In July of the eighteenth year of Zhenguan, Li Zhi left Chang'an to start a year's travels, and it was also in July of this year, Li Zhi and Li Yun boarded the ship with his 50,000 troops under the arrangement of Li Su, and then set off from Linyi and began to set off to Tianzhu.

On the vast sea, a fleet of hundreds of huge ships is advancing in a mighty soup, this fleet except for a few warships cruising around the periphery, the other ships are all troop carriers and baggage ships built by Li Su, these two ships are similar in shape, the hull is huge, the draft is relatively deep, the ship runs very smoothly, and the wind and waves are also very strong, if a ship does not directly encounter a typhoon, there will not be too much risk, but one focuses on transporting people, and the other focuses on transporting various materials.

Li Zhen and Yue Wang and Li Yun's Jiang Wang were also in this fleet, but these two private ships were also loaded with all kinds of supplies, and even the cabins where Li Zhen and Li Yun lived were placed with muskets they had purchased from Li Yu. Of course, gunpowder and grenades, which are more dangerous, all have special transport ships, and they generally walk at the tail of the fleet, and there is a significant distance from other ships, mainly because they are afraid that if the gunpowder on the ship explodes, it will not hurt other ships. Even the crew members on the ship wrote suicide notes before going on board, and their treatment was several times better than that of the crew members on other ships, the same as the treatment of the navy on the outer warships, after all, they were risking their lives on the ship.

After several days of sailing, the fleet soon reached the main road to Tianzhu, that is, the Strait of Malacca, which was being calculated by Li Su. The strait is located between the Malay Peninsula and Kam Chau, although the Malay Peninsula is not inhabited by many natives and most of the mangroves grow along the coast. The environment is very harsh, so it is along the Malay Peninsula on the north side of the Straits of Malacca. There has never been a seaport.

And on the south side of Jinzhou is different, in this long and narrow strait. However, there are many excellent ports on the coast of Jinzhou, especially in the eastern section, the ports are more concentrated, such as the capital of the kingdom of Malacca, which is located in the eastern section of the Strait of Malacca, across the strait from Singapore in later generations, and is at the eastern exit of the Strait of Malacca, and the geographical location is very important.

Li Zhen and Li Yun not only paid attention to all aspects of Tianzhu's intelligence, but also did their homework on the Strait of Malacca. Because they all knew that this strait was their logistical lifeline, which was related to their success this time, so when their fleet came to the Strait of Malacca, Li Zhen came to Li Yun's ship and took a few henchmen to observe the terrain along the coast of Malacca.

"Your Highnesses, please see, that island is called Linga Island, which is located at the mouth of the Strait of Malacca, and its geographical location is very important. However, due to the limitation of space, there is no way to build a large port on the island, but it is possible to station a fleet and block the strait at any time. Zhu Chong pointed to an island not far from the fleet and said. It's not so much an island. It's not a group of islands, but this group of islands is next to each other, and the area is not much. So it's not an archipelago either.

Zhu Chong's father's name is Zhu Meng, and he used to be Yang Jin's most trusted general. Later, after following Li Su, Zhu Meng has been serving as the chief of the Taiwan police. Manage law and order throughout Taiwan. And Zhu Chong is young and likes to live at sea, so he later followed Lu Qing as Lu Qing's assistant, and also participated in the campaign against the Japanese State.

Hearing Zhu Chong's words, Li Zhen, Li Yun and others all raised their binoculars and observed the terrain of Lingjia Island from afar, and found that it was really as Zhu Chong said, the terrain on the island was not suitable for establishing a port, but there was no problem in stationing a fleet.

As their fleet got closer and closer to the Strait of Malacca, there were more and more ships coming and going around, in fact, when they left Linyi, they encountered a lot of fleets from the Tang Dynasty, and when those fleets saw their huge fleet, they all took the initiative to ask to go along, after all, it was not safe on the way, and they could walk with such a huge fleet, even if they encountered pirates.

In addition to these accompanying fleets, Li Zhen and the others also encountered a lot of fleets going to the Tang Dynasty or Taiwan, among these fleets there were many Han merchant ships, and there were also many Hu merchant fleets from Western countries, and the closer they were to Malacca, the denser the oncoming fleets became, and even in the Lingjia Island as the boundary, the north waterway of the island entered the strait, and the waterway south of the island went out of the strait.

After the fleet bypassed Lingka Island from the northern waterway, Li Zhen and Li Yun immediately saw through the binoculars that in the left front direction of their fleet, there was a bustling harbor from which countless ships entered and exited.

At this time, Zhu Chong also pointed to the port and said: "Two highnesses, please see, that port is the largest port in Malacca, Moluo Youcheng, although the management of this city is a bit chaotic, and it is very unsafe, but in this Strait of Malacca, it is much stronger than some other small ports, plus there are many ships coming and going, so most of the fleet will anchor here to replenish the supplies on board, and there are also merchants who trade directly here." ”

At this time, Li Zhen and Li Yun also saw from the telescope that there were many ships waiting to enter the port outside the port of Moluoyou, but for various reasons, the passage in and out of the port was blocked, and the ships inside could not get out, and the ships outside could not enter, which made many passing ships look at the port and sigh.

Seeing this situation, some fleets out of the strait estimated that the supplies on the fleet could hold out for a few more days, so they simply did not enter the port and went directly in the direction of Linga Island towards Linyi. It's just that the fleets that enter the strait, although there are still a lot of supplies on their ships, but after leaving the strait, they still need to sail for a long time, so they must be replenished in the strait, but in the Strait of Malacca, except for the port of Morayu, the conditions of other small ports are worse than here, and even if they are not careful, they may be robbed in the port, so they can only wait outside the port of Morayu.

As soon as Li Zhen and their huge fleet appeared, they immediately attracted the attention of the port of Moluoyou, and the officials in the port were very familiar with the ships of various countries, so they could naturally see at a glance that this was a fleet from the Tang Dynasty, and what shocked them even more was that there were more than a dozen warships cruising around the periphery of this fleet, and they knew at a glance that they had an official background.

The kingdom of Moluo You used to be the overlord of the Strait of Malacca, not only imposing heavy taxes on passing ships, but also threatening to use force at every turn, even the sea ships of the Tang Dynasty were no exception, but since Li Su stationed a fleet in Linyi, and from time to time he pulled to Malacca to take a turn, as a result, the Moluo tourists saw those tall warships, and then looked at the small warships in their hands, they couldn't say the same thing at all, so they made all kinds of concessions very wisely, not only reduced the tax rate of Han merchant ships a lot, And there has been a noticeable improvement in attitudes.

For Li Zhen and their huge fleet, the Moluo You were very vigilant at first, first sent people to negotiate, and even put forward a request to board the ship, but Zhu Chong refused very arrogantly, and told the officials of Moluo You in a commanding tone, asking them to prepare food and fresh water quickly, and let the supply ships in their fleet replenish it, as for the other ships, they would not enter the port!

In fact, Zhu Chong was also very helpless, because he knew the scale of the port in Moluo Youcheng, and now the port was full of all kinds of ships, and the hundreds of huge ships in their fleet couldn't enter at all. In addition, Li Zhen and Li Yun's operation this time is secret, if the fleet enters the port, it is likely to expose the soldiers on the ship, so it is better to stay outside the port and only let the supply ship in.

Although Zhu Chong's attitude was very tough, the officials of Mo Luoyou were relieved to hear that the other party's fleet would not enter the port, but would only let a few ships resupply and leave. They had been frightened by the fleet in Li Su's hands before, but today they saw so many ships coming at once, and the big ships in the middle had a very deep draft, and occasionally there were soldiers in armor walking around, which made them all startled, thinking that these were the fleets sent by the Tang Dynasty to attack them, and now they are finally relieved.

However, it was this worry that greatly improved the efficiency of the officials of Mo Luoyou, who quickly dredged the blocked port, and then gave priority to arranging the supply ships in Li Zhen's fleet to enter the port, and then organized people to carry all kinds of supplies as quickly as possible, and as a result, the supply of the fleet was soon replenished, and Zhu Chong also kept his promise and set sail directly outside the port.

"General Zhu, the Strait of Malacca is so important, can't the sixth brother just let these natives manage here?" Just as the fleet had just set sail, Li Zhen suddenly asked, and a fine light flashed in his eyes when he looked at Mo Luoyou.

But Zhu Chong smiled after hearing this, looked at no one on the left and right, and then said in a low voice: "The two Highnesses don't know, Your Highnesses have decided to bring the Strait of Malacca into their rule, but Your Highness has just annexed Luzon and Linyi, and the power in his hands is limited, so he doesn't want to conquer by force!" ”

"Oh?" Li Yun's eyes lit up after hearing this, and he even said a little impatiently, "Sixth brother, how does he plan to control here?" Although the officials of Mo Luo You just now were very respectful to us, if the sixth brother wanted them to obediently hand over this golden waterway, I am afraid that there would be no other way than force, right? ”

"Hehe, I really don't know what the specific method is." Zhu Chong said with a smile, in fact, he didn't know, but because of military discipline, he couldn't reveal it to the outside world, but he had also been instructed by Li Yu before, and he could reveal a little bit to Li Zhen and Li Yun, so he then pointed to the Malay Peninsula opposite Mo Luo You and said, "Although I don't know the specific plan of His Highness, I know that the key is still there!" (To be continued......)