Nineteen days later, when Covance was looking over the city of Batavia, he suddenly saw something, and the whole person froze in place, as did the hundreds of soldiers around him, looking at the sea to the north in a daze, and the eyes of the people were full of fear.

At this time, on the sea north of Batavia, an overwhelming sail struck, and the snow-white sails occupied almost the entire sea like endless white clouds, covering the boundary between the sea and the sky.

"There are thousands of ships in the sea!"

Covance wailed in pain: With so many ships in the sea, how many troops did the Ming Empire dispatch?

"All on alert! All troops on alert! ”

Covance roared with all his strength, and the Dutch soldiers around him all ran around, including the native soldiers outside the city and the soldiers inside the city.

At this time, everyone was busy in an orderly manner, as if only by rushing something in their hands could they forget the fear of the Ming Empire's army pressing the border.

Covance was constantly patrolling the city of Batavia, fearing that there were any flaws in the city's defenses and any unpreparedness.

However, for taking the initiative to attack, occupy the beach in the north, and block the army of the Ming Empire on the sea, this is no longer Cowens's option, in Cowens's opinion, at this time, his own strength, it is no longer possible to block the army of the Ming Empire on the sea, even if it is to hold Batavia City, it is almost an impossible task.

Three days later, Zhang Xiaojun, the commander-in-chief of Shandong Town, and Yan Hu, the chief military officer of Taiyuan Town, who was appointed by Liu Juntao as the commander of the expeditionary force, landed at the same time, and almost all the officers and men of the Tiance Army landed successfully.

At this time, Yan Hu and Zhang Xiaojun stood side by side on a high ground, looking at Batavia City in the distance, their faces were also very solemn.

The first time they saw a city built by the Europeans, they both realized how vicious such a city was!

After the continuous management of the Dutch, the city of Batavia has been built into a fortified city in the style of a rhombic castle, not only the walls are thick and tall, but also there are three walls in the city, and the combination of high and low forms a firepower advantage.

There are also dozens of forts and arrow towers built in the city wall and the city, which shows the strong firepower of Batavia. Outside the city, moats and breastworks surrounded the perimeter, forming a tight defensive network.

"This Batavia city is different from the cities in China, it is completely a hard little walnut, if you are not careful, you will knock out your teeth!"

Zhang Xiaojun said solemnly, Yan Hu also nodded, and said: "Since we are already here, then don't be too anxious, wait for the artillery to be transported from the rear first, and then we will use our superior firepower to clear the firepower of Batavia City first, and then attack the city!" ”

Zhang Xiaojun nodded in response: "Okay!" That's right! ”

The next day, Zhang Xiaojun and Yan Hu commanded the officers and men of the Tiance Army to surround the city of Batavia, completely cutting off the city from the rest of Luzon.

At this time, Feng Xiang had already sunk all the four Dutch battleships that broke through, and salvaged the flags of these four Dutch battleships and sent them to Zhang Xiaojun and Yan Hu.

The two immediately ordered the four flags to be sent to the front of the battle, and the Dutch were immediately moved!

At this time, it means that all the Dutch in Batavia City have completely run out of reinforcements, and they can only rely on their own strength to repel the hundreds of thousands of troops and huge naval fleets of the Ming Empire!

But is this realistic?

All Dutchmen in Batavia know the answer: no way!

Since the siege of the city by the various units of the Tiance Army, the sound of artillery has been continuous every day. However, with the order of Zhang Xiaojun and Yan Hu, the roar of the Ming artillery outside Batavia City suddenly intensified, and the cannon smoke spread on three sides, connecting into a line, and the entire Batavia City was like a thundercloud.

Feeling the vibration of the air and the ground trembling slightly, Yan Hu held the telescope to observe the effect of the shelling, while snorting violently and muttering in a low voice: "This is the taste of war......

Two or three miles away, the cannonball fell on a stone corner fort, raising a puff of dust and smoke from the boss, countless broken stones could be seen in the telescope, and there were vague small cannons and human bodies rising up, Yan Hu nodded, this cannon should have hit the battlement wall of the ridge line of the corner fort, and it was estimated that in three or five days, this corner fort could be abolished.

This is just an artillery bombardment from the Eagle Yang Army, Yan Hu turned his head to look at a small hill in the distance behind him, which was the artillery position drawn by the rest of the Tiance Army, and said in his heart that when the artillery array over there fired, he didn't know what kind of scene it would be like when the mountain shook.

Then Yan Hu sneezed, saying in his heart that the smell was stronger than the previous battlefield in the Western Regions, and there were too many artillery.

In order to win this battle, Liu Juntao deliberately strengthened the number of artillery attached to each department of the Tiance Army, and now there are more than 600 artillery pieces attached to each department of the Tiance Army! Not only that, but there are also more than 300 guns on the naval battleships, and they are now on the battleships on the sea, ready to support the land siege.

At the beginning of the battle, the officers and men of the Tiance Army had been using small and medium-sized artillery such as mine throwers to carry out artillery battles with the Dutch outer defense line, covering the clearing and trenching work. Several passages have now been opened, each consisting of three vertical parallel trenches and a number of lateral communication trenches, which have made it possible to launch a direct attack on the outer line of defense.

At the same time, at the head of Batavia City, looking at the skillful combat skills of the Ming soldiers, Covens was also shocked, the civil engineering of the Ming soldiers was so neat, looking at the composition of the parallel moats in the north and east, the fall of Batavia City was almost a foregone conclusion!

Not only that, such a fierce artillery fire, Covance had never encountered before, and even in Europe there was no such earth-shaking artillery battle! How many cannons did those Ming troops have? No wonder they were full of confidence and wanted to take the whole city of Batavia.

At this time, there were also many artillery pieces in Batavia, with more than 20 30-pounder and 32-pounder cannons, hundreds of medium guns of 12, 16 and 18-pounder, and countless small cannons of 6-pounder and 9-pounder guns, which were not considered artillery at all.

The city of Batavia was built on the royal city of the ancient kingdom of Luzon, and its defensive posture was extremely favorable. To the northwest was the Pasig River, which was more than 300 yards wide, and to the south, less than 500 yards to the sea, and the enemy could only approach from two places, north and east.

There are two outer lines of defense under these two sides, the outermost layer is two or three thousand yards deep from the castle, and on the entire outer defense line, there are hundreds of Dutch soldiers commanding tens of thousands of native soldiers to guard.

Originally, the Dutch thought that it would take the end of the month for the other side to approach the outer defense line, but looking at the speed of the Ming army's trenches and the strength of the artillery fire in front of them, this estimate was greatly discounted.

So, the Dutch officers in the city couldn't hold their breath anymore, because the distance was too far, they didn't use the castle cannon much, they relied on the artillery in the corner fort of the outer defense line to bombard the Ming army, and now at the critical moment, the castle cannon must also move.

However, as the commander of the city defense, Covance originally wanted to calm his subordinates, after all, now that the city of Batavia has been besieged, this cannonball is one less shot, even if the cannonball is enough, the artillery has a life......

But Covance was about to admonish the crowd when a missed cannonball came far away, rubbed against the stone wall of the castle, and bounced limply back into the moat. The soldiers on the battlements of the castle laughed heartlessly, but Covance suddenly changed color.

This cannon flew from a great distance, how could it be more than three thousand yards, that is, three miles away, once the Ming army broke through the first line of defense and bombarded the city wall from one or two thousand yards away, then the time for the castle to hold on would be greatly shortened.

The first line of defense can't be held all the time, but it still has to be delayed as much as possible.

Thinking of this, Covance had no choice but to reluctantly: "Fire!" ”

The artillery of Batavia City also roared, and the difficulty of the Ming army attacking the first line of defense on the periphery suddenly increased.

The artillery attached to each unit of the Tiance Army should be placed within a distance of less than three miles from the first line of defense, or even as close as two miles. Although the artillery of the corner fort was not large, and the number was small, it was not much of a threat, but the artillery on the fort in the city of Batavia in the rear opened fire, and the trouble was great.

"It's a necessary price to pay......"

In the rumbling cannon, he could occasionally see his own artillery carriage cracking and his human body flying sideways, Yan Hu comforted Zhang Xiaojun, who frowned slightly.

After two days of artillery fighting, they finally destroyed several corner forts and cleared the fire threat from the defensive line, but Zhang Xiaojun and Yan Hu jumped to their feet and scolded the Dutch. In just two days, more than 20 artillery pieces had been destroyed and more than 100 gunners had been injured.

A few days later, Tiangong was still partial to the Ming Dynasty, and the city of Batavia was clear and rainless, although the artillery on the first line of defense could not be completely swept away, but Zhang Xiaojun and Yan Hu still gave an assault order after discussion. It's the rainy season in Luzon, and who knows if it's going to rain heavily the next day.

And then...... It was the turn of Zhang Xiaojun, Yan Hu and other generals of the Tiance Army to be heartbroken.

Zhang Xiaojun and Yan Hu personally went to the northern battlefield to observe the battle situation ahead, where the artillery knocked out three corner forts and cleared up the heavy firepower of this section of the 100-zhang wide defense line. At the same time, the chief military officer, Chen Ziping, threw in all the infantry of a battalion of the Vietnamese cavalry here, preparing to take this section of the defensive line.

According to the readjusted attack code of the military headquarters, the artillery attached to the Vietnamese cavalry army first bombarded the enemy's defense line and covered the infantry along the parallel trenches to half a mile away from the enemy's defensive line, and assembled in the communication trenches between the parallel trenches to stand by. Then the artillery of each matching soldier and horse bombarded in the front trench and artillery trench.

The violent explosion seemed to have crushed all the objects in the enemy position in front of them, and before the smoke of gunpowder could disperse, a thousand soldiers of the Yue cavalry rushed up, and there were several ladders two or three feet long in the crowd.

The defense line has been wrapped in gunsmoke, and the rear cannot see the battle situation clearly, Zhang Xiaojun and Yan Hu can only vaguely see the ladders falling down, wearing iron helmets, wearing cuirasses, and grenadiers holding rattan cards stepping on the ladders and sinking into the smoke.