Corrupt official in the Red Chamber

Chapter 392 The first strategic goal is achieved

It turns out that Tang Zhen acted very quickly because he received specific intelligence support from Jia Rui.

The six pirate supply points were destroyed one by one by Tang Zhen.

Originally, Tang Zhen should have started returning to the army five days ago, but as soon as he left the last supply point, he encountered the main force of the pirates.

It turned out that the pirates got the news that Tang Zhen had attacked their supply point, so they returned in full force.

Because they know that if all supply points are destroyed by the army, they will not be able to stand on the sea for a long time.

In the end, it was still a little late, and the last supply point was cleared by the army.

What was even more unlucky was that they ran into the route of the army.

There was nothing else to say at this time, they could only fight head-on. Only by temporarily blocking the first wave of attacks from the army could they leave.

However, the next battle did not go as they imagined, because the official army added a large number of small and medium-sized warships this time.

These small and medium-sized warships are no worse than their pirate ships in terms of flexibility. With these small and medium-sized warships constantly sticking up to slow them down, the large warships can launch surprise attacks on them when they slow down.

The battle continued like this for a day and a night, and the main force of the pirates was almost wiped out.

Of course, some pirate leaders still escaped.

Jia Rui looked at the military report and couldn't stop smiling. He patted the table and said yes.

Now, the imperial court could feel relaxed along the coast, and no longer had to worry about pirate attacks.

Of course, this is only a temporary phenomenon. If the Southern Barbarians are not wiped out, then in more than ten years the Southern Barbarians will recover and pirates will attack the coastal areas of the empire again.

However, the Nanman Kingdom has no chance, because one of the purposes of Jia Rui's visit this time is to destroy the Nanman Kingdom.

Jia Rui put down the envelope in his hand and asked, "Is there any news about Prince Nan'an?"

The soldier replied respectfully: "Your Excellency, we also interrogated the captives, and based on the prisoners' explanations, the King of Nan'an was sent back to the Nanman Kingdom."

Jia Rui nodded gently. He didn't care about the life or death of Prince Nan'an at all. The reason why he asked was because he wanted to report a message to the court.

After sending away the soldiers who came to deliver the message, Jia Rui immediately issued a military order and mobilized the troops in the south to join Fujian.

This time Jia Rui will use 150,000 elite troops from the south, coupled with a naval force of more than 50,000 people. The purpose is to regain Xiaoliuqiu and destroy the Nanman Kingdom.

As long as these two goals are achieved, the loss of some troops is acceptable.

The next step is to wait. After all, the area of ​​​​the South is not small. It will not be possible for these elite troops to reach Fujian in a few days. They have to go through a long journey of nearly a month.

In addition to mobilizing troops, Jia Rui's next step was to collect food and grass.

After all, if there is not enough food and grass for an expedition involving nearly 200,000 troops, if something goes wrong along the way, there is a risk of the whole army being annihilated.

Fortunately, as long as the Central Plains Dynasty had money, there was nothing they couldn't buy.

As the money poured out like water, countless grains and grass began to gather in Fujian.

After a month of preparations, the food supplies for the nearly 200,000 troops were prepared and all loaded on transport ships, waiting to set off at the Fujian dock at any time.

Next, Jia Rui personally led hundreds of thousands of troops onto the ship.

Considering that nearly 150,000 troops need transport ships, that is not a small number.

Fortunately, there are many merchant ships along the coast of Jiangnan. Many of these merchant ships are smuggling ships captured by Jia Rui during his last attack on the local tyrants.

These smuggling ships were enough to transport an army of 150,000 people.

Therefore, this time the army was dispatched, the sea was covered with sails, almost covering the entire sea surface. From a distance, only the shadows of the ships could be seen but not the water.

Jia Rui did not choose any auspicious day, but set out immediately after the army gathered. Afterwards, the naval battleship was outside, the troop transport ship was in the middle, and the grain transport ship was inside. The army left Fuzhou Pier in a mighty manner and headed straight for Xiaoliuqiu.

In fact, many Han people cultivated Xiaoliuqiu in this era. However, because the indigenous people there were very fierce, life for the Han people was not easy.

No matter how difficult it was, these Han people had no intention of leaving Xiaoliuqiu, because they were all important criminals of the imperial court or people who could not survive. They had no choice but to escape to Xiaoliuqiu.

However, at noon today, these people were too scared to eat.

Because they saw countless battleships on the sea coming towards Ryukyu. Judging from the flags on the battleships, they should be the imperial army.

Each of these people had earth-colored faces, and some of them could no longer stand firm.

They all made mistakes on the mainland and then fled to Ryukyu. They thought that Emperor Shan Gao's court could not do anything to them. But looking at this situation, even if they fled to Ryukyu, they would not be able to escape the punishment of the court in the end.

Now they were in no mood to run, and besides, they had no place to run.

They are surrounded by various indigenous tribes, and if they escape there, they may be pickled as meat.

Rather than ending up with a whole corpse, it would be better to wait here for the imperial army to arrive, and maybe there will be a chance for mercy.

In this way, Jia Rui's army approached Ryukyu and found four to five hundred Han people kneeling there. The leading officer didn't know what was going on, so he sent a soldier over to ask what was going on.

There is nothing to say. Since they are criminals, they should be arrested first. With an order, the first batch of Han criminals who saw Jia Rui's army were arrested.

This news was immediately sent to Jia Rui.

The second time I boarded the ship, I didn’t get seasick in Jia Rui, and I gradually adapted to life at sea.

Now I can still drink tea and eat fried dried fish leisurely, and joke with my maid Hualan.

It was at this time that Tang Zhen came to see Jia Rui.

After Jia Rui agreed, Tang Zhen entered the cabin accompanied by his soldiers.

"Why are you here?" Jia Rui asked, putting down the teacup in his hand.

"Sir, we just landed and captured dozens of fugitives."

"Where did the fugitive come from?"

"My lord, you all made mistakes on the mainland. In order to avoid punishment from the imperial court, you finally fled to Xiaoliuqiu. I heard from these fugitives that there are nearly 10,000 people in Xiaoliuqiu, and they have all escaped over the years."

Jia Rui frowned and felt a little incredible. Are the security conditions along the coast so bad? There have been more than 10,000 fugitives over the years?

"Sir, not all of these people are fugitives. A large part of them can no longer live in the countryside, so they fled to Ryukyu Island to make a living."

So that's it. Jia Rui nodded, and then said: "Except for the most heinous of these fugitives, the others are all included in the army as military guides."

Jia Rui didn't know much about the terrain of Ryukyu Island. These people had lived on Ryukyu Island for many years and should be very familiar with the local terrain. Being a guide was more than enough and it could be considered as redemption.

"My lord, I will make arrangements right now." After Tang Zhen finished speaking, he bowed and left.

The army began to land slowly. Although it was attacked several times by the indigenous people, they were just scratches for the army and did not cause any damage.

After the hundreds of thousands of troops landed, they were divided into seven or eight groups under Jia Rui's order and began to spread to the entire Ryukyu Island.

Wherever they passed, as long as all the indigenous people dared to resist, all the men, old people and children were executed, so that the young women could save their lives.

This horrific massacre lasted for a month, and the entire Ryukyu Island was under the control of Jia Rui.

During this time, Ryukyu's indigenous population decreased by two-thirds.

However, this number was not reported to Jia Rui, and Jia Rui was not interested in hearing it. He just wanted to occupy the entire Ryukyu Islands at a faster speed. As long as this goal was achieved, Jia Rui didn't care how many people died.

After completely controlling Ryukyu, Jia Rui immediately wrote a memorial to the court. On the one hand, he asked the court to send officials to manage it, and on the other hand, he asked the court to immigrate 500,000 people to Ryukyu.

Only when Ryukyu is filled with Han people can the imperial court completely control Ryukyu.

Sending officials was very simple. A few days later, some frustrated officials were sent from Fujian.

After all, Ryukyu is now a barren land. As long as there is some connection, who will come here?

In order to show his respect, Jia Rui still met these unlucky people. In order to encourage these frustrated officials, Jia Rui painted pie for them on the spot.

"Don't be discouraged. This is a good opportunity. With the development of Liuqiu, some credit is due. If we don't manage it well, it will be stronger than the inland area in the future."

Of course, there were other words besides these, but the officials below did not believe a word of it.

Jia Rui saw that the effect of his encouragement was not very good, so in the end he could only hold his nose and leave.

Anyway, Ryukyu has been taken, and the imperial court is responsible for other matters. He, a commander outside, cannot take care of these things.

Another important reason for Jia Rui to let go is that Ryukyu is too poor at this time and has no benefits. Jia Rui does not want to waste his energy here.

If Ryukyu Island were filled with gold and silver, do you think Jia Rui would let go?

After this period of repair, the army has regained its combat effectiveness. Without saying a word, Jia Rui set off again and headed straight for the Nanman Kingdom in the east of the Celestial Kingdom.

The Nanman Kingdom is not close to each other on the sea. Fortunately, they are not far from North Korea. Jia Rui directly occupied a large island in North Korea as a supply base.

When North Korean officials learned that the Chinese army was going to use this island as a supply base to conquer the Southern Barbarians, they not only did not object, but were overjoyed.

Three days later, the Korean king also sent a large amount of food.

As everyone said, as a vassal state of the Celestial Dynasty, and the Celestial Kingdom wanted to conquer the non-subordinates, they naturally had to do their part, so they sent food to show their appreciation.

Moreover, there was a lot of food sent. Jia Rui later counted the food, which was enough for the army to feed for a month.

Jia Rui actually didn't understand how the North Korean country could prepare so much food. You know, Jia Rui in China also had to go to great lengths to prepare food and grass, and it was bought with free money.

You must know that the small country of North Korea, which is only equivalent to a province of China, can actually prepare so much food, which makes Jia Rui look at North Korea's food reserves with admiration.

(End of this chapter)