Daming Military Empire

Chapter 326 Star City Harbor Base

In Malacca in August, the heat wave is rolling. If you stand on the beach, you can still have a bit of sea breeze. It doesn’t feel so terrible. If you stay away from the coast, it can kill people. Hundreds of Portuguese defenders stationed in Malacca are now gathered in the By the sea, enjoying the gentle sea breeze, showing a cheerful smile.

Uh, it seems that they didn't come to enjoy the sea breeze, because each of them has neatly packed luggage!
Soon, a huge fleet appeared on the sea, with no less than [-] large and small warships, densely packed almost the entire strait!
The Portuguese army captain who led the team almost stared out of shock, oh, what a joke, didn’t they say that it was the advance fleet of Ming Dynasty? !

It is indeed the advance fleet of the Ming Navy, but it is a mixed fleet, including [-] Fuchuan warships and [-] small warships from the South China Sea Fleet, and [-] Fuchuan warships and [-] small warships from the Navy Reserve Fleet. Small warships, as well as the flagships of Admiral Zheng Xing and Zheng Ming, two medium-sized treasure ships!

The small ports in Malacca simply cannot dock with treasure ships and warships. Zheng Xing and Zheng Ming had to transfer to the Fuchuan warships to the port. After a group of hundreds of people disembarked, they did not immediately go to the Portuguese soldiers not far away. Instead, they formed a team at the port first. The sun, moon and dragon flags were raised high, and then they walked towards the Portuguese soldiers on the opposite side with neat steps.

Seeing this, the Portuguese captain who led the team quickly stood up straight and ordered loudly: "Attention, stand at attention."

Soon, the Ming Navy phalanx came in front of them. Two admirals with three golden flowers shining on their epaulets stepped forward solemnly and gave a standard military salute. One of the admirals gave a standard military salute. Portuguese loudly said: "Hello, Captain, the commander of the South China Sea Fleet of the Ming Dynasty, Admiral Zheng Xing has been ordered to take over the defense of Malacca."

The Portuguese captain quickly returned a standard military salute, and said loudly: "Your Excellency, hello, Portuguese Army Captain Alex Ander has been ordered to hand over the defense of Malacca to you."

The two sides gave a standard military salute at the same time, Zheng Xing went up to hold Alex Ander and smiled: "Captain Ander has worked hard, I have prepared ten Fuchuan warships to escort you to Goa, I wish you all the best!" You're on your way."

Captain Ander said excitedly: "Thank you, Admiral, I wish you all the best."

Just as the two sides were shaking hands, ten Fuchuan warships approached the port in turn, and groups of soldiers ran down from them quickly, and thousands of soldiers from the Ming army gathered in the port in an instant.

Zheng Xing saw that it was almost done, so he waved his hand and said, "Your Excellency, please get on board."

Captain Ander hastily gave a military salute, said goodbye, and led his men to quickly board the Fuchuan warship that landed at the end. Watching the ten Fuchuan warships go away, Zheng Xing smiled and said to Zheng Ming. : "They just gave us Daming such an important military site, how ignorant they are!"

Zheng Ming retorted with a smile: "It's not necessarily because they are ignorant, they can't resist the Dutch casually coming to a small fleet, why bother to hang on here, why not give us Daming as a favor."

Zheng Xing heard the words, thought for a while, nodded and said: "That's right, let's forget about this, let's hurry up and build the Xingcheng Port base."

After finishing speaking, he took the lead and turned to walk towards the Fuchuan warship when he came. Zheng Ming hurriedly followed, and the hundreds of guards who accompanied him to disembark also followed, leaving only the soldiers of the Ming army who had just disembarked standing there neatly , watching them go away.

In Malacca, Zheng Xing and Zheng Ming didn't even take a look, leaving only a thousand soldiers stationed here. Their main target was the big island at the entrance of the strait. According to the emperor's intention, they wanted to build a There are many forts and bastions built on the islands and coasts on both sides of the huge military base according to the terrain. The whole base has a nice name, Xingcheng Port Naval Base.

The entrance of the Strait of Malacca is not a prosperous place at this time, it is basically a deserted place. I heard that there is a small country called Johor, but I don’t know it after being taught a few times by the Portuguese. Where did they hide? Zheng Xing and Zheng Ming didn't bother to care about it. They were not responsible for coming to the colony, but to build a naval base.

This time, about 15 people from the South China Sea Fleet of the Ming Navy and the Navy Reserve Corps came, and the materials they brought were even more astonishing. There were no less than thousands of tons of cement, steel bars, steel plates, and other materials, such as hoists, flatbed trucks, shovels, and wipers. There are also boats and other tools. Just dig some stones and pull some sand to basically start construction.

Zheng Xing and Zheng Ming have a lot of experience in building ports, not to mention seeing so many in the southeast defense line. When they were pirates, they basically built the country by themselves in large, medium and small ports. The forts and edges of the southeast defense line Fort and the others have also participated in the command and construction, and they are naturally familiar with the construction of the Xingcheng Port base.

They checked around the big island at the entrance and found that this island is indeed a good place to build a naval base. The coastal structure on the south side is very suitable for building a port, and the protruding parts on both sides are just right for building bastions and forts. It is not a problem to build a large city in the central and northern areas, and the waterway in front of the big island is suitable for passage at the entire entrance. Other places are either full of twists and turns or dense reefs, which are not suitable for large warships to pass through. Just build a few forts And bastions, and even boats can't even think about it.

After discussing with Zheng Ming, Zheng Xing and Zheng Ming decided to build the Xingcheng Port base first. As for the forts and bastions in other places, we can wait until the bases are built. So they both ordered that 15 people get busy together.

All kinds of building materials were loaded onto small boats and transported to designated locations. Various people worked together, digging stones, picking sand, mixing cement, and fixing decks. Everyone was busy in an orderly manner. From then on, one by one piers took shape, bastions were erected, the city walls were rising, Xingcheng Port was slowly emerging from the sea level at a speed visible to the naked eye, a huge naval base, and an almost impenetrable strong fortress were slowly rising. forming.

While Zheng Xing and Zheng Ming supervised the construction of the base, they also sent people around to observe and survey and map. A huge sand table model of the strait was gradually taking shape. The Xingcheng Port base at the entrance was made according to the plan. The fort has also been gradually added, and an all-round defense system with no dead ends has been formed on the sand table, and the actual construction will not take long to complete, because they have no shortage of personnel, materials, and money. They are all full, and the progress is naturally extremely fast.

In less than a month, ports, bases, bastions, and forts were formed one after another. At this time, the North Sea Fleet also transported thousands of cannons, and one cannon was placed on the bastion, forts, and city walls. The passage between east and west, a brand-new Xingcheng Port naval base appeared in front of the world. From then on, the fleets of the great powers would ask the Ming Empire first if they wanted to enter the Nanyang waters, and they agreed or disagreed!

(End of this chapter)