Regarding this weakness, neither Sun Xuebin nor Wang Haitao and other senior military officials can solve it in a short time.
After all, this requires a lot of time to train, and it doesn't mean that you can just hold a gun and mount a bayonet and make a few gestures.
But those captured Eight Banners soldiers are different. They will be given a wooden sword as soon as they can walk. They have been practicing this since they were young. Instead of giving them a rifle, it is better to give them a chopper. A saber or a plain knife is more suitable.
After a month of preparation, the Xinghai Kingdom's southward fleet left the Strait of Malacca for the first time, advanced to the vicinity of Suilan Island, and forced the Helan people's most important stronghold in Tianzhu Ocean.
In order to resist the aggressive Xinghai people, Heland East Tianzhu Company mobilized most of the warships from the ports from Haomongjiao to Tianzhu to form a new fleet.
The total number of warships exceeds 100.
Well, in fact, some ports did not obey the orders of the Heland East Tianzhu Company and rejected the order in a counter-intuitive manner.
However, this is also a helpless matter, because most of these ports are located along the Tianzhu coast. The British are currently contacting the local kings to prepare to attack these ports, making it impossible for these ports to send troops to support Suilan Island.
But having said that, the fleet gathered by the Helan people this time was not only far worse in quantity than last time, but also much worse in quality.
This is not surprising. The previous victory at Yuxian Port caused heavy losses to the Helan people, and those losses could not be recovered in a short time.
It is precisely because of this that after a slight contact, being shelled by a fleet heading south, and sinking more than ten warships, the Helan fleet immediately turned around and fled.
Since it was getting late, and the fleet going south needed to protect the troop transports and transport ships, no pursuit was launched.
But that doesn't matter. The purpose of the fleet coming south is not to destroy those Helan warships.
As the entire fourth division came ashore and prepared to move towards the Colombo Castle on Suilan Island, the Helan people on Suilan Island began to tremble.
I can't help but tremble.
Colombo Castle is the most important stronghold of the Helan people on Suilan Island, bar none!
And this castle is also the last key stronghold of the Helan people in the Far East route. It can be said that if the Colombo Castle is destroyed, then the Helan people will lose the Far East route.
After all, sailing from the farther Tianzhu area to the Far East will eventually need to sail to Damuan Island to get supplies. No matter how good a merchant ship is, it cannot do such a long route.
As for going to the port of Putaoyaren for supplies?
Then don't think about it. The Helan people have tried to seize the grape crusher at the port in the Far East several times. The two sides fought fiercely. With such hatred and the competition for interests between countries, the grape crusher is simply impossible. Providing supplies to the Helan Merchant Ship and not detaining the Merchant Ship would be considered as giving face.
In fact, when the Fourth Division arrived at the outskirts of Colombo Castle, the Helan trench tactics did not have much effect.
Thinking about it, this trench tactic was originally developed by the Xinghai people. Isn't there a way to crack it?
In fact, the Fourth Division did not pay attention to those trenches at all, but directly provided fire coverage by the southward fleet on the sea. After a day of continuous bombardment, Colombo Castle declared its surrender.
No way, although Colombo Castle is also very thick, it has a fatal weakness, that is, the local indigenous kingdom is extremely dissatisfied with the Helan people.
The Helan people have defeated the local indigenous kingdoms many times, and of course they have been defeated by the indigenous kingdoms to the point of annihilation many times.
After the arrival of the fourth division, the indigenous kingdom came to ask for alliance.
Through the indigenous kingdom, the indigenous people in the castle were instigated to rebel, and then the fleet going south continued to bombard them with artillery fire. Finally, the death battalion composed of Eight Banners soldiers took the lead in the charge, and soon broke through the castle under the cooperation of internal and external forces.
Once the Eight Banners soldiers entered the street fighting, the Helan people would not be able to block the attack of such cold weapons.
Although the Helan people once brought their artillery to the street to bombard the Eight Banners soldiers, as the infantry of the Fourth Division entered the battle, the Helan people were completely helpless.
Because the Xinghai people's projectiles are too buggy in such street fighting!
The projectile canister with a high projectile angle can blow up the artillery next door directly through a house without a field of vision.
As a result, the Helan people could no longer persist in street fighting, and finally retreated to the city lord's palace, and sent peace envoys to the Xinghai people.
Needless to mention the specific negotiations and other reasons during the period, in the end the Helan people on Suilan Island decided to surrender to the Xinghai people.
As a preferential treatment to reduce battle losses, the Xinghai elders unanimously decided to allow them to leave and take away their personal property.
Of course, this private property can only be taken up to a limit, and not all property is allowed to be taken away.
But even so, those Helan people were extremely lucky to pack up their belongings and board several merchant ships in the port under the supervision of Xinghai soldiers.
Allowing them to leave on three merchant ships was considered a mercy, so the remaining merchant ships would be the spoils of the southbound fleet.
The Helan people left in despair, and the Xinghai people began to transform Suilan Island and signed an alliance and mutual assistance agreement with the local indigenous kingdom.
In fact, the local indigenous kingdom did not want the Xinghai people to stay at first, but the problem was that after seeing the Xinghai people's cannons and battleships, the previous main war faction fell silent one by one.
Who can withstand that kind of weapon that looks like the wrath of the gods!
With one bombardment, an entire tribe would be destroyed!
Under such circumstances, no matter how hard you try, you will have to turn into a softie.
Of course, this indigenous kingdom is also very satisfied. The Xinghai people transported various commodities and dumped them locally in large quantities, and soon captured the senior indigenous people.
Exquisite silver mirrors, delicious desserts, various exquisite trinkets, etc. have all become popular local products.
However, as the Far East route was cut off, life for the Helan people was not easy.
Especially the Helan people who are far away in Dayu Island, this period of time can be said to be a bit miserable.
The Zheng family army didn't know what evil was happening. After capturing the southern part of Hu Jian, they immediately turned around and rushed towards Da Yuan Island. They stationed troops under the two castles of the Helan people and attacked day and night without stopping.
If it were the former Zheng Jiajun, the Helan people would not be afraid at all.
Those pirates with cold weapons are nothing, aren't my big Helan's artillery and muskets sharp?
But the problem is that now Zheng Jiajun has changed his weapon from a shotgun to a cannon!
After receiving loan funding from Xinghai Kingdom, Zheng Jiajun trained a firearms force of 3,000 people.
