Chapter five hundred and eighty seventh naval reform
What is discouraged or even banned is the export of various materials related to people's livelihood, such as grain. The Guangdong and Guangxi regions are already short of grain, and due to the war, grain production has been reduced in the past year. If there are still businessmen purchasing grain and selling it,
This is absolutely unacceptable to other areas, especially the Ming Dynasty area.
There are also strict restrictions on the export of various military supplies that are currently needed domestically or that may be obtained by the Ming Dynasty and used to attack the Tang Dynasty itself, such as steel, saltpeter, sulfur, various military equipment, etc.
The export of these materials is strictly prohibited, and those that are allowed to be exported will be subject to high punitive export taxes.
Of course, the above-mentioned differential treatment of the import and export of various materials is only temporary. For example, steel is in great demand within the Tang Dynasty and is in short supply, so it is a prohibited export. However,
If the steel industry develops in the future, in order to estimate the development of the steel industry, it will be logical to export various types of steel industrial products.
Now, the best export materials are various specialty products, such as porcelain, tea, silk, etc.
These materials are actually traditional bulk products in China's foreign trade, have high added value, and do not affect people's livelihood.
Although Li Xuan is also concerned about the industrial and commercial development in Guangzhou, he is only grasping the general direction. He has more things to care about, especially the military. Shaozhou has not been captured yet, nor has eastern Guangdong.
The war in northeastern Guizhou has also reached a stalemate, and these are all matters that he needs to personally worry about one by one.
Even though they both belong to industry and commerce, what he is more concerned about is not Guangzhou, but the construction of various factories under the supervision of the Ministry of Industry!
As the Ministry of Industry successfully prepared to build the Zhaoqing Arsenal and started small-scale mass production, Li Xuan instructed the Ministry of Industry to continue to concentrate its efforts on big things and continue to prepare for the construction of various factories.
Set an example for the development of industry and commerce!
To this end, the Ministry of Industry is planning to continue to build other types of factories in Zhaoqing, most of which are factories for primary processing of agricultural products!
The only ones related to heavy industry are Foshan Iron Works and a few iron mines.
Iron ore is simple, and the Tang Dynasty had a huge demand for iron ore. After controlling some iron ore production areas, it directly increased the scale of mining and established several mining factories on this basis.
As for the Foshan Iron Works, it is a large-scale iron smelting plant, but it does not produce ordnance, but is used to produce various types of civilian steel products.
Foshan is a traditional steel smelting area, and with convenient transportation, iron ore or iron products can be easily transported in and out. Therefore, the Ministry of Industry plans to build a large-scale iron factory in Foshan specifically for the production of various types of civilian iron products.
The scale of its design is relatively large, and 500 people will be hired in the first phase!
Secondly, Li Xuan personally instructed the Ministry of Industry to build a textile factory in Guangzhou!
In the development of modern industry, apart from military-related heavy industries, the textile industry actually plays the most obvious role, is also the fastest effective, and is also the most able to promote the upgrading and development of various industries.
Although there is currently no large-scale cotton and silk production in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, this does not matter. These raw materials are always available. As long as the sign of purchasing raw materials is displayed, those businessmen will always have a way to transport the raw materials.
Li Xuan wanted to set up a textile factory to conduct various experiments first. Whether it would be successful in the future and how much of a stimulating effect it could have would be discussed later.
Promoting the development of industry and commerce was something Li Xuan was extremely concerned about after returning to Zhaoqing from Guangzhou. However, he also knew that developing industry could not be accomplished in a day or two and would take a long time to achieve results.
So in June of the second year of Xuanping, the factories under the Tang Dynasty still only had a few arsenals and a few factories that also mainly provided military supplies.
On the other hand, some small private workshops have developed relatively rapidly. These small workshops range from just a few people to dozens or hundreds of people carrying out various types of production. Moreover, many workshops rely on several large arsenals to survive.
In this regard, Li Xuan is happy to see the success. The development of this private industry depends on these small workshops. Who dares to say that big companies will not emerge from these small workshops in the future?
In mid-June, in the imperial palace in Zhaoqing City, after Li Xuan finished today's morning meeting, it was time for routine corrections and memorials.
In the afternoon, he summoned some civil and military officials. According to his habit, during normal work, he would meet with several civil and military officials every day. Most of these officials were mid-level and senior officials who were about to take up their posts somewhere, or were taking up new positions.
of mid-level officers and above.
At the same time, there were also officials and generals who returned to Beijing to report on their duties.
There is no shortage of time to meet each person, it can range from a few minutes to more than ten minutes.
After spending almost half an hour meeting these people, an Imperial Academy attendant who was waiting outside walked in: "Your Majesty, the navy officers are already waiting!"
Li Xuan nodded slightly, then stood up and prepared to go to the conference room.
Today, in addition to many daily affairs, he will also hold a naval strategy meeting to discuss the naval development plan. The ultimate goal of the plan is to defeat the Ming Navy that is still entrenched at the Pearl River Estuary.
Although Wang Yue was defeated from Guangzhou, the Ming Navy still existed, and its scale and strength were huge. The current Tang Navy was no match for it.
Although with the establishment of the Shamian Fort, and then the Tang Dynasty King's Division established a second fort at Changzhou in the middle of the Pearl River, the Ming Navy began to withdraw from the middle and upper Pearl River Basin due to threats from the coastal defense forts.
It is still active in the lower reaches of the Pearl River and controls the outlet of the Pearl River to the sea.
Although the two extremely crude forts at Cheung Chau and Sha Mian could prevent the Ming Navy from moving north along the river to Guangzhou, they could not effectively curb the rampage of the Ming Navy.
In order to compete for control of the Pearl River Basin, the Tang Dynasty needed a powerful navy to completely drive the Ming navy out of the Pearl River Basin and even open up a route to the South China Sea.
And this is also the purpose of Li Xuan's naval meeting!
Just as Li Xuan was heading to the conference room, a group of naval officers wearing dark blue, no, rather navy blue officer uniforms were sitting together in the conference room, talking to each other in low voices.
"Brother Li, you made great contributions in the last battle between Sanshui and I. I'm afraid it won't be long before your military rank will be able to move up again!" A young major said to an equally young major.
When Major Li heard this, he also had a look of pride on his face. Half a month ago, he led the fleet on a convoy mission and encountered an interception by the Ming Navy in Sanshui. He relied on the main battleship in his hand to deal with it, and then took
In order to attack with fire from small boats, he sank more than ten Ming Navy warships in one fell swoop, and even captured two Ming Navy warships, achieving a rare naval victory!
However, although he was proud, he still showed a humble expression and said: "The lucky victory in the battle of Sanshui is all thanks to His Majesty Hongfu. Otherwise, I am afraid that Li alone will not be able to win. But don't blame me, Brother Zhao."
You're not bad either. I heard that the two mighty dragon battleships completed this time will be added to your fleet!"
Hearing Major Li talk about the newly completed Dragon battleship, Major Zhao also smiled!
The Weilong battleship is currently the main battleship of the Tang Dynasty. The hull is ordered and produced from several private shipyards, and the artillery installation is delivered to the navy's own naval ship repair yard in Zhaoqing.
Its tonnage reached 80 tons, equipped with a five-pound cannon and four two-pound shotguns.
It uses traditional Chinese hard sails, and is equipped with a large number of oars on the bottom of the boat, using a model of using both sails and oars.
This kind of tonnage and firepower is naturally not worth mentioning if compared with those battleships dedicated to regular naval battles at sea, but this kind of battleship was designed for inland warfare from the beginning.
Its firepower and tonnage are just right for inland river operations, and it can also carry a large number of troops to perform transportation tasks.
Currently, the Tang Dynasty Navy is manufacturing and equipping such warships on a large scale. Because it is too late to build new hulls, the hulls of the Weilong warships that are now in service or even under construction are actually modified from original civilian ships.
At present, the Datang Navy already has six Weilong ships in service, and four more are under construction. As for the orders, there are more!
In addition to the Weilong-class battleships, there is also the very small Jiaolong-class battleship, which is only 20 tons and is only equipped with two two-pound shotguns. However, the ship is small and flexible, low-cost, and easier to produce, so it is also
Currently, there are more than twenty main battleships in the Tang Dynasty's royal division, and the number is increasing rapidly.
"But I heard that this time we are discussing a larger main battleship?" Major Li said: "And I heard that it is a real sea ship?"
"It should be. If nothing else happens, I'm afraid it will be finalized. This ship has been in shape since March. The ship's administration department has been busy for several months. It should be finalized!"
"It should be finalized as early as possible, and then the warship can be built immediately. Otherwise, it will take a long time to recapture the Pearl River estuary!"
While everyone was discussing, Captain Bao Yifen, who was sitting at the top, closed his eyes and pondered!
Unlike others who just speculated whether the new generation of main battleships would be finalized, as the top leader of the navy, he naturally knew that if nothing unexpected happened today, the new generation of the navy would indeed be finalized, and it would also be the first type specially used for naval warfare.
Battleship.
For this selection, the Navy Department has been preparing for several months, and even more than ten types of ships have been prepared in advance.
However, he knew that the finalization of the main battleships was not the focus of today's meeting. The focus of today's meeting would be the navy's subsequent overall development strategy, and naval reform within this strategic framework!
In other words, starting from today, the Navy will undergo major changes, and the changes will be so drastic that I am afraid many people will be surprised!
And he doesn't know whether this change is good or bad!