Li An listened for a moment and said: "Your analysis is very reasonable, this group of pirates only has more than a thousand people, and their strength is not very strong, and Xi Tianzhu can still fight it, but although this seaport has an important role for my Datang, in Xi Tianzhu's opinion, it is just an ordinary safe haven on the border, and this safe haven is still very close to the Great Food Country, so they will not spend too much energy to recapture this port, in addition, It is very likely that they really regarded this group of pirates as a buffer force between them and the Great Food Country, so they have not taken it, and the direction of the Big Food Country's operation is not here, so they didn't care about it. ”

If it is in the hinterland of an empire, it is natural that the better the conditions of the port, the higher the qualification, but if the port with a superior geographical location is near the border, it cannot be regarded as the best, because it will face threats at any time.

For example, the capital of an empire is generally built in the center of the empire, which is the safest and most reliable, not easy to be threatened by foreign enemies, and if it is near the border, it will face a surprise attack from foreign enemies at any time.

The capital of China was also in a city close to the northern border, but in the north of this city there are stretches of mountains as a backing, which can be well defended, so it can barely be used as a capital, and if it is a border city that can be defended without danger, it can never be used as a capital.

An important port of a country should naturally be better in the hinterland, at least not too close to other countries, so as not to cause war between the two countries due to some friction, especially weak countries.

Just imagine, a relatively weak country, the port close to the border is very prosperous, and then a strong enemy raids, this rich port to occupy, the loss is really too great, and if in the hinterland, there are a large number of soldiers and horses to protect, the probability of being raided is relatively low.

In addition, to build a prosperous port on the border, for example, to send more soldiers and horses to defend, and the bottom soldiers will inevitably have friction with the bottom soldiers of neighboring countries, if the confrontation is escalated step by step, it may bring great trouble to the weak country, so Xi Tianzhu has been avoiding such a thing, and would rather the port be occupied by pirates than recovered.

The power of the Great Food Country is much stronger than that of Xi Tianzhu, but the direction of his expansion and operation is not on the side of Xi Tianzhu, and the troops in this direction are very insufficient, so they dare not provoke Xi Tianzhu easily, and the pirates are also in their interests as a buffer force.

In addition, it is said that the pirates came from two countries, that is, the unscrupulous people of the Western Tianzhu and the Great Food Country, and they gave benefits to the magistrates of these two countries, so they would also say good things to the pirates and point out the benefits of the buffer forces, and in addition, the pirates would only rob the merchant ships that came and went, and would not plunder the ships of the two imperial courts, so they did not anger the two imperial courts.

In short, under the influence of various factors, this group of pirates of the thousand-strong level settled down in this excellent port with peace of mind, and built more and more defense facilities, which can be described as a sound operation, and the merchant ships that came and went were miserable in a year.

As a buffer force, the pirates will take out two percent of the income obtained from the merchants who come and go to honor the Great Food Country and the Western Tianzhu respectively, such as the commander of the army or something, in order to avoid being attacked by the soldiers and horses of the two countries, and the remaining eighty percent is their own.

In addition, this group of pirates is a pirate who wants money, and they have a conscience, as long as the merchant ships do not resist and do not kill their people, they will easily not hurt people's lives, and after grabbing things, they will transport them to their own ships, and will hardly rob the merchants' ships, in addition, according to the situation, they will leave enough food and a small amount of money for the merchants, so that the merchants will not be cornered.

This is not true benevolence, which shows that the pirate leader is a very intelligent man, very smart, and understands that killing chickens for eggs is a stupid act, and keeping chickens can lay more eggs.

This is the same as shearing, the wool grows and it is sheared, but it does not hurt the sheepskin, so that it will not be long before the new wool will grow again, and then you can continue to shear the sheep.

Even if the merchant is robbed once, but because the loss is not unacceptable, and it does not hurt people, therefore, they will not be particularly afraid in their hearts, under the effect of huge profits and luck psychology, they will pass through the area where pirates are active again, as long as they are not hit, they can still make a lot of money, even if they are hit, at most they will lose some goods, they can run a few more times, and they can earn back.

In the later stages of development, the merchant became directly familiar with the pirates, and each time a part of the profits was given to the pirates as a toll, and at the same time, they also provided information about the goods of competitors, currying favor with the pirates and borrowing knives to kill people.

In short, the emergence of pirates caused a miasma of trade routes, seriously interfered with the normal trade of merchants, and made many honest merchants miserable.

"Li Shilang, since this harbor is now occupied by pirates, then we are polite, and it is ours to grab it directly."

"Yes, a thousand pirates is not enough? Tens of thousands of pirates in Malacca have been eliminated, and more than 1,000 pirates can be solved in a day. ”

"Doesn't the advance team have a steam gunboat, has it already occupied the harbor?"

"Yes, these pirates are not the opponents of the advance team, and now they must be our port."

The crowd spoke.

Li An waved his hand and said: "Don't quarrel, the advance team has already launched an attack on the pirates the moment they found them, one hit five, sank three pirate ships, and the other two ran away, and then, the advance team attacked this harbor, and the pirates entrenched in this harbor were beaten to the bottom, and they occupied the harbor smoothly and captured more than a dozen pirate ships." ”

"Haha! It's wonderful, I said a long time ago that these pirates are not worth mentioning at all, and where they will be the opponents of our army, an advance party will be enough to annihilate them. ”

"Li Shilang, our army will set off tomorrow, just go directly to this port."

"The advance team really gave me a long face for Datang, and I should be rewarded."

The crowd said.

Li An continued: "The official hasn't finished speaking? Do you know that the soldiers of our advance team do not dare to sleep in the harbor at night, they all sleep on steam-cannon ships? ”

"How so, doesn't it mean that the pirates have been spanked and urinated, why don't they dare to rest in the harbor? Did you participate in a pirate sneak attack? ”

"The advance team is not large in number, and its strength is far inferior to that of the pirates, and with the dozens of guns of the steam gunboat, they may be able to beat the pirates in the ass, but once they leave the steam gunboat and enter the harbor land, the pirates who have been beaten away may suddenly carry out a sneak attack at night by virtue of their familiarity with the terrain, causing damage to our advance team."

"Yes! The advance party was too small in number, and they were not very familiar with the situation in the harbor, so it was naturally unsafe to stay in the harbor, and it was not impossible to stay on the steam gunboat for the time being, and when our army arrived, we would naturally be able to wipe out all these pirates. ”

"Yes, there is nothing to worry about pirates, as soon as the army arrives, they will be wiped out."

Everyone was slightly disappointed, but soon they were happy again, after all, the Tang fleet has a strong force, and it is nothing for the advance team to be slightly wronged, and when the main army arrives, all the lost face can be recovered.

Li An nodded and said: "You are right, the pirates are not to worry, after the advance team landed in the port, they successfully surveyed and mapped the topographic map, but they were attacked at night, and several advance team soldiers were injured, and there is really no need to worry too much, thanks to the soldiers on duty on the steam cannon ship, they heard the shouting of killing in the port, and immediately fired in the direction where the pirates rushed over, disrupting the deployment of the pirates, which allowed the soldiers and horses of the advance team stationed in the port to withdraw the gunboats smoothly." ”

"Dangerous, it's really dangerous, if it weren't for Li Shilang, who usually teaches the soldiers to be vigilant, I'm afraid that the advance team will suffer a big loss this time!"

"These pirates are also stubborn! was bombarded by artillery and urinated, and he still had the courage to come back for revenge, a little backbone. ”

"Hmph, no matter how backbone you have, you have to completely destroy them, the existence of pirates seriously threatens the construction of the Maritime Silk Road of the Tang Empire, and it must be annihilated, and you can't be polite to them in the slightest."

The subordinates were filled with righteous indignation.

Li An thought for a while, and said: "The advance team and the pirates in the port are now showing a see-saw trend, the sight is clear during the day, and the pirates are hiding in the surrounding woods, but at night, they will take the opportunity to sneak back to the harbor, in vain attempt to carry out a sneak attack on our soldiers, when our army withdrew to the ship at night, they began to transfer their property, in a vain attempt to regain the wealth they had accumulated, but unfortunately, our soldiers are not vegetarians, as long as they find that the pirates return to the harbor, they will serve with artillery, so, for so many days, The pirates never carried away the looted finances, because there were so many things that the advance party did not carry them to the ship. ”

"Haha! There must be a lot of possessions! We need to hurry up and not let the pirates steal their belongings. ”

"Yes, Li Shilang, I think that reinforcements should be sent immediately to prevent accidents in the advance team."

"Li Shilang, the last general is willing to lead a thousand soldiers and horses to reinforcements."

The subordinates said.

Li An smiled at the corner of his mouth, and said: "You don't have to be in such a hurry, reinforcements are inevitable, these belongings will not be taken away by pirates, they will definitely not, we should study it now, how to get the most benefits for my Datang, this is the real point." ”

"Li Shilang, this port was obtained by us from pirates, so the port and the land near it should be the land of my Datang."

"Not only that, but we also have to occupy land farther away from the port to ensure the absolute safety of the port."

Two subordinates spoke.

Li An nodded with great satisfaction, and said: "What you said is very right, the port was seized by us from the pirates, so it should naturally belong to the territory of Datang, however, the location of this port is in the territory of West Tianzhu, this West Tianzhu disregards the interests of the people and merchants, sits back and watches the pirates grow day by day, sits back and watches the merchants being plundered by pirates, and sits and watches their territory occupied by pirates, this kind of behavior destroys the construction of the Datang Maritime Silk Road, and many merchants of my Datang have written letters to this official, accusing the West Tianzhu court of inaction, This kind of behavior of raising pirates is unforgivable, and the losses of all merchants should be compensated by the Western Tianzhu Court, don't you say! ”

"Li Shilang is right, it is the connivance of the Western Tianzhu Imperial Court that has allowed the pirates to have a foothold, and so many merchants have been plundered, this responsibility should be taken by the Western Tianzhu Imperial Court, and they must compensate."

"If the Western Tianzhu court refuses to compensate, we will launch an attack on their capital to see whether he compensates or not."

"Yes, you can't cheapen the Western Tianzhu Imperial Court, you must make them pay the price."

Several subordinates said.

Li An waved his hand and said: "Launching an attack on the West Tianzhu Capital, this is too much fun, our Datang is reasonable, how can we attack casually?" However, it is still feasible to scare and scare them, let them be responsible for the losses of the merchants, it is not our main purpose, what we want is the land we need, as long as the Western Tianzhu court puts forward its financial difficulties and cannot compensate the losses of the merchants, then we can propose, let them cede the land to us Datang, and then, we Datang help them compensate the merchants, in this way, a large area around the harbor, extending to the mountains of a hundred miles inland, is the territory of our Datang, in addition, We also want them to promise to cooperate with Datang and provide enough manpower to help Datang build the railway. ”

"Li Shilang, if Xi Tianzhu really agrees to our conditions, then do we really have to compensate the merchant for his losses?"

One of the subordinates asked.

Li An said with a smile: "Compensate the merchant for his loss, what are you kidding, this is just for the Western Tianzhu Imperial Court, as long as we solve the piracy problem in this place, which merchant dares to ask us for compensation, I am impatient."

"Hahaha! I was shocked, if this is really compensation, it is a lot of money. ”

"Are you stupid! How much the merchants lost, who said clearly, since it is not clear how to compensate, the pirate stolen goods hoarded in the port naturally belong to us, no, it belongs to the Tang Dynasty. ”

Li An looked at the map in front of him, the more he looked at it, the better his mood became, he paused, and ordered: "Master Zhao, you immediately lead two thousand soldiers and horses to reinforce the advance team, and set off in half an hour, you must advance as fast as possible, the earlier you arrive, the less dangerous the advance team will be." ”

"Yes, Li Shilang, my subordinates understand."

Lord Zhao Jun replied and agreed.