Thanks to the barrier of the Malacca Fortress, the Chinese army successfully repelled multiple attacks from different directions.
In order to capture Malacca, the Acehnese came out with all their strength, and with the help of the Johor and Pattani people, they besieged the city of Malacca for five months. For this reason, the Malay rebellion in Sumatra was quickly terminated, and the Palembang Sultanate Without the support of Aceh, it was defeated by the Chinese pioneering group and the Nanyang Fleet Marine Corps in March, and had to surrender to the Chinese army.
During this period, the residents of Malacca were trapped in the city. The biggest problem was the lack of food supplies. More than 40,000 civilians and more than 6,000 armed personnel had to eat wild cats and rats, and even had to dig wild vegetables beside the Sambaoshan Chinese Cemetery.
In fact, as the headquarters of the Nanyang March, as the tax collection center of Sumatra, the Malacca business district and various farms, and the Belitung tin mining area, Malacca originally had sufficient food reserves. The previous year, in order to meet the military food and relief needs of the Liaodong War, the Chinese The company's huge maritime transportation capacity transported all the food produced in the Nanyang region as far north as possible. As a result, after Malacca was besieged at the end of February of the second year of Tianqi, the lack of food in the city became a big problem. As for ammunition, there was no problem. There were already supplies here. The small arsenal left by the Portuguese was later expanded by the Chinese company. It can manufacture granular gunpowder and matchlocks, and repair flintlock muskets. The gunpowder raw materials were transported and stored from the Luzon Governor's Arsenal a few years ago. Within five months Most of them were used during the siege.
By the end of July, 4,000 people had died in Malacca due to hunger, disease and various battle injuries, of which only nearly a thousand were battle casualties.
Zhao Xuanming defended Penghu Island and Jakarta's experience has become a legend in the area controlled by the Chinese army. In the defense battle of Malacca, he once again perfectly organized a city defense battle. The Chinese army and the Chinese armed forces made full use of the advanced firearms in their hands and relied on the Malacca Castle. Good fortifications, at the minimum cost, can inflict maximum damage on the native soldiers who use a mixture of hot and cold weapons.
However, as the surrounding Chinese strongholds fell one after another, Zhao Xuanming had to send troops out to rescue the Chinese in various places and tried his best to rescue them back to the city. In this way, the Chinese army and the Chinese militia had to fight fiercely with the Malays on their way out of the city. In the fields and mangroves where the power of firearms was unleashed, Chinese soldiers with bayonets pointed out, and militiamen wielding machetes and spears engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Malays, resulting in heavy casualties. Most of the battle casualties of the Chinese armed forces during the siege of Malacca were This happened while fighting out of the city, and the number of Chinese people who were rescued back into the city one after another numbered five to six thousand. Most of them escaped death with nothing, which undoubtedly increased the food crisis in the city.
In May, the main force of the Javanese detachment of the Nanyang Fleet, which had received the request for help, was still clearing out the Javanese rebels in various places. Only a few schooner warships were sent back to Malacca, but in the face of hundreds of Malay sailing ships, they were unable to break the Malacca In the end, they could only work with the battleship "Eagle" to block the southeast exit of the strait on Temasek Island to prevent the Acehnese fleet from encircling the east of Malacca City from the sea. The Johor Army and the Malay Peninsula were besieging the city in the east of Malacca City. The other miscellaneous Malay rebels were completely scattered and were busy attacking Chinese farms like bandits. Their combat effectiveness was much worse than that of the Qi army. Therefore, the Malacca garrison only placed a few Chinese militiamen in this direction for armed defense.
After the troops of the Sixth Division in Borneo received Zhao Xuanming's letter asking for help, they gathered together the troops who were suppressing rebellions in various places, joined together to quell the local rebel Chinese pioneer groups, and assembled nearly 6,000 troops and 20 gates at the port of New Yazhou. Artillery, however, it was the windless season on the Borneo sea at this time, and the weather conditions prevented the troops from setting off in time for rescue. Only one clipper ship, the communication ship, sailed out of the New Yaju Port, carrying about a hundred elite soldiers. Malacca brought better than no help to the people defending the city.
However, they successfully brought three lightning strike honeycomb guns to the defenders of Malacca City---the manual 36-barrel rapid-fire guns that played a major role in the Liaodong battlefield, bringing sharp weapons to the city defense battle. At this time, rapid-fire bursts Guns have not yet been deployed in the Chinese army that participated in the Liaodong Campaign. The Malacca defenders originally only had a 100-barreled rainstorm gun at the main entrance of the castle, and the Sixth Division had just received these rapid-fire repeating guns from the Taiwan Arsenal.
In addition, the Nanyang Fleet detachment on Hainan Island owns a Fei Zi battleship carrying 70 cannons and more than a dozen other warships of various models. After receiving the request for help, they indeed stepped up the process of installing new cannons. In April They were ready to go south to support Malacca, but due to weather reasons: a typhoon that arrived early hit the entire Hainan Island, and all the fleet ships anchored in Qiongzhou Port were damaged.
After receiving the emergency letter, the Chinese Army Headquarters in Taiwan dispatched ships from the Second Fleet, the Taiwan Fleet, southward to support, regardless of the lack of troops on the island. As a result, they also encountered this typhoon halfway, and the admiral of the fleet, the Taiwan Fleet, was removed from the position of fleet commander. Deputy General Manager Mai Dahai finally had to bring his headquarters ships to Qiongzhou Port to receive emergency repairs together with the ships of the Nanyang Fleet.
At this time, Yin Feng was worried about the rebellion of the new army in the south of the Yangtze River. After learning about Mai Dahai's message from the carrier pigeon, he had to sigh deeply: In the era of sailing battleships, no matter which country's fleet was played by nature, it was helpless. His jurisdiction is really too big, spanning thousands of miles of sea territory from south to north. The fastest communication ship can make a trip from Liaodong to Java, which usually takes a month. The Taiwan fleet detachment assembled in Liaodong is now heading south. I just arrived in Ryukyu in April.
Now, we can only hope that the city of Malacca can hold on for a while longer. Yin Feng also issued an order to the Luzon garrison, asking the arms factory there to work overtime to prepare for the next major counterattack against Nanyang.
Time soon arrived in July. Zheng Zhilong returned from Ceylon and led the Nanyang Fleet's squadron in the Indian Ocean and the Hainan and Java squadrons to gather in the Strait of Malacca. The Taiwan Fleet's squadron and the support force of the Sixth Division also arrived at the mouth of the Temasek River.
On the battlefield of Malacca, the Acehnese suffered heavy casualties when they attacked the city. After April of the second year of the Apocalypse, they adopted a siege strategy. The Malay coalition was unable to conduct joint operations at all. They just surrounded each side and fought separately, fighting each other. Unable to cooperate in fighting, the Acehnese launched attacks on the west and south sides, but the Allied forces on both sides showed no cooperation in fighting.
The Sultan of Aceh, Alatan, personally visited the battlefield and summoned and invited the Sultan of Johor and the Queen of Pattani to come for discussions. As a result, only the leading military generals from each family came to the meeting. No one had the right to make a decision. The discussions with the allies were fruitless. Aceh The Sultan decided to go it alone. He divided his troops to burn and plunder the Chinese strongholds in various places. At the same time, on the advice of several European advisors, he dug a long wall on the land side of Malacca and set up bamboo watchtowers every hundred steps to garrison troops for defense. Light torches on the watchtower and stretch along Changhao for more than ten miles.
This work was sabotaged by constant attacks by the garrison in the city. As a result, the Acehnese were unable to bear the disturbance. The watchtower was often attacked and lit up like a big torch in the night. When the Acehnese completed the entire Changhao project, reinforcements from the Chinese Army also arrived.
almost there.
In July, Yin Feng formulated the "Local Council Law", "Business Law" and "Overseas Development Law" and sent communication ships to various places. At this time, the Chinese army began a counterattack in the areas surrounding Malacca City. During the same period
, the Chinese army and the Chinese pioneering group that basically quelled the island of Java landed on the east coast of Sumatra, and joined the Chinese armed forces in Palembang to attack the hinterland of the Kingdom of Aceh. In addition to the Sudanese guards, most of the Acehnese army also had multiple local feudal lords.
The troops formed by private soldiers were threatened by their home base, attacked from both sides, and had no hope of attacking the city. On the first day of the Chinese army's counterattack, tens of thousands of private soldiers of the small feudal lords of Aceh were the first to collapse. These are completely useless.
The Acehnese in the team seized ships and crossed the strait one after another, trying to escape back to Sumatra. The warships of the Nanyang Fleet blocked the strait with all their strength, with full firepower and no mercy under the gun muzzle. The southeastern section of the Malacca Strait was illuminated by fire all night long.
On the morning of the next day, the Taiwanese squadron appeared on the Johor coastline. In addition to bombarding the Johor port with artillery, Mai Dahai also sent 1,000 marines to dig straight into the home of the Sultan of Johor.
The morning after the Chinese began to counterattack, the main force of the Nanyang Fleet Marine Corps led by Zheng Zhilong, a battalion of the Malacca Garrison Regiment and part of the Chinese militia also landed on the west coast of Malacca City and directly attacked the Sultan of Aceh's camp, which is around Malacca City.
The only Acehnese army that still maintains basic discipline.
At the same time, the main force of the Sixth Division also landed on Sumatra Island and began to advance towards the far-reaching hinterland of Aceh, aiming at the capital Aceh. At the same time, the warships of the Nanyang Fleet basically controlled the southeastern section of the strait. A hundred thousand Malay coalition troops were under the city of Malacca.
On the third day of the Chinese counterattack, it basically collapsed completely.
Queen Pattani's army has been camping in the north of Malacca City. Although it has the most and best firearms among the Malay coalition, it is also the least active in fighting. They are actually facing the side of the Malacca Castle. The terrain is relatively dangerous and easy to defend.
It was difficult to attack the city. During the nearly five-month siege, the Pattani army only launched two sieges at the beginning. Each time, hundreds of people were killed and injured under intensive gunfire. The casualties of the Chinese army were negligible. At this moment, they were attacked.
The 1st Regiment of the 6th Division, the main force of the Malacca garrison focused on the attack.
The bell tower of St. Paul's Church is the highest point on St. Paul's Hill. Zheng Zhilong, who had just entered the city from the west gate, deputy guard Zhang Wei, Zhao Xuanming and others all crowded in the bell tower and looked north with telescopes.
The entire area around Malacca was filled with gunfire, shouts of death, and smoke. The densely packed Malay coalition forces had dispersed into countless small groups and fled in all directions.
The young Zheng Zhilong rose quickly, but after all, Colonel Zhao Xuanming was an old man from the early days of the Chinese Army and was well-known in the Chinese Army. Therefore, although Zheng Zhilong had the rank of lieutenant colonel, he was also the commander-in-chief of the Nanyang March in charge of all the troops in the Malacca area, but he was very important to the army.
Zhao Xuanming did not dare to assert his identity and maintained the respectful attitude of his disciple. Of course, what the popular man in front of the ship owner thought was another matter.
At this moment, Zheng Zhilong's strong body was waiting behind Zhao Xuanming, standing upright in a standard military posture. Zhao Xuanming looked at it with a telescope for a while, nodded and said: "Not bad, your Ceylon Island militia has cut off the Pattani people." This is the only road back to Pattani, and behind it is the Johor border. Brother Mai may have led people to occupy the Johor Sultan's Palace... It seems that the Queen of Pattani can't go back." He turned around and saw Zheng Zhilong Standing behind him, he smiled and said: "Okay, Colonel Zheng, I have to go south to Sumatra. I leave the situation here to you. This is your territory. I want to take away those honeycomb lightning guns." , it can be used when attacking Aceh, no problem, right?"
Zheng Zhilong smiled and said: "Commander Zhao is joking, these guns were originally supported by your Sixth Division. The situation in Malacca has been stabilized. The remaining soldiers will not need to worry about it. At most, they will fight against Siam, the previous boss of Pattani." It's a bit troublesome... Don't worry, I'll take care of the food, grass, gunpowder and so on."
"It's a pity that the Sultan of Aceh was let go...are you sure he has escaped across the sea," Zhao Xuanming began to pack up the things at hand, dress up and prepare to set off.
Zheng Zhilong still kept his posture at attention, nodded and said: "Yes, the Nanyang Marines captured the Prime Minister of Aceh. He confessed that Sultan Alatan escaped across the sea last night with only a dozen attendants. Therefore, as soon as the war starts today, his personal guards The army was also completely disintegrated, and we seized a large amount of treasure left by the Sultan,"
Zhao Xuanming walked towards the stairs, and suddenly thought of something, turned around and said to Zheng Zhilong: "About the matter of Siam, the shipowner king doesn't have any instructions, right?"
Zheng Zhilong shook his head: "I didn't receive a direct order,"
"Okay, you are the garrison of Malacca. You can take care of things here. Try not to cause trouble to the ship owner. Siam is a big country after all." After Zhao Xuanming finished speaking, he raised his hands in salute and turned to go downstairs.
Zheng Zhilong didn't retract his salute until Zhao Xuanming disappeared at the top of the stairs. He turned around and picked up the telescope to look north. Zhang Wei followed and said with a smile: "What's wrong, Boss Zheng? I've been robbed of my credit. I feel uncomfortable." ,"
Zheng Zhilong sneered: "The credit belongs to whoever deserves it. We came back late, so there is nothing to say."
He looked at it for a while and put down the telescope: "Order all the pioneering regiments to gather in the north of the city tomorrow, and our garrison regiment will also gather all its troops there to prepare to fight north."
Zhang Wei nodded and said: "I will immediately give the order...but do we really want to go to war with Siam?"
"Pattani is a vassal state of Siam. In this siege of Malacca, Pattani's participation in the war means that Siam has intervened in Malacca. It is only natural that we go north to accuse Siam." Zheng Zhilong smiled and pointed to the north: "We are here A huge piece of land has been laid down on the island of Ceylon in the Indian Ocean, and the land in Pattani is waiting for us,"
Suddenly, his face darkened: "However, when we go north, we still have to clean up the harm along the way."