I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 244 Sneak Attack on the Batavia Fortress
Chapter 243

It is certainly impossible for Zheng Zhilong to know the details of the negotiations between Ning Haijun and the Dutch East India Company in Batavia. Of course, even if Zheng Zhilong knew, it would be meaningless. Neither Ning Haijun nor the Dutch would care about Zheng Zhilong's attitude.

While Xie Jinglin and Breuer were negotiating, three large armed merchant ships flying the golden lion flag slowly sailed into the port of Batavia.

The current size of the city of Venice can be regarded as a small power in Europe, because they are at war with the Ottoman Navy, an ally of the Spanish Empire, and fundamentally speaking, they can also be regarded as an ally of the Dutch.

What's more, the Venetians are not interested in colonies outside the Mediterranean Sea. First of all, the population of Venice is too small to participate in the colonization. In addition, in the face of the crazy attack of the Ottoman Empire, Venice barely supports.

The Dutch East India Company punched Spain, kicked Portugal, and ruled the East in the East, but gave the green light to the fleet of Venice.

Seeing that these three weapons merchant ships were wearing gun suits, they had no combat attitude.

The Dutch warships in charge of patrolling Batavia Harbor were released without even being inspected by mountaineering ships.These three armed merchant ships over [-] tons entered the port smoothly.

Sidney Strachey, the Dutch head of the port and tax officer of the Dutch East India Company, came to the pier with several entourages and a dozen tax officials.

On the berth, the trestle has just been set up.As the commander of the Venetian fleet, Paul was the first to step off the ship. However, behind Paul, there appeared a team wearing steel helmets and hideous steel masks on their faces. Only two eye sockets were exposed, shoulders, chest , arms, and legs... are all covered tightly with large slabs of steel plates, and the breastplate is simply a whole slab of steel plate. As hydraulic stamping machines become more and more mature, they can process larger components. The original six pieces The breastplate made of steel plates has been eliminated.

These hoplites are covered from head to toe under thick steel plates, and every step they take will make a terrifying clang sound, coupled with the heavy and sharp Mo Dao in their hands, it really makes people shudder.

Sidney realized something was wrong, and hurriedly reached out his hand and said, "My friend, can you tell me who these are?"

Paul raised his hands and smiled wryly at Sidney: "I'm very sorry, my friend, it's none of our business, we were hijacked by them, and as their captives, we had to obey their orders...we are Forced!"

When the army of the Dutch East India Company discovered the group of uninvited guests, more than 600 heavy infantrymen of the Yuning Navy Jumping Battalion had already occupied the port.

Sidney looked at the heavy infantry in front of him, dumbfounded: "What are they doing?"

Paul shrugged: "Who knows, why don't you go over and ask..."

"Oh God, this joke isn't funny at all!"

Sidney yelled, "Damn it, stop them..."

Immediately afterwards, more than 100 Dutch East Indies colonial policemen rushed towards the heavy infantry of the Ning Navy with batons, shields, and muskets.

"Stop, stop, stop quickly, if you don't stop, we're going to shoot!"

Li Weiluan, who led the team to the expedition, said indifferently: "I don't understand what bird language you are talking about. If you speak Chinese, you need to find an interpreter!"

"Don't get me wrong, we have no malicious intentions!"

Sidney watched more and more soldiers from the Ning Navy Jumping Battalion disembark from the armed merchant ship. He was a little anxious: "Sorry, we have no malicious intentions!"

Sidney actually understands Chinese, and prefers southern dialects, such as Hokkien or Cantonese. Of course, he can also speak Daming Mandarin. Sidney is a talent and is proficient in Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. , and English, if you count the three dialects, he is a talent proficient in eight languages.

Sidney raised his hands and raised his hands to indicate that he had no weapons: "I just want to ask, what do you want to do?" "Who are you? We don't need your approval for what we do."

Li Weiluan said unceremoniously: "I am Li Weiluan, a member of the Diaodang Battalion of the advance team of the Ning Navy. I will now officially inform you that this general is under the order of Hai Guogong to take over here until he receives the order to leave. Now please Leave our port with your subordinates, of course, you can also choose to defeat us. We will take military action in an hour, and if you are still here in an hour, you will be attacked."

"No, you can't do this. Batavia is our territory in the Netherlands. You are launching a military attack on a sovereign country. You must stop your actions..."

Sidney was not intimidated, and finally he was able to argue.

"Sir, please make it clear, I'm not discussing with you, I'm telling you that you have only two choices now, fight or leave!"

In the Governor's Palace of the Netherlands, Breuer, who was negotiating with Xie Jinglin, soon received a sneak attack from Ning's navy soldiers and landed directly in Batavia.

Brewer's face changed drastically, he patted the table and said: "Mr. Xie, you...you are too shameless!"

"Shameless?"

Xie Jinglin smiled faintly: "Compared to you Dutch, we are still far behind. You Dutch adopted despicable, shameless and even more despicable means to slaughter unarmed Chinese, including those babies under the age of one month, and called you beasts. An insult to beasts!"

"I have to announce that the negotiations have broken down!"

There is no way for Breuer to retreat now. If he compromises again, the board of directors of the Dutch East India Company will remove him, and even initiate impeachment proceedings against him. He may be sent to a military court.

If it was an attack against a senior officer, or Medan, including Manjar (Malacca), then the Dutch probably had no way to do it, but the problem is that Batavia is the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company and the place where the largest number of troops are stationed. There are more than [-] Dutch elite soldiers here, including [-] cavalry, which is a decisive force.

It should be said that the Ning Navy has a numerical advantage in warships, but the army and the Dutch are really not afraid of the Ning Navy. After all, the vanguard of the Ning Navy adopted a sneak attack method and only came to more than [-] people.

The Netherlands not only has 26 Dutch soldiers in Batavia, but also has more than 35 indigenous armed personnel. These indigenous army Dutch are organized into [-] regiments.More importantly, the Dutch in Batavia have an absolute advantage in sea power. Here they have six third-tier warships and more than [-] armed merchant ships.

"As the governor of the Dutch East India, I ordered that all personnel in Batavia, including civil servants, be equipped with muskets and prepare for battle! Use the materials at hand to strengthen the fortifications as much as possible. We must give the soldiers of the Ming army a head-on blow, so that They recognize reality!"

Therefore, De Bauer led the combined fleet with a total of 41 warships and armed merchant ships. They left the port first and dispersed to look for traces of Ning Navy warships.

In De Bauer's view, if there are only more than 4000 army soldiers, there is no chance of occupying the entire Batavia without command of the sea. The Ning Navy used Venetian merchant ships to attack Batavia. It may be that, while they were dealing with this death squad with all their strength, they suddenly appeared again and blocked all the Dutch warships in the port.

Losing the advantage of maneuvering at sea, the warships hiding in the port are just living targets, which is simply fatal to the navy.

With the orders of Governor Breuer, the Dutch in Batavia.Including soldiers, businessmen, farmers, slave owners and workers, church and religious personnel, and even prostitutes, as long as they are teenagers and children who can afford guns, they are all equipped with muskets, and the civilians are driven out and the fortifications are reinforced.

In all fairness, as the main landing personnel, the Jumping Battalion was not equipped with heavy equipment, and the number of artillery was very small, at least much less than that of the Dutch.

Ning Haijun's style is the same as Cheng Shijie's, a vigorous and resolute style. Once ready, he will attack with a thunderous force and go straight to the enemy's base camp, regardless of how the enemy responds.

It was the same this time. While the Dutch were in a hurry to dispatch troops, the fleet led by Cheng Shijie had already crossed the Jakarta Islands in the Java Sea, only one step away from Guwa Island.

Batavia Port is a world-wide natural port. When the Dutch dominated Southeast Asia, they made great efforts to manage Batavia Port. They built a lot of port facilities here and immigrated from China to settle here. Some troops were also stationed.

Even at the most critical moment of the decisive battle with Zheng Zhilong, because of the massacre of Batavian Chinese, Cheng Shijie decided to put the Netherlands first and then Zheng Zhilong.

In the eyes of Cheng Shijie, Zheng Zhilong is just rotten meat in a pot. By December of the seventh year of Chongzhen at most, the main battleships of the Ning Navy can exceed 97 ships. [-] ships, if it comes to April in the eighth year of Chongzhen, the Ning Navy will have eight strike squadrons.

It can be said that the longer the time, the greater the advantage of the Ning Navy. The terrifying production capacity of the Ning Navy is even feared by the Dutch, let alone Zheng Zhilong?
In the final analysis, the war is still about the economy and national power.

With the strength of Ning Navy's navy, the joint fleet of the Dutch East India Company has sufficient strength to clean up the combined fleet of the Dutch East India Company. This is a problem that Cheng Shijie fully considers Europa.

With the fall of the Spanish Empire, the Dutch will successfully rise. However, Spain lost too quickly, which is not in the interests of Cheng Shijie. Cheng Shijie is now trying to weaken the strength of the Dutch as much as possible, which can be regarded as indirectly helping the Spaniards.

If the Spaniards are smart enough, they will have real peace talks with Cheng Shijie and divide Luzon Island equally. Cheng Shijie is actually willing. After all, even if Luzon is given to Cheng Shijie now, Cheng Shijie does not have enough manpower to occupy it. As long as he is strong enough, he can occupy as many landowners as he wants. How much space does it occupy.

The Ning Navy obviously attracted Zheng's fleet to Fujian, and then immediately turned around and headed south when passing through the Penghu waters, bypassing Taiping Island and heading straight for Batavia. This can be said to be Cheng Shijie's blitzkrieg.

This kind of lightning offensive is relatively rare in the history of European warfare. It was played by Alexander and Caesar, and Stilico, the last famous general of Western Rome.Stilicho once led an army of [-] to gallop [-] kilometers across the Gaul mountains in eight days, and he had already approached the city as soon as the Gaul barbarians raised their rebellious flag.

After these famous generals passed away, Europeans seldom experienced the style of blitzkrieg. Throughout the Middle Ages, the European war mode was basically that everyone appeared on the battlefield after an appointment at a time and place. The soldiers fought in a scuffle, and after the fight, they went back to their homes, and each looked for his mother.

The Mongol invasion taught Europeans the power of blitzkrieg. The Mongolian iron cavalry swept across like a whirlwind, and blood flowed into rivers on the European continent, so that Europeans fearfully called these Mongolian knights "yellow devils".However, after having experienced it, Europeans still can’t play Blitzkrieg. Until more than 100 years later, a dwarf with a height of 1.5 meters was born. For the first time after the end of the classical era, Europeans have the ability to play Blitzkrieg. strategy master.

Cheng Shijie had carefully reviewed the 30-year war in Europa. If he was to command this war from the position of Spain, the 30-year war would not need to be fought for 30 years. The winner is determined within.

The crux of the problem is that the Spanish Empire has powerful allies. It doesn't need it at all. It fights against more than 20 countries by itself. Although these countries are small, ants can kill elephants.

Throughout the 30 Years War, the Spanish Empire has been passive and led by the anti-Spanish alliance. In fact, in the anti-Spanish alliance, Sweden has contributed the most, followed by the Netherlands. The Spanish Empire should kill the Netherlands first, and then Clean up Sweden, as for France and Prussia, don't worry about it at all. When the results of their internal quarrels are resolved, the war may be over.

Cheng Shijie decided to teach the Dutch a lesson first, and just six hours after De Bauer's fleet went to sea, a warship of the Ning Navy appeared in front of them.

Relying on the advantage of speed, the main battleship of the Ning Navy is behind the combined fleet of the Netherlands and Zheng Zhilong. However, it will take at least three days for Zheng Zhilong to reach Batavia, and three days is enough for Cheng Shijie to clean up the combined Dutch fleet.

Seeing Ning Haijun's fleet approaching like dense dark clouds, De Bauer looked dull: "Didn't it mean that Ning Haijun's fleet fought Zheng Zhilong in the South China Sea? They defeated Zheng Zhilong so quickly? Zheng Zhilong is too useless, right?"

Now De Bauer almost wants to cry. If it wasn't for the stupid pig-like governor who ordered to give Ning Haijun a look, how could there be such a catastrophe?
What should we do now?
Even if we want to fight the Ning Navy, we must first gather the Dutch East India Fleet scattered all over the world, right?But the problem is that now two-thirds of the Dutch East India Company's fleet is out of town, and it can't be assembled at all.

How to fight this battle?
Although in the era of sailing warships, there is not much difference between warships and armed merchant ships, in fact the difference is quite large. The first is speed. The purpose of warships is to fight. In terms of cargo capacity and speed, choose a more economical speed, so the speed of a warship will definitely be faster than an armed merchant ship.

They only have six third-tier warships now, but they have 35 armed merchant ships. How do they fight this battle?
We must know that when their armed merchant ships are fighting pirates, they can barely make do, and there is no way to really fight naval battles.

Although it is said that De Bauer can only bite the bullet and fight, in fact, from the sight, it will take at least two or three hours before Ning Haijun approaches. After all, the distance of ten kilometers is only two knots. It also takes three or four hours to come up.

The first battle to start was actually in the west port area of ​​Batavia Port.

"time up!"

Li Weiluan said loudly: "Attack, target fort!"

If the Ning Navy attacked the Batavia port fort, it would take half a day, and even the loss of a few or a dozen warships, but the problem is that it is much easier for the army to attack the fort.

After all, the guns of the fort were aimed at the sea, and if they wanted to turn around and attack, the pier simply couldn't complete the job in a short time.

"Boom boom boom..."

Brewer was having dinner when a violent explosion was heard from the battery.

"what happened?"

"The fort exploded..."

Before the officer finished speaking, Brewer's complexion changed drastically. He threw off the napkin and rushed out of the Governor's Mansion. He looked in the direction of the fort, and he saw two black smoke columns wrapped in flames rising high. Explosions continued, and the expanding flames pushed the two plumes higher, making them even more spectacular.

He didn't need to send anyone to check, he knew that the two forts with sixteen powerful large-caliber cannons, which were used to block the waterway of the Chirion River Estuary in Batavia, had been blown up to the sky. This is their Dutch East Indies. The fort that the company built with great painstaking efforts!

Most of the steel bars and cement were purchased from Liaodong.

Brewer roared furiously: "Are all the guys on the turret deaf and blind? They didn't respond? I'm going to hang those bastards!"

Brewer really wronged the fort defenders, and they were always on guard.However, the problem is that the elite infantry of the Jumping Battalion used to trap the formation has been acting as a bait to attract the attention of the Dutch defenders.

The soldiers of the Ning Navy who were in charge of attacking the fort were actually the reconnaissance unit of the Ning Navy. They arrived in Batavia earlier than the jumping battalion, but three days earlier.

After they were in Batavia, they contacted the Li family in Batavia. Although it was said that more than 300 members of the Li family were massacred, such a big family is not so easy to be uprooted. The dead camels were bigger than horses and survived under the eyes of the Dutch. How could these Chinese not be prepared to be wiped out?

These scouts were actually only 48 people. They were disguised as laborers and were responsible for cleaning up the Dutch garbage and sanitation of the barracks. Because of their diligence, thirteen scouts were left to work in the fort and were also responsible for maintaining the artillery.

Of course, it’s not that the Dutch are too vigilant, but that the Chinese in Batavia have always been very timid and easy to bully. In the eyes of the Dutch, they are like little sheep, and tigers are never afraid of little sheep.

In this way, before they attacked, after receiving the signal from Li Weiluan, they ignited the gunpowder on the fort by the Dutch, and with two bangs, they detonated a large amount of black powder and explosive shells stored by the Dutch, and the explosion was earth-shattering. The flames soaring into the sky, and the two pillars of smoke that soared so high that the sky was dimmed by the sunset glow were really spectacular.

Brewer stared at the direction of the fort, only to see the raging flames soaring into the sky, and he let out an extremely depressed roar.

Now he can be sure that he has encountered a well-planned attack with internal and external cooperation, and the Ning Navy destroyed the fort unbelievably without alarming anyone.

Without the defense of the fort, and the fleet is not in the port, the fate can be imagined.

"Damn Daming people, you are so cunning! You all know about sneak attacks, and you have no chivalry!"

Brewer angrily accused Ning Haijun's attack of lacking chivalry, but he seemed to have forgotten that what white immigrants did when they colonized America, Africa, and Asia had nothing to do with "chivalry" at all. It's somewhat similar to a devil!
Of course, as a gentleman, it is understandable to selectively forget some things. Besides, a good memory is useful, can it repel the menacing Ning Haijun?
"Order the army to dispatch, immediately recapture the west port and the fort!"

In fact, Brewer's idea was too naive. Attacking the port defended by more than [-] Ning navy officers and men depends on whether they have enough lives to fill them.

The Dutch also realized that if they didn't recapture the fort and drive the landed Ning navy and army out of the sea, they would be doomed.

(End of this chapter)