So far, the Imperial Navy's warships stationed at the port of Cadiz include two Jiangnan-class cruisers, four frigates, a total of six modern steel warships, and more than a dozen wooden offshore ships with a standard displacement of several hundred tons.
patrol ship.
The above-mentioned warships, including armed transport ships, are all equipped with steam engines and sails.
Its designation is quite special. It is called the 'Econvoy Fleet of the Tang Ambassador to Europe'. According to the literal meaning, it is actually a fleet that provides escort for the imperial envoys and ambassadors to Europe. It is almost the same concept as the nearly a thousand Marines on land.
.
But in fact, this fleet is actually a squadron under the Seventh Fleet, and is generally called the European Fleet internally.
Although the Seventh Fleet in the Tang Empire is temporarily under the African Fleet, their internal definition within the navy has always been the Atlantic Fleet, and their main mission is to control the Atlantic Ocean for the empire.
Although its main force is currently deployed in South Africa, it is already in the squadrons, namely the European Fleet and the American East Coast Fleet.
As for the Third Fleet of the Pacific Fleet, although it is also called the American Fleet by outsiders, and the fleet headquarters is stationed in Xinjinshan, in fact the Third Fleet is mainly responsible for the Eastern Pacific, that is, the entire west coast of the Americas and part of the Central Pacific.
.
As for the Pacific Ocean on the east coast of America, it is not within their defense zone. It is under the jurisdiction of the Seventh Fleet.
Currently, the Seventh Fleet of the Imperial Navy is gradually expanding its military presence in the Atlantic Ocean.
In fact, if it were not for the consideration of supporting Spain and Portugal to contain the Tatars, and the Empire's attitude in the Atlantic Ocean being relatively restrained and controlled, the Imperial Navy would have swept across the Atlantic Ocean long ago without any cover-up.
However, the empire still needs countries in Western Europe, Southern Europe and other regions to resist the Tatars, so its actions in the Atlantic are generally relatively restrained.
The empire currently still needs European countries to resist the Tatars, which can allow them to contain more Tatar troops for the empire, allowing the empire's military operations in Central Asia to go more smoothly and avoid losses.
Besides, Europe now purchases a large amount of ordnance and other various industrial products from Datang every year.
Judging from the current scale of war in Europe and their own production capabilities, in fact, all of these countries are currently working for Datang. The taxes and other income collected are all used to purchase ordnance from Datang and then use it.
in war.
People in the European Department of the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimate that in a few years, these Europeans will be like the Fuso people back then, exporting young women of childbearing age to the empire in exchange for military supplies.
Although the people of the empire generally reject foreign women, the Holy Emperor Li Xuan worked tirelessly and set an example by recruiting these blond and blue-eyed foreign women into the dance troupe, so the general public will follow suit to some extent.
Besides, although the blond hair and blue eyes are a bit strange, the skin is rough, and the pores are large, there are still many women among them who conform to the aesthetic standards of the Tang Dynasty. They can still be seen after being clean and dressed up.
No matter how bad it is, for humanitarian reasons, it is still possible to adopt a few female war refugees aged fourteen and below twenty to serve as maids or something.
The indigenous people in Europe are lucky. At least their young women of working age are disliked by the Tang Dynasty people, but they never say no.
But for the natives in many other places, they couldn't use this method because the people of the Tang Dynasty simply didn't want it.
No way, the aesthetic differences are too big!
For example, the indigenous people in the Nanyang region have been reduced to poverty after fighting with each other for many years. They also tried to organize women of childbearing age to go to the Tang Dynasty to earn foreign exchange and serve the country, but the Tang Dynasty people did not want it.
But soon they thought of other ways. They didn't want women, they just wanted the prime labor force.
Of course, imperial law prohibits any form of human trafficking.
However, there are always smart people. People from the Annan and Southern Dynasties were the first to find countermeasures. They Annan people are also civilized people. How could they possibly traffic people? They only provide labor services, or simply organize their own manpower to mine.
For example, don't you people in the Tang Dynasty want to develop iron ore and coal mines? You people in the Tang Dynasty are so rich and expensive that you must not be willing to mine, and your country's laws prohibit slaves, serfs, etc.
But you can contract the mining work to our labor service company. Our labor service company organizes manpower to mine, and the labor price is low!
Or we can open the mines ourselves and then sell the minerals to you, the Tang Dynasty, at a cheap price.
There are many different ways of cooperation.
Of course, this form is only limited to their indigenous people, and this kind of thing will naturally not happen in the empire's mainland, because except for a very few special people, such as diplomats, the empire prohibits any ordinary foreigners from entering the mainland, regardless of whether they are foreigners.
In what name.
This kind of thing is not allowed to happen in the overseas territories under actual control. Officials in the overseas territories eagerly use various methods to try to complete localization. You also invite a large number of natives from other places to come over to mine. Isn’t this nonsense!
However, the earth is still quite big, and the Tang Dynasty cannot control all places, let alone places that are too far away. Even in Nanyang, there are many places that the empire cannot actually control, such as the Nanyang Peninsula itself.
Therefore, in recent years, in the Nanyang Peninsula, many of the products exported to the empire have been minerals, wood and other industrial raw materials, and most of the production of these raw materials was dug out by their local official organizations.
This kind of situation is also happening in the Americas, Africa, and India. In the past, the indigenous people in these places would either kill the prisoners of war directly or let them go. As for mining, the mines dug out were not used, but it is different now.
The Tang Empire had endless demand for any industrial raw materials and was open to acquisitions, which provided a market for these indigenous people.
By exporting various minerals and other industrial raw materials, and then exchange them for Tang Yuan, they can then purchase Datang's ordnance and weapons.
Several indigenous countries on the Nanyang Peninsula have always done this, and later many indigenous people in India also did this, and subsequently indigenous people in the Americas and Africa also did this.
Even the Spanish and Portuguese colonists in the Americas did this. They obtained many indigenous lands for mining, and then sold these products to the merchants of the Tang Empire.
In fact, they did this in the past, but the various goods they produced in the past were shipped back to Europe, but now they are sold to Datang merchants.
The industrialization of the Tang Empire and the huge local population attracted a variety of commodities from all over the world in an endless manner, whether they were agricultural products or industrial raw materials.
The only thing you don't need are slaves.
This is also the biggest difference between the Tang Dynasty and other countries in the Age of Discovery. Other countries practiced slavery, but the Tang Empire did not!
However, Li Xuan still supported and encouraged the people of the empire to marry women of other races, which was the same as Fusang's intermarriage policy back then.
If the future war in Europe really reaches an extremely tragic level, even for humanitarian reasons, he will encourage the people of the Tang Dynasty to lend a helping hand and rescue European women of childbearing age.
After all, if one side is in trouble, support from all sides will come!
The current situation in Europe is relatively complex, and the empire is not willing to interfere too much in the European situation or cause the relationship between the empire and several major European countries to deteriorate.
The Tang Empire is a peaceful and benevolent country, and will never easily launch a war against a country to conquer the local area. Therefore, even if the empire has the ability to completely control the Atlantic Ocean and even land in Europe, the current empire still will not do this.
Do.
In order to avoid irritating European countries too much, the European fleet is even called the Ambassador's Escort Fleet to Europe.
Of course, even if there is no excessive stimulation, as more and more imperial ships appear in the Atlantic Ocean, in fact, the agreements signed by the empire with the Spanish and Portuguese have ceased to exist in name only.
The agreement at that time stipulated that the merchant ships of the Tang Dynasty were not allowed to appear in the Atlantic Ocean, and the merchant ships of the Spanish and Portuguese were not allowed to appear in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.
But now, European merchant ships are still not allowed to appear in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean, but Datang's merchant ships can already appear in the Atlantic Ocean openly.
In the beginning, it was to transport ordnance to European countries. Their European ships were too small and too slow, so they themselves asked Datang to help transport them.
Later, as ordnance transportation became the norm, other goods slowly began to be transported.
Then, after the empire opened a colony on the eastern coast of North America, it entered and exited the Atlantic Ocean openly.
The empire has colonies in North America. No matter how unreasonable you Europeans are, you cannot allow our merchant ships from the Tang Dynasty to go to your colonies.
Europeans are naturally reasonable. The Spanish and Portuguese, as well as England, a new maritime country that has emerged in Europe in recent years, have expressed their understanding and support for the reasonable demands of the Tang Empire.
Especially when the Tang Navy invited the official representatives of the above three countries to watch a live-fire exercise of the fleet stationed in Europe, they said on the spot that the ships of the Tang Empire had undisputed legal navigation rights in the Atlantic Ocean, even God himself.
Nor will any objections be raised.
So now, in fact, the ships of the Tang Empire, whether merchant ships or warships, can basically travel freely across the Atlantic Ocean.
However, although the ships of the Tang Empire could freely navigate the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean and other affiliated waters, there was still a flaw that the Imperial Navy could not tolerate.
That is, the Imperial Navy lacks supply ports in many areas of the Atlantic Ocean, let alone naval bases.
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, that is, the eastern coast of North America controlled by the empire, there is naturally no problem. The imperial navy can easily find supply ports.
But that's not possible along the coast of South America. Those poor places are controlled by the Portuguese and Spanish.
At the same time, the same is true on the west coast of Africa. The Portuguese control most of the supply ports, and the Spanish also control many.
When Datang ships entered the Atlantic Ocean, they actually had to enter the ports they controlled for supplies.
This situation may be acceptable for a while, but naturally it will not be acceptable in the long run.
For this reason, the Imperial Navy has now carefully considered opening a number of supply ports on the coast of western Africa.
The senior officials of the Imperial Navy had this idea and soon submitted it to the desk of Holy Emperor Li Xuan.