I want to be emperor

With the power of the cruiser Pusan, the fleet of the Dutch East India Company hadn't gone too far out of the harbor, but was forced to return and recapture the port, relying on the coastal defense fort to survive.

The fleet has retreated in despair, so naturally there is no such thing as destroying the landing fleet.

Under such circumstances, the landing of the Chu army was very smooth, and there was even enough time to erect a temporary trestle so that more personnel and materials could land ashore in a short time.

Especially some field guns, horses, carriages and other materials, these can't be directly landed by boats, they must have the help of the dock.

For this landing operation, the Navy also specially modified a number of ships so that they can use their own hulls as the basic structure to serve as floating trestles after arriving at the landing site. After these ships are fixed, a simple and not too reliable Spectrum's floating trestle was thus formed.

A number of transport ships began to approach the floating trestle, and batch after batch of soldiers began to disembark and go ashore quickly through the trestle to strengthen the defense of the beach.

Not only soldiers, more than 40 field guns of various calibers, howitzers also began to be transported through the trestle.

As for the twelve 150mm cannons in the third battalion of heavy artillery, they will be ranked last, because they are too heavy, and the body of the cannon alone weighs several tons. To go ashore quickly in an imperfect port, you also need the help of a steam hoist.

There are also several transport ships in the transport fleet equipped with steam hoists, which can not only be used to lift ordinary materials, horses, and field guns, but also these big guys.

Troops were continuously landing, and after the Dutch failed to attack the beachhead for the first time, facing more and more landing Chu troops, they obviously did not have the courage to launch a second attack.

In this case, even if the Dutch launched an attack desperately, it would be impossible to break through the interception of the Chu army's landing force.

How did these Chu people know the exact location of these ammunition warehouses and grain warehouses?
More importantly, with such a high city wall, how did their shells hit their warehouse accurately?

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, an infantry regiment in many European and American countries had about the same strength, and it had to be a large infantry regiment, not a small colonial regiment with only 600 people like the British army.

Of course, the hit rate at such a long distance is actually average, and the error will be relatively large.

After all, the Chu army on the beach now has at least 2000 people, and many field artillery have already landed on the beach.

Even if no agreement is reached, most of the coolies can be freed as long as they work in a prisoner-of-war camp for a few years.

The accuracy of the smoothbore guns currently equipped by the Great Chu Empire is the same. The accuracy of the hit at more than 1000 meters is good, but the accuracy of the shelling at a distance of two to 3000 meters is not good. You can only rely on covering shelling to get hits .

The defenders of the Dutch East India Company had no way to prevent effective resistance, and even suffered defeat from the very beginning.

As for errors other than performance, this is unavoidable.

Gunpowder smoke began to fill the city of Colombo.

However, there were only a part of the Third Cavalry Regiment of the Guards that went out, that is, two light cavalry posts, about [-] cavalry.

And an infantry battalion in the Chu army is full of five line infantry posts, a grenadier post and a supply team. Such a battalion has a full 1000 people.

Although I don't know what it is, some Dutch people who have been to China many times have heard of it. It should be the Kongming Lantern of the Chu people... I just don't know how these Chu people made these Kongming Lanterns so big , but also capable of carrying people.

Even if they have the courage, they don't have enough strength.

In addition, there is an infantry battalion of the Seventh Infantry Regiment of the Guards. This battalion is simply not full, with only four posts.

These manned hot air balloons use a tethered launch method and cannot maneuver after liftoff.

Not to mention the Chu army, even the Dutch a few years ago were able to defeat these.

Perhaps, relying on the city of Colombo to hold it?

At this time, some Dutch people asked: Could it be the monsters they flew into the sky that were proofreading their artillery?
Immediately someone raised his head to look at the sky outside the city!

Strictly speaking, this is the first time that the hot air balloons equipped by the Great Chu Empire Army have been put into actual combat.

Then the Dutch fleet was dumbfounded...

This is because the guards are dispatched in rotation, and they rarely bring in an entire regiment of troops, and more or less leave a part of their troops in the garrison.

Therefore, the cavalry of the Guards began to be sent out to conduct reconnaissance and guard the periphery.

The assault troops of the Guards only paid three casualties before occupying the top of the city and began to welcome more friendly troops to enter.

The next day, a large number of supplies and cavalry troops also landed.

Even though the straight-line distance was only more than 2000 meters, this was still a very typical out-of-sight shelling. The artillerymen did not see the target from the beginning to the end, and could only vaguely see the smoke produced by their own shells after they landed and exploded.

The port was blocked by the fleet of the Great Chu Empire, and the fort in the northwest corner of the port had fallen behind the Chu army, and the Chu army directly used the original artillery on the fort to bombard the port.

This level of hasty shelling was naturally not to cover the infantry from directly attacking the city, but purely to test the firepower and test the counterattack firepower of the Dutch on the opposite side.

Although these 130 mm or even 150 mm fort cannons are still smoothbore guns, their maximum range is very far, and it is easy to shoot two to 3000 meters.

At the same time, it is also to attack the exposed enemy firepower points when the enemy is launching artillery counterattack.

After just one day, they found that they were completely desperate.

There is no need for the navy to risk rushing into the harbor to fight.

At the same time, the Temporary Second Mixed Regiment of the Guards, which had already landed and assembled, also started operations. Under the cover and support of the cavalry, they expanded with the landing beach as the center, and the main force naturally headed towards Colombo City. go.

The top executives of the Dutch East India Company have already run away.

However, the Chu army is different. The Chu army generally does not embarrass the prisoners. If the two sides reach an agreement after the armistice, they will hand over the prisoners.

And the landing operation in the rear is still going on, and now only some less important supplies and heavy artillery from the [-]rd Battalion of Heavy Artillery are landing.

The cavalry unit that landed was the Third Cavalry Regiment of the Guards. This cavalry regiment belonged to the Third Guards Division. It was a very typical first-class combat readiness cavalry regiment, with one cuirassier sentry and three light cavalry sentries. .

Although the Dutch have repaired and processed the city defenses to a certain extent after occupying this place, this is not enough... far from enough.

The indigenous servant army of more than 2000 people retreated directly during the first attack, and now most of them have fled back to the city. The remaining hundreds of Dutch soldiers obviously did not have the ability to attack alone.

Some shells fell directly outside the city wall because they were not shot accurately enough, and some simply flew over the city wall and fell into the urban area.

Not to mention casualties due to lack of evasion, the key point is that the artillery of the Chu Army aimed at the ammunition warehouses in the city... After continuous shelling, finally a shell fell into one of the warehouses. It crashed through the roof of the house and exploded.

There are several small red dots in the sky outside the city. These small red dots have risen not long after the Chu army arrived.

As for the native servants, they have long since disappeared, and who knows where they went.

After more than 500 cavalrymen from the Second Cavalry Regiment of the Guards landed, the Chu army also had fast maneuvering forces and scouting forces on the shore. Don't worry about seeing densely packed enemies ahead as soon as they come out of the beach...

But when firing grenades, it doesn’t matter if there are some errors. Anyway, howitzer shelling pays attention to covering the bombardment, and no one would expect that the shells can accurately hit the windows of the enemy’s house and get in...

The Dutch in the city were stunned by this long-range out-of-sight bombardment. At first they thought it was just a mistake by the gunners of the Chu army. Explosions in urban areas have occurred very frequently in the past two days.

The Dutch were even more dumbfounded when they saw that the shells landed in the ammunition warehouse and grain warehouse in the city.

The soldiers also hurriedly retreated towards the south wall.

Today, the artillerymen of the [-]rd Battalion of Heavy Artillery use hot air balloons to guide the bombardment, so that the accuracy of the bombardment can bring out the performance of the artillery itself.

But upon closer inspection, Nima's shells had all landed in the center of the city. Such a long distance deviation must not be an error, but the Chu army's intentional shooting so far.

This kind of high-altitude remote warning has a very long warning distance, because hot air balloons can be lifted up to a height of several hundred meters, and the watchmen use high-magnification telescopes to observe. In good weather, they can even find that there is no concealment more than ten kilometers away. A force above medium size.

The Dutch had completely given up, and simply retreated back to Colombo like the native servants.

Its main purpose is to provide long-range target guidance and calibration for artillery units.

The same situation also applies to the main force of the temporary second mixed regiment, the Second Infantry Regiment of the Guards, and only two battalions came here this time.

The Great Chu Empire has produced large-scale manned hot air balloons long ago, but the early technology was not perfect and mature, and it has only gradually matured in recent years, and began to equip artillery units in batches.

The ammunition warehouse was directly destroyed by long-range shelling, which greatly affected the morale of the Dutch defenders in the city. Although they had not surrendered in the next few days, more and more people dared to go up to the top of the city to fight back with artillery. not enough.

Ever since, a grand fireworks show began!

Although this possibility is infinitely close to zero, one still has to be on guard against it.

The place where the Chu army landed was in the north of Colombo City, avoiding the fort on the northwest corner of the Colombo city defense system.

Immediately afterwards, the Dutch defenders on the two forts on the peninsula in the salient part of the northwest corner also announced their surrender in the evening.

Under such circumstances, the city of Colombo quickly fell into the hands of the Chu army.

Ever since, the shells of more than 20 115mm howitzers or field guns and eight 150mm light howitzers fell on the north wall of Colombo one after another.

At noon that day, the Chu army that entered the city captured the company headquarters of the Dutch East India Company in the city, but when it captured here, the building was already empty...

From the eyes of the artillery, the artillery shoots the balloon.

Looking at the shells of the Chu people, they always fell on the warehouse and the surrounding areas. Obviously, they knew the exact location of the warehouse and checked it.

The heat wave caused by the huge explosion directly destroyed a large number of surrounding houses and caused a large number of casualties.

The Dutch's guess was correct. The artillery units of the Chu Army did rely on the data provided by the hot air balloons to shoot, and then crossed the city wall to launch shelling at important targets in the city more than 2000 meters away.

Therefore, many Dutch soldiers and even some managers of the Dutch East India Company simply surrendered when they were desperate.

On August 26th, [-]th year of Chengshun, after full preparations, the Chu army launched its first large-scale infantry attack

The reason for the question mark is that the Dutch themselves have little confidence.

This is not normal!

This was the case with the large number of Dutchmen captured by the Chu army in the East Indies before. As long as they were honest and did not resist, the Chu army generally would not kill them.

The city of Colombo in the Portuguese and Dutch era was a very typical coastal city, with a small peninsula protruding to the sea in its northwest. This small peninsula and the coastline of the island of Ceylon in the northeast constitute a similar The semicircular area, this area is also the Colombo Harbour.

The Dutch fleet rushed out of this small harbor before, trying to disrupt the landing of the Chu army in the northern area, but was intercepted by the 31st Squadron of the Third Task Force of the Great Chu Empire Navy.

The next day, more than a dozen heavy artillery pieces from the [-]rd Heavy Artillery Battalion arrived, and began to join in the shelling, because it was a barrel artillery, and Colombo City was a very typical western-style city, most of the walls were not thick enough, not like The oriental city wall is like the city wall, which is eight or nine meters thick at every turn...

Therefore, the current task of the 31st Fleet is very simple, to block the port, and at the same time intercept the possible Dutch reinforcement fleet, and the rest can be watched!

Therefore, when these cannons fired solid shells, their lethality on these weak city walls was also considerable. After a day of shelling, they even destroyed several prominent walls of the northern city wall of Colombo.

The top executives of the Dutch East India Company ran away with hundreds of main defenders, and their fort defenders naturally had no reason to continue to stand firm.

That’s not to mention, after playing with solid shells for a day, the [-]rd Battalion of the Heavy Artillery began to switch to high-explosive grenades the next day, and started directing out-of-sight to some important building targets in the city discovered through artillery balloon observation in the past two days. shelling.

The infantry of the Chu army successfully built the advancing traffic trenches almost without interference, and put some 115mm light howitzers and other large-angle curved artillery in front.

Among the ground combat troops that landed, the core is the Second Mixed Regiment of the Guards. After crossing a distance of more than two kilometers and arriving outside the city wall to the north of Colombo City, under the guidance of artillery shooting balloons, they immediately used all More than 20 field artillery carried carried out shelling operations.

It doesn’t matter whether you lose face by surrendering to the natives, but the natives generally don’t tell you any preferential treatment for captives. If you are captured, you are likely to be killed on the spot, or simply treated as slaves.

Because of the bombardment for many days before, the defenders in the city had very weak will to resist, and the defenders gave up the city without even making effective resistance.

The explosion directly detonated a large number of powder kegs stored in the warehouse!

When they were in Batavia that year, they had more troops, more firepower, and stronger protection for the city, but they still fell under the indiscriminate bombing of the Chu army.

However, because of the threat of the forts protruding from the peninsula in the northwest corner, it is impossible for the 31st Fleet to take the risk of allowing the fleet to enter the harbor for combat, and there is no need for this...as long as the cities on land, especially a few forts, are destroyed by the ground troops of the Chu Army If it is captured, then the Dutch fleet in the harbor will also usher in the end of destruction.

After all, these Dutch people also knew that the people on the opposite side were Chu people, not those barbaric and unreasonable natives.

Of course, by the way, it can also be used as a high-altitude observation post, by condescending to observe the situation in the surrounding distance, and provide early warning for the people below at any time.

However, it was such a covering bombardment that the Dutch on the opposite side couldn't bear it.

The Chu army has a good reputation for treating prisoners well.

Although the city of Colombo has a long history, the Portuguese have been operating here for hundreds of years, but to be honest, it is not as good as the city of Batavia.

The Chu army outside the city also observed this violent explosion. After confirming the results of the battle, all the members of the [-]rd Heavy Artillery Battalion were very happy. They fired so many shells in vain, and finally blew up their ammunition warehouse.

When the infantry of the Chu army attacked the city, they were not even resisted by the organized He army. The largest and first battle was when they were chasing the Dutch rout in Nancheng District. The soldiers were captured, but the Dutch routs quickly surrendered.

Facing such Dutch defenders, the Chu army was naturally invincible. In the afternoon of the same day, the Chu army announced that it had occupied the entire city of Colombo, and completely controlled all important buildings and arteries in the city.

As the Dutch completely shrank, the Chu army landed without any infection, and most of the main troops and artillery units landed smoothly on the first day.

How to do?
What else can I do, surrender, it is impossible to fight to the death until every ship is sunk.

It's not necessary!

Strictly speaking, they are not soldiers, but armed employees of an armed trading company. To put it bluntly, they are a group of mercenaries.

You talk about loyalty with a group of mercenaries, that's obviously nonsense.

Ever since, at about [-] o'clock that night, the Dutch East India Company fleet in the port officially announced its surrender!
This also declares that the Great Chu Empire has completely controlled the city of Colombo and the port, and will be able to use this port city as a forward base in the future to completely capture the island of Ceylon, and then take the island of Ceylon, the most important strategic point in the Indian Ocean. Land, the unsinkable battleship is in the bag!