Even though the Import and Export Committee of the Tang Empire was very strict, it was difficult to completely block science and technology.
Over the years, although Datang has not exported even a single screw through formal channels, in fact there are still many industrial products that are prohibited from being exported by Datang, especially machinery and equipment, through various smuggling channels and then spread to various places.
No matter where or who, there will always be some people who put their own private interests above the collective interests.
The Tang Empire was no exception.
Over the years, the many mechanical equipments smuggled out of the Tang Dynasty were not something that Europeans or Tatars could do on their own. The efforts of traitors were indispensable.
This kind of direct smuggling and export is actually quite good. What's more important is that with the global expansion and colonization of the Tang Dynasty, when many people go overseas, it is inevitable that the science and technology of the Tang Dynasty will be brought out.
As a large number of talents with new education and many books spread to all parts of the world, many basic theories of modern science also began to spread around the world. Various books published by Datang can even be found in Europe and the Tatars.
After the books, this was the most fatal thing for Datang.
Although the smuggling export of physical goods, that is, various mechanical equipment, cannot be completely banned, under the severe crackdowns of the Import and Export Committee, the scale is still controllable, the scale is not large, and the role it plays is limited.
In addition, even if these advanced mechanical equipment are given to the indigenous people, they will be of little use for a while.
After all, one or two pieces of equipment alone are of little use. If you want to play the role of these mechanical equipment, you need an entire industrial system. For example, if Europeans or Tatars want to make rifled guns, then they need
It is not just one or two pieces of equipment, but an entire production line. In addition to this production line, there are also various upstream production lines that need to be coordinated.
For example, if you are given a gun barrel, even if you are given a rifling equipment, you must have the barrel first. Even if you are given equipment to process the gun barrel, you must have steel!
Next time, even if you are given various equipment, when you go into mass production, the tools will wear out and you will have to replenish them.
Then all the problems were solved, but there was still one problem that remained unsolved.
That is, they simply cannot find enough skilled workers and engineers to keep the factory running!
So in the end it was still the same!
In order to play the role of these advanced machinery and equipment, you must first have a complete industrial system!
Sorry, this kind of industrial system is currently only owned by Datang in the world.
Therefore, although a simple leakage of a few mechanical equipment will have negative effects, the impact is not that big.
In recent years, the Europeans have thought of many ways, and they have even made a lot of steam engines, but now, they still can't build a high-pressure steam engine.
At most, it's just a low-pressure steam engine for pumping water in mines.
However, if knowledge spread on a large scale, this would be fatal to Datang.
People learned advanced modern scientific knowledge, and gradually they were able to build their own industrial system from scratch, just like the Tang Dynasty.
This is the same as European man-made steam engines.
They had a sample of the steam engine for a long time, but they had never been able to imitate it. In the end, they systematically studied a large number of scientific books brought back from the Tang Dynasty, and then they slowly imitated it.
Therefore, the leakage of a large amount of scientific knowledge is even more fatal to the future of Datang.
However, it was difficult for the Tang Dynasty officials to ban the dissemination of these basic scientific theories on a large scale.
Knowledge circulates no more than actual objects.
The ship of knowledge often only needs a few books, and sometimes even without books, people can spread it directly through words and deeds.
Although the Tang people called them barbarians and indigenous people, they looked down upon Europeans and Tatars.
But when the Europeans spend a lot of money and use gold as a temptation to attract those poor Tang people to become their teachers or instructors, there will always be people who go.
Last year, people from the European Station of the Naval Intelligence Office obtained important information.
Rumor has it that a group of imperial scum who want money rather than their lives actually want to help the Tatars build steam engine warships!
They planned to install a smuggled steam engine into a wooden warship owned by the Tatars. If successful, the Tatars would be able to obtain a warship driven by a steam engine.
Fortunately, the navy was very sensitive to this aspect. After receiving a tip that the Tatars actually planned to build steam engine warships, the naval officers of the fleet stationed in Europe were shocked.
Then the fleet directly went to sea, attacked the Baltic Sea and the coastline of the North Sea controlled by the Tatars, and shelled the shipyards in several port cities controlled by the Tatars one by one.
During the bombardment of the port at the end of last year, the Datang Navy's fleet in Europe bombarded almost all the shipyards under the control of the Tatars. Usually, after the bombardment, marines would be sent ashore to search.
In the end, the Marine Corps actually found a ship-based steam engine in the Port of Kiel. It was also a new steam engine produced by the Empire in recent years, with a maximum horsepower of 600 horses.
It is a pity that the traitorous scum who tried to help the Tatars build steam engine warships were not found.
This case can fully explain it.
The development process of Europeans and Tatars is inseparable from the presence of the Tang Dynasty people.
Li Xuan knew this very well, but he didn't have any good solution.
Various prohibitions have been in place for a long time, and the penalties are also very severe.
But there are always people who want money rather than their lives, or for other purposes, go to the Europeans or Tatars and try to teach the indigenous people to master scientific knowledge.
Li Xuan was also helpless about this!
The foreseeable future is that this situation will definitely continue, so external threats will definitely always exist, unless the Tang Dynasty goes crazy and directly kills all the natives.
Even if there are no external threats, internal threats will always exist.
The Tang Empire will never lack threats.
Therefore, the Tang military will not lack opponents.
However, Li Xuan knew these things very well, but the military generals were not sure.
They don't look too far, if they only look at what's in front of them, no wonder they are worried about being let go.
Looking around the world, Datang has no enemies left.
The most important thing is that the Spanish/Portuguese are so spineless and have such a small appetite that they dared to sell the entire west coast of Africa and parts of South America for just a few million yuan...
How embarrassing is it for the Tang Army and Navy to have to spend tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars in military expenditures to launch a large-scale war, but in the end they can only conquer a small area?