This time, the arms purchase orders between Rome and the Arabs were quite large, and the two countries were holding back the fire to fight a big war.
Knives, guns, bows, crossbows, armor, even muskets, artillery, warships, transport ships, and even all kinds of canned food, milk powder, meat floss, etc., they have to order a lot.
Roman Augustus Herac and the Arab envoy Osman attached great importance to this arms purchase, but in fact, Dahua did not attach importance to it.
In fact, selling silk, porcelain, spices, and tea is not as good as selling arms to make money.
Although the profits of horizontal swords and spears are not very high, such as plate armor, muskets, warships, and artillery, they are extremely profitable.
For Dahua, a piece of breastplate armor, in fact, the manufacturing process is very simple, and the cost is even lower, but in the eyes of the Romans and Arabs, if this breastplate armor is equipped with the infantry, it can immediately increase the combat effectiveness several times.
Even when they ordered cuirassal, they were reluctant to give it to the infantry, which was intended to be used to equip a heavy infantry, and even for the elite cavalry.
After all, Dahua's chest armor, which was made of steel, looked very thin, but it was extremely strong, and it was many times stronger than their ordinary rope armor.
They wouldn't believe that the cost of such a breastplate armor was actually much lower than that of the rope armor, and it was easier to produce, which was an incredible thing in their minds.
How can steel plate armor be better and cheaper to manufacture than rope armor.
Technology.
Dahua has technology that they can't imagine.
This kind of technology is not the technology of a single individual, but the technology of the entire industry.
From mining to iron smelting, to steelmaking, then to steel rolling, and then to hydraulic forging and forming, every technology is an epoch-making new technology, and every technology has left the Romans far behind.
With each new technology, costs are greatly reduced and time savings are greatly reduced.
The technology of filling steel and clad steel in the Tang Dynasty is already the top technology in steelmaking and forging weapons, this technology has not been mastered by the Romans, not to mention Dahua's open-hearth blast furnace iron-smelting and steelmaking technology, a furnace directly produces thousands of catties of molten steel, this kind of thing the Romans have heard of, but it has always been a myth to hear.
A furnace of thousands of catties of molten steel, molten steel.
You know, they still rely on hand forging, repeatedly forging iron into steel, and only a small piece of steel can be beaten at a time.
But Dahua can directly get thousands of catties of molten steel in one furnace, and then directly roll the molten steel into steel plates, ingots, steel blocks, etc., to obtain rough billets, which is greatly convenient for processing.
Hydraulic forging hammer, which uses water power to directly forge and form, creates gorgeous plate armor.
A piece of breastplate armor is at least ten times more profitable.
These days, it's not as good as making money with this.
Although silk also makes money, it is necessary to plant mulberry and raise silkworms, reel silk and weave, and weave a piece of silk, which has a long cycle.
Relying on the whole people to raise silk weaving, in order to form a huge silk output.
Silk is actually a labor-intensive industry, and the added value is not very high.
But ordnance is different, Dahua's ordnance has unrivaled quality and price and quantity advantages, looking at the world, no one can compare.
Dahua's military industry, in this era, is definitely a high-tech industry, and it still has a monopoly advantage in technology, and has complete independent pricing power.
The added value of the product is quite high.
Royal United Steel now owns more than half of Dahua's steel production.
Dahua's ordnance superintendent, purchased steel from the United Iron and Steel Company, processed and produced ordnance, one in and one out, from steel plates to chest plate armor, knight armor, lord armor and even rope armor, etc., if calculated by weight, the value of each pound of steel immediately increased by more than ten times.
In particular, full-body plate armor such as knight armor and lord armor has a higher value of improvement.
The lord armor is even more because of the exquisite manufacturing, tailor-made and other factors, and the added value has increased more than 100 times.
But even so, it's still very popular.
Dahua's muskets and artillery are now also very popular with both countries.
Because artillery, whether it is attacking or defending a city, or a field battle, is very sharp and fierce, in the past, Dahua banned the sale of these firearms to the two countries, at most they took out some as gifts.
But this time, Dahua opened firearms for sale.
To put it bluntly, in fact, firearms also depend on who uses them.
For Dahua, selling muskets and artillery to the Romans and Arabs did not have to worry about them copying them, because they did not have the technology now.
Dahua's cannon uses cast iron cannons, and the technology of cast iron cannon bodies, whether it is cast iron or drilling, they are not at this level.
If it is imitated with bronze or the like, of course, it is possible to imitate successfully, but without Dahua's technology, then the yield and performance cannot be guaranteed.
Thousands of catties of copper cast an artillery, but it will explode if it can't be fired a few times, and it will take a long time to cast a cannon, and it will not be able to form a mass production capacity, so this kind of thing can not be equipped with the army at all except for decoration, and it will be useless.
And firearms have one of the most important things, of course, gunpowder.
First, they did not have the technology to produce gunpowder, and second, they did not have the ability to mine saltpeter and sulfur in large quantities.
Dahua sells them muskets and artillery, and he can continue to sell them ammunition.
"This batch of ordnance, especially firearms, do we still have to cut performance?"
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In the carriage, Speaker of the House of Representatives Xu Jingzong asked Zhang Chao.
In the previous arms sales to Rome and Arabia, although Dahua did not sell firearms, it also sold warships, transport ships, weapons and armor.
These foreign trade ordnance, Dahua has reduced some performance.
This is true for the weakened version of the ordnance, whether it is armor, swords and guns, or warships and transports.
The so-called foreign trade version of the military industry is basically the possibility of the same product, but the performance is reduced.
For the same style of chest plate armor, Dahua uses sufficient materials and the best craftsmanship.
However, the chest armor for export is not so sufficient, only the weight is lighter, which reduces the material, and the process is also less process, so that the labor and material costs are reduced a lot.
Of course, the performance of such a breastplate armor has been reduced, but when it is taken out, it can still make the two countries very satisfied.
"The export of ordnance must be based on the consideration of reducing costs, and the quality is too good, so how can this business be long-lasting."
The second prime minister, Chu Suiliang, said with a smile.
Speaking of pit people, none of the monarchs and ministers in this car are easy to get along with.
Anyway, even if Dahua's ordnance is lowered by one or two grades, it still far exceeds the self-produced products of various countries, and it still has unrivaled competitiveness.
"It's just that at the price we quoted, they couldn't stop laughing when they could buy such an ordnance.
Firearms are getting more and more careful.
We must keep a hand in case these people take the firearms we sold them and turn them against us.
Especially this Arabia, we have a lot of borders with them, so to speak, the three directions of Arabia in the southeast, north and south, all border with us, I always think that sooner or later we will go to war with them, so we have to guard against them in advance.
Fang Xuanling also supports arms sales, but he always believes that the expansion of the Arabs in recent years has been very ferocious.
He believed that the Arabs were by no means good, and that they wanted to fight with Rome at the moment, so they would compromise with Dahua.
But Dahua has too many borders with Arabia.
After the Arab annexation of Persian Sassanid, it now borders the Bactrian and Transoxiana territories of Dahua to the east and north, the northern shore of the Red Sea to the south, and the Caspian Sea to the northwest.
Both are considered superpowers, with such a long border line, conflict is a matter of time.
Fang Xuanling even proposed to implement an early policy, unite with Rome and others to destroy Arabia first, and divide the Arab and Persian homelands with Rome.
Even after the destruction of the Arabs, Persia with a puppet is stronger than it is now.
It's just that Zhang Chao didn't agree to this proposal in the end.
In Zhang Chao's view, in fact, there are still many places around Dahua that have not been cleared, and even places such as the Western Regions and Xindu have not yet been stabilized.
It would not be wise to rush into an all-out war with such a new Arab empire at this time.
It is too far away, even if Dahua has a strong army, it is not easy to send troops to fight at such a long distance, and it is very difficult to replenish supplies.
Second, the war will affect Dahua's foreign trade.
One of the most important reasons is that Zhang Chao feels that the current Arabia is indeed very strong, and this emerging empire has extremely strong combat effectiveness, and it is very unwise to fight with him now.
If the Arabs could not be defeated in the short term, the Great Empire could fall into this quagmire in Central Asia.
Zhang Chao decided that he could not defeat Arabia in the short term, so since this was the case, let's change the strategy.
It would be very good to reassure the Arabs to go and fight with Rome, and Dahua would sell arms in the back, while continuing to trade.
As for whether the Arabs will sit big because of this, destroy Rome and then turn eastward, this Zhang Chao does not think about it for the time being, because Rome is not so easy to destroy.
Rome is equivalent to the Great Hua of the East, he is not alone, it is the only empire in Europe, the Roman emperor is the suzerainty of the barbarians in Europe, Rome still has some appeal in Europe, and the expansion of the Arabs will not be supported by the barbarians.
Sitting on the mountain and watching the tiger fight, cheering by the way, and selling some arms to help the fun, this is what Dahua should do.
"Muskets, artillery, battleships and transports, if they want it, we will sell it, but as Fang Gong said, we have to have reservations, just give them a foreign trade version, and in terms of performance, cut it by two or three achievements.
As for the price, this is the only superweapon of this kind, so we must show the status of these firearms in terms of price. ” "Our Dahua's armaments have always been the best, so the price must be the most expensive."
Zhang Chao's shameless words won the approval of the powerful ministers.
"We must also pay close attention to the affairs of the concession.
Since you have so many concessions, you can't let them be empty.
We have to build these concessions and make them our bases overseas, or even cash cows.
In this way, the imperial court will arrange it, recruit it directly, plan the various concessions, and then recruit merchant groups to build and develop it. ” "These concessions recruited merchant groups to develop them, and according to the regulations of the colonial companies, they had full authority to develop them, and one-third of the tax revenue was paid to the imperial court.
The developing company may have all the same powers as the colonial company, and may have the power to support the army, and may have administrative and judicial powers. ” Rome and Arabia each gave Dahua thirteen concessions, the place was far away, and the imperial court did not have so much energy to develop at the same time, so Zhang Chao still planned to use the method of colonial companies to manage and develop these concessions, recruit merchants, and let them pay a sum of money to the imperial court, and then they could be authorized to develop these concessions, and the concessions were equivalent to the colonies owned by these companies.
This way to develop the concession is the most worry-free and trouble-free for the imperial court, but it can ensure the interests of Dahua and the imperial court. t1706231537: