Chapter 1156 The great war to expel the Tang imperialist aggressors!
Bali Island, east of Banten Island, was the easternmost actual ruling area of the Bandan Prefecture of the Tang Dynasty.
The Tang Empire built a small castle here, with more than a hundred soldiers stationed all year round, and nearly a thousand immigrants, who could also organize a certain number of militiamen.
Such a colonial stronghold is naturally incomparable with Wantan City and others. This kind of colonial stronghold is a very typical small colonial stronghold.
But this small colonial stronghold is much better than other areas in Banten Prefecture. In other places, there is not even a colonial stronghold or fortress, at most it is just a trading station.
A few years ago, the Tang Dynasty had not established the Wandan Prefecture. The affairs of the Bandan area were basically in charge of the Datang Western Company. In order to make money, the focus of the Tang Western Company could not be the same as the current Wandan.
The government focuses on immigration, suppression and establishing effective rule. Their focus is trade and making money.
Therefore, the actions of the Tang Dynasty Western Company in the Banten Islands were actually relatively conventional colonial and trade activities. In addition to establishing a fortress in Banten Port to serve as a base and to control the Sunda Strait, Datang in other areas
In fact, Western Company has not made any big moves.
In other places, the Tang Western Company's strategy in the early years was to establish trading stations and then trade with local indigenous people.
Not to mention, in fact, the commercial activities in the Nanyang region in the 16th century were quite active!
Because Malacca in the Southeast Asia region is the throat connecting Europe, West Asia and India.
At the same time, many specialties from the Nanyang region, especially spices and valuable woods, are widely welcomed by businessmen in East Asia, Europe and other regions.
This active business atmosphere also influenced the rise and demise of indigenous countries in the Southeast Asia region, and this rise and demise had a great relationship with outsiders.
The Kingdom of Malacca, which used to be entrenched on both sides of Malacca, was killed by the Portuguese. Otherwise, the Portuguese would not be able to control Malacca, an important strait connecting the east and west.
Another example is the Bandan Kingdom, a small kingdom with an unknown name that was also destroyed by outsiders.
Who is this outsider? Of course it is the great Tang Empire. No, to be precise, it should be a trading company that died in the Tang Empire: Datang Western Company!
Having the same fate as the Kingdom of Banten, there is also the Kingdom of Bali!
This kingdom also fell to the Tang Empire!
It doesn’t matter who the aborigines of the island are. No one cares anyway. What is really worth recording is that with the development of commerce in the Nanyang region, Indian merchants were brought, Hinduism was brought, and a large number of Arabs and other West Asians were brought
The merchants of the area then also brought the Arabic religion.
There is no need to elaborate on the detailed process. In general, within a few decades, almost the entire Indonesian archipelago was greened...
Then some of the remaining few indigenous people who believe in Hinduism went to Bali. After decades of messing around on their own, they started to establish their own country a few years ago!
But what the heck, although religion is scary, guns and artillery are even scarier!
When the Tang Dynasty Western Company came here in the early years, the Tang Dynasty Western Company had no intention of fighting with them. Instead, it chose to reach an agreement with the local princes and nobles, and then established a trading post here and used the indigenous port as a port.
Supply port.
This is caused by the unique policy of the Datang Western Company. There is only one colonial stronghold established by the Datang Western Company in the Bandan Islands, and that is Bandan City. In other places, they did not choose to establish colonial strongholds.
More often than not, Datang Western Company prefers to cooperate with local indigenous forces, setting up trading stations locally, supplying ports, and then doing business with each other.
However, when the imperial officials took over the control of the Banten Islands from the Tang Western Company and established the Bandan Prefecture, the top civil and military officials of the Bandan Prefecture, headed by Zhu Jiaxiang, implemented policies that were completely different from those in the Tang Western Company era.
.
The Tang Western Company is seeking wealth, so they only need to control strategic locations such as the Sunda Strait and Bandan Port. In other places, it is enough to establish a trading post for trade, unless the local indigenous people are closed to the country and discordant.
They trade, otherwise, Datang Western Company would not go to war without any trouble. This war is also very expensive!
But the imperial officials are not here to do business!
The senior civil and military officials in Wandan Prefecture are almost all officials who have not been doing well in the country. Except for a very few who want to come to such a place with difficult conditions to gain wealth, in fact, quite a few of them have been demoted.
.
When these people came to Banten, they all wanted to expand their territory so that they could return to their homeland with their merits, but few of them were willing to stay overseas and hang out with the indigenous people for the rest of their lives.
In this case, will they get along well with the local indigenous people?
Impossible!
Since the establishment of Banten Prefecture, the local policy pursued has been expansionism. They are not satisfied with just a Banten City, they want to control the entire Banten Islands.
When the Tang Dynasty Western Company's fleet first came to Banten, they wiped out the entire Kingdom of Banten with a wave of their hands. When the imperial officials took over Banten, the first thing they did that year was to attack Bali!
Because at that time, with the existing military strength of Banten Prefecture, it was not possible to completely control Banten Island, Sumen Island, Makassar and other islands, and the big islands could not be conquered.
At the same time, in order to obtain more trade resources, it is also to control the Little Banten Islands (Little Sunda Islands). At the same time, the main reason is to control the channels in and out of Australia, and implement the Australian immigration plan that is still top secret, so the entire small group
The Banten Islands need to be occupied, and it is impossible for Europeans to get involved.
The combination of many circumstances led to the first target chosen by the senior management of Banten Mansion that year was Bali!
The attack process was naturally smooth. With the support of several warships sent by the Luzon Squadron, the Banten Squadron sent a large number of main troops to Bali, and in a few days, the remaining indigenous people on the entire island were wiped out.
The power was flattened.
What is surprising is that the local indigenous princes and nobles were quite courageous. When they faced the Tang Dynasty King, even if they could not resist, they still used a very extreme way to express their dignity. They could not stand in front of them.
When they resisted, they used various small means to kill the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty King's Division. After landing for a few days, there were no casualties in the head-on battle, but more than a dozen were attacked and killed by the natives at night.
Finally, when the Tang Army landed and completely wiped out the island, dozens of the remaining royal families and nobles of the Kingdom of Bali collectively committed suicide in front of the Tang Army!
This move shocked the officers of the Tang Dynasty who were leading the army at that time!
At that time, the head of the Banten garrison who led the landing force to fight in Bali was deeply impressed by the bravery of the local indigenous people!
Then he contacted several waves of familiar pirates, or merchants, anyway, they are all the same. In the waters of East Asia these days, pirates and merchants are inseparable!
Yang Hong and the others said very generously: The natives of Bali will be given free gifts, and they won’t charge a penny. If you want them, you can go directly to the island to arrest them!
The Tang Dynasty military can also provide logistical supplies, of course, for a fee!
As a result, the indigenous people who once bravely resisted Bali were wiped out by the pirates in just one year, leaving a pure and lawless Bali to the Tang Dynasty!
Therefore, by the time Bali arrived in the 11th year of Xuanping, there was actually not a single indigenous person on the island, well, at least not on the surface. As for whether there were any left in the deep mountains and old forests, it is unknown.
On the entire island, there are only about a thousand immigrants who have immigrated from the country. In addition, there are nearly two hundred army soldiers stationed here, who directly belong to the Banten Garrison Regiment.
Normally, Bali is very peaceful, but the past month has not been very peaceful. The small port on this island has welcomed a huge fleet of ships, and it has become very busy.
The Banten Squadron arrived here half a month ago, and then used Bali as a base to target the eastern area of Banten Island, which was a clearing campaign.
Although the base in Bali is small, it is still barely enough to serve as a logistics supply base. After all, the Banten Squadron came to clean up the eastern area of Banten Island, and it did not mean to occupy any place. The main goal was to attack the local indigenous people, that is,
The Bazhang Kingdom launched a deterrent military strike.
The Bazhang Kingdom is currently the only indigenous country on Banten Island that rules most of the area. However, this indigenous country has not lived up to its name since the infighting among the royal families decades ago.
The Bazhang Kingdom has now become a kingdom in name only. Most of the lords and vassals are independent. For example, the former Wandan was actually a lord who directly belonged to the Bazhang Kingdom. Although it was said to be a kingdom,
It still has not officially become independent from the Bazhang Kingdom.
In the ninth year of Xuanping, the top civil and military officials of the Bandan Mansion of the Tang Empire deliberately provoked an internal fight among the lords of the Bazhang Kingdom, and the fight was quite lively.
Therefore, the Banten Island area has been quite chaotic in recent years. Some are supported by the Tang Empire, some are supported by the Portuguese, and some are local forces. In short, it is quite chaotic.
But it is a pity that some of the ones supported by the Tang Dynasty were not very strong. They were defeated one after another and were about to be killed. The senior officials of the Bandan Mansion were worried that after the civil strife in the Bazhang Kingdom ended, they would be reunited and then counterattack.
Banten City and other western areas of Banten Island.
Against this background, a fleet was dispatched to the eastern part of Banten Island to carry out military strikes and use force as a deterrent!
And these indigenous people really have this idea. They have concentrated a large number of troops in the central and eastern regions. With the help of the Portuguese, they have already reached Bandan City and are preparing to drive out the Tang imperialist invaders.