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Text Chapter 517 The First Naval Battle of Ceylon

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    In later generations, the island of Ceylon became a world-famous tourist destination. It was once called the most beautiful island in the world. Although this sentence may not be accurate, it is enough to illustrate the beauty of Ceylon.

    There is a strait between Ceylon Island and Tianzhu mainland, also named after Ceylon. There are several small islands in the strait. When the Tamils ??from Tianzhu mainland migrated to Ceylon Island, these small islands were the first to arrive.  Island, so although the area of ??these islands is not large, the population on the island is not large. In addition, this strait is a traffic road connecting the east and west sides of Tianzhu, and there are many ships coming and going, making it look very prosperous.  .

    These small islands are too small to grow food, so the residents on the islands make a living by fishing. When they encounter ships coming and going, they often take small boats to sell the dried fish they produce to the crews on these ships.  It's just that this kind of peddling is semi-forced. Depending on the size of the ships, the ships must buy a certain amount of dried fish from these fishermen, otherwise they will not be able to leave the strait at all.

    When the huge fleet of Li Zhen and Li Yun entered the Strait of Ceylon, they encountered this kind of forced buying and selling. Moreover, the natives driving the small boats were not afraid of the huge fleet at all. Hundreds of small boats were densely packed.  Standing in front of the fleet, they shouted arrogantly for them to buy fish. Li Zhen and Li Yun did not know what these natives were doing at first, but it was only after Zhao Qiu's translation and explanation that they understood what these natives were doing.  the meaning of.

    In fact, it is no wonder that these natives are arrogant. This is mainly because at the southern end of the Tianzhu continent, the Tamils ??are the overlords here, although the Tamils ??are also divided into numerous large and small forces.  But they are still very united to the outside world, and there is no need for the passing fleet to offend this local snake for the few dollars they get from selling dried fish.  After all, the Tamils ??on these small islands are inextricably linked to some Tamil forces.  Offending them is equivalent to offending the forces behind these people, so most people choose to surrender to the other party. Anyway, the money is not in vain. They can also get dried fish. Although the quality of these dried fish is not very good, they can still eat it.  Immortal.

    But today, these Tamils ??finally hit the wall. Li Zhen and Li Yun did not come to spread light and kindness on behalf of the Tang Dynasty, but came to carry out violent aggression, so they faced these Tamils ??who were blocking the way.  Li Zhen immediately ordered to continue moving forward, knocking over all these small boats with a huge hull. Li Zhen even issued a killing order, imitating Zhu Chong to eliminate pirates, and shot all the Tamils ??who fell into the water. Although Li Yun  It felt a little cruel, but I didn't stop it after thinking about it.

    After eliminating this small obstacle, Li Zhen and Li Yun commanded the fleet to capture all the small islands in the strait in batches.  And the methods were also very cruel. Any Tamils ??who resisted were wiped out, as well as the remaining Tamils.  They also put them all on ships and sent them to the island of Ceylon.  Therefore, in just a few days, the entire Ceylon Strait fell into the hands of Li Zhen and Li Yun.

    For this sudden invasion of foreign forces.  Both sides of the Straits of Ceylon also responded quickly.  The island of Ceylon is divided into two, and the southern part of the island is the sphere of influence of the Sinhalese people.  The north of the island and the Strait of Ceylon belong to the Tamil sphere of influence.  The Tamils ??on the island reacted immediately after learning that the strait had been taken over by Li Zhen's huge fleet.  A force of hundreds of medium-sized warships was sent into the strait to drive Li Zhen and others out.

    The Tamils ??on the island of Ceylon have formed a unified Tamil Kingdom, occupying half of the island of Ceylon. Among the various forces in South Tianzhu, it can also be regarded as a medium force. It can send hundreds of medium warships at a time.  It is the elite navy that has poured out all the country.  It is also worth mentioning that in the eyes of Li Zhen and others, the so-called medium warship is the largest warship they can own for the various forces in Southern Tianzhu.

    However, these long and narrow warships are simply destined to die when facing Zhu Chong's dozen or so main warships. These warships are no match for Zhu Chong's in terms of speed, size, flexibility and other basic aspects, as well as weapons and equipment.  The main battleships are very different, especially since each main battleship is equipped with fifty cannons. The battle method has long abandoned the boarding battle. Only the cannons can blast the opponent's warships into the seabed.

    It is precisely because of such a huge gap that when the warships of the Tamil Kingdom encountered Zhu Chong's warships, the entire battle was nothing new. First, they were bombarded by the artillery of more than a dozen warships. At least half of the battleships were  The ship was directly bombarded into the bottom of the sea, and the rest of the hull was damaged. In order to save ammunition, Zhu Chong immediately ordered people to increase the speed of the ship to the maximum, and then rammed it viciously. As a result, under the hard impact angle,  And squeezed by the raised bows, the remaining warships could not escape their fate. Maybe in a thousand years, someone will discover these sunken ships in the Strait of Ceylon, and then slowly study this first battle from east to west.  war.

    The result of what was later called the "First Battle of Ceylon" had already begun.It was already doomed at that time. The elite navy of the Tamil Kingdom was lost in one day. The remaining navy only had some small warships. It was okay to patrol the port. It was just a dream to fight with others, but to fight in person.  The construction of ships is not a matter of a day or two, so they temporarily lost the ability to compete at sea.

    A Tamil force in South India originally sent a fleet, but after hearing the outcome of the naval battle, they were so frightened that they immediately sent the fleet back.  However, these Tamils ??were very united to the outside world, and they were not willing to fail. Some Tamil leaders in South India spontaneously gathered together to discuss fighting against foreign invaders.

    Although the Tamils ??are very united to the outside world, and they are very hostile to this sudden arrival of outsiders, after more than a month of quarreling, they still failed to come up with a practical plan. One of them proposed to assemble all forces.  Navy, fighting each other to the death on the sea, but the result of the last naval battle has made everyone feel scared, and the Tamil royal family on the island of Ceylon is the strongest navy among them. Now even the Tamil Kingdom has been defeated.  It would probably be useless if they joined forces.

    But without a navy, the Tamils ??had nothing to do with Li Zhen and the others, so in the end these Tamils ??could only think of one way, which was to block the entire coast of South Tianzhu, prohibiting Li Zhen and his ships from docking, and also prohibiting South Tianzhu.  businessmen make deals with each other.  Li Zhen and the others cannot stay on the sea all the time, and they will definitely need supplies. But now there is no one in South Tianzhu to trade with them, so they will not get supplies, and they will naturally leave by then.

    However, when Li Zhen learned that the Tamils ??in South Tianzhu used this method to deal with them, she laughed loudly. What they wanted was the hostility of the Tamils ??towards them. Besides, it didn't matter if they couldn't get supplies from South Tianzhu.  There is also a Sinhalese kingdom on the island of Ceylon, and it is also the old enemy of the Tamils. Now that it is at odds with the Tamils, I believe that as long as the Sinhalese have any brains, they will treat them as honored guests.

    In fact, the day after Zhu Chong wiped out the navy of the Tamil royal family, Wang Xuance took a mission composed of several eminent monks from the Tang Dynasty and took a boat to the Sinhalese Kingdom with various rare gifts.  .  The current Sinhalese king is named Xinkeya, and he is a devout Buddhist. In fact, this is also a characteristic of the Sinhala kingdom, that is, all the people in the country, high or low, are Buddhists. Among them, the ability to understand Buddhism is  It will also determine whether a prince can inherit the throne. Since Xinkeya can defeat other brothers and ascend to the throne, he is naturally very profound in Buddhism.

    As a ruler, Xinkeya naturally understood that the enemy of his enemy was his friend, so he naturally welcomed Wang Xuance's arrival, especially in the previous naval battle, which allowed him to see the strength in Li Zhen's hands.  This also won his respect, so he welcomed Wang Xuance into the city very grandly.

    The Sinhala Kingdom is also known as the Lion Kingdom, and the name of the capital city is Lion City. The most magnificent building in the city is not the palace, but a huge temple. Buddha statues, large and small, can be seen everywhere on the road, especially the monks wearing monk robes.  He was so respected that even some nobles riding in cars had to give way when encountering monks traveling.  Even when the king was talking to a monk, he had to find a way to make himself lower than the monk's head to show respect for the Buddha.

    Seeing this situation, Wang Xuance, who came to the Lion Kingdom for the first time, also secretly said that he was surprised that Buddhism was prosperous in the Tang Dynasty, but compared with the Sinhalese people here, it was still far behind.  As for the few eminent monks of the Tang Dynasty who came with him, they were so excited that tears filled their eyes. They believed that this was the real Buddhist country, and they had made up their minds to stay no matter what.

    After Xinkeya invited the delegation into the main hall of the palace, Wang Xuance immediately presented the various gifts he had brought. In fact, they were nothing more than some silk porcelain, as well as some gadgets, such as swords and swords made of fine steel, and exquisitely made  Glass handicrafts, Buddha statues carved from suet white jade, etc. are all flashy things.

    However, these things are very precious gifts to Xinkeya, especially the three-foot-tall Jade Buddha statue, which he regards as a treasure. He even said on the spot that he would fund the construction of an Jade Buddha Temple to transform this statue into a Jade Buddha Temple.  Enshrine the Jade Buddha and let people from all over the country come to worship!

    Wang Xuance was a scholar and had studied Buddhism a lot. However, he could not understand Xinkeya's fanatical religious belief. After all, in his view, no matter what religion it was, it was a tool for the superior to rule the people. But in  The Sinhalese Kingdom has gone the other way. Religion has ruled the entire kingdom. Sinkya, the leader of a country, did not hesitate to spend a lot of national power to build a redundant temple just for a mere Buddha statue?  This is something that Wang Xuance, a Confucian disciple, cannot imagine!  (To be continued)
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