Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1628 The Chaotic First Battle

On May 1673, 5, the sky was overcast again, heralding a heavy rain.Yang Liang hates this kind of weather the most, because the roads are muddy, which is not conducive to the walking of the army. You must know that there are very few hardened national defense roads connecting important nodes on the east coast, the so-called first-class national roads.

But no matter how difficult it is, we have to go, because the situation waits for no one!According to the latest news, more than 5 French troops led by Viscount Turenne have stabilized the situation in Nijmegen, and then separated a division to advance westward, heading straight for Breda Fortress. It directly ate the Limburg-Brabant common land, which is not small in size; and another French army of more than 5 led by the famous Prince Condé is occupying Arnhem, Amersfoort, Naarden After waiting for the place, the soldiers headed straight to Utrecht, the most important city in the southern United Provinces; the last road was led by Louis XIV's younger brother, François de Boutville, Duke of Luxembourg, and led by the Archbishop of Münster. Formed with the army of the Elector of Cologne, the scale is also tens of thousands of people. Starting from the German region, they attack the provinces of Groningen, Friesland, and Upper Ijssel in the northern part of the United Provinces; Take [-] of the most elite troops to sit in Dusseldorf and take over the overall situation.

The strategic deployment of the French army, divided into three groups and attacking the city everywhere, with the feeling of an old cat not in a hurry to kill mice, is undoubtedly extremely contemptuous of the Dutch.To this end, not without objections.For example: the battle-tested Prince Condé and Viscount Turenne hope to keep only one or two fortresses at key nodes for the retreat of the army, and destroy all the others to save the guards and advance quickly to conquer The Hague. and Amsterdam, to achieve the final victory of the war.

At this time, Louis XIV's confidant, Minister of Defense Delois, appeared. Seeing that the French army was in full swing, he seemed to regard the occupied area as French territory. He hoped that he could control more official positions and asked King Louis XIV Four advances, requesting the deployment of a large number of garrison troops in the captured cities and the construction of fortifications.

To be honest, this suggestion was actually quite to Louis XIV's appetite, so the arrogant king affirmed Deloit's opinion and formally ordered Marshal Vauban (who is very good at building) to realize this intention.In this way, a considerable part of the [-] French army under the command of the Viscount Turenne and the Prince of Condé was forced to disperse a large part of it to occupy the local Dutch towns, severely weakening the front-line French army. , The offensive slowed down all of a sudden, and it seemed that they were not in a hurry to march into the Dutch capital The Hague and the largest city Amsterdam.

The Limburg-Brabant region where Major Yang Liang and others are located is now facing the army under Viscount Turenne. On May 5, a panicked Dutch messenger brought "bad news" from the east. A French army with a size of more than 23 people set off from Nijmegen and marched westward towards the core of the common. The important town of Breda Fortress came here, and it seemed that they were going to pass through the western half of the Dutch Duchy of Brabant.

This partial division dispatched large groups or small groups of troops along the way to occupy all Dutch towns within the range of sight, so there were less than [-] people when they arrived at the fortress of Breda, but it still made the Dutch tremble. , can't raise the will to resist - the above news was told to Yang Liang by Frank Banning, the supreme commander of the militia group in Bergen op Zoom, and then they generously collected [-] guilders as the starting fee for Yang Liang The department asked them to immediately lead their troops eastward to support the Breda Fortress.

Yang Liang was speechless.He is very clear about the strength of the fortress of Breda. This large-scale, stone-made fortress is synonymous with impregnability throughout Europe. As a result, the Dutch are so embarrassed that they have to spread it everywhere. Leading troops to rush to the fortress "King Qin", what the hell is this? Are the 8000 troops in Breda Fortress all pig heads?

However, "fate is hard to break", who told Yang Liang and others to be hired by the Dutch now, so everything has to be obeyed.Furthermore, Frank Banning, the supreme military commander of the city of Bergen op Zoom, also led five hundred militiamen and marched eastward with Yang Liang and others to rescue the Breda fortress. So what else can everyone say, let's act! !

The army was dispatched at noon on the 25th. Because of continuous rain and unacceptable conditions, 300 people from Yang Liang's unit had fallen ill before departure, so only about 2000 people were able to march eastward this time.Together with them, there are more than 900 Swiss mercenaries. These mountain people wearing leather armor, carrying matchlock guns, and holding spears aloft have tragic expressions on their faces. Not optimistic, this added to the cloud in everyone's mind, and made Yang Liang curse inwardly after seeing it, this is shaking the morale of the army!

Frank Banning also had the expression of dead parents on his face, but who made the military news from the Breda Fortress so urgent?Therefore, he could only pick a relatively reliable [-] militiamen from Bergen op Zoom, and travel eastward with two mercenaries to rescue the Breda Fortress.

They didn't walk fast along the way, perhaps because the road was muddy and difficult to walk, but Yang Liang speculated maliciously that the reason why they walked on the road that was only two days away was probably because they were crawling. There is no reason to sit back and watch Breda Fortress fall, and then they can immediately turn to flee back to Bergen op Zoom to defend.After all, small citizen groups like the Dutch militia are the most unscrupulous. In their eyes, national security and national justice are not very important. They only care about whether their own wealth and interests can be preserved and whether their religious beliefs can be maintained. It doesn't matter, otherwise, why do you think there are so many Dutch towns and towns along the way?

Speaking of this, I have to mention the policy that Louis XIV insisted on during this war, that is, Louis XIV repeatedly emphasized before and after the expedition that the military discipline of all ministries must be strictly restrained, and the Dutch townspeople along the way must not be killed or robbed at will. Let the soldiers not discredit his "noble kingly demeanor".For this reason, he even sent officials to distribute money to compensate the villagers for some small villages that suffered losses due to the passing of the French army; The nobles all received gifts from Louis XIV—for example, after a certain lord of the Netherlands sent someone to report to Louis XIV the damage caused by the French army to his manor, he immediately presented a framed painting without saying a word. There were jewels, and a portrait of himself worth over twelve thousand livres was given to the nobleman.

Objectively speaking, both the nobles and ordinary people of the Netherlands have enjoyed great benefits because of this "noble behavior" of Louis XIV, which makes them very admired, because the French army has indeed shown some The good military discipline of the unit is different from the armies of other countries, which makes more people start to fear the power of the French king, and at the same time, it also slowly weakens the local resistance in the Netherlands.

To what extent this weakening has reached, we may take a look at a few interesting examples.For example: after Naarden, which is close to Amsterdam, was captured by a small group of French vanguard cavalry, four French cavalry went out to steal fruits and vegetables. The keys were handed over to the four cavalrymen, speechless!You know, there may be seawall gates in this small town that can submerge the whole country.Later, the local officials discovered that the French brigade had not arrived, so they asked the four cavalrymen for the keys and closed the city gate, but there was no one left.

For another example, when Prince Condé and Viscount Turenne attacked the Dutch towns along the Rhine, many fortresses along the river surrendered without firing a single shot. Famous military fortresses that have been repaired continuously for 50 years, but these strong fortresses, together with the food, ordnance, and war horses inside, have become trophies of the French.And how serious was this wave of surrender?For example, many local officials in the Netherlands saw one or two French cavalry companies passing by from a distance, and handed over the city gate keys; before the French army arrived, many officers abandoned the city and fled.In this matter, the "benevolence and righteousness" of the French king can be worth thousands of troops. Otherwise, the fortresses built in the south of the Netherlands to defend against the Spaniards could not be conquered by the French without bloodshed—this is also No wonder the provinces of the Netherlands and Zeeland suspect whether the three provinces of Utrecht, Gelderland, and Upper IJssel have some ulterior PY deal with the French. They are not the ones who lose their interests anyway. Wouldn't it be good to let the French army harm the Netherlands and the provinces of Zeeland?

Yang Liang and others passed through several Dutch towns along the way, and found that the local residents were only panicked, but they did not have much determination to fight against the enemy and drive the French invaders out of the country. This is worth pondering .If you look at the mental state of the [-] listless Bergen op Zoom militiamen beside you, you will understand that they only care about their own family and property in the small town, and they are indifferent to the future of the Republic. Yang Liang and the others felt a chill in their hearts. People without patriotism are terrible!

On the morning of May 5th, when this army of about 27 people finally "dwdled" to a Dutch town less than 3500 kilometers away from the Breda Fortress, news came that the Breda Fortress had fallen, which shocked everyone. I feel a little dazed: the fortress that the country has invested a huge amount of money to build, actually resisted for two or three days. Is this a dream?

The matter has come to this point, and everyone has nothing to do, so they all turned their attention to the supreme commander of the trip, Frank Banning.As a result, this gentleman also "lived up to everyone's expectations" and immediately ordered the entire army to turn back and return to Bergen op Zoom to defend as quickly as possible-this is not without reason. After all, the original order was to reinforce the Breda Fortress, but Who let the fortress fall before they arrived?Therefore, after losing their reinforcement targets, they chose to return to the starting point and do their original defensive tasks well, which is normal, and no one can criticize them too much.

The retreat speed of 500 people was extremely fast, which surprised Yang Liang, because he saw that the militiamen who had been listless and demoralized all of a sudden became energetic and began to carry out the retreat mission with full enthusiasm, which surprised him again. Once I realized the so-called "sense of responsibility" of the small citizens, they are not even as reliable as the honest peasant children on the battlefield!

The retreat process was not smooth, because they carried a lot of luggage, artillery and other sundries, so the speed of action was really not fast.Although the main force of the French army is still trying to control the situation in the newly acquired Breda Fortress, it is impossible to send many troops to take over the surrounding towns, but the westward advance of a few vanguard cavalry is inevitable, and this undoubtedly gives Yang Liang They add a lot of trouble.

At noon on May 5, hundreds of French cavalry came galloping from the east along the traffic roads, apparently part of a group of troops splitting out to receive various towns.And they were also very surprised when they saw this retreating army, but they didn't have much fear. Gein had won too many victories, captured too many towns, and defeated them all along the way. Too many enemy troops - including Dutch regulars, militias, German mercenaries, Swiss mercenaries, Southern Netherlands mercenaries, etc. - but no one has ever been able to cause them too much trouble.

Therefore, under the command of the officer, the French cavalry, which was about [-] people in size, first sent a representative to ask the troops to surrender, but Frank Banning directly refused without Yang Liang's words.What a joke, if you want to surrender, you have to wait until I return to Bergen op Zoom, and then surrender after negotiating the terms. How can I play this now?

After seeing the "Dutch" refusing to surrender, the French were first stunned, then furious, and then they were dazzled by the anger, they didn't care about anything, and rushed towards them directly under the leadership of the officer.At this time, the Swiss mercenaries, who have been indifferent to their grandma and uncle for a few days, played a role. Under the command of the officer, they quickly raised their spears and beat the angry French cavalry to death. resist.Afterwards, Major Yang Liang saw the right moment and transferred two companies in the infantry battalion of the Zhongguo Army. He stepped forward and fired a volley of guns, directly knocking down dozens of French cavalry.

The arquebus gunners in the Swiss mountain people were not idle at this time. Under the urging and cursing of the officer, they quickly loaded their muskets, and then shot freely under the cover of the spear jungle, which was quite dead and wounded. Some French cavalry, and completely disintegrated their offensive.

For this reason, the French also understood that this "Dutch army" with ten times their number seemed a bit difficult to mess with.So, after a little stalemate for an hour, the French cavalry sent representatives to retrieve the wounded soldiers and corpses scattered in front of the Dutch army when they saw that there was no chance to take advantage of it, then turned their horses and disappeared in a flash. on the distant horizon.

(End of this chapter)