BSI Page 960
Page 960
Li Jing bowed and said: "For Your Majesty, I will fly the banner of the Tang Dynasty over the Congling Ridge again."
Li Jiancheng waved his hand and said: "There is no rush, General Chen has already gone to Anxi, and he will soon use troops against Congling. What I am worried about is Liaodong, here!"
With that said, Li Jiancheng turned around and slapped the location of Datong River on the map.
Li Jing asked suspiciously: "Your Majesty means to use troops against Goguryeo?"
Li Jiancheng said noncommittally: "Pharmacist, do you still remember which Eastern Expedition was the closest to victory in the previous dynasty?"
Li Jing said without thinking: "The first time..."
Li Jiancheng smiled wryly: "Yes, if it weren't for Yang Xuangan's chaos, Goguryeo would have perished..."
Speaking of this, Li Jiancheng paused and said, "The pharmacist once organized the building of warships in Bashu, so he must have a lot of experience in naval warship construction!"
Li Jing nodded.
Li Jiancheng pointed to the map and said: "I plan to restart the construction of warships in Donglai, Buqi (now Qingdao), Jingkou (now Zhenjiang), and Woshi. I plan to use three years in the four places to build warships. One hundred five-fang warships..."
Li Jing was secretly surprised.
As the largest main battleship in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the five-tooth warship has a five-story structure and is more than [-] feet high.There are six paddle poles on the left, right, front, back, and fifty feet high.Each wooden mast is tied with a boulder, and there is a potter's wheel under it. When an enemy ship is approaching during a battle, the boulder can be quickly put down with the potter's wheel to smash the enemy ship.If you miss a hit, you can quickly put it away and put it back.If the enemy ships are surrounded on all sides, they can still "six-pronged attack", which can be seen from its strong combat effectiveness.
Each of the five-tooth battleships can accommodate 15 soldiers, and [-] ships equals [-] sailors.The most important thing is that the five-tooth warship is expensive. It is no exaggeration to say that each five-tooth warship exceeds [-] guns. The cost is as high as [-] guan.
Although the annual fiscal revenue of Datang Guoli has reached as high as 870 million guan, it costs 500 million guan to build [-] ships. Even Chen Ying, who is as wealthy as a country, can't actually build a few warships.
What Li Jing wondered was...is it really necessary to build a hundred five-fang warships?
Chapter 79 The Arms Race 300 Years Ago
Chapter 79 The Arms Race 300 Years Ago
Although it is said that Yang Guang's three conquests of Goguryeo had a very negative impact on the ruling regime of the Sui Dynasty.The three large-scale wars not only severely depleted the national power of the Sui Dynasty, but also caused the people to live in poverty, seriously aroused class conflicts, and finally led to the outbreak of peasant uprisings at the end of the Sui Dynasty.
However, after all, Goguryeo was a small country and few people. After three national wars, although the Sui Dynasty failed, Goguryeo was not happy.This is the most typical fat pig smashing sheep to death.After the three wars, the Sui Dynasty lost millions of troops, but Goguryeo also lost a lot.
In the eighth year of Daye, Yang Guang conquered Goguryeo for the first time. Although in Eulji Wende in Weishui (Datong River), he flooded Yu Wenshu and other nine armies by means of building dams to store water in place of troops. In this battle, the Sui army The 30 troops were completely lost.However, Goguryeo killed and injured more than [-] people due to the war.
By the time of the third Eastern Expedition in the tenth year of Daye, there were only 27 households left in Goguryeo, a population of less than 200 million.If we followed the example of Laihuer's attack from the waterway and attacked Goguryeo, we would not need a hundred five-tooth warships, because Goguryeo's navy was extremely weak.
Although Goguryeo's navy claimed to have more than a thousand warships, most of them were small boats of less than a hundred stones. Even if the Tang army dispatched ten five-toothed warships, the Goguryeo navy could not resist and could only retreat to the water village.
Even if Datang attacked Goguryeo, water warfare would definitely not occur, and the biggest role of the water army was to act as a transport team.
In terms of transportation, Hengyangzhou is actually far stronger than the five-tooth warship, and the cost is cheaper.As early as the Sui Dynasty, the horizontal ocean boat built by Jiangning could carry [-] shi materials, and even transport soldiers could transport more than [-] people.However, the cost of this kind of horizontal ocean boat is less than one-third of that of the five-tooth warship, and one can be built with less than [-] guns.
Why spend more than 200 million guan to do something that can be done with [-] million guan?
Li Jiancheng hesitated for a moment, but did not explain too much to Li Jing.
The purpose of Li Jiancheng's construction of the five-tooth battleship was not to deal with Goguryeo.But to deal with Li Shimin.
Li Shimin is far away in the Fusang Continent tens of thousands of miles away, and has a good foundation.As Li Jiancheng got more and more information, he became more and more frightened.
In just over three years, Li Shimin has owned more than 100 cities and 200 million Dingkou.It is almost equivalent to half of Guanzhong, but the actual territory is far more fertile than Guanzhong.
Under Li Shimin's rule, there are corn with an yield of up to five stones per mu and sweet potatoes with a yield of more than ten stones. Even if there are only 200 million people, they can easily support an army of no less than 20.
The Tang army was going to conquer the Fusang Continent tens of thousands of miles away. A small ship would not be able to do it at all. The ship is too small to face the wind and waves and has no ability to resist. Only the big ship with thousands of stones can barely protect itself.
Even if it is an elite expedition to the Americas, the number of people should not be too small, if it is too small, only food will be delivered.
Therefore, at all costs, building the five-tooth warship and Hengyang boat is the most important thing for Datang right now.
……
After Li Jing took the order, he bowed and retreated.
He hoped that Wei Zheng and Fang Xuanling could use their power to refute Li Jiancheng's rebellious order.
However, it was beyond Li Jing's expectation.
This imperial decree was successfully passed in the sect, even Fang Xuanling, who has always been known for being harsh and picky, did not interfere with it.
Li Jing really couldn't figure it out, but he had no choice but to go south to Jiangning in the identity of Shangshu Youpushe and a political adviser in accordance with the imperial edict, and went to Jiangning to recruit craftsmen to start shipbuilding.
At this time, the ministers of the province already knew about Li Shimin's situation in the Fusang Continent, although Fang Xuanling knew that at this time, it was not suitable for Datang to build a five-tooth warship at all costs.
However, Fang Xuanling couldn't stop it.After all, Datang's biggest enemy right now is not the extinct Eastern Turks, nor the dying Western Turks, but Li Shimin, who is eyeing Datang covetously.
Following the passage of Li Jiancheng's imperial decree by Menxia Province, the war machine of the Tang Dynasty, before it cooled down, turned on its full horsepower again and ran quickly.
……
Fang Xuanling suddenly came back to his senses, and found that Wei Zheng was staring at him seriously.
Fang Xuanling smiled bitterly and said, "Xuan Cheng, is there a flower on XX's face?"
Wei Zheng spread his hands and said, "You have been standing here for half an hour!"
Fang Xuanling smiled wryly, "This... the world, why is it so difficult to want peace?"
Wei Zheng said silently: "Xuan Ling, don't worry..."
Fang Xuanling smiled and said, "What are you worried about?"
Wei Zheng shook his head.
Fang Xuanling said: "Xuancheng, you are worrying too much. Xuanling is a former minister of the Qin Palace, but not a slave of the Qin Palace, but a minister of the Tang Dynasty!"
Wei Zheng was stunned.
……
When Li Jiancheng mobilized all the forces of Datang to develop naval equipment, the Forbes Island Shipyard far away on the mainland of Fusang was also rushing to build large ships overtime.
Yin Fubusi people are also descendants of Yin merchants. In fact, they have turned into a fishing and hunting people.One-third of the tribe neither farms nor nomads, but relies on fishing for a living.
However, they can only build boats of about a hundred stones to develop offshore fishing.There is no way for such a small boat to go to sea.
When Li Shimin brought Du Ruhui and others to inspect Forbes Island, when he was still a dozen miles away from the pier, the scouts suddenly said excitedly: "My lord, I saw it, I saw it!"
Li Shimin's boat sailed forward with full sail, and the battleship gradually approached the two big ships, and everyone exclaimed.
Li Shimin was also very shocked that the Qianshi battleship looked so small in front of these two giants. Although he had seen the same huge Yang Guang's dragon boat, these two horizontal ocean boats seemed to be a circle larger than Yang Guang's dragon boat. .
It is about thirty feet long and more than ten feet high, which is equivalent to a ship of [-] tons in later generations.At this time, there are more than hundreds of craftsmen on the big ship who are busy.