1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 758 The Key to the Straits of Malacca

July 1659, 7, Temasek Island (now Singapore).

The Indian task force consisting of the battleship "Han He" and four professional warships left Banten Port on the third day after the Qi army captured Banten City. The accompanying armed merchant ships of the Indian Trading Company and the Nanyang Trading Company They also pulled anchor and set sail, heading for the Straits of Malacca together.After five days of sailing, the fleet arrived at Temasek Island, a subsidiary of Nanyang Trading Company, and made a short stay here.

This small island that originally belonged to the Sultanate of Johor was leased by Nanyang Trading Co., Ltd. at the price of [-] Hanzhou silver dollars per year six years ago. trade posts and ship-to-ship supply points.

Nanyang Trading Company also uses this small island as a base to actively carry out trade with the surrounding Johor, Jambi, Palambang, Aceh, and many kingdoms on the Malay Peninsula, which greatly promotes the development of this small island. And soon it developed into a prosperous commodity distribution center.

At present, there are only more than 200 employees under the Nanyang Trading Company on the island, more than [-] armed guards, and more than [-] immigrants.The immigrants mainly came from Annan and Xuanhua Island (now Timor Island). The former was responsible for planting vegetables, fruits and a small amount of rice on the island, while the latter was mainly responsible for some rough benzene work on the commercial station and the wharf.

There is a small fortress built of cement bricks on the small island, with several cannons arranged on the top of the city, mainly for the employees of the trading station and armed guards.On the outskirts of the fortress, there is a circle of simple fortresses with civil structures. Except for a few brick and stone buildings for the management personnel with high status among the immigrants, the places where the rest of the personnel live are almost all made of wood and rammed stones. A mud house built from soil.

However, the entire commercial base still conforms to the consistent architectural layout of towns and villages in the Qi State, that is, the houses are arranged in an orderly manner, and all the vegetation around the fortress has been cleared. A sense of chaos in time and space.

A huge fleet docked at Temasek Island, and the navy of the Sultanate of Johor, who heard the news nearby, sailed carefully to the vicinity of the small island, and sent people to ask why the people of Qi gathered so many giant ships here. .

A month ago, a war broke out between the Banten Sultan Kingdom on the west side of Java Island and the Qi State in the southern Hanzhou mainland. It is said that within a short period of time, the Qi State defeated the Banten Kingdom's navy and blocked Banten Coastal ports, and continue to gather troops, ready to attack Banten City.According to the Dutch from Batavia, given the disparity in combat power between the two sides, the defeat of the Banten Kingdom should be a high probability event.

Under such circumstances, the Qi State suddenly gathered more than ten ships on this small island, and the Johor Kingdom could not help being frightened.

A shopkeeper of the Nanyang Trading Company received the envoy sent by Johor to inquire about the news, and informed the other party that the task force formed by the Qi State this time was destined for India and planned to visit the Mughal Empire. merchant ships bound for trade.

Don't be afraid, our powerful fleet is just passing by and is not targeting any country along the Straits of Malacca.

The Johor envoy was a little relieved. After receiving a beautiful gift, he returned to Johor with satisfaction to return to the Sultan King.

This country of Qi, which lives in the southern New World, has risen rapidly in just over 20 years. It has fought two wars with the powerful Dutch East India Company, and it has not lost the wind. It even beat the Dutch to shame.With the passage of time, the momentum of the Qi State has become stronger and stronger. Not only has the maritime armed force increased day by day, but all kinds of industrial products produced by them have also begun to pour into Johor and the surrounding sultanate kingdoms.

Unlike the Dutch who like to plunder local specialties and spices, merchants in Qi State like to vigorously promote their own products, such as steel bar ironware, hardware products, sugar, canned food, oil, cotton cloth, leather goods, and even those luxury glass, pearls, Porcelain and silver ornaments cover almost every aspect of life, and have really enriched and enhanced the daily life of the people of the Johor Kingdom.

For this kind of country with strong military power, capable of producing many industrial products, and a country that is on the rise rapidly, the Sultanate of Johor and many other states are deeply in love and fear, and there is some fear in their hearts.

"This is the eastern end of the Strait of Malacca, and Temasek Island is just at the key point, which is a strategic location. If possible, it is best for this small island to be fully controlled by our country Qi."

On July 7, a group of ships from the Indian task force left Temasek Island and headed for the west end of the Strait of Malacca. With the gradually away island.

"Commander, I believe that in addition to occupying Temasek Island on the north side of the strait, the island on the south side (now Batam Island, Indonesia) should also be occupied. In this way, the exit at the eastern end of the entire strait can be completely sealed. In the future, Whether it is Daming, Annan, Siam, the states of the Malay Peninsula, or even the Dutch East India Company, if they want to go west to India, Persia, and Europe, or those Western countries come to Nanyang and Daming, they will all be in a difficult situation. We are under the absolute control of Qi State." Fleet Deputy Commander, Captain Zhaoxin (Colonel) Wan Changshu pointed to an island that was already blurred in the distance, and said in a deep voice.

"The future is long! Now that we have occupied Temasek Island, the Dutch East India Company is deeply afraid. If we hold the island at the southern end of the strait again, I guess the governor of Batavia will be so nervous that he can't sleep day and night." feel." Mir said with a smile: "Besides, with our Qi State's maritime strength in this area, who would dare to come to this island without our consent. Hehe, it will fall into our Qi State's hands sooner or later."

"What the commander said is very true! In the South Seas, our navy of the Qi State can be said to have drawn its sword and looked around, but it is difficult to find an opponent." An officer said proudly.

"The Nanyang sea area is just a bathtub. With the strength of our country, what is the pride of being able to subdue this place?" Mill glanced at the officer, shook his head and said: "The king's expectations for our navy, It’s not just about dominating the South Seas and showing off with a group of Tubang kingdoms with only a few small sampans. The goal of our Qi Navy is to cross the strait, enter the vast ocean, and compete with Western countries for supremacy all over the world!”
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July 7, Daxi Island, Anhuabao (now Dengla, a small town in the east of Great Nicobar Island)

"Dog-like thing!" Ruan Chun kicked the native in front of him to the ground, and said viciously: "You pirates, dare to make us stop resisting and surrender to you? Open your dog eyes wide Let's take a look, who are you guys provoking!"

After the native was kicked over, the corner of his mouth was bleeding, but he didn't care about it. He looked over with gloomy eyes, and there was a hint of sternness on his face, and he yelled something.

"What are you doing in a daze?" Ruan Chun stepped forward and kicked him hard in the face again, making him roll over, then glared at the guards on both sides, "Drag it out, chop it up!"

"Yes!" A Japanese guard grabbed the native man's feet and dragged him out backwards.

"Okay, everyone be on guard, don't let those pirates from outside the port come in from other places." Ruan Chun turned around, picked up the teacup on the table, took a few sips for himself, and then pointed at the teacup. Several guard leaders said: "We have guns and cannons, and we are protected by the wall, so those pirates can't get in. It will take ten days and a half months, and armed merchant ships from India or the mainland will come. At that time , they look good!"

"My lord, do you want to distribute weapons to those natives and slaves to prevent pirates from attacking the city?" A guard leader asked.

"...Forget about the slaves in the village. We have given them knives and guns. They are not allowed to attack us behind the scenes. However, we can choose some honest natives to serve as guards. These days, it's good to feed those natives Yes, give them some of the wine and canned food in the storeroom too. Damn, when did these pirates actually stare at our Daxi Island?"

As a relatively key supply point under the Indian trading company, and its location is at the entrance of the western section of the Strait of Malacca, the construction of this stronghold on Daxi Island is extremely shabby.It may be that the business company does not want to invest too much in consideration of the cost.For more than ten years, the outer defensive facilities of the entire Anhua Fort are still wooden walls, and there are many damaged openings in many places, and even small thieves can easily get in.

As for the interior of the fortress, there are only a few masonry buildings, which are only equipped as warehouses and residences for the island's management personnel.More buildings in the castle are built hastily from wooden houses.Due to the hot and humid environment, the extremely difficult conditions, and the lack of valuable specialties, this small island could not attract many immigrants to colonize.

Indian trading companies have immigrated more than 200 people to this small island, most of them are Annan people and Xuanhua Island (now Timor Island) natives. As a result, the population has not increased in more than ten years, but has lost 180 people due to various diseases. many people.Therefore, up to now, the population of Anhua Fort is only more than [-] people, and more than half of them are natives captured in Xuanhua and surrounding islands.

However, there are more than 200 island natives in the fort, a kind of short black natives, who may have been closed on this isolated island all year round, behaved extremely ignorant and backward, and were reduced to Anhua Fort without thinking slaves, doing the most menial and hard work.

However, such a poor and small supply point was targeted by a group of pirates a few days ago.About [-] pirates suddenly broke into Anhua Bay (now Campbell Bay on the east coast of Great Nicobar Island) on dozens of small galleys and canoes. Taking advantage of the cover of the dark night in the evening, they tried to break into the port and landed by force.

Fortunately, the vigilant guards discovered it in time and immediately opened fire.Although there are only three cannons deployed in the port, the angles are very tricky, just enough to block this small pier.

After losing five small boats, the pirates saw that they could not land ashore, so they retreated far away from the port, staring at the shore.At night, more than 100 pirates bypassed the port and landed secretly from the north side of Anhua Bay.When they sneaked to the pier fort, when they were about to attack, they were exposed by barking dogs.

After a fierce fight, the fort guards found that the number of opponents was increasing. After destroying the artillery of the fort, they quickly retreated into the fortress and used the wall of the fortress to deal with the incoming pirates.

During the night battle, Anhua Fort lost twelve guards, making the entire fort less than 50 guards, and it was already in extreme danger.Previously, it was not that Anhua Fort had encountered pirate attacks, but the number of people was usually very small, no more than a hundred people at most.After facing the bombardment of the pier fort, he quickly retreated.And the number of pirates who attacked this time was as many as more than 500, which obviously exceeded the defense capacity of Fort Anwar.

However, from the pirates' attempt to land to their night raids, they also suffered a lot of losses, with more than 50 corpses left before and after, which made the pirates startled and angry.Therefore, they hesitated a bit whether they would launch a strong attack and enter Anhua Fort next.After all, their more than 500 pirates did not have a unified leader, but were formed by the aggregation of several pirate groups.

These pirates just heard that there is a wealthy stronghold on this small island, and the people stationed there are a group of Qi people from the Hanzhou mainland in the south. .Unexpectedly, within two rounds of fighting, they lost [-]% of their manpower.

Although the fortress on the shore does not seem to be very well-defended, the opponent has a surprisingly large number of firearms, and there is likely to be artillery.Moreover, the opposing guards were also very strong in short-hand combat. Those short guards often dared to launch a counterattack against dozens of pirates by themselves, holding a long knife and shouting loudly.

The pirates tried to attack several times, but were repelled by the opponent's firearms, and more than [-] people were killed or injured.After discussing with several pirate leaders, they decided to send someone in to persuade them to surrender, thinking about relying on their large numbers to intimidate them to give up resistance.If they don't use weapons, they can peacefully take over this fortress and obtain the wealth inside. Perhaps, they can consider leaving a few more lives for them.

However, the envoy who persuaded him to surrender was beheaded and thrown out in less than half an hour.

This move somewhat angered the pirates.Several bands of pirates from Aceh clamored to launch a storm and kill all the people in the fort.

Over the years, due to the chaotic situation in the country, Aceh's business environment has deteriorated extremely, and trade has also shrunk sharply.Moreover, many merchant ships passing through the Strait of Malacca also stop at the port of Aceh.This has made life difficult for towns and tribal peoples along the coast of Aceh.Thus, many pirates were born.A few years ago, the piracy activities that were attacked by the joint fleet of Han and Holland gradually began to rampant again after a long period of silence.

After a day of debate, several groups of pirates finally reached a consensus, and decided to attack Anhua Fort from four sides, making it impossible for the fortress to respond to pirate attacks at the same time.

At noon on July 7, after half a day of fighting, the Anhua Fortress wall was breached by pirates in many places. The guards had to abandon all the outer areas, hide in several strong warehouses, and continue to resist tenaciously.

After the ferocious pirates beheaded and killed dozens of natives and slaves in the fort, they immediately began to attack the warehouse area with all their strength.But the opponent relied on the fortress surrounded by several warehouses and used muskets to continuously kill the attacking pirates.For a while, hundreds of pirates were unable to advance an inch, and there was nothing they could do about this last stronghold.

However, some of the pirates soon came up with a wonderful countermeasure, using fireworks to siege.

The Anwar Fort guards hiding in the warehouse area watched the pirates keep throwing branches and weeds and piled up all kinds of fire starters outside the bunker, with a trace of despair in their eyes.Some Japanese guards silently threw their muskets on the ground, then grabbed a long knife and held it tightly in their hands, ready to rush out of the fortress and fight the pirates to the death.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..." Suddenly, there was a rumbling sound of artillery from the direction of the pier. Whether it was the pirates or the guards of Anhua Fort who were holding on to the fortress, they all turned their heads and looked towards the sea.

"Damn, someone saved us!" Ruan Chun, commander of Anhuabao, sat down on the ground with a smile of the survivors after the catastrophe.

(End of this chapter)