Emperor Ming Dynasty

Goa, Governor's Palace.

With the defeat of the Netherlands, Portugal lost a series of trade points on the east coast of India, leaving only Goa and other west coast colonial points.

Compared with Macau in China, Portugal's colony in India is hundreds of times larger, with a population of more than 30.

In order to keep Goa, Portugal not only has heavy troops in Goa, but also builds a naval base and encourages marriages.

Moreover, in accordance with Portuguese rules, an Inquisition was set up to force the indigenous people to believe in Catholicism.

As a result, it can be regarded as completely stabilizing the rule of the West Coast and avoiding the defeat of the colony.

Governor Antonio Don Castro wore tights and flat boots, and like ordinary Portuguese, he had a full beard.

At this time, in front of the long table, sat several nobles, and a judge of the Inquisition, wearing a white robe that was extremely conspicuous.

"Gentlemen, according to intelligence, the war between the Kingdom of Ceylon and the Kingdom of Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka is imminent."

The governor tapped the table with his fingers, attracting everyone's attention. He said in a deep voice, "I don't know what we can do for it?"

These words broke the silence.

The priest remained silent until he said, "If the Kingdom of Ceylon can convert, I suggest that the governor support them."

"It's unlikely." The governor rubbed his eyes: "This king claims to be a member of the royal family of the Ming Dynasty, and he is unwilling to convert. He has always been stubborn."

"The Dutch support the Kingdom of Jaffna."

At this time, a burly man who looked more like a soldier than an aristocrat said:

"We have lost so many trade points. If the Kingdom of Ceylon is used to deal with Jaffna, then northern Sri Lanka will become the kingdom's stronghold again."

"It's definitely a blow to the Dutch."

"But the Dutch will not turn a blind eye."

At this time, another nobleman said: "The Dutch have all the characteristics of a civilized country, muskets, troops, and powerful ships, which are incomparable to the Kingdom of Ceylon."

As he spoke, he continued to add: "The Dutch transported 2000 Tamil slaves from South India last year, and the strength of Colombo's troops reached [-]."

"It only takes 1000 people, or even 500 people, to penetrate the entire Kingdom of Ceylon."

"That's right." These words resonated, and then said:
"If it was before, Ceylon was only fighting with the Kingdom of Jaffna, taking into account the relationship with the Ming Dynasty, so the Dutch would still be reserved, but now that the interests of the Dutch are touched, they will definitely not sit idly by..."

These words have been recognized by many people.

"But this is a rare and good opportunity." The burly man said excitedly: "For Goa, if there is the Kingdom of Ceylon in front, Goa can avoid the Dutch covet."

"Moreover, using Ceylon to consume the strength of the Dutch, and trading some weapons and gunpowder can make the Dutch lose face. Isn't this a good deal?"

The governor coughed at this time: "Gentlemen, the Kingdom of Sealand is the key to us leveraging the Dutch rule in Sri Lanka. Of course we can't support it on the surface, but we can in the dark."

"The Dutch won't say anything without evidence."

"Besides, the Kingdom of Ceylon is from the Ming Dynasty, and the Dutch offended the Ming people, which is also good for the empire..."

With the Governor's support, limited support was passed.

At the port, when Zhu Ci learned of the arrival of a large ship, he realized that what he said was true.

This is indeed a large ship, one or two times the size of an ordinary merchant ship.

Although many artillery pieces were covered, the style of its warships could not be changed.

"My Majesty the King, I heard that you are about to go to war, so I specially sent you a gift."

The old acquaintance, Captain John, smiled and opened his arms.

Zhu Ci walked over and also smiled: "It seems that you are the one who spread the news. What did you bring today?"

"One thousand matchlock guns, ten thousand catties of gunpowder."

John whispered: "This is a rare boutique in Goa. It took me half a month to get it together."

"It's interesting enough!"

Zhu Ci looked at the barrels of gunpowder, opened them, and touched them very delicately.

As for those matchlock guns, they seemed to have been specially scrubbed. Although they were second-hand, they were also the best of the second-hand.

From the perspective of matchlock weaving, it is also made of fine linen, and the linen spinning industry in India is very developed.

This is really different from the past.

"It seems that you really worked hard this trip, so it was just a matter of laxity in the past?"

There was a smile on the corner of Zhu Ci's mouth, as if I had known you for a long time.

"How can it be?" John hurriedly said, "Isn't it easy to get it recently? It's out of stock at other times."

"It's a good product, I'll add [-]% to the price."

Zhu Ci said solemnly: "However, I hope to have artillery, which is enough to attack the city."

"This?" John was puzzled: "The artillery is a military supply, and the artillery factory in Goa is a limited benefit..."

After Macao was recovered by Ming Dynasty, although some people went to settle in Taiwan, most of the capitalists moved to Goa together with the gun factory.

After all, they are still masters here in Goa.

"John, don't hide it anymore, Goa sent you!"

"Hahaha, I really can't hide it from you." John laughed, without any embarrassment:

"They knew you were going to fight the Dutch, and they couldn't sleep in the middle of the night with excitement, and they were afraid of offending the Dutch, so they asked me to sell you some arms."

Zhu Ci was stunned, and then his face tensed: "The Dutch are coming?"

"As far as I know, the Dutch are already mobilizing, with at least three ships and five hundred sailors."

John suggested:
"You'd better take the kingdom of Jaffna right away."

"The Dutch are all mercenaries, and they are very good at sea, but after landing on land, once the death rate is too high, the army will retreat."

"That's why the Governor of Goa said that as long as you can take down the Kingdom of Jaffna as soon as possible and hold the city for a few days, the Dutch will definitely retreat..."

Hearing this suggestion, Zhu Ci hurriedly thanked him.

Immediately, he held a court meeting.

The Kingdom of Ceylon now has no cabinet, only six ministers.

Among them, Zhu Ding, the second child, was in charge of the Ministry of War and commanded [-] troops from Ceylon.

In the past few years, they fought in the South and the North. Although they fought against some small tribal aristocrats, in the end they trained an army.

The officers were basically domestic slaves and Han people, and the soldiers came from the indigenous tribes that had surrendered from the beginning.

That is, the large and small tribes centered on the Mannar Peninsula.

They can do business, serve as officials, and join the army.

On the other hand, the newly conquered tribes last year and this year can only farm and pay taxes, becoming the bottom squeezed.

The natives were artificially divided into two parts.

If people are forcibly pulled, the army can be expanded to tens of thousands at any time.

The youngest, Zhu Yong, controls the household department and is responsible for civil affairs and taxation.

Sun Bai, the only child who popularized knowledge, served as the Ministry of Rites.

The family slaves Zhu Cheng and Zhu Gong belonged to the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Officials respectively.

As for the final punishment department, it was held by an aboriginal.

His previous name was changed to Zhu Meng.

After all, this kind of internal contradiction is most suitable for the indigenous people to judge.

In order to consolidate the ruling foundation and expand trust at the same time, Zhu Ci often adopts the model of giving surnames, asking those Tamil businessmen to give the surname Zhu to show that they are a family.

So as soon as this meeting started, it was immediately an internal meeting of the Zhu family.

"It can be said that it is tolerable or unbearable, and there is a saying that how can you allow others to sleep soundly on the side of the couch? Jaffna is benevolent and righteous, and his government is harsh."

"This is what God bestowed on me, Ceylon."

Zhu Ci raised his head and said: "Starting from today, I will start a big conscription. I will conquer Jaffna with a large army, and completely lay the foundation of my Ceylon for eternity..."

From the moment it landed on the main island, Ceylon planned Jaffna. After several years of fighting in the north and south, it was finally time to resolve it.

At this time, everyone is in high spirits, and words will win.

No wonder they were so happy.

If you compare the Indian Peninsula with Ceylon, then Ceylon is a rural area.

If you compare the Mannar Peninsula of the Kingdom of Ceylon with the Jaffna Peninsula, Ceylon is a rural area.

Before the Portuguese arrived in Sri Lanka, the Kingdom of Jaffna sailed to the Arabian Peninsula, Africa, and Bangladesh.

The Portuguese directly mobilized [-] troops for the expedition to Jaffna, which was considered to have broken its backbone.

As a result, the Dutch picked up a ready-made one.

Grain, tobacco, coconut, and mango are collected and distributed here, and ivory and precious stones are its main goods.

The kingdom of Jaffna counts 10 people, and its capital can be described as extremely prosperous.

In this case, the Kingdom of Ceylon at this time is like a small Bangzhou at the end of the Shang Dynasty, and Jaffna is the Dayi Shang.

But Ceylon's strength lies in its centralization.

Although the Kingdom of Jaffna has a large country and occupies the entire northern part of Sri Lanka, it cannot support a large number of nobles to divide the territory.

And Ceylon, which is small, can explode tens of thousands of troops in a short period of time.

Three days later, Zhu Ci, who couldn't wait for the cannon, left with an army of [-] in a mighty way to conquer the Kingdom of Jaffna, which was [-] miles away.

When Ceylon moved, Colombo, who was always paying attention to its movements, knew it immediately.

After two hours of discussion, the Dutch decided to send [-] sailors to help Jaffna defend the city.

The best thing is to capture the King of Ceylon and make him a puppet, thus completely controlling the northern part of Sri Lanka.

As soon as Zhu Ci's army moved, those nobles, big and small, couldn't resist at all, and could only surrender.

Of course, most people fled to the Jaffna Peninsula, where the essence of the Jaffna Kingdom lies.

Marching thirty miles a day, after staying for five days, the army arrived at the border of the Jaffna Peninsula.

Thousands of Jaffna soldiers guard the border.

While at sea, two Dutch warships were wandering.

"The Dutch came too soon."

Zhu Ci frowned.

He looked from above, and these Jaffna soldiers were not wearing armor.

It's a blessing.

After all, in the hot and humid Sri Lanka, wearing armor can make people sultry.

But Ceylon is different. The number of soldiers with simple leather armor reached 3000.

On the battlefield, leather armor is still armor no matter how thin it is.

As for muskets, they are even rarer, no more than one or two hundred.

Ceylon, on the other hand, has [-] strokes, which can be described as an overwhelming advantage.

In such a narrow place, no tricks can be used, only hard fights.

"Attack—"

The military music was played, and the musketeers stepped forward, adopting the Portuguese style of marching, and kept moving forward.

crackling-

The people of Jaffna couldn't bear it, and immediately opened fire.

After several shots, the distance reached a hundred steps. Zhu Ci was afraid that the army's morale would collapse, so he immediately ordered to shoot.

At this time, the muskets of the Jaffna people had already been emptied of gunpowder, and they could only be forced to be beaten.

As the distance shortened, the casualties also continued to increase.

At fifty paces, the musketeers ran out of gunpowder, and the people of Jaffna fled in a panic after leaving about [-] dead bodies.

Morale collapsed——

The entire army immediately dispersed into wild boars and fled.

"Well, I still overestimated it."

"Army attack--"

Thousands of people also lost their formation at this time, and they couldn't wait to start the chase.

Many native soldiers took a breath after running for a while, and had no intention of moving forward at all. They just took a prisoner and sat down without leaving.

Only the elite soldiers who practiced frequently continued to pursue.

And those Jaffna people were even more exaggerated. They fled extremely fast.

"Really!"

Zhu Ci wiped his sweat, this victory was too sudden.

He turned his head and glanced at the sea again. Why didn't those Dutchmen get involved?
Otherwise, victory is still uncertain.

The moments that followed were delightful.

The army went smoothly all the way, heading straight for hundreds of miles to Jaffna city.

Only then did Zhu Ci see the figure of the Dutchman.

The city of Jaffna is built along the sea, and the Dutch ships are cruising on the sea, and the rows of artillery are daunting.

At the same time, the same is true on the top of the city. There are already twenty cannons that he can't see.

Some Dutch people are also on the alert at the head of the city.

How is this played?
Looking at the scuffle in the past few days, Zhu Ci has lost confidence in his side.

The artillery and the elite Dutch mercenaries once fought, the speed of defeat was even more astonishing.

He glanced at the nobles around him, all of whom were respectful and humble, but if the siege failed, he would retreat as quickly as he advanced.

"You can't fight, you can't gamble."

Zhu Ci pondered.

"As the so-called attacking the army, the second is to attack the enemy, and the next is to attack the army, and the second is to attack the city. Siege is the next choice."

Immediately, Zhu Ci asked the nobles to write letters to the city, asking the nobles to open the city gate and promise to keep the land.

And threatened that once the city is broken, not a single blade of grass will be left.

Afterwards, he enlisted strong men, asked them to surround Jaffna, and artificially built a moat for them.

As a result, Jaffna became an isolated city.

For the tens of thousands of people in the city, food was in short supply immediately.

After all, no one expected that this battle would be defeated so quickly.

The kingdom that was able to confront Portugal in the past has fallen into such a situation.

The Dutch supported food at the beginning, and also sent troops to defeat the Ceylons on land.

But Zhu Ci had no confidence, so he could only avoid and not fight, purely wanting to consume the food in the city.

Seeing this, the Dutch sent another 500 people.

It's a pity that Zhu Ci still avoided the battle. When he saw the Dutch taking out their artillery, he guarded the camp and did not come out, retreating at any time.

Half a month later, the city ran out of food.

The Dutch had to retreat to the surface.

(End of this chapter)