Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1662 Dutch South Africa ([-])

"For God's sake, if you go one step further, we're going to shoot!" Outside the town of Proteum, a group of Dutch militiamen walked over panting, and said to the soldiers on the east bank who were walking in the opposite line.

Those soldiers on the east bank wore black-brimmed caps, suede shoes, leather belts, and rifles. They looked like they were not of the same class as the Dutch militiamen here.And seeing their murderous looks on their faces, this made the Dutch feel more or less terrified, and at the same time even more confused: We didn't provoke you, why did we come here like this?Some smart people speculate that it may be related to some recent conflicts between the two countries, but most of them don't know about it, so each of them is panicked and puzzled.

Facing the Dutch was the No.11 Mixed Battalion of the East Coast Army.The commander of the battalion is Captain Li Zhixin. He was originally a small staff officer with no background, and his promotion was not easy. However, after following Guo Handong and becoming a diehard, he was promoted very fast all the way, and now he has become the commander of the mixed army battalion.

He was just in his early 30s, and he was in high spirits. After seeing the Dutch coming to stop him, he didn't bother to send someone to understand what these people were talking about, so he directly ordered loudly: "First company, half turn left , Quickly step up and fire the gun, prepare-aim-release!"

The No.11 mixed battalion is a new unit, the soldiers are seriously inexperienced, and the officers are also full of fresh graduates, but their training is excellent and the intensity is extremely high. His orders formed reflexive obedience.Therefore, after hearing the order from the battalion commander Li Zhixin, the officers and soldiers of the first company immediately stepped forward without thinking, and then more than 200 rifles were fired one after another in a very short period of time, directly shooting the dozens of soldiers standing in front. The Dutch militia was beaten into a hornet's nest.And when the gunpowder smoke cleared, the first company subconsciously knew what they had just done!

Li Zhixin has been riding on the horse so that all officers and soldiers in the battalion can see him.After seeing the well-trained "performance" of the first company, he was a little overjoyed, and he laughed and said: "That's it, that's it, see! The Dutch are nothing to be afraid of. They are inferior to us in training, equipment, morale, and treatment. What else do you have to worry about? All of them are in battle formation to search and move forward. The target is Proteum! I think within an hour Go to the city to drink tea, please help me!"

"Wan victorious!" Immediately, an officer boosted morale, and the soldiers raised their guns and shouted together. Then they arranged their formations according to each company and platoon, and walked towards the direction of Proteum City stepping on the bright drum rhythm.At this time, in their eyes, the Dutch no longer pose much of a threat, and their own forces have the upper hand. The Dutch did not expect to be attacked by their own side in advance, so there is a high probability that they will be in chaos. event.The dozens of militiamen just now were probably most of the troops that the city could mobilize in the first place, so what is there to be afraid of?Just hit it!

Proteum is a small city with a mix of civil and wood structures. The city walls are not strong, because they only need to prevent the attacks of the English and natives in the early stage of construction. There is no need to build a masonry fortress like the Netherlands. The cost is too high, and the East India Company will never allow it.

And because of this, Proteum fell quickly under the attack of 11 officers and soldiers from the four infantry companies of the No.960 mixed battalion at this time, and the resistance time did not even exceed 10 minutes.In this siege operation where there was almost no battle, only 19 people were killed or injured on the east bank, and only 15 people were killed or injured by the Dutch in the city, which was even less than that on the east bank. The words of the dozens of people who were shot into pieces outside the city.

Li Zhixin triumphantly entered the town half an hour later, and then sealed up the treasury, granary, weapon depot and other structures as usual, and sent someone to notify the main force of the three mixed battalions led by Guo Handong, No. The cavalry of the 11th Mixed Battalion is also behind, mainly because Guo Handong has drawn out all the cavalry from each battalion, and temporarily put them under the direct control of the regiment headquarters as a mobile strike force.

At that time, there were hundreds of Dutch colonists in the city of Proteum, and about three times the number of black and red slaves.These people were a little panicked at this moment, not knowing why they were getting along well yesterday, but why they suddenly met each other today.Could it be that the United Provinces are already at war with the East Coast?That was bad luck!

Guo Handong and others arrived in Proteum around [-] o'clock in the morning. He brought the regimental staff, guards, health teams, gendarmerie squads, and reconnaissance troops into this lowland-style town. Then he lived directly in a church, which was also the best and largest building in the city.

"The Ministry of the Army also has a complete set of procedures for the occupied area. You have read and studied it before you set off. You should know how to be a good occupying army." Guo Handong sat on the long bench used by believers to pray On the chair, looking at more than a dozen officers under his command, he said without hesitation: "Li Zhixin, Proteum was taken by your No.11 mixed battalion, so you should send three infantry platoons to station here ,There should be no problem?"

"Commander, there is no problem!" Li Zhixin stood at attention with his legs together and replied, "There are only more than 800 colonists in the whole town, and half of them live in the countryside outside the city, and only half are in the city. Three well-trained infantrymen The platoon is stationed here, and there is no problem, the Dutch, they dare not act rashly, otherwise what we are holding in our hands is not a fire stick."

Guo Handong was delighted by Li Zhixin's murderous words. He smiled and said, "Okay, okay, I'm relieved that you all have confidence. But don't worry too much, Mr. Dongmian In Qing County, I have already made an agreement with their county magistrate that the county’s security team will cooperate with us in the next period of time. Well, instead of letting them take on the main combat tasks, they will send people to consolidate the rear occupied area and maintain Logistics transportation line. Although there are only more than 300 people in the security team of Changqing County, and it took a short time to form, it is still not a big problem to do this kind of thing. So it won’t take long. Your three platoons can It’s back to construction, but you have to be careful, all the materials in the warehouse must be taken care of, and they can’t be taken away for no reason. I know that some officers and soldiers in the local security regiment have always had bad habits, so you have to pay attention to this.”

After talking eloquently, Guo Handong hurriedly had some lunch in the town—the bread, vegetable soup and barbecue made by the captured French Huguenots. —Then left the small town of Proteum and joined the main force that had just rested outside the town, preparing to move on.After all, time waits for no one!Sometimes, what is important is a fast word, that is, to get everything done and control the overall situation before the enemy reacts, which may greatly reduce casualties.

At 01:30 in the afternoon, a cavalry detachment composed of four mixed battalion cavalry companies (a total of more than 400 cavalry), also under the command of the commander of the eighth mixed battalion cavalry company, left the main force and went south, heading towards the south of Proteum. The city of Bredasdorp, tens of kilometers to the south, was killed.That city—actually, it’s also a small town—has a small population, and its geographical location is relatively remote. The Dutch don’t pay much attention to it on weekdays. It has neither strong fortifications nor elite soldiers. what strength.Sending more than 400 cavalry over there is actually a little too small to be of great use!

The No.11 mixed battalion, the main force excluding the No.11 mixed and cavalry detachment, set off later because it needed to deal with some affairs in Proteum, such as centralizing important supplies, such as collecting taxes from local Dutch residents, For example, go to the outskirts of the country to obtain some supplies to reduce consumption, etc. There are still more than [-] people in total, and they continue to make great strides forward, killing the next Dutch colonial town of Haimer (located near the small town of Caledon in the later generation) to go, and arrived outside the city in the afternoon three days later.

On this westward march, the army on the east bank also encountered many Dutch manors and villages.The manor should be owned by aristocrats or merchants. There are more than a dozen white helpers and thugs who manage a large number of efforts, mainly planting wheat, grapes, fruits, and raising livestock; They obtained valuable land from the company, and then signed an agreement with the company to share the proceeds from farming or grazing-to make a digression here, the staff of the East India Company have always resisted this kind of sharing agreement , because the terms are very unfavorable to them. I believe that if the surrounding areas are not already occupied by people from the east coast, these guys who have been transferred from employees to "Booleans" will definitely bring all their belongings and wander to the inland areas with their families Yes, because then no one will be able to exploit them. This may be the reason why the Boers often wandered and migrated in history. Of course, this plane on the east coast seems to be impossible, because there is no large blank space around them. They take possession.

For these manors or villages, the people on the east coast basically did not divide their troops to occupy them, and of course they did not send anyone to explain what they were doing. Now the only targets of Commander Guo are Haimer and New Horn, two cities located at the western end of the southern coastal plain. .Once here, people on the east coast can basically enjoy this narrow, moist, fertile plain between the South Hengshan Mountains and the sea. Later generations here will be an important producer of grapes, livestock, fruits and vegetables, and wheat in South Africa. It is very livable. , Support people.

On April 1674, 4, after unsuccessfully sending people to persuade Haimo to surrender, the well-prepared Guo Tuanchang did not talk nonsense, and directly pulled out a total of 15 artillery pieces from five artillery companies (the artillerymen of the No. 40 mixed battalion The company has not yet arrived), and then used a baptism of shells like a tsunami to silence the Dutch militia who were already noisy in the city of Haimer.Facing the cannon, which can be called the weapon of the god of war, anyone is in awe, especially when they only have two or three old bronze cannons.

The final battle was also lackluster. Commander Guo, who was once ridiculed for only beating people with money, directly smashed a big hole on the weak city wall of Haimer City at the cost of dozens of barrels of gunpowder and a large number of projectiles being consumed. Then they approached the gap with grape bullets and shelled the Dutch who were frantically rushing to block the gap, which directly broke the morale of the Dutch militia.

Next, Captain Li Zhixin of the No.11 Mixed Battalion led his troops to assault the gap, and easily entered the city, causing the battalion and company commanders of the fraternal troops who originally planned to show off to curse secretly. Little Piff won the first place twice in a row, which is really annoying!

And just as the officers and soldiers of the No.11 mixed battalion entered the city of Heimer and launched a bayonet assault on the last remaining enemy, a cavalry unit also brought good news from Bredasdorp: After the cavalry brothers Thanks to their efforts, the city has been brought under control, and the security regiment of Changqing County has also sent a hundred militiamen over the same trip, and they will be able to hand over the defense to them in a few days, and then devote themselves to new operations.

Guo Handong was overjoyed when he heard this, and said that their four cavalry companies did not need to come to Haimer to meet up, but went directly to New Horn (near Hermanus Port in later generations), and cooperated with the Ninth Army, which will set off southward tomorrow. The mixed battalion pulled out this colonial town by the sea in one fell swoop.After this place is conquered, people on the east coast will no longer need to transport goods long-distance from land, but can directly unload goods at the wharf of New Horn Port, which is convenient and fast. The premise is that the navy has completely blocked the offshore waters of Dutch South Africa. Although so far they haven't even seen a hair of the navy.

The provisional first regiment after the division did not continue to march in a hurry, but rested for a day and a half in Haimer City. By the way, when the three infantry platoons of the No.11 mixed battalion rushed to join, they escorted A batch of supplies rushed over. The masters, carts and draft animals were all requisitioned on the spot in Changqing County.

In the early morning of April 1674, 4, after several days of long-distance travel, the provisional first regiment appeared near Stellenbosch, an important economic town in Dutch South Africa, and tentatively persuaded it to surrender. Guo, who had so much hope, unexpectedly found out that the Dutch actually expressed their acceptance of conditional surrender, that is, the people on the east coast guaranteed their personal property and life safety, and they could hand over the city gate keys and all materials, and bear some "reasonable "Taxation, Guo Handong agreed to this, so Stellenbosch actually went down without a fight. More than 22 officers and soldiers of the security regiment assembled have overcome the barrier of Gowers City in the north of Stellenbosch after a fierce battle. In addition, the South African cavalry battalion led by the Lai brothers has also moved southward and defeated a Dutch cavalry force. , cut off the last fortress of the Dutch, Cape Town, from the vast countryside, making it an isolated city, waiting for Guo Handong's main force to come and launch a fatal blow to it.

Guo Handong who heard the news couldn't even close his mouth with a smile. It's only been a few days, and the Dutch South African colony, which he thought was not easy to eat, has only the last enemy city left, which is of course the most important. One, where most of the population, wealth and army of Dutch South Africa are concentrated!

(End of this chapter)