After inspecting the Jingzhou Machinery Bureau, Lin Ziran had a clearer understanding of the Daheng Empire's current industrial technology capabilities, well, they were limited to national defense-related industrial technologies.
It's not that good, and it can't keep up with the level of the world's powerful countries, but it's not that bad. No matter what, it can hang on the tail of the first echelon. In some fields, especially in breech-loaded rifled guns, it is relatively worse than other countries.
It has taken a certain advantage.
Of course, Lin Ziran didn't know at this time that the Kingdom of Krul across the sea had already imitated, developed and further improved the breech-loaded guns from the Daheng Empire, relying on its strong industrial strength to create a 300 mm gun.
Thirty times the caliber naval gun has arrived.
However, their naval guns and the new generation of warships under construction are still under confidentiality, and the outside world cannot know about them at all.
With such makeshift technology, coupled with Daheng's own strong foundation and industrial scale, Lin Ziran does not need to worry too much about national defense construction. Relatively speaking, there is more to worry about in the civilian industry.
I didn't feel much about it before, but after comparing some imported products, Lin Ziran found that the civilian industry within the Daheng Empire was really rubbish.
For example, the most basic and important contemporary light industrial product: cotton!
In the past, Lin Ziran thought that the cotton produced by Daheng was pretty good, but when he compared it with the cotton imported from the Kingdom of Krul, he became a little disappointed.
Compared with the cotton cloth of the Krul Kingdom, the cotton cloth produced at home is just like hand-woven homespun cloth.
Other people's ones are soft and comfortable, while our own ones are thick and hard.
The most important thing is that the CIF price of the imported cotton from the Kingdom of Krul is only about one-third of that of its own cotton, excluding the extremely high tariffs!
This price difference is simply unacceptable.
It doesn’t matter that all the vassals and towns in Daheng used to adopt trade protection policies. Without trade protection, Daheng’s own civilian industrial products would not be able to compete with imported goods, and there would be a huge gap in price and quality.
And what does this represent?
It's because their manufacturing processes are better and their production efficiency is higher.
Under this circumstance, Lin Ziran also became more determined in his idea, that is, to continue to formulate trade protection policies without wavering!
And they are not two kinds of goods. They must be fully protected. Otherwise, the reunified Daheng Empire will completely become a dumping ground for industrial goods from several other industrial powers.
Even with the current trade protection policy, imported goods still occupy a certain market in the Daheng Empire.
Still taking cotton as an example, although domestic cotton occupies more than 90% of the market, about 10% of the market is still occupied by imported cotton represented by the Kingdom of Krul, and the cotton market is occupied by
They are all high-end markets.
So high import tariffs have been levied on these imported cotton fabrics, but wealthy people in China will still choose to buy clothes made from these imported cotton fabrics.
This has to be said to be a very embarrassing thing.
Cotton cloth is just one of them. Many other civilian products have a similar situation. Thanks to trade protection policies, domestic products can occupy the vast majority of the market, but the high-end market is almost exclusively occupied by imported products.
Correspondingly, the Daheng Empire's commodity exports are hard to describe. Except for food and weapons, the export value of other commodities is very low.
This also solidified Lin Ziran's other idea, which is to rely on grain products to develop the grain processing industry to expand the export market and obtain more profits.
The second is to seize the opportunity of Blue Star countries to upgrade their rear-mounted rifled weapons and continue to expand arms exports.
Otherwise, the Daheng Empire's import and export trade will have a huge deficit, leading to a large outflow of funds.
In such a general environment, Lin Ziran convened the three major arms companies, army and navy personnel, and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and other relevant people in the capital to conduct a specialized discussion on the issue of arms trade.
During the meeting, Lin Ziran emphasized several points.
The first is to stabilize and expand the traditional market.
Secondly, we must actively explore new markets.
Actively expand arms exports to earn more funds for the empire, promote the development of the defense industry, and contribute to national defense construction. At the same time, we must also balance the balance of power in some regions through arms exports in a targeted manner to coordinate with the empire's foreign policy.
In terms of stabilizing and expanding the traditional market, the focus is on the Orr Kingdom.
Lin Ziran emphasized in meetings many times that the great financial backer of the Orr Kingdom must be firmly grasped.
Even though the Orr Kingdom only has a land area of several hundred thousand square kilometers and a population of several million, and its other industries are not that great, it can't stand up to others' gold!
This country with a big nose has a gold production capacity that accounts for more than 40% of global production, and it is very rich.
Since Lin Ziran occupied Luohai City and started arms trade with the Orr Kingdom, the Orr Kingdom has successively ordered 300,000 13mm Luoan III rifles from the empire, and purchased second-hand modified 18mm Fuyuan Rifles II for several of his younger brothers.
One hundred thousand pieces, more than a thousand rear-mounted army artillery pieces of each caliber.
In addition to army equipment orders, there are also a large number of naval equipment orders!
The Kingdom of Orr has ordered a total of twelve warships from the empire, including three 3,000-ton coastal defense ironclads and a number of small and medium-sized ships. All ships are equipped with the latest breech-mounted rifled naval guns and new steam engines.
and wrought iron composite armor.
This also includes the procurement of upgrades for rear-mounted naval guns for three warships including the Orr Kingdom ironclad.
In order to get money from the boss of the Orr Kingdom, the Daheng Empire took out everything at the bottom of the box and sold it, especially several core naval guns, including the 200 mm 25-caliber naval gun.
, all the 150mm and 30x caliber naval guns were put on the shelves, and even the 300mm and 25x caliber naval guns that had just been successfully developed were put out for sale, trying to win over the people of the Orr Kingdom.
orders for new large-tonnage armored ships.
At the beginning of the year, the Orr Kingdom once again sent a military delegation to Daheng to discuss the purchase of multiple battleships. Before the negotiations started, they made it clear: as long as the goods are good, money is not an issue!
The Orr Kingdom is quite satisfied with the series of warships it ordered before. Even the Orr Kingdom ironclad is limited by the hull design, but after being upgraded with rear-mounted naval guns, its combat effectiveness has also been improved.
In addition, they are very satisfied with the three coast-class coastal defense iron-clad ships. After one of them was completed and delivered to them at the end of last year, the entire Navy of the Kingdom of Orr was very satisfied with this coastal defense iron-clad ship. Although it is only 3,000 tons, its speed is also low.
A bit slow, but with powerful firepower and strong protection.
This coastal-class coastal defense armored ship is equipped with an exaggerated four 200 mm 25-magnitude naval guns, and is equipped with a thick armor belt, the thickest part even reaches 300 mm.
Amazing firepower and powerful protection!
This is the distinctive feature of the coastal-class shore defense ironclad ship.
As for the poor seaworthiness, poor battery life, and low speed, these are not problems for the Orr Kingdom.
Because the Orr Kingdom is a small country to begin with, it just happens to have a large gold mine on its territory. Their army and navy are all based on homeland defense and do not consider ocean warfare at all.
Relying on shore defense firepower to perform offshore defense missions is the core strategic mission of the Orr Kingdom Navy.
This is also the reason why they are very satisfied with the coastal-class coastal defense ironclads.
This time when they come to Daheng Empire, they want to expand the scale of warship procurement!
However, this time they want to purchase not only small-tonnage coastal defense armored ships, but also battleships.
After the Orr Kingdom explained its intention, the Daheng Empire took out all the unified-class armored ships that were still on the slipway in order to win orders. However, the Orr Kingdom was still not satisfied. They wanted more firepower. , a main battleship with better protection.
What they need is a capital ship that can stand out on the sea and make the navies of other countries formidable.
Although the Uniform-class ironclads were good, they still felt a little inferior, especially because the caliber of the main gun was a little small.
So, the empire simply took out the Yonglin-class battleship that was still on the slipway and had not yet been commissioned. However, after people from the Orr Kingdom looked at it, they said that although the ship was not bad, it was a waste. The tonnage is suspected, and it is believed that too much tonnage is placed on speed and endurance.
However, they were very satisfied with the 300mm 25x naval gun above, and believed that newly ordered warships must be equipped with such large-caliber naval guns.
How can you be dissatisfied with this?
To put it bluntly, even if this naval gun were placed on the entire Blue Star, it would still be at the top of the performance scale. That is, it is thirty times the 300 mm of the Krul Kingdom Navy, which is secretive and is still kept secret. caliber naval gun can stabilize one end of it.
However, don’t expect to be able to buy this naval gun from the Krul Kingdom Navy in the Orr Kingdom!
In the end, the two sides decided to make targeted improvements on the basis of the Yonglin-class battleship, cutting out some features that the Orr Kingdom could not use, and thus controlling the tonnage and cost.
Although the design has not yet been completed, the Kingdom of Orr has already stated that if the design is feasible, then this warship will be at least a 2+2 order, that is, two ships will be ordered first, and then two improved models will be ordered.
In addition to the 2+2 total of four capital ships, they also have orders for multiple non-capital ships, including a total of four reconnaissance cruisers and multiple shallow water heavy gunships.
The Orr Kingdom plans to upgrade its entire navy and build a powerful modern navy to protect its gold mines and put an end to any foreign ambitions.
During the entire negotiation process, the Orr Kingdom did not even bargain much with the Daheng Empire. Of course, this was because the Daheng Empire was not too sinister and the price was too shady. The Daheng Empire actually used the Orr Kingdom's navy. Carry out research and development, test and build new warships, and the warships of the Daheng Empire may sound good, but in fact they are just that, so the price cannot be too high.
As for the Orr Kingdom, they also know that they are here to be Kaizi, so as long as the price is moderately affordable, they don't bargain much.
After all, these days, except for the most advanced weapons and equipment they can purchase from Daheng, it is difficult to buy advanced weapons such as 300mm 25x caliber breech-loading naval guns elsewhere.
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Not every big country can withstand the pressure from the Krul Kingdom and the Orissa Empire and sell them these advanced equipment.
Even if others can withstand the pressure, they may not be able to produce these advanced products in a short period of time. If they can, they are not willing to offend the Kingdom of Krul and the Orissa Empire for the sake of the Or Kingdom.
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Therefore, the military procurement behavior between the Orr Kingdom and the Daheng Empire is a natural and complementary cooperative relationship, and it is impossible to say who suffers.
The Daheng Empire naturally welcomed the ambitious Orr Kingdom with raised hands, and offered and sold all kinds of good things.
For a generous traditional customer like the Orr Kingdom, it is necessary to maintain relationships and further expand business.
At the same time, we also need to actively explore new markets!
For example, the Northern Six Nations Alliance said they wanted to purchase weapons and equipment from the Daheng Empire. Although selling to them would be suspected of supporting the enemy, if they didn't buy from the Tang Dynasty, they would also buy from the Kingdom of Krul and Orissa.
Purchased by other powerful countries such as the Empire.
No matter what, they will purchase large quantities of breech-loading rifled weapons to complete technological upgrades.
Rather than letting other countries make this money, it would be better for the Daheng Empire to make it itself.
Lin Ziran hopes to properly develop the northern market, especially the Kingdom of Lieteng, one of the previous six northern alliances, which has already purchased a batch of ordnance from the Daheng Empire, although the purchase at that time was before Daheng was unified.
, the relationship between the two parties is still at a good stage.
Now the relationship between the two parties has suddenly fallen to a freezing point, but Lin Ziran has instructed that since they have given money, they must deliver the goods, and even use this relationship to completely open the six countries' markets.
If it works well, there will be orders for at least hundreds of thousands of Luoan III rifles and hundreds or even thousands of breech-loading artillery pieces in the markets of these six countries.
In addition, we can also properly promote warships to them in the future. They are very similar to the Kingdom of Orr in that they are defensive navies. The coastal-class coastal defense armored ships designed and built by the Daheng Empire for the Kingdom of Orr are quite suitable for these.
Small and medium-sized countries may still be trying to trick them into ordering a few large-tonnage ironclads.
In short, if you want to become a qualified arms dealer and buy Daheng arms all over the world, you must have the consciousness to sell weapons to your enemies, and even let your enemies kill you with the weapons you sell.
Even Lin Ziran joked that even if the Orissa Empire provided money, the empire could sell them warships.
In addition to the Orr Kingdom and the Northern Six Nations Alliance, there are several countries in the southern continent that are also up for grabs, such as the Central Alliance and the Four East Coast Countries.