Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 470: Successful Raid on Shalian
On April 2, 1621, Xu Xianchun arrived at Yangon Port. He was accompanied by Jinyiwei Commander Tian Ergeng, Singapore Garrison Commander Du Youning, a fleet of 5 Beizhili-class ships and 15 Jinling-class ships, and the first batch of Ming marines with a strength of 3,000 people, which were trained by Zhang Hong who had just returned from a long voyage to America, on 20 transport ships.
The Singapore Garrison alone does not have so many warships. In fact, half of the fleet led by Du Youning are new ships that have just been launched from the Binhai and Changsha shipyards. After Tian Ergeng received the order to go south, he took them directly from the shipyard.
Along the way, because they had to receive new ships and go to Taiwan to pick up Zhang Hong's marines, the schedule was a little slow. From the time Tian Ergeng set out to the time he arrived at Yangon Port, the entire journey took nearly fifty days.
During these fifty days, Xu Xianchun experienced a life-and-death test: At first, he thought that he had only smoked three times and it would not be difficult to quit smoking. However, as the time of quitting smoking increased, the desire for the pleasure of smoking became stronger and stronger, and the desire to smoke opium became stronger and stronger.
Fortunately, he was a determined and ruthless person. He was ruthless to others and himself. In addition, Tian Ergeng supervised him all the time. So although he felt uncomfortable like a cat scratching his heart and lungs, and sweated all over his body, he managed to endure it .
"Hey, Brother Tian, I now understand why the emperor reacted so strongly when he heard about this. It is really difficult to quit smoking. I consider myself a strong-willed person, but it is so hard. For ordinary people, once they get addicted, it is really not easy to quit."
"Yes, fortunately Brother Xu managed to make it through this. I admire your tenacity."
"I am ashamed. I have lived a foolish life for more than 30 years, but I almost fell into drugs. If it weren't for Brother Tian's supervision along the way, I don't know..."
"Hey, Brother Xu, you don't have to be like this. If the emperor hadn't pointed out the secret of opium, ordinary people like us would really not know what it is."
"Hmph, I will definitely give that ruthless Spaniard a good beating this time."
On the night of the 2nd, the fleet was anchored outside Yangon Harbor, and then they quietly sneaked into Yangon. After entering the city, they found that opium had already begun to flood the city. Not only had the scale of the Spanish opium dens expanded a lot, but the public security in the city had also declined significantly - in order to get drug money, even the garrison here began to secretly go out and rob!
As for the Jinyiwei here? Even after Xu Xianchun left, Luo Sigong, who was in charge of this place, had become addicted to smoking. What else could you expect them to do?
Xu Xianchun and others who saw this scene became even more determined to strike back with an iron fist.
Under the command of Zhang Hong, the Marine Corps, landed more than ten miles south of Yangon Port in the early morning. Then they attacked the Yangon Daming Army . They successfully controlled all friendly forces. After that, they quickly controlled the Yangon government office.
The Marine Corps was established for more than a year. Zhang Hong conducted strict training according to Zhu Youdong's instructions and the opinions of the military leaders. Although this was the first attack on friendly forces, the mission was finally completed quickly and well: the new army of the Ming Dynasty stationed in Yangon Port, although opium did erode this group. But thanks to the long-term training in the early years, it was completely instinctive for the soldiers here to obey their superiors. Therefore, even if they saw friendly forces attacking them, they saw that their officers showed cooperation and obedience, so these soldiers did not resist - not only did they not resist, but the whole process was very quiet, and did not alarm the Spaniards on the other side of the river at all.
So, late at night on April 3, the Ming Marines successfully landed in Shalian.
This place was previously developed by the Portuguese. Due to the limitations of national strength and population, Portugal basically occupied only one point when developing colonies abroad, and then relied on this point for armed trade activities. Generally speaking, the strength of these strongholds is not great. For example, in a stronghold far away from the mainland like Thanlyin, the Portuguese only deployed more than 500 soldiers and two warships here.
After Spain annexed Portugal, especially after Philip ascended the throne, the importance of the eastern strongholds increased. However, since Spain's main focus was still on Europe, even the colonies, the American colonies were much more important than the scattered strongholds in Africa. Even in Asia, the Philippines was the focus of the Spanish. Therefore, strongholds such as Thanlyin only changed the governor and added two 600-ton warships.
With such a huge gap in power and the Ming army's good planning, the battle was of course going smoothly. They started at 9:00 p.m. on the 3rd, and by 11:30 p.m., the entire Shalian was under the control of the Ming army. The four Spanish warships in the port heard the commotion on the shore and hurriedly prepared to sail out of the port, but before the happy officers and soldiers on the shore could return to board the ships, the artillery fire from the Ming warships completely buried them.
"Commander Tian, Shalian has been captured by our army. All white people, except those who were shot dead during the arrest, have been controlled. Du Youning will report to you later on the results of the battle on the water. So far, a total of 35 enemy soldiers have been killed and 868 prisoners have been captured in the battle on land. Among them are Shalian Governor Silva and opium dealer Fernando."
"Good! Thank you for your hard work, brothers in the Marine Corps. What about our casualties?"
"Fortunately, three people were killed and six were injured."
"Hiss~Commander Zhang trains good soldiers!"
"No, it was all given by the Emperor and the seniors in the army."
"In short, Lieutenant General Zhang is a good leader. So, please take the trouble to arrange ten brothers for me to interrogate these Spaniards. To be honest, more than four months have passed since the opium entered the country in early November last year. I don't know how many of the Jinyiwei stationed here have been involved in drugs..."
"I understand. I will make arrangements for you right away. But, Commander, what about these prisoners?"
"According to the Emperor's order, we must do our best to sow discord between the Spanish and Portuguese. So, what I mean is that the Portuguese who have not committed any murder or are not involved in the opium trade will be escorted out of the country with courtesy. As for the Spanish, haha." At this point, Tian Ergeng smiled cruelly: "Let's interrogate them first. Those who sell drugs will be publicly executed by skinning. If they have not committed any serious crimes, cut off their thumbs and ears and escort them out of the country with courtesy."
"Yes, I will obey your order. I will immediately ask the military police to intervene and begin identification and interrogation."
…
"Your servant Tian Ergeng reported to the Emperor that on the night of April 3rd in the third year of the Tianqi reign, with the help of Marine Lieutenant General Zhang Hong and Singapore Garrison Commander Du Youning, we attacked Than Lian at night and completed the declaration of war 20 minutes before the battle. The Westerners were unable to react in time, and our army won a complete victory with very few casualties... After being interrogated overnight, the Western Governor of Than Lian, Silva, confessed that he had sold poppy seeds to many Burmese princes and nobles, and even the Burmese king himself was involved. The opium dealer Fernando confessed that the import of opium into our overseas states was indeed directly ordered by the king of that country... Your subordinates searched the two thieves' lair and found more than 13,000 gold coins, Shuangzhu and our Ming More than 156,000 silver dollars and 786 jin and 3 liang of opium of various types. In the basement of the thief's lair, 137 Burmese and Mon women and 355 underage teenagers and children were found. Women were generally humiliated, and even children were molested. The vicious faces of the Westerners were exposed... After the interrogation, according to the instructions given by the emperor in advance, several public trials were held in Shalian and Yangon to inform the local people of the crimes of the Westerners and preach the harm of opium. Fernando was also tortured to death in the central square of Yangon. All the opium was destroyed on the beach and all the opium dens were closed.
After a detailed investigation, it was found that in the past four months, there were more than 2,300 Han, Burmese, and Mon officials and civilians in Yangon and Thanlyin who smoked opium. I have urgently arranged for personnel to build a smoking ban hall to force the above personnel to detoxify. According to the emperor's order, they were tattooed on their buttocks as a warning.
In addition, I have learned that opium has flowed into Singapore. I have sent a communication ship to urgently command Peng Ziqin and other colleagues in Singapore to conduct a thorough search in the local area. I have also organized a team to go to Alu to negotiate with the King of Myanmar. I demand that tobacco cultivation be banned throughout Myanmar. In short, we must do our utmost to eradicate the evil!
Yangon and Thanlyin have now been merged. Magistrate Hong has also returned and is organizing local soldiers and civilians to build fortress turrets in preparation for the invasion of the western bandits.
Your humble servant Tian Ergeng presents this petition with a hundred kowtows, dated April 18, the third year of the Tianqi reign."
