Xinshun 1730

Chapter 711 Quietly Changed Mentality

After the Guiyi Army attacked and purged Huang Ban and other prestige brothers among the sugar factory slave workers, the Guiyi Army had actually been recruited, and the core decision-makers were actually sent by the imperial court.

Some people were taught by Liu Yu alone, and even if they were not taught by themselves, they had heard some rumors from their seniors.

Their awe and trust in Liu Yu is a very mysterious state.

No one ever thought that Liu Yu was a famous general like Chen Qingzhi, who could break [-] to [-], and be invincible for thousands of miles; nor was he like the champion who had never learned how to fight and didn't take Sun Tzu's art of war seriously, but he had a genius general sense of smell.

Their awe and trust in Liu Yu is like this: Jinghou thinks he has no ability to break through [-] to [-], so he will definitely not fight this battle, but slips back to train troops, build artillery, make money, and recruit troops; Once the Marquis of Jing decides to go to war, you don't care how many soldiers the Marquis of Jing brings, even if it is a thousand, he will definitely win.

As for the level of combat, after reading it, many people think that it is the same thing: after the artillery bombards the cavalry, the cavalry rushes forward, and the cavalry forces the opponent's infantry to follow up and fire to break the formation. The situation of playing more and playing less.

But even though he thought that was the case, he always believed strangely that as long as Liu Yu decided to fight, he would definitely win.

If you can't win, you won't fight, as long as you can win, you will definitely win.This may seem like nonsense, but this is a label like a symbol of faith that the military put on Liu Yu.

Including the naval battle that Liu Yu has never really commanded, there is also such trust.If you dare to send troops, the Dutch fleet will definitely end.

With this kind of strange trust, the decision-makers of the Guiyi Army unanimously agreed with Niu Er's opinion, and felt that all subsequent plans must be based on the imperial court's navy winning a complete victory and completely taking control of the sea.

Based on this premise, Niu Er's idea is correct and cannot be more correct.

At this time, Niu Er didn't have to worry about the bombardment of the Dutch fleet. Standing on the highest point of the bastion, he pointed to the artillery positions of the Dutch in the distance and said, "Let the brothers try to charge a wave. Make a pose to stick to the Dutch." situation."

"The Dutch will definitely be worried that they will be stuck by us, worried that they will be wiped out here, and also worried that Batavia will be empty. So we made a posture to stick them, and they should drop the cannons and gather the infantry. Run away."

"Seize their cannons first, and then send someone to send a message to the brothers who are waiting for an ambush over there, ready to do something big. The Dutch panicked. Once they were ambushed or blocked, they would probably break up. Once they break up , we are about to dash forward and chase them all the way to the city of Batavia."

"If you can take advantage of the chaos and enter the city, it will be a miracle. This place can be regarded as a capital of Westerners, and our Guiyi Army can be regarded as the first team in the history of the Celestial Dynasty to capture the capital of Westerners."

"Even if you can't take advantage of the chaos to enter the city, preventing the remnants of the Dutch army from gathering and leaving the city of Batavia empty, it's still a great achievement."

His sense of smell on the battlefield is very sensitive, and he accurately grasped the mentality of the Dutch at this time.Afraid of being stuck.

In fact, Niu Er was both dissatisfied and relieved that the Dutch besieged the city instead of attacking it. .

If the Dutch choose to fight in the trenches and push the line forward, once the court's navy arrives, he doesn't need a thousand men ambushed on the way back to Batavia. He can completely defeat the Dutch with these men alone. .

After the troops on the siege side are deployed, it is the most vulnerable time.Once deployed, being flanked or attacked by reinforcements will be a devastating failure.

This is dissatisfaction.

The Dutch commander was very careful, and did not fully deploy the troops, but adopted a siege method.

Although this prevented Niu Er from relying on the people in his hands, he won a big victory of [-] to [-], so that he can brag about it in the future.

But Niu Er and the decision-makers of the Guiyi Army are still very pleased.

I feel that the Dutch attach great importance to their combat effectiveness.

The enemy's attention is the supreme pride of the army.

As Liu Yu said, the Dutch did not raid Weihaiwei ten years ago to destroy the budding of the Dashun Navy; nor did they send more troops to Southeast Asia to prepare for war... This made Liu Yu feel very uncomfortable, and felt that the Dutch had insulted Dashun. Shun, did not respect Da Shun, looked down on him.

The same reasoning, on the Guiyi Army's side, is a completely different conclusion.

First of all, the Dutch must not know the plan of the Privy Council, otherwise it would be impossible to gather warships near Cirebon.

Therefore, the Dutch did not choose to attack the city directly, but chose to besiege for a long time. What does this mean?
From the perspective of the Guiyi Army's senior management, this shows that the Dutch were frightened by the two failed encirclement campaigns, and they recognized the Guiyi Army's combat effectiveness very much. army.

Is there any better compliment to an army than to be recognized and feared by the enemy?Now, there is basically no higher evaluation than this.

The Dutch have fought against the wind for more than 120 years in Asia, and they have played with arrogance.

When Zheng Chenggong besieged Taiwan, the Dutch had two or three hundred people, and they dared to march out of the city to fight in the field. They wanted to break thousands with two hundred, although they were beaten back.But it can also be seen how many favorable winds they have fought, so that they have established such arrogance and arrogance.

As for Southeast Asia, it can even be said that with a few warships, three or four hundred artillery pieces, and one or two thousand troops, they dare to go to war with the troops of tens of thousands of small countries, and they always take the initiative to attack.

Now the Dutch have battleships, artillery, and nearly [-] troops, but they are afraid to take the initiative to attack the city. Instead, they pin their hope of victory on the weakness of God's creation of man; pin it on scurvy , hunger, tropical diseases, malaria.

Subconsciously, I didn't dare to attack by force.

Niu Er accurately grasped the mentality of the Dutch, which also made his decisions based on the mentality of the Dutch.

If the Dutch subconsciously didn't pay attention to and be timid about the Guiyi Army, and looked at the Guiyi Army the same way they viewed the native troops of those small Southeast Asian countries, then Niu Er's counterattack and seizure of the cannon was quite risky.

Not to mention failure, at least it will suffer a fierce counterattack from the Dutch.

It is absolutely impossible for him to press all the soldiers in his hand. I am afraid that he will be in a state of anxiety, and instead let the main force of the Netherlands slip away, and the artillery will not be able to take it. Like a fort, block it with a wedge.

However, since the mentality of the Dutch attaches great importance to the Guiyi Army, the success rate of this counterattack to seize the artillery is much higher.

…………

In the Dutch camp.

When the mast of the Dashun Navy appeared on the sea, the expressions of the Batavia executives including Valknir changed slightly.

When the Dashun Navy's fleet revealed almost all of its ships, their faces changed from slightly pale to pale.

The size of at least eight battleships and more than 20 secondary warships cannot move sideways in Europe, but it is absolutely possible to move sideways east of the Cape of Good Hope.

The Army has the potential to win more with less.

But the navy, with eight armed merchant ships, has a very small chance of winning against eight battleships and ten or twenty cruisers.

Unless you encounter the British kamikaze encountered by the Spanish Armada that year, or the kamikaze encountered when William of Orange landed in England.

Otherwise, even if the Dutch fleet has little loss or even some gains, it will be of no help strategically, and the command of the sea will definitely not be obtained.

Moreover, Dashun's sudden involvement in this war may have been deliberate for a long time, and he didn't just come here to practice fighting against a dozen Dutch fleets.

Regardless of the Chinese rebels entrenched in Bandung and the volcano area, who is behind the scenes is not important at this time.

Dashun went off in person, and the fleet went south. Regardless of whether the British were behind the rebels or not, they would cooperate with Dashun to drive away the Dutch.

Tactically, the Dutch fleet still has the possibility of winning.

Relying on excellent navigation skills, artillery skills that they think are far superior to the East, and more than a hundred years of naval warfare tradition, it is possible to create miracles purely from tactics.

For example, capturing a battleship of Dashun; for example, sinking several auxiliary ships of Dashun.Then the Dutch fleet retreated unscathed.

In this tactic, is it a victory?
Of course it counts.

A fleet of eight armed merchant ships as the main force can beat up a fleet of eight battleships and ten or twenty cruisers, and can sink or capture a few ships, and even retreat. This is not only a tactical victory, but also a A classic battle example written in the textbook of the Amsterdam Naval School.

However, even if it is a victory tactically, it will not help the overall situation.

Dashun still holds the command of the sea, and the Dutch fleet can only harass guerrilla. Strategically, it completely divides the various strongholds of the Netherlands in Southeast Asia.

Valknier has confidence in the Dutch fleet, but his confidence ends in tactical victory.

After the Dashun Fleet revealed its entirety, he had already made a decision.

retreat.

Retreat to Batavia.

Guard Batavia, waiting for the company to deploy troops and wait for the company's support.

Cirebon is located in the east-west hub of Java, but Valknir can only choose to retreat to Batavia.In addition to the fact that Batavia is the "capital" of the East India Company, going east is a dead end.

Many, many years ago, China's Mencius said a word: Hegemony with force and hypocrisy will lead to a great power.The king who acts with virtue and benevolence does not wait for the king: Tang is seventy miles away, and King Wen is hundreds of miles away.Those who use strength to convince others are not subdued from the heart, and strength is not sufficient.

This sentence is the best interpretation of the Dutch rule in Southeast Asia.

The East India Company had no allies in Southeast Asia, only protectorates that succumbed to its despotic power.If they were to retreat to the east, the Matalan Sultanate, who had always been obedient, decided to ambush the Dutch immediately instead of buying wine and meat, and invited the Dutch to enter the capital to resist the Dashun Heavenly Soldiers.

On this point, Valknir still has the judgment.

As for losing the command of the sea, whether Batavia can persist until the company's reinforcements arrive, or even resist Dashun's strong attack...Valkner is not confident enough.

Dashun gained control of the sea.

The company's rule over Batavia is limited to the city.In history, after the Red Creek tragedy, the Dutch rule really radiated to the surrounding areas of Batavia: a good side evidence is that before the Red Creek tragedy, the sugarcane plantations and sugar mills used internally issued lead coins Tokens, every year before the Chinese New Year, there will be a big drama asking for wages; after the Hongxi tragedy, Dutch copper coins began to be used in the surrounding areas.

Even if Dashun besieges but does not attack, return to him the same way and learn from his current method of attacking Cirebon.

With the command of the sea in hand and the sea supply line locked, how long can Batavia last?a month?three months?half a year?But the company's reinforcements will take at least two years to arrive.

Valkneer looked at the neat, cobweb-like counterattack trenches built by the Chinese rebels in the distance, and thought... How long can they hold?
If the technical and tactical level of the regular army in Dashun was half that of the Chinese rebels, Batavia might not be able to defend for a month.

"This rebel army is very powerful. In fact, they already have the ability to control the entire Java. We should have admitted it earlier."

"They are really strong, even in Europe, they are an elite army."

For the first time, Valknir publicly admitted this.

However, the confidants around him smiled wryly and said, "If you admit it earlier, the board of directors will not believe it. They will only think that the governor is incompetent and cannot take on the important task of governor of Batavia."

"This is an era when setting up cannons on the coast of Southeast Asia can make them submit."

(End of this chapter)