The Great Bandit in Kangxi Year

Chapter 237

However, at this time Southeast Asia was full of war. The Dutch Far East Fleet had just flaunted its might in the Philippines, and the anti-Dutch fleets of Britain, France, Norway, Sweden, and Portugal gathered in the Andaman Sea outside Malacca.

Spain's naval strength has not been restored, and no warships have been dispatched.

They assembled a total of forty battleships and more than a hundred cruisers, but they still did not dare to pass through the Strait of Malacca and the Dutch Far East Fleet desperately.

In the end, the East India Companies of the five countries together continued to block the Strait of Malacca on the periphery, and confronted the Dutch Far East Fleet from a distance. On the other hand, they formed a joint army and decided to directly land in the Indian Ocean and occupy Batavia, the headquarters of the Netherlands in Southeast Asia. , forcing the Dutch Far East Fleet to surrender.

In the end, the five countries actually raised [-] Musketeers and more than [-] artillery pieces. Under the bombardment of dozens of warships, they occupied the small port of Rabhan within an hour. The landing point was on the other side of Batavia. Belonging to the Indian Ocean, the port is more than two hundred miles away from Batavia.

The Dutch side was taken aback. They did not have the strength to occupy the entire sea, so they hurriedly abandoned some unimportant strongholds, and moved the nearby troops and immigrants to the Batavia Fortress, and the governor of Batavia also asked the local Sultan Cooperate in combat.

The local Sudan was a puppet supported by the Dutch. They were able to recruit hundreds of thousands of native soldiers. Although the weapons were simple, the biggest role of cannon fodder was to waste the bullets of the empire.

However, the Governor of Batavia is not afraid, because Batavia City is a huge star-shaped fortress, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack.At the same time, there are tens of thousands of Dutch people in the city, who can go to the city for defense at any time, but he still severely reprimanded Joseph, ordering the Dutch Far East Fleet to defeat the anti-Dutch fleet as soon as possible, otherwise the trade routes will be blocked and the losses will be huge.

The star-shaped fortress is a fortress defense system that emerged when the European firearms era was just popularized.

The basic idea is that every aspect of defense or approach to a fortress has at least one, or preferably several, areas of fire that can cover it. These lethal areas can be extended, as the attacker needs at least Climbing a long sloping embankment that surrounds the fort gets even deadlier.

This kind of slope does not need to be very steep, but the attacker has to climb up without any cover, and every step forward has to face fierce firepower. This kind of slope is also a means of defense against attacks. A ramp guards the earthworks of the fort. An outer parapet stands above the ramp, and a buffer wall (sometimes with firing positions for the guards) is an obstacle that must be crossed before the fort is actually reached.

All of these defenses came before the military architects in front of the main walls of the fortress, and the corner forts, crown forts, and additional triangular forts (divided triangular forts or emplacements).

Looking at its overall effect from the design form, its complexity has been greatly deepened, and the design of each star-shaped center gives the defender an additional shooting position for any attack from either side. The length of the wall is limited to the Covered by flanking muskets, past experience has shown that a fort defended only by cannons can be easily captured once the cannons are destroyed.
The star-shaped castle fortress has strong defensive capabilities. It was originally invented by Europe to resist the westward expansion of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, which made the powerful Sipasi cavalry of the Ottoman Empire fall.Later, with the popularization of European firearms, military strategists' expectations for flanking firepower increased, thus further promoting the development of star-shaped castle fortresses.

Compared with the square castle in the east, the star-shaped castle fortress in the west is actually formed on the basis of the square castle, with another square castle rotated 45 degrees and superimposed on the original square.

To be more specific, it is a polygonal fortress formed by superimposing two squares with staggered angles of 45 degrees.

Of course, this is the most basic star fortress.There are also superimposed pentagons and hexagons. The largest surviving later generations is the twelve-pointed star-shaped fortress—Almeida Castle, which is a superposition of three quadrilaterals.

Almeida Castle is a fortress built by Portugal to launch its glorious independence from Spanish rule.It is precisely because of this fortress that the Spanish army was unable to defeat the Portuguese army, which finally recognized Portugal's independence.

The biggest feature of the Lingbao is that each additional protruding water chestnut is equivalent to doubling the flanking firepower. If the enemy wants to attack, they will have to pay twice or even ten times the number of casualties.

How could the anti-Dutch coalition forces not know that this kind of castle is a meat grinder, but Batavia is the center of the Netherlands in Southeast Asia, with shipyards, ammunition factories, etc., and a lot of wealth. There will be gains in this battle, and the Dutch Far East Fleet does not have enough ammunition to supplement, how can it defeat the multinational combined fleet?

So the castle had to be captured, but the commander of the anti-Dutch coalition forces was not stupid, and tried to retreat deliberately to lure the Dutch out of the city to fight, but the trick was seen through by the Dutch.

The Dutch were not fooled and held fast to the fort.Since there are sufficient supplies in the fortress, it will be fine even if it is besieged for a year and a half.But the multinational coalition forces couldn't afford it. Once the Far East Fleet arrived, it was difficult for them to leave.

The Five-Nation Allied Forces couldn't help the Dutch, but they could burn, kill and loot everywhere to get supplies. As for the local indigenous troops, they were even more defeated, and they ran as far as they could in the end.

For a time, the western peninsula of the Dutch East Indies fell into terror, and all the estates of the Dutch were looted, which destroyed the East Indies that the Dutch worked so hard for.

The Governor of Batavia in the Netherlands was furious, but not yet out of his wits.He knew that now was not the time to fight the opponent, and he was waiting, waiting for the East India Company to mobilize troops and warships to come for reinforcements.

You must know that in addition to the Far East Fleet, the Dutch East India Company also has some cruisers and armed merchant ships. Although the combat power is not very strong, there are a lot of them. There are at least hundreds of warships capable of combat in Southeast Asia, most of which are cruisers and frigates. .

In this way, the Netherlands still has a slight advantage, but Joseph and Nicholas, the head of the East India Company, are depressed.

The Black Dragon Fleet is gathered in the South China Sea. According to reliable information, there are more than 150 cruisers. This is a powerful force, especially at this critical moment.

They don't think that the Black Dragon Fleet will not do anything while watching the excitement, so now the Dutch fleet dare not dispatch at will.

The commander of the Far East Fleet, Joseph, said angrily: "Mr. Speaker, it is better to gather all the warships to destroy the Black Dragon Fleet first, so that they will not be an eyesore."

"Nonsense, let's not talk about the loss of this battle. Once Malacca loses the guard of the main warship, Britain, France and other countries will definitely take advantage of it. By then, the Dutch fleet will end. Didn’t you see that they are all waiting? So we have to wait. In fact, what I am most worried about is the battle in the Netherlands. The victory or defeat depends on the determination of Britain, France and other countries. The navies of Britain and France are only slightly weaker than the United Provinces. , but the sum is definitely stronger than the Empire, plus Sweden, Norway, Portugal and Spain, it is very difficult for the United Provinces to win, alas, we can only resign ourselves to fate." Nicholas said earnestly, with a touch of disappointment in his tone, and then I can't see the leanness and intelligence of the past.

"Maybe we shouldn't offend Emperor Dahua I, this is a terrible character." Joseph also sighed, mustered up his fighting spirit again, and said loudly: "We can't just wait to die like this, Batavia is in a difficult situation. In danger, we must go to the rescue."

"Hey, don't worry, Batavia is very safe. Anyone who wants to occupy this place will have a bloody head, so you can ignore it for now. Actually, it's useless. Emperor Dahua is also an ambitious person, even if we don't provoke him , he will also make a move, but he will definitely choose the best time to make a move. If he secretly forms an alliance with Britain, France and other countries, then it must be mutual use. Maybe we can take advantage of the mentality of all countries wanting to pick cheap ones and defeat them one by one. " Nicholas said with a sneer as his eyes lit up.

"Oh, sir, please give the order." Joseph said in surprise, Nicholas really deserved to be the number one person in Southeast Asia.

"Hey, first, send someone to contact the Emperor of Dahua first. As long as he doesn't intervene in this battle, the Netherlands will allow him to occupy the Philippines and provide some assistance, and sponsor 2000 million Dahua's silver dollars. The Netherlands will withdraw from Annan and other countries All forces and strongholds recognize Dahua's suzerain status in Annan and other countries, and if there are other conditions, they will all be allowed, the main thing is to stabilize the other party first."

"Secondly, if my estimation is correct, the multinational fleet has already divided its forces. Some of them must be in the area of ​​Labukhan, in case we cut off the retreat of the multinational army, and the other part is still outside the Strait of Malacca. This is Opportunity, once the special envoy sent to the Great China Empire is dispatched, no matter what the result is, the East India Fleet and the Far East Fleet will both set off ahead of schedule. Let's bet, bet on the time difference, as long as the Black Dragon Fleet does not set off at the same time as us, we will win Hope, and it's broken one by one."

Nicholas sneered and said with confidence.

Joseph understood that Nicholas wanted to deceive Emperor Dahua, but the intensity and brutality of the battle must have been astonishing, he sweated in his heart, and replied in a deep voice: "I hope it will be as you wish, but in case The Great China Empire took the opportunity to make a move, so what?"

"There is no way around this. If the multinational combined fleet is defeated, the pressure on the Netherlands will be lighter. At that time, Britain, France and other countries may reconcile, and the remaining strength may not be able to defeat the opponent's Black Dragon Fleet. After all, the opponent only has There are three first-class battleships, and the rest are cruisers, don't you think cruisers can defeat battleships?" Nicholas said with a smile.

Joseph nodded, apparently convinced. When the Black Dragon Fleet finds out, another battle may start again.

The Dutch special envoy sank and set off for Beijing on the same day.

At the same time, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and other places did not allow any local people or ships to leave the port, while the Dutch Far East Fleet and the Dutch East India Fleet set off that night.

Their idea is very simple, that is, before the Dahua Empire reacts, take advantage of the night and use their numerical advantage to kill the multinational fleet first, and then clean up the Black Dragon Fleet.

What they didn't know was that Jiang Tao had been waiting impatiently for a long time, wishing that they would immediately bite the dog. Unfortunately, he was cautious by nature, and the arrangement was too strict, which almost frightened the Dutch side, which made the good show delayed...

(End of this chapter)