The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 161: Suppressing the Rebellion
March 1787, the 4st year of the reign of Emperor Xianning of the Ming Dynasty, the night of April 18th, in the Western calendar.

On a street in Cairo, a squad of ten soldiers from the Ming Wu Japanese Legion were patrolling at night.

As they turned a street corner, a series of flames suddenly burst out from the dark alley.

Six of the ten soldiers had blood spurting out of their chests, and they immediately fell to the ground screaming.

The gong that one of them was carrying also fell to the ground, making a clanging sound.

The remaining four companions were stunned for a moment and realized that someone had attacked them with a musket.

He instinctively aimed his gun at the direction the bullet was coming from, dodged behind the side shots, and shouted at the top of his lungs:

"Attack! Attack!"

As a result, several figures appeared behind them and stabbed them with simple scimitars.

The three men screamed and struggled instinctively, but were stabbed several more times. They soon lost all their strength and collapsed to the ground.

Before their consciousness finally faded, they could vaguely hear the entire street in chaos.

More and more chaotic sounds of gunfire, screams, curses, and gongs were heard all around, and it seemed that flames were slowly covering the sky.

The garrison camp in Cairo, a former Mamluk manor, was also attacked almost at the same time.

On the guard towers on both sides of the manor gate, eight guards on duty were attacked by rifles from an unknown direction while they were walking in circles.

Other national armies of this era also had rifled rifles, but as muzzle-loading rifles, their rate of fire was very slow and they could only be used for sniping and sneak attacks, and their range was not as good as that of bolt-action rifles.

Five of the eight guards were killed on the spot, and the remaining three were terrified.

He immediately squatted under the protective breastwork of the guard tower, and at the same time, he struck the gong in his hand and shouted:
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

At this time, in the darkness outside the wall, a large group of people had gathered, pushing a simple wooden battering ram, and rushed towards the gate of the manor where the garrison was located under the cover of night.

The guard on the wall heard the noise outside, grabbed the grenade on his body and threw it down.

The Ming Dynasty had sufficient supplies in the Cairo area, and each military camp stationed in the city was allocated a batch of picric acid grenades.

Guards on duty must carry it with them to deal with situations where they are besieged in chaos.

This is the experience of the Japanese army in guarding Mombasa, Zanzibar and other places.

Amid the violent explosion of chemical explosives, a large number of people who were attacking the military camp fell down on the spot.

Many people did not die immediately, but were pierced by grenade shrapnel and fell to the ground screaming heart-wrenchingly.

But there are still quite a few people who are still standing, and they are all fearless of death.

They continued to push the battering ram and roared as they charged at the military camp gate.

The three guards in the watchtower picked up the grenades of their fallen companions and threw them under the gate of the manor again, killing and injuring a large number of the remaining people.

The remaining dozen or so people were still able to push the battering ram, but they obviously did not have enough strength to break through the gate of the manor.

But at this moment, more people quickly poured out from the surrounding streets, rushing madly towards the gate of the manor where the operation was located, and pushing the battering ram forward together.

Several guards had already thrown away all the grenades they were carrying, and the old flintlock rifles they carried had a very limited firing rate and were completely ineffective.

In addition, there might be snipers watching him from a distance, so he didn't dare to stand up and look outside. He could only grab the gong and hit it hard while shouting.

The soldiers in the barracks have already climbed up in groups. More and more soldiers are gathering in the yard of the barracks, and they are also bringing out more bitter acid grenades.

When faced with an attack in a city melee, grenades and bayonets may be much more useful than gun barrels, so the garrison troops have a lot of grenades.

The highest commander of this military camp, the commander of the 7th Division of the Japanese Army, has also stood up.

The division commander saw that there were enough people around, and after listening to the reports from the guards coming down the tower, he knew that the enemy might have snipers.

After a little consideration, the division commander ordered the gate of the manor to be opened and the enemy to be let in and blow up.

Two teams of soldiers went over to open the bolt, and the door was immediately knocked open from the outside.

A group of unidentified enemies howled and rushed into the manor.

They were greeted by dozens of bitter acid grenades.

One after another, fireballs shot up into the sky, and more than half of the hundreds of people gathered at the door were instantly killed.

Even those who did not die immediately were shaken by the shock wave and vomited blood, screaming and rolling on the ground.

Finally they couldn't move forward any further.

When the smoke at the door cleared, the division commander ordered two infantry companies to move forward, capture the survivors from the crowd, and arrange for officers to interrogate them with translators.

The division commander stood at the door of the former Mamluk building.

He looked at the corpses and bloodstains inside and outside the door and the wailing enemies, and then at the grenades hanging on the bodies of other soldiers.

He said with emotion:
"If it weren't for the hand grenade invented by the king, this barracks would have been breached by them today, and more than half of the thousands of soldiers in the barracks would have been killed or injured.

“The entire city of Cairo will be taken back by these rebellious Western barbarians, and it will take a lot of effort to take it back.

"There should be only five guards killed now..."

The commander said this, looked up at the guard tower, and cursed:
"Damn Xiyi——"

The division commander ordered the surrounding infantry to move forward and stab the seriously wounded enemies to death. They then threw the bodies directly onto the streets on both sides of the gate and closed the gate of the manor again.

The division commander thought that since there might be countless snipers hiding in the distance, they should not go out for the time being and wait until tomorrow morning.

However, special intelligence personnel were arranged to carefully leave the city through the back door to notify the main army stationed outside the city.

The chaos in the city seemed to have ended.

Faced with a not-so-big door, it was basically impossible for the defenders to rush in relying on manpower if they had enough powerful explosives.

But the chaos across Egypt may have just begun.

The next morning, the commander of the garrison outside the city received a report and immediately led two other Japanese legions into the city.

Start to suppress the riot.

The senior officers of the Japanese army were all former training officers of the Ming Dynasty.

He was also specifically responsible for garrisoning and suppressing rebellions, and of course he had also learned some specialized knowledge on garrisoning and suppressing rebellions.

This knowledge includes the direct guidance of Emperor Chongzhen:

"No matter where you are, there is no point in killing and injuring the common people in suppressing riots and rebellions.

“The key is to solve two problems: one is the problem of food, and the other is the problem of governance.

“If the local people are not suffering from famine, but there are still repeated rebellions, it is the ruling class that is rebelling.

“The so-called ruling class refers to chiefs, elders, leaders, priests, scholars, merchants, daimyo, samurai, Mamluks, etc., that is, all the influential rentiers in the local area.

"If we replace all these people with our own officers and civil servants, there will naturally be no more rebellion." There is no need to execute them directly, they can be used as consumables for land reclamation and river digging.

"The key is to be completely isolated from the local people."

Emperor Chongzhen does not have a very good reputation, but many of the methods and policies he left behind are very useful, such as this guidance on suppressing rebellions.

If the newly conquered areas repeatedly rebel, it must be the ruling class's fault. The lower-class civilians should be well fed, and then the local ruling class should be dragged out and executed or consumed, and the chaos will naturally stop.

The effectiveness of this strategy was verified countless times during the Ming Dynasty's conquest and control of Southeast Asia.

Moreover, the relevant implementation methods are explained very clearly and anyone who can read can understand them.

These plans were naturally continued.

After the three divisions of Japanese officers in the Egyptian region gathered together, the senior Ming officers of the three divisions had a brief discussion and directly began to implement the policy of "changing rule."

They began to screen the entire Cairo population in batches, with the Mamluks, who had been directly mentioned by Emperor Chongzhen, as the main target.

Catch all the local "rentiers".

At the same time, they would look into old scores with the local poor and execute those who had committed the most evil deeds directly.

Those who performed averagely, or were nominally good people, would have all their assets confiscated and be sent to Suez to dig a canal.

At the same time, in a corner of Cairo, in the basement of an ordinary small courtyard.

Several Egyptians cried and wailed to a bearded man:
“Bey, our operation failed, and the methods we prepared did not work at all.

"The power of the Ming people's grenades is too terrifying.

“We broke through the gate of the manor where the Ming garrison was stationed, but as soon as we entered the gate, their grenades killed most of the people.

“More than 500 of us died right at the gate. The bodies were piled up in a heap, and the rest were all seriously injured. We couldn’t get in at all.

"They have so many grenades. We have no chance of success!"

The Mamluk chieftain, Murad bey Mohammed, was enraged at these reports:

"You are a bunch of rubbish! You are all useless. The people of the Ming Dynasty are all monsters and demons. You must have sold your souls to have the power of demons..."

The Egyptian lying on the ground continued to ask in a crying voice:

"Bei, what should we do next? Should we continue to resist the Ming army?

"The rule of the Ming people was actually no worse than that of the Ottomans, and they even sent us more food.

"Unless ordinary untouchables have taken enough money from us, or unless they are fanatics we have nurtured since childhood, they are not willing to cooperate with us to fight the Ming people."

Murad became even more furious after hearing this:
"Aren't the people of the Ming Dynasty evil? Do you still have any power and status? Now the Japanese vassal troops of the Ming Dynasty are completely replacing our position!

"If you don't keep fighting, the Mamluks will lose everything!
"These damned untouchables are unwilling to fight against the pagans of the Ming Dynasty. Do they still want to go to heaven? Do they still want the seventy-two holy virgins?"

While Murad was roaring, another person rushed in from outside and reported in a panic:
"Bei, this is bad. The Ming vassal army is searching the entire city.

"All the Mamluks were taken away, all the elders were taken away.

"Even those who could read were taken away by them..."

The Egyptian who had been kneeling on the ground to report was also extremely panicked:

"The Ming people have begun to retaliate. They know that we were responsible for yesterday's attack. What should we do now?"

Murad was furious, but there was nothing he could do.

Murad was the great chief of the Mamluks. He directly ruled the Mamluk army in Egypt for a long time and even actually made Egypt independent from the Ottoman Empire.

But two years ago, Osman sent a governor with 50,000 troops to Egypt and defeated the Mamluk chiefs led by Murad again.

Murad and his partner fled to the upper reaches of the Nile to wait for an opportunity.

After the Ming people occupied Egypt, they got the news from several European merchants.

The Ming Dynasty will continue to attack other pirate strongholds in North Africa. Merchants will support other pirates in their continued fight with the Ming expeditionary force. The main force of the Ming Dynasty will attack Algiers.

Chiefs such as Murad can take back control of Egypt when the main force of the Ming Dynasty leaves.

The plan of these businessmen was originally very reliable. If Zhu Jianxuan had not developed a large number of weapons and equipment with an era-crushing effect, including bolt-action rifles and picric acid bombs, as well as rocket launchers and nitrocellulose propellants, the Ming expeditionary force might have already retreated from Egypt and North Africa in embarrassment.

As a result, Murad now feels that he has been cheated by the merchants. The Ming Dynasty has left at least 30,000 musket soldiers in Egypt, as well as a large number of grenades with terrifying power.

Even though he used his power as a local boss and secretly recruited people to launch attacks at night, he was unable to capture the military camp in the city, and his original plan to seize the entire Cairo was aborted.

The point is that the officers of the Ming Dynasty have been angered...

Murad hid well and was not found immediately by the Japanese army, but it was no longer of any use.

The Mamluks in Cairo were captured one after another.

Those who were guilty of crimes were directly executed, and those for whom no evidence could be found were sent to work as laborers. In any case, they were to be completely isolated from Egyptian civilians.

Murad could do nothing.

Murad was able to control his emotions, but his subordinates could not hold on any longer.

The news had spread, and a large number of Mamluks were directly executed, and even those who were alive were made into slave laborers.

So on another dark night, several people knocked the sleeping Murad unconscious with wooden sticks and tied his hands and feet with hemp ropes.

Then they carried him out of the basement and went to the nearest Ming patrol team to surrender.

They blamed everything on Murad, who was indeed the mastermind of the attack.

But the officers of the Ming Dynasty didn't care who the mastermind was.

Just like how Tanuma Okitsugu explained the situation in Japan to his grandson Tanuma Okiaki.

The situation in Egypt today is similar. The entire Mamluk class in Egypt is the root cause of the current instability in Egypt.

As long as most of them are dealt with or separated from Egypt, the situation will naturally stabilize.

Even if one or two are left behind, it doesn’t matter; it won’t cause much trouble.

Murad was executed in public, and several Mamluks who captured Murad were sent to work on the canal construction site.

Just in these few days, the temporary railway in Suez was finally completed.

Large amounts of supplies stored in the Gulf of Suez began to be shipped into the Mediterranean in large quantities.

Transport ships stationed in the Mediterranean deliver these supplies to Algiers, Tripoli, Tunisia, Morocco and other places.

The garrisons in various places immediately took action and began to attack from both sides of major strongholds such as Algiers, and comprehensively cleared out other small pirate dens on the North African coastline.

(End of this chapter)