When Datang's mixed regiment landed, they were faced with nothing but ruins, and the Egyptian garrison of more than 10,000 Ottomans garrisoned there had long since disappeared.
Most of them were killed or wounded in the naval gun attack, and a few took advantage of the chaos to escape.
Under the cover of powerful naval gunfire, the mixed regiment formed by the landing army and marines occupied Suez without firing a single shot.
However, they did not quickly march to Cairo or other places, but directly stayed in the local garrison.
On the one hand, it is necessary to give the officials of the Empire's Ministry of Foreign Affairs time to negotiate. If the canal can be obtained through negotiation without fighting, then the Empire is too lazy to fight.
Cannonballs are expensive!
On the other hand, Datang always likes to carry out its overseas military operations in a steady manner. After this landing, it usually will not advance rashly, but will establish a port and wait for more logistical supplies. At least, all the artillery of the landing force must be transported down.
, and then wait for the arrival of the cavalry troops.
In short, they will not launch an attack rashly if they are not well prepared.
In addition, this also has military considerations. If you have to march hard to defeat it, you might as well let the other party take the initiative to gather troops to counterattack. Then just pull out an artillery battalion and fire a rapid fire and that's it.
save time and energy!
In order to build the Suez Canal, the Tang Dynasty launched an armed conflict and killed thousands of Ottoman troops.
In order to speed up the construction of the canal, it is not surprising that there was a special restriction on the use of machinery and equipment.
It's just that the import and export policy is of great importance. If you let it go rashly, it will have great consequences. Even Li Xuan has to be cautious.
The construction of the two canals definitely requires the use of construction machinery, otherwise the construction progress will be too slow.
You must know that when the French and Americans built these two canals in history, they used large-scale engineering equipment, but even then the construction speed was very slow.
If the Tang Dynasty only used pure manpower to build it, God knows how long it would take to complete it. Lin Ziran doubted that it would not be completed in another twenty or thirty years.
However, although the canal and some overseas military bases can be used, their use must be restricted, and other possibilities must be eliminated.
Li Xuan did not want special cases to become commonplace, nor did he want other overseas territories to follow this model and introduce a large amount of machinery and equipment.
Especially in North America, it is a region that needs to focus on preventing technology export in the short term.
In recent years, Li Xuan has deeply felt the great development potential of North America, and also felt the urgent need of local powerful people to develop industry and commerce.
However, this is also the reason why he changed his original intention and supported continued suppression.
Anyway, before radio is widely popularized, before the sailing speed of ships is greatly improved, and especially before the local defense industry reaches a higher level, there is no hope for localization in the Americas.
Li Xuan needs radio to communicate in a timely manner around the world.
What is more needed is an army that is ahead of the times, a force equipped with radio communications, advanced rifles like the Lee Fu rifle, equipped with heavy machine guns, and even cars and tanks, to face threats from overseas territories around the world.
The manufacturing of these advanced weapons requires much more industrial foundation and technology than today's weapons and equipment.
Even if overseas territories are localized by then, it will probably be difficult to catch up without decades of development.
Out of many considerations, Li Xuan personally reviewed and approved the use of mechanical equipment for key overseas projects.
Li Xuan gave instructions for one case to be reviewed and one batch to be used in a restricted manner while ensuring that the empire's advanced science and technology would not be leaked.
Such instructions also made the Import and Export Committee breathe a sigh of relief.
They have been under great pressure in recent years. Many people are actually dissatisfied with the Import and Export Committee's blanket ban on the export of technical equipment.
It is reasonable and reasonable to ban exports to indigenous people, and everyone supports it.
But even the overseas territories of the Tang Dynasty cannot import these machinery and equipment, and many people are unhappy. Are the people of the Tang Dynasty living in the overseas territories not the people of the Tang Dynasty?
It is precisely because of this pressure that the Import and Export Committee has been adjusting its policies in an attempt to alleviate public anger.
For example, partial localization is actually promoted by the Import and Export Committee.
In addition, overseas military bases can set up maintenance factories and introduce machinery and equipment to maintain warships and Datang's overseas merchant ships.
In the early years, the Import and Export Committee relaxed certain restrictions on steamships and allowed Datang Company to operate steamships overseas. However, these steamships must be reported regularly and maintained in officially recognized overseas ship maintenance bases.
Perform maintenance.
When this policy was first introduced, the Import and Export Committee was helpless.
Steam engines are definitely not allowed to be exported, let alone steam ships.
However, it is difficult to prohibit the Tang Dynasty people from purchasing their own steam merchant ships and operating them overseas. You cannot allow the Tang Dynasty ships to travel across the ocean.
So we simply took the initiative to guide and relaxed the restrictions on the operation of steam ships overseas, but they needed to be reported regularly and maintained at designated locations.
But even so, there have been many cases where the whereabouts of steam ships are unknown. The Tatars have made several sets of ship-borne steam engines on the merchant ships of the Tang Dynasty. After moving them back, they tried to install them on them with the help of technicians from the traitors of the Tang Dynasty.
wooden battleship.
The Tang Navy had already foiled a Tatar conspiracy. At that time, it directly dispatched a fleet to blow up the Tatar shipyards to pieces and recovered the smuggled steam engines.
Later, in order to prevent the Tatars from developing shipbuilding industry and posing a potential threat to the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty navy simply sent fleets to patrol along the coastline for a long time, starting from the United Provinces. They shelled the Tatar shipyards when they saw them, and later even
All ports are bombarded.
Therefore, although the coastline controlled by the Tatars is very long now, their coast is very threatened. There are basically no shipyards or even coastal ports.
Because they were all blown to pieces by the Tang Navy.
For this reason, the Tatars had to retreat to the inland rivers to build shipyards, ports, etc., and at the same time vigorously develop land canals and continue to trade with the United States through the United Provinces.
The Navy of the Tang Dynasty also turned a blind eye to this. At most, it would occasionally send a few shallow-water gunboats to have a symbolic look around, but they would basically not go deep. The Tatars would also cooperate and release one or two
Let the Tang Navy blow up small ports, small shipyards, etc.
As for going deeper and attacking important targets, this is something the Tang Navy is not capable of doing.
After all, the Tatars would also set up strong forts along the inland rivers.
Although all smoothbore cannons are used, dozens or hundreds of large-caliber smoothbore cannons also pose a certain threat.
The solid projectiles and grenades fired by these smoothbore guns are capable of causing damage to these small-tonnage ships.
The Tang Navy naturally would not take these unnecessary risks.
Just block their coasts and the entrances of major rivers.
After all, ground combat in Europe was a task assigned by the Tang Dynasty to Spain, France and other European countries. The Tang Navy had already done all the work, so why use these European natives?