Of the two heavy bombs that fell from the sky, one landed just outside the wall while the other hit the top of the wall, causing the thick and sturdy wall to shrink by a large chunk.
This unexpected development surprised everyone present, and they stared wide-eyed at the scene in the distance.
"Is the white sheep dead or unconscious?"
Li Longji asked as he looked at the motionless white sheep in the distance.
He had thought that the white sheep's sudden death was most likely a trap, but with two heavy bombs exploding nearby, it was entirely possible that the white sheep had been knocked unconscious.
"Your Majesty, the two heavy bombs were extremely powerful. I'm guessing that the white sheep's internal organs have all been shattered!"
Yang Zhao observed carefully with his binoculars and found that the white sheep wasn't moving at all. He guessed that it was dead.
Ang Lee didn't immediately express his opinion. This brave white sheep had already surprised him. Perhaps it could perform even better.
When the third wave of planes passed, they didn't find any moving prey, so they passed. The fourth and fifth waves also passed easily. The drill seemed to have come to an end, and the drill ground was quiet again.
"Assistant Minister Li, it's done. Have the Sky Army return! We will personally go to the airport later to see the Sky Army soldiers. "
Li Longji ordered.
Ang Lee nodded and immediately ordered the ten planes to return.
As the rumbling sounds faded away, the Sky Army drill was finally over. Although there were some surprises, it was still a success overall. At the very least, the Sky Army's formidable fighting power had been fully demonstrated.
"It moved, it moved, the white sheep moved. This beast is quite hardy, to think that it's still alive."
Yang Zhao was astonished to see the little white sheep moving about.
"It ran away, the little beast actually jumped over the wall and ran away."
When Li Longji looked over, the little white sheep had already jumped over the lower wall and fled, quickly disappearing from everyone's sight.
"Your Majesty, a fish escaped from the net. Should we send troops to pursue it?"
Li Longji shook his head. "There's no need. This white sheep is very brave. Let it go! This is our reward for its bravery. "
Everyone liked brave people, and the Emperor was no exception. The white sheep's bravery had won the Emperor's heart, so even if the white sheep had ruined the Sky Army's bravery, the Emperor wouldn't be angry.
"Your Majesty is merciful."
The ministers began to flatter the Emperor.
After leaving the viewing platform, Li Longji publicly announced that the Tang Dynasty's Sky Army was officially established. It would be stationed near the capital to protect the Tang Dynasty's capital and ensure its safety.
Afterward, Li Longji brought some of the ministers to the airport to visit the 30 bombers. He personally boarded the cockpit of the plane to feel the vastness of the interior space of the plane and gave his approval.
As an independent army of the Tang Dynasty, the Sky Army was finally established. In the future, it would bear the heavy responsibility of protecting the Tang Dynasty. This was what all the people of the Tang Dynasty were happy to see.
The next morning, the Great Tang Gazette used nearly a third of the time to introduce the Celestial Army. The news of the Celestial Army and the Celestial Soldiers and Celestial Generals spread like wildfire in the capital. Most of the topics discussed by the common people were related to the Celestial Army, and the title of Celestial Soldiers and Celestial Generals was particularly domineering.
Many ordinary soldiers in the capital dreamed of joining the Sky Army one day and becoming an enviable Heavenly Soldier and Heavenly General. They would be very proud to walk on the street like this.
When the Heavenly Soldiers entered the city to seek pleasure, the girls would think highly of them and serve them with a better attitude.
After the Sky Army officially joined the Tang Dynasty's military, the Tang Dynasty's military power once again received a huge boost. This was very beneficial to increasing the prestige of the Tang Dynasty.
However, the cost of the Sky Army was also very high. This was just the beginning. When there were more and bigger Sky Army fighters in the future, the cost would be even higher.
All of this required huge financial support. After many years of industrial development, the Tang Dynasty's financial resources had been greatly improved. The country's wealth and materials were also very abundant. However, the Tang Dynasty needed to develop, and there were too many places that needed money. Therefore, it was wrong to only focus on accumulating wealth within the country. They had to look further and look abroad to obtain more and better wealth.
The construction of the railway in the river was to better maintain the Silk Road, facilitate the Tang Dynasty's communication with the western countries, and facilitate the Tang Dynasty's sale of advanced industrial products to these countries and import all kinds of cheap raw materials urgently needed from these countries.
Therefore, the Silk Road was a way to make money. Not only could the Tang Empire obtain great wealth, but so could the western countries.
However, only one way to make money was not enough. In addition to building railways on the basis of the original Silk Road to greatly expand the transport capacity, another way to make money was to develop the Maritime Silk Road.
The Maritime Silk Road had actually existed for a long time. However, because of the great danger of sailing on the sea, most of the coastal countries were small countries. For this reason, the Maritime Silk Road had not been paid much attention to and was far less famous than the Silk Road on land.
At least, in the era of the Tang Dynasty, the Silk Road on land was the most important because its eastern starting point was the Tang Dynasty's capital, Chang 'an. Naturally, its influence was great. Moreover, there were many big countries in the west, which were much stronger than the countries that the Maritime Silk Road passed through.
Of course, in the Song Dynasty, especially the Southern Song Dynasty, the Maritime Silk Road gradually became prosperous. This was because the Southern Song Dynasty was hostile to Jiangnan. The areas that the Silk Road passed through had become the territory of enemy countries. Therefore, there was no way to make good use of the Silk Road to do business. They could only use the Maritime Silk Road to trade with coastal countries to obtain the necessary financial resources for the Southern Song Dynasty.
At this time, the Tang Dynasty had not yet arrived in the Song Dynasty. Therefore, the Maritime Silk Road had not been paid much attention to, and the development of the shipbuilding industry was far less than that of the car-building industry.
However, Ang Lee understood that the future era was the era of the sea. Only by seizing the resources of the sea and controlling the sea better could one become a truly powerful country.
For this reason, Ang Lee had not relaxed the research and development and manufacturing of advanced ships. He had built a large number of steam-powered ships that were much faster than ordinary sailing ships.
He had even used these advanced iron ships to discover America and Australia, making great contributions to the expansion of the Tang Dynasty's territory.
Today, the Tang Dynasty had established many strongholds in America and Australia and gradually developed them into cities. The urgently needed resources were also continuously transported back to the Tang Dynasty to provide enough raw materials and financial resources for the Tang Dynasty.
In addition, the far-sighted Ang Lee had not relaxed the research and development and manufacturing of large ocean-going ships. At the same time, he had also submitted a memorial to the imperial court to build many large deep-water ports in the coastal areas of the Tang Dynasty to meet the needs of more and more large ships in the future.
The large seaport in Laizhou Bay was the first large seaport built. It was mainly responsible for America and Australia. It was the bridgehead connecting the Tang Dynasty with America and Australia. The personnel and all kinds of urgently needed materials of the Tang Dynasty were shipped to America and Australia from here. The returning ships from America and Australia would also eventually arrive at the seaport in Laizhou Bay.
After the construction of the large seaport in Laizhou Bay, Ang Lee had built large seaports in Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Leizhou, and Yazhou to meet the needs of large ships in the future. In addition, there were many small seaports in various coastal areas that could accommodate smaller ships.
Among all the large seaports, the one that Ang Lee attached the most importance to was Guangzhou, which was located in the southern part of the Tang Dynasty. The natural conditions there were very good. There were many natural islands. In addition, it was also the estuary of the Pearl River. The city itself was relatively large and had enough supplies to meet the needs of building a large seaport.
Ang Lee's goal was very clear. He wanted to build Guangzhou into the starting point and headquarters of the Maritime Silk Road of the Tang Dynasty, which corresponded with the large seaport in Laizhou Bay in the north. One was responsible for America and Australia, and the other was responsible for contacting the coastal countries in the west.
After many years of construction, the construction of the large seaport in Guangzhou had been completed. The supporting shipbuilding and ship-repair workshops had also been built. Its specifications were not inferior to the seaport in Laizhou Bay in the north. It was fully qualified to be the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road of the Tang Dynasty.
In addition, more and more large ships had been built in recent years. This also provided a strong transportation guarantee for the Maritime Silk Road of the Tang Dynasty, so that the Tang Dynasty was fully capable of starting the construction of the Maritime Silk Road.
The main products of the Maritime Silk Road were silk, porcelain, glass, tea, all kinds of small industrial machinery, books, and so on.
These goods would definitely sell well when they were shipped to the coastal countries in the west, which would provide a huge source of wealth for the Tang Empire.
In order to open up this route, in addition to honest business transactions, it also needed a strong military force as a guarantee.
This was because there were countless groups of pirates, large and small, scattered along this fragile Maritime Silk Road. These pirates killed and robbed people. It could be said that they committed all kinds of crimes. They were the sworn enemies of the merchant groups and also the nightmare of the merchants.
In order to prevent their goods from being looted, many merchants had to spend a lot of extra money to hire bodyguards. In addition, they had to contact other merchants so that they could take care of each other when they traveled together.
The existence of such a situation would inevitably greatly reduce the profits of the merchant groups. At the same time, it would also interfere with the flexibility of business.
Imagine if a large number of merchants had to gather and travel together. Wouldn't this delay a lot of time? In this way, it would seriously restrict the development of business and interfere with the further development of the Tang Empire.
Pirate activities near the Tang Dynasty's territory were relatively light. After all, with the existence of the powerful Tang Dynasty's navy, it was difficult for them to develop. However, pirate activities were more frequent in areas far away from the Tang Dynasty's territory.
Especially thousands of miles south of Yazhou, it was the most heavily affected area of pirate activities. Many merchants were attacked by pirates when they passed through this area. The losses could be said to be extremely serious.
Many merchants also tried to ask the imperial court of the Tang Dynasty for help. They asked the imperial court of the Tang Dynasty to send troops to eliminate these hateful pirates. However, the imperial court also had its own difficulties. It was impossible to meet the needs of these merchants.
After all, most of the pirates were thousands of miles away from the coast of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty's navy needed to go on an expedition, which cost a lot of money. Moreover, the pirates knew the terrain and hydrology of the area of the sneak attack like the back of their hand. It could be said that they had a great advantage. It was easier said than done to eliminate them in their territory!
The merchant groups were unwilling to give up the opportunity to trade overseas, which could bring them huge profits. Even if they had to face the risk of encountering pirates, they would not hesitate. Some of the merchants were even familiar with the pirates. Every time, they would take out a sum of money to buy passage to avoid being completely robbed.
The pirates were also happy to take the toll and spare the merchants' lives. After all, merchant ships were equipped with a certain amount of armed force. Once they attacked, although the pirates could get all the wealth, they would also have to suffer a certain amount of casualties. This was not what they wanted to see.
In addition, there was another point. It was better to kill the goose that laid the golden egg than to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. Robbing merchant ships would give them more wealth in one go, but in the long run, there would not be many merchant ships willing to go to the ocean. The subsequent robberies would become more and more difficult. In this way, they would lose their livelihood.
Therefore, as long as the passing merchant ships were willing to leave a sum of money behind, they would be willing to let them pass. They could even make friends with them. In this way, the pirates could grow stronger step by step without any casualties. The threat to the maritime trade route would also become greater and greater.
The imperial court had long understood this point. However, because the area of pirate activity was far away from the coast of the Tang Dynasty, the cost of management was too high. Many of the imperial court's forces were placed on land. Opening up the sea route between America and Australia also consumed a lot of resources. They really could not spare any resources to maintain the maritime Silk Road.
However, this situation had to be changed. The maritime Silk Road on land had already made great progress, and the annual trade provided the Tang Dynasty's imperial court with sufficient financial resources. However, the maritime Silk Road had always lagged far behind that on land. In order for the imperial court to obtain more financial resources, it was imperative to improve the maritime Silk Road's environment.
As the most outstanding talent of the Tang Dynasty, Ang Lee had long seen this point. It was just that he had been so focused on researching airplanes and the Tang Dynasty's newspaper that he had not taken the time to properly study the maritime Silk Road.
At present, the Tang Dynasty's newspaper was running smoothly, and the Heavenly Army had been formally formed. Ang Lee could now spare some energy to pay attention to the maritime Silk Road.
"I heard that a merchant from Guangzhou recently came to the capital to complain, but the imperial court ignored it. Is this true?"
Ang Lee asked Yang Zhao when he ran into him on the outskirts of the capital.
"A merchant from Guangzhou complained? There was such a thing? "
Yang Zhao was confused. This matter was simply not enough to reach the apex. He had many things to do, so how could he care about such things?
"Replying to Assistant Minister Li, there is indeed such a thing."
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
