The gong is loud and the horses' hooves are beating. As the solemn and evasive sounds of Teochew Chinese and Japanese Chinese alternately sounded, the chariots and horses of the imperial envoys of the Ming Dynasty passed through the city of Batu Sawal, the capital of the Johor Sultanate. Wearing collarless tops, trousers, short sarongs around their waists, and skullcaps, the people of Johor crowded on both sides of the narrow streets. When they saw their sultan and the imperial envoy coming from the kingdom, they all knelt down. , while raising his head and looking curiously.
This is indeed strange! The first Sultan of Johor, Muhammad Shah (the founder of the Sultanate of Johor was his son), asked for reinforcements from the suzerain country, the Ming Dynasty, more than 170 years ago. Why were the reinforcements from the Ming Dynasty so late? Although the Ming Dynasty is quite far from Malacca, it only takes a few months or at most a few years to arrive. How could it be possible to leave for more than a hundred years? This is many generations... Are these reinforcements still married and having children on the road?
However, these tomorrow's soldiers who have been "walking for more than a hundred years" still look very energetic, whether they are "adults" or "bearded babies" (small stature, they look like babies from a distance, but when you get closer, you find that they have grown beards. ) All of them formed a strict formation with their chests raised and their bellies raised. They all wore shining breastplates and shining silver helmets, and carried flintlock guns with bayonets. The bayonets of the flintlock guns glowed with a cold light, which made people shudder just to see them!
The Western soldiers in Malacca and Batavia were nothing more than that!
Su Zhan Dao and Ma Mo I, also known as Mahmud Shah, were half a horse apart. Surrounded by a large group of Johor soldiers and Ming Dynasty naval infantry, they walked majestically through the city of Johor, the most beautiful city in the country. Pass.
The Kingdom of Malacca and Johor are actually similar to the Northern Song Dynasty and Southern Song Dynasty in China. They are two eras of one dynasty. The Kingdom of Malacca is in "full form", while the Kingdom of Johor has lost half of its country in the west, and the old port of Longxing on the other side of the Strait of Malacca is also out of control. Although more than half of the land was lost, the land left in the hands of Johor was actually the essence. It was roughly the later Singapore, plus the Johor state of Malaysia and the Riau Islands of Indonesia. Basically, the southeast exit of the Strait of Malacca is blocked tightly.
If the Sultan of Johor could still engage in toll collection in the Strait of Malacca like his ancestors, then he would have won, and he would have won big!
It is a pity that after the arrival of the Europeans, the country of Johor can only guard the golden waterway of the Strait of Malacca to beg for food...and not even a few cents! Because Johor has not been the country that actually controls the Strait for a long time. Before the arrival of Ming Dynasty's "100-year reinforcements", it was the Dutch East India Company that actually controlled the Strait. The East India Company occupied the city of Malacca in the west of Johor, and had a large stronghold of Batavia in the east of Johor. It also stationed troops on Bintan Island, which is owned by Johor.
In addition, the Dutch also control the Banten Sultanate, which spans the island of Java and Sumatra, and the Perak Sultanate, which also comes from Malacca... If Johor is disobedient, they can support the Perak Sultanate at any time. The country and the Banten Sultanate give Johor a little color! Wasn't the Sultanate of Aceh, which had risen earlier when Malacca was falling apart, defeated by the Netherlands? Now only the westernmost tip of Sumatra is left.
For more than a hundred years, the Dutch East India Company relied on this method of winning over one faction and controlling the sea with powerful ships and cannons to subdue the feudal states around the Strait of Malacca!
Can the Ming Dynasty's "hundred-year reinforcements" that suddenly appeared now take care of those Westerners with strong ships and powerful guns?
If they have this ability, after taking care of the Westerners...will there still be a Kingdom of Johor or Malacca? Such a good "sea toll station", the Ming Emperor himself didn't want it, why not send his son to do this business?
If the Ming Dynasty did not have this ability, after the Westerners drove away the Ming Dynasty, would they settle accounts with the Kingdom of Johor? Even if there is still the Kingdom of Johor by then, I am afraid that there will be no such thing as the Sultan of Ma Mo I.
When I think of the battle between the Ming Dynasty and the Westerners for the Strait of Malacca, the result will be either a change of country or a change of Sudan... Ma Mo's heart almost broke!
Su Zhandao happily looked at the city in front of him - most of them were bamboo and wood huts, with only a few decent houses dotted among them. The streets are narrow but crowded. The whole city looked poor. Even the Sultan's Palace in the distance looks like a small family.
How can such a dilapidated and small capital city compare to Malacca, which was run by the Portuguese and Dutch for more than a hundred years? Presumably the Sultan of Johor is willing to exchange Johor, Bintan Island and a series of islands at the southeastern exit of the Malacca Strait in exchange for the land in and around Malacca City?
It turned out that according to the instructions of the Grand Duke and the Emperor, the southeast exit of the Strait of Malacca, including Johor, Bintan Island, Batan Island, Kiribun Island, etc., was regarded as the reward of the Ming Dynasty for helping the Malacca Sultanate restore its ancestral heritage. In the future, the Ming Dynasty will set up a Straits Prefecture here as the capital of Nanyang Province, and Bintan Island, which blocks the outlet of the Strait of Malacca, will be the capital of the Straits Prefecture. Compared with Singapore Island, Bintan Island is not only two times larger in area. More than twice that, and the island also has a large flat terrain with rich vegetation and abundant water resources. In fact, before the British chose Singapore, Bintan Island and nearby Batang Island had always been a bustling transit point for maritime trade.
At this time, Su Zhan Dao, accompanied by Ma Mo I, had arrived outside the palace of the Sultan of Johor. Looking at the small and dilapidated palace in front of him, Su Zhan Dao smiled and said to Ma Mo I: "King Sultan , The Holy One knows that your family has endured hardships in Johor these years. He told you not to worry, the Heavenly Kingdom will definitely make the decision for you, and sooner or later you will be allowed to move back to Malacca City to live in the Dutch palace!"
His words were translated into Malay by a Chinese businessman who acted as a translator. After hearing this, Mahmoud I’s heartbeat accelerated with excitement... The city of Malacca is surrounded by fertile plains, and the terrain of Johor is characterized by Mainly mountainous islands, although they guard the exit of the strait, but the business of toll collection is zero!
Moreover, he can go to Malacca City and live in the royal palace, which means that his Sultan is still there!
This is truly a majestic favor from the Emperor!
Thinking of this, he quickly got off his horse, bowed to Su Zhandao, and said to Su Zhandao with gratitude: "The great emperor Tianen, the ministers, officials and people of the country will never forget it!"
Although Su Zhandao couldn't understand what he was saying, he could guess a little bit... The Sultan must have been very happy. He doesn’t know that today’s Ming Dynasty no longer provides free royal favors. Ming Dynasty will charge a fee to help you restore the city of Malacca, and it is very expensive!
Of course, you can't show him the bill just yet... so as not to scare him.
...
The Dutch East Indiaman, Batavia, and Ceylon, the English Britannia, the British India, and the Madras, the French Pondicherry, the French India, and the Swedish Baltic , the Portuguese Goa and ten other warships with a displacement of more than 1,300 tons were forming a single column, slowly heading south along the coastline of the Malay Peninsula, taking advantage of the weak northwest wind. Each large ship was guarded by a galley with a displacement of 200 to 300 tons at the front, rear, left and right sides.
This tactic of having a large ship in the middle and speedboats escorting it from the front, rear, left, and right is the most standard tactic used by the navies of Western countries in the "low sugar" era. Because these Western countries do not have enough sugar supply... Even if Ming Dynasty is willing to sell it, they cannot buy it! Otherwise, the arms industry would be choked by the Ming Dynasty. If the Ming Dynasty doesn’t like anyone and imposes an embargo, how can this imperialism still act?
Therefore, the thinking of the navies of Western countries after entering the "low sugar" era is still to "prevent sugar" and enhance the power of black powder weapons. Their method of "anti-sugar" is to use speedboats to protect large warships to prevent the warships from being destroyed by enemy rocket boats that sneak up on them.
The main idea for Western countries to strengthen black powder weapons is to develop powerful explosive bombs! The common method is to mix sugar, saltpeter, carbon powder, and sulfur powder together to make an explosive bomb between sugar powder bombs and black powder bombs. As for the ratio between sugar, saltpeter, carbon powder, and sulfur powder, each has its own formula.
In addition, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire began to use brown sugar gunpowder in large quantities after the Battle of Vienna because they had a stable supply of brown sugar.
In addition, due to the lack of high-quality sugar powder that can be shaped as rocket propellant, the rockets of Western countries are not very good, so most of their explosive bombs are fired from artillery.
The East India, Batavia, Ceylon, Britannia, British India, Madras, Pondicherry, French India, Baltic and Goa were originally A third-class battleship with two gun decks and more than 60 cannons.
In the 1780s, first- and second-level battleships with three-layer gun decks and ninety to one hundred or more cannons were the treasures of the country and would not easily go to the battlefield. Therefore, in Europe, the third-class battleship is almost the main force in naval battles. If it hadn't been for the sudden advent of the "Sugar Age" that made these battleships that dominate the sea with their strong guns and powerful guns become outdated and obsolete overnight, there would be no way to see ten three-level battleships forming the same ship in the Strait of Malacca. Formation sailing... But now Europe is also beginning to see so-called "bombardment gunships" developed in the "Sugar Age", which are new battleships equipped with a small number of large-caliber heavy guns. Therefore, the old-fashioned third-level battleships became obsolete products. After undergoing certain "sugar-like" modifications, they were sent to the East or the New World to perform missions. That's why there is this joint fleet of Britain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland and other five countries composed of ten three-level battleships and forty speedboats!
Such a huge fleet can be called "invincible" even if it is placed on the sea near Europe, let alone in Southeast Asia... So much so that the sailors on these battleships and speedboats are a little drifting. On the deck of every battleship or speedboat, there are many sailors in groups of three or five, lying on the railings on the side, blowing the gentle sea breeze, looking at the scenery on the sea, their expressions are extremely relaxed. It seems that they are not here to fight at sea, but to travel.
However, Campos and John Churchill, who were standing on the bridge of the Britannia, the flagship of the four-nation combined fleet, had a vague look of worry on their faces.
The operation they launched is not actually a war with the Ming Dynasty Navy, but to put on a posture of not willing to fight at all costs and break the "Celestial Sanctions Order" issued by the Ming Dynasty against the Dutch East India Company - If Bintan Island The Ming Navy fleet over there did not dare to attack the four-nation joint fleet with fifty ships, but chose to let it go. Then the sanctions prohibiting ships of the Dutch East India Company from passing through the Strait of Malacca were also broken... .The so-called Celestial Sanction Order has also been poked with a hole!
But the question is...will the Ming Navy really open fire? Their scale is not small, they also have nearly 60 ships. If they really want to fight, it is hard to say who will lose and who will win!
Thinking of this, Campos sighed deeply. He was obviously a businessman, so why would he be doing the job of the commander of the Dutch Navy now? If we lose the battle...then the Dutch East India Company will really lose and go bankrupt!
John Churchill had very good ears, and he immediately heard the Dutchman sighing, and there was a burst of contempt in his heart... Wasn't it just a bankruptcy? What's the big deal? For the collective benefit of the Western world, it is natural for the Dutch East India Company to make some sacrifices!
In fact, the Dutch East India Company bears a great deal of responsibility for the Ming Empire, a public enemy of the civilized world, to have developed to its current level! Without them selling silk, porcelain, sugar, perfume, sugarcane wine, ironware (including weapons), cotton and other commodities produced in the Ming Dynasty to the West year after year, the Ming Empire would never have been able to obtain sufficient military expenditures!
The Dutch East India Company needs to atone for its sins!
Just as he was about to give the Dutchman some serious talk, the alarm bell on the battleship Britannia was suddenly rang hard!
"Dangdangdangdang..."
Then a lookout soldier shouted loudly: "Discovered the Ming fleet... north of Badan Island, numbering more than 20 ships, 35,000 yards away!"
Campos immediately became nervous, "What, what should I do?"
John Churchill immediately made a suggestion: "How about rushing over? We have the wind!"
"No, no... the wind is too light, we can't increase the speed at all, and we don't dare to fire first!" Although Campos is a profiteer, he is a big profiteer in the Netherlands these days. All the profiteers know naval warfare, so he It was immediately pointed out that Churchill, a major general in the army, was not feasible.
"What should we do?" Churchill asked.
"We first anchored at Damasi Island, and then sent representatives to negotiate with the Ming Dynasty fleet...tell them that our combined fleet of eight Western countries is performing missions in the Strait of Malacca, and we have freedom of navigation here, so Don’t stop them!”
"Eight-nation combined fleet?" Churchill was stunned, "There are only five nations!"
Campos said seriously: "The Eight-Nation Fleet has five more countries than the Five-Nation Fleet...it must have a stronger deterrent effect!"
