Travel to the early Tang Dynasty and become a salted fish

Chapter 738 Chu Xin’s founding of the country

When the time came to the end of May, all construction on Liuqiu Island was basically completed.

Chu Mo not only completed the construction of the port he needed, but also built a shipyard relying on the skilled craftsmen sent by the wealthy merchants and gentry along the coast of Fujian.

Not only that, he also used the mined gold and silver ore from the big businessmen in Jiangnan East Road to exchange for a large amount of coal and iron ore, which solved Chu Mo's urgent needs.

Of course, such a large-scale ore transaction naturally attracted the attention of some officials in Jiangnan East Road.

However, every time when officers and soldiers came to investigate, Chu Mo would hide wherever he could, and try to bribe those he could.

In the end, I really couldn't figure it out, so I had no choice but to pretend to be pirates and bandits, round up all the officers and soldiers who came to arrest the traders, and bring them back to Liuqiu Island to mine.

For a time, the news spread everywhere that there was a powerful bandit in Jiangnan East Road, who killed without batting an eye and never left anyone alive.

For this reason, Yu Lianhua, the strategic envoy of Jiangnan East Road, repeatedly reported, hoping that the imperial court would send troops to suppress the bandits.

However, all these memorials were like sinking into the sea, and there was no reply at all.

It's not that Li Shimin doesn't want to take care of it, it's that the Tang Dynasty is already too overwhelmed to take care of it.

As heavy rains fell suddenly in various places, disasters of varying sizes also occurred in various places.

Coupled with the previous drought, half of the Tang Dynasty's summer grain harvest had been cut off.

After the heavy rain, it cleared up quickly everywhere, and the scorching sun scorched the earth, causing all the insects, especially the locusts, that had been hiding in the soil to start moving.

Fortunately, these locusts were discovered when they were still in the budding stage.

In order to solve the locust plague in advance, Li Shimin personally swallowed a locust in front of all the officials to show his intention to eliminate the harm.

With the emperor's example, the officials below did not dare to neglect, and began to organize manpower to capture locusts and clean up the locust eggs existing in the soil.

Due to the timely handling and the concerted efforts of everyone, this locust plague basically did not cause much damage and was resolved with lightning speed.

However, before everyone could be happy, Chu Xin, who was huddled in Zhengzhou City, suddenly launched an undeclared war and sent 5 troops to attack Luoyang City at night. They used explosives to directly blow up the west wall of Luoyang City. In less than three hours, Just take it down.

Of the 50000 defenders of Luoyang City, half were killed in battle, half were captured, and very few escaped.

It was not until the fifth day after the fall of Luoyang City that Li Shimin received a report from a general who had narrowly escaped from the front and escaped, and learned that Chu Xin was sending troops again.

After receiving the news, Li Shimin immediately ordered Cheng Yaojin to return with 30000 soldiers and horses in the pass for reinforcements.

In addition, he assembled several armies from Hedong Road, Hebei Road, Shannan Road, Huainan Road, etc., hoping to surround and annihilate Chu Xin.

In Li Shimin's eyes, Chu Xin had become a successor at this time. She was no longer a dangerous disease and should be cured as soon as possible.

What shocked the world was that in the face of the encirclement and suppression by Li Shimin's various armies, Chu Xin not only showed no sign of cowardice, but instead braved the disapproval of the world and directly declared her accession to the throne, making Luoyang the capital and naming her country the Great Zhou. , and she proclaimed herself Holy Emperor.

What is even more unexpected is that after hearing the news of Chu Xin's founding of the country, the entire Henan Province immediately changed their flags and announced that they would leave the Tang Dynasty and join the Zhou Dynasty.

In addition, Hebei Road, Hedong Road and Huainan Road, which were originally normal and mediocre, and were extremely obedient to the decline of the imperial court, suddenly turned against them.

While Li Shimin was gathering his army, he launched a sneak attack on several other armies, causing heavy losses to all parties.

After that, they directly announced their departure from the Tang Dynasty, joined the Great Zhou Dynasty, and obeyed Chu Xin's orders.

At this point, Chu Xin's plan gradually came to light, letting the world know how extraordinary this strange woman was.

As a result, some old Sui Dynasty troops who were dissatisfied with Li and Tang's management responded and went to Luoyang to serve Chu Xin.

After this battle, the Tang Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty temporarily formed a confrontation.

Chu Xin was not absolutely sure of defeating Li Shimin.

For the time being, Li Shimin could only gather the remaining troops and build layers of defenses to prevent Chu Xin's sneak attack.

Since then, although the two sides have not continued to face large-scale confrontations, their probing has never stopped.

Both sides continued to send out scouts to fight, and it was common for hundreds of people to be killed or injured at the end of the day.

Chu Mo, who didn't know that Chu Xin and Li Shimin had beaten their heads, had already led the fleet to set off again.

However, this time is different from before. Before, Yang Hongyu was chasing after Chu Mo like a bereaved dog. He was basically driven out of Leizhou City. There was a gap in both material supplies and personnel rations on the ship.

But this time he made full preparations. Not only did he recruit a large number of sailors and soldiers from Jiangnan East Road, but he also prepared enough supplies for the entire fleet to use for more than half a year.

On this trip to the sea, Chu Mo's destination is to go directly to the Japanese island. Now he will establish a stronghold on it, and then use it to radiate the entire Japanese island, and turn all the Japanese people who are still playing house on it into his slaves as quickly as possible. .

For this reason, Chu Mo can be said to have brought almost all of his family fortune with him.

Not only did they bring all 10 three-story ships, 11 two-story ships, 21 ordinary warships, and 80 supply ships that were later added.

It also brought a full 20000 soldiers, as well as 12000 sailors and logistics supply personnel and a large number of craftsmen.

The fleet set off from Liuqiu and, in accordance with Chu Mo's request, traveled from the East China Sea via Taizhou and Yangzhou. After resting in Yangzhou, it directly captured Danluo Island (now Jeju Island), and finally headed to the Japanese island of Nagasaki.

According to Chu Mo's guess, with such a large fleet, even if he did not receive courtesy from all parties along the way, he would never be targeted by Xiao Xiao.

But what he didn't know was that Yangzhou had changed hands at this time. It was no longer a territory within the Tang Dynasty, but had fallen under Chu Xin's command.

When he led his fleet to Suzhou, the news had already reached Yangzhou.

I heard that a fleet came from the sea, and the flag of the Tang Dynasty was flying on it.

As a result, those Yangzhou generals who had obtained new weapons and equipment, were eager to perform meritorious service, and wanted to perform well in front of their new masters were like sharks that had seen blood. They all howled and started calling friends and the surrounding water. Army, they want to keep this Tang army in their Yangzhou.

When Chu Mo's fleet arrived outside Yangzhou City.

He saw that countless ships of different sizes had already lined up on the sea. The moment they saw Chu Mo's fleet again, they started firing in their direction.