unclear

Chapter 986 Undeclared War 2
"If His Excellency the Governor can continue to help the Minangkabau people gain a foothold here in the future and spread the news of what is happening here to the country in a less conspicuous way, the Sun and Moon flag will still fly on the mast."

Hong Tao accepted the sincere attitude, but attitude alone could not make up for the trauma of the soul, and he had to do something practical. It was easy to capture Banda Aceh, but the Ming Empire did not want to bear a heavy burden and be responsible for the lives of the people here.

The original plan was to leave a portion of the pepper profits to the East India Company, allowing them to instigate the Minangkabau to take advantage of the situation and provide various assistance to further undermine the rule of the Sultanate of Aceh.

I didn't expect that Cohen had bad intentions and wanted to see a joke, so he took the initiative to deliver his tricks to me. This saved me from having to use favors and resources, and turned asking for help into an exchange of interests, which made me feel at ease.

"...As the Governor of Batavia, it is my job to expand the company's spice production area. Your Majesty and the Imperial Navy have provided free assistance, and I will remember this."

After a brief consideration, Cohen chose to compromise. In fact, as long as he could get a foothold in the Aceh Sultanate and successfully open a trading post, he would have enough credit to take.

Of course, if it weren't for the inner demons, and if I had been more patient and not gotten carried away, I would have gained more credit and benefits. But there is no regret medicine in the world, I can only blame myself for being too rash.

"Captain, change the order and hoist the Sun and Moon Flag and the Prince of Orange Flag together. The fleet will stop advancing, prepare for artillery fire, and begin landing. Tell Wang Tong that the city must be cleaned up and fortifications built before dark. The fleet will stay here for a few days, so don't be too hasty."

After the suggestion was approved, Hong Tao still did not completely cancel the order, but changed it to hang two flags together. How could the emperor of the empire be easily despised? Anyone who had such an idea would be prepared to pay a heavy price.

It is a bit exaggerated to destroy a country in half a day, but the Battle of Banda Aceh lasted only more than 6 hours from landing to cleaning up the battlefield, and it started with the naval guns' deterrent bombardment of the port.

The Acehnese were indeed equipped with a considerable number of muskets and artillery, but their range and accuracy could not be compared with the weapons of the Lu Zhanwei. The warship formation responsible for the initial bombardment was still carefully cruising on the ocean 1 kilometer outside the port, ready to defend against the bombardment.

But after the artillery batteries on both sides of the port channel opened fire, they immediately became bolder, constantly shortening the distance, and finally stopped at about 700 meters away from the artillery batteries, and even lowered the sails to fire back.

At the same time, armed cargo ships slowly approached the high ground on both sides of the port, launched small boats filled with Marines, and rowed towards the shore under the cover of naval guns.

When the first batch of soldiers successfully landed on the coast, the six artillery batteries on the high ground were completely destroyed. After the landing soldiers captured the artillery batteries and set up field guns on them, using more accurate artillery fire to clear out the threats in the port area one by one, the subsequent landing boats could enter the port area directly.

Why not allow armed cargo ships to enter the port area and unload the landing soldiers directly on the dock? Two words, water depth. Given Banda Zia's geographical location, if it had the conditions of a deep-water port, it would be more important than Malacca, Batavia, and Thammarat.

The reason why it was successively ignored by the Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch was not because the European navigators were blind, but because it really did not have the conditions to dock large ships.

The coastline here is very flat, and the two rivers flowing into the sea are not very large. The safe draft at low tide is less than 5 meters. If the Guangzhou-class armed cargo ship is lightly loaded, it can barely come in at high tide, and then it has to stay on the beach in the port area or in the estuary, waiting for the next high tide to move. When designing the Banda Zia operation plan, the Navy General Staff did plan to allow armed cargo ships to enter the port. But that was Plan C, a helpless move when it was forced to do so, and it would not be adopted unless the situation was extremely urgent.

The city of Bandazia is different from other large ports such as Batavia and Manila. The city is not close to the port and the river, but is about 5 miles away.

The Marines who landed first did not wait for the Minangkabau to take the lead. They landed and advanced inland at the same time. About 2 miles away from the city, they encountered the Aceh army who came out of the city to meet the enemy. The number of the army was about .

As for the process, there was no such thing as a process. The Marines did not even line up. They just slightly changed the marching formation. A few rounds of free shooting at a distance of 200 meters were enough to defeat the enemy on the opposite side. They left behind corpses and wounded soldiers on the ground and ran back at several times the speed.

However, the results of a battle between hot weapons are more brutal than a battle between hot weapons and cold weapons. No matter how advanced one side's hot weapons are, as long as the other side fires normally, it is inevitable that certain casualties will be caused.

The Acehnese muskets were slow to reload and had poor accuracy, but their killing range was not too short and their numbers were not small. A hundred or so muskets fired at a distance of more than 150 meters, still causing single-digit casualties to the Lu Zhanwei.

Then the Marine Guards officers put away their contempt and stopped chasing after the enemy in the attack. Instead, they expanded to both wings and waited for the follow-up artillery to catch up.

In the following battle, the artillery spoke first, firing at least two rounds at targets that might pose a threat at a distance of about one kilometer, and then the infantry began to approach.

They no longer lined up in neat rows, but instead spread out in skirmish lines and changed their volley fire to free shooting. As long as they found a threatening target, even if it was a suspected target, they did not need to wait for orders from the officers and would just shoot first.

Then it was the Dutch who commanded the Minangkabau to charge with shields and spears. As for whether they killed Acehnese soldiers or not, that didn't matter. The Marines were only responsible for breaking down the city gates and surrounding this not-so-big city as much as possible, capturing one if one came out, and a pair if two came out.

"Your Majesty is a benevolent monarch. You didn't kill many Jurchens and Mongols, and even granted them the title of marquis. Why do you allow your troops to massacre the city here?"

Except for the armed cargo ships that transported soldiers to land and the warships responsible for bombardment, the flagship and the escort warships never approached the port, and did not even lower their sails, but just cruised outside the port.

Apart from the initial gunfire, the flagship could neither hear the roar of the soldiers on both sides, nor see the tragic scenes on the battlefield, nor the roar of flames. But the ministers on the deck were not stupid, they knew that the Minangkabau people had a grudge against the Acehnese people, and what would happen if they were allowed into the city without any control.

Then the Minister of Education Ma Baoguo was tricked by a group of colleagues into giving advice, trying to remind or persuade the emperor not to ruin his reputation and continue to maintain the fine tradition of ruling the world with benevolence.

(End of this chapter)