In late August, outside the Yangtze River estuary in Songjiang Prefecture, a huge Galen ship was slowly approaching, with a huge green dragon flag on a yellow background hanging from the top of the ship's mast.
Looking at this flag, you can basically tell that this is a ship of the Tang Dynasty, because the blue dragon flag with a yellow background is the royal flag of the Li Tang royal family and is also the official flag of the Tang Dynasty.
Generally speaking, ships flying the blue dragon flag with a yellow background are usually official ships of the Tang Dynasty, or private ships closely related to the official government of the Tang Dynasty. However, if they are navy warships or transport ships, including army transport ships,
They usually also fly a red dragon and sword flag to show their military identity.
However, after getting closer, you can find that most of the sailors on this Galen ship are foreigners.
It was unusual for a Galen ship filled with foreigners to fly the official flag of the Tang Dynasty.
This made the officers of the Datang Navy who came to inspect the ship a little confused. However, although they did not understand, they still started the inspection according to the procedures.
This Datang Navy ship patrolling the estuary is the Lianping-class patrol ship Yong'an, which was commissioned by the Datang Navy only this year and is specially used for offshore patrols.
The tonnage of even-class patrol ships is not large, only 150 tons. Not to mention compared with cruisers, even compared with frigates, they are much smaller.
The tonnage is small, and naturally there are not many cannons loaded on it. There are only nine cannons, and the largest one is the nine-pound cannon. However, the speed still reflects the advantages of the professional warships of the Tang Navy. The speed is very fast.
flexible.
At the same time, because there is no need to fight in the ocean, a lot of space is freed up to improve the living environment of the soldiers, so their living conditions are no worse than those on large ships.
The design and construction of this type of offshore patrol ship began last year, and the first ship, the Lianhei, just entered service in June this year.
In order to control the cost of this class of ships, the Navy has put a damper on the protection level of this patrol ship. Many of the woods used are ordinary woods. There are no very strict requirements on wood like frigates, cruisers, and battleships.
Moreover, the ship has a small tonnage and does not require much docking. Even several large private shipyards can undertake the construction. Therefore, the construction of this kind of patrol ship is relatively easy, and it can even be built in large quantities at the same time.
Although its firepower is a little inferior, it still has nine cannons. It is naturally unable to deal with professional warships with dozens of cannons, but it is easier to use against pirate ships or armed merchant ships.
The protection level is average, the tonnage is small, the construction is easy, the number of artillery is not large, and the caliber is not large. What is the result after combining these: low cost!
At present, the Datang Navy purchases a 350-ton frigate, including hull, sails, and guns, which costs about 70,000 taels, while purchasing a 550-ton cruiser costs 110,000 taels.
two.
However, the unit price of a Lianping-class patrol ship, including its hull, sails, and guns, is only 20,000 taels.
Its low cost allowed the navy to endure its weak firepower and low protection capabilities.
After all, the firepower of pirate ships or armed merchant ships is not very good. Especially armed merchant ships, even if their firepower is slightly stronger, their tonnage is at least several hundred tons, their speed is slow, and their maneuverability is poor.
Therefore, although this kind of patrol ship is small, it is flexible and can be used to deal with pirates and armed merchant ships in East Asian waters.
It is easy to build, low-cost, and has barely passable combat effectiveness. For the Tang Dynasty Navy, which has heavy tasks but lacks main battleships, is seriously dissatisfied with armed merchant ships, and is also suffering from insufficient military expenditures, this kind of patrol ship is almost perfect for the Tang Navy.
They are tailor-made.
Well, I was wrong. It should be said that the Tang Dynasty Navy specially designed such a warship!
After the design was developed, the Navy ordered six ships in one go last year, trying to completely replace some of the current Fu ships and Galen ships in the Navy. The armed merchant ships are modified to perform offshore patrol missions and operate offshore.
Support main battleship operations.
However, when the Navy later conducted sea trials on the first patrol ship launched at the beginning of this year, it found that although this patrol ship was designed as an offshore vessel, it had a shallow draft and a relatively small size. It also had good effects when used in inland rivers.
, so in the first half of this year, the first patrol ship had just been launched for sea trials and had not officially entered service. The Navy just added an order for twelve more ships, and this is definitely not the end.
Because the Navy has already planned to use this kind of patrol ship to replace a large number of modified armed merchant ships such as sand ships, Guangzhou ships, Fu ships, Galen ships, etc., the total number of equipment is likely to reach more than thirty ships by then.
After June this year, the first ship Lianhei was officially commissioned, and within just three months, four patrol ships successively joined the navy's active service. All of these four patrol ships are currently attached to the First Fleet and are deployed
In Wusong Port, it is responsible for the patrol and preparation tasks in the waters surrounding the Yangtze River estuary and the Yangtze River Basin.
What appears here now is the Yong'an, the third-ranked patrol ship. Although its hull is small and it doesn't have many guns, it is now cautiously examining this Galenic-era ship flying the flag of the Tang Dynasty.
, and prepare to carry out routine inspection tasks.
The first step is to send a signal and send a small boat over to announce: You have entered the territorial waters of the Tang Empire. Please close the deck gun doors, lower the sails, and at the same time all sailors board the deck for inspection.
Any abnormal movement will be punished the most severely by our Datang Navy!
The mouth of the Yangtze River is currently the most heavily guarded sea area for the Tang Navy. Not to mention this kind of Galen ship, you can tell it is a foreign ship at a glance. Even the civilian ships within the Datang Empire arrived at this sea area.
They also need to accept the interrogation of the Tang Navy obediently.
Of course, the Tang Dynasty welcomed maritime traders from all over the world, so as long as they cooperated and accepted the inspection, well, the main thing was to give up their arms, then they could enter the port, even if the ship came from Shandong or Beizhili in the north
, the Tang Dynasty still welcomed him.
If a foreign ship tries not to accept interrogation or even resists, the Yong'an will launch an attack without hesitation and at the same time send a signal to warn nearby ships.
However, their worries were obviously unnecessary. The Galen ship in front of them quickly made a gesture that it would not resist. The cannons on the deck were pushed back. At the same time, the sails were slowly lowered, and a large number of
The sailors also boarded the deck to prepare for inspection.
Seeing this scene, the inspectors sent by the Yong'an boarded the ship in several small boats to conduct inspections. However, when the officers and soldiers of the Tang Dynasty navy boarded the ship, they found a foreigner who claimed to be a citizen of the Tang Dynasty!
A red-haired and blue-eyed citizen of the Tang Dynasty? He also spoke Chinese with a weird accent and took out a piece of paper.
After taking the document and reading it, the navy lieutenant realized that this man was actually a citizen of the Tang Dynasty, and that he had been personally authorized by His Majesty.
The foreigner who was subject to the naval interrogation was naturally the first foreigner to be naturalized in the Tang Dynasty, Gerdes. At this time, he was wearing a traditional Hanfu. Apart from his appearance, his other attire was basically no different from the gentry in the Tang Dynasty.
What a difference.
However, this Chinese language is too difficult to learn. He has been learning it for so long. Although he can speak, write and read it, his pronunciation is always weird.
After the inspection, the Yong'an did not stay too long and quickly released Guedes' ship, and then continued patrolling.
Gerdes also directed the sailors to set sail again and continue to sail towards the estuary of the Yangtze River. However, along the way, he also strictly followed the regulations of the Tang Navy. This naval gun was absolutely not allowed to be deployed, and continued to operate.
Before and after, a guide ship of the Tang Navy soon approached, and began to ask them to hand over the gunpowder on the ship, and reiterated to them the rules of the Tang Dynasty: the gun doors must be kept closed at all times, and they must follow the guide ship.
Otherwise, the several battleships of the Tang Navy that are watching eagerly next to them can come over and bombard them at any time, and the forts on land will also open fire directly!
There is no way to do this. The merchant ships these days are almost all armed merchant ships, more or less carrying artillery. You can't let them in. The only way is to strictly control them.
Although it was Gerdes' first time to come to Songjiang Mansion, he had traveled to Lianzhou and Guangzhou Port many times, and he was already familiar with many rules of the Tang Dynasty.
Following the guide boat, we slowly sailed in, but instead of continuing along the Yangtze River, we entered the Huangpu River.
This is because the second batch of ports opened for trade in the Tang Dynasty was Songjiang Prefecture Shanghai Port. This Shanghai Port was originally an important transit port for north-south shipping and in and out of the Yangtze River, and many materials transported from the south during the Tang Dynasty were also
disembarked in this port.
Because of its superior geographical conditions, Shanghai Port has become one of the five trading ports of the Tang Dynasty.
Before entering the Huangpu River, Gerdes also saw the Wusong Military Port on the side. The first thing he drove to was the massive fort on the shore. The size of the fort was no less than the Humen Fort that Gerdes had seen. He estimated that
Look, there are probably at least dozens of artillery pieces in this fort.
On one side of the fort, there are also a large number of warships parked. Among them are three very conspicuous warships. One is a very tall and slender cruiser with thirty guns, a slightly smaller frigate, and another.
The patrol ship he had seen before.
The reason why these three types of warships are so conspicuous is because Gerdes has never seen such unique warships in other countries, especially that kind of cruiser, which is slender and elegant, making people feel happy to see it.
Moreover, the number of battleships was also very large, which made Gerdes feel heroic: "Our Datang Dynasty is awesome!"