Chapter 369 Zhao Cheng's First Appearance

Among all the generals of Great Qian, no one understood their southern neighbor, Aceh, better than Liao Hua.

Watching Aceh's gradual rise, he naturally knew that a war between the two nations was inevitable. Therefore, he had long since sent agents into Aceh under the guise of merchants to scout the territory, creating detailed maps and planning marching routes.

Ever since Gao Yuan issued the order, he and Zishan had begun preparations, transporting various military supplies and grain to places like Ayutthaya.

In the fourth month of the twenty-third year of Great Qian, five days after the vanguard reached their position to rest, the southern expedition officially began before the weather turned too hot.

Years of smooth sailing had given the Acehnese a strange sense of confidence. Hearing that the Qian Army was invading with only five thousand men, the Acehnese general at Chaiya led his ten thousand defenders out of the city, abandoning its walls to seek a field battle with the Qian forces.

Although part of the vanguard camp consisted of the Xuanjia Army from the Annan Circuit, they were a long-term border garrison. Furthermore, they included a brigade of the Beiwei Army. How could they possibly fear an Acehnese army that barely even wore armor in a field battle?

Thus, both sides, brimming with confidence, engaged in an encounter battle outside the overgrown city of Chaiya. This was the first true clash between Great Qian and Aceh.

It was an encounter battle of extreme disparity; the equipment superiority of the Qian Army was displayed to its fullest extent during this fight.

From the very beginning, the battle was a complete rout. The Acehnese were horrified to find that the steel blades they considered invincible were utterly useless against these Great Qian soldiers who were armed to the teeth.

As Gao Yuan's son, Crown Prince Zhao Cheng also adhered to his father's philosophy of 'shooting the horse to fell the rider' and 'capturing the leader to catch the bandits.' Amidst the chaotic melee, he precisely located the Acehnese commander in the crowd.

He unslung the precious bow from his back and notched an arrow. With a sharp whistle through the air, the arrow accurately struck the enemy commander's head.

This was Crown Prince Zhao Cheng's first time personally killing someone. Because it was a long-range kill, the bloody scene did not happen directly in front of him; thus, the little fellow felt no discomfort and was instead quite excited.

He raised his powerful bow and shouted,

"The one who slew the general is Crown Prince Zhao Cheng of the Vanguard Brigade!"

Reminded by his shout, everyone noticed that the enemy commander, who had been mounted just moments ago, was nowhere to be seen. The army's morale instantly soared, while for the Acehnese, it felt like the end of the world.

Crown Prince Zhao Cheng's archery had been personally trained and praised by Gao Yuan. Although the bow in his hand was not as good as Gao Yuan's lingbao bow, it was still a powerful bow with a draw weight of one dan, which was his greatest advantage.

Therefore, he did not choose to draw a blade for close combat, but instead fully utilized his strength—precision killing.

As he shot down several people in succession, Crown Prince Zhao Cheng entered a state of total focus; anyone who attempted to resist would be met by one of his sharp arrows.

Seeing the 'pretty boy' they had previously looked down upon acting so heroically, the others refused to be outdone. They charged forward bravely, and after holding out for fifteen minutes, the Acehnese army finally began to collapse.

In this manner, the first true battle between Great Qian and Aceh lasted only about an hour before entering the popular stage of rounding up prisoners.

On the open plains, the Acehnese had nowhere to hide. They were either cut down or taken captive.

As for these prisoners, most would be sold by Gao Yuan through merchant caravans to distant Liaodong, where Lu Heng was salivating at the prospect of such labor.

In exchange, Goguryeo women would become a sought-after 'commodity' in Great Qian, serving as high-grade rewards for Gao Yuan to bestow upon meritorious officers and soldiers.

With their army gone, the city of Chaiya—the northern gate of the Malay Peninsula—became a delicacy to be enjoyed at will. By the afternoon of the following day, this northern fortress, which Aceh had painstakingly developed, flew the 'Qian' flag: black characters on a yellow background.

That evening, at the victory banquet in Chaiya, Crown Prince Zhao Cheng was unanimously credited with the top achievement of the battle for slaying three enemy generals and shooting twenty-five enemy soldiers.

To everyone's surprise, Crown Prince Zhao Cheng did not take the credit for himself. He raised his cup and said,

"This victory is entirely due to everyone's brave charge. I was merely hiding in the back firing occasional arrows. Therefore, the top credit belongs to everyone. I shall toast you all with tea instead of wine."

"Brother Zhao is too modest! Come, come, everyone, let's raise our cups to Brother Zhao!"

Everyone raised their cups and downed their drinks or tea, then began to feast heartily.

Yes, that's right; despite the great victory, they only ate a bit better. No one dared to drink alcohol, not even low-alcohol fruit wine.

Though they knew Crown Prince Zhao Cheng's words were out of modesty, everyone was very satisfied with the young man's attitude. Their feelings toward him gradually shifted from initial rejection and disdain to recognition and admiration.

The military was simple: regardless of your family background, if you had ability, people would respect you. Clearly, after today's battle, the Crown Prince of Great Qian had basically established a firm foothold in the army.

The subsequent fighting went very smoothly. The entire Chaiya region was soon under complete Qian control. Now, they only had to wait for the arrival of the main force to launch a full-scale offensive.

Meanwhile, the main fleet of the Great Qian Navy, led by Jiang Qin, had arrived at the port of Saigon across the sea. They were waiting for the land army to strike and draw out the main Acehnese forces before launching a cross-sea invasion into the enemy's heartland.

Their first task was to burst into the Strait of Malacca at the right moment to occupy Malacca, Johor, Singapore, and other places, cutting off Aceh's reinforcement routes from Sumatra and blocking any possibility of the enemy escaping by sea.

Annihilating the seventy to eighty thousand Acehnese troops on the Malay Peninsula was not enough to satisfy Gao Yuan's appetite. He hoped to lure a large number of Acehnese reinforcements away from Sumatra before 'closing the door to beat the dog.'

One must understand that Sumatra was covered in mountains and tropical rainforests. Once a large number of enemy troops fled into the rainforest, it would turn into an extremely long counter-insurgency process, a situation Gao Yuan did not wish to see.

In the original timeline, the Great Ming's southern expedition to Jiaozhi was bogged down by hundreds of thousands of troops because of natives fleeing into the mountains and forests. Ultimately, the heavy burden completely collapsed the finances of the Ming Dynasty.

Sumatra was one of the most extreme cases. All the cities on the island were distributed in a ring around the Barisan Mountains in the center.

While the straight-line distance between two cities might seem like only dozens of miles, one actually had to travel hundreds of miles around the mountains to get there.

If a rebellion or banditry occurred somewhere, by the time you traveled thousands of miles to get there, it would likely be too late. This required not only a large garrison and long-term governance but also the need to weaken the enemy as much as possible in the early stages.

Imagine if only a few hundred enemies hid in the forest; stationing a thousand men in each area would be enough. But what if thousands hid in the forest?

Gao Yuan wanted his territorial expansion to be as profitable as 'killing and burning for a golden belt,' not to dig a pit for himself that would take ten, twenty years, or even generations to fill.

Therefore, Gao Yuan's instructions to Wen Pin and Jiang Qin were to lure as many enemy troops as possible onto the Malay Peninsula for total annihilation, to avoid leaving behind massive trouble for future rule.

Wen Pin and Jiang Qin executed Gao Yuan's orders well. The navy took the lead in surrounding and occupying an island very close to Singapore and established a simple supply base.

Meanwhile, Wen Pin procrastinated, not beginning the attack on Tanjung Salang until the end of the eighth month. This gave the Sultan of Aceh, Ali Mughayat Syah, enough time to react, and he mobilized over fifty thousand troops to cross the sea to the Malay Peninsula.