Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1962 Salalah

"Fire! Fire! Send those damned Moors to hell!" On a "Star" class light cruiser, the gunner walked past each gun position one by one, patting the shoulders of the gunners with his big palm-like hands , while shouting: "These Moors, who are overwhelmed, still refuse to withdraw from the Swahili coast and give up their interests in East Africa. We will teach them how to behave now, a bunch of stupid guys!"

As his words fell, the artillery began to show off, pouring a large number of shells onto the coast.Those who fired were heavy artillery with a long range, and most of them fired large-caliber shells, so the buildings on the pier by the shore were quickly smashed to pieces, and the Moors in the buildings also ran away with their heads in their arms. .

And not far from them, there are three other warships firing, and one of them is even a battleship made by the Portuguese in Goa, with more than [-] cannons, which are also excitedly sending shells to the Moors on the head.They played so happily that it seemed that they wanted to vent their depression of being expelled by the Moors.

Yes, this is the Arabian Sea, off the coast of Salalah Port, Muscat Sultanate, where several warships from the East-Portuguese Combined Fleet in the Indian Ocean tried their hand and sank two Omani ships with a small tonnage. Whether these two ships were merchant ships, warships, or pirate ships is unclear, and the Moors seem to be all three in this respect-then rushed directly into this port and destroyed the poor Xi's ten outdated coastal fire artillery completely exposed this relatively prosperous port to the threat of artillery.

The Omanis on shore were unable to fight back against this.Their horses and scimitars cannot threaten the men at sea, and the range of their muskets and cannons (some of which were even sold to them by the people on the east coast) is far from reaching the warships moored in the harbor, so they can only be blindly passive. After being beaten, after paying heavy casualties, he finally receded with hatred and disappeared into the desert outside the city.

The shelling continued.Three warships on the east coast and a Portuguese warship lined up, bombarding along the city's long coastline, trying to destroy every possible military building, including churches, and of course Including temples, even some religious schools are inevitable, because such institutions usually produce priests who are more terrible than soldiers.

Poor Port of Salalah is also a famous commercial port and fishing port. There are good agricultural and animal husbandry production areas nearby, and the output is quite rich. It is also an important hub for this country to connect with East Africa, but this will happen when foreign enemies invade At that time, they didn't even have the slightest ability to protect themselves. They could only let the enemy's naval guns destroy their cities and slaughter their people.There is nothing more sad than this!

After the shelling went on for almost two hours, following the order of the naval officer on the east coast who led the team, four warships and two merchant ships cruising in the open sea simultaneously lowered many small boats and began to unload personnel and supplies.Most of the supplies are military supplies such as water, tents, tools, and ammunition, while the personnel are all combatants holding muskets.

It is worth mentioning that these so-called fighters are all Rajputs wearing big turbans. They are brave fighters recruited by people from the east bank on the island of Diu and the mainland on the other side of the river. It took half a year, and then they were shipped to the sea off the port of Salalah, allowing them to go ashore to attack the Omani cities and serve the interests of the people on the east coast.

Generally speaking, the Rajputs are one of the more suitable ethnic groups in India for war.These ethnic groups, who mainly live in northwestern India, have a certain tradition of martial arts, are relatively brave, and their obedience is not bad. It is quite good to be used as cannon fodder mercenaries.And best of all, they're cheap, very cheap!People on the east bank recruited a total of 5000 Rajput soldiers, all of which cost less than [-] yuan. After forming an army, ordinary soldiers only paid about [-] yuan a month in military pay, which was unbelievably cheap.

"Let the people of the first regiment of the Diu infantry pay attention, don't mess up after landing, don't loot everywhere, gather first, stabilize the situation before planning other things. Forget it, I will write a handwritten letter to Commander Yao and let him pay attention We don’t know how many Omani soldiers are still in the port of Salalah, and whether there are any enemies outside the city, it’s better to be cautious.” The fleet commander put down the binoculars on his chest, and turned around to pay a piece of paper on the bridge. On the table, the order was written in a hurry, and then handed over to a staff officer, who was asked to take a small boat to follow the troops landing ashore immediately, and hand it over to the supreme commander of the Rajputs, the reserve on the east bank. Captain Yao and Captain Yao.

The sun gradually rose to the top of the head.Even at sea, the weather became very hot. The Rajput soldiers who landed in small boats braved the bad weather and tried their best to finally reach the coast.Fortunately, there were no muskets and cannons waiting for them on the coast, nor Arab cavalry with bright armor, but only panicked citizens of Salalah Port.They had just recovered from a shocking naval bombardment, and then they saw a large group of Indians with turbans and beards rushing over with rifles in hand, so they exploded all at once.

Commander Yao Tong Yao once participated in the battle against the French in the Netherlands - in fact, those who participated in that war were promoted one after another in the army system on the east coast - they still have experience, so they immediately used Chinese Give orders to other officers on the east coast, immediately arrange the formation, control the entire port area, and then advance to other areas, and then control the entire city.

As it turns out, their caution was justified.Because just when they took control of the port area and began to advance to other areas of the city, they encountered a counterattack from a group of Omanis with a number of hundreds.The uniforms of this Omani army are messy (the Omanis may not have uniform uniforms at all), and there are well-equipped regular soldiers among them, but there are also a considerable number of ordinary citizens, and even priests wearing robes are not uncommon. All of them were holding various weapons, and rushed towards the army on the east bank with a ferocious expression, intending to counterattack them into the sea and prevent this prosperous city from falling into the hands of pagans.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Although a little flustered, the Rajput soldiers of the Diu infantry regiment still started shooting.Although the sound of the gun sounds a bit uneven, not as good as the well-trained elite troops, but it is enough for this meeting. The barrage formed by a large number of musket shots directly knocked down the most violent Omanis to the ground.Next to them, dozens of naval gunners who came ashore to assist were much calmer. They loaded the ammunition with ease, and then shot the terrible cannonballs into the crowd on the opposite side, reaping countless lives at once. And directly caused the wavering of the Omanis.

Yao Tong is also an old driver. Upon seeing this, he immediately ordered the Rajput soldiers to step forward to give these Omanis a sense of oppression, and then cooperated with the naval gunners to continue shooting. It didn't take long to completely destroy these counterattackers. , wiped out the last formed resistance force in the city.

And after this wave is over, the rest is basically hard to call a battle, and it may be more appropriate to call it a security incident.Because the Omanis only dared to use the complex terrain to attack the people on the east bank on the street, but after the enraged Indians expanded their attack area and slaughtered all the Omanis in the nearby blocks, even this kind of security attack disappeared. .At the same time, the Omanis in the city also began to flee outside the city, because they saw that these Indian pagans in big turbans were too cruel, so they dispelled the last chance of staying in the city and began to flee outside the city. And the people on the east bank did not prohibit this at all: it is good that they are all gone, it is convenient for us to rob!

The port of Salalah is actually relatively wealthy.First of all, this is a relatively important agricultural production area in the Muscat Sultanate. It is rich in wheat, dates, melons and fruits, tobacco, cattle and sheep, and frankincense, and the output and quality are not bad.The reason is probably because there is not much water shortage here, and the drinking water for humans and animals and agricultural irrigation water can be guaranteed in full, so it has become a well-known agricultural production area.After the Indians of the Diu Infantry Regiment took control of the entire city, they confiscated the grain, melons, fruits, cattle and sheep scattered everywhere, and at the same time controlled several major wells and springs inside and outside the city for future use. The source of food and drinking water for the officers and soldiers of the navy and army on the east coast.

In addition, Salalah Port is actually an important fishing port and commercial port.In fact, there is still a small fishing ground outside the port, and the output is still so-so. Therefore, there are many small Arabian-style fishing boats moored in the port. Now they have also been confiscated by the people on the east coast, and they plan to distribute them uniformly in the future.Among the few merchant ships in the port, except for one that was sunk by the Omanis during the attack, the other three were all captured, and they were filled with ivory, leather, coffee, medicinal materials, wood, dog head gold and other ingredients from Africa. For other special products, all of them are the spoils of the East Coast people, which should be more than enough to make up for the huge expenses of sending troops.

"After destroying this port, it will probably be a lot of trouble for the Omanis to contact the Moorish princes on the Swahili coast of East Africa. There is an East-Portuguese joint fleet on the Persian Gulf. It is the key area to be guarded. If their ships sail from there, the danger will become higher, at least it is much more difficult than starting from Salalah Port." Yao Tong looked at the devastated city and thought to himself: "But It’s cheaper for these Rajputs. I don’t know what the boss thinks, but they want to give up such a good place as Salalah Port to these Indians, let them immigrate here, settle and live here , doing business, fighting the Omanis, serving our interests on the east coast, it is strange."

In other words, in order to dominate the interests of the Swahili coast of East Africa and eliminate the influence of the Muscat Sultanate on the local Moorish princes, the people on the east coast have really thought of many ways in recent years, one of which is to directly occupy Mas. The Sultanate of Carter is a country with a population of only a few hundred thousand.However, considering the country's unique geography, climate and other factors, as well as the complex local tribal and religious relations, it is not to say that the direct conquest of the people on the east coast will not succeed, but it may be protracted and exhausted by the endless security wars. Naturally, the expenses will be astonishingly large, which is very uneconomical in terms of the ratio of input to output.

Therefore, they must find a local agent to conduct indirect rule, so as to reap the greatest benefits.In view of the limited knowledge of the local people on the east coast and other ulterior factors, it was finally decided to relocate the Rajputs on Diu Island to the Omani territory as much as possible, and let them settle there. Root down, and continue to fight and fight with the Omanis for the right to survive in the local area.

There is no doubt that once the Rajputs really go to the Arabian Peninsula, they will definitely be completely vassalized on the east bank politically, economically and militarily, and the Portuguese can only stand aside and cannot exert any influence.And the people on the east bank also believed that with their relatively brave character and the limited material and military assistance of the people on the east coast, they should be able to defeat the local Moorish "desert gang" and successfully gain a foothold, and then Xu Tu expansion.

As for the vacancy left on Diu Island after they moved away, people from the east coast will naturally fill in the gap. This kind of blood-changing trick has been played by people from the east coast many times in history, and they will play it again in northwest India. It's also normal.And this strategy seems to be supported by the local people, increasing a certain proportion of foreign population in northwestern India (even making some areas full of foreign population), artificially creating ethnic antagonism, for the West Indian Ocean strategy of the East Coast Republic of China It was originally a very important part, but now it is just officially implemented.

(End of this chapter)