1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 737
There are people from Matalan escorting them to go to the sea and go north. This arrangement is even more secure than the people from Dacheng Rice Co. "Messenger" security.Moreover, the Matalan people obviously had no doubts about the identities of Cheng Dapeng and the others, and they did not intend to check whether they were carrying any suspicious items on the road.Of course, this may also be because the food supply pressure that Batavia City is currently facing has made the Matalan people ignore so many details.

Batavia has been under siege for more than a month. During this period, almost no external supplies have been sent into the city. Although there is no real famine in the city, the food supply is indeed very tight.This is also due to the fact that the East India Company immediately implemented a temporary plan for unified distribution of supplies at the beginning of the siege, and seized all commercial grain stocks in the city, including Dacheng Rice Company, and maintained tens of thousands of people in the city with the minimum ration standard. Survive.If there were no such measures, it is estimated that the people in the city would have been in civil strife before the Matalan people broke the city.

Of course, if that kind of chaotic situation occurs, the granary of Dacheng Rice Co., Ltd. will probably bear the brunt.In the same way, the first thing the Matalan people do when they enter the city is to control the food supply channels first. First of all, make sure that no accidents will happen to grain merchants like Cheng Dapeng, otherwise they will not be able to transport a large amount of grain in a short period of time to feed the sudden tens of thousands of mouths on their own.

The people in Matalan also had intentions. When Sukarno left, he specially left a group of soldiers outside the Dacheng rice shop to maintain order and prevent the rioters from entering the city. However, there should be surveillance purposes inside. There are more or less contacts between the grain merchants and the local government agencies, and the people of Mataram are not sure whether Cheng Dapeng is really as honest as he seems.

After Cheng Dapeng was sure that he would be fine, he worried about Bart's safety again.But even if there were no Ma Dalan soldiers guarding Mihang outside, he didn't dare to sneak out easily to inquire about the news.There are rioting soldiers everywhere in the city now, and there are quite a few young people who want to take advantage of the chaos to make a fortune at this time. For a person like him who is delicate and expensive and has no power to protect himself, it is better to stay at home honestly. appropriate.

Since the day before, there have been constant sounds of gunfire and shouts of killing in the city, but they are mainly concentrated in the north of the city.The west side of the city is mostly a neighborhood populated by foreign merchants, and the people's willingness to resist is relatively low, but there is no fierce fighting. The Matalan people hardly encountered much resistance, and they successfully took over the west area of ​​the city.Judging from the performance of the Matalan people, Cheng Dapeng believes that they have completely controlled the fortifications in the west of the city, and he is not worried that the Dutch in the city will be able to break through to the west, and the hope of survival for Bart and others has undoubtedly decreased a little. point.

The fact is exactly as Cheng Dapeng had speculated that once the most pressured city was lost in the north, the city defenses in the east and west of the city followed suit. Formed a siege of the defenders in the city.Although the south of the city is still in the hands of the Dutch for the time being, senior officers such as Van Diemen and Bart do not plan to withdraw from Batavia City, but are determined to fight the enemy to the end in the city.However, many Dutch businessmen chose to flee from the south of the city, hoping to avoid the pursuit of the Matalan people.But this escape route is by no means smooth. There are only some plantations and farms in the area south of the city, and thirty miles away is an uninhabited tropical rainforest. It is difficult for ordinary people to hide in it for a long time without supplies. Malaria, The poisonous insects and hot and humid environment may kill the refugees who enter it within a few days.

The vast majority of locals and Chinese did not choose to flee. For ordinary people, staying in the city is more likely to survive than fleeing. After all, the Matalans did not attack Batavia for the purpose of massacring the city, but to To drive away the Dutch and occupy this trading port city that can create huge wealth every year.The people here, including the Chinese, will be the source of income for the people of Mataram in the future. They have no reason to slaughter the Batavian people who will soon become the citizens of Matalam.

During the day of August 8, the roar of the artillery in the city of Batavia almost never stopped.It took the Matalan people a day and a night to clear the passage of the North City Gate, and began to transport heavy weapons into the city.However, the Dutch defenders, who only relied on barricades as a defensive barrier, found it difficult to continue fighting in the face of larger caliber artillery.The artillery of the Mata Lan people cleared the defenders' street strongholds one by one, and suppressed the defenders' retreat to the city center step by step.

During this day's battle, the defending side paid thousands of lives to stop the Mata blue army's offensive in the outer area about 300 meters away from the council castle.And since the Mata blue army entered the city, the casualty ratio they paid has also dropped greatly compared to the previous battle. Although it is still higher than the defenders in terms of numbers, it is ten times worse than the battle losses of the two sides before entering the city. In terms of a gap of about [-] times, the current casualties of only a little over twice have already made the commander of the Mata blue army laugh out loud.

There are less than 2000 Dutch armed men and militiamen who are still fighting stubbornly in the center of the city. Even if the elderly, weak, women and children who are unable to fight are counted, there are only 5000 in total.And the Mata blue army now has at least 3000 combatable troops. Even if it takes human lives to fill it, it can fill this hole.For the Matalan people, it is basically not a problem to conquer Batavia now, it depends on how long it will take to clear the last obstacle.

But I don't know whether it was because the fighting spirit of the Dutch was aroused, or the Mata blue army relaxed when they saw that victory was in sight, but the last step was extremely difficult. The last Dutch stronghold in the city.The artillery's effect on the attacking side was very limited at this time, because the outside of the council castle was full of rubble and ruins, and the shells no longer had any obvious effect.

At this time, the Mata Blue Army has completed the encirclement of the city center, but if this nail is not removed, the Mata Blue Army cannot claim to have seized control of Batavia.After waiting outside the city for a few days, Laden Langsang finally couldn't hold back, and entered the city on the evening of the 12th, announcing that he would personally supervise the battle when the sun rose, and demanded that the army must take this last stronghold before the sun set.

However, as if it was God's mockery of Lang Sang, it started raining suddenly that night, and it showed no sign of stopping at dawn.Lang Sang declared that he would launch an offensive when the sun rose, which invisibly became a joke.

In any case, as long as there is no knife falling from the sky, this offensive must still be launched. On the morning of the 13th, following Lang Sang's order, about 3000 Matalam soldiers launched the final offensive from multiple directions at the same time.Behind them are two groups of reserve troops with a number of [-] people. If the first wave of offensive is repelled, then the next two groups of reserve troops will also go into battle one by one, leaving no chance for the Dutch to breathe.If nothing else, the Mata Blues should be able to flatten this stinky and hard stumbling block before noon.

Van Diemen had given up on the second-line command, and stood on the defense line with the few remaining Dutchmen holding muskets. Watching the marching horses beat the blue army, Van Diemen let go of his voice and shouted loudly: "Mr. Ladies and gentlemen, the last moment has come, let us take a few more Nanyang monkeys to heaven together!"

Bart also tightly grasped the weapon in his hand. Although the injuries on his body made it difficult for him to even stand still, this did not hinder his belief in fighting to the end.Strangely, at this time, what came to his mind was not the windmills and bright tulips in his hometown, but a table of steaming meals.

"I really want to eat another delicious meal from my big friend!" Bart shook his head helplessly, expelling the fantasy from his mind, and focused his energy on the final battle right now.He knew that maybe after a while, he would go to see God, and he would never have the chance to taste the Chinese food brought by Cheng Dapeng.

But fate seemed to be playing a joke on both sides of the war. When the Mata blue army was about to enter the gun range of the Dutch defenders, a signal to withdraw the troops suddenly came.Both sides were briefly distracted by this change, but soon the Mata Blues really changed from the front to the back and began to retreat.

"What happened?" Looking at the empty city outside, Bart muttered to himself with a blank face.

The Matalan people were just one step away from completing their battle plan, but at this juncture, they voluntarily retreated?

After a long time, a cannon shot came from the air, followed by a second and a third. Everyone stood up to distinguish carefully, and finally confirmed that the cannon sound came from the north.

"It's our reinforcements! The reinforcements have arrived!" The first person to react was Van Diemen, and he was the only one who knew the reinforcements' action plan best.Although it was almost a week later than he expected, the reinforcements finally arrived!
"Matalan's main force has all entered the city, and those stationed by the sea are all logistics personnel and wounded soldiers. If I'm not mistaken, the supplies of the Matalan army are also stored in the port... These monkeys are going to be in trouble!" After Van Diemen sorted out the situation, he quickly began to issue orders: "All those who can still fight, form a team immediately, and we will start a counterattack!"

In fact, the Dutch fleet had assembled in the Karimo Islands about 220 nautical miles east of Batavia Port five days ago. More than 100 sailing ships, including merchant ships, were carrying about [-] combat personnel. Quietly killed a carbine.Prior to this, these fleets from various colonial areas had swept away all the main ports of Mata Ram on the line from Timor Island to Java Island, even the southern coast of Borneo.Since the Mata Blues were almost in full force, the Dutch hardly encountered decent resistance during the operation, and they really grabbed a lot of money.

However, since Batavia's battle situation cannot be known, it is also difficult for this armed force floating in the sea to seize the right time to counterattack.They couldn't even be sure whether Batavia had fallen under the siege of the Mata blue army. If that was the case, it would be useless for them to fight back.

However, according to the plan formulated in advance, after 30 days of war, the fleet decided to gather together to launch a counterattack. On the morning of the 13th, when the Mata blue army in the city began to gather, the Dutch fleet also launched a surprise attack on Batavia Harbor from the open sea.

As Van Diemen guessed, after breaking through the Batavia city defenses, the Matalan people have relaxed the outer guard, and almost all the main force was sent to the city to fight, while all the wounded soldiers and civilians left in the port , and combat supplies piled up into hills.

Although the Mata blue army stationed at the port quickly issued an alarm, they did nothing to prevent the Dutch fleet from quickly approaching the port and landing.Before that, the Mata blue army had focused on attacking the city of Batavia, and did not care about setting up coastal fortifications and defense lines on the port side.The garrison caught off guard didn't get a chance to show up in front of the wolf-like Dutch, and the musketeers dispersed these panicked soldiers with little effort.

Under the command of the commander, the Dutch who had just landed immediately began to burn the combat supplies on the shore-most of which were rations for the Mata Blue Army.And the flames ignited at the port attracted the attention of the Mata blue army in the city even faster than the people who returned to the city to call the police. He reported the warning of the Dutch landing in the port.

This news is indeed bad news for Lang Sang, because the port not only has the supplies needed for the maintenance of the Matalan army, but also hundreds of ships used to transport troops and supplies. Even if the blue army captures Batavia, it will be difficult to achieve long-term occupation, not to mention that there is a Dutch fleet that came out of nowhere by the sea.

Since there was no information about the general strength of the Dutch fleet in the warning message, Lang Sang made a critical mistake at this time - he ordered the troops attacking the council castle to retreat, and immediately went outside the city to block the sea Dutchman.

In Lang Sang's view, there are only a few Dutch armed men left in the city, and it is unlikely that they will make a comeback. The top priority of the Mata blue army is to preserve the supplies and ships by the sea.As long as the remnants of Holland by the sea are calmed down in one go, there is still time to go back and deal with these remnants in the city.The defense of Batavia has been breached, can the Dutch come back to life?
But the Dutch didn't think so. When they found a glimmer of life, they immediately launched a counterattack.Because the current situation was originally part of the plan made by the Dutch before the war.

(End of this chapter)