After two months of continuous encirclement and fishing law enforcement, piracy in the waters of Malacca was basically extinct, and when commercial expeditions and exploration teams, as well as court officials entered the surrounding small countries, there was no shadow of pirates anymore, and passing merchant ships could pass through here intact.

Because of the merit of exterminating the pirates, the reward of the imperial court soon came down, and was sent to the front line in Malacca, and was handed over to the soldiers, and even the soldiers of the forward battalion who surrendered were also rewarded, among them, the most important reward of the forward battalion was to forgive them for the sins they had committed before, so that they would not be guilty of sin.

In addition, the countries along the way also expressed their gratitude and sent a lot of gifts, after all, Ang Lee had done them a great favor by exterminating the pirates, so that they no longer had to suffer from the pirates' idleness.

There are also many passing merchant ships, leaving part of the goods behind to reward the soldiers who exterminated the pirates, which they willingly stayed, one is to thank them, and the other is to express their demands in the process, asking the Tang Navy to stay here, in order to deter the remnants of the pirates along the way, so that the pirates can not resurgitate in this sea area, so as to protect the rights and interests of their merchants.

Therefore, businessmen are unprofitable guys, and even when they express their gratitude, they can't forget their demands, and they feel like they are making long-term investments, that is, investments in security.

Since the countries and merchants along the way are the beneficiary groups of the extermination of pirates, in this way, the thank you materials they sent, Li An smiled with great ease, don't give it in vain, why bother to save them.

"Big brother, the materials we have captured now alone are enough for the forward battalion to use for two years, plus the materials that the countries and merchants along the way are respectful, it is even more abundant, and there is no need for the imperial court to allocate it."

Li Feiyu happily concluded.

We are about to leave Malacca and go farther to the Indian Ocean, and before leaving, we must make statistics, including how many soldiers and horses are left, how to distribute the various materials captured, how to determine the daily patrol routes of the troops, etc., all of which need to be summarized.

Li An nodded and said: "Most of the materials we have now are captured from the pirate's lair, and the materials of the pirate's lair are snatched from the hands of merchants and people, so we obtained these materials from the hands of the people in disguise, and they should have been returned to the merchants and the people, but we still have to continue to go to the Indian Ocean, so these materials are kept for our own use, and with these grain and grass materials, the army will not be chaotic." ”

Obviously, Li An is not a good person, he will not easily return the materials in his hands to the merchants and the people, and there is no way to return them, there is no writing on these seized grain and grass, God knows where the pirates robbed it, what evidence is there, if it is an ordinary person, saying that he has ten thousand denier of grain and grass was robbed by pirates, how can Li An verify it, is it because of this sentence, do you want to give him ten thousand denier of grain? Obviously, it is impossible, to be able to eliminate the pirate forces, so that they do not have to be plundered in the future, this is already a great kindness, and the common people cannot ask too much.

"What the eldest brother said is that we have reorganized 10,000 soldiers of the forward battalion, and the consumption of grain and grass is quite large, and these captured grain and grass will be used as the grain and grass of the forward battalion."

Li Feiyu also recognized Li An's distribution method very much, paused, and then reported: "Big brother, the imperial court has transferred some soldiers and horses from Guangzhou and Yazhou to the south, accompanied by the newly appointed county commanders, they went to Lindao, Rising Sea Island, Longyamen, and Malacca, which are also the four counties newly placed by the Tang Dynasty, Lin County, Rising Sea County, Longya County, and Malacca County, and the counties are not many soldiers and horses, only more than 300 people, of which Lin County is the least, only less than 100 people, which is regarded as a government service to protect the territory and the people, in addition, after the county order took office, Lin County is too small, with less than 100 residents, so it is naturally impossible to recruit soldiers, and the remaining three counties can recruit troops locally, in this case, do we still need to leave soldiers and horses to garrison? ”

Obviously, the Tang Dynasty has agreed to Li An's plan to place three large counties in the Malacca sea area to deter this sea area, and at the same time, it has also purchased a small county in the archipelago in the south of Yazhou to show that the Tang Empire attaches great importance to the sea.

In addition, the area around Lindao is also a place frequented by the majority of fishermen, and when encountering strong winds and waves, fishermen have to take refuge here in Lindao to avoid boats being blown over by the wind and waves.

There are very few people living on the island, only a few dozen households, and all of them are the descendants of fishermen, who have lived by fishing for generations.

With the area of Lin Island, there is no pressure to live tens of thousands of people, the capital of a certain country in later generations is an island, the area is not as large as Lin Island, and the result is 150,000 people, of course, this is because they build a large number of super high-rise buildings, if only five stories of low buildings are built, it is estimated that it will not be able to accommodate so many people, but 10,000 people are still more than enough, fishing can get enough food sources, the land can also grow vegetables, as for the water source, build a rainwater collection device, it is very convenient.

Rising Sea Island and Longyamen are both large islands with a very considerable area, and the living conditions are much better than those of Lin Island, and it is not a problem to live millions of people, not to mention the small county government.

The most powerful is of course Malacca, this is a coastal area, not an island, as long as the Tang Dynasty is willing, it can use Malacca as a base, gradually penetrate into the inland areas, and expand the territory of Malacca County step by step, until the state can be established, and then it will not be Malacca County, but Malacca State.

Of course, Li An knows the importance of these islands, so even if the imperial court has sent soldiers and horses to garrison, Li An can't be completely assured, and the reason why the remnants of the pirates here have disappeared is that there are more than 10,000 elite soldiers and horses cruising around in Datang, and they are deterred by the strong strength and dare not make any more moves, but once these powerful forces are withdrawn, they will be replaced by hundreds of weak soldiers and horses in each county, and it is estimated that the pirates will not be able to sit still again, and it is completely possible to start plundering again.

In order to prevent this from happening, Li An had to leave some soldiers and horses to completely deter here, in addition to the forward battalion, the Tang Navy Division also had to leave part of the main steam gunboats to effectively deter the pirate forces.

"The pirates have been eliminated by us for the time being, and the forward battalion has also been formed, however, the remnants of the pirates have not been completely wiped out, in order to prevent these remaining pirates from coming back, it is necessary to deploy heavy troops around Malacca, the eighth battalion of the forward battalion guards Malacca, the ninth battalion guards the Dragon's Tooth Gate, and the tenth battalion guards the rising island, these three soldiers and horses cannot be moved, so as not to make a comeback of pirates, in addition, Malacca must leave five steam cannon ships to deter the younger generation, three forward battalions of soldiers and horses, each equipped with ten warships and a small number of other ships, such as fishing law enforcement boats, etc., I believe that with the little pirates left of these forces, there is nothing to fear. ”

Li An said seriously.

Li Feiyu nodded and said: "Big brother is right, the sea area of Malacca is narrow, it is a natural place for pirates to rob, merchant ships cannot go around at all, they must pass through this narrow waterway, and it is really necessary to maintain a group of soldiers and horses here." ”

Ang Lee continued to ask, "What happened to the Forward Battalion?" After a series of reorganization and training, as well as ideological education, what is their state? ”

"Rest assured, big brother, although the soldiers of the forward battalion are all pirates, most of them are talented because of poverty, and there are not many people who are really bad-hearted, after some education, more than ninety percent of the soldiers are qualified, and a small number of people who are not very good in their hearts can't set off any waves."

Li Feiyu replied happily.

Li An nodded and said: "Okay, that's really good, as long as the soldiers of the forward battalion can learn well, they are qualified Tang soldiers, let them guard this sea area, I am completely relieved, most of them are locals, they are familiar with the terrain and climate here, and the effect of letting them guard is still very good. ”

Obviously, everything must take into account the overall situation at the moment, everyone must have a sense of the overall situation, and Li An is no exception, the forward battalion has just been reorganized, as long as the soldiers do not make big mistakes, they cannot be rectified to death, otherwise it will cause panic among the soldiers of the forward battalion, thinking that the imperial court is going to deliberately make things difficult for them, so things will be troublesome.

The best way for some officers and men of the forward battalion who have undergone a long period of education but have not achieved remarkable results is to continue to carry out ideological education for their relatives; if they have not changed their outlook in the future and have done bad things, then there is no need to be polite to them, and they can just be killed, so as not to cause a scourge on the entire forward battalion.

After the reorganization, the forward battalion has 10,000 soldiers and horses, divided into ten battalions, the eighth battalion, the ninth battalion and the tenth battalion respectively guard Malacca, Longyamen, and Rising Island, and the remaining seven battalions are naturally going to follow Li An to continue to fight in the Indian Ocean.

The main force of the naval battle was thirty steam gunboats, leaving five to defend Malacca, and the remaining twenty-five steam gunboats were to follow Ang Lee westward to the waters of the Indian Ocean, where there were still many pirates who needed their strong deterrent.

A Heavenly Army mothership and five landing steamships also went south together, as the main equipment for the beach-grabbing landing, they had to go with most of them, and they could only be used when attacking a large-scale pirate group with strong troops.

The number of auxiliary ships such as logistics material ships brought and captured by themselves has been as high as two or three hundred, except for fifty or sixty left, the rest must follow the large army to set off, after all, powerful soldiers and horses are inseparable from logistics support, if there are no these ships responsible for transporting a large amount of grain and grass and other materials, the soldiers on the front warships will be hungry, so they must be brought, and they must be brought.

The departure date is approaching, and Ang Lee has been delayed in the Malacca area for two months, and he can't delay it any longer, otherwise, the Maritime Silk Road will be completely opened in the Year of the Monkey.

In fact, the preparations for departure have been carried out for a long time, as long as Li An gives the order to set off, within one day, all the soldiers and horses can be ready, and immediately pull out the camp and march westward to the vast Indian Ocean.

Li Ang wanted to see the conclusions of the commercial expedition team and what mineral resources the exploration team had found, but in order to open up the Maritime Silk Road as soon as possible, he had to retain these curiosities, first open up the route wholeheartedly, and not use his mind too far.

"Report, Li Shilang, there are people outside who claim to be the king of the Longyamen Kingdom and ask to see Li Shilang."

A subordinate hurriedly came to report.

Li An was stunned when he heard this, and he didn't know what this so-called king of the Dragon Tooth Gate Country was going to do.

"Big brother, didn't this guy run away a long time ago? Why did he suddenly appear again at this moment, what did he want to do, was it a delusion to take back his throne? ”

Li Feiyu frowned and said.

Longyamen is a weak island country, the military strength is very weak, just a year ago, this weak island country was taken by the black wolf, the king in order to save his life, almost no resistance let all the soldiers under his command surrender to the black wolf, and allowed the black wolf to send elite soldiers and horses to occupy the palace, in order to protect his safety.

In addition, in order to do what he liked, he also married his beautiful daughter to the black wolf, and even the concubines on the pillow were occupied by the leader of the black wolf, which can be said to have suffered a lot of humiliation, at the same time, his small kingdom has also become a puppet of the pirates, and all the rights of official appointments and conscriptions belong to the black wolf, as the king, he has become a veritable puppet, and the black wolf keeps him, just to appease the people here, so that they willingly follow the black wolf.

In just a few months, the Dragon Tooth Gate Country was completely blackened, and for personal gain, many soldiers who were originally kingdoms joined the pirates, although the Dragon Tooth Gate Country still has the name of a country, its essence is already an out-and-out pirate lair.

After Li An's raid on Malacca, the main force of the pirates suffered a devastating blow, and the pirates deployed in the Dragon Tooth Gate also lost their leader, and the remaining pirates heard that the main force of the Tang army had captured the black wolf and was dividing their troops to march here, so frightened that they abandoned the city and hid in the mountains, no one estimated the puppet king at all, the king may be worried that the Tang army would deal with him, after all, he was already a puppet of the black wolf, so he also fled, as for where he went, Li An really didn't know, Because I haven't found it and I haven't taken it to heart, anyway, it's the king of a small country, it's not a big deal.

But now the missing King of the Dragon's Tooth Gate has appeared, and he has also asked to see Li An.