Chapter 3337 Chapter 3339 [Layout in Nanyang]
In May, the Nanyang Navy, led by Naval Admiral Alimbao, suddenly launched an attack on the Dutch colonists.
The warships that parked them in the port were all sunk by several volleys. The Dutch colonial governor's palace in Malacca was also reduced to **** by a single volley of artillery fire from the Qing soldiers.
The Dutch colonists did not expect that the Nanyang Navy would suddenly launch an attack. By the time the war broke out, it was already too late, so they had no choice but to surrender.
Subsequently, Alimbaud continued to lead troops to sweep away other strongholds of Dutch colonists in Southeast Asia. Soon the Spice Islands, Banda Islands, Java, Sumatra, Riau, etc. were also recovered.
At that time, although the Dutch colonists had strong ships and powerful artillery, they were still unable to compare with the Qing army.
For example, their gunpowder is basically black powder. Historically, in 1771, the British scientist P. Wolfe synthesized picric acid, also known as yellow dynamite. It was first used to make dyes, and later it was discovered that it had strong explosive power.
However, the safety of picric acid is not reliable, and it may explode if you are not careful. It was not until the birth of TNT in 1863 that sufficiently safe gunpowder was available.
As early as the early years of Qianlong's reign, Xiang Nan had already produced Dana explosives that were more powerful than TNT. More powerful and safer than black powder.
Another example is the Dutch cannon, which is a smoothbore front-loading cannon, that is, the shell is loaded from the front of the muzzle and the propellant is loaded from the back. This kind of gun fires slowly, has low shooting accuracy, and has a short range.
In comparison, the Qing army was equipped with breech-loaded cannons, and they were also rifled cannons, and the shells were also long-tapered. Not only does it have a long range and high accuracy, it is also powerful.
The most important thing is that it is easy to fill. Every time a smoothbore muzzle-loading gun is fired, it must be cleaned first. It is remarkable to be able to fire two shots in one minute.
In comparison, the Qing army's breech-loaded artillery can fire fifteen rounds per minute, and can knock down enemies at a distance of up to twelve kilometers. If it is a shore-based cannon, the range can reach 30 kilometers. It can be said that as long as the cannons are set up on both sides of the Strait of Malacca, the entire strait can be blocked.
For this reason, the Qing army's firepower was much stronger than that of the Dutch colonists, and it was intentional and unintentional.
The Dutch colonists thought that the Nanyang Navy was here to fight pirates, but they didn't expect that they would start a war at the slightest disagreement and beat them all down.
After defeating the Dutch colonists, Alimbao immediately followed Xiang Nan's instructions to support Suleiman the Sultan of Johor and coerced the emperor to order the princes. Not only did it become a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty, but it also agreed to the Qing army's garrison in Malacca.
In this way, the Qing army could justifiably occupy Malacca.
…
After the victory in the first battle in Nanyang, Xiang Nan was very happy and immediately ordered Alimbao to take defensive measures. At the same time, he sent officials to take over Malacca.
Southeast Asia has been rich in natural products since ancient times. Products such as spices, cane sugar, coral, tin ore, gold ore, copper ore, rubber, rice, palm oil, etc. are all extremely valuable products.
Now that the Dutch colonists have been driven away, the so-called Sultan Suleiman of Johor is now just a puppet of the Qing Dynasty, and he has submitted his credentials to become a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty.
In this case, it is natural for Xiang Nan to send ministers to run and manage the country.
After the Battle of Malacca, Alimbao then led his army to Luzon and drove away the Spanish colonists entrenched there. Spanish colonists invaded Luzon in the 16th century. Although Luzon resisted tenaciously, they were defeated at the end of the 16th century and gradually occupied by the colonists.
Spain was also no match for Alimbao. Although they had prepared defenses and sent dozens of warships to engage in naval battles with Alimbao, they were still sunk by Alimbao as soon as they met. Their artillery power and range are far inferior to Alimpo's breech-loaded rifled guns. Seeing this, some ships also wanted to engage in boarding combat. That is, after approaching Alinbao's warship, the navy used cables to swing to the Qing warships to start a hand-to-hand battle. In that case, the artillery advantage of the Qing warships would naturally not be apparent.
But what they didn’t expect was that the Qing army was already equipped with machine guns and automatic rifles. At this time, the Spanish colonists still had matchlock guns in their hands, and the weapons were several generations behind.
Hence, the boarding battle was more brutal than the artillery battle. The Spanish soldiers were swept away before they even had time to board the ship, and their whole bodies were beaten like sieves.
Hence, the Spanish colonists were eventually forced to surrender and gave up a large area of land like Luzon.
Because the royal family of Luzon had been slaughtered by Spanish colonists at that time, Alingbao announced that Luzon would be included in the territory of the Qing Dynasty.
Xiang Nan once again sent officials to Nanyang to take over Luzon, built schools there, taught the Four Books and Five Classics, and Chinese culture, and converted the local indigenous people into kings.
…
After the Dutch and Spanish colonists were defeated and lost such a large area of colonies, they were naturally very dissatisfied and sent envoys one after another to protest to Xiang Nan.
Xiang Nan argued hard and refuted each one.
First, Luzon once sent envoys to pay tribute, and it was a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty, but it was completely slaughtered by Spain. As the suzerain state, it should send troops to rescue;
Second, the Dutch colonists oppressed the Chinese in Malacca, and Malacca also sent envoys to pay tribute to the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, it was natural for the Qing Dynasty to send troops to enforce justice.
Furthermore, truth only lies within the range of a cannon. When they invaded Malacca and Luzon, they didn't make any sense. Why are they arguing now?
On one side, he received envoys from the Netherlands and Spain, and on the other side, he ordered Alimbaud to build an offensive and strictly block the Strait of Malacca and the Strait of Makassar... As long as these two straits are not lost, it is useless for them to be angry.
Sure enough, the Dutch and Spanish colonists were unwilling to fail and came back, but they were easily defeated and finally had to admit defeat.
Coupled with the rise of England and France at that time, the two old colonial countries, the Netherlands and Spain, were under great threat from both the front and the back.
The Netherlands has mentioned before that they fought three battles with England, and although they won two of them, they were all misfortunes. The third Anglo-Dutch war almost cost the capital.
Spain also competes with Britain, France and other countries for maritime hegemony. In the sixteenth century, the Spanish Armada was defeated by the British and lost its status as a maritime power.
In the seventeenth century, Spain lost to France in the land war, which led to the loss of its status as a land power. Then the Strait of Gibraltar was lost to Britain, and even Portugal got rid of its rule.
So by the eighteenth century, Spain was already in decline. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, it even lost most of its colonies.
So these two countries look fierce, but in fact they are both declining and dying.
After losing two battles in a row, they no longer dared to call out to the Qing Dynasty. They had to recognize the Qing Dynasty's right to rule Malacca, Luzon, etc., and were willing to sign an agreement with the Qing Dynasty, hoping to continue doing business.
Xiang Nan was generous and agreed to the matter.
(End of this chapter)