1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 727 Siege Battle

In terms of the level of weapons and equipment, Cheng Dapeng believed that the strength of the Dutch defenders was indeed not bad. Almost all soldiers were equipped with matchlock guns, and a small number of elite soldiers used more advanced flintlock guns.Individual protection measures are also in place. Everyone has a full set of armor, and at least there are two pieces of plate armor on the front and back to protect the vital parts of the torso. It can be seen from the investment that the Dutch really spent a lot of money. Less financial resources are spent on army building.

Under the inquiry of Cheng Dapeng, Bart readily introduced the cost of these armors: "This kind of the simplest breastplate needs 5 florins, while a regular infantry armor needs 7 florins. The knight armor prepared by the officer needs at least 35 florins a set, but it is too heavy and can only be worn on the body when fighting.”

Cheng Dapeng has been in Batavia for a long time, so he naturally knows that florin is a common currency unit in many European countries.This is a gold coin that was minted and circulated from Genoya and Florence in the 13th century, and later entered Western Europe and Northern Europe through trade lines. At the beginning of the last century, Florin became the official currency in circulation in the Netherlands.However, in the Flemish language spoken by the Dutch, this kind of gold coin is also called gulider, which is commonly known as the Dutch guilder.

But Bart was not of pure Dutch descent, so he did not use the guilder as the currency unit in accordance with the Dutch habit, but used the florin, which is commonly used in Europe.Cheng Dapeng silently calculated in his mind, the cost is really not cheap, the value of a set of ordinary breastplate has already exceeded the monthly income of a metal craftsman in Batavia City at this time.And this can also reflect from the side how low the production efficiency of Batavia's munitions is at present.

However, Cheng Dapeng was not very impressed by Bart's showing off, because the Haihan militia had never advocated the equipment of heavy full-body armor, and only the first-line troops would be equipped with simple and light plate armor, leather armor and rattan helmets during wartime.Cheng Dapeng once had the honor to visit an army military exercise. The chiefs who participated in the battle did not wear heavy armor. The protective equipment was a round helmet of unknown material on the head and a bulging canvas vest on the body. Then count the pair of tall deep-toothed leather boots under your feet.

Of course, Haihan, who is proficient in military engineering, is not unable to make high-quality armor, but the chiefs are all in such a style, and under the influence of others, the Haihan militia army has never had the atmosphere of relying on heavy armor and thick armor.Cheng Dapeng knows a thing or two about the reason for this. He has seen the effect of shooting armor with a militia standard rifle at a distance of [-] meters during his training. Whether it is Chinese armor or Western armor, the defense at this distance Capabilities are quite limited.According to the chief, in the future, the role of individual protective gear will be more to prevent secondary damage caused by various splashing debris on the battlefield. Don't expect to use armor to block direct gunshots.

The tactics of the Haihan Militia require relatively high infantry mobility on the battlefield, and heavy armor will greatly affect the execution of tactics and the display of team combat capabilities.However, the weapon superiority and advanced tactics of the Haihan militia make it almost impossible for their opponents to shorten the combat distance between the two sides to within the range of their own weapons on the battlefield. The defensive function that can be played in the middle becomes extremely limited.

The Netherlands obviously does not have such an advantage. Even if it is equipped with more advanced firearms, it still has to put the importance of armor first and last.Bart chatted excitedly, and asked his subordinates to take a set of full cavalry armor and show it to Cheng Dapeng.

After Cheng Dapeng got permission, he tried to lift it with his hands, and found that this set of armor weighed at least forty catties, and it might take a lot of effort to put it on.But its thickness is actually very limited, similar to ordinary porcelain bowls. Cheng Dapeng believes that this thickness is not enough to withstand bullets within the range of Haihan muskets.

Bart praised this kind of armor, and pointed out several dents and scratches on the armor in particular - that was when he was out of the city when the Mata blue army attacked Batavia last time. Traces left by military weapon hits.If it wasn't for the protection of this set of armor, he would have been shot through by bows and arrows five or six times, and he had been hacked seven or eight times.And it was the military exploits he made last time that allowed him to be promoted to his current position.

Although Cheng Dapeng didn't think much of the Dutch's "primitive" equipment, he still admired Bart's courage in combat.The troops led by him must not be timid and afraid of fighting.

However, there were only more than 2000 Dutch soldiers in Batavia, and they were deployed in the city defense fortifications in the east, north, and west directions before the battle. In fact, their strength was not enough.The direction to the north is facing the Batavia Port, and the pressure it encounters is undoubtedly the greatest, but the number of Dutch soldiers who can be deployed in this direction is no more than a thousand, and the enemies they face are counted by tens of times.In such a situation, the Dutch military had to use a large number of auxiliary troops to assist in defense.

Of the thousands of auxiliary troops in the city, about 1000 are permanent local security forces, with regular training and a relatively complete establishment, equipment, and command system. Although their combat power is not as good as that of the Dutch soldiers, they can also be used as regular troops in wartime .The rest is more embarrassing. Most of these people were temporarily recruited during the war, including local aborigines, black slaves, Chinese, European immigrants, and even ronin from Japan and Middle Eastern Arabs with deep eyes and beards. It's like a multinational force.

Such an armed force with diverse cultures, languages, living habits, and even combat styles, and it is an armed force composed of temporary conscripts. It can be said that the actual combat effectiveness and the combat determination of the personnel are very suspicious.After all, most of the people here are only here for the high salaries during the war, and they may not really be able to unite with the East India Company.It's okay to fight with the wind, if the pressure on the city defense is heavy, it will be a question mark whether these people can hold on to the front line.

This point is not only expected by Cheng Dapeng, a layman, but the Dutch military will naturally notice the hidden dangers. Therefore, the auxiliary army is only used as a reserve army at present, and has not been deployed in large numbers to the front-line positions.When talking about this army, Bart couldn't help cursing, but he spoke only Flemish, and Cheng Dapeng could only guess from his expression and tone that Bart didn't have a good impression of the auxiliary army.

In addition, a large number of civilians have been recruited in the city. These people are mainly responsible for logistics tasks such as transporting combat supplies, strengthening and repairing the city defense fortifications.Although Cheng Dapeng didn't have to go in person, he still sent his men to participate.

The visit lasted for more than an hour before it came to an end, but after Cheng Dapeng got so much information, he actually had further thoughts.Immediately, he asked Bart if he could come to comfort the troops another day.Naturally, Bart would not refuse such a good thing, and he agreed with a smile, but he still asked Cheng Dapeng to contact and arrange a time in advance through the channel of Su Keyi.

Cheng Dapeng returned to his residence with a belly full of information, and immediately plunged into the study and began to write a report.The level of detail of the military information obtained from today's trip far exceeds the sum of the past two years of squatting here.On the one hand, this is due to luck, on the other hand, it is true that he has done all kinds of work before, and finally received the reward he deserved.

If he hadn't managed his personal image and social relationship properly in the past two years, it would have been difficult to gain the trust of people like Su Keyi, let alone the circumstances that followed.And the management of personal image and social relations are all gradually accumulated bit by bit.He now understands a little bit why Chief Hao Wanqing said during the training period that the intelligence work is "a thousand miles away without taking small steps", and this job, which he initially regarded as a "spy", has now slowly made achievements feel.

Cheng Dapeng wrote the report until midnight, and the enthusiasm in his heart slowly cooled down.At this time, he suddenly realized a very serious problem. Under the current situation that the city of Batavia was surrounded by enemy troops, the collected information might not be able to be sent out in time.

Cheng Dapeng used to send information to Sanya mainly through merchant ships that regularly traveled between Batavia and Annan.These merchant ships traveled back and forth between the two places in the name of transporting food, and Cheng Dapeng could conveniently transmit written information during the delivery of the goods with the captain.And it is not a problem for professional intelligence personnel like them to hide a stack of papers on a ship and avoid the inspection of the port tax collector.After the information arrives at Annan Port, the content will be sent to the base camp by telegram as soon as possible.

However, as Haihan captured the Annabuna Islands, a supply port in the South China Sea, there has been another more efficient method of information transmission in the past six months, that is, the information is disembarked at the Ambuna Port and sent by telegram from the local area. Returning to Sanya, the time required for information transmission has been shortened by about half compared with the past, and the efficiency has been improved accordingly.

But no matter which transmission method is used, the information must first be sent to the sea.But now all the gates of Batavia City are closed, and the port on the north coast of the city has fallen into the control of the Matalan army. At this time, there is probably no way to send the information away.

Cheng Dapeng racked his brains for half the night, but he couldn't think of a way to safely send the information to the sea.The Mata blue army has probably controlled the coastline within a radius of [-] to [-] miles of Batavia. Now even if they find a way out of the city, they will not be able to reach the seaside at all.

"Time is fate!" Cheng Dapeng could only put away the written report and hide it in the secret compartment of the study.

Although I don't know what the executive committee's attitude is towards the battle in Batavia, if this information about Batavia's city defense can be sent back in time, it will definitely be a great achievement.And when the war is over and sent back, a lot of information has lost its timeliness, and its effect is not as good as it is now.As for the credit, it can only be greatly reduced.

The current situation made Cheng Dapeng the next best thing to do. Although he couldn't send any information, he could try his best to record the course of the battle.When Haihan goes south in the future, what he sees and hears today will become an important basis for the executive committee and the military to make decisions.Taking advantage of Su Keyi's relationship, he had to find an excuse to go to the city to watch the battle a few more times in the near future.

On the morning of July 7, when the fog on the seashore had not cleared, the watchmen at the top of the city vaguely saw signs of the Matalan army moving outside the city, and quickly rang the bell to warn the city defense army.

Bart returned to his combat position immediately, and used a monocular to observe the enemy's position in the distance.The first thing he noticed was not the Mata blue army slowly advancing in a phalanx, but some tall wooden frames that followed.

The structure of these tall wooden frames is very simple, with a triangular structure at the bottom, a long horizontal bar at the top, and the middle part is fixed on the triangular structure.Although it is still not very clear from a distance, Bart has recognized the true face of this thing-it is a bomb-belt trebuchet.

The trebuchet can be regarded as one of the most powerful siege equipment in the cold weapon era, and it has appeared on the battlefields of the East and the West very early.For the Mata blue army, which does not have too much firearms and equipment, the trebuchet is undoubtedly a siege device that is easy to manufacture and has a good combat efficiency.In the previous two battles against the city of Batavia, the Mata blue army also used trebuchets, but the combat effect at that time was not particularly satisfactory.

The main reason is that the trebuchets used at that time were relatively small in size and limited in range, so they had to go deep into the range of the city's fire protection to play a role.Under the intensive firepower at the top of the city, the slow-moving trebuchets were often destroyed before they were deployed. The Mata blue army invested seventy or eighty trebuchets back and forth at that time, but in the end they just smashed the city wall out. It was just a few small gaps, but it didn't play a big role.

And the catapults were not limited to the Mata blue army, the city defense army also had catapults, and there were dozens of catapults waiting inside the city wall at this time.But these trebuchets also have the same problem, that is, the range is short, and it is difficult to pose an actual threat to distant enemies.Moreover, the trebuchets in the city still need to use projectiles to climb over the city wall to hit the enemy, which undoubtedly shortened the already limited range.

If the Mata Blues were simply going to use old tactics, Bart would be more than happy to give them another memorable lesson in long-range firepower.However, this time the Mata blue army is obviously more prepared than last time, because the trebuchets seen so far are obviously much taller than the similar ones that appeared on the battlefield last time.The longest bar on the top of the trebuchet for projecting ammunition was about fifty feet. Obviously, the Matalan people have not been idle in the past two years and have improved the structure of their trebuchet.Even though the war has not yet started, Bart can already imagine that the range of this new trebuchet may be much longer than the previous ones.

(End of this chapter)