Overlord!

I have to say that Zhang Zhao’s questions were very good.

Sun Ce also had bright eyes, looked around everyone, and said, "This is exactly what I want to tell you. You all think that you are the emperor of heaven, and that no one in the world is like the Central Plains."

"But in terms of current navigation technology, our Central Plains is obviously lagging behind the Western Great Qin. Because Qin Lun was able to cut through the waves from Great Qin to the Central Plains, but no one in the Central Plains could reach Great Qin. I am extremely disappointed!"

The emperor was extremely disappointed, and everyone could only surrender and admit guilt.

Even if the reason is not that the Central Plains' navigation technology is poor, everyone can only obey the emperor's will.

The emperor obviously intended to bring Qin Lun here to beat the important ministers and shock the court.

At this time, Fu Ni is not a wise decision no matter what.

Sure enough, the emperor continued to say: "Everyone, please listen to what kind of transactions Qin Lun does on this trade road."

Upon hearing this, Qin Lun quickly spoke in less fluent Chinese and said: "I... bought silk and porcelain from the Song Dynasty! The goods sold were mainly jewelry and glass crafts such as coral, amber, pearls, and Langgan. ! Various spices!”

Although this barbarian's tone was strange, the scholar-bureaucrats could still hear clearly that he brought a lot of supplies to the Central Plains and earned a huge amount of wealth.

And they all sound like luxury items, priceless.

After Qin Lun finished speaking, Sun Ce continued and said: "Overseas trade was booming, and so many ships were doing business in the Central Plains and earning wealth under the Central Plains tribute system, but the imperial court never interfered with this. How despicable is it to never tax and manage?”

"If the Qin Dynasty can reach the Central Plains from the Qin Dynasty, why can't the barbarians from various countries along the way start trade?"

"It's just that all countries don't know the richness of the Central Plains!"

Bu Zhao was the strategist, and he immediately understood what the emperor meant.

He has been the Prime Minister for more than ten years and has been managing the emperor's finances for so long that he can guess the emperor's thoughts very well.

So he immediately said: "I think we should take this opportunity to push the Municipal Shipping Department to the outside of the territory, manage shipping routes, collect vehicle and ship taxes, and crack down on maritime pirates."

"This is a matter of course." Sun Ce said calmly: "Setting up the Xuanwei Department overseas to manage key shipping routes, repair ships for caravans, and provide supplies can not only demonstrate the benevolence and righteousness of our dynasty, but also promote the power of the Song Dynasty."

"But I think this is far from enough! The imperial court should send at least 20,000 navy to patrol Nanyang and show its power in foreign lands!"

Sea-going ships are not unfamiliar to the Central Plains.

In the past dynasties, as long as Liaodong and Jiaozhi were attacked, Qingzhou, Yangzhou and other places would be ordered to build large-scale sea ships to transport troops for expeditions.

So after Sun Ce finished speaking, the officials didn't feel any surprise. They just thought that Sun Ce was going to move the fleet to a location several hundred miles south of Rinan County.

But they really underestimated Sun Ce's ambition!

This time he organized a fleet expedition to explore at least two thousand miles south!

That is to say, the fleet's first voyage to Southeast Asia will start from Nichinan County and reach the Strait of Malacca.

Leave troops and officials in the local area, set up the Xuanwei Department, command the Quartet, and manage commercial waterways.

Of course, this trip is not only to promote the national prestige of the Song Dynasty, but also to establish trade relations with other countries. The fleet will carry various Central Plains specialties so that the countries along the way can see the wealth of the Central Plains.

Many small barbarian countries still don't know that the Central Plains is a powerful country, and they don't know that there are exquisite porcelain and silk here.

Then they need the fleet of the Song Dynasty to let them know about the Central Plains in the north and the prosperity of the Central Plains.

Then the local area will send caravans to the Central Plains. After the exchanges increase, the kings of the Nanyang barbarians will even move to the Central Plains and die in the Central Plains, unwilling to return to their countries.

Sun Ce did not elaborate on this ambition with his ministers.

Because Sun Ce was convinced that this could be achieved.

Sun Quan's navy could transport 20,000 troops north through the enemy's country and reach Liaodong. There is no reason that the Song Dynasty's navy could not expand south to Malacca.

Now the Rinan County in the territory of the Song Dynasty is already in the central region of Vietnam, and the road to Malacca is even closer than to Liaodong.

And there is no need to belittle oneself. Qin Lun was a businessman who came earlier than Marco Polo. Historically, he stayed in the Central Plains for a full ten years, which was longer than Marco Polo.

It's a pity that he is a businessman and cannot write wonderful travel notes, so he is not as famous as Marco Polo.

But Sun Ce did not pursue false fame. What he needed was pragmatic businessmen like Qin Lun to help the empire open up external trade routes and routes.

Even Qin Lun was able to sail merchant ships from the Qin Dynasty, which was tens of thousands of miles away, to the Central Plains. Could it be that the Central Plains couldn't even reach Nanyang, which was two thousand miles away?

The civilizations of the two sides may have different priorities due to geography.

This is inevitable. At least before industrial society, any civilization must be formed based on the local geographical situation.

Just like Eastern buildings are mostly made of wood, Western buildings are mostly made of stone. There is no advantage or disadvantage in terms of civilization and technology at all. It is entirely due to the geographical situation where both sides are located.

Western glass is more advanced and Eastern porcelain is more advanced, both due to the geology of the place where they are located.

But some civilizations have something in common, and that is navigation technology.

In this era, even if there is a difference in navigation technology between the two sides, it will not be too big.

They are all assembled from wood, and there is not much difference in human ingenuity. Therefore, if the West can develop sea-going ships, the East will definitely be able to develop them.

Absolutely not. Western shipbuilding technology can drift 20,000 miles on the sea, while Eastern ships cannot even drift 2,000 miles.

The most important reason why the navigation technology gap between the two sides seems to be quite large is the geographical situation of both sides.

There is a vast continent in the east, and it basically occupies all the fertile terrain that can be occupied, so developing farming on the land is enough to create massive wealth.

But this is not the case in the west. The terrain in the west is currently fragmented, and the land in the north is not suitable for farming, and is inhabited by barbarians.

Rome could only occupy the fragmented Mediterranean coast and was surrounded by enemies on all sides. It had to rely on the maritime industry to grow its empire.

In some broken terrain, it is impossible to expand farming. Someone must step forward and go to sea to trade in order to bring back enough food.

Their shipping technology actually corresponds to the water transportation technology in the East.

Even in the Central Plains, within the unified dynasty, there were areas with rich output, such as the southeast, so water transport was needed to transport food to Guanzhong and the north.

Of course, comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the two civilizations is not what Sun Ce needs to do, it is what scholars need.

All he needs is to make civilization stronger and stronger for a while.

After I became strong, I had enemy great scholars who defended me. There used to be people who learned from the barbarians and developed skills to control the barbarians. In later generations, there also appeared the strategy of division and long-term strategy to control China.

This has been a common feature since ancient times. When the other party becomes stronger, one learns from the other party's strengths.

This is the correct way for civilizations to blend and grow.

With Sun Ce's strong proposition, the focus of the Song Dynasty naturally turned to navigation, with the intention of opening up the Maritime Spice Road and the Maritime Silk Road in one fell swoop, and completely controlling these two important routes in the hands of the Song Dynasty.

After a year of preparations, in the 17th year of Kaiyuan, the Song Navy officially went to sea in Kuaiji County, Yangzhou. After marching to Rinan County to replenish food and grass, they began their journey southward.

The navy, with General Lu Dai as its commander and Honglu Temple Shaoqing Cui Lin as its envoy, led an army of 20,000 people and began to march south to declare its power.

In fact, the South was not as barren as imagined in the Central Plains during this era.

On the contrary, as the climate is getting colder, the south is suitable for development.

When the navy of the Song Dynasty left Rinan County, Xuanwei's first goal, Lin Yi, was not going well.

Linyi is a large country to the south of Rinan County. Its territory is where Ma Yuan cast the pillars, and it is three thousand miles away from the South China Sea.

Ma Yuan's Zhu Zhu is an allusion. It tells that during the Eastern Han Dynasty, the sisters Zheng Side and Zheng Er of Jiaozhi rebelled. Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty Liu Xiu sent Fubo General Ma Yuan to lead his army to pacify Jiaozhi and set up bronze pillars there. As the southernmost border of the Han Dynasty.

At that time, General Ma Yuan had more than 2,000 large and small ships and more than 20,000 soldiers. He attacked the Jiuzhen bandits and conquered the remaining party capital Yang and others. From no success to the wind, he captured more than 5,000 people, and Qiaonan was peaceful. The erection of copper pillars was the ultimate boundary of the Han Dynasty.

The inscription on its pillar reads: "When the copper pillar is broken, Jiaozhi is destroyed" (Vietnamese: ng Ct chit, Giao Ch dit). Every time the Yue people passed under it, they would throw tiles and rocks at it, forming a mound.

In fact, by the end of the Han Dynasty and after the chaos in the Central Plains, the imperial court had no time to pay attention to this place for a long time.

This led to the rapid expansion of the Linyi Kingdom. Due to the fierce nature of its people and the fact that it was warm all year round with no frost or snow due to fighting, they expanded very quickly in this era. They once attacked Daqijie, Xiaoqijie, Shipu, Xulang, Qudu, Qianlu, Fudan and other countries combined, with a total of 40,000 to 50,000 people. The king wears a heavenly crown and is tasseled. Whenever he listens to government affairs, his children and courtiers are not allowed to come near him.

He even led his troops to capture Rinan, harming the prefect and killing five to six thousand people.

After the Song Dynasty established the country, it spread its culture to overseas countries and ordered them to trade goods by sea with their treasures.

Lin Yi cut down the ships, plundered the caravans and tributes, and all the countries were angry.

If it weren't for their poor shipbuilding technology, they would have been just like Gaochang on the Silk Road, plundering and traversing countries.

The impact is even more severe.

Because the Song Dynasty had an imperial edict system that was popularized all over the world: the profit from trading ships is the greatest. If it is handled properly, the income can be worth millions, wouldn't it be better than taking it from the people! Those who can lure ships, extract goods and goods with accumulated prices, and have fifty thousand strings and one hundred thousand strings, are not good enough to make up for the official position.

That is to say, those who recruit a group of cargo ships and pay taxes of 50,000 to 100,000 yuan can be given official positions (unofficial officials).

In this case, Lin Yi dared to plunder, that is, he kept jumping across the line of fire.

The reason why the imperial court has been tolerating him and not raising troops yet is because this small country is actually quite clever.

The lord of the country was originally a slave. He traveled to the Central Plains with merchants. He saw the system of the superior country and learned and applied it. After returning to Linyi, he swept across the country and taught the country how to build palaces, cities and equipment.

He also actively sent envoys to pay tribute. In the fourth, 12th, 15th, 16th, and 17th years of Kaiyuan, he frequently sent envoys to pay tribute, but the bandits continued to steal and the tribute was meager.

Although his tribute was meager, the frequency of sending envoys to pay tribute became more and more frequent. It was obvious that he also observed that the Song Dynasty was becoming more and more powerful during the prosperous Kaiyuan era. The treasury accumulated enough wealth and took over Liaodong. It is very likely that he will clean up this restless little country in the south in the near future, so he has paid tribute every year in recent years in order to improve his image in the eyes of the emperor of the Central Plains.

In addition, and more importantly, Lin Yi did indeed look particularly highly in the eyes of the emperor. Because he is one of the more than 20 countries in the Song Dynasty that studied the civilization and system of the Song Dynasty!

In other words, he is a member of the Confucian civilization circle.

If he hadn't been so restless, Sun Ce wouldn't have wanted to hit him at all.

Sun Ce hoped that the vassal state would have extra security after learning from the civilization of the Central Plains. This led to people from all over the world taking the initiative to change customs and make full use of the civilization, palaces, clothing, writing, language, laws, etc. of the Central Plains.

But there was no way, Lin Yi was too out of touch.

No ideal can override real interests. He plundered the Maritime Silk Road and destroyed so many small countries, making himself strong for a while, with an army of 50,000 or 60,000 people!

This has seriously threatened the security of the Central Plains, and its strength is even comparable to that of Goguryeo.

So Lu Dai decisively launched an attack on Lin Yi after setting off from Ri Nan County. Twenty thousand naval troops landed at Da Nang Bay in the south of Lu Rong County. He also recruited more than 5,000 troops from Champaign, Funan and other countries to besiege Lin Yi. .

King Linyi was considered a hero in this southern land. He did not sit still and wait for death. Instead, he led his army to actively launch a counterattack against the Song army, intending to defeat the main force of the Song army before the servant armies of other countries encircled him.

He still has an advantage in this regard, because the capital of Linyi Kingdom is in the north of the country, next to Rinan County.

The Song army came from Lu Rong County in the southernmost part of Rinan County. The distance between the two sides was actually very close. As long as Lin Yi's army took the initiative to attack, they would immediately enter the battle. The Song army would not have time to wait for the arrival of the servant army.

However, Lin Yiguo miscalculated. He didn't know that Lu Dai expected this.

He just wanted to lure the main force of Lin Yi State to use all his strength and defeat the main force of Lin Yi State's army in one fell swoop.

If the land is saved and people are lost, both people and land will be lost. People and land are saved, and people and land are saved. It was obviously a high-end military art that none of the traveling slaves of King Lin Yi had ever been exposed to.

Facing the king's heavenly soldiers in the Central Plains, it is definitely not a wise move to take the initiative to fight decisively.

The wisest way is undoubtedly to abandon the city and leave. In this way, although the capital of the country is burned, the dignity of the king is still not lost.

After all, Linyi is too far away from the Central Plains.

Zhongyuan has no interest in keeping his troops here and chasing him.

Lu Dai is not a peerless general like Zhou Yu, who can lead his army to pursue him for thousands of miles, making it impossible for his opponent and his army to escape. He will be overtaken and killed on the way to escape.

As a result, the Linyi Kingdom overestimated their own strength. They dispatched all the 30,000 main troops they could mobilize in a hurry to the plains in the north near the border of Rinan County, and fought a frontal and grand decisive battle with the 20,000 elite Song army.

Although in a hurry, Lin Yi only took more than two months to gather 30,000 troops, which is already very outstanding.

It is a pity that these 30,000 barbarian soldiers who are thin and short, most of them even have their upper bodies exposed and only carry a wooden spear, cannot possibly defeat the elite soldiers of the Song Dynasty who are armed to the teeth.

Especially in the direction of Linyi State from the coast, there is a long and narrow plain.

They had nowhere to escape. The Song Army's 500 elite cavalry rampaged repeatedly, causing the entire Linyi barbarian army, which had never seen such elite tactics, to collapse. They were hunted for more than 40 miles, and the dead were buried in their homes. (End of chapter)