Chapter 510: Ten Years

"Kill—"

The earth-shattering shouts of slaughter rang out from above a huge sea falcon warship, revealing the muzzles of seven or eight black holes on the side of the warship.

Zhang Ji, who was wearing a light armor, was going to carry a horizontal knife and stood on the deck, behind him, the Datang Navy Master was holding a steel crossbow sword in his hand, and shouted loudly, "Kill-".

Looking at the several ships fleeing in confusion not far away, he roared loudly: "Open fire!" ”

The seven or eight cannons on the ship suddenly let out an earth-shattering roar, and the shells flew towards the sea ship two miles away.

"Boom-" Seven or eight columns of water immediately rose beside those sea ships, shaking the sea, and the sea ships were jolting. However, not a single shell focused on the opposing ships.

Seeing such a situation, Zhang Ji was not annoyed, and scolded those gunners with a smile: "His grandmother's, these bastards are as cunning as loaches, and they don't keep their hands!" You almost hit it, which is good! ”

Hearing this, the gunners were speechless, and they all died of shame. They didn't understand that Zhang Ji was talking back, and swore at the moment that they would sink the ships in front of them. So, the shells were reloaded and ready to be fired.

If you take a closer look at the sea ships attacked by Zhang Ji's fleet, you will definitely find that these sea ships are still the standard sea ships of the Tang Dynasty Naval Division. On the ship, the slapping rods, trebuchets and other objects have been beaten to pieces, broken into several pieces. The sailors on the deck were even dressed in Tang Army standard armor, which was dilapidated but still faintly recognizable.

It is now the year of Xianqing, and it has been ten years since Li Zhi ascended the throne as emperor.

In the past 20 years, Datang has undergone earth-shaking changes. Since Li Zhi succeeded to the throne, he has appeased the courtiers, the vassals of the outer towns, the agricultural merchants of Guangxing, and the great preparation of soldiers, but within a few years, there has been no movement.

In the meantime, although there were floods and droughts, the common people rebelled, but they were quickly quelled. The next step is recuperation. After five years of recuperation, the treasury has become richer, and the people have become richer.

In the past five years, the eldest grandson Wuji assisted Li Zhi in cleaning up the imperial court, and organized the court up and down, inside and outside the court, in an orderly manner. Rao is like this, and his eldest grandson Wuji has installed his own people in the court, and there are by no means a few. In the frontier of the four realms, there are Ashina Sheer and Qibi He Li to guard Longyou, the Western Regions, Tuyuhun, both are worry-free, Xue Rengui and Liu Renyuan are willing to guard Liaodong, and Liaodong is also worry-free. As for the Mobei grassland, there are also stubborn and lost Sili, Su Dingfang and others stationed in the prefectures, protecting the Great Wall inside, and connecting the Hui to the outside, and the mighty Shuo Desert.

Therefore, even when Li Shimin passed away, when all the vassals of the Tang Dynasty were ready to move, no one dared to face the Tang Dynasty soldiers and send troops to attack the Tang Dynasty.

This went on for three years.

However, in the third year of Yonghui, an accident happened.

The Tang Nanyang Naval Division, with 132 warships stationed in Southeast Asia and more than 10,000 officers and soldiers, under the joint leadership of the Nanyang Naval Division Sima, Bing Cao, and Records Joins the Army, beheaded the Nanyang Naval Division's chief manager, deputy commander, and Changshi Zhu, launched a rebellion, cut off the route from Nanyang to the Tang Dynasty, and claimed the title of king in Luzon.

It turned out that since the beginning, Li Shimin ordered the Guangzhou and Fuzhou sailors to go south to the South Seas to exploit the resources of the South Seas to supply the Tang Dynasty. The naval divisions of the two places formed the Nanyang Fleet and sailed to the South Seas to fight the local natives, starting from northern Luzon and gradually expanding southward. By the time Li Zhi succeeded to the throne, the Tang army's influence in Nanyang had extended to Borneo. During this period, countless gold, silver, copper ores, and countless spice gems were obtained. And Guangzhou, Fuzhou and other coastal places, is even more prosperous because of this. It can be said that Nanyang has played a vital role in the development of the Datang Lingnan region.

However, with the gradual development of Nanyang, the natives of Nanyang gradually adapted to these invaders and began to grovel to serve the Tang army. The Tang army used the natives to train an army and attack the rest of the natives, and the tens of thousands of soldiers of the Tang army became the emperor in this South Sea, and the generals of the fleet were even more domineering. As the wealth increased day by day, the territory became wider day by day, and some of these generals had distracting thoughts in their hearts.

Why did Lao Tzu work hard in the South Seas, fight wars and open mines, and the gold, silver, spices and gems he obtained should be unconditionally transported back to the Central Plains for those who have never fought to enjoy? As a result, they gradually began to withhold wealth.

In the sixteenth year of Zhenguan, Li Shimin replaced the chief and deputy chief of the Nanyang Fleet with his own loyal and upright people to lead the Nanyang Fleet.

These newly appointed captains and deputy commanders of the fleet were all upright and never greedy for ink, so that the former captains and other generals were extremely dissatisfied with these new officials, and often disobeyed the law. Besides, there are still many spies from the Investigation Institute in the fleet, so those people don't dare to do anything.

This situation lasted until the last years of Zhenguan, when the news of Li Shimin's serious illness reached the Nanyang Fleet. As soon as the news came, the Nanyang Fleet was in an uproar at first, and then quieted down, quietly waiting for the development of things.

Next, Li Shimin died of illness, Li Zhi succeeded to the throne, and the entire empire continued to operate as before, everything remained unchanged, and the property that should be paid to the Central Plains was the same. The chief manager and deputy chief manager and others are still iron-faced and selfless, and they are not emotional.

Finally, in the third year of Yonghui, a fierce quarrel broke out between the dissident fleet admiral and the fleet commander, led by the fleet Sima. During the quarrel, Sima was so angry that he pulled out a knife and stabbed the chief manager.

Facing the resentful eyes of the fleet commander, this person simply didn't do anything, cut off the head of the fleet commander with a knife, and then, with his own soldiers, raided the mansion of the deputy commander, Changshi and many others, and killed them one by one. In the end, all the investigators who had revealed their identities were beheaded for public display, and of course, there were spies who did not reveal their identities. Changshi passed the bloody heads of a group of people to each warship next to each warship, and if anyone spoke out about injustice, he was immediately killed.

Under such bloody means, the entire fleet was soon controlled by Sima and others. At this time, the original 13,000 soldiers were reduced to 10,000.

Sima burned all ships except the warships, severing the connection between Nanyang and the Tang Dynasty. After sweeping away the riches of Luzon, he sailed with the fleet to Borneo. He was going south to avoid the Tang Dynasty's clearing fleet.

Since then, it was not until the fourth year of Yonghui that the merchant ships heading south discovered that there was no shadow of the Tang fleet in Luzon.

From the mouths of the local natives, they learned about the rebellion of the Nanyang Fleet.

As soon as this incident came out, the imperial court was shocked.

Li Zhi was indignant and wanted to immediately send a water master to ask for advice, but he was persuaded by Changsun Wuji and Zhang Wenyun and other Chinese Wu Qiqi. Although this Nanyang Naval Division, although it is said that it is the king of the land and blocked the shipping route, it has damaged the face of the Tang Dynasty, however, all the soldiers of the Nanyang Naval Division are first-class naval forces, proficient in water warfare, and they look at the entire Tang Dynasty, and only the Datang Laizhou Naval Division can compete with it. Most of the sailors in Laizhou were sailors who participated in the first battle against Goguryeo. However, the Laiju Naval Division monitored Silla Baekje and did not dare to move lightly, so it could only divide half of its troops to come, with only more than 50 ships and more than 6,000 officers and soldiers, which was quite inferior to the Nanyang Naval Division. As a result, this matter can only be put on hold for the time being, anyway, the Nanyang Navy Division did not attack the Tang Dynasty. Moreover, at this time, the Tang Dynasty was fighting against the Western Turks in the Western Regions, although the scale was not large, but it also affected people's hearts.

This delay dragged on until the second year of Xianqing, where Su Dingfang led Xue Rengui, Xiao Siye and others to destroy the Western Turks.

Li Zhi's era name is more mixed, at first Yonghui, which took six years. In the sixth year of Yonghui, Wu Meiniang was canonized as the queen, so the second year was changed to Yuan Xianqing. From the destruction of the Western Turks in the second year of Xianqing, the imperial court freed up its hands and began to pack up the Nanyang fleet.

This battle, once fought, was fought for three years.

During this period, Su Dingfang served as the protector of Anxi and led the army to attack Yangtong; Cheng Yanjin served as the chief of the Qinghai Road march, and ordered the 50,000-strong army to set out from Tuyuhun and attack Tubo. From the fourth year of Yonghui, until the second year of Xianqing, the Western Turks perished, and then to the sixth year of Xianqing, which was also the first year of Longshuo, the entire Western Regions, Qinghai, and Tubo, the sound of artillery has never been interrupted.

By the time Longshuo destroyed Tubo, Yangtong, and Tang Jing in the first year, the Tang Dynasty had been fighting for eight consecutive years. In the past eight years, the destruction of the Western Turks and the Zhaowu states, as well as the Tibetans, has squandered most of the wealth accumulated in the past ten years from the 19th year of Zhenguan to the 4th year of Yonghui, and the treasury has suddenly depleted a lot.

In the second year of Xianqing, Zhang Ji was stuffed onto a warship by Zhang Yunwen and sent to the fleet to exterminate the rebels in the South Seas, and began a three-year life at sea. And Zhang Ji did perform well at sea, and after two years of hard work, he was finally recognized by the fleet commander and took charge of a warship.

Today's Datang warships, although they are also the style of Haigu warships, have been successfully brought up to warships as the most powerful offensive weapons. It was this kind of battleship, equipped with artillery, that was defeated in a head-on confrontation with the rebels in the South Seas. However, the Nanyang rebels have been maneuvering with the Tang army by virtue of their geographical advantages and close relations with the locals.

Now, the more than ten warships opposite Zhang Ji are the last strength of the rebels.

"Aim-put!" With Zhang Jihong's loud roar, seven or eight artillery pieces spewed out tongues of fire again.

In the fifth year of Xianqing, the Nanyang rebels were peaceful. The imperial court placed Nanyang Road in Nanyang and set up 17 states. The envoys and state assassins were selected and directly included in the territory of the Tang Dynasty.

A series of brilliant victories still could not hide the power struggle within the imperial court, and from the fourth year of Yonghui, a series of power struggles were staged within the Tang Dynasty.