The reason why the Tatars came to Europe was not because they were forced by the Tang Dynasty!
But these Europeans don't care about this now and can't control it. Is it possible that they can still find Xu Zhenchuan and accuse the Tang Dynasty of driving the Tatars to Europe?
You know, the large amount of ordnance products imported by the Tang Dynasty have already armed many European armies. Now even the Spaniards have to swallow their humiliation and beg the Tang Dynasty to sell them ordnance products, and they have to hope that the price will be cheaper.
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If the Tang Dynasty was evil-hearted and doubled the price of ordnance, they just couldn't stand it.
They are now in urgent need of all kinds of ordnance supplies, and currently, the only one in the world that can provide a large amount of ordnance supplies in a short period of time is Datang.
If you don't buy it from Datang, do you really have to go into battle with a wooden stick and inferior sword?
The Tatars are well equipped with guns and cannons!
If you look at the current world situation, you will find that the Tang Empire is causing trouble and trouble everywhere, just like a troublemaker. Wherever it goes, there will be war.
Although the Tang Dynasty would rarely go out and start a war personally, at most they would only occasionally fight small battles, but they would not maintain the local situation and maintain peace, and they did not have the consciousness of a world leader to maintain peace.
For example, in the Nanyang Peninsula, since the war between the Southern and Northern Dynasties in Annan began, the war has spread to the entire Nanyang Peninsula. Many parties are fighting back and forth, and there are large-scale wars every year.
The same is true in India. When the Portuguese occupied some coastal cities in India, the Portuguese only did business with the Indians. At most, they controlled the shipping routes. However, the approach of the Tang Dynasty was completely different from that of the Portuguese.
After the Tang Dynasty fully controlled the coastal areas of India, they had no intention of maintaining local peace. They basically ignored the disputes between local princes. You can fight as much as you like and buy weapons on the way.
However, although the Tang Dynasty did not personally attack the indigenous people, it generally did not allow any company to become bigger. The best example is the Mughal Dynasty, which could only be limited to the northwest region. If it wanted to expand to the central region of India, it would be
It will be opposed by Datang.
The same is true in Africa and America. The indigenous people fought every day, but the Tang Dynasty basically ignored them.
Not to mention leaving it alone, in order to sell more weapons, those arms dealers often instigate wars privately.
The entire model is basically similar to what the Tang Empire did on the Fuso Islands.
Avoid local unification, continuous weakening, differentiation, and control, and the ultimate goal is localization!
Now, Europe has inevitably followed such a path. The only difference is that there is an extra Tatar here.
But for Datang's overseas strategy, both Tatars and Europeans were barbarians, and Datang was very happy to see them fighting each other.
For this reason, the Tang Dynasty exported large quantities of ordnance and weapons to Europe at reasonable prices.
The weapons sold by Datang to European countries were cheaper than those sold elsewhere. You must know that the freight to Europe is much higher.
However, even so, Datang was still having a great time!
But, can this stop the Tatars from advancing westward?
Xu Zhenchuan doesn’t know!
After all, he is not a European and cannot control many people. He can only use diplomatic channels as much as possible to get European countries to unite against the Tatars and provide military assistance by the way.
As for whether they can stop the Tatars, they have to rely on the Europeans themselves.
If you can’t stop it, then you can’t stop it!
Anyway, there is nothing to lose to Datang.
Datang's diplomatic strategy was to act as a stir-up, causing chaos in other places, and then fish in troubled waters.
I have no interest in acting as the world's boss and maintaining world peace!
Datang doesn't need things like hello, me, hello, everybody.
What Datang needs is that as long as I am good, you don’t have to live too well!
In April of the 29th year of Xuanping, the Western Expeditionary Force of the Tang Army, which had spent a winter in Hami, finally went out again.
This time's westward march was the same as the previous attack on Hami. Nothing else was done except building the railway.
However, when Ulihan and other Tatar generals saw this situation, they frowned.
If Wulihan and others would have despised the strategic role of railways before, they would not despise them now, because everyone has seen that the Tang Dynasty used railways to span hundreds of kilometers.
Deserts, Gobi deserts, grasslands and other no-man's land, railways were used to maintain supplies for more than 200,000 troops.
Finally, the army came to Hami City, forcing Wulihan to abandon more than 20,000 infantry guns, and finally fled in embarrassment with only more than 10,000 cavalry.
Strictly speaking, in last year's Battle of Hami, the two sides did not engage in a truly large-scale battle. At most, they engaged in several thousand-man cavalry battles. In the final Battle of Hami, although tens of thousands of cavalry battles broke out,
The battle, but it was Ullihan who deliberately sent people to die in order to buy time for his cavalry to retreat. It was not considered a large-scale decisive battle at all.
This shows the importance of railways!
Now the Tang Dynasty is building a railway again and heading straight to the city of Turpan. If they cannot stop them from building the railway and cut off the railway supply line, then by the time the Tang Dynasty builds the railway to the city of Turpan, the Tatars will be forced to retreat.
hour.
As for carrying it to death!
it's out of the question!
Although the Tatars were very proficient in using guns and artillery when attacking cities and fortresses on the western front, the more they knew about the power of guns and artillery, the more they knew how terrifying the Tang Army was!
During the cavalry battle, the Tatars still had the courage to fight, but the two sides set up their formations for a large-scale duel. Even if they had castles as protection, they had no confidence that they could withstand the attack of the Tang army.
what to do?
This is the question that hangs in the minds of Ullihan and others.
No matter what the Tatars thought, the Western Expeditionary Army was busy building the railway.
The railway was built last year and the city of Hami was finally successfully captured, which made the empire's top officials quite pleased.
Although the advancement of this combat method is very slow, it is not important. What is important is that wherever the railway is built, Datang's territory will expand.
After capturing the city of Hami in October last year, Datang recruited a large number of immigrants from within, and then immigrated to the surrounding areas along the railway lines, especially opening up fields in some places with good geography and climate.
Take root in this desert area!
Moreover, several mining companies, led by Northwest Mining Company, have found a lot of minerals in this area, started mining, and built factories.
The city of Hami last year was nothing more than a military frontier fortress for the Tatars.
but now!
Hami City has become Datang's most important logistics supply base in the Western Region. Datang Shaanxi-Gansu Weapons Company has set up a number of arsenals here to produce numerous ordnance on-site.
These ordnance output can supply the Western Expedition troops nearby, thereby alleviating the shortage of transportation capacity on the Northwest Railway.
Starting from last October, the Tang Empire began to stop its Western Expedition, but it never stopped for a moment. The Northwest Railway and the Northwest Railway Extension Line have intensive trains traveling to Hami and other places every day, bringing a large number of people from the mainland.
Supplies and raw materials are also transported back to the inland by some of the specialties from the Western Regions.
According to the instructions of the Emperor Sheng, the two provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu are the rear areas of the Western Regions. However, the Western Regions should also be self-reliant and provide military supplies locally as much as possible. They must achieve sustainable development instead of blindly relying on blood transfusions from the interior.
Under the instructions of Emperor Sheng, the cabinet has formally petitioned for the establishment of a province in the Western Region, and Li Xuan has also officially approved it. In November last year, a new native province was added to the empire, which was Tumi Province.
It is named after the two main cities of Turpan and Hami.
Tumi Province also belongs to the local category, and its political status is higher than that of Butterworth, Luzon, Banten, and Malacca. At least, Tumi Province is not controlled by the Import and Export Commission.
Overseas domestic provinces are subject to the control of the Import and Export Committee.
Only after you have the status of a native province can you set up local factories to produce ordnance.
Otherwise, we won't even be able to build a factory.
The empire's import and export controls are very strict. Today, even Beihai Province does not have a serious factory. The reason is very simple, that is, Beihai Province is still not a local province, but an overseas province.
However, many officials in Beihai Province still block the nobles in Beihai Province, but they are actively promoting this matter, trying to remove Beihai Province from the import and export control list, so that they can establish factories there and develop normal businesses.
Industry and commerce.
Instead of being like now, apart from agriculture, there are at most some handicraft industries. Not to mention industry, there are not even a few screws.
To this end, they have made a lot of efforts in recent years and vigorously organized people to move to Beihai Province!
After so many years of immigration, Beihai Province currently has a population of more than two million, of which more than 1.5 million are imperial immigrants, and only more than 500,000 are Fusang people who have changed their place of origin.
They believed that the imperial immigrants already occupied an absolute population advantage in the local area and had satisfied the requirements of localization.
However, the higher-ups of the empire believe that this is obviously not enough. They require that the population proportion of pure imperial subjects in Beihai Province should reach more than 90%!
The bottom line is that everyone in the empire has this mentality: Those who are not of my race must have different hearts!
If there are too many foreigners in Beihai Province, and if it is managed as a localized business and local restrictions on factories, education, etc. are relaxed, then hundreds of thousands of foreigners who have mastered new subject knowledge can be cultivated immediately.