Temasek Island was originally a Portuguese naval base, and the port has been opened up as a temporary base for the South China Sea Fleet, but the port is relatively small, with only 10 ships and some Cangshan ships berthed, and a large number of ships need to anchor in the open sea.

With Temasek's base, the South China Sea Fleet is one step closer to the city of Malacca.

Cheng Chee Loong did not immediately attack, but stuck to Temasek Island, first looking at the surrounding environment, and after he inspected, he found that Temasek is indeed an isolated island, in the direction of the open sea, this is a good naval base, but it is separated from the Malay Peninsula by the Johor waterway, and there is no beachhead in the waterway for soldiers to land on a large scale, and if you want to take Malacca City, you have to find a landing site elsewhere.

No wonder the Portuguese have abandoned Temasek.

After a day's rest, Zheng Zhilong led a small fleet into the Malacca waterway, which was very wide and not suitable for naval warfare, but it was still very convenient for passing ships.

The Portuguese Navy still has more than a dozen ships, and now they are all cowering in the harbor, as long as the Ming army does not fire at them, they definitely do not have the courage to fire the first shot, who knows if there are the main ships of the South China Sea Fleet behind this small fleet.

Of course, the small fleet was not for the beach landing, and besides, there were no transport ships behind it, and there were no soldiers of the Marine Corps, Zheng Zhilong's main purpose was to inspect the terrain and choose a landing site.

Portuguese ships parked in the harbor waved flags.

Zheng Zhilong wasn't quite sure what the flag meant, "What are they going to do here?" Negotiation? ”

"Report to the commander, the Portuguese asked us what the hell we were going to do."

"What to do? This is a military secret of the South China Sea Fleet, how can it be leaked from me? Zheng Zhilong's eyes kept staring at the slope on the north bank, "Ignore them and continue to observe." ”

"Yes, Commander," the flag soldier had just finished speaking, and found that the Portuguese had changed the flag language, "Commander, the Portuguese asked for negotiations with the Ming Dynasty. ”

"Negotiations? I'll go, the battle hasn't officially started yet, what's the verdict? Zheng Zhilong sneered slightly, "Now that they are negotiating, will they give up the passage of Malacca?" ”

"Commander......

"Ignore their flags," Zheng Zhilong seemed to find a shallow beach, and his eyes lit up, he stared at the surface of the water, but his mouth said: "I will negotiate with them, but not now, but after the battle." ”

"Commander, the other party has waved the flag several times, but we haven't replied once, it seems to be ......"

"What I need is not a small handout from the Portuguese, but a complete Malacca waterway, if it is negotiated, will Portugal give it?" Zheng Zhilong did not believe that the Portuguese could give up their lives #roots.

"This ......"

Zheng Zhilong also ignored the stubborn bannerman, he turned to the herald and said, "Stop moving forward and test the depth of the water here with a bow and arrow." ”

"Yes, Commander." The herald agreed and ran away.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh......"

The soldiers on the ship once released arrows into the water, but there were no ordinary arrows on the ship, and the soldiers removed the gunpowder from the gunpowder arrows, leaving only a bare arrow shaft, which was completely submerged in the water, and only when it was close to the embankment, a little tail feathers were exposed.

"The water depth is good, and the transport ship should be able to dock and mark it on the marching map." Zheng Zhilong's eyes were full of smiles, and his brows were fully relaxed, I don't know if it was because he found the tidal flat where he landed, or because of the childish flag language of the Portuguese.

"Yes." Some operational staff officers have already marked down the location.

As the ship continued to sail westward, Zheng Zhilong had been observing the terrain on the north shore, occasionally talking to the officers around him, or asking the soldiers to test the depth of the water with bows and arrows.

It wasn't until late afternoon that the ship turned around and sailed back to Temasek.

The grape soldiers on the shore kept an eye on Zheng Zhilong's ship, and after the ship returned, they immediately reported all Zheng Zhilong's actions to the governor Manodi.

For five days in a row, the ships of the South China Sea Fleet were slowly moving in the waters of Malacca, and there were always officers on board observing the terrain on the shore, especially when passing through the city of Malacca, his eyes were fixed on the Portuguese ships in the harbor, and below the deck, there were also several officers lying on the side of the ships watching, only half of their heads exposed.

On the southeast coast of the Malay Peninsula, at the mouth of the Johor waterway, there is a small fishing village called Kampung Punnya.

Fishermen eat the sea by the sea.

After the arrival of the South China Sea fleet, they did not dare to go to the sea to fish for the time being, and they lost their only source of life.

In the open sea, less than 30 miles from where the South China Sea Fleet anchored, several fishing boats were casting their nets in the direction of the tide, and the fishermen-like people on board, sometimes observing the coastline, fearing that the Portuguese would cut off their way home, and sometimes looking at the South China Sea Fleet in the southeast, they could not be provoked by the same as the Portuguese.

Zheng Zhilong decided to do it.

After a few days of observation, he had already chosen a place to land.

After breakfast, more than a dozen Canton ships with Fu Ship and Cangshan Boat set off from Temasek and slowly marched northwest along the Malacca waterway, and when it was close to noon, the fleet arrived at Malacca City, which was not like the open sea, although it was wide, but dozens of ships could not be lined up.

Under the watchful eyes of the Portuguese soldiers, five canton ships with their heads slowly approached the city of Malacca on the north shore.

Approaching the range of the naval guns, the Hirobune picked up speed and sailed to the shore with all his might.

The Portuguese soldiers were nervous, and the shore guns began to fire at the ships, and at the same time, the Grape ships, hidden in the harbor, were also ready to join the warband.

The Hirobune did not return fire, and now it was still out of the range of the naval guns, and knowing that it had become a target for the shore guns, the soldiers could only rush forward.

A cannonball hit the front of the Hirobune, the hull shook violently, and the deck was knocked out of a bowl-sized hole, but fortunately it was a solid shell, and the hull was not damaged much.

The naval guns on the Guangzhou ship began to return fire, the caliber of the naval guns was smaller than the shore guns, but the Ming army used flowering shells, each flowering bomb fell on the beach, it could raise rolling sand waves, coupled with the huge sound of the explosion of the flowering shell, the sound was more terrifying than the shore artillery.

Dust, fire, smoke, and the sound of loud explosions obscured the sky over the outer waters of Malacca, and the pungent smell of sulfur filled the air.

Although the shore artillery has a huge caliber, but it fires solid bullets, and the number is not much, there are only ten in total, in the exchange of fire with the naval guns, it does not take any advantage, and the Portuguese ships hidden in the harbor on the island from time to time come to the ships of the South China Sea Fleet with a few guns, so that the Ming army is distracted a lot, and it is necessary to observe whether they have any attempts to rush out of the port.

For most of the fierce battle, an unfortunate Canton ship was broken by a solid bullet and two masts were broken, leaving only one mast, which stood alone on the stern of the ship, and the basic mountain lost its mobility.

Zheng Zhilong asked the flag bearer to play the flag and ordered the Guangzhou ship to withdraw from the battlefield and return to Temasek first, the artillery on the Guangzhou ship was still there, and the combat effectiveness had not decreased much, and it still had the strength and courage to fight, but when he saw the flag, he still obediently left the battlefield.

The losses of the shore artillery on land were even greater, one shore gun was directly blown up by two consecutive flowering shells to blow up the base, the barrel "boomed", and at the most critical moment of the battle, it collapsed with a bang, and there was also a shore gun with a seriously deformed barrel that could no longer fire solid shells.

One shore artillery was destroyed and one was wounded, and now there are only eight left.

Zheng Zhilong was overjoyed when he saw that the naval guns were effective in striking at the shore guns, and he ordered the four ships that were fighting to approach the shore, and at the same time add five ships to join the shelling on the opposite shore.

The South China Sea Fleet began to gain an advantage in the number of artillery, and the Portuguese ships, which had been staying in the harbor water, finally could not stand it anymore, and they sailed to the very edge of the port to start a full-scale war with the South China Sea Fleet's vast ships.

At the same time, the transports behind the ships were also ready to move, and the soldiers of the Marine Corps were ready to land on the beach, and in front of the Portuguese soldiers, they did not have to hide their next move.

The Portuguese heralds, under the instruction of the governor Manodi, rushed to the nearby strongholds, and the soldiers of each stronghold received the news that the Ming army had stormed the city of Malacca, and they continued to gather in Malacca City, ready to meet the Ming soldiers who were about to land.

Dust and smoke filled the air, making it dark earlier, Zheng Zhilong looked at the dim that was gradually squeezing over, and knew that there was no hope of ending the battle today, so he waved the flag and ordered the Guangzhou ship to retreat.

The Hiroshima disengaged from the shore artillery.

In half a day of fighting, both sides suffered casualties on each other, and it seemed that the losses of the Ming army were even greater, in addition to the Guangzhou ship that had left the battlefield, another Guangzhou ship was scarred, and almost half of the naval guns were lost, while the Portuguese shore guns were only damaged in a total of three.

Naval and shore artillery ceased firing, and there was a temporary silence in the waterway.

However, the ships of the South China Sea Fleet did not return to Temasek, but instead wandered gracefully in the waterways, wondering if they would take advantage of the cover of night to launch a new attack on the shore.

The soldiers on the ship began to divide the labor, some rushed to repair the damaged ship, some were repairing the artillery, some were cleaning the solid ammunition on the ship, and more soldiers took advantage of the gap in the war to take a nap to relieve their fatigue.

Looking at the faint light of the fire rising from the ships of the Ming army and the curling smoke of the dinner cooking, Manodi fell into deep thought, it was getting late, why did the Ming army not leave the waterway? Will they take advantage of the cover of night and force their landing? What are the other loopholes in the protection on the shore?

"Light a torch and light up the shore."

To break the cover of darkness, firelight is the only magic weapon.

Under the illumination of torches, the transport ships of the Ming army could not sneak ashore, and the Guangzhou ships could not evade the blows of shore artillery.

The Portuguese soldiers on the shore and the Ming soldiers on the ship confronted each other in the faint light of the torches.

The Ming army enjoyed the initiative in the war with the navy against the army, and the Portuguese soldiers were on land, although they had several large-caliber shore guns, they could only passively stick to their positions on the shore under the protection of the shore guns.

When to attack and where to attack is completely up to the Ming army.