Ceuta in the Moroccan region of North Africa is not only the largest military base of the Tang Empire in North Africa and Europe, but also the largest colony of the Tang Empire in North Africa and Europe.
Ever since the Tang Empire purchased this land from the Kingdom of Morocco through friendly negotiation, this land has become the undisputed area under the control of the Tang Empire.
With the Port of Ceuta as the center, only the territory extending fifteen kilometers inland belonged to the Tang Dynasty. However, the Tang Navy later conducted a friendly joint military exercise with several sampan wooden ships from the Kingdom of Morocco.
Later, the Kingdom of Morocco stated that the current area of Tang Ceuta was too small, and it wronged the noble Tang Empire and offered to give away the entire peninsula, generally all the areas within 150 kilometers south of the Strait of Gibraltar.
The Tang Dynasty.
As a result, the Tang Empire officially established a state there, called it Ceuta, and sent a series of officials and organized immigrants there.
By the thirty-seventh year of Xuanping, there were already about 10,000 Tang people living in Ceuta. Although more than half of them were soldiers of the army and navy, the remaining half were merchants and sailors of the Tang Dynasty traveling to various parts of Europe.
, there are only a few thousand ordinary people who have actually immigrated to live here.
However, with tens of thousands of people, Ceuta still became the largest stronghold of the Tang Empire in North Africa and Europe.
In order to ensure the safety of Ceuta and play its role as a strategic support point, the Tang Empire built a huge port facility in Ceuta, with three forts attached. Multiple 250-guns were even deployed on the Ceuta fort.
mm front-loading rifled guns, and there are dozens of other small and medium caliber guns.
The fort and the city are basically a complete military fortress. The local garrison stated that even if the fleet is not included, the defense strength of the Ceuta Fortress alone is enough to resist the attack of the entire European indigenous people.
Well, when talking big words, they will naturally forget the importance of ammunition supply.
Although the city of Ceuta has a large amount of ammunition, if the natives don't care about their lives and just throw hundreds of thousands or millions of people up to rush up, sooner or later the ammunition of the Ceuta Fortress will be exhausted. Once the ammunition is exhausted, the guns and cannons will be destroyed.
It will lose its effect, and I'm afraid it won't be good at that time.
However, this situation will most likely not happen, because even if the entire Europeans risk their lives and use millions of people to attack, as long as the Tang Navy, no, even if only the Tang Dynasty's ordinary merchant ships are still there, then Ceuta's ammunition
The supply will not be cut off.
There is no maritime force on earth today that can intercept Datang's maritime transportation!
The city of Ceuta served as the strategic support point in the North African-European region of the Tang Empire. It was not only used for defense, but also for offense.
If the Tang Dynasty wanted to launch a large-scale military operation in North Africa and Europe, then troops and supplies would be dispatched from all over the world to Ceuta. Once the troops and supplies were ready, the attack would be launched from Ceuta.
Although the Tang Dynasty had not launched large-scale military operations in Europe before, the Tang Dynasty had been preparing in this way.
This is actually not aimed at the Spanish, English, French and other European natives, but at the Tatars.
Although the Tatars were intercepted in France, as well as in the Balkans and Italian Peninsula, the Golden Kingdom of Tatars still established a firm foothold in Europe.
At present, the territory it controls is extremely vast.
In Western Europe, the iron cavalry of the Golden Kingdom of Tatar have penetrated deep into the suburbs of Paris many times, frightening all European countries.
So much so that Paris has been turned into a fortress in recent years. The Western European defense line with Paris as the core has brought together European coalition forces from France, Spain, Portugal and even England. They are equipped with flintlocks and smoothbore cannons provided in large quantities by the Tang Dynasty.
and various supplies to resist the Tatars.
In southern Central Europe, the Tatars have already controlled all the areas north of the Alps. Under the strong oppression of the Tang Dynasty, the kingdoms of the Italian Peninsula formed a coalition to resist the Tatars in this area.
In the Balkan Peninsula, the Tatars have controlled all the areas north of the Danube River, and in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula, they have penetrated deep into Sarajevo.
In the east, they were retreating steadily, losing all the areas east of the Ural River and the Ural Mountains.
Even because of the threat of the Tang Dynasty soldiers, they had already carried out strategic evacuation in advance. Basically, in the area east of the Volga River Basin, there were no ordinary people from the Tatar Kingdom, only the army.
In the Caucasus, basically the plains north of the Caucasus Mountains are also under the control of the Tatars.
To the north, they captured St. Petersburg long ago and controlled part of southern Finland.
The territory of the Golden Kingdom of Tatar, which controlled so many areas, was very vast.
And more importantly, the Tatar Golden Kingdom is no longer a nomadic tribe, but a centralized feudal state modeled on the traditional Chinese state.
Even many political systems were directly copied from the Tang Empire.
One of the policies implemented by the Tatars in Europe is very important, which not only stabilized their rule in Europe, but also greatly increased national power.
That is to kill the original nobles and distribute a large amount of land belonging to the original nobles to the original serfs for free!
The Golden Kingdom of Tatar can be proud to say that there are no serfs under their rule, and everyone owns their own land!
If other factors are not discussed, this alone is enough to give the Golden Kingdom of Tatar a positive evaluation.
Today's European countries, regardless of the Ottomans or Spain, are much worse than the Golden Kingdom of Tatar. Today's Europe is actually still in the Middle Ages, and they are still playing the role of feudal aristocracy. Serfs are considered good, and even
In some areas, slavery is still practiced.
To be honest, these European countries would have been wiped out by the Tatars on their own without the support of the Tang Dynasty.
Today, the Tatars not only control a large territory, but also have a large population, and these populations can be used by the Tatars.
Among the hundreds of thousands of Tatar troops, except for a few of the most elite cavalry troops, there are no troops purely composed of Tatars. Most of them are recruited natives of various ethnic groups.
Therefore, many of the Tatar troops that the Tang Dynasty saw in the Wula River defense line were actually blond and blue-eyed European natives...
If the Tatars had not liberated European serfs and made extensive use of the European indigenous population, their own tribe's population of millions would have been wiped out in the past ten years.
The Tang Dynasty had been at war with the Tatars for many years, and the number of Tatar troops killed was at least hundreds of thousands. The number of Tatar troops killed and injured on other fronts was estimated to be hundreds of thousands, but the Tatars were still alive and kicking.
Why?
Because most of the casualties were other natives, not the young men of the Tatar tribe.
The more the Tatars struggled in Europe, the more Tang Dynasty paid more attention to Europe. The Army not only planned the third Western Expedition and organized European countries to send troops to resist the Tatars, but also actively accumulated strength in Europe.
Be prepared to go into battle personally if necessary.
The fortressization of Ceuta is the product of such a strategy.
But even so, the Tang Dynasty military felt that just one Ceuta was not enough, and they wanted to build another strategic stronghold.