The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 235 My team just opened

The Sultanate of Johor was formerly the Malacca Kingdom, which is very familiar to the Chinese.

In 1525, after the Portuguese captured Malacca and massacred the city, the descendants of the Malacca royal family evacuated to the northeast of the peninsula and established the Johor Sultanate.

Many people have a misunderstanding and easily equate Malacca with Singapore.

This is incorrect because Malacca is located at the northern end of the Strait of Malacca, while Singapore is at the easternmost end of the Strait of Malacca, right at its mouth.

The two are not the same city.

After the Malacca Kingdom was destroyed by the Portuguese, the newly born Johor Kingdom remained the most civilized dynasty in the southernmost part of the peninsula.

As a result, apart from Jeddah, Kelantan and Pattani, which were deeply influenced by Siam, the rest of the peninsula was under the rule of Siam.

The remaining Terengganu, Pahang, Selangor, Perak, etc. were all established by branches of the Johor Kingdom.

If the current status of the indigenous sultanates on the Malay Peninsula is compared to ancient Greece, then Johor is like Athens and Sparta, a beacon of civilization and a pillar of military power.

Unfortunately, this lighthouse and pillar were born in the wrong era. When it was rising, the powerful colonists from the west had already arrived.

Especially after the decline of the Ming Dynasty in the north, the era of peaceful trade under the care of the Eastern suzerain ended, and looting and killing followed.

In today's Johor Kingdom, Sultan Muhammad III basically only retains symbolic power.

However, this person has a very long service life, so the political situation is still very stable.

The forces supporting the Sultanate are divided into two parts.

One of them was the Bugis, who controlled the navy and whose chief was serving as Raja (Vice King) in Johor.

The second is the Temenggong (general) who controlled most of the army. They came from distant branches of the royal family and later established the Temenggong dynasty of Johor with the support of the British.

The two sides were actually quite harmonious because they had a common enemy, the Dutch who occupied Malacca and were eyeing Johor.

The Dutch were also very wary of the Bugis people, whom they had supported and used as their thugs but who were now out of control.

This was the biggest reason why the Dutch wanted to divert the trouble to the East. They wanted to use Mozibu's hand to severely damage the Bugis people and then let them return to their arms.

The Jingning, a 1400-ton warship, was considered a giant ship in the South China Sea at that time, but it was still just a tiny ship at sea.

In the gently shaking conference room, Mo Zibu's naval and land officers stood solemnly on both sides of the conference table.

Zheng Miao, who refused to leave, was wearing a Western military uniform and standing on the left and right sides of Mo Zibu with the marching Sima Wu Shixiu.

Among the more than 20 people, only General Mo was qualified to sit. He was also wearing a Western military uniform with white pants, blue jacket and a boat-shaped hat.

There was nothing he could do about it. Even if he took Jiading, his makeshift team would not have enough experience to design oriental-style naval uniforms.

The Ming Dynasty did not keep up with the times and did not have corresponding military uniforms. The Qing Dynasty did not spend much effort in this regard, and Mo Zibu certainly would not use them.

On the left and right sides of Mo Zibu, after the expansion of the army, he now had an army of 16,000.

Among them, the army consists of 12,000 people, divided into two towns and one army.

Directly under the town is the regiment, and under the regiment is the company.

The reason why units such as division and brigade were not used was because of the name, just as the vassal states and officials in the Andai region were unwilling to accept the Kun and Van of Siam.

Titles like regimental commander and company commander were not liked by the officers, as they felt they were not impressive enough.

Therefore, after this major military expansion, Mo Zibu abolished the Western-style titles of regimental commander and company commander and adopted the town-regiment-company model instead.

For every company of 100 people, the company commander is changed to the captain of a hundred men.

Ten companies form a regiment, with a total of one thousand people, and the regiment commander is called the Qianzong.

Five regiments form a town, with a total of 5,000 people. The chief officer is called the general, or the general town.

At the same time, the living unit battalion was renamed as a flag, responsible for specific life, training organization, and expanding the organization to form combat effectiveness on the battlefield.

The battalion commander is called the flag captain, commonly known as the general flag, and can usually also serve as an adjutant at the regimental level.

The regiment and above are also equipped with a military law system, with the town military judge as the assistant judge, the regiment military judge as the judge, and the company military judge as the pacifier.

The two towns are named Jiading Town and Tangshan Town respectively.

Jiading Town was headed by Chen Guangyao, and had five regiments under its jurisdiction, namely the Wuding Regiment, the Baima Regiment, the Longqi Regiment, the Longmen Regiment, and the Bien Hoa Regiment.

Among them, Wuding, Baima and Longqi are all place names under the control of Hexian.

The members of these three regiments were basically recruited from the Mo family and their fellow villagers in western Guangdong from Hexian, with the core being the veterans of the original Hexian regiment.

Longmen and Bianhe are place names around Jiading, which are composed of Jiading Mingxiang people and Jiading Annan Han people.

Tangshan Town was mainly composed of the original Yicongtuan, which was divided into the Luokun Hakka First Regiment, the Taogong Hakka Second Regiment, the Gonghe First Regiment, the Taixi Yicongtuan, and the Zhongnan Yicongtuan.

Colonel Reinstein was the general of Tangshan Town, and those with the word "Hakka" in their names were mainly Hakka people.

The Republican Group was composed of vassal forces such as Wu Rang and Ye Fengchang plus people from southern Fujian.

The Taixi Yuancong Regiment was composed mainly of Mo Zibu's original European soldiers.

The Central and Southern Yuan Corps was composed of Annamites such as Wu Wenyong and Siamese Chaozhou soldiers led by Chen Lian.

Except for Jiading Town and Tangshan Town, the remaining army was named Xingtang Guards.

Currently there are only two regiments and one cavalry battalion, which are divided into Yuancong Guards Regiment, Yulin Guards Regiment and Longxiang Guards Cavalry Battalion.

These two regiments and one battalion were personally selected by Mo Zibu to form a highly powerful guard without damaging the overall combat effectiveness.

These twelve regiments, plus a cavalry battalion, an artillery battalion that Mo Zibu could personally dispatch, plus the rest of the staff, military law and other officers, totaled exactly 13,000 people.

The remaining 3,000 people are officers and soldiers of the navy and elite sailors, of course this does not include auxiliary sailors.

Like mainstream countries today, Mozibu's auxiliary sailors also mostly rely on conscription, mainly composed of Arakanese, Mon and a small number of Malays.

As for military ranks, Mo Zibu basically promoted all the naval and land officers from Europe by one level.

The navy was commanded by Fragosse, who was promoted from brigadier general to major general. His adjutants were brigadier general Manuel Bonn, who had always followed Mo Zibu, and brigadier general Chen Chengshan, who was from the Chen family and Mo Zibu's confidant.

Colonel Reinstein of the Army was also promoted to brigadier general, along with Chen Guangyao, Wu Wenyong, and Chen Lian.

Of course, Mo Zibu's military rank was the highest, General, a rank specially prepared for the king.

"General, in my opinion, the Dutch's purpose is very clear. They want us to use all our strength to attack Johor City.

This way they can observe and judge our combat effectiveness, and also make the severely damaged Johor Sultanate turn to them."

Mo Zibu nodded, agreeing with Rear Admiral Fragosse's point of view. He now realized that Secretary Holdyk had not completely sided with him.

After obtaining a lot of benefits from himself, the cunning clerk still wanted to save the Dutch East India Company as much as possible.

At least it can slow down the company's bankruptcy so that he can have the best of both worlds and maximize his profits.

"Major General, if that's the case, what do you think we should do?" Mo Zibu asked with a smile.

Major General Fragosse immediately replied: “As a soldier, I advise the General to destroy the Kingdom of Johor, plunder and burn it, and leave the Dutch with a ruin.

Then, when they have almost repaired the ruins, we will come and block the VOC fleet in the bay and beat it up, and finally completely occupy this place."

It's really a familiar routine. This is the most standard way of fighting for European colonists, looting and burning.

And adhere to the correct principle that "the best colonies are those taken from others."

"But politically, this is quite risky and could lead to Aboriginal people viewing the VOC as a protectorate."

Major General Fragosse continued, “So my suggestion is to basically destroy the Johor Kingdom’s army, but retain their navy.

The VOC's current fleet is not strong, and with the Bugis people guarding Johor, it is difficult for them to launch a large-scale landing operation.

So as long as these brave water monkeys exist, the VOC will not be able to take over the Kingdom of Johor."

"Jiading Town is fully capable of defeating the Johor Kingdom's army. Please give the order, General!" Chen Guangyao stood up and said.

Brigadier General Reinstein scratched his head, straightened his golden hair, and then said slowly:
"The Yicongtuan can be deployed at any time, but General, I do not recommend that you launch an all-out attack on the Kingdom of Johor.

Because we have not yet swallowed up the entire Andai Peninsula, we should now use all our military forces on the Northern Expedition.

The most important thing at this moment is to occupy the entire Annan and restore the orthodoxy of the Seris Dynasty."

Mo Zibu always had an illusion that this German was more like a Mingxiang person than he was, and he cared about the words unity and revival much more than Mo Zibu and others.

Even the Malay Peninsula was changed by him to the Andai Peninsula.

"But we can use this battle to review the army's combat effectiveness. Since the expansion, we have only dispatched 2,000 people to suppress a rebellion by the Guangnan people. Most of the infantry regiments have not experienced combat."

Chen Lian was born and raised in Siam. His ancestors participated in Siam's military operation to conquer Pattani, so he is very familiar with these places.

He pointed to the area marked as Pahang on the map and said, "The Prime Minister of Johor, Abdul Majid, has just turned Pahang into a vassal state of Johor and appointed him as Raja. We can target him.

In addition, there are rich tin reserves on both sides of the Pahang River. Although mining is somewhat difficult, the transportation is borne by the Pahang River, so the cost is not high, so it is worth taking. "

The officers' eyes lit up. In today's Southeast Asia, the discovery of tin mines was as surprising as the discovery of oil in later generations.

After the three of them finished speaking, Mo Zibu waited for about ten seconds. Seeing that no one continued to express their opinions, he stood up and made a decision.

"Then fight!"

"Lin Tong, you, the Minister of Internal Affairs, select an envoy to go to Johor and tell Sultan Muhammad that if he still believes that he is the son of Princess Han Baoli, he must leave the palace and apologize to me and accept my protection!"

The so-called Princess Han Baoli is a fictional story created by these indigenous people.

It tells the story of how the king of the Malacca Kingdom accepted the title from the Ming Dynasty, and the emperor of the Ming Dynasty married him a princess, who was Princess Han Baoli.

For many years thereafter, the kings of the Malacca royal family claimed to be the nephews of the Chinese emperor.

This is obviously impossible, just like the Han-Japanese celestial race in the historical legends of the Western Regions and the Armenian Mamikonian family claiming that their ancestors came from China.

These are all literary stories inspired by the admiration of the Chinese dynasty during its heyday. In reality, the King of Malacca married the daughter of a prominent Han Chinese family who had accompanied Zheng He on his voyages to the West and settled in Southeast Asia, forming a marriage alliance.

"Brigadier General Tan Kuan Yao, dispatched the White Horse Regiment and the Dragon Gate Regiment from Jiading Town to attack Terengganu from Kelantan (Kota Bharu).

"Brigadier General Reinstein, dispatch two Hakka regiments and one Republican regiment to prepare for landing in Pahang."

"Zheng Qing, take my golden seal to Pattani and inform the envoy Wei Rikun to recruit 3,000 Chinese volunteers from Pattani, Narathiwat, and Kelantan to join the attack on Terengganu and Pahang."

"Brigadier General Manuel Bonn, dispatch the patrol fleet to cover the army landing at the mouth of the Pahang River."

"Major General, I order you to lead the main fleet into the Johor Strait and blockade it, cut off the connection between the Lion City Fortress and Johor City, and bombard their royal city."

Singapore was previously part of Johor, but was gradually abandoned because it was too vulnerable to attacks.

Today's Singapore, also known as the Lion City, only has a few fortresses equipped with small-caliber artillery, and the city of Johor has also moved backward to avoid the dilemma of being attacked by enemy ships as soon as they arrive.

But Mozibu did not need to actually capture the city of Johor. It was enough to bombard the port of Johor to increase the psychological pressure on Sultan Muhammad III.

. . . .

Chen Guangdong was nervously directing the soldiers of his company to form a battle line.

Due to the rapid expansion of the army, the military uniforms were not completed in a hurry, so most soldiers just wore their own clothes and hung ammunition bags and other items on them.

The only thing that proved they were regular soldiers was the red headbands wrapped around their heads.

The headband often has the unit number written on it. For example, the soldiers under Chen Guangdong had the word "Longmen" written on their headbands.

This indicates that they belong to the Longmen Group of Jiading Town.

His regimental commander, Lieutenant Colonel Mo Gong, was even more nervous. He was none other than the crazy grenadier Agang.

Originally, their family belonged to a small branch of the Mo family, so they could not use the character Gong, which was passed down from the direct descendants of the Mo family, as their generation name, and they had to name their children according to the radicals of gold, wood, water, fire and earth.

These were all given to him by Mo Zibu after he fought bravely.

Agang himself was promoted from a junior guard to lieutenant colonel within eight months and became the head of a regiment.

Although there were many people like him who were promoted rapidly during the large-scale military expansion, Agang still felt extremely nervous.

This is the first step to his success. If he fails, he will only be a low-ranking officer for the rest of his life.

Bursts of dense drumbeats were heard, and Chen Guangdong and his soldiers looked over curiously.

Passing past their regiment's square formation was a company of the Xing Tang Army's Yuanzong Guards Regiment.

These people are all veterans of many battles. They were sent here to be the finale of the attack on Terengganu.

I, King Mo, was afraid that these soldiers, who had only been formed three or four months ago and had no combat experience, would become weak and incompetent, so I sent this elite company with quite reliable combat effectiveness.

Looking at the soldiers of the Yuan Cong Guards wearing white pants, high crocodile leather boots, short mandarin duck battle jackets, and red lacquered helmets with the word "Yong" on them, and pulling the rolling field artillery forward,
The soldiers of the Longmen Regiment were extremely envious, but also felt a little inferior and unwilling to accept it.

A man from the Chen family saw his cousin in the Guards and opened his mouth to greet him.

The military judge from Europe who was watching him nearby slapped him twice in the face, making him see stars as he tried to move around in the formation and open his mouth.

The soldiers around were all relatives of this Chen family man, and they were extremely furious.

Damn, you, a bandit from the Western Regions, dare to attack my brother. You are a rebel!

However, when these soldiers were about to explode, the black hat with white paint on the brim of the central defender's hat calmed them down.

Anyone who dares to hit a military judge, especially a regimental military judge, will surely lose his head.

"Cen Goudu is on guard duty. Your company's rating will be reduced by two points. If any soldiers dare to act recklessly or look around, I will declare you unqualified for military discipline."

The white-skinned center back shouted loudly, and Chen Guangdong quickly trotted over.

He was still secretly complaining in his heart about the completely wrong pronunciation of his name by this Westerner, but his hands were not slow.

He raised the bamboo whip equipped by officers and whipped the soldier who had made a mistake on the thigh.

These guys were beaten so hard that their teeth were bared and their thighs were twitching, but they didn't dare to move or scream.

The artillery in the distance suddenly fired, one after another, and thick smoke billowed in the direction of the port. It was the navy's artillery bombarding the port. I believe it will be taken down in a short time.

Sure enough, not long after, a group of Chinese volunteers dressed in colorful clothes and with green headbands on their foreheads came ashore with large-caliber artillery under the command of several naval officers.

These guys had all sorts of weapons and their formation was completely nonexistent, but their morale was very high, they kept shouting slogans and cheering.

Chen Guangdong knew why they were cheering, because after taking Terengganu, they would be rewarded according to their military achievements.

Most of the prizes are places in a cooperative, and with this place, they can give their relatives from their hometown the opportunity to join the cooperative as soon as they arrive in Nanyang.

In today's Nanyang, if you can enter a cooperative, you basically have personal protection, and you can use the magic medicine prepared by the general.

Well, that's allicin plus montmorillonite powder for diarrhea and even cholera. And if you have malaria, you might get some precious cinchona cream, depending on your condition. After that, it all depends on your luck.

But the good news is that in addition to reorganizing the army, General Mo Da also obtained a full set of experimental tools and the recruitment of more than a dozen French chemical talents.

After more than a hundred experiments and wasting hundreds of taels of silver, quinine was finally extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree.

Although it is still a long way from artificially synthesizing quinine, it is much more effective than using bark powder directly.

So in today's Nanyang, if you join a cooperative, there is a chance of one death in four hundred and ninety-nine lives, and if you don't join a cooperative, there is a chance of one death in nine lives.

Moreover, these Chinese volunteers will not only be rewarded with a place in the cooperative, but those who have made meritorious contributions will also be assigned an indigenous woman.

Then they can use the cooperative quotas and indigenous women to ask their fellow countrymen who went to Southeast Asia to bring him a Han woman from their hometown.

This is definitely a good deal. In today's Southeast Asia, a Han woman is worth two cows. It's exaggerated!
Chen Guangdong's eyes became even more fierce and serious, meaning that if anyone could not defeat these volunteers, he would be expelled from the army.

When the volunteers appeared, the soldiers of the Longmen Regiment immediately became more motivated and displayed the momentum of a regular army.

For a moment, the pace of advancement was quite consistent and the formation was quite strict.

The drumbeats did not stop, and the volunteers, shouting slogans and cheering, soon pushed the cannons to a place not far from Terengganu City.

Raja on the top of the city saw the cannons coming and knew that it was impossible to hold on any longer.

So they immediately sent out the only two or three thousand brave warriors who dared to fight, and they rushed out from behind the earthen walls of Terengganu City, howling.

Seeing the dense enemy approaching, Agang galloped over and stopped the Yuancong Guards who were still advancing.

If we let these guys fire guns and bombard the enemy, they will surely retreat, and that will defeat the purpose of training the soldiers.

When Chen Guangdong saw the soldiers of Yuanzong's Guards Regiment begin to retreat, he couldn't help but feel sweat in his palms and his heart beating faster.

Because he knew that this was what Mo Qian meant, that he wanted them to fight to the death.

The howling native army was getting closer and closer. They were scattered very far apart, and it seemed that they also knew how powerful the line infantry was.

They also have some muskets in their hands, and they will open fire when they rush to a distance of eighty or ninety meters while howling.

A lead bullet hit Chen Guangdong in front of him with a thud, splashing yellow mud.

His legs went weak and he almost fell to his knees.

But when he looked back, he saw that the soldiers were all looking at him, so Chen Guangdong plucked up his courage, took a step forward in a heroic manner, and walked to the front of the company.

He drew his command knife and glared at the soldiers fiercely, "Lead bullets have eyes, they only target cowards. I'm not afraid of death, so I wasn't hit just now."

As he was speaking, there was a loud "biu" sound and a lead bullet flew past Chen Guangdong's head. Before he could react, the lead bullet disappeared.

Chen Guangdong, who didn't have time to show his fear, burst into laughter. "See, I didn't lie. Go ahead!"

Seventy meters away, the companies of the Longmen and Baima regiments suddenly fired their muskets, and smoke suddenly rose.

Without artillery, it was difficult for the enemy to cause damage to the Xing Tang army, so the soldiers were able to reload, fire, and move forward in a relatively relaxed environment.

They became more and more skilled and less afraid, but of course there were some who pretended to be dead and were timid.

But they were almost immediately identified, dragged into the center of the square formation, and beaten publicly with military clubs. Several were even executed on the spot.

This doesn't feel like a battle, but more like a drill that goes even further than actual combat.

In the smoke where it was impossible to tell left from right, Ah Quan, with a swollen face, huddled tightly together with Captain Chen Guangdong, as if this would make them braver.

Their company was at the front, had already fired two rounds, and was about to engage in hand-to-hand combat.

"Charge!" Chen Guangdong howled, and the soldiers shouted "Long live!" and rushed out into the smoke with him.

Then they were dumbfounded. After rushing through the smoke, the indigenous warriors who had initially rushed up howling had suffered heavy casualties, and some were even turning around and fleeing.

There were only a few hundred people still rushing over, baring their big yellow teeth and howling.

This is not enough points at all!
Ah Quan was extremely anxious. He had just seen a target, but before he could move forward, he was stabbed down by several of his comrades who came from nowhere and then surrounded and stabbed like a hedgehog.

Damn you! Ah Quan cursed loudly and turned around looking for his target.

As a result, he was always one step behind the others, and by the time he finally drew blood with his bayonet, the battle was basically over.

Those who were quick killed five or six enemies and were praised by the captain and the general flag.

Chen Guangyao was at the farthest point, riding a horse with a telescope in hand, shaking his head in boredom. "The enemy is too weak, the battle is not fierce, and the soldiers haven't gotten much training."

"No, Your Excellency." A European major with a thick German accent disagreed.

"The soldiers have been tempered. They know how to fight a war and the value of honor and military merit."

The person Major Ryan was pointing at was Ah Quan, who was extremely anxious in the distance.

"It is enough for the line infantry to know this; the rest of the fighting is the responsibility of the cavalry and artillery.

The cavalry and artillery are composed of the elite Yuan soldiers and the elite of the former Eastern Legion."

(End of this chapter)