Overlord!

In this battle between the Song Army and the Lin Yi State Army, Lin Yi State really made too many fatal mistakes.

It was very unwise for them to rush into a decisive battle with the Song army. As a result, the battlefield they chose was still the eastern plain.

The long plain terrain in eastern Vietnam is extremely suitable for large regiment operations of infantry and cavalry.

Even if there are some dense forests that can block the cavalry, they cannot block the infantry attack.

The Song army's arrow array fired wildly, and Lin Yi's army retreated all the way. Lu Dai captured the capital of Lin Yi in one fell swoop.

Its city is a hundred and twenty miles from the sea, and more than four hundred miles from the south of the sun. There are many golden mountains in the country, and the stones are all red, and gold is born in them. On the golden night, it flies out and looks like a firefly. Also came out tortoiseshell, shellfish, jibei, and agarwood incense.

It can be said that it is very prosperous and full of rare treasures.

When the main force of Lin Yi's army was defeated, the king was so frightened that he wanted to lose 10,000 jins of gold, 100,000 jins of silver, and 300,000 jins of copper. He also captured more than 500 households in the south of Japan.

But Lu Dai refused to allow it, and the army took advantage of the victory and captured the capital, burning the country and obtaining all its treasures, all of which were unnamed treasures. He also sold his gold men and obtained hundreds of thousands of catties of gold.

The Song army was not considered kind, but it was not as cruel as the Ming army. After the king of Linyi and his son abandoned the city alone, they did not massacre, but evacuated Linyi with the rich loot.

Lu Dai happily reported victory to the court. In this battle, he harvested more than 400,000 catties of gold and silver, and cast nearly one million catties of brass, which was enough to enrich the imperial treasury for a while, and also let the entire Central Plains see the wealth of the south, and the sea. The Silk Road started from then on.

He really never thought about ruling here. Although the Song army was devastated on the battlefield, the number of troops was reduced a lot.

Since the capital of Linyi was only a hundred and twenty miles away from the sea, the Song army's march only lasted three days. However, these three days caused more than 1,400 people to become sick and more than 300 people died.

This loss was a figure that Xianbei had not incurred even after many years of invasion in the northern battlefield.

Zhang Liao, the Governor-General of Beiting of the Song Army, led his army to attack for more than 2,000 miles and annihilated the Monan Xianbei Royal Court in one fell swoop. Not even 300 Song soldiers died in the battle.

If Lu Dai hadn't captured ten times more supplies this time than in the Battle of Monan, Lu Dai would have been embarrassed to report victory.

The soldiers of the Song Army were also surprised and did not understand how these barbarians survived on this land.

This place is really not suitable for human survival. Even during World War II, marching here will cause large-scale attrition.

Lu Dai thought his decision was very wise.

But half a year later, an edict arrived at the fleet from Jiankang, and Lu Dai was dismissed on the spot. The Song Army's first declaration of power in Nanyang only marched to the Champa Kingdom south of Linyi, and ended hastily.

Zhu Huan, the general of Jianwei who came under the imperial edict, succeeded Lu Dai and took charge of the Song army's three thousand elite infantry and cavalry. He retained Rinan and established the Jinghai Governor's Palace. Cui Lin led the navy with various rice seeds and fruits obtained from the occupation. And thousands of "Kunlun slaves" captured south of the city returned to the Central Plains.

Kunlun slaves refer to the indigenous people from the south of Linyi, all with curly hair and black bodies, and their general name is "Kunlun".

They are the natives of this area, close to the equator, huddled in islands and mountains and forests.

Later generations' understanding of the race in this direction was actually that the Central Plains had completed the replacement of the local race.

At least the people in Linyi and Champa areas are definitely not local aborigines. Those were the population that Zhang Fu, in accordance with the national system, divided the occupied land into the four prefectures of Sheng, Hua, Si, and Yi, added guard posts, and left troops to garrison.

Champa is still south of Linyi, but Song Ting doesn't have much interest in it yet.

Zhu Huan, the governor of Jinghai, took control of the power and began to carry out a planned reduction strategy in Linyi.

With the change of generals, the people of Linyi Kingdom suddenly knew what cruelty meant.

Under Sun Ce's instruction, the Jinghai Governor's Mansion almost copied all of Zhang Fu's methods.

In a true sense, this is our powerful general in the southeast and a bloodthirsty butcher in the eyes of the enemy.

He dug out the Ma Yuan bronze pillars that had been buried by the Yue people. The Yue people are really timid. On the copper pillar is written "If the copper pillar is broken, Jiaozhi will be destroyed." The Yue people do not dare to touch this copper pillar, or even damage it. They only dare to throw stones from a distance. Bury it up, thereby deceiving yourself and others to cover up your humiliation and cowardice.

So Zhu Huan erected another copper pillar next to the copper pillar: "Without the writing, Jiaozhi will perish." Then he began to brutally suppress the Yue people. After all, the predecessors made the oath, and the descendants establish the authority.

But in fact, in Zhu Huan's view, he didn't do anything special.

First of all, he built a Jingguan after thousands of rebels he defeated. This was a very common method in the Central Plains. This step made the people of Linyi, who were said to be ferocious in nature, so scared that they could not sleep at night and were shocked because of the fighting.

After all, they had really lost all their main force, and Zhu Huan really didn't mind slaughtering the city and destroying the village.

The local chiefdoms and tribes that dared to resist him have all been slaughtered by him.

There isn't even a rule that no one will be killed if it's lower than the wheel.

When the Song army left, the area was burned to the ground, leaving nothing behind.

Secondly, Zhu Huan did not accept surrender. He would hunt down and kill any rebels who resisted.

The enemy army once imagined that they could surrender to him and survive.

But they have never seen how terrifying the generals who were killed in the troubled times of the Central Plains were.

The rebels asked to surrender, but Zhu Huan's reply was always "no".

When Yuan Shang brought more than 20,000 troops to ask Zhuge Liang to surrender, Zhuge Liang's reply was so straightforward that he refused.

Now Zhu Huan has brought all this to Lin Yi, and the people of Lin Yi are really frightened. Everyone was trembling with fear, and no one dared to mention the rebellion.

Otherwise, the Song army will really kill them all, and will not withdraw until the entire rebel force is wiped out.

And Zhu Huan's most ruthless strategy was also the national policy formulated for him by the current emperor of the Song Dynasty.

As long as the Linyi people kill the rebels, they can receive rewards in the Jinghai Governor's Mansion, while the Linyi people who surrendered to the Song Dynasty can get official positions by killing their own people.

This made the civil strife in Lin Yi more terrifying than the punishments of the Song Dynasty.

People in Linyi often committed horrifying cruelty, such as piling corpses into mountains (to build Jingguan), pulling out intestines and tying them to trees, frying human flesh to make ointment, and cannon-burning for drama.

This allowed Song Ting's army to finally gain a stable foothold in Linyi.

Within two years, the Central Plains built six cities in the direction of Linyi, radiating around.

This is the most typical way of dispersing civilization today, spreading like patches of moss on the earth and then spreading outwards.

Although the Song Army is still unable to occupy Linyi, the radiation has indeed spread out.

The Jinghai Dudu Mansion has been able to profoundly influence the local area and powerfully control the size of the local population.

It took the Ming and Qing dynasties six hundred years to digest the Yunnan-Guizhou region. This was the beginning of the Song Dynasty's plan to digest the southeast.

In the 20th year of Kaiyuan, after returning to Nanyang for the first time, the Song Ting Navy set out from Nanhai County again and continued to explore southward under the command of General He Qi. This time, the ships of the Song Army have undergone greater changes. The flagship of the fleet is Feiyun, which is more than twenty feet long and two or three feet high from the water. It is like a pavilion road. It can carry six to seven hundred people and produce tens of thousands of dendrobium. .

That is to say, this warship can carry more than 600 soldiers, and it can also carry ten thousand stones of food!

This greatly solved the navy's worries, so He Qinai floated tens of thousands of soldiers to the sea and opened up more than three thousand miles to the south.

Finally arriving at the legendary Strait of Malacca, He Qi built a city gate and warehouse on Manjia Mountain in the north of the strait, stored more than 40,000 stones of grain, set up the Xuanwei Division of the Old Port, and left thousands of troops to garrison.

Then he sent ships far away, crossed the sea, carried more goods, and lured barbarian caravans.

Wherever the giant ship of the Song Dynasty went, people were dumbfounded and praised the power of the heavenly soldiers and the gods, making dragons and rabbits and tigers run around.

The majestic large-scale warships in the Central Plains and the sophisticated weapons and equipment on board made all the barbarians sigh: "The awe-inspiring force is rare in previous generations."

However, although He Qi's expedition this time avoided the mistakes of Lu Dai before and established administrative divisions, it was not perfect in another direction and was recalled by the court.

Because in this battle, while he showed off his power, the benefits were not big enough.

The court was full of expectations that he could bring back hundreds of thousands of kilograms of gold, silver, jewelry, brass and fine iron like Lu Dai, but in the end he gained very little.

More than two hundred warships, tens of thousands of soldiers and hundreds of thousands of grains of food, set out to sea in a mighty manner. After wandering for a year, they only harvested a few shiploads of spices.

The imperial court thought that he had gained more than enough authority but had little benefit.

There was no way, Lu Dai had gained so much wealth during his last southern tour, which was equivalent to the accumulation of the Song Dynasty in more than ten years.

Especially the hundreds of thousands of kilograms of gold, which filled the national treasury instantly.

Due to the savings in the treasury, the imperial court successively issued more than 4 million guan of copper coins and more than 6 million guan of Kaiyuan banknotes.

The folk economy was prosperous for a while, the buildings were prosperous and beautiful, and the people were abundant.

The entire imperial court expected that the second southern tour would bring back massive wealth again.

Even after Lu Dai returned to the Central Plains, he was praised highly by other civil and military officials and received a promotion.

The year after He Qi was recalled by the court for his great achievements, in the 24th year of Kaiyuan, the Song Dynasty once again sent a navy of 20,000 people southward.

This time, the third commander personally sent people to supervise the army and ordered the fleet to carry more goods and trade with each other in the south.

In preparation for this voyage, the ship even has cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, etc., and these meat animals can be raised on the ship. The ship has also reached the peak of Jiangdong in this era. The ship can carry more than 2,000 people. It is a giant ship that started construction in the 17th year of Kaiyuan when it was decided to go to sea to Southeast Asia. It was finally completed in the 23rd year of Kaiyuan.

This time, Zhu Ran, the commander-in-chief of the Song Army, adhered to the will of the emperor and arrived in eastern India. For the first time, he achieved the feat of connecting to the countries in the Western Regions from the sea.

At this point, Song Ting finally made a major breakthrough in navigation, and clearly understood why Qin Lun, a great Qin merchant, was in the west of the Western Regions, and the floating sea reached the Central Plains.

Parthia was already on its last legs at this time. Just about ten years ago, the newly rising Sasanian Empire replaced Parthia as the overlord.

Song Ting's southern tour not only brought back a lot of wealth and new routes, but also brought back the famous Buddhism in the South Asian subcontinent.

Of course, Buddhism had already spread to the Central Plains from the direction of the Protectorate of the Western Regions before. This southern tour accelerated the systematic spread of Buddhism to the Central Plains.

What surprised Song Ting even more was that on the way back, the fleet actually encountered a Han caravan traveling in the direction of Myanmar in the 27th year of Kaiyuan.

The Han Dynasty expanded more than 600 miles southwest of Yongchang.

Although more than six hundred miles is not a large territory, it is at least the size of one or two counties.

At the same time, he has more than 20 tribes in Jimi. If the territory of Jimi State is included, he may control a territory of two thousand miles.

That’s why caravans appear in southwestern Myanmar.

This made the court both happy and worried. The most happy thing was undoubtedly the civilization of Zhuxia, which carried out enlightenment for more than two thousand miles.

What is worrying is that in just thirty years, the Han Dynasty has already grown to this extent.

Perhaps it won't be long before the main force of the Song army will have to fight a war of hegemony with the main force of the Han army in the Nanzhao area.

Without a decisive battle involving hundreds of thousands of troops, it would be difficult to restore peace to the southwest border.

As for the Yongchang State of the Song Dynasty, it was not known whether it could defeat the remnants of the Han Dynasty.

Yongchang Kingdom means Yongchang of the Song Dynasty. If the Yongchang Kingdom was destroyed by the Han Dynasty, I can't imagine how furious the court would be.

It is bound to send heavy troops into the southwest.

However, these things were not issues that Zhu Ran needed to consider. With his return, the imperial court generously rewarded him.

Because as the results of three voyages to the Southeast Asia in more than ten years emerged, the Maritime Silk Road was finally opened up.

The southeast is prosperous, and its population and wealth exceed those of the northwest. After all, the southeast is not only rich in gold, silver, jade, hats, and corals, but more importantly, it also has a unique advantage, that is, spices!

Spices are so important and valuable.

If there is only one thing in the world, its economic value can be compared with the porcelain and silk of the Central Plains, and it can continuously harvest the wealth of the entire world.

That must be spices, so the Maritime Silk Road is also called the Maritime Spice Road.

In the past, the local indigenous people just didn't know that they could sell this thing to the Central Plains, and they didn't know the sea routes.

With the Song Army's Xuanwei and Southern Patrol, the Maritime Silk Road was finally opened.

There are no less than 5,000 merchant ships traveling to and from the Central Plains every month from all over the world.

Five thousand ships may seem like a lot, but they are actually relatively average.

At the end of the Three Kingdoms period, when the population of Jiangdong was only two million, Soochow surrendered and donated more than 5,000 boats to the Jin Dynasty.

The population of the entire Nanyang is not more than two million, and may even exceed ten million.

Their civilization is relatively backward, and their population cannot be counted.

But among the elites, it really doesn’t take much civilization to transport spices to all directions.

In particular, the shipbuilding industry in the Central Plains was developed. Many indigenous nobles arrived in the Central Plains with the Central Plains caravans and ordered merchant ships to form their own caravans.

Even Ziqian merchants focused on investing in this area, providing usury loans to many caravans who wanted to book ships, with an annual interest rate of more than 60%!
But Hu merchants still flocked to it, because as long as their ships set off smoothly and transported spices back from Nanyang, the money earned by one ship would probably be no less than ten times the profit, and even usury loans could be easily repaid. (End of chapter)