Li Xuan habitually boasted about the group of people in the navy, especially all kinds of exaggerated facts, which he had long been accustomed to, as long as they did not conceal some key data, then Li Xuan was too lazy to deal with such exaggerated threats to the enemy and exaggerated tensions of the situation.

This is not only the case with the navy, but also with the army, which has been preaching the crisis in the north for three days, saying that the Tatars are about to complete the unification of the northern steppe, and when the Tatars unify the steppe, the north of the empire will face hundreds of thousands of cavalry troops.

But in fact, although Altan Khan is also a heroic figure, he is still far from the unification of the steppe.

Since the success of the Northern Expedition of the Tang Dynasty, the army has been hoarded in the north, training and preparing for war, while also actively intervening in the situation in the northern grasslands.

During the Liaodong Campaign of that year, the Tang Army and Altan Khan's army marched together in the south and the north at the same time, and the Tang Army inflicted heavy losses on the Liaodong Huiwang Division, and at the same time fought with their allies Duoyan Sanwei, Chahar and other nomadic tribes located in the northeast region, and also killed and injured many of their cavalry.

However, after the battle of Liaodong, the Tang Dynasty did not stubbornly want to clean up these tribes that were once hostile to the Tang Dynasty, in addition to recapturing the important area of Liaohetao, in fact, the Tang Dynasty has actually stopped the war against the Duoyan Sanwei and the Chahar Department, but turned the direction to the Goryeo Peninsula and the northern region of the northeast, especially the Jurchen tribes.

This is because Altan Khan at that time had already launched an eastward crusade against the Chahar Department, and by the way, he also beat Duoyan Sanwei.

Although the Chahar Department and Duoyan Sanwei hated it, Altan Khan was more threatening, so the Tang Dynasty turned around and sold its former ally, that is, Altan Khan, and watched Altan Khan and the Chahar Department and the nomadic herds in the northeast region such as Duoyan Sanwei fight to death.

Later, after seeing that the Chahar Department and Duoyan Sanwei could not resist the attack of Altan Khan, they also secretly supported the Chahar Department and Duoyan Sanwei A lot of materials, such as swords, spears, bows and arrows, and even export-type plate armor, were all sold openly, and even sold 2,000 arquebuses and corresponding ammunition to them.

Relying on these weapons, the Chahar tribe and the Duoyan Sanwei barely held on, forcing Altan Khan to extinguish his intention of completely annexing them, and only retreated after occupying a large number of steppe areas.

Of course, these things supported by the Tang Dynasty are not free, and the Tang Dynasty will not do loss-making business, these things need to be exchanged for gold and silver war horses.

They don't have much gold and silver, but there are still a lot of war horses, and in recent years, the Tang Dynasty has obtained a large number of war horses from tribes such as Chahar and Duoyan Sanwei.

Coincidentally, the nomadic tribes who traded arms with the Tang Dynasty were not only the Chahar Department and Duoyan Sanwei, but also the Warat people in the northwest region, who were almost dead to the Tatars, and the contradictions were even greater.

And although Altan Khan's eastern crusade against the Chahar Department failed to completely annex the Chahar Department and Duoyan Sanwei, etc., it achieved great success militarily, Altan Khan at least annihilated nearly half of the military force of the Chahar Department and occupied a large number of grasslands, but later the further east, the longer the battle line became, and more importantly, the large number of troops hoarded in the north by the Tang Empire were also eyeing each other, and it was possible to send troops directly at any time, and then cut off their contact.

In addition, Altan Khan also knew that the Tang Empire was protecting the Chahar tribe to the death, otherwise, so many plate armor and arquebuses would not have appeared in the hands of the Chahar tribe.

If you want to completely eliminate the Chahar Ministry, it is not a big deal, but through a series of military operations, they are also disabled, if nothing else, the Chahar Ministry, Duoyan Sanwei and other tribes do not have more than ten or twenty years of cultivation and recuperation, and it is impossible to recover at all, why this time? Because it takes such a long time for a new generation, a new generation of soldiers to grow up!

When the threat from the east was not great, he turned his attention to the Warats.

As a result, the pressure on the Warat people was even greater, which also stimulated the Warat people to continuously strengthen their cooperation with the Tang Dynasty, exchanging a large number of horses and even cattle and sheep for the Tang Dynasty's armaments, especially plate armor and arquebuses.

Ordinary swords and spears, to be honest, there is no shortage of people, bows and arrows, but there is a shortage of such things as plate armor.

Because the plate armor, if it is made by hand, the cost is too great, and the output is also very low, it is impossible to popularize the equipment, but the Tang Dynasty is the use of machinery and equipment to industrialize mass production, the cost is low, although the price is not low, but the victory is in large quantities, and the quality is stable.

Although the ones that are said are castrated versions, which are relatively thin and can't block bullets, there is still no problem at all in resisting cold weapons.

The Warat people have a soft spot for the plate armor of the Tang Dynasty!

Before, the Chahar Department, Duoyan Sanwei, and even the Tatars, they were all taught a lesson by the guns of the Tang Dynasty, and they knew the power of guns, so they always tried their best to ask for arquebuses, and even artillery.

But for the Warats, they have not fought with the Tang Dynasty, and they have not really seen the power of guns, although the Tatars also have a small number of guns, but the number is too small to play a decisive role.

And it was not the guns that posed a mortal threat to the Warats, but the Tatar bows and arrows!

A variety of light plate armor specially used for export in the Tang Dynasty is used against cold weapons, especially against bows and arrows!

Why, because the army of the Tang Dynasty no longer uses bows and arrows!

Among the many weapons produced by the Tang Dynasty, arquebuses are currently the most popular among foreigners, but the export of arquebuses is controlled, and every export order needs to be approved by the export committee, and sometimes, export transaction orders are even vetoed.

Therefore, although the arquebus is the most popular one of the many ordnances exported by the Tang Empire, whether it is the nomads of the northern grasslands, or the daimyo of Fusang, and even many natives of the South Seas, they all want to buy arquebuses.

But in fact, the export sales of arquebuses are not large, at most 10,000 or 20,000 units are sold in a year, and this is still the total export volume, which is distributed to all regions and countries, this number is really not much!

However, the export volume of various cold weapons is relatively large, and the profits are actually higher!

Although the cost of arquebuses is not high, but the cost of cold weapons is lower, the export price of an arquebus, depending on the region and the object, is usually ten taels of silver to thirty taels of silver ranging from the price, the specific price of the formulation, often with a strong political attitude.

But a long knife, the biggest cost is the raw material, the processing is all machining, three or two times on the processing, at the same time the steel is currently large-scale production, the overall cost is quite low, roughly only those hand-built one-third, or even one-quarter.

However, the cost is low, but the price is not low, and the price of weapons has never been based on cost, but on demand.

Therefore, the profit is naturally higher!

And the shipment volume is still large!

If the price of swords and the like is not too high, and the profit is not too high, then the profit of plate armor is among the super high.

Because those natives can fight with a rusty iron knife casually, and their combat effectiveness will not be much worse than fighting with a steel knife, but the influence of armor is greater.

And plate armor, at present, only the Tang Dynasty in the whole world can produce and sell it in large quantities!

The plate armor of Western countries is still in the era of small-scale hand-made, even the Portuguese, there is no way to produce plate armor on a large scale, and even the Portuguese currently stationed in Malacca have purchased a batch of export plates of the Tang Dynasty through other channels, but this is not to say that they are equipped themselves, but to equip the indigenous army under their command.

After all, the Portuguese are also knowledgeable, and these plate armor exported by the Tang Dynasty, whether it is a full-body armor or a half-body armor, or a cuirass, it seems to be made of the highest grade of steel, and the surface polish can flash people's eyes, and they know that it is a high-end product at a glance, but the Portuguese know that these plate armor exported by the Tang Dynasty are actually nothing on the surface, and the thickest part of the plate armor, that is, the front part of the chest, is only two millimeters thick.

Although the Datang people boasted that this was a new type of alloy steel, and its defensive ability far exceeded that of traditional armor and the like, when the Portuguese directly took the arquebus for a live-fire test, it was a dozen holes......

The Portuguese were particularly speechless: these Tang Dynasty people are so shameless, they are embarrassed to sell such rotten plate armor, and they are sold so expensive, and what is even more disgusting is that those natives even buy them in large quantities as treasures!

This kind of bright-looking armor, defense against cold weapons, bows and arrows is definitely enough, but if you want to defend against bullets, it is far from enough.

Therefore, these plate armor of the Tang Empire bought by the Portuguese are also used to equip the indigenous troops, and they themselves are equipped with high-priced hand-made plate armor, although it does not look so bright, but at least it is thick enough to have a certain ability to resist bullets, but the production of this self-made plate armor is too low, and they are not enough to equip themselves, so it is naturally impossible to equip the indigenous army.

You must know that the plate armor in active service of the Tang Army, even if it is a light cuirass equipped by musketeers, the thickest part of its front has reached three millimeters thick!

And the musketeers in the cavalry units were equipped with cuirasses, the thickest part of the front, which reached a thickness of four millimeters.

As for the current small number of heavy cavalry in the Tang Dynasty, because they are riding Central Asian horses, they can also be equipped with heavy armor, these heavy cavalry are wearing heavy half-body armor, the thickest part of the front chest position, up to six millimeters, ordinary arquebus shooting is powerless against plate armor of this thickness.

However, this is only limited to resisting those small and medium-caliber muskets, as for those large-caliber heavy muskets, such as the Spanish heavy muskets, the caliber of that guy has reached 20 mm, and the heavy muskets recently equipped by the Tang Dynasty have also reached 18 millimeters.

Even the heavy plate armor equipped by the Datang heavy cavalry can be said to be the pinnacle of its defense ability in this era, but it is still unable to resist this heavy musket!

In the competition between armor and muskets, muskets are already ahead of the curve!

Therefore, the Tang Dynasty exported a large number of plate armor, but restricted the export of arquebuses, as for flintlock guns, not a single one was sold!

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