In mid-October, Zhao Xuening was at the last moment of reorganizing his troops and was ready to send troops to attack. The day before he was about to send troops, he received a routine intelligence transmission from Lanfang intelligence merchants in Guangdong and Fujian from Chen Qilong.
The intelligence showed that the main officials of the Qing Empire in Guangdong and Fujian already knew about the previous war in Nanyang, the existence of a country called Lanfang Republic, and heard about the name Zhao Xuening, but for Lanfang It is still not clear what attributes Fang is.
It is not that they are not paying attention to this matter, but they are paying close attention to the impact this matter may have on Nanyang and whether it may threaten the southern waters of the Qing Empire.
Therefore, the intelligence determined that in the next period of time, the Qing Empire businessmen who went to the Philippines and the East Indies to do business would have some intelligence-seeking intentions.
However, at least for now, officials of the Qing Empire have no intention of reporting the matter to Hongli, and news of the Lanfang Republic is only rumored in Guangdong and Fujian, and there is no relevant news circulating further north.
At this time, the front page headlines of the Qing Empire were still the aftermath of the great Emperor Qianlong's southern tour, and the war caused by the Lanfang Republic was just a regional news item.
Zhao Xuening felt funny about this news.
The oldest empire obviously still has the most basic vigilance against external threats, but they are too obsessed with the honor of the Celestial Kingdom, are slow to respond to everything happening in the outside world, and do not treat these things as important matters.
For them, the most important thing may still be to give gifts to Hongli and establish a sense of presence in front of Hongli. As for other things, they have to be ranked at the back.
In this case, Zhao Xuening is not polite.
On October 21st of the first year of the Republic, President Zhao Xuening decided to personally lead the combined navy and land forces to attack the Kingdom of Sulu.
This time Lanfang dispatched two troops, the First Fleet of the Navy and the First Corps of the Army, with a total number of 13,000 people and more than 200 warships and transport ships. The main target of the attack was the Jolo Islands, the core area of the Kingdom of Sulu. area.
The territory of the Sulu Kingdom in its heyday also included the eastern coastal areas of Borneo. However, during the Lanfang Company period, when Zhao Xuening led an expedition to counterattack the Sulu Kingdom, he had already driven them into the sea, making them completely Ocean Islands Power.
For this reason, the Sulu Kingdom hated and feared the Lanfang Republic.
And this time, Zhao Xuening did not intend to keep this scourge.
He led his army to fight fiercely, conquering Bongao and Balingbin one after another. He defeated the Sulu pirates who lived on these islands and destroyed all their ships with ferocious firepower. After landing, he used infantry firepower. Defeat all their resistance.
Because of the huge gap in weapons and military organization, the Sulu Kingdom's initial resistance was not organized at all, and was beaten to the edge of the Jolo Islands by Zhao Xuening. The entire country was immediately in danger of subjugation.
It was only then that Sulu senior officials finally woke up from a dream and knew that Lan Fang was serious this time, so they quickly called on the army to resist.
Compared with the weapons, equipment and military organization of the Lanfang Republic, which is comparable to the European regular army, the military organization and weapons and equipment of the Sulu Kingdom fully demonstrate the local characteristics of Nanyang.
Because their main business was piracy, the main ships they sailed on were some locally made light boats, such as catamarans, manned galleys, Malay hut boats and Nanyang wooden sailing ships.
A typical Nanyang wooden sailing ship has two masts at the front and rear, and a shed at the rear. It can carry about 50 to 100 people.
Generally speaking, these light boats have extremely poor firepower. Most of them only have three sixteenth-century-style cannons installed on the sides of the ship, or a large-caliber cannon on the bow.
The combat effectiveness of such ships cannot be compared with the ships of the regular army, but generally speaking, a group of Nanyang pirates will have twenty to fifty such ships, and the total number of pirates in a group exceeds 4,000. When faced with being alone, When fighting Western-style warships and merchant ships, their wolf pack tactics are very effective.
Their troops were armed with short-barreled muskets, Qing-style muskets, machetes, bows and arrows, or were equipped with the typical Southeast Asian weapon, the Malay Kerisian sword.
Using such weapons, equipment and ships, they relied on their special geographical location and combat methods to win many victories and plunder a lot, which further fueled their arrogance.
In the past, when faced with dozens or hundreds of small, fast-moving ships, large warships of less than five were more difficult to deal with. In the end, they were likely to be approached by these small ships, and pirates jumped on the ship and then launched a close-range attack. The cold weapon hand-to-hand combat was overwhelmed by the opponent's numerical advantage.
But this time, Zhao Xuening brought a total of fifty professional battleships, including triple-heavy battleships. In terms of firepower, it could even be regarded as anti-aircraft cannons to fight mosquitoes, giving a sense of saturation firepower.
On November 1, a decisive battle at sea started twenty nautical miles southwest of the Jolo Islands. The two sides in the decisive battle were the combined naval and land forces of the Lanfang Republic and the pirate ship group army of the Kingdom of Sulu.
Facing the invasion of more than 300 small pirate ships sent by the entire Sulu Kingdom, Zhao Xuening handed over command to Navy Chief Li Chuang and watched the battle himself.
Li Chuang took over the command, calmly and calmly, and ordered the main battleships of the army to form a professional long snake formation, and ordered hundreds of artillery to fire at once. The fierce firepower formed a dense firepower network, and a single salvo could sink the enemy. , destroyed more than a dozen pirate boats from the Sulu Kingdom.
Due to the problem of artillery range, the sixteenth-century style artillery of the Sulu pirate ship had a very short range and could only fire small shells of about one kilogram.
Facing Lanfang's large-caliber general cannon and cavalry general cannon, it was like the difference between civilian fireworks and military rockets. It was really too big.
Therefore, across a long distance, Lanfang's artillery can attack Sulu's pirate ship. However, Sulu's pirate ship has no power to fight back. It can only rely on its numerical advantage and move forward quickly despite huge risks, hoping to get close to Lanfang. The Fang battleship launched a close-range gang-hopping battle.
Their weapons and tactical thinking were both stuck in the sixteenth century. They were really unable to cope with the new navy after the tactical innovations in the eighteenth century.
Zhao Xuening must admit the bravery of these pirates. Without this bravery and determination, they would not be able to resist the Spanish attacks that have been going on for hundreds of years. They still dare to advance in the face of fierce artillery fire.
However, their bravery and determination only ended today.
The firepower network of the Lanfang battleship is very dense. Even though the pirate ship is fast, it cannot withstand the many artillery guns of the Lanfang Navy. When they finally have a ship that can break through Lanfang's firepower network, what is waiting in front of them is Lanfang's Cruiser gunboat.
Lanfang's cruiser gunboat is not as big as a battleship, but it is also equipped with about thirty to forty artillery pieces. The sailors on the ship are also equipped with guns, have sufficient shells and ammunition, and have certain close combat capabilities. Pirate boats, these cruise gunboats from specialized shipyards have a strong impact.
The pirate ship wanted to engage in close combat, so the Lanfang cruiser and gunboat accompanied them in close combat, ramming their ship under the horrified gaze of the pirates. The force of the blow was enough to knock a pirate ship into pieces, and the pirates fell into the water to feed the fish.
Even if they were lucky enough not to be hit and sunk on the spot, what awaited them was intensive gunfire from the sailors on the ship. Faced with such a close target, the sailors excitedly pulled the triggers and sent the pirates down one by one. hell.
Even so, the sailors were not satisfied.
Because the ignition failed or the hit was not successful, they cursed and wished that the flintlock gun in their hands could instantly turn into the legendary repeating gun, so that they could fully obtain the satisfaction of firepower.
Lanfang fired all guns and cannons. The Sulu pirates either sank with the ship or were killed by bullets. They suffered heavy casualties and could not really threaten the Lanfang navy. Li Chuang saw that the situation was almost over, so he ordered the cruise gunboats to fully Move forward, clean up the remaining enemies, and a large sea battle enters the final stage.
Half an hour later, all the Sulu pirate ships were wiped out. The remaining thirty or so pirate ships surrendered in despair under the siege of the Lanfang cruiser gunboat. The pirates gave up resistance.
Subsequently, the naval warship moved further forward and fired explosive bombs towards the shore, further destroying the shore defense positions of the Sulu Royal Army and completely destroying a few artillery pieces and defenses.
Immediately afterwards, the Lanfang Army successfully landed, and then quickly moved forward to establish a forward position, defeating the remaining few remaining troops from the Kingdom of Sulu who tried to drive the Lanfang Army into the sea.
They really have a fighting will, and some of them can survive the fierce bombardment of Lanfang artillery. These people can also charge against the Lanfang army.
This was beyond Zhao Xuening's expectation.
However, the ending will not change.
The weapons used by their infantry are similar to those of pirates. There are some methods for using cold weapons, but the use of hot weapons is stuck in the 16th century.
If it comes to close combat, they are indeed a good hand, but before close combat, they need to survive Lanfang's eighteenth-century rifle fire network.
Behind the firepower network, there are also the soldiers' sharp bayonets.
"Raise the gun!"
"put!"
"Raise the gun!"
"put!"
"Free Fire!"
After two rounds of volleys, the Lanfang Army began to fire freely. The Sulu man who ran the farthest was beaten into a sieve more than ten meters away from a Lanfang soldier and fell to the ground dead. At this point, Sulu The total end of human coastal resistance.
