The early battle in Luzon was very smooth. Zhou Long designed to lead two hostile alliances to the plains to fight to the decisive battle. Although he faced several times the enemy, he was almost one-sidedly massacred. Not only was the 200,000 native coalition forces on the battlefield been defeated, but Zhou Long also sent 50,000 Linyi people and 15,000 short black troops to follow the defeated soldiers and kill them fiercely. As a result, even if these defeated soldiers fled to the tropical jungle, they could not escape the pursuit of the enemies behind them.

After this battle, he and the 300,000 troops of the Alliance and the Yilu Alliance suffered more than half of the casualties. The rest followed the leader back to their tribe, and no matter how the patriarchs of the two alliances summoned, they were unwilling to send troops again.

However, this gave Zhou Long the opportunity to defeat each other. After resting his troops, he immediately divided his troops and began to sweep the tribes in the two alliances from west to east. However, most of these tribes were blocked by the jungle, so the troops involved in the sweep this time were mainly Linyi army and the short blacks.

Originally, the main forces of the two major alliances had been destroyed, and the rest were all defeated soldiers. It should be very simple to sweep them. However, Zhou Long and the others soon discovered that the war had just begun. When they sent troops to the tribes in the jungle, the enemies they faced were no longer natives, but harsh environments in the tropical jungle.

Speaking of which, Zhou Long had made a lot of preparations for the harsh environment in Luzon, and even allowed the 120,000 troops to train in Manila for four or five months. However, when he really entered the jungle to fight, he realized that his previous preparations were far from enough.

For example, on the sixth day of the decisive battle in the plains, a joint army composed of short black men and Japanese was ordered to chase a tribal coalition of 5,000 people. At that time, Zhou Long sent out two thousand people, of which one thousand men and Japanese were 1,000. Originally, the other party was just a defeated army and had no combat power at all. As long as they caught up with the other party, it would be enough. But when the pursuit army came out of the jungle half a month later, the short black men of one thousand men lost only about a hundred people, but the Japanese, who were also one thousand men, were just the opposite. Only more than one hundred people could walk out of the jungle, and they were all covered in injuries. Even if they were cured, they could not stay in the army.

Zhou Long was also very shocked by this result, and was also somewhat fortunate to be able to subdue the dwarf blacks in Luzon. Otherwise, the Japanese and grassland troops from the north would not be able to defeat Luzon at all. It is also worth mentioning that the Linyi people were also very adaptable to jungle warfare. In the process of chasing the enemy, their casualties were only a little higher than those of the dwarf blacks. As for the Japanese and Sanhans, their adaptability was also good, at least they still had a certain combat effectiveness in the jungle. However, the grassland cavalry that had defeated the tribal coalition before was not good. They were very uncomfortable with the climate in Luzon, and the non-combat reduction was very serious.

It was also the harsh natural conditions in Luzon that caused great casualties in the army in Zhou Long's hands, and most of them were non-combat reductions, which forced Zhou Long to transfer a group of troops from Linyi. In addition, the number of some dwarf black troops was increased, and then they were organized into jungle troops, which were specifically responsible for cleaning up tribes in the jungle.

Although there were great casualties, Luzon Island still fell into the hands of Zhou Long's army step by step. Although he and the Yilu Alliance wanted to reorganize the forces of resistance several times, unfortunately they had been killed by Zhou Long before, and even some tribes within the alliance no longer followed their orders. In addition, their feudal short black men continued to attack them from both sides of light and dark. Therefore, the territory of the two major alliances was quickly cleared.

In this process, the happiest thing was the slave-catching merchants from all over the country. The demise of the two major tribal alliances greatly increased the source of slaves. Therefore, the slave merchants during this period were like being injected with chicken blood. As long as there was a place to fight, they would be there. These people waved the silver coins in their hands to exchange the slaves they needed from the army. The army was also very willing to increase an income point, so they also tried their best to provide convenience to these slave merchants.

When Li Yan, who was far away in Taiwan, was very happy about this news. He not only sent people to reward the three armies, but also wrote a letter to Yanbei, asking him to try his best to put the matter of the slave hunting association, try to examine the terrain of Luzon, list some places suitable for development, and at the same time make preparations to lay a foundation for future immigration.

"Cousin, I'm leaving. You must remember to go to Chang'an to see me!" On the huge Qi King, Caier, wearing a green dress, was covered in tears. He held Nanyang, who was less than one year old in one hand and Australia, who was almost three years old in the other. Chou Chou, who was five years old, held Caier's legs, and his little face was crying.

"Don't worry, my cousin will definitely go back to see you when he has time. In addition, grandmother is not in good health, so you will have to worry too much in the future!" Li Yan said reluctantly. Beside him, Wen Xin, Xijun and other girls all came to see Cai'er off.

It is now March of the 17th year of Zhenguan. Nanyang, born last year, has been ten months old. It is the cutest time. However, at this moment, Empress Xiao proposed to take Caier back to Chang'an. Originally, Li Yan wanted to persuade her to stay, but Empress Xiao gave a reason that Li Yan could not refuse at all.

When Li Yan first met Caier, it was the twelve years of Zhenguan. Now it has been the 17th year of Zhenguan. Caier has grown from a ten-year-old girl to a fifteen-year-old flower girl. Moreover, Caier has inherited the beauty genes of their Yang family women. She has become charming at the age of fifteen, and even compared with Wen Xin, she will not be much inferior.

Seeing her granddaughter growing up day by day, while Queen Xiao's body ages day by day, and even suffered a serious illness last year. If Mengxue hadn't been diagnosed and treated in time, the situation would have probably become extremely bad. Empress Xiao's life was bumpy and would have seen through life and death, but she still had one wish, which was to book a marriage for Caier to be of equal status.

Although the Sui Dynasty had already perished, Caier's identity was still extremely noble. Not to mention, Yang Fei, the dear aunt, could make Caier the first-class wealthy woman in the Tang Dynasty, let alone Li Ke and Li Yan, two cousins ​​with outstanding abilities. Therefore, Caier's marriage was absolutely careless, and the man who could match Caier could naturally be found in Chang'an.

Li Yan could not stop hearing the reason mentioned by Queen Xiao. Even if he hadn't had too much work now, he would have gone back to Chang'an and settled Cai'er's marriage. After all, Cai'er is his cousin, and his uncle Yang Ming also provided a lot of help for him, so he naturally wanted to worry more about Cai'er's marriage.

But unfortunately, there are too many facts in Li Yan's hands now. Immigration will last for several years. Lin Yi is still unstable, and Taiwan's development cannot be separated from him. In addition, it has newly conquered Luzon. Although there are dedicated people in charge everywhere, Li Yan also needs to take charge of Taiwan and control the overall situation without deviation.

It is precisely because of this that this time, Empress Xiao and Caier left alone. As for Princess Nanyang who was with Empress Xiao, she was not in Taiwan. Princess Nanyang lived in Siqi with her mother Empress Xiao for a while, but she loved the religious atmosphere there, so she decided to live there for a long time. In the end, Li Yan simply built a Taoist temple in Siqi for the purpose of Princess Nanyang's practice.

Caier has been well-behaved and smart since she was a child. She has a good relationship with Wen Xin, Xijun and other sisters-in-laws. In addition, Chou Chou and Australia also like this cousin very much. It can be said that she has always been Cai Er's followers. This time, she was naturally very reluctant to leave. Chou Chou even hugged Caier's legs and cried and refused to let her leave.

However, no matter how reluctant she was, Empress Xiao and Caier still had to leave. Finally, Li Yan hugged Chou Chou, Wen Xin and Mei Niang also carried their son over, and then stood on the dock in Keelung to see Caier off. It was just the sad atmosphere when they parted. Even Li Yan couldn't help but sigh a few times, and his eyes were also a little red.

Although Li Yan said just now that he would go to Chang'an to see Cai'er, he knew that he could now say that he had established a kingdom. Although his father-son relationship with Li Shimin made his kingdom closely connected with the Tang Dynasty, he could no longer enter and exit the Tang Dynasty at will. He had already figured this out when he moved his family out of Dengzhou.

Another point is that Empress Xiao is over 80 years old. Although she has been with him for the past few years and has been taken care of very carefully, Empress Xiao is indeed too old and her health is getting worse day by day. After this separation, I am afraid that their grandparents and grandchildren will never meet again.

Thinking of the days he spent with Empress Xiao over the years, and remembering the love and care of Empress Xiao for him when he first met him, Li Yan couldn't help feeling a little sad. However, he also made up his mind that if Empress Xiao really came to that day in the future, his grandson would return to Chang'an to attend her funeral no matter what.

Just when Li Yan sent Empress Xiao and Caier on board, his actions in Luzon finally came back to the Tang Dynasty. At first, the news was only spread among the powerful and wealthy, and slowly through newspaper reports, more and more people learned about the news. However, this news did not attract much attention from many people. First, Luzon was too far away, and second, they had heard too much about Li Yan's expansion of territory in recent years, so everyone was a little numb.
Chapter completed!