In early September of the second year of Tianqi, on both sides of the Aceh River at the northwest end of Sumatra Island, on the fertile fields rich in rice, sweet potatoes, yams and beans, no fruitful harvests could be seen, so the crops were not burned by fire. The light was taken away by others. On both sides of the Aceh River, black smoke filled the air. It stretched for hundreds of miles along the river bank. There were fields trampled into mud and numerous large and small lord estates that were destroyed and bulldozed. The villages and towns were filled with black smoke, and corpses were strewn across the fields.
Starting from Riau on the other side of the Malacca Fortress, along the main traffic arteries of North Sumatra, you can see such scenes everywhere. Under the "Chinese" flags with different colors and shading, black (infantry), blue (navy) The torrent of troops of various colors (Marine Corps) and brown, white, etc. (Chinese militia) was like a large dye vat mixing paint, stirring human life of all colors into a thick blood red.
Along the way, countless small Malay lords, along with their family crests and towns and villages, disappeared in the flames and smoke. Countless lives, regardless of their status, noble or humble, had their heads cut off and were happily inserted into their bodies by the bloodthirsty Chinese militiamen. On the tree stumps along the way, countless cattle, sheep and even elephants originally belonging to the Malay indigenous people were driven slowly on both sides of the army. They were either dragging cannons, arms and ammunition, or they became soldiers and officers in the camps along the way. food in their bellies.
When the Chinese Army was first established, it engaged in life-and-death battles with Westerners, Taiwanese indigenous people, and the Ming Dynasty official army. It was accustomed to this thorough form of national war. To a certain extent, the war between feudal states such as the Malays , it is just a conflict between lords competing for land, sometimes it is covered with a veil of tenderness and hypocrisy, and generally they will not kill them all. The people under the other lord may be their own subjects immediately, so why bother to kill them.
However, the form of war brought by the Chinese army was completely destructive and was called ethnic cleansing by later generations.
This is the second time the Chinese army has attacked Aceh. The scale is much larger than the last Nanyang War. Yin Feng’s order to Zhao Xuanming is very clear: Aceh must be beaten thoroughly, and it is best to beat Aceh into pieces. Small puppet country.
Kota Ratcha is located on the south bank of the Aceh River estuary. In the Middle Ages, it was a trading post for Arab merchants to purchase gold, ivory, and camphor. After the Dutch arrived in the 16th century, it became the pepper trade center of Southeast Asia. It was also the first place where Islam was introduced into the Malay world. A stronghold, known as the "Road to Mecca" by later generations of Malay Muslims. After the Portuguese occupied Malacca in 1511, many Muslim merchants were forced to move to Aceh and other places. In order to avoid the Portuguese monopoly, merchant ships from various countries It also entered the Indonesian archipelago along the west coast of Sumatra through the Sunda Strait. Therefore, Aceh, located at the northern end of this route, began to prosper.
After that, Aceh launched a series of "holy wars" in an attempt to drive away the Portuguese colonists and control the pepper production areas. In 1547, Aceh launched a powerful attack on the Portuguese and almost captured the city of Malacca. The war between Aceh and the Portuguese lasted until 1575. In 1564, Aceh attacked the Kingdom of Johor, kidnapped the Sultan, and destroyed the city of Johor.
The current Sultan Iskandar Muda - a generational hero of the Kingdom of Aceh, the Chinese call him Sultan Alatan according to the transliteration. He has taken the initiative to attack the Chinese Company and the Chinese Army twice. Five years ago, the Chinese Army assisted the Portuguese After defending Malacca and defeating the Acehnese army under the city walls of Malacca, Sultan Iskandar finally reached a peace agreement with the Chinese army, allowing Chinese companies to establish commercial houses in Aceh.
In the early days of this Malay anti-Chinese war, the Acehnese waited until Java Island fell into chaos and the Chinese in Palembang became one with the Malays before sending troops to Malacca. At the same time, the Chinese business building in Gotaracha was captured. More than one Chinese were killed and dozens of Chinese were imprisoned. All the Chinese who were not killed in Aceh were captured and imprisoned near the palace of the Sultan of Godaraja. During the five-month-long Battle of Malacca, These Chinese who were imprisoned were tortured to death one after another.
This news was brought out from Aceh by a Dutch businessman who witnessed the facts, which angered Zhao Xuanming and other Chinese generals. Colonel Zhao Xuanming was a soldier who strictly abided by military discipline, but he believed that the people here were not subjects of the Ming Dynasty. Observing military discipline is a waste of time. He disciplines his regular army in order to maintain discipline at all times during combat, not because he does not want to kill more people.
However, he could not strictly enforce the military discipline of the militia. Most of the time, he could only let it go. The Chinese militia was established by various big businessmen. They did not care how many natives they could leave to work for themselves. They had a successful history in the Ming Dynasty. Thousands of hungry people are waiting to become the labor force on this land. According to the new land development law, the land laid down by the pioneering group can be owned first. Therefore, on both sides of the Chinese army's regular troops, the militia troops launched a long campaign. The front line forced the subsequent logistics troops and various merchant teams to walk in no man's land where smoke was billowing everywhere. After the news that the Chinese in Aceh were basically exterminated, the Chinese militia's brutal actions along the way, Most of them are vindictive in nature, so they are more ruthless and bloody.
The 8,000 main force of the Sixth Division of the Chinese Army under the command of Zhao Xuanming moved north along the road from Riau to Aceh, with 3,000 reinforcements from a regiment of the Java Brigade, more than 3,000 Chinese militia joint forces from South Sumatra, and part of the Javanese indigenous allied forces. , under the command of the Java Brigade Commander Zu Guangxian, they went north from Palembang, passed through Jambi to the west coast of Sumatra Island, and reached the small town of Badong on the Indian Ocean. Then the Chinese army went north along the west coast of Sumatra to prepare for the battle between Kota Ratcha and the east coast. Zhao Xuanming's Sixth Division joined forces on the road.
On the sea, the main force of the Nanyang Fleet, headed by two Feizi battleships, lined up more than 50 warships and auxiliary ships of various types. They headed north from the Strait of Malacca and headed straight for the center of the Aceh Sultanate, known as "Baedurah" Kota Ratcha (now Banda Aceh), the capital of Aceh.
Behind the large army of the Chinese army, there followed countless Chinese businessmen, as well as Portuguese, Dutch, British and other businessmen, adventurers, and even many Chinese immigrants who had recently arrived in Nanyang. They packed their bags and followed the army. They came to North Sumatra to serve as the Chinese army. Transport supplies or sell various supplies to militia organizations, and then take the banknotes or large sums of silver coins issued by the Zhonghua Money Account and exchange them for coins and spices looted along the way from the managers of the newly established Zhonghua Merchant Center along the way. , precious stones, luxury goods, and even surplus materials eliminated by the army, or cheap trophies and Malay slaves, which can be sold to various plantations on the return trip to make another profit.
After the failure of the Battle of Malacca, Sultan Iskandar abandoned his army and fled across the sea with only a dozen guards. This move was actually very wise. After the main force of the Chinese Army's Nanyang Fleet returned to the Strait of Malacca from Java, the Aceh Army had already It was impossible to retreat across the strait, and the final result was: of the 50,000 troops brought by Sultan Iskandar around Malacca, only more than 10,000 fled back to North Sumatra, and the rest were either killed or captured by the Chinese army.
However, Iskandar's move chilled the feudal lords who fought with him. After he returned to North Sumatra, when he issued the summons again, only a handful of feudal lords came with their troops to obey his command.
After the Sixth Division of the Chinese Army landed in Sumatra, they marched northward with almost no fighting. Most of the Malay princes in front of them chose to surrender. After paying a lot of treasures and food, they were able to defeat the Chinese Army. All the territories directly under the royal family of Sultan Iskandar were completely looted by the Chinese army and Chinese militia without exception.
Zhao Xuanming's army encountered resistance in the valley of the middle reaches of the Aceh River. Tens of thousands of Acehnese troops with chaotic equipment and disorderly organization lined up on the fields on both sides of the valley. The Chinese army only used a burst of artillery bombardment and a round of musket fire to defeat this group. Afterwards, they learned from the prisoners that this was the territory of Prince Iprasin, Sultan Iskandar's brother. Further north, it was close to the city of Kota Ratcha. At this time, the battleships of the Nanyang Fleet were already in Asia. The remaining ships of the Aceh fleet were called out at the mouth of the Qi River, destroying the centuries-old Aceh port. Immediately afterwards, dozens of shallow-draft schooner gunboats entered the Aceh River and bombarded Kota on the river. Racha Town.
At the end of September, the city of Kota Ratcha was tightly surrounded by the Chinese army from both sea and land.
The city of Kota Ratcha with its low walls is vulnerable to the Chinese artillery, but there are more than 60,000 Acehnese militants loyal to Sultan Iskandar gathered in the city. Sultan Iskandar himself is also commanding the defense in the city. There are more than ten cannons stolen from the earlier Portuguese in the city, as well as five or six new cannons bought from the Dutch, as well as some armed personnel from the princely states of North Sumatra who insist on resisting. This is North Sumatra, It is also the last center of resistance in Aceh. The rest of the places have been turned into a hell of blood and fire by the swarming Chinese militias. The Acehnese who failed to enter Kota Ratcha fled into the deep mountains and forests. went.
The Chinese Army on the West Route led by Zu Guangxian went north along the west coast of Sumatra. It encountered little resistance, not because of anything else but because his army had too many militiamen and the military discipline was very bad. They burned, killed and looted all the way, regardless of the other side. Whether the Malay princes raised their hands to surrender or not, they all spoke with fire and swords. Therefore, it was not until Kota Ratcha was completely surrounded that Zu Guangxian's troops reached the middle reaches of the Aceh River.
Zhao Xuanming did not want to wait for the Western Route Army to join forces before attacking Kota Racha. He could not wait any longer. The Acehnese continued to attack from the city. At first, they tried to break out with large forces. Later, they found that the Sixth Division had dug trenches everywhere and guarded them tightly. At each crossing, the Acehnese army was unable to break through.
After failing to break through, the Acehnese began to attack in small groups, infiltrating and attacking in the dark, and using endless tricks. Zhao Xuanming was frightened all night and could not sleep well.
Sometimes, suddenly, a large group of Acehnese, led by Islamic priests in robes, shouted "Allah Akbar," (God is great), brandished parang knives and launched a suicide charge towards the Chinese army's position. They had no firearms. There was no cover, no armor, and they faced the rain of bullets from the Chinese army. They were not afraid of death. After lying on the ground with corpses, there were still a few people who rushed to the position to fight hand-to-hand with the Chinese army.
For this reason, the three manual continuous-fire rapid-fire guns brought by Zhao Xuanming were all damaged in the fierce battle because the continuous firing time was too long. Because no maintenance personnel followed, these manual machine guns were temporarily scrapped.
Zhao Xuanming was really annoyed. After the logistics force brought enough ammunition, he decided not to wait for the Western Route Army. He contacted the Navy's Nanyang Fleet and decided to launch a general attack on Kota Racha with the two of them.