The retaliatory action that the Franc Robot wanted to take could not be carried out, because they did not have the courage to land, not to mention that they could send a landing force of hundreds at most when they came from afar, even if they sent thousands.

At the beginning of the Haojing War, but from the beginning of the land war, the Tang Army at that time only sent a mere infantry battalion, and the auxiliary strength was only more than 600 people.

The Franco-Robot probably gathered hundreds of musketeers, as well as more than 200 cold weapons such as spears, swords, and shields composed of sailors, with a total of more than 300 land troops, but they couldn't hold it for a day, and they were driven into the sea on the same day.

If you don't dare to land, you can only play naval battles, but in naval battles, the Datang Navy is only active in the coastal waters, and does not go out at all.

The only naval battle fought was because of a misunderstanding with the Ming army sailors, and now the enemy of the Franco machine man has one more Ming army sailor.

Even the blockade of Datang's maritime trade was actually only superficial, and it could not be completely blocked, but it attracted the dissatisfaction of many pirate gangs, and the fleet blockading the coastal areas of Guangdong had already clashed with pirate gangs in the nearby waters many times.

Even several big pirate gangs entrenched in Zhejiang and Fujian, such as Xu Dong and Chen Sipan, and several other powerful pirate gangs, were quite dissatisfied with the brutal blockade of the coastal areas of Guangdong.

Because they are not only pirates, but also at sea, for example, Xu Dong's fleet has been back and forth to the port of Guangzhou many times, selling saltpeter, sulfur and other materials urgently needed by the Tang Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, thus earning a lot of profits.

They are quite dissatisfied with the blockade of the coastal areas of Guangdong!

Blocking people's financial paths is like killing their parents!

So the current situation in the South Seas is very interesting!

Basically, it was a mess of porridge, the Ming army's sailors, Franco, Spaniards, and even all kinds of pirates and maritime merchants were mixed in, while the Tang Dynasty sat firmly on the Diaoyutai, and the Tang Navy was hiding in the coastal ports and batteries under the protection of shipbuilding and training, as if they did not see the struggle and fighting of the maritime forces along the coast of Guangdong.

Anyway, now the Tang Dynasty only does business in the treaty port to collect taxes, and purchases all kinds of strategic materials it needs, as for how the pirates on the sea fight and compete with each other, it is not their business to the Tang Dynasty.

Anyway, if a group of pirates dies, there will be another group of pirates who will come to Guangzhou and Lianzhou to do business, as long as the Tang Dynasty opens the treaty port, these pirates and even foreigners will flock to it for profit.

Why?

Because this is the only two ports in China that can trade freely, under the rule of the Ming Dynasty, but there is no such a good trade port, not opened by the order of Emperor Zhengde is just a Ningbo, but this Ningbo is said to be a trade port, but it is better to say that it is a tributary port, and the fleets from all sides can only trade in the name of tribute, and free trade is two different things.

Even if it is the Francophone itself, although they sent a fleet blockade in the official name, in fact, their civilian merchant ships will still go to Guangzhou and Lianzhou for trade.

As for the official fleet of the Tang Dynasty itself, it was originally small, and now it is under the influence of the Ming army's sailors and the Francophiles, and now it has stopped going to sea on a large scale.

Li Xuan also wanted to rectify the chaos in the Nanyang region and open up trade routes to make maritime trade more prosperous, but the strength of the Tang Navy was weak, and it couldn't even maintain the Pearl River Estuary at his doorstep, let alone the open sea of Nanyang.

The Tang Navy has a long way to go!

Although the threat of the Franc machine man is very limited, Li Xuan also does not want to let the Franc machine man show off the coast of Guangdong all the time, and at the same time, it is also better to consolidate the coastal defense and expel the Ming army's naval division, so at the beginning of the year, under the condition of the navy's original military expenditure, Li Xuan transferred 500,000 taels of silver from the inner treasury to the navy.

And this silver was used as a special fund for building ships, and was used to build ships and cannons.

The Datang Navy, which got the silver, did not leave the silver still moldy in the warehouse, and instantly increased the order for two third-class cruisers and five third-class frigates.

In this way, the number of third-class cruisers under construction and planned to be built in the Tang Dynasty has reached five, and there are as many as ten third-class frigates!

The only trouble is that the main guns of more than 14 pounds required in the third-class cruiser are still unable to be mass-produced, and the outfitting will begin in half a year before the first third-class cruiser, and the navy has already enabled the backup plan.

The two third-class cruisers in front were each equipped with captured 14-pound guns according to the original design, each with four guns, and the captured 14-pound guns were exactly eight, no more, no less, just enough.

But the last three ships are using a backup plan, that is, to replace them with nine-pound artillery, which is also a matter of no way, although the current Tang Dynasty has no way to mass-produce fourteen catties and more than fourteen catties of artillery.

However, the artillery required for the third-class cruiser has been solved, and the Tang Dynasty is already able to produce its own nine-pound artillery, in addition to the Zhaoqing Arsenal can be mass-produced, several other arsenals are also starting large-scale mass production, although the output of these nine-pound guns is still small, but it takes time to build ships, and this time is enough for those arsenals to produce enough artillery for the navy, and can also free up part of the production capacity to supply the army.

In addition to cruisers and frigates, the two main warships used for far-sea operations, the Datang Navy has also been expanded in other aspects!

For example, continue to convert merchant ships into armed merchant ships!

At present, the Datang Navy is still continuing to carry out large-scale refit of merchant ships, and is preparing to expand the scale of the existing armed merchant ships by more than three times, so that the number of armed merchant ships of more than 200 tons will reach more than 20, as for the armed merchant ships of less than 200 tons, because the number of artillery guns carried is too small, and the ability to sail in the open sea is too poor, and the comprehensive combat effectiveness is too poor, so now the Datang Navy has stopped large-scale refit and handed over the existing ones to the Pearl River Fleet.

Then, a large number of small and medium-sized ships in inland rivers and offshore waters were built to meet the transportation and escort tasks of inland rivers and offshore waters.

Especially now that the Tang Army is fighting everywhere, although many places are unable to use inland river transportation, but whenever inland river transportation can be used, the logistics department will use inland river transportation as much as possible, which has caused a large demand for inland river gunboats.

The Pearl River Fleet of the Tang Navy, its subordinate Dongjiang Fleet, Beijiang Fleet, and Xijiang Fleet, as well as the inland river gunboats and transport fleets under these three fleets, have been widely active in the entire Pearl River basin.

At the same time, the Yangtze River Fleet was set up ahead of schedule, and the Ganjiang Detachment was set up in the southern part of Jiangxi and the Xiangjiang Detachment in the southern part of Huguang to be used for local inland river transportation and escort, and at the same time to support the army's operations.

After all, although the current Datang Navy is nominally a navy, and it also attaches great importance to the development of the ocean-going navy, in fact, the core of development at this stage is still the inland river fleet, focusing on inland river escort, transportation, and supporting army operations, which has led to the inland river fleet of the Datang Navy, whose scale is quite large.

The three sub-fleets of the Pearl River Fleet and the two sub-fleets of the newly established Yangtze River Fleet have more than 200 armed ships ranging from 100 to 100 tons and more than 20 medium-sized and large ships of more than 100 tons.

But Li Xuan knew that although there were many ships in the river fleet, in order to defend the sea frontier, those large ocean-going warships were still needed, and these river warships were generally not equipped with any large-caliber artillery, and even the cannons were less equipped, especially those armed ships under 100 tons, their main guns were only three or two catties of shotguns, or they were simply equipped with all kinds of bowl guns captured from the Ming army.

Only some armed ships with a tonnage of 70 or 80 tons or even more than 100 tons will be equipped with cannons, but most of them are only at the level of five-kilogram artillery, and those with less than seven kilograms are even less.

To put it mildly, the firepower of the more than 200 inland river vessels is not comparable to that of the existing ocean-going fleet of armed merchant ships of the Tang Navy, let alone the fleet of professional third-class cruisers and frigates.

Li Xuan knows very well that those professional ocean-going warships can carry the future of the Datang Navy!

Therefore, Li Xuan has always been very concerned about the progress of the third-class cruisers and frigates that are currently under construction.

Due to the continuous invasion of the coast by the Franc aircraft, the Datang Navy is also constantly forcing the Ministry of Industry to build ships as soon as possible, so that the Navy can get real warships one day earlier!

The first professional warship of the Tang Navy, the third-class frigate Wuzhou, with the overtime efforts of the Zhaoqing Shipyard of the Ministry of Industry, can finally be launched after a full year of hull construction, and once launched, it can start outfitting, and the overall construction period is shortened by two months compared with the original expectation.

In addition, the outfitting of wooden battleships in these years was relatively simple, mainly to lift the guns, install the sails, and then sew and mend them, of course, this does not include sea trials and other tests.

This also means that after being launched, the Wuzhou will not stay in Zhaoqing for too long, and will soon be able to carry light loads down the river, and then directly join the First Fleet, and is expected to be initially stationed in Haojing, joining the sequence of fighting with the Franc man!