At night. 3. Fastest

Ke Qing appeared quietly in Li Chao's study.

Li Chao sat cross-legged on the kang, looking through the book under the whale oil lamp.

"According to your information, when will the Battle of Liaodong end and when will Your Majesty return to Beijing?" Li Chao raised his head and asked.

"According to the summary and analysis of the information from Shadow, the battle in Liaodong has reached a critical moment. The Goguryeo people are already trapped in war and lack of food and grass. They can't even survive this winter. Now many Goguryeo people are unwilling to fight, and only the Yizhi Wende is still holding on. We predict that many people will surrender this winter, which will trigger a chain reaction. There is no need to wait until next year, and the war will end."

"I had already expected this result." Li Chao chuckled, "Although the Goguryeo people can hold on for three years, although they still have less than 200,000 troops now, the elites have suffered huge losses. These 200,000 people are mixed with too many elderly and weak people. In addition, they have lost their support, and they have reached the point of collapse."

This winter, the Goguryeo people eventually collapsed and perished, so Li Shimin will be back next year.

After the emperor was not in Hanjing for three years, Li Chao's life was quite easy. Next year, the emperor returned with the great victory of the destruction of Goguryeo, and this relaxed situation might be over.

"The Vietnamese Hou has a letter."

"you say."

"He has recruited and trained 30,000 naval troops in the South China Sea as required by Saburo. At present, there are more than 300 large and small warships, 10,000 sailors and 20,000 marines."

Li Chao nodded.

"Sanlang, it is very dangerous to take the risk of building such a large private army. Once the court knows, it is a serious crime of treason."

"Of course I know."

"Sanlang, I have a saying that you won't be happy if you don't vomit. Why do you take such a big risk to build this private army?"

"Be prepared for any trouble," Li Chao said.

"What is Saburo guarding against?"

"Defend the Emperor." Li Chao did not hide anything from Ke Qing.

Goguryeo was about to perish, and Li Shimin's achievements became more and more successful. The prince was already an adult, and Li Chao didn't know what would change Li Shimin's mood. If one day, Li Shimin wanted to get rid of Li Chao and escort the prince, wouldn't he be unfair? Besides, Li Chao always had a dream in his heart to establish a constitutional Tang Dynasty.

In six years, Li Chao and Zhang Zhongjian secretly established such a large team on the island in Nanyang, which is a force in the dark.

This private army in South China Sea is more powerful, more secretive, and more concentrated, as well as more concentrated in the open powers of guards, militias, and guards in various fiefdoms such as Liuqiu Island, in southern Liaoning, in Zhao Guoling, in Dayuan Valley, and in the north of Langshan.

Li Chao's various territories and industries have a lot of guards, guards, etc., but they are very scattered. It is really difficult to mobilize quickly. So, it is similar to whether there is any or not.

Even in places like Liu Qiu and Zhao Guoling, where there are many troops, they are still closely watched.

What Li Chao needs is a force that can play a role at critical moments.

This is also the reason why he took a big risk and spent six years with Zhang Zhongjian to build this 30,000 navy.

All the troops in Li Chao's hands now can reach 100,000, including his various territories, as well as the guards of those industries, as well as the Li family's slave capturing team, and even armed merchant ships. However, it is too scattered, and there are thousands, hundreds, and dozens of people here, and there are no power.

Ke Qing was silent for a while and asked again the question that had been in his heart for a long time.

"Did Saburo ever think about changing the dynasty?"

"Have Sanlang ever thought of changing his face and becoming king?"

Li Chao shook his head, "The name of the Tang Dynasty is quite good. The Sui Dynasty ended the world's division for hundreds of years since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, but the second generation died. Now the Tang Dynasty has only been the second generation. It has only been eighteen years since its founding, and the world is already rare in prosperity. I have worked hard to shed sweat and bleeding in this great situation."

"I don't want to see all this destroyed by the fire of war!"

"Why is Saburo doing all this now?"

"In order to keep this prosperity!"

Ke Qing didn't quite understand, and just felt even more confused.

"Sanlang now has 30,000 navy troops in his hands. What will he do next?"

"Don't worry, I won't transfer them north to start a war." Li Chao guessed what Ke Qing was worried about. Ke Qing had 100% trust and loyalty to Li Chao, but even he was worried that Li Chao would rise up and rebel.

No one wants to see a rebellion, Chang'an, prosperous and prosperous. If Li Chao provokes a war, even if Li Chao now has a very high reputation, I am afraid that not many people will support him.

What's more, the Tang Dynasty is now booming and its troops are in the world. At this time, there is no chance of victory. Ke Qing was afraid that Li Chao was blinded by power.

"From the north shore of Vietnam, there are Funan and Zhenla. Now Funan and Zhenla are still fighting. In the southwest of Vietnam, there is a narrow peninsula similar to that of Guangnan and Vietnam, Funan and Linyi. To the south of this peninsula is another huge island across a narrow strait."

"Now there is a kingdom called Sriver's passing on that island. They are not weak in strength. They have conquered many kingdoms on the large island and have now begun to attack the states on the other side of the strait."

Saliva passed away, a country on Sumatra, was a maritime power that believed in Mahayana Buddhism. Its territory was thousands of miles from east to west and four thousand miles from south to south.

Especially now that they have almost unified Sumatra, they have begun to invade the Malay Peninsula opposite the Strait of Malacca.

In recent years, the east-west and west sea trade in the Tang Dynasty was extremely prosperous, especially after the Tang Dynasty signed a friend treaty with Rome three years ago, the Tang Dynasty joined forces with Rome, and the Tang Dynasty sold many weapons and armor to Rome to support them in fighting with Persia.

By now, Rome has almost recaptured most of Egypt, and the Tang Dynasty's merchant ships have been able to sail directly from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean Sea, or even directly to the port of Constantinople.

The comprehensive trade with Rome gave the Tang Dynasty a great fortune every year. At the same time, the Li family, the main participant in this trade, made a lot of wealth from it.

Even a year ago, Li Chao formulated a plan, Chengqian ordered that with the support and help of many maritime merchants such as Li Ji Shipping and Nanyang Trade, the Tang army set out from several major ports in Guangzhou, Qinzhou and Jiaozhou, and took several months to finally reach the mouth of the Indus River.

The Tang army went on an expedition this time, first to realize the alliance between the Tang and Rome, and secondly, to take the opportunity to seize the sea port from Tochar to the Indian Ocean from Persia.

Another thing is the fertile land of the Indus Plain, which is also very attractive to the Tang Dynasty. Even for many sea merchants who traded from the Tang Dynasty, it is very helpful to have their own port at the mouth of the Indus River.

The Romans attacked Egypt, while the Tang Dynasty attacked the Persian army west of later generations.

The Persians were already civil strife, and they were defeated by attacking each other on both sides.

The Tang army expeditionary fleet quickly captured both sides of the Indus River and headed north to the pass from Mount Kush to India. Then, in a year, the Tang army expeditionary fleet joined forces with the Tang army in the Western Regions west of Mount Kush to capture the southern mountainous areas of Tochar and fought to the coast.

Now the Tang army goes to Tochar, go to Lingbei, Xihai, and Kushan. In fact, it is faster to take the sea route. Starting from the southeast coast, sailing far to the mouth of the Indus River, then changing boats to sail north to the middle reaches of the Indus River, and then changing trains and horses to the north to the entrance of the Hindu Kush Mountain, then reaching Xiliu City on Daxia Road. To the north is Wuhu River, and further north is the Dayuan Valley of the Li family.

Although it seems to be a longer distance, today's navigation technology has greatly reduced the mileage.

It was precisely because of the capture of the Indus Plain that Tochar is no longer an out-of-reach enclave. Through the Judu Kush Pass, the Indus Plain, the Indian territory seized from the Persians, also has a support, not an overseas enclave.

The Tang Dynasty had already established Xindu Port in Hekou, which also became an important supply port for the Datang marine trade fleet.

It is precisely because the Tang Dynasty had such important trade and territory in the west that the Strait of Malacca was also very important for the Tang Dynasty.

Now that Sriver's invasion and war against the Malay Peninsula has made the strait no longer calm or safe.

"We want to occupy this Golden Peninsula."

The Malay Peninsula, named by Li Chao, is to protect the control and security of the strait, and of course it is also to build a piece of land overseas to serve as Li Chao's last base.

This place can not only become the base camp for offense, but also become a place to retreat in case of unfavorable conditions.

"Will the court allow it?"

"The sky is high and the emperor is far away. As long as we are not too high-profile, the court will not know."

Even if the court knows it, as long as Li Chao and Zhang Zhongjian hide their information, no one knows that they are the behind-the-scenes owners of this fleet, then this force can be disguised as a pirate.

Even if a pirate far away from the southern tip of the South Ocean was captured by the indigenous island territory, the Tang Dynasty would not have enough control.

Listening to what Li Chao described, Ke Qing said, "Sanlang, why not just put down these in the Central Plains and conquer the Nanyang Islands and establish a maritime dynasty?"

"If I hadn't had that dream, I would really set sail and take you to build a large territory in the South China Sea and build a dynasty on the sea. But I have a greater goal than establishing a dynasty on the sea."

“A bigger goal?”

"I hope the Tang Dynasty, or the Chinese Empire, can stand for thousands of years without falling, and I hope the empire will not experience the cycle of governance and chaos every two or three hundred years. I hope that China can get out of the small circle of the Central Plains and go to a wider place. The world is so vast, there is no need to fight in the Central Plains continuously."
Chapter completed!