Xinshun 1730

Chapter 700 Anti-Siege

Even so, Niu Er did not pull all his troops out of the Bandung area.

Because there are big and small credits.

Keeping Cirebon is just the most basic requirement.

In addition to this basic requirement, what kind of effect can be achieved, whether he can understand the intention of the Privy Council, and whether he can make greater contributions depends on his ability.

Whether you can make your superiors shine and decide your own future.And the so-called bright eyes require skills.The superior wanted an apple, and you worked so hard to get a big grapefruit, saying that it was better than an apple, but the problem was that the superior didn’t want a grapefruit, so it wasn’t that your eyes lit up, but your eyes darkened, and you felt This person doesn't have a big picture, at least he can't comprehend the intention of the higher-ups, and I'm afraid it will be difficult to have the opportunity to be alone in the future.

Since Niu Er was selected to come here, the Privy Council naturally looked at him differently, thinking that this person "can".If the final result can also get a "capable" evaluation, not to mention rising to the top, at least you can climb faster and higher than others.

After receiving the secret letter from the Privy Council, Niu Er came up with his own idea.

Obviously, Nanyang is too big. The ancients said that there are three caves for cunning rabbits, but the Dutch have too many nests in Nanyang. The court is not afraid of naval battles.

The purpose of capturing and defending Cirebon was to attract the Dutch fleet to assemble and lure the court's navy to completely destroy the Dutch fleet.

But Niu Er thought very clearly that the goal of the imperial court was Nanyang, so Batavia must be captured.

The Privy Council gave itself the task of attracting the Dutch fleet.In addition to this task, as long as you can grasp the strategic intention of the Privy Council, you can achieve a higher level of credit.

So, he personally led 800 people to guard Cirebon.

The rest of the troops assembled in the mountains between Batavia and Cirebon.

Because Niu Er calculated, if the court fleet suddenly appeared and captured the Dutch fleet, then the Dutch troops besieging the city would not be able to choose to continue the siege.

But it must be retreating towards Batavia to defend Batavia.

Even if the Dutch commander is a fool, seeing the appearance of the Dashun fleet and starting a war, he should understand that Dashun's goal cannot be Cirebon, but to capture Batavia.

Batavia cannot be lost, the "capital" of the Dutch East India Company.

Therefore, when the time comes, the Dutch army will inevitably return to aid.And there is only one way to help Batavia.

Moreover, considering the need to quickly return to the aid, the Dutch will definitely retreat quickly. It is impossible to do too much investigation, and it is impossible to delay time on land.

This allows an ambush to be waged on its necessary path.

If he could wipe out Batavia's defenders in the field before the main force of the imperial court's marines landed, that would be a great contribution, enough to give him a "capable" evaluation.

If you don't consider the imperial court's grand strategy and only consider the Java region, according to Niu Er's original ambition to go it alone and capture Batavia, this battle shouldn't be fought like this.

Instead, they should attack Cirebon and leave a small number of troops to defend the city.Take the troops by yourself, wait for help, and break them one by one, so as to completely wipe out the effective forces of the Netherlands.

After all, Batavia will not be able to keep the land, because the company's policy does not welcome non-employee Dutch people, and the number of troops here is limited.He felt that he was really capable of taking Batavia by himself, relying on the tactic of concentrating superior forces to attack what the enemy must save and defeating each one, and relying on the strength of the rebels themselves.

However, this would seriously undermine the court's strategy.

Because the court's eyes are not on a small West Java, but on the whole of Nanyang.

The key to the entire Southeast Asia is not Batavia, but the Dutch fleet.That is the connection between the various strongholds in the Netherlands. If this line is cut off, the whole of Nanyang will be scattered castles that cannot support each other.

If he wants to do this, it is impossible for the Dutch fleet to gather.At that time, even if he captured Batavia, would it be a credit?
Niu Er thought, if that's the case, maybe he won't be able to be promoted in this life, maybe Jinghou will scold him, and then throw himself to Kuwu and other places to be a garrison officer for the rest of his life?

But on the other hand, I defended Cirebon first, let the Dutch fleet assemble, transport troops, wait for the imperial fleet to appear, and then let that part of the troops attack the retreating Dutch halfway.

Although it seems that they are all aimed at attacking Batavia, the core is completely different.

Now, everything seems to be going well.

Warships flying the VOC flag have begun to gather on the sea outside Cirebon.

The weather in winter is also very good, without typhoon, which is suitable for naval activities.

The troops transported by the Dutch from various places have also landed, camped, and assembled near Cirebon.

The Dutch also adopted the French siege method, and began to build blockades and dig trenches around the castle to prevent the defenders in the city from breaking through.

The artillery of the fleet also began to tentatively shoot towards the castle.

However, it is not easy to capture Cirebon.

Only when you can attack the city can you defend the city.Since the Guiyi army was able to capture the castle, they naturally knew the weakness of the defense system.

After the military reform, Dashun, since he knew how to attack the city, of course also studied how to defend the city in a targeted manner.

These technical officers are impossible for the surrounding emirates, and definitely not for a group of reckless rebels.

With the development of warfare methods to the present, since fortress engineering has become a discipline, it is natural to talk about science.

The problems that Cirebon had to face, in addition to Guiyi Army's own siege methods, were also the threat of naval guns.

The Dutch have forts in Cirebon, and Cirebon is different from Ceylon.When the Dutch built the fortress in Cirebon, they had to guard against the rest of the sea. At that time, they had hostile relations with Spain, Portugal, and even the British after they turned their faces, as well as the Bugis pirates and Chinese pirates on the sea. Of course Expensive sea-facing forts need to be repaired
When Ceylon was captured, the Netherlands was in its golden age.In Southeast Asia, the British forces were completely expelled, and the suppressed Spaniards shrank in Luzon and did not dare to show their heads. There was no need to build expensive sea-facing forts.

However, before the Dutch defenders surrendered, they did a very standard thing in accordance with the code of practice.

Wedge the cannon ports with nails.

Not to mention that it is not easy to dig out, even if it is, the cannon will be useless.The wedge would squeeze the barrel of the cannon out of the crack, possibly blasting the bore.

There are forts but no cannons, which makes the Guiyi army defending in Cirebon very troublesome.

It is impossible to shoot at each other. Otherwise, with the fort of Cirebon, it is really possible to fight a naval artillery battle with the Dutch against the coastal defense artillery.

For this reason, the fortress engineers graduated from the Jinghai Palace sent by the Privy Council of the Guiyi Army forced the local people to cover the stones of the forts with soft soil to minimize the threat posed by the warships and cannons. Easy to bounce.

At the same time, a new formula was excavated behind the turret, which turned the turret that originally fired at the sea into several slopes that caused dead ends for shelling.

Just be prepared for the Dutch to attack and land in small boats.

On the positive side, considering that the Dutch had suffered a lot before the French's tunnel siege method, they might also use this siege method.

Moreover, the Dutch have manpower advantages here, and it is easy to recruit local people to work after many years of rule.

Therefore, on the side of the castle facing the plain area, the tactical guidance given by the fortress engineer is zigzag to zigzag.

In front of the castle, use the zigzag trench dug during the siege to expand the defensive range outward.

The artillery that expanded to the Netherlands could not directly attack the bastion area, but to advance forward, it had to go through the bloodiest and cruelest trench hand-to-hand combat.

The naval guns couldn't cover the front, and the artillery on the shore couldn't shoot two miles away, so it couldn't hit the defender's cannon at all.

Therefore, the only choice for the Dutch is to dig holes with the Guiyi Army.

When the two sides are approaching, launch a charge to gain distance and occupy positions for the artillery to approach.

Since the Guiyi Army chose such a defensive tactic, it means that they must launch a countercharge.

This kind of battle is the cruelest.

What competes is the fighting will of both sides.

This is not a field battle in the plains. If there is no death, it will be over after a few waves.In many cases, even within 10 minutes to 10 minutes, the outcome of a line is determined.

But this kind of charge and counter charge, it is impossible to deploy too many troops at once.

The two sides can only push each other within the shooting range, and from time to time they will launch a hand-to-hand charge. The scale will not be too large, but it is extremely miserable, and the frequency may be extremely high.

It may even be possible to charge each other three or five times in one day, to see which side of the soldiers can't bear it psychologically, and finally refuse to press the line and seesaw.

In the Dutch camp, Governor Valkenier and some confidantes in the army looked at the repaired defense system of these "rebels" with unprecedented solemn expressions.

The entire front of the bastion is quiet, but you can see the dense trenches like spider webs.There will be a bend at a certain distance, making it impossible for the solid bullets of the cannon to kill the soldiers in the trench, because the inertia of the shells cannot make the shells turn.

The Netherlands does not have effective flowering ammunition, nor does the colonial garrison have such elite troops as grenadiers.

It was impossible for the artillery to move forward now, because several places appeared to be artillery positions of the rebels, but it was impossible to know which ones.

The attack range of the gunboat has little effect on the defenders.Valknir had fought with the army of the local small country, and he also served as the governor of Ceylon back then.

For example, the Sinhalese, although they have guns and cannons, when they guard the castle, they always guard the city.And this way of defending the city allows the artillery on the Dutch side to perfectly take advantage of it and easily capture it.

But the rebels in front of them didn't hide in the city at all, which made the shelling effect of the naval guns not very good.

The shelling effect of naval guns is not good, and the troops on land can only be counted on to press the cannons to the front for shelling.But the defenders moved forward too much, and the artillery positions on the opposite side had to be destroyed one by one before the infantry could advance.

Or, as the French did, start digging at a greater distance, getting closer a little bit.But there are no professional engineering troops in the Netherlands. There are some in the mainland, but the colonies do not have such excellent technical arms, which makes it necessary to force the people to dig.

However, if the common people go to dig, they will face the risk of shelling by the defenders.The common people absolutely do not have the skills of professional engineers, five people cooperate, and gradually connect the trenches together starting from the small pit.

They can only be exposed to the shelling range and dig like living targets.But the organizational strength of the people, as long as they are bombarded twice, they will disperse in a hurry.

This is just a technical problem. Although it is enough to give these Dutch a headache, it is not enough to make them look so dignified.

The reason why they look so dignified is that these standard counterattack tactics and fortification standards are absolutely absolutely impossible to be produced by a group of escaped slave labor from a sugar factory.

The British, it seems, have really spent their money, at least sending a school officer and a sufficient number of instructors.Even if Cirebon can be captured this time, will they be able to deal with the endless disturbances from the UK in the future?

"It seems that the war in Europe will continue for a long time. Our British allies will take advantage of this war and quietly extend their hands into Southeast Asia. Gentlemen, I think it will be difficult to attack. In my opinion, let's besiege. The warships block the sea, We surround the castle."

"Excellent commanders can designate excellent tactics. But they can't produce food, fruits, and vegetables. And commanders can't fight against malaria, scurvy, and tropical diseases. The British instructors on the opposite side are excellent, but compared to God's creation What can he do if his body and health are frail?"

(End of this chapter)