Tibet

Three days later, Li Chengshi, the commander of the Tang navy, arrived in Jiaozhou with 300 warships. The large ships sailed into the Red River and docked. The people of Jiaozhou had never seen such a large fleet before, and they all came to visit.

When they heard that this fleet was used to fight pirates, tens of thousands of people cheered.

This fleet had 20 10,000-shi warships, 100 5,000-shi warships, 180 3,000-shi warships, and 20,000 naval forces.

On the largest Wanshi warship, Zhang Boyi introduced the situation of Champa to everyone. "During the Sui Dynasty, Champa was called Linyi. It was destroyed by Emperor Yang of Sui. The northern part returned to the court, and Jiuzhen County and Rinnan County were established. The Tang Dynasty established the Annan Protectorate. In addition to Jiaozhou, the original two southern counties were expanded to Aizhou, Huanzhou, Tanglinzhou, Luofuzhou and other four states.

But after the Anshi Rebellion broke out, the Tang army retreated and only Jiaozhou was saved. The other states were annexed by Champa, and a small number of Han people fled back to Jiaozhou."

Li Chengshi asked puzzledly: "The one marked on my map is Linyi. Is it Champa or Linyi?"

"It's the same thing. We call it Linyi, and Champa is called Linyi. It is their capital, so they call themselves Champa or Champa. We can unify them and call them Linyi. "

Li Chengshi nodded, "That's right, otherwise it will be confusing. What is the strength of the Linyi army?"

"There are about 50,000 troops and 10,000 elephants. The combat effectiveness is just so-so, but this country is very warlike. Just a few years ago, Zhenla had an internal conflict and split into Water Zhenla and Land Zhenla. The Water Zhenla army was defeated and retreated to the Zhenla River Delta.

Linyi found this opportunity,

They immediately joined forces with the Chola Kingdom to attack Water Zhenla, almost destroying it, and the richest The Zhenla River Delta was occupied by them. They got help from Chola. Their navy is quite powerful. Now there are Chola troops stationed there! "

Du Huan was in high spirits and asked hurriedly: "Doctor Zhang means that there are Chola troops in Linyi?"

Zhang Boyi nodded, "Indeed, I also sent people disguised as merchants to Linyi to inquire about the situation because the emperor decided to attack Linyi. I went there for two months and just came back."

Zhang Boyi pointed to the map and said: "Why is there a thin line in the south of Jiaozhou? This is because there is only a little flat land along the coast. There are mountains to the west. Thousands of miles of mountains are covered by ancient forests. We The army can go south along the coast. There is an official road we built before. I plan to lead 5,000 troops south with ten days of dry food. There is a natural harbor in the southernmost part of Rinan County. The navy can move with us at the same time, meet at the natural harbor, and unload supplies. The capital of Linyi State is less than 100 miles away from the harbor. "

Li Chengshi said happily: "That's it, but I'm not familiar with this sea area. I need a guide!"

Zhang Boyi smiled and said: "I'll give you an old fisherman as a guide. He is very familiar with this sea area and has been to Srivijaya. "

After two days of rest, 300 warships set off in a mighty manner and went south along the coastline.

At the same time, Zhang Boyi led 5,000 cavalry with only ten days of dry food, light soldiers and simple movements, and the army went south at the same time.

As we all know, the Hanoi area in northern Vietnam has belonged to the Central Plains Dynasty for thousands of years. There is also a Jiaozhi in the game of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

In fact, in addition to Jiaozhou, there is a thin tail below the map of the Han, Sui and Tang Dynasties. Because the central part of Vietnam is a large mountain range running from north to south, and there is only a long flat land along the coast, so Jiaozhou has a tail on the map of the Han and Sui and Tang Dynasties.

Where is the border of this tail? To Da Nang, which is the natural harbor mentioned by Zhang Boyi. The Han Dynasty established Jiuzhen County and Rinan County on this tail.

Not far south of Da Nang is Linyi Kingdom, but the rich Zhenla River Delta in the southernmost part belongs to Zhenla Kingdom.

However, because Linyi Kingdom has little arable land, and Jiuzhen County and Rinan County have a lot of flat land, Linyi Kingdom has always coveted the land of the two counties. King Hu Youda took advantage of the An-Shi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty and was forced to withdraw troops from Annan, and led his army to the north and annexed Jiuzhen County and Rinan County. Because there were still a thousand garrisons in Jiaozhou, Hu Youda did not dare to go north, so he turned south and pointed his troops to the southern part of Zhenla.

In addition, Linyi and Chola had been colluding for a long time. Chola even sent a navy to Linyi, disguised as pirates, and constantly invaded Jiaozhou and Yazhou.

At this time, Zhenla split into Water Zhenla and Land Zhenla due to internal strife. The two Zhenla countries were constantly at war. A few years ago, in a war, Water Zhenla was defeated and lost most of its land in the north. The remaining forces fled to the Zhenla River Delta.

Linyi saw an opportunity and immediately decided to launch an attack on the remaining forces of Water Zhenla. The equally warlike Chola also sent 10,000 troops and 100 warships to support Linyi. The Water Zhenla army was defeated by the attack of the coalition forces of the two countries and retreated to the last stronghold, Balatiba City.

As a result, the Zhenla River Delta, which was densely covered with rivers and fertile land, was occupied by the Linyi army.

The Tang army went south for one mile. The people along the way were all subjects of the Central Plains dynasty. After being occupied by Linyi, they were forced to accept rule, heavy taxes, and deep exploitation.

The return of the Tang army made the people along the way cheer and jump for joy. They took to the official roads, bringing food and drink, and warmly welcomed the arrival of the Tang army.

The officials and troops of the Linyi Kingdom along the way did not dare to resist and fled.

Ten days later, the Tang army arrived at the natural harbor, which is Da Nang in later generations. Eighty miles ahead was the capital of the Linyi Kingdom, Champa, also known as Champa.

The Tang navy had arrived first, and the two armies immediately joined together and set up camp in an open area on the shore to let the soldiers rest, while sending scouts to investigate the situation in Champa.

At present, there are 30,000 troops stationed in Champa. King Hu Yuda's attention has been to the south. He was thinking about how to attack the last city of Water Zhenla. Unexpectedly, the Tang army came from the north and was only 80 miles away from him.

Hu Yuda was shocked. He knew that Champa was short and dilapidated and could not be defended. On the one hand, he asked the nobles to retreat to the south, and on the other hand, he personally led 30,000 troops and drove 10,000 elephants to fight the Tang army.

At this time, the Tang army received news that the Linyi army had actually gone to war.

The Tang army immediately sent out 20,000 troops to fight, with Zhang Boyi as the chief general and Li Chengshi as the deputy general. Why did Zhang Boyi become the chief general despite having fewer soldiers? The reason is very simple. Zhang Boyi had much more experience than Li Chengshi and his military rank was one level higher than Li Chengshi. He was once Li Guangbi's deputy general. After Li Guangbi died of illness, he handed over tens of thousands of troops to him. After surrendering to Li Ye, he was ordered to recover Jiaozhou.

Zhang Boyi kept pace with the times and was very familiar with the various advanced firearms currently available in the Tang army.

This time, the navy came with three of the most popular weapons for the Tang army soldiers, one was the explosive arrow, one was the arrow mine, and one was the iron fire mine. Another weapon was the cannon, which was a powerful weapon for the navy's naval battle.

The Tang army came to a wilderness, and there was a large forest seven or eight miles away. At this time, the Tang army had already felt the huge movement in the forest, with dust flying and the earth shaking.

Among the 5,000 Tang troops, 3,000 were transferred from Nanzhao. They had all participated in the last Nanzhao war and had experience.

General Wei Yulin immediately said to Zhang Boyi: "Report to the commander-in-chief, this is the enemy's elephant vanguard, there should be tens of thousands of them, we have defeated them in Nanzhao."

Zhang Boyi nodded. He knew that the Linyi army had 10,000 elephants, and they were all driving the elephants to run in front.

He immediately asked: "How to defeat the elephants!"

The elephants are afraid of fireworks and arrows and thunder. If you attack them with arrows and kerosene, and then chase and shoot them with explosive arrows, the elephants will be defeated.

Zhang Boyi nodded, "Pass my order, pour 500 barrels of kerosene, and prepare 2,000 heavy crossbowmen!"