Ang Lee listened for a moment and said, "Your analysis is very reasonable. There are only about a thousand pirates, and they are not very strong. Western Tianzhu can still defeat them. However, although this harbor is important to the Tang dynasty, in the eyes of Western Tianzhu, it is just an ordinary safe haven on the border. Moreover, this safe haven is very close to Dashi, so they won't spend too much effort to recapture this harbor. In addition, they probably really regard this group of pirates as a buffer force between them and Dashi, so they haven't seized it. Dashi doesn't operate in this direction, so they don't care about it."
The quality of a harbor could not only depend on the superiority of the geographical conditions, but also the surrounding forces. If it was in the hinterland of an empire, naturally, the better the conditions of the harbor, the higher the quality. However, if the harbor with a superior geographical location was near the border, it could not be considered the best because it could be threatened at any time.
For example, the capital of an empire would generally be built in the center of the empire. This was the safest and most reliable place, and it was not easy to be threatened by foreign enemies. If it was near the border, it could be attacked by foreign enemies at any time.
The capital city of Huaxia was once a city near the northern border. However, the northern part of the city was supported by a continuous mountain range, which could be used for good defense. Therefore, it could barely be used as a capital city. If it was a border city with no defense, it could never be used as a capital city.
An important harbor of a country naturally had to be in the hinterland. At least, it could not be too close to other countries, so as to avoid some friction and lead to a war between the two countries, especially a weak country.
Think about it, if a relatively weak country operated a prosperous port near the border, and then a strong enemy suddenly attacked and occupied this rich port, the loss would be too great. If it was in the hinterland, there would be a large number of troops to protect it, and the possibility of being attacked would be lower.
In addition, in order to build prosperous ports on the border, more troops had to be stationed to defend them, and the soldiers at the bottom would inevitably have friction with the soldiers at the bottom of the neighboring countries. If the confrontation escalated step by step, it could cause a lot of trouble for the weaker countries. Therefore, Western India had been avoiding such a thing. They would rather the ports be occupied by pirates than recover them.
Dashi was much stronger than Western Tianzhu, but their expansion and operations were not in Western Tianzhu's direction. They did not have enough military strength in this direction, so they did not dare to provoke Western Tianzhu easily. Using pirates as a buffer force was also in line with their interests.
In addition, it was said that the pirates came from two countries. They were the unscrupulous people of Western India and Dashi. They had bribed the local officials of these two countries, so they would speak well of the pirates and point out the benefits of being a buffer force. In addition, the pirates would only rob merchant ships coming and going. They would not rob the ships of the two countries' imperial courts, so they did not anger the two countries' imperial courts.
In short, under the influence of various comprehensive factors, this group of thousand-men pirates peacefully settled down in this excellent port, and built more and more defensive facilities. It could be said that their operation was very impressive, and in just a year's time, the merchant ships passing by were miserable beyond words.
As a buffer force, the pirates robbed merchants coming and going. They would give 20% of the income they obtained to the real power figures of Dashi and Western Tianzhu, such as the generals and so on, to avoid being attacked by the troops of the two countries. The remaining 80% would be theirs.
In addition, this group of pirates were pirates who were after wealth. They still had a conscience. As long as the merchant ships did not resist and did not kill their people, they would not easily kill people. After they robbed something, they would transport it to their own ship and would hardly rob the merchant's ship. In addition, according to the situation, they would leave enough food and a small amount of money for the merchant to eat so that the merchant would not be driven into a corner.
This was not true benevolence. This showed that the pirate leader was a very smart person. He understood that killing the goose that laid the golden eggs was a stupid act. Keeping the chicken alive would allow more eggs to be laid.
This was the same principle as shearing sheep. When the wool grew, they would cut it, but they would not damage the sheepskin. This way, it would not take long for new wool to grow again. Then, they could continue shearing.
Even if the merchants were robbed once, because the loss was not unacceptable and they did not hurt anyone, they were not particularly afraid. Under the influence of the huge profits and the fluke mentality, they would pass through the areas where the pirates were active again. As long as they did not bump into them, they could still make a lot of money. Even if they were bumped into, at most they would lose some goods. They could still earn it back by running a few more times.
In the later stages of development, the merchants were directly familiar with the pirates. Every time, they would give a part of their profits to the pirates as tolls. At the same time, they would also provide information about their competitors' goods to please the pirates and kill them with a borrowed knife.
In short, the appearance of the pirates made the trade route a mess. It seriously interfered with the normal trade of the merchants, causing many honest merchants to suffer.
"Assistant Minister Li, since this port is now occupied by the pirates, why should we be polite? Just take it and it will be ours."
"Yes, a mere thousand pirates are not enough to fill the gaps between our teeth. We have already dealt with tens of thousands of Malacca pirates. More than a thousand pirates can be dealt with in a day. "
"Didn't the advance party have a steam gunship? Have they already occupied the port?"
"Yes, these pirates are still no match for the advance party. It must be our port now."
Everyone spoke.
Ang Lee waved his hand and said, "Don't quarrel. The moment the advance party discovered the pirates, they had already launched an attack. One against five, three pirate ships were sunk, and the other two escaped far away. Then, the advance party attacked the port and beat the pirates who were entrenched in the port. They smoothly occupied the port and captured more than a dozen pirate ships."
"Haha! That's great. I've already said that these pirates are not worth mentioning at all. How can they be a match for our army? A single advance party is enough to annihilate them. "
"Assistant Minister Li, our army will set off tomorrow. We will go directly to this port."
"The advance party has really made the Tang dynasty proud. They should be rewarded."
Everyone spoke.
Ang Lee continued, "I haven't finished speaking yet. Do you know that our advance party soldiers don't dare to sleep in the port at night? They all sleep on the steam gunship. "
"How can this be? Didn't you say that the pirates have been beaten to a pulp? Why don't they dare to rest in the port? Did they participate in the pirate sneak attack? "
"The advance party doesn't have many people, and their military strength is far inferior to the pirates. With the dozens of cannons on the steam gunship, they may be able to beat the pirates to a pulp. But once they leave the steam gunship and enter the port, the pirates who were beaten away may use their familiarity with the terrain to suddenly launch a sneak attack at night and cause damage to our advance party."
"Yes! The advance party has too few people, and they are not very familiar with the situation in the port. It's naturally not safe to stay in the port. It's not a bad idea to stay on the steam gunship for the time being. When our army arrives, we will naturally wipe out all these pirates. "
"Yes, the pirates are nothing to worry about. Once the army arrives, they will definitely be wiped out."
Everyone was slightly disappointed, but they soon cheered up again. After all, the Tang Dynasty fleet had a powerful force. It was not a big deal for the advance party to suffer a little bit. When the main army arrived, all the lost face could be recovered.
Ang Lee nodded and said, "You're right. The pirates are nothing to worry about. After the advance party landed in the port, they successfully drew a topographic map. It was just that they were attacked at night, and a few of them were injured. There's really no need to worry too much. It's also thanks to the soldiers on duty on the steam gunship. When they heard the battle cries in the port, they immediately fired in the direction where the pirates rushed over, disrupting the deployment of the pirates. This allowed the advance party stationed in the port to smoothly withdraw to the gunship."
"That was dangerous. If it weren't for Assistant Minister Li, who usually taught the soldiers to be vigilant, the advance party would have suffered a big loss this time!"
"These pirates are also tough! They were beaten to a pulp by the cannons, but they still have the guts to come back for revenge. Have some backbone. "
"Humph, no matter how backbone they have, we have to completely destroy them. The existence of the pirates seriously threatens the construction of the Maritime Silk Road of the Tang Empire. They must be annihilated. We can't be polite to them."
The subordinates were filled with righteous indignation again.
Ang Lee thought for a moment and said, "The advance party and the pirates in the port are now in a tug-of-war situation. During the day, the pirates can see clearly, so they hide in the surrounding woods. But at night, they will take the opportunity to sneak back to the port and try to launch a sneak attack on our soldiers. When our soldiers withdraw to the ships at night, they will begin to transfer their property, vainly trying to take back the wealth they accumulated. Unfortunately, our soldiers are not to be trifled with. As long as they find the pirates returning to the port, they will attack them with cannons. Therefore, for so many days, these pirates have not taken away the wealth they plundered. Because there are too many things, the advance party did not move these things onto the ships."
"Haha! There must be a lot of treasures! We have to hurry there. We can't let the pirates steal the treasures. "
"Yes, Assistant Minister Li, I think we should immediately send reinforcements to prevent accidents from happening to the advance party."
"Assistant Minister Li, I'm willing to lead 1,000 soldiers to reinforce them."
The subordinates said.
Ang Lee smiled and said, "You don't have to be so anxious. Reinforcements are inevitable. These treasures will not be taken away by the pirates. They definitely won't. What we should do now is to study how to obtain the greatest benefits for the Tang Empire. This is the real focus."
"Assistant Minister Li, we got this port from the pirates, so the port and the land around it should be the territory of the Tang Empire."
"Not only that, but we also need to occupy the land further away from the port to ensure the absolute safety of the port."
Two of his subordinates said.
Li An nodded in satisfaction and said, "You're right. We seized the port from the pirates, so it naturally belongs to the Tang Empire. However, this port is located in the territory of Western Tianzhu. Western Tianzhu didn't care about the interests of the people and merchants, and just watched as the pirates grew stronger day by day. They watched as the merchants were robbed and their own territory was occupied by the pirates. This kind of behavior has destroyed the Tang Empire's maritime silk road. Many merchants in the Tang Empire have written to me, complaining about the Western Tianzhu court's inaction. This kind of behavior can't be forgiven for nurturing the pirates. All the losses of the merchants should be compensated by the Western Tianzhu court.
"Assistant Minister Li is right. It's the connivance of the Western Tianzhu Imperial Court that gave the pirates a foothold and allowed so many merchants to be robbed. This responsibility should be borne by the Western Tianzhu Imperial Court. They must compensate."
"If the Western Tianzhu Imperial Court refuses to compensate, we'll launch an attack on their capital and see whether they will compensate or not."
"Yes, we can't let the Western Tianzhu Imperial Court take advantage of us. We must make them pay the price."
Several of his subordinates said.
Ang Lee waved his hand and said, "Launching an attack on the capital of Western Tianzhu is too much. The Tang Empire is reasonable. How can we launch an attack casually? However, it's still feasible to scare them. Making them responsible for the merchants' losses is not our main purpose. What we want is the land. As long as the Western Tianzhu Imperial Court claims that they are in financial difficulties and can't compensate the merchants' losses, we can ask them to cede the land to the Tang Empire. Then, the Tang Empire will help them compensate the merchants. In this way, a large area around the port, which extends to the mountains hundreds of miles inland, will be the territory of the Tang Empire. In addition, we also want them to agree to cooperate with the Tang Empire and provide enough manpower to help the Tang Empire build the railway. "
"Assistant Minister Li, if the Western Tianzhu Imperial Court really agrees to our conditions, do we really have to compensate the merchants for their losses?"
One of his subordinates asked.
Ang Lee laughed and said, "Compensate the merchants for their losses? Are you kidding? This is just for the Western Tianzhu Imperial Court to hear. As long as we solve the problem of the pirates in this place, no merchants will dare to ask for compensation from us. They must be tired of living.
"Hahaha! You scared me. If it's really compensation, it will be a large sum of money. "
"Are you an idiot? Who knows how much the merchants have lost? Since we don't know, how can we compensate them? The stolen goods of the pirates in the port naturally belong to us. No, it belongs to the Tang Empire. "
Ang Lee looked at the map in front of him. The more he looked at it, the better his mood became. After a pause, he ordered, "General Zhao, you immediately lead 2,000 troops to reinforce the advance team. We will set off in an hour. You must move forward as fast as possible. The sooner you arrive, the less danger the advance team will face."
"Yes, Assistant Minister Li. We understand."
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