In addition, the army also developed inland river warships, maritime transport divisions, etc., in order to cooperate with the Guards fleet to blockade the Yangtze River when the navy rebelled.
In short, the army is doing everything it can to stop the navy's ambitions. Many army generals even believe that the reason why the navy has been honest and has not rebelled is because the army's defense work has been good and the navy has not been given any chance.
This suppressed the conspiracy of the careerists in the navy.
Unfortunately, the people in the Navy think so too!
This is why the Tang Empire has no enemies around the world, but why the army and navy are still obsessed with equipping them with more advanced equipment, especially heavy artillery that seems to be obviously useless.
Whether it's the navy's 300mm battleships or the army's 300mm fortress guns, these things are of no use against the natives. They're not as useful as rapid-fire mortars!
However, whether it is the navy or the army, they still spend huge amounts of money to purchase and equip them, and they are all deployed locally.
The Army has never deployed a 300mm cannon overseas, let alone a 300mm fortress or train gun. Even a 250mm or 200mm cannon has never been deployed overseas.
, the largest caliber artillery deployed overseas is the 150mm artillery.
The same is true in the navy. The navy's battleships have always stayed at home. Let alone being deployed overseas, they have not even traveled to the oceans a few times. At most, they have only made a few rounds in the South China Sea, the East China Sea and other places.
The battleships of the Navy have long been transformed into a port fleet.
The Tang Dynasty’s latest battleship Ceylon, which was launched last year and entered service this year, was directly called the Ceylon Hotel...
This is because the Ceylon has a huge tonnage, with a standard displacement of more than 14,000 tons, and a fully loaded combat displacement of more than 15,000 tons. The huge tonnage not only brings huge armament, but
It also brings better accommodation space and seaworthiness.
Outsiders claim that the standard of living on the battleship Ceylon is the best among many battleships in the navy, and its level of luxury is no less than that of local luxury hotels.
At the same time, I thought that although the battleship Ceylon was already in service, it only ran a few laps in offshore training on a daily basis. At most, it only made a few laps in Nanyang. Most of the time, it actually stayed in the port of the Hong Kong Naval Base.
This is why the battleship HMS Ceylon is called the Ceylon Hotel!
However, even though the Navy's battleship policy has been criticized like this, the Navy still has not stopped building large-tonnage battleships.
At the same time, last year, the Navy started building a very interesting battleship, which is a shallow water battleship!
It has a displacement of more than 5,000 tons, but its draft is very shallow and its seaworthiness is not very good. It is also equipped with two 300 mm rear-mounted naval guns and a large number of 150 mm secondary guns.
The Navy claims that the strategic purpose of this kind of shallow-water battleship is for forward strategy and for overseas deployment to attack indigenous land targets. But in fact, the Navy built such a large shallow-water battleship specifically to fight in the Yangtze River and to fight against the army's locals.
The intensity of the war between the army and navy in the Tang Empire was unimaginable to outsiders.
They compete for outstanding young officers, compete for public opinion, and the proportion of annual military expenditures, and then formulate targeted top-secret combat plans and actually develop and equip various weapons for this purpose.
To put it bluntly, if something unexpected happened, the army and navy would probably start fighting in minutes.
However, this kind of mutual defense and even hostility between the army and navy is what the Holy Emperor wants to see. It can even be said that this situation was caused by Li Xuan himself who spent decades promoting it.
Not only was the conflict between the army and navy deliberately caused by Li Xuan, but the conflict between the cabinet and the military was also deliberately caused by Li Xuan.
Separation of military and political affairs was the most basic policy principle in the Tang Empire.
In addition to the conflicts between the army and navy and the separation of military and government, there are actually many places where we can see many discords within the Tang Empire.
For example, since the day the Ministry of Commerce was established, it has basically been a sworn enemy of the Ministry of Taxation. People from both sides have often been at each other's throats. The reason for this is that many senior executives of the Finance Department were split from the Tax Department, but later
However, these senior executives in the finance department directly attacked him.
Also, the censors in the Inspectorate are naturally at odds with other civil servants, because if the censors want to be promoted and make money, they have to pull down a few other civil servants.
Nowadays, the big bosses in the Inspectorate, especially the censors on the left and right, are all ruthless people whose hands are stained with the blood of civil servants.
If they are not so ruthless, why should they get up?
Conflicts within the Tang Empire can actually be seen everywhere, and many of them were actually created deliberately by Li Xuan, and no matter how bad they were, they were caused by Li Xuan's laissez-faire
What do those in power fear most?
It’s not that the enemy is strong, but the betrayal within!
In order to prevent problems before they occur, subordinates cannot be monolithic.
Therefore, it is not scary if there are hills. What is most scary is that there are no hills!
At the same time, we must also control the number of hills and which ones are strong and which are weak. This is also a political balance.
The political structure of the entire Datang Empire was characterized by numerous institutions and even seemed a bit cumbersome, which was absolutely unreasonable in terms of governance efficiency.
However, this political structure is the most balanced structure that Li Xuan can achieve at present, so that no one minister will become powerful and threaten the imperial power.
This is the result of forty years of hard work by Li Xuan. It cannot be built overnight, nor can it be broken by a single minister.
Because it is linked one link to another, it is not that easy.
Whoever dares to break it will be trampled to death by other ministers without Li Xuan taking action.
For example, if the imperial censor of the Supervisory Council wants to take over the power, is it possible to recruit cronies in the imperial study?
impossible!
One of the cabinet officials was directly stabbed!
If the cabinet officials want to squeeze out people from other agencies and take sole control of the imperial study, the military will probably shout "God damn the traitors."
Even if the cabinet and the military reach an agreement, the Hanlin Academy will not be happy!
What if these contradictory people could unite!
Then Hantong will start killing people.
Balance, this has always been the political structure that Li Xuan pursued.
The current Tang Empire seems to be full of internal contradictions, but in fact it has formed a relatively stable structure, and no one can easily grow bigger.
And do the ministers know about this situation?
No one is a fool. Officials who can get into the upper echelons of the empire, no matter whether they are civil servants, generals, military officials, censors, or others, all of them are human beings.
Can't they see this situation?
You can see it!
But will they change?
Won't!
On the one hand, this balance also represents the interests of their courtiers.
On the other hand, all fools know that the Holy Emperor is playing with balance. If you have to jump out and break this balance, you are not seeking death!