Trincomalee, later colonized by the British, was an important military base in the Indian Ocean for the Empire on which the sun never sets.

And in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it was also under the rule of the Koti dynasty and was the largest port in northeastern Ceylon. Many merchants, unwilling to pay Portuguese taxes on their ports, came here to resupply and then went south to Arabia, bypassing the island of Ceylon.

There were even Indian businessmen who, despite the Portuguese ban, quietly bypassed Ceylon to engage in spice smuggling.

The Portuguese colonists were very angry about this, and because the Ming sailors controlled the Strait of Malacca, Portugal invaded the island of Ceylon more vigorously than in history - I can't do it, I can't beat you Sinhalese?

Under the care of the cannons of the giant ship, the king of Kandy was forced to relent, allowing the Portuguese to build a fort in the port of Trincomalee and participate in the tax collection of the port. Not only were Western missionaries allowed to preach here, but one of the princes was baptized and converted to Catholicism, which caused strong opposition in the Kingdom of Kandy.

The same thing happened in the southwestern part of the island of Ceylon, where a prince of the Kingdom of Cote was also forced to convert to Catholicism, and there were Portuguese batteries in the port of Colombo.

Inside the harbor, a group of Hindus are struggling to transport stones.

There was originally a Hindu temple (Koneswaram Temple), but two years ago, the Portuguese forcibly demolished the temple to build a fortress and forts, and all the remaining stones sank into the sea.

King Kandy ignored this as he was a Buddhist king and the Hindu temple was built by the previous Chola dynasty.

In the small port of Trincomalee, Buddhism is the mainstream, followed by Hinduism, and some Greens, and now there is another Catholic. Religious contradictions are very intense, and Buddhism and Hinduism can get along without any trouble, while the other two religions often get into trouble.

The Hindus were powerless to resist the demolition of the temple, so they had to wait for the Portuguese to throw the temple stone into the sea, and then spontaneously went to salvage it, intending to raise funds to build a small temple.

"Have you heard? A Buddhist prince with Kot blood will bring the Buddhist army to drive out the red-haired ghosts. ”

"I've heard about it for a long time. If there really is a Buddha prince, I hope he can come soon, these red-haired ghosts are too hateful, it is best to kill them all! ”

"If Prince Buddha comes, I will join his army too!"

“……”

The rumor was released by the Daming maritime merchants, and the local Chinese leaders secretly received money and quietly helped spread it.

There are a large number of Chinese here, and they believe in both Buddhism and Mazu.

As for the devout Hindus, they were also happy to see the Buddha prince coming. Hundreds of years ago, the port was ruled by the Hindu Tamils, and the Kot dynasty (Buddhism) drove the Tamils away, but did not ban the spread of Hinduism, and even the Hindu temple was not demolished.

After hundreds of years of running-in, when facing Catholicism and Green Christianity, Buddhists and Hindus are like a family.

Suddenly, a Portuguese ship came, and after several red-haired ghosts landed on the shore, they ran frantically towards the newly built castle: "Enemy attack, enemy attack, prepare for battle!" ”

About half an hour later, dozens of Ming warships sailed in and directly blocked the port of Trincomalee.

The Portuguese defender went to negotiate: "According to the Malacca Agreement, your warships are not allowed to cross the city of Malacca. Please leave Trincomalee immediately, or we will see you tearing up the agreement! ”

A brocade-clothed Haiwei hundred-hundred-household came over and said: "The Sinhalese country was originally a Ming domain, but now it is divided. At the beginning, Sinhala was in civil strife, and the prince also stayed in the territory of Daming, and now Daming is assisting the Sinhalese prince to quell the rebellion, what does it have to do with you Buddhas? ”

The Portuguese official once again emphasized: "Please abide by the Malacca Agreement and leave Trincomalee immediately!" ”

Jinyi Haiwei Baihu said with a smile: "I waited for this time to come only to pacify the internal strife of the domain, and it has nothing to do with your Buddha Lang Jiren." All the Francophone soldiers, withdraw from Trincomalee immediately, otherwise it is inevitable that there will be accidental injuries! ”

The two sides obviously could not get along, and the Daming Naval Division fired directly at the shore, and the Portuguese batteries also began to return fire.

Ning Botao held the binoculars and watched: "According to the information delivered by the maritime merchants, there are not many Franc machine batteries, you can land north of the port and bypass the castle and fort that surround the Franc machine people. ”

"There you go." Man Zheng said with a smile.

Ning Botao immediately landed with two thousand firearms and circled for about three hours, and finally came to the back of Trincomalee City.

The city was shabby, with only a wooden fence, and the defenders were not Portuguese, but the troops of the Kandyan dynasty.

With his royal guards, more than a dozen Han Chinese servants who had just learned how to let go, came outside the city and shouted in Sinhala: "I am the prince of Sinhala, and my grandfather was Prince Selipa Karakaja." The ancestors of the Kandy royal family participated in the murder of the king, and all of them were rebellious ministers and thieves. This time I came back, with the golden seal of the king given by the Ming Emperor, and the victorious Buddha army. I will unite the island of Ceylon once again, drive out the pagans, and henceforth only Buddhism and Hinduism will exist! ”

After saying that, the Shilan Sect retreated, and several small Buddha Lang cannons were pushed out and fired at the improvised wooden city wall.

The defenders of the Kingdom of Kandy were so frightened that they hurriedly retreated, and the officers and soldiers were whispering.

The ancestor of the Selanzong sect was the ruler of the Kot dynasty of Sinhala and was the only dynasty to have unified the island of Ceylon. Even after decades, the influence of the Kot dynasty is still very strong, and there is even a legitimate Kot kingdom to the west.

"The Sinhalese prince is back! What to do? ”

"If he is telling the truth, then he is the Sinhalese royal legitimate."

"He also said that he wanted to drive out the heretics, so let's fight with him!"

"Will he be able to return to the country?"

"Sure, he took the Ming Buddha army."

“……”

After just over ten minutes, the guards were killed by the officers, and hundreds of soldiers went out of the city to meet their prince.

Ning Botao said with a smile: "You reorganize the army, and all of them obey my orders." ”

Shi Lanzong arched his hand and said, "It's all up to General Ning to decide." ”

The royal guards of Shilanzong expanded from more than a dozen servants to more than five hundred in an instant. He quickly took over the city, aiding the Ming soldiers and besieging Portuguese castles and forts from both land and sea.

During the march, a large number of Hindus came to join the army.

Since the Kandyan king was a Buddhist, he protected Buddhism strongly, but did not care about the Hindus. So the Portuguese caught the Hindus bullying, and also demolished the Hindu temple to build the castle, the Hindus here are the most resistant, they are willing to help the Buddha Prince restore the country!

Seeing this, Shi Lanzong was very happy and asked, "Is there a pagan temple nearby?" ”

"Yes!" Officer Toucheng responded immediately.

As a result, Shilanzong stopped attacking the castle, and took the newly collected miscellaneous army to demolish the only Catholic church in the city. The missionaries inside the church were also killed by angry Buddhists and Hindus.

Then it was completely out of control, and the Shilan Sect couldn't restrain it at all, and those miscellaneous armies went to demolish the Green Sect temple again, and even developed to the point of attacking civilians.

Shi Lanzong finally realized the horror of the chaotic army this time, and hurriedly went to find Ning Botao: "General Ning, please lend me a hundred soldiers to quell the riot!" ”

Ning Botao said with a smile: "Take it, you have to rely on the great soldiers to fight." ”

Shilanzong led a hundred great Ming soldiers, and put guns and bullets along the way, and executed all those who took advantage of the fire to rob, and then quickly reined in his miscellaneous troops.

But this kind of bullet pressure made the officers who had just surrendered quite dissatisfied. Shi Lanzong began to divert the contradiction again, and led the troops to sweep the rich merchants of the Green Sect in the city, and divided half of the looted goods by himself, and gave the rest to his subordinates, so the morale of this method was immediately high.

The next day, the ships sent by da Gama sailed in and negotiated with the Daming Marines and took away the Portuguese soldiers from the castle and forts, which was regarded as an acknowledgment of the occupation of the port of Trincomalee by the Daming Marines.

No way, there were too few Portuguese to even really colonize the island of Ceylon. They can only support one kingdom in the west, and threaten one kingdom to establish a colony in the east, how can they have the capital to fight a big war with the Great Ming Sailor?

Although Vasco da Gama had a violent temper, he also knew forbearance, unlike the reckless head of his previous governor.

With the help of the Daming Naval Division, Shilanzong led a motley army and quickly occupied the coastal cities of Ilaupatu and Kushpavili. Everywhere he went, he demolished pagan temples and killed and drove out pagan believers, leaving only Buddhists, Hindus, and Mazu believers.

The religious contradictions lurking in the kingdom of Kandy were completely detonated, the Buddhists were slightly better, and the Hindus collectively fell into madness. They have been the object of suppression for a long time, and this time the Buddha prince finally took them over, and all kinds of food pot pulp welcomed the king.

The whole island of Ceylon, less than the size of two Hainan islands, is also divided into five countries, how strong can each kingdom be?

In just half a month, Shilanzong swallowed a quarter of the territory of the Kandy Kingdom, and the number of miscellaneous troops under his command has exceeded 10,000. Due to the legitimacy of its bloodline, the help of the Daming sailors, and the religious contradictions on the island, there was no decent resistance along the way.

It was only at this time that the king of Kandy reacted and hurriedly mobilized his army to suppress it.

The armies of the two sides met at Xingulakgod, and the Kandy army was about 18,000 men, but only two or three thousand could really fight, and it was mainly cold weapons, with only a firearms force of about 500. Shilanzong's army had 12,000 people, and the commander of the army was the servant he brought from Quanzhou, and he insulted the "rabble" by describing it as a rabble, but fortunately there were 1,500 Great Fire Soldiers to help.

Before the battle, the Selan sect sent people to shoot letters at the opposing military camp, denouncing the ancestors of the Kandy king for their involvement in the murder of the Sinhalese king, and once again asserting their orthodox bloodline, vowing to ban the spread of paganism on the island of Ceylon, and only allow Buddhism, Hinduism, and Mazu beliefs.

Although the literacy rate of the Kandy army was not high, the content of the letter spread rapidly. The Tamils (Hindus) in the army were the first to clamour, and they were immediately suppressed by the generals, and they fought with themselves.

Observing the enemy's confusion, Selanzong immediately ordered the entire army to attack.

A rabble, chaotic formation, rushed over. The domestic servant in charge of unifying the army didn't know how to command at all, and the limit of his ability was to command dozens of people!

However, the enemy was even more, and the morale of the army was low due to infighting, and seeing Shi Lanzong leading his troops to rush over, countless soldiers fled in an instant. There were even some Sinhalese and Tamil soldiers who attacked the king's troops with a single blow, and the army of the Selanzong actually fought more and more on the battlefield.

Victory!

The victory was followed by endless chaos.

The miscellaneous troops of the Shilanzong and the troops of the new Toucheng actually fought in a confused manner, and the command system was completely out of control.

Shi Lanzong could only run back and said to Ning Botao, who was fighting in a straight battle: "General Ning, please quickly send troops to suppress it, Xiao Wang really can't hold it down!" ”

Ning Botao couldn't cry or laugh, so he could only lead the troops to finish, and let go of the rebellious army for a while.

Then, it collapsed......

Those troops of Shilanzong, in the confusion, were actually defeated by the friendly forces of the Ming Dynasty. The wolf ran and fled suddenly, causing the biggest loss of troops in this decisive battle, Shilanzong cried and rode around to chase around, and after several days, he barely gathered tens of thousands of soldiers.

Although Shilanzong's political methods are quite clever, he is completely blind in the war. He reorganized his troops haphazardly, and then led his army to attack the royal city of Kandy, building equipment and attacking the city with his head recklessly.

In the siege battle, there were countless casualties, and the morale of the miscellaneous army fell to the bottom, and soon deserters began to appear.

And the Ming soldiers, who only watched the play from the sidelines, fired a few shots at the city wall from time to time - fools only participated in the siege.

Just when the Selan Sect was in despair, the city gates were opened, and the Kandy nobles tied the king out and knelt down to welcome their Buddha prince into the city.