Even a tiny country like Champa had a total population of only about 500,000.

The total number of troops that can be mobilized nationwide is only 50,000, which is far from the point where the entire population is mobilized for military service.

Furthermore, due to the superior climate conditions here, seeds that fall to the ground can quickly grow into crops. The tropical rainforest provides a good complement, and the trees are laden with fruit. This unique natural environment makes the people here very lazy.

It would be a waste to hand over the fertile land of the Mekong River Plain to the Champa people.

If it were the hardworking Chinese people, they would have developed it all long ago, and the grain production would have increased year by year.

Qu Duan, a general under Zhang Jun, was a ruthless man. His method of pacifying the old nobles of Jiaozhi in Thang Teng was massacre, killing almost half of them.

This time, he was the one who annihilated the main force of the Champa army, and the method was the same: massacre.

The Champa army had many elephant soldiers, who were tall and powerful with great charging power and endurance, but they were quickly defeated by the Song army's crossbowmen.

In their first battle, the Champa army suffered a crushing defeat, with 5,000 soldiers beheaded.

The King of Champa immediately backed down and wrote two letters of surrender overnight. One was given to Zhao Zisong, and the other was sent by someone with utmost urgency to the capital of the Great Song Empire to be presented to His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, the sovereign of the world.

Of course, in addition to the letter of surrender, he also wrote two letters pleading for help.

One letter was addressed to the King of Zhenla, and the other to the King of Siam.

In the letter, he told the King of Zhenla and the King of Siam that if Champa was destroyed, Siam and Zhenla would be the next targets to be destroyed.

Unfortunately, neither the King of Zhenla nor the King of Siam were willing to offend the Celestial Empire.

In fact, no king would willingly go to war with the Song Dynasty for no reason; the fall of Jiaozhi (Vietnam) serves as a cautionary tale.

For centuries, Zhenla and Jiaozhi vied for supremacy on the southern subcontinent, each with its own victories and defeats. But when His Majesty the Emperor of the Song Dynasty was enraged, Jiaozhi was annihilated.

If His Majesty the Emperor of the Song Dynasty were to get angry again, wouldn't Zhenla be the next one to kick the bucket?

For the King of Zhenla, he was too busy carefully serving the Song Dynasty to get involved.

The King of Siam's attitude was different. Although he was unwilling to offend the Celestial Empire, he was itching to do so.

After all, Siam and the Song Dynasty did not share a border. Siam was southwest of Champa, and to the north of Siam was the Kingdom of Luohu. To the northeast of Luohu was Zhenla, and to the north of Zhenla was Dali.

If the Song Dynasty wanted to attack Siam, it had to first occupy Champa and send troops from Champa.

Even though the Song army was sent from Champa, it was still a lone force deep in enemy territory.

The journey from Champa to the capital of Siam takes ten days and ten nights, passing through long, uninhabited areas, tropical rainforests, and towering mountains.

It's not worth the effort to travel all the way to Siam.

So what can Siam do at this time?

Send troops to occupy the city!

Of course, it's not about fighting the Celestial Empire's army. Even if they had a hundred times the courage, they wouldn't dare, and they couldn't win anyway.

Sending troops to occupy a city is just an opportunity to plunder!

This was the Siamese king's wishful thinking.

So he wrote back to the King of Champa, condemning the Song emperor and saying that 300,000 reinforcements would arrive soon.

The King of Siam quickly dispatched a force of three thousand men to Champa.

Upon receiving the letter, the King of Champa was so overjoyed that he almost erected a stone statue of the King of Siam to enshrine him. He immediately sent a message to the border, instructing them to welcome the Siamese army.

Several days passed, and the King of Champa slept soundly, awaiting the arrival of Siamese reinforcements.

Of course, he did not give up writing letters of aid to Zhenla and Luohu.

His letter of appeal was passionate and inspiring.

"The Song traitors have been routed by me. I only need 30,000 troops to march north, crush Jiaozhou, invade the Song Kingdom, and occupy the Central Plains. I sincerely invite you, brother, to join me in vying for the Central Plains and sharing the world! The King of Siam has already joined! I intend to cede all of the land south of the Yangtze River to the King of Siam!"

The letter was sent, but there was no response.

A few days later, he started writing letters again.

"Yesterday I annihilated 100,000 Song rebels and swept through Jiaozhou. That brat Zhang Jun has already been beheaded by me, and his corpse is still being fed to wild dogs in the jungle! Brother, you only need to give me 20,000 troops, and I can trample Dali underfoot, beat the Song rebels with my fists, and make the Song emperor kneel before me. At that time, the world will be divided!"

A few more days passed, and the letters continued uninterrupted.

"I have defeated two hundred thousand enemy soldiers! I have led my troops north, and the Song emperor is already trembling in the palace. The surrender edict is in my hands. Now, all you need is ten thousand troops for me to conquer the Central Plains and share the vast land with you!"

...

A few days later, the King of Champa heard that the Siamese army had arrived, but not to provide support. They were looting every town and village along the way, leaving nothing behind.

Seeing the Song army advancing south with unstoppable momentum and arriving at the capital in just half a month, the King of Champa was completely panicked.

Then, the frequency of his letters to the King of Luohu and the King of Zhenla both increased.

He used to show off his fancy handwriting, but now every single character looks worse than if he had clawed a chicken.

"My 300,000 troops are already at the gates of Kaifeng. Just give me another 10,000 troops, and I can beat the Song emperor to a pulp! I am indifferent to fame and fortune, and I do not want this empire. I intend to give it to you, my brother!"

A month later, Zhao Zisong and Qu Duan led their troops to the capital of Champa.

A few days later, the capital of Champa fell, and Qu Duan went on a killing spree, turning the capital of Champa into a river of blood, slaughtering 10,000 people in one go, while the total population of the capital of Champa was only a little over 30,000.

Qu Duan's slaughter terrified the members of the royal family.

The good news was sent back to the capital by express courier.

When Zhao Huan received the news of the victory, it was already mid-December.

The capital of Champa fell, the western part was ravaged by the army of Siam, and the country was basically paralyzed.

At this time, the massive fleet departed from Hangzhou, Quanzhou and Guangzhou respectively, heading towards the coast of Champa and entering the confluence of the Kowloon River and the sea.

Their mission was to go there and load up the grain.

To ensure the smooth execution of this matter, the emperor sent Prince Kang, Zhao Gou, to the capital in person.

There was no room for negotiation on this matter. In his letter to King Kang, Zhao Huan emphasized that anyone who dared to obstruct the collection of grain would be executed without mercy!

Unexpectedly, things in the southwest progressed so smoothly, and Zhao Huan felt a great weight lifted from his heart.

Next, we can simply hand over Champa to Zhao Zisong.

He can do whatever he wants there, as long as he doesn't lose the territory to me.

Let him build it. Once it reaches a certain scale, it will belong to me.

After the fall of Champa, the kingdoms of Luohu, Siam, and Zhenla, like startled rabbits, immediately submitted memorials to His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Song Dynasty.

In the letter, he severely condemned the Champa rebel king, saying that he deserved his fate and that the Song Dynasty would last forever and the emperor would live a long and prosperous life.

In a short time, the stable situation in the southwestern subcontinent that had lasted for hundreds of years was shattered by the ironclad armor of the Song Dynasty.

In the warm winter with bright sunshine, large quantities of grain were transported from the Jiulongjiang Plain of Champa to the seagoing vessels of the Song Dynasty. They would be transported back to Hangzhou Port by both sea and land, and the canal and land transport teams in Hangzhou were already prepared.

One batch of these grains was transported to Jiangling Prefecture, and another batch was transported to Kaifeng Prefecture.