Chapter 730 Passive Situation
"Master Bart, are you satisfied with these meals?" Although the look on Bart's face said everything, Cheng Dapeng still tested Bart's opinion in a very humble tone.
Bart wiped the grease stains from the corner of his mouth with a napkin, burped loudly, and then responded to Cheng Dapeng: "It's great! To be honest, after eating this meal, I really want to order the cook who is responsible for the army's logistics to be dragged away." Go out and hang yourself! In comparison, the food we eat on the battlefield these days is simply pig food!”
"As long as Master Bart is satisfied! Since you like it, I will ask the cook to prepare an extra meal and deliver it here every day." Cheng Dapeng naturally would not let go of the opportunity and immediately climbed up the pole.
"If the soldiers and civilians in the city had the consciousness of becoming a boss, then the end of the war would surely come sooner." Bart sighed with emotion.
"Could it be that the battle is not going well today?" Cheng Dapeng asked tentatively.
Although Batavia officials did not announce the progress of today's war, the sound of cannons was heard on the east, north, and west walls starting early in the morning, and the sound of cannons continued for two days in the afternoon. For hours, this made tens of thousands of residents in the city nervous. Cheng Dapeng was naturally no exception, but besides the progress of the war, what he wanted to know more importantly was the fighting process and combat methods between the two sides. Compared with the results, these details were of more intelligence value to the Haihan military.
"I have to admit, these wild monkeys outside the city are really difficult to deal with!" When it comes to this topic, Bart's good mood just because of the delicious food seems to have disappeared all of a sudden.
Although the situation of the fight with the Malaysian Blues is an absolute military secret, the delicious meal Cheng Dapeng sent him just now has greatly deepened Bart's trust in him. Coupled with the effect of alcohol, Bart's trust in Cheng Dapeng at this time Peng had lowered his guard and began to describe today's fighting situation to him.
Cheng Dapeng was undoubtedly very shocked by the situation described by Bart. He had carefully inspected the equipment of the Dutch defenders when he visited the city wall last time. He believed that based on the level of weapons alone, the Dutch defenders should have considerable capabilities. Strong combat capability, at least higher than that of the Ming army. Coupled with the solid city defense of Batavia City, it should be reasonable to cause a large number of casualties to the enemy troops attacking the city at the beginning of the battle. Moreover, the artillery fire during the daytime battle was so intensive. In Cheng Dapeng's imagination, hundreds of artillery fire would have killed at least two to three thousand enemy troops. How could the battle situation still be at a disadvantage?
The reason why this situation occurred is undoubtedly the main reason for the tactics adopted by the Ma Da Blue Army in this attack on Batavia. The Batavia authorities made war preparations based on the fighting conditions between the two armies in previous years, but apparently did not fully anticipate the changes in the enemy's tactics. The tactics adopted by the Horse and Blue Army in the first day of fighting made the defenders obviously feel at a loss. The large trebuchets that appeared on the battlefield were obviously not temporary siege equipment made after the Ma Da Blue Army came here. Instead, they were made early and specially transported by sea ships from farther away to participate in the war. The Ma Da Blue Army did not rush to launch an offensive in the first two days after logging in. They were probably assembling these huge siege equipment in the camp. From this point of view, the pre-war preparations of the Marathon and the Blues are undoubtedly more targeted, and the results achieved are also very obvious.
The horse-beating blue army with primitive equipment was actually able to take the initiative from the beginning against the Dutch army with advanced weapons and strong city walls to defend. This was something Cheng Dapeng never expected before the war. According to Cheng Dapeng's prediction, even if the Ma Da Blue Army could gain the upper hand in the battle by virtue of their superior strength, it would probably only be achieved after suffering heavy casualties during the siege. Unexpectedly, on the first day of the war, the performance of the Mavericks against the Blues gave forecasters like Cheng Dapeng a heavy slap in the face.
Although the Malta Blue Army inevitably paid a certain price in casualties during the battle, judging from the current casualty ratio of the participating troops, there is really no obvious gap between the Malta Blue Army and the Dutch Army. The Ma Da Blue Army may not be able to calculate the level of casualties of the Dutch army, but the condescending Dutch army can see it more clearly. For a commander like Bart, today's battle process undoubtedly caused a certain psychological shadow on the defenders. Originally, the sharp firearms and solid city defenses that the Dutch army was proud of caused extremely limited damage to their opponents. However, the Ma Da Blue Army, who were regarded as island monkeys, barbarians, and pagans, used the primitive weapons in their hands to fight proudly. achievements.
"This... this is really..." Rao Cheng Dapeng was eloquent, but after hearing Bart's description, he was a little at a loss for words. At this juncture, whether it was comfort or encouragement, it seemed a bit wrong to stand in Cheng Dapeng's position. Fortunately, he thought quickly, and after a short pause, he continued: "Mr. Bart, we have an old saying that if we keep the green hills, we are not afraid of running out of firewood. After all, we still have the city of Batavia. No matter how powerful the Ma Dalan people are in their hands, they can't fly in out of thin air, right? Besides, it must be difficult to make such a huge trebuchet. I'm afraid they won't be able to replenish the losses for a while outside the city. When they use up these dozens of machines, The trebuchet still has to be filled with human lives!”
Bart thought that he just didn't know how many trebuchets the Matarans had prepared. If there were hundreds of them, everyone might have to consider surrendering in advance to save their lives. Of course, he would not say this to Cheng Dapeng, but he still nodded and said, "Boss Cheng is right. As long as I, Bart, am still here, I will not let the Malan people set foot in Batavia." One step into the city!”
Cheng Dapeng bid farewell to Bart and returned to his residence, feeling both happy and worried. Fortunately, we successfully connected with Bart's line. During the future battles, we will have an excuse to go to the city fortifications to inquire about the battle situation and obtain first-hand information. What is worrying is that the horse-defying blue army is so strong that the Dutch army actually Falling into passivity from the beginning, it really makes people worry about whether the city of Batavia can still be defended.
Although Cheng Dapeng has never seen the fighting in person, judging from Bart's description, the biggest problem of the Dutch army at present is that they are unable to quickly eliminate the numerous trebuchets in the enemy's formation, almost watching helplessly as their opponents move one by one. To destroy one's own city fortifications. How could the Dutch army get rid of this disadvantage? Cheng Dapeng could not think of any effective way. Although he had received basic military skills training when he was trained in the Ministry of Security, he was really a layman on how to command operations.
Cheng Dapeng thought again, if one day it is the Haihan militia that needs to face the Ma Da Blue Army on the battlefield, how should they deal with it? But as soon as the idea came to him, he burst into laughter. The Dutch's artillery has a limited range and cannot take advantage against the trebuchets of the Malta Blue Army. However, the artillery equipped by the Haihan Militia is quite different. There are many huge cannons with a range of two to three miles. The Malta Blue Army has no advantage at all. There would be no chance of pushing the trebuchet too close. Moreover, the range of a trebuchet is almost at its limit at three to four hundred meters. If you want to build a trebuchet with a longer range, its size will have to be expanded. It will be more inconvenient to transport and deploy on the battlefield, and the time and cost required for manufacturing will also increase. With a significant improvement, the price-performance ratio may not be as good as using artillery. Cheng Dapeng also remembered that he had heard that during the Haihan militia's battle in Annam, the southern Ruan clan's army had used large weapons such as trebuchets on the battlefield, but their range and power were probably not as good as those of the Matalan people. The giant trebuchet prepared was blown to pieces under Haihan's artillery fire without even having a chance to function.
Think about it this way, although the Dutch have always been proud of their level of armed force, if they really want to compare with the Haihan militia, it can be said that they are superior to each other. However, this also reflects the importance of intelligence work from the side. If the Dutch could collect the opponent's combat readiness in advance, then the current situation would not be so passive. What Cheng Dapeng did in Batavia at this time was precisely to prevent the Haihan Militia from having a similar embarrassment on the battlefield in the future. Thinking of this, Cheng Dapeng felt that he had been injected with inexplicable power, and he immediately wrote down Bart's description of the fighting situation in detail.
The news gathered at Dacheng Rice Store that day was not limited to Bart's line. Several other people who worked with Cheng Dapeng also obtained other information through other channels.
Although the Mata Blue Army took the north of Batavia City as the main direction of attack, they also launched offensives in the east and west directions. The battle process is said to be similar to that in the north, but other sources of information are all hearsay, which is far less detailed than Bart's description to Cheng Dapeng.
According to the news obtained from the medical institutions in the city, there were also a certain number of casualties and battle losses on both the east and west sides. Especially the explosion that occurred outside the east city before the battle ended in the evening was heard by almost half of Batavia, and the casualties it caused also overcrowded the battlefield medical facilities in the east city. In addition, a large number of civilians were sent out of the city from the east and north. It was said that they were going to repair the fortress that was damaged by the opponent's trebuchet during today's battle overnight. With only about ten hours until dawn, there is really no expectation of how much work the peasants can accomplish in the dark. It can only be said to be better than nothing.
Since the official has sealed off the real situation of the war, and the curfew was implemented just after dark, no negative news has spread in the city yet. However, dozens more bodies of Matalan people were hung in the square in the center of the city. The council and the military could only use this method to consolidate the people's confidence in the war situation. As for the next challenge strategy, Cheng Dapeng estimated that a big shot like Van Diemen might not be better than him and could come up with a better way to deal with the trebuchet of the horse against the blue man.
On July 13, not long after the sky had just dawned, the horns of horses beating the blue army began to echo in the wilderness outside the city. If hearing such a trumpet sound the day before would have caused the defenders to burst into fighting spirit, then after yesterday's battle, many people's first reaction to this trumpet sound has probably become a headache. Because with the sound of the trumpet, there may be a large number of stone bullets falling from the sky.
Sure enough, the Ma Da Blue Army still continued the fighting method from yesterday. Dozens of tall trebuchets were slowly pushed out of the camp and headed towards Batavia City. Although they are well aware of the opponent's tactics, the defenders currently have no better way to deal with it. They can only watch the opponent calmly deploy the trebuchet on the position and slowly adjust the position and launch angle.
The only thing that made the defenders feel lucky was that the commanders saw through their telescopes that the number of stone bombs piled next to the trebuchets was much less than yesterday. It seemed that the stone-throwing tactics used by the horses against the Blue Army also had problems with ammunition supply. There are two quarries outside Batavia, but they are far away from the port area where the opponent lands, and it is probably not possible to quarry enough stones to transport to the battlefield in a short period of time.
However, this joy did not last long. Soon the Dutch commander saw through the telescope that the Matalan people were using small carts to transport carts of gravel and bricks to the front line. There is no doubt that the Matalan people are not stupid. After they discovered the problem, they chose the nearest solution and began to demolish the buildings outside the city.
Although the residents of Batavia mainly live in the city, there are many facilities such as plantations, ports, and trade markets outside the city, and there are also many buildings. If the Mata Blue Army had the patience to demolish all the masonry buildings within a ten-mile radius outside the city, then the demolished masonry would probably be enough to smash all the walls of Batavia to pieces.
"It's all gravel, and the trebuchet is not that accurate." The commanders could only use these helpless words to comfort their ugly-faced subordinates.
At present, the defenders have not received permission to go out of the city to fight, and there are only a few hundred cavalry in the city. Going out to fight the tens of thousands of horses arrayed against the blue army is undoubtedly asking for death. Not only will they not be able to destroy the opponent's trebuchets, but they will Otherwise, all the limited mobility power will be lost on the battlefield. Therefore, after losing the best opportunity to fight out of the city a few days ago, Van Diemen no longer mentioned the intention of sending cavalry to fight.
The accuracy of the thrown gravel is indeed far less than that of the whole stone projectile, and the destructive ability to the fortress walls is also much worse. However, its effect is like a goddess scattering flowers, but it makes the defenders in the fortress outside the city suffer greatly. . The soldiers had to gather under the wall to avoid being hit by the rain of masonry fragments. Even a stone the size of an egg is powerful enough to kill people when it falls here. Even if you are wearing a metal helmet, your neck will most likely be broken after being hit by a stone.
"These damn cowards! They just stay away and throw stones! Are these heretics all monkeys?" Bart saw the embarrassment of the defenders outside the city on the city wall and couldn't help but curse.
(End of chapter)