Ang Lee had never eaten elephant meat, and he didn't know what the meat of such a huge animal tasted like. To be honest, he was quite curious.
Now that Geguro had killed an injured elephant, Ang Lee had the luck to taste the elephant meat.
During dinner, there were several plates of elephant meat on the table. There was elephant trunk meat, elephant leg meat, and elephant belly meat. The taste of each meat was different, and the difference was quite big.
However, after eating, Ang Lee was a little disappointed, because the elephant meat was actually not delicious. It was really not delicious, especially the leg meat. It was coarser than beef. If it wasn't for his teeth, he wouldn't be able to bite it at all.
Because the elephant meat was not delicious, all the poachers would not take the elephant meat, but only the elephant's tusks.
The most valuable part of an elephant should be its long tusks. All the poachers would cruelly kill elephants and be willing to die in order to get the tusks. After killing the elephant, they would take the tusks and sell them on the black market, making a lot of money to satisfy their material needs.
In the later generations of the African continent, wild elephants were often hunted. Even if there were guards, it was useless because the price of ivory was too expensive. In the face of huge profits, it was impossible for poachers not to be tempted. Even if they risked their lives, they would still take the risk to poach elephants.
There is a good saying that capitalists will take risks when they have fifty percent of the profits; when they have one hundred percent of the profits, they will dare to trample on all the laws of the world; when they have three hundred percent of the profits, they will dare to risk the gallows.
This showed that in the face of benefits, people's resistance was very weak. It was difficult for people to resist the temptation of benefits, and thus they would do illegal things.
The profit of ivory was more than 300%. Therefore, in order to get the ivory, many poachers in the later generations dared to take any risks, making it impossible for the guards to guard against.
There were also many poachers who were killed, but this could not stop the subsequent poachers.
Elephants were the largest animals on land. An adult elephant could weigh about six tons, which showed its huge body.
In the natural world, the larger the animal, the tighter the muscle tissue. This directly caused the animal to not taste good enough, to the point that it was hard to chew through.
An elephant's appetite was very good. It could eat three hundred pounds of plants a day, but its digestive ability was not very good. It could only absorb part of the affected components. Many of the nutrients that had not been digested were expelled from its body.
In the era before the Tang dynasty, there were many wild elephants living in Hua Xia. However, with the gradual increase of human activities, the elephants' habitat was gradually destroyed and gradually became extinct.
Therefore, at this moment, there were no wild elephants in the Tang Empire. The few remaining elephants were all tributes offered by the Pyu, and there were people in Chang 'an who took care of them.
In the era of the Tang dynasty, only the South Asian subcontinent and the Pyu Empire still had Asian elephants left in the wild. They had all gone extinct in other places.
In addition, whether it was the Pyu Empire or the small countries in the South Asian subcontinent, they all had a tradition of domesticating elephants. As a result, these small countries had a large number of domesticated elephants, which could basically prevent the extinction of elephants.
The elephant meat didn't taste very good, which made Li An somewhat disappointed. However, even if the elephant meat didn't taste very good, it wasn't something that ordinary people could eat. Thinking about it this way, his heart felt better.
During the banquet, what Li An and the King said were all pleasantries. There wasn't much substance to it, and there wasn't any truth to it either. It was all cliché.
After two days, the huge fleet led by Ang Lee began to set off to the west.
A small number of troops and horses set off along the coastline first, while Ang Lee's main fleet set off later. Their target was South Tianzhu, which was thousands of miles away.
Because he did not know the attitude of South Tianzhu towards the Tang Empire, Ang Lee sent his subordinates to take the fastest steamship to inquire at full speed. They had already set off yesterday afternoon, so they should arrive at South Tianzhu a few days earlier than Ang Lee.
It would take at least a few days to travel a thousand-mile sea route. Ang Lee's only concern was the weather. It would be troublesome if they encountered a typhoon or a rainstorm.
What was even more terrible was losing their direction. This was much more serious than a typhoon or a rainstorm. In the vast sea, once they lost their direction, it meant that they did not know where to go. They would be trapped alive in the vast sea until they ran out of food and died.
This was also the most fundamental reason why most merchant ships chose to sail close to the coast. Being close to the coast meant that they could reach the shore as soon as possible without worrying about losing their direction.
Ang Lee's steamship fleet was all equipped with compasses. Therefore, as long as there were no major problems with the compass and the Earth's magnetic field, the fleet would not deviate from their course.
The compasses were all designed and manufactured by Ang Lee, so of course, there would be no problems. The Earth's magnetic field would not change casually, so there should not be any major problems.
The ocean was full of waves even though there was no wind. Especially in the Indian Ocean, the environment was not very good. Therefore, the swaying of the ship was still very obvious. Fortunately, Li An had been drifting on the ocean for a long time. He had long been accustomed to drifting on the ocean, so he did not feel the slightest discomfort.
He did not even feel dizzy reading books and looking at blueprints on the drifting ship.
At this moment, Ang Lee was looking at the blueprints. Of course, it was a topographic map of the South Asian subcontinent.
On this map, the cities and ports of the South Tianzhu Country and the Lion Kingdom were clearly marked. Among them, the most important ports were highlighted for eye-catching purposes.
From the map, the most important ports of the South Tianzhu, such as Adin, Juniya, Kumari, Dugorin, Godi, Alambo, and other places, were all occupied by the Lion Kingdom. Of course, this included the dozens of miles of land around the ports.
The remaining ports of the South Tianzhu were the ports near the north. They were all ports with poor geographical locations. Among them, the larger port was the eastern port of Garigal. This port was the gateway to the South Tianzhu capital. It was very important to the South Tianzhu. It was also a strategic port heavily guarded by the South Tianzhu military. Therefore, it had not been occupied by the Lion Kingdom yet.
Although the Lion Kingdom's military was strong, they had continuously occupied many ports of the South Tianzhu. They also had to send troops to guard the important ports in the country. As a result, they did not have enough mobile troops to mobilize. This was another important reason why they could not take down Garigal as soon as possible.
The South Tianzhu capital was not far from Garigal port. It was less than a hundred miles away. Their king, Héraud, and all the ministers lived in the capital.
As the capital was very sturdy and its geographical location was not very profitable, the Lion Kingdom would not take the risk to attack the capital of the South Tianzhu. As for the heavily guarded Garigal, they did not have the ability to attack it for the time being.
Therefore, after occupying nearly ten important ports of the South Tianzhu, the Lion Kingdom temporarily stopped. They planned to negotiate peace with the South Tianzhu. They wanted the South Tianzhu to give up these ports to the Lion Kingdom in exchange for the Lion Kingdom not to continue attacking the rest of the South Tianzhu lands.
The South Tianzhu's king, Héraud, and his ministers were naturally very angry at the Lion Kingdom's unreasonable request. Their ports had been occupied and this was their humiliation. Now, they had to take the initiative to give these lands to the Lion Kingdom. This made them very angry.
There was a saying that without the lips, the teeth would feel cold. The king of the South Tianzhu naturally understood this saying. Therefore, at the first moment of the invasion, he had already contacted the small countries of the East and West Tianzhu to prepare to unite and resist the invasion of the Lion Kingdom.
However, Héraud did not expect that before the Lion Kingdom attacked the South Tianzhu, they had already sent officials to these small countries and told them that they only needed a few ports of the South Tianzhu. They would not occupy the entire South Tianzhu and would not invade them. They also told them not to help the South Tianzhu. Otherwise, the main force of the Lion Kingdom would skip over the South Tianzhu and attack the countries that helped the South Tianzhu first.
Due to the powerful military strength of the Lion Kingdom, the small countries of the East and West Tianzhu chose to remain neutral. They also sent spies to closely monitor the war between the Lion Kingdom and the South Tianzhu so that they could be prepared.
The king of the South Tianzhu, Héraud, did not expect that the small countries behind him would all refuse to help him. He was very angry and felt that these small countries were short-sighted and did not realize that without the lips, the teeth would feel cold.
However, it was useless to complain. These small countries had all tactfully refused, which made Héraud feel very helpless. In this way, there were only two paths left in front of Héraud. One was to agree to the Lion Kingdom's conditions and cede all the ports in the south, as well as the supporting land, to the Lion Kingdom. The second was to resist with all his might and fight to the death with the Lion Kingdom.
With the current strength of the South Tianzhu, there was no doubt that they would definitely not be able to defeat the Lion Kingdom. Therefore, the king of the South Tianzhu, Héraud, felt very guilty. He was afraid that if he lost the war, he would be executed by the Lion Kingdom.
However, swallowing the humiliation would greatly reduce his ruling prestige and also cause great harm to him. Therefore, this was destined to be a difficult choice and it gave Héraud a headache.
"Your Majesty, I have returned."
A minister walked into the palace and his expression was not very good.
The king knew the result with one look and confirmed with a black face, "Why, the Brahman Kingdom and the Xin Du Kingdom are not willing to lend a helping hand?"
The minister nodded and sighed, "Sigh, Your Majesty, the Lion Kingdom has already found these two countries in advance and warned them not to help our country. Otherwise, they will definitely attack these two countries first."
Héraud was very angry and said, "Then did you tell them that as long as they are willing to help us, once the Lion Kingdom attacks them, our troops will stab them in the back and cooperate with them to attack the Lion Kingdom from both sides?"
The minister said, "I have made such an assumption, but they did not listen at all. I have really said all the good things, but there was no small country at all."
Héraud sighed and said, "The Lion Kingdom is so aggressive. What should we do? Do we really have to give up the southern ports of the South Tianzhu?"
It was obvious that Héraud was in a very bad mood now.
"Your Majesty, these ports have already been forcefully occupied by the Lion Kingdom. It is not considered giving them up."
The minister corrected him.
"You …"
The king glared at the minister angrily and seemed to be unable to restrain his anger.
However, what the minister said was very correct. The southern ports had indeed been occupied. The other party was only asking for the king's acknowledgement. It was not considered giving them up.
"Your Majesty, a little impatience will spoil great plans. The Lion Kingdom has a strong army with more than 50,000 elite soldiers, while our army only has 20,000 soldiers. The difference is more than double. Moreover, the transportation in the South Tianzhu is inconvenient. These 20,000 soldiers have to be deployed separately. We can only use 10,000 soldiers to defend the capital. If these 10,000 soldiers cannot defend the capital, Your Majesty will become the king of a destroyed country."
A minister said pessimistically.
"What do you mean? Are you asking me to agree to the unreasonable request of the Lion Kingdom?"
Héraud was very angry. He was so angry that he was itching to vent his anger.
"Your Majesty, the Lion Kingdom's actions are really infuriating. However, it is true that our army is not as large as the Lion Kingdom's. Our combat power is also not comparable to theirs. If we fight, I am afraid it will be very dangerous. For the sake of the South Tianzhu, let's bear with it! When we are strong enough, we will definitely be able to take back the South Tianzhu. "
Another minister said.
The King of the South Tianzhu, Héraud, was heartbroken. The minister's words were hurtful, very hurtful. However, they were all true. With the strength of the South Tianzhu, they were indeed unable to fight against the powerful Lion Kingdom. If they did not acknowledge the sovereignty of these ports to the Lion Kingdom, they would most likely lose more land.
"Alright, all of you can leave! Let me think about it alone. "
Héraud was speechless. He waved his hand and dismissed the ministers who had disappointed him.
At this moment, the King of the South Tianzhu, Héraud, was speechless. On the other hand, the King of the Lion Kingdom, Kulam, was beaming with joy. He was so happy that he almost jumped up.
He knew the strength of the South Tianzhu very well. He knew that with the strength of the South Tianzhu, they would not be able to fight against the army of the Lion Kingdom under his command. Therefore, these occupied ports would eventually become part of the Lion Kingdom.
The reason why he wanted to negotiate was not that he really wanted to stop the encroachment of the South Tianzhu. Instead, he was afraid that he would excessively agitate the small countries on the subcontinent and cause them to unite.
In addition, these new ports were newly occupied. They would need a certain period of time to consolidate and digest before they could truly become their own territory.
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