1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 709 The Plan of the Luzon Squadron
August 1654, 8, Borneo, Sandakan (now Siena Port, Sabah, Malaysia).

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..."

Under the fierce bombardment of more than ten artillery pieces, this fortress, which was turned into a temporary royal city by King Sulu Sultan, has become crumbling. The allied forces continued to cheer loudly, ready to attack the city at any time and enjoy a feast of looting.

Last June, after Sulu Sultan King Pang Silang died of illness, several princes immediately fought for the succession to the throne.The eldest prince Abu Bakar sought help from the neighboring Kingdom of Brunei Sultan, while the second prince Gedis sought help from the kingdom of Maguindanao on the island of Mindanao, while the third prince Bonnojo directly found Hele Island (now Jolo Island, Philippines), to ask for help from the former king of the kingdom and the old enemy of the Sultan King, the Eastern King of the Sulu Sultan Kingdom.

The king of the East, Abu Sang, heard of the great changes in the Sultan royal family, and immediately realized that the time had come to completely resolve the division of the Sulu Kingdom.If they can take advantage of the opportunity of the royal family turmoil to eradicate the lineage of King Sulu Sultan in one fell swoop, then the entire Sulu Kingdom will become the possession of their Bahara clan, and he will become the new King Sulu Sultan.

For this reason, Absang found the representative of the Qi State stationed in Helecheng, and asked the Qi State to dispatch warships and troops to cooperate with the troops under the Eastern King to attack Sandakan and occupy the entire Sabah area of ​​Borneo, so as to end the Sulu Kingdom's conflict. internal division.In return, the Kingdom of Sulu will cede all of Palawan Island and its affiliated islands that belonged to the Kingdom of Sulu to the Kingdom of Qi.

Lou Qingwen, the representative of the Qi State in the Sulu Kingdom, couldn't help being happy when he heard the conditions and requirements of the Eastern King Abu Sang.

Several forces in your Sulu Kingdom attacked each other, but Qi State was brought into it for no reason.Although our Luzon District occupies several territories nearby, we can easily assemble a team of five to six hundred people with our armed forces. With advanced firearms, we can attack the local native forces, and we can naturally win them.But you just ceded Palawan Island to us, what do you mean?
You know, this island is currently occupied by the Brunei Sultan Kingdom.Is it possible that you want to use this as a bait to let us Qi and the Kingdom of Brunei fight a war, and then take the opportunity to weaken the Sultan Kingdom, so that our unified Sulu can be in a dominant position in this place?

We Qi State sent some warships and armed forces here to help your Eastern Kings resist the attack of their own country’s Sultan, and also repelled the invasion of the Maguindanao Sultan Kingdom for you. The king and I, the great king of the Qi State, have an old relationship, and there is a kind of incense.Our Qi State is not your Eastern King's thug, let alone take chestnuts from the fire for you just because we want to obtain a disputed territory, and fight to the death with the relatively powerful Brunei Sultanate.

Therefore, Lou Qingwen rejected the request of Eastern King Abu Sang to send troops, saying that Qi State will not participate in the several wars within the Sulu Kingdom, but due to the friendly and mutual assistance relationship between each other, Qi State will still guarantee the peace of Le Island. Safety.You go ahead and fight, even if you get beaten up in the end, our Qi Congress will cover you up and ensure the safety of your final lair.

In addition, since August last year, the Qi State Navy has dispatched a large number of ships, including the Ryukyu Squadron, to Daming to cooperate with Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, Zheng Zhilong, and Zhang Mingzhen and other Ming armies in the Jiangnan Campaign launched by various ministries. Blocked and isolated.In December, in order to deal with the Korean War and prevent the [-] Qing captives from attacking North Korea from returning north to Liaodong, the Qi Navy gathered all its sea power on the front line of Liaodong and North Korea.

Regarding the fact that the Sulu Kingdom wants to use the ships under the Qi Navy to go on an expedition to Sabah and completely destroy the Sulu royal family, not to mention that there are few ships available in the Luzon area. Even if there are, this kind of insignificant military operation does not have much practical benefit , Can't enter the eyes of Qi's navy at all.

Disappointed, the East King Absan gritted his teeth and decided to use his own power to seize Sabah, destroy the Sulu royal family, and achieve his hegemony.

Absan gathered all the troops on Hele Island, including 4000 people, and in March this year, they passed Tawi Tawi Island on more than [-] wooden sailboats and landed directly in Sandakan.

But never expected that the eldest prince Abu Bakar, with the support of the Sultan Kingdom of Brunei, had succeeded the Sulu Sultan King, expelled the second prince Gedis, and killed the third prince Bonnozo.When the East King's troops landed in Sandakan, they were attacked by the Abu Bakar Sultan and the Brunei army, and lost more than 700 people, with less than [-] people. They fled back to Hele Island in embarrassment by boat.

Abu Bakar Sultan and the Brunei army took advantage of the victory and pursued, successively captured Tawi Tawi Island, Tapur Island, Pangu Talan Island, etc., and approached Hele Island.

At the time of life and death, in addition to mobilizing the armed forces on Hele Island again to resist the impending invasion, East King Absan also urgently asked Qi for help, hoping that the other party would send warships and armed forces to defend Hele Island.

The Luzon General Administration of the State of Qi originally thought that with more than [-] troops under the Eastern King and a small number of muskets, even if it could not capture the entire Sabah area, it would not cause too much defeat.Who would have thought that the Eastern King's army would be ambushed as soon as they landed in Sandakan. Most of the army was wiped out in World War I, and less than a thousand people escaped.Now, let the other party kill him at the door.Didn't this force Qi to intervene in this war?

The Luzon General Administration immediately mobilized more than 200 township soldiers from Yimen Island (now Basilan Island in the southwest of Mindanao Island in the Philippines) and Huining Fort (now Zamboanga City in the southwest of Mindanao Island in the Philippines), and under the cover of two armed merchant ships Next, land on Hele Island and join the two marine platoons and one squadron of the Zhongyi Army (composed of Japanese wandering samurai) stationed here.

In the following month, more than 300 township soldiers were successively transferred from Fort Runing (now Cebu City, Philippines) and Ping An Island (now Catanduanes Island, eastern Philippines) to Hele Island one after another, making the island all The country's armed forces reached more than [-].

From May to June, the Qi army thwarted the landing attempts of the Abu Bakar Sultan and Brunei coalition forces several times, killing and wounding more than a thousand natives.

On July 7, the Luzon Squadron of the Qi State Navy, with two professional warships and twelve armed merchant ships, defeated the coalition forces of Abu Bakar Sultan and Brunei in the northwest waters of Tawi Tawi Island. More than 29 large and small ships were injured, and more than [-] natives were killed and wounded.

When the Qi army heard that there were less than [-] defenders in the city of Sandakan, and that there were a large number of gold, silver and jade articles collected by Abu Bakar Sultan in the Sabah area, as well as tin, tortoise shell, raw silk, rice, bird's nest and other materials in the city, In this way, we are going to thank the Sultanate of Brunei for sending troops to help us.

The officers leading the Qi army couldn't help but be moved by this, and the generals under Dongwang kept instigated promises. The two coalition forces had more than 8 people, and then on August 6, they abandoned the remaining thousands of enemy troops on Tawi Tawi Island. Directly turned around and headed north, landed at Sandakan Port under the cover of naval ships, and launched an attack on the temporary king city of the Sulu Kingdom.

Poor Sulu Sultan King Abu Bakar has only been on the throne for less than half a year. He has exhausted all his efforts and paid heavy bribes to invite the army of Brunei Sultan to stabilize the situation. He colluded with foreign forces and attacked the royal city, seeing that he was about to destroy the Sulu royal family.

Unwilling to his fate, Abu Bakar Sultan, after the coalition forces landed, rewarded the generals in the city with great rewards, and tried his best to muster the fighting spirit of the defenders.At the same time, they sent people to Brunei Sultan to ask for support again to save the Sulu royal family that was in danger.

After the coalition forces failed to persuade them to surrender, they spent a day unloading more than a dozen cannons from the ship, deployed an array hundreds of meters outside the royal city, and bombarded the city wall violently.

When a section of the city wall tens of meters south of the king's city collapsed, the East King's troops took the lead to rush in towards the gap, and then Qi's loyalty army, township soldiers, and marines also rushed into the city.

According to the agreement in advance, in addition to promising to assist the Qi State in robbing Palawan Island in the future, the Eastern King will also give up [-]% of all the seized in the city to the Qi army, and they only want the remaining [-]%.However, all captives, including members of the Sulu royal family, must be handed over to them.

After capturing the royal city, the Qi army drove away the natives in the city for more than ten days, and carried the seized property onto the ship one by one.Gold, silver, jewellery, tortoise shell, and many valuables such as tin, raw silk, and bird's nest will all be sent to the mainland of Hanzhou.And those living materials such as rice, cloth, and livestock will be transferred to several territories in the Luzon General Administration, and sold or distributed to the people under their jurisdiction.

Compared with the land troops who were devoted to searching and seizing the city, the commander of the Luzon Squadron, Lieutenant (Lieutenant Colonel) Wan Changshu and several naval officers had different thoughts on the land of Sandakan.

"It is located on the east coast of Borneo, with the South China Sea to the north, Sulu and Luzon to the east, and Sulawesi Island to the south. It is only a ten-day flight from Makassar. It is the central route planned by our country. The key point.” Wan Changshu stood at the bow of the ship and pointed to the west side of Sandakan Port, “In addition, the bay here is wide and narrow, with a total length of fifty miles, a mouth width of less than four miles, and an inner width of more than ten miles. , and the water level is deep enough to berth many large ships over a thousand tons. If this place is occupied, it will add another most important sea base for our navy."

"This is the most important seaport in the Sabah area, and it is also the temporary royal city of the former Sulu Kingdom. It is estimated that His Royal Highness Absan, the Eastern King, will not be willing to give this port to us." Captain of Yuming, Yuwu Xiaowei (Captain) Mao Jinguo He smiled and said, "If we want to get this port, I'm afraid it will take a lot of thought."

"It's okay." Wan Changshu patted the side of the boat, "Even if we can't completely get this port now, we can build a small base here first. When the time is right and there are changes in Sulu Kingdom, we can take this port." at the port."

"Actually, compared to this port, I think that the geographical location of Palawan Island, which is hundreds of miles away from here, is extremely important. It is a key node to control Luzon and Borneo." Mao Jinguo looked up into the distance On the surface of the sea, a group of seabirds hovered slowly in the low sky, waiting for the fish to jump out of the water, "Besides, this island has always belonged to China, the mainland, and there is no need for King Sulu to cede it to us. It is just It is only stolen by the natives and foreign countries for the time being. You should know that in the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties, the extreme south point of the "Four Seas Test" done by Guo Shoujing, who was a member of the Taishi Academy, was on that island (in 1279, the famous astronomer Guo Shoujing was ordered to conduct "Four Seas Test", the measurement point in the South China Sea is Huangyan Island, which is rumored to be Palawan Island)."

"Palawan Island runs from northeast to southwest and runs for more than a thousand miles. It's a vast area, and there are tens of thousands of natives. I'm afraid it's occupied, so it's hard to control it completely." Wan Changshu said with a frown.

"Our Qi State has been established for more than ten years, and we have occupied dozens of overseas territories, but we have never done a precedent of swallowing a large island in one step." Mao Jinguo said leisurely: "You know, as the frontier of Hanzhou Xuanhua Island (now Timor Island), it took Qi State almost 18 years to completely bring it under our rule."

"That makes sense." Wan Changshu nodded, "We'll report back to the military headquarters and ask them to coordinate with the Luzon General Administration to drive a wedge in Palawan Island and slowly eat it up later. "

"We Qi State will eventually completely control the entire Nanyang Ocean, but when our strength and population size are not enough, our navy must deploy and set up points in advance at all key nodes and islands in the region." Mao Jinguo said generously: "In the future , with the gradual increase in the population of our Qi State and the gradual increase in strength, it is bound to turn the entire Nanyang into an inner sea under the control of our Qi State. Only in this way can we go to the vast ocean without any worries, and Western powers are vying for future maritime supremacy."

"Aren't all of you young people who came out of the Naval Military Academy like you, all ambitious and focused on the future?" Wan Changshu was stunned for a moment when he heard Mao Jinguo's words, and then he laughed dumbly and said: " We have all seen the whole map of the world kept by the military, and we all know that the world is vast and the ocean is far beyond our imagination. Not to mention that the oceans at the east and west ends of Hanzhou have not been explored clearly, it is the seas of the South Seas, we The navy has not yet completed all surveys and mappings. Dominating the South China Sea and striving for global supremacy may not take a hundred years, and it may be difficult to achieve."

"What the commander said is very true!" Mao Jinguo knew that his radical words just now made the old and prudent Wan Changshu a little uncomfortable, so he said tactfully: "Your Majesty said, the army of ten years, the navy of a hundred years. Our navy of Qi It has been less than 20 years since its establishment, and the future road is indeed as the commander said, it will take a hundred years of work to achieve anything. In some respects, it is indeed a bit urgent."

"..." Wan Changshu patted Mao Jinguo on the shoulder, "What I said just now was not intended to suppress the ambitions of your young people. I just hope that you can calm down and consolidate your skills in maneuvering and fighting at sea. Don't aim too high , What are the rhetoric about contending for world hegemony? To be honest, our generation has never read any books, let alone undergone any systematic sailing studies. Therefore, we can occupy the leading positions in these navies."

"In the future, when you young people have grown up, we rough men should gradually withdraw from the navy. Therefore, I hope you can take one step at a time, do the meticulous work on hand first, and consolidate various naval operations Practice. In the future, we will be able to build our Qi State Navy into a truly world-class military, a century-old navy."

"Humble job, write it down!" Hearing this, Mao Jinguo immediately stood up straight, raised his right hand, and solemnly saluted Wan Changshu with a standard military salute.

(End of this chapter)