Chapter 1190: Full Siblings, Genuine as Can Be!

Arakan, Mrauk U.

Outside the royal palace, King Thiri Thudhamma of Arakan had once again fallen in love. The king, in his forties, short and plump, dark-skinned, with a shaved bald head, was a famously amorous soul, and his harem held beauties gathered from all over the world. There were fair-skinned and dark-skinned slave girls sold by Ottoman merchants, Indian beauties brought from Chittagong, beauties from the snowy highlands, women from Burma and Siam, and women of Japanese descent native to Mrauk U (the Arakan kingdom of this era also had many Japanese mercenaries) — but there was no beauty from the Celestial Empire of the north, and so King Thiri Thudhamma had always felt some regret. How could a king as wealthy, as handsome (he was universally acknowledged as a fine-looking man in Arakan), and as brave and wise as he not possess a Chinese princess?

He had even prayed to the all-powerful Buddha about this matter. And who would have thought it would actually come true!

A Chinese princess of indescribable beauty really had come to the royal palace at Mrauk U. Eh, and who was that repulsive-looking, big-bearded man who had come with the princess?

"Your Majesty, this is Princess Li Anna, from China," Bruce said in Portuguese (there were many Portuguese in Arakan, and this king could also speak Portuguese), introducing Yamada Anna — now renamed Li Anna — to the king, who was practically drooling. Then he glanced at Li Jicheng, who was built like an ox and fierce as a tiger — these two didn't look like brother and sister at all! The imperial great-grandson looked far too ferocious, and the princess far too petite. If these two really were full siblings, then the Crown Prince of the Shun Empire must have been cuckolded!

Bruce steeled himself and said, "This is Her Highness the Princess's elder brother, His Highness the Imperial Great-Grandson of the Shun!"

"Elder brother." King Thiri Thudhamma looked at Li Jicheng, who resembled a guardian vajra warrior, and also found it somewhat hard to believe.

With a face like that, it would be more believable to say he was full brothers with Aurangzeb — how could he possibly be the little beauty's elder brother?

"Your Majesty," the little beauty spoke up, also in Portuguese (her mother was Portuguese), her voice coquettish and especially persuasive, "the Great-Grandson and I were not born of the same mother, but we are both children of the Shun Crown Prince — we are full siblings. Actually, the two of us do look quite alike."

They really did look somewhat alike.

Prompted by the little beauty's words, King Thiri Thudhamma took another careful look at Li Jicheng and found that he and Anna really did resemble each other somewhat.

Both had very fair skin, both had large eyes, both had high nose bridges, both had very black hair — they must be brother and sister!

"They really do look alike, truly alike!" The king finally believed that Li Jicheng and Li Anna were full siblings, and promptly invited Li Jicheng, Li Anna, Bruce, and the others into the magnificent palace, where song, dance, wine, and feasting were all readily provided.

After three rounds of wine and five courses of food, host and guests were thoroughly enjoying themselves, and once the pleasantries and courtesies had been mostly exhausted, Bruce — the go-between who had built the bridge between Arakan and Li Jicheng — steered the conversation to the main topic. This matter had to be hurried; sending reinforcements was as urgent as fighting a fire!

"Your Majesty, the situation at Malacca is now extremely critical. The Ming army in the north may launch a large-scale southward offensive at any time. Although Johor, Perak, Aceh, Patani, and other states have already formed a coalition, and the Sultan of Kedah also intends to join, even a coalition of five sultanates would be hard-pressed to resist the Ming Empire. And the only power capable of opposing the mighty Ming is the Shun Empire. However, the Shun Empire does not share a border with the Malay Peninsula, and our Dutch fleet must be concentrated east of the Strait of Malacca... so we can only ask Arakan's fleet to help transport the Shun army from Syriam to the Malay Peninsula."

Bruce van Diemen had not told the whole truth — Dutch profiteers, of course, were cunning; how could they honestly park their own fleet east of the Malay Peninsula to block the Ming fleet?

Besides, that was not how navies were used.

The open sea was boundless — could one build a defensive line with ships?

Moreover, the Dutch navy was the ancestor of seaborne surprise attacks; in the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch had charged up the Thames and raided London!

This was the age of sailing ships of the line, not the age of flying planes to drop bombs. With the Thames being as narrow as it was, they could still come and go freely — that was a skill few could match.

And those skilled at launching surprise attacks were usually also masters at guarding against them, so the Dutch could not possibly have placed their fleet among the hard-to-defend bays and islands east of the Strait of Malacca.

Therefore, Rear Admiral Tromp had long since led his fleet out of Batavia (Batavia's harbor entrance was very wide, and its interior too shallow, making it impossible to defend), then slipped through the Sunda Strait into the Indian Ocean, rounded Sumatra from the south, and arrived at the mouth of the Klang River on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Outside the Klang River mouth there were several large sandbars that protected the river mouth layer by layer, and Rear Admiral Tromp's fleet, hiding there, was very difficult to detect.

Furthermore, because the fleet under Tromp's command had deliberately avoided the shipping lanes commonly used by merchant vessels during its voyage, and had also steered clear of the eastern entrance to the Strait of Malacca, where Ming spy ships came and went in dense numbers, the Ming side still did not know the whereabouts of Tromp's fleet.

Of course, the Dutch likewise did not know the whereabouts of the Ming main fleet. Although the Ming side had chosen the Makassar Strait for a decisive battle, no one knew whether the Ming navy would actually keep the appointment, so Governor-General Maetsuycker and Rear Admiral Tromp had devised an amphibious operation plan that they considered especially reliable.

According to this plan, ten to twenty thousand Shun troops would be transported to Penang Island, and then they would construct a fortress on the mainland of the Malay Peninsula opposite Penang. To the Ming army on the Malay Peninsula, a Shun fortress would undoubtedly be a thorn in the eye — if it were not removed, how could the Ming army dare to march south with confidence?

Therefore, the appearance of Shun troops near Penang would surely draw in the Ming main force!

At the same time, once the Dutch spy ships stationed in the Makassar Strait spotted the Ming main fleet, the Dutch fleet at the Klang River mouth would immediately sail for Johor, load up a coalition force of Johor, Aceh, Perak, and Patani troops concentrated there, and then transport them to land at Patani to launch a surprise attack on the Ming army's flank and rear...

The plan should have been a good one, but whether it could be realized depended entirely on whether the Shun elite troops could reach the Malay Peninsula in time.

"Mister Diemen," the King of Arakan glanced at the tender and delectable "Princess Anna," drew a breath, and finally made up his mind. "If it is merely a matter of transporting the Shun army, our Arakan fleet can help. But I would like to know how many ships you need, and how many men you intend to transport?"

The Kingdom of Arakan had in fact been founded on its navy; had it not been for the navy cutting the supply lines of the Toungoo dynasty's great armies, the Kingdom of Arakan would long since have ceased to exist.

The king's question was translated into Chinese by Bruce. After hearing it, Li Jicheng said with a smile, "Our Shun has fifty thousand troops at Syriam. If all of them were to be transported to the Malay Peninsula, we would need at least five hundred large ships. Do you have that many ships?"

"So many ships are needed..." The King of Arakan seemed somewhat hesitant.

"Your Majesty," Bruce assured him at this point, "I believe you need not worry about any threat from the sea, because the Indian Ocean is now entirely under the dominion of our Dutch East India Company navy. The Mughal Empire to the west has no navy capable of opposing us at all, so an invasion is impossible."

That was true enough. The Mughal navy was not worth mentioning, and although the naval strength of Britain and Portugal was greater than that of the Mughals, those two countries had very good relations with Arakan and would presumably not launch an attack while Arakan's navy was away.

Besides, those two countries had very limited land forces in the Indian Ocean and could not possibly take Mrauk U.

The King of Arakan nodded. "Very well... I can lend my fleet. However, I do not have five hundred warships, only three hundred ships, and I also require collateral!"

As he spoke, the king glanced at Princess Anna and said with a smile, "I hope Her Highness the Princess can remain in Mrauk U as our guest!"

(End of Chapter)