The small wooden boat was not big. It was only six or seven meters long at most and less than two meters wide. It was a flat-bottomed boat and weighed only a few hundred kilograms. Ten people could easily lift it.
The pirate leader and a dozen of his subordinates quietly lifted the small wooden boat in the crevice of the cliff and walked towards the beach. They planned to take the small wooden boat and secretly leave this island. They would run to the neighboring island to avoid this disaster.
Six wooden oars were prepared on the small wooden boat, which was enough for a dozen of them to quickly leave the island. Moreover, the small wooden boat was a relatively small target. Under normal circumstances, it was difficult to be discovered.
"Row, row with all your strength. Get out of here quickly."
The pirate leader no longer wanted to fight against the Tang Army. Escape became the only thought in his mind. After all, he was not a fool. After several rounds of artillery bombardment, he had already understood the powerful combat effectiveness of the Tang Army. Unless there was something wrong with his brain, he would not continue to fight against the Tang Army.
However, it was not so easy to escape. On the open sea, even a small wooden boat could not escape the eyes of the Tang Dynasty's soldiers. This was because the Tang Dynasty's steam gunboats were equipped with a variety of telescopes. As long as they found a floating object on the sea, they could observe it more carefully and judge what it was.
At this moment, the two steam gunboats of the Tang Army's navy were deployed on both sides of the island. Together with the main fleet on the front, they formed a three-sided siege on the island occupied by the pirates.
Therefore, no matter which direction the pirates fled in, it was difficult for them to escape the surveillance of the Tang Army's soldiers. It could be said that they could not escape even if they had wings.
In fact, night was a very good time to escape. After all, the Tang Army's navy was not equipped with night vision equipment, so they were most likely to escape. However, these pirates could not wait any longer. The island was only so big. The Tang Army had divided into ten groups to search. They felt that the longer they stayed, the more dangerous it would be. They might be discovered by the Tang Army's search team at any time. Therefore, immediately evacuating the island was the best way out.
It was difficult for ordinary ships to approach the shoal because the water was too shallow. Ships with a slightly larger draft would be in danger of running aground. However, the ships that the pirates used to escape were small flat boats. Moreover, they were not cumbersome and could be rowed away by directly carrying them to the shore.
Dominated by the desire to survive, these pirates rowed very fast, almost catching up with the dragon boat race. However, the more they did so, the more suspicious they became.
A steam gunship of the Tang Army, which was blockading in the distance, discovered the abnormal situation on the sea and immediately observed it carefully. After discovering that the other party was a pirate who was trying to escape, it immediately fired its cannons to intercept, making it difficult for the pirate's small wooden boat to move forward.
The cannonballs landed on the pirates' path of escape, creating huge water pillars. This blocked the pirates' hope of escape, and they had no choice but to turn back. However, the path of return was quickly blocked by the cannonballs.
All around them were huge water pillars. The pirates were completely at a loss. They didn't know where to go. It seemed that they were really at a dead end.
The Tang Army officers and soldiers were obviously toying with the pirates. They deliberately attacked from all sides so that the pirates had no way out. They also used binoculars to observe the pirates' panicked expressions.
"Boom, boom, boom …"
After playing for a while, the Tang Army officers and soldiers felt a little tired. They all aimed at the pirate's small wooden boat and launched a fierce salvo, annihilating all the pirates on the small wooden boat.
The poor pirates were annihilated just like that. They might have been annihilated before they could even figure out who the other party was.
The news of the victory was quickly sent back to Ang Lee.
"Great, the steam gunship on the right side has annihilated more than a dozen pirates in one breath, including the pirate leader. In this way, there are not many pirates left on the island. It's estimated that there are only 20 or 30 pirates left. They can no longer form a powerful force. Your Majesty can rest assured."
Ang Lee said happily.
Of course, King Shilifoshi was very happy. He nodded and said softly, "This is all thanks to Assistant Minister Li and the warriors of the Tang Dynasty. The remaining pirates are no longer a threat. If we can't annihilate the remaining pirates by tomorrow, I will leave 100 warriors here until the remaining pirates are completely annihilated."
Ang Lee nodded and said, "Okay, we will leave here early tomorrow morning. However, in one day, I will go to Khaling Country."
"Assistant Minister Li, Khaling Country is to the east of our Shilifoshi. The pirates there are also quite serious. The soldiers of the Tang Dynasty can show their skills again."
King Shilifoshi said.
Ang Lee then asked about the specific situation of Khaling Country so that he could be fully prepared when he arrived at Khaling Country the day after tomorrow.
That night, a few surfboards were ready. However, it was too dark at night to test them. They could only wait until dawn tomorrow to test them.
Li An personally inspected these surfboards, and then based on his impression of the surfboards, he preliminarily determined that these surfboards were all qualified and fully capable of meeting the requirements of surfing. However, whether they were really competent or not, he would not know until tomorrow morning.
At night, all the troops of the Tang Army stopped tracking the island and withdrew to a position close to the port to avoid being attacked by the remaining pirates in the unfamiliar jungle. That would not be worth the loss. In addition, all the troops were deployed on the beach, which was also beneficial for protecting Ang Lee and King Shilifoshi.
The next morning, Ang Lee got up early and received a lot of good news. The first was that at night, the remaining pirates secretly came to look for food. They were discovered by the patrolling soldiers and killed.
The second was the good news sent by Zhang Batian, who said that many businessmen had decided to invest and build factories in Nanyang countries. The third good news came from the exploration team. They had found the strategic oil resource near Wen Country and had reported it to the imperial court of the Tang Dynasty.
Among the three pieces of good news, the last one was the most exciting for Li An. In his impression, there were oil deposits in the Nanyang region, but he was not sure where exactly they were. Therefore, based on his impression, he sent the exploration team to the Nanyang region to explore and discover this important strategic resource in the Nanyang region.
In addition to oil, various rare resources such as coal and iron ore were also found in Nanyang, which were enough to support the entire industrial system of the Tang Empire.
Therefore, as long as these resources in Nanyang countries were all exploited, they could provide very convenient and affordable supplies for the Tang Dynasty overseas. Thus, Nanyang would become the supply station of the Tang Dynasty's Maritime Silk Road, and it would be convenient for the Tang Dynasty to continue to go further.
It was also a very important and good thing that the businessmen of the Tang Dynasty were willing to come to Nanyang to mine resources. Only when the businessmen of the Tang Dynasty came to mine resources and built workshops in Nanyang countries could Nanyang become the supply station for the Tang Dynasty's voyage. Without the participation of the businessmen of the Tang Dynasty, the countries along the way could only supply food and water for the Tang Dynasty's caravans at most.
With the rise of the ocean trade and shipbuilding industry of the Tang Dynasty, more and more ships would shuttle between Nanyang countries in the future. Even many distant countries would choose to buy the advanced ships of the Tang Dynasty, and these advanced ships needed coal and stone as the power source.
If coal and oil could not be mined in Nanyang countries as soon as possible, it would not be cost-effective to rely only on the coal and oil transported from the Tang Dynasty. If the transportation cost was too high, the cost of refueling the ships would also be very high, which would greatly hurt the ocean trade of the Tang Empire and all the businessmen engaged in ocean trade.
If resources such as coal and oil were mined locally in Nanyang countries, there would be almost no transportation cost. In addition, the labor cost in Nanyang countries was lower. As long as it was properly managed, the cost of mining in these small countries would be much lower than that of the Tang Dynasty, and the price of refueling would be much lower than that of the Tang Empire. This would greatly promote the Maritime Silk Road created by the Tang Empire, making this maritime trade route a real way to get rich.
Of course, in addition to providing supplies for the ocean ships, the businessmen of the Tang Dynasty also invested in Nanyang countries. This was a process of using the resources of these countries to make the Tang Dynasty rich. It was a very good behavior.
In addition, after the businessmen of the Tang Dynasty had a stable foothold in these countries, they were bound to bring their families over, so that they could play the role of immigrants. After these immigrants increased, these countries along the way would gradually be assimilated by the Tang Empire, and forever become vassal countries of the Tang Empire.
As for the situation that the people of the countries along the way would hate the rich after the businessmen of the Tang Dynasty became rich, Ang Lee had also considered. The people of the Hua Xia Empire in the future did better in Nanyang. Almost all of them were rich, but because they were not the main population, they were hated by the main population of the local people, and even massacred on a large scale.
This massacre caused great losses to the Hua Xia Empire, and also made the Hua Xia Empire lose face. Some of the people of the Hua Xia Empire did not even dare to call themselves Hua Xia people. Some of them even took the nationality of other countries as an honor, feeling that they had finally gotten rid of the identity of the people of Hua Xia. They even called their own compatriots maggots, which was simply too horrible.
Of course, this kind of thing could only happen in the poor and weak Hua Xia Empire in the future. Today, the Tang Empire was extremely powerful, had huge interests overseas, and also had a lot of garrisons. If these small countries dared to be presumptuous, the elite troops of the Tang Empire would soon arrive at the city gates and kill all the unfriendly people.
The interests of the people of the Tang Dynasty abroad could not be infringed. This was the bottom line of the Tang Empire, and the countries along the way must abide by it. Moreover, the Tang Empire had the strength to make the countries along the way obey it. Therefore, in the era of the Tang Dynasty, there was no need to worry about the people of the countries along the way hating and expelling the people of the Tang Dynasty. Unless these people along the way were tired of living, they could just treat them as pirates and kill them all.
As for killing a few more pirates at night, Ang Lee was not too excited. This achievement was too small, and could not be compared with the businessmen opening factories and discovering strategic resources. It could only be said to be a small joy.
Of course, happy things should be shared with others, so that they could be happier and happier.
After receiving the good news, Ang Lee immediately told King Shilifoshi and pointed out that there were several important resources in Shilifoshi that needed to be exploited.
"Oh, this is really good news. It's a pity that it's near the Wen Kingdom and not in Shilifoshi. Now, in Shilifoshi, only iron and coal can be exploited by the Tang Dynasty's businessmen."
King Shilifoshi said.
Ang Lee smiled and said, "There are already a lot of iron and coal, and oil will be discovered sooner or later. Also, there are a lot of trees in Shilifoshi, and they can all be exploited. It won't be a problem to build ten thousand workshops."
Building workshops could greatly promote the economic development of Shilifoshi, and it would be greatly beneficial to Shilifoshi. However, building ten thousand workshops was a bit exaggerated. Shilifoshi did not have a large population, so where could they recruit so many people to build ten thousand workshops? However, it was still more realistic to open a hundred workshops.
"Assistant Minister Li, don't worry. As long as your businessmen are willing to come to Shilifoshi to open a workshop, Xiao Wang will fully support them. We will not make things difficult for them, and we will even give them some preferential treatment."
King Shilifoshi said with a smile. This was simply an investment!
Ang Lee nodded and said, "Good, good, good. It's decided then. I believe there will be many Tang Dynasty businessmen coming to Shilifoshi to open a workshop. You can just wait to make a fortune!"
Most of the benefits were taken by the Tang Dynasty businessmen, but Ang Lee was not embarrassed at all. After all, all the technology was in the Tang Dynasty, and the locals were the type who were extremely incompetent. Without technology, they could only drink soup, and the meat was prepared for those with technology.
"By the way, Assistant Minister Li, how is the surfboard you mentioned yesterday? Can you let Xiao Wang take a look?"
King Shilifoshi asked curiously.
At this moment, what he was most interested in was not the Tang Dynasty businessmen coming to his country to open a workshop, nor was it when his country would discover oil deposits. Instead, he wanted to see the surfboard that Ang Lee mentioned with his own eyes to satisfy his curiosity.
Ang Lee said with a smile, "The surfboard was ready last night, but it was late, so we did not test it. However, I have already sent people to test it this morning. I don't know how they are doing now."
When he woke up early in the morning, after selecting a few soldiers who were good at swimming, Ang Lee asked them to follow his instructions and go to the beach to practice surfing. Such a dangerous job, Ang Lee would not do it himself. It was too dangerous. It was better to let the ordinary soldiers do it.
"Assistant Minister Li, let's go and have a look!"
King Shilifoshi said with a smile.
Ang Lee nodded and said, "Okay, let's go and have a look. Let's go! "
The two walked together and soon arrived at the beach. They saw several Tang Dynasty soldiers practicing surfing.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
