Xinshun 1730

Chapter 691 The End of the Fortress Era and the Beginning of the Battle Era

After the Chinese people near Kote were organized, Lei Zhenlan and Kapitan, who were originally appointed by the Dutch, directly voted for Dashun. According to the original organizational model, thousands of people who could gather nearby were all brought to the pier.

After officials speaking Hokkien or Cantonese made the imperial court's policies clear, these common people were relieved of their worries.

The court's policy is still better than that of the Dutch.Most of the people at this time have not yet awakened, and have not received those subtle education since childhood. If the Dutch give better policies, they will not oppose the Dutch.

This is a curse. If the Hongxi massacre and the Batavia massacre were allowed to happen, the Chinese would be more loyal to the imperial court; The common people are on the side of Dashun.

They don't care too much about who will rule, but they care more about whether the hope given to them by the Dutch, the sixty acres of land, can be implemented after the imperial court takes over.

After the policy was read out, there were thunderous cheers, and everyone's hearts and enthusiasm were high.

The staff officers in the army assigned tasks such as transporting cannons, collecting farm tools, and chopping firewood to prepare trenches.

These people were originally slave labor in the sugar factory, and they also worked as indentured slaves in an organized way in Ceylon. They have a certain degree of organization and are quite skilled in doing this kind of thing.

Soon, more than 5000 Chinese transported logistics, cannons, etc. to the road near Fort Colombo.

The sound of shelling has already been heard in the distance, and the gunfire of many warships gradually became one.

Du Feng looked at Fort Colombo in the distance, knowing that the negotiations had failed and the Dutch did not surrender without resistance.

This is nothing. In the original plan, the Nanyang region must have a big fight, and will not take the initiative to persuade them to surrender.Because there are a lot of emirates and small countries around Nanyang, the so-called fear of power but not virtue, it is necessary to use the Dutch as a chicken to scare others and let the surrounding small countries know Dashun's combat effectiveness, and they will be more respectful.

But Ceylon has long since ended the era of chaotic nations, and there is only one Kandy kingdom left, trapped in the inner mountains.No matter who occupied Colombo and Jaffna in the coastal area, the Kingdom of Kandy had to get along with them.

Therefore, to deal with the Dutch, it would be best if they could be persuaded to surrender, because there are no small countries around that need to be intimidated, and the fight is so chic, as if winking at the blind, meaningless.

Since the Dutch did not surrender, Du Feng began to prepare for the siege according to the established plan.

The third one.

The hot air balloon takes off for reconnaissance.

The infantry lined up, the engineers built artillery bunkers, shrapnel shells were directly bombarded, and the amount of gunpowder in solid bullets was reduced by one-third to create a bounce. .

Engineers led the organized people to dig pits, and the zigzag trench was close to the anti-battery slope, covered by mini-bomb shooters and artillery. .

The meaning of the existence of the Grenadier is to be worthy of the phrase "We throw them from the glacis, about the enemies ears" in the lyrics. The most disgusting part of the bastion is the "glacis", the slope.

The Dutch colonial soldiers stationed here have not fought a decent battle for many years.It's just that with Dashun's conquests in recent years, the original arrogance of the Dutch has disappeared. Although they haven't fought for many years, they are still honestly defending after all.

It's not like in the history of the war with Guo Xingye, when he was full of arrogance, he didn't defend the city, and directly lined up to shoot at each other, preparing to break 300 with 5000 like he did against the aborigines.

Instead, it strictly followed the regular combat method. Some soldiers were guarding the bastion, and a small number of soldiers were restrained in the fortifications outside the bastion.

Du Feng was not in a hurry, but deployed his troops step by step, and used them as the command post of the formation outside the shelling range of the bastion defense artillery.

The conscripted people piled up the collected soil baskets, sacks, branches, etc. in bundles at the back.

Professional engineers began to dig trenches in sections, and built the first artillery position at a distance of about 600 meters from the bastion.

The timber for laying the position was transported along the dug trench, and the heavy artillery was pushed and pulled to the constructed artillery position.

When everything was ready, the engineers led the team and dug the first ditch in front of the artillery position.

After digging, the tactical staff of the engineer used simple geometry to find the blind spot angle of the shelling according to the distribution of the bastion's artillery positions, and planned the path of the oblique excavation, so that the conscripted people entered the trench and began to move forward in a zigzag shape. excavation.

The Dutch officer in the castle panicked when he saw this posture.

Experts will know if there is one as soon as they make a move.With this kind of tactic, if the commander is an idiot, it is impossible to see how serious the problem is.When Liu Yu attacked a Russian castle on the north bank of Heilongjiang, Hannibal panicked when he used this tactic, because this tactic originated from France, and Hannibal studied fortress engineering and artillery in a military school in France.

The Dutch are even more sensitive to this tactic, because this tactic was developed by the French to attack the Dutch fortress.

During the War of Independence, the Dutch's bastion tactics made the Spaniards cry.However, during the Franco-Dutch War, the new tactics of the French made the Dutch defending the city cry for their fathers and mothers, and the casualties of the defenders were three to five times that of the attacking side.

It is not difficult to crack this tactic in theory.You only need to have a field force, and you can win the field battle out of the city.But if not, squatting in the castle to guard, the fall is a matter of time.

The governor of Ceylon in the Netherlands sternly rejected Dashun’s persuasion to surrender. In fact, he still had a bit of arrogance towards Asians in his heart. He felt that although these people sounded like they were capable of fighting and had a lot of warships, he might not just defend them. Can't live.

After all, he had never really fought against Dashun.

As for the troops in Asia, let alone the Sinhalese in the Kingdom of Kandy in front of them, they also have brown basses and eight-pound guns, but the Dutch can still use the fortress garrison to fight in the field, and often Three hundred breaks two thousand.

With the arrogance brought about by this psychological advantage, the governor of Ceylon refused to surrender.

But now, he has begun to regret it.

The attack on the side of the sea temporarily stopped.

Dashun's navy easily destroyed the two cape forts, and there was no defense on the coast that could stop Dashun's navy from breaking into the bay.

However, after the naval bombardment ended, light ships were cautiously dispatched to break into the bay, measure the water depth, and set the buoy pointing, so as not to be trapped in the bay due to insufficient water depth and become a living target.

But here in Colombo, it is a good natural harbor, and the water depth is very suitable, so the castle was built here.

Once the bathymetry is over and the warship enters the bay, the entire side of Colombo Fort will be exposed within the range of Dashun's guns.

The side of the fortress is exposed, so why fight?
The navy is still measuring the water depth, and it is estimated that it will not be able to act until tomorrow. This crisis has not yet fallen on the head.

However, the Marine Corps' siege was imminent, and as soon as the Marine Corps' shelling began, the defense on the Dutch side was already on the verge of collapsing.

Because...the bastion is solid bullet proof.

However, Dashun has shrapnel shells with wooden supports, as well as mortar shells with fuzes that fire slowly but at an extremely high angle.

Back then, in order to increase the efficiency of shelling, the French adopted a method of reducing the amount of charge, letting iron bullets hit the bastion and bombing everywhere to kill and injure the Dutch on the fort.

Dashun went a step further and directly produced the shrapnel shells of the wooden support, the effect of which was also to kill the Dutch on the bastion.

The idea is the same, but the means are different.

Moreover, the effect can be much stronger than playing pinball with reduced charge.

The troops guarding the fortifications in front of the bastion collapsed after the first round of shelling in Dashun.

The garrison on the bastion faced solid bullets that bounced pinballs, wooden shrapnel shells that exploded overhead, and gunpowder packets fired by large-caliber mortars with extremely large charges.

There are hot air balloons in the sky for observation and correction, and the shells of those howitzers and mortars can be shot across the bastions and city walls, easily blocking the passages between the bastions.

The soldiers could not and did not dare to support: if the whole team was not assembled, the team would disperse; if the whole team was assembled to support, two shrapnel shells exploded on the top of the head, and it collapsed immediately.

This is the first time that the Dashun Army fought against Europeans after it was reformed.

The sound of rumbling guns, and the scattered shrapnel overhead, all announced one thing: the era of bastion is over.

Relying on the bastion, the tactics of advancing siege warfare, defensive warfare and defensive counterattack step by step will completely withdraw from the stage of history after this battle.

Instead, success or failure should be determined by legion-level battles.

The bastion era led by the Dutch War of Independence finally came to an end on the Dutch bastion.

The East led the tactical change this time, while in the ongoing war of Austrian succession in Europe, the main tactical ideas were still offensive and defensive fortresses and cutting off supply lines to force retreat.Frederick II can be regarded as the first to set a decisive victory in a battle, but he is only groping and has not formed a complete system.

On Dashun's side, it directly announced the end of the old era on the basis of hardware, or in other words, on the material basis.

During the interval between the shelling, the governor of Ceylon risked being sniped by the Minnie shooter, observed the direction of the tunnel excavated by Dashun, and then made a decision.

"Raise the white flag and surrender. The direction of their trench perfectly avoids the angle of our shelling, and the shells can't bounce into the trench at all."

"Besides..."

Sigh bitterly, helpless.

Moreover, the cannon on the bastion was completely destroyed by the grenade on the opposite side, and even caused a powder keg explosion.

There is no danger of digging a tunnel 600 meters away.

After the order was issued, the flag of the East India Company was quickly lowered, and a piece of white cotton cloth was slowly raised, declaring surrender.

The moment the white flag was hoisted, the shelling outside ended.

The Dutch soldiers who suffered heavy casualties looked at the sky with lingering fear as if they had received an amnesty, worrying that another explosive grenade would fall on their heads, or a heavy charge gunpowder package fired from a mortar.

Unknown who led the way, the surviving soldiers defending the bastion actually cheered for the raised white flag, and took off their hats to salute the white flag.

The governor of the Ceylon colony, dressed neatly, led his adjutants and some officers, and asked someone to open the gate of the castle.

Waving the white flag, he slowly walked towards the position of the Dashun Army that was still digging.

(End of this chapter)