Qian Dahai did not stay in Luoyang for too long. Instead, he left immediately after the court decided to fight against pirates. However, he left with another official position because he was going to the south to meet Di Renjie this time and cooperated with the other party to fight against pirates.

Speaking of which, although Qian Dahai is just a maritime businessman, he received rewards from the court when he returned from America last time and became an official, but it was just a name but not a real person. This time he finally had a real position. And if he performed well, he might be able to officially enter the officialdom in the future, which also made Qian Dahai full of motivation.

After Qian Dahai left, Zhang Zong was considering another issue, that is, the construction of the Tang Dynasty's naval forces. Although the Tang Dynasty independentized the navy from the navy a few years ago and established a special navy, due to tradition, the Tang Dynasty's navy was still relatively weak, at least not much attention compared to the army.

This cannot be blamed on the Tang Dynasty. After all, the Central Plains have been a land-power since ancient times and have not valued much about the ocean. Even because the sea is not easy to control and accidents are prone to happen, some dynasties have deliberately given up on the ocean.

In recent years, the Tang Dynasty's maritime trade developed very rapidly, which attracted the Tang Dynasty's attention to the ocean. The establishment of the navy also arises from this. However, although the navy was established, it is actually not much different from before. The navy rarely dispatched normally, because the Tang Dynasty's requirements for the navy were mainly defense, and there was no concept of taking the initiative.

It is precisely because the Tang Dynasty navy was mainly used for defense that this led to the rampant pirates. After all, as long as the pirates do not harass the coast of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty navy is like a non-existent tiger to them, and there is no need to consider it at all.

Even Zhang Zong was sure that the Navy must have known the existence of pirates, but because this was not their duty, they were lazy to pay attention to it. Various reasons have caused the current situation. Although Li Chongye has ordered the Navy to clear out the pirates, Zhang Zong was still a little worried.

You should know that pirates are born with the sea trade. As long as it is profitable, someone will do it. So even if a group of pirates are wiped out this time, as long as the limelight is over, it won’t take long, and the pirates will definitely blew and grow again like wild grass.

Therefore, it is definitely not possible to rely on one clearance alone. There must be a conventional mechanism to curb the emergence of pirates. The best way is to reform the navy and allow the navy to form a certain cruise area or even an escort mechanism to ensure the safety of merchant ships. Only after the regular army intervenes, those pirates dare not be arrogant.

However, it is not easy to reform the army, even Zhang Zong cannot do it, because he is not a military general and has no military experience, so even if he wants to reform, he has no way to start.

However, this does not mean that Zhang Zong has no choice, because there is another thing in his hand that can be involved in the army, that is, the martial arts school. The previous martial arts school did not have many subjects, and it mainly focused on the army subjects, such as horse warfare, infantry warfare, mountain warfare, etc.

Now Zhang Zong felt that he should be able to join a navy subject and then draw personnel from the navy to study in the martial arts school. After these people have finished their studies, he can also use these people to start transforming the navy. Of course, this must also require the support of Li Chongye, but this is easy. Not to mention his relationship with Li Chongye, the most important thing is that Li Chongye is also extremely interested in the ocean, so as long as it is a reasonable request, he will definitely not refuse.

After considering it thoroughly, Zhang Zong immediately started to open the Naval Section. After discussion, he also wrote the entire plan into a memorial and reported it to the court. As expected, Li Chongye's approval was soon won, making the whole thing go very smoothly.

Just as Zhang Zong was busy with the navy, the war between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo broke out again. Compared to the last time, this time, the Tang Dynasty took the initiative to attack. Lun Qinling was originally a Tubo person and knew almost everything about Tubo. Under his command, the Tang army defeated the Tubo defense line almost instantly, and then a large number of Tang troops rushed into the territory of Tubo.

Originally, Tubo occupied the geographical advantage of the plateau, and the general Tang army could not go up at all. However, the army under Lunqinling was originally Tubo people, and some other Tang army also climbed the plateau in advance. After a period of adaptation, they could already fight on the plateau, so the plateau was no longer a natural barrier for them.

Just when the Tang army was approaching, it was the time when civil strife in Tubo was the most intense. This uprising that broke out from the bottom almost swept across the entire Tubo area. After all, these people at the bottom were oppressed so cruelly that they would be dead if they didn't resist.

Even some Tubo's uprising troops took the initiative to surrender to the Tang army after seeing the Tang army reaching, leading the way to attack the regular army of Tubo, which also caused a great blow to Tubo. Even some local troops chose to surrender when facing the Tang army.

In fact, the surrender of the Tubo army was not just because they had no chance of winning, but also because of the Qinling family. Although they had surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, they still had a considerable reputation in Tubo. Now they have come back, and many Tubo people have a good impression of them, so they are not very repulsive of surrender.

Under such circumstances, the Tang army made almost rapid progress in Tubo territory, and the main army of Tubo once organized a counterattack, but was quickly defeated. Many times, they were not defeated by the Tang army, but by the rebels. Because many rebels in the rear cut off the logistics of the Tubo army, the Tubo army was short of supplies, and even eating became a problem, let alone fighting.

A month later, the Tang army finally killed outside the Tubo capital Lushe City. Except for the places occupied by the Tang army, the rest of the rest were occupied by the rebels from all over the country. In other words, Tubo now has only the Luoshe City, and there is no place to escape even if you want to escape.

However, although the Tang army besieged Luoshecheng, it did not rush to attack. On the one hand, although the main force of Tubo suffered a lot of losses, tens of thousands of troops still shrank in Luoshecheng. In addition, as the capital of Tubo, Luoshecheng has very strong defense. If the Tang army attacked, it would definitely bring huge casualties.

Of course, the most important thing is that after a month of attack, the Tang army was a little tired, so they needed to rest. Moreover, Lun Qinling also concluded that the Tubo nobles in the city were not one mind. Under such siege, they were likely to have internal strife.
Chapter completed!