1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 735
Bart actually knew little about Van Diemen's arrangements before the war, and was not completely clear.Moreover, there are probably not more than five people in the entire city of Batavia who clearly know the content of this battle plan, so the information he can disclose to Cheng Dapeng is also very limited.However, Cheng Dapeng's guess based on the battle situation in the past month is indeed very close to the facts, and it is basically consistent with Bart's own guess.

To be precise, the idea of ​​Van Diemen's deployment before the war still came from the deceased Governor Cohen.Although the Matalan people failed to capture Batavia in the battle three years ago and finally withdrew their troops angrily, Cohen, then the governor, did not take it lightly and thought that this would solve the foreign trouble of Matalan once and for all.In the three years since the war, until the time of his death, Cohen did not relax his preparations for the next possible engagement.Building fortresses outside the city, expanding the garrison troops, and upgrading weapon configurations to strengthen the city defenses are all aimed at dealing with the Mata blue army who will come again at some point. In addition to these basic preparations, Cohen also prepared It is an outside move, hoping to use this to solve the continuous belligerence of the Matalan people.

Cohen's plan is simple and simple. It is to hide troops outside and deploy a scattered armed force in the Nanyang colonies outside Batavia, and only gather together to take unified actions in wartime.Of course, this plan is based on his sufficient understanding of the strategic intentions of the Mata Blue Army, and it is determined that the opponent is taking the city of Batavia as the main target. If they break through one by one, the game will be completely ruined.

According to Cohen's plan, these armed ships and personnel will start to act the next time the Matalan people send troops to crusade against Batavia. They will launch operations in the South China Sea in the form of armed fleets and destroy the main ports of the Matalan country. .As a regime whose land is distributed in the Nanyang Islands, the importance of ports is self-evident. If this battle plan is successful, it will greatly shake the foundation of the rule of Matalan, and it will greatly affect Matalam and other countries. The country's trade relations——One of the main reasons why Radon Langsang persevered in attacking Batavia was to seize this important commercial port known as the trade capital of Nanyang, and Cohen's combat intention was to attack it and save it land.

Of course, the Matalan people may not withdraw their troops to rescue the attacked place, because the timeliness of news dissemination is limited. When they receive the news, many days have passed, and they may not be able to rush back. The enemy who invaded the home was blocked.Therefore, Cohen's plan is very extreme. It is not the main purpose of returning to Batavia to lift the siege, but the destruction of the Mataram port as the primary task-first destroy the Mataram port, and then go to the city. Take another step to consider the rescue.

This is a rather risky approach, because the city of Batavia is very likely to be declared lost before the fleets from various places return to their positions because they cannot withstand the attack of the Mata blue army.And even if these fleets can destroy their respective combat targets when the enemy's base camp is empty, it does not mean that their return to defense will definitely solve the siege of Batavia City, and they may even lose their own money. .But after discussing with Van Diemen, Cohen and Van Diemen hit it off immediately, and formulated this battle plan without hesitation, determined to use this to make a deal with the Matalan people.

In addition to their very strong adventurous spirit, the more objective reason is that the crusade against Matalam has greatly affected the development of Batavia.It took less than seven years for Batavia to develop from a seaside town with a population of just over 1621 when it was built in early 1000 to a "Southern Ocean City" with a population of 5. However, the two consecutive wars in 1628 and 1629 , but slowed down the development momentum of this rapidly developing seaport city, the population size did not rise but fell, and the originally good situation was also cast a cloud.

If the people of Matalan follow the pace of war, the city of Batavia will have only two fates. One is to be conquered by them and become the territory of Matalan; Towards decline, in the end the Dutch had to give up here.No matter what kind of result is, it is unacceptable to the East India Company, so Cohen and Van Diemen have the mentality of dying and breaking. Even if Batavia cannot be kept, the Matalan people must bear the corresponding losses— ——At that time, what the Matalan people will take away is only a dilapidated Batavia, and all the domestic ports will be destroyed. Then the status of the regional trade center they expected will probably not be realized in the short term.

The worst outcome would be the fall of Batavia and the destruction of the headquarters of the East India Company. However, after the Dutch fleet destroyed the ports around Mataram, they might be able to plunder a fortune and start building strongholds elsewhere.Although this result hurts both sides, it is better than being dominated by the Matalan people or being dragged to death.

But if the Dutch are lucky enough, after realizing this step of strategic intention, the city of Batavia still holds on, then there is something else to do.Killing back to Batavia to clear the siege and cutting off the maritime supply line of the Matalan people are all countermeasures that can be taken.The difficulty lies in the control of the timing. The counterattack is too early, and the Matalan people retain more strength. If they safely withdraw from the battlefield after the news, or if they have captured the city of Batavia, then there is no point in counterattacking.

In the final analysis, this is a very risky combat plan. Any accident may make all deployments useless, but the Dutch still boldly implemented this plan.When Bart and other Dutch soldiers fought bravely on the city wall to resist the attack of the Mata blue army, they still had hope in their hearts. They might be able to hold on to the city until the reinforcements came back—even though most of them I don't know exactly how many months and days it will be.

However, the attacks of the Matalan people kept coming, but the defenders were becoming more and more difficult to resist. Seeing that the city was about to fall, Bart also had some doubts about whether he could survive until the dawn came, so he confronted Cheng Dapeng, a newcomer. The friend in need opened up his heart, and even such high-level military secrets were leaked to him.Of course, even if Cheng Dapeng is a spy colluding with the Matalan people, there is absolutely no way to pass the news to the local camp at this time, Bart can be sure of this.

Cheng Dapeng soon recovered from the bewilderment just now, and asked seriously: "If the city is broken, what will Mr. Bart do?"

Bart responded decisively this time: "The defenders will retreat into the council castle in the city center and resist until the last moment!"

The council castle is located in the city center, but this so-called castle doesn't have many solid fortifications at all. The walls about three meters high are hard to play a big defensive role, and there are no obstacles such as trenches on the outside to stop the enemy's attack. offensive.Even if the Dutch retreat, it's hard to say whether they can last for two or three days.At that stage, soldiers like Bart would probably have to die in battle. It doesn't take much to explain, Cheng Dapeng can feel the determination from his words.

Bart, on the other hand, comforted Cheng Dapeng and said: "Starting tomorrow, you will stop delivering meals. It is best to cancel all outings and wait for the end of the war at home! You are the main food supplier in the Batavia area, After the Matalan people occupy here, it is impossible to solve the food supply of tens of thousands of people in Batavia by themselves in the short term, so they will not do anything to you, don’t worry.”

Although Cheng Dapeng sighed in his heart after listening to Bart's exhortation, he was not so impulsive that he wanted to live and die with the Dutchman. He could only comfort Bart with good words.After returning to Dacheng Rice Shop that night, Cheng Dapeng convened a meeting with his colleagues, thinking that for safety reasons, he should follow Bart's advice and reduce going out recently.In addition, the information collected so far must be transcribed into a backup version as soon as possible, and stored in a safe place other than Dacheng Rice Bank, so as not to be confiscated by Ma Dalan after the city is broken.Although Bart thinks that the safety of Dacheng Rice Bank will not be a problem, but now it is a time of war, and no one can guarantee the safety of the company.

On August 8, the siege Mata blue army launched its largest offensive since August, and invested about 9 troops in the direction of the north gate of Batavia alone.This is probably the remaining elite of the Mata blue army's main force for this expedition. If they can't capture Batavia's defense line, then their commander Lang Sang probably really needs to consider withdrawing troops.The news of the attack on the old nest had actually spread to the front line, but under the deliberate concealment of the high-level, ordinary soldiers and low-level officers did not know that the Dutch had launched revenge on the land of Mataram.

In fact, the north city gate had already disappeared a few days ago. At that time, the siege engine of the Matalan people had completely destroyed the city gate.This heavy siege vehicle is actually a huge log with several wheels installed on it, and a solid roof is built on it to prevent heavy objects from being thrown and fire attacks on the city wall. Nearly a hundred strongmen push the siege vehicle. The city car went all the way to the north city gate, and then directly hit the city gate with logs.The defenders tried all kinds of methods, but failed to stop the attack of the Matalan people regardless of casualties. In the end, the two city gates collapsed.

However, thanks to Van Diemen's advance arrangements, after the city gate collapsed, the subsequent artillery immediately bombarded the siege vehicles that had not yet evacuated to make way for the road. They all died under the intensive close-range artillery fire.The Mata blue army who followed closely behind failed to seize this excellent opportunity to attack the city because the way forward was blocked.Then the defenders in the city blocked the city gate with stones, destroyed the wheels of the huge siege vehicle and blocked it in the city gate, so that even if the Mata blue army could capture the city gate again, they would have to The giant log nearly ten meters long had to be removed by human power before entering the city.

However, the Mata Blue Army's offensive launched on the 9th was no longer obsessed with capturing the city gate, but once again used the tactic of aggressively climbing the city wall.Since almost all the heavy weapons on the city wall have been scrapped during the month-long fighting period, the Dutch defenders have no good way to prevent the Mata blue army from quickly approaching the city wall.Soon hundreds of siege ladders were erected outside the city wall one after another, and the Matalan soldiers climbed up the ladders nimbly like monkeys, holding wooden shields in one hand and war knives in the other.

Although Bart mobilized three reserve teams in a row, the area of ​​the city wall where he was located was quickly climbed to the top of the city by the enemy and gained a firm foothold.Bart was very depressed to find that the arrival of his own reinforcements was not even as fast as the enemy troops who went up to the top of the city through ladders.Although the defenders were able to gain the upper hand in the kill ratio with certain weapon advantages, it could not effectively change the momentum of the enemy's advancing front into the city step by step.

"Lord Bart, Lord Van Diemen demands that you lead your team to withdraw into the city immediately!"

The military orders brought by the messenger forced Bart to give up the defense line of the city wall that was about to be completely lost, and let the Musketeers cover the spearmen to retreat from the front line.The enemy army occupying the city wall was not in a hurry to pursue the retreating enemy, but immediately surrounded and suppressed the defenders who had not had time to withdraw from the city wall.

Bart led the troops to quickly withdraw to a barricade about 200 meters away from the city wall. Two six-pound guns were erected on the five-meter-wide street, and two teams of musketeers and about 150 spearmen were deployed on this basis.There are still many barricades like this in the city, and the defenders hope that these measures can further delay the enemy's occupation of the city.Even if it's only half a day or even an hour or two, it's good. As long as it's not the last moment, everyone still has the hope of turning things around.

Bart and the troops under his command got about half an hour of respite, and then they ushered in another wave of attack by the Matalan men.Due to the lack of heavy weapons, the Mata blue army who had just climbed to the top of the city was helpless in the face of barricade fire. After leaving more than 20 corpses, they retreated to the vicinity of the city wall.Obviously, the barricade tactics played their due role. Before the Mata blue army transported the artillery into the city, it was difficult to capture these very narrow streets from the front.

The Matalan soldiers were also unwilling to charge blindly in this situation. It was another matter to brave the enemy's artillery fire on the plain outside the city. After all, only a few people would be hit.However, there is no avoiding it on the streets of the city, and the only result of rushing upwards is to become cannon fodder.

Some officers quickly found another way, commanding soldiers to rush into the houses in the city, open another route from the area outside the street, and bypass the deadly barricades erected by the Dutch defenders.

(End of this chapter)