In the northern part of the Bandan Sea, in the Makassar Strait west of Makassar, a small ship flying the flag of the Tang Navy is sailing north at an ultra-high speed of more than ten knots. Look at its ship shape and the very unique new Datang hard
Sails, then it can be determined that this ship should be the 'new flying shear fast communication ship' equipped by the Tang Navy in the past two years.
The displacement of this kind of fast communication ship is not large, only about fifty tons. The hull is slender, with small freeboard and almost no superstructure. The surface of the entire ship looks like it is moving forward close to the sea, but in the invisible water
It is the hull most suitable for high-speed navigation, and its length-to-width ratio reaches an astonishing nine to one, giving this fast communication ship the speed of flying.
Of course, apart from speed, this kind of extremely designed ship has basically nothing else to praise. Its protection is almost nonexistent, and its firepower is only light artillery that does not occupy the deck. Even because of its excessive length and width,
The ratio also resulted in the hull not being stable enough. In order to enhance the stability of the hull and enable the ship to survive the waves, steel was specially used to reinforce key parts such as the keel of the hull.
At this time, the communication ship named Little Luzon also displayed its greatest, or even its only value: running fast!
Driven by the strong wind, the Little Luzon was speeding at an astonishing speed of thirteen knots. Because the speed was too fast, the ship was ahead of the others, and the length-to-width ratio was so large that the ship seemed to be rocking up and down and left and right!
The only thing that remains unchanged is that it always maintains a high speed!
This communication ship needs to deliver the news to Luzon in the shortest possible time so that they can send reinforcements.
Even if they encounter any storms along the way, they will not lower the sails, but will continue to move forward against the strong wind and waves!
Even if the ship is bumping in the waves and seems to fall apart at any time, it will not stop moving forward!
Even the old sailors on the ship, who are used to seeing wind and waves, will vomit in such violent turbulence. After this voyage, it is estimated that the sailors on the ship will not be able to recover without three or five days of rest.
.
But even so, they still will not lower the sails and stop!
At the same time, the fleet led by Xia Zhiquan was also galloping on the sea. Everyone in the fleet was eager to return to Wandan City in the next second, but the speed of the fleet was so fast, even if all the sails were unfolded.
, but the speed is only five or six knots.
The speed of an ordinary sailing ship, whether it is a battleship or an armed transport ship, is far from being comparable to that of a clipper schooner. The latter can easily reach a speed of more than ten knots, and can even reach thirteen knots when the wind and water are smooth.
Even fourteen knots, in extreme cases, a speed of about seventeen knots can be achieved.
However, for other traditional sailing ships, even the newly designed warships like the Tang Dynasty that blended the advantages of the East and the West, and the Tang 680 Merchant Ship Xi series with certain advantages of new warships, their average speed is actually
It can only reach about six or seven knots. Compared with ships such as the Galen ship, it is not much faster.
And at a speed of six to seven knots on the wide sea, there is no sign of movement at all in a short period of time, and it even gives people the illusion that this fleet has never moved in place!
Compared with the sea, human beings are still too small and insignificant.
Even if Xia Zhiquan is anxious, he can only wait slowly. At this speed, even under the best circumstances, it will take seven days to return to Wandan City. If the wind direction is slightly off on the road, the time will be shortened.
It will be longer!
As for the reinforcements sent from Luzon, if everything goes well, it is estimated that it will take a month to arrive in extreme cases. In fact, it is impossible to arrive so quickly. It is possible in one and a half months or even two months.
In this case, the safety of Wandan City depends on Wandan City's own strength.
But Xia Zhiquan is worried!
He got the news that there were at least 20,000 enemy troops surrounding Bandan City, and there were also a lot of artillery and muskets inside. Needless to say, these things must have been provided by the Portuguese.
Although these natives are not good at fighting, they are still a threat if they have artillery and muskets, and there are also many pirates among them.
These pirates are not comparable to the indigenous armies. They are experts at playing with cannons and guns. The pirates these days, with a little reorganization, can actually be pulled out and used directly by the navy. After their sailors land, they can also
For use by the Army.
Many European countries do this!
The indigenous army plus pirates, and Xia Zhiquan is also worried that there will be Portuguese military personnel commanding them. If this is the case, the Bandan City side will be even more dangerous.
Xia Zhiquan is worried about the safety of Wandan City, and this worry is turning into reality!
Outside Bandan City, a mixed army of 20,000 natives and pirates has made a lot of preparations in the past half month. They built a complete fort and also moved it from ships anchored offshore.
A lot of artillery and a lot of ammunition.
At this time, all these artillery pieces have entered their artillery positions, and it won't take long for them to open fire!
There are about three to four thousand indigenous people and pirates armed with muskets, divided into two sides, one side is the indigenous people, and the other side is a mess of pirates, and they are preparing to launch an attack. Judging from their formation, it is obvious that the formation of the pirates is more powerful.
Perfect, although those natives have been in contact with the Tang Empire and foreigners for many years, they obviously still have not learned how to use muskets in combat.
As for the remaining more than 10,000 indigenous people, they are armed with all kinds of messy cold weapons!
Muskets and artillery are still a tall thing these days!
Not surprisingly, at least half of the matchlocks in the hands of these natives and pirates were produced by the empire!
At present, in the entire East Asia, there are not many forces that can mass-produce guns. The Tang Empire is one family, the Portuguese are one family, and it is worth mentioning that the Fuso people can also do it. Of course, this is talking about large-scale manufacturing.
There are many sporadic and small-scale craftsmanships. Even if a pirate gang robs a few craftsmen, they can still craft some guns and cannons by hand.
These three forces are able to mass-produce guns. In fact, the output of the Fuso people is very limited. Moreover, their original base for manufacturing guns, Osumi Island, has been captured by the Tang Empire. Currently, there are only a few in the west of Kyushu Island.
The Dai Minghui made guns, but the output was not large, that is, the production of hundreds and thousands was not enough for their own use. They had to order a large number of matchlock guns from the Tang Empire.
As for the Portuguese, their output is also quite good. Although Malacca is a bigger place and there are not many Portuguese people, there are quite a few indigenous people working for them.
Most of their output is for their own use. In addition to equipping local soldiers, they are also recruiting young local indigenous people to form colonial armies. These armies are also equipped with muskets. The Portuguese recruited indigenous people and were also influenced by
The direct threat from the Tang Empire. If the Tang Empire had not been eyeing Malacca, they would not have recruited a large number of natives to serve as the army.
The remaining parts will also be sold externally!
This also means that in East Asia, the only ones capable of providing guns and cannons are actually the Tang Empire and the Portuguese!
However, the Tang Empire had a strict import and export control system and strictly prohibited the export of flintlock guns and artillery.
However, various cold weapons such as matchlocks and plate armor are allowed to be exported, but they need to undergo strict review.
The export of matchlock guns is because if you don't sell them, the Portuguese will. Besides, many times, the Tang Empire also needs to use weapons as bargaining chips to instigate the indigenous people to engage in civil war, even if the indigenous people cannot take them.
When it comes to money, sometimes the empire will just give it away for free out of consideration for other interests.
For example, in the Fuso area, the Tang Empire has been doing this in recent years. They will send a small amount of matchlocks, plate armor, swords and other weapons to certain daimyo, encouraging them to launch attacks on nearby daimyo until they taste the benefits.
After that, he immediately sold all kinds of weapons at high prices. After selling this one, he turned around and ran to the daimyo who was attacked to sell weapons!
In the end, these two rival daimyo will fight with various weapons provided by Datang!
That scene made a group of imperial merchants engaged in Eastern trade laugh from ear to ear. They all sighed: How can you make money selling cloth instead of selling weapons!
There is a lot of gold and silver in Fusang, and their market is not big. The ordinary people are very poor. The only things that the Tang Empire can export are some swords, light industries and weapons, and cloth is something that has not been exported a few years ago.
The sales volume is okay, but now it is gradually saturated, because this kind of consumer goods for ordinary people requires a large number of buying people to support it, and ordinary people in Fuso cannot afford much.
Not to mention other industrial products, they can't afford to buy them, no matter how good they are, they are useless, they can't buy them at a loss!
There is no way, in order to find new profit growth points, they just focus on weapons!
Because among many export commodities, weapons have the highest profit!
A decommissioned matchlock gun that had been used by the military for several years had an actual value of more than one tael of silver at most. However, when it was sold to export merchants, the military was very aggressive and directly asked for three or four taels of silver each.
These weapons sellers purchase brand new export matchlock guns from the three major weapons companies, and the purchase price is only eight or nine taels of silver. You must know that even a few years ago, the military's purchase price for this thing was only more than four taels of silver.
, but if the price of the export model doesn’t double, how can I be embarrassed to say that I am an arms dealer?
But those maritime merchants are even more ruthless!
They transported these second-hand pistols to Fuso, and they dared to buy more than ten taels of silver. As for the brand-new matchlock guns, they dared to buy thirty taels!