To put it bluntly and harshly, the conclusion is that speed is of no use.
The reason why the mobility of cavalry shines among major armies around the world is because cavalry not only runs fast, but can also hit others.
Otherwise, no matter how highly mobile it is, which army will be defeated? After all, the result of a war is determined by "fighting".
Steam trains have to carry soldiers, and the soldiers on them can indeed shoot arrows or throw javelins. No one doubts this. Even objectively speaking, because steam trains travel more smoothly than horses, this means that knights can draw their bows and shoot arrows more calmly.
, the attack capability will be improved a little - but only a little. No matter how fast the steam train runs, it cannot run as casually as a horse. At the same time, this increase in firepower is only a drop in the bucket compared to the cavalry.
So why spend a lot of money on such a troublesome thing? After all, the steam train is an extremely complex machine and requires a large number of Roman craftsmen, who are valuable human resources.
If it hadn't been for Hannibal the Younger's resolute decision, and if it hadn't been for the fact that Hannibal the Younger was in power, the Roman ministers and nobles would have opposed this project long ago - and many of these objections came from
Concerned about the fate of Rome, rather than opposing the emperor or whatever, that kind of opposition is most effective.
But even so.
Even in the eyes of Wang Xuanchen and Marcus, two loyal ministers of Rome, this steam train is a project worth "re-discussing". In the final analysis, the military and economic value of this thing is too low. But at this moment,
At this moment, both Wang Xuanchen and Marcus could not help but admire little Hannibal's great talent and strategy.
If little Hannibal had not forced this project with his personal prestige, how could Rome have such a powerful weapon available today?
Although the combination of steam train and artillery has not yet been built, Wang Xuanchen and Marcus can already imagine that when it is completed, hehe, the steam train itself is indeed not enough to improve the military power of Rome, but this thing
As for the improvement of the role of artillery, it is really there, and it is huge!
Imagine that artillery patrolled Rome's borders. No matter how strong the Tang army was, they would face the dilemma of being attacked by artillery no matter where they attacked! When this situation occurred, no matter how strong the Tang army was, Rome no longer had to be afraid.
!
Such a good strategy suddenly came up. Wang Xuanchen and Marcus were so excited that even little Hannibal himself didn't dare to be confident. Such a clever strategy was really hard not to believe.
Think about whether there are any loopholes here that you have not considered. You must discuss it with your smartest and most astute counselor.
But now seeing Marcus and Wang Xuanchen getting excited, little Hannibal knew that this matter should be done. Even though various small implementation problems will definitely arise one after another, and it is inevitable to think about it, but the big idea
The direction is absolutely correct!
, in fact, steam trains carried artillery, which was also considered by the military elites of the Tang Dynasty.
Whether it was Li Er, Li Jing, Li Xiaogong, or Li Ji, these top talents of the Tang Dynasty had never thought about the extraordinary power that steam trains equipped with artillery would have in the future.
Later, after detailed analysis, this plan was cancelled. First of all, the territory of China is too large. Even if artillery is used, it is difficult to provide flexible enough support. It is of little significance. It is better to be more attentive.
It is much more useful to choose the location of the military town and then use the budget to strengthen the economic and military attributes of the fortress military town.
In the end, this consideration was just a consideration, and the Li Erjunchen Group did not study the matter anymore. Besides, the steam train carrying artillery is just a combination, and there is nothing new in it - in other words, there is nothing new.
If there is nothing that can be improved, then there is no need to find something for the scholars in various colleges to do, or to do it just to accumulate skills even though there is no special purpose.
So this project naturally disappeared from Datang's list.
It was not that Li Jing had not considered the problem of steam vehicles transporting artillery - the distance to the real European area west of the Alps was still too far. Even if we did not talk about transporting artillery, just transporting winter clothes and grain would be a huge expense.
In this case, it would be economical to build railroad tracks and run steam trains.
And because it is economical, it is indeed possible to implement it - in fact, this option is currently under consideration, but the distance to build a railway track from China to Europe is too far, so no decision has been made yet.
However, Li Jing still thought far ahead. Since he wanted to build a steam train, the road would be long and bumpy, not to mention that although the Tang Dynasty now dominated the world - according to the definition of the Chinese culture in the past, the Tang Dynasty today
It truly unified the world, and even the concept of "beyond the Great Wall" in the traditional sense disappeared.
But Mobei is still Mobei after all. Although many Hu tribes in Mobei have surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, and even the most brave Xianbei people now work in the factories of the Tang Dynasty, there have been too many things in that place after all.
War, chaos and death are the most likely places to breed heroes and chaos.
As for the place farther north, that is, the Anxi military town, the area currently "guarded" by this boy Cheng Chumo - to put it bluntly, he is just trying out his governance skills - is a paradise for bandits and rebels from all over the world.
The Hu people who were defeated in Shenzhou had to run away to that place.
The barbarians who were defeated in the battle on the European continent also had to run to that place.
If you look at other places in the world at first glance, you may think that the people there are very pitiful, because they are far away from the automatic adjustment of the ocean and the climate is changeable. Droughts and floods occur frequently, and the climate is cold. This is also caused by chaos from all sides.
The robbers and bandits plundering are simply miserable. In fact, the truth is often more magical than reality. The actual situation is that the people there have long been accustomed to it. Every household is half civilian and half bandit. But then again,
Life is still hard - and if a place where life is always hard is also influenced by bandit culture, it is conceivable that the frequency of strong leaders and powerful regimes in that place is not unusually high. In fact, China's
The Sixth Army Town of the Northern Wei Dynasty was just that kind of place.
