Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1629 Where to Go

"Abandon all the supplies and retreat at full speed. We have no time to waste." After repelling a small group of French cavalry that he encountered accidentally, Yang Liang ignored other things and went directly to the supreme commander of the army, Frank Banning, and proposed the above suggestions.

After hearing the words translated by Second Lieutenant Wu Yiqun, Banning looked at the baggage that seriously hindered the marching speed of the troops, and nodded slowly.Those luggage include artillery mounts, equipment for repairing guns, tents and rain gear, molds for making projectiles, stakes and door panels for building field camps, spare armor, etc., and even Frank Banning’s private property. A bed made by him--this bed was made of exquisite materials and exquisite carvings, cost him a thousand guilders--it was worth a lot, and it was all the people's anointing of the citizens of Bergen op Zoom.

However, the Dutch had nothing else but a lot of money, so the decision to give up the luggage was not very difficult. Frank Banning only discussed with a few militia officers and made up his mind to discard all of them. Anyway, he returned to Bergenau After Puzom, you can always find some similar equipment if you rummage through the boxes, if the arsenal in the city has not been stolen and sold out.

The speed of the 500 people retreating lightly was very fast. They abandoned all their belongings and only carried a small amount of ammunition and water. They fled westward in a hurry, regardless of the surprise and curse of the Dutch people around them.Fortunately, maybe the French were short of troops, maybe they were eager to occupy other towns that did not resist, so since more than 28 French cavalry were killed and wounded in the encounter on the 30th, the people who had been nervous had never To be retaliated by the French - in fact, it's normal to think about it. They have their own combat missions, and there are so many towns that can be captured without damage waiting for them to receive them. Why go to the wild to gnaw the hard bones of such a strange Dutch army Woolen cloth?

In this way, when everyone retreated to Bergen op Zoom panting on the evening of May 5th, the pursuers never arrived, and there was only news of the loss of many towns along the way—in many places the French only sent With less than a hundred cavalrymen, they went down without a fight, which was like a child's play.However, it is easy to win a battle, but it is not so easy to be an occupying army, especially the king of the French keeps asking his army to occupy more territory in order to accommodate the Dutch nobles and a large number of officials from the mainland of France who have taken refuge in him (the latter is the mainstream), their strength was greatly diluted, so that their aggressiveness was insufficient.

As soon as Frank Banning came back from his escape, he went into the city.However, perhaps because of the tenacious fighting will of the East Coast people and the Swiss mercenaries during the reinforcement of the Breda Fortress, this guy took the initiative to persuade most members of the city council, and then put these two troops into the city. Here, for the purpose of sticking to it.

Later, perhaps because of the opinion of the merchants in the parliament, the group of Swiss mercenaries was transferred out of the city again, and stood on the wharf that was close at hand, keeping a way of retreat for everyone.There are many relatively strong houses and warehouses there, as long as they don't collapse first, there is absolutely no reason for the French to defeat them in one fell swoop.You know, they can't spare too many troops to manage remote areas like Bergen op Zoom, and this is not an important traffic route. Wouldn't it be a waste to send tens of thousands of horses here?With this surplus of troops, it is better to transfer all of them to the other side of the Rhine to help Prince Condé attack the famous fortress of Utrecht.

When the Swiss left, Yang Liang chatted with their captain Hess.It was a man who was almost sixty years old, with dirty shaggy hair and worn high boots, but he seemed to be in good spirits, his eyes were very bright, giving people a sparkling feeling.Major Yang Liang felt that compared with the muddy Dutch militiamen under Frank Banning, these Swiss mercenaries with outdated equipment were more trustworthy, at least they would not collapse suddenly.What's more, the two sides had already fought side by side once during the retreat. At that time, Yang Liang appreciated that the Swiss did not flee but insisted on fighting: at any time, courage to fight is one of the most important qualities of a soldier. If you can't do it, you can practice it, if your equipment is not good enough, you can improve it, if your tactics are backward, you can learn it, but you can't learn the will to fight.

Yang Liang got some new flintlocks for them from Frank Banning - not an easy task, as it turned out that the stock in the arsenal in Bergen op Zoom had been stolen and sold For the most part, it took a lot of effort to get two to three hundred dusty, old and new flintlock guns for these Swiss, and this also shows from the side that Major Yang is now in front of the Dutch. The position of the edge has been improved.

Captain Hess expressed his gratitude for this, but he didn't pay too much attention to it.Those who are used to matchlock guns, if they switch to flintlock guns rashly without enough adaptation period, it is indeed more prone to problems, so he just put away these muskets, gunpowder and some projectiles as reserves.

In the city of Bergen op Zoom, there were more than a dozen cast iron cannons purchased from England before the war, and more than a dozen old bronze cannons were also found by the Dutch, and then placed one by one on the city wall——Thor As a result of the war with Spain, all the cities in the south of the Netherlands had been fortified, and the city defense facilities were extremely complete, otherwise they would have been occupied by the famous Flanders Legion.

Therefore, after everyone withdrew into the city and closed the gate (the key of the gate was kept in the hands of the most respected old priest in the city), the city of Bergen op Zoom has entered a state of war, and all kinds of leftovers in the Living materials and war materials outside the city were collected to prevent them from being used by the French army.

In all fairness, the Dutch may not necessarily surrender to the French if they have a choice.At least, they will resist for a while before surrendering, and then make a final decision depending on the results of negotiations with the French army. The southern Dutch would not be too entangled.However, for the people on the east coast, there is no real benefit to surrendering to the French army. On the contrary, it is a shame. The Hague may also deduct the mercenary fees that should have been paid to Li Qing, so their attitude towards the French army is firm. Shouting, this is the biggest difference between their Dutch militiamen in Bergen op Zoom.

On June 1673, 6, after several days of restless waiting, a French army holding a golden lily flag appeared not far from Bergen op Zoom, and its size was about 3 The appearance of a person is probably the largest force that the nearby French can squeeze out.

The Frenchman who led the team seemed to be a nobleman. After observing the outline and shape of the city of Lower Bergen op Zoom, he decisively gave up the idea of ​​storming and turned to attack the pier connected to it through a small canal. Launched a tentative attack.As a result, the Swiss seemed to have professional ethics. Although they were extremely embarrassed by the well-trained French army, with the cooperation of seven or eight artillery pieces condescendingly supporting them under the walls of Bergen op Zoom, they defeated the French army. This attack by the humans collapsed completely and managed to make them drop dozens of corpses.

The commander of the French seems to be an "old driver". After seeing that storming the pier will also be flanked by artillery fire from the top of the city, he knows in his heart that if he does not want to pay a huge price, it seems that he has not captured this city. The city has a chance.It's just that he can't figure out one thing, that is, why the Dutch here have such a strong will to resist, shouldn't it be that when the invincible French army arrives, they will disarm?It is as strong as the Breda Fortress, but it only lasted for a few days. The French casualties were even more than 1000 people, which is insignificant.In a small town like Bergen op Zoom, with no reinforcements from outside, why did the Dutch insist on not surrendering until now?This is what confuses him the most.

And just when the French were tangled outside the city and didn't know what to do, Major Yang Liang inside the city had just persuaded Frank Banning to stick to it.You must know that in Bergen op Zoom at this time, there are not a few people who are willing to surrender to the French army outside the city, because they are afraid of being retaliated by the French after their resolute resistance fails, and they do not believe that the United Provinces can resist it at all. Living in the French army, although residents of the northern provinces of the Netherlands, Zeeland, Friesland, and Groningen may not agree with this point of view, but the three southern provinces (in fact, there are four provinces in the south, because it includes the Dutch Duchy of Brabant) The residents still have a deep sense of fear of the French army.

Fortunately, the artillery attack launched by the officers and soldiers of the Artillery Company of the Third Mixed Battalion just now gave the Dutch in the city some confidence, making it easier for the opinions of some main combatants to be accepted by the neutral crowd.In addition, the respected Pastor Byrne hated the Catholic French very much, and was afraid that a Catholic church would appear here after the fall of Bergen op Zoom, so he also supported Frank Banning's opinion that the battle should continue.

After temporarily unifying his thoughts, Frank Banning finally did some things that a commander-in-chief should do, such as visiting the city to boost morale, observing the enemy's situation, making plans, etc. At the same time, he also sent a small boat to sneak to the city. At the outer pier, I communicated with the Swiss mercenaries standing there, encouraging them to keep fighting and not to surrender so easily.

In this way, thanks to the efforts of the people on the east coast, the entire Bergen op Zoom temporarily curbed the trend of capitulationism, making several tentative attacks by the French all unsuccessful.Even once, because he was too close to the ground, the noble commander of the French army was almost hit by a miniature bullet from the city wall. , secretly muttering in his heart how could there be so many expensive rifled guns in this small city.

For the sake of the battle, the French also understood that Bergen op Zoom's tenacious will to resist was not something their army, which was only in the early 12s, could conquer.Even, they couldn't even attack the wharf that seemed to store a lot of supplies, because they would be attacked by as many as [-] guns on the top of the city (the artillery company of the third mixed battalion also moved four guns to this side) The cross-fire attack of the artillery will obviously cause a lot of casualties, and it is not worth attacking.

And now that this judgment has been made, the French are also bachelors, so they just stopped fighting, turned around around Bergen op Zoom, and rushed all the way north. It seems that they are going to attack some of the Dutch who are still in the north. hand town.Once these towns were captured, the wealthy cities of the Dutch provinces such as Dordrecht, Delft, Rotterdam, and The Hague opened their doors to the French.However, Yang Liang was also surprised by the decisiveness of the French. Could it be that these arrogant guys figured out that the "Dutch army" in the city of Bergen op Zoom would not dare to attack and cut off their retreat?

The departure of the French army greatly boosted the morale of the Dutch soldiers and civilians in the city of Bergen op Zoom. They could hardly believe that they had survived in front of as many as [-] French troops.You must know that in many other places, not to mention [-] French soldiers, even three cavalrymen may seize the gate key of a town, so it can be seen that the "great achievements" of the soldiers and civilians of Bergen op Zoom, this is simply The only bright spot in the sad news of defeat!The nominal supreme commander of the city defense, like Frank Banning, is even considering whether to find a group of artists from the Saint Luke's Guild to paint a set of paintings to record his heroic and stalwart image and his perseverance in the face of the French A decisive gesture.

Yang Liang was very speechless about this, and at the same time expressed his relief that he had survived the catastrophe.With only 2000 people at hand, he successfully curbed the Dutch's tendency to surrender, and then led two groups of weak players to survive in the cracks of Viscount Turenne's west road.As for what to do next, he has no better plan, so he can only take one step at a time. If it doesn't work, take a boat from the pier and cross the strait to Zeeland Province. I believe no one can stop him , it's just more ugly to do so.

"Let's see the development of the battle first." Yang Liang, who stood on the top of the city and looked into the distance, thought to himself: "Now, based on the news from all parties, it is generally correct that the French soldiers attacked the United Provinces in three ways. The left wing This road is responsible for attacking the Limburg-Brabant area, and then attacking Utrecht Province, joining forces with Prince Condé's troops on the middle road, and finally attacking the famous Utrecht Fortress together. Compared with them, Bout The right-wing German Legion led by Weir will be much weaker. They are taking the northern line, which is an area where the Orange faction is very strong, and it is also their traditional territory. There are quite a lot of land and military aristocrats. Can't beat professional soldiers from Friesland, Groningen, etc."

"I don't know what's going on in Utrecht now. If this core fortress is also conquered, then the door to Amsterdam will be opened. Druiter fought desperately at sea to prevent tens of thousands of British and French coalition forces from landing in Amsterdam. Don't fail because of the failure on land. Of course, from our personal point of view, we also hope that the Dutch will stick to Utrecht for a longer time, because only in this way will they attract Turenne, Kong The main force of the French army of the modern era. Otherwise, how can we people who are lonely in the rear have a way to survive?" Yang Liang finally sighed again, and said to himself: "I have no achievements and no results. Crossing Haixi and fleeing to the rear of Zeeland Province, this is unacceptable, and it is not my style, Yang, I hope the battle situation will become clearer as soon as possible, the current situation is too embarrassing."

(End of this chapter)