I want to be emperor

Chapter 520 Pirates and Trade ([-] in [-])

And the Dongbao people were exhausted throughout the winter, trying their best to maintain the defense line of the Liaoxi Corridor while maintaining the defense line of the Liaodong Peninsula in case the Seventh Army of the Great Chu Empire Army went directly north.

The Seventh Army on the opposite side seemed very leisurely.

Because the Seventh Army has no plans to go north continuously on a large scale, let alone attack Shenyang, even the Gaizhou Seventh Army has no plans to go.

Bai Yangrong has always kept in mind his own strategic mission: to contain enough troops from the East to relieve the pressure on the battle of the Liaoxi Corridor after the beginning of next spring.

But now, his mission has been fulfilled. Now on the front line of Fuzhou, there are more than [-] soldiers stationed in the East, and tens of thousands of them are still expensive cavalry.

On the other side of the Jinzhou defense line, there are also [-] to [-] soldiers from the east, and there are also thousands of cavalry.

Adding the two together, the Seventh Army restrained at least 7 troops from the east, of which [-] were vital cavalry.

This means that after the start of the Liaoxi campaign, when the Chu army in the direction of Shanhaiguan attacked the Liaoxi Corridor, they would face tens of thousands fewer enemy troops, and the opponent would also lack sufficient strategic reserves. It is very important for the military.

That being the case, Bai Yangrong would naturally not launch any large-scale attacks in the winter. It would be good to stay behind the defense line and warm up. There is no need to brave the cold wind and go to the university to fight.

Of course, in order to further contain the enemy's troop mobilization, Bai Yangrong didn't do nothing. He coordinated with the navy and dispatched more than 2000 troops. There are two landing fleets, one operating in the northern coastal area of ​​the Liaodong Peninsula, and the other operating in the southern coastal area of ​​the Liaodong Peninsula.

In November, the land and sea landing fleet of the Chu Army went to Phi Island near North Korea to conduct landing operations, and then went ashore to attack many towns, which caused great panic in the Li Dynasty, and even made the garrison locals The thousands of soldiers who were exiled from the east were panicked.

This kind of landing attack forced the local area to further increase the defense of the coastal cities, so that it would naturally reduce its troops and material resources on the front line of the Liaoxi Corridor.

After all, today's North Korea is also a vassal state under the control of the Dongbang people, and it can obtain a large amount of food, grass and other materials from the local area, and even recruit troops.

Therefore, they must also be restrained so that the Dongbang people cannot get too much support from here.

In addition to mobilizing the enemy's forces and consuming a lot of manpower and materials, these landing raids also have some advantages, that is, they can obtain a lot of combat power items.

Because today's two landing assault forces are mainly based on the navy, most of the battle supplies have also been taken away by the navy.

Then the navy found that after several attacks like this, although the combat power items obtained still could not cover the military expenditures for fighting on the northern coast, it was considered a part of the return.

For the Navy, this is a rare and good thing.

Ever since, some people in the navy thought that the army can make money in wars, so why can't their navy make money in wars?
With a few big votes, wouldn't it be possible to earn a fleet back?
Therefore, many naval generals are wondering whether to normalize this kind of landing attack, not only in Liaodong and the coast of North Korea, but also in Fusang and even the Nanyang area.

However, it is not easy to realize it. After all, the Great Chu Empire's navy cannot attack randomly, especially the current Fusang and Nanyang regions, which are important areas for the Great Chu Empire's foreign trade.

What if your navy is messing around and destroying trade?
You must know that compared with what you get from landing attacks, maritime trade is the big deal for the empire.

To put it bluntly, how much money can you rob...

In maritime trade, the goods of any merchant ship are worth hundreds of thousands. Several large maritime trading companies in the empire organized a large fleet to trade in Fusang or Nanyang, and the trade volume was in the millions.

And these maritime trades may only be some profits for the maritime trading companies, but for the entire empire, they are not only pure trade interests, but also represent the market for industrial products and the source of various raw materials.

And behind this, it affects millions of family life sources.

Taking the export of machine-made cloth as an example, maritime trade is only the terminal, and behind it are textile factories and farmers who grow cotton.

Textile factories have workers, and there are also factories that supply various raw materials and equipment to textile factories.

If this is extended step by step, it will almost be an entire industrial system!

The reason why it is said that the textile industry is the core industry for countries that started industrialization in modern times is because this thing is the engine of industrial development, and it can almost drive the development of the entire industrial system and even the entire society.

The textile industry is not just as simple as cloth. It is a high-value-added bulk industrial product, and in any era, this high-value-added bulk industrial product is a core industry.

For example, future generations of cars, such as chips!

Therefore, the high-level empire does not allow the navy to destroy the maritime trade market in the entire East Asian waters for the sake of some so-called plundering interests.

The Emperor Luo Zhixue has always insisted that the navy fight against all kinds of pirates, not only the pirates that threaten the safety of his own coast, but also the pirates in Fusang and even the South Seas.

Compared with the huge benefits of the entire maritime trade, a little plunder is nothing!

Not only can it not be plundered, but it must continue to fight against pirates to ensure the safety of sea routes.

Speaking of which, the pirates these days also make the empire's top management feel a little helpless...

Because there are not many pure pirates at all... Most of the so-called pirates are actually part-time maritime merchants... Many of them are maritime merchants of the Great Chu Empire...

There are many maritime trading companies in the Great Chu Empire, and many of them have armed merchant ships. When these armed merchant ships are on the coast controlled by the empire, they are naturally legal maritime merchants of the empire!
But once you leave the coastal areas to which the empire belongs, and run out of the routes patrolled and protected by the imperial navy, it will be difficult for you to tell whether they are sea merchants or pirates...

When they see merchant ships from other countries and feel that they have a chance to take them down, they will take down the black dragon flag of the Great Chu Empire and replace it with a skull flag... and become pirates directly!
This is part of the maritime trade these days, pirates and maritime merchants are inseparable!
Even the officials of the Great Chu Empire would find it difficult to change the objective laws of this general environment.

So when the Great Chu Empire went out to sea for trade, they also drove armed merchant ships there... driving unarmed merchant ships to go out to sea for trade, they basically came to the door to die.

Since they cannot be restrained, they can only be restrained and controlled.

For this reason, the Empire even specially issued the 'Maritime Trade Self-Defense Law', which directly authorized armed merchant ships going out to sea to trade, equip and use weapons including naval guns for self-defense in open seas.

However, these armed merchant ships need to be filed and registered, and at the same time, these armed merchant ships must also obey unconditionally when they are called up by the navy to fight.

In addition, there is another interesting detail in the terms of enlisting armed merchant ships, in order to encourage the fighting spirit of the sailors who are enlisted in merchant ships and compensate them for their losses.

The armed merchant ships that were conscripted during the war, during the battle, the spoils captured belonged to the company, captain, and sailors in the armed merchant ship in a certain proportion, and there was no need to hand over the spoils like the navy.

Then... For this call, in addition to the direct call by the military, armed merchant ships can also apply for call-up by themselves.

The difference between the two is that if the military directly enlists, the actions of armed merchant ships must be carried out under the command of the navy, while the active application for enlistment can move freely and choose the right time to attack the enemy!

In addition to being directly recruited by the navy, an active application is directly upgraded to a temporary direct recruitment. It needs to obey the navy's combat orders unconditionally, and after the temporary recruitment is over, it can move freely again!

This is very interesting!
It is precisely because of this that every armed merchant ship in the Great Chu Empire has applied for active recruitment...

At present, all the armed merchant ships of the empire are free to attack the merchant ships captive in the east and even the coastal ports, and all the captured ships belong to them for their own distribution and do not need to be handed over!
In the huge landing fleet of the Great Chu Empire, there are quite a few armed merchant ships called up. When landing and attacking, the navy eats meat at the front, and they drink soup at the back. How much you earn depends on luck and courage. .

However, these voluntary recruitment applications are limited to armed merchant ships, and ordinary merchant ships are not eligible.

The approval of armed merchant ships is also relatively strict, and the approval of weapons and equipment is even stricter.

Armed merchant ships can only be owned after a strict review.

At present, except for the three large maritime trading companies wholly owned by the official capital in the empire, there are only more than a dozen trading companies whose armed merchant ships have obtained equipment permits.

And these more than ten trading companies actually have official shares.

As for the merchant ships of ordinary private maritime trading companies, although they can also be equipped with weapons, they are basically limited to light weapons and small and medium-caliber artillery, and they are still far from the level of armed merchant ships...

After all, armed merchant ships are a kind of armed force, and the Great Chu Empire does not allow any armed force to be outside the official control. If there is any, it must be incorporated or eliminated!
Therefore, even in the Great Chu Empire, which advocates maritime trade, not everyone can drive armed merchant ships equipped with large-mouth naval guns to go out to sea for trade, only official maritime trading companies can do it.

Of course, the empire does not restrict the trading behavior of ordinary merchant ships, and safety can be guaranteed to a certain extent. As long as you honestly run business in the offshore routes of the empire, then safety is no problem.

If you go to the far sea, you can also run several fixed escort routes of the Imperial Navy, such as to several ports in Fusang or to several ports in Nanyang. The Imperial Navy will regularly patrol and escort these fixed routes, and you can directly follow the Navy's The patrol fleet goes out to sea together, and it is very safe to let the navy serve as your bodyguard.

As for you insisting on carrying muskets and light artillery, and running to sea areas beyond the control of the Imperial Navy... then let yourself toss.

In fact, many private merchant ships that cannot be equipped with large-caliber naval guns are honest in the imperial waters, but as soon as they go to sea, they immediately reveal their true nature.

Many will install large-caliber artillery in a remote island or a port controlled by other forces, and then continue to do business in unfamiliar seas or simply go as pirates...

Before returning home, go to Manila or a remote island to unload and store the artillery, or if the situation is urgent, throw it directly on a deserted beach or even the sea. Who knows that they went out to play pirates for a while before, and the goods on the ship were not purchased. Yes, but snatched!

Pirates are the norm for the seas of this era, and they were even an important part of the age of sailing.

Even the Great Chu Empire cannot avoid it.

But in Luo Zhixue's view, these are all temporary!

The existence of pirates is because the combat effectiveness of the navy is still too low, the combat effectiveness of the warships is still a little bit worse, and the ability to control large-scale sea areas is too poor.

When the combat effectiveness of battleships is getting higher and higher, and the technical threshold is also getting higher and higher, then things like pirates will naturally disappear slowly, and even if they still exist, they are just harmless.

Now, Luo Zhixue can't control the security of sea areas in other places, he can only control the security of the sea area of ​​the empire's offshore and the safety of several sea trade routes that are very important to the empire.

In other places, we will talk about it later.

When that time really comes, it may be time for the imperial navy and even the empire to go out and participate in the carve-up of colonies around the world.

It is still too early. For the empire, the sea is not a threat, but the captives on land in the north are a threat.

So this winter, when the captives in the East were in a state of desperation, the Great Chu Empire took advantage of the autumn and winter seasons to transport a large amount of new equipment, various ammunition and even food to the northern Shanhaiguan line.

Even in the cold winter, after the northern section of the Youhang Grand Canal was frozen, the Chu army still transported a large amount of supplies to the north by sea.

New howitzers of various calibers and a large number of grenades!
The packaging is extremely tight, box after box of artillery propellants of various specifications, as well as quantitative paper-wrapped ammunition directly produced by the arsenal, which has better moisture resistance and is more convenient for two-year-style flintlock shooting.

The reason why it is called quantitative paper-wrapped ammunition, rather than fixed-loaded bullets, is that fixed-loaded bullets are often loaded and fired directly, and they are a whole in themselves.

But paper-wrapped ammunition is not. It is only for moisture-proof, mass production and transportation, and it is also for the convenience of loading, improving the performance of the rifle, and preventing soldiers from pouring too much fire into the wrong gunpowder in a panic and causing the chamber to explode.

This quantitative paper-wrapped ammunition has large-scale production, uniform specifications, and relatively low cost lead bullets, uniform quantitative propellant, and is wrapped with moisture-proof oil paper.

When firing, the soldiers need to tear apart one end of the rationed paper-wrapped ammunition with their teeth, then pour a small amount of propellant into the propellant pool in the gun mechanism, cover the powder cap, and then pour the muzzle of the rifle upwards. Put it upright, pour most of the remaining propellant from the muzzle into the barrel, and then stuff the projectiles into the barrel together with the paper bag.

Finally, compact it with a cleaning rod, and take out the cleaning rod and plug it back into the fixed sleeve under the barrel.

Then you can raise your gun and shoot whenever you want!

The entire launch process is very simple and smooth, which greatly reduces the error rate of soldiers and avoids various accidents.

In addition to this quantitative paper-wrapped ammunition, the quartermaster department also directly supplied a batch of molds for melting and casting lead bullets to the front line.

When necessary, soldiers can also directly use gunpowder and lead bullets or lead blocks captured from the enemy on the front line, and directly rub the bullets by hand for combat...

Even the military brought a batch of gunpowder craftsmen and small emergency equipment, just thinking that if a large amount of saltpeter and other raw materials were seized, gunpowder could be made directly on the front line.

In order to be able to launch the Liaoxi Campaign smoothly next year, the military of the Great Chu Empire has made a lot of preparations.

In the month of December alone, the Chu army transported more than 48 howitzers to the front line of Shanhaiguan, many of which were [-] catties large-caliber howitzers.

48 catties howitzer, the caliber of this kind of artillery has reached [-] mm, and the shells are powerful.

Even in the era of mortars, the 48-pound mortar was the Chu army's siege weapon. In the era of howitzers, the 48-pound howitzer became the force used for siege.

This kind of big guy weighing several tons is not used at all in daily field battles, and it is also useless. They can only be seen in siege operations or fortress defense operations.

Well, it’s the navy that drags the shipboard version of this 48-pound howitzer around. The navy has recently equipped a batch of 48-pound howitzers for land support operations. As for sea operations, wait until the shells of this thing hit When the enemy ship is in motion, a large number of direct-pointing artillery may have blasted the opponent's warship to pieces.

As for the advantages of flowering ammunition, it is not only the howitzer that can be used. With a wooden ammo support, the long-barreled artillery can also use the grenade. It is necessary to reduce the charge and increase the elevation angle, otherwise the chamber pressure is too high, and the grenade The cartridge case is easy to break, and the angle is too low and the range is too close.

Nowadays, the naval guns of the Chu Navy are more or less equipped with grenades to increase the elevation angle, and use reduced propellant to launch grenades with relatively fragile shells to burn the enemy's sails or kill the deck.

In combat against the sea, this kind of curved artillery is actually not needed. Equipped with a 48-jin howitzer, it is mainly used for land support operations.

Different from the navy, you can take big guys to shoot around, let alone 48-pound howitzers, even heavier naval guns like 24-pound cannons, you can still carry them around.

But the army can't do it. Limited by the strength of mules and horses and the road conditions, the army is destined to be unable to use heavy artillery for field battles.

This is also the case in the battle of western Liaoning. Although a large number of 24-jin and 48-jin howitzers have arrived in Shanhaiguan, the artillery that is actually used on the battlefield must be five-jin and nine-jin field guns and nine-jin howitzers. Eight pounds of light howitzers These two howitzers.

These four types of artillery will be the main artillery of the Chu army in the Battle of Liaoxi.

In addition, the cavalry is also equipped with a batch of the latest five-pound cavalry guns and eighteen-pound cavalry howitzers. Together with the previous two-and-a-half-pound cavalry guns, the artillery firepower of the cavalry has also been greatly enhanced.

The artillery and ammunition that the Chu army had hoarded in Shanhaiguan was increasing at an alarming rate.

This is also a manifestation of the overall strategic thinking of the Chu army's high-level strategy in the Northeast!
Since the cavalry can't do it, the Chu army has a certain disadvantage in field battles, then use the absolute firepower advantage to offset this disadvantage.

The Chu army didn't intend to play all kinds of messy tactics with Dongyao, and just pushed along the Liaoxi Corridor all the way, steadily and steadily, relying on the artillery advantage to advance gradually!

Under such circumstances, Dongyao would either retreat step by step, all the way back to the barren mountains and wild forests, or defend the city to the death, or even run out to have a head-on confrontation with the Chu army.

Regardless of the type, the top military leaders in the empire, represented by Xu Zhixian, have absolute confidence.

Either get rid of the Dong captives and take back Liaodong.

Either run away and take back Liaodong.

Liaodong will surely return to the embrace of the Chinese people!
And once Liaodong is lost, no matter whether Dongyao was lost in battle or lost by running away, once this basic disk is lost, it means that the empire of Dongyao people will fall into a complete collapse.

The Empire will win this war!
(End of this chapter)