In Africa, except for direct management of some islands, the Tang Dynasty was very conservative on the African continent, especially in central and southern Africa.
They only occupied coastal areas and carried out small-scale immigration.
The only exception is South Africa, where the empire was partially localized due to the discovery of gold mines in South Africa.
Although it is partial localization along the railway line, it is still partial localization after all.
Subsequently, in order to better govern the entire South Africa region, the African Affairs Office of the Datang Empire finally decided to build a Great Wall of Africa.
It is built from the coast of the Indian Ocean all the way to the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.
In order to completely put an end to the bad situation of local indigenous people constantly pouring into Datang-controlled areas.
While building the Great Wall, the African Affairs Office was also encouraging the twelve Southeast Asian countries to expand on a large scale and encourage them to expand inland.
But it was just encouragement, but the Tang Empire itself would not do these things.
The only areas that are in better shape are Northeast Africa and the Red Sea region of West Asia. When the Ottoman Empire evacuated, they packed up everyone and took them away. Some of the remaining indigenous people were also sent to Central Africa by the Tang Empire, so most of them
The Red Sea area accepted by the Tang Dynasty was deserted, with no other people except the Tang people.
And there are large areas of desert for isolation.
So there is no need to worry about natives coming in for a short period of time.
When it came to Europe, the Tang Dynasty's non-interference policy was implemented even more thoroughly. Last year, a rebellion broke out in Portugal in an attempt to overthrow the Spanish rule, but the Tang Empire ignored it.
As long as the European countries unite and continue to fight against the Tatar Kingdom, then the Tang Empire will have nothing to ask for!
Therefore, even if the Spanish and Portuguese were in civil strife for a time, as long as the Spanish and Portuguese were still fighting the Tatars on the front line, the Tang Empire would not care about their messy affairs.
The foreign policy of the Tang Empire also greatly alleviated the financial pressure of the Tang Empire to a certain extent.
After all, if we fight wars all over the world, the expenses will be very huge, and those overseas territories can basically not provide much wealth to the locals. Even the extremely rich America, in fact, for the Tang Empire, it is at best a supplier of agricultural products and resources.
That's all.
Therefore, the current global rule of the Tang Empire relies largely on local blood transfusions. Without local blood transfusion supplies, the local finances of many overseas territories would directly go bankrupt.
The cost of maintaining the rule is already high enough, and it will be even worse if there are still wars everywhere.
So now Datang has also begun to change its diplomatic style of "peace talks are worse than war" that has lasted for many years, and has begun to use various advantages to gain direct benefits at the negotiation table.
The acquisition of the Red Sea region is the practical manifestation of this foreign policy.
If we had followed the approach of the Tang Empire a few years ago, it would have been impossible to negotiate with the Ottoman Empire, and they would have directly sent troops to occupy territory. If they didn't accept it, they would do it.
But now, it has become a matter of sending a fleet to block other people's doorsteps and then negotiating.
After all, it’s all about saving money.
Otherwise, the extremely arrogant officials of the Tang Dynasty would not bother to talk to the natives.
But this kind of negotiation is sometimes useless.
Not all the natives were frightened, some had never seen the power of the Tang Dynasty, and they did not believe that the Tang Dynasty was really that awesome.
When you tell them that the Tang Dynasty's fleet is traveling around the world and sweeping across the world's seas, people will laugh at you: You can't lie even if you lie, the earth is obviously flat, where did the ball come from...
And you said that the Navy of the Tang Dynasty was very powerful, but why didn’t the small lake in front of my house have the Navy of the Tang Dynasty?
You said that the artillery of the Tang Dynasty was so powerful that one shot could shoot ten kilometers!
People can directly yell at you: Don't bully me for not seeing artillery. I am also a person with artillery. A cannon can hit a few hundred meters, which is good, and it can also reach ten kilometers. Do you know that this is awesome?
Whenever this happens, the envoy of the Tang Dynasty will be extremely speechless!
These natives simply don't understand, don't know, and can't even imagine how awesome the Tang Dynasty is. What can you ask him to say?
Even if I say it, they don’t believe it!
The only way to convince them is for the fleet to come over and bring up the artillery.
but!
It's free of charge. Today's Tang Dynasty doesn't care about sending out the army and navy. It's very expensive.
Of course, most of the time, the army and navy will be dispatched. As for expensive situations, generally speaking, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will make arrangements.
First defeat the enemy, and then use the captured loot as military expenses, or let the other party bear military expenses, etc.
Directly, most of the indigenous kingdoms that had the courage to provoke the Tang Empire were not very knowledgeable and powerful. Even if they were evacuated, they would not be able to make up for the loss of military expenditures.
As for those who can afford this kind of loss, they are all the big countries in the indigenous world, such as Spain, Ottoman, etc. But they are discerning. Not only will they not provoke the Tang Empire, but they also call Dad to hug their thighs every day.
Woolen cloth.
In the summer and June of the 40th year of Xuanping, Major General Tian Qinyun of the 18th Army Division looked depressed, looking at the consumption and captured trophies sent by the logistics officer.
Sighing continuously: "What a loss, what a big loss!"
"It will be a big loss to fight these natives!"
The chief of staff on the side also said: "Yes, after our division was deployed to Gohe Prefecture at the end of last year, the entire division was dispatched once, regiment-level troops were dispatched twice, and battalion-level troops were dispatched six times. The cost is huge!"
"But the loot captured and the subsequent compensation are not even half of it. Otherwise, the military department would not have sent a special document to let us take it easy!"
"Alas, our army is poor!"
At the same time, at the monthly Army and Navy Guards Liaison Meeting in the Royal Study Room of the Imperial Palace in Jinling, Army General Hu Fengbao looked angry: "Our army officers can't even afford bullets and artillery shells, but you
The Navy also held an Indian Ocean exercise last month, and wow, more than 40 ships were gathered together!"
"All the hard-earned money of the people has been wasted by bastards like you Navy!"
Admiral Cao Changlin snorted coldly: "Your army, don't go too far. We can only use some coal and some training bombs to conduct exercises, which can cost a lot of money. But as for your army, don't think that I don't know.
In the past half year, your army has been deploying troops frequently in the direction of India, and it is also extravagant and wasteful. The transport ships used to transport ammunition for your army can be discharged from the island of Ceylon to Shanghai!"
"Just to deal with a few natives, you spent no less than five million in war expenses in the first half of the year just in the direction of India!"
"Speaking of prodigal sons, our navy is inferior to us!"
Seeing that the army and navy generals were arguing again, the Guards Chief of Staff, Admiral Zhou Guang, squinted his eyes!
Following the tradition of the Guards over the past few decades: never interfere in conflicts between the army and the navy!
The Guards has its own set of operating systems and positions. For decades, all generals of the Guards have known that if they want to secure their position or even get promoted, they must never interfere in the conflict between the army and the navy.
As for ordinary administrative affairs, you cannot interfere.
Therefore, most of the time, the presence of the Guards is actually not very high. This is not only because the Guards do not interfere with other things, but more importantly, the military expenses of the Guards come directly from royal funds.
Military spending peg.
But in fact, the status of the Guards in the political territory of the empire is quite high. It is one of the three major military forces of the empire. In terms of political status, the status of the Guards even exceeds that of the army and navy.
It’s just that I’ve never liked being in the limelight.
While the generals of the army and navy were arguing, the Chief of Staff of the Guards, Admiral Zhou Guang, was already thinking about the Guards' own affairs.
Especially the new round of reorganization of the Guards.
The Guards has continued to develop over the past many years. This development is not only the increase in personnel and the expansion of the establishment, but also the emergence of various technical arms.
This also makes people's concept that the Guards has always only had three Guards divisions, but in fact, the total strength of the entire Guards has remained at 80,000, and most of the troops within
They are all assigned to various Guards divisions.
For example, the First Guards Division, in addition to the three regular infantry regiments, also has a field artillery regiment, a heavy artillery regiment, a baggage regiment, an engineering regiment, a cavalry brigade and other miscellaneous affiliated units. The total strength reaches nearly
Twenty-five thousand people.
No matter how possible, this does not look like a division, and the number of infantry is too small. Even if the Guards has expanded its three infantry regiments many times before, the number of infantry is still too small.
In view of the fact that the current system of the Guards is incomplete, and more importantly, the generals of the Guards have realized that the current tactical system and organization are not suitable during many exercises and overseas deployments.
It is difficult to fully unleash the performance of today's advanced weapons.
Today's Guards tactics, in fact, are the same as the Army's tactical system. They were born out of line tactics and developed in the era of Mini rifles. Finally, after being equipped with breech-loading rifles, skirmishing tactics finally emerged. Many veterans of the Army
The generals studied it for many years and gradually took shape, and in the 32nd year of Xuanping, it was thoroughly promoted to the entire army.
Judging from the perspective of the time, the skirmishing tactics at that time were still very advanced, and they performed very well in many foreign wars.
However, the generals of the Guards still felt uncomfortable because the Guards were equipped with Li Fu rifles, while the Army was previously equipped with combination rifles.
Although both are breech-loading rifles, they are very different.
From the beginning, the Li Fu rifle was a rifle that used metal bullets and was fed by magazines, and the rate of fire was extremely fast.
As for the combined rifle, it is just a single-shot breech-loading rifle, and its rate of fire is far inferior to that of the Li Fu rifle.