At noon, Rapini and his two companions tiptoed into a forest full of swamps. Ten minutes later, they came to a hill with an altitude of only fifty or sixty meters, which was already located in Langkasbeg.
Six kilometers northwest of the cave.
The three of them crawled through the weeds, always keeping an eye out for venomous snakes that might emerge. The venomous snakes on Java are no joke. The most ferocious one is the cobra that can spray venom more than two meters away. Although they
They all carry gauze bags with realgar garlic powder in them to repel snakes, but no one can guarantee that disturbed snakes will not bite.
When they reached the top of the hill, they carefully leaned out from the grass that was half a person tall. The view in front of them suddenly opened up, and they could see the scene several miles down the mountain at a glance.
The Ujong River runs through West Java from south to north, and converges with the Cibelang River at Langas Betong, creating a large S-shape on the plain, and then twists and turns all the way to the Java Sea in the north.
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Rapini picked up his telescope and saw countless densely packed white tents one kilometer east of the hill. He made a rough estimate and felt that there must be between 8,000 and 10,000 people.
In each camp, the red, white and black VOC flags can be seen everywhere. In addition, there is also a yellow flag in some tent areas, with three black patterns arranged from top to bottom on the flag.
They looked like three big fish bones. Rapini knew all these flags. When he followed Wang Yuanfang to fight against the Württemberg Cape Corps two years ago, the opponent was holding these two flags.
Speaking of the Württemberg mercenaries, Rapini specifically asked De Guigne on his way to France last year. From this, he learned from the other party that the fate of the Württemberg soldiers was really miserable, unlike the Manchurian soldiers.
Compared with the Qing Dynasty's green battalion soldiers, they were not much better.
According to Deguigne, Duke Carl Eugen of the Principality of Württemberg was a foolish king with bad conduct and extravagance. He spent a large amount of money on the construction of palaces and castles. In order to make up for the huge financial expenditure, he
One legion of 65,000 soldiers was packaged and leased to the Dutch East India Company.
The reason why VOC signed an agreement with Württemberg is because Europeans these days would rather stay in their hometowns as porters than sign up to be VOC's overseas mercenaries.
The reasons are, firstly, that VOC mercenaries are very low paid, with a monthly salary of only 9 Dutch guilders. Secondly, due to poor medical conditions, one Württemberg mercenary who comes to Southeast Asia will die of malaria every two days on average.
, if the number of deaths per year is less than 400, it is considered God’s blessing!
The problem is that the VOC's salary system for mercenaries is worse than the "Little Jianyin" established by the Manchu Qing Dynasty. They only paid half salary to these soldiers who drifted at sea for seven months and went through untold hardships to work in Southeast Asia.
The money will be paid in one lump sum after the contract expires.
After coming to Bacheng for so long, Rapini has long understood the value of the Dutch guilder. 1 guilder is equivalent to about 0.34 taels of Kuping silver, and 9 guilders is only a little more than 3 taels of silver, less than 15 North Sea silver dollars. You know.
Rapini now has a monthly salary allowance of 50 yuan, not to mention that his family still has 50 acres of land; as for the servants recruited from railway workers, the monthly allowance is at least 15 yuan.
The field of view of the telescope extended to the west, and Rapini saw that on the west bank of the Wurong River, there were densely packed figures as big as black ants. They were carrying their shoulders, or driving oxen and horses to transport wood and stones. They seemed to be carrying
Build fortifications and stack forts. The entire fortification is almost one kilometer long from south to north.
The temperature in June in Java is considered cool for the year, with an average of just over 20 degrees. However, today is a sunny day and there is not a trace of wind in the air, so the flying dust on the river bank is like a yellow gauze.
Above the construction crowd.
Soon, Rapini discovered that the Dutch had built two pontoon bridges on the north and south sides of the fortification. At this moment, a group of guys who looked like cavalry were passing through the pontoon bridge on the south, entering the other side of the Yima Pingchuan river, and then heading towards
He turned north onto the road leading to Bacheng and galloped eastward, rolling up a trail of smoke and dust. He was keenly aware that the purpose of VOC building these two bridges was to facilitate the cavalry troops from the north and south.
Side attack.
Rapini planned to grab a tongue, but it was not a good opportunity right now. He decided to go back to the camp first and wait until dark before taking action. So more than an hour later, the three of them recorded what they observed in a notebook and sneaked quietly.
Turning back to the woods under the hills behind us, in the quiet and humid rain forest, we walked westward along the creek, walked almost two kilometers, and returned to the temporary camp of the special operations camp. When I saw the battalion commander Elu, La
Pini immediately made a report.
After hearing this, Elu asked: "Has the enemy command found out?"
"There are too many enemies, and the sentries are placed far away. Their camps are in the woods, and it is not easy to get close during the day. I plan to explore again at night. It is best to catch a tongue."
After Rapini finished speaking, he grabbed a pen and began to mark the location of enemy fortifications on the map. Erlu nodded expressionlessly and said nothing. He felt that Overstraten's headquarters was definitely not far from the front line.
It would be too far, and it would be impossible for the opponent to stay in Silang, thirty kilometers away, to direct the battle.
When Rapini went out at noon, Erlu received a telegram from the headquarters and learned that the attack launched in the early morning had achieved great results. After six hours of detours, various units of the Northern Navy broke through the enemy's defense line from the north and south wings.
, more than 8,000 enemy troops were surrounded in the Tangerang area, 30 kilometers west of Bacheng. The headquarters sent a telegram ordering them to find out the defense status of Langas Betong and the deployment of VOC troops.
I want to find the Dutch headquarters and capture the governor.
At dusk, Rapini left with five people. The temporary base of the special operations battalion is more than ten miles away from Langas Betong. If nothing happens, they will be able to reach the outskirts of the VOC coalition position tonight.
At the same time, in the Tangerang area, the Northern Navy's attack on the besieged enemy forces was still going on. In order to hone the combat skills of the slave army, the command headquarters assigned each battalion of the slave army to serve as the main offensive force, including Hoi An Camp, Marine Battalion and
The two armored vehicles will only take action when the two sides are in a stalemate.
At dusk, gunfire roared continuously on both sides of the West Sadan River. The most intense exchange of fire between the two sides was a large fortress located on the east bank of the West Sadan River.
A hundred years ago, a defected king of the Banten Sultanate sought VOC asylum with his men, and later helped repel the attack of the Banten Sultanate, and was named the regent of the Tangerang region.
After that, the then Governor of Batavia sent people to rebuild the outer city wall of Tangerang, replacing the bamboo wall with a 6-meter-thick brick wall and installing multiple forts. Since the defenders at that time included
There are thirty dark-skinned Makassar people, so this castle is also called the "Black Castle" by the locals.
After the loss of Bacheng, VOC gritted its teeth and spent money to expand the castle, adding more than a dozen cannons and 2,000 garrison troops, making it easier to defend and harder to attack. After the Northern Navy's attack was launched in the early morning, many soldiers who fled fled for the first time.
The first reaction was to go to the Black Castle, so the city quickly became overcrowded. However, this also made the defenders in the castle extremely strong. They stood in several rows on the wide wall and kept shooting in turns.
Starting at three o'clock in the afternoon, after more than two hours of continuous shelling by more than a dozen 12-pound field guns attached to the servant army, the city wall was expanded to eight meters thick. Although the city wall became pitted and full of devastation, it was not
Nothing happened. On the contrary, the shells fired from the long-barreled naval guns on the castle fort caused casualties to the attacking servants. The VOC army in the city even demolished two houses and made two small trebuchets out of wood.
The gunpowder was divided into 5-pound packets, sealed in clay pots, and then ignited by a fuse and thrown out. The outside of the exploded castle was filled with flames and smoke.
VOC has a high output of black powder in Southeast Asia. Large-scale production began more than a hundred years ago, and various strongholds have large stocks. Charcoal is not a problem anywhere, sulfur is found on many volcanic islands, and saltpeter is only
It can be obtained by fermenting dung and guano. The hot climate makes the fermentation process easier, and the quality of the product is much higher than that of gunpowder produced in Europe. In addition, the rivers throughout Java also provide water-powered mills for grinding gunpowder powder.
convenient.
He Xiwen, who was on the front line and led the servant army, did not understand until this moment why the regular troops of the North Navy were just like chopping melons and vegetables every time they fought. Not only were they strictly disciplined, but they also had great advantages in weapons!
Seeing that it was getting dark, the four battalions of the servant army were still standing still on the east bank of the Xisadan River. He immediately asked the headquarters for instructions. After Zhao Xin agreed, two armored vehicles arrived with a rumbling sound.
Two kilometers away from the Black Fort. When the two 30mm cannons began to spit out flames, exploding the forts on the Black Fort with flames, the defenders in the city suddenly felt that the end of the world was coming, and many locals even knelt on the ground.
I kept praying to the dome of the Kalibasi Mosque, completely losing my will to fight.
When the heavy and iron-clad city gate was blown down in just two minutes, two platoons of servants launched a tentative attack. Unexpectedly, everyone arrived in front of the city gate, and no one fired on the city wall. He Xiwen
Upon seeing this, he ordered two battalions of servants to rush into the city, only to see the locals kneeling on the ground.
When night fell, He Xiwen entered the city, and the Tangerang Regent took a group of his wives, concubines, and children to kneel outside the palace gate and expressed their submission to him. During the conversation, he also expressed that he wanted to pay homage to the "big cannon" of the Northern Navy.
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Giant cannon? He Xiwen said to himself that the barrel of the cannon was as thick as an arm. Although its power was amazing, it could not be considered "giant" in any way.
In the subsequent conversation, he learned from the interpreter that in Southeast Asian culture, firearms are collectively called "Bedil". They are not only weapons, but are often given the meaning of gods, and cannons are even more so.
It is regarded as a symbol of huge supernatural power. For this reason, many sultans like to build cannons, and the bigger the better. Among them, the Banten Sultanate also obtained a 180-pound cannon from the Portuguese in the 16th century.
, the cannonball alone weighs 81.6 kilograms!
But the most impressive one is the Bijapur Sultanate in India. They asked Ottoman engineers to build a 55-ton cannon, which was called the "Battlefield Master". The British East India Company once tried to transport it as a trophy.
Britain, but that thing was so big that the British had to give it up and left it there to become a decoration for people to worship.
Therefore, in the eyes of everyone in Tangerang Castle, the Northern Navy's cannons are so powerful that they must be very powerful and favored by the gods. Such cannons are definitely not something that human beings can resist. What are you waiting for if you don't surrender?
The Black Fort has been captured, but the encirclement and suppression battles on both sides of the West Sadan River are still continuing. The more than 20 kilometers of river banks are dotted with torches on both sides, and the servants of the three battalions are divided into groups of more than ten or twenty people, communicating with each other.
The distance does not exceed 200 meters. As long as a figure is found shaking and unable to respond to the command, a volley of guns will be fired immediately.
This kind of fighting lasted until late at night before gradually subsided. Afterwards, statistics showed that the various departments of the Northern Navy killed and wounded more than 6,000 enemy troops and captured more than 2,000 prisoners on this day. The Chinese in Bacheng who were responsible for cleaning the battlefield were shocked to find that
In the Sisadan River and the surrounding rivers and woods, the corpses of the war dead can be seen everywhere. Many people are so smoked by the smell of rotting corpses that they can't even eat...
Turning back to Langas Betong late that night, the west bank of the Ujong River was illuminated by countless torches and fires as if it were daytime. Tens of thousands of people were driven by the whips in the hands of officers, desperately building field fortifications.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Overstraten, the VOC governor and coalition commander, also came here to inspect the progress. He was riding high on a black Irish stallion,
Wearing a three-cornered hat and the blue general uniform of the VOC, a dozen Württemberg officers surrounded him.
When they came to an unfinished artillery fortification, the artillery lieutenant colonel Schmigel, who was in charge of the position, rode over and saluted Overstraten.
"How's the progress?"
"General, in another two hours, I can finish the work here. These cannons will definitely make the enemy suffer a lot!"
Overstraten nodded with satisfaction: "Very good. Lieutenant Colonel, your progress here is the fastest."
Schmigal hesitated for a moment, then asked: "General, I would like to ask if there is any news from Tangerang Castle?"
Overstraten shook his head: "Lieutenant Colonel, why do you ask this?"
"Two of my good friends were sent there, and I don't know what the situation is like."
"I haven't received any new information yet. You can name them. If I know them, someone will notify you."
"Thank you so much! General." Schmigal immediately reported the names of his two friends.
After the artillery lieutenant colonel turned around and left, Overstraten's originally smiling face quickly dropped. As the war progressed, all the changes exceeded his expectations and caught him off guard.
From yesterday afternoon to today's noon, bad news came one after another. The tragic defeat of the Kabien fleet, the enemy's sudden attack, and the baggage camp that was set on fire three hours ago forced him to crawl out of his comfortable bed.
He got up and arranged for manpower to transport a batch of supplies from Pandelang overnight. After finishing all this, he had no sleep at all, so he simply took his men down to inspect the construction progress of the field fortifications.
"Damn the painted-faced Seris devil!" Overstraten cursed viciously in his heart.
Since the siege of Bagh was launched, those Saris spies with painted faces and green clothes have begun to wreak havoc everywhere in the Banten Sultanate. They destroyed roads, killed their own officers, attacked patrols, and even carried out attacks at night.
He attacked the military camp with a bluff and made himself confused and exhausted.
The Württemberg mercenaries hated and feared this group of people. They even dispatched a regiment to carry out encirclement and suppression operations with the assistance of local Javanese. However, after setting up encirclements several times, the enemy took advantage of the cover of darkness.
Ran away.
However, Overstraten still had confidence. He still had twelve full battle infantry regiments in his hands. In addition to the Javanese soldiers, there were 5,000 Württemberg mercenaries alone, recruited from Ceylon.
There are also more than 3,000 Indian cavalry, in addition to more than 100 field guns.
Just this afternoon, a carrier pigeon brought back good news from Altin. The coalition force he led from Wandong was progressing smoothly. It is expected that the leading force will arrive outside Batavia in two days.
According to the information obtained by VOC's spies stationed in Ba City, there are currently less than 6,000 Seris troops in Ba City. In addition, according to the information brought back by the officers who retreated from Tangerang, the enemy was in the early hours of this morning.
The sudden attack required at least 5,000 men. As a result, the strength of Bacheng would be seriously insufficient. As soon as Altin's army arrived, the enemy would definitely have to return to the defense.
Isn't it just to defend the Wurong River defense line for two days? As soon as the enemy begins to retreat, he will immediately launch a pursuit.
As for the navy...well, I can't bring up the trouble!