Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1653 Struggle and Preparation ([-])

1673 August 8, Gwangenpoor Prison, The Hague, Netherlands Province.

More and more mobs gathered at the gate. They were restless, tiptoeing towards the dark prison gate, as if they were waiting for something.The soldiers guarding the gate absently carried their rifles, and did not drive away the mob who were getting closer to the gate of the prison, as if everything had nothing to do with them.In the distance, there is a huge gallows and a smaller guillotine. Many militiamen took off their uniforms and stood there with fanatical expressions. Township soldiers, and even many civil servants who used to have great respect for Speaker DeWitt.

Jacob van der Grave stood in the crowd with grim eyes, with a rapier hanging from his waist and a flintlock pistol in his hand, as if he wanted to harm someone.But no one here is surprised by his behavior, because everyone is more or less armed and waiting for the next big drama to start.

"Today is a 'grand ceremony' personally arranged by His Royal Highness, so don't miss it. If you don't get rid of Brother DeWitt this time, you may not have such a good opportunity in the future. That coward has now been reduced to relying on the heathen army It's really a shame to defend the situation, let's end it together this time." Vandergrave tightened the musket in his hand, thinking silently.

The emotions of the surrounding people have already been successfully incited by some suspicious people who are in cahoots. The militia patrolling the city have long since disappeared, and the soldiers guarding the prison are their accomplices. As long as the DeWitt brothers appear in this place , the 2000 people who are crowded here will swarm up and tear the two brothers apart.Van der Grave has this confidence, because there are too many nails inserted by the Prince of Orange among the more than 1000 red-eyed mobs. When they raise their arms at a critical moment, others will be dragged involuntarily. Kill the DeWitt brothers for good.

Some of the surrounding shops sensed trouble, they silently closed their business, and then closed their thick shop doors.But they didn't stay away, but hid in the room and watched everything outside. This was because they were afraid that the store's belongings would be looted-there were already rumors nearby, saying that the peasants in the countryside had been tortured by hunger and thirst. Yes, they are flocking to the city in groups, planning to detail the city of The Hague - and also want to see how today's big drama will end, because they are also very curious.

And just when the atmosphere in front of the gate of Gwangenport Prison was extremely dignified, at the other end of the city, Lan Fei, the battalion commander of the First Mixed Battalion of the East Coast Army, was getting on his horse with a sullen face, planning to escort a carriage for a trip .It can be seen from the fact that the Lan battalion commander has to go out to escort this specification in person, the passengers in the carriage are definitely not small people, maybe they are Speaker John DeWitt whom they have been closely guarding all along—well, the former speaker , after all, he has officially resigned, and now he is just a commoner without any title.

"Battalion Commander, do you really want to stop persuading me? I don't think it will be a good thing to go to prison this time." Staff Officer Wang asked quietly while looking at the two infantry companies lined up in two columns: "Besides, we only take We have two infantry companies and a few cavalry, is the number too small and not enough?"

"What's wrong? Do you want to bring the artillery with you? Are you going to persuade me to order the storming of Gwangenport Prison?" Lan Fei squinted at his liaison staff officer, and said angrily: "Besides, Germany A stubborn person like Chairman Witt will listen to your advice? If so, I will immediately recommend you to be the deputy battalion commander, and I will never break my promise!"

"Hey, I don't have that ability." Staff Officer Wang smiled embarrassedly and said, "I don't know how many times I have tried to persuade him, but it didn't work. Of course, this is also understandable. After all, the elder brother of the Speaker was released from prison today. Well, the Speaker has to pick it up himself. They have a deep brotherhood, and we outsiders really can't make more comments. What's more, Your Excellency the Speaker is too confident, so confident that he can calm the angry people, this is really a bit... "

It is said that after Admiral Cornelis DeWitt of the United Provinces was falsely accused by doctor Tichler and imprisoned, he was tortured repeatedly, but he still refused to admit his crime.In the end, Prince William III of Orange had nothing he could do. Although he really wanted to kill this unsightly guy through procedures, he couldn't do whatever he wanted due to the active activities of the republican congressmen, so in the end he had to It is also strange that Cornelis DeWitt can be ordered to pay a huge fine and then deported from the country-in the end, it is not clear whether Cornelis is guilty or not.

Today is the day Cornelis DeWitt was released from prison, and the prison "understandably" sent someone to John DeWitt's home to tell him that Cornelis was bad and needed his brother Go to pick him up, and only the former Speaker John DeWitt can handle the procedures for getting out of prison.

What a character John DeWitt is, of course he knows that the Prince of Orange is narrow-minded and has always wanted to kill himself, so going to prison should not be smooth sailing.But after all, there is a deep brotherhood. After finding someone to understand the situation in the prison, he decided to make a trip himself to pick up his brother, and then find a way to send him to Antwerp for recuperation.

Lan Fei, the battalion commander of the First Mixed Battalion, strongly opposed this, because he didn't want his protected object to be involved in the county, because even a fool would know that the Gewangenport Prison has become a dragon's pool and a tiger's den, and there is absolutely no good fruit to eat there.Lan Fei even bluntly pointed out that the Orange family has never been a well-behaved and good person. From William III's father, Frederick, it can be seen that this family has a lot of dirty tricks, and it has to be guarded against—— Because he couldn't win the republicans in the parliamentary struggle, Frederick, who was in power in the United Provinces, even led troops to attack Amsterdam and The Hague in an attempt to stage a mutiny. As a result, someone informed the third-level parliament and failed. This shows that this family is indeed He doesn't like to follow the rules of the game very much, and he overturns the table at every turn.

Despite Lan Fei's earnest persuasion, Speaker DeWitt insisted on going to Gwanpot Prison to pick up his brother back.Of course, he is not a stunned young man, knowing that there is danger ahead, he still wants to break through, so he asks Major Lan Fei to bring more people to escort him to the prison.DeWitt believed that, under the escort of elite East Coast soldiers, some prison guards or rioters would not dare to do anything to him.

Lan Fei was very embarrassed about this.Of course, he believed in the combat effectiveness of his troops, and at the same time, he despised the combat effectiveness of the Dutch armed forces at all levels—including professional soldiers, militia, prison guards, etc.—but he really didn't want to intensify the conflict with the Dutch at this time.Li Qing, the special envoy stationed in Amsterdam, wrote to him before, asking him to try his best to protect the safety of many important republican figures, including Speaker DeWitt, and also try his best to avoid deteriorating relations with the Dutch. Lan Fei also agreed with this Take it for granted.

But this time it became clear that the William III of the Orange family was obviously "crazy", and he didn't even want to face it. He planned to bypass the legal process and directly killed the DeWitt brothers by using indiscriminate means—— The gallows and guillotine erected at the gate of Gwangenport Prison are proof, don’t tell me they were made for fun-and this is bound to conflict with the soldiers on the east coast protecting them, so what will happen then? But it's hard to say.

Major Lan Fei was very worried. The officers and soldiers of the No. [-] Mixed Battalion were all from the capital, and many of them were descendants of officials and eunuchs. Although these people usually don't have the temperament of uncles or the style of government officials, they are also extremely arrogant.Once the Dutch mobs at the gate of the prison do something, they will stab them if they don't keep them together, and then they will do something that can't be dealt with. Lan Fei still remembers being attacked by a certain "prince" from the cavalry company on the road. As for the Hague militia officer who slapped his face with a horsewhip, the impact of that incident was really bad, causing the First Mixed Battalion to suddenly fall into the dilemma of being hated in The Hague.

But he couldn't change Speaker DeWitt's determination after all.Then the next best thing is to bring more soldiers and horses, strictly maintain the safety of the entire trip, and successfully pick up Cornelis DeWitt, which is what Lan Fei will do.For this reason, he ordered two infantry companies, half a cavalry company, and a total of nearly [-] troops to go to Gwangenport Prison. The scene was also intoxicating.

It’s not that far from DeWitt’s residence to Gwangenport Prison, and everyone walked for 10 to [-] minutes, and we could almost see the large-scale prison with our naked eyes.At this time, the liaison officer who had just gone to the front to investigate the situation came back on horseback, panting and told Speaker DeWitt and Lan Fei that the soldiers guarding the prison had set up roadblocks at the door and refused them to enter the prison.

Just as Lan Fei was about to say something, he saw Speaker DeWitt walking out of the carriage, and then walked forward under the protection of several personal guards.Of course, he didn't forget to thank Lan Fei and ask them to remain calm. He wanted to try to talk to the prison guards and the people gathered outside. He didn't believe that the people of The Hague, where he had been in power for many years, would betray him.

Lan Fei expressed helplessness for such a "stupid" behavior, but he didn't show it. Instead, he ordered two heavily armed infantry platoons to follow up, guarding the periphery of Speaker DeWitt, and isolating the surrounding mobs with ulterior motives ——He saw fanaticism, anger, and uneasiness in the eyes of those people. He felt that he had to do something, so he immediately ordered the combat staff to lead the team to deploy, and everyone even screwed the bayonet on the rifle. It greatly irritated the residents of The Hague surrounding outside, causing the noise to become a little louder.

Speaker DeWitt just had a few words with the guards at the gate, but when he saw the sharp confrontation between the officers and soldiers of the No. 20 Mixed Battalion and the people of The Hague, he immediately shook his head helplessly and felt a little sad at the same time.The people are really the most forgetful people. When I officially took over the country [-] years ago, it was during the first Anglo-Dutch war. At that time, the United Provinces lost the naval battle, the domestic economy was hit hard, the income of the people plummeted, and many people fell into starvation middle.At that time, many people expressed pessimism about the future, but he did not!Relying on his extraordinary perseverance and outstanding talent, he slowly reversed the economic situation in the Netherlands, and then took advantage of the situation to restore the economy that had been hit hard, so that a large number of people who were in trouble had enough food and warm clothes.

Undoubtedly, in that era, Speaker DeWitt received great gratitude from the people, and at the same time, his prestige grew day by day, making the Orange family gradually forgotten, and repeatedly defeated by the republicans in the parliamentary struggle. .And when the second Anglo-Dutch war, because the United Provinces won the final victory, the prestige of Speaker DeWitt, who was determined to be the main station, reached its peak. Countless people in Amsterdam and The Hague cheered him, which once made Oran Legislative legislators were saddened by it.

As a result, it was only ten years later, just because of the invasion of France, everyone's life was in trouble, and the furious people forgot about the past, and then planned to trample on the objects they worshiped in the past, even Sentenced to death.What a crap for Speaker DeWitt!

Moreover, at this moment, the little guards at the gate of Gwangenport Prison actually looked at the resigned former speaker of the third-tier parliament with an angry and haughty expression, which made John DeWitt extremely unacceptable, and at the same time I also lost the urge to talk to the residents of The Hague who crowded around and shouted abuse at themselves, because these people seemed to have lost their minds.

"Fuck you!" A military officer on the east coast, whose forehead was hit by something bloody, finally couldn't bear the anger in his heart, and directly smashed the butt of his gun into the face of the prison guard who was still chattering and provoking him. Go up, and then call the brothers behind you to come forward quickly, and clear the roadblock blocking the door.During this period, seven or eight prison guards rushed over, as if they were going to stop the somewhat arrogant soldiers from the east bank. The infantry squeezed and bumped, and immediately staggered aside.They wanted to get up and say something, but when they saw the shining bayonet in front of them, they immediately shut up.To deal with these bullies who have always been bullying and fearing hard, you really have to rely on arrogant and unreasonable martial arts, there is no other way!

The outrageous behavior of the No. [-] Mixed Battalion immediately aroused the indignation of the residents of The Hague who were clamoring outside.Under the instigation of caring people, some more irritable people were dominated by anger and began to rush towards the prison door recklessly. The situation seemed to be a little out of control!

(End of this chapter)