Capital Datang

Later generations of Ceylon Island is a world-famous tourist destination and was once called the most beautiful island in the world. Although this sentence may not be accurate, it is enough to explain the beauty of Ceylon Island.

There is a strait between the island of Ceylon and the mainland of Tianzhu, which is also named after Ceylon. There are several small islands in the strait. When the Tamils ​​on the mainland of Tianzhu migrated to Ceylon, these small islands were the first to arrive. Therefore, although these islands are small in size, they have a large population. In addition, this strait is a communication channel connecting the east and west sides of Tianzhu, and there are many boats coming and going, which makes this place look very prosperous. .

These small islands are small and there is no way to grow food at all, so the residents on the islands live by fishing. When encountering ships passing by, they often take small boats to sell the dried fish produced to the crew on these ships. It's just that this kind of selling is of a semi-forced nature. According to the size of the ships, they must buy a certain amount of dried fish from these fishermen, otherwise they will not be able to get out of the strait at all.

When the huge fleet of Li Zhen and Li Yun entered the Strait of Ceylon, they encountered such a situation of forced buying and selling, and those natives driving small boats were not afraid of the huge fleet at all, hundreds of small boats were densely packed Standing in front of the fleet, they yelled arrogantly for them to buy fish. Li Zhen and Li Yun didn't know what these natives were doing at first, but after Zhao Qiu's translation and explanation, they finally understood what these natives were doing. the meaning of.

In fact, it is no wonder that these natives are arrogant. This is mainly because at the southern end of the Tianzhu continent, the Tamils ​​are the overlords here, although there are countless large and small forces within the Tamils.However, they are still very united with the outside world, and there is no need for the passing fleet to offend this local snake for the few money they sell dried fish.After all, the Tamils ​​on these small islands are inextricably linked with some Tamil forces.Offending them is equivalent to offending the forces behind these people, so most people choose to surrender to each other. Anyway, the money is not in vain, and they can also get dried fish. Although the quality of these dried fish is not very good, they still eat Undead.Capital Datang 517

But today these Tamils ​​finally hit the iron plate. Li Zhen and Li Yun did not represent Datang to spread light and benevolence, but to carry out violent aggression, so they faced these Tamils ​​blocking the way.Li Zhen immediately gave the order to move on, using the huge hull to overturn all these small boats. Li Zhen even issued a killing order, following the example of Zhu Chong in destroying the pirates, and shot all the Tamils ​​who fell into the water. Although Yun felt a little cruel, he didn't stop it after thinking about it.

After eliminating this small obstacle, Li Zhen and Li Yun commanded the fleet to capture all the small islands in the strait in batches.And the methods are also very cruel. Any Tamil who resists will be wiped out by him, as for the remaining Tamils.They were all loaded on the ship and sent to the island of Ceylon.So in just a few days, the entire Strait of Ceylon has fallen into the hands of Li Zhen and Li Yun.

For this sudden invasion of foreign forces.Both sides of the Strait of Ceylon responded quickly.Among them, the island of Ceylon is divided into two, and the south of the island is the sphere of influence of the Sinhalese.The northern part of the island and the Straits of Ceylon belong to the sphere of influence of the Tamils.The Tamil people on the island reacted immediately after learning that the strait was taken over by Li Zhen's huge fleet.A group of hundreds of medium-sized warships was sent into the strait, trying to drive Li Zhen and the others out.

The Tamils ​​on the island of Ceylon have formed a unified Tamil Kingdom, occupying half of the island of Ceylon. Among the various forces in South India, they can be regarded as a medium force. They can send a hundred medium warships at a time. It is the elite navy that has exhausted the whole country.It is also worth mentioning that, in the eyes of Li Zhen and the others, the so-called medium warships are already the largest warships they can own for the various forces in South Tianzhu.

However, when these long and narrow warships faced Zhu Chong's more than a dozen main warships, they were almost dead. These warships were comparable to Zhu Chong's in terms of basic aspects such as speed, size, flexibility, and weapons and equipment. The main battleships of Chong are very different, especially each main battleship is equipped with fifty artillery pieces, and the combat method has long since abandoned the side-to-side battle, and the opponent's warship can be blasted into the bottom of the sea with only artillery.

It is precisely because of such a huge gap that when the warships of the Tamil Kingdom encountered Zhu Chong's warships, the whole battle was nothing new. First, they were bombarded by the artillery of more than a dozen warships. At least half of the battleships The ship was directly blasted into the bottom of the sea, and the rest of the ship was damaged. In order to save ammunition, Zhu Chong immediately ordered the ship to adjust the speed to the maximum, and then slammed into it viciously. Under the impact and the pressure of the high bow, the remaining warships did not escape their fate. Maybe after a thousand years, someone will find these shipwrecks in the Strait of Ceylon, and then slowly study this east-to-west movement. first war.

The result of this "First Ceylon Naval Battle", which was called "the first Ceylon naval battle" by later generations, was doomed as early as the beginning. The elite navy of the Tamil Kingdom was lost in one day, and the remaining navy only had some small warships. It's okay to go to the port, but it's just a dream to fight with others, and the construction of the pro-warship is not a day or two, so they temporarily lose the ability to compete at sea.

A Tamil force in South Tianzhu originally sent a fleet, but after hearing the result of the naval battle, they were frightened and immediately let the fleet return.However, these Tamils ​​are very united with the outside world, and they are not reconciled to failure. Some leaders of the Tamil forces in South Tianzhu spontaneously gathered together to discuss the matter of fighting against foreign invaders.

Although the Tamils ​​are very united with the outside world, and they are also very hostile to the sudden arrival of outsiders, after more than a month of quarreling, they still failed to come up with a practical plan. Some of them proposed to gather all forces The navy is fighting to the death with the opponent on the sea, but the result of the last naval battle has made everyone feel terrified, and the Tamil royal family on the island of Ceylon has the strongest navy among them. Now even the Tamil kingdom has been defeated. They probably won't work together.

But if there is no navy, the Tamils ​​have nothing to do with Li Zhen and the others, so in the end these Tamils ​​can only think of one way, which is to block the entire coast of South Tianzhu, prohibiting Li Zhen and their ships from docking, and prohibiting South Tianzhu businessmen make deals with each other.It is impossible for Li Zhen and the others to stay on the sea all the time, and they must need supplies, but now that there is no one in Nantianzhu to trade with them, they will not get supplies, and they will naturally leave at that time.

However, when Li Zhen learned that the Tamils ​​in South Tianzhu used this method to deal with them, she laughed. What they want is the hostility of the Tamils ​​towards them. There is also a Sinhala Kingdom on Ceylon, and the other party is the old enemy of the Tamils. Now that I am at odds with the Tamils, I believe that as long as the Sinhalese have some brains, they will treat them as honored guests.

In fact, on the second day after Zhu Chong wiped out the navy of the Tamil royal family, Wang Xuance took a mission composed of several eminent monks from the Tang Dynasty and took a boat to the Kingdom of Sinhala with all kinds of rare gifts. .The current king of Sinhala is named Xin Keya, and he is a devout Buddhist. In fact, this is also a characteristic of the Sinhala Kingdom. His ability will also determine whether a prince can inherit the throne, and since Xin Keya can defeat other brothers to ascend to the throne, he is naturally very profound in Buddhism.

As a ruler, Xin Keya naturally understands that the enemy of the enemy is his friend, so he naturally welcomes Wang Xuance's arrival, especially in the previous naval battle, which made him see the strength in Li Zhen's hands. This also won his respect, so he welcomed Wang Xuance into the city very grandly.

The Kingdom of Sinhala is also known as the Kingdom of Lions, and the name of the capital is Lion City. The most magnificent buildings in the city are not palaces, but huge temples. Buddha statues of all sizes can be seen everywhere on the roads, among which monks wearing monk robes are especially He is respected, and even some nobles who are traveling in cars will take the initiative to give way when they encounter monks traveling.Even the king had to find a way to make himself lower than the head of the monk when he was talking to the monk, so as to show his respect for the Buddha.

Seeing this situation, Wang Xuance, who came to the Lion Kingdom for the first time, was also secretly amazed that Buddhism was flourishing in the Tang Dynasty, but compared with the Sinhalese here, it was much worse.As for the eminent Tang monks who came with him, tears welled up in their eyes, thinking that this is the real Buddhist country, and they had already made up their minds to stay no matter what.

After Xin Keya invited the mission into the main hall of the palace, Wang Xuance immediately presented various gifts, which were actually nothing more than silk porcelain and some gadgets, such as precious knives and swords made of fine steel, The exquisitely crafted glass crafts, Buddha statues carved from suet white jade, etc., are all flashy things.

However, these things are very precious gifts to Xin Keya, especially the three-foot-high Jade Buddha statue, which makes him regard it as a treasure, and even said on the spot that he would pay for the construction of a Jade Buddha Temple, and put this Respect the Jade Buddha and let people all over the country come to worship!

Wang Xuance is a literati, and he has a lot of research on Buddhism, but he can't understand Xin Keya's fanatical religious beliefs. After all, in his opinion, no matter what religion it is, it is a tool for the superior to rule the people. The Sinhala kingdom is the other way around. Religion will rule the entire kingdom. Xin Keya, the lord of the country, is willing to spend a lot of national power to build a superfluous temple just for a mere Buddha statue?This made Wang Xuance, who is a disciple of Confucianism, unimaginable! (to be continued...)