Tibet

The monk's information was not accurate. It was not just 10,000 people who came, but 50,000 troops. The 50,000 troops stationed in the Sinhala Kingdom came out in full force.

Rajinder, the governor of the Chola Kingdom, knew very well the consequences of demolishing the Buddhist temple, and tens of thousands of Sinhalese people would fight against them.

Simply taking advantage of this opportunity to kill all the Sinhalese people, Rajinder led an army of 50,000 to Galle Port.

There were actually more than 10,000 cavalry in the 50,000-strong army, but the soldiers did not ride horses. Instead, they let the horses carry their dry food and armor. The weather was too hot, and wearing armor made every soldier breathless.

Fifty thousand troops were running murderously on the road, each holding a spear and a sword in his hand.

There are still twenty miles away from Galle Port. A hundred steps away from the roadside is a small highland. It is only a dozen feet high, but the highland is more than ten miles long.

The Chola army did not take Gao Gao seriously. In his mind, General Rajinder was planning how to massacre the Sinhalese people, plunder their wealth, and rob young women to reward the three armies.

Suddenly, dense black dots flew out from behind the high ground on the roadside and shot towards the top of the army. Before they could react, these black dots landed on the crowd and exploded.

In an instant, several miles of Zhuluo soldiers were blown to pieces, causing countless casualties.

Immediately afterwards, countless Tang Army soldiers appeared on the hillside, and they all raised their bows to fire the second round at the Zhu Luo soldiers.

Amidst the dense and violent explosions, the Zhuluo soldiers were in chaos. The Tang army soldiers rushed down with shouts. The already exhausted Zhuluo soldiers quickly collapsed. They abandoned their helmets and armor, trampled on each other, and scrambled to flee backwards.

The Tang army pursued them from behind, chasing them for more than 20 miles in one breath, and killed more than 30,000 enemies. General La Jinde also died among the rebels.

More than 10,000 other people were frightened, but they did not recognize this army and thought it was a Sinhalese uprising.

More than 10,000 troops evacuated to the mainland under the leadership of deputy general Virode. Virode urgently sent people to the capital Thanjavur to report to the king the Sinhalese rebellion.

In order to cover up their own incompetence and defeat, Virod's report was extremely exaggerated, saying that the Sinhalese had secretly planned for ten years, that 200,000 people rebelled at the same time, had a large amount of armor and weapons, and had wizards practicing witchcraft. Their 50,000-strong army fought bravely against the enemy, but in the end they were outnumbered. Unfortunately, their general Rajinder was martyred and more than 30,000 soldiers were killed. Virod asked the king to urgently send a large army to suppress it.

In this battle, the Tang army did not keep any prisoners of war and killed all the wounded soldiers. They seized a large amount of armor and supplies. What surprised the Tang army the most was that they captured more than 10,000 war horses. Although these horses could not be compared with the Tang army's war horses, they They are also the most needed supplies for the Tang army. With war horses, ten thousand Tang soldiers can be transformed into cavalry.

The Sinhalese people were even more excited, singing and dancing to welcome the Tang army back.

What was especially surprising to the Tang army was that these Sinhalese people did not consider restoring the country, but demanded to become subjects of the Tang Dynasty, and asked the Tang Dynasty to establish a country on Sinhalese Island to protect them from being killed and enslaved by the Tamils.

This made several plans planned by the Tang army come to nothing. This is because of cultural differences. The Sinhalese people only value religion and race. They have no concept of home and country. In their hearts, there is only the opposition between Brahmanism and Buddhism, and only the opposition between Tamils. Sinhalese killing and enslavement.

King Li Fang of Shu immediately announced that he would change Sinhalese Island to Ceylon Prefecture of the Tang Dynasty. Ceylon is the transliteration of Lion Kingdom. He also announced that he would follow the Buddhist principle of equality of all living beings, abolish the caste system that suppressed the Sinhalese people, and promised to destroy it. All Brahmin temples in Ceylon.

In the tent, Du Huan whispered to Li Fang: "We keep our promises, but we can't actually fulfill them. My humble position means destroying the Brahmin temple."

"Why?"

Du Huan sneered and said: "These Sinhalese people support us just because we protect them, but I found that they are very xenophobic at heart. Once the Tamils ​​are driven away and there are no enemies, these Sinhalese people will think They wanted to drive us away, so I thought that all the Tamils ​​could not be driven away, and some of them had to be left to fight against the Sinhalese. We acted as mediators, so some Brahmin temples had to be preserved."

Li Fang thought for a moment and said, "But my father wants us to exchange land with the Sinhalese people and move them to the northern peninsula."

"That will happen in a few years. After we have established a firm foothold and completely controlled the Chola Kingdom, we can then send the Sinhalese and Tamils ​​away together, or send them to the Pyu Kingdom. Anyway, the Pyu Kingdom also believes in Buddhism used the army to force Piao State to take them in. "

Li Fang nodded, "Chang Shi is right, we need to take a long-term view and cannot rush this moment."

At this time, Ma Lin and Li Chengshi quickly walked into the tent, "Your Highness, there is something important that we need to discuss!"

Ma Lin spread out a map, which was the trophy they captured. It was a very detailed map of Ceylon. Although the words on it were incomprehensible, the roads, bridges, mountains and plains could be understood.

Ma Lin pointed to a natural bridge connecting the Tianzhu Peninsula in the north and said: "This is called the Rama Bridge. It is a natural stone bridge about a hundred miles long. It connects to the Tianzhu Peninsula. We must destroy this stone bridge as soon as possible to prevent a large number of monks." The Garos returned to Ceylon. I had just discussed with General Li that we had better take the initiative and completely wipe out the Chola army on Ceylon. If they have withdrawn, we will blow up the Rama Bridge. "

Li Fang nodded, "It can also prevent the Zhuluo army from coming to support Ceylon."

Li Chengshi next to him said: "This is also what we want to report to His Highness. We asked the leaders of the Sinhalese people, the monks the day before yesterday. They told me that the Chola army was very small, only 30,000 people. We destroyed it." Among the 50,000 people, the 10,000 cavalry were regular troops, and the other 40,000 troops were temporarily recruited soldiers specially recruited to rule the island of Ceylon.

But their huge army was mainly naval troops, numbering hundreds of thousands, including the most elite 100,000 armored and epee troops. They were the main force of the Chola Kingdom in sweeping overseas. "

Speaking of this, Li Chengshi smiled and said: "The people of the Zhuluo Kingdom are very obedient and do not need much army. Their army is mainly for external development, so there are particularly many navy troops, which are actually infantry subordinate to the navy army."

Du Huan understood what Li Chengshi meant, "General Li is saying that the opponent is likely to come over from the water?"

Li Chengshi nodded, "Their troops all move in large ships. One ship can hold four to five hundred people. More than two hundred warships are enough. This is our opportunity!"

Li Fang pondered for a moment and said, "In that case, let's go out and attack!"

The Tang army only left a thousand troops to guard Galle, and then divided the troops into two groups to go north. Li Chengshi led 500 warships and 20,000 naval troops, and went north along the east coast. Ma Lin led 9,000 cavalry to Kandy first. , completely destroying the foundation of Chola rule in Ceylon, and then heading north to Rama Bridge to destroy this natural passage.

Thanjavur, the capital of the Chola Kingdom, is not far from the island of Ceylon. When he heard that hundreds of thousands of Sinhalese rebelled and killed tens of thousands of Chola soldiers, King Viero was furious and immediately sent 100,000 armored soldiers Jian took three hundred ships and rushed to Ceylon to quell the rebellion, and issued an order that all Sinhalese who participated in the rebellion should be executed.

Lieutenant General Verold never dreamed that one of his reports that shirks responsibility would eventually cost the entire empire.

Five hundred warships led by Li Chengshi were waiting on the opponent's only way to Ceylon.

In the morning, a huge soldier transport fleet appeared on the sea, with a total of three hundred warships.

Li Chengshi immediately divided his troops into three groups, one to the left, one to the right, and one to cut off the opponent's retreat.

Two hundred warships on the left sailed close to the shore, cutting off the opponent's escape to land.

The warships of the Tang Army immediately launched a fierce attack. Cannonballs exploded in the sea, causing huge waves. Large ships full of soldiers were hit and exploded by the cannonballs. The large ships were blown to pieces, and hundreds of soldiers were heard screaming. Entered the sea.

This was a complete one-sided massacre. The large ships filled with hundreds of soldiers were like fat pigs, watching one by one sink into the sea.

An hour later, the last large ship was blown into two pieces. The 450 soldiers in iron armor were unable to take off their armor and sank directly to the bottom of the sea with a cry.

One hundred thousand of the most elite troops were completely destroyed, which meant that the end of the Chola Kingdom was coming.

The Tang army's warships returned to Ceylon, and nine thousand Tang army cavalry crossed the strait and landed on the mainland of Tianzhu. The Tang army marched on both land and water to the capital of the Chola Kingdom.

Five days later, Ma Lin and Li Chengshi led 9,000 cavalry and 20,000 naval troops to defeat the 350,000 Chola army at Dindigul south of the capital, killing more than 60,000 people, and the rest of the army surrendered. This is The Battle of Dindigul which led to the fall of the Cholas.

The crushing attack power and ferocity of the Tang army completely defeated the Chola king's will to resist.

When 29,000 land and sea troops arrived at Thanjavur, the capital of the Chola Kingdom, only a few thousand defenders were left in the city. In despair, King Viero led more than 2,000 officials, nobles, and concubines to surrender.

The Chola Kingdom was thus destroyed.

With the full help of the Tang army and officials, King Li Fang of Shu established the new Brahmin state. Li Fang became the first king and still implemented the strict caste system and Brahmanism.

The Tang army stationed 20,000 troops in the New Brahman Kingdom and Ceylon Province. The wealth accumulated by the Chola Kingdom for hundreds of years and a large amount of pig iron began to be shipped to Chang'an.