Chapter 374 Occupation of the Strait

Gao Yuan returned to Panyu, rested for two days, and chose an auspicious date to use the Talent Summoning Card.

Unfortunately, his luck was poor, and he drew a C-rank person whose name he had never even heard of.

After a careful examination, Gao Yuan tossed this person to the Ministry of Personnel for selection and placement.

In the end, this person, along with over a dozen newly selected young talents from the Ministry of Personnel, was sent to the Malay Peninsula to serve as county magistrates.

The lottery was a bust, and Gao Yuan suddenly felt a sense of boredom.

The only thing that satisfied him was a notification from the system.

"Because the Host inspired morale by leading from the front with the Dragon Banner, you have completed the special achievement: Dragon Banner Advance;

Congratulations to the Host for obtaining the achievement reward: Leaders Aura has been upgraded from C to B."

"Leaders Aura (B):

Effect 1: Whenever the Host personally participates in battle, it boosts the morale of the entire army and slightly reduces the stamina consumption of all soldiers;

Effect 2: If the Host leads a Cavalry charge, it significantly reduces the stamina consumption of up to ten thousand targets, and increases the strength and agility of all subordinate soldiers by two minor tiers."

This aura was quite powerful after the upgrade; not only could it influence the entire army without a cap, but it also had a 'PLUS' effect.

It seemed his fate was to follow in the footsteps of Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, leading Cavalry charges to take the enemy general's head.

Thousands of miles away on Sumatra, the city of Kotaraja was now in a state of utter chaos.

A few months ago, no one in the entire country of Aceh would have believed their great Sultan would be defeated to such an extent.

Now, the nation's young men were essentially exhausted, and the enemy's army had arrived outside the capital city.

Wen Pin knew how to conduct himself; after annihilating Aceh's last resistance forces, he halted.

He claimed that to ensure the immigrants could live in peace, he had to eliminate future troubles by first suppressing bandits.

This delay lasted ten days. Although they wiped out two or three thousand mountain bandits formed from remnant troops, it felt like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

This continued until Crown Prince Zhao Cheng, who had taken the other route, pushed through everything and was the first to arrive at Kotaraja.

Upon receiving confirmed news, Wen Pin finally left a small number of soldiers to garrison the area and set out with his main army to rendezvous.

Although the city had not yet fallen, being the first to arrive at the enemy's capital meant Crown Prince Zhao Cheng's merit was already significant.

As for the top credit, it was too conspicuous, and Wen Pin estimated that Gao Yuan would not agree to it.

As long as he could rank in the top five or even top three on the merit roll, Crown Prince Zhao Cheng's path forward would be smoothed out.

Despite knowing defeat was inevitable, as the founder and ruler of the Aceh Sultanate, Ali Mughayat Syah had his own pride.

He could be defeated, but he absolutely would not accept surrender, let alone become a prisoner.

He led the last of the city's troops out of the gates.

His most elite Sultan's Guard still numbered over a thousand men, and combined with troops gathered from elsewhere, there were only about two thousand in total.

Looking back at the capital under the early morning sun, the proud Sultan of Aceh took the lead and charged toward the Qian Army.

An hour later, Crown Prince Zhao Cheng flicked the blood off his spear, looked down at the corpse on the ground from his horse, and gave orders expressionlessly.

"He was the ruler of a nation after all. Though he died in defeat, he was still a hero;

Pass down the order to collect his body properly and bury him according to local customs."

"Understood!"

Crown Prince Zhao Cheng's generous burial of their Sultan, combined with Great Qian's enlightened religious policies, quickly earned the goodwill of many.

Many who were originally reluctant chose to submit to Great Qian, though it was of little use; their fates were already sealed.

With this, Aceh was annexed. Great Qian completely controlled both sides of the Strait of Malacca, and the trade route was fully opened.

Following his previous plan, Gao Yuan officially appointed Wen Pin as the Governor of the Borneo Legion.

Simultaneously, as Wen Pin had requested, he appointed Crown Prince Zhao Cheng as Deputy Governor, leading two divisions to garrison Sumatra.

Gao Yuan also announced the division of the Navy into two major fleets, personally serving as the Grand Admiral of the Navy.

Cao Xing was appointed Governor of the North Sea Fleet, and Jiang Qin was appointed Governor of the South Sea Fleet.

With the sea route opened, various products from the islands began to flow steadily back to Great Qian.

Particularly the pepper and other spices produced in abundance on the island, as well as large amounts of gold and the coffee praised by Yang Xin, the Minister of Revenue.

Hearing that pepper and other spices were produced here, the common people soon eagerly signed up to come to the island and clear the land.

Before long, nearly two hundred thousand citizens crossed the sea to settle on Sumatra.

With the settlement of these Han people and the farming tools, oxen, and agricultural techniques they brought, the island soon became prosperous.

And coffee, following the promotion by Gao Yuan and Yang Xin, quickly became popular in Great Qian.

Along with milk tea, these two drinks that would sweep the world in the future soon took Great Qian by storm as well.

Hearing that those who migrated to Sumatra were living good lives, more and more people became interested.

Without much need for encouragement or extra rewards, the task of migrating five hundred thousand people was completed ahead of schedule in less than two years.

But that is a story for later, and will not be detailed here.

Although the scale of this campaign was large, the actual casualties of the Qian Army were not high.

Except for the loss of some men and horses when they first encountered religious fanatics.

Since the First Division of the Beiwei Army joined in, the casualty rate had become extremely low.

While the Beiwei Army didn't participate much in the island operations, the enemy had long since lost the will to fight.

The characteristics of these tropical dark-skinned people—extraordinarily lazy, incredibly unskilled, and utterly cowardly—were fully displayed in these individuals.

As for the local women, although they were a bit dark and short, they were generally very submissive.

Besides, it was all the same once the lights were out; as long as they could bear children and work, it was enough.

Therefore, aside from the consumption of grain and fodder, this expedition could be said to have almost no losses.

The money and grain consumed had long since been compensated for by ship after ship of spoils of war.

Looking at the mountain of spoils on the docks, Gao Yuan didn't care much; everyone knew how wealthy that place was.

Moreover, they had wiped out an entire nation, so the amount of accumulated wealth could be imagined.

The only things that caught Gao Yuan's eye were the solid gold carriage and the solid gold throne.

Of course, it wasn't entirely without surprises; there was one reward that Gao Yuan hadn't expected.

"The Host has completely controlled the Strait of Malacca, completing the special achievement: Trade Route Controller;

Congratulations to the Host for obtaining the achievement reward: Clipper Ship blueprints and one hundred actual ships."

Seeing this reward, Gao Yuan was a bit stunned. A Clipper Ship? What was that?

The system quickly provided an explanation.

"Clipper Ship: A high-speed sailing vessel that originated in America in the 19th century;

Clipper Ships were also used in the tea and opium trade with China. The fastest record for the voyage from New York to China was only one hundred and thirty days."

Gao Yuan's eyes lit up; this was clearly much more advanced than the previous galleons.

With the blueprints and the physical ships, it seemed he could start upgrading the naval vessels.

According to the system's introduction, the record-holding Clipper Ship was the 'Great Republic' built in 1853.

The ship was 93 meters long, 16.2 meters wide, 9.1 meters deep, with a displacement of 3,400 tons.

Its mainmast was 61 meters high, the total sail area was 3,760 square meters, its speed was 12 to 14 knots per hour, and it could cross the Atlantic in just 13 days.

The appearance of the Clipper Ship marked the peak of sailing ship development.

In terms of size, speed, and carrying capacity, it far exceeded the Treasure Ships (galleons) currently in use.

After entering the system space to inspect these sailing ships, Gao Yuan became even more excited.

All one hundred ships were giants with displacements exceeding two thousand tons, and both sides were equipped with sixty large-caliber cannons each.

In this era, this fleet was an existence capable of destroying heaven and earth.