This is a half-moon fort, also known as the triangular fort, which was invented by Genoese, Italy more than 20 years ago.
Not much stone or wood is used, and the main body of the castle is made of mud. However, the mud walls are so thick that ordinary artillery cannot collapse them at all. The obtuse-angled design allows the attacker to cover the attackers with powerful firepower. It is equivalent to a weakened bastion.
Prototype version.
Man Zheng was not a military genius. The fatigue paralysis tactic he used came from "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
The Portuguese defenders suffered from a lack of education and did not react at the first time. The continuous harassment for half a month had already made them careless, and they were actually transported by the Sudanese Guards to the gate of the fortress.
"boom!"
Three barrels of gunpowder blew down the castle gate in an instant. Two thousand Sudanese guards swarmed in. They were all shouting victory, thinking that the castle would be captured in the blink of an eye.
Unexpectedly, there is an open space inside the gate, with a castle tower on the front and triangular city walls on both sides.
The Portuguese defenders fired from three sides at the same time, and the Sudanese Guards were covered by firepower without reservation. In just a moment, hundreds of people were killed by Franco machine guns. The two thousand powerful Sudanese Guards collapsed directly, and they escaped from the castle and counted them.
There are only about 1,400 people left.
"so close!"
Manzheng asked about the situation of the battle, and said in his heart that it was a fluke that the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were not allowed to charge.
Ala'uddin's eyes were already red with anxiety, and he said anxiously: "General, hurry up and send troops to attack together!"
Man Zhengcai did not want to lose his troops in vain and said with a smile: "Why attack hard? Surround the castle and starve them to death!"
Ala'uddin said anxiously: "If we keep dragging on, the Folangji Tianzhu fleet will come back!"
"Then let's surround the area and call for reinforcements," Man Zheng said with a smile, "It's just that this time we call for sea reinforcements. Let's kill the Folang fleet while we wait for work."
Manzheng had already learned the truth about the Diu naval battle ten years ago through the wealthy Indian businessman Nina Chattu. He despised the strength of the Portuguese fleet and believed that he could completely annihilate the enemy forces at sea.
The Battle of Diu was the largest naval battle in Asia at that time. The purpose of the war was to compete for maritime trade hegemony in the Indian Ocean.
On one side are the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, Calicut Zamorin, and the Arab Combined Fleet of the Gujarat Sultanate.
One side is the Portuguese Indian Fleet.
The United Arab Fleet was led by Venetian merchants and armed by Egyptian organizations. Six Mediterranean galleys and six Carkra warships were dismantled into parts from Italy and transported to the Port of Suez for assembly. The ships were equipped with the most advanced artillery and gunfire.
There are also more than eighty Arab sloops with very primitive weapons, and the parties have a total of one hundred warships.
The commander of the combined fleet was an Egyptian, and the main force of the soldiers were mercenaries recruited by Venetian merchants in Italy, Spain, and Greece, as well as Turkish jihadists and Mamluk naval soldiers.
As for the Portuguese Indian fleet, there were only twenty-two large and small warships and more than 1,500 soldiers.
Not only was the Portuguese fleet in a weak position, but it was also raided by the United Arab Fleet. Lourenco, the son of the Governor of India, led five small warships and was surrounded. Only two warships successfully broke through, and Lourenco died of serious injuries.
The Portuguese Governor of India, suffering from the pain of losing his son, led the remaining warships to take the initiative to attack. First, they attacked and destroyed the enemy's supply ports, and then attacked the cities that turned towards the enemy along the way. Then they returned for a decisive battle with the enemy fleet.
At this time, something ridiculous happened. The stingy Venetian merchants actually defaulted on the wages of the mercenaries, causing a large number of European mercenaries to flee. Among the remaining soldiers, they were mainly Green Christians, Catholics, and Orthodox Christians. The religious conflicts between the three parties were very fierce. Egypt
The commander couldn't coordinate at all.
The Calicuts, who had the largest number of warships, hoped to go to sea to meet the Portuguese fleet. However, the Egyptian commander chose to defend the port and was busy building forts on the shore.
The Calicut fleet ignored military orders and took the initiative to attack the enemy. However, they were all single-masted rowing boats and had no cannons at all. They rushed directly to the side and wanted to join the ship. However, they were unable to climb up because the side of the ship was too short, and were defeated by the Portuguese fleet.
And escape.
Then his teammates started digging holes frantically. The commander was afraid that the foreign friendly forces would flee without a fight, so he ordered all ships to enter the port, causing the combined fleet to lose its strength and maneuverability advantages.
The Portuguese fleet rushed into the port and blocked the narrow channel. Although the combined fleet had many ships, it was unable to deploy, so it was blocked in the port and all were resolved.
From then on, the Portuguese won maritime hegemony from Africa to the Indian Ocean!
But what kind of stupid fight is this?
What made Manzheng feel contemptuous was that the Portuguese Indian Fleet actually only had more than 20 ships. However, after ten years of hard work, the Portuguese Indian Fleet had nearly a hundred warships.
At the end of January in the fifteenth year of Zhengde's reign, Berio, the younger brother of the Portuguese Governor of India, led the Indian fleet to attack Malacca, hoping to defeat the Ming fleet and recapture the port city.
Among them, there are nine large Karak warships (the price ranges from 800 to 1,200), eighteen small Karak warships (the price ranges from 400 to 800), and thirty-seven Karavel warships (the price ranges from 100 to 200).
etc.), various types of small warships, and more than 40 armed merchant ships, totaling 105 warships.
As for the Ming Dynasty, the Malacca combined fleet only had 28 warships, 17 armed merchant ships, and 23 Malacca galleys, for a total of 68 warships.
"Why are there so many ships?" Man Zheng had a headache. He realized that he had underestimated the enemy.
Berio, commander of the Portuguese Indian Fleet, also held a telescope and frowned: "Isn't the Chinese main ship too big? Has their shipbuilding technology reached this point?"
While Man was drinking with Simon in Hangzhou, he obtained a lot of information while the other person was drunk.
At this moment, he could see at a glance that the opponent's main force was the nine large Karak warships, and he instantly remembered the weaknesses of this kind of warship - the ship building was too high, which affected the sail operation, and the main sail and foresail were not easily stressed.
It is easy to be dragged by the wind, changes direction slowly, and has very poor flexibility. In addition, the bow of the ship is too heavy, and it is easy to tilt forward in strong winds, even leading to capsizing accidents. The most fatal flaw is that the hull is very fragile and cannot withstand large artillery.
attack, and was basically defeated by a larger ship.
The port of Malacca was calm and the Portuguese fleet took advantage of its strength and deployed a formation to begin a semi-encirclement and long-range attack.
Manzheng said to the prince of Malacca: "Those small boats with a weight of less than 200 yuan will be left to you to deal with. After receiving the order, you will rush to pick up the ship immediately."
As the founding monarch of the Kingdom of Johor, Alaududdin was not a loser. Historically, he fought repeatedly and repeatedly, fighting to the death with the powerful Portugal, forcing Portugal to choose to negotiate peace with him and recognize his founder.
The Kingdom of Johor does not come looking for trouble.
"I can't handle those big ships, but leave the small ones to me!" Ala'uddin said with high spirits.
After the combined fleets of the two countries dispersed, Manzheng directly ordered the entire army to charge.
This shocked the enemy commander Berio. How could anyone fight a naval battle like this without cruising and attacking tentatively?
The huge treasure ship served as an arrow, attracting a lot of firepower from the enemy, but hitting a few cannonballs in a row was no big deal.
Seeing that the distance was getting closer, Berio did not dare to fire on the spot, and ordered the fleet to move sideways, firing while running away, and divided into two groups to attack the Chinese and Malacca combined fleets.
Manzheng ignored the enemy forces on the left and headed straight for the Portuguese main ship on the right. In addition to the more than ten captured Portuguese warships, the rest of the Chinese and Malacca warships could all be paddled forward, and they could run faster on a calm battlefield.
.They quickly approached the Portuguese main ship at a speed visible to the naked eye.
This situation also occurred in the Battle of Diu.
At that time, the Calicut fleet charged with oars, but the Portuguese fleet could not outrun it, and the artillery battle instantly turned into a boarding battle.
It was a pity that the Calicut warship was too short. Although it successfully connected with the side but could not climb up, it was beaten by the Portuguese with fire blunderbuss from a high position.
But the warships of the Ming Dynasty were very tall. Once the ship was successfully docked, it would be a close combat victory, because the number of soldiers on the Portuguese warship was very small!
This is the best way to deal with the Karak warship. In the coastal waters where the wind is low, use oars to launch a forced assault. There is a high chance of picking up the ship and a high chance of seizing the ship. Therefore, the Portuguese fleet will never be able to attack offshore.
Win against the equally powerful Ming Dynasty fleet.
Last time in Hangzhou, Man Zheng did not charge immediately, causing Simon to escape for three days and three nights. He will not make the same mistake again this time.
"Turn around and head into the deep sea!" Berio was so frightened that he turned around and ran away.
This order caused the formation of the Portuguese fleet to become chaotic. The flexible caravel sailing ship actually ran to the front, leaving the main carrack sailing ship behind.
Upon seeing this, Berio ordered the Caravel to slow down and come back to cruise and shoot. While covering the retreat of the main force, he also tried his luck to see if he could sink the enemy.
Thirty-four Karavel warships shuttled flexibly on the battlefield, constantly bombarding enemy ships. But they were too small, none of them had more than 200 pieces of warships, and the power of the ship-borne artillery was also very small, with only
An unfortunate Malacca galley was unfortunately sunk during the pursuit.
Manzheng ignored the treasure ship he was riding on, rowing oars and setting sails to hold on to the enemy's main ship.
At first, the thirty-four Karavel warships tried to focus their fire on the Ming treasure ship. But after fighting for a long time, they simply gave up and turned to attack other enemies, without even having the time to fire at the treasure ship.
"boom!"
A Ming warship was hit, and several oarsmen were killed. The charge slowed down slightly, but it was not greatly affected.
The two bird boats of Ning Botao and Dai Zhiquan were the fastest. They had already passed the treasure ship and rushed towards the two Karak warships with 800 materials. Although their bird boats only had 400 materials, their sides were also short.
It's not much, and there are more soldiers, so it's completely feasible to swing and dance.
Rows of hooks and ropes flew out, and the ballistae also fired arrows with ropes. The arrows were larger than spears, and they penetrated hard into the hull of the enemy ship. Countless ropes pulled the two warships together.
"kill!"
Ning Botao and Dai Zhiquan joined forces almost at the same time. They took the lead and jumped onto the opponent's deck with volleys of fire cannons fired at them.
Although the Ming bird ship was half smaller than the enemy ship, its combat strength was twice that of the enemy ship. Countless Ming sailors rushed over and, after sacrificing more than twenty lives, easily occupied the deck, and then pursued and occupied the entire
An enemy ship.
"Kill them all, take no prisoners!"
While the two ordered the massacre, they left a small number of soldiers to occupy the enemy ship and returned to the bird ship to continue the pursuit.
Malacca's rowing boats are not that powerful. They are also fast in coastal waters, but they can only bully enemy ships of the same size. But those enemy ships are also maneuverable and flexible, and it is difficult for them to engage in boarding. Instead, they themselves are caught during the pursuit.
Keep sinking.
In the blink of an eye, six of the twenty-three Malacca galleys had been sunk by the enemy.
The Ming Dynasty's armed merchant ships were slightly better, but they still had no results and were sunk by the enemy. However, they also sank an enemy ship worth 100 tons during the bombardment. The firepower of the armed merchant ships was quite good.
Manzheng was targeting the local main ship, and did not even care about catching up with the auxiliary ship. He only fired a salvo as he passed by. The Portuguese auxiliary ship was also firing. The two sides were shooting at each other at close range. Each had at least ten rounds.
Hit. Not to mention the death of sailors on both sides, the treasure ship continued to move forward covered with scars, but the enemy's auxiliary ship had water in its cabin, and the sailors frantically performed drainage operations.
The main ship Berio was on was getting closer and closer to the treasure ship.
Seeing that he couldn't escape, Berio suddenly ordered all the nearby ships to aim at the treasure ship and open fire.
The turning ability of the Karak sailing ship was very weak. After receiving the order from the main ship, most of them had no time to take aim. However, the treasure ship was still hit by more than forty shots at close range in a short period of time. The ship building was directly bombarded into a sieve, and
There were serious water leaks in many cabins.
"It's not heavy at all?"
Berio couldn't believe it and murmured to himself: "The devil's ship, this is the devil's ship!"
"Damn it, you almost killed me!" Man was lying in the captain's cabin, sweating all over his body, while his adjutant had been blasted to pieces in the upper body.
Manzheng got up and shouted: "Keep paddling, don't stop, the ballistae is about to shoot the zipline!"
The treasure ship sailors, who were also panicking, got up one after another to operate. The ballistae fired arrows as thick as their arms, at least one third of which hit the Portuguese main ship. More than a dozen ropes connected the two warships together.
"Haha, we're about to pick up the ship!" Manzheng drew his knife and rushed down.
The fatal mistake made by the Portuguese Indian Fleet was that it should not fight the Ming Dynasty Navy in offshore waters. If the battlefield were changed to the deep sea, it would be difficult to determine the winner, and the Ming Navy Navy would have a higher chance of defeat.
However, if Portugal wants to recapture Malacca, it must win in an upright manner offshore.
Malacca was able to surpass Singapore and become the node of the ancient east-west waterway precisely because the sea nearby was calm and never suffered any major storms.
In this kind of sea area, how can a sail warship fight a large galley? Unless it has firepower and the hull is crushed, there is no way to fight. Portugal can only bully the weak in the offshore!
Since the side of the treasure ship was much higher, Man Zheng was too lazy to jump in and jump to the side. He directly ordered the soldiers to hold firecrackers and shoot from a high position, beating the sailors on the deck of the enemy ship so that they did not dare to raise their heads.
After three consecutive volleys, Man Zheng gave the order: "Jump to the gang!"