When Huaxia destroyed Dayue, which was also a large southern country, the core Han soldiers only dispatched about 30,000 people, and they had successfully annexed the entire Dayue.

Now only the core force has dispatched 120,000 troops, and before the war has started, the whole country of Dali has been frightened by the determination to resist.

Therefore, the Duan clan, the lord of Dali, did not draw soldiers among the villagers to prepare for war, nor did he mobilize those soldiers who were no longer very reliable—they could not be defeated by mobilizing these people anyway.

Instead, he chose to send envoys to China to beg for mercy.

This time, the Chinese army did not kill all the envoys of the Dali people as they did with the Jiaozhi people, and allowed them to go to Jinling to meet the emperor.

However, preparations for war did not stagnate, and the General Staff expected the war to begin in October 1797 and settle the Dali problem before the arrival of 1898.

The Dali court's own estimation that if they were unable to fight, they would be able to hold out for about three to five months, so the Duan clan pinned all their hopes on the envoys.

If Huaxia allowed Dali to maintain its self-reliance, they were willing to sacrifice ten daughters of the sect, 10,000 taels of gold, 100,000 taels of silver, 1,000,000 catties of copper, and food for an army of 150,000 for a year.

In exchange, Dali's only hope was to be able to imitate the example of Goryeo and become the king of Waibo in China.

……

In September 1797, when Xu Shiyang and his people arrived in Sichuan Province, the Nanyang Fleet and the Chu Army took the lead in setting off, and the separate fleets first assembled in the waters near Hongji in Annam Province to rest, and then went directly to the New Srivijaya Kingdom, which was controlled by the Chinese, to join the local Chinese forces.

At this time on the island of Sumatra, the new Srivijaya king, Liang Daoming, an immigrant from Guangdong Province, led about 1,000 Chinese armed forces, and more than 5,000 other local feudal princes, occupied the western part of the island and insisted on resisting the attack of Majapahit.

Since their area of control was actually on the western side of the Strait of Malacca, the Empire would have to break through the Majapahit and Malacca naval forces (which really can't be called navies) to intercept them.

Fortunately, although the number of ships of the local naval army is large, the combat effectiveness is seriously insufficient.

According to information provided by merchants who often traveled overseas to trade, there were thousands of warships in Majapahit and Malacca, but the vast majority of them could only be called sampans and carried no more than twenty people.

The more combat-effective units were some large ships of the type of Fu Ship and Guang Ship, and the number should be in the dozens, most of which were sold to them by former maritime merchants, and in Majapahit, these sea ships served as both trading ships and warships.

Majapahit's combat effectiveness was very weak, and although there were 100,000 land and water troops, there was basically no armor, and even a slightly longer sword and a decent bow and arrow were few.

The strongest army force in the Majapahit was a group of elephants directly under the king - their opponents were equally weak in their weapons and could hardly pose a threat to the elephants, so the elephants were virtually invincible on the battlefield there.

Another elite force that is often used is a team of Fuso mercenaries - this team is composed of Japanese and immigrants who escaped from Fuso to survive while Fuso was still fighting, with a strength of about 2,000 troops, and there is no armor, but everyone has Fuso knives, Fuso characteristic cross spears and bows.

It is said that when the war began, the Fuso army of Majapahit was extremely resilient, and it was often used as a commando, and the effect was very good.

Of course, this so-called effect is just that the Fuso knife is more lethal to the unarmored enemy, and the other local forces do not have enough firepower to stop their charge.

For Huaxia, the entire Fusang has been wiped out, how strong can these thousands of remnants be?

It's just a free giveaway.

……

On September 26, the Huachu fleet began to forcibly break through the Strait of Malacca, and the naval forces of Majapahit and Malacca gathered 1,500 ships of all sizes to fight in the strait.

Majapahit was only a local power, and it was also a low-intensity area in the South Seas, and its military knowledge was very outdated compared to the Central Plains and the northern Diyi.

But even the stupidest people know that the Huachu army fleet must be blocked in the Strait of Malacca at this time, otherwise they will have a foothold in the local area after joining forces with the Sriwijaya, and obtain a port and food and water supplies in the local area.

What's more, the prestige of the Huaxia Army has already spread all over the world, and Majapahit also knows that once the Huachu Army lands, there will be no need to fight this battle.

But at sea, especially in a strait like Malacca, where the terrain is narrow, the Manchus thought they still had a chance.

This opportunity is that the Chinese fleet is the attacking side, and it cannot use powerful broadside weapons, and it is also unable to discharge the battle line to exert maximum firepower.

Once in the strait, the Chinese were only capable of firing with the bow fire of a handful of ships in the forward fleet, which the Manchus did not consider enough to prevent them from entering close combat.

After the beginning of hand-to-hand combat, the Chinese army's large fleet was not sensitive enough, especially the terrain was not suitable for large ships to maneuver.

So the Manchurian army had a third of its ships - as many as five hundred! It is a trump card specially prepared for the Chinese army - fire attack ships.

These fire-attacking ships are loaded with light oil, which is a specialty of Java Island, as well as fire-starters such as sulfur, and can easily burn a large ship once it reaches the Chinese fleet.

Because fires caused by light oil could not be extinguished with water, the Manchu army decided that oil fires would not be extinguished unless all combustibles were burned.

These fire attack ships are the confidence of the Majapahit to resist to the end under the invincible reputation of the Chinese army.

On the 26th, at about 9 o'clock in the morning, the Huachu fleet broke through into the Strait of Malacca.

Previously, the rapid reconnaissance ships of the Chinese army had already seen the dense Manchu boats in the strait, but Li Feihu and the others still chose to break in directly, and they had no intention of avoiding the battle at all.

And so, the decisive battle began.

The Manchus first dispatched about 300 small boats with guards to cover the attack of the fire attack fleet, and the task of these small boats was to attract the limited firepower of the Chinese army and create an opportunity for more fire attack ships to get closer.

This tactic seems to work, but sadly, the Chinese commanders, Li Feihu, Li Feilong, and others, are all old pirates, and when they were in Shuangyu Port, they were particularly fond of attacking ships with fire against officials, Japanese and other maritime competitors.

This morning, after the reconnaissance ship spotted a dense fleet of small boats, these former pirate cabinets naturally thought of tactics that the enemy could use.

After all, the massive use of fire to attack ships was undoubtedly the last resort of the Manchu army.

Therefore, after entering the strait, the five sail cruisers of the vanguard of the Chinese army accelerated away from the main force, took advantage of the speed advantage to seize the exit position of the strait, formed a thin horizontal formation, and faced the Manchurian army with their sides.

Even if the terrain is narrow, but only in the absence of ships, it is still feasible to list the horizontal formation.

After the formation was completed, the Chinese army immediately exerted all its firepower to suppress the surging Manchu boats.