1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 734 Hard Offensive and Defensive Battle
For Haihan, the most ideal outcome is that the Dutch and the Matalans will lose both sides in the battle, and they will not be able to recover in the next few years, and they will continue to contain each other.In this way, in the future, when Hai Han is full-fledged and begins to expand his sphere of influence southward, their strength will not be enough to stop Hai Han's attempt.The intelligence that can be collected during the two battles will also become an important basis for the Haihan military to study targeted tactics for a period of time to come.But it is a pity that so far, the information obtained is only scattered information from the periphery, and there is not even the slightest definite information on the central battlefield where the real battle is fought.

"Intelligence work still has a long way to go!" Tao Donglai sighed: "It's such a good opportunity, but we can't get detailed battle reports, what a pity!"

Yan Chujie responded: "The local sea area has been completely blocked by the Matalan people, and now we can only wait patiently for the end of the war. However, Hao Wanqing assured me that the personnel stationed by the Ministry of Security in the local area are very capable, and they can do a good job in intelligence collection. We will definitely not disappoint the Executive Committee.”

In the next ten days or so, news of Mataram Port being attacked by a Dutch fleet spread to Ambana Port and Cam Ranh Port in southern Annan.Roger's previous speculation about the layout of the Dutch seems to be becoming a reality little by little.Now that the news has reached the Haihan people, the main force of the Mata blue army fighting in Batavia must have also received the news.I just don't know whether the Mata Blues can continue this war under the situation of being ransacked by their opponents.

On August 8, Batavia, Java Island, South Seas.The siege has lasted for nearly a month, and both sides paid a very heavy price during this period.

Outside the northern wall where the Dutch officer Bart was stationed, there were no longer any forts that could be used by the defenders to deploy defenses. Even the two seemingly indestructible forts outside the north gate, which guarded the only passage in the northern section of the moat, had completely become ruins.Although the Mata blue army failed to destroy the two fortresses with trebuchets, they still pulled out the two nails lying on the siege road with manpower.For this reason, the Matalan people paid the lives of about 600 soldiers, and about [-] people from the Dutch defenders died in this flesh and blood mill outside the north gate.

After sweeping away these obstructing fortresses outside the city, the Mata blue army determined the main direction of the siege to be the north wall, and launched attacks day after day.After trying all kinds of heavy weapons, the offensive and defensive battle between the two sides finally moved to the stage of hand-to-hand combat.Although the Dutch defenders had relatively advanced weapons and had city walls to defend, they still inevitably suffered a large number of casualties in the face of the siege enemy forces ten times their own every day.

At the beginning of the war, there were nearly 3000 Dutch defenders, but as of the beginning of August, only 50 people remained on the front line, and the loss had already reached [-]%.The city defense army, which is composed of various armed forces, has now recruited the third batch, and the personnel of the first two batches have also lost a considerable number of people in the war.Most of the men under the age of [-] in the city were temporarily conscripted into the army. When the war situation was tense, the newcomers even had only half a day to train, and then they were driven to the city wall to participate in the defense of the city after receiving an iron-tipped spear.

One can imagine the fighting power and fighting will of these newcomers who have been pushed to the shelves.The area guarded by them has been repeatedly attacked by enemy troops.Fortunately, the Dutch army always arrived in time for rescue every time, and quickly wiped out the enemy troops climbing to the top of the city with muskets.But the emergence of this situation has actually shown that the walls of Batavia City can no longer be held firmly.At this time, the rational commander should indeed consider whether to preserve his strength as the goal of the battle, but if it is not forced by the situation and there is nowhere to retreat, Van Diemen may have announced his abandonment of the city long ago.

During this period, there was also a small episode. Some people in the meeting thought that the chances of winning the battle with Matalan were not great. In order to prevent Batavia from being slaughtered by the enemy after the fall, the military should immediately send people to fight Matalan. The blue army negotiated a peace, using conditions such as land cession and indemnity, first to let the Mata blue army cease fighting - at least open a passage, so that the Dutch can withdraw from the city of Batavia decently.

This approach sounds very timely, and it is a plan to save life and the last bit of face, but it is undoubtedly a great humiliation to the military, which has been fighting for nearly a month and has suffered huge losses.And after the news spread, it also had a great impact on the defenders and the people in the city. Many people didn't know whether it was a war or a peace negotiation, and their hearts suddenly became panicked.

At this time, Fan Diemen was hardened, and he did not object to the council's proposal, so he directly expelled the person who came up with the idea from the north gate outside the city, and asked him to negotiate with the Madi Blue Army—whoever came up with the idea, he would to be responsible for the solution.

Of course, Fan Diemen knew very well that at this stage of the war, both sides had paid a high price, and the anger could no longer be calmed down. Let alone a peace negotiation, even a temporary truce was impossible.The Mata blue army is now suffocating and wants to capture Batavia regardless of casualties. After the city is broken, their first thing is probably to kill all the Dutch in the city.Now it seems that the destruction of the city seems to be just around the corner. How could it be possible to let the Dutch in the city leave safely at this time.

Sure enough, the representative of the Mata blue army negotiating council did not get any good results. Soon the Mata blue man sent back his head and said that he would not engage in any form of truce with the Dutch council in the city. negotiation.

After seeing the lessons learned from the past, the people in the council finally calmed down, not daring to point fingers at the military's command.Because Van Diemen has announced that anyone who proposes a truce, retreat and other negative plans may be a spy of the enemy outside the city and must be dealt with harshly.At this point in the war, Van Diemen no longer cares about the identities of these people in the council, because no one knows whether they will survive to the end of the war, so let's get over the difficulties in front of them first.

The small stove that Bart has enjoyed since the beginning of the war has also seen a marked decline in quality recently.Dishes such as chicken, duck, and seafood are no longer available in the recent supply.After all, the siege of the city was too long, and the reserves of Dacheng Rice Bank could not be replenished, and it was no longer possible to supply these good things.However, basic meat and wine can still be provided, and the standard of food that Bart can enjoy is even better than that of the Council and his immediate boss, Van Diemen.

But now Bart can no longer enjoy the small stove provided by Cheng Dapeng as easily as he did when the war started. The multiple injuries on his body have affected his daily eating.Bart's left hand was injured when a musket exploded during the battle a few days ago. Currently, his entire forearm is wrapped in gauze. Cheng Dapeng vividly calls it a fiddler crab.

In addition, Bart's face was also injured by the bow and arrow of the Mata Blue Army in the battle a few days ago, but he was lucky. If he was a little higher, he might have shot through his eye.It's just that this injury affected his eating, and he couldn't chew food. Cheng Dapeng could only change the main content of Xiaozao to preserved egg and lean meat porridge.

However, Bart's interest in enjoying the food was not affected by the injuries on his body. He was drinking porridge with a bowl in one hand, making Cheng Dapeng amazed.Although he hadn't been on the city wall to watch the battle these days, he listened to Bart's talk about the battle situation of the day every day, and he felt quite immersive.Cheng Dapeng asked himself that if he had been fighting on the city wall for so many days, his spirit would have collapsed long ago, so he would not be able to enjoy the food.

"This is really great!" Bart put down the porridge bowl, took a big bite of the scallion pancake, and said vaguely: "Boss Cheng, I must admit that you are indeed right!"

"Ah? What's right?" Cheng Dapeng didn't recover for a while.

"This..." Bart pointed at the scallion omelette with his left hand hugged like a fiddler crab claw, and said with a satisfied expression: "A few days ago, you said that you can no longer provide chicken as food, and I think it's a pity. But now think you're right, keep the chickens and at least we'll have eggs, which is great!"

Cheng Dapeng replied dumbfoundedly: "Small things, small things, Mr. Bart has praised you!"

"Boss Cheng, if the defense line is broken by the Mata blue men and the city of Batavia falls, will you be afraid?" Bart suddenly changed the subject and asked a very serious question.

Cheng Dapeng hesitated for a while, then shook his head and said, "To be honest, the villain is not afraid, because the villain has experienced more dangerous situations than this before."

"But you never thought that you might lose your life in this place, right?" Bart smiled wryly: "I never thought about this kind of thing before, but in the past few days, this kind of thought suddenly popped up ...Maybe I won't have the chance to go back to my hometown again."

Cheng Dapeng has been with Bart for many days, so he can naturally feel his emotional fluctuations very keenly, so he asked subconsciously: "But the city defense can no longer hold on?"

Bart hesitated for a few seconds, then nodded and said: "Boss Cheng, you have been very kind to me during this time, I am willing to treat you as a friend, and I hope you can survive the war well. So I don't want to hide from you , The time for this city to continue to defend is running out, you'd better prepare early and think about how to protect your life and property."

Cheng Dapeng said: "Does General Fan Dimen know about this?"

"Of course I know, but war is like this, you die or I die. If you lose, you have to pay the price. This is the truth we knew the day we became soldiers." Bart's emotions gradually calmed down, and he said slowly: " But you’re just a commoner, even if the Matalans capture Batavia, they probably won’t easily massacre the city, after all, their purpose of war is to conquer this city, not completely destroy it.”

"Could it be... there is no turning point?" Although Cheng Dapeng knew that he had a high chance of surviving after the fall of Batavia, he did not want to see the day when the city was taken over by Matalan people.Cheng Dapeng himself didn't know where such an idea came from, maybe it had something to do with his contact with Bart during this period.

It took a long time for Bart to respond this time: "Maybe there is a turning point...but I'm not sure, because...we don't know if it's too late."

Cheng Dapeng suddenly remembered that Bart had accidentally mentioned one day last month that Van Diemen seemed to have some targeted formations before the war.But during this period of time, the situation of the defenders became more and more passive. Cheng Dapeng once thought that Fan Dimen's tricks might not have any effect.But hearing Bart's words today reminded him of the conversation at that time.

Cheng Dapeng thought about it in his heart, and then said: "Master Bart, if there is anything that a villain can help, I will definitely die!"

Bart shook his head and said, "There's no way, we can't even get out of the city now, how can we ask for help?"

What a clever person Cheng Dapeng was, he had already recalled it as soon as he heard this: "Master Bart means that there are reinforcements somewhere outside the city?"

Bart nodded, then shook his head. Cheng Dapeng was worried, so he asked again: "There are reinforcements, but they are not outside the city?"

Bart nodded this time to admit Cheng Dapeng's guess: "The reinforcements...are at sea!"

"Since there are reinforcements, why don't you come to relieve the siege of Batavia?" Cheng Dapeng asked puzzled.It has been a month since the start of the war. If Van Diemen and the others had already prepared an army outside before the battle, wouldn't it be enough for them to come to Batavia for rescue in one month? ?

"It's really hard for me to explain it to you...it's a very complicated plan..." Bart was hesitant to speak, probably out of consideration for military secrets.

Cheng Dapeng could only make a guess on his own: "Is this reinforcement army wandering in the sea waiting for a suitable opportunity? But the Matalan people have blocked the harbor, and the reinforcements don't know where the city of Batavia is." Depending on the situation of the battle, it is difficult to find a suitable time to send troops."

"Although your guess is not entirely correct, it is also partly correct." Bart was also a person who couldn't hold back his words, and couldn't help confiding some inside information: "This support army has to perform some other tasks first, and then come to Bart. Davia makes a break."

Cheng Dapeng was clear about it, and immediately responded: "So now Batavia wants to attract all Matalan's troops here, and let that fleet perform other tasks? If they move slowly, they will not be able to catch up. Came to Batavia to save the siege?"

"It's roughly like this." This time, Bart readily admitted Cheng Dapeng's guess: "According to the time agreed in advance, it should have launched a counterattack recently. But no one can predict things at sea. A small change in the weather It may delay the fleet's journey, so we don't know if we can hold out until the day when the reinforcements arrive."

(End of this chapter)