Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 1243

In order to solve the problem once and for all, and the Ming Dynasty has been jealous of Malacca for a long time, so this time the Ming army not only defeated the Dutch, it was as simple as occupying Malacca, and it was as simple as occupying it.

The Dutch used Malacca as their base and collected taxes from merchant ships every year, and the wealth they gained was immeasurable.

The maritime merchants of the Ming Dynasty had long been dissatisfied with the Dutch plucking geese and making money while sitting around.

For such a good place as Malacca, Wang Yan had long coveted it. It is true that the breach of the contract by the Netherlands made the Ming Dynasty angry, but it also gave Wang Yan an excuse.

Coincidentally, the Malacca Sultanate also intervened in the war, so naturally Wang Yan would not be polite. He signaled to Li Dingguo early on to destroy the country along the way, and established a pro-Ming vassal state here, and then ceded the Malacca area to the Ming Dynasty.

In October, the Ming army entered the Malay Peninsula, and the enemy troops along the way were almost defeated. The Ming army divided into two groups and swept the cities on both sides of the peninsula. Li Dingguo led 2 people and marched along the east coast, while Chen Youlong marched along the west coast.

It is said to be a city, but in fact it is just a few larger towns, many of which do not even have city walls, and the Ming army simply broke through.

In half a month, until November [-]th, the Ming army on the east road had laid down Kelantan, Jucha, Pahang and other places, and then crossed the peninsula to Muar, about a hundred miles southeast of Malacca, to join the navy.

The progress of the West Route Army was also very smooth. Except for a little resistance in Taiping, the whole marching process was like a march.

After the fall of Wood, there were only more than 1000 Dutch people left in Malacca, plus more than 400 Dutch people brought back by Constantine, exactly 500 people, but the president of the East India Company, Moschell, came from Batavia again. 500 people have been transferred, and more than 1000 people will come from India to help.

In this way, there will be more than 5000 Dutch people in Malacca. Almost all the power of the Dutch East India Company in Southeast Asia will be concentrated in Malacca.

There are many hills around the port of Malacca. In the port, there are more than 40 armed merchant ships of the Dutch and the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty. The port of Malacca is unlikely, but the land division of the Ming army will become the main threat to the Netherlands.

Seeing Wood's defeat has proved the strength of the Ming army.

At this time, Moschell, who was sober, also remembered that the Netherlands had never won a match against the Ming army and had always been defeated. Therefore, he had to put away the arrogance of the white people and seriously deploy defenses in Malacca.

For the defense on land, he will focus on Fort Malacca, and he will personally sit in the fort, and then send troops to guard the three forts around the port to prevent the Ming army from approaching the port of Malacca.

The Ming army came to attack from afar, and he firmly believed that as long as they stick to Malacca for three months, the Ming army will be exhausted and their food and grass will be exhausted. When the Dutch reinforcements from India come, they will be able to easily defeat the Ming army.

While Moschier was intensively deploying defenses, the Ming army also completed the assembly on the periphery of Malacca.

In order to attack Malacca with all his strength, Li Dingguo decided to wipe out the hostile forces on the peninsula first, designate an area for the troops of the three countries in Guangnan to be responsible for the cleanup, and hand over the area north of Malacca to them to help the Ming army collect food and grass.

Nanyang is full of dense forests, and the natives are scattered in the dense forests. The Ming army is not familiar with the land, so it is difficult to establish effective rule.

Besides, it is not worthwhile to go deep into the dense forest to rule those villages for the sake of three melons and two dates.

Therefore, the Ming army temporarily handed over these undeveloped areas to vassals who could adapt to the Nanyang climate, and then supported the pro-Ming regime after the war was over, or learned from the Western Yi and directly dispatched a governor to manage it like Champa.

In the south of Malacca, let Liu Wenxiu lead an army to attack Forou, which is the later Singapore, and completely wiped out the Sultan Khanate, and then supported puppets to let the local people continue to farm, so as to reduce the pressure on the Ming army to transport grain and grass.

At the end of November, after mopping up the periphery, Malacca had become an isolated city, and the forwards of the Ming army began to appear on the edge of Malacca.

The cavalry of the Ming army soon discovered that this city was different from the cities attacked by the Ming army in the past. It had no walls, but around the city, there were solid stone forts and forts built on the hills.

When the cavalrymen were about to take a closer look, Heyi's fort suddenly opened fire, and the shells hit four miles away. The Ming army was so startled that they hurriedly pulled back their horses and hurried back to report.

On the second day of December, it was a sunny day. Because the sun shines on the southern hemisphere, although it is close to the equator, it is not too hot.

Although most of the troops sent by the Ming army were from the South, they still couldn’t stand the climate in Nanyang. The hot and humid weather caused the Ming army to get sick as many as a thousand people. Fortunately, the time was right for sending troops, otherwise the losses would have been more severe.

When the Ming Dynasty fought against the north, they usually chose to send troops in spring, so that the warmer they fought, they could avoid the cold winter in the north. But this time when they sent troops to Nanyang, they chose to send troops in autumn.

Many soldiers have been sent back to Champa, or died in the army because of unacceptable conditions, hot and humid weather, etc. If the season is not right, more people will die of illness.

At this time, on a fort outside Malacca Port, Brother Gao and more than a dozen companions, in handcuffs, were busy carrying stones, gunpowder, etc. under the supervision of the Dutch.

"Second brother, are the officers and soldiers really going to fight over?" Gao Yizhen slowly laid a stone on the wall, looked around, and asked in a low voice.

Brother Gao is fat and sweaty, and he has lost a lot of weight recently. He panted, "It can't be fake, you see these red-haired ghosts are in a hurry, forcing us to strengthen the fort day and night, so you know that the officers and soldiers must be coming soon gone."

After Gao Yizhen heard this, he couldn't help but be overjoyed, "The officers and soldiers are here, we will be saved!"

Second Brother Gao picked up another stone and sighed, "That's not certain, those red-haired ghosts are so cruel, they didn't treat us as human beings, they killed us as soon as they said they wanted to. Maybe they didn't wait for the officers and soldiers to beat us to vent their anger. Come here and kill us."

Second Brother Gao now has a realization in his heart. Every time he has hopes and expectations, God will always mercilessly hit him on the head, smashing him from the clouds to the ground, so now he thinks about the worst in everything and lowers his expectations. One point, maybe there will be unexpected surprises.

"Really!" Gao Yixuan on the side turned pale with fright when he heard his words, thinking of the tragic death of shopkeeper Zheng and his brother who was beaten to death a few days ago, he forgot to move for a moment, and a Dutch soldier next to him immediately jumped The whip came.

With the sound of "pa", Gao Yizhen suddenly felt a burning pain on his face. He covered half of his face and fell to the ground, screaming, but the Dutch soldier didn't intend to let him go, and cursed In Dutch, it probably means a word like "yellow monkey".

Seeing this, Second Brother Gao threw away the stone in his hand, hurriedly went to protect Gao Yi, and left his back to the Dutch, but the whip of the Dutch soldier did not fall.

After waiting for a while, Second Brother Gao couldn't help raising his head when he noticed something strange, and looked at the red-haired ghost, only to find that he was looking out of the fort in a daze.

He couldn't help but hastily supported Gao Yizhen, and then looked outside, and saw a few miles away, a crowd of people appeared at some point, moving forward slowly.

The fiery red armor, the piece of plate helmets, and the familiar blue sun and moon flag fluttered in the wind in the team, and immediately attracted his attention, and he couldn't look away anymore.

Seeing this scene, Second Brother Gao couldn't help having a sore nose, and his eyes instantly became moist. Gao Yizhen, who was whipped so hard that he could only open one eye, burst into tears, his voice hoarse as if he had encountered something sad. Cracking his lungs seemed to be extremely sad, but everyone around him knew that he was actually so happy that he didn't know how to express his inner feelings.

Just when the eyes of the Ming people on the fort were wet, the Dutch suddenly screamed in horror. A team of Dutchmen hurriedly took the Ming people down, and more Dutchmen rushed up to the fort, ready to fight.

Because the cavalry had been sent to investigate before, and they knew that the Dutch cannonballs were far away, so the Ming army stopped far away.

Li Dingguo dressed neatly, led dozens of horses away from the army on horseback, ran to a hillside, and took out a binoculars to observe the Dutch defense system from a distance.

There is a castle on the top of the highest mountain, which is made of stones. It should be very strong. On the hills around the port, there are three forts, which are also made of stones. On the contrary, the city below the castle has no defense.

The purpose of building a city in the West is different from that of the Ming Dynasty. The city of the Ming Dynasty was to enclose the people, so it was ten miles in circumference without moving. The purpose was to protect the people in the city, while in the West it was to enclose the king or feudal lord.

Their castles are generally smaller than those of the Ming Dynasty, and only live in the king and the king's guards to protect the king and his property.

Li Dingguo looked at it for a while, then handed the binoculars to Liu Wenxiu, and after he looked at it for a while, he asked, "How is it?"

Liu Wenxiu put down the binoculars, shook his head, "I'm afraid it's not easy to fight!"

Li Dingguo nodded slightly, obviously he also thought so, "These western barbarians really have a way of building fortresses, they actually built the fortress on the mountain!"

"That's right! Xiyi's artillery is already very powerful. It hits extremely far, and the fortress is located on the top of the mountain. Our siege equipment is almost useless. We can only carry ladders to climb the mountain and attack the city. But the mountain is so high that the soldiers are afraid." If you rush to the middle of the waist, you won’t have the energy.” Liu Wenxiu pointed at the castle, and continued: “Although this castle is small, it is also easy to defend. Grain consumption is slow, it's really hard to deal with!"

Li Dingguo frowned, "Let Wood go back to persuade him to surrender first. If the Dutch are willing to surrender, then everything is easy to talk about. If they don't surrender, then we have to prepare for a tough battle!"

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(End of this chapter)