Tibet

The Zhuluo fleet used long oars as power. There were ten pairs of twenty long oars. Each long oar was manned by five soldiers. A large ship required a hundred people to row the oars. Such warships were also very fast.

The Tang army had learned Zhu Luo's naval warfare tactics. After getting close to the opponent's ship, the soldiers threw a large number of kerosene cans over and then threw torches to light the opponent's ship.

With this move, Zhu Luo became the overlord of the sea until they met the Tang army.

However, the last Zhuluo fleet that had experienced the power of the Tang army had been completely destroyed. The current Zhuluo army did not know it. Upon seeing the Tang army's warships, hundreds of Zhuluo ships immediately dispersed and came forward with great momentum.

Tang Jun's artillery began to fire. Two hundred steps away, a gun directly penetrated the wall of the opponent's main warship. The shell exploded inside the big ship, and the main ship began to sink rapidly.

In fact, it doesn't matter even if the enemy is approaching. The Tang army has a second level of attack. Several enemy ships are approaching. The hundreds of Tang soldiers on board use exploding arrows to shoot at the opponent's ship, blasting the opponent's ship with holes. , a large amount of sea water poured in, and the ship sank quickly.

As a precaution, each large ship was equipped with fifty fire-fighting soldiers. They took wet bedding and threw only kerosene onto the warship. The soldiers of the Tang Army immediately rushed forward and covered the kerosene with wet bedding, such as sand and soil. Still effective.

In just half an hour, most of the opponent's nearly one hundred large ships had been sunk, and the remaining twenty or so warships fled to the northwest. However, the Tang army had laid a dragnet, and they had nowhere to escape.

Soon, the Tang army completely wiped out the remaining twenty or so Zhu Guoluo warships. The sea was a mess, with floating debris and corpses everywhere. Most of the soldiers sank to the bottom of the sea with the big ships.

The Tang army occupied Biqi Port, and Li Chengshi left a thousand people and thirty warships behind, and the fleet continued to sail along the strait.

Ten days later, the Tang army's fleet arrived at the Andaman Islands. In a small-scale battle, they annihilated a thousand Chola garrison, captured fifty large supply ships that had just arrived at the Andaman Islands, and obtained a large amount of food and other materials and money.

Two unexpected things happened on the Andaman Island. They rescued more than 100 young Han women. They were all common people in Jiaozhou. Three years ago, they were kidnapped from Jiaozhou by the Zhuluo army pretending to be pirates and became slaves. Military prostitute.

The rescued Han women cried so hard that the King of Shu, Li Fang, comforted them and promised to send them home. He also gave each woman a sum of money from the seized property.

In the end, these women did not go back, but stayed on Andaman Island. They eventually married the soldiers of the Tang Army stationed on the island and settled down on Andaman Island.

Another thing that was amazing was that Tang Jun actually met two Nanzhao businessmen, one named Luo An and the other Luo Quan, who were cousins.

In the big tent, two Nanzhao businessmen explained their business routes to the senior officials of the Tang Army in front of a temporary map they drew. Both of them could speak fluent Chinese.

It turns out that the Andaman Island is very close to the Pyu Kingdom. They drove the mule team all the way into the Pyu Kingdom along the dense forest trail. After entering the Pyu Kingdom, they sold the goods. Later, they heard that the Andaman Island produces ambergris and the price is very cheap. If you bring it, Returning to the Tang Dynasty can make a hundredfold profit.

They then followed several Pyu merchants to the Andaman Island by boat. Unexpectedly, the Cholu Kingdom had just issued a decree that the ambergris produced on the Andaman Island could only be paid tribute to the Cholu nobles and was not allowed to be taken away. This made the two Nanzhao businessmen rush to the Andaman Island. Empty.

"To report to His Highness the King of Shu, although we were unable to purchase ambergris, we still purchased a batch of valuable shells and prepared to transport them to Chengdu for sale."

"Does Piao have a large population?" Li Fang asked.

Luo An bowed and said: "Your Majesty, the Piao Kingdom has a large population. It is mainly distributed on the Great Plains. There are many ancient small towns. Their ancestors are all Qiang people. They came from Bashu in the pre-Qin Dynasty and found this place. There is a vast plain, and we from Nanzhao have sent officials to inspect the great plain here many times in preparation for attacking Piao, but we found that it is still unrealistic."

"Why isn't it realistic?"

"It's too far away. It's blocked by many forests. Only small roads are feasible. There's no way to ensure logistics and transportation. We went out for more than two months to do business. For more than a month, we walked through the lush primeval jungle, where all kinds of wild beasts appeared. There were also The deadly miasma is very dangerous. If you are not careful, you will die. We don’t know how to get back. The Heavenly Army of the Tang Dynasty is here. Can I take your ship back to the Tang Dynasty? "

Li Chengshi readily agreed and asked, "Can you speak Zhuluo dialect?"

The two nodded, "We have been trapped on Andaman Island for a year and learned their language."

Everyone was overjoyed that there were finally two translators.

Although the Great Plains of Piao State sounds good, it is still too far away after all, and everyone has lost interest.

After resting for three days on Andaman Island, leaving 500 people to guard the island, the army set off again, aiming for Ceylon Island. They invited several merchant ship captains who had been in Dashi and Datang for many years as guides. These captains were very interested in The route is very familiar and we will never go astray into the vast Indian Ocean.

The fleet traveled for another twenty days and finally saw land. Ceylon arrived.

Ceylon is Sri Lanka. It was also called the Lion Kingdom or the Sinhalese Kingdom in the Tang Dynasty. It covers an area of ​​about 60,000 square kilometers. The indigenous people here are the Sinhalese people. They believe in Buddhism and have always interacted with the Tamil people in the north who believe in Shiva. Hatred and constant wars broke out.

After Ceylon was occupied by the Tamil dynasty Chola, the Chola carried out massacres on the Sinhalese several times, destroyed temples, forced them to change their beliefs, and forced a large number of Sinhalese to the northern mining area to become mining slaves.

After a hundred years of destruction, the Sinhalese, who originally had a population of one million, had only one tenth left, with less than 100,000 people left. A large number of Tamils ​​poured into Ceylon, seized land, enslaved the weak Sinhalese, and classified them as Dalits, or untouchables.

The reason why Li Ye wanted Ceylon was because the geographical location of this large island was too important. It was the pearl of the Indian Ocean and the most important supply point on the Maritime Silk Road. All merchant ships coming from the Arabs and East Africa had to stop here for supplies.

The huge Tang army fleet arrived at Galle Port, which is the southernmost tip of Ceylon Island and the largest trade supply port on the ancient route.

The arrival of the Tang army caused panic in the entire port, and officials fled one after another, but the Tang army did not encounter any resistance and occupied Galle Port without bloodshed.

The population of Galle Port is more than 10,000, most of whom are Sangha people. More than half of the young and strong make a living as dock workers. They suffer from the cruel oppression of a few Tamil nobles and officials and live in poverty.

But they still adhere to their beliefs and believe in Buddhism. There are still three Buddhist temples that have not been demolished. They are also the only three Buddhist temples that have not been demolished in Ceylon. They are the spiritual home of all Sinhalese people in Ceylon. Every year, tens of thousands of Sinhalese people come from all over Ceylon to pay homage to the Buddha.

The Luo brothers are also Buddhists. They went to the temple to worship the Buddha and then brought several monks. The monks were very excited when they heard that the Tang army had come. The Tang Dynasty was a powerful dynasty that believed in Buddhism. They immediately felt that they had a strong backer and the day for the Sinhalese to turn over was coming.

They actually saw monks wearing cassocks in distant Ceylon. The Tang army soldiers felt quite cordial. Some soldiers led them to the general's tent.

Shu Wang Li Fang was the supreme leader of the expeditionary army. Emperor Li Ye appointed him as the Grand Marshal of the Overseas Expedition, Ma Lin and Li Chengshi as the left and right deputy marshals, and Du Huan as the chief historian.

Several monks came to pay homage to Shu Wang Li Fang, and Luo An translated for them.

It turned out that the governor of Chola, Rajinder, hated the Sinhalese people for going to Galle to worship the Buddha, so he ordered the army to demolish the last three Buddhist temples. The army was coming, and the monks were at a loss, just when the Tang army arrived.

Li Fang was refreshed and asked hurriedly: "How many troops will come?"

"At least tens of thousands! They are also afraid of the Sinhalese resistance."

"How many Chola troops are there in the whole island?" Ma Lin asked on the side.

"About 50,000 people, deployed in Kandy, the former capital of our former kingdom, located in the middle of the island. It takes two days to come from Kandy. It is estimated that they will arrive tomorrow."

Although Luo An's translation was not very accurate, everyone understood it.

"How long has the Sinhalese Kingdom been destroyed?" Li Fang asked again.

"It has been more than a hundred years. The royal family has long been wiped out, and the Sinhalese people have been almost killed by them. They used massacres to force us to give up the Buddha and convert to their Brahmanism, but we would rather die than obey. They drove the Sinhalese people to the mining area to mine for them and replaced us with Tamils ​​to become the new owners of this land."

"How many Tamils ​​are there on Sinhalese Island?"

"Probably hundreds of thousands! Several times more than us, mainly distributed in the north of the big island."

Li Fang nodded and smiled to Ma Lin: "Tens of thousands of troops will come tomorrow, the general's chance has come!"