Chapter 3477
According to the Haihan Army's past experience in fighting with the Dutch, the other side was not good at fighting at night and had never launched a night attack against the Haihan Army. However, Takahashi Nan still did not dare to be careless. In addition to arranging rangers to patrol the nearby area, he also ordered several fires to be lit about a hundred feet outside the beachhead. Any attempt to launch a surprise attack at night would be in vain under the light of the fire. Escape everywhere.
The troop transports and supply ships that lagged behind arrived in Colombo later than expected, and it was almost midnight before they rendezvoused with the Weixing, which was responding offshore.
These logistics ships took about nine hours longer than the vanguard, but still slightly faster than originally expected.
If they had not rushed to put out the fire and traveled at normal speed, these ships should have arrived here at dawn the next day.
Escorted by several warships such as the Weising, the Dutch ship made no attempt to block it. Subsequent arriving ships successfully docked near the beachhead and transferred combat personnel and supplies ashore overnight.
After a day of rough weather, the soldiers were given extremely valuable rest time. They could take a short break after landing and restore their physical fitness and energy before dawn.
The number of troops stationed at the beachhead increased by thousands overnight, as well as several field artillery pieces with larger diameters. Although I dare not say that the defense line is impregnable, it is at least much more stable than yesterday when there were more than 200 people.
Takahashi Nan did not let the troops who arrived later idle. Starting from dawn, the soldiers began to expand the beachhead position.
On the one hand, the width of the bunker was increased to deploy more soldiers, further increasing the firepower output intensity on the position; on the other hand, more marching tents were built in the position to prepare for a long confrontation with the Dutch.
Qian Shaobao, who was originally sent to stay on the Weixing by Gao Qiaonan, could now return to the beachhead in good faith.
Qian Shaobao also paid attention to the entire battle with the Dutch this afternoon. For this reason, he even climbed to the lookout position on the main mast of the Weixing and stayed there for more than an hour, watching the battle on the coast with a telescope.
Although the battle was one-sided and there was almost no suspense in the entire battle, Qian Shaobao still felt excited and excited.
It had been a long time since he had experienced such a battle. Even if the opponent was a relatively weak Dutch servant army, such combat experience was by no means comparable to a military exercise.
After Takahashi Nan had breakfast, he immediately summoned his officers and combat staff for a war preparation meeting. He caught a glimpse of Qian Shaobao standing in the team, he just nodded slightly and said nothing more.
Qian Shaobao did not ask him for instructions in advance when he returned to the battlefield, but the task assigned to him yesterday to meet the follow-up troops had been completed, so it made sense to come back to him.
Of course, Gao Qiaonan knew very well what Qian Shaobao's plan was for rushing back, but there was no need to name him alone in front of everyone.
Qian Tiandun asked Qian Shaobao to go out with the troops, and Gao Qiaonan naturally understood his mission. On the premise of ensuring Qian Shaobao's personal safety, he would find a suitable opportunity to show him his military exploits.
Now that the main force has landed and the defenses on the position have been improved, the next battle with the Dutch should not be so risky. Qian Shaobao can be responsible for commanding some areas.
Takahashi Minami was fully prepared, just waiting for the Dutch to attack in a big way. But the Dutch didn't seem to have recovered from yesterday's defeat in the first round of the match. Until daybreak, there was no sign of launching a new round of offensive.
Takahashi Nan waited impatiently and climbed up to the watchtower in the beachhead to observe the movements of the Dutch camp.
The two places are several miles apart. Through the telescope, only a small number of soldiers and horses can be seen coming in and out of the camp, but there is no sign of large-scale mobilization.
According to Takahashi Minami's prediction, if the Dutch want to continue their offensive, they will not be able to send hundreds of people to test the firepower like yesterday. As long as we take action, we will definitely invest a large amount of troops to be able to break through the beachhead of the special operations division.
And with thousands of soldiers arrayed to attack, it was impossible to do so quietly. Takahashi Minami estimated that given the quality of the opponent's servants, just gathering and queuing up outside the camp would take a long time, but so far, there seems to be no sign of the opponent lining up to fight.
Are you planning to go directly to the Dutch's own regular army? Takahashi Minami believes that the other party may not have such determination.
You must know that this place is extremely far away from the mainland of the Netherlands, and the value of combat personnel is much higher than that of the European battlefield.
Thousands of soldiers on European battlefields may be just cannon fodder lined up to be shot, but here, every professional soldier is a valuable asset, and losses are not so easy to be replenished.
The normal tactic is, of course, to send out the servant army to take the lead, while the Dutch elite form behind to hold down the battle. After the servants opened a gap in the Haihan defense line, the Dutch stepped forward to fight.
If the Dutch soldiers, who only have 1,800 men, are wiped out when they come up, then even if there are still thousands of servants, it will be difficult to be effective on the battlefield.
When Takahashi Minami was feeling confused, he saw Dutch ships on the sea gathering in the direction of his camp.
This kind of transfer made Takahashi Minami even more confused. Could it be that the Dutch still had hidden troops on the ship, or were there heavy weapons and equipment that did not appear until this time?
However, what really exceeded his expectations was yet to come. When these ships docked one after another, there was finally movement in the camp. The armed men filing out actually marched straight to the seaside, and then began to board the ships.
What does this mean? Takahashi Minami reviewed the terrain nearby in his mind. Apart from Colombo City, there were no other important targets. There seemed to be no need to send troops to fight elsewhere by sea.
After Takahashi Minami eliminated many possibilities in his mind, he was left with only one fact that seemed absurd but was already in progress - the Dutch were planning to escape!
This seems extremely unreasonable. The Dutch spent such huge manpower and material resources to attack the city of Colombo, and victory was just around the corner. Although it was affected by the arrival of the Haihan Army, it was not completely impossible to win.
But they never expected that after yesterday's round of small-scale fighting, the Dutch would change their minds and actually want to retreat.
Although yesterday's battle was won beautifully, Takahashi Minami felt that it was not enough to say that it destroyed the Dutch's will to fight. After all, the casualties were only a few servants, and the beachhead was prepared for massacres in response to large-scale battles. The weapon has not been used yet, how can the Dutch conclude that they can't defeat it?
Takahashi Minami himself felt that this idea was a bit ridiculous, but the actions of the Dutch confirmed his idea. Several artillery pieces were shipped out of the camp one after another and transported to the seaside to be hoisted onto ships. This clearly meant that they had given up on continuing the attack on Colombo. Launched an attack.