The Sultan of Kedah is determined to defend his country.

Unlike the Battle of the Founding of the People's Republic of China, there were no secrets to this expedition, and Kedah was ready for battle early.

Sudan has not been in vain in recent years. Under the military pressure of the Golden City, the walls of Alor Setar were strengthened by wooden walls to stone. The city's main defensive force was mercenaries, both Portuguese and Moorish, plus the Sultan's local soldiers, numbering nearly 800. On the city wall, the Sultan collected more than 20 artillery pieces from various sources. If there were 4 or 6-pounder guns made by Kaneshiro in there, it would not be surprising that the order was in order.

The commander of the garrison was called Andrei. Guerrero, is Portuguese. He organized the city's defenses well, and the army tried two assaults, both of which failed.

At this point in defense, climbing the ladder to storm is not a good option. The army went out with only 12-pounder guns at the maximum, and there were no powerful 24-pounder guns. On the one hand, because the 24-pounder gun was too heavy to pull through the muddy roads of the peninsula. On the other hand, it is also because the barrel life of these guns is running out.

The average barrel life of heavy artillery is between 600 and 1,000 rounds, and as a heavy weapon of the town, the barrel life of the 24-pounder cannon cannot be measured in money now, and all of them are left in the capital.

Holrenne sent a third of his troops to attack other towns in Kedah. The Sultan of Kedah concentrated all his forces in the capital, and with the exception of a few jihadians, the army received the operation easily and pleasantly.

For the capital itself, Holrenne could only use the siege engineering method like a textbook, and forcibly requisitioned more than 1,000 young and strong people to assist in the construction of fortifications.

The army used 12-pounder guns to suppress the fire at the head of the city, zigzag tunnels, and dug parallel trenches after advancing a section. There is no room for shortcuts, and there is no technical content.

This is a simple math problem for calculating earthwork.

The mud of the rainy season made the siege a heavy burden, and if it had been the armies of other countries, the Kedah Sultan's strategy might have succeeded. The army is a susceptible population to infectious diseases, and bacteria and viruses are more terrible than artillery.

The Dutch besieged Malacca in recent years, and increased their troops many times, and the army besieging the city was 2,000 at the beginning, and after the whole siege, 2,000 people died. The mortality rate is close to 100 percent, and most of them are deaths from the disease.

The Asian soldiers under Hallren's command were more adapted to the local climate than the Dutch, and the disease rate was not as high, but if it were not for other auxiliary measures, the siege would not have been able to last.

The first is the military health service. The Malay Peninsula is full of forests and has plenty of fuel, and as long as you insist on not drinking raw water, you can greatly reduce the rate of illness among soldiers. The army rationed each soldier a ration of tea, which worked better than plain water.

This is followed by battlefield care. Standardized battlefield care, the use of carefully washed and then dried bandages and wound care significantly reduce the mortality rate of wounded soldiers.

Finally, medicine.

The first batch of cinchona trees has matured, and this time a batch of bark has been transferred, which has significantly suppressed the spread of malaria in the army.

In addition, it is the phased results achieved by Jincheng in the sorting of herbal medicines with obvious curative effects. Compared with antibiotics, Chinese medicine is a fantasy thing. Dandelion is one of the best Chinese herbs in the legend, but it has little antibacterial effect.

However, some Chinese herbal medicines have a certain antibacterial effect, but there is no need to doubt this, what is needed is scientific standardization and sorting. Do not pursue those fantastic formulas, subject to clinical trials.

If you look at the experiment, it will take amazing doses of various Chinese herbal extracts to achieve the bactericidal effect. Taking matrine as an example, matrine has obvious antibacterial effects on dysentery bacillus, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus, which are several army killers, but if you want to make the blood concentration of matrine meet the treatment standards of later generations, a soldier weighing 50kg should take 1.75kg of Sophora, which is obviously an exaggeration. This is the case with all Chinese herbal medicines compared to antibiotics.

The therapeutic effect of Chinese herbal medicine is not necessarily directly related to its antibacterial effect. The effect of herbal medicine on the human body will have a complex process of onset, and some herbal clinics with relatively good antibacterial effect are not very good. Some herbs with poor antibacterial effect have acceptable clinical efficacy, such as Sijiqing, andrographis, and Houttuynia cordata, whose antibacterial effect cannot be explained.

What the army needs is not to cure every soldier, what the army needs is to reduce the rate of illness and mortality. Sorting out Chinese herbal medicine is still the only scientific solution in this era.

For wounds caused by firearms and swords, the drugs currently used by the army are made of mulberry branches, astragalus, cork, wild chrysanthemum, acacia horn, green salt, mugwort leaves, and notoginseng in equal amounts, and decoction in water at a ratio of 1:40. The wound is smoked with decoction first, then soaked in gauze and then applied to the affected area repeatedly. The external application time is about 1 hour, and it is cleaned 2-3 times a day according to the wound condition of the soldier, and then covered with gauze soaked in the liquid medicine, and cut and drained according to the situation.

This recipe was contributed by a traveling doctor in Guangdong, and it was effective for the first time, and later the army did several years of clinical trials on the slaves in the mine to find a more standardized way to use it.

Relying on sanitary regulations and preliminarily regulated Chinese herbal medicine, the death rate during the siege of the army was reduced to single digits, much to the astonishment of the officers.

Relatively good sanitary regulations minimized the ability of time to attack the besieging army. The general assault came at the moment when the trenches were excavated to a distance of 150 meters from the city walls.

Overnight, the Army put three 7-inch siege mortars in place, which were less than 3 times in diameter, weighed nearly 1 ton, and were only one-third the size of a 24-pound cannon, but capable of firing 32-pound grenades.

The disadvantage is obvious, the range is too close, and they have to rely on zigzag trench excavation to get them in place. Next to the mortar cannons, coolies used rattan baskets filled with earth and wood to build a fort strong enough to withstand solid shells.

In order to reduce the damage of the gunners from the fire at the head of the city, artillery firing was carried out at night. The gunner calculates the length of the shell fuse according to the firing range and elevation angle, truncating it as needed. Using a ruler to measure the powder fired in the chamber, the weight of the gunpowder required for the mortar to fire is about one-third to one-half of the shell.

After the propellant was reloaded, two soldiers carried a 30-pound grenade hooked by chains into the chamber of the gun and removed the hook. After the gunner checks, he signals to the gunner that he is ready to start. The gunner uses a long ignition lever to light the fuse of the shell and then the propellant. This requires skilled operational skills and stable mental qualities.

A bright fire rose in the middle of the city, and several screams were heard from the smoke rising after the explosion. Mortar guns have a short range and poor accuracy. But the army doesn't need mortars to hit any target accurately, as long as the shells keep hitting the city, and occasionally the shells hit the city, which will kill a number of soldiers.

The 12-pounder cannon continued to fire during the day, and the 12-pounder shells were powerless against the walls themselves, and the purpose of the fire was to break the battlements and blunt the defenders' defenses.

The siege came to an end when the first 30-pound grenade exploded at the head of Alor Setar. The trenches continued to dig forward, and more curved guns joined the battle, 5.5-inch mortars, howitzers, and explosions all day long.

Three days later, the Sultan of Kedah sent a negotiator, the commander of the city, the Portuguese Andrei. Guerrero.

The commanders of both sides took off their military caps and saluted each other according to the prevailing etiquette.

Holren was the first to speak, "Mr. Guerrero, I know that you are a valiant opponent, and I am glad to have the opportunity to be your friend. ”

Guerrero, "Me too, General Holrayne. ”

Holren held out his right hand, "Please accept my praise for your army's tactics and stubborn defenses. If it weren't for your command, the city would have been captured long ago. ”

Guerrero: "General Holren, I'm a soldier, not a diplomat. There is no need to say more about high-sounding words. ”

Some of the officers behind Halren had smiles on their faces, and pirates had rarely engaged in such gentler negotiations. However, after the founding of the country, everyone will subconsciously learn from their superiors, and after a few years, some things have begun to take shape.

Holrenne also smiled, and he said softly: "Mr. Guerrero, you have done everything for your Sultan, and now for the sake of humanity, I suggest that you accept our conditions and surrender." ”

Guerrero's expression stiffened, "Instead of being taken to the mines as slaves, perhaps we can continue the fight until the last soldier in the city is killed." ”

Holren: "Mr. Guerrero, at least let me finish my sentence before you give the order that could kill thousands." ”

Guerrero gave Hallren a fixed look, "Please continue, General." ”

Hall Rennes: "Mr. Guerrero, none of your soldiers will become slaves. Your Christian soldiers, after surrendering, can choose to stay and settle or leave. The Moors in the city could not stay, but they were free to withdraw. ”

"What about weapons and property?"

"Portable weapons are allowed to be kept, and both Christians and Moors can take their personal property. ”

Guerrero was a little moved, "What are you going to do with the Sultan?" ”

"As long as most of the property is surrendered, the sultan and the nobles of the city can leave. If civilians can pay the ransom, we will not stop them. "Holrennes showed the utmost sincerity.

"I'm going to talk to the officers."

"Please."

Guerrero nodded in acknowledgment and walked over to his officers.

Orderly asked Holren, "Do you think they'll agree?" ”

Holrenne shook his head and said, "The Portuguese often imagine death and honor as the same thing, I can't be sure. ”

"Our conditions are lenient, and maybe they can learn a different understanding of honor today."

Guarding did not want this siege to have the same result as Malacca, so he made concessions. The concession was also shown to the Dutch representatives on the sidelines, and the city was no longer a rabble of pirates.

Guerrero soon returned, and he bowed to Hallren, "General, I am deeply touched by your extraordinary gentlemanly sentiments. I hand over the castle to you with the Moors, on the condition that the bodies of my brothers be buried before dawn, and that all those who have departed and their families be prepared for sailing. And please heal my wounds without healing. ”

Hallren looked back at the Archon.

Orderly took two steps forward, "I agree, Mr. Guerrero. ”

There is no point in continuing to consume ammunition, time and lives here, all Jincheng needs is land.

The night passed, and the next day the gates were opened. Sultan and Moorish soldiers marched out of the city, each carrying only personal parcels, and their personal weapons and flags were allowed to remain.

A few kilometres away is the port of Kedah, where there are several dhows belonging to the royal family. They had been cruising in the sea until now, and Jincheng had no surface power in the Andaman Sea, so he went with them during the siege.

The nobles and merchants in the city ransomed their heads by head, and their families and slaves could be taken away if they were willing to pay for them, and some of them might have been reluctant to carry the little gold coins with them, leaving the women and leaving them alone.

did a full set of plays, and in the end, the free people who really had no money were also let go. There were more than 2,000 prisoners of war left, most of whom were slaves.

Most of the soldiers who went on this expedition will be placed on the spot. Each person was given a few families of indigenous serfs.

The territory of Kedah is divided into four parts, from south to north, which are Penang, Sungai City, Kedah and Perth. Titles and knighthoods are divided according to rank, and the orderly state of Bozhou has about 100 square kilometers of land. He had one more Lingjiawei Island than the others, which was an added bonus from the Senate. Lingjiawei Island is 500 square kilometers and has not yet been fully developed.

Below the earl, the largest territory is the town, and the viscount can also divide up to 100 square kilometers. The specific area depends on the fertility of the land and other conditions. The viscounty of Holrenne is located in the town of Menon, north of Sungai, and the barony of Walter is in Arau, southeast of Bo City.

He did not participate in the finishing work of the enclosure and other work in order, leaving a few Chinese families to help him manage the territory, and he hurried back to the capital in order.

(Happy holidays, and one more.) ）