War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Pu Dingcha was very aware of the style of Manchu officials. He knew that not accepting bribes would make these people uneasy, so he readily accepted Qiying's bribes.

However, the British minister was very kind and gave Qiying two hundred boxes of fine "Pangong soil". Both of them felt that they had earned something from this exchange of courtesy.

A few days after the Battle of Malacca, the British consul in Malacca received the news. The Nanming side demanded that the British side recognize Nanming's ownership of Brunei and cease all hostile acts, including naval blockades and trade embargoes, otherwise it would refuse to release prisoners of war.

This letter almost made Rui, the British consul in the "Lion City" angry to death.

"Damn barbarians! They attacked our port and now they want us to give up!"

To be honest, he now has nearly 6,000 troops under his command, and he wishes he could immediately go to the island of Kalimantan and destroy those "barbarians".

However, Rui quickly calmed down and immediately asked for help from India. The Indian side quickly responded and said it would send two thousand troops, plus two battleships and a thousand Marines arriving from Hong Kong. , a total of eight warships and 3,000 army soldiers, including about 1,500 Indians.

But this is not important to Rui. What is important is that the "barbarians" are dead.

After all, the total strength of the land and sea forces in the expedition to Kalimantan this time has exceeded 4,000 people. You must know that another previous war in the East only used 7,000 people.

However, the direction of this war was not as expected by all parties. The British were still very efficient at this time, and soon a huge fleet assembled on the coast of Brunei.

In some respects, the British were very reasonable. For example, before the official war between the two sides began, Lieutenant General Polis, who was in charge of the expedition, sent an envoy to deliver an ultimatum to Zhu Qiongying.

The captured British soldiers were handed over within a seven-day deadline, and a compensation of 10 million taels of silver was required. Brunei and West Borneo were handed over to the British, and they agreed to trade, etc.

Zhu Qiongying didn't want to agree to anyone. She still remembered the strategy Franz told her, luring the enemy deep and beating the dogs behind closed doors.

"Sir James Brooke, please reply to Hugh Gough, commander of your expeditionary force. I thank him for his kindness, but I will not agree to any of the above conditions.

I hope that the two countries can coexist peacefully, but if he insists on doing so, he will take it from me through strength, not threats. "

Zhu Qiongying's English is very poor, so she spoke in Dutch, which surprised the other party and even doubted whether she heard correctly.

James Brooke admired the courage of the oriental woman in front of him very much, but this provocative reply seemed unintended.

"Goodbye, Your Majesty the Queen." James Brooke did not kneel down, but only took off his hat in salute. This was his pride as a Western white man, and he would not kneel down even when facing the Manchu emperor.

However, Nanming officials did not force him to make him feel that he had won.

The meeting between the two parties was simple and clear, without any sloppiness.

The Nanming officials in the main hall were not divided into two factions as imagined, but were all the main fighting faction. After all, it was an old tradition of the Ming Dynasty not to cede territory, not to pay indemnities, and for the emperor to guard the country.

Emperor Chongzhen was deeply affected by this. At that time, Yu Qian said, "Anyone who talks about migrating southward will be killed!" This rule was established.

A group of "veteran ministers" from the Southern Ming Dynasty began to frantically offer suggestions and strategies, such as iron cables across the river, driving wooden piles, sending people to dig out the bottom of British ships, and other tactics found in the Water Margin storybook.

The other faction is more pessimistic. They are willing to die for Nanming and are preparing to move their whole family to Mara Port to fight the British army to the death.

Especially some of the immigrants from the Qing Dynasty who had just defected, and among them were some guilty Manchus. Their hatred and despair for the British far exceeded the demands of others to fight to the end.

But at this time, Zhu Qiongying announced a major event, which was to abandon the defense of Mara Port.

You must know that Mala Port has forts and fortresses built by the British. It can even be said to be the strongest city on the entire island of Kalimantan.

Everyone expressed confusion. Some people proposed burning the Mara Port, leaving no brick or tile for the British, so that they would have to rebuild the port and supply points, which would delay the British army's advance.

The island of Kalimantan has a tropical rainforest climate, which is hot and humid, with a lot of miasma, and plague will inevitably occur over time. They can use Meng Huo's method of dealing with Fang Geliang to drag the British on the island and let the other side retreat without a fight.

However, Zhu Qiongying rejected this answer. They would leave Mara Port intact to the British because it was the best port in the entire northern part of Kalimantan. If the British were defeated, they would still need to use it, so they could not burn it.

This made everyone's hearts skip a beat. You must know that the British had almost no defeats in the east and west. The Dutch, their most feared enemy, were also defeated by the former.

Hugh Gough received Nan Ming's formal reply. He tore the letter into pieces with a smile, and then chopped it into two pieces.

"These damn savages, they are just like Sir Ruy said, they are a disgrace to mankind. How dare a woman give orders to men! I want to pin this woman down like I did in Guangzhou, let Let her experience how powerful our Western men are!

gentlemen! Go and ravage! Go trample! Those damn savages deserve no sympathy, they are just beasts that look like humans! Long live the British Empire! "

This Hugh Gough who spoke obscene military orders was one of the main villains who resisted the British in the Sanyuan novel at that time. It is said that it was this man who allowed his soldiers to do evil, but he was not killed by the hero like in the novel. head, but lived well to the age of ninety.

He was originally sent to India to deal with the growing threat from the Sikh Empire, but a war suddenly broke out in Southeast Asia. The Governor-General of India felt that Hugh Gough had experience in dealing with Easterners, so he sent him.

Hugh Gough completely ignored the so-called Eastern Army due to his personal experience, but his tactical thinking was still in the Napoleonic era. He only trusted the infantry. He had no defeat in his life, but that was just because he came to the right place.

The huge British fleet began to approach Mara Port, and then fired intensively, carefully destroying the surrounding forts one by one.

Then came the highlight of the landing operation. Hugh Gough was ready to completely turn Mara Port into a sea of ​​fire, because as a veteran he understood how terrifying the offensive and defensive battles in the city were.

However, it only took four hours for the vanguard to report that they had captured Mara Port without any casualties.

This made Hugh Gough even more convinced that the British were superior. However, to his surprise after landing, there was no Nanming garrison at Mara Port. The British troops came ashore and carried out a four-hour massacre. Those who were killed were nothing more than They are just some aborigines from Brunei.

Hugh Gough couldn't understand that a country could so easily abandon an important port guarding the country's gate, because at this time, there was only four or five days' journey between Xinjing, the capital of the Southern Ming Dynasty, and Mara Port.

Hugh Gough felt that he was only a short distance away from success. He ordered the entire army to land and prepare to attack Xinjing, the capital of Nanming.

Seeing the British hurriedly preparing to leave, Zhu Qiongying knew that she was one step closer to success.