Valley Emperor

In recent years, the Portuguese have also begun to gradually imitate many things of the Tang Empire. Many industrial products that require mechanical equipment cannot be copied, but some things that are purely conceptual changes were quickly learned by the Portuguese!

In this way, we will see in Malacca that both the Portuguese and the Tang navy have used a large number of new Tang boats!

However, the imitation of the Portuguese is limited to those things that do not require much manufacturing technology, such as steam engines. The Portuguese people have long known that the Tang Empire has such a thing as a steam engine. After all, the Tang Empire used steam engines on a large scale. It has been many years. Although the previous ones were all low-pressure industrial steam engines, they were also steam engines.

Even they obtained several low-pressure steam engines produced by the Tang Dynasty through secret channels, and tried to imitate them, but they didn't even understand the theory, at most it was a one-to-one match between craftsmen. Various parts are handcrafted and then assembled.

It turned out to be the same!

They put these handcrafted parts together, run it on fire, and then they fall apart with a bang, and they can't figure out why it doesn't work.

Without a matching scientific theoretical foundation, strong precision machining, and the production capacity of special materials, one cannot expect to be able to imitate the steam engine of the Tang Dynasty.

For many special parts, it is not just that the craftsmen can use a piece of iron to knock it out and imitate it!

For high-precision industrial products like steam engines, the Portuguese can only look at them, but they are powerless to imitate them, and even for some other industrial products, although the Portuguese know about them, they are basically unable to produce them, or Reluctantly use primitive manual methods to produce, but in the end, both the output and the cost are far inferior to the Tang Empire.

Even more often, the cost of their hand-made imitations is much higher than the cost of production in the Datang Empire.

For example, steel enterprises in the Tang Empire used a large amount of machinery and equipment for mass production, while other countries, regardless of whether they were indigenous tribes or other countries, such as the Portuguese, still remained in very Original hand-made steel at this level.

This also led to the fact that the price of the steel produced by the Datang Empire was far cheaper than those produced by hand. Take the typical products of the steel products exported by Datang, that is, all kinds of cold weapons and plate armor as examples.

Its price, even with shipping and high profits, is lower than the cost of their hand-crafting.

For example, the price of the flagship product of export-type plate armor, 'full body plate armor', the FOB price is generally more than 100 yuan. Even if the shipping fee is added, it is more hand-made than the Portuguese craftsmen after it is shipped to Malacca. The full body steel plate armor is cheaper.

And this kind of plate armor is made of all steel, the thickest part, that is, the chest part, is only about three millimeters, and the thickness of most parts is only about two millimeters.

However, because of the excellent quality of the steel, the defensive capability of these three millimeters of steel is comparable to the four-millimeter or even five-millimeter-thick plate armor hand-made by Europeans at the same time.

Because the thickness is relatively thin, this also makes the export plate armor produced by Datang much lighter.

Light weight and excellent defense capability, even if it is expensive, make the plate armor produced by Datang sell well all over the world, and even the Portuguese and Spaniards purchase and equip them on a large scale.

The plate armor produced by Datang has always been popular with the natives in Fusang, Nanyang and even India, West Asia and other regions. Even if they cannot afford full-body plate armor, they will buy half-body armor or breastplate.

Today's plate armor industry in the Datang Empire has developed quite maturely. There are more than ten types of export-type plate armor, and even custom-made styles are acceptable. Of course, this kind of customization will not increase the number of plates. The armor's defensive ability is only a change in style, because the Datang military needs to ensure that its weapons can penetrate these plate armors that have been exported in large numbers.

And this breakdown standard is whether the 14mm flintlock guns equipped in batches by the Datang Army can penetrate 50 meters or not!

If it can be broken down, then it will be exported, and if it cannot be broken down, it will not be exported.

After all, the Datang military was also afraid of fighting with a certain native in the future. As a result, a group of native troops wearing steel cans came out from the opposite side, but their main rifle could not penetrate them at a medium distance.

Of course, even if it happens, there is actually no big problem. If you want to block the 14mm flintlock gun of the Datang Army within 50 meters, even if it uses high-quality steel produced by Datang, you have to do it. to more than six millimeters!

And this kind of 6 mm thick plate armor is too heavy. Even the Datang Army itself is rarely equipped. Even if it is equipped, it is equipped in the mode of heavy breastplate. Generally speaking, the Datang Army's Heavy plate armor, whose thickness is generally four millimeters, and a large number of light plate armor of two millimeters.

Why not equip thicker plate armor?

Because even if it is six or seven millimeters thick, it is useless for the age of guns.

Don't underestimate the muskets of this year, although the accuracy is not very good, and sometimes they are misfired, but the power is actually not small.

What's more, whether it's the Tang Army, Spain, Portugal or even the Ottomans, they are all equipped with heavy muskets!

In order to fight against plate armor, heavy muskets are now popular in Western countries. What is a heavy musket, generally a musket with a caliber of about 20 mm.

The Datang Army has also successively developed, and successively tested and equipped heavy muskets of 17mm, 18mm, 19mm, 20mm, 22mm and other calibers. Finally, after the choice of weight and power, finally It was the 18mm heavy flintlock gun that decided to equip it on a large scale.

This 18mm flintlock gun, known as the 15-year-old rifle, uses the latest type, with the most scientific black propellant, and the barrel is longer, so its power is enough to reach 100 meters. In addition to penetrating the eight-millimeter-thick plate armor, the plate armor is still high-quality steel produced by Datang itself.

In other words, in the contemporary environment, there is no plate armor that can stop the fifteen-year-old rifle, even if it is 100 meters away, and the plate armor equipped by the Datang Army itself cannot.

The development of plate armor has come to an end, which is why the Datang Army has popularized plate armor in almost the entire army, but the most equipped is light breastplate.

Even so, many military generals have already voiced their voices to cancel the cuirass of ordinary infantry. If this is a little bit of protection that has no practical value, it is better to reduce the combat load of the soldiers to strengthen the soldiers. Battlefield mobility.

Many military generals now believe that it is better to run fast if you wear thick clothes!

Therefore, in fact, the plate armor in the Datang military is already in a very embarrassing situation. You have to say that it is useless, and the effect of resisting cold weapons such as bows and arrows is still huge.

But you have to say that it is useful. In fact, it does not have much strategic value when encountering enemies who use guns, especially Portugal, Spain, and Ottomans who use heavy muskets on a large scale.

However, this is only the internal view of the Datang Army on the plate armor, and does not represent the views of the armies around the world on the plate armor. Today, the plate armor is still a weapon with strategic value on a global scale.

What I have to mention is that when the Datang Empire began to sell their export-type plate armor to the world, it also stimulated the promotion and application of plate armor on a global scale to a certain extent.

Perhaps in the original time and space, the plate armor was only easier to see on the western battlefield, but now, you can see the Datang plate armor in the battle between the daimyo in Fusang, and you can also see it in various parts of Southeast Asia, such as the battlefield in Annan If you see them on the Internet, you can also see the shape of the Tang plate armor in India and even in West Asia and North Africa.

Even in Europe, Datang Plate Armor has appeared, and the number is still quite large, because whether it is the Portuguese or the Spaniards, they have purchased the Datang Plate Armor many times on a large scale and transported them back to Europe to equip their local troops. Sold to many other European countries.

To put it bluntly, the Datang Plate Armor is the best-selling one of the many industrial products of the Tang Dynasty, and there are no geographical limitations, regardless of whether it is a savage indigenous tribe, or a slightly civilized country such as the Portuguese and Spain. Or the Safi dynasty and even the Tatars have expressed great desire for the Tang plate armor!

The biggest reason for the popularity of Datang plate armor in the world is that it is of high quality and low price, and it is of high quality and low price that others cannot imitate.

The Portuguese can produce their own plate armor, but their own plate armor is more expensive, and the same weight of plate armor, their own hand-made plate armor has lower protection.

With the same situation or cotton!

The textile industry is currently the leading industry in the light industry of the Datang Empire. A large number of cotton fabrics are not only sold domestically, but also exported in large quantities!

And cotton cloth is a basic living material, and many places have the ability to produce it by themselves, but why can the cotton cloth of the Tang Dynasty appear in all parts of East Asia, in the Western Regions and Central Asia, and in the merchant ships of the Tang Dynasty? India appears in West Asia, Africa and even Europe.

Relying on low-cost dumping

How did Datang Western Trading Company open up the cotton fabric market in India and make India the largest export market for imperial cotton fabrics?

They conduct a lot of low-price dumping at half the price of local cloth or even cheaper, and conduct completely unreasonable and malicious competition.

Faced with this low-price dumping strategy, the local cloth industry is simply unable to resist, and in the end most of them rely on political intervention.

But what type of company is Datang Western Trading Company? You think that they are a well-behaved trading company, so they only do business. If you are bullied outside, you can only go home crying.

joke!

They are colonial corporations with armed forces!

If the local native princes dared to use political means to obstruct normal trade, the Datang Western Trading Company would not hesitate to send troops to attack, and many times, the Datang Western Trading Company would be happy to do so, because fighting these native princes would be a war. Wealth can be equated.

After all, fighting for money is much faster and more fun than doing business!