozen large and small merchant fleets. .This completely angered Li Zhen. After reporting to the imperial court, he quickly mobilized the Lingnan and other southern naval forces, gathered six fleets, and after finding the enemy's traces, he caught the Dashi Navy and beat them all, leaving them all behind. ——Under the siege of the artillery, the Dashi Navy, which still uses the gang battle as its main combat method, can't get close to Datang's ship at all.

The final result was very tragic. Dashi dispatched a total of more than 100 warships, but after the event, all of these more than 100 warships became fragments, and there was not even a piece of wood that was more than one foot long and wide on the sea.

The battle of the Tang Dynasty hurt the cannibals so much that even the Caliph quickly sent envoys to the Tang Dynasty to communicate and exchange, and after signing a series of commercial and commercial agreements, the matter was finally revealed.But everyone on both sides understands that this enmity is settled, and even if Dashi will not retaliate in the future, Datang will definitely get it back.

Of course, it was a long time later. Later, when it was confirmed that the big cannibals would not come again, Li Zhen sent those fleets back, leaving only Du He's Gundam State Fleet temporarily responsible for the defense of the Tianzhu Sea Area. .

This situation lasted until last year, when two more fleets were launched, and Tianzhu ended the embarrassing history of no fleet. At present, these two fleets are under the jurisdiction of the Tianzhu Naval District, and their main role is to be responsible for the safety of the sea area. Basically, there are no oceangoing ships. Combat missions, even escorts, can only escort to the Strait of Malacca at most, which can be described as extremely aggrieved.But fortunately, someone discovered the Maldives later, and Li Chengqian brought the Maldives Islands in the center of the Indian Ocean under his command, which was an excuse for the Tianzhu Navy District to go out to sea, so that they could go for a drive in the sea when they had time.

Chapter 1057 The future is bright...

The future looks bright for Chapter 4...

Finally, there is the Naval District of Borneo. Borneo also has two fleets, but only one of these two fleets is a Class A fleet, and the remaining one is a Class B fleet—in fact, two fleets are responsible for defense. Borneo and the islands in the nearby waters are relatively difficult. After all, the defense range of the Borneo Naval District includes almost all the Great Sunda Islands except Sumatra. The two fleets obviously cannot patrol.

It's just that for this situation, the imperial court has no better way, because Datang has too many places to spend money now, and the navy is a money-hungry branch, and there is simply not enough money to support the construction of the navy. It's not that the navy can be self-sufficient, and I'm afraid it can't even reach the current scale.Didn't you see that the Hangzhou Naval District, which was originally planned, didn't even have a ship?It is said that the imperial court is already discussing whether to ban the Hangzhou Naval District, and the court has been arguing about this matter for almost half a month.

Fortunately, Borneo is relatively close to the mainland. It is very close to the Governor of Nanyang and the Governor of Srivijaya. The three parties are watching and helping each other. Relying on these two fleets, there are very few pirates to patronize, even if there are one or two dead pirates occasionally. Attacking coastal towns is successful, but they will be quickly wiped out by the fleet - and generally such pirates are the truly vicious pirates. They don't bother to go ashore with makeup, and often attack coastal towns for supplies. Pirates would not do this. After all, they rely on these people to make a fortune. If they attack these people, no one will collect goods for them. How much money do they make?

But this is not to say that pirates pretending to be pirates are good people. In fact, those real sea merchants would rather meet real pirates than those of their peers pretending to be pirates. The reason is very simple, and some real pirates are still very moral. Yes, only seeking money but not life, as long as you don't resist, basically you won't be killed.But those fellow pirates pretending to be pirates are not so particular. Not to mention that their peers are enemies, they themselves are hidden enemies. It is said that since sea merchants pretend to be pirates, it means that they will still live in the mainland. Of course they don’t want to One day I was recognized by others as a pirate, so most of the fake pirates would be exterminated and no one would be left alive. Some even burned their boats if they went too far. It was extremely cruel.

Continuing to talk about the Navy District, the chief of the Lingnan Navy District is still Liu Rengui, but the deputy chief did not fall on his head as Sun Fujia guessed, but was taken away by Cheng Chuliang instead.Because now Cheng Chuliang is no longer the deputy governor of the Quanzhou Fleet, but the serious governor (Li Ji resigned three years ago), although the power has not changed much, but the grade is higher than Sun Fujia after all.

So although Liu Rengui was very unhappy, it was impossible for him to spare Cheng Chuliang and appoint Sun Fujia as the deputy general manager, otherwise those who had long disliked him or were blocked by him might join him as a nepotism He was charged with the crime, and he had to be reprimanded.So after weighing it up, Liu Rengui still had to pinch his nose and appoint Cheng Chuliang as the deputy chief of the Lingnan Naval District.

Today, Cheng Chuliang is not only the deputy chief of the Lingnan Military Region, but also holds the powerful military force of the Quanzhou Fleet. In these years, he has been attacking everywhere, and he has made more military exploits than Liu Rengui, the chief. He is like another star in the navy. , as famous as Yuchi Baolin of the Bohai Navy District.

The head of the Bohai Naval District is Yuchi Baoqing. Even the harshest people can't object to this point, and they can't even pick out a suitable excuse for their opposition. After all, the Dengzhou Fleet is the first fleet formed by the Tang Dynasty. Although Yuchi Baolin was not the first commander-in-chief of the Dengzhou Fleet, the Dengzhou Fleet flourished in his hands. In the Great Tang Conquest of Goguryeo, the Dengzhou Fleet made many military exploits, even relying solely on the Marine Corps it equipped , The Dengzhou Fleet destroyed Baekje alone, which greatly increased the prestige of the navy, and made the world dare not underestimate the navy.As for the complete rise of the navy in the hands of Liu Rengui, it will have to rely a lot later. It can even be said that if Yuchi Baolin hadn't laid a good foundation, so that Datang had a preliminary understanding of the navy, the navy would have no chance to rise. So simple.

But even so, Yuchi Baolin's tenure as the Bohai Naval District was not smooth sailing, the reason was the same as Du He's rejection of Nanyang Governor-Yuchi Jingde himself was already the Duke of the Tang Dynasty, and he held huge military power in his hands. Now that Yuchi Baolin has also been appointed as the chief of a military region, the power of the Yuchi family is too great, right?

In the end, it was Yuchi Jingde who took the initiative to make sacrifices and resigned from all positions to take care of the elderly at home. This blocked some people's tongues, and Yuchi Baolin was able to successfully serve as the manager.But because of this, he hated those who forced his father to resign. If Qin Huaiyu hadn't stopped him, he would have dispatched [-] marines to Chang'an to settle accounts with those people.

In addition to the distribution of the navy, the most important thing is the battleship itself. There is nothing to say about this point. Datang's shipbuilding technology has already reached its limit. The first-class battleship Li Zhen talked about had been successfully launched two years ago. Now, in any Class A fleet, there will be a first-tier battleship as the flagship, and there will also be three to five second-tier battleships.

Now Li Zhen has stopped them from researching more massive shipbuilding technology, because this year is the fifth year of growth of the rubber tree, and the rubber tree in about five years can already be tapped - then with rubber, the biggest airtight problem of the steam engine will be It has been greatly solved, and the design drawings of steamships that Li Zhen has accumulated for so many years can finally come in handy...

In short, although the development of the navy is relatively slow, five years have passed, and it has only circled in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. No matter whether it is going west or moving, it has not achieved much development. However, after five years of accumulation, the foundation of the navy It has already been defeated, and naval academies have been established in various places along the coast of Datang, and countless students have invested in the tide of the navy.

Today's navy has become the trend of the times, and even the most ignorant peasant woman in the mountain village can speak a sentence or two of naval terminology when chatting.In this day and age, being a navy is a very popular profession. Not only is the salary high enough, but it is also very honorable to say it out—if a child from any family can produce a sailor, it will be a happy event that smokes from the ancestral grave , enough for the family to brag in front of the folks for a long time.

And it can be seen that with the start of a new round of expansion of Datang, the navy will get greater development, and the future is bright...

Chapter 1058 Warm Times ([-] words)

Chapter 5 Warm Time ([-] words)

"Daddy~"

Although the beach is full of spring, Li Zhen has no desire to appreciate it. He is currently in the villa in Yalong Bay, listening to Zhang Lang's report of the latest information. However, Zhang Lang's report has just begun when it is interrupted by a group of cute children up.

Seeing this, Zhang Lang smiled slightly: "Your Highness, this subordinate will retire first."

"You go first." Seeing the children, Li Zhen immediately wiped off the worry on her face, and said with a smile, "Hey, what are you doing? Why are there so many sands on your body?"

"Daddy, let's go pick up shells." Li Zhao is six years old this year, and he is the oldest and fastest among all his siblings. Naturally, he is also the first to run into Li Zhen's arms: "Daddy, look , These are the shells I picked up, isn’t it pretty?”

"Well, it's really beautiful, how about giving it to Dad?" Li Zhen praised, he really wasn't trying to be perfunctory, but the shells in Li Zhao's hands were really beautiful, and the colorful ones were as bright as the other ones.

It's just that Li Zhen overlooked one thing, that is, his praise of Li Zhao made other cute babies jealous...

"Daddy, take a look at my shells, mine are more beautiful than my sister's." Li Min is Li Zhen's third child and his second son, also born to Wu Meiniang.However, Li Min is obviously a different kind. Although he is a compatriot with Li Zhao's mother, he has always been at odds with Li Zhao. He always bickers and is not convinced in various ways.Hearing that Li Zhen praised Li Zhao at this time, she became anxious immediately, and quickly squeezed into Li Zhen's arms, almost poking Li Zhen's face with the shell in her hand, wanting to get his praise.

"And me and me~"

"My shells are the most beautiful."

"What's the use of your beautiful shells? I picked up pearls and gave them to Daddy."

"Look, Dad, what kind of characters do the patterns on my shell look like? It's amazing."

"..."