The empire's Eastern trade with Fuso has become an important foreign trade of the empire.
This is not only because Fuso is close to the mainland of the empire. From the Koryo Peninsula, you only need to pass through the Tsushima Strait to reach Fuso. It is also because the current population of Fuso is not small and it also produces gold and silver.
At the same time, many big names were fighting on their own, and there was no strong unified political power. This also gave the empire's merchants many opportunities to fish in troubled waters.
For example, in order to monopolize the arms business in the Fuso region, they even used various means to weaken and destroy the arms production capabilities of the big names in Fuso. Compared with a few years ago, the output of arms in the entire Fuso region has declined instead of increasing.
Obvious example.
During the empire's arms trade with Fuso, the military sold off a large number of decommissioned matchlock guns at a high price, drawing back a large amount of funds for replacement. The weapons companies made several times the profits, and the weapons merchants also made several times the profits. Hello.
Hello everyone!
Even the daimyo in Fuso who purchased weapons from the Tang Dynasty thought it was good. Although they paid a lot of gold and silver, they got advanced matchlock guns and even a small number of small and medium-sized artillery to fight against other daimyo.
Much better than slashing with a katana like before!
The success of weapons sales in the Fusang area also made the merchants of the Tang Empire particularly like to regard weapons as their main products, selling them to Fusang and Southeast Asia.
The only exceptions are the Tatars, Oara people, and Tubo people in the north. The Tang Empire officially prohibited trading with them except at the designated mutual trade ports. At the same time, in mutual trade, the government took the lead. The Tatars wanted to
If you want a matchlock gun, you can also exchange it for a war horse!
If you trade with the Tatars privately, you will be charged with treason if you are caught!
The Tang Empire was not the Ming Dynasty, and the blockade of the northern Great Wall was very strict. In addition, the military was always preparing for war, so it took this kind of thing even more seriously.
However, the system is good, and no matter how strict it is, it will be difficult for even a powerful country like the Tang Dynasty to supervise where things end up after they are sold.
In the early years, even the puppet Ming army was able to obtain matchlock guns produced by the Tang Empire through various channels.
The natives of Nanyang and even the pirates were able to obtain some of the matchlock guns produced by the Tang Empire through various chaotic channels. This was something that the Tang Empire had no control over.
However, the total number of these stray matchlocks is still limited. It is impossible to say everywhere. As for artillery, it is even less, because the Tang Empire prohibits the export of cannon in principle. Even if they buy it, they will only buy some light ones.
Small cannons, such as shotguns, etc., but field cannons weighing more than five kilograms are generally not purchased.
The only exception is armed merchant ships!
If we don't sell these armed merchant ships, they will be swallowed up by pirates when they go to sea. Therefore, domestic armed merchant ships will still be sold, but they will be strictly registered. How many doors you go to sea, how much you will get when you come back.
door, or there will be various investigations, ranging from fines and revoking of sea trade qualifications to arresting people and jailing.
Today, it is estimated that only a very small part of the guns and artillery of the indigenous people and pirates outside Wandan City were produced by the Tang Empire, and of the two or three matchlock guns, it is estimated that many of them were produced by the Empire.
This also made many soldiers on the top of the city curse in a low voice. Those damn merchants were selling guns and cannons indiscriminately. Now, okay, they all fell into the hands of the enemy, who in turn beat them.
However, cursing has no solution. On the contrary, they have to be thankful that the empire strictly prohibits the export of flintlock guns and medium- and large-caliber artillery, especially flintlock guns. The export is even more strict.
It can only be equipped with domestic armed forces and cannot even be purchased by civilian armed merchant ships.
Colonel Yang Hong put down his telescope. Through the telescope just now, he had basically determined the basic tactics of the natives and pirates outside the city. They wanted to bypass the western city wall where their own large-caliber artillery was densely packed under the cover of artillery.
, run to the east wall and attack.
And he also saw that the local fleet was gradually approaching, and he estimated that they would risk sailing into the Sunda Strait, and after approaching, they would bombard Bandan City with naval artillery!
Banten City is a typical bastion fortress. In addition to self-protection, it also shoulders the important task of blocking the Sunda Strait. Otherwise, there would not be a large number of heavy artillery deployed on the west fort. Among those heavy artillery, there are four
Eighteen-pound cannons, eight fourteen-pound cannons, and two forty-eight-pound mortars.
In addition, a total of eighteen nine-pound cannons and sixteen five-pound cannons were deployed throughout the fortress.
Shotguns that only weigh two or three kilograms are simply ignored!
Although none of these artillery pieces are new, the artillery these days has not changed much. There is not much difference in performance between the nine-pound naval gun used by the empire in the early years and the current nine-pound naval gun.
If it can be equipped with the latest howitzer shells, it can still cause heavy damage to these natives and pirates!
It is a pity that although Bandan City is an overseas territory, it is also important, but it is not important enough for the empire to prioritize the limited production and relatively expensive howitzer shells here.
Currently, the empire's howitzer shells are only equipped with the domestic Guards and some of the main field forces. As for the navy, only battleships are equipped with these howitzer shells.
So it is a pity that most of the artillery shells currently used in Banten City are traditional solid shells and shotgun shells, and heavy artillery uses chain shells, arson bombs, grapeshot, etc. to target ships.
Otherwise, when these natives and pirates first landed, they could directly use dozens of artillery to fire howitzer shells to bombard them. If these natives and pirates still have the courage to continue the siege, then they can only be said to be awesome.
force!
It's a pity that the city is not equipped with these howitzer shells!
When Yang Hong realized that the enemy was going to bypass the west where his own artillery fire was dense, and instead run to the east, he made corresponding adjustments and immediately moved part of the nine-pound and five-pound artillery to the
Go to the east city wall.
Anyway, the bastion is specially designed for war, and there are a large number of rapid transfer channels inside. Not only the soldiers, but also the artillery can also be transferred quickly.
Of course, those heavy artillery weighing fourteen or even eighteen kilograms are difficult to move. On the one hand, it is difficult to maneuver, and on the other hand, they must be used to fight against the enemy's fleet entering the Sunda Strait.
Without these heavy artillery, these seven or eight armed merchant ships, mainly pirate ships, would have been able to approach the shore directly and fire at Bandan City.
And Bandan City is a fortress built just on the coast. Close to the shore, although it can use heavy artillery to block the strait and protect the port, the enemy can also use naval guns to bombard the castle after getting close.
It's just that usually, the enemy's fleet would not look foolish enough to move up and fire on the fortress's artillery, because then they would not be able to take any advantage, and on the contrary would suffer a huge loss.
Colonel Yang Hong had just arranged for the artillery to be transferred, and the artillery originally deployed on the east wall had already fired in advance!
The Tang Army's Wantan Garrison took the lead in launching an interceptive artillery bombardment, announcing the outbreak of this offensive and defensive war!
The natives and pirates went around from the seaside. They brought artillery and nearly 10,000 infantrymen to coordinate with them. But before they launched an attack, they naturally had to launch an artillery bombardment.
The natives may not know the importance of artillery fire suppression, but the pirates inside know it very well, not to mention the coalition of natives and pirates. The pirates are the ones with the large number of artillery and matchlock guns.
, the natives are just thugs.
These pirates worked hard to remove the cannons from the ships, naturally not to let these cannons rust and become moldy, but to use them in combat.
However, in order for artillery to be effective, it must first enter the effective range!
Just when these pirates pushed the artillery and wanted to continue to advance to the firing range, the artillerymen of the Tang Dynasty defenders on the top of the city were the first to open fire. They were advancing directly outside the city based on the measured shooting elements.
The pirate artillery opened fire!
These days, in a war where both sides use guns and artillery, artillery suppression is very important!
The reason why the Tang Army was able to crush the Ming Army at that time was because in almost every battle, the Tang Army was able to gain an artillery advantage. After using its artillery advantage to suppress the enemy's artillery fire, it covered the infantry to launch an attack. This was an old trick of the Tang Army.
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Although these pirates are unlikely to have fought any large-scale wars, they still know the basic common sense and know that they want to bombard first. However, in this kind of terrain, they are always the passive party.
Because what they are facing is a bastion!
Several nine-pound artillery deployed in the east opened fire first. The hit rate of the first round of shelling was not high. Only one shell hit. However, this shell that hit successfully destroyed the pirates.
The whole gun crew!
The solid shell directly destroyed the temporary wooden mount of the pirate's five-pound cannon, leaving only a lone barrel, and also killed and injured several pirate gunners!
I saw a temporary wooden gun mount destroyed in front of me!
A pirate who looked like a leader and was watching the battle from behind yelled: "Damn it!"
If anyone in the city hears this, they will definitely yell and curse, because this pirate speaks serious Chinese, and even the clothes he wears are traditional Hanfu.
And many of the pirates around him are also Chinese.
Of course, there are more people with other skin colors and hair colors. On one side of the thousands of indigenous people, there are about 500 pirates with messy clothes and even races. Among this group of pirates are Chinese and Fusang.
There are indigenous people from Southeast Asia, Indians and Arabs, white people, and even black people.
Basically all the races that can be found in Nanyang these days can be found in this pirate gang. This small pirate gang is like the United Nations.
And in front of this group of about 500 pirates of various colors!
A middle-aged man wearing traditional Hanfu with black hair and black eyes was looking at the city with a telescope, and behind him there were three people standing respectfully!
One of them was a dark-skinned, short stature, strangely dressed, and an indigenous man from somewhere. There was also a young Arab wearing a robe, a cloth bandage on his head, and an Arabian scimitar hanging from his waist. There was also a young Arab wearing a
An old white man wearing tight clothes, blond hair, blue eyes, a tall nose, and a Western-style rapier at his waist.
The middle-aged man in Hanfu put down his telescope after a while, touched his goatee, and said softly: "These pseudo-Tang rebels, after so many years, they still fight in the same old way, without any progress, they only know how to fight!