The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 1 Hormuz Island ([-])

In the 17th year of the Taiping Period of the Qi Dynasty (1721), August [-], Hormuz Island.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..."

Lieutenant Li Yanliang of the Army Corps strictly followed the infantry drill, covered his ears with his hands, opened his mouth, and sat on the side of the ship, waiting for the bombardment to end.Not far away from him, a group of veterans seemed to be completely unaware of the fierce bombardment of the fleet. They were leaning on the side of the ship one by one, looking with interest at the small island in front of them that was constantly being bombarded.

"Well, it should be almost done. This shelling is enough for the Omanis on the island to drink a pot!"

"I think it would be better to continue the bombardment for a while and kill all the Omanis on the island. Then after we land, we can safely take over the island."

"That's right. Anyway, the navy is so rich. It's better to fire a few more rounds than to go to the island and fight those Omanis."

"I guess we won't be able to fight for a few more rounds. Listen, the pace of the shelling seems to have slowed down. ... Is it time to land?"

"Well, we are about to land. Look, the warships in front have begun to put down the servant troops in Mozhou (today's Katiava Peninsula, India). ... After they land, it will be our turn ”

"..."

Li Yanliang sat up, turned around, leaned on the side of the ship, and looked forward.

I saw that the warships at the front had stopped shelling, and nets were hung on the sides of the ships. Black and thin Mozhou servants were clumsily climbing towards the landing boats below.The entire scene was either crowded or in a hurry. From time to time, soldiers fell into the water, flopping vigorously and shouting for help. The scene was noisy and chaotic.

There was a look of disdain on Li Yanliang's lips. These Mozhou servants who were shipped from India probably didn't have much training in landing operations on weekdays. They just followed the Indian garrison and bullied the princes from various parts of India. Their majesty.

Now, they were hurriedly pulled in by the Persian fleet (part of the Indian fleet) and went directly into the war against the Ariba dynasty of Oman.Maybe during the entire battle, more people would fall into the sea and be drowned than were killed by the enemy.

"Beep beep..."

A sharp whistle blew. Yu Yuanbin, commander of the second company of the 106th Regiment's [-]rd Mixed Battalion and captain of the Imperial Martial Arts School, glanced coldly at the officers and soldiers on the deck who were ready for readiness, nodded slightly, and then waved. The order: "Start logging in!"

In 1717, Sultan bin Saif II of the Kingdom of Oman took advantage of the chaos and disputes in the Safavid dynasty of Persia and began to invade parts of their Arabian coast up to the port of Qatif.By the end of the year, the Omanis crossed the strait and landed on the Bahrain Islands, annihilating the Persian defenders. From the governor to ordinary officials, as well as many upper-class Arab vassals, they were all hanged. Bahrain was also declared the Sultanate of Oman. a part of.

Bin Saif II established a naval base in Bahrain and then began to aggressively occupy the islands in the Gulf (Persian Gulf).In August last year (1720), the Omanis captured Qishm Island (Qeshm Island) and drove the Dutch out.In the same year, several Omani teams, under the cover of the navy, began to launch frequent armed attacks on Persian coastal towns and ports in the Gulf.

In less than five years, the Omanis controlled almost the entire gulf. With more than [-] large and small ships owned by their navy, they guarded the key points leading to various garrison strongholds.Bahrain, Hormuz, Qeshm and other islands have become their naval bases. In addition to constantly harassing the Persian coastal areas, the Omanis also plundered merchant ships passing by, greatly disrupting local maritime trade.

As the maritime overlord in the Indian Ocean region and the defender of the trade order in the region, Qi naturally could not sit back and watch the Omanis so unscrupulously destroy the existing peaceful and stable trade environment, and began to set its sights on the Gulf region.

A few years ago, when the Omanis sought hegemony in the Gulf with an aggressive attitude, the reason why Qi failed to intervene in time was mainly due to a temporary lack of energy and being held back by two simultaneous wars.

In October of the 11th year of the Qi Dynasty (1715), Qi State launched a war against the Kingdom of Aceh Sultan located at the northern end of Sumatra Island on the pretext that its businessmen and people were innocently killed.In less than two months, the Qi army captured nearly half of Aceh's territory, and in December of that year, they occupied the capital and royal palace of Aceh. Sultan Mahmoud Phosai was forced to withdraw to the mountains, and died soon after.

However, the stubborn Acehnese people continued to resist under the leadership of their successor Sultan and the leader of the True God Cult, Duima Uddin. With the terrain of high mountains and dense forests, they launched frequent and cruel guerrilla wars with the Qi army. The determined Qi army suffered a lot.

In order to completely conquer this small country, Qi State not only recruited many vassal states such as Jambi, Kanbaru, Johor, Jeddah, and Perak to send troops to participate in the war, but also mobilized the armies of three vassal states including Shunguo, Ha Tien, and Champa. This brought the number of participants in the war to more than [-], and they made every effort to wipe out the Acehnese resistance forces.

In June of the 13th year of Taiping in the Qi Dynasty (1717), the Qi army, under the guidance of an Aceh tribe leader who had taken refuge, captured the Sultan of Aceh near Lake Toba, killed Duima Uddin, the leader of the True God Cult, and completely annihilated the area. There are more than [-] Aceh resistance troops.

Subsequently, the people of Qi deposed and placed the captured Aceh Sultan under house arrest, and re-selected a "wise" and "cunning" prince from the Aceh royal family to succeed the Sultan.

After the Kingdom of Aceh was settled, before Qi could take a breath, another trouble broke out in India.

In the 1714th year of peace (12), under the auspices of Qi, the Maratha Kingdom signed the "Langnavala Treaty" with the Mughal Empire, ending the [-]-year armed conflict between the two parties. Legally, it acquired the territory of the five Deccan provinces and became the largest power in India after the Mughal Empire.

The "Langnavala Contract" is considered a "milestone event in Maratha history", and the reputation of the kingdom's Parshva (i.e. Prime Minister) Balaji Viswanath is also used in the Maratha Kingdom. It reached its highest point, and the ambition and desire that arose from it also expanded to the extreme.

March to Delhi, completely replace the Mughal Empire, depose the emperor of the empire, and establish a unified and great Maratha Empire in the vast Indian continent!
In July of the 14th year of Taiping (1718), Balaji Viswanath declared to all the Marathas: "Use our most tenacious strength to violently shake the withered tree trunk, then the tree above will The branches and leaves will fall off on their own. The Maratha flag should fly from the Krishna to the Indus!"

The Governor-General of Qi in India was extremely shocked when he heard that the Marathas had begun mobilizing domestically and were preparing to launch a war of annihilation against the Mughal Empire.

Damn it, you made such a big fuss, why don't you ask us Qi people for their opinions? !

The Governor-General of Qi in India immediately issued a stern warning to the Marathas not to take any action to change the current regional situation. Otherwise, Qi will take resolute and powerful countermeasures.

However, the confident Marathas turned a deaf ear to Qi's warning. In their view, if they did not take advantage of their strong military strength to destroy the Mughal Empire and establish a great era for the Marathas, they would be in trouble. The rejection and punishment of the three gods (the three highest gods of Hinduism, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva).In December of the same year, 12 Maratha troops crossed the Narmada River and captured Bhopal, an important town in the Malwa Province of the Mughal Empire, kicking off the war to destroy the Mughal Empire.

In February of the 15th year of Taiping (1719), the Maratha Kingdom’s army arrived at Morena, a city in the south of Rajasthan Province, and came to the banks of the Kalmanwati River (today’s Chambal River in India), a short distance from Agra, the old capital of the Mughal Empire. Less than 120 kilometers.

At this time, Balaji Viswanath, the commander-in-chief of the Maratha Kingdom's army, received a report from the forward reconnaissance cavalry. More than [-] Mughal and Qi coalition forces had entered the small town of Tolpur on the north bank of the Kalmanwati River. , trying to stop them from continuing to advance into the core area of ​​​​the Mughal Empire.

Balaji Viswanath only hesitated for less than 5 minutes before ordering the entire army to cross the Kalmanvati River in sections. With the most determined attitude, he defeated the Qi army and captured Agra and the empire. The capital city of Delhi.

It was winter, and the water level of the Kalmanvati River was not high. Many sections of the river were only waist deep, and the cavalry could easily wade through it.When more than 5 sturdy Maratha cavalry stirred up countless waves on the river more than ten miles wide and slowly approached the other side, Balaji Viswanath believed that no force could stop them. It only takes [-] minutes for the thundering cavalry regiment to set foot on the land on the north shore and tear into pieces any army that dares to resist.

However, the proud Marathas still underestimated the combat effectiveness of the Qi army and the terrifying firepower possessed by their army.Dozens of artillery pieces continued to bombard the Maratha army that was crossing the river. Groups of musketeers lined up in dense formations stood on the north bank of the Kalmanwati River, taking their time to fire off waves of neat volleys, one after another. A roaring rocket, with a red tail flame, exploded on the river.

The Maratha cavalry who were lucky enough to rush to the beach on the north shore saw thousands of Mughal Empire and Karat Khanate cavalry rushing towards them before they could adjust their horses and attack. They waved their sharp scimitars and chopped them off one by one. Fell on the shore, and then repeatedly rushed along the river to kill the Maratha cavalry who landed later.

The entire battle lasted for two hours. The Marathas left more than [-] corpses in the Kalmanvati River. The corpses of men and horses almost blocked the entire river, and the river water was stained red with blood.

Just when Balaji Viswanath, the commander-in-chief of the Maratha Kingdom's army, retreated to Morena to rest, lick his wounds and prepare to fight another day, a piece of news that frightened him suddenly came from the rear.

The Qi people assembled nearly ten thousand garrison troops and local servants, landed at Yunyang Fort (now Navi Mumbai District, India), and then headed towards Pune, the capital of the Maratha Kingdom.It is reported that the Qi army has successively conquered several small cities such as Kopoli and Lonavala, and reached Pimpri Chinchwad, which is only a stone's throw away from Pune.

Coach Balaji Viswanath immediately abandoned the main force of the brigade and led the remaining [-] cavalry to rush to Pune.A few days later, when he rushed to the small city of Aurangabad, his eldest son Baji Rao had already led the defeated troops and carried Chhatrapati (King) Shahu I of the Maratha Kingdom from Pune. Escaped.

In anger, Balaji Viswanath fell ill and stayed in bed for more than ten days before he passed away.Baji Rao was immediately elected as the new Parshva and continued to lead the military and political affairs of the kingdom.

Although Baji Rao was only 20 years old, he followed his father in the wars in the north and south since he was a child. Under the influence, he not only grew up to be a brave and capable general, but also had the wise mind of a politician.He immediately sent an envoy to express his willingness to stop the war and hoped to restore the existing regional structure before the war.

In order to threaten the Mughal Empire and the semi-independent Bengal, and to maintain a balanced situation in the entire Indian region, Qi agreed to Baji Rao's request for an armistice.After all the Maratha troops withdrew from the Narmada River, they signed the "Pune Contract" with Baji Rao. After demanding a compensation, they withdrew from Pune and returned to Yunyang Fort with a large amount of seizures. and Shanghai (present-day Bombay).

When the Qi people thwarted the ambitions of the Marathas and once again consolidated Qi's dominant position in the Indian region, they turned their attention to the increasingly chaotic Gulf region.

Li Yanliang only graduated from Daxing Army School in June last year, and it was a pity that he could not catch up with these two wars.First, he served in the Kaihua Governorate (Java Island) and spent half a year as an officer trainee. Later, he was assigned to the Jianmen Fort (now Aden, Yemen) in the Shazhou Governorate (the jurisdiction covers the Red Sea, the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula and eastern Africa). city) serving.

Now, in order to teach the rebellious Omanis a lesson and restore normal maritime trade order in the Gulf, we, Daqi, have also been invited by the Safavid dynasty of Persia to expel the Omanis one by one from the islands and coasts they occupied. town.

To this end, the Persian Squadron of the Navy's Indian Fleet deployed eight warships, seven armed merchant ships owned by the Persian Trading Company, as well as an army mixed battalion and three battalions of Mozhou servants to launch a battle to seize the island.

When Li Yanliang's troops arrived on the island in a landing boat, the Mozhou servants had already roughly established a beachhead. The Omani soldiers stationed on the island did not take the opportunity to launch a counterattack, probably because they were afraid of being bombarded by naval guns. Take shelter in a solid fortress fortress.

After spending half a day building a stable camp, the commander-in-chief of the landing force, Lieutenant Colonel Luo Zhanping, commanded the troops to march towards the fortress held by the Omanis.

The construction of the Hormuz Fortress can be traced back to 200 years ago (1514). In order to control Eastern trade and Gulf trade, the Portuguese occupied this island city-state that was originally owned by the Kingdom of Hormuz. islands and then built fortresses from which to raid the Persian coast.Due to its early construction, this fortress did not adopt a bastion design, and its own safety relied on the strong firepower output of the defenders.

But in the entire Indian Ocean region, any country or local force that wants to compete with the Qi army in terms of firepower is simply playing a big trick in front of Guan Gong - overestimating its capabilities.

Several light speedboats, carrying several heavy guns, have slowly sailed to the shallow water area on the shore, preparing to approach and bombard the fortress on the island under the guidance of shore artillery observers.Faced with this kind of fortress built mostly of rammed earth, the Qi people did not think that the Omanis in the city could hold on for too long. As long as the city wall was blown down, the defensive will of the defenders would be shaken immediately.

All the landing troops need to do is to easily enter the city, raise the flag of Qi, then take in the prisoners and count the captured ones.

When Qi launched an attack on Hormuz Island, the Persian squadron originally wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to seize the island to attract Oman's naval fleet to assist, annihilate or severely damage their maritime power.Although they claim to have more than 300 warships, the number is extremely large, but most of the ships are small galleys with only one or two light artillery mounted on them, which cannot pose a fatal threat to the Chinese warships.

The two iron-clad warships of the Persian Squadron did not even need to rely on naval gunfire. They could sink these weak "warships" with their strong hulls and sharp collision angles.

As a result, when the Qi fleet entered the waters of Hormuz Island, it did not find a single Omani ship. They all hid back in Muscat or Bahrain Island to avoid the Qi navy's edge.

Facing the isolated and helpless defenders of Hormuz Island, the people of Qi fully believed that when the troops arrived at Hormuz Fort where they were guarding, they would raise a white flag and surrender obediently.

"Stop moving forward!...Stop moving forward!" Several shrill shouts rang out, "Line up, line up!...Get ready to engage the enemy!"

I saw Omani soldiers pouring out from the fortress in front. They shouted loudly, or held scimitars or muskets, and fiercely rushed towards the advancing Qi army.

(End of this chapter)