According to the plan drawn up by the military, the next target of the retaliatory operation was to launch an attack on Malacca, a country that had not been established for a long time, but was based on several victories over neighboring countries.

The lowest of these was to order the king of Malacca to hand over all the perpetrators involved, and the king himself to go to Beijing to apologize for his crimes, and to pay sufficient compensation and indemnity to make up for the mistake of this active invasion of the Great Song Dynasty.

The highest goal was to occupy a piece of land in the region and gain a point of support for the Great Song side in this strait, which was crucial in terms of trade.

This was made because the new Song Dynasty, which inherited and carried forward the sea routes of the Yuan Dynasty, had a very prosperous maritime trade, and the most important routes passed through the Strait of Malacca.

However, in this strait, which was crucial to the maritime trade of the Great Song Dynasty, the Great Song Dynasty did not have any focus, so it had to endure the completely abnormal ship loss rate caused by the forces on both sides of the strait when those ships passed through the strait.

Therefore, taking advantage of this opportunity, the Great Song court and the military planned to launch an expedition to completely solve this problem that had lasted for decades and reduce some unnecessary losses.

Since there are strict restrictions on the number and duration of the expedition, as the commander-in-chief of the expedition, Heian wants to strengthen his own strength as much as possible, so he only asks if this weapon can be used after discovering the artillery.

Yes, it is not a very difficult thing for a military practitioner to want to destroy the defensive offensive and the enemy in those cities, but only if the enemy does not have a corresponding existence.

The problem is that this time the enemy has a corresponding existence, so when the extraordinary forces of the two sides contain each other, those ordinary people can only rely on their own strength to attack or defend the city.

"I don't think artillery can't be involved in this battle, as long as I bring it with me, it won't be too much of a problem." After learning the whole story from the soldiers, Liang decided to get involved in the war.

On the one hand, he knew that at least for a long time, he and the Great Song behind him had a mutually reinforcing relationship, and every bit of effort would be rewarded, so at this time he was willing to send charcoal in the snow to bring the relationship between the two sides closer.

On the other hand, the core of his cultivation is to make trouble, and it is significantly easier to obtain the Essence of Luck by participating in a war that may affect the future economic center of gravity of the empire than staying here to train troops and raise supplies.

As for the material collection, he can leave it to others to do, and it will not affect the large-scale migration operation in the spring of next year.

Over the next few days, Liang began to use his alchemy abilities to make cannons and cannonballs, while selecting those willing to participate in the expedition.

Contrary to Liang En's previous speculation, although they might go on an expedition to the rainforest next, the militia under his command actually signed up enthusiastically to participate in this war.

For this group of people who decided to venture out to sea in the first place, joining the military did not significantly increase their risk, but it could reap a lot of rewards.

Through this period of contact, everyone recognized Liang En as a fair person and knew about military affairs. Therefore, everyone was willing to trust him and go to war under his command.

At the same time, in this mutual run-in, they understand that as long as they are willing to work hard, then as a group of pioneers under Liang En, they will stay in a position that their hometown will never be able to go in the future.

Compared with honestly farming or doing other things, it is obviously easier to get a head start in this regard when going to the battlefield, especially with your own lord.

Of course, these militia under Liang En also had a little bit of their own calculus - they would operate cannons or muskets, which allowed him to avoid the most dangerous front-line hand-to-hand combat posts.

So they are now willing to join the current war, and under the command of Liang En, they will use their weapons on the battlefield to fight for a future for themselves.

Because there were a lot of applicants, Liang En had to carry out a screening, but in the end, a team of up to 120 people was selected.

In addition to operating two 12-pounder cannons, this team was responsible for operating them

In addition, they will be responsible for operating two newly built 24-pounder mortars to provide sufficient firepower for the army.

Not all of the 120 militia members who participated in the war were artillerymen, except for the 40 militia who were assigned to operate the artillery, and the remaining 80 militiamen were responsible for the escort.

Because of this, Liang En spent a lot of wealth and resources to replace the arquebuses originally assigned to the militia with flintlock muskets, which further improved the combat effectiveness of the militia.

Many people believe that the biggest advantages of flintlock pistols over arquebuses are their ability to fire in the rain, their ability to avoid exposing themselves to the arquebuses lit during night attacks, and their higher firing rate.

But for the military, the biggest advantage of the flintlock pistol is that it has several times the firepower density of the arquebus, which can give the enemy a fatal blow on the battlefield -

Because arquebus firing requires an open flame, it is easy to ignite the propellant on those soldiers. So these soldiers had to choose to distance themselves from each other, so that the density of fire would become sparse.

With the use of flintlock pistols, soldiers were able to form dense formations and have a greater firepower output with the same width of the battle line.

Fortunately, in the previous training, Liang En specially trained the militia to use flintlock pistols, so this change of clothing did not affect the combat effectiveness of this group of militiamen.

Just after Liang En and the others had completed all the preparations, the expeditionary force had also completed all the preparations before departure, so Liang En took the prepared militia and embarked on the expeditionary ship together.

The expeditionary force had a total of more than 6,000 people and more than 50 ships, and after simply worshipping Mazu and the Dragon King, the expeditionary force began to board their respective ships under the eyes of Zhu Biao, the current head of the Zhu family, one of the eight princes.

Liang and his militia were divided into a large boat, and since there was no second group of passengers on board, Liang and the soldiers loaded the guns on the ship, and the ship pulled anchor and set sail.

Life at sea was not pleasant, and while the supernatural powers made these ships much more hygienic than their counterparts in history, and the supernatural powers that could be used to preserve food, the monotony of food and water was unpleasant.

Especially when sailing on the hot and humid sea, the stuffy cabin is extremely uncomfortable for everyone, but there is no fresh water to clean themselves.

Although the cultivators were able to use various means to carry more supplies, they were limited to the practitioners themselves and a small number of officers and technicians, and they were not enough to supply the entire army.

And for Liang En, even worse is the problem of being on a moving ship, and it is inconvenient to open the portal.

Fortunately, this time he set off with his own small sailboat and dragged it on a rope behind the big ship, so from time to time he was able to take a boat alone in the name of investigation and maintain contact with the modern day in the name of being a practitioner and a scholar of Gezhi Academy.

Finally, halfway through November, the fleet, which had sailed for three weeks, reached the waters off the coast of the city of Malacca. It also means that they can finally get to the shore.