Emperor's Armed Forces in the Warring States

Chapter 13 - Invasion of Ceylon

This will be the beginning of a new chapter.

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13-1

A not small amount of flashback.

In fact, around the same time as the dispatch of the mission to the Ottoman Empire, Japan was about to launch an attack on Sri Lanka (Ceylon), one of Portugal's strongholds in the Indian Ocean. There were several intertwined causes for this.

First, for the Japanese, the reality was that, as of 1552, almost all army units that could be sent to the front were equipped with bayoneted rifles, and infantrymen could now be accompanied by artillery. As for the equipment of the units responsible for maintaining security and rear guard in Japan, matchlocks were still in use and there was no shortage of artillery, but at least in the units deployed to the front lines, the matchlock-using units had almost completely disappeared. Thus, improvements in the equipment of army units were progressing.

The navy was also gradually being strengthened. At this time, the number of main Japanese navy ships stationed in Singapore to guard the South China Sea, conduct offensives in the Indian Ocean, etc., had reached 16, and the number of frigates was about to reach 20. The reason for the expression "had reached" is that there were ships dispatched from Japan and others on voyages to the Indian Ocean to destroy commerce or, conversely, to escort merchant vessels. All of these ships, combined, made the Japanese navy one of the largest naval powers in the world in 1552, with over 100 warships, both mainline and frigates.

In addition, the quality of the Japanese navy's warships was also improving. As for the steamship for ocean-going voyages, it was still in the stage of repeated prototyping. This was partly due to the Japanese navy's insistence on adopting the screw. From future knowledge, it was clear that screw ships were superior to paddle wheelers, so naval officials veered off halfway to manufacture screw ships. However, given the fact that no one outside of Japan was even dreaming of building steamships at the time, it is hard to say that the argument that screw ships should be built, even if a little, is not entirely unreasonable, rather than paddle-wheeled ships, which could have been unsatisfactory from the start.

Even for sailing ships, the introduction of future knowledge had improved them to the point of being superior to most sailing ships of the time in terms of speed and navigability.

And then there is the difference in armament. Japanese ships (not only warships but also merchant ships) were usually equipped with rifled cannons. This meant that Japanese ships were effectively able to fire outside the range of Portuguese ships and others during an encounter. Even in close combat, even the crews of merchant ships were equipped with bayoneted muzzle-loading rifles for self-defense, and they could fight with confidence in their superior quality of armament against the Portuguese, who were forced to fight with matchlocks and pikes.

Because of this, Japanese merchant ships even repelled Portuguese warships. When Portuguese warships demanded for cartazes, the well-armed Japanese merchant ships would strike back. This was not a good thing, because the attackers, thinking they were merchant ships, were better armed than the Portuguese. Portuguese warships were even running away from Japanese merchant ships.

With these military preparations in place and the establishment of a base in Singapore complete, the Japanese launched an invasion of Ceylon. Working with local forces in Sri Lanka, the Portuguese were to be driven out of the island. The Ottoman Empire and Japan then formed an alliance. This would allow the Portuguese forces in India to wither away, and a few years later, Japan would attack Portuguese strongholds in East Africa and completely eliminate Portuguese power from the Indian Ocean east of the Cape of Good Hope.