Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 257 Counterattack
Upon learning of the conflict that broke out in Kalimantan, Carlo was not worried at all. Instead, he was happy about the change in the situation.

Regardless of whether the Kutai Sultanate has the support of the Dutch, it will not affect Spain's support for the Lanfang Republic's counterattack.

Without this conflict, it would be basically impossible for Spain to actively expand in Kalimantan. The British would not allow Spain to gain an advantage in Kalimantan, and the Dutch would never give up the colonies they had already occupied.

But with this conflict, Lan Fang had enough reasons to counterattack the Kutai Sultanate. Although the strength of the Lan Fang Republic did not improve much, with the equipment and 20,000 new troops with Spanish weapons, it was no problem to easily crush the indigenous countries of Kalimantan Island.

There is only one possibility for the defeat of the Lan Fang Republic, that is, one of the United Kingdom or the Netherlands will join in and use more powerful and advanced weapons and equipment to suppress the army of the Lan Fang Republic.

But this scenario is even less likely to happen, and Spain is even less likely to fear it happening.

Britain had experienced the Anglo-Afghan War and the Zulu War, so it was impossible for them to send an expeditionary force to attack the Lan Fang Republic again.

Moreover, the British army had no reason to attack. This conflict had nothing to do with Britain. If Britain intervened, wouldn't it mean that the British government would take the blame for inciting the natives to attack the Lan Fang Republic?
The Dutch might threaten the Lanfang Republic with war in order to preserve the Kutai Sultanate, but Spain was not afraid of the Dutch threat at all.

Twenty thousand people are far from the limit of the Lan Fang Republic. It is quite easy for the Lan Fang Republic to arm an army of more than 50,000 people.

The Lan Fang Republic could continuously replenish its population from the East Asian giant to the north, while the Dutch could only send a small number of immigrants from their own homeland.

The combat effectiveness of the Dutch regular army may be higher than that of the Lanfang Republic, but the problem is that the Dutch regular army is not very large at all.

The colonies in the East Indies were mostly composed of vassal armies made up of local natives. These armies had neither advanced weapons and equipment nor qualified military qualities. They could only be described as a group of loose sand.

It is no exaggeration to say that with the combat effectiveness of the 20,000 new troops of the Lan Fang Republic, they are capable of fighting even against an indigenous army of more than 100,000.

Coupled with the continuous provision of material supplies by Spain, the Lan Fang Republic was not really afraid of having to use only the indigenous Dutch.

It would be even more interesting if the Dutch mobilized their regular army. How many troops could a country with a population of only 460 million people raise to fight against Lan Fang?

Even if the Dutch government has the courage to form an expeditionary force, will the Dutch people be willing to join such an expeditionary force?
A homeland defense war to defend the country can arouse the people's passion to resist the enemy, but an expedition thousands of miles away from the homeland will obviously amplify the people's war-weariness.

The Netherlands was a small country, and regardless of whether the expedition was successful or not, it was always a failure for the Netherlands.

This also means that Spain has an absolute advantage on the island of Kalimantan at this time. Unless the British are willing to help the Dutch at all costs, the Netherlands can only choose between the stability of the homeland and the Sultanate of Kutai.

Andrew, who was far away in the Republic of Lan Fang, waited quietly for news for several days and finally received Carlo's response.

After receiving Carlo's order, Andrew did not hesitate at all and notified the Lan Fang Republic to mobilize its troops to continue attacking eastward, trying to open up the connection between the Lan Fang Republic and the Spanish-controlled Sultanate of Blongan.

Once the connection between the two regions is opened, supplies from the Philippines can be transported to the Lan Fang Republic more conveniently, and Spain can also strengthen its control over Kalimantan Island.

The geographical location of Kalimantan is quite important. The Dutch East Indies colony is a very large archipelago colony, the four most important islands of which are Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

The four islands are arranged like a mountain, and Kalimantan is the vertical line in the middle of the mountain. Because of its central location, Kalimantan has always been the main land conquered by the Dutch, and the Lan Fang Republic was destroyed for this reason.

But now, as long as the Lan Fang Republic opens up the passage between it and the Sultanate of Blongan, there is no possibility that the Lan Fang Republic will be destroyed unless it rebels against Spain.

A nail had been driven into the Dutch colony in the East Indies, and it would not be easy for the East Indies to maintain stability.

The number of natives in the East Indies is not only quite large, but the entire colony is also made up of countless islands of all sizes. The Dutch currently only control four major islands and some important surrounding islands, and most of the small and medium-sized islands are still not under the control of the Dutch.

Even on the four major islands, there are countless areas that are not under the control of the Dutch. Under such circumstances, it is easy for Spain to create some trouble for the Dutch.

If the Dutch government did not want to spend the next few decades suppressing the rebellion in the East Indies, they had to find a way to establish good relations with the Spanish government, or at least ensure that Spain would not cause trouble for the East Indies.

Under the attack of the army of the Lan Fang Republic, the Kutai Sultanate was defeated one after another, and the land between the Lan Fang Republic and the Burungan Sultanate was successfully opened up.

The Kingdom of Sarawak in the north, which had originally helped the Kutai Sultanate, saw that the situation was not good and quickly retreated within its own borders, and also requested help from the Straits Settlements of the British Empire.

Speaking of the Kingdom of Sarawak, it is definitely the most special existence on the island of Kalimantan. Although it is an indigenous country, the founder of this country is a genuine British white man.

James Brooke was originally an explorer. After arriving in the Sarawak region of Kalimantan, James successfully conquered this land with his tough tactics and relationship with the British colonies, and established an indigenous kingdom under his own rule.

James' country was also tacitly recognized by the British government, and James even had the title of British knight, which also reflects the connection between the Kingdom of Sarawak and Britain.

It was only natural for the Kingdom of Sarawak to ask for help from the British colony at the most critical moment. Britain regarded this land as its sphere of influence and naturally would not refuse to support the Kingdom of Sarawak.

Of course, such support is not free. Whether now or in history, the Kingdom of Sarawak has always been part of the British colony.

Carlo's target was certainly not the Sarawak Kingdom. Britain was a big country, and now was not the best time to turn against the British.

One Kutai Sultanate is enough to feed Spain and the Lanfang Republic. If Spain can take the opportunity to sign a peace treaty with the Dutch government and gain more benefits in the Dutch East Indies, its plans for Southeast Asia will basically be over.

Although the colonial area occupied by Spain in Southeast Asia is not small, because the land is far away from the mainland, most of the colonies will not be properly developed except for future rubber plantations.

If there is a good opportunity, Carlo would even consider selling all the colonies in Southeast Asia in exchange for the opportunity for Spain to expand in Europe or expand its colonies in Africa.

Carlo would certainly be willing to give up all the colonies in the Philippines and Kalimantan if Britain could acquiesce to Spain's annexation of Portugal.

No matter how valuable a colony is, it can be abandoned compared to the expansion of the mainland, except for a country like Morocco which can also become a colony of the mainland.

It doesn't have to be agreed by the British. As long as Spain can win over any one of the three great powers of Britain, France and Germany and keep the other neutral, it may facilitate the merger of the two countries on the Iberian Peninsula. But it is very difficult to achieve this step, at least there is no hope for the time being.

Britain would certainly not allow Spain to annex Portugal, and France did not want a country to appear to its south that was on par with the five major powers.

Germany may not object, but it is impossible for Germany to offend both Britain and France for the sake of Spain.

Unless Spain was willing to pay a price far exceeding the benefits of annexing Portugal, neither Britain nor France would agree to Spain becoming a more powerful country after the merger.

It would be fine if only one side opposed it, but if Britain and France jointly opposed it, it would be absolutely impossible to annex Portugal even with the strong support of Germany.

It is also because of this that Carlo has never shown any ambition to annex Portugal, and Spain's expansion has only been carried out in Africa and further Southeast Asia.

Back to the situation in Kalimantan, under the attack of the Lan Fang Republic, the Kutai Sultanate was defeated and could only try its best to defend its capital, Tenggarong.

While trying to resist the attack of the Lan Fang Republic as much as possible, the Kutai Sultanate desperately requested assistance from the Dutch.

Without the help of the Dutch, the Kutai Sultanate would not have been able to survive the attack of the Lanfang Republic.

Spain's aid to the Lan Fang people was not small at all. In addition to being equipped with Spain's most advanced rifles, the 20,000 new troops of the Lan Fang Republic were also equipped with dozens of artillery pieces of different calibers.

Although these artillery pieces are products eliminated by the Spanish army, there is a certain gap in power and range compared with the steel cannons currently equipped by Spain.

But artillery is artillery. When facing the Kutai Sultanate, which has no heavy firepower, these dozens of artillery pieces are the biggest killer.

The reason why the Kutai Sultanate suffered a series of defeats was that, apart from the fact that the indigenous army had no military skills and their morale was easily weakened after a defeat, the artillery caused too much damage to the Kutai Sultanate's army.

There is no military strategy to speak of when the natives fight. Most of them adhere to the principle of rushing in as a swarm and attacking the enemy head-on on a large scale.

This is the best target for the artillery of the Lan Fang Republic. After several years of training, the Lan Fang New Army is still quite combat-effective. The artillerymen are all trained by the Spanish army themselves. Although their accuracy is not good, it is at least above the passing line.

The result was that the army of the Kutai Sultanate quickly began to disintegrate after several large-scale frontal charges.

The officers of the Sultanate were unable to stop the fleeing soldiers. Fortunately, the soldiers did not have any decent equipment, so they would not abandon their weapons and armor when they fled.

It has to be admitted that although these natives have little fighting power, it is quite difficult to capture them after they have fled in all directions.

Kalimantan is a large island with flat terrain on all sides and high terrain in the middle. The battle between the Lan Fang Republic and the Kutai Sultanate was in the mountainous area in the middle. The natives all went into the mountains, which actually increased their escape speed.

Although the Lanfang people have lived here for a long time, they are not as good as the natives who grew up in the mountains. This also led to the fact that after several wars, although the Kutai Sultanate suffered heavy losses, the number of enemies killed by the Lanfang Republic was not much.

Of course, although most of these fleeing soldiers ran away, it was unlikely that the Kutai Sultanate would be able to gather these people again to fight against Lan Fang.

After several rounds of bombardment, these native soldiers were frightened out of their wits. Not to mention continuing to fight against Lan Fang, even if they were to return to the army, they were more resistant than one another.

If the Kutai Sultanate was in a hurry, then the Dutch East Indies colonial government was shooting itself in the foot.

The plan of the East Indies colonies was to incite the Kutai Sultanate and the Kingdom of Sarawak to conflict with the Lan Fang Republic. The purpose was only to test the support of Spain for the Lan Fang Republic and to test the strength of the Lan Fang New Army.

But unexpectedly, Spain's support for the Lan Fang Republic was very strong, and the new army of the Lan Fang Republic did have sufficient strength.

The current East Indies colony is in a dilemma, and no matter which choice it makes, it will be hit in the foot.

The Lanfang people's counterattack was obviously fierce, and they seemed determined to take over Kutai, the Sultanate.

If they gave in at this time, the Kutai Sultanate would be incorporated into the Spanish sphere of influence, and the Dutch colony on Kalimantan would only be left with a small piece in the southernmost part, which was not as much as the land occupied by the Spanish who came later.

But if they did not give in, the colonial government would have no choice but to take great risks and fight the Lan Fang people.

The 20,000 new troops trained by the Spanish obviously possessed extremely strong combat effectiveness. Even if they were not as good as the regular army of the Netherlands, they were definitely not comparable to these colonial armies.

How much would the colonial government have to pay to completely defeat the 20,000-strong Lan Fang New Army?
If the losses were heavy, wouldn't the Spanish behind Lan Fang laugh their heads off? After all, the Spanish army had not invested a single soldier in the conflict so far.

If the Netherlands suffered heavy casualties in the confrontation with the Lanfang Republic, how could it resist further harassment and invasion from the Spanish?

After much thought, the East Indies colony had no better solution and could only hand over this mess to the Dutch government to solve.

When the Dutch government learned the news, King William III of the Netherlands was furious and scolded the governor of the East Indies colony as a waste who would only cause trouble for the Netherlands.

Although the colonial competition between the Netherlands and Spain in New Guinea was quite fierce, in fact the Dutch government did not dare to offend Spain, at least not actively.

If Belgium still belonged to the Netherlands, William III might allow the colonial government to take the initiative to test Spain's attitude. But the problem is that at this time, the Netherlands only had the mainland and Luxembourg, and the total population of the country was only one-fifth of Spain's.

For William III, he only wanted to see the throne of the Netherlands passed on safely and did not want to see any accidents happen during this period.

William III absolutely did not want to offend Spain at this time, not to mention that it was the colonial government of the East Indies that took the initiative to provoke Spain.

Isn't this a reason for Spain to attack? Now that the Lanfangs have launched a counterattack with the support of Spain, will the Dutch invest a lot of money, manpower and material resources to interfere in this war for the sake of a small Kutai Sultanate?
(End of this chapter)