Chapter 727 Siege
In terms of the level of weapons and equipment, Cheng Dapeng believed that the strength of the Dutch defenders was indeed not bad. Almost all soldiers were equipped with matchlocks, and a small number of elites used more advanced flintlock guns. Individual protection measures are also in place. Everyone has a full set of armor. At worst, there is at least two pieces of front and rear plate armor to protect the vital parts of the torso. From this investment alone, you can see that the Dutch have indeed spent a lot of money. Little financial resources are spent on military construction.
Under Cheng Dapeng's inquiry, Bart readily introduced the cost of these armors: "This simplest breastplate costs 5 florins, while a regular infantry armor costs 7 florins. The knight's armor prepared by the officer requires at least 35 florins, but it is too heavy and can only be worn in combat."
Cheng Dapeng had been in Batavia for a long time and naturally knew that the florin was the common currency unit in many European countries. This is a gold coin minted and circulated from Genoa and Florence in the 13th century. It later entered Western and Northern Europe through trade lines. At the beginning of the last century, the florin became the officially recognized currency of the Netherlands. However, in the Flemish language spoken by the Dutch, this gold coin is also called gulider, which is commonly known as Dutch guilder.
But Bart was not of pure Dutch descent, so he did not follow the Dutch habit of using the guilder as the currency unit, but instead used the European common name of florin. Cheng Dapeng silently calculated in his mind that the cost was really not cheap. The value of a set of ordinary breastplates already exceeded the monthly income of a metal craftsman in Batavia City at this time. This can also reflect from the side how low the efficiency of Batavia's munitions production is currently.
However, Cheng Dapeng was not very interested in Bart's show off, because the Haihan Militia had never advocated equipping heavy full-body armor. During wartime, only front-line troops were equipped with simple and lightweight plate armor, leather armor, and rattan helmets. Cheng Dapeng once had the honor to visit an army military exercise. None of the leaders participating in the battle wore heavy armor. The protective gear was a round helmet made of unknown material on the head and a bulging canvas vest and coat on the body. Plus the pair of tall, deep-toothed leather boots under my feet.
Haihan, who is good at military engineering, is certainly not incapable of making high-quality armor, but the leaders all behave in this way, and the Haihan Civilian Army has never relied on heavy armor to fight. Cheng Dapeng knew the reason for this. During his training, he had seen the effect of using the standard rifle of the militia to shoot armor at a distance of 100 meters. Whether it was Chinese armor or Western armor, the defense at this distance was Abilities are quite limited. According to the chief, in the future, the role of individual protective gear will be more to prevent secondary damage caused by various flying debris on the battlefield. Don't expect to use armor to block direct gunfire.
The Haihan Militia's tactics have relatively high requirements on the infantry's battlefield mobility. Heavy armor will greatly affect the execution of tactics and the development of team combat capabilities. The weapons superiority and advanced tactics of the Haihan Militia made it almost impossible for their opponents to shorten the fighting distance between the two sides to within the range of their own weapons on the battlefield. They were defeated before the stage of hand-to-hand combat. The armor was in close combat. The defensive role it can play becomes extremely limited.
The Netherlands obviously does not have such an advantage. Even if it is equipped with more advanced firearms, it still has to put the importance of armor first and last. Bart got excited about chatting and asked his men to take a set of full cavalry armor and show it to Cheng Dapeng.
After Cheng Dapeng received permission, he tried to lift it with his hands and found that the armor weighed at least forty kilograms, and it would be difficult to even move when wearing it. But its thickness is actually very limited, about the same as an ordinary porcelain bowl. Cheng Dapeng believes that this thickness is not enough to withstand bullets within the range of the Haihan Musket.
Bart praised this kind of armor, and pointed out several dents and scratches on the armor - that was when he was killed by the enemy when he was out of the city fighting against the Blue Army last time. Traces left by military weapons. If it weren't for the protection of this armor, he would have been shot by bows and arrows five or six times, and slashed seven or eight times. It was precisely the military exploits he achieved last time that allowed him to be promoted to his current position.
Although Cheng Dapeng didn't think highly of the Dutch's "original" equipment, he still admired Bart's courage in fighting. The troops led by him will certainly not be timid and fearful of fighting.
However, there were only more than 2,000 Dutch soldiers in Batavia, deployed in the city defenses in the east, north, and west directions facing the battle. In fact, the strength of the troops was not enough. The direction to the north, facing the Port of Batavia, was undoubtedly the most stressful, but the number of Dutch soldiers that could be deployed in this direction was only about a thousand, and the enemies they faced were tens of times more numerous. Under such a situation, the Dutch military had to use a large number of auxiliary troops to assist in defense.
About a thousand of the thousands of auxiliary troops in the city are permanent local security forces. They have regular training and a relatively complete organization, equipment, and command system. Although their combat power is not as good as that of the Dutch soldiers, they can still act as regular troops in wartime. military. The remaining part is more embarrassing. Most of these people were temporarily recruited during the war. They include local indigenous people, black slaves, Chinese, European immigrants, and even rogues from Japan and dark-eyed Arabs from the Middle East. It is like a multinational force.
Such an armed force is very diverse in culture, language, living habits and even combat styles. Moreover, it is an armed force formed by temporary conscription. It can be said that the actual combat effectiveness and the combat determination of the personnel are very doubtful. After all, most of the people here are only here for the high salary rewards during the war, and they may not really be of the same mind as the East India Company. It's okay to fight with the wind, but if the pressure on the city defense increases, there will be a question mark as to whether these people can hold on on the front line.
Not only Cheng Dapeng, a layman, can imagine this, but the Dutch military will naturally notice the hidden dangers. Therefore, the auxiliary army is currently only used as a reserve army and has not been deployed in large numbers to front-line positions. When talking about this army, Bart couldn't help but curse, but what he said was in Flemish. Cheng Dapeng could only guess from his expression and tone that Bart didn't have a good impression of the auxiliary army.
In addition, a large number of civilians have been recruited in the city. These people are mainly responsible for transporting combat supplies, strengthening and repairing city defenses and other logistical tasks. Although Cheng Dapeng didn't have to go in person, he still sent his men to participate.
The visit lasted for more than an hour before it came to an end, but after Cheng Dapeng obtained so much intelligence information, he actually had further ideas. He immediately asked Bart if he could come back another day to comfort the troops. Bart naturally would not refuse such a good thing, and agreed with a smile, but still asked Cheng Dapeng to contact Su Keyi in advance to arrange the time.
Cheng Dapeng returned to his residence with a lot of information, and immediately plunged into the study and began to write a report. The level of detailed military information obtained during today's trip far exceeds the total of the past two years of being stationed locally. On the one hand, this was due to luck, but on the other hand, it was indeed because he had done a good job in all his previous work and finally received the rewards he deserved. If he hadn't managed his personal image and social relations properly in the past two years, it would have been difficult to gain the trust of people like Su Keyi, let alone the following situations. The management of personal image and social relationships are all accumulated slowly bit by bit. He now somewhat understands why Chief Hao Wanqing said during the training that intelligence work is "a thousand miles without taking small steps", and this job that he initially regarded as a "spy" has now slowly made achievements. feel.
Cheng Dapeng wrote the report until midnight, and then the enthusiasm in his heart slowly cooled down. At this time, he suddenly realized a very serious problem. Under the current situation where Batavia City was surrounded by enemy forces, there was probably no way for the collected intelligence to be sent out in a timely manner.
Cheng Dapeng's previous channel for transmitting intelligence to Sanya was mainly through merchant ships that regularly traveled between Batavia and Annan. These merchant ships traveled between the two places in the name of transporting grain. Cheng Dapeng could easily transmit written information while delivering the goods to the captain. It is not a problem for professional intelligence personnel like them to hide a stack of paper on a ship and avoid the inspection of the port tax officer. After this information arrives at the Annan port, its contents will be sent to the base camp by telegram as soon as possible.
However, with Haihan taking over the Ambuna Islands, a supply port in the South China Sea, there has been another more efficient way of transmitting intelligence in the past six months, that is, the information is disembarked at the Ambuna Port and sent by telegraph from the local area. Back to Sanya, the time required for transmitting information in this way has been shortened by about half compared to the past, and the efficiency has been improved accordingly.
But no matter which method of transmission is used, the information must first be sent out to sea. But now all the city gates of Batavia are closed, and the port on the north coast of the city has fallen into the control of the Matalan army. There is probably no way to send the information away at this time.
Cheng Dapeng racked his brains for half a night, but he couldn't think of a way to safely send the information out to sea. The Mata Blue Army has probably controlled the coastline within twenty to thirty miles of Batavia. Now even if they find a way out of the city, they can't reach the seaside at all.
"Time is destiny!" Cheng Dapeng could only put away the written report and hide it in a secret compartment in the study.
Although I don’t know what the Executive Committee’s attitude is towards the war in Batavia, if this information about Batavia’s city defense can be sent back in time, it will definitely be a great achievement. And when it is sent back after the war is over, much of the information will have lost its timeliness and will not be as useful as it is now. As for the credit, it can only be greatly reduced.
The current situation forced Cheng Dapeng to do the next best thing. Although he couldn't send out information, he could try to record the course of the war. When Haihan goes south in the future, what he sees and hears today will become an important basis for the executive committee and the military to make decisions. Taking advantage of Su Keyi's relationship, I have to find excuses to go to the city to watch the battle a few more times in the near future.
On the morning of July 12, when the fog on the beach had not yet dissipated, the lookout soldiers at the top of the city saw faint signs of the Ma Dalan army moving outside the city, and hurriedly rang the bell to warn the city defense army.
Bart returned to his combat position as soon as possible and used a monocular to observe the enemy positions in the distance. The first thing he noticed was not the slowly advancing blue army of horses in a square formation, but some tall wooden frames following closely behind.
These tall wooden frames have a simple structure, with a triangular structure below and a long crossbar at the top, with the middle part fixed to the triangular structure. Although it was not very clear from a distance, Bart had already recognized the true identity of this thing - it was a grenade-belt trebuchet.
The trebuchet can be regarded as one of the most powerful siege equipment in the cold weapon era. It has appeared on the battlefields in the East and the West very early. For the Blue Army, which does not have too many firearms and equipment, the trebuchet is undoubtedly a siege equipment that is easy to manufacture and has quite good combat efficiency. In the first two battles to attack Batavia City, the Mata Blue Army also used trebuchets, but the combat results at that time were not particularly ideal.
The main reason is that the trebuchets used at that time were slightly smaller and had a limited range, and they had to penetrate deep into the firepower range of the city to be effective. Under the intensive firepower at the city head, the slow-moving trebuchets were often destroyed before they were deployed in place. At that time, the Ma Da Blue Army invested seventy or eighty trebuchets, but in the end they only smashed out the city wall. There were just a few small gaps, but they didn't have much effect.
Moreover, not only the Ma Da Blue Army had trebuchets, the city defense army also had trebuchets. At this time, there were dozens of trebuchets waiting inside the city walls. But these trebuchets also have the same problem, that is, their short range makes it difficult to pose an actual threat to enemies in the distance. Moreover, the trebuchets in the city still need to project over the city wall to hit the enemy, which undoubtedly shortens the already limited range.
If the horses and blue men just plan to use old tactics, then Bart will be happy to give them another unforgettable long-range firepower lesson. However, this time the horses are obviously more prepared to fight the Blue Army than last time, because the trebuchets seen so far are obviously much larger than the same type that appeared on the battlefield last time. The longest horizontal bar on the top of the trebuchet that projects ammunition is about fifty feet. It is obvious that the Matalan people have not been idle in the past two years and have improved the structure of their trebuchet. Even though the war hasn't started yet, Bart can already imagine that the range of this new trebuchet is probably much longer than the previous ones.
(End of chapter)