1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 419
To be honest, Kreutsen didn't want to shoot at the coastal defense battery.

In the last naval battle, Krewson had already experienced the power of the Sacramento cannon.

Under normal circumstances, an admiral with a slightly normal mind would not allow his fleet to shoot at the enemy's coastal defense guns.

When the level of science and technology is not much different, the caliber of the coastal defense guns fixed on the fort is often larger than that of the naval guns, and the shooting accuracy is also higher than that of the naval guns.

There is basically no advantage for naval guns and coastal defense guns to fire against each other, at least in the middle of the 19th century.

However, Krewson is now burdened with the task of destroying the port of Pontianak, paralyzing local maritime traffic, annihilating the enemy fleet, and regaining command of the sea.

To complete the task that Tevez entrusted to him, the security fort at the mouth of the Capuas River was a hurdle that Klusen could not get around.

The western brigade commander in charge of the defense of the estuary was Kruger, Major of the Arizona Infantry.

Kruger calculated the distance from the ships of the East Indies Fleet to the coastal defense turrets. Although the East Indies Fleet had already entered the range of the coastal defense turrets at this time, Kruger was not in a hurry to fire.

According to the collected intelligence and the confessions of the prisoners of war of the Dutch Indian Army.

Klusen is a cautious person. If he fires too early, Klusen will soon give up shelling the coastal defense batteries in order to reduce losses.

At that time, it will be difficult for Kruger to achieve any results.

Kruger ordered the soldiers in charge of operating the coastal defense guns to hide in the bunker temporarily until he gave the order to fire the guns before bombarding the East Indies Fleet.

Crewson first sent three sailing warships to bombard the coastal defense fort at the mouth of the Capuas River. With the roar of artillery, black spherical projectiles hit the coastal defense fort like raindrops.

There was still no response from the shelled battery.

This greatly increased the confidence of the three sailing warships that were conducting fire scouting. In order to improve the accuracy of the bombardment, the three sailing warships approached the fort and continued to output continuous firepower to the coastal defense fort at the mouth of the Capuas River.

Under the indiscriminate bombardment of the three sailing warships of the East Indies Fleet, a fort was destroyed soon.

The soldiers at the front reported the news to Kruger.

Kruger remained motionless, still not expressing anything.

Since the East Indies Fleet was to be induced to bombard his coastal defense batteries at close range, some decoys were unavoidable.

California's military industry is well developed, and guns can be rebuilt if they are damaged. These weapons are not the most scarce thing for the Western Brigade.

After a burst of shelling, Kruger finally ordered the soldiers on one-third of the coastal defense battery to fight back symbolically.

Krewson, the old fox, dispelled his doubts when he saw that the coastal defense battery finally started to fight back, and let the main ship step forward to participate in the shelling.

But Krewson still kept a hand, leaving 12 ships on standby as a reserve team to deal with emergencies that may occur at any time.

"Cunning Kreutsen!"

Seeing that he was paying the price for the damage of three forts, Klutsen still didn't attack with the whole army, Kruger couldn't help cursing.

When the main force of the East India Fleet entered the distance of only 800 meters from the coastal defense forts, all the forts at the mouth of the Kapuas River finally fired.

Revenge shells rained down on the densely packed East Indies fleet.

Compared with the naval guns of the East India Fleet, the types of shells on these coastal defense forts are much richer.

In addition to regular solid rounds, there are also expensive explosive rounds.

Explosive bombs are expensive, but their killing effect on personnel is far beyond that of conventional solid bombs.

As long as the explosive bomb hits the deck of the East Indies Fleet ship, a piece of the crew will surely fall.

Although Klusen was already mentally prepared, the powerful firepower from the anti-fort at the Kapuas River Port still caught Klusen by surprise.

Krewson's reaction was quick. Seeing that this was a trap by the opponent, he hastily ordered to stop the confrontation with the opponent's coastal defense battery.

I have to say that compared to the Royal Dutch East India Army, the East Indies Fleet is indeed a well-trained force.

Under such circumstances, a relatively orderly order could still be maintained, and they quickly drove out of the range of the coastal defense fort.

"We still lack enough good artillery."

Kruger couldn't help but sigh as he watched the Dutch East India Fleet escape from the range of the naval guns.

In the short bombardment, although the coastal defense batteries at the mouth of the Kapuas River caused some losses to the East Indies Fleet, the loss of the East Indies Fleet was not fatal.

In the East Indies Fleet, only two unlucky armed merchant ships were sunk, three sailing warships suffered moderate or above injuries, and the rest of the ships were basically slightly damaged or even suffered no losses.

Such a result is far from meeting Kruger's psychological expectations.

The direction of the next war depends on how well the fleet led by Sven performs.

As soon as the bombardment was over, the Umbrella Company's fleet, led by two bold-class steam warships, rushed out of Hanoi on the High Kapuas River aggressively, and rushed directly to the East Indies Fleet that had just withdrawn.

After three months, more than [-] ships from both sides fought again in this sea area.

Compared with the first confrontation, due to the loss of a large number of elite sailors, the combat power of the East Indies fleet has declined, but it is still a very difficult opponent.

Although all the ships of the Umbrella company fleet were equipped with new Sacramento guns, the performance of the naval guns was a generation ahead of the opponent, but this battle was still very difficult.

The advantages at the weapon level only make up for Umbrella's shortcomings in terms of crew.

In Kruger's view of the entire naval battle, the Umbrella fleet only had a slight advantage.It did not show a crushing advantage over the Dutch and Indian troops as the Western Brigade did on land.

However, as a Prussian, Krewson didn't know much about naval warfare. After all, Prussia was not a maritime power.

Seeing that the opponent was entangled with the East Indies Fleet regardless of the cost, Krusan realized that the opponent wanted to completely destroy the East Indies Fleet.

The existence of the East Indies Fleet is a huge deterrent to the opponent. As long as this fleet exists, even if it exists as an existing fleet in a port, the opponent cannot gain sea control with peace of mind.

After a full two hours of fighting, the two sides handed over the answer sheet with mutual damage.

The victories achieved and the losses suffered by both sides can be said to be on par.

However, as the casualties of the East Indies Fleet increased, the East Indies Fleet gradually fell into a disadvantage.

The advantages of the Umbrella fleet in terms of weapon technology have also gradually emerged.

The ships on Umbrella's fleet are equipped with new naval guns that fire extremely fast, and their killing efficiency on personnel and ships is much higher than their traditional front-mounted smoothbore naval guns.

Seeing that the situation was unfavorable, Kreutsen decisively issued an order to retreat to protect the ship.

The seriously injured ships bravely took on the task of breaking the rear, buying time for the ships in good condition to retreat.

Sven also saw Krewson's intentions. He ignored the broken ships that entangled them, but went straight to pursue the main force of the East Indies Fleet fleeing southward.

At this time, the southerly wind was blowing on the sea, which made the East Indies Fleet, which was basically a sailing ship, want to cry without tears, and even God was against them.

The steam of the Umbrella company fleet was very high, and these steamships easily caught up with the ships of the East Indies Fleet who wanted to escape back to Batavia, and pursued these ships fiercely.

After a whole day of fighting, the unfinished naval battle three months ago finally came to an end in the same sea area.

After losing more than half of the cost, which is the cost of 17 ships.

Liang Yao's Umbrella Fleet finally won the victory with difficulty, basically achieving the goal of completely annihilating the East Indies Fleet and completely gaining command of the Java Sea.

Nuoda's East Indies Fleet, in the end, only five ships fled northward, missing.

Even Krewson himself fell into Gentle's captive.

At this point, the last card held by the Dutch and Indian authorities was also torn to pieces by Liang Yao.

Making peace has become the only option for the Dutch and Indian authorities now.

(End of this chapter)