The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 426 Who Is God?

Beating a tiger and beating a dog are two completely different approaches.

For example, if you want to fight real tigers like Britain and France, you must strike without mercy, and as long as they can still move, you must use 100% of your strength to deal with them.

But beating dogs is different. The coachmen on the sea have lost their former bravery. The little dignity they can still maintain today is just a small projection of their former glory.

It is like the once majestic wolf king, who is now about to die of old age. The great white shark of England has taken a fancy to its flesh and wants to swallow it to relieve its hunger, and the young dragon of China has taken a fancy to its claws and hopes to use them to arm itself temporarily.

Since the old wolf king has become a defeated dog and the Dutch property in Southeast Asia is urgently needed by the Chinese Empire, there is no need to be harsh towards them.

As long as they are willing to lie on the ground with their bellies exposed to show their surrender, most people can still survive, or even live a better life.

Therefore, when the Chinese navy, which had captured the main Dutch fleet, suddenly appeared off the coast of Batavia, they did not encounter strong resistance.

Off the coast of Batavia, there is a large archipelago in the northwest called the Thousand Islands, also known as the Servui Islands. The Dutch built some fortifications on these islands as beacon towers off the coast of Jakarta.

This should have been Batavia's first line of defense. When the enemy attacked, these fortresses would light beacons to notify the artillery batteries in the Batavia port to be prepared.

But when the Chinese fleet with inflated soft sails arrived, Captain Andrew, who was in charge of guarding the archipelago fortress, breathed a sigh of relief.

He took out a large flag with a red background and a golden sun and moon that he had prepared long ago and handed it to another Dutch lieutenant who looked a bit like a mixed-race.

"Let's raise this flag. Groningen is no longer our hometown. Our hometown is truly Batavia."

Captain Andrew is the nephew of Clerk Holdyke, and this half-blood lieutenant is his brother-in-law.

As the Dutch East India Company developed to this point, nepotism was rampant among the Dutch in Batavia, and people from Europe could not get into their circle unless they were of very high status.

As for people like Captain Andrew, he has been a native of Batavia since his great-grandfather. He has never been to his hometown of Groningen and has no relatives there.

The people in Groningen were even reluctant to acknowledge them as their own, especially a mixed-race person like his brother-in-law.

Therefore, they can adapt to their new identity very quickly by simply considering themselves as natives of Batavia.

"Go ahead. His Majesty the Emperor has issued an edict to my uncle. Any white people in Batavia who are willing to surrender can obtain citizenship of the Chinese Empire and become white people of the Chinese Empire."

After Captain Andrew finished speaking, he also began to walk towards the dock of the island. He still needed to lead the fleet to capture the Batavia artillery.

The city of Batavia at that time was not big. It was built around the Ciliwung River.

The west and south sides are natural moats formed by rivers, and then three artificial canals such as the Tagus were dug to strengthen defense and communication between various urban areas.

When the Ciliwung River reaches the Jakarta Bay estuary, the tall William III Bastion stands to the west.

This bastion occupied a small hill on the coast, and a large number of coastal defense guns were set up on the side closest to the sea to block the port.

To the east of William III's Bastion is the port of Batavia.

Before Mo Zibu used the Viscountry of Penang and the Barony of Course to strangle the tin trade, this was one of the busiest ports in Asia and the second largest tin import and export port after Guangzhou.

The port was also built with bricks and stones and had more than 20 cannons, so it could actually be considered a fortress.

In this way, William III's Bastion and the Port Castle sandwiched the mouth of the Ciliwung River, which guarded the city of Batavia, ensuring the safety of the estuary.

In other words, if large ships coming from the sea want to attack Batavia through the Ciliwung River, they must first eliminate the William III Bastion and the Port Castle.

Otherwise, no ship would be able to pass under the fierce bombardment of seventy or eighty large-caliber coastal defense guns.

But on the other hand, if the enemy captured William III's bastion and the port castle, Batavia would lose most of its resistance and would basically be like a fish on the chopping board.

In the William III Bastion, Commander Colonel Jacques Steven closed his eyes, holding a silver cross in his hand and praying continuously.

After a while, he opened his eyes and looked at the large number of soft-sail warships that had appeared in the distance, but his head shook slowly.

"I am loyal to the Prince of Nassau and Orange. As a sinner, I abide by the constraints of the church. Everything I have has been dedicated to God."

Colonel Jacques Steven became more and more excited as he spoke. He turned to look at Captain Andrew who came to persuade them to surrender.

“You damned traitors, after leaving the lowlands, your souls were possessed by the devil, to the point of betraying God and the Republic.

You will never make me like you. I will never surrender, and there will be no traitor in this great castle named after His Majesty King William III."

The church that Colonel Steven mentioned refers to the Dutch Reformed Church, a branch of Protestantism that originated in the sixteenth century during the Calvinist Reformation of Christianity. Although it was not the state religion of the Netherlands at that time, it was almost the same.

After the rise of nationalism, the Dutch Reformed Church became an important support for the Dutch nationalist narrative.

"Drag this traitor down and hang him on the cliff. I want him to watch the pagan fleet being destroyed by the blessing of God."

After Colonel Jacques Steven finished speaking, he immediately went to arrange the defense. A dozen Dutch soldiers pushed and shoved Captain Andrew out.

. . . .

On the sea, Chen Lian closed his pocket watch with a click, his face somewhat gloomy and somewhat happy.

"It seems that Captain Steven has rejected our request. Then let us begin, gentlemen, and demonstrate the strength of the Imperial Navy."

"First, send out the old lock ships to clear the enemy on the beach, induce the artillery on the bastion to fire, and then block the Dutch army in the port city.

All other battleships, wait for the wind and prepare to fire!"

The Laozha boat is also called the duck-butt boat. It is a kind of Chinese-Western speedboat developed by the Portuguese in Macau. The hull is European-style and the sails are Chinese-style hard sails.

The Portuguese found a nearly perfect balance here, making this old lock boat, a combination of Chinese and Western styles, faster than a Chinese hard sailing ship and easier to operate than a Western soft sailing ship.

Of course, this also comes at a price, that is, the old lock ships are generally not large in tonnage, and their firepower can only be ten eight-pound cannons at most, which makes them insufficient for combat in the open sea.

But at this time, the port of Batavia was perfect for attacking.

Major Felipe commanded three old lock ships to rush to the front. They were not the Dutch who had just defected, but the Macau people.

According to the consensus reached between the Emperor of the Chinese Empire and Maria the Pious, Queen of the Kingdom of Portugal, the Portuguese living in Macau, east of Ceylon, would automatically become personal servants of the Emperor of China.

They had to fight for the Chinese Emperor in order to retain the right to reside in Macau and move freely throughout the Pearl River Delta, and of course the most important right to trade.

Well, the Chinese Empire had declared war on the Kingdom of England, but first attacked the colonies of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, which supported the independence of North America.

At the same time, the Portuguese soldiers, protected by England, were also loyal to the Emperor of China. This was truly a Warring States era.

"Boom!" A huge shell hit the sea in front of the old lock ship "Fruit", only a few meters away from the bow.

The splashing sea water hit the Fruit like a waterfall, and Major Felipe, who was wearing an iron helmet, was soaked from head to toe.

"Damn! Water's coming into the muzzle!" Major Felipe yelled in fluent Cantonese. "Hold on to the side of the boat! Hold on to the side of the boat!"

The major roared, and just as he finished speaking, the huge shell fired from the 48-pound cannon stirred up a huge undercurrent, so that the Fruit was shaken violently.

"Raise all three sails and charge directly onto the beach. Use the Fruit as cover and defeat the lowland frogs on the beach first!"

Major Felipe also tried his best, because the Chinese fleet came very quickly, the Dutch did not have time to bury obstacles in the shallows, and there were no barricades or pits on the beach, which was very suitable for ships of dozens of tons to rush forward directly.

Driven by strong winds, the Fruit crashed into the foreshore at almost full speed. When it was still more than ten meters away from the beach, the hull was already taking on water. When it was half-run aground with a bang, it was only a few meters away from the beach.

Lead bullets rained down on the Fruit, and the soldiers tried to dodge by hunching their bodies. With a bang, a three-pound cannon hit the stranded Fruit, but fortunately it was blocked by the side of the ship and no one was hurt.

But after waiting for a while, the hull began to shake violently, broken wood pieces flew all over the sky, and even a mast was broken.

A black man rowing beside Major Felipe was hit by the fallen mast and his body was bloody and he was still twitching with his face unclear.

Boom! Before the shock of the first shell had worn off, another shell, at least from an 18-pounder, struck the Fruit, piercing the cabin and sending more seawater rushing in.

"Launch the boats and charge!" Major Felipe shouted, and was the first to rush down to the cabin and prepare for the attack.

A long yellow boat was lowered, and the Portuguese soldiers put their flintlock rifles and spears on the boat, then held the boat and started charging while howling.

Overwhelming shouts rang out. After the Fruit and several other ships ran aground on the beach to attract a large amount of firepower, hundreds of people pulled small boats loaded with weapons and charged towards the beach in water half a person deep.

On the beach, a dozen Dutch officers commanded three or four hundred native soldiers to form horizontal rows. After a volley of gunfire, seven or eight of the charging soldiers fell. The lethality was shockingly low.

There was no way. They were scattered too far apart, and the native soldiers had not received much training, so their firing rate was pitifully low.

Major Felipe was the first to rush onto the beach. He was only wearing a pair of shorts that were almost the size of underwear. His upper body was completely naked. He had bags filled with gunpowder and lead bullets hanging on his body, and an iron helmet on his head.

"Don't reload, just charge forward. There are not many of them." Major Felipe still had some courage. He knew the morals of the colonial army better.

Although the Portuguese, an old colonial country, is no longer in power, they are familiar with the routine.

There's no need to reload and shoot on the beach, just rush over.

Sure enough, when more than a hundred soldiers followed Major Felipe to charge, the native soldiers who had just finished firing a round of volleys, looking at the shining spears and long swords, actually put down their muskets.

More than half of them ran away, while the rest took out their more convenient swords and rushed forward howling, attempting to engage in hand-to-hand combat.

However, when the Dutch officers saw that the enemy had not yet rushed up, the natives became chaotic and could not be commanded, so they chose to flee.

As these people ran away, the native soldiers who had just rushed forward a few steps also stopped. You white masters don't fight with your lives, so why should we natives fight with our lives?

As a result, the three or four hundred Dutch troops on the beach were defeated without even engaging in a real battle.

On the sea, Major General Suffren was observing the distance and waiting for a signal from a small boat about the wind direction. Finally, the blue and white flag symbolizing the arrival of the northwest wind was raised.

"Attack, pour all the shells from the sides onto the Dutch bastion!" he shouted excitedly.

Following this strong wind, three third-level battleships and two fourth-level battleships of the Chinese Empire were dispatched one after another.

They slowly drew a semicircle on the sea, aiming one side of their artillery at the William III Bastion not far from the seashore.

The first of the three-class battleships, the Yen Ping Wang, is the second battleship built by the Qui Nhon Shipyard. Its template is the Monarch, a three-class battleship built by France in 1747.

It has a displacement of 1776 tons, carries 74 guns and has a crew of 734 people.

However, the Prince of Yanping and the Monarch underwent some improvements, strengthening the keel length and hull hardness, allowing them to install four 48-pound cannons on each side of the lower deck.

This was actually an alternative plan. Since China did not yet have the ability to build first-class battleships, it installed several 48-pound guns so that it would have enough destructive power in case of facing the first-class battleships of Britain and France.

"Fire!" Zhou Yuanquan shouted on the Prince of Yanping. First, the 48-pound cannon on the lower deck fired, followed by the ten 36-pound cannons, and then the fifteen 18-pound cannons on the upper deck.

Since the battleship was slowly moving across the sea, all 29 guns needed to fire in a very short time.

For a moment, the entire warship began to tremble violently, and the sea water was shaken, producing circles of waves that spread out in all directions.

Zhou Yuanquan even heard the creaking sounds of the keel and deck, and waves of numbing sensations spread from the deck to his body, which was the huge recoil force.

Since even the warships were in such a state, the bastions on the shore were even more severely damaged. In more than two minutes, dozens of shells weighing dozens of kilograms slammed into the city walls. Even for a bastion, it would be terrifying to be bombarded like this.

Bricks and rocks were flying everywhere, and soldiers were screaming everywhere.

And because the warship was moving, almost every part of the city wall facing the sea was hit. The soldiers on the city wall were bleeding from their mouths and noses due to the shock, and were bleeding profusely from being hit by flying bricks and stones.

The fierce bombardment of the Prince of Yanping finally ended. The Dutch officer on the bastion was about to command the artillery to retaliate when the next third-class battleship, the Prince of Qianning, arrived.

Before the Dutch artillery could fire, the shells hit the city wall, which caused greater damage because the Dutch artillery had already moved forward to prepare to fire, and they were hit hard.

Artillery Captain Giles was in command of a 24-pound cannon. He had just ordered his men to load the shells into the muzzle, and before he began to aim, he heard a series of numbing whirring sounds.

Giles looked up suddenly and saw a scene that frightened him to death. A shell that was bigger than any other shell was whistling towards them in a cloud of green smoke.

"Oh my God!" Giles howled and turned to run, but it was too late. He felt like he was flying up, and his internal organs in his stomach were surging strangely, as if they were about to come out of his body.

When he was halfway in the air, he looked down and saw that the battery he was on had been completely destroyed, including the 24-pound cannon, and everything had flown away.

Bricks and cannons, human heads and shells, all flew in the air.

Artillery Captain Giles suddenly felt annoyed and vomited in the air with a "wow" sound. His internal organs were completely shattered, and his stomach and other organs flew out of his mouth.

Five battleships, with a total of 127 guns, fired four rounds in succession, and almost all the coastal defense guns on the outermost bastion of William XXX were wiped out. Then the Chinese Navy began to approach and approached the bastion from the front.

On the other hand, the two thousand soldiers who landed had repelled three counterattacks by the Dutch army in the port city of Batavia, completely separating the port city and the bastion.

(End of this chapter)