"Fire! Fire! Send all those damned Moors to hell! On a light cruiser of the "Star" class, the gunners walked past each gun emplacement one by one, slapped the gunners on the shoulders with their big fan-like hands, and shouted: "These self-conscious Moors still refuse to withdraw from the Swahili coast and cede their interests in East Africa, and we will teach them how to behave now, stupid fellows!" ”

As his words fell, one cannon after another began to wield, raining a large number of shells onto the shore. The fire was fired by some long-range heavy guns, and most of them fired large-caliber shells, so the buildings on the docks on the shore were quickly shattered, and the Moors in the buildings were also running with rats and wolves.

Not far from them, three other ships were firing, one of which was a Portuguese in Goa, with more than twenty guns, which were also excitedly sending shells to the Moors. They fought so quickly that they seemed to want to vent their frustration when they were banished by the Moors.

Yes, this is the Arabian Sea, off the port of Salalah in the Sultanate of Muscat, where several warships from the combined Portuguese fleet in the Indian Ocean tried their luck and sank two small Omani ships - in fact, whether these two were merchant ships, warships or pirate ships, it is not clear to everyone, the Moors seem to be three in one in this respect - and then rushed directly into this port, destroying the poor ten old shore defense guns by surprise of the enemy, Completely exposed this relatively prosperous port to the threat of artillery.

The Omanis on the shore could not fight back against this. Their horses and scimitars could not threaten the men at sea, and their muskets and cannons (some of which were even sold to them by the people on the east coast) could not reach the range of the warships anchored in the harbor, so they could only be beaten passively, and after paying a lot of casualties, they finally retreated with hatred and disappeared into the desert on the outskirts of the city.

The shelling continues. Three warships from the east coast, one Portuguese warship, lined up and bombarded the city's long strip of coastline in an unhurried attempt to destroy every military building that could be made, including churches, temples, and even religious schools, which usually produced clergy more terrible than soldiers.

Poor Salalah Port is also a famous commercial port and fishing port, there are good agricultural and animal husbandry production areas nearby, and the production is quite abundant, and it is also an important hub of the country to connect with the East African region, but this will not have the slightest ability to protect itself when the foreign enemy invades, and can only let the enemy's naval artillery destroy their cities and slaughter their people. It doesn't get much saddder than that!

After nearly two hours of bombardment, four warships and two merchant ships cruising the open sea lowered a number of small boats at the same time and began to unload personnel and supplies, as the leading East Coast naval officer gave the order. Most of the supplies were military supplies such as water, tents, tools, and ammunition, and the personnel were all combatants armed with muskets.

It is worth mentioning that these so-called fighters are all Rajputs wrapped in turbans, recruited by the East Coasters on the island of Diu and on the other side of the river, trained for more than half a year, and then loaded and transported to the sea off the port of Salalah, where they can go ashore to attack the Omani cities and serve the interests of the East Coasters.

Overall, the Rajputs are one of the more suitable peoples in India for warfare. These ethnic groups, which mainly live in northwestern India, have a certain martial tradition, are relatively brave, and their obedience is okay, and they are quite good when used as cannon fodder mercenaries. And most importantly, they are cheap, very cheap! The East Coast recruited these Rajput soldiers, totaling 1,000 people, all of which cost no more than 5,000 yuan, and after the army was formed, ordinary soldiers only had to pay about 2 yuan a month, which was incredibly cheap.

"Let the men of the first regiment of the Diwu infantry pay attention, don't mess up after going ashore, don't plunder everywhere, concentrate first, stabilize the situation and then try to do anything else. Forget it, I wrote a handwritten letter to Commander Yao, and asked him to pay attention, we don't know how many Omani soldiers are in Salalah Port, and whether there are any enemies outside the city, so it's better to be cautious. The fleet commander put down the binoculars on his chest, turned to a table in the bridge, wrote the order with a brush, and then handed it to a staff officer, telling him to immediately follow the landing troops ashore in a dinghy, and hand them over to the supreme commander of the Rajputs, the captain of the East Coast Reserve, Yao Tongyao.

The sun gradually rose overhead. Even at sea, the weather became very hot, and the Rajput soldiers, who landed in small boats, braved the bad weather and tried with all their might to finally rush to the shore. Fortunately, there were no muskets and cannons waiting on the coast, no brightly armored Arab cavalry, only panicked citizens of Port Salalah. No sooner had they recovered from a bombardment of the earth-shattering naval guns when they saw a large group of turbaned and bearded Indians rushing towards them with rifles, and they exploded in one fell swoop.

Yao Tong and Commander Yao, who had participated in the battle against the French in Holland - in fact, those who participated in that war were successively promoted in the interior of the East Coast Army system - still had experience, so they immediately ordered the other East Coast officers in Chinese to immediately organize the formation, control the entire port area, and then advance to other areas, and then control the whole city.

Their caution proved justified. Because just as they took control of the port area and began to advance into the rest of the city, they were met with a counterattack by an Omanis numbering in the hundreds. The Omani army was dishevelled (perhaps the Omanis did not have uniform clothing at all), and among them were well-armed regular soldiers, but there were also a considerable number of ordinary citizens, and even clergy in long robes, all of whom were armed with a variety of weapons, and charged towards the east coast army with a hideous expression, intending to push them back into the sea and prevent the prosperous city from falling into the hands of the infidels.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Although there was a slight panic, the Rajput soldiers of the 1st Infantry Regiment of the Diu Infantry began to shoot. Although the sound of the gunfire sounded a little uneven, not as good as the well-trained elite troops, it was enough for this meeting, and the barrage formed by the massive musket fire directly knocked the most fierce Omanis to the ground. Beside them, dozens of naval gunners who had come ashore to assist were much more calm, they looked relaxed and loaded their ammunition, and then fired the terrible shotgun into the crowd opposite, harvesting countless lives at once, and directly causing the Omanis to waver.

Yao Tong was also an old driver, and when he saw this, he immediately ordered his Rajput soldiers to step forward, give these Omanis a sense of oppression, and then cooperate with the naval gunners to continue shooting, and it didn't take long to completely defeat these counterattackers, eliminating the last formed resistance force in the city.

And after this wave, the rest is basically difficult to call a battle, and it may be more appropriate to call it a law and order incident. Because the Omanis only dared to take advantage of the difficult terrain on the streets to sneak up on the east bank, but after the enraged Indians expanded their attack and slaughtered all the Omanis in the nearby neighborhood, even this security attack disappeared. At the same time, the Omanis in the city also began to flee outside the city, because they saw that these Hindu infidels in turbans were so cruel that they discouraged the last chance of staying in the city, and began to flee outside the city, and the people of the east coast did not forbid it at all: it is good that they are gone, it is convenient for us to rob!

In fact, the port of Salalah is still relatively wealthy. First of all, it is a relatively important agricultural production area of the Muscat Sultanate, rich in wheat, dates, melons and fruits, tobacco, cattle and sheep and frankincense, and the yield and quality are not bad. The reason for this is probably because there is not much shortage of water here, and drinking water for people and livestock and agricultural irrigation can be fully guaranteed, so it has become a well-known agricultural production area. After taking control of the entire city, the Indians of the 1st Infantry Regiment of the Dian Infantry Regiment collected the grain, fruits, cattle and sheep scattered everywhere, and at the same time controlled several major wells and springs inside and outside the city as a source of food and drinking water for the officers and men of the navy and army on the east coast for a period of time to come.

In addition, the port of Salalah is actually an important fishing port and commercial port. In fact, there is still a small fishing ground off the coast of the port, and the output is quite so-so, so there are many small fishing boats of the Arabic type moored in the port, which have also been confiscated by the east coasters, and are intended to be distributed and used in the future. The few merchant ships in the port, except for one that was sunk by the Omanis during the attack, were all captured, and they were loaded with ivory, leather, coffee, medicinal herbs, timber, dog's head gold, and other special commodities from Africa, which would have been used as trophies for the east coasters, and should have been more than enough to cover the huge expenses of the troops.

"After defeating this port, it will probably be a lot more troublesome for the Omanis to contact those Moorish princes on the Swahili coast of East Africa, right? On the other side of the Persian Gulf, where the United Portuguese Fleet patrols from time to time, and the port of Muscat is a key area to be watched, from which their ships would be more dangerous, at least than from Salalah. Yao Tong looked at the devastated city and thought to himself: "It's cheaper for these Rajputs." I don't know what the top of the hierarchy thinks, but it's strange that they want to give up such a good place as Salalah Port to these Indians, so that they can immigrate here, settle here, live, do business, fight the Omanis, and serve the interests of our east coast. ”

In other words, in order to dominate the interests of the Swahili coast of East Africa and eliminate the influence of the Muscat Sultanate on the local Moorish princes, the people on the east coast have really thought of many ways in recent years, one of which is to directly occupy the Muscat Sultanate, a country with a population of only a few hundred thousand. However, considering the country's unique geography, climate and other factors, as well as the complex tribal and religious relations in the region, the direct conquest of the people on the east coast does not mean that it will not be successful, but it will be protracted and exhausted by endless law and order warfare, and the expenses will naturally be staggering, and it is very uneconomical in terms of input-output ratio.

Therefore, they must find an agent on the ground to rule indirectly, so that they can reap the maximum benefits. In view of the limited knowledge of the people on the east coast and other unspeakable factors, it was finally decided to relocate the Rajputs on the island of Diu to the territory of the Omanis as much as possible, so that they could settle in the area, put down roots, and continue to fight and fight the Omanis for their right to survive there.

There is no doubt that once the Rajputs did go to the Arabian Peninsula, they would definitely be completely vassal of the eastern coast politically, economically, and militarily, and the Portuguese would have to stand aside and exert no influence. The people of the East Coast also believed that with their relative bravery, and a limited amount of material and military assistance from the East Coasters, they should be able to defeat the local Moorish "desert bandits", successfully gain a foothold, and then expand in an attempt to expand again.

As for the gap left on Diu Island after they moved away, it was naturally filled by the people from the east coast, and this kind of trick of changing blood has been played by the people on the east coast many times in history, and it is normal to play it again in the northwest of India. And this strategy, which seems to have been supported by the mainland, is to increase a certain percentage of the foreign population in northwest India (and even fill some areas with foreign populations) and artificially create ethnic antagonisms, which was originally an important part of the western Indian Ocean strategy of the East Coast Republic of China, and is now only officially beginning to be implemented.