Ding Chenzhen, this person's resume is not too exciting, at least during the Unification War, although it was not too bad, but it was not too amazing, at most it was at the middle and upper level, but this level was not very noticeable at all in the army with many talents and famous generals at that time.

Otherwise, he would not have been promoted to lieutenant general last year, and the generals who performed well during the Unification War have now either become army bosses, many have also become army generals, and the most important is also a senior army lieutenant general.

As for Ding Chenzhen's words, at the end of the Unification War, his military rank was lieutenant colonel, and he was not from the infantry or cavalry or even the artillery department, he was born in the baggage department.

Well, that's right, unlike most of the army's senior generals who are from command positions, Ding Chen is really a relatively rare general from the baggage department, and his early experience was as a logistics officer, although he did a very good job in logistics positions, but compared with those dazzling officers who led the troops to fight, it was much more low-key.

However, after the War of Unification, the Army's strategy was greatly adjusted, especially during the 10th year of Xuanping, and the Army launched a strategy of rejuvenation, in fact, to put it simply, it was to let a large number of officers who did not perform well during the War of Unification make way for the new generation of officers who had received systematic military education in the future, and then transfer a large number of officers who did not have good standards during the War of Unification to reserve division units, or simply retire from the army, and then arrange for local posts.

The reason why Ding Chenzhen was not dropped into the reserve division or simply forced to retire at that time was because the logistics organization at that time also lacked professional talents, and he was later transferred to the Third Infantry Division as the commander of the baggage regiment.

However, during his tenure as the head of the baggage regiment, he showed good command skills, and later served in the field army for a long time!

Subsequently, he participated in the first battle of the Hetao, and led the baggage troops to resist the attacks of the Tatar cavalry many times, which in turn showed his command skills.

Later, like most officers, he moved from one position to another, and the speed of promotion was naturally not fast, but he finally became a colonel in the army, and then crossed the door that many colonel-level officers were difficult to cross, and became a brigadier general.

During this period, he no longer served in the field forces in the north, but mainly in the coastal areas, and served in the Fusang region, and also in the Nanyang region, and his name can be found among the successive commanders of the Banten garrison regiment.

He has served in Fuso, Nanyang and coastal areas, and has participated in small-scale operations in Fusang and Nanyang many times, accumulating rich experience in coastal areas and even amphibious landing operations.

In the process of reorganization, the strategic task set by the army for the reformed Seventh Army is that in addition to undertaking the task of defending the territory of Guangxi and Guangzhou, it must also undertake the task of preparing for war in the Nanyang region and attach importance to amphibious landing operations.

In this way, Ding Chenzhen, who has accumulated rich experience in coastal areas and amphibious landing operations, ushered in the peak moment of his life, and he was transferred to the post of commander of the reformed 19th Infantry Division.

There are only about 20 main infantry divisions in the army, and the commander of each infantry division is a position that countless army generals at the level of major generals have to fight for, but Ding Chenzhen has become one of them.

After serving in the 19th Infantry Division, he devoted himself to the division's amphibious combat capability and was repeatedly ordered to send his troops to various parts of the South Seas to participate in battles.

The Tang Empire's wars in the Nanyang region have always existed, although they are not large-scale operations, and the enemies are all indigenous or something, but they are extremely frequent, relying only on the Luzon garrison and the Banten garrison, it is really exhausting to deal with it, so the 19th Infantry Division will often send troops to reinforce the above two divisions.

During this period, Ding Chenzhen also gradually became an expert in amphibious operations, and by the way, he also has rich experience in tropical jungle operations, and he is also an expert in theoretical attack.

Because the Seventh Army was also tasked with preparing for war in the South Seas, and the main enemy in the South Seas was the Portuguese, and the Portuguese built a large fortress in Malacca.

Over the years, the Datang Army has not studied how to conquer this Malacca fortress, and the person specifically responsible for this matter is actually the 19th Infantry Division or he Ding Chenzhen.

Last year, Li Xuan began to prepare for the Nanyang War, so he promoted Ding Chenzhen last year and awarded the rank of lieutenant general to serve as the commander of the Seventh Army.

This is also the reason why before the declaration of war on the Portuguese, the army determined that the Seventh Army would participate in the war and let Ding Chenzhen take command.

However, this Ding Chenzhen's temper is also quite irritable, and the chief of staff who arranged to partner with him before is unbearable.

In the Tang Army, regardless of the chief officer and the chief of staff, it is an extremely important partner, and if this partner is not in tune, then the impact on the troops is still relatively large.

So in the end, there was no way, and the top brass of the army specially found Qian Songquan, who was known as a good old man and was mature and stable, to be his chief of staff.

There is no way, the preferred commander of the Nanyang Campaign is Ding Chenzhen, this is a matter recognized by the army top brass and even His Majesty, if you want to replace Ding Chenzhen, you really can't find a reserve candidate from the Tang Army for a while.

At the same time, he is good at coastal areas, especially amphibious landing operations, familiar with the Portuguese, familiar with Malacca, good at attacking fortified positions, and then good at logistics and material deployment (overseas operations, supplies are particularly important), and at the same time seniors and prestige must pass the senior generals, it is really difficult to find.

But the good-natured chief of staff, it's easy to find.

Qian Songquan also knew why he was asked to be the chief of staff of the Seventh Army, and if it sounded good, he would assist Ding Chenzhen, but to put it bluntly, he had to serve as a gas bag in addition to wiping his ass.

But there is no way, for the sake of his career, he has to endure it, as long as he endures the Nanyang Campaign, after making this contribution, he should also be promoted and leave, and then let Ding Chen really play with himself.

As the commander of the Seventh Army and the supreme commander on the ground in the siege of Malacca, Ding Chenzhen naturally didn't care what the people under him thought of him, and he scolded and asked his people to arrange the defense in the north.

He continues to sit on the ammunition box!

Barefoot!

Outsiders only saw him sitting on the ammunition box with his eyes closed, but few people knew that at this moment he was thinking of the Malacca Castle, and he was pondering how to better pry open the tortoise shell in Malacca and wipe out the grape people inside.

Malacca City is a model of the Tang Army's part of the fortress in the Nanyang region, especially Banten City, and Banten City is a very typical port fortress, so this Malacca is undoubtedly also a port fortress.

The whole castle is actually not too big, because the fortress in this year, even a large-scale fortress is not as big as there, but there are a lot of defensive capabilities that can be deployed.

Banten City is such a small city, it can station thousands of troops, and this Malacca City is even larger, and there are tens of thousands of troops stationed in this city for defense, so there is no problem at all.

In addition, since it is a castle, it naturally takes into account the possibility of being besieged for a long time, so all kinds of supplies and ammunition are indispensable in it.

If you rely on the siege alone, it is not impossible to trap the Portuguese inside alive, but it takes too long!

And it took too long, which was not a good time for the army and navy of Datang.

You must know that the Tang military could not get any supplies in Malacca, even if it was food, they could not take the way of eating the enemy, and all the supplies, regardless of food or shells, were all transported from home.

Otherwise, the joint landing fleet would not have carried a large number of transport ships and carried a large number of replenishment to the sea for operations.

But these supplies are limited, and although there are still supplies to be transported from the country, the sea is difficult, which is not good, if a few ships sink on the way, then his tens of thousands of people will have to drink the northwest wind.

In addition, the Portuguese were not without reinforcements, they had a large number of colonies in India and even in Africa, from which they could draw fleets and land forces to reinforce Portugal.

From that point of view, it doesn't do any good to drag on the war for a long time!

Late will change!

Therefore, Ding Chenzhen did not consider using the method of siege, he planned to attack Malacca City directly in one go!

And this, in fact, is also the reason why Ding Chenzhen was selected as the commander of the Seventh Army and was responsible for the ground operations in Malacca, if it was not for the purpose of breaking through Malacca in a short period of time, but what siege was used, Ding Chenzhen would not need to come, any lieutenant general of the army could complete this kind of task.

The units of the Seventh Army, the Second Provisional Regiment of the Guards Army, and the Fifth Marine Regiment of the Navy, with a total of nearly 30,000 men, naturally did not make a landing in a matter of hours, or even a day or two.

After all, they don't just have to get off the boat, they also have to carry a lot of equipment.

The artillery pieces of more than five pounds carried by these ground combat units alone alone amounted to more than 100 pieces.

Not to mention that in order to support the ground forces, the navy is also preparing to disassemble more than 10 heavy guns from some ships and form a temporary naval heavy artillery team to fight ashore.

These heavy guns are all eighteen or even twenty-four pound heavy guns, and these heavy guns were the main guns of cruisers and even battleships before.

These heavy artillery pieces were used as siege artillery.

If nothing else, it would take days to get the heavy guns off the battleship and transport them to the front.