According to the current population standard of Longyamen, it is at most a middle county, and even the upper county is not qualified, but the imperial court has fixed it as Wangxian, which shows the importance of Longyamen, which shows that the entire county has high potential, and the population size is still very small for the time being, but soon, many people will flock to settle here, and it is not impossible for the population to exceed 10,000 households, and the population size of 10,000 households can meet the needs of Wangxian.

In addition to Longyamen County, the neighboring Malacca County and the rising sea county are also the specifications of Shang County, and it is very likely that it will continue to be upgraded in the future and become Tight County and Wang County.

And these relatively independent county seats, in the future, will also form a new county, the name has been thought of, it is called Nanyang County, and the dragon tooth gate in the middle of the county is the most suitable.

That is to say, the geographical location of the dragon tooth gate, not only has become a very high standard of the county, will soon become the county seat of Nanyang County, the formation of a new Nanyang County discussion has begun, the imperial court in terms of candidates have not yet decided, so, first set up a few separate county seats, and send officials to govern.

After the follow-up feedback, it is very likely that the decision to let someone be the county warden of Nanyang County is to choose from several county orders.

Longyamen is thousands of miles away from Yazhou and Jiaozhou, the southernmost part of the Tang Dynasty, and can be regarded as an enclave hanging overseas, if you want to firmly rule here, you must garrison a powerful armed force here, and the territory by the sea is naturally the most effective with a naval army, and only with a strong naval division can you occupy an advantage in the entire critical sea area.

This was a very important part of the sea trade route proposed by Ang Lee, and now that it has been done, the pirates have almost cleared it, and the entire one-third of the route is safe.

But further afield, there are bigger challenges waiting for Ang Lee's Tang fleet, the next fulcrum is near the Lion Country, where it is also the key location of the Maritime Silk Road, the southernmost salient of the South Asian subcontinent, and the low end of the very busy maritime trade routes.

Although there is no narrow strait in this area, and the ships can completely avoid it, the sea ships of this era are too small, the tonnage is insufficient, and the speed is also very slow, so the daily necessities carried will be consumed quickly, which requires frequent shore replenishment, and this area is the best halfway supply station, after replenishment here, you can drive along the straight line to Malacca, or to the port of the Great Food Country, if you do not stop here, it is very likely that the water source will run out, resulting in the death of the crew.

In any case, this area at the southern tip of the subcontinent is a hurdle that no seagoing ship can bypass, and it must pass through and make a short stop.

Therefore, in the era of the Tang Dynasty, the importance of the southern tip of the South Asian subcontinent was equal to that of Malacca for maritime trade.

Although there were no narrow straits in the area, ships could pass far away, but the urgent need for supplies meant that all ships had to pass through and dock here, and commerce gradually developed into a relatively wealthy area.

Such an important geographical location is also an area that Datang must set foot in, and if it can control this important area, it will play an important role in the Maritime Silk Road, which is also another important area in addition to Malacca.

And it is not difficult for the Tang Dynasty to control this area, there are many small countries near the Strait of Malacca, and at the southern end of the South Asian subcontinent, there are also many small countries, so many small countries, the power seems to be very scattered, and they have no strength to fight against the Tang Empire, so it is not difficult to take it.

The next stop is the country of Gogolo, which is still located near the Strait of Malacca and thousands of miles from the southern tip of the South Asian subcontinent.

There are two options for starting from the country of Gogolo, one is to follow the coastline in a semicircle to reach the vicinity of the Lion Nation, or the other is to go directly west to the vicinity of the Lion Nation.

Both options have their own advantages and disadvantages, the advantage of going along the coast is that you can be replenished at any time, and you can pass through many small countries, but the disadvantage is that you have to travel two or three times as long as the distance.

The advantage of direct access is that the distance is close, you can reach the destination quickly, but the disadvantage is that there is no supply on the way, once the speed is too slow, it is easy to have insufficient food and water, it will be more dangerous, and you can't go through the small countries along the way, and talk about cooperation with these small countries.

Before arriving in the country of Gogulo, Ang Lee was thinking about the question of the route, whether it was a small country or a country of tens of millions of lions.

Of course, there are also many Tang officials who are also thinking about this issue, and their opinions are not unanimous, some support going to the coast, and some support going direct.

The officials who support going along the coast are relatively slippery officials who like to eat and drink all the way, while the officials who support direct access are relatively more upright, hoping to open up the Silk Road as soon as possible and let this road benefit the people of Datang and the world.

After thinking twice and having some deliberations with many officials, Li Ang made a final decision, that is, the soldiers were divided into two routes, one along the coastal route to visit the countries along the way, and the other way directly to the Lion Kingdom.

Some officials went to the coast, and Ang Lee led the main force directly to the Lion Country, because of the importance of the vicinity of the Lion Country, it is unlikely to leave in a short time after arriving in the Lion Country, so in the end, this fleet going along the coast will definitely converge with Ang Lee's main force.

For example, when he was near Malacca, Li An stayed for a few months, and the mission was mainly to eliminate the pirate group, and at the same time, it was also to find out the local situation and prepare for the Tang Empire to control this area.

Then, after arriving in the Lion Country, Li An also has to face the same task, and he must also start preparing to control this area, in addition to persuading the small countries to cooperate with the Tang Dynasty, he must also find an important position for the Tang army to garrison, just like the Dragon's Tooth Gate at the entrance of Malacca.

Maybe there is a master of the land near the South Asian subcontinent, but as long as the Tang Empire needs it, even if there is a master's land, you can ask for a piece, and go, it is said that there are also pirate groups in this generation, and there will always be nothing wrong with grabbing pirates' territory.

As far as Li Ang knows, at the southern tip of the South Asian subcontinent, the terrain is very bad, with mountains and valleys separating the various regions, thus forming different tribes, which gradually formed small countries, which caused many small countries in this region.

For thousands of years, there has never been a reunification, and in the end, because of the invasion of Western colonizers, a communication artery was opened between the mountains, which made this geographical area a unified country.

In any case, at least in the era of the Tang Dynasty, there were very many small countries in the South Asian subcontinent, and there was no possibility of unification.

And the ancient countries were all naturally formed, and between the countries, it is very likely that there are many untouched lands, which are either abandoned because they are barren, because they are inaccessible, or because they are too close to the enemy, and thus they are abandoned and become a wasteland, a barren land that no one wants to have.

In fact, these abandoned barren lands are likely to contain huge resources underneath, and even without these important resources, the land itself is also a huge resource, stones, trees, ores, water sources, these are all important national resources.

These borderlands can be occupied, so that these borderlands can become the territory of the Tang Dynasty, of course, these borderlands are likely to be places with not very good conditions, which makes Li An a little nerve-wracking.

After passing through the strait, we arrived at the country of Goguluo, this small country is similar to the small country in front, the population and soldiers and horses are very small, seeing the Tang fleet is so frightened that it can't even straighten its waist, naturally it doesn't dare to compete, needless to say, there will definitely be no accidents.

Ang Lee is not worried about the Gokuluo country, this country is easy to handle at a glance, and after getting this country, the next step is to go to the farther South Asian subcontinent.

Due to the rampant piracy in Malacca, not many Tang merchants were able to reach the South Asian subcontinent, so they did not know much about the situation there.

And the Gokuluo Kingdom is the starting point of tens of millions of South Asian subcontinents, and the people and officials here must be more familiar with the South Asian subcontinent than the Tang Dynasty.

Ang Lee needs to figure out the specific situation of the South Asian subcontinent here, so that he can smoothly control the southernmost tip of the South Asian subcontinent, so that Datang can drive a nail there, and then control the entire South Asian subcontinent and serve Datang's Maritime Silk Road.

"Li Shilang, the country of Gokuluo has arrived, and the king has come to greet him in person."

A subordinate reminded Ang Lee, who was still thinking in the cabin.

Li An responded and said, "After getting off the boat, you have to find some topographic maps near the Lion Country, the more the better." ”

"Yes, Li Shilang."

The subordinate answered.

Li An nodded, got off the boat to meet the king of Gokuluo, and after greeting for a while, he went to the palace to stay first.

Dinner took some time, and the king went to rest, and Ang Lee rested in the palace rooms.

"Li Shilang, this is the map we found, look at it, there are all kinds of specifications, they are all things that are often used by merchants, and there are sea routes?"

One of the subordinates said as he walked through the door.

Li An took a look, was very satisfied, and looked at it seriously.

The drawings are very clear, drawn by merchants during trade, and they mark the sea routes, cities, and countries along the way, which are exactly the drawings that Ang Lee needs.

This drawing came too timely, and Ang Lee needed this drawing to figure out the situation in the South Asian subcontinent, so it was sent, and it was too timely.

From the map, it can be clearly seen that there are dozens of small countries distributed in the southernmost part of the South Asian subcontinent, and on the small islands across the sea, there is a relatively large small country, that is, the Lion Country.

Among the dozens of small countries on the mainland, there are also a few relatively large ones, such as the South Tianzhu Kingdom, the East Tianzhu Kingdom, the West Tianzhu Kingdom, and the Brahmin Kingdom, the Eastern Buddha Kingdom, the Baltic Kingdom, the Dachang Kingdom and so on.

These slightly larger small countries are all small coastal countries, that is, they have their own access to the sea, otherwise how can they develop into larger small countries, coastal means that it is more convenient to interact with outside merchants, so as to increase their wealth and gain stronger strength.

After analyzing these small countries, Ang Lee saw that the most powerful small country was the lion country that hung alone.

The area of the Lion Kingdom is not very large, about twice the area of Datang Yazhou, compared with the Tang Empire, it is a very small and inconspicuous small country, but compared with several small countries across the sea, it is much stronger.

This small country benefited from the relatively independent island environment, as well as the terrain and transportation conditions are relatively good, and gradually developed to the scale of hundreds of thousands of people, and the number of cities is also very large, it is said that the number of monks alone is as high as 20,000, the scale can be described as very large.

The favorable conditions of being in the main sea communication route have made the Lion Kingdom relatively wealthy, and the population has gradually increased, and its strength has gradually become stronger.

In order to maintain its wealth, the Lion Nation has established a huge army with a total of more than 50,000 soldiers, which is a very powerful force in this part of the South Asian subcontinent.

Much more powerful than many small countries on the other side, in order to grab more resources, the Lion Kingdom began to attack the other side, to capture part of the territory of Nantianzhu, that is, the most important place.

Where is the strength of Nantianzhu is the opponent of the Lion State, it cannot be resisted at all, so some coastal ports have been captured by the Lion State, which has led to all merchant ships traveling to and from the trade route to and from the ports controlled by the Lion State.

This created a monopoly, and the Lion Kingdom began to raise prices, several times more in terms of the water and food that the ships needed to replenish, much to the discontent of the merchants.

Of course, compared with the profits of the seafaring trade, the rising prices of water supply and food could not have a fatal impact, so the merchants were also angry, and did not make a big deal about this matter, and after the Lion Kingdom occupied the core supply position, it expelled the pirate forces to a certain extent, so that when the merchant ships passed here, they became safer, thus making up for the losses of being raided by pirates.

The Lion Nation currently occupies only a small number of important territories on the opposite continent, but if left unchecked, its ambitions will become bigger and bigger, and it will eventually invade more countries.

In the era of Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty in history, that is, a hundred years after Li An's year, the Lion State launched a large-scale attack on the neighboring Tang Dynasty.

It can be seen that if the development of the Lion Kingdom is not stopped, he will become a small overlord in the future, which will inevitably seriously affect the interests of the Tang Empire, and moreover, the Lion Kingdom monopolizes the maritime trade routes and increases the price of supplies several times, which is not right in itself and must be corrected.