The first thousand two hundred and forty-four chapters set sail in the Americas
Although it is said that the navy is organized to explore and colonize the Americas, as a purely armed force, exploration and colonization are not professional for the navy.
What the navy is best at is fighting!
Therefore, the more than 20 ships heading to America this time are not all naval warships. There are actually only nine ships that truly belong to the navy.
Moreover, only one cruiser and two frigates are official warships, while the other six naval ships are actually armed transport ships.
The remaining thirteen ships came from more complex sources, including three immigrant transport ships rented and dispatched by the Immigration and Reclamation Division of the Ministry of Agriculture.
The remaining nine ships are all ships of Datang America Company, but although they belong to the company, most of the ships are ships rented by Datang America Company!
Among these nine ships, only two are assets belonging to Datang America Company, and of the remaining seven, three are ships belonging to Datang Dongyang Company, and two are belonging to Datang Western Company. The remaining
The two ships are chartered from other private shipping companies.
Datang America Company is a new company established last year. It was jointly funded by the Royal Assets Division and the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises. Its registered assets are not much, only more than 200,000 taels of silver. The money is basically invested in the purchase of second-hand ships or
I'm ordering a new ship.
At the same time, this company, like the Dongyang Trading Company and the Nanyang Trading Company, has an official background, but it does not have a trade monopoly like the Western Company, and it is even less likely to have company arms.
Datang Western Company is a special product, and naturally it is unlikely that there will be too many of this special product.
Datang America Company is just an ordinary trading company. At most, it is an official investment and has an official background. However, in the Datang Empire, there are many enterprises established with official and royal investment. As of this year, the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises has invested in new
, there are more than 100 companies controlled by acquisitions and other methods. These more than 100 companies are generally typical companies, represented by the three major weapons companies, several major shipyards, several major steel companies, and several machinery companies.
It almost monopolized the empire's heavy industry.
In addition, the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises also manages many government-run enterprises controlled by local government finance investment. In a broad sense, these enterprises can also be regarded as enterprises of the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, but outsiders prefer to call them local government-run enterprises. The scale of these local government-run enterprises is large.
There are small ones and large ones, such as the Nantong Textile Company in Jiangnan Province, which employs more than 5,000 people, while the smaller ones only have dozens of employees.
If this part is included, the number of enterprises managed by the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises will exceed 2,000. Of course, there are only more than 100 large enterprises, and the rest are small and medium-sized enterprises.
There are relatively few companies controlled by the Royal Assets Division, only about thirty in total. However, the companies controlled by the Royal Assets Division are generally large enterprises, and most of them are in high-tech industries, with considerable profits, and are supported by the famous Royal Bank.
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Datang America Company, in terms of investment figures and background, can only be said to be an ordinary maritime trading enterprise with a certain official background.
However, since its establishment, the company has been aiming to expand trade with the Americas, so this is highly consistent with the Navy's Americas strategy.
The Navy has been cooperating with Datang America Company since last year, preparing to send a large fleet to the Americas to establish colonies.
At the end of last year, the expedition fleet sent by the Navy to explore the American routes also returned. Their successful return also meant that they had discovered the route to the Americas.
At the same time, the large amount of gold and silver brought back by the expedition fleet also blinded the eyes of the navy's senior officials. The crew members said that after arriving in America, they could exchange gold and silver from the local indigenous people with anything they wanted.
A glass bead the size of a finger can even be exchanged for baskets of gold and silver!
Yes, it’s just a basket, it’s not fake at all!
America is filled with gold and silver!
This also further stimulated the navy's idea of launching an American strategy to improve the navy's status.
After several months of preparations, the Navy and Datang America Company joined forces, and the Immigration and Reclamation Division of the Ministry of Agriculture also dispatched three immigration ships to form this huge fleet to prepare for the American continent.
When the three parties join forces, their goals are naturally different!
The American Company wanted to engage in trade, exchange small items such as glass beads for large amounts of gold and silver from local indigenous people, and obtain massive wealth.
The Navy hopes to establish a stable colonial base in the Americas, and at the same time use the rich America to influence domestic high-level officials to promote the implementation of the American strategy.
As for the Immigration and Reclamation Division, they don’t have any specific goals. Anyway, wherever the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty go, they are the immigration targets of the Immigration and Reclamation Division. Whether it is in Nanyang or India, or in Australia or even the Americas, the Immigration and Reclamation Division will go there.
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With the combined efforts of the three parties, this huge fleet set sail and prepared to go to America!
This huge fleet is also called the American Fleet within the Navy. If everything goes well, the Navy will directly establish a naval base on the American continent and then set up a squadron, and this squadron will be
American Squadron.
It is worth mentioning that among the above-mentioned ships, except for the three warships of the Navy, the other ships, regardless of whether they are called immigrant transport ships, armed merchant ships or armed transport ships, are actually all new Datang ship types.
Even the tonnage is the same, half of them are standard 680-ton ships, and most of the rest are 450-ton ships.
After years of development, the Datang ship type has become very mature and perfect. Since it adopts a standard design, even the parts are the same, which greatly reduces the difficulty and cost of construction, making many domestic
Large-scale shipyards are capable of building such standard ships.
However, among this fleet, the most eye-catching one is the cruiser Ryukyu sent by the Navy.
The Ryukyu cruiser is the first 800-ton cruiser of the Tang Dynasty and the sixth ship of the Songjiang-class cruiser. It has a standard displacement of 830 tons and adopts a double-deck artillery layout, with two decks and a bow and stern.
A total of fifty-two long-barreled artillery pieces of different calibers were carried.
Its firepower is second only to that of a battleship!
Not to mention the powerful firepower, this class of ship is designed based on a cruiser. The long-lasting combat capability, seaworthiness and speed were taken into consideration at the beginning of the design.
At present, although the most powerful and largest ships in the Tang Dynasty's navy are battleships, in fact, cruisers and frigates of various types are mostly used to perform combat missions in the open sea. As for battleships, they are basically waiting for them.
On the mainland coast or occasionally to Southeast Asia to deter the Portuguese.
The cruiser Ryukyu, with its powerful firepower and good seaworthiness, is enough to serve as the bodyguard of the entire fleet.
Led by the cruiser Ryukyu, this huge American fleet began to leave Shanghai, then headed to Naha, Ryukyu Prefecture, Osumi Prefecture, and finally continued eastward along the Fuso Islands, and finally broke into the depths of the Pacific Ocean!
According to the plan, they need to sail thousands of kilometers and finally find the Midway Island and Sandalwood Island that the previous exploration fleet found, so that they can obtain supplies of fresh water and food, and then use Sandalwood Island as a starting point to continue sailing eastward.
OK, all the way to the coast of the North American continent, and that is their destination.
In this long route, there were not many islands for them to supply supplies, and this was the first large-scale voyage. In order to avoid accidents, the more than 20 ships in the fleet actually carried more than 100 people.
There are not even many goods, and most of the ships are used to transport various supplies.
In the entire fleet, except for the navy officers and sailors of the merchant ships, there are only more than 800 pure immigrants organized by the Immigration and Reclamation Department. According to the plan, these people are not going to America, but are going to Honolulu Island.
Finally, a stable colony was established to provide supplies for the passing fleets.
As for colonizing America, we can only wait for the next voyage.
After the fleet arrived in Osumi Prefecture with smooth sailing, they carried out the last large-scale replenishment and rest, and then headed directly into the Pacific Ocean. At first, they continued along the Fuso Islands, but soon they stopped briefly for replenishment.
After a while, they turned around and headed straight into the depths of the Pacific Ocean.
The reason why they did not continue to advance along the Fuso Islands and finally go all the way north, and finally across the northern Pacific and into northern America, was because doing so was more dangerous than crossing the Central Pacific.
The North Pacific is close to the North Pole, so low temperatures are not a problem. The key is that the winds and waves are strong, making sailing very dangerous.
After all, the ships these days are all sailboats, and their tonnage is no more than a few hundred tons. Navigating in the windy, choppy, and extremely cold waters is almost suicidal.
The Tang Empire has already sent three expedition teams to this sea area. None of the expedition teams successfully reached North America. Two of them suffered heavy losses and were forced to return, and the last expedition fleet even
He was nowhere to be found. No need to guess, he must have rested in the Pacific Ocean.
In such a dangerous North Pacific, the Tang Navy would naturally not choose to be in this sea area.
Although the Central Pacific is vast and difficult to replenish, and there are sometimes windless zones, it is safer at least. Anyway, you bring enough food and fresh water, and you can survive for several months even if you encounter windless zones.
After the American Fleet set off, it didn't take long for Li Xuan to receive news from the Navy, saying that the American Fleet had officially left the Fuso Sea and entered the depths of the Pacific Ocean.