Cao: Difference between revisions

===Imperial era===

[[Daxia]]n exploration in the late 1500's brought them to the gates of the Nysdra and Uxma. In 1604 the ship ''Shin's Pleasure'' carrying Zhong dynasty officials on an official embassy to the [[Quetzenkel]] chieftains, was set upon by Uxma pirates. The boarding attempt was repelled with heavy casualties on both sides and ''Shin's Pleasure'' left the area and headed back southwest. News of the brazen attack left a powerful impression back at the Zhong court and a punitive expedition was dispatched. Consisting of ten ships armed with cannons and with close to twelve-hundred men, it was the largest naval show of force by the Zhong that sailed so far north. A numerically superior pirate force was defeated; with two High Captains killed, at the Battle of the Straits before moving on to attack Uxma itself. The pirate capital was defended at length by the remaining high captains but after a long bombardment and starvation of the defenders, Uxma surrendered to the [[Daxia]]ns after three months. The two remaining High Captains and their officers were summarily hanged as a warning against continued piracy and banditry; this event marks the end of the High Captaincy of Uxma. While the Battle of the Straits did not end the threat of piracy for good, it did dislodge them from their main base in the [[Nysdra Sea]], leaving the island open uncontested for settlement. The new settlers renamed Uxma to [[Zhenzhu]] and fortified it against attack from the sea. The colonization of [[Zhenzhu]] was a watershed moment for the process of Daxia's colonial expansion further into the [[Nysdra Sea]], possession of the harbor was invaluable to control sea access east, so much so that the island was likened by ship captains to the jaws of an animal around the 'neck' of the Nysdra, one that could close at will. The Daxian presence also preempted any attempts by Levantines to take the island for themselves, preventing their total domination; [[Cusinaut]] however was never seriously considered for colonization due to the high populations existing there and their relatively high degree of political and military [[Northern Confederation|organization]].

===Modern era===

During the [[Second Great War]], Cao became one of [[Daxia]]'s most well defended island redoubts and later in the war functioned as the staging ground for the [[Invasion of Caldera]] by [[Daxia]]n forces. The islands static defenses were reinforced with two defensive lines further inland with dugouts and bunkers, anti naval and anti air gun emplacements, extensive minefields and anti tank obstacles; the waters to the north and south of Cao were also extensively layered with sea mines. The island was an important node of communication with the allied [[Faneria]]n forces stationed in [[Maloka]]. Cao was the main base of operation for the [[Fleet of the Enclosed Sea]] which was directed in 1935 to economically choke [[Urcea]]n allies and dependencies in the [[Nysdra Sea]] by closing off the straits. [[Urcea]]n naval forces based out of [[Alstin]] engaged in several attritional naval actions against the [[Fleet of the Enclosed Sea]]. By 1937 the fleet's number of surface ships had degraded significantly enough that it was forced to abandon the blockade and retreated eastwards towards [[Xisheng]] where it would spend the rest of the war protected inside the Bay of Honghai. Despite the fleet's retreat and the increasingly effective interception of convoys from the mainland, Cao could still be supplied from [[Xisheng]], the island was never captured despite several concerted attempts at doing so.