Chapter 638 Fight (7)
After the Dutch were frustrated in the frontal battle, they would shift their attack direction to the flanks of the town. This was something that the defenders of Haihan expected. Therefore, Mushaba deployed scouts in advance on several areas on both wings where it was easier to cross the river. . Due to the geographical environment, it is unlikely that the Dutch will invest large forces on the flanks. They can only send small teams to look for opportunities to harass, which will not put too much pressure on the small town defenders. Mu Xiabai did not even put too many regular militia troops on the flanks. The northern side was mainly composed of Portuguese and local aboriginal militiamen. Only one squad of militia troops was sent to be responsible for command and coordination, while the south side arranged a A platoon of militia infantry, together with dozens of local militiamen - taking advantage of the weapon performance and geographical environment, this arrangement should be enough to handle three or four times the offensive force.
Compared with Van Longen, the other team led by Broward to the north of the town was obviously more unsatisfactory. A large swamp took them twice as long to reach the intended location, and there were only relatively low areas on this side. There were no dense forests along the Van Longen route in the south that could be used to hide their tracks. They were discovered by investigators on the roof when they were still a hundred meters away from the stream outside the town.
But Brower's thoughts were more optimistic than Van Longen's. Although the stream was a bit in the way, it was not deep and could be crossed directly. The town on the other side of the stream obviously does not have heavy firepower positions such as gun emplacements. There should still be a chance for the infantry to attack the town. Of course, the premise is that Spikes' frontal offensive can attract enough attention from his opponent. So according to the agreement before departure, Brower also sent a messenger back to the port to inform Spikes of the situation in the north.
But because Broward was wasted too much time on the road, Spikes finally fired the first shot of the second round of offensive at three o'clock in the afternoon. The Dutch learned the lesson from the morning, moved the artillery position some distance back, and temporarily built a mound in front of the artillery position to withstand secondary strikes after the opponent's artillery shells landed. The company supervisor team also consciously retreated to at a relatively safe distance.
Although the Dutch took many measures, they were still the ones who suffered at the beginning. The naval guns used to fill up the Dutch position originally had a relatively short range, but the retreat caused the hit rate to hit a new low. The range of the Haihan artillery was all over one mile, and the Dutch position retreated several dozen meters. Changing the status quo that they were still within the effective range of Haihan artillery fire, the one-sided situation became more serious than in the morning.
Of course, Spikes did not expect to really defeat his opponent with artillery fire. He still pinned his hopes on the two teams attacking the town from the north and south. If Van Loongen and Brouwer could successfully move in and cause chaos, Spikes would have the opportunity to lead his army to break through the opponent's defense line from the front.
However, the development of the situation was completely different from the ideal trend in the minds of the Dutch. Van Longen commanded his men to rush out of the dense forest and step into the creek. Halfway through, he suddenly found a row of gun barrels sticking out from the edge of the opposite roof. There were at least three or four gun barrels. About ten.
Fan Longgen immediately felt a chill in his heart. He didn't even have time to greet the others and immediately turned back to the woods. A burst of gunfire rang out behind him, followed by screams. Fan Longgen didn't dare to stop and turn his head to see what was going on behind him, so he just burrowed into the dense forest.
The Haihan defenders fired three rounds of volleys from the commanding heights. Seven out of ten Dutch mercenaries who tried to forcefully cross the stream were knocked over in the water and on the river bank. Only Van Longen and a dozen others who saw the opportunity early were able to make it in time. He fled back to the woods and came back with his life.
Van Longen ran in the woods in shock for a long time before he stopped due to lack of physical strength. While panting heavily, he looked back at the several remaining soldiers who were also in shock and sat down on the ground weakly. From launching an attack to being frustrated and escaping, it actually only took a minute or two, but Van Longen felt that he had gone full circle from life to death, and from death to life.
Although the operation failed, Van Longen was still very happy that he could save his life. As for the result... after all, there was no way to force it, and Van Longen could only hope that the offensive in the other two directions would yield results. Maybe Brower could attack all the way in?
Van Longen sat on the ground and rested for a while. After his breath calmed down, he patted his butt and got up to prepare to return to his life. At this time, he discovered that his personal fire gun had fallen off at some point. But he did not dare to go back and look for it himself, so he assigned two men to look back along the route they had just escaped.
The two men looked like they had stepped on something, and they went reluctantly. But after a while, the two of them ran back shouting, with expressions as if they had seen a ghost. Van Longen shouted: "Don't panic! What happened?"
One of them responded: "The enemy... the enemy has crossed the creek and is already searching this way!"
"How many people are there?" Van Longen asked sharply.
"About...about a hundred people..." the subordinate replied tremblingly.
"Withdraw!" After hearing this, Van Longen immediately made the decision without any hesitation. With the current manpower, it is definitely impossible to stop the opponent's search. The only thing that can be done is to rush back and inform Spikes so that he can be wary of the enemy's counterattack.
With the pursuers behind them, their physical strength seemed to have recovered a lot. The group of people stumbled back to the Dutch position near the port along the way they came. When Spikes saw their appearance, he had already guessed the result: "Defeated?"
"The enemy has many musketeers... deployed in the south... They have left the town and are chasing them from the woods!" Van Longen did not bother to elaborate on the details of his failure, and first informed Spikes of the enemy's attack: "Listen, it's best for us to retreat as quickly as possible and to the sea!"
Spikes hesitated and said: "But there is no news from Broward yet..."
"Brouwer may not be able to come back!" Van Longen interrupted Spikes emotionally: "The enemy has been digging holes for us to jump into! They are just waiting for us to attack so that they can attack us at a closer distance. Kill our soldiers! If we don’t retreat quickly, we may not be able to leave this island alive!”
Spikes hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and said, "No, we can't leave our own people alone."
Van Longen was silent for a moment and then said: "Then I will apply to go to the port to prepare the ships for sailing. If the war goes against us, at least we will have time to retreat."
"Okay, you go ahead. Remember to arrange for someone to move the ammunition from the troop carrier to your ship first!" This time Spikes did not insist anymore and agreed to Van Longen's request. The damage to the two troop carriers was relatively serious. If the situation really deteriorates to the point where we have to retreat to the sea, we can only temporarily abandon the two troop carriers. After Van Longen left in a hurry, Spikes looked at his opponent's position with a gloomy look. The artillery battle had stopped before Van Longen could escape, because almost all the artillery on the Dutch position was plowed by the opponent's shells. The dozens of surviving gunners were unwilling to go forward and bear this one-sided fight. shelled.
Although the news from the north has not yet come back, Spikes is not very optimistic about the results of Brouwer's battle with Van Longen's experience. But even though the trend of the battle was obvious, the opponent was not eager to leave the town to pursue. Spikes believed that this was not a normal phenomenon. He actually hoped that when his opponent attacked, he could use his own musket array to get another fight. He felt very unwilling to admit defeat like this.
Ten minutes later, the first man who had escaped from the north appeared on the Dutch position. The news he brought back made Spikes worried again.
The team led by Brouwer undoubtedly also encountered a large number of musketeers when launching the attack. Brouwer himself was not as lucky as Van Longen. He was shot and fell on the spot.
Of course, the escaping soldiers did not throw him away directly. They still dragged him out of the battlefield, and then several people took turns carrying him back. The person who ran at the front to report the news was to let the position here You can quickly prepare medical and first-aid measures.
But the Dutch really don't have any good first aid methods. For trauma, all military doctors can use are strips of cloth boiled in boiling water and a few simple surgical tools.
A few minutes later, Brouwer was finally carried out of the woods and appeared in front of Spikes. He was shot in the right chest, but because Brouwer was wearing leather armor, the bullet did not directly penetrate the body, but got stuck somewhere in the body. The injury to his lungs and the bumps along the way caused him to constantly cough up blood from his mouth. When Spikes saw him, his face was pale and he was speechless.
Although the two had many differences and even had some disputes during this mission, Spikes was inevitably a little sad when he saw his colleague was seriously injured, and ordered military doctors to quickly provide treatment.
However, the capabilities of military doctors are also very limited. Even professionals like Morgan and Johnson have to be very cautious to perform thoracic surgery to remove the bullet from the lung lobe in this environment. Moreover, Brower was not able to receive timely and effective treatment after his injury. Handling it, being carried all the way back on your back like this, the injury has invisibly aggravated a lot.
Before the military doctor could remove the bullet, Brouwer burped due to excessive blood loss. At this point, forcing the troops to continue fighting would lose morale. Spikes gave the order with a livid face, asking all personnel to retreat toward the port immediately - before the opponent had time to pursue, he quickly The correct solution was to retreat to the sea as Van Longen suggested.
However, things still did not develop according to the pace he expected. Just when the soldiers began to evacuate, the defenders in the small town in the distance finally showed their ferocious side and began to line up to attack.
Although the positions of both sides were nearly a mile apart, the pressure from the opponent's attack immediately caused confusion among the Dutch soldiers. Some people tried to return to the position to block the enemy, while others panicked and wanted to rush to the dock as soon as possible to board. boat, the team suddenly became confused.
One mile seems very far, but at normal marching speed, it is actually only a few minutes away. Of course, Spikes knew that his situation was no longer suitable for high-intensity fighting, so he could only shout for the chaotic team to evacuate to the port quickly.
At this time, rival musketeers began to appear sporadically from the woods on both sides of the north and south, which made the Dutch even more panicked. More people gave up the idea of sticking to the spot and began to flee to the port regardless. However, they did not know that there were not many Haihan soldiers who broke out from the dense forests on the north and south routes, and many of them were local militiamen. Their combat effectiveness was not the same as that of the regular militia army. If the Dutch were not So panicked, they immediately launched a counterattack on the spot, and maybe they could still achieve some success.
But once a battlefield defeat occurs, it will be difficult to rely on the abilities of individual commanders to turn the tide. Spikes had no better way to deal with such a scene, so he could only escape to the port surrounded by several personal guards.
"The Dutch have escaped!" After Mu Xiabai saw this scene through the telescope, his heart finally returned to his stomach. Although the scale of the two days of fighting was not large and the fighting situation could not be said to be very tragic, it was indeed a big test for the troops defending the island. Being able to quickly transform from the initial defeat in the battle and giving the Dutch a head-on blow on the second line of defense, Mushabi believes that he still displayed his due command level.
However, Mushaba did not intend to let the Dutch leave so easily. The reason why he wanted to seize the opportunity of the Dutch retreat and push out the troops was to make them pay a little more before leaving.
When the Haihan troops chased them to the port, two Dutch sailing ships had already left the dock first, but there were still about two hundred Dutch people boarding the ship in a chaotic manner. The militia soldiers calmly formed a firing formation a hundred meters away, and then started shooting at the several sailboats still parked on the dock and the people on the shore.
The panicked and crowded crowd completely became a living target without any resistance. A round of shooting every twenty seconds would knock down several people. However, on the Dutch side, only a handful of people who had already reached the deck could bother to organize a wave. A weak counterattack. But this kind of sporadic shooting will soon attract at least two platoons of musket fire, and then there will be no more.
The sailors on the ship had no time to untie the cable and panicked and cut it with a knife. Some people who had no time to board the ship could only cling to the rope net outside the ship's side, but many of them were killed before they climbed onto the ship's side. He was hit by a lead bullet in the back and fell into the sea.
(End of chapter)