Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 506

Manlajia is the gateway to the South China Sea and the gateway from Asia to Europe. Whoever controls this place will be the overlord of the Asian ocean.

After Ming Chengzu Zhu Di ascended the throne, he immediately sent envoys to the four directions to announce the rotation of the Ming Dynasty and reaffirm the influence and control of the Ming Empire overseas.Subsequently, Ryukyu, Japan, Siam and other countries sent envoys to pay tribute to China one after another, establishing suzerain and vassal relations.

At this time, Manlajia had not yet established a relationship with the Ming Empire, but Zhu Di was deeply aware of Manlajia's strategic position, and attached great importance to Manlajia, and soon included Manlajia under the tributary system of the Ming Dynasty.

In October of the second year of Yongle, Zhu Di sent envoys to Manga to present a gift to the king of Manga, Bailimisura. The king of Manga was overjoyed, so he sent envoys to Beijing to pay tribute with the Chinese envoys, and established a suzerain relationship with Daming .

In the fifth year of Yongle, Paramisura took his wife and more than [-] accompanying officials to visit Daming with Zheng He's fleet. It was the largest foreign mission to visit since the Ming Dynasty.In the following years, Paramisura visited China twice, both of which were received with high standards.And Zheng He made seven voyages to the West, and visited Manga six times.

When Manga was founded, powerful enemies were all around, especially Siam. When Zheng He went to the West for the second time in the sixth year of Yongle, he went to Siam in person to dissuade Siam from attacking Manga.

Zheng He had nearly [-] entourages and soldiers on his voyages, and it took more than a year to carry a large amount of supplies. Therefore, it was necessary to set up a material transfer station in the middle of the voyage to store those materials that were not urgently needed, so as to ease the transportation pressure of the fleet. At the same time, it replenishes the application materials for the fleet.

Due to the superior geographical location of Manlaja, Zheng He finally built the transfer station in Manlaja.

The establishment of the Manga Shipping Transit Station means that Daming has established a forward base in Southeast Asia and a distribution center for trade with various countries.Under the deterrence of Zheng He's huge fleet, the South China Sea has become the inland sea of ​​Ming Dynasty.

And when Zheng He's fleet disappeared in the Asian waters, Manajia used the trade network established by the Ming Empire to make Manajia a maritime trade bridge between Ming, India, Arabia and other countries.

Before the rise of the age of great voyages, Manraga became an out-and-out marine city, attracting hundreds of ships that came to trade along the monsoon every year.Merchants from all over the world crowded the port, and the special products and materials of various countries were gathered here, and then transshipped to all parts of the world. At this time, Malaca seemed to be a global commodity distribution center.

When Manga became more and more prosperous, the Ming Empire adopted a strict maritime ban policy, which not only stopped the official fleet from going to sea, but also severely sanctioned businessmen who traded in Southeast Asia and other places without permission.The implementation of this policy means that Ming voluntarily gave up the ocean and gave up control of Manlajia.

When the Ming Dynasty gave up control of Manga, Western colonial forces came.At the beginning of the [-]th century, the flourishing Malaca finally attracted the covetousness of emerging western sea power countries. Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom came to Manlaca one after another.

At this time, the Portuguese had the strongest strength at sea, and they were also the first country to take action against Manga.

In the sixth year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty (1511), Albuquerque, the Portuguese governor in India, led a fleet of [-] ships and [-] soldiers to Managa.

After their impudent request was rejected, the Portuguese attacked Manraga.Due to the failure to grasp the local tide time, the ships could not enter the river. Under the tenacious resistance of Managa, Portugal's first attack failed.

But soon Albuquerque organized a second attack. This time the Portuguese attacked the throat of the city of Manraga, the Bridge of the Manraga River.

The Portuguese relied on a powerful fleet to enter the Manraga River and then occupied the bridge. Seeing that the situation was over, the King of Manraga had to leave the rich city of Manraga behind and led the remnant troops to retreat to Pagoh.

The Portuguese who occupied the city of Managa began to rob. This robbery plundered two-thirds of the wealth of Managa.After the looting, the Portuguese massacred the city again.

So far, Daming has completely lost control of Manlajia.

(Later, the descendants of King Managa came to Johor and established the Kingdom of Johor. In 1551, Johor united various forces to deal with the Portuguese army stationed in Managa, and once regained control of Managa and held on for three months.

In the more than 100 years since Portugal occupied Managa, the war for Managa has never stopped, and forces from various countries have participated in the competition.

In 1597, the Dutch first launched an attack on the Portuguese army stationed in Managa, and then joined forces with Johor to attack Managa. It was not until 1641 that Managa was completely in the hands of the Dutch. )
Losing Manlajia is not as simple as losing a vassal state to Ming Dynasty, because the Manlajia Strait is of great strategic significance to Ming Dynasty, and two-thirds of the vassal states of the Ming Empire are in Southeast Asia.

In the tribute trade, Ming got a lot of minerals, timber, spices, gold, jewelry and rice from the dependent countries in Southeast Asia.The Ming Dynasty exported and re-exported a large amount of porcelain, silk, and tea to these dependent countries.While reaping huge benefits, it also developed the porcelain industry, textile industry, tea industry and shipbuilding industry.

The most important thing is that when Da Ming carried out maritime trade activities in Southeast Asia, it not only established a huge trade system dominated by Da Ming, but also established a huge strategic buffer zone.

However, the Ming Empire, which lost Manga, opened its sea gates wide, and could no longer stop the western colonists from coming east.Shortly thereafter, the Portuguese crossed the South China Sea and appeared on the coast of Guangdong.

The Portuguese who had just arrived in Ming Dynasty still used violent means to carry out colonial plunder, and inevitably had conflicts with the Ming government.

In the 17th year of Zhengde, the Sino-Portuguese battle of Tuen Mun broke out. The Ming Dynasty surrounded Tuen Mun with more than [-] warships and launched an attack on the Portuguese army. The Portuguese army suffered heavy casualties and had to abandon most of the ships and abscond at night in only three large ships. .

The following year, Portugal again sent a fleet to the southeast coast of Daming, and had a fierce battle with the Daming Navy. The Daming Navy won again, and the Portuguese retreated to Shuangyu in the Zhoushan Islands to establish a settlement and carry out smuggling activities.

In the 27th year of Jiajing, the Daming navy attacked Shuangyu, burned all the buildings and ships in the port, and blocked the port.

After three defeats, the Portuguese finally realized the strength of Daming, and they no longer dared to use force against Daming. Instead, they resorted to bribery to gain a foothold along the coast of Daming.

In the 32nd year of Jiajing, the Portuguese obtained the right of residence in Haojing (Macau).Later, the Portuguese began to pay land rent to Ming Dynasty, and Macau officially became the leased land of the Portuguese.

Just as the Portuguese were gaining residency in Macau, the Spaniards occupied Luzon and later the chicken coop (Keelung) in Taiwan.

Prior to this, the Dutch and the British also entered Southeast Asia one after another, occupying the Moluccas, Java and Sumatra respectively.The Dutch even occupied Tainan in Taiwan during the Revelation Year and built the city of Zeelandia.

It can be said that if Manga was still under the control of Ming Dynasty, it would be impossible for the fleets of Western countries to enter Southeast Asia, let alone occupy Macau and Taiwan.

Although Zheng Zhilong didn't know the strategic significance of Manga to Ming Dynasty, he had traded with western countries all the year round, and he knew that Western countries must go through Manga when traveling from home to Daming and Southeast Asia.As long as Manajia is taken down, the access of Western countries to Ming Dynasty and Southeast Asia can be strangled. If Li Jing wants to trade with other countries, he must bow to him.

In order to achieve this goal, Zheng Zhilong used all ships and all soldiers.

The Portuguese fleet in Manga has only a dozen ships, while Zheng Zhilong's fleet has nearly a thousand ships. No matter how many Portuguese ships can fight, how can they dare to fight against the densely packed ships on the sea?
Without the threat of the Portuguese fleet, the fleet led by Zheng Zhilong drove straight into the Manga River, and then blocked the two banks with naval guns, covered the landing of soldiers, and occupied the Manga Bridge.

At that time, the defenders of Manga City were forced to flee because they lost the bridge. Now the situation faced by the Portuguese army in the city is the same as that of Manga.

But their coping methods were completely different. The Portuguese did not flee. Their coping method was to counterattack, trying to repel Zheng Zhilong's troops and reoccupy the bridge.

But Zheng Zhilong's troops were not the Manchurians of the past. Although most of these people were pirates, they were brave and good at fighting, but they were by no means inferior to Ming's regular army.

Under the cover of naval guns, they not only repelled the counterattacks of the Portuguese army continuously, but also gradually surrounded the Portuguese army.With the battle at this point, it can be said that there is no suspense.

Seeing that the Portuguese army was surrounded by Zheng Zhilong's troops, in desperation, Manotti, the governor of Manchuria and Canada, first ordered to surrender.

After the Portuguese surrendered, Zheng Zhilong did the same thing as the Portuguese did: massacre the city.

Although Zheng Zhilong's behavior is the same as that of the Portuguese back then, his purpose is completely different.

The Portuguese massacred the city to plunder wealth, but Zheng Zhilong massacred the city to occupy Manga.

Zheng Zhilong is very aware of the situation he is facing now. He has been rampant at sea for many years, and those maritime powers originally wanted to get rid of him.It's just because of his strong military strength and the fact that he has the backing of Daming, no one dares to act rashly against him.

But from the moment he betrayed Daming, it showed that he lost the backing of Daming, so far, his source of troops, ships and supplies will lose the source of supplies.

Without supplies, he can only rely on plundering at sea. At this time, countries will never allow Zheng Zhilong, a sea force that can threaten the merchant ships of various countries at any time, to exist, and they must be eliminated before safety.

And when he occupies Managa, the countries will not allow him to block the sea channel of Managa Strait, they will definitely attack him in groups, that is to say, from now on he will be attacked on all sides.

At this time, Zheng Zhilong must not allow any unstable factors to exist in the city. In addition, in order to fight a protracted war, he must collect all the supplies in the city for future preparations.

(End of this chapter)