Tibet.

Chapter 1480 Expeditionary Army
The next morning, Li Ye met with Li Chengshi and Ma Lin who were reporting on their work in Chang'an. His eldest son, King Shu Li Fang, also followed his father to attend the meeting.

On the table was a hastily drawn sketch, covering the Nanyang and Tianzhu areas.

"I summoned the two generals because I have a new mission for you."

Li Ye pointed at Tianzhu and said, "This is a large peninsula, half the size of the Tang Dynasty, with a population similar to that of the Tang Dynasty. It is made up of many countries. During the reign of Emperor Taizong, Wang Xuance, an envoy of the Tang Dynasty, borrowed 20,000 men from Tubo and Nepal in the north, and defeated the hundreds of thousands of troops of 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 Chola navy disguised themselves as 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 annihilated all of their more than 100 warships and 10,000 navy without losing a single soldier."

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-awareness. Not long ago, they sent 20,000 troops to plunder our Central and Southern Delta, but they were beaten badly by our 3,000 garrison troops. We killed more than 4,000 of them and captured 3,500 people. This made me decide to implement the plan to destroy the Chola Kingdom ahead of schedule."

Li Ye paused and said to the two, "In fact, 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 the Arabs, the Qin Kingdom, and the South Seas. Unfortunately, their refining methods are not good, and the iron ore is wasted. Therefore, I will send two generals to lead the army to attack the Chola Kingdom, destroy the Chola Kingdom, and establish a new country there that is affiliated with the Tang Dynasty. 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 country, leave 10,000 troops stationed there permanently, and the two generals can return victoriously. Now I want to tell you how to attack the Chola Kingdom?"

Li Ye pointed to the South-Central 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 the nearby islands, which we bought, and the other is this island not far from the strait, which we also bought. You can build supply bases in these two places. I suggest that you build supply bases 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 purchased 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 trading city at the southernmost tip of the peninsula and a military city on the Natuna Islands. Building a city takes time, but it is easy to establish a supply point.

Li Ye's wooden pole continued to move along the strait. "It will take 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. This place has been occupied by the Chola Kingdom. This archipelago is very important. You must seize it and build a rest and supply point here, because the next step is to sail across the vast ocean for nearly twenty days."

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

Li Ye finally went to the teardrop-shaped island south of the Indian Peninsula. "This is the Lion Country, or Sinhalese Country. I call it Ceylon, a place rich in gems. Its area is slightly larger than Guanzhong. There used to be a million Sinhalese people living here, but they have been almost killed by the Chola people. We want to take over the Lion Country. We can use the land exchange method to cut a piece of land from the southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula to the Sinhalese people and ask them to leave. In the future, we will immigrate hundreds of thousands of people from the Tang Dynasty to live here. The iron ore from India 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: "With Ceylon, a land of pure Han people, you will be able to sit firmly in Chola in the future!"

Three days later, King of Shu Li Fang, General Ma Lin and Admiral of the Navy Li Chengshi set out.

Also accompanying him were 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 to fight against the Chola Kingdom.

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

Thirty thousand troops went ashore to rest for a month, mainly to get used to the tropical climate.

Du Huan will also accompany the expedition to Chola. He has just been appointed as the Chief Clerk of the King of Shu by Li Ye and will serve as Li Fang's assistant in civil affairs. In the room, Li Fang looked at the map of Tianzhu on the table and asked, "Excuse me, Chief Clerk Du, did the Chola fleet escape back to its home base?"

"They should have gone back! Our patrol boats monitored their southward movement. Of course, there is another possibility. I heard that they occupied half of this large 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. Mr. Du, please take a look!"

Li Fang opened the map his father gave him and spread it on the table. Du Huan took a closer look and found that it was indeed much more detailed than his own map. Many of the place names were unheard of by him, such as Borneo Island, Changlong Peninsula, Longtou City, and Zengmu Island.

Li Fang pointed at Longtou City and said, "My father said that this piece of land was bought by the Tang Dynasty and a shopping mall is being built. Does Du Changshi know about this?"

Du Huan nodded, "I know, they are repairing the warehouse there now, and it will take several years to complete the construction of the city. However, we can get fresh water now, but we can't get off the ship to rest."

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

Du Huan smiled bitterly and shook his head, saying, "You will know if you go and see. The land is all covered with primitive forests that stretch as far as the eye can see. Even if Srivijaya declares war, they cannot get through and can only go by sea. But Srivijaya does not have many warships, and even if they did, they would not be a match for Chola. Chola's navy is still very good at using fire."

Du Huan pointed to the island of Borneo and said, "Although the area they occupied seems to be very large, they actually only occupied a pier and a small area around the pier. I know there is a natural harbor over there called Bichi Harbor. I guess it was occupied by the Chola Kingdom, and the defeated army should be anchored there!"

A month later, five hundred warships and thirty thousand Tang troops set out to the south in a mighty force. Almost all of the five hundred warships were paddle-wheel warships, including twenty 10,000-shi steam-powered warships and fifty pedal-powered 10,000-shi warships. The rest were 5,000-shi and 3,000-shi warships.

Ten days later, the fleet arrived at Longtou Port, which is today's Singapore, where they replenished fresh water and continued to sail into the strait.

Five days later, the leading patrol boat reported that a harbor was discovered fifty miles away, where the Chola warships were anchored.

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

Li Chengshi was indeed an experienced veteran. He was worried that after destroying the warships in the harbor, the Chola Kingdom on the shore would turn into pirates and become a hidden danger to the South China Sea Strait.

The Chola people bully the weak and fear the strong, so a small fleet will definitely be able to lure them out.

More than an hour later, the patrol boat reported, "Our navy has attracted the Chola fleet and is chasing them 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 Anquan to land with 3,000 men to wipe out the small number of Chola soldiers on the shore. He then personally led his fleet to chase the Chola fleet.

After chasing for more than thirty miles, they saw the Chola fleet turning around and returning.

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(End of this chapter)