New Shun 1730

"Across Asia, this is the first time a company has laid siege to a city instead of attacking it. I think it will be a landmark event."

"In Europe, this sign is that after the Quadruple Alliance War, we refused to participate in the peace conference and gave up our status as a great power."

"Many years from now, if the company fails in Southeast Asia, people will definitely remember today's siege. These barbarians will see our weakness from this siege."

Valkenir was unwilling and filled with emotions, but he had to make this choice. He felt very bleak about the company's prospects.

The company's roots are in the Netherlands. There are no intact eggs under the nest, and if there is no skin left, how will the hair be attached? How long can the decline of the Netherlands and the company's dominance in Southeast Asia be maintained?

Can it really continue to maintain its current rule under the jealous British?

When he came, he had an unscrupulous crab mentality. He wanted to cut through the mess quickly, kill all the Chinese slave workers in one wave, and complete Batavia's industrial transformation.

But now, after experiencing too much and witnessing the rise of Dashun, the Chinese uprising, Dashun's gunboat diplomacy, forcing companies to pay tribute, the British causing trouble everywhere, etc., his mentality has long since collapsed.

In the second encirclement and suppression of the rebels in the volcanic area, the rebels' tactics were simple and crude. They faced the Dutch's volley of guns, marched to within forty steps, fired a volley, and then charged with bayonets, instantly defeating the encircling Dutch colonists. military.

This tactic not only made the Dutch more convinced that there were British instructors behind these people, but more importantly, it allowed Valkenier to see the organization of this rebel army.

Being able to assemble with artillery, keep the formation in chaos despite musket fire, and advance to a close enough distance to fire a salvo... means that if we choose to attack by force instead of siege today, a battle will begin near the line of contact between the two sides. A bloody and brutal tug-of-war.

Valkenir had no confidence in the army under his command.

Once the attack is blocked, and once the scene becomes too brutal, the army is likely to refuse to continue participating in the war. Because these colonial armies have never fought a decent tough battle, and their previous suppressions were all smooth battles.

Moreover, the most critical point is that once the siege is blocked, or if another force of the rebel army suddenly attacks from the flank while the siege is in progress, then this may be a major defeat.

He cannot afford to lose.

This is the only mobile force he has left that can be mobilized. Not to mention here, so what if it’s the local area? They couldn't even pull out a field force of 20,000 people. During the Spanish Succession War, the Netherlands pulled out 130,000 regular troops. The old lady celebrates the New Year, and every year is worse than the last.

The impression these rebels left on Valkenir also made Valkenir have to guard against it.

During the uprising, they feinted to retreat and ambush; during the first counter-encirclement and suppression campaign, they also feinted to attack the large spice garden outside Cirebon, attracting Dutch reinforcements, who surrounded the garden for reinforcements and defeated part of it.

Therefore, Valkenir was worried that he would repeat his old tricks today: once his troops deployed in a siege formation, the rebels in the Bandung area suddenly came out from behind. With the formation already deployed, it would be a massacre.

At first, he thought quite well, relying on the nearly 300 cannons on several warships to fire hundreds of shots.

By using the siege technology that amazes these Asian peoples, the company's rule in Southeast Asia will not collapse for the time being, and war will not occur for a few more years.

But after seeing the defensive system on the opposite side and the turning line trench that seemed to be drawn by a protractor, he had to give up this wonderful idea.

Since you have chosen to besiege the city, it is easy. The Dutch soldiers also breathed a sigh of relief. The siege battle was very cruel and they didn't like it either.

Besieging a city is much simpler. You will usually get scurvy in three months at sea. This place is so hot. Before the rainy season in Southeast Asia comes, there will probably be very few people left in the city. The captured Dutch were not in the city, so they had nothing to worry about. Even if they were in the city, it would just be a hostage game at best.

A ring of trenches was dug in a few days to surround Cirebon Castle, well out of bombardment range.

However, subsequent excavations were stopped, and the Dutch camped on the west side of Cirebon, and the camp was tightly protected.

Warships patrol the sea outside Cirebon, strictly inspect every passing ship, and prohibit commercial ships from approaching Cirebon.

In the castle, the leaders of the rebel army, who thought they were going to fight a tough battle, were speechless for a moment.

It is common sense that Cirebon cannot be defended. Without a navy and sea control, you still want to defend the castles along the coast? Even if you don't attack, you will be trapped to death.

However, the Guiyi Army is not alone.

After being convinced that the Dutch would not launch a forceful attack, the upper echelons of the Guiyi Army who knew the news had only two things left to do every day.

Drinking and talking nonsense.

Climb to a high place, look at the sea, look for the warships of the imperial navy, and verify whether it is really like the Jinghai Palace textbook, where the mast is exposed first, and then the entire hull is exposed.

Under the guidance of starting anew, these people who have received a new education have gradually taken some things for granted.

A very strange thing, for example, the book says that the earth is round, so you can see the mast first and then the hull.

However, most people who have learned these things will not actually verify it, even if their conditions are extremely good and they have seas and ships. But subconsciously, I feel that this is a matter of course, just like loyalty and filial piety.

Including some very simple experiments, such as oxygen in the air, water will rise when a cup is burned, etc., which are very simple to do, but most people will not verify them, but will take them as common sense.

This is why Liu Yu said that he wanted to start a new business, not to debate, but to instill subtle influence on a group of young people, so that they feel that these common sense are common sense, absolutely correct, unchangeable, and need not be discussed.

Now that the city is under siege and there is no fighting, there is really nothing to do. Anyway, it's time to wait for the court's warships to appear, and you can take a look at them.

…………

On the ocean outside Jingliwen, the largest fleet of the Celestial Empire since Zheng He's last voyage to the West is advancing in formation.

It has approached Java, but the battle captain did not blow the whistle, and the observer on the mast has not yet discovered the Dutch fleet. Everything is normal.

The thirteen or fourteen-year-old officer trainees, as usual, followed the veterans on the deck to learn how to use the sextant and calculate the exact time of true solar time.

The sailors were still doing the deck-wiping exercise that they had to do every few days. It wasn't necessary to wipe it, at least it didn't need to be so frequent. It was mainly to consume their excess energy to avoid trouble.

The artillerymen on duty sat in the dark gun room, the air mixed with the salty smell of the sea, the smell of farts, sweaty feet, and the smell of gun oil, and it was so turbid that it seemed to stick to flies.

Several sailors took out their chewing tobacco secretly, fearing that their comrades would find out and ask for it. Smoking is not allowed on the ship, and for fear of fire, chewing tobacco soaked in licorice, cinnamon, cardamom, sugarcane honey, etc. has become a necessity for sailors.

Before the fleet set sail, a lot of it was issued, but the rationed amount was just enough to satisfy the craving. If you want to get more, you have to buy it yourself, but in fact not many people buy it: there is a chain of suspicion among the sailors. They think that if I buy it and others don't, will I give it to others or not? But if I don't buy it, others will buy it, so won't they be able to get it? Can they not give themselves a piece?

This crap is very expensive. Some time ago, someone wrote to the court, saying that there were too many tobacco growers, squeezing out arable land. And tobacco takes up too much land. After two or three years of planting, the land has to be left fallow. So the court is ordering all places to prohibit private tobacco planting, and then a monopoly comes, adding another tax to the court.

Wine is distributed every day. The boring life at sea, if there is no tobacco and wine, the sailors will definitely make trouble.

The officers on the ship also rely on the right to distribute wine and the right to reward and punish to strengthen their prestige and power.

Some sailors squatted there, watching two people playing chess there. It is not easy to play chess on a bumpy ship. Often a shake may lead to a fight.

The sailors who have been holding back for too long are never tired of this kind of fight. The best chess player on the ship must be the one who fights the most. If they win, they can determine where the chess piece just now is.

Judging from the jokes of later generations, such as hanging clothes on the cannons, it shows that the combat effectiveness of the Dashun fleet must be very weak.

The sailors were in tatters, especially the gunners in the gun room, many of them were naked, because it was really hot and stuffy. Moreover, the clothes were quite expensive, and there was no condition to wash them on the ship. After being soaked in sweat for a long time, they were not as strong as straw. It was better not to wear them and leave them for children to wear in the future. Even if they were made into a quilt, the cloth was not cheap enough.

There were a lot of troublemakers among the sailors. The most prestigious ones were famous for stealing wine under twenty whips, whoring without paying at the shore, eating free meals and sitting there and letting people beat them until they were tired. This led to a feature in Weihai, Busan, Guangzhou, Songjiang and other places: sailors had to pay first before eating.

Almost everyone who spoke could not even say a complete sentence without their parents or direct relatives within 18 generations.

Gambling was prevalent, and everything could be gambled. For example, standing on the side of the ship, you could bet on who could pee the farthest.

Fights were common, but no one dared to use knives and muskets. As long as they didn't use those things, the officers would turn a blind eye.

Just as scientific research cannot be industrialized, the leadership model of scientific research can tell the appearance of medieval guilds; the ship is a feudal fortress with strict hierarchy, and there is an insurmountable gap between officers and sailors. The complete restoration of feudalism is the most revived place in the core of the entire Dashun "Zhou Li".

So in the era when Zhou Li had already collapsed, the reaction of this era made the fleet sailors the most likely to cause trouble and revolt. There is no one else.

Since it is the most retro feudal hierarchy, the captain's room, which is completely different from the dirty and messy environment of the sailors, is decorated quite gorgeously. The tactics and techniques of the Dashun Navy originated from the Netherlands, but the shipbuilding technology originated from France. The extravagant French style gradually influenced the decoration of the Dashun Navy.

Spacious rooms, special officer meals, artworks such as ink paintings, high-quality wines, luminous cups, instead of cheap wooden cups for sugarcane wine, mahogany tables and chairs, all formed a sharp contrast with the stuffy sailor cabin.

Judging from the jokes, this is undoubtedly a navy without combat effectiveness.

In the luxurious captain's room of the flagship Tianyuan, Liu Yu was beaming with joy, doing pre-war mobilization there.

"We have 8 battleships, 24 cruisers, 12 fast frigates, and a total of 1,432 side guns above 9 pounds."

"The Dutch have about eight armed merchant ships, plus a bunch of support ships and auxiliary ships, and 300 side guns of 9 pounds or more."

"In any case, 1400 versus 300, the advantage is mine!"