For Li, the eldest son of the emperor, even if nothing else is mentioned, the fief salary alone can make a lot more money.
Relatively speaking, the other princes are not so lucky. Although the adult princes all live overseas, and most of their territories are large, the economic development is very different.
If the economy is not good, naturally there will be nothing to do.
Therefore, several other princes are also trying their best to promote the complete localization of their fiefdoms. However, it is not easy to completely localize. There is still a lot of work to be done. At least in recent years, there is no place where it can be completed.
Completely localized.
Time passed day by day, and soon it was the thirty-second year of Xuanping.
In the spring of this year, Li Xuan received a report from the Western Expeditionary Army, saying that the Fourteenth Army had defeated the last main force of more than 10,000 Tatars entrenched here in the Tapashi area.
This also announced that the 14th Army of the Empire's Western Expedition had completely wiped out the Tatars entrenched in the mountains of southeastern Central Asia, and successfully established land contact with the Mughal Dynasty further south.
However, it was also reported that the Tatars had planned to abandon this part of the area many years ago, and had already forcibly relocated a large number of local craftsmen, cattle, sheep and even ordinary young people.
Therefore, in this part of the mountainous area of southeastern Central Asia that was conquered, there are actually only a few people left.
And for this situation, the empire is also happy to see success.
Otherwise, we would not sit back and watch the Tatars migrate to the local population in the past two years. If we really want to stop them, it would be quite simple to send cavalry to attack and intercept them, but why do we do this?
The Tatars need more people to enrich the Central Asian plains and even the Eastern European plains.
The empire is also unwilling to accept a large group of local indigenous people, so this kind of thing is also good for the empire.
Even in order to give the Tatars time to migrate, the Fourteenth Army took the initiative to suspend the offensive for several months. Otherwise, it would have been able to kill them last winter and then return to the front with the Mughals.
In addition to the Fourteenth Army that went south, several other units of the Western Expeditionary Army are now struggling with the Tatars in the vast Central Asian plains.
The Central Asian plains are too big. In this vast plain terrain, infantry artillery is basically useless. They can only fight steadily in the rear, mainly to cover the construction of railways.
When it comes to fighting, we mainly rely on cavalry!
For this reason, the empire has invested more than 80,000 cavalry in Central Asia!
These more than 80,000 cavalry did not include the divisional cavalry in the infantry, but were all independent cavalry. These cavalry were turned into three armies, and they tossed around with the Tatar cavalry on the grassland.
But because both sides are cavalry, and there are no strategic locations in the area, more importantly, both sides intend to avoid a large-scale strategic decisive battle.
The Tatars avoid strategic decisive battles naturally because they avoid strategic losses. Their strategy on the Eastern Front is established. They trade space for time. They can delay it as long as they can, but they will not invest too much main force.
Their core expansion direction is still in Europe!
Last year, the Tatar cavalry forward troops once entered France. In the end, because the battle line was too long and the advancement speed was too fast, supplies were not smooth and the ammunition was almost exhausted. At that time, the French and Spanish and other European countries
In order to resist the Tatar offensive last year, European countries once had more than 500,000 troops on the front line. In order to defend the enemy from outside the country, France has launched a comprehensive nationwide offensive.
With compulsory recruitment, many farmers were sent to the battlefield after months of training.
Although the Tatars withdrew in the end, they had successfully maintained the front in the German region. Even Berlin was occupied by them, and now even Viana has become the front line against the Tatars.
They killed at least 200,000 troops from various European countries before and after. You must know that last year they directly defeated the Holy Roman Empire. Under the iron cavalry, countless principalities were destroyed by the Tatars, and even the French suffered losses.
heavy.
But then again, the Austrian Hasburg family got a big advantage. Although they were also captured by the Tatars in a large area, they lost almost all the territory in the northeast of Viana.
However, after the Tatars made a strategic retreat, they also took the opportunity to annex many territories of the destroyed principalities.
Today, the territory directly controlled by the Austrian Hasburg family has not decreased much compared to before the war, it has just changed locations.
However, this is just a simple change of territory, which does not mean that the strength of this family will remain unchanged. In fact, their strength is already very weak.
A large number of core territories have been occupied, and military expenditures for years of war have been heavy, not to mention personnel losses. Even now, they have taken the opportunity to occupy the territories of many principalities, but it is actually impossible to restore their strength.
of.
The strength of the Austrian Hasburg family has been greatly weakened and it is no longer able to serve as the main force.
Although it is still at the forefront, it actually relies heavily on the support of its rear allies. France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Naples and other countries almost all send reinforcements to the Holy Roman Empire and even provide material assistance.
.
Naturally, it was not because of their kindness, but because they wanted the Hasburg family to stand in the forefront and help them block the Tatar attack.
They did not want to face the fierce Tatars directly.
In addition, Sweden in Northern Europe also restrained many Tatar troops.
The Swedes are very good at fighting in the ice and snow. The Tatars have conquered Russia for a long time. They also entered Finland a long time ago, but they were unable to defeat them. They returned in disastrous defeats several times. The Tatars fought against Finland.
There is a psychological shadow all over the region.
In addition, on the Balkan Peninsula, the Ottomans have always been the main force against the Tatars.
Strictly speaking, the Ottomans were actually the biggest enemy of the Tatars. From West Asia to Eastern Europe, both sides had hundreds of thousands of soldiers, fighting every day.
However, the Tatars did not want to fight a decisive battle with the Ottomans now, so they only maintained strategic defense and the main force was still fighting westward.
As a result, countries such as the Holy Roman Empire and France would be in great misfortune!
But last year's battle also gave them hope of blocking or even defeating the Tatars!
Because last year, Spain was finally equipped with flintlock muskets. Although there were very few of them, only more than a thousand, they still played a huge role in actual combat.
To be more precise, it should be a percussion flintlock gun.
This is because Europeans have been widely equipped with revolving flintlock guns decades ago, especially for cavalry. However, these weapons are expensive to make, complicated to use, and difficult to use, so they are difficult to promote on a large scale.
After the Tang Dynasty's flintlock guns appeared, Spain and other European countries have always wanted to develop impact-type flintlock guns.
They also tried purchasing, but without exception they were severely rejected by the empire. The empire has never exported flintlock guns in so many years.
If you can’t buy it, you’ll have to make it yourself!
The flintlock gun is not something too advanced. Everyone knows the principle. The only difficulty is how to increase the ignition rate, which involves springs.
The gadget of spring may seem inconspicuous but it is very important. It not only needs to be elastic, but also must be durable. A spring that cannot be used after a few uses is useless.
If durability was not taken into consideration and it was only used a few times, the Europeans would have been able to produce a reliable flintlock long ago.
But after so many years, with so many people immersed in it, and with state support, the English were able to develop even things like steam engines, let alone springs.
Last year, the Spanish came up with their own reliable spring and then directly mass-produced flintlock muskets.
They were much more generous than the Tang Empire. In order to resist the Tatars, they actually sold flintlock technology directly. Although they were said to be quite shady, they charged a lot of money.
But overnight, the technology of percussion flintlock guns has become a big deal in Europe, and it can be used in any country!
This incident made the Tang Empire somewhat dissatisfied.
Because this also means that the matchlock guns that have been selling well for more than 20 years in the Tang Empire can no longer be sold in Europe. Now some people in the empire are considering directly exporting flintlock guns on a large scale. Anyway, Europeans are now
Once they have mastered the flintlock technology, it is meaningless to block it. It is better to take advantage of the opportunity to make a profit and continue to suppress the development of their defense industry. Even if it is just a handicraft workshop, they must prevent their small workshop from turning into a big workshop.
…
In fact, it was inevitable for the Spaniards to develop flintlock guns. Even if their technical foundation was not as good as that of the Tang Dynasty, the flintlock gun actually did not have many technical difficulties. The Tang Dynasty had already developed it, and they were slow to respond.
A little bit is understandable, but if you can't figure it out, it's just a joke.
In later history, even without the stimulation of the Tang Empire and the Tatars, they began to widely equip flintlock guns in the 1680s, and they were very successful during the Thirty Years' War.
Now it's just a few years ahead of schedule.
However, as a result, the diplomats of the Tang Dynasty were a little worried that the situation of the Tatars this year would not be very good.
Last year, only the Spanish were the Europeans who experimented with a small amount of flintlock muskets, which did not affect the war situation.
But starting from this year, I am afraid it will become popular quickly. After all, it is not difficult to change the matchlock into a flintlock gun. Just change a bolt mechanism.
Perhaps this summer, the Tatar army will run into a hail of bullets.
I don’t know how the Tatars will respond then.
But I guess they have a way. The Tatars are no strangers to flintlock guns, because the Tang Empire has used flintlock guns to fight against them a long time ago, but they themselves can't master the key technology and can't equip them.
That's all.
But when it comes to how to deal with enemies equipped with flintlock guns, the Tatars are quite experienced.
For war, although weapons are important, sometimes they are not that important. There are many examples of armies with backward weapons defeating armies with advanced weapons.
However, when the diplomats of the Tang Empire were worried about the Tatars, the Tatars had already started relevant actions!
In April of the 32nd year of Xuanping, a small steel workshop under the Holy Roman Empire that specialized in supplying springs for new flintlock muskets caught fire.
This workshop is not large, so not many people care about it.
But no one knew that several craftsmen inside who had just mastered spring steel technology also disappeared at the same time.
If there were people from the Tang Dynasty here, it would be easy to guess that the Tatars must have done it.
The Tatars are very skilled in stealing technical drawings and kidnapping craftsmen!
Otherwise, where do you think the guns and cannons used by the Tatars come from?