Yanjing, the south study of the Forbidden Palace.

Li Jing was also studying a huge map that was hanging on most of the walls, but this map was not an ordinary map, but a map of the South China Sea. In this era, due to the prosperity of maritime trade, the Tang people are no strangers to the sea. Although the traditional division of the seas does not refer exclusively to the sea. The East China Sea does not only refer to the waters outside the Yangtze River estuary of the Yangtze River, so the East China Sea also includes the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, and the East China Sea outside the Yangtze River estuary, which is the largest ocean in the eyes of the Tang people and the most familiar ocean.

The south of the East China Sea is the South China Sea, which was also called the rising sea and the boiling sea during the Han Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties. The Tang people are slightly unfamiliar with this sea area than the East China Sea. However, the prosperity of the Maritime Silk Road in recent years has gradually unveiled the mystery of the South China Sea.

In addition to the two seas in the southeast and south, the North Sea in the eyes of the Tang people is the huge Baikal Lake on the Outer Mongolian Plateau, and the West Sea is Qinghai Lake in the west of the Hexi. These two huge lakes are called the sea by the Tang people.

After the conquest of the northeastern tribes, the northernmost garrison of the Qin Domain had crossed the Great Khing'an Mountains and brought Beihai under the control of the Qin Domain. Beihai is also the northernmost frontier of the actual control area in the northernmost part of the Qin Domain. The West Sea is too far away, and this is the only area that the Qin Domain does not control at present.

The land of the East China Sea has long been the inland sea of the Qin army. Over the years, the Bohai Sea has built a core circle around the Bohai Sea, and the triangle of the Shandong Peninsula, the Liaodong Peninsula, and the Tianjin-Jing-Tang region has made the Bohai Sea truly and completely the inland sea of the Qin army. The more peripheral Yellow Sea and East China Sea also led to the actual control of the Zhoushan Islands, Ryukyu Island, Tamna Island, and Tsushima Island, making the Qin army the hegemon in this sea area.

Relative to the supremacy of the Qin domain over the East China Sea. It is the South China Sea on the Silk Road, which is becoming more and more lively. The control of the Qin clan was not too strong. However, with the continued prosperity of maritime trade. The South China Sea is becoming more and more lively, as are the islands and coastal areas of the South China Sea.

On Li Jing's map, there have already been detailed names and territorial divisions of the southeastern countries marked by the sailors.

Li Jing compared the geographical countries of later generations with the southeastern countries at this time, in modern Vietnam, the north at this time still belonged to the Tang Dynasty, for the protection of Annam, and the establishment of the Jing Navy Festival envoy. The envoy of the Jing Navy concurrently served as the protector of Annam. In central Vietnam, at this time, it was the Champa State, which was called the Linyi State in the Sui Dynasty, and was once attacked by the generals sent by Yang Guang, Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty. Its domestic Champa rice is the highest-yielding high-quality rice, the Qin clan introduced Champa rice from the Champa country a few years ago, and now the rice producing areas of the Qin clan are basically planted with this high-yield rice.

To the south of Annam and Champa are Bagan and Chenla. The country of Bagan, that is, Myanmar in later generations, Chenla. It is roughly equivalent to Cambodia in later generations, which was the golden stage of the Angkor Dynasty. The famous Angkor Wat was left behind by the Angkor Dynasty, which revered Buddhism.

To the west of Annam, Champang, Bagan, and Chenla were the kingdoms of Nanzhao, Tianzhu, and Sinhala, which in later generations were the Yunnan region of China, India, and Sri Lanka.

In the archipelago of the South China Sea, there are more than 100 island countries and more than 50,000 large and small islands found and recorded by the special expedition team sent by the sailors. Not only did they reach the Malay Archipelago, but they even reached as far away as Australia, and the sailors of these expedition fleets of the Qin clan even considered Australia to be the last island in the world, so they called it a unique island.

In these South China Sea islands, the ancient country of Sriwijaya in Malaysia is the strongest, followed by the country of Java is also gradually rising, and the ancient country of the Philippines is also very strong, in addition to the country of Ma, Luo Sus and other countries. In addition to the name of the island, the Australian mainland is also known as Rosaus, and the area around the port of Darwin to the north is called Mana.

The expedition lasted nearly ten years, and it can be said that the situation of the South Sea Islands is more clear than that of the natives.

The expedition team not only drew a complete chart of the South Seas, but also identified the sea routes, ports suitable for supply, and the specialties of the islands.

Due to the prosperity of maritime trade between the east and the west, it has also greatly promoted the development of the island countries in the South Seas, such as Sriwijaya and even gradually unified the Malay Archipelago, and they even have a powerful naval division and an army that cannot be underestimated.

The three Buddhas, Java, and Mayi on the sea, plus the Champang, Chenla, Bagan, and Tianzhu along the coast, these are the seven dragons in the South China Sea. The Maritime Silk Road between China and Western countries has allowed these countries on the sea route to enjoy huge profits and develop rapidly.

After the Qin navy controlled the Ryukyu Island and Hainan Island, its power in the South China Sea was greatly increased. After the last time Qin Fan cut 100,000 sailors, it made the sailors sigh greatly. Seeing that the Qin army will not use troops against the southeast in a short period of time, the heroes of the naval division are useless, and they may be reduced again at any time. The generals of the water division became more and more anxious, and after the last day, they actually made an extra-long plan and submitted it to Yanjing.

In his submission, the naval generals represented by Li Xu proposed to Yanjing to send the naval division south to directly seize Puluozhong Island in order to control the Gorofusa Strait, an important sea passage from the South China Sea to the Tianzhu Sea. Gorofusha and Puluozhong are both ancient countries in the South China Sea, Gorofusa, is the ancient name of the ancient city of Malacca, Malaysia in later generations, at this time it was called Gorofusa, in the Tang Gaozong, the king of Gorofusha also sent an envoy to Chang'an to offer five-colored parrots to Gaozong.

Polo is the ancient name of Singapore.

At this time, Malacca and Singapore were still only a small island country in the South China Sea, but the famous Strait of Malacca was more than 400 years ago, the Arabs opened up an ocean channel from the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Malacca to the South China Sea, this famous sea passage of 2,000 miles long, like a funnel, its south mouth is only 65 kilometers wide, gradually widening to the north, to the north mouth between Sabang in Indonesia and the Kra Isthmus in Thailand has been up to 249 kilometers wide. The Strait of Malacca has a southeast-northwest trend. Its northwest end is connected to the Andaman Sea in the Indian Ocean and to the southeast to the South China Sea. With a total length of about 1,080 kilometers, the widest part of the northwest is 370 kilometers, the narrowest part of the southeast is 37 kilometers, and the water depth is 25 to 150 meters.

At present, the main control of this artery is Srivijaya, with some control of Purozhong and Korofusa, and Java is gradually intervening in this maritime artery.

Sriwijaya and Java, with their powerful sailors, took away most of the control of the straits that originally belonged to the two island nations of Puluozhong and Gorofusa, and left them only a little broth while eating meat. Now the sailor guys are also very old-eyed, years of exploration, plus there was a sailor fleet escorting maritime merchants to Tessie, so they are deeply aware of the importance of this passage. Their idea was simple, find some work for the sailors, so that they would not be laid off.

As for the Sriwijaya and Java, they really didn't pay attention to it. The strength of Sriwijaya and Java is to dominate those small island countries in the South China Sea, but the sailors of the Qin Domain can completely crush them. There is no need for much, only need to send a detachment, and then take a marine, a coastal defense force, occupy Puluozhong, use the excellent natural deep-water port in Puguzhong, establish a naval base there, build a castle, dock, water plug, etc., and then wait to sit on the ground and set up a pass to collect money.

Of course, if that's all it takes, it won't take many people. In the plan of the naval division, they were going to send a detachment of troops over and bring a marines over, and their plan was to establish a base in Puluo and station a large base of 15,000 people, including logistical personnel.

Therefore, in addition to occupying this important strait, the sailors certainly had other roles.

War!

In the words of the sailors and generals, don't look at the tens of thousands of islands in the South China Sea, more than 200 countries, but many so-called countries are just one island. In most countries, the army is less than 1,000 people. Even a South China Sea powerhouse like Sriwijaya has no more than 50,000 troops combined. What's more, their equipment and tactics are really too backward, and compared with the elite of a hundred battles like the Qin army, they are not opponents at all.

The entire South China Sea, also known as the Seven Dragons of the South China Sea, can barely be called a medium feudal town in the Central Plains.

Since the military strength of the natives of the South China Sea is so weak, they still occupy such a prosperous sea lane and make money from the land. And more importantly, the output of these tens of thousands of large and small islands is not small. Not to mention the various rich minerals that have been discovered, even the rice produced on those large islands is worth starting.

The sailors have a great appetite, and controlling the important passage of the Maritime Silk Road, the Keluofusha Strait, is just an appetizer, and their real plan is to prepare to give full play to the combat effectiveness of their sailors, use huge ships and cannons, strong bows and hard crossbows, to conquer this piece of the South China Sea for the King of Qin, and conquer these Nanhai islands that have not been included in the boundaries of China and Turkey in history into the territory of the Qin domain, expand the territory, and expand the territory and expand the territory of Weijia overseas. Although this goal may seem ambitious, it is difficult to achieve with these 15,000 people. But the generals of the sailors were clever and made small demands at the beginning, but the results listed were very substantial. As long as this plan is approved and launched, as long as the results of the battle are achieved, it is necessary to increase the army, increase the number of warships, or something, is it still a matter of course?

Only in this way can we ensure that the 100,000 Qin Domain Water Divisions that still have 100,000 people left will not be considered useless and be reduced again.

Li Jing stared at the huge map of the South China Sea on the wall, and fell into deep thought. I have to say that this proposal by Li Xu and other sailor generals really moved Li Jing's heart. (To be continued......)