1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 637 Fighting ([-])

Of course, this is not the most frightening thing. The terrible thing is that the three Dutch commanders now have no idea how many troops the opponent has deployed on the island, and whether there are any hidden tricks that have not been used.Yesterday, after Spikes captured the port, he thought that the opponent's troops were probably those stationed in the port fortress, but today he was slapped in the face by the cruel facts—even for an army like Sweden that pays attention to artillery warfare, it is absolutely impossible. It is impossible to be extravagant enough to equip an artillery establishment of 200 people with two sets of weapons of different standards, so that a total of more than [-] artillery pieces will be deployed on such a small island.

According to the experience accumulated by the Dutch in the European battlefield, the twenty artillery pieces are at least the size of a regiment or above, and the firepower configuration can only be possessed by a force of about [-]. The defense launched a general attack, because their own strength was far from reaching this number. If the opponent really hid his strength in the previous battle, then continuing to launch an offensive inland would be a self-inflicted trap.But even if the Dutch dared to calculate the opponent's strength, they would never have imagined that there is such a monster-like power as Haihan in the world. He really has this ability to equip his artillery with two sets of weapons. It's really only the ones they saw yesterday. After withdrawing, they will continue to take on the heavy responsibility of firepower output on the second line of defense.

"We can't fight like this anymore, we have to think of other ways." Brower said with a gloomy face.He was supervising the battle on the front line today, and watching the artillery positions on his own position being called by the opponent one by one, it was an eye-opener.Moreover, six people in the supervisory team he brought with him died inexplicably, and all of them died from musket lead bullets. Browar really couldn't figure out how he could be hit at such a long distance, but he still managed to catch the fire in time. Consciously aware of the potential danger, he withdrew a certain distance back and hid in a makeshift tent.

It was his luck, the snipers from Hai Han's side failed to hit him after three rounds of concentrated fire, and the guards in front of him and behind him became scapegoats.And Mu Xiabo didn't expose the big killer in his hand too early to attract local attention, seeing that the effect was not good, he immediately ordered the snipers to stop their actions.

Spikes frowned and thought for a while, then said to Van Longen, "Mr. Van Longen, please take a team and go to the flank to see if there is any other attack path."

"Flanking?" Van Longen subconsciously looked at the opponent's position, with the stream outside the town as the dividing line, and the other side was the obviously undeveloped virgin forest, and he couldn't see the situation in the forest at all-this is also the Dutchman The main reason why attacking from the flank was not intended in the first place.

"Mr. Brower, please take a team to the other flank. If we can attack from three directions at the same time, we may have a chance. Break through their defense." Spikes said seriously: "If If we still can’t find an opportunity, then maybe we should consider evacuating from here as soon as possible.”

Spikes is not an ignorant person who only complains. He has participated in several live-fire battles. After the battle, he has naturally realized that the opponent who has not revealed his identity is not a weak chicken. , on the contrary, the strength of the opponent is far superior to ordinary pirates and Southeast Asian civilian armed forces, and is not inferior to the mercenaries formed by the East India Company. If you are on your own side, then the chances of winning this battle are indeed very small.

"Retreat? But yesterday you were still talking about defending the port and waiting for reinforcements?" Van Longen couldn't help but panic when he heard Spikes' opinion. It didn't take long for Spikes' views to change drastically.

"We decided to defend the port yesterday in order to cut off their supply channels, but judging from today's combat process, their war reserves should be much more abundant than ours!" Brower explained: "If their With limited reserves, they will not be the first to fire in a battle. And after we ceased fire, they continued to launch shelling. What does this mean? In addition to showing that their artillery performance is better than ours, the ammunition reserves are also very sufficient, and Don't worry about running out of ammunition engaging us."

"So they have already prepared for this battle?" Van Longen also recalled after listening to the explanation.

"At least it's more prepared than ours." Spikes looked very helpless: "Although we also made preparations for the battle before we set off, we didn't estimate the imaginary enemy as strong. The only good thing is that they don't seem to be here. Arrangement of armed ships at sea, so we must find out their strength, and then choose whether to fight or withdraw."

This is indeed the luck of the Dutch. After capturing Ambuna Island, the navy originally left two warships stationed here. However, due to the passage of a typhoon last month, both warships were damaged to varying degrees. It must be returned to Annan's port for repairs.And the warship that took over from Sanya was still on the way, and the Dutch happened to hit such an empty window, so they took the initiative in the initial landing battle.If there were two Haihan warships nearby, even the most basic "exploration-class" warships would at least allow the Dutch fleet to lose sight of one another in battle, and there would be no chance of attacking land so easily.

After yesterday's battle, although Mu Xiabo had already sent a telegram for help to the base camp, the newly dispatched warships were still on their way to Ambuna Island, and these two ships were not equipped with crossing officers, so naturally there were no The radio station is available for contact, and we can only speculate from the distance of the voyage that they will arrive at Abunna Island in about a week, and it is very likely that they will not have time to participate in this battle.

Although the Dutch don't like to march into this kind of tropical virgin forest, but due to the current situation, they have already understood that it is not practical to break through the opponent's defense line from the front. They can only look at the north and south flanks of the town. Are there any loopholes that can be exploited.

Van Longen led fifty soldiers and circled south from the port for a while to avoid the opponent's sight, then turned west and entered the dense forest on the island.Among the fifty soldiers, only ten were Dutch, and the other 40 came from Europe, Africa, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, and their skin colors were all shades of light. Fortunately, the East India Company still issued uniform uniforms to them. , so that this team does not look particularly messy.Half of these people are newcomers who have just arrived in Batavia. They have not had time to adapt to the environment in Southeast Asia, and they were put on this hard job.

But in terms of equipment, there is really nothing that can be done. Only 20 of the fifty soldiers are equipped with matchlock guns, and the rest only have spears and knives at their disposal. The role of these cold weapons in the current combat environment is obviously extremely limited .Van Longen didn't even dare to think about how dire the battle would be if these infantry were required to charge the enemy.

Fan Longen touched the blunderbuss on his waist, sighed, and took the lead into the dense forest.This is not the first time he has ventured into the tropical rainforest on a Southeast Asian island, and he is fully aware of the hidden dangers in this environment.Although there are no large carnivorous beasts on these islands, the more deadly ones are those humble snakes, insects, rats and ants.All kinds of poisons are hidden in every corner of the dense forest, and if you are not careful, you will be caught.

When Van Longen first arrived in Batavia, he followed an expedition team into the dense forest for the first time. In just five days and five nights, seven of the 40-member team were buried in the dense forest forever because of the attacks of poisonous snakes and insects. After leaving the primeval forest, three more people died of malaria caused by mosquito bites.For the colonists who came to Southeast Asia from thousands of miles from Europe, the natural environment here is often more deadly and terrifying than the enemy's guns, and Van Longen has left a great shadow on this primitive forest environment since then. .If he had a choice, he would rather fight the wind and waves on the sea in a sailboat than fight against those poisonous insects that cannot be seen or touched in this dense forest.

Even before entering the forest, Van Longen took great pains to popularize the importance of tightening trousers, sleeves and other places in this environment to the new soldiers, but there is still a Ma Daha who was poisoned just after stepping into the forest less than [-] meters away. The centipede slipped into the shoe and bit it hard.

By the time the hapless soldier wailed and took off his shoes and socks, his heels were blackened—poison bugs in Southeast Asia are no joke.Van Longen sighed and said, "Quickly bleed the place where he was bitten!"

With the current medical conditions, there is really no other better way to deal with it, and Van Longen's proposal is almost the only feasible method.Fortunately, he did it in time, and after releasing some dirty blood, the injured soldier finally turned from numbness to pain, which basically meant that most of the toxicity of the wound had been removed.However, this does not mean that he has regained his life, it is just that he has temporarily escaped.In the absence of disinfection methods, he can only wrap the wound with cloth strips. As for whether it will cause tetanus or other complications, he can only resign himself to fate.

With this lesson learned, the soldiers' vigilance to the surrounding environment has increased significantly.However, the continuous appearance of various snakes, insects, rats and ants still greatly slowed down the speed of the team.The distance from the starting point to the south wing of the town is just over a mile, and it took the team an entire hour to complete.

But Van Longen was not relieved by this. Looking at the stream between the dense forest and the small town, he really couldn't think of an effective way to cross this obstacle.

This stream is only seven or eight meters wide. If time and conditions permit, he can have someone cut down one or two big trees directly in the dense forest on the bank, let them dump over the stream, and build a small single-plank bridge.But it was clear that the trees on the bank, which were surrounded by at least two or three people, could not be cut down in a short while, and the sound of logging would be heard far away, attracting the attention of opponents.

Another way is to wade directly. This stream is very clear and it doesn’t look too deep. If you move fast enough, you can reach the other side in about 1 minute.But this is also a very risky approach, because Van Longen has noticed that there are scattered people on the roofs of the small town on the other side that have been scanning the area, and it is almost impossible to avoid their sight if they walk out of the dense forest.

"We can only attack by force." Van Longen made up his mind, and then sent a soldier to return to the position to report the situation here, and to state his combat intention—later, the main position will launch shelling first to attract the attention of the enemy. Then he waited for an opportunity to take advantage of the chaos to cross the stream and attack the town.

This battle plan is very simple and direct. Van Longen is not worried about too much trouble when he crosses the stream. What he is more worried about is that his troops are too small. The troops are too weak and are quickly eaten up by the opponent.

But the matter was at this point, and there was no room for regret. Van Longen found a dead tree stump and sat down, quietly waiting for the signal to launch an attack.He pulled out the short-fire gun at his waist, and gently wiped off the dust on it with his hands.This gun is one of the items given to him by the elders of the family when he set off to Southeast Asia 12 years ago. Although he has hardly used this weapon in these 12 years, he still maintains it well. Very good, the lead bullets filled in the firecracker can penetrate the iron armor of ordinary soldiers at a distance of ten meters. In his opinion, it is an excellent life-saving weapon.

"Maybe I really shouldn't take on this errand. At this time, I should have been on my way to the Mughal Kingdom." Van Longen sighed secretly in his heart, and he was also shaken by the choice he had made before.When Governor Cohen talked to him, he was about to lead a fleet to deliver a batch of goods from Ming Dynasty to India, but after listening to Cohen's suggestion, he chose to give up this trip to the west and became a special agent of the East India Company. Maritime search and rescue fleet.

But this job is far from as easy as he imagined at the beginning. He originally thought that most of the merchant ships involved in the accident had encountered disasters such as typhoons at sea and unfortunately fell silent. All the transshipment and supply ports of the East India Company were captured.Van Longen was unprepared for this inexplicable battle, and even when he was about to launch an attack, he still didn't understand what he was doing now.

"About thirty to sixty people."

When Van Longen was still dazed in the forest and couldn't figure it out, the Haihan scouts lying on the roof of a certain house on the other side of the stream had already obtained more detailed observation results on this Dutch armed force that was lurking quietly.

(End of this chapter)