Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 628 A tough nut to crack

As the Batavia defenders abandoned the artillery and retreated to the bastion, the Qian army landed in Batavia without any resistance. At the same time, the two sunken ships in the port were also salvaged ashore by the Qian army.

After the port was cleared, Zheng Chenggong's fleet temporarily stopped at the port of Batavia. With this port, the transportation of materials became more convenient.

As time passed, while the infantry of the Qian army was busy building fortifications and blocking the bastion, the transport ships in the rear also unloaded cannons, a large number of solid bullets, shrapnel shells, and countless food and fodder.

Wars are fought based on national strength. Except for some genius generals who can change the course of a war by themselves, most wars between countries are a competition to see who has more troops and who has more money and food. Compared with the Qian Dynasty, which has a huge reserve of troops, Batavia is far behind.

Although the artillery pieces of the forts aimed at the sea were destroyed by the defenders, the forts were located in a high position and could fire at the Batavia Bastion as long as the artillery pieces were transported up there.

After Zheng Chenggong landed, a large number of fortifications were built, which lasted for more than two months. During this period, the Qian army relied on the advantage of rear-end supplies to hide in trenches and on artillery platforms, and fought with the defenders in a consumption war. The Qian army fired a large number of shrapnel shells into the bastion.

At the beginning, the defenders were able to exchange fire with the Qian army, but after a few days, the artillery on the bastion stopped firing. Batavia had been surrounded by the Qian army, and their reserves were not enough to compete with the Qian army in consumption.

Batavia is located in Southeast Asia. Although the winter is not too cold, there is much more rain than in the Central Plains. The Qian army dug a large number of fortifications, and as soon as it rained, the trenches would be filled with rainwater, which made the Qian army miserable.

Many soldiers fell ill as a result. Before the Qian army launched a large-scale siege, more than a thousand soldiers had lost their combat effectiveness due to acclimatization and the wet and rainy weather.

However, the Qian army was not having a good time. In the city of Batavia, Hansui was also in a difficult situation. The number of Dutch soldiers, locally recruited soldiers, and the navy that retreated into the city had reached more than 3,800.

With so many people crowded in the bastion, eating, drinking, defecating and urinating in the city, within a few days, there was feces and urine everywhere. Ru Hansuige could not stand it anymore, so he ordered people to pour the feces and urine down into the city. Although the weather was not so hot now, the long-term dumping made the bastion full of the smell of feces and urine. Even the patrol team above had to cover their mouths and noses with cloth to barely cover up the smell.

Moreover, the Qian army outside the city frequently fired shrapnel shells, causing casualties among the defenders in Batavia. In order to prevent the corpses from causing diseases, Ru Hansui ordered a large pit to be dug in the southeast of the bastion to bury the corpses.

During these two months, after Zheng Chenggong stabilized the siege camp in Batavia, he transported more than 5,000 infantrymen and more than 40 artillery pieces from Brunei. By then, outside the city of Batavia, the Qian army had more than 20,000 soldiers and more than 70 artillery pieces.

Ru Han Suige stood on the fortress, looking at the Qian army warships anchored in the distance and the infantry that were pouring into the military camp one after another, his expression somewhat solemn.

At this time, Opdam said worriedly: "Governor, judging from the scale, the Qian army may have ten times the strength of our army. We..."

Before Opdam finished speaking, Ruhansug knew what he meant. Opdam had no confidence in being able to defend Batavia. Not only Opdam, but even Ruhansug knew in his heart that he would not be able to defend it. It was only a matter of time before the city fell.

However, Ru Hansuige said in a firm tone: "Batavia is the kingdom's most important stronghold in Southeast Asia. If Batavia is lost, Malacca will also be lost. If both places are lost, the East India Company will inevitably go bankrupt. For the sake of the kingdom and the East India Company, we must hold on!"

After he finished speaking, Ru Hansuige saw that everyone still looked worried, so he encouraged them again, "Although the Qian people have more troops, with more people, they consume more food and fresh water, so having more troops is not always an advantage.

Batavia Castle, the kingdom has been operating for nearly forty years, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it has complete supplies. As long as we hold on for a while, once reinforcements arrive, the enemy will flee in panic. Ladies and gentlemen, victory belongs to the kingdom and to us! God will bless us too!"

………………

The eighth year of Zhaowu, the first month.

Zheng Chenggong spent the New Year outside the city of Batavia. After the Spring Festival, Zheng Chenggong decided to forcibly attack the bastion after all the materials were prepared. He could not wait for a year or two to besiege the city.

When the current emperor launched the Northern Expedition, it took less than a year to reach the capital from Jining. When he attacked Manila, he relied on besieging the city, forcing the foreigners in the city to break out and then annihilate all the foreigners in Manila. If he had to rely on besieging the city again to attack Batavia this time, Zheng Chenggong would feel that it would be a loss of face.

The bastion of Batavia is not just a diamond-shaped wall structure. Outside the bastion, there are criss-crossing trenches, and water sources have already been introduced into the trenches at this time.

When these Western colonists were engaged in ocean trade, they would usually build bastion strongholds at important nodes along the routes, and the locations of these strongholds were generally chosen in dangerous terrain.

At this time, in the camp outside the city, Zheng Chenggong, Zhang Shun and a group of generals were gathered around the sand table, observing the terrain of the Batavia Fortress.

Although the trench outside the city was a bit troublesome for the Qian army, the Qian army had basically seen and experienced these things before, so the generals were not afraid of them.

The difficulty lies in the bastion, which is a diamond-shaped structure. This means that when the soldiers climb the city wall, they will be attacked by muskets on three sides. Climbing the city wall is already difficult, and if they are attacked from three sides, the troops climbing the city wall will probably suffer serious casualties.

Zheng Chenggong originally wanted to bury gunpowder to blow up the bastion, but after Zheng Chenggong climbed up the fort and observed the city of Batavia from a high vantage point, he thought that using gunpowder to blow up the bastion might not work because the foundation of the bastion was too thick.

The bastion is different from traditional cities in the Central Plains. Its walls are not high and its scale is not large, but the bastion city is short and thick, which means that the bastion has a stronger ability to resist solid bullets. Moreover, the outer perimeter of the bastion is regular, and when the shells hit the bastion wall, the artillery power will be greatly lost due to the angle problem.

Fortunately, this time, Zheng Chenggong transported a large number of shrapnel bombs from the Qian Dynasty, and he could shoot them into the city from a high position, which greatly enhanced the Qian army's ability to attack the city.

On the seventeenth day of the first lunar month in the eighth year of Zhaowu, Zheng Chenggong ordered the first step to clear the outer fortifications of the Batavia Bastion.