Now the navy is thinking that to obtain Guangning from the hands of the Annan and Northern Dynasties, it does not necessarily have to be done by the empire itself. It can completely be borrowed from others!
Whose hand can I borrow?
Who else could it be, of course Annan Li Chao!
Annan is now in the period of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. There is a Mo Dynasty in the north and a Li Dynasty in the south. Moreover, the two sides are fighting to the death. They are incompatible with each other. Either I will kill you, or you will kill me.
Although there is no large-scale war between the two sides now, if they are gently provoked, it will not be easy to fight!
However, the navy does not have such professional talents to sow discord. If you want to accomplish this, I am afraid you will have to seek advice from the civil officials, or more accurately, from the Fusang Affairs Office of the Tang Dynasty.
Soon, the Navy found the Fuso Affairs Office and consulted several Fuso Affairs officials who had been working in Osumi County for a long time. At that time, these officials said that this matter was simple and not complicated at all.
If your navy wants to provoke a war between Annan and South and North Korea, just sell arms directly!
First, sell some arms to the already relatively powerful Southern Dynasty, so that they can increase their military strength and see the hope of defeating the Northern Dynasty militarily, and then express the empire's support for them to unify Annan.
Then they will send people to secretly create some armed conflicts, and then bribe a few local generals to encourage them, and then start small-scale armed conflicts first.
In the end, a fight is inevitable.
Then go back and support the Northern Dynasty, buy them some arms, and let them block the attack of the Southern Dynasty.
As long as they fight, the Northern and Southern Dynasties will not be at the mercy of your navy. Whoever you support will have a greater advantage. When the time comes, you can do one or two things. When they have no money, let them exchange for mineral mining rights.
Weapons are then used as collateral for customs duties and even administrative taxes, and then slowly seep in.
By then, let alone the coal mines in Guangning, even the mineral resources of the entire Annan are free to be exploited by you. Even if you are ruthless, it will not be impossible for the Northern Dynasty to directly sell the entire Thang Long City to the empire.
These methods are actually simple to say and easy to operate.
However, it cannot be used by all countries. You must be strong enough to control the situation before you can do this. If you don't have strong strength, the Annan people are not stupid, so they will naturally not listen to you.
When the people in the navy heard this, there was no problem at all. If the empire was not strong enough, then there would be no strong country in the region.
So I quickly typed a report and asked the Holy Emperor to make a decision!
Although this kind of thing is said to have been proposed by the Navy, the actual implementation has nothing to do with the Navy, because the separation of military and political affairs is within the scope of the civilian officials and has nothing to do with the Navy.
What the navy has to do is to provide force cover for the situation in Annan anytime and anywhere.
After reading the report handed over by the navy, Li Xuan agreed. Anyway, this kind of thing would not be harmful to the empire, and it would not cost any resources. It was just some ordnance and weapons, in exchange for a Guangning or even the entire Annan.
Resource extraction rights are definitely worth it.
Not to mention, this is also a change in the empire's external expansion strategy. If the experiment is feasible in Annan, then the empire will adopt such a strategy in other places.
As a result, soon, Datang established a brand new affairs office: the ‘Datang Nanyang Affairs Office’.
The nature of this yamen is similar to that of the Fuso Affairs Yamen. They are fully responsible for affairs in the Nanyang region (limited to the peninsula, excluding Luzon Islands, Banten Islands and other islands, and excluding Malacca).
Regarding the various indigenous forces in the Nanyang Peninsula, the Nanyang Affairs Office has the authority to conduct diplomacy, declare war, and sign agreements. Of course, it still does not have any power to dispatch troops.
Because of the distance, the administrative office is temporarily established in Lianzhou Prefecture, the southernmost trading port of the empire!
The affairs yamen had just been established, before all the officials had arrived, and the Lianzhou local people had not prepared a building for the yamen, so they had already sent Annan's special envoy south on a navy ship!
Moreover, when the Annan envoy went south, he also brought several merchant ships loaded with various types of export-oriented ordnance!
Under the cover of naval warships, they ran directly to the southern part of Annan, and then found the people in power in the Southern Dynasty, and sold a large amount of ordnance to the Southern Dynasty at a relatively cheap price.
Then they found a group of unfamiliar pirates and disguised themselves as troops from the Northern Dynasty to attack several villages and towns in the Southern Dynasty!
Under the activities of the Annan envoy and his party, Annan and the Southern Dynasty quickly took action and prepared for war. They said that the Northern Dynasty was too bullying and dared to take the initiative to invade their villages and towns.
However, at this time, the possibility of them taking the initiative to attack northward was not high enough. Annan's special envoy and the navy added another fire to Annan's situation.
They turned around and ran to the Northern Dynasty, saying that the Southern Dynasty was going to launch a large-scale northward attack, and you, the Northern Dynasty, didn't hurry up and take precautions.
Also, we have all kinds of cheap and beautiful weapons here, including swords, spears, plate armor, and matchlock guns. They are all good things and the prices are very cheap. Do you want them?
What is no money?
It doesn't matter, I just owe you. Our businessmen in Datang are still very good. I will give you a small part for free to try out. If you think it is useful, I will sell the rest to you at a low price. If you don't have the money, you will owe me first.
Sure, Royal Bank can provide loans.
At this time, when the Northern Dynasty also began to prepare for war, they turned around and ran to the Southern Dynasty, and then said something, the Northern Dynasty in the north was already preparing to start moving south, you should be careful!
Although originally hostile, the northern and southern dynasties of Annan and South China, which had been peaceful for many years, entered a state of war readiness in just one month under the joint instigation of the Nanyang Affairs Office of the Tang Dynasty and the navy.
And the most important thing is that in November, taking advantage of the good autumn weather and the Annan envoy's repeated promises that the empire would support them in unifying Annan, the Southern Dynasty, which had long wanted to conquer Annan through the Northern Expedition, finally couldn't bear it.
He stopped and launched an attack first.
More than 20,000 troops were sent to attack the Northern Dynasties!
However, Bei Chao was well prepared. Although it was caught off guard, it quickly stabilized its position and began to counterattack!
At this time, it is time for the empire to start harvesting!
Under the arm of the empire, both the Northern and Southern Dynasties used the empire's standard export ordnance, such as light plate armor, matchlock guns and even shotguns. The main forces in the armies of both sides were all standard large-scale weapons.
Tang Ordnance Corps.
In war, there will be losses. If the main force is lost, it needs to be replenished.
The most important thing is that this main force performed well. Both the Southern and Northern Dynasties hoped to purchase more Tang Dynasty ordnance and arm more troops.
Of course, at this time, the price of ordnance is not nearly as free as before!
The Tang Empire has never done loss-making business. Even at the previous price that was almost free, it was still profitable, but the profit was relatively small. But now, they will not do it without several times the profit.
At this time, the Nanyang Affairs Yamen of the Tang Dynasty issued a sternly worded document, requiring domestic merchants who went to the Annan region to trade, must obey the arrangements of the Affairs Yamen, and must not lower prices for the sake of competition.
The military has always supported this policy. The army directly blocks the border and the navy blocks the coast, ensuring that every batch of ordnance entering Annan must be high-priced ordnance.
Of course, whether it is the army, navy, or the Nanyang Affairs Office of the Tang Dynasty, they are not doing business. They are just raising the price of local ordnance.
Businessmen are also willing to do this. Making war fortune is everyone's favorite thing. Needless to say, they will try their best to raise the price.
What's more, the empire's various ordnance production is strictly controlled by the three major arms companies, and the traders engaged in overseas arms trade are all approved companies.
And because the chaos in the overseas arms trade in the early years resulted in vicious competition, the empire began to strictly control the arms trade starting in the twelfth year of Xuanping.
Any enterprise engaged in the arms trade must obtain approval or a license before it can get involved.
At the same time, it is mandatory that any trading company involved in the arms trade must be a company controlled by the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises. Even if it is not 100% controlled, it must still hold more than 51% of the shares.
In addition, a more important point is that in order to make more profits, the three major weapons companies have already begun to personally end their operations. They all went directly to Osumi County to open branches and contact Fuso customers nearby.
, and then sell it directly, without giving second-rate dealers like arms trading companies a chance!
Taking Fuso as the largest overseas arms sales market in the Tang Empire, the three major arms companies all set up branch companies in Osumi County and even major colonies to directly contact local daimyo and then sell various weapons.
Of course, due to the nature of second-rate dealers, there are still many trading companies with arms trading licenses. There are more than a dozen in total, but the scale is not large, and arms trading is not their main business, it can only be regarded as a side business.
That's all.
Moreover, the markets they are involved in are all small and medium-sized markets. At least the big markets in Fuso are basically directly controlled by the three major weapons companies.
Under such strict control, the three major arms companies first reached an internal agreement and agreed on a minimum price range, that is, the price of ordnance exported to the Annan region needs to be the same as the price of ordnance exported to the Fuso region.