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The Holy Emperor Li Xuan has always known that the navy is trying to expand its influence and actual control on the Atlantic side, and this actual control and influence requires supply ports to maintain.
However, for the purpose of maintaining the balance of power in Europe, Li Xuan was not willing to prematurely destroy the European navigation and trade system in his early years. Otherwise, countries such as Spain and the Portuguese would soon be finished, and it would be impossible to resist the Tatars.
If the Tatars quickly unify the European continent, then a large number of Tatar troops will be transferred to the Eastern Front. Not only the Tatars' own troops, they will also arm Europeans and use them as cannon fodder to be transferred to the Eastern Front.
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The Tatars have done this before in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Otherwise, with a population of more than one million, it would be impossible for their tribe to rule such a large area and maintain such a large army.
At present, in the Kingdom of Jin established by the Tatars, there are actually a lot of local indigenous people of various ethnic groups, especially in the army. Among the hundreds of thousands of troops, the Tatars themselves actually only occupy a small part, only more than 100,000 at most.
They are just people, and the rest are all the tribes they conquered.
Including the Tatar army currently fighting in Central Asia and the Tang Dynasty's Western Expedition, at least three-quarters of the soldiers are from other ethnic groups.
It was the established policy of the Tang Empire to prevent the Tatars from occupying Europe.
In fact, it is difficult to achieve this by relying solely on the Tang Dynasty's overseas dispatch force. The Tang Dynasty can send 12,000 people, but with the current maritime transportation force, it is impossible to maintain more than 10,000 people. The supply will be
Can't keep up.
But if there are fewer people, it actually doesn’t work.
Therefore, Europe cannot cross yet!
Among them, Spain cannot be crossed, because Spain has actually become the core force in Europe's resistance to the Tatars. Although its army is not the most powerful, it bears most of the military expenses. There are nearly 200,000 soldiers in France.
The army is basically financed and armed by Spain.
Spain's premature collapse would also be troublesome for the empire.
This is also the reason why the empire has not changed the current Atlantic trade situation even though it is capable.
But that was in the past.
As the empire's navigation capabilities continue to increase, more importantly, the imperial navy has been doing nothing. Facing the army's campaign in Central Asia, the navy is also eager to find its own sense of presence.
There is nothing to worry about elsewhere, so only the Atlantic Ocean is left.
Therefore, the Navy proposes that supporting Europe does not necessarily require them to have an Atlantic trading system, nor does it necessarily require Europeans to retain overseas colonies.
For example, the Portuguese are short of money now, and they can't come up with enough funds to purchase the empire's ordnance. However, they have no money but they have ports. They can sell a few ports to the empire!
For example, they had quite good ports on the west coast of Africa, and the empire spent money to directly buy their colonies.
In this way, the Portuguese had money to purchase ordnance to resist the Tatars, and the empire gained colonies on the west coast of Africa and more important supply ports.
Not only the Portuguese can do this, but Spain can do this as well. Not only the African colonies, but also the colonies in the Americas and even their own homelands in Europe can do this!
The navy's suggestion made Li Xuan quite speechless!
The navy was more shameless than he expected. At first, Li Xuan thought they would suggest starting a war or something.
But I didn't expect that they would make a proposal to purchase the colony directly.
To be honest, this method has never been mentioned before, because in the traditional concept of the Chinese people, how can this territory be bought and sold? If you want to expand the territory, you can only launch a war.
But the navy said that Europeans have very open minds. For Europeans, these territories are actually the property of kings and nobles.
Since it is property, it can naturally be sold for funds when the family is in decline.
Li Xuan was also reminded at this time. He remembered that in the original time and space, it seemed that the Americans also purchased a lot of territory from other European colonial countries.
It seems that Datang can do the same now.
Although the Tang Dynasty was fully capable of seizing it with arms, fighting would cost lives and could easily undermine the empire's established policies in Europe.
If you can use a more friendly purchasing method, then spending a little money is nothing.
After all, the Tang Empire is very rich now.
As a country that has entered industrialization, the Tang Empire's economic aggregate is unmatched by other countries.
While European countries cannot even afford tens or hundreds of thousands of Tang Yuan's ordnance purchases, the Tang Empire can spend more than two million just to build a battleship for show off.
Moreover, the purchase of their colonies, ports, etc. will not be done with cash, but with ordnance and other materials, and the cost of these ordnance and weapons is actually lower.
After all, the arms dealers of the Tang Dynasty were famous all over the world. They could sell an outdated matchlock gun for tens of dollars in some places!
Even in Europe, the prices of various ordnance provided by Datang are very high.
But the price is high and they still have to buy it, because they usually cannot produce it themselves. Even if they can barely produce flintlock guns and artillery, the performance is poor, and more importantly, the production capacity is too low.
Due to the promotion of the Tang Empire, the war in this world has already entered the age of guns. In the age of guns, the demand for ordnance is too great, especially the daily consumption of ammunition is very huge. It is not these at all.
What European countries stuck in the era of handicraft workshops can support.
In order to maintain the war, they must import large amounts of ordnance to supplement the gap.
Who can provide the gaps in the ordnance they lack?
Of course there is only the Tang Empire!
Therefore, to a certain extent, this arms business is a monopoly business for the empire, and you have to buy it no matter how much money you have.
Unless you want to be defeated by your enemies!
Therefore, the price of the empire's ordnance has always been very high, but the actual cost is very low.
If we exchange ordnance for colonies, the cost will be very low, there will be no need to spend too much money, and we can continue to support Europe against the Tatars.
The best of both worlds is already worthy of Li Xuan's consideration.
Finally, he made the decision to let the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have contact with European countries, especially Spain and the Portuguese.
When the Spanish Ambassador to Datang, Jeffery, heard from officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Datang that Datang was interested in purchasing a number of colonies from Spain, he didn't know how to respond.
Mass sale of colonies?
To be honest, Spain has never considered this kind of thing before. If it is just a small-scale sale, then naturally it is not a big problem. It is just to please the Tang Empire, so that the ordnance can be transported smoothly to Europe, and a few small colonies or islands can be sold.
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However, since the Tang Dynasty people have spoken, they naturally do not want a small colony, but a large and large colony.
Although Datang has not yet proposed to purchase that colony, Jeffery can generally guess that they want to continue to expand their territory in North America.
In other words, they estimate that they will want colonies in Mexico, but it is hard to say how many they will need.
Or the Inca region of South America, which is probably their target as well.
He had never imagined this kind of thing before, but the diplomats of the Tang Dynasty brought it up and asked them if Spain had any idea of selling off its American colonies.
What a stupid idea!
There is still discussion in Spain about whether to transfer some of the nobles to America first.
Why?
Because the Tatars were so powerful, Spain was worried that they could not stop them. If the Spanish mainland was lost, the royal family and nobles would still hope to escape to the American colonies and continue to live freely.
Therefore, the Spanish ambassador to the Tang Dynasty, Jeffrey, did not hesitate and directly stated that the American colonies were an integral part of Spain, and neither Mexico nor the Inca region would be sold.
However, for the interests of the Western and Tang Dynasties, Spain can transfer some territories in northern Mexico or a few islands at its own discretion, but the price is naturally not cheap.
While the Spaniards were surprised by the straightforwardness of the Tang Dynasty, the Portuguese carefully considered the possibility of this suggestion.
The diplomats of the Tang Dynasty also met with the Portuguese ambassador to the Tang Dynasty and raised similar inquiries.
Do you Portuguese have any idea of selling the colony? We in the Tang Dynasty can buy it, and the price is negotiable.
The Portuguese were not as determined as the Spanish. For them, the American colony, that is, Brazil, would naturally not be sold. They had already vigorously developed Brazil, and even thought about running away if Europe could no longer stay.
Go to Brazil.
But the American colonies are not for sale, but some of the colonies on the west coast of Africa are for sale.
On the western coast of Africa today, the Portuguese established several large-scale colonies, mainly in Luanda and Guinea.
There are also many small ports in other places that serve as supply ports.
According to common sense, these ports are located on the west coast of Africa, and currently the west coast of Africa is the main waterway connecting South Africa and Europe controlled by the Tang Dynasty. Relying on this golden waterway, the Portuguese can also gain a lot of benefits.
However, there are many pirates in this waterway, and today's Tang Dynasty war has also frequently entered and exited this waterway.
Nowadays, Datang warships come to the port every three days and ask to enter the port for supplies and rest. Two years ago, the Portuguese had the courage to refuse. Later, they were forced to watch several exercises, the port was shelled, and after many conflicts, they simply
Pretend you haven't seen it.
Therefore, although the colony was still controlled by the Portuguese, the Tang Dynasty already allowed it to go and leave whenever it wanted, and it also set up trading stations there and even parked warships in some ports for a long time.