Tibet.

Chapter 1482: Destroy the Zhu Luo Kingdom
The monks' intelligence was not accurate. It was not just 10,000 troops that came, but 50,000 troops. All the 50,000 troops stationed in the Sinhalese Kingdom came out in full force.

The Chola Governor Rajinder was well aware of the consequences of demolishing the Buddhist temples; tens of thousands of Sinhalese would fight them to the death.

Taking advantage of this opportunity to kill all the Sinhalese people, Rajinder led an army of 50,000 to attack the port of Galle.

There were actually more than 10,000 cavalrymen among 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 so hot that they could not breathe.

Fifty thousand soldiers were running on the road with murderous intent, each holding a spear and a sword in his hand.

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

The Chola army did not take the high ground seriously. The commander, Rajinder, was planning how to massacre the Sinhalese, plunder their wealth, and seize young women to reward the three armies.

Suddenly, dense black dots shot out from behind the high ground on the side of the road and shot towards the top of the army. Before they could react, these black dots fell into the crowd and exploded.

In an instant, the Zhu Luo soldiers who were several miles long were blown to pieces, with countless casualties.

Immediately afterwards, countless Tang soldiers appeared on the hillside, and they raised their bows together to launch a second round of fire at the Chola soldiers.

Amid the dense and violent explosions, the Chola soldiers were in chaos. The Tang soldiers shouted and rushed down. The exhausted Chola soldiers quickly collapsed. They threw away their armor and weapons, trampled on each other, and rushed back in a hurry.

The Tang army chased after them, marching for more than 20 miles and killing more than 30,000 enemies. The main general Rajinder also died in the chaos.

The other 10,000 or so 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 Lieutenant General Virode. Virode urgently sent people to the capital Thanjavur to report the Sinhalese rebellion to the king.

In order to cover up their own incompetent defeat, Virode was extremely exaggerated in his report, saying that the Sinhalese had been secretly planning for ten years, with 200,000 people rebelling at the same time, with a large amount of armor and weapons, and wizards practicing witchcraft. Their 50,000 troops fought bravely, but were ultimately outnumbered. Their commander Rajinder unfortunately died for his country, and more than 30,000 soldiers were killed. Virode asked the king to urgently send a large army to suppress the rebellion.

In this battle, the Tang army took no prisoners and killed all the wounded. They seized a large amount of weapons and supplies. What surprised the Tang army the most was that they seized more than 10,000 war horses. Although these war horses could not be compared with the war horses of the Tang army, they were still the supplies that the Tang army needed most. With war horses, 10,000 Tang soldiers were transformed into cavalry.

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

What was particularly surprising to the Tang army was that these Sinhalese people did not consider restoring their country, but instead demanded to become citizens 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 all the plans planned by the Tang army fail. This was because of cultural differences. The Sinhalese only valued religion and race. They had no concept of home and country. In their minds, there was only the opposition between Brahmanism and Buddhism, and only the killing and enslavement of the Sinhalese by the Tamils.

King Li Fang of Shu immediately announced that Sinhalese Island would be changed to Ceylon Prefecture of the Tang Dynasty. Ceylon is the transliteration of the Lion Country. At the same time, he announced that he would follow the Buddhist principle of equality of all beings, abolish the caste system that oppressed the Sinhalese, and promised to destroy all Brahmin temples in Ceylon Prefecture.

Inside the big tent, Du Huan whispered to Li Fang: "We made promises, but we can't really fulfill them. What I want to do is to destroy the Brahman temple."

"why?"

Du Huan sneered and said, "These Sinhalese people support us only because we protect them, but I find that they are very xenophobic in nature. Once the Tamils ​​are driven away and there are no enemies, these Sinhalese people will want to drive us away as well. So I think that the Tamils ​​cannot be driven away completely. Some of them must be left to fight against the Sinhalese. We have to mediate between them, so we have to keep some Brahman temples."

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

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

Li Fang nodded, "The Chief Secretary is right. We need to take a long-term view and not rush into anything."

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

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

Ma Lin pointed to a natural bridge in the north that connected to the Indian Peninsula and said, "This is called the Rama Bridge. It is a natural stone bridge about a hundred miles long that connects to the Indian Peninsula. We must destroy this stone bridge as soon as possible to prevent a large number of Sinhalese from returning to Ceylon. I have just discussed with General Li that we'd better take the initiative to attack and completely eliminate the Chola army on Ceylon Island. If they have already withdrawn, we will blow up the Rama Bridge." Li Fang nodded, "It can also prevent the Chola army from coming to support Ceylon Prefecture."

Li Chengshi said, "This is what we are going to report to His Highness. We have asked the leaders of the Sinhalese, the monks from the day before yesterday. They told me that the Chola army was very small, only 30,000 people. Among the 50,000 people we eliminated, the 10,000 cavalry were regular troops, and the other 40,000 troops were all temporary recruits specially recruited to rule Ceylon.

But their huge army is mainly composed of naval forces, with hundreds of thousands of people, including the most elite 100,000 armored heavy sword soldiers, who are the main force of the Chola Kingdom's sweeping overseas. "

At this point, Li Chengshi smiled and said, "The people of Chola are very obedient, so they don't need much land forces. Their army is mainly used for external expansion, so they have a lot of naval forces, which are actually infantry under the naval forces."

Du Huan understood what Li Chengshi meant. "General Li is saying that the enemy is likely to attack us from the water?"

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

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

The Tang army only left one thousand troops to guard Galle, and then divided into two groups and headed north. Li Chengshi led five hundred warships and twenty thousand navy troops along the east coast. Ma Lin led nine thousand cavalry to Kandy first to completely destroy the ruling foundation of the Chola Kingdom in Ceylon, and then headed north to Rama Bridge to destroy this natural passage.

The Chola capital of Thanjavur was not far from Ceylon. When King Viera heard the news that hundreds of thousands of Sinhalese had rebelled and killed tens of thousands of Chola soldiers, he was furious. He immediately sent 100,000 armored soldiers and heavy swordsmen on 300 large ships to Ceylon to quell the rebellion. He also issued an order that all Sinhalese who participated in the rebellion should be executed.

Deputy General Velod could never have dreamed that his report shirking responsibility would eventually lead to the destruction of the entire empire.

The five hundred warships led by Li Chengshi were waiting on the route that the enemy had to take to Ceylon.

In the morning, a huge soldier transport fleet appeared on the sea, with as many as 300 warships.

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

The two hundred warships on the left sailed close to the shore, cutting off the enemy's escape route to the land.

The Tang army warships immediately launched a fierce attack. Cannonballs exploded in the sea, causing huge waves. Large ships full of soldiers were hit by cannonballs and exploded. The ships were blown to pieces and sank into the sea amid the screams of hundreds of soldiers.

It was a completely one-sided massacre. The large ships carrying hundreds of soldiers were like fat pigs, sinking into the sea one after another.

An hour later, the last large ship was blown into two pieces. Four hundred and fifty soldiers in armor were unable to take off their armor and sank directly to the bottom of the sea amid cries.

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

The Tang army's warships returned to Ceylon, and 9,000 Tang cavalry crossed the strait and landed on the Indian mainland. The Tang army advanced both by land and sea towards the capital of the Chola Kingdom.

Five days later, Ma Lin and Li Chengshi led 9,000 cavalry and 20,000 naval forces to defeat the 350,000-strong Chola army at Dindigul, south of the capital, killing more than 60,000 people. The rest of the army all surrendered. This was the Battle of Dindigul that led to the demise of the Chola Kingdom.

The Tang army's crushing attack power and ferocity completely crushed the Chola royal family's will to resist.

When the 29,000-man army arrived at Thanjavur, the capital of the Chola Kingdom, there were only a few thousand defenders left in the city. In desperation, King Viero led more than 2,000 officials, nobles, concubines and children to surrender.

The Chola Empire was destroyed.

With the full help of the Tang army and officials, King Li Fang of Shu established the New Brahman Kingdom. Li Fang served as the first king and continued to implement the strict caste system and Brahmanism.

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

(End of this chapter)