Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1656 Struggle and Preparation ([-])

"Since the Dutch have stopped paying employment fees and refusing to provide supplies, then there is nothing to say, just leave. Anyway, the third-level parliament is also in a closed state now, and it will not open until next year, right? Then everyone should go to Antwerp together Forget it. What's the point of staying in The Hague, a place soaked in seawater and full of mosquitoes?" In the temporary barracks outside The Hague, Staff Officer Wang, who had just returned from Starry Night in Amsterdam, said loudly to Lan Fei: "Now not only The Hague is here. In Amsterdam, Haarlem, Delft, Leiden, Rotterdam and many other cities, they all hate us very much. It is said that many militia leaders are in series and want to teach us a lesson. Bah, I wonder Now, when the German mercenaries under Frederick slaughtered more people than us in Holland Province, why don’t we see them filled with righteous indignation? Do you really think we are soft persimmons!”

It is said that since the Prince of Orange, as the commander-in-chief of the Navy and Army of the United Provinces, asked the First Mixed Battalion to hand over the person responsible for the massacre in Gwangenport Prison and was flatly rejected, all supplies to them were immediately stopped. Supplies, including cash, water and military supplies.As for whether to mobilize heavy troops to fight them or expel them directly, there is no way to say, because it has been several days since the incident, and even an official representing the United Provincial Government has not come.On the contrary, the city of The Hague was filled with righteous indignation. There have been people cursing outside the manor these days, but that's all they have to do. After all, the First Mixed Battalion has a bad reputation, and no one wants to hit the gun.

Basically, the Dutch government now feels to the people on the east coast that they are a bit wary, and they don't know how to end this matter.First of all, it is impossible for the First Mixed Battalion to hand over personnel, and it will be impossible in this lifetime. About 30 people and a bunch of staff officers were dispatched that day, and the total number of officers was nearly 30.These are not [-] people with no background. They may be the son of a certain director in the capital, the son of a certain director, the son-in-law of a certain dean, or the students of a certain military veteran, etc. They usually offend one or two people. It's not a big problem, but if you offend dozens of people at the same time, even a veteran like Li Qing will be quite troublesome. It's not that it's impossible, but it's not worth it.

Secondly, if the people on the east coast insisted on not handing over their troops, would the army led by the Prince of Orange really dare to mobilize troops to fight against the First Mixed Battalion?I'm afraid not necessarily.First, they currently only have an infantry regiment of 1200 in The Hague. Not to mention the difference in weaponry and tactics with the First Mixed Battalion, the huge difference in personnel quality is just like the chasm in the sky. This is determined by the frequency and intensity of training, nothing else; second, because the United Provinces and France are still in a tense military confrontation, the Dutch are wooing mercenaries everywhere-really they have drawn a lot , and they are much stronger than their own fighting power-it's too late, how could it be possible to transfer another [-] people from the front line to deal with the people on the east coast, the French will smile crookedly.

Therefore, the Dutch are extremely contradictory at this time.If such a big incident happened, it would be impossible not to retaliate, and it would be even more unreliable to use force to retaliate, which would ruin the country's major affairs.So what should I do? Could it be that I can only retaliate, and it seems that this is the only way to go.So you can see that the Dutch first stopped funding and supplies, and then expressed strong anger to Li Qing, that's all.They even consider using economic sanctions now, because once you stop the trade contract signed with the East Bank, in case people don’t take the muskets, cannons, armor, gunpowder, ammunition kits, bandages, and medicines ordered by Van Boiningen back then What about when the military funds come over?You must know that at the moment of rapid military expansion, the United Provinces cannot afford to lose this large amount of military resources, so they are even so pitiful that they dare not even say some serious words, which is also a tragedy.

As for the people in The Hague who were instigated by some people to make trouble at the gate of Gwangenport Prison, and then were stabbed to death and hacked to death by soldiers on the east bank, they died as soon as they died. At least in a short period of time, no one can help them Wronged.Even if some militiamen were out of righteous indignation and shame, and wanted to trouble the people on the east bank, Li Qing, Lan Fei and others didn't take it to heart. What a big deal!

"You can't evacuate all of them at once. Let's evacuate part of it first. After all, The Hague is the center of the United Provinces. Once we leave, it will not be so easy to come back!" Lan Fei looked at the first man who was practicing outside the manor. The officers and soldiers of the mixed battalion said: "Let the supply company and the engineering platoon withdraw first, and they will escort Cornelis DeWitt to Antwerp. His brother has already sent someone to contact him. This place is very close to the United Provinces. It is also very convenient, if something happens in the future, they can also set off to return to The Hague or Amsterdam as quickly as possible.”

"Where are the other congressmen? Do you want to send them away?" Staff Officer Wang asked again.

"Send away? No, no, no, they don't want to go, I asked." Lan Fei waved his hand and said, "Actually, they are doing the right thing. When the country is facing aggression, they go to foreign countries No matter what the reason is, it is always an inappropriate thing. Therefore, it is normal for them to choose to continue to live in The Hague, but they need to live in this manor owned by the wife of Speaker De Witt, Elizabeth, so that the outside world can understand They are protecting them, and we are undoubtedly the ones who will undertake this work at present and in the next period of time. As for who will take over this work after our battalion is completely withdrawn, let’s talk about it. I believe DeWitt and the others will figure out their own way of."

Staff Officer Wang nodded sadly upon hearing this.The First Mixed Battalion was urgently summoned from the Free State Kingdom to the United Provinces, but it has already caused such a big mess before it even went into battle to kill the enemy. Anyone would be dissatisfied.Don't look at the fact that there are many officials and eunuchs in the First Mixed Battalion, but they also have the intention of making contributions, and they are even more eager because they have been ridiculed by their brother camps all the year round, but who made them do such a feat at the gate of Gwangenport Prison? ?Now that the Dutch are under pressure, although Li Qing doesn't care much, it is inevitable to retreat them to the Southern Netherlands in batches, so everyone is depressed.

Lan Fei's No. [-] Mixed Battalion is planning to withdraw from the United Provinces in batches, but Yang Liang's No. [-] Mixed Battalion is not doing so well. Together with the soldiers, they launched an attack on the Breda fortress held by the French.

To be honest, this kind of attack has no substantive significance.Because both sides were limited by the extremely bad traffic conditions, the material transfer was not smooth, the morale of the army was low, there were many diseases, and there were many deserters, so the fighting was extremely weak, and there was even an unexplainable meaning of dealing with the superiors. in.

The Dutch of Yang Liang's unit did not stop funding and supplies, especially Frank Banning of Bergen op Zoom. Under certain circumstances, some wine, live poultry, livestock, etc. were sent to Yang Liang's army from time to time to help them improve their food and maintain morale until they withdrew back to Bergen op Zoom because of their failure to attack Breda Fortress.

After the Zhongguo * Army and Baoguo * Army gathered a while ago, the number of troops led by Yang Liang has increased, but it is only two to 3000 people.The main reason for this is that after fighting for so long, the loss cannot be replenished: when the third mixed battalion set off from the Cape Verde Islands, many people were lying in the hospital due to long-distance sea transportation or unsuitability to the climate ; and after arriving in the United Provinces, the long-term continuous combat lost a lot of manpower; then the Dutch flooded the country with water, and the environment suddenly became harsh, which further exacerbated the non-combat attrition of the troops.In desperation, Yang Liang had no choice but to transfer better-performing people from the two servant armies into the third mixed battalion, so that the unit still maintained a size of more than 1000 people, but in terms of combat effectiveness, it was indeed better than the one who had just arrived. The Netherlands dropped quite a bit.

The infantry battalions of the Zhongguo* Army and the Baoguo* Army were so drawn out, plus the war wear and tear and the reduction of personnel due to illness. At present, the combined number of the two battalions is only 400, which is smaller than when they are full. 30% of the appearance, but also helpless.As a result, the reserve officers on the east coast who commanded these two troops were already discussing with Yang Liang whether they should recruit strong men and enrich their ranks in the Netherlands.Otherwise, in the absence of sending supplementary troops from the mainland—in fact, it is impossible to send them—they would have to fight less and less, and eventually be exhausted.

Yang Liang vetoed his subordinate's proposal of course, because he felt that the Dutch were not good candidates for recruiting soldiers, and if they were forced to enlist in the army, they would easily cause trouble. You must know that you are fighting on other people's territory.His idea was to bring the many foreign mercenary troops that had arrived in the Brabant region of the Netherlands one after another at this time, especially some of the defeated troops who were defeated in the battle with the French, and bring them over to replenish the loyalists* The Army and the Infantry Battalion of the National Defense Army are also good choices.

But no matter what, the east bank army led by Yang Liang, with a scale of 3000 to [-] people, has been a little tired even after fighting without support.Therefore, after failing to attack the Breda Fortress for the last time, they quietly retreated to their starting point outside the city of Bergen op Zoom, recuperating and observing the further development of the situation.

In this way, the whole summer and autumn quietly passed in the somewhat boring confrontation between the Netherlands and France.During this period, neither side carried out large-scale military operations, and the front remained relatively stable.Yang Liang and others discovered that the Dutch had brought in a large number of mercenaries from all over Europe after spending a lot of money, making their total strength exceed 5, which was extremely astonishing, and their combat effectiveness was comparable to There was also a huge improvement before the start of the war, and the French could no longer beat them as easily as before.On the French side, due to some brain-dead religious policies of King Louis XIV, the occupied areas (Dutch Brabant Duchy, Gelderland Province, Utrecht Province, and OberiJssel Province part or all The law and order situation in the region) deteriorated extremely, and a large number of Dutch people rose up to rebel against the rule of Catholic France, which once made the French occupying forces exhausted, and the tacit understanding between the two parties has disappeared. Catholicism, of course, has nothing to do with him starting to send people to levy heavy taxes in these places to relieve the increasingly heavy financial pressure, but it is not the main reason.

It can be seen from these that the balance of victory in the war has tilted rapidly towards France at the beginning, and now it has tilted a lot towards the Dutch again.King Louis XIV of France, who has returned to Paris to handle government affairs, has now realized how wrong it was to divide his troops to control the various towns in the occupied area, because he missed the opportunity to occupy important cities such as The Hague and Amsterdam at the fastest speed. The opportunity allowed the Dutch to open the sea gate and use "General Flood" to repel the French army, and then gained a valuable respite.If the French had been more decisive at the time, the provinces of Holland and Zeeland should have been occupied for a long time, and they might not be able to find a chance to release water and retreat from the enemy.In the final analysis, Louis XIV's major mistakes in strategic decision-making ruined the French's excellent start-maybe that time was the only chance they could occupy The Hague and Amsterdam in this war.

The people on the east coast seemed a little low-key in this grand war.After all, compared with the 20 combined armies of both sides, their less than 3000 troops with uneven quality are really not eye-catching, and it seems that they are not active in combat, giving people a sense of knowledge and experience. The feeling of learning from other people's large-scale corps combat experience.

It is also worth mentioning that the first mixed battalion of Major Lan Fei was also withdrawn in batches under the hostile eyes of the Dutch.The DeWitt brothers also left The Hague with their families, and went to Antwerp, a neighboring country, to take refuge temporarily——Cornelius DeWitt was deported because of being deported, and John DeWitt accepted Li Qing’s secret because of successive assassinations. Persuasion, leave the United Provinces first, and come back after the domestic situation turns around, because it is obvious that the Prince of Orange is in full swing now, and no one can shake his rule, so he can only wait for another chance.

On November 1673, 11, an unexpected heavy snow suddenly covered the entire lowland area. The sudden drop in temperature improved the traffic conditions on the ground a lot, because some places froze and the ground became dry and hard again. , which is undoubtedly conducive to large-scale military operations.The French generals are full of ambition, and intend to restart the offensive against the Netherlands, Zeeland and other provinces, and completely destroy the country-they must hurry up so much, because the huge financial pressure is about to crush the country, even Ko A money-making expert like Albert is at his wit's end.As for the United Provinces, the tense diplomatic work is entering the most critical moment. Among them is the instigation of the British. One of the bargaining chips is to tear up the woolen purchase agreement signed with the people on the east coast and continue to buy goods from England. purchase.

(End of this chapter)