I am Da Song

Chapter 378 Sea coachman?Sea Scavenger!
Dock is an extremely critical technology in the shipbuilding industry.It directly determines the level of shipbuilding.

For any civilization, this is a milestone technological invention.

It can be said that whether there is a dock or not, two shipbuilding eras are divided.

Without a dock, it is impossible to build a thousand-ton giant ship, and it is impossible to build a strong, stable and cross-age giant ship that can sail thousands of miles.Just like there is no steam engine, there is no ironclad ship.

If this key technology is used as a reference, the Song Dynasty was ahead of the Western shipbuilding industry by 1135 years in 500, at least equivalent to the Western level in 1635.

In the West in the seventeenth century, the sea power of various countries was based on armed merchant ships as the core of the era.

Armed merchant ships, a more popular impression is the age of great navigation that no one in the future knows, no one knows!

A great explorer and navigator tried every means to raise an armed merchant ship, drove the ship, and led the sailors to travel through the sea, discover the port, and discover the continent.Carry out commercial trade and geographical adventure.

As well as the essential looting of merchants, capturing ships, defeating pirates, discovering treasure maps and more.

All of this, returning to the theme of the times, is the high seas trade and war looting.

In the age of great navigation, the principle of merchant ships belonging to powerful empires was that in any sea area, if they saw merchant ships from any country, they would rush to plunder, burn, and capture them!
Naturally, everyone is happy to win the battle, and the people of the empire accidentally reaped an unexpected sky-high wealth in the process of exploring the ocean.In the distance is full of gold and milk, rich overnight opportunities.

If you lose, what else do you need to say?

Immediately find the imperial navy and ask the navy to uphold justice. In a certain sea area, a group of uncivilized barbarians and pirates actually attacked the imperial caravan and killed the imperial people!
The opponents that the armed merchant ships could not win, several sailing battleships of the Imperial Navy went to the past, and immediately smashed the opponents under the artillery fire!
It is impossible for an armed merchant ship with a displacement of 200 tons and [-] cannons to defeat a battleship with a displacement of [-] tons and more than [-] cannons.

Not only are the tonnage and firepower of the two sides not in the same order of magnitude, but the structure, layout, and rigidity are also incomparable.

Therefore, the Suzhou merchants spent a lot of time and effort to entertain Zhao Huan, and finally asked the government to let go of the restrictions and allow them to modify the merchant ships themselves.

The ultimate goal is to develop towards the theme of the Age of Discovery.

As long as Zhao Huan nods now, within a few months, Suzhou merchants will build a large number of armed fishing boats and armed merchant ships.

The Song Dynasty has a population of more than 2000 million, and they can easily pull out an armed caravan that crushes all countries.

In a few years, Da Song's fishing boats will monopolize all the fishing grounds and drive any fishermen from other countries back to the coast.

The caravans of the Song Dynasty are even more terrifying. In the far sea, they will sink and capture merchant ships of any other country, completely monopolizing maritime trade.

Sea coachmen are not enough to describe their status.

Only the merchant ships of the Great Song Dynasty will be able to navigate the entire sea, and trade between ports in any country can only be carried out through the merchant ships of the Great Song Dynasty.

They are the coachmen, scavengers and rulers of the seaways!
This status can refer to the Arabs on the Silk Road.

They traveled back and forth on the Silk Road and earned wealth that the Western Crusaders envied through a large amount of trade.

But they are still just a part of the rules, a member of many participants in the entire Silk Road.

The armed merchant ships of the Song Dynasty were different.

They completely ruled the maritime trade.No one else can take even a spoonful of benefits from it.

If the commercial trade of the whole world is monopolized by the merchants of the Song Dynasty, how much wealth can there be?
I'm afraid it is at least equivalent to the Ottoman Empire plus the Dutch Empire.

But what is even more frightening is that this is just the beginning, it is the wealth they have obtained by obeying the order.

It is the nature of all human beings to "have a sharp weapon in your body and start killing yourself".

When they failed to obey order, economic plunder and colonial rule followed.

Several or more than a dozen warships in a caravan docked in a sea area of ​​another country...

As long as they are willing, they can easily put down hundreds or even thousands of heroes of the Song Dynasty with prosperous martial arts.

Imagine that a thousand Liangshan heroes with high martial arts skills such as Wu Song, Li Kui, and Lu Zhishen appear in a small country... They can easily destroy a small country.

Only using cold weapons can be so harmful. After they brought muskets, long spears, giant axes, and samurai swords, it was a natural disaster!
This kind of thing, Daming has the most profound experience.

Compared with the Qing Dynasty, the Ming Navy often fought against the Portuguese.However, the main targets of the Ming army were Portuguese armed merchant ships, not the Portuguese navy.

For example, the famous Tuen Mun naval battle and the Xi Caowan battle were the Ming navy's defeat of a fleet dominated by Portuguese armed merchant ships.

But Ming Dynasty had a strong foundation of civilization in the Central Plains. At this time, the East had just been equaled by the West.The two sides fought with sail warships plus artillery and muskets.

Therefore, the Ming army could defeat the Portuguese armed merchant ships by virtue of their numerical superiority.

But at the moment, the armed merchant ships of the Song Dynasty do not need to face any powerful and civilized empire like the Ming Dynasty.

A few armed merchant ships can rule the seas of any country, break into the interior of any country, expand territories, and plunder resources.

This means that the merchants of the Song Dynasty will gain unparalleled wealth and have more radical and profitable colonial methods than the officials.

All the merchants in the main hall are nervously waiting for the official's approval.

Officials may or may not, the difference of one word will affect the fate of countless empires, and will determine whether the astronomical wealth comparable to two empires will fall into the hands of Central Plains merchants!
At this moment, countless businessmen felt deeply, what is meant by the Son of Heaven with the Constitution in his mouth, and the herdsmen on behalf of the Heaven!

Everyone was nervous, anxious, and in a daze, and Zhao Huan's calm voice sounded: "I thought you were thinking too simple."

Hearing the dissatisfied reprimands from the officials, in an instant, everyone felt as if they were mourning and fell into an abyss.

The overwhelming wealth, the romantic era, and the dream of flying thousands of miles with gold and iron horses have no chance for hundreds of millions of people in the Song Dynasty!

Some people even couldn't hold back their disappointment and sighed deeply.

This country is still that corrupt and conservative country!Da Song is still the disappointing Da Song.

When everyone was in a gloomy mood, they heard the officials say in high spirits: "It is bound to be difficult to achieve the goal you envisioned by only modifying merchant ships! Therefore, I plan to help you again and allow merchants to pay for military weapons. The company bought cast iron cannons and installed them on merchant ships!"

At this moment, everyone felt a bright light before their eyes!The twists and turns, the willows are dark and the flowers are bright!
Although this Great Song Dynasty is still the same Great Song Dynasty, but only because of the present day, the whole country has a new look, no longer conservative and corrupt, full of blood and vitality.

Excited businessmen cheered excitedly: "Long live!"

"Long live!"

"Long live the official family!"

(End of this chapter)