For many things, it is not a question of whether Datang can do it, but whether it is willing to do it! However, when Datang really wants to do something, there is no country in the world that can resist it, not even the Tatars.
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The third Western Expedition of the Tang Dynasty was delayed in launching, not because it could not defeat the Tatars, but simply because the Tang Dynasty was unwilling to spend too much military expenditure, which affected the domestic economic development.
For the Tang Dynasty today, developing domestic agriculture, industry and commerce, solving domestic food and clothing problems, and improving the overall national strength of the Tang Dynasty are more important than occupying a small amount of territory.
Of course, this is also related to the fact that the military expenditure of the Tang Dynasty was too high.
The Europeans have been at war with the Tatars all year round, and they have a lot of troops, but they only spend a few military expenditures. The military expenditures are tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands. For big countries like France, Spain, and the Ottomans, they spend a year
The military expenditure is only a few million.
However, the army and navy of the Tang Dynasty only had a million people, and their military expenditures were dozens or hundreds of times that of the European armies. Speaking of which made Xie Yiwei, Chen Lifu and other high-ranking civilian officials very angry.
Especially those losers in the Army. The Second Western Expedition actually cost hundreds of millions of Tang Yuan in military expenditures!
This is hundreds of millions of Tang Yuan, which can be converted into hundreds of tons of gold!
This war is not about hitting people with guns and cannons, but hitting them with gold.
This is where the Tang military becomes more and more helpless. Their equipment is becoming more and more advanced and expensive!
This also leads to the fact that although the combat effectiveness of the army and navy is becoming more and more powerful, the cost is also getting higher and higher.
In the past, when smoothbore guns and smoothbore cannons were used, even if it was a large-scale battle, the cost was not much, and the main cost was food.
But today's rifled guns and ammunition are really not cheap.
In the autumn, an offshore patrol ship equipped with a new type of breech-loaded gun was performing gunboat diplomacy in Egypt. On a whim, the captain launched a violent artillery attack, which directly blew up an indigenous port.
But later the captain was reprimanded!
Because that fool bombarded a small indigenous port with just a few or at most ten rounds of artillery shells. He actually fired out all the hundreds of artillery shells stored in the entire ship. You have to know that the new type of ship equipped with breech-mounted cannons
Artillery shells are very expensive, and each round can only be produced by a few arsenals in the country, and then transported thousands of miles to Ceuta.
This shelling directly cost the navy more than 10,000 Tang Yuan in military expenditures!
This is the navy, and the army is similar. Nowadays, many army generals have to make detailed calculations when conducting artillery attacks, because there are too many artillery shells, and the army cannot sustain them.
War was too expensive, so Datang gradually changed its foreign strategy.
In the past, I would not push if I could do it, but now I will push it occasionally, and only take action when I can't push it anymore.
The Kingdom of Denmark moved to Africa, which was an obvious sign of the change in Datang's foreign strategy.
The Kingdom of Denmark is about to move, and the impact will be huge. However, Datang is too lazy to care about what other countries think.
As soon as the agreement was signed, Datang sent a strengthened naval battalion to Zealandia.
At this time, the Danes had not yet moved, and the Swedish troops had not yet withdrawn.
But the most important thing is that the 76th Squadron directly dispatched a patrol fleet to the Danish Islands, known internally as the Baltic Fleet. This patrol fleet directly owned a cruiser of more than 3,000 tons, two frigates and
Eight offshore patrol vessels.
The Baltic Fleet consisting of eleven warships is enough to effectively blockade the entire Denmark Strait.
With these warships present, it is impossible for the Tatars to prevent the ships from launching a large-scale landing, or even leaving the Baltic Sea and entering the North Sea.
The relocation of the Kingdom of Denmark is a task that will take several years to complete, but the construction of Datang's strategic support points needs to start now.
For this reason, Datang also reached another infrastructure construction agreement with the Kingdom of Denmark, that is, Datang hired Danes to build various infrastructures, and the Danes received salary income after working, and then they could buy ferry tickets.
The Tang Dynasty people will not help the Kingdom of Denmark transport people for free. Just like the migration of various countries in Southeast Asia, although the freight is relatively low, it still has to be charged.
However, the Danes are also poor, so it is naturally impossible for the royal family to spend so much money to buy ferry tickets for all their citizens.
Just like the Southeast Asian countries, in fact, the people's ship tickets and rations after arriving in the colonies appear to be provided by the government, but in fact they still pay it themselves, because they will pay for it through taxes and other various means.
way to transfer to their own.
Otherwise, how could the royal families of various kingdoms afford the expensive freight costs to move hundreds of thousands or millions of people.
The same is true for the Kingdom of Denmark. Naturally, it is impossible for the royal family to pay directly. Even if they want to buy ferry tickets for all citizens, they cannot come up with so much money.
So we can only let the Danish people work and make money.
Then I will sell off my belongings, tighten my belt, and work harder when I go to Africa. I think I can pay it off in 180 years.
Well, this time Datang seemed to be kind-hearted in helping the Kingdom of Denmark relocate and also gave a certain discount on shipping costs, but in fact it still made a lot of money.
Several shipping companies with operations in Europe have reached relevant agreements with the Kingdom of Denmark to carry out their relocation business.
And this kind of agreement is a normal business practice. How much money to charge is the business of the shipping company. The official will just come out to coordinate and then provide some subsidies.
Then, Datang Royal Bank came over again and said that you Danes must be short of money. The transportation costs are a lot of money, and building a new home in Africa is a lot of money. There must be not enough money.
It doesn't matter, our bank has money, a lot of money, how about lending it to you.
Don't worry, the interest rate is very cheap, at least much cheaper than that group of financiers in Italy. The interest rate is only 20%, which is 20% off, and it can be repaid in installments. It doesn't matter if you can't pay it back in three to five years, or in ten or eight years.
Our bank doesn't mind either.
The timely arrival of the Royal Bank alleviated the huge financial crisis of the Kingdom of Denmark, allowing the first batch of immigrants and troops to be successfully organized, with approximately 10,000 officials heading to Africa.
The reason why the Danish King was so happy to accept the loan from the Royal Bank was naturally because of the low interest rate.
In fact, these days, whether it is the Tang Empire or European countries, the interest rates on loans are relatively high. The interest rates on ordinary commercial loans can generally reach about 10% to 25%.
This is still talking about ordinary commercial loans with collateral. As for dealing with royal families of various countries and lending money to the royal families for war, the interest rates will be high.
When European businessmen lend money to the royal family, an annual interest rate of 30% is considered low, 40%, 50% is common, and 80% is not uncommon.
More often than not, merchants will not lend you money, even if they promise high interest rates!
Because merchants lent money to European monarchs, most of the time it was just meat buns beating dogs, and there was no return!