Zhejiang Beiwa Commander-in-Chief Manzheng, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Ning Botao, and Commander-in-Chief Dai Zhiquan led the Qiantang Navy expedition to Malacca. There were a total of 28 large and small warships, 17 temporarily requisitioned armed merchant ships, and eight soldiers and sailors.
More than a thousand pirates from Shuangyu came, and Zhejiang Dusi also sent 3,000 guardsmen to follow them.
The morale was very high, because the emperor followed Wang Yuan's suggestion and if he won this battle, he would be rewarded with a large sum of money.
Every soldier who participates in the war can be rewarded with a large piece of land based on his military merits in Temasek, Argentinian or Bintan Island. Even the technicians on board the ship who cannot participate in the war can also be awarded a piece of land. Anyway, overseas territories can be rewarded at will.
The rewards for generals are even more outrageous. Those who are willing to stay and colonize overseas will directly become island owners if they are deputy 1,000 households or above. If there are 1,000 households or above who agree to stay, the one with the highest military merit can be appointed as the governor of Temasek, taking charge of Temasek, Aragon Gamun and Bintan Island.
land.
Zhejiang's left and right political envoys, chief and deputy inspectors collectively opposed this overseas expedition, but they were unable to stop it at all.
Because the Qiantang Navy's shipbuilding and military expansion was approved by the emperor. It also directly bypassed the Ministry of War and recruited troops as Jinyiwei. The Qiantang Navy all held the Jinyiwei waist badge.
Secondly, whether it is military expansion or expedition, the money comes from maritime trade and customs duties, and the Ministry of Revenue and local governments do not have to pay. Civil servants cannot use food and salary to get stuck, so their objections are of no use, and they can only impeach Wang Yuan and Jiang Bin.
The bewitched saint listened and advised Zhu Houzhao not to resort to violence.
On December 26, the Ming Navy arrived in Singapore, and the King of Malacca sent a fleet to follow.
But they were all junk, twenty-three galleys, equipped with a small number of old-fashioned muzzle-loading mortars. Historically, this fleet of the King of Malacca would be severely beaten by a mere two Portuguese warships in a few years.
The 2,000 Sudanese Guards of the King of Malacca have pretty good combat capabilities. With the aura of the Restoration Buff, they are definitely more powerful than the soldiers of the Southern Guards of China.
With such a huge fleet, even if it was disguised as a caravan, there was no way it could deceive the Portuguese, not to mention that the Ming Dynasty treasure ship was also coming!
However, since sixteen ships were scrapped in Hangzhou, the Portuguese Malacca fleet now has only a dozen warships available. The newly added warships are currently lying in the Goa dock, and it will take at least half a year to launch them.
Seeing a large number of enemy ships approaching, the Portuguese Malacca fleet ran away without any thought of fighting back - with the size of the treasure ship, who would want to provoke it?
The fleet stayed in the port to guard against enemies at sea. Manzheng personally led 5,000 Ming soldiers and 2,000 Malacca Sultanate Guards to land.
"Is this also called Wangcheng?" Man Zheng smiled contemptuously.
Prince Ala-ud-Din of Malacca responded awkwardly: "Manila is a small country with few people, so it cannot compare with the Kingdom of Heaven."
The city of Malacca, with a population of more than 100,000, only has wooden walls!
Among them, the west and south faces the sea, not directly next to the sea water, and most places are beaches.
After 1,000 Portuguese soldiers captured the city, it has been in business for more than ten years. Now there are 500 regular soldiers and 1,000 native soldiers stationed in the city. There is also a simple castle near the city, but due to lack of stone, the castle is in a very poor condition.
——Historically, Portugal later built castles and directly demolished mosques and local tombstones just to obtain enough stones.
Manzheng was still thinking about how to attack the city, when the west gate opened directly.
Nina Chattu, a wealthy Indian businessman, came out with a group of third brothers, knelt down and said: "Nina Chatu, businessman of Suryavamusha, welcomes the Chinese general into the city."
Fireman Ya San was also mixed in and said with a smile: "This is a merchant from Tianzhu. He has been living in Manlajia for several generations."
"Very good, you have all made a great contribution." Manzheng nodded in approval.
After the army entered the city, another group of Han people came over. The leader was dressed in silk, knelt down and kowtowed and said: "Chen Sheng, the abandoned citizen of the Celestial Empire, leads his people to welcome the general!"
"Well, get up." Manzheng said with a smile.
Not long after, a group of Javanese arrived again, and there were five hundred Javanese warriors carrying javelins who wanted to follow you.
Chen Sheng pointed to the front and said: "The city of Malacca has two parts, the south city is for the common people, and the north city is for the nobles, separated by the Malacca River. When the King of Malacca was there, the nobles were all in the north city, and now the North City is home to the Francois.
, and the native soldiers they recruited for defense. If you want to cross the river, you must capture the only bridge. There are bunkers and artillery on the other side of the bridge, and the enemy also has muskets."
Well, the siege has just begun.
Manzheng approached the bridge and took a look at it from a distance. He suddenly got a headache. The bunker was built so tricky that if he tried to cross the river, he would definitely be shot. In fact, the other end of the bridge was directly at the gate of the tower.
These watchtowers were built by the king of Malacca.
Man Zheng could not understand why the terrain was so easy to defend and difficult to attack, and defended by tens of thousands of Malacca soldiers, how could it be captured by a thousand Portuguese? Even if there were traitors in the south city, they would not be able to attack the north city.
Prince Ala'uddin of Malacca, also known as Muzaffar II in history, the founding monarch of the Kingdom of Johor, asked: "General, how should we attack?"
Manzheng smiled and said: "How to attack? It's obvious. Am I stupid enough to build a blockhouse from the bridge? The city of Manlajia is very big, the Manlajia River is also very long, and our troops are superior. Let's get some boats.
Come on, if there is no boat, just remove the door panel and cross the river from another place."
In the eastern section of the North City, there are stone walls and blockhouses built near the river, which can only be reached ashore through the only bridge.
However, it is possible to go ashore in the western section of Beicheng. This area was originally used by Malacca nobles, soldiers and craftsmen. Manzheng led his troops to swim from here, and soon arrived at the Xicheng area of Beicheng.
Although they successfully crossed the river and landed ashore, if they wanted to invade the real royal city, they still had to face tall city walls - only the area where the Malacca royal family lived was surrounded by stone walls, and the rest of the area was surrounded by wooden fences.
"boom!"
The artillery on the city wall fired first, and more than a dozen volleys killed two unlucky men, but the nearby houses suffered even more damage.
Those enemy artillery pieces were of early Ming style.
The muskets of the Sudanese Guards also belong to the early Ming Dynasty standard.
The local Chinese leader Chen Sheng, who had made suggestions for the Portuguese attack on the city, said to Manzheng at this time: "General, there are only 500 French soldiers in the city, but there are a thousand local soldiers recruited on the spot. General, you might as well send someone to shout,
Those who surrender will be spared death, and those who have made meritorious deeds will be rewarded with large sums of money and taken to settle in the Ming Dynasty."
Manzheng asked in confusion: "Why take them to settle in Ming Dynasty?"
Chen Sheng explained: "The origins of these native soldiers are complicated, and they are people of all ethnic groups. They honor the Buddhists, pretend to be powerful, are arrogant and domineering, and usually offend too many people. If they do not promise to take them away, these native soldiers will not dare to
Surrender and offer the city, they will die miserably if they stay."
"That's it," Man Zheng laughed, "Go and shout over there."
Anyway, the Ming Dynasty can own three large islands, which can be regarded as the territory of the Ming Dynasty. It is just a matter of bringing these soldiers there. However, it is not bringing them there to enjoy the blessings, but taking them to farm land, open up wasteland, and mine.
"Soldiers in the city, listen, we are soldiers of the Ming Dynasty. Fo Langji detained the Ming envoys. The emperor was furious and came with a large army. The Fo Langji fleet has already escaped. Surrender quickly. The Ming Dynasty only killed the Fo Langji people.
All other soldiers of all ethnic groups can be forgiven. Those who lay down their weapons will be exempted from guilt. If you kill a Folangji, you will be rewarded with ten pounds of silver. If you are willing, you can leave Manlajia with the Ming fleet, and you don’t have to worry about the revenge of the enemies here..."
The Portuguese fleet had escaped, and the defenders in the city knew about it, and now the military morale was very low.
The translator shouted out the words, and two thousand Sudanese guards shouted in unison, instantly causing chaos in the city. The shouts of killing were loud, and gunfire rang out from time to time. It was obvious that the local soldiers had "uprising".
The royal city of Malacca was recovered without any bloodshed.
The real battle was actually not far outside the city, where there was a Portuguese castle guarded by 1,500 Portuguese soldiers.
Let the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty attack the castle, and it is a castle where all Portuguese soldiers are stationed?
Man Zheng will not be taken advantage of!
This guy took a boat directly to prepare to return, leaving the castle to the Sultan's guards. The prince of Malacca led the troops to fight slowly. He had already said that the Ming Dynasty was only responsible for recovering the royal city.
The prince of Malacca was very embarrassed. He only had 2,000 Sudanese guards in his hands. How could he capture the castle where 1,500 Portuguese soldiers were stationed?
Keep Manzheng alive and well, and ask Manzheng to help others until the end.
Manzheng smiled and said: "I will definitely not help in the war. However, you can spend money to buy firecrackers. The new Ming Dynasty firecrackers are more useful than the Fo Lang machine gun. You can easily arm an army.
But I have three requests..."
"Please speak." Ala'uddin said quickly.
Manzheng said: "First, you have to lower the commercial tax in Manlajia City a little, so that these volunteers cannot work in vain; secondly, the Han people in Manlajia City must be given preferential treatment and cannot be exploited at will in the future."
Third, I will sell you three thousand firecrackers, of which one thousand firecrackers must be recruited from local Han people."
There are a lot of Han people in Malacca, who first started to settle in Malacca in the Song Dynasty. Their bloodlines are even mixed to the point where they don’t even know that they are Han people.
However, Manzheng's requirements will definitely make countless Han people recognize their ancestors and return to their ancestors, and there will even be many people who pretend to be their ancestors.
The idea was of course Wang Yuan's, and it was nothing more than laying a nail to greatly "increase" the proportion of Han people. To this end, 3,000 firecrackers were shipped with the ship, and Manzheng was asked to find ways to sell them to the King of Malacca at a high price.
As the founding monarch of the Kingdom of Johor in history, Ala-uddin would not be fooled easily. In other words, he did not let the hawk see the rabbit, and bargained: "I can agree to all these requests, but Ming must help build the castle."
The deal is done.
Manzheng did not launch a strong attack, but divided his troops to surround the castle. He took turns beating gongs and drums outside the castle, and fired a cannon at the castle from time to time.
Anyway, the Portuguese soldiers in the castle were not allowed to have a good night's sleep. After half a month of hard work, although the Portuguese soldiers could still endure it, they all showed signs of neurasthenia.
Human beings are very adaptable. In the end, those Portuguese soldiers became accustomed to the noise, and they were too lazy to move even when the castle was shelled.
Then, Man Zheng suddenly asked the Sudanese Guards to launch an attack, and even beat gongs and drums to warn the enemy beforehand...
(I recommend a book called "Qianlang". Students who have the conditions can make an initial order.)