Tibet

The next morning, Li Ye met with Li Chengshi and Ma Lin who were reporting to Chang'an. His eldest son, Li Fang, the King of Shu, also attended the meeting with his father.

On the table was a sketch drawn temporarily, including the Nanyang and Tianzhu areas.

"I summoned the two generals to give you a new task."

Li Ye pointed to Tianzhu and said, "This is a large peninsula, with an area equivalent to half of the Tang Dynasty and a population similar to that of the Tang Dynasty. It is composed of many countries. During the reign of Emperor Taizong, Wang Xuance, the Tang envoy, borrowed 20,000 people from Tubo and Nepal in the north, and defeated the hundreds of thousands of troops in Central Tianzhu, and finally destroyed Central Tianzhu.

Li Ye pointed to the south of the Tianzhu Peninsula and said, "There is also a big country in the south, called Chola. General Li should know it! "

Li Chengshi nodded, "The navy of the Zhu Luo Kingdom pretended to be pirates and invaded Jiaozhou many times, stealing a lot of property and people. Last year, when we destroyed the Linyi Kingdom, we encountered their navy. In a naval battle, we did not lose a single soldier and annihilated all of their more than 100 warships and 10,000 navy. "

Ma Lin laughed and said, "This country is not good at fighting!"

Li Ye also laughed and said, "Although the people of this country are not good at fighting, they are ambitious and have no self-knowledge. Not long ago, they sent 20,000 troops to plunder our Central and Southern Delta, but they were beaten by our 3,000 garrison troops, killing more than 4,000 of them and capturing 3,500 people. This made me decide to implement the plan to destroy the Zhu Luo Kingdom in advance. "

Li Ye paused and said to the two: "Actually, I am interested in the iron ore there. It is of much higher quality than the iron ore in our Tang Dynasty, and the reserves are huge. The Chola Kingdom also produces a lot of iron, which is exported to Daqin and Daqin, as well as Nanyang. Unfortunately, their refining methods are not good, and the iron ore is wasted. So I will send two generals to lead the army to attack the Chola Kingdom, destroy the Chola Kingdom, and establish a new country under the jurisdiction of the Tang Dynasty there. The king will be the King of Shu. "

Ma Lin and Li Chengshi understood immediately, and the two bowed and said: "We are willing to assist the King of Shu in establishing the country!"

Li Ye smiled and nodded, "After the establishment of the country, leave 10,000 troops stationed there, and the two generals can return triumphantly. Now I want to tell you how to attack the Chola Kingdom?"

Li Ye pointed to the Central and Southern Delta with a wooden pole and said: "This is Anyuan County, the southernmost county in the Tang Dynasty. You will start your expedition from here! "

Li Ye's wooden pole pointed downward again, "This is the Nanyang Strait. The Changlong Peninsula in the north and the Borneo Island in the south both belong to the Srivijaya Kingdom, but we have two pieces of land here. One is the southernmost tip of the peninsula and the nearby islands that we bought, and the other is the island not far from the strait that we also bought. You can build supply bases in these two places. I suggest that you build supplies at the southernmost tip of the peninsula. The Overseas Trade Department is building a trade city here, called Longtou City. There is not much fresh water here, but it is enough. "

The Tang Dynasty bought two pieces of land, one is today's Singapore, and the other is the Natuna Islands, which Li Ye named Zengmu Island. Li Ye planned to build a trade city at the southernmost tip of the peninsula and a military city on the Natuna Islands, but building a city takes time, but it is easy to build a supply point.

Li Ye's wooden pole went along the strait again, "It takes about ten days to cross this strait. After crossing the strait and walking west for three days, you will see an archipelago called the Andaman Islands, which has been occupied by the Chola Kingdom. This archipelago is very important. You must take it and build a rest and supply point here, because the next step is to sail in the vast ocean for nearly 20 days. "

Li Chengshi was the commander-in-chief of the navy. He could see from the map that he knew the importance of the supply point.

Li Ye finally went to the teardrop-shaped island south of the Tianzhu Peninsula, "This is the Lion Country, which can also be called the Sinhalese Country. I call it Ceylon. It is a place rich in gems. The area is slightly larger than Guanzhong. There were originally millions of Sinhalese people living here, but they have been almost killed by the Chola people. We want to take down the Lion Country. We can use the method of land exchange to cut a piece of land from the southernmost tip of the Tianzhu Peninsula to the Sinhalese people and ask them to leave. In the future, we will immigrate hundreds of thousands of Tang people to live here. The iron ore of Tianzhu will be transported to Ceylon for preliminary smelting, and then the crude iron will be transported back to the Tang Dynasty for refining. "

Li Ye said to Li Fang again: "With Ceylon, a land of pure Han people, you will be able to sit firmly in the Chola Kingdom in the future! "

Three days later, Shu King Li Fang, General Ma Lin and Navy Commander Li Chengshi set off.

They were accompanied by 10,000 elite troops and dozens of young officials.

This expedition will consist of 30,000 troops, 20,000 naval forces and 10,000 elite infantry. They will carry the most elite firearms of the Tang Dynasty and fight against the Chola Kingdom.

Three months later, the Tang expeditionary force consisting of 500 warships arrived in the Central and South Delta.

The 30,000 troops went ashore to rest for a month, mainly to get used to the tropical climate.

Du Huan will also follow this expedition to the Chola Kingdom. He has just been renamed as the Chief Secretary of Shu King by Li Ye and will serve as Li Fang's civilian assistant.

In the room, Li Fang looked at the map of Tianzhu on the table and asked: "Excuse me, Chief Secretary Du, did the Chola Kingdom fleet escape back to its nest?"

"It should have gone back! Our sentry boats monitored their southward movement. Of course, there is another possibility. I heard that they occupied half of this big island. "

Du Huan pointed to the big island on the map, and Li Fang blurted out, "Borneo Island!"

"It's called Borneo Island?" Du Huan was surprised.

"Borneo Island is marked on my father's map, Du Changshi, please take a look!"

Li Fang opened the map his father gave him and spread it on the table. Du Huan looked carefully and found that it was indeed much more detailed than his map. He had never heard of many place names, such as Borneo Island, Changlong Peninsula, Longtou City, and Zengmu Island.

Li Fang pointed at Longtou City and said: "My father said that this land was bought by Datang and a shopping mall is being built. Does Du Changshi know?"

Du Huan nodded, "I know, the warehouses are being built over there, and it will take a few years to build the city. However, we can replenish fresh water now, but we can't get off the ship to rest."

Li Fang then pointed to Borneo occupied by the Chola Kingdom and said: "This was originally the land of the Srivijaya Kingdom! Didn't the Srivijaya Kingdom declare war on the Chola Kingdom?"

Du Huan smiled bitterly and shook his head: "You will know if you go and take a look. The whole land is covered with primitive forests, and you can't see the end at a glance. Even if the Three Buddhas declare war, they will not be able to get through, and they can only go by sea. But the Three Buddhas and Qi Kingdom declare war. Foqi does not have many warships. Even if it has warships, it is no match for the Chola Kingdom. The Chola Kingdom's navy is still very powerful with fire. "

Du Huan pointed to Borneo Island again and said: "Actually, although the area they occupy seems to be very large, in fact they only occupy a pier and a small area around the pier. I know there is a natural harbor over there, called Beach Harbor is probably occupied by the Chola Kingdom, and the defeated army should be parked there!"

A month later, 500 warships and 30,000 Tang troops set off southward in a mighty manner. The 500 warships were almost all paddle-type warships. Among them were 20 thousand-stone steam engine warships, or 50. The pedal-operated 10,000-stone warship, and the rest are 5,000-stone and 3,000-stone warships.

Ten days later, the fleet arrived at Longtou Port, today's Singapore, where it replenished fresh water and continued sailing into the strait.

Five days later, the leading sentinel ship came to report that a harbor was found fifty miles away, with Chola warships moored inside.

Li Chengshi thought for a moment and said, "Send ten 3,000-stone warships to lure them out!"

Li Chengshi was worthy of being an experienced veteran. He was worried that after destroying the warships in the harbor, the Zhuluo Kingdom on the shore would evolve into pirates and become a hidden danger in the Nanyang Strait.

The Zhuluo people bully the weak and fear the strong, so a small fleet will surely attract them out.

More than an hour later, the sentinel ship came to report, "Our navy attracted the Zhuluo fleet and pursued it northward."

Li Chengshi was overjoyed and immediately ordered the fleet to move forward. As expected, there was no fleet in the harbor. He immediately ordered General Wang Ping'an to lead 3,000 people to land and wipe out all the few Cholu soldiers on the shore. He personally pursued the Cholu fleet with his fleet. go.

After chasing for more than thirty miles, they saw the Zhuluo fleet turning back.

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