Night.
Ke Qing quietly appeared in Li Chao's study.
Li Chao sat cross-legged on the kang, looking at the book under the whale oil lamp.
"According to your intelligence estimates, when will the battle of Liaodong end, and when will Your Majesty return to Beijing" Li Chao raised his head and asked.
"According to the intelligence summary and analysis of the shadows, the battle of Liaodong has reached a critical moment.
The Goguryeo people were already exhausted and short of food and grass, and they could not even survive this winter.
Now many Goguryeo people have no intention of fighting, and only Eulji Wendeok is still holding on.
We predict that many people will surrender in Goguryeo this winter, which will trigger a chain reaction, and the war will end without waiting for next year. ” "I had expected this result for a long time."
Li Chao chuckled, "Don't look at the Goguryeo people who can last for three years, but although they still have no less than 200,000 troops, the elite losses are huge, and these 200,000 people are already mixed with too many old and weak."
At the same time, they have lost the support of the Tatars, and they have reached the point of collapse. ” This winter, the Goguryeo people finally collapsed and perished, so Li Shimin will be able to come back next year.
In the three years that the emperor has been absent from Hanjing, Li Chao's life has been quite easy.
Next year, when the emperor returns with a great victory over the destruction of Goguryeo, this easy situation may be coming to an end.
"There is a letter from the Hou of Vietnam."
"You say."
"He has already recruited and trained 30,000 sailors in the South China Sea according to Saburo's request.
At present, there are more than 300 large and small warships, 10,000 crew sailors and 20,000 marines. ” Li Chao nodded.
"San Lang, it is very dangerous to take the risk of building such a large private army.
Once the court knows, this is a great crime of rebellion. ” "Of course I do."
"San Lang, I have a sentence, don't vomit and be unhappy.
Why did you build this private army and take such a big risk?"
"Be prepared."
Li Chao said.
"What is Saburo guarding against?"
"Guarding against the Emperor."
Li Chao did not hide it from Ke Qing.
The demise of Goguryeo was imminent, and Li Shimin's exploits became more and more successful.
The crown prince is also an adult, and Li Chao doesn't know how Li Shimin's mood will change.
In case one day, Li Shimin wants to get rid of Li Chao and escort the prince, then he will not be wronged.
Moreover, Li Chao has always had a dream in his heart to establish a constitutional monarchy in the Tang Dynasty.
In six years, six years, Li Chao and Zhang Zhongjian secretly established such a large team on the island of the South Seas, which is a force in the dark.
Compared with Li Chao's forces on the surface of Liuqiu Island, the guards and militias in the fiefdoms of Liaonan, Zhao Guoling, Dawan Valley, and Wolf Mountain North, as well as the guards of the Li family's industry, this private army in the South Seas is stronger and more secretive, and at the same time more concentrated.
Li Chao's various territories and the number of guards and guards in various industries add up, but they are very scattered, and it is really difficult to mobilize them quickly.
So, having is almost the same as not having it.
Even places like Liuqiu and Zhao Guoling, where there are more soldiers and horses, are also being watched more closely.
What Li Chao needs is a force that can play a role at a critical time.
This is also the reason why he took a big risk and spent six years with Zhang Zhongjian to build this 30,000-strong navy.
All the soldiers and horses in Li Chao's hands now can add up to 100,000 people, including his various territories, as well as the guards of those industries, as well as the Li family's slave hunting team, and even armed merchant ships.
It's just that it's too scattered, thousands here, hundreds there, and dozens here, and they can't form a force.
Ke Qing was silent for a while, and asked the question that had been pressed in his heart for a long time.
"Did Saburo ever think about changing the dynasty?"
"Did Saburo ever think about changing his face and becoming a king on his own?"
Li Chao shook his head, "The name of the Tang Dynasty is very good, Sui ended the division of the world for hundreds of years since the Wei and Jin dynasties, and then the second died."
Now the Tang Dynasty is only the second, it has only been 18 years since the founding of the country, and the world is already rare and prosperous. ” "I don't want to see all this destroyed by war" "What is Saburo doing now?"
"In order to keep this prosperity" Ke Qing didn't quite understand, but felt more confused.
"Saburo now has 30,000 navies in his hands, what should he do next?"
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"Don't worry, I won't transfer them north to start a war."
Li Chao guessed what Ke Qing was worried about, Ke Qing trusted and loyal Li Chao 100%, but even he was worried about Li Chao's rebellion.
No one wants to see a rebellion, the world is Chang'an, prosperous and rich, if Li Chao provokes a war, even if Li Chao has a very high prestige now, I am afraid that there are not many people to support him.
What's more, the Tang Dynasty is now thriving, and the soldiers are all over the world, and there is no chance of winning if it rebels at this time.
Ke Qing was afraid that Li Chao was blindfolded by power.
"On the north shore of the state of Vietnam, there is Phu Nam and Chin La, and now Phu Nam and Chin La are still fighting.
In the southwest of Vietnam, there is a long and narrow peninsula about the size of Quang Nam and Vietnam, Phu Nam, and Lam Ap combined.
To the south of this peninsula is another huge island across a narrow strait. ” "Now on that island, there is a kingdom called Sri Buddha, who is not weak, they have conquered many kingdoms on the big island, and now they are attacking the states on the other side of the strait."
Sri Buddha died, a country on the island of Sumatra, a maritime power that embraced Mahayana Buddhism.
Its territory is thousands of miles from east to west and 4,000 miles from north to south.
Especially now, having almost unified the island of Sumatra, they have begun to invade the Malay Peninsula across the Straits of Malacca.
In recent years, the maritime trade between the east and the west of the Tang Dynasty has been extremely prosperous, especially three years ago, after the Tang Dynasty signed a friendship treaty with Rome, the Tang Dynasty and Rome allied, and the Tang Dynasty sold many weapons and armor to Rome to support them in fighting against Persia.
By now, Rome had recaptured almost half of Egypt, and the merchant ships of the Tang Dynasty had been able to sail directly from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean, and even directly to the port of Constantinople.
The all-round trade with Rome made the Tang Dynasty extremely rich every year, and at the same time, the Li family, the main participants in this trade, made a lot of wealth from it.
Even a year ago, Li Chao formulated a plan, Cheng Qian ordered, with the support and help of Li Ji Shipping, Nanyang Trade and many other maritime merchants, the Tang army set out from the major ports of Guangzhou, Qinzhou, and Jiaozhou, lasted several months, and finally reached the mouth of the Indus River.
The Tang army's expedition this time was to fulfill the alliance in the friendship agreement between the Tang Dynasty and Rome, and to take the opportunity to seize the entrance from Tocharian to the Indian Ocean from Persia.
The other is the fertile land of the Indus River Plain, which is also very attractive to the Tang Dynasty.
Even for the many maritime merchants of the Tang Dynasty, it was very helpful to have their own port at the mouth of the Indus River.
The Romans stormed Egypt, while the Tang Dynasty attacked the Persian army west of later Makistan.
The Persians were already in civil strife, and with attacks from both sides, they were defeated.
The Tang expeditionary fleet quickly seized both sides of the Indus River and marched north all the way to the mountain pass from the Hindu Kush to India.
Subsequently, over the course of a year, the Tang expeditionary fleet joined forces with the Tang army in the Western Regions west of the Hindu Kush Mountains to capture the southern mountains of Tochar and hit the coast.
Now the Tang army is going to Tocharo, Lingbei, Xihai, and Guishan, in fact, it is faster to take the sea route.
Starting from the southeast coast, sail to the mouth of the Indus River, then change boats to sail north to the middle reaches of the Indus River, and then change the chariot and horse land route to the north to the mountain pass of the Hindu Kush Mountain, and arrive at the fine willow city of the Great Xia Road, to the north is the Wuhu River, and then to the north is the Dawan Valley of the Li family.
Although it may seem like a longer distance, with today's sailing technology, the mileage has been greatly reduced.
Thanks to the capture of the Indus Plain, Tocharian was no longer an unattainable enclave.
And by lifting the Kush Pass, the Indus Plain, which was taken from the Persians, is also relied on, not an overseas enclave.
Datang has established Xindu Port at the mouth of the river, which has also become an important supply port for Datang's maritime trade fleet.
It is precisely because Datang has such an important trade and territory in the west that the Strait of Malacca is also very important to Datang.
And now Sri Buddha's invasion of the Malay Peninsula has made the strait no longer calm and safe.
"We're going to take this Golden Peninsula."
Occupying the Malay Peninsula, which Li Chao named the Golden Peninsula, is to ensure the control and security of the strait, and secondly, of course, to lay a piece of territory overseas as Li Chao's last base.
It can be used both as a base camp for an offensive and as a retreat in case of unfavorable circumstances.
"Will the Imperial Court allow it?"
"The sky is high and the emperor is far away, as long as we are not too high-profile, then the court will not know."
Even if the imperial court knows, as long as Li Chao and Zhang Zhongjian hide their information, and no one knows that they are the owners behind this fleet, then this force can be disguised as a pirate.
A group of pirates far away at the southern tip of the South Seas, even if they go to capture the island territory of the natives, Datang can't manage so much.
Listening to what Li Chao described, Ke Qing said, "San Lang, why don't you just let go of these in the Central Plains and conquer the Nanyang Islands and establish a maritime dynasty."
"If I didn't have that dream, then I would really set sail and take you to lay a big territory in the South Seas and establish a dynasty on the sea.
However, I have more ambitious goals than building a dynasty at sea. ” "Bigger Goals" "I hope that the Tang Dynasty, or the Chinese Empire, can stand for a thousand years without falling, and I hope that the empire will not go through a cycle of chaos once every two or three hundred years.
I hope that Huaxia can get out of the small circle of the Central Plains and go to a broader place, where the world is so vast that there is no need to keep fighting in the Central Plains. ” Ke Qing was dumbfounded, this dream was so tall. t1706231537: