Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1627 Changes in the situation

Light rain began to fall from the sky, soaking the space between the sky and the earth.Outside the city of Bergen op Zoom, a group of soldiers from the east bank are working hard to build fortifications.

The fortifications are made of wood and mud, which is not very strong, but there is no better way at present. The stones and bricks have to be pulled from a long distance, and the cost is also high. Frank Banning, the leader of the militia group, has made it clear Many people were very annoyed by the rejection of the request of the people on the east bank and the request that the army on the east bank be stationed outside the city and not move around at will.

"Wu Yiqun, I heard that the French army has forcibly crossed the Rhine, but why is the French army stationed in Lille still hesitant?" In the only decent wooden room, Major Yang Liang's slender and long-clawed fingers were on the table. He clapped his hands lightly as if he was practicing the piano, and asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"It seems..." Lieutenant Wu Yiqun made a pot of tea for Yang Liang, and said carefully: "Maybe the Spaniards didn't agree to the French army passing through their country's territory, so the Lille army might have been transferred elsewhere."

"I'd like to look further up the Scheldt to the south. What do you think?"

"This..." Second Lieutenant Wu Yiqun, who is temporarily serving as Yang Liang's staff officer, was taken aback when he heard the words, and then said hesitantly: "Sir, I'm afraid it's not the time yet. Frank, the supreme military commander of Bergen op Zoom, Mr. Banning has strictly prohibited our army from leaving the established positions. It is said that it was because the group of Swiss mercenaries disturbed the people too much when they went out to collect firewood and some people fled from the team. Therefore, they are afraid that our army will do the same, which will affect the movement of large troops Morale."

"It's absurd. The Swiss will flee, so will our people also flee?" Yang Liang smiled disdainfully and didn't say anything else.For those Swiss who deserted and became deserters, he can only say that their IQ is insufficient and they urgently need to recharge.Not to mention that the French haven't fought yet, there is no way to escape, even if they have already attacked, then in the midst of the turmoil, how can these foreigners, who don't know the place where they live, survive?Of course, relying on the organization (army) to keep warm, how stupid!

However, when talking about the escape of these Swiss, one cannot fail to mention the current battlefield situation.The French have declared war on the Netherlands for more than a month, but the news that has reached the Bergen op Zoom area is still very chaotic. Some people will swear that they saw the French army in the area of ​​Mons and Charleroi (both It was the spoils of the Legacy War) assembled, the number was as high as "10", ready to cross the entire Southern Netherlands to the mouth of the Scheldt at any time, and launch an attack on the provinces of Zeeland and the Netherlands; after a while, Spain did not agree The French crossed their land, and King Louis XIV of France was very angry about this, but he didn't want to fight on multiple fronts for the time being; some people simply said that in the process of trafficking goods to Antwerp, they had seen a large group of French cavalry driving there On the country road, and vividly described how powerful the French army is, how cowardly the Spaniards are, etc.-this seems to be one of the reasons why some young Swiss mercenaries deserted.

Such chaotic and inconsistent news naturally caused Yang Liang a great headache, because it meant that he was completely unable to plan normally, and this may be the most direct reason why he thought of going to the front to investigate in person. .As for asking people like Frank Banning for information, he wasn't so stupid, because that guy didn't know much more than himself, and Yang Liang didn't trust him very much.

"Forget it, forget it, I don't have the heart to go to the south to investigate after what you said. Really, I only earned a few dollars from the Dutch. Is it worth our effort? They don't have to worry about it like we do. "After sighing for a long time, Yang Liang said somewhat dispiritedly: "Go, go out and inspect the camp."

After finishing speaking, Yang Liang put on his big hat, picked up his command knife, and strode towards the door with great strides, while Second Lieutenant Wu Yiqun quickly put down the hot water bottle in his hand and followed behind him step by step.

At this time, the camp is opening up and preparing for lunch.Due to the continuous rainy days and the shortage of firewood, the bastards in Bergen op Zoom forwarded a total of [-] dong in bonuses (employment fees are now settled separately by the Netherlands, the provinces of Zeeland and Li Qing) , the other supplies are very pitiful: except for the unpalatable pickled herring, the bad wine mixed with water and some sour wine, and the hard rye bread, the people on the east coast seem to have received nothing so far other supplies.

As a last resort, Major Yang Liang had to use the [-] dong bonus from the Dutch to buy melons, fruits, vegetables and some live livestock in the Bergen op Zoom area to supplement the nutrition of the officers and soldiers.Moreover, in the early days, due to the shortage of firewood nearby, they had to go far to collect some firewood as fuel. Therefore, people on the east coast also purchased peat from the Dutch for cooking and heating.But this will be due to the approaching of the war, the owner of the peat business has fled to Amsterdam, and the workers have disappeared, so the source of this has also been cut off. People on the east coast have been eating cold food for two days, which is also very miserable. .

From what Yang Liang saw, most of the soldiers were eating dry and hard bread with cold water. Occasionally, some soldiers were trying to start a fire with wet branches they got from no one knew where, making it smoky. It made him feel very unhappy: this Dutchman is not a thing, he hides in the city to eat and drink spicy food, and then treats us as beggars for food——Second Lieutenant Wu Yiqun, as a contact person who understands Dutch, often When he entered and exited the city of Bergen op Zoom, he saw that the Dutch militiamen were bragging, chatting, drinking and playing cards all day long, and they didn't feel the tension that they should have before the war. Is it being invaded by Britain and France?

Second Lieutenant Wu Yiqun entered the city again yesterday, intending to discuss some rain gear with Frank Banning.It turned out that dozens of militia officers, large and small, were holding a banquet in this guy's headquarters. These people drank a lot of wine and ate up more than 300 guilders of food, including ham, beef, mutton, poultry, rabbit, Sausages, mince pies, salmon, shrimp, flan, bread, brittle candies, cinnamon buns, cream, Gouda cheese, feta cheese, butter, apples, hazelnuts, radishes, and lettuce, which made Wu Yiqun almost stay Drooling, but at the same time, the anger is growing in my heart: This shitty Dutch militiaman either drinks and eats all day long, or wears uniforms and finds a painter to paint for himself. How can this fucking look like a soldier?Where is the atmosphere of a war coming?Are you ready to surrender directly?Then why are you looking for us!

"I can't go on like this!" After walking around the camp, Yang Liang blamed himself when he saw many soldiers with black lips from the cold, so he quickly said to Second Lieutenant Wu Yiqun, "Staff Wu, your Dutch is good. Now go to the [-]rd Mixed Battalion and bring two platoons into the city in full armor, and find me that fucking Frank Banning, tell me that we don't have enough rain gear, firewood, and food is too bad, let them Hurry up and find a way. Otherwise, the soldiers will start to riot, and I can't control it. At that time, the discipline of the irrational soldiers may disappear. The abundant food and delicious food in the city of Bergen op Zoom Water, wine, and passionate and beautiful women may have a fatal attraction to them. Just tell Frank Banning like this, and see what he will do! What do these Dutch people think of us? Rely on them for charity A poor man living? It's just inexplicable!"

Lieutenant Wu Yiqun nodded blankly when he heard the words, then gave a military salute to Yang Liang, then turned around and went to the barracks to pick someone out.After he left, Major Yang Liang called in the liaison officer of the Third Mixed Battalion and asked him to go to Amsterdam immediately with his own letter to meet Mr. Li Qing, the plenipotentiary special envoy, and ask him to find out some "reliable" ones. The liaison staff immediately complied with the news about the situation on the French-Dutch land battlefield, which was "accurate" and "not false", and set off immediately.

Just a few days later, when the first ray of sunlight shone from the eastern horizon on the morning of May 1673, 5, a group of troops also came from the barracks of the East Coasters outside the city of Bergen op Zoom. Not a small transport team.This team came out from the city, and they transported a variety of food, as well as some fine wine, fruits and vegetables, and even a lot of live cattle and sheep, which shocked the morale of the officers and soldiers, and of course there was a lot of it Dry firewood and peat, as well as some waterproof equipment. In short, Major Yang’s intimidation has completely played a role, and it probably also caused the Dutch militiamen to hold grudges, which can be seen from their dark faces.

Arriving with them, there was also the liaison officer of the third mixed battalion that Yang Liang had sent to Amsterdam. After this gentleman rushed back, without saying a word, he immediately handed over the information documents he got from Li Qing to Yang Liang.Yang Liang didn't delay either. He was instructing his subordinates to carefully count the supplies and distribute them according to the plan. Due to the hard work of the people on the east coast, the living conditions of the thousand or so Swiss mercenaries next door have also been improved to a certain extent. The people on the east coast were so big, but it was not bad, which made them full of gratitude to Major Yang-then they returned to their own headquarters to carefully review the information documents.

The handwriting on these news documents that Li Qing gave was rather messy, and there were quite a few smears and revisions. It can be seen how confusing and contradictory the information they collected at the beginning was, which of course also conforms to the Dutch's usual style.Yang Liang learned from the documents comprehensively that the French probably dispatched more than [-] troops, led by King Louis XIV, accompanied by a large number of nobles and military generals, such as Viscount Turenne, Prince Condé, Marshal Vauban, The Grand Duke of Luxembourg and others are all well-known generals. The Dutch probably would tremble just hearing their names. The French also boasted that this is "such a powerful military lineup that has never been seen in the world." It can be seen.

To Yang Liang's surprise, King Louis XIV of France seemed to find another way this time, and took a roundabout route to attack the United Provinces, that is, bypassing Münster and Cologne on the other side of the Rhine (these two countries were also Allies of France), attacking the provinces of Upper Ijssel, Gelderland, and Utrecht.According to common sense, the French are unlikely to take this route. Needless to say, the reason is that the distance, thalassemia, and many strong fortresses are all practical difficulties, but the French did indeed march from here. It's also magical.

In early May, 5 elite French troops forcibly crossed the Rhine.Anyone familiar with geography understands that as long as the French successfully cross the river, the United Provinces will be put in shackles.Of course, the Dutch knew this very well, so they deployed heavy troops along the river. However, due to the long river bank and the relative shortage of troops, these are the weak defenses of the Rhine River Basin, so the French quickly broke through. line of defense.

The French chose a good place to cross the river at that time, and due to the dry season, the river surface was narrow, less than 20 meters, and the flow velocity was also very low.On the other side of the river, there are some militias deployed by the Dutch (collected from various cities and assembled here), the scale is about thousands of people, there are not too many artillery, and there are about [-] professional soldiers-they are from Cavalry in the northern province of Friesland.

Regarding the evaluation of these troops, Li Qing wrote that they were "as timid as a mouse and as fearful of the enemy as a tiger", because they failed to cause any trouble when the French army crossed the river, and when the French crossed the river successfully, these People either run away, or kneel down and beg for mercy, which makes people speechless.

In the process of crossing the river, the French lost only a few soldiers and two nobles: the Count of Nogent and the Duke of Longueville.The former was drowned (unfortunately) because he was too far away from the place of crossing the river, and the latter was killed by desperate soldiers who rose up to resist because he was drunk and wanted to shoot and kill the Dutch soldiers who had knelt down to him one by one. It can only be said that if you don't die, you won't die, and if you die, you will definitely die!

King Louis XIV of France personally commanded the entire cavalry group to cross the river, and then together with the infantry, they reached the other side of the Rhine through the subsequently erected pontoon bridge.Under the instruction of the king, the royal writer who accompanied the army "went up" and wrote an article overnight. In the face of the desperate interception of tens of thousands of Dutch troops, the king calmly commanded the invincible French army to brave the enemy's artillery fire. The story of the successful crossing of the river was sent immediately to Paris for publicity.

After the French army crossed the Rhine, there was little that could stop them.The powerful Louis XIV's army successively conquered Doisburg, Arnheim, Northambre, Nijmegen, Bommel, Schenk and other places without bloodshed.Every day from morning to night, Louis XIV could not stop receiving news that a certain place was captured by the French army.

"This is a big trouble!" Major Yang Liang, who didn't expect the Dutch army to be so incompetent, couldn't help saying after reading the news.

(End of this chapter)