In late August, outside the estuary of the Yangtze River in Songjiang Prefecture, a huge Galen ship was slowly approaching, with a huge green dragon flag on a yellow background hanging from the top of the ship's mast.

Looking at this flag, then it can basically be judged that this is a ship of the Tang Dynasty, because the yellow background and green dragon flag are the royal flag of the Li Tang royal family, and it is also the official flag of the Tang Dynasty.

Generally speaking, the ships flying the green dragon flag on a yellow background are usually the official ships of the Tang Dynasty, or they are civilian ships that have a close relationship with the official of the Tang Dynasty, but if they are naval warships or transport ships, including army transport ships, they usually also fly the red dragon sword flag to show the identity of the military.

However, when they got closer, they could find that most of the sailors on this Galen ship were foreigners.

It is rare for a Galen ship full of foreigners to fly the official flag of the Tang Dynasty.

This made the officers and men of the Datang Navy who came to check the ship a little confused, but although they couldn't understand it, they still started the inspection according to the procedure.

This Datang Navy's ship patrolling the estuary is the Lianping-class patrol ship Yong'an, which was commissioned by the Datang Navy only this year and is specially used for coastal patrols.

The tonnage of the Lianping-class patrol ship is not large, only one hundred and fifty tons, not to mention compared with the cruiser, even compared with the frigate, it is much smaller.

The tonnage is small, and the artillery loaded on it is naturally not much, only nine guns, and the largest is a nine-pound artillery, but the speed is as always reflecting the advantages of the Datang Navy's professional warships, fast speed, and very flexible.

At the same time, because they do not have to fight in the ocean, a lot of space is freed up to improve the living environment of the soldiers, so their living conditions are no worse than those of large ships.

The design and construction of this kind of offshore patrol ship began last year, and the first ship, the Lian Ping, just began to enter service in June this year.

In order to control the cost, the navy has released water to the protection level of this patrol ship, and a lot of the wood used is some ordinary wood, and it does not have very strict wood requirements for frigates, cruisers, and battleships.

Moreover, the tonnage of the ship is small, and the requirements for the dock are not large, even several large private shipyards can undertake the construction, so the construction of this kind of patrol ship is relatively easy, and it can even be built in large quantities at the same time.

Although its firepower is a little worse, it also has nine guns, which is naturally not good for dealing with those professional warships with dozens of guns, but it is relatively easy to use against pirate ships or armed merchant ships.

The level of protection is average, the tonnage is small, the construction is easy, the number of artillery is not large, and the caliber is not large, and what is the result after the combination of these: low cost!

At present, the Datang Navy needs about 70,000 taels to purchase a 350-ton frigate, including the hull, sails, and guns, and 110,000 taels to purchase a 550-ton cruiser.

However, even the Ping-class patrol ship, including its hull, sails, and naval guns, is only 20,000 taels per unit.

Its low cost allowed the navy to endure its weak firepower and low protection capabilities.

After all, the firepower of pirate ships or armed merchant ships is not very good, especially if the armed merchant ships are slightly stronger, but their tonnage is at least a few hundred tons, slow sailing, and poor maneuverability.

Therefore, although this kind of patrol ship is small, it is flexible, and it can be used to deal with pirates and armed merchant ships in East Asian waters.

Easy to build, low in cost, and barely passable in combat effectiveness, this kind of patrol ship is almost tailor-made for the Datang Navy, which has a heavy task, but has insufficient main warships, is seriously dissatisfied with armed merchant ships, and is also trapped by insufficient military spending.

Well, it's wrong, it should be said that the Datang Navy specially designed such a warship!

After the design was designed, the navy ordered six ships in one go last year, in an attempt to completely replace some of the armed merchant ships converted from the Fu ships and Galen ships in the current navy to carry out coastal patrol missions, and to support the main warships in coastal operations.

However, when the Navy conducted sea trials on the first patrol ship launched at the beginning of this year, it was found that although this kind of patrol ship was designed as an offshore vessel, the draft was shallow, and the ship size was relatively small, and it also had a good effect when used in inland waterways, so in the first half of this year, the first patrol ship had just been launched for sea trials, and it had not yet been officially put into service.

Because the navy already intends to use this kind of patrol ship to replace a large number of armed merchant ships converted from sand ships, Guangzhou ships, Fu ships, and Galen, the total number of equipment will likely reach more than 30 by then.

After June this year, the first ship Lian Ping was officially put into service, and then in just three months, four patrol ships joined the active service of the navy, and these four patrol ships are all currently attached to the First Fleet, and are arranged in Wusong Port, undertaking the patrol and combat readiness tasks in the waters around the mouth of the Yangtze River, as well as in the Yangtze River basin.

Now what appears here is the No. 3 ship Yong'an in the Lianping-class patrol ship, although its hull is small and there are not many guns, but now it is cautiously looking at the Galen period flying the flag of the Tang Dynasty, and preparing to carry out a routine inventory mission.

The first is to send a signal, send a small boat over to announce: You have entered the territorial waters of the Tang Empire, please close the deck gun doors, lower the sails, and all the sailors will board the deck for inspection.

Any change will be the most severe punishment for our Datang Navy!

The mouth of the Yangtze River, but the sea area where the Tang Navy is currently the most heavily guarded, not to mention this kind of Galen ship, you can know at a glance that it is a foreigner's ship, even if it is a civilian ship within the Tang Empire, when it arrives in the sea area, it needs to be obediently inspected by the Tang Navy.

Of course, the Tang Dynasty welcomes maritime merchants from all over the world, so as long as they obediently cooperate with the inspection, well, the main thing is to give up their arms, then they can enter the port, even if the ship is from Shandong and Beizhili in the north, the Tang Dynasty still welcomes it.

If an alien ship tries not to be cross-examined, or even resists, the Yongan will not hesitate to attack, and at the same time send a signal to rush nearby ships.

However, their worries were obviously unnecessary, and the Galen ship in front of them quickly made a gesture that it would not resist, the guns on the deck were pushed back, and the sails were slowly lowered, and a large number of sailors also boarded the deck to be inspected.

Seeing this scene, the inspectors sent by the Yong'an boarded the ship in several small boats to supervise, but after the officers and men of the Datang Navy got on board, they found a foreigner who claimed to be a citizen of the Tang Dynasty!

Red-haired and blue-eyed Tang people? He also spoke in a strange tone of Chinese, and still took out a piece of paperwork.

After taking the document and reading it, this second lieutenant knew that this person was really a citizen of their Tang Dynasty, and it was personally licensed by His Majesty.

The foreigner who was interrogated by the navy was naturally the first naturalized foreigner Grace of the Tang Dynasty, at this time he was wearing a traditional Hanfu, except for his appearance, the other dresses were basically not much different from the gentry in the Tang Dynasty.

But this Chinese is too difficult to learn, he has studied it for so long, although he can already speak, write and read, but this pronunciation is always weird.

After the inspection, the Yongan did not stay long, and soon cleared the ship of Guedes, and then continued to patrol.

Guedes also commanded the sailors to set sail again and continue to sail towards the mouth of the Yangtze River, but along the way, he also strictly followed the regulations of the Tang Navy, and the guns of this ship could never be put out, and before and after continuing to go, soon a guide ship of the Tang Navy approached, began to ask them to hand over the gunpowder on the ship, and reiterated to them the rules of the Tang Dynasty: the gun door must be kept closed at all times, and the guide ship must be followed.

Otherwise, the capital ships of the Datang Navy that are eyeing them next to them can be shelled at any time, and the land batteries will also fire directly!

This is also no way, the merchant ships of these years are almost all armed merchant ships, more or less carrying artillery, you can't let them in, the only way is to strictly control them.

Although it was the first time for Guedes to come to Songjiang Mansion, he had already traveled back and forth to Lianzhou and Guangzhou Port many times, and he was already familiar with many rules of the Tang Dynasty.

Following the guide boat slowly entered, but instead of continuing along the Yangtze River, it entered the Huangpu River.

This is because the second batch of ports opened to trade in the Tang Dynasty was the Shanghai Port of Songjiang Prefecture, which was originally an important transit port for north-south shipping and in and out of the Yangtze River, and many materials transported from the south of the Tang Dynasty were also disembarked in this port.

Because of the superior geographical conditions, Shanghai Port has become one of the five treaty ports of the Tang Dynasty.

Before entering the Huangpu River, Geddes also saw the Wusong Military Port on the side, and the first thing he arrived at was the huge fort on the shore, the scale of which was no less than the Humen Fort that Geddes had seen, and he estimated that there were at least dozens of artillery pieces in this fort.

On one side of the battery, there were a large number of warships, and there were three very conspicuous warships, one was a very tall, slender cruiser with thirty guns, a slightly smaller frigate, and the other was a patrol ship that he had seen before.

Why are these three types of warships conspicuous, because Guedes has never seen such a unique warship in other countries, especially the kind of cruiser, which is slender and elegant, which makes people feel pleasing to the eye.

And the number of warships is also very large, which makes Geddes can't help but have a heroic heart: "Our Tang Dynasty is awesome!" ”