The first thousand four hundred and eighty-two chapters capture Colombo
The Portuguese didn't fire a single shot, and even when the Tang Dynasty's landing troops were still in Mali City, more than 20 kilometers away, they already ran away. Bookmark this site
This situation made Dong Qiankun feel quite helpless!
Damn it, these Portuguese people ran away before the fight even started. What a big deal.
And the most important thing is that this will have another consequence, that is, after the Portuguese who were originally in North Colon City ran away, they must have retreated to Colombo.
In this way, the Portuguese in the two places will be concentrated together, and it will be more difficult to conquer Colombo.
However, Dong Qiankun's troops had just landed, and the city of Mali was far away from Colombo. In addition, they were unfamiliar with the place. At this time, there was no way to send troops to intercept them and prevent them from going south to join Colombo.
There was no other way, Dong Qiankun could only watch the Portuguese run away!
Since the city of North Cologne had been captured without bloodshed, it happened to be based here.
Dong Qiankun is not in a hurry. Anyway, it is one thing to fight the battle a few days early or to fight it for a few days. It is impossible for the Portuguese to get any unexpected reinforcements on Ceylon Island.
This is not only due to lack of time, but more importantly, there is an Indian Ocean fleet that can blockade it.
So he simply decided not to attack Colombo yet.
It is better to decide to be safer and capture the city of Mali first, then completely control the Palk Strait.
North Coron City and Nega City were two important military strongholds used by the Portuguese to control the Palk Strait. From an economic point of view at this time, these two port cities were useless and were not natural harbors.
There are no relatively large colonial markets.
In contemporary southern India and the island of Ceylon, the main economic and trade city is Colombo. The other colonial strongholds, regardless of whether they are controlled by the Portuguese or the Tang Empire, are actually very ordinary supply ports or military strongholds.
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In addition, contemporary India has two important places for maritime trade. One is Goa, which is located on the western coast of India and is controlled by the Portuguese. The other is Gohe State under the control of the Tang Empire.
As for Nega City, North Cologne City, and even Mali City controlled by the Tang Dynasty, they are actually very pure military strongholds, mainly for controlling the Palk Strait.
Colombo is the stronghold of the Portuguese in southern India. It is also an important strategic location for the Portuguese to fight against the Tang Empire, so its defensive strength is naturally not weak.
If we were to fight this, we probably wouldn't be able to win it for a while. If we were to attack Colombo and were attacked by the Portuguese in Nega from behind, it would cause a lot of trouble.
In order to solve his worries, Dong Qiankun decided to capture the city of Nega first, so that the navy bastards could have these two important military strongholds, and use them as ports to completely block the Palk Strait.
Dong Qiankun made a decision and after discussing it with the navy generals, the navy and army began to formulate plans.
The navy is naturally willing to attack Nega City first, because in this way, their navy can completely control the Palk Strait. Although it is still a little early to completely block the routes around Ceylon Island, it is also a major breakthrough.
After the two parties discussed and decided, they quickly began to take action. This time it was also a cross-sea landing operation, but it was not the extremely distant cross-sea landing operation like before.
Because the two sides are only separated by a strait, and the narrowest part of this strait is only a few dozen kilometers.
In order to control the development of the Tang Dynasty in India, especially to prevent the Tang Dynasty Western Trading Company from penetrating into the western coast of India, the Portuguese specifically chose to build cities in the narrowest places on both sides of the strait. Therefore, although they were separated by a strait, they could not communicate with each other.
The distance between them is not that far.
The distance is close and travel is convenient, so this landing operation is much simpler. The first batch of preparations for landing are only troop transports and some supply ships, while a large number of ships are still staying at the ports of Mali City and North Cologne City.
inside.
To be honest, these two ports are small in size and have even fewer berths. Therefore, even if there are two ports, it is still impossible to dock so many ships at the same time. Many of them just enter the port to anchor, and there is no
Against the berth.
The subsequent landing operation went smoothly, and the Portuguese had no intention of intercepting them at the beach. It was not that they did not want to, but that they did not dare.
Dozens of armed ships were providing fire cover on the seashore, and the Portuguese would not dare to go out of the city to fight even if they had a hundred courages.
However, the subsequent siege encountered some minor troubles.
But it was just a minor trouble. Although the city of Nega was not large in scale, it was a bastion built by the Portuguese who recruited a large number of local indigenous people. An unknown number of indigenous people died in order to build this bastion.
Therefore, there is no doubt about the strength of this bastion.
But no matter how strong the fortress is, it can't stop Datang's artillery fire!
The landing force did not have enough artillery, so Dong Qiankun asked the navy to directly dismantle the large-caliber naval guns, and then formed a naval heavy artillery battalion just like when he attacked Malacca.
Under the bombardment of dozens of naval heavy artillery, how can Nega City hold up!
Five days after landing in Nega City, Dong Qiankun's troops entered the city. Seeing that the more than 2,000 remaining Portuguese in the city were unable to defend themselves, they finally chose to surrender for the sake of their own lives.
For these prisoners, Dong Qiankun and the others did not have too many difficulties, but let them work as coolies. This means that a lot of food was seized in the city, and the nearby areas were also controlled and developed by the Portuguese.
The local indigenous people got some food in their hands, otherwise Dong Qiankun and the others would not have been able to support them at all.
The food in the landing fleet is very precious. It has to sustain itself for more than half a year, so how can there be any excess to feed prisoners.
After capturing the city of Nega, the next action was even simpler. I went directly south along the land and conquered several other Portuguese strongholds one after another. These strongholds were smaller, and the garrison often only had a few hundred people. Basically, one round
When the artillery went down, there were basically no casualties, so Dong Qiankun's troops didn't have to fight any tough battles at all.
But after clearing several Portuguese strongholds around Nega City, they had to land across the sea again to attack Colombo.
But this time it is not that easy. The enemy troops in Colombo are conservatively estimated to be seven to eight thousand people. With so many enemies guarding Colombo, it will not be easy to fight.
Therefore, Dong Qiankun was very cautious and led the landing troops to land on the northern coast more than 30 kilometers away from Colombo, and then chose to march for three days before arriving at the city of Colombo.
Numerous warships also accompanied the coast all the way to provide fire support at any time.
After arriving in Colombo, Dong Qiankun became more conservative and cautious. In the five days before arriving in Colombo, he did nothing but focused on building various fortifications and forts.
Then a temporary pontoon bridge was built to unload a large number of artillery, especially the navy's heavy artillery.
He cares very much about the navy's heavy artillery.
Without these naval heavy artillery, it would be almost impossible to conquer the strong Cologne.
Dong Qiankun felt relieved when he saw with his own eyes heavy cannons of fourteen kilograms, even eighteen kilograms, and twenty-four kilograms one after another ashore and then entering the predetermined artillery positions.
With the artillery in place, the attack naturally began.
The old rule is to use artillery fire for a few days first, focusing on attacking the artillery positions on top of the enemy's city to eliminate their artillery units.
At the same time, various types of transportation trenches and tunnels for advancement are excavated and prepared for blasting.
This method of siege is almost a repeat of the Seventh Army's attack on Malacca City last year. Dong Qiankun almost followed the same method as the original attack on Malacca City.
At the beginning, the city defense of Malacca was even better, and it could be called the Portuguese's first fortified city in Asia, but it was not captured by the Seventh Army.
Although there are many troops stationed in Colombo, the city is smaller, and the size of the fort, the number of artillery, and the caliber are weaker than those in Malacca.
Dong Qiankun is confident that he can win this city.
And he still won this city with as few casualties as possible!
His troops were limited, and it was impossible to obtain any reinforcements. He only had the 1st Mixed Brigade of the Expeditionary Force, the 5th Marine Regiment, and the Navy's heavy artillery regiment.
The combined strength of the troops is equivalent to 12,000 people. One loss is one less. It cannot be the same as in domestic areas. After a big battle, the rear can immediately replenish the number of casualties as many as there are casualties.
When fighting in India, one of the available soldiers was killed or wounded, and there was no way to replenish them.
Therefore, whether he was preparing to attack North Colon, Nega, or Colombo now, it can be seen that Dong Qiankun is very conservative and cautious. He would rather spend a few more days than launch an attack in a hurry.
In order to avoid being hit by the enemy's beachhead, he always landed more than 30 kilometers away instead of going directly to Colombo.
As the cannons continued to fire shells, the Portuguese in the city also felt the despair of the Portuguese in Malacca!
Facing the grenades that continued to fall into the city, they were completely defenseless. These exploding grenades almost reduced the entire Colombo to rubble.
To carry out a covering artillery bombardment of a bastion city smaller than the city of Malacca, only a few thousand rounds of artillery shells are needed.
The solid bullets fired by heavy artillery also pose a huge threat to the city wall, especially the solid bullets fired by the 24-pound heavy artillery, which can pose a huge threat to the city wall.
One or two pills will have no effect, but if you hit too many, the city wall will not be able to hold up at all.
The Tang Army's method of attacking the city was to dig tunnels and blast them.
With a huge explosion, a large section of Colombo's city wall collapsed, announcing the fall of Colombo!