The black bear, which used to kill people without blinking, knelt on the ground in fear at this time, and did not dare to raise its head. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoHis body was shaking like chaff, and the sweat was already soaking through his clothes.

The unknown is always scary.

In a round of shelling, the gate of the water village on Bear Island was blown to pieces.

The thunderous cry, the orange flames, and the tremendous power made these pirates who were crisscrossing the sea and jumping to rob ships dumbfounded.

The ships were huge, but they were still so far away, a hundred paces away. Then, without even seeing the officers and soldiers, they watched the side of the ship breathe fire at them.

After only one round, the black bear raised the white flag.

Because he saw a cannonball sink a small boat directly.

There were also a few catapults on the shore, as well as a few eight-ox crossbows, which he had built with a lot of money, but in the face of the thunder meteorite that day, he had no heart to resist.

"I will surrender." The black bear knelt there, trembling and said, "I will surrender." ”

Li Chao looked at the bear-like stout man, kneeling in front of him and shivering, but just shook his head.

"Bear, you have been arrested for the crimes of piracy and smuggling, and now, you will be escorted back to Dengzhou for public trial. Tell you the news that you will be publicly tried in the harbor and then hanged. ”

"I've already descended." The black bear doesn't care to tell that it's actually called a black bear.

"Thou hast done many wickednesses, and thou hast done many wicked deeds, and thy sins are unforgivable." Li Chao snorted coldly. Some people deserve to be given a chance to start over, like the red viper. But there are people who don't deserve this opportunity.

"If it weren't for the fact that your lives were worth a fortune, you would all be killed on the spot. But for now, death is too cheap for you. If it weren't for the fact that the imperial court had already removed punishments such as Ling Chi and car splitting, you wouldn't have just hanged you. The court will give you a good time, but your other brothers will not be so easy. The second half of their death will become slaves of the imperial court and stay in the mines for the rest of their lives. Of course, if you behave well, maybe you can get your sentence reduced and you can be freed again after digging a mine for twenty or thirty years, but of course, if you live that long. As far as I know, mining slaves are not having a good time. ”

Hearing Li Chao's ruthless words, the pirates were in a commotion, and they who had already thrown down their weapons wanted to resist, but they smashed down the handle of the gun with a slash on their heads and faces, and they were all honest.

"Tie up, register and detain."

Du Hongying looked at the once invincible black bear, as well as his subordinates, and couldn't help but shake his head secretly. Fortunately, I met Li Chao, maybe if I changed officials, they would end up like Black Bear and others today.

Cui Jin, Lu An, and Zheng Gao's three brothers-in-law happily led people to loot the wealth of the pirates, while Li Chao sat on the side of the desk a little bored.

"It's really boring." Lao Cheng also moved a chair and sat on the side.

"But this cannon of yours is really powerful, this is only two gunboats, if there are one hundred and eighty, even if it is a big port like Dengzhou, there is no way to block it on the sea." The battleships lined up, as long as the bombardment did not stop, one day the port of Dengzhou could be bombarded to the ground. ”

Li Chao admired Lao Cheng's vision, and he actually knew the strongest use of the battleship at once. What he said was clearly the use of battleships.

"Uncle Cheng, your tactical idea is good, but one hundred and eighty gunboats can't afford it. The cost of such a two-decker, three-masted warship, carrying thirty-two generals' guns, plus bow and stern mortars and small cannons, was quite high. Just one such ship would cost tens of thousands. ”

"Not to mention dozens of cannons."

In the era of the Great Voyage, naval guns were cheap. But at this time, the cannon is by no means cheap. A cannon is said to sell more than 1,000 catties of iron, and there are hundreds of catties of gun carriages. Selling iron is worth a lot of money, not to mention that the cannon is still cast in a blast furnace and then drilled and scraped through the barrel.

It is not a problem to get ten or eight gunboats, and the sailors of the imperial court are currently planning to do this, and more than a dozen large ships are equipped with artillery and crossbows.

"It's good to think about." Lao Cheng said with a smile, "Just drive dozens of boats to Pyongyang and bombard the port." ”

Li Chao shook his head.

The current cannon is still too small, and in the Age of Discovery, sail warships do have such capabilities, and with a few warships, they can blockade ports and bomb cities. But the guns at that time were all heavy guns of dozens of pounds, and the guns on Li Chao's ship now could only be regarded as small cannons and light cannons at that time.

With a range of two or three hundred paces, and two pounds of shells, this is not to mention bombing the port.

Du Hongying and Ximen Changshan stood very respectfully on one side, and the round of artillery salvo just now shocked both the black bear and them. This is still outside the island, if it is at sea, no one's ship will be able to run away if it encounters Li Chao's gunboat.

You don't need to rely on gangs at all, you just need to bomb from afar. Their ships are fast enough to keep the distance and then keep enemy ships within their range.

Can be knocked down and sunk all the time.

But when I think about it, I still feel distressed when I blow off hundreds of pounds of iron balls at one time.

Iron can always be a sought-after goods for direct and private purposes, used to ballast the bilge, transported to Silla Baekje, Goguryeo and other places, and exchanged for slaves and tiger skin ginseng.

"Yingniang, who do you think we will choose next?" Li Chao asked.

Du Hongying replied, "Zhao Guogong has such a powerful gunboat, and no one in the entire archipelago dares to resist. The ship sailed all the way, and a salvo could make them surrender in fear. ”

Li Chao smiled, this is good news.

In his eyes, the small cannon that is quite backward is like a divine object like thunder in the eyes of Du Hongying and others.

"Okay, then we'll clear all the pirates and smugglers on this archipelago along the way."

Cheng Yanjin smiled on the side, "By the way, haha, this is very valuable by the way." With a population of tens of thousands, as well as the workshops and money of the island's pirates and smugglers, this trip can make a lot of money. ”

"But a word of caution, most of those smugglers have some background, and even those pirates, many of them are also covered. Is it really okay for us to sweep all the way without saying hello? ”

"What could it be?"

Even if there are people behind them, they are mostly local heroes, but looking at the world, these people are at most only landlords in one state and one county, or maybe they can have something to do with some big families, but it doesn't matter much.

Who is Li Chao?

He swept away the pirates and smugglers on the Wuhu Islands, and even if those people were distressed, they could only swallow their teeth in their stomachs.

In the area of sea trade, Li Chao is the leader. He unites the major giants to occupy the largest part of the interest, and is willing to let others also share the pie, but there are also rules.

If you want to run maritime trade together, you can be a supplier, transporter, or distributor of importers' goods, but smuggling and pirates, this is detrimental to the entire maritime trade industry, and Li Chao will not let it go.

Whoever dares to stretch out his hand will be cut down.

At this point, the interests of the imperial court and Li Chao are identical. Therefore, Li Chao does not want to follow the rules, even if it is excessive, the court will support him.

Dengzhou.

Now it has been renamed Hanjing, and Dengzhou is also Hanjing Mansion.

In May, the emperor and the officials were the first to move into the new capital.

In June, a large number of officials' families, merchants, and ordinary people also moved into the new capital.

Everything is fine in Xinjing, the tall and majestic imperial palace, the bustling and lively outer city, Guocheng, and the imperial city where hundreds of yamen gather. Everything is very good, there are several acropolis on the outskirts of Xinjing, garrisons and workshops in the north and south, and commercial town markets.

Everything is fine in Xinjing, and even after Emperor Taishang moved into the Beigong Daming Palace of the palace, he never mentioned the matter of returning to Chang'an. Li Shimin was very satisfied with his Ziwei Palace, and the crown prince was also very satisfied with the East Palace.

The palace city of Xinjing is not the square city of Chang'an in the past, but three palace cities stand together, Daming Palace in the north, Ziwei Palace in the west, and Prince East Palace in the southeast.

The entire palace city is in the north of Hanjing, and the imperial city is in the south of the palace. The outer city and Guocheng are further south, and the layout of the entire Hanjing is not boxy, but it has a bit of a pyramid flavor. The Imperial Castle of Miyagi is located on the highlands in the north, while the outer castle of Guocheng is located on the flat land in the south.

Xinjing is very good, but Li Shimin has been suffering from insomnia recently.

Before him were two secret reports.

One is that Tubo Zan Pu Rizan was poisoned not long ago, and it is rumored that the old nobles are dissatisfied with Lang Rizan and are dissatisfied with the new nobles of Subi for too much use, but the old nobles say that it was the Subi people who poisoned Zampu.

The Tibetan Civil War broke out.

There is also news that Mo Hedu, who was defeated by Tong Yehu, has turned over.

It's not because Mo Helu suddenly became powerful, the coalition planned by the Tang Army is still in the process of being organized, and it has not yet reached the Western Regions. Tong Yehu was assassinated, and the war was used to the extreme, and Mo Helu was also poisoned.

Now that Yehu has inherited the position of Khan of Tongye Hu, the situation in the Western Regions has changed from one-sided to confusing.

Both are good news.

However, when he saw that a hero like Tong Yehu was finally poisoned by his own uncle, Li Shimin also felt embarrassed.

The situation in the Western Regions has reached an inflection point, a critical point.

got up and walked to the sand table in the hall, Li Shimin frowned and thought.

On the sand table, small flags are planted on it, representing all forces.

Western regions!

This piece of territory that the Han Dynasty once fought down, and now the Tang Dynasty has the opportunity to take him back.

The system protects the new and the dead, and although the power has the old department, its prestige is insufficient. If at this time, the Tang Dynasty sent a large army, and then recruited Xue Yantuo, Khitan, Xi, Tuyuhun and other troops to conscript, and determined the overall situation of the Western Regions in one fell swoop, which can be described as a merit for all generations.

After leveling the power of the Western Regions, the Turks will die from then on.

Datang's biggest external threat has always been gone.

Looking at the sand table, the thought that had been lingering in Li Shimin's heart rose again.

"I want to conquer the Western Regions in person!"