Chapter 214: Emperor Yingzong



As for the Malay Peninsula, it originally belonged to the sphere of influence of Siam, and the lords of the city-states on the peninsula were vassals of the Ayutthaya Dynasty of Siam.

However, the Portuguese occupied Malacca at the southern tip of the peninsula a few decades ago. The Toungoo Dynasty also rose in Myanmar and took advantage of the internal strife of the Ayutthaya Dynasty to invade Siam.

Under pressure, Siam was forced to retreat on the peninsula, but it could not withstand the offensive of the Burmese army. In the 42nd year of Jiajing, its capital Ayutthaya was captured, and the King of Thailand and most of the royal family and residents were taken abducted to Myanmar.

Although the Siamese were not submissive to the Burmese and had been actively trying to restore their country in recent years, they were attacked again in the third year of Longqing. It is an indisputable fact that their influence in the Malay Peninsula has fallen to the bottom.

In addition, the Portuguese, for their own safety, intended to divide the power of the Malay Peninsula and had been secretly encouraging the various lords on the peninsula to become independent. As a result, the Malay Peninsula was now in a situation of self-proclaimed kings, among which the three largest were Pattani, Johor and Perak.

Pattani is located in a coastal plain, a strategic point on the east-west route, and has been an international trade distribution center in Southeast Asia since ancient times. During the Song Dynasty, many Cantonese people came here to do business, so the Chinese influence here is very large.

But after the Portuguese arrived, they took control of the Gulf of Siam with their powerful military force and established a trading house in Pattani to protect it. After discovering that Pattani's maritime trade was firmly controlled by Chinese merchants, the Portuguese launched a series of anti-Chinese actions, so the life of Chinese merchants became very difficult.

The situation changed in the sixth year of Longqing. In the winter of the previous year, the Coast Guard Fleet defeated the Portuguese and drove them out of Macau. The news shocked the overseas Chinese community in Pattani.

Soon after, the Ming Dynasty's fleet sailing around the world docked at Pattani Port, and the group established a trading house in Pattani. Especially after the Coast Guard Fleet established a base on Natuna Island, the influence of the Jiangnan Group in Pattani increased dramatically.

Although Zhao Hao did not quarrel with the Portuguese in order to avoid fighting on two fronts, the group had in fact squeezed the Portuguese influence out of Patani. The most obvious example is the Green Queen of Patani, who came to power with the support of the Nanhai Group.

Last year, the King of Dani in Pattani died. As he had no son, the throne was inherited by the King's nephew, but he was soon assassinated by his relatives supported by the Portuguese, and the country fell into turmoil. At this time, it was the Chinese business group that stood up and supported the eldest daughter of the King of Dani to succeed to the throne, and asked the Nanhai Group's business house to endorse the queen, which restored peace to Pattani.

This great lady, known as the Green Queen, knew very well why she was able to ascend the throne and how to keep it, so she had been actively moving closer to the group. It was also because of this that she was able to stand on equal footing with the local emperors of the Nanyang powers in the military parade as the ruler of a mere city-state.

As for Johor and Perak, they are actually descendants of the Malacca Sultanate that originally controlled the Straits.

After Malacca was occupied by the Portuguese in 1511, the Sultan fled to Bintan Island, Johor. After repeated attempts to regain his homeland failed, he gave up the title of Malacca Sultan. His eldest son then founded the Johor Kingdom, and his fourth son went to Perak to establish the Perak Kingdom.

After the division, life became even more difficult. In addition to having to deal with Portugal, the Sultan of Johor also had to deal with Aceh, which was also sharpening its sword to annex Johor to strengthen itself.

In the past few decades, Johor has suffered several humiliations, including the burning of the capital by Aceh and the killing of the Sultan. Fortunately, the people of Johor are very clear-headed, knowing how to protect themselves between the two powers, and knowing which of the two powerful enemies is after money and which one is after life.

In order to prevent the Portuguese from being unable to protect themselves after being expelled from Aceh, they even sent troops to help the Portuguese, against whom they had a deep hatred, and repelled the offensive of Aceh when the Sultan of Aceh led his army to attack Malacca.

Although this world is a stage for the strong, small countries with clear minds can still live out their own brilliance.

After the coast guard fleet was deployed in the South Seas, Sultan Muzasafah of Johor realized that a better backer had appeared than the Portuguese, with whom he had a deep hatred.

In fact, after the Portuguese took over the Malacca territory, Muzasaf’s grandfather, Sultan Mahmud Shah, sent envoys to the Ming Dynasty for help, begging the Celestial Empire to regain the territory for his vassal state.

However, the Ming Dynasty did not even have a decent warship at the time, and could only send envoys to Malacca to lodge a solemn protest, but nothing happened afterwards... As a result, the Portuguese and the Southeast Asian countries saw the weak nature of the Celestial Empire, and no one counted on the Ming Dynasty anymore.

It turns out that their judgment was wrong. Dad is still very strong, but he was busy at home at that time and had no time to pay attention to this. Now he has time to let the red-haired ghost know why the flowers are so red.

Therefore, the Sultan of Johor came to attend the military parade despite the Portuguese ban.

But his cousin, Sultan Mustafa of Perak, was not so free. Because a large tin mine was discovered in Perak... At first people thought it was a silver mine. Perak means "silver" in Malay. Although it was later determined to be tin, the name Perak remained.

Tin is also a rare and expensive metal, which is in great demand in both the East and the West. Therefore, the Portuguese directly used force to place Perak under their protection and directly stationed troops to control Perak's entire tin mining industry. The Perak Sultan also became a puppet of the Portuguese and naturally could not attend the military parade.

~~

The Portuguese dreamed of conquering the entire Malay Peninsula and exterminating the pagans on Sumatra and Java who were fighting with them for the Strait of Malacca. Of course, they also wanted to exterminate Prince Zhao who drove them out of Macau.

However, I cannot do this. This small European country with a population of less than two million and powerful neighbors has to maintain its colonies and settlements in Brazil, Africa, and India; it has to protect the safety of long sea trade routes under the watchful eyes of the Ottomans and Indian princes, which has stretched their power to the limit.

In the Far East, it was a miracle that they could maintain the fleet in Malacca, intimidate the countries in Southeast Asia, and control the Spice Islands. Although it was a pity to lose Macau, it was a heavy burden for the Governor of Malacca and the Viceroy of Goa. This finally freed them up to occupy the Lesser Sunda Islands, which also produced spices, and plundered the islands.

How could it be more profitable to fight with those weak but cunning and numerous pagans than to directly plunder their resources?

The Portuguese acted within their means and invested resources only in the most valuable targets. Even in the Spice Islands and the Lesser Sunda Islands, which were like a treasure trove, they only sent a small-scale domestic force to lead Malay mercenaries to supervise the black slaves and native tribes on the islands to collect spices, and regularly sent fleets to deliver supplies and take away the harvest. They did not station fleets on the islands or develop industry and commerce to avoid dispersing their pitiful strength.

Knowing that their own military strength was weak, Malacca was besieged by pagans several times and was on the verge of collapse several times. Therefore, successive Portuguese Malacca governors made strengthening the defense of Malacca a top priority. Over the past few decades, they have built Malacca into a solid sea and land fortress.

Although the Malacca Fleet only has more than 20 large sailing ships, the captains are experienced, the crews cooperate well, and the tactics are much more advanced than those of Spain. In addition, they will receive support from the Viceroyal Fleet of India.

It is no wonder that in another time and space, the Dutch first besieged Malacca in 1602 AD, and failed in many subsequent battles. It took them a full forty years until 1641 when they formed an alliance with the Kingdom of Johor to capture Malacca!

Now, the whole Nanyang is looking at Zhao Hao, wanting to see how the Jiangnan Group will deal with the Portuguese, or in other words, how to take over Malacca.

This is the undisputed symbol of the group being crowned the King of Nanyang!

After all, no matter how powerful the Spaniards were, most local emperors had never faced them directly. However, since their fathers and even grandfathers, they had been oppressed by the Portuguese, and they had developed a fear of the red-haired devils from the bottom of their hearts.

Even though they have accepted the title from the imperial court, as long as Zhao Hao fails to capture Malacca, they will not be able to escape the control of the Portuguese.

Just like a male lion must defeat the old lion king to ascend to the throne, taking Malacca is also the only way for Zhao Hao to completely conquer Nanyang.

The operational staff had already deduced that with the Coast Guard Fleet's overwhelming naval combat capability, defeating the Portuguese Malacca Fleet would be a piece of cake. Even if the Indian Viceroy sent the main fleet to reinforce, it would not be a problem either.

With the rapid growth of the Coast Guard fleet, the masters who once seemed extremely powerful are no longer their opponents.

But the problem is that to capture the impregnable Malacca City, it is necessary to have a strong land attack capability. This is back to the weakness of the Coast Guard Fleet.

In fact, in this era, the army in the world had no ability to attack. Before the advent of explosive bombs that could blow open the city walls, facing a castle with iron walls, if there was no internal strife in the city, the only way was to use human wave tactics to fill it. The saying "ten people surround it" actually also means that in siege warfare, the exchange ratio between the attacker and the defender is often as high as ten to one!

Either you waste time and money until the city runs out of ammunition and food and is unable to sustain resistance, then the strength of resistance will naturally drop sharply.

Taking over Malacca was a political battle. Obviously, both of these methods were too ugly and not conducive to establishing the glorious image of Dad as a wise and powerful man.

After repeated deliberation, Zhao Hao finally formulated a seemingly fantastic "Savior Plan".

Well, it's just a fantasy.

However, with the execution ability of the task force members that went beyond their time and the concerted efforts of the entire group, the impossible was finally possible. The Portuguese king, who was supposed to have drowned in the Mahazan River, was fished out and brought back from afar.

After leaving Sebastian alone for nearly two years, Zhao Hao finally got the chance to turn him into a stepping stone.

Mr. Zhao not only wants to use him to knock on the door of Malacca, but also wants to seize Portugal's fortune in the past hundred years!

p.s. Write a little more.


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