17th year of the Great Qi Taiping (1721), August 16, Hormuz Island.

"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! ……”

Li Yanliang, a lieutenant (second lieutenant) of the army, strictly followed the infantry discipline, covered his ears with his hands, opened his mouth wide, and sat on the side of the ship, waiting for the end of the shelling. Not far from him, a group of veterans seemed to be unaware of the fierce shelling of the fleet, and one by one they leaned on the side of the ship, looking with great interest at the small island that was constantly being bombarded.

"Well, I guess it's pretty much the same. This shelling was enough for the Omanis on the island to drink a pot! ”

"I think it's better to bombard it a little longer, and it's better to kill all the Omanis on the island. Then after we land, we will be able to take over this island safely. ”

"Also, anyway, the navy is so rich, it's better to fight a few more rounds of artillery than to go to the island and fight those Omanis."

"I don't think there will be a few rounds, you see, the pace of this shelling seems to have slowed down. …… Isn't it time to log in? ”

"Well, it's time to land. You see, the warships ahead have begun to lay down the servant forces of Mozhou (present-day Katiawa Peninsula, India). …… When they get ashore, it's our turn. ”

“……”

Li Yanliang sat up, turned around, leaned on the side of the boat, and looked ahead.

I saw that the warships at the front had stopped shelling, and the sides of the ships on both sides had also hung hanging nets, and one by one the black and thin Mozhou servants were clumsily climbing towards the landing dinghy below. The whole scene, either crowded or in a hurry, from time to time soldiers fell into the water, while struggling to pounce, while shouting loudly for help, the noise boiled, and it seemed extremely chaotic.

The corners of Li Yanliang's mouth showed a look of disdain, these Mozhou servant soldiers transported from India estimated that they did not have much training in landing operations on weekdays, so they followed behind the Indian garrison army to bully the princes of the princely states in various parts of India and show off their prestige.

Now, hastily brought in by the Persian fleet (part of the Indian fleet), they were thrown directly into the war against the Yariba dynasty of Oman. Perhaps in the end of the battle, more people fell into the sea and drowned than were killed by the enemy.

"Doodoo ......"

A sharp whistle blew, and Yu Yuanbin, the commander of the second company of the 3rd Mixed Battalion of the 106th Regiment and the captain (captain) of the Imperial Military Academy, coldly swept the officers and soldiers on the deck who were already on standby, nodded slightly, then waved his hand and ordered: "Start landing!" ”

In 1717, Sudanbin Saiif II of the Kingdom of Oman took advantage of the chaotic situation within the Persian Safavid dynasty and began to encroach on parts of their Arabian coast up to Port Qatif. By the end of the year, the Omanis had crossed the strait and landed on the Bahrain Islands, where the Persian defenders had been annihilated, from the governor to the rank and file officials, as well as many high-ranking Arab vassals, were hanged, and Bahrain was declared part of the Omani Sultan State.

Ben Seif II established a naval base in Bahrain and immediately began to occupy the islands of the Gulf (Persian Gulf). In August of last year (1720), the Omanis captured the island of Kissam (i.e. Qeshm) and drove the Dutch out. In the same year, several Omani detachments, under the cover of the navy, began to launch frequent armed attacks on the ports of towns and cities on the Persian coast in the Gulf.

In less than five years, the Omanis controlled almost the entire bay, and with their navy of more than 300 ships, large and small, they guarded the key points leading to the various garrisons. The islands of Bahrain, Hormuz, and Qeshm were turned into naval bases, and the Omanis, in addition to constantly harassing the Persian coast, also plundered merchant ships, greatly disrupting the local maritime trade.

As the maritime hegemon of the Indian Ocean region and the defender of the trade order in the region, Qi naturally cannot sit idly by and watch the Omanis so unscrupulously destroy the existing peaceful and stable trade environment, and begin to focus on the Gulf region.

A few years ago, when the Omanis were aggressively seeking hegemony in the Gulf, the main reason why Qi did not intervene in time was that his energy was temporarily lacking and he was held back by two wars at the same time.

In October of the 11th year of Taiping (1715), the state of Qi launched a war against the kingdom of Aceh Sudan, which was located at the northern tip of Sumatra, under the pretext that its merchants and civilians had been innocently killed. In less than two months, the Qi army captured nearly half of Aceh, and in December of that year, the capital and royal palace of Aceh were captured, and Sultan Mahmoud Fosai was forced to retreat to the mountains, where he died soon after.

However, the tenacious Acehnese, under the leadership of their successor Sultan and the leader of the True God Cult, Duima Uddin, continued to resist stubbornly, and with the help of the high mountains and dense forests, they launched frequent and brutal guerrilla warfare against the Qi army, which thought that the general situation was decided, and the Qi army suffered a lot.

In order to completely conquer this small country, in addition to recruiting many princely states such as Jambi, Kanbaru, Johor, Jeddah, and Perak to send troops to participate in the war, Qi also mobilized the armies of the three vassal states of Shun, Ha Xian, and Champang, making the number of participants in the battle more than 30,000, and exerting all efforts to suppress the resistance forces of Aceh.

In June of the thirteenth year of Taiping (1717), under the guidance of a leader of an Acehnese tribe who had taken refuge, the Qi army captured Aceh Sudan near Lake Toba, killed Duima Udin, the leader of the True God Cult, and annihilated more than 2,000 Aceh resistance troops there.

Subsequently, the Qi people deposed and placed the captured Aceh Sudan under house arrest, and re-selected a "wise" and "changeable" prince in the Aceh royal family to inherit the throne.

After the Kingdom of Aceh was dealt with, the Kingdom of Qi had not yet taken a breath, and there was another incident in India.

In 1714, under the auspices of the Qi state, the Maratha Kingdom signed the Treaty of Langnavala with the Mughal Empire, ending the twelve-year armed conflict between the two sides, and thus gaining de jure territory in the five Deccan provinces, becoming the second largest country in India after the Mughal Empire.

The Treaty of Langnavala is considered a "milestone event in the history of Maratha", through which the prestige of the kingdom's Pashwa (i.e., Prime Minister) Balaj Wiswanath reached its highest point in the Maratha Kingdom, and the resulting ambition and desire swelled to the extreme.

March to Delhi, completely replace the Mughal Empire, depose the emperors of the Empire, and establish a unified and great Maratha Empire in the vast Indian continent!

In July of the 14th year of Taiping (1718), Balaji Viswanath declared to all the Marathas: "With our strongest strength, shake the withered trunk violently, and the branches and leaves on it will fall off on their own." The flag of the Marathas should fly from the Krishna River to the Indus River! ”

The governor of Qi in India was shocked to learn that the Marathas had begun a general mobilization at home, preparing to launch a war of annihilation against the Mughal Empire.

Nima's, you made such a big move, don't you ask our Qi people's opinions?!

The Governor's Office of Qi in India immediately issued a stern warning to the Marathas not to make any moves to change the current situation in the region, otherwise, Qi will take resolute and forceful countermeasures.

However, the self-confident Marathas turned a deaf ear to Qi Guo's warnings, believing that if they did not take advantage of their strength to destroy the Mughal Empire and establish a great era for the Marathas, they would be spurned and punished by the three gods (Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, the three supreme gods of Hinduism).

In December of the same year, 80,000 troops of the Maratha Kingdom crossed the Narmada River and captured Bhopal, an important town in the Mughal Empire's Malwa province, kicking off the war to destroy the Mughal Empire.

In February of the 15th year of Taiping (1719), the army of the Maratha Kingdom entered the southern city of Morena, in Rajasthan Province, and marched on the banks of the Kalmanvati River (present-day Changbar River, India), less than 120 kilometers from Agra, the old capital of the Mughal Empire.

At this time, the commander of the army of the Maratha Kingdom, Balaj Viswanath, received a report from the front reconnaissance cavalry that more than 40,000 troops of the Mughal Empire and the Qi State had entered the small city of Torbul on the north bank of the Karmanvati River, trying to prevent them from continuing to advance and enter the core ruling area of the Mughal Empire.

After less than five minutes of hesitation, Balaj Wiswanath ordered his entire army to cross the Kalmanwati River in sections, and with the utmost resolute attitude, to repel the Qi army and capture Agra, as well as the capital of the empire, Delhi.

In winter, the water level of the Kalmanwati River is not high, and many sections of the river are waist-deep, allowing cavalry to wade through the water with ease. When more than 20,000 fierce Maratha cavalry stirred up countless waves on the river more than ten miles wide and slowly approached the opposite bank, Balaji Viswanath thought that there was no force to block their passage, and it would only take five minutes for the thunderous cavalry corps to set foot on the land on the north bank and tear apart all the armies that dared to resist.

However, the proud Marathas underestimated the fighting power of the Qi army, as well as the terrifying firepower that their army possessed. Dozens of artillery pieces continued to bombard the Maratha army who were crossing the river, and groups of musketeers, standing in dense queues, stood on the north bank of the Karmanvati River, firing wave after wave of neat rows of guns, and whistling rockets, with red tail flames, exploded all over the river.

The Maratha cavalry, who were lucky enough to rush to the beachhead on the north bank, did not adjust their horse strength to attack, when they saw thousands of cavalry of the Mughal Empire and the Kharat Khanate rushing from the opposite side, brandishing sharp scimitars, cutting them down to the shore one by one, and then repeatedly charging along the river to kill the Maratha cavalry who landed on the shore later.

The battle lasted two hours, and more than 13,000 Marathas were left dead in the Kalmanwati River, which blocked almost the entire river and turned the river red with blood.

Just as the commander of the Maratha Kingdom's army, Balaji Viswanat, retreated to Morena to rest for a while, licking his wounds and preparing to fight again one day, a sudden and terrifying news came from the rear.

The Qi people gathered nearly 10,000 garrison troops and local servants, landed at Yunyang Fort (present-day Novo Mumbai District, India), and then killed Pune, the capital of the Maratha Kingdom. It is reported that the Qi army has successively broken through several small cities such as Copoli and Lonavala, and has entered Bingbri Kingjeward, which is only a stone's throw away from Pune.

Coach Balaj Wiswanath immediately abandoned the main force of the brigade and led the remaining more than 10,000 cavalry to aid Pune. A few days later, when he reached the small town of Aurangabad, his eldest son, Baji Rao, had fled from Pune with his defeated army, carrying Chhatrapati (i.e., king) Shahu I of the Maratha kingdom.

In a fit of rage, Balaj Viswanath fell ill and died in hatred after spending more than ten days on the bed. Baji Rao was immediately elected as the new Pashwa and continued to lead the military and political affairs of the kingdom.

Although Baji Rao was only 20 years old, he followed his father in the northern and southern wars, which made him not only a brave and warlike general, but also a politician. He immediately sent an envoy to express his willingness to stop the war to Qi and hope to restore the existing regional pattern before the war.

In order to hold the Mughal Empire and semi-independent Bangladesh hostage, and to maintain a balanced situation in the entire Indian region, the Qi state agreed to Baji Rao's request for an armistice. After the Maratha army had withdrawn from the Narmada River, he signed the Treaty of Pune with Baji Rao, demanded a sum of compensation, and then withdrew from Pune with a large amount of capture, returning to Yunyang Fort and Shanghai (present-day Mumbai).

When the Qi people thwarted the ambitions of the Marathas and once again consolidated their dominance in India, they set their sights on the increasingly chaotic Gulf region.

Li Yanliang only graduated from the Daxing Army School in June last year, and unfortunately failed to catch up with these two wars. He served in the Viceroyalty of Kaihua (Java Island), where he spent six months as an officer trainee, and then was assigned to serve in the Governorate of Sandbar (which covers the Red Sea, the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula and eastern Africa) at the Jianmen Fort (present-day Aden, Yemen).

Now, in order to teach the unruly Omanis a lesson and restore the normal order of maritime trade in the Gulf, we are also at the invitation of the Safavid dynasty of Persia to prepare to expel the Omanis from the islands and coastal towns they have occupied.

To this end, the Persian detachment of the Navy's Indian fleet dispatched eight warships, seven armed merchant ships under the Persian trading company, as well as a mixed army battalion and three battalions of Mozhou servants, to launch the campaign to seize the island.

When Li Yanliang's troops arrived on the island in a landing boat, those Mozhou servants had already roughly established a beachhead, and the Omani soldiers stationed on the island did not take the opportunity to launch a counterattack, probably for fear of being bombarded by naval guns, and all of them hid in solid fortresses.

The commander-in-chief of the landing force, Lieutenant Colonel Luo Zhanping, took half a day to build a solid camp and then directed the troops towards the fortress held by the Omanis.

The construction of the fortress of Hormuz can be traced back to 200 years ago (1514), when the Portuguese, in order to control the eastern trade and the Gulf trade, seized the islands that were originally owned by the island city-state of the Kingdom of Hormuz, and then built a fortress as a base to plunder the Persian coastal area. Due to its early construction, the fortress did not adopt a fortress design, and its own safety depended on the strong firepower output of the defenders.

But in the entire Indian Ocean region, if any country or local force wants to compete with the Qi army's firepower, it is simply a big sword in front of Guan Gong - beyond his strength.

Several light speedboats, carrying several heavy guns, were slowly sailing to the shallow water on the shore, ready to approach the bombardment of the fortress on the island under the guidance of the artillery observers on the shore. Faced with this kind of fortress, which was mostly built of rammed earth, the Qi people did not think that the Omanis in the city could hold out for too long, and as long as the city walls were destroyed, the defenders' will to defend would be immediately shaken.

And all the landing force needed to do was to easily enter the city, raise the flag of Qi, and then contain the prisoners and count the captures.

When Qi launched an attack on the island of Hormuz, the Persian detachment originally wanted to use the opportunity to seize the island to attract Oman's naval fleet to come to their aid, annihilating or severely damaging their sea power. Don't look at the fact that they claim to have more than 300 warships, which is extremely large, but most of them are small galleys, with only one or two light guns arranged on them, which cannot pose a mortal threat to the warships of the country.

The two iron-clad warships under the Persian detachment did not even need to rely on naval artillery bombardment, and could sink these weak "warships" with only their sturdy hulls and sharp ramming angles.

As a result, when the Qi fleet entered the waters of Hormuz Island, it did not find a single Omani ship, and all of them took refuge in Muscat or Bahrain Island to avoid the Qi navy.

In the face of the isolated defenders of Hormuz Island, the Qi people fully believed that when the troops arrived at the Hormuz Fort they were defending, they would definitely raise the white flag and obediently come out and surrender.

"Stop moving! …… Stop moving forward! Several mournful shouts rang out, "Queue, queue!" …… Get ready to take on the enemy! ”

I saw that from the fortress in front, Omani soldiers were constantly pouring out, shouting loudly, or holding scimitars, or holding muskets, and fiercely pounced on the marching Qi army.