477 [The Prince's Restoration of the Kingdom Part 2]
Trincomalee, later colonized by the British, was an important military base of the Empire on which the Sun Never Sets in the Indian Ocean.
In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it was still under the rule of the Koti Dynasty and was the largest port in northeastern Ceylon. Many merchants who did not want to pay port taxes to Portugal came here to supply supplies, and then went south around Ceylon Island to Arabia.
area.
There were even Indian businessmen who quietly bypassed the island of Ceylon to engage in spice smuggling activities, despite the Portuguese ban.
The Portuguese colonists were very angry about this, and because the Ming Navy controlled the Strait of Malacca, Portugal invaded the island of Ceylon with greater force than in history - I can't do it with the Ming Navy, so why can't I beat you Sinhalese people?
Under the care of the giant ships and cannons, the King of Kandy was forced to relent and allowed the Portuguese to build a fort in Trincomalee Port and participate in the taxation activities of the port. Not only did Western missionaries be allowed to preach here, one of the princes was also baptized.
Believing in Catholicism, this incident aroused strong opposition in the Kingdom of Kandy.
The same thing happened in the southwest of Ceylon. A prince of the Kingdom of Kot was also forced to convert to Catholicism. There was also a Portuguese fort in the Port of Colombo.
Inside the port, a group of Hindus were struggling to transport stones.
There was originally a Hindu temple (Koneswaram Temple) here. Two years ago, the Portuguese forcibly demolished the temple in order to build fortresses and forts, and all the remaining stones sank into the sea.
The King of Kandy ignored this because he was a Buddhist king and this Hindu temple was built by the previous Chola dynasty.
In the small Trincomalee Port, Buddhism is the mainstream, followed by Hinduism, and there are also some Green Christians. Now there is Catholicism. Religious conflicts are very fierce. Buddhism and Hinduism can still live in peace, but the other two religions often have troubles.
All kinds of troubles.
The Hindus were unable to resist the demolition of the temple. They had to wait for the Portuguese to throw the temple stones into the sea and then voluntarily salvage them. They planned to raise funds to build a small temple.
"Have you heard? A Buddhist prince with Kurt bloodline will lead the Buddhist army to drive away the red-haired ghost."
"I've heard about it a long time ago. If there really is a Buddhist prince, I hope he can come soon. These red-haired ghosts are so abominable, it's best to kill them all!"
"If Prince Buddha comes, I will join his army too!"
"..."
The rumor was spread by Ming Dynasty maritime merchants, and local Chinese leaders secretly received money and quietly helped spread the news.
There are a lot of Chinese here, who also believe in Buddhism and Mazu.
As for those devout Hindus, they are also happy to see the arrival of the Buddhist prince. Hundreds of years ago, this port was ruled by the Hindu Tamils. The Kot Dynasty (Buddhism) drove the Tamils away, but did not issue a ban.
As Hinduism spread, even the Hindu temple remained intact.
After hundreds of years of running-in, when faced with Catholicism and Green Christianity, Buddhists and Hindus are as close as one family.
Suddenly, a Portuguese ship arrived. After several red-haired ghosts landed, they ran madly towards the newly built castle: "Enemy attack, enemy attack, prepare to fight!"
About half an hour later, dozens of Ming warships set sail and directly blocked Trincomalee Port.
The Portuguese warden went to negotiate: "According to the Malacca Agreement, your warships are not allowed to cross the city of Malacca. Please leave Trincomalee immediately, otherwise we will regard you as breaking the agreement!"
A gilded sea guard came over and said: "The Sinhala Kingdom was originally a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, but it is now divided into pieces. When there was civil strife in Sinhalese, the prince also stayed in the territory of the Ming Dynasty. Now the Ming Dynasty is assisting the Sinhalese princes in putting down the rebellion, and together with you Buddhas
What is Langji doing?"
Portuguese officials reiterated: "Please abide by the Malacca Agreement and leave Trincomalee immediately!"
Jinyi Haiwei Baihu said with a smile: "We are here only to quell the chaos within the vassal, and it has nothing to do with you Folangji people. All Folangji soldiers should withdraw from Trincomalee immediately, otherwise there will inevitably be accidental injuries.
thing!"
It was obvious that the two sides could not reach an agreement, so the Ming Dynasty navy fired directly on the shore, and the Portuguese fort also began to fire back.
Ning Botao held up a telescope and watched: "According to the information sent by maritime merchants, there are not many Francoji forts. We can land north of the port and go around to surround the Francoji castle and forts."
"You go ahead." Manzheng smiled.
Ning Botao immediately landed ashore with two thousand gunmen, and after circling for about three hours, he finally arrived behind the city of Trincomalee.
This city is very shabby, with only a wooden fence, and the defenders are not Portuguese, but the army of the Kandy Dynasty.
Shilanzong took his royal guards, more than a dozen Han servants who had just learned how to fire guns, to the outside of the city and shouted in Sinhala: "I am a Sinhala prince, and my grandfather is Prince Shili."
Badajolara. The ancestors of the Kandy royal family participated in the regicide, and they were all rebellious officials and traitors. This time I come back with the king's gold seal bestowed by the Ming Emperor, and with the invincible Buddhist army. I will unify again.
Ceylon, drive away the pagans, from now on only Buddhism and Hinduism will exist here!”
After saying that, Shilanzong retreated, and several small Franco machine guns rolled out and fired at the simple wooden city wall.
The defenders of the Kingdom of Kandy were so frightened that they quickly retreated, and the officers and soldiers were whispering.
The ancestors of the Shilan Zong were the rulers of the Kot dynasty of the Sinhala Kingdom, and they were the only dynasty that unified the island of Ceylon. Even though decades have passed, the influence of the Kot dynasty is still very great, and there is even a claim in the west
The orthodox Kingdom of Kot exists.
"The Sinhala prince is back! What should we do?"
"If he is telling the truth, then he is the legitimate member of the Sinhala royal family."
"He also said that he wanted to drive away the heretics, so why don't we follow him and fight!"
"Can he return to the country?"
"Of course he can, he brought the Buddhist army of the Ming Dynasty with him."
"..."
After just over ten minutes, the guard general was killed by an officer, and hundreds of soldiers came out of the city to meet their prince.
Ning Botao smiled and said, "Reorganize your army and all of them will obey my orders."
Shi Lanzong raised his hands and said, "It all depends on General Ning."
Shi Lanzong's royal guard expanded from a dozen servants to more than 500 people in an instant. He quickly took over the city, assisted the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, and surrounded the Portuguese castle and fort from both sea and land.
During the march, a large number of Hindus came to join the army.
Since the King of Kandy was a Buddhist, he strongly protected Buddhism, but he did not care about the Hindus. So the Portuguese caught the Hindus and bullied them, and even demolished Hindu temples and built castles. The Hindus here were the most rebellious and they were willing to
Help Prince Buddha restore his country!
Shilanzong was very happy to see this and asked: "Is there a pagan temple nearby?"
"Yes!" the surrendering officer responded immediately.
Therefore, Shilanzong stopped attacking the castle and took the motley army he had just gathered to demolish the only Catholic church in the city. The missionaries in the church were also killed by angry Buddhists and Hindus.
Then it completely went out of control, Shilan Sect could not restrain it at all, and those miscellaneous troops went to demolish Green Sect temples, and even went so far as to attack civilians.
This time Shi Lanzong finally realized the terror of the rebellious army and hurriedly went to Ning Botao: "General Ning, please lend me a hundred soldiers to quell the riot!"
Ning Botao smiled and said: "Take it, we have to rely on the soldiers of tomorrow to fight the war."
Shi Lanzong led a hundred soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, fired cannons along the way, and executed all those who took advantage of the situation, and then quickly reined in his miscellaneous troops.
However, this kind of suppression made the officers who had just surrendered quite dissatisfied. Shilanzong began to divert the conflict again, leading his troops to sweep away the wealthy Green Sect merchants in the city. He divided half of the looted goods and gave the rest to his soldiers.
, this method immediately boosts morale.
The next day, a ship sent by Vasco da Gama arrived, negotiated with the Ming Dynasty Navy, and took away the Portuguese soldiers from the castle and fort, which was regarded as recognition of the Ming Dynasty Navy's occupation of Trincomalee Port.
There is no way, the Portuguese are too few and cannot even truly colonize the island of Ceylon. They can only support a kingdom in the west and threaten a kingdom in the east to establish a colony. How can they afford to fight a big war with the Ming Navy?
Although Vasco da Gama had a bad temper, he also knew how to be patient and did not send troops recklessly like his previous governor.
With the help of the Ming Dynasty navy, Shilanzong led a mixed force and quickly occupied the coastal areas of Ilaupattu and Kushpaveli. Wherever they went, they demolished pagan temples, killed and drove away pagan believers.
Only Buddhists, Hindus and Mazu followers are reserved.
The religious conflicts hidden in the Kingdom of Kandy were completely detonated. The Buddhists were slightly better off, while the Hindus collectively fell into madness. They have been the target of suppression for a long time. This time, a Buddhist prince finally led them to turn over, and they were welcomed with all kinds of food and drink.
Master Wang.
The entire island of Ceylon is less than the size of two Hainan Islands and is divided into five countries. How strong can each kingdom be?
In just half a month, Shilanzong swallowed up a quarter of the territory of the Kingdom of Kandy, and the number of miscellaneous troops under its command has exceeded 10,000. Due to the legitimacy of its bloodline, it also has the help of the Ming Dynasty Navy, plus the island's
Due to religious conflicts, we encountered no decent resistance along the way.
Only then did the King of Kandy react and hurriedly mobilized troops to suppress the situation.
The armies of both sides met at Hingulakgod. The Kandy army had about 18,000 people, but only two or three thousand could actually fight, and they mainly used cold weapons, with only a firearms unit of about 500. Shilan
Zong's army had 12,000 men, and the leading general was a domestic servant he brought from Quanzhou. To describe it as a rabble would be an insult, but fortunately there were 1,500 Minghuo gunmen to help him.
Before the war, the Seran sect sent people to shoot letters at the other side's military camp, blaming the ancestors of the Kandy king for participating in the murder of the Sinhalese king. He once again claimed his orthodox bloodline and vowed to ban the spread of paganism on the island of Ceylon and only allow Buddhism and Hinduism.
and Mazu beliefs.
Although the literacy rate of the Kandy army was not high, the content of this letter spread quickly. The Tamils (Hindus) in the army were the first to make a noise, and were immediately suppressed by the generals, so they started fighting among themselves.
Shi Lanzong observed the enemy's chaos and immediately ordered the entire army to attack.
A ragtag group of people rushed over in a chaotic formation. The servant in charge of commanding the army didn't know how to command at all. The limit of his ability was to command dozens of people!
However, the enemy was even more unreasonable. Internal strife in the army led to low morale. Seeing Shi Lanzong rushing over with his troops, countless soldiers fled in an instant. There were even some Sinhalese and Tamil soldiers who turned against the king's troops and attacked the king's troops.
Lan Zong's army actually fought more and more on the battlefield.
Big win!
After the great victory, there was endless chaos.
Shi Lanzong's miscellaneous troops and the newly surrendered troops started fighting in a confused manner, and the command system was completely out of control.
Shi Lanzong could only run back and said to Ning Botao, who had been watching the battle: "General Ning, please send troops to suppress it quickly. Xiao Wang really can't suppress it anymore!"
Ning Botao didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so he could only lead his troops to finish the battle, and fired a burst of gunfire to force the rebels to settle down.
Then, it collapsed...
Shilanzong's troops were defeated by the friendly forces of the Ming Dynasty in the confusion. The wolves and rats suddenly fled all over the ground, causing the largest loss of troops in the decisive battle. Shilanzong cried and chased around on horseback for several days.
Afterwards, tens of thousands more soldiers were reluctantly gathered.
Although Shi Lanzong was quite clever in his political skills, he was completely blind in fighting. He reorganized his troops randomly and led his troops to attack the royal city of Kandy, building weapons and recklessly attacking the city.
The siege battle resulted in numerous casualties. The morale of the motley crew dropped to rock bottom, and deserters soon began to appear.
The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty only watched the show from the side and fired a few cannons at the city wall from time to time - only idiots participated in the siege.
Just when Shilan Zong was on the verge of despair, the city gates opened wide, and the Kandy nobles tied up the king and came out, knelt down to welcome their Buddhist prince into the city.