In order to ensure the security of the colonies, and also to be able to attack the local indigenous princes or Portuguese nearby, the Tang Western Trading Company established military bases and garrisoned armed personnel in each colony under its control, and established the garrison headquarters of each colony.

According to the size of the colony, each garrison command faces different strengths and weaknesses of the enemy, and the number of troops under its jurisdiction is also different, and it is worth noting that the commander of this garrison command is often also the commander of the local colony.

This is because the Tang Western Trading Company itself is an armed colonial trade organization, and there is basically no civil-military boundary, and the chief officials in each colony are basically in power.

Of course, this power was confined to the Western companies, and according to the Western trade license, the administrative affairs of the colonies, especially the tax affairs, were still vested in the government.

The Tang Western Trading Company only assists in handling the administrative affairs of the colony, and the tax power cannot even interfere, it is the power of the Ministry of Taxation.

The garrison troops of each colony are as few as 100 people, that is, the size of an army infantry team, but there are many, such as the garrison of Gehe Prefecture, whose strength has reached more than 3,000 people, which is basically already a regimental establishment.

Under the garrison headquarters, according to the different strengths, they are also organized into different formations, but this kind of establishment is basically the establishment of the army, such as infantry teams, infantry battalions, artillery battalions, artillery teams and even cavalry teams.

However, because the overall size of the ground forces of the company's fleet is more than 10,000 people, and it is scattered in nearly 20 colonial strongholds, the fixed establishment is not large, and the battalion is basically the limit, and more is still based on teams.

In addition to these garrisons deployed on the ground, the company's fleet also has a large number of marines on board, which can also be drawn to fight ashore when necessary.

In fact, the scale of the entire company's fleet is very large, with a total strength of nearly 20,000 troops, of which more than 10,000 are ground combat troops and thousands of are sailors and marines.

Otherwise, why would the Tang Western Trading Company compete with the Portuguese for India and the eastern coast of Africa, Burma, West Asia and other regions.

In addition, the Datang Western Trading Company is very familiar in the Indian Ocean, even if the navy goes deep into the Indian Ocean to fight, without the help of the company fleet of the Datang Western Trading Company, it will not be possible.

Ding Chen really didn't care about the follow-up strategy of the navy, anyway, it had nothing to do with him for the time being, and he didn't even care about other wars in the Nanyang region, because it was the local garrison in Nanyang, mainly the Banten Garrison Regiment and the Luzon Garrison Regiment, plus the tasks of the naval forces.

He Ding Chenzhen, his Seventh Army has only one mission for the time being: to take Malacca!

The large-scale landing operation lasted for a full five days, which was more than the timetable set by Ding Chenzhen, but there was no way, the difficulty of the subsequent heavy artillery and the transportation of a large number of materials far exceeded expectations.

The large temporary wharf erected by the Seventh Boat Bridge Regiment had just been put into use, and there was a problem when it was transporting an eighteen-pound heavy gun, and part of the structure of the temporary pier could not support it, and as a result, it collapsed on the spot, directly causing the eighteen-pound heavy gun to sink to the bottom of the sea!

But it's good to say that on the fifth day, the artillery of the 19th Artillery Regiment and the 7th Artillery Brigade and the artillery of the temporary Navy Heavy Artillery Battalion were all transported ashore, even in the process of transportation, there were five artillery pieces one after another, and all of them sank to the bottom of the sea, which made Ding Chen really distressed, but this was also a helpless thing.

The difficulties involved in such a large-scale cross-sea landing operation can be imagined, and even if there is no resistance from the enemy on the beachhead, all kinds of mistakes in the middle are expected.

So the heartache was clear, but Ding Chenzhen was still glad in the end, and after five days of chaos, they finally came ashore.

The next thing is to continue to transport a large amount of supplies, and these Ding Chen really don't care anymore, because he has already led his troops to advance towards Malacca City, which is four kilometers away.

When marching into the army, the personnel walked better, but the transportation of heavy artillery and materials was very difficult, even the engineering units and even ordinary soldiers in the previous units were collectively on the battlefield to build roads and bridges, but the time was in a hurry, and at most they were just temporarily building a dirt road out.

What's more, when building the road, Ding Chenzhen found that the logistics department made a mistake, and he actually forgot the cement used to build the road and build the fortifications in Hong Kong......

Carrying cement to the front line, the Tang Army did this as early as the Battle of Hetao, and originally wanted to do it in the Battle of Malacca, to temporarily pave the road or something.

But I didn't expect that I made a mistake in my busy schedule, and I brought everything, such as mosquito nets to prevent mosquitoes, potions to prevent mosquito bites, etc., and even Taoist priests brought several, ready to use them for the fallen soldiers when the time came......

But I didn't expect that the important material cement was forgotten to bring, and after checking it, this cement was still in the Hong Kong Naval Base to get the material combat readiness warehouse!

However, there is no cement, although it has an impact, but the impact is not too big, after all, dirt roads can also be walked!

On the sixth day of the landing operation, that is, the first day of the army led by Ding Chenzhen to advance to Malacca City, it rained heavily!

Ding Chenzhen looked at the torrential rain pouring outside, and then there were all kinds of materials that were wet in the rainstorm, and soldiers who were running around, trying to cover all kinds of materials with rainproof cloths.

In the end, I couldn't help but scold!

"Damn, the bastard of the meteorological group of the Royal Institute of Technology, this is like a fart, doesn't it mean that it won't rain in the autumn and winter in Nanyang, even if it does, it will only rain lightly, look at this rain, is it light rain?"

Datang sent troops to Malacca, this time is not a random pick!

For example, in the first half of the year, if it rains, they will not come!

It was not until the second half of the year, in August, that troops began to be dispatched, and at this time, the rainy season in Nanyang had basically passed, and the weather would be relatively good.

Even if it will take several months for the follow-up operations, we will control the time of the operations in the autumn and winter, and strive to end the wars in various parts of the South Seas and even in parts of India before next spring.

As a result, it's all September, and this god still doesn't give any face, saying that it will rain hard!

Of course, even in the autumn and winter seasons of the Nanyang region, no matter how bad the climate is, it is still much stronger than spring and summer, and if you come to fight in spring and summer, you have to fight in the rain every day, and at that time, there is no way to fight at all.

A heavy rain completely put an end to the Seventh Army's attempt to march on Malacca, even though the landing city was only a little more than four kilometers away from Malacca, and the vanguard of the Seventh Army had actually run outside Malacca a few days earlier and began to dig fortifications.

However, the heavy artillery unit did not arrive, and it was impossible to fight at all!

Therefore, now the forward unit of the Seventh Army, that is, the 57th Infantry Regiment, can only stare at the Malacca city in front of it.

The army has been delayed in launching the operation, and the navy has finally been too lazy to wait!

Admiral Chen Pengming, commander of the Indian Ocean Fleet, who oversees the military affairs of South China and India, sent a letter to Ding Chenzhen, informing Ding Chenzhen in the letter that the main fleet of the navy will officially set sail tomorrow, but the navy will leave a detachment to continue to monitor the port of Malacca and blockade the Strait of Malacca to provide support to the army at any time.

Interestingly, this detachment is actually the naval escort fleet in the joint landing fleet!

To put it bluntly, the entire Indian Ocean fleet will go to the South Seas and will not stay in Malacca!

Admiral Chen Pengming is preparing to enter the Indian Ocean, and he will not only take away the Indian Ocean Fleet, but also the Fifth Marine Regiment, in the words of the Navy, the Fifth Marine Regiment was originally prepared to support the Indian battlefield, the time is urgent, the task is heavy, how can you have spare time to accompany your army to stare in Malacca!

After destroying the Portuguese fleet in the port of Malacca, and destroying a few Portuguese batteries, the navy turned around and left, leaving the army alone to face the torrential rain in Malacca and the desperate Portuguese.

The navy is leaving, Ding Chen really doesn't care, anyway, their Fifth Marine Regiment is useless, just leave, and the joint landing fleet is still there, and the army has nothing to worry about.

Now that the rain is pouring down, Ding Chenzhen has no choice but to ask all troops to pay attention to rain prevention, protect materials, especially gunpowder and other things, and pay strict attention to not getting sick because of the rain, and strictly pay attention to hygiene.

Ding Chenzhen has been in Nanyang for a few years before, and knows that at this time, it is not important to fight a war or anything, the important thing is to do a good job of hygiene, waterproof, don't get sick, let alone make any infectious diseases.

Otherwise, a large-scale infectious disease struck, and this Malacca was not fought, and his seventh army would be finished.

Fortunately, Datang immigrants have developed Nanyang for many years, and domestic medical research has always maintained the highest level of limitations, and the concept of health has gradually become popular and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people after more than ten years of continuous publicity.

The Datang Army also has a complete medical system, with military hospitals, divisions and field hospitals, regimental headquarters and even battalion headquarters with military doctors, and even at the team level, there are also health soldiers.

Before the war, it was considered that the Nanyang environment was complex and disease would be the biggest enemy of the Tang Army, so it carried a large amount of medicine, especially the alcohol used for disinfection, to the point of surprise.