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Chapter 1075 Seeing flowers in the mist
"... Damn it, His Majesty is right. The more knowledgeable people are, the worse they are. I can't think of so many twists and turns even if I rack my brains!" Could Gao Lie refute it? He was silent for about ten seconds. He didn't have any reason to refute, but just started to curse.

"The signal has come, go and inform the captain to sail. The day after tomorrow you will personally lead the centurions here to Colombo to complain to the Portuguese. Not only was the port burned and supplies lost, but there were also casualties among the soldiers.

You must be angry, scold harshly, and be firm in your attitude. You must make the Portuguese responsible. But don't play it seriously. Leave after saying a few harsh words and go back to prepare for landing and occupying the city. Act immediately when the order comes, and don't delay for an hour. "

Why did he stay on the boat? He was not here to chat with Gao Lie, but to wait for the signal from the intelligence officer of the Navy Statistics Department. When he saw three fireworks rising into the sky from the black smoke of the port, he was completely relaxed, and for a moment he did not want to stay with this old soldier who was uneducated and had a higher honor than himself.

In fact, this plan was not very clever and even had fatal loopholes. If the Portuguese defenders a few kilometers away saw the Imperial Navy port being attacked and sent troops out of the city to rescue, even if it was just a formality, the trick would be exposed.

However, the reason why the Navy General Staff dared to do this was that they calculated that the Portuguese would most likely turn a deaf ear and ignore it. On the island of Ceylon, the Portuguese authorities did not want to see the presence of the Ming Empire.

At the beginning, the Imperial Navy reached an agreement with the Kingdom of Kandy in private, and the Portuguese did not dare to stop them from building a port. Now that the Kingdom of Kandy has turned against them, they will definitely be happy and pretend to be dead and not leave the city.

Even if they were questioned afterwards, they could shirk their responsibility by saying that they had not received any information in advance and did not know whether the Kandy army was playing a feint to the east and attacking in the west. Moreover, there were not enough troops in the city and they did not dare to leave the city casually.

As the saying goes, if the lips are cold, the teeth will die. Just two weeks after the Ming Empire’s naval port was attacked, the Kingdom of Kandy once again sent troops to surround the city of Colombo.

The Portuguese in the city were not too surprised. They had been fighting each other for decades and were used to it. Anyway, Colombo's walls were strong and had sufficient ammunition. As long as the Kandy army did not have enough artillery, it would be difficult to break through with just the lives of the soldiers.

But... every time this word appears, an accident will happen. This time, the accident happened on the city wall. When the Kandy army was besieging the east and south sides without fear of life and death, after a deafening roar, many Portuguese soldiers defending on the city wall and Kandy soldiers attacking under the city wall were all knocked to the ground.

No one knew what had happened or where the loud noise came from. When the smoke cleared, the Portuguese defenders were shocked to find a gap in the southeast corner of the city wall, and a large number of Kandy soldiers were rushing in with swords in hand.

In early summer of 1636, the situation on the island of Ceylon changed suddenly. The impregnable city of Colombo was captured by the Kingdom of Kandy overnight. More than 1000 of the 200 Portuguese in the city were killed or injured, and they fled to Jaffna in a hurry, leaving behind more than 3000 native servants.

After hearing about this, the Governor of Goa hurriedly mobilized mercenaries from all over the place, gathered more than 3000 people, and boarded seven armed cargo ships to try to arrive outside the port of Colombo in half a month, relying on the advantage of artillery and muskets to retake the city.

But the offensive was still not smooth. The Kandy army used the artillery and muskets seized in the city to put up a tenacious resistance, not only killing a large number of invaders, but also damaging three armed cargo ships.

This made the Portuguese mercenary leader in charge of commanding the offensive operation in a dilemma. If the armed cargo ships were not allowed to approach and shoot, the siege troops would be hit by various weapons on the city walls. However, if the ships approached, there was a risk of being sunk by artillery fire. After weighing the pros and cons, he had to order a retreat two days later. If the battle continued like this, the city would not be captured and the retreat route would be lost. With the help of artillery and muskets, the combat effectiveness of the Kandy army increased greatly. If they wanted to attack the city, they needed more soldiers and larger-caliber naval guns.

Unfortunately, the Governor of Goa could not provide more troops and naval guns. With the declaration of war by France, Spain was already overwhelmed and could not send more ships and troops to Asia. Portugal was currently under the rule of the King of Spain, and its limited resources had to be more inclined to the European battlefield.

At this time, the Governor of Goa suddenly thought of a helper, the Ming Empire! If he could persuade the emperor to send the imperial navy to help, attacking Colombo Port would not be a difficult task.

As for the Portuguese's indifference to the attack on the Imperial Navy base more than half a month ago, this is easy to explain. It's the same old story: the incident happened suddenly, the situation was unclear, and the troops were weak.

Now that Portugal and the Ming Empire are both victims, shouldn't they unite to fight against the hateful Kingdom of Kandy? As long as we can take back the port of Colombo, everything else can be discussed. At worst, we can give up half of it to the Imperial Navy for use. Anyway, having half is much better than losing it all.

But things did not develop as the Governor of Goa had imagined. When the Portuguese messenger arrived at the port of Thanlyin with the governor's personal letter, there were more than a dozen warships and dozens of armed cargo ships in the port. Hundreds of civilians were loading cargo onto the ships with their shoulders and hands. It seemed that a large fleet was about to set sail.

"They are going to Colombo Harbor to reinforce the city walls and expand the docks. Since you are here, it is a good opportunity to tell the Governor not to worry about Colombo City anymore. The Imperial Navy has leased it from the Kingdom of Kandy for 99 years.

The Imperial Navy is preparing to build a large base in Colombo, and may move the Indian Ocean Fleet there in the future. By then, the entire northern Indian Ocean will be under the control of the fleet, and any harassment of passing merchant ships will be ruthlessly dealt with. Portuguese merchant ships that conduct normal trade in accordance with the laws of the Ming Dynasty will also be protected! "

The Governor's messenger met the commander of the Imperial Navy's Indian Ocean Fleet, Jie Ji, and asked casually what so many ships were going to do. He immediately got a very detailed answer. However, this answer was too frightening, and he held back everything he wanted to talk about later.

It was not until then that the Portuguese realized that everything that happened in and outside the Colombo Port might be a big conspiracy. The Kingdom of Kandy might have reached some kind of tacit understanding or even conspiracy with the Ming Empire in private.

But speculation is always speculation and cannot be used as evidence. Before finding solid evidence, no matter how much dissatisfaction there is, it can only be suppressed. Randomly accusing an empire with a huge fleet and naval combat power is basically equivalent to tearing the relationship apart, which is very fatal to Portugal, which has no successors.

What we need to consider now is not how to drive the Ming Empire Navy away from Ceylon, but how to keep the Jaffna Port.

(End of this chapter)