In the autumn of Chengshun's fifteenth year, the domestic industry and even the military cheered for Daye's breakthrough in mixing technology and the substantial increase in wrought iron production, and began to upgrade the industry.
In the distant Southeast Asian region, the Malay Peninsula, the army and navy officers were still fighting for the empire's Southeast Asia strategy.
After the fall of the Kingdom of Johor, the military of the Chu Empire did not stop its actions. The navy relied on Lion City Island and Kedah Port to continue to block the Strait of Malacca and refused to allow any ships to enter the Strait of Malacca.
Naturally, this also included Portuguese ships.
In September, two Portuguese merchant ships from Ceylon tried to enter the Strait of Malacca. They were discovered by military patrol ships, and warships were dispatched to intercept them.
However, after discovering that something was wrong, the two Portuguese armed merchant ships turned around and entered the depths of the Indian Ocean again. Otherwise, they were very likely to be sunk or seized by the Dachu Empire Navy.
The Chu army did not want Portuguese ships to run into the city of Malacca at this time to bring any supplies to the local Portuguese.
At this time, the Chu army had implemented a comprehensive siege of the city of Malacca on the ground and sea, and was waiting for the arrival of heavy artillery and corresponding troops to launch an siege.
It just rained on the way, which made the already poor road even more difficult to walk, and the Chu army's heavy siege artillery was heavy and weighed several tons.
Therefore, the general attack on Malacca City was repeatedly postponed, and it was not until October that the heavy artillery troops to attack the city were ready.
However, the heavy artillery troops arrived late, allowing the Fifth Division to gather more troops to go to Malacca City to reinforce the Bai Zhen Brigade.
In mid-October, after a long preparation time, the Chu army finally completed its preparations.
At this time, the Chu army had gathered eight 200mm ultra-short-barreled howitzers, also known as mortars, outside Malacca.
In addition, there are twelve 170mm howitzers.
In addition to the heavy howitzers, there are also six 150-mm cannons and nine 130-mm cannons that were moved from battleships for siege purposes.
The above four types of artillery, a total of thirty-five artillery pieces, were specially prepared by the Chu army for the city of Malacca. They were all real siege weapons.
Especially the eight 200mm mortars, which are real killer weapons. The huge caliber brings larger shells and a larger charge. Once they explode, the power is incredible.
Although the twelve 170mm howitzers have a smaller caliber, because the barrel is slightly longer, the range is longer and the accuracy is higher, and they can accurately hit enemy targets at long distances.
When these twenty large-caliber howitzers are fired, the huge explosion power is enough to destroy any unprotected target, and the damage area is huge.
In addition, there are fifteen cannons moved from the battleship. These are serious naval guns. Each of them is a long-barreled cannon with a diameter of more than 20 times. When firing solid shells, it is extremely powerful. The power of shelling fixed fortifications and city walls is absolutely powerful enough.
It is said that in order to move these fifteen extremely heavy beasts from the battleship, the Chu army not only built a temporary dock, but also specially prepared a ship for modification, added large hoisting equipment, and directly moved several ships. The ton-heavy naval gun was hoisted ashore.
After being hoisted ashore, a batch of large gun mounts and a large number of mules and horses were temporarily prepared.
Otherwise, just having a gun barrel won't work.
All in all, it was very troublesome, not only for the navy, but also for the cooperating army, but no matter how troublesome it was, we had to endure it because of the powerful power of these large-caliber cannons.
In addition to the above-mentioned thirty-five heavy siege guns, there are also a large number of conventional field artillery of the Army, including eight 150mm light howitzers and twelve 115mm light howitzers.
Then there are twelve 115mm light field guns and several 90mm light field guns.
However, these 115mm and 90mm light field guns are of little use in this kind of offensive battle. The power of ordinary field guns is not very good in tough battles, let alone these light field guns. In order to adapt to mountainous areas, The terrain on complex roads is made lighter and thinner, and the barrel is shorter.
When firing solid artillery shells, it is naturally enough to deal with live forces in the field, but it is very difficult to use against solid city walls and fixed fortifications.
These light field artillery were not originally designed to attack fortresses, but were created to serve as support firepower for division-level troops in complex terrains and road environments such as mountains and jungles.
There are also a batch of 65mm light field artillery, not to mention these crappy things. Even during the domestic unification war, this kind of artillery would not be used.
The above-mentioned many artillery pieces add up to more than 80 artillery pieces, and half of them are medium and large caliber artillery pieces.
Just to deal with the mere city of Malacca!
From this perspective, the Chu Army has given the Portuguese enough face. You must know that when fighting in the Nanyang region, the Chu Army had never used so many artillery in Lidong in a certain battle, let alone such a More siege artillery.
However, the Chu army did not simply attach importance to the Portuguese. The reason why they delayed and delayed and had to gather so many artillery was purely to reduce their own casualties.
Neither Brigadier General Bai Zhen nor other army generals wanted to see heavy casualties just to attack the city of Malacca.
The army comes to fight in Nanyang to gain benefits, not to transport people. If the casualties are too great, then the gains outweigh the losses.
Naturally, the Army would not engage in such a loss-making business.
In addition, the Portuguese had no way to get reinforcements anyway and could only stick to the city of Malacca. Sooner or later, this would be meat in the army's bowl.
As for naval blockades and the like, naturally the sea turtles in the navy have to worry about it, but the army doesn't care.
After everything was prepared, on October 13, the 15th year of Chengshun, Army Major General Lu Xiuwen, the commander of the Fifth Division who was on the front line, sent an ultimatum to the Portuguese in the city.
Ask them to immediately withdraw from the city of Malacca, completely evacuate from the territory of the Chu Empire, and hand over the city of Malacca to the Chu Empire intact, otherwise my heroic army of the Chu Empire will launch a full-scale attack and the city will be broken. No dog left!
Although the Portuguese were also very scared, they finally rejected the Chu army's ultimatum.
They still have some confidence in the city of Malacca, and they also have some confidence in themselves.
Even if the city of Malacca will eventually fall in the future, it will be a few months or even a year later. They are not willing to surrender and leave without fighting now.
After all, Malacca City is already the last stronghold of the Portuguese in Nanyang.
The previous Macau had been forcefully taken back by the Chu Empire, and some strongholds on the Nanyang Islands were also occupied by the Dutch. Now they only have the city of Malacca left in Nanyang.
If they cannot hold on here, it can be announced that they will completely withdraw from the trade in the Nanyang Sea in the future, let alone get involved in the extremely profitable spice trade.
Therefore, the Portuguese are not willing to withdraw from the Nanyang region easily!
This means that the Chu Empire and Portugal must have a war!
Although the final demands of the two sides were completely different, Portugal tried to maintain maritime trade in the Southeast Asia region and continued to get involved in the spice trade.
As for the Chu Empire, it was purely to fully control the entire Malay Peninsula, and to control the Malay Peninsula was to control the Strait of Malacca, so that this vital strait would be under the full control of the empire, and then ensure that the Chu Empire Ships can enter and exit the Indian Ocean smoothly and reassuringly, instead of relying on the faces of the Kingdom of Johor, the Dutch, the Portuguese, the Acehnese, and many other Southeast Asian natives or Western barbarians as before.
One sentence can be used to describe the Chu Empire's motivation for launching the Malay Peninsula War: How can we allow others to sleep soundly where they are lying?
What the Chu Empire wanted was to control the Strait of Malacca itself!
And it does not mean that after taking control of the Malacca Strait, it will refuse ships from other countries to pass. On the contrary, the Chu Empire still welcomes merchant ships from all countries to trade with the Chu Empire through the Malacca Strait.
The Da Chu Empire just wanted to control the safety of the routes in its own hands and then sell more industrial products, not to monopolize the interests of a certain route.
In this regard, the Chu Empire and Western colonial countries were different.
Well, there is an exception on the Fuso route. The main reason is that the Chu Empire directly regards Fuso as a dumping ground for its industrial products. In addition, Fuso itself is unwilling to deal with Western colonial countries and will not let the Dutch pass by.
That's why the Chu Empire finally had a monopoly on trade with Fusang.
This is also a very interesting point. The Chu Empire directly blocked the Fusang trade and did not allow ships from Western colonial countries to go to Fusang. However, its own trading ports such as Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Songjiang blocked ships from almost all countries. open.
Whether it is the Dutch or the Portuguese, even if the merchant ships of the Kingdom of Aceh go to Guangzhou, they can still trade normally... You know, the Dachu Empire and the Kingdom of Aceh are still at war, and the Portuguese are still at war. There is no actual fighting, but it can be considered that it is about to enter a state of war.
And the Dutch are pretty much the same.
This situation may seem strange, but it was not surprising in the Age of Discovery.
A war is a war, and a business is a business!
As long as they are willing to purchase goods from the Dachu Empire, the Dachu Empire will not only not embarrass them, but will also send naval warships to escort them to ensure that they will not be attacked by pirates.
Of course, this is just the attitude of the Chu Empire itself. What the Dutch and Portuguese people think and whether they are willing to come is another matter.
After all, the Dutch or Portuguese merchant ships in this area are all ships of the Dutch East India Company or the Portuguese East India Company. It is probably difficult for them to accept doing business while fighting the Chu Empire...
At least, the current Portuguese hate the Chu Empire with all their teeth. Macau was taken back by the Chu Empire before, and now they are coming to take back Malacca. However, the Portuguese East India Company is unable to do anything and can only sit back and watch the situation continue. Destruction, this oppressive feeling is very uncomfortable.
But what was even more uncomfortable was that on October 15, the 15th year of Chengshun, when the Portuguese clearly rejected the ultimatum to withdraw from Malacca City, Major General Lu Xiuwen, commander of the Fifth Infantry Division, finally issued the order for a general offensive.
That day, dozens of artillery pieces from the Chu army bombarded the city of Malacca one after another!
Before the bombardment started, the Portuguese were quite optimistic, thinking that no matter what, they could hold the city of Malacca for three to five months, or even more than a year.
However, when the shelling really started, the Portuguese were all dumbfounded!
The Chu army's bombardment was different from what they expected!
Originally, they thought that the Chu army's artillery bombardment should have been to fire solid shells and then bombard the city walls stupidly.
Malacca City is a city built according to the standards of a fortress. Although the damage caused by solid artillery shells to such a fortress is limited, it requires long-term shelling to destroy these defenses.
However, the Chu army's bombardment was different from what they expected from the beginning.
On the first day of the Chu army's shelling, more than 80% of the shells fired were various grenades. Only a few cannons fired solid shells to focus on a section of the city wall.
A huge number of grenades continued to fall into various parts of the city like raindrops, setting off violent explosions.
In the explosion, countless Portuguese in the city and indigenous personnel recruited by the Portuguese suffered heavy casualties.
Especially the soldiers who deployed defenses at the top of the city. These Portuguese people had never seen the Chu army use large-scale howitzers to attack, and they did not realize that it was very dangerous for these stupid people to stay in places such as city walls without complete artillery defenses. things.
On the first day of the bombardment, the Portuguese initially held on to the city, but soon had to avoid the bombardment due to heavy casualties.
On this day, at least more than 500 Portuguese and indigenous people were killed or injured in the city, and more than 300 people died directly.
This number of casualties is nothing for a large-scale field battle, but for a fortified battle, especially when it happens to the defenders, it is amazing enough.
When the Kingdom of Aceh first crossed the sea and besieged the city of Malacca 80 or 90 years ago, there were more than 15,000 people from the Kingdom of Aceh, carrying more than 200 ordinary artillery pieces, while there were only two Portuguese defenders. One hundred soldiers and thirteen hundred indigenous mercenaries.
As a result, the Kingdom of Aceh was unable to defeat, and even the king's eldest son died in the battle.
It can be seen that the Western colonial armies are actually very good at defending cities these days. They often have complete fortress defenses that can withstand primitive artillery and muskets. They also have a large number of guns and cannons, and they also reserve a large amount of supplies.
But all of this was useless in front of the Chu Empire Army.
The Western colonial armies had weapons and tactical advantages over the natives, but in front of the Chu army, they became complete laggards.
In terms of artillery alone, they couldn't even catch up with the Chu army.
Not to mention the superior performance of grenades, the huge gap in the number of artillery is enough to make them despair.
Therefore, the first day of defense of the city by the Portuguese in Malacca was tragic!
In the following days, the Portuguese people in the city learned the lesson and began to hide one by one, and no longer appeared randomly in areas without any protective measures.
They even used the night to secretly build grenade-proof fortifications in places such as the city walls.
But all this is in vain!
The reason why the Chu army's siege was so powerful was not that they could rely on artillery to blow the entire city into ruins. The artillery these days was not so powerful...
The strength of the Chu army lies in the fact that the powerful artillery bombardment can suppress the enemy's defenders and prevent them from taking the lead, thus gaining space and time for the infantry's attack.
In addition, the Chu army often used real and fake methods, such as stopping the bombardment after the bombardment, and the infantry started to attack, attracting the defenders to go to the top of the city to prepare for defensive operations. At this time, they suddenly fired grenades rapidly, killing a large number of defenders. The enemy forces in the city have vocal strength.
Or it may be to carry out intensive artillery bombardment against the enemy's forts, destroy the enemy's forts, kill their artillery, suppress or even destroy the enemy's artillery counterattack force.
Relying on powerful artillery power, the Chu army can have more choices in siege and can greatly control casualties.
Secondly, large-scale and intensive shelling is also a strong blow to the enemy's morale. Very few troops can remain calm amid such violent grenade explosions.
Among them, naturally the Portuguese are not included!
In fact, on the first day of the Chu army's shelling, the Portuguese were frightened by the huge casualties they suffered at the beginning. Otherwise, they would not have withdrawn from the city early, and they would not even dare to go up to the open-air fort...
During the continuous bombardment on the second and third days, the Portuguese's casualties were still quite high... They actually evaded, but without mature and complete anti-howitzer fortifications, their evasive effect was not great!
The Portuguese's fortifications were similar to those of other countries these days except for the Chu Empire. They were mainly designed to prevent attacks by solid artillery shells. As for grenades?
Except for the Chu Empire, few people play with grenades on such a large scale. Even the previous fuse explosive bombs. Except for the Chu army who are crazy and dare to take huge risks and use a large amount of ammunition funds on a large scale, other countries still use them. rare.
Therefore, the defenses these days basically lack defenses against grenades.
They are all focused on defending against solid artillery shells, such as the famous bastion defense system, which is used to defend against solid artillery shells.
The Portuguese, who lacked perfect artillery defenses, suffered heavy losses in the three-day shelling by the Chu army. Even before the Chu army's infantry launched a real attack, their casualties exceeded a thousand.
On October 18, after three days of artillery preparations, the Fifth Division finally organized a real infantry attack.
The 18th Infantry Regiment was the main force, and the grenadiers drawn from each battalion in the 18th Infantry Regiment took the lead as a commando to kill.
There are no surprises in this battle!
As grenadiers wearing light full-body plate armor, holding steel knives or various other weapons in one hand, but almost everyone with one or two primitive grenades hanging on their waists, rushed forward, the city of Malacca also declared its fall!
In fact, the infantry on both sides did not engage in large-scale close combat at all.
The Portuguese suffered heavy casualties from three days of shelling and were under tremendous psychological pressure. After seeing the Chu army launch a general attack with thousands of men, and seeing the Chu army's grenadiers rushing forward with great bravery, At one point they tried to resist.
But as soon as they reached the top of the city to resist, the Chu army's artillery unit, which had been prepared for a long time, launched a rapid-fire artillery bombardment on the top of the city, especially a large number of 115mm light howitzers and 150mm light howitzers.
Although these light howitzers have average shell power, they are very convenient to install, adjust and aim, and are very light and can be deployed close to each other.
You must know that the 115mm light howitzer in the Chu army, like the 65mm field gun, is a regimental support weapon.
Its weight is even lighter than the 65mm field gun... and this kind of artillery can be disassembled and shipped. It is a veritable infantry support artillery.
This is also the reason why the 115mm light howitzer can completely replace various early small and medium-caliber mortars and short-barreled shotguns and become one of the two major supporting firepowers of the regiment-level troops of the Dachu Empire.
After the Chu army carried out a rapid assault, the Portuguese and a large number of hired indigenous soldiers who had just arrived at the top of the city to prepare for defensive operations immediately cried for their fathers and mothers.
After the grenadiers rushed up, the resistance of these people was minimal. Facing the fierce attack of the Chu army, they either turned around and fled, hid, or simply surrendered on the spot.
There is no large-scale, organized resistance at all, at most there is some sporadic resistance.
However, there was a large-scale and organized surrender... In the afternoon of that day, as the Chu army advanced to all parts of the city and captured various important places, it became apparent that the situation was completely irreversible and escape was impossible.
The last one hundred or so Portuguese soldiers in the city finally formally announced their surrender under the leadership of their officers!
With their surrender, the city of Malacca officially returned to the great Chu Empire on October 18, the fifteenth year of Chengshun!
With the capture of Malacca City, it also meant that the Chu Empire fully and completely controlled the Malay Peninsula (the Phuket Mountains, south of the Kra Isthmus).
In addition to the Malay Peninsula, the Chu Empire also controlled the Liene Islands at the eastern end of the Malacca Strait and even part of the eastern part of Sumatra.
The Lee Nei Islands and the eastern area of Sumatra were previously the territory of the Kingdom of Johor or its vassal territory.
After the Kingdom of Johor was destroyed by the Chu Empire, the Chu Empire took over all the territory that originally belonged to the Kingdom of Johor and its vassal states, such as Jambi.
According to the argument of the Great Chu Empire in recent years: the territory of a vassal state is my territory, and the vassal state of a vassal state is also my vassal state. This range also includes a series of previous dynasties... Theoretically, it can be traced back indefinitely.
Therefore, after the demise of the Kingdom of Johor, not only the Kingdom of Johor itself, but also the territory of its vassal states naturally became the territory of the Chu Empire.
If we trace back to the previous dynasties, this scope can probably be expanded to the entire Nanyang region. The specific scope will depend on the specific needs of the Chu Empire in the future.
In short, it doesn’t matter whether we fight or not, just find out the reason first. When you want to fight in the future, you don’t have to bother to find excuses. You can just say to regain the territory.
After fully controlling the Malay Peninsula and the Li Nei Islands and part of the eastern part of Sumatra, it also meant that the Chu Empire completely controlled the eastern area of the Malacca Strait.
Under such circumstances, even though there is still the Kingdom of Aceh and a bunch of other small indigenous countries on the island of Sumatra, the Chu Empire can still fully guarantee the navigation safety of its own ships in the Strait of Malacca.
This is crucial to the Chu Empire's future overall strategy in Southeast Asia and even its future strategy on the Indian Peninsula.
For this reason, before the war was over, the Chu Empire had already begun construction in the Lion City (Singapore), preparing to build a large military base here.
Here, in the future, it will become the largest military base of the Chu Empire in the entire Nanyang region. It is not only used to ensure the security of the Malacca Strait, but also shoulders the important task of quickly dispatching troops to suppress the entire Nanyang region!
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