Chapter 79: Arms Race One Thousand Three Hundred Years Ago

Although Yang Guang's three campaigns to Goguryeo had a very negative impact on the ruling regime of the Sui Dynasty. The three large-scale conquests not only seriously damaged the national strength of the Sui Dynasty, but also caused the people to live in misery, seriously stimulated class contradictions, and eventually led to the outbreak of the peasant uprising at the end of the Sui Dynasty.

However, Goguryeo was a small country and had few people. After three national wars, the Sui Dynasty failed, but Goguryeo was not feeling well. This was the most typical fat pig to kill the sheep. After three wars, the Sui Dynasty lost a million troops, but Goguryeo also suffered a lot.

In the eighth year of Daye, Yang Guang fought eastward for the first time. Although Wende in the Yizhi period was in the Wushui River (Datong River), he flooded Yuwen Shu and other nine armies by building dams to store water instead of troops. In this battle, the Sui army lost almost all the losses. However, more than 50,000 people were killed or injured in the battle.

By the third Eastern Expedition in the decade of Daye, Goguryeo had only 270,000 households, less than 2 million people. If we follow the example of Lai Hu'er attacking from the water, it is actually far from a hundred five-toothed warships needed to attack Goguryeo, because Goguryeo's navy was extremely weak.

Although the Goguryeo navy claimed to have more than 1,000 warships, most of them were small boats with a hundred stones. Even if the Tang army dispatched ten five-tooth warships, the Goguryeo navy was unable to resist and could only retreat to the water camp.

Even if the Tang Dynasty attacked Goguryeo, water wars would definitely not occur, and the biggest role of the navy was to act as a transport team.

In terms of transportation, the Hengyang Boat is actually much stronger in carrying capacity and cheaper in construction than the Five-Tooth Warship. The Hengyang Boat built in Jiangning during the Sui Dynasty could carry 20,000 stones of supplies, and even if it carries soldiers, it could transport more than 1,600 people. However, the cost of this Hengyang Boat was less than one-third of the Five-Tooth Warship, and only less than 40,000 guan could be built.

Why do things that can be done with 2 million guan cost more than 15 million guan?

Li Jiancheng hesitated for a moment and did not explain too much to Li Jing.

Li Jiancheng built the Five-Tooth Warship not to deal with Goguryeo, but to deal with Li Shimin.

Li Shimin is far away from the Fusang continent, tens of thousands of miles away, and has a good foundation. As Li Jiancheng gets more and more information, he feels more and more frightened.

In just over three years, Li Shimin has owned more than 100 cities and two million entries. It is almost equivalent to most of Guanzhong, and the actual territory is far more fertile than Guanzhong.

Under Li Shimin, he had corn with a yield of up to five stones per mu and sweet potatoes with a yield of more than ten stones. Even if there were only two million people, he could easily support an army of no less than two hundred thousand.

The Tang army was going to expedition the Fusang continent tens of thousands of miles away. The boat was small and it was not possible to do so. It was too small and had no ability to resist the wind and waves. Only a big ship of ten thousand stones could barely protect itself.

Even if the elite expedition to America, the number of people should not be too small. If it is too small, it will only deliver vegetables.

Therefore, building the Five-Tooth Warship and the Hengyang Boat at all costs is the most important thing in the Tang Dynasty at present.

...

After Li Jing received the order, he bent back and retreated.

He hoped that Wei Zheng and Fang Xuanling could use the right to criticize the people and the province to reject Li Jiancheng's life.

However, it was beyond Li Jing's expectations.

This imperial edict was successfully passed by the Ministry of Education. Even Fang Xuanling, who has always been harsh and proficient in his criticism, did not interfere with it.

Li Jing really couldn't figure it out, but he had to follow the imperial edict and go south to Jiangning as the Minister of State and the Minister of State, to recruit craftsmen and carry out shipbuilding work.

At this time, the ministers of the Menxia Provincial Government had already known about Li Shimin's situation in the Fusang continent. Although Fang Xuanling knew that at this time, the Tang Dynasty was not suitable to build the Five-Tooth Warship at all costs.

However, Fang Xuanling had no way to stop it. After all, the biggest enemy of the Tang Dynasty is not the already destroyed Eastern Turks, nor the Western Turks struggling dyingly, but Li Shimin who is eyeing the Tang Dynasty.

With Menxiasheng passing the imperial edict from Li Jiancheng, the war machine of the Tang Dynasty re-powered and ran quickly before it cooled down.

...

Fang Xuanling suddenly came back to his senses and found that Wei Zheng was staring at him seriously.

Fang Xuanling smiled bitterly and said, "Xuancheng, is there a flower on his face?"

Wei Zheng spread his hands and said, "You have been standing here for half an hour!"

Fang Xuanling smiled bitterly and said, "This... the world is so difficult to be peaceful?"

Wei Zheng said silently: "Xuanling, you are not worried..."

Fang Xuanling smiled and said, "What are you worried about?"

Wei Zheng shook his head.

Fang Xuanling said: "Xuancheng, you have been worried too much. Xuanling is an old minister of the Qin Palace, but not a slave of the Qin Palace, but a minister of the Tang Dynasty!"

Wei Zheng was stunned.

...

Just when Li Jiancheng mobilized all the forces of the Tang Dynasty to develop naval equipment, Forbes Island Shipyard, far away in the Fuso Continent, was also working hard to build large ships.

The people of Yin Forbes were also descendants of the Shang people of the Yin Dynasty. In fact, they had become fishing and hunting nations. One-third of the people did not farm or were nomadic, but relied on fishing to make a living.

However, they could only build about a hundred stone small boats and develop offshore fishing. Such small boats had no way to go far away.

When Li Shimin brought Du Ruhui and others to Forbes Island for inspection, when he was still ten miles away from the pier, the scout suddenly said excitedly: "King, I saw it, I saw it!"

Li Shimin was sailing forward, and the warship gradually approached the two large ships, and everyone exclaimed.

The Thousand Stone Warship seemed so small in front of these two giants, and Li Shimin was also very shocked. Although he had seen the same huge Yang Guang dragon boat, these two horizontal boats seemed to be a bigger circle 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 1,500 tons in later generations. At this time, more than hundreds of craftsmen were busy on the ship.

Clean the cabin, brush tung oil on the deck or the side of the ship, strengthen the masts, and weave sails (in ancient Chinese sailing sails were not canvas, but bamboo strips)

These two ocean boats began to be built when Li Shimin took over the Qin Wang City. After two years and seven months of busyness, they were finally close to completion.

Du Ruhui looked at the two Hengyang boats that were about to be completed and said excitedly: "I think I can't return to Chang'an in this life. Now I look... I can still return to my roots when I have a lifetime!"

Li Shimin nodded and said, "I have never given up returning to Chang'an, we will definitely be able to return to Chang'an!"

Speaking of this, Li Shimin continued: "I decided that our Fusang Tang Dynasty needs to build fifty ocean boats..."

Du Ruhui shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, fifty ocean boats can't return to Chang'an!"

Du Ruhui's meaning is naturally not that he cannot go back. In fact, according to Zhang Zhongjian's fleet, more than a dozen straits of ocean boats are enough to cross the ocean and arrive on the mainland. What he meant was that fifty straits of ocean boats that could carry 40 straits of men could not take Guanzhong.

Li Shimin smiled and said, "Fifty ships are not enough, so we will build one hundred. One hundred ships are not enough, so we will build two hundred..."

Chen Ying, who was far away in the Western Regions, did not know that because of the appearance of his butterfly in another world, the emergence of him triggered an arms race in advance.

Li Jian became the one who could completely eliminate Li Shimin and vigorously develop the navy, preparing to destroy Li Shimin before Li Shimin was full of strength.

But Li Shimin also worked hard to build his dream of returning. Surprisingly, the two brothers made the Hengyang boat, the pinnacle of the large ships during the Sui Dynasty.

The only difference is that Li Jiancheng devoted himself to building the five-tooth warship of the warship, while Li Shimin focused on building the Hengyang Boat transport ship.

...

Li Xiuning and Chen Ying continued to move westward, but Li Xiuning discovered an interesting story at this time.

Although these refugees were wearing new clothes, they had printed words on the clothes. This dye was the same as the dye of dyed cloth and could not fade.

"Wu Ji Scissors are the best in the world!"

“Daiji warehouse is of high quality and low price.”

“Niuji tillage tools are strong and durable.”

"Liu Ji credit card profit discount."

...

Li Xiuning was stunned for a long time and looked at the people with a happy face.

"It turns out that these Wei merchants actually hit the refugees' advertisements?"

Li Xiuning looked at Chen Ying and smiled and said, "Now I understand. I think these new clothes may not be distributed for free by the government, but sponsored by those merchants... Merchants are seeking profits, but they would not be so kind and righteous?... Even if they are advertising, these people are illiterate, so what's the use!"

Chen Ying smiled and said, "It doesn't matter if the refugees are illiterate. There are always people who are literate. After these refugees enter the Western Regions, they will be assigned to their household registration. They will definitely work hard and move around. As soon as people move around, the effect of the advertisement can be revealed. Merchants from other places and scholars will interpret these advertisements. They will be passed on by word of mouth, and the advertisement will be published."

In fact, Li Xiuning guessed well. Most of these clothes were provided by merchants for free for advertising. In this era, merchants had very low status, even worse than free people. No matter how rich they were, they had no political status.

However, after Chen Ying formed the Tang Dynasty Royal Merchant Alliance, he set a benchmark for the Tang Dynasty Royal Merchant Alliance. At this time, merchants discovered that they could actually unite and share resources like the Tang Dynasty Royal Merchant Alliance.

These merchants also need backends, but the clans are all geographically restricted. Even if the Wang family in Taiyuan is strong, they will never run to Xingyang to compete for profit with the Zheng family. This is a leapfrog.

However, Chen Ying was different. Although he belonged to one of the eight pillar states of the Western Wei Dynasty, he was ranked first because of his official position. He was not subject to geographical restrictions. After all, whether in the Western Regions, Lingzhou, or even in Henan Prefecture, Chen Ying's name was very useful. Even in Xingyang, the Zheng family would sell him to Chen Ying for face unless they did not want to cooperate with Chen Ying.

Ma Zhou established the Anxi Business Alliance of the Tang Dynasty in the Western Regions. As the political backstage of the Business Alliance, Chen Ying also gave merchants a hope that their children could enter the Tang Dynasty University of Technology founded by Chen Ying, or various academies within the Anxi Protectorate's Mansion. After they have finished their studies, they would have the opportunity to become officials in the future.

This offer can be said to be the most attractive thing for merchants.

Chen Ying is now the first and only powerful man in the world who does not view merchants with a discriminatory attitude. These merchants gradually formed an interest alliance with Chen Ying.

They want to get benefits from Chen Ying, especially political interests. Chen Ying wants to get funds and talent support from merchants. After all, Chen Ying’s Chidao network is not something he can build alone. Chidao construction work is a bottomless pit. Now 70% of the profits created by Chen Ying are invested in Chidao construction.

Just when the merchant alliance was founded, Chen Ying drew a big cake for the merchants, and these merchants had a decent idea.

They support Chen Ying, and even at a loss, they must support Chen Ying's political actions. Because these bigwigs who are ups and downs in the business world want to imitate Lu Buwei.

Naturally, after Ma Zhou reconciled from the middle, Chen Ying reached a consensus with the Business Alliance. Those who have made outstanding contributions to benefiting society can be awarded official positions, although they are all small officials from the eighth or ninth rank.

The merchants went crazy all of a sudden, but no matter how rich they were, they wanted to gain respect from the world. When the opportunity arose, wouldn’t they seize it?

In this way, merchants of all sizes contributed their strength to attract refugees in Anxi.

Even Chen Ying himself did not realize that in fact, he had formed a political party. The core backbone of this political party is mainly composed of vulnerable groups of craftsmen, soldiers, farmers, and merchants in the world, and Chen Ying is the core.

Just like during the development of the Western Regions, the Anxi Business Alliance donated 3.5 million stones of grain, 130,000 sets of ready-made clothes, and 800,000 stagnant of money to the Anxi Protectorate.

In particular, Yang Rong and Yang Rong from the Wu family business took advantage of Li Jiancheng's favorable feelings to resell the steel, coal, salt and other mineral resources he purchased and had already proven reserves in Xiazhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou and other states.

In just half a year, Yang Rong cashed out 2.7 million chunks. After earning this money and grain, he devoted all of Yang Rong to the development of the Western Regions.

In the eyes of the merchants of the Tang Dynasty, Chen Ying became the God of Wealth. He would definitely make a fortune with Chen Ying.

There is no need to promote the following matters. The businessmen are competing to contribute their efforts, as if you don’t let me pay, and I will be anxious with you.

With the development of business, the reputation of the Datang Tongli Money House was also established.
Chapter completed!