In the morning of the next day, Li Ye met with Li Chengshi and Ma Lin who were reporting on their work in Chang'an. The eldest son, King of Shu Li Fang, also followed his father to attend the meeting.
There is a temporary sketch on the table, including Nanyang and Tianzhu.
"I summoned the two generals because I have a new task for you."
Li Ye pointed at Tianzhu with a wooden pole and said: "This is a very large peninsula. Its area is equivalent to half of the Tang Dynasty. Its population is about the same as that of the Tang Dynasty. It is composed of many countries. During the reign of Emperor Taizong, Wang Xuance, the envoy of the Tang Dynasty, borrowed the peninsula from the Tubo and Niboluo Kingdoms in the north.
He defeated the hundreds of thousands of troops in Central Tianzhu and finally destroyed the country of Central Tianzhu.
Li Ye pointed to the south of the Tianzhu Peninsula and said: "There is also a big country in the south called the Zhu Luo Kingdom. General Li should know about it!"
Li Chengshi nodded, "The navy of the Zhuluo Kingdom pretended to be pirates and invaded Jiaozhou many times, taking away 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 defeated them.
More than a hundred warships and 10,000 naval troops were all annihilated."
Ma Lin laughed dumbly and said: "This country is very bad at fighting!"
Li Ye also smiled and said: "Although the people in this country are not good at fighting, they are very ambitious and have no self-awareness. Not long ago, they sent another 20,000 troops to plunder our central and south delta. As a result, they were severely beaten and killed by our 3,000 garrison troops."
We killed more than 4,000 of them and captured 3,500 of them, which made me decide to implement the plan to destroy the Chola Kingdom in advance."
Li Ye paused and said to the two of them: "Actually, I am interested in the iron ore over there. It is of much higher quality than our iron ore in the Tang Dynasty and has a huge reserve. The Zhuluo Kingdom is also rich in pig iron and is exported to Dashi and Qin.
, and over there in Nanyang, it’s a pity that their refining method is not good, and the iron ore is wasted, so I will send two generals to lead an army to attack the Chola Kingdom, destroy the Chola Kingdom, and establish a new country under the Tang Dynasty there.
The king will be the King of Shu."
Ma Lin and Li Chengshi understood immediately, and they bowed and said: "We are willing to assist the King of Shu in establishing the country!"
Li Ye smiled and nodded, "After the founding of the People's Republic of China, leave 10,000 troops stationed permanently so that the two generals can return in triumph. Now I want to tell you how to attack the Zhuluo Kingdom?"
Li Ye pointed at the central-south delta with a wooden pole and said: "This is Anyuan County, the southernmost county in the Tang Dynasty. Your expedition will start from here!"
Li Ye pointed his wooden pole downward again, "This is the Nanyang Strait. The Changlong Peninsula in the north and 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 nearby islands.
It was bought by us, and the island not far from the strait was also bought by us. You can establish supply bases at these two places. I suggest supplying it at the southernmost tip of the peninsula. The Overseas Trade Administration is building one here.
The trading city is called Longtou City. There is not much fresh water here, but it is enough."
The Tang Dynasty purchased two pieces of land, one is today's Singapore, and the other is the Natuna Islands. Li Ye named it Zengmu Island. Li Ye planned to build a trading mall at the southernmost tip of the peninsula and a military city on the Natuna Islands.
, but it takes time to build a city, but it is still easy to establish a supply point.
Li Ye's wooden pole continued along the strait. "It takes about ten days to cross the strait. If you walk westward for three days across the strait, you will see an archipelago called the Andaman Islands, which has been occupied by the Cholas."
Yes. This archipelago is very important. You must seize it and build a rest and supply point here, because what follows is a journey through the vast sea of nearly twenty days."
Li Chengshi was the naval commander. He could see from the map that he knew the importance of supply points.
Li Ye finally went to the drop-shaped island in the south of the Tianzhu Peninsula. "This is the Lion Kingdom. It can also be called the Sinhala Kingdom. I call it Ceylon. It is a place rich in gems. The area is slightly larger than Guanzhong. There were originally millions of people living here."
The Sinhalese people have been almost killed by the Chola people. If we want to take over the Lion Kingdom, we can use the method of land replacement to carve a piece of land from the southernmost tip of the Tianzhu Peninsula to the Sinhalese people and invite them out. In the future,
To immigrate hundreds of thousands of people from the Tang Dynasty to live here, the iron ore from Tianzhu was transported to Ceylon for preliminary smelting, and then the crude iron was transported back to the Tang Dynasty for refining."
Li Ye said to Li Fang again: "With Ceylon, a purely Han land, you will be able to sit firmly in the Cholu Kingdom in the future!"
Three days later, King Li Fang of Shu, General Ma Lin and Navy Commander Li Chengshi set out.
Accompanying him were 10,000 elite troops and dozens of young officials.
This expedition will consist of 30,000 troops, 20,000 naval troops and 10,000 elite infantry. They will carry the most elite firearms of the Tang Dynasty to fight against the Zhuluo Kingdom.
Three months later, the Tang Expeditionary Force consisting of 500 warships arrived in the South-Central Delta.
Thirty thousand troops went ashore to rest for a month, mainly to get used to the tropical climate.
In this expedition to the Zhu Luo Kingdom, Du Huan will also follow him. He has just been renamed Changshi, King of Shu 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, Du Changshi, did the Zhuluo fleet escape back to its home base?"
"They must have gone back! Our sentinel ship is monitoring them going south. Of course, there is another possibility. I heard that they occupy half of this big island."
Du Huan pointed at the big island on the map, and Li Fang blurted out, "Borneo Island!"
"It's called Borneo Island?" Du Huan was surprised.
"The island of Borneo is marked on my father's map. Please take a look at it, Du Changshi!"
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 right now, and it will take a few years to build the city. But now we can replenish fresh water, 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 and said: "You will know if you go and take a look. The entire land is covered with virgin forests. You can't see the end at a glance. Even if the Three Buddhas declare war, they will not be able to get through. They can only go by sea. But 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 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 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, there were 20 thousand-stone steam engine warships, or 50.
The pedal-operated 10,000-stone warship, and the others are 5,000-stone and 3,000-stone warships.
Ten days later, the fleet arrived at Longtou Port, which is today's Singapore, where it replenished fresh water and continued sailing into the strait.
Five days later, the leading sentry ship came to report that a harbor was found fifty miles away, with Chola warships moored in it.
Li Chengshi pondered for a moment and said: "Send ten warships with 3,000 stone to lure them out!"
Li Chengshi was indeed 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 sentry ship came to report, "Our navy has attracted the Zhuluo fleet and chased 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 annihilate 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 around and coming back.