It is precisely because of this fear that they have spared no effort to strengthen the defense of Malacca City in the past ten years. However, Portugal itself does not believe much in the intelligence brought back by people from the Far East. In addition, in recent years, the Portuguese
It has already begun to devote some of its energy to Brazil, trying to completely colonize Brazil.
Therefore, when the Portuguese in East Asia requested more reinforcements from the mainland, they were sometimes even rejected.
However, even if the Portuguese tried their best, there was probably no hope of holding Malacca.
The Portuguese in Malacca were so pessimistic and even desperate that they even put their hope in diplomatic negotiations in an attempt to avoid war.
But they didn't expect that before they heard the news from the diplomats, they had to wait for the Tang Empire's main fleet.
After receiving the declaration of war, the Portuguese diplomats were expelled, and then they took ships all the way south back to Malacca!
What's even more interesting is that when they set off back to Malacca, the main fleet of the Tang Navy also set off from Wusong Port two days later, and then joined another group of main fleets in Guangzhou to form a huge 'Indian Ocean Fleet'
Set off southward.
After this huge main fleet arrived at the sea off Malacca, it joined the squadron that was originally performing surveillance missions off Malacca, and then officially carried out the blockade mission against Malacca, and at the same time completely blocked the Strait of Malacca.
At this time, the Portuguese diplomats were actually still on the way, because because of the emergency, they could not find any good ship, so they could only take an old carat ship back to Malacca, not to mention the slow speed, and
The coastal ports of the Tang Empire had already refused to provide any supplies to the Portuguese diplomatic ship, so their return voyage was extremely difficult.
So much so that the main fleet of the Tang Dynasty, which set off two days later than them and wasted a lot of time on the way to rendezvous with other ships and supplies, arrived in Malacca before them.
When the main fleet of the navy arrived in Malacca and blocked the port of Malacca and the Strait of Malacca.
There is an equally large fleet in the rear that is slowly heading towards Malacca. This is a joint landing fleet composed of the army, navy and Guards.
In order for this Malacca operation to proceed smoothly, it was also to demonstrate the majesty of the navy to let the Chinese people see it, so as to attract more young talents in the country to join the navy, and also to reflect the role of the navy in order to obtain more naval military expenditures.
It can be said that the Navy of the Tang Dynasty worked hard. In addition to maintaining combat readiness at home and leaving necessary forces in other directions, basically all the capital ships that could be mobilized were mobilized!
The fleet that blockaded Malacca and was expected to engage in a decisive battle with the Portuguese main fleet had a total of nine battleships, six cruisers, 24 frigates, and eight patrol ships as auxiliary forces.
The above-mentioned battleships have all completed the steam modification work. The only pity is that the steel battleship Jiangnan has just entered service and is still in the trial preparation stage. Because it is a new type of main battleship, training is quite troublesome.
Therefore, it has not yet formed combat effectiveness.
In addition to the above-mentioned combat warships, there are also numerous auxiliary warships, including fast communication ships, supply ships, coal transporters, etc., a total of more than 20 ships.
The entire newly formed Indian Ocean Fleet has a total of nine battleships, six cruisers, 24 frigates, eight offshore patrol ships, and 26 auxiliary ships, a total of 73 warships, with a total tonnage of more than 40,000.
Ton.
Whether in terms of tonnage or combat effectiveness, this is the largest ocean-going fleet formed by the Tang Navy.
The Joint Landing Fleet at the rear is worse and more chaotic, because the ships of the Joint Landing Fleet are more complex, including Navy battleships and transport ships, as well as ships of the Guards Fleet, and then the Army's maritime fleet.
There are also transport divisions, but most of them are transport ships under the Joint Maritime Transport Department, an independent agency jointly established by multiple services. These transport ships are private merchant ships temporarily recruited, and most of them are armed merchant ships of trading companies.
In addition, some are cargo ships and passenger ships of domestic shipping companies.
This mixed and large joint landing fleet carried a total of one main army infantry division, one army artillery brigade, in addition to a temporary regiment of the Guards and a marine regiment.
Among them, the main infantry division of the Army is the 19th Infantry Division, which has been stationed in the Pearl River Delta region for a long time, has experience in many coastal landing exercises, and has sent troops to various islands in Southeast Asia to conduct landing and sweep operations many times. The predecessor of this division is
It is the Second Mixed Regiment. Later, during the Army's multiple reorganizations, it was integrated or split with other units many times. After the Army determined the fixed army level organization, the unit's designation was the 19th Infantry Division, which directly belonged to the 19th Infantry Division.
Seventh Army.
The 19th Infantry Division is a combat-ready force. It is fully staffed all year round and has a large amount of training and frequent exercises. Its combat capabilities are naturally not bad.
Among them, the Army Artillery Brigade is the Army's 7th Artillery Brigade, which is directly under the jurisdiction of the Seventh Army. From the early years, the Army's artillery brigade units have generally been under the command of corps-level units. At the same time, the Privy Council will also have direct jurisdiction over a number of independent artillery brigades.
The army, even though the army has undergone many organizational changes, the changes in the artillery unit have never been huge.
The artillery brigade has a total of seventy-two artillery pieces. The smallest caliber is the nine-pound field gun. However, the main artillery of the brigade is the fourteen-pound heavy cannon and the forty-eight-pound short-barreled howitzer.
In the Datang Army's vision, such an artillery brigade was used as the main force of siege artillery during war. If it was conducting offensive and defensive operations in the field, it would need to provide fire support for the entire army.
Therefore, the number of artillery pieces is not only large, but also all large-caliber artillery pieces.
Needless to say, the nine-pound field cannon among them was only the nine-pound field cannon that was equipped in large numbers in the Tang Army. The fourteen-pound cannon was developed as a prototype of the navy's fourteen-pound naval gun and was carried out.
It is designed to be lightweight, but the range and power have not been reduced much. It is currently the main heavy cannon model of the Army.
As for the 48-pound short-barreled howitzer, it sounds like the same thing as the large number of short-barreled howitzers equipped in the early years, but it is actually two different things. The short-barreled howitzers in the early years were all used to fire early external fuse shells, although the power was not the same.
It's small, but has a short range, and most importantly, it's too dangerous and explodes at every turn.
However, the short-barreled howitzers currently equipped are specially developed for new types of built-in fuze grenades. They have a longer range and higher accuracy. Of course, they are also heavier than before.
This 48-pound grenade can shoot at a range of 450 meters with great accuracy. The overall range and accuracy are similar to the nine-pound field gun, but the power is much greater!
If a grenade weighing 48 pounds falls on the enemy's dense phalanx, it can wipe out an entire company of the enemy!
However, because the shells are too heavy, loading is very troublesome. At the same time, the gun body is heavy, and it is also troublesome to reset the gun after firing. The combination of many factors also leads to a relatively slow rate of fire.
The firepower of this artillery brigade is basically comparable to the firepower of two battleships, because battleships can often only use one of the cannons on their sides during combat. Therefore, although there are many cannons, they still need two during combat.
Only a battleship's firepower can be compared with this artillery brigade.
In addition to the two army units mentioned above, there is also a marine regiment of the navy and a temporary regiment of the Guards. Needless to say, the latter participates in the war according to the practice of previous years to gain military exploits.
The main task of the Marine Corps of the Navy is not to attack Malacca together with the Army. Their main task is to take the lead in landing and controlling the beach when the fleet lands, and then to coordinate the landing of the main force of the Army.
As for after the landing is completed, this marine regiment will be deployed to perform other tasks, well, mainly to enter the various battleships of the Indian Ocean Fleet to strengthen the fleet's follow-up combat capabilities.
In naval battles these days, boarding battles are still an important part. Even though the Tang Navy has been developing technology, with the current performance of warships, especially the performance of naval guns, it is actually very difficult to completely eliminate them in a short time.
It is possible to sink an enemy ship, not to mention that the maneuverability is average during battle. It is very possible for the enemy to approach and engage in a boarding battle during the melee.
As for the task of attacking Malacca and prying open the turtle shell of the Malacca Fortress, that is a task belonging to the Army. To be precise, it is a task of the 19th Infantry Division and the 7th Artillery Brigade under the Army's Seventh Army.
Even if it is a temporary regiment of the Guards, it is unlikely that it will become the main force in this critical battle.
There is no way, the Guards are so special. Every time there is a war, they send troops to fight, but every time they have independent command and combat power. Although they sometimes belong to a certain army unit in name,
But it's only in name only.
Army generals do not have the authority to command the Guards troops. They can only ask the Guards to send troops to fight in the name of suggestions, coordinated operations, etc.
The Guards is a temporary regiment. This time it is just to accumulate war experience and gain some military exploits. Therefore, without special circumstances, the Guards will not carry out such a tough battle with huge casualties.
However, this means that there are no special circumstances. If the battle situation becomes critical, the Guards will take over.
But in the Battle of Malacca, it was obviously impossible for such a special situation to occur.