[Today's first shift, the second shift is very late]

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In the middle of summer, Manila has its hottest time of the year.

At the subic naval base, the Pacific Fleet received the first batch of ten Beigumo-class fourth-class sail battleships and actively began testing. As the first fourth-class battleships, the 10 warships of Beiyun, Beichen, Beirui, Nanxiang, Hai'an, Haiyan, Guangcheng, Fukang, Chengqing, and Yangpu will become the main warships of the Pacific Fleet in the coming year, and the task is arduous. The Pacific Fleet needs 10 battleships to form combat strength as soon as possible and to practice new tactical methods on how to cooperate with battleships in battleships.

For this reason, the Naval Fleet Command postponed the attack on the Dutch East India Fleet, but instructed the Spanish Philippine colonial forces to land on the island of Kalimantan and occupy the colony of the Dutch East India Company.

Fernando, completely blinded by the huge colonial interests and judgment, had no idea that he was being used as a gun by the Ming Dynasty.

In early June, five thousand soldiers of the Spanish colonial army, under the cover of the Pacific Fleet, landed in Salad, Kalimantan. And in a month he occupied the entire island of Kalimantan, driving the Dutch colonists to the city of Matapura in the south of the island.

The Dutch East India Company had prepared for the worst, but did not yet expect the Spaniards to send ground troops at this time.

Van Kirkde, the Dutch colonial governor in the East Indies, received information after the fall of Kalimantan for more than 20 days, so he hurriedly gathered troops to prepare for war.

However, the Dutch troops stationed in the Dutch East Indies were less than 10,000 men, and they were scattered throughout the archipelago and could not be assembled for a while.

So Van Korkard had to gather all the Dutch troops near Batavia, about 4,000 men, and then gather Dutch merchants and immigrants to form an army of about 10,000 people to defend Batavia.

The Dutch East India Fleet held the mountain pass to prevent the Spanish troops on Kalimantan from landing across the ocean, and at the same time resupplied Matapura with 2,000 Dutch in Matapura to resist the Spanish attack.

Matapura was an ordinary star-shaped fortress, defended by only 2,000 Dutchmen, but it was able to withstand the Spanish army's attack.

It took the Spanish army a month to occupy the entire island of Kalimantan, but they failed to take it after attacking the city of Matapura for more than half a month.

Star fortresses are a type of fortified defense system that arose when the European Age of Firearms was just beginning to spread. The basic idea is that every aspect of the defense, or access to the fort, has at least one or preferably multiple firepower to cover it. These lethal areas can be extended, and are made more deadly by the fact that attackers need to climb at least one long inclined embankment around the fortress. The embankment doesn't need to be steep, but the attacker has to climb up without any cover, facing ferocious fire with every step forward. This type of embankment was also a means of attacking defense, and a slope guarded the earthworks of the fortress. There is an outer parapet wall above the inclined embankment, and a buffer wall (sometimes with firing emplacements for the guards) is an obstacle that must be crossed before actually reaching the fortress.

All of these fortifications appeared in front of the main walls of the fort by the military architect, as well as before the corner forts and crown forts were added to the additional triangular forts (triangular forts or gun emplacements in the form of separate triangles). The overall complexity is greatly enhanced in terms of the overall effect, with each star center designed to give the defender an additional firing position for attacks on either side. The length of the wall is limited to the area where it can be covered by side smoothbore guns, and past experience has shown that a fortress defended only by cannons can be captured by light if the cannons are destroyed.

The Star Castle Fortress was a powerful defensive fortress that was originally invented in Europe to resist the westward expansion of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, leaving the mighty Ottoman Sipasi cavalry at a loss. Later, with the popularization of firearms in Europe, military strategists increased their expectations for flank firepower, which further promoted the development of star-shaped castle fortresses.

Compared with the square castle in the east, the star-shaped castle fortress in the west is actually composed of a square castle on the basis of the square castle, with another square castle rotated 45 degrees and superimposed on the original square castle.

To be more specific, it is a polygonal fortress formed by two squares with a staggered 45-degree angle superimposed together.

Of course, this is the most basic star-shaped fortress. There are also pentagonal and hexagonal superimpositions, and the largest surviving in later generations is the twelve-pointed star-shaped fortress of three quadrangular superimposed together-Almeida Castle.

Almeida Castle was built by Portugal to break away from Spanish rule. It was because of this fortress that the Spanish army could not defeat the Portuguese army, thus finally recognizing the independence of Portugal.

The biggest feature of the Lingbao is that each additional protruding water chestnut is equivalent to doubling the flank firepower of the enhancement, and the enemy wants to attack it, it will have to pay twice or even more than ten times the casualties of the soldiers.

Deng Haonan knew that the Ming army had no combat experience in attacking Lingbao Fortress, and he also knew that that kind of castle was a meat grinder, so he first ordered the Southeast Asian dispatch army to suspend the operation, and encouraged the Spanish army to test the depth of water before making a decision.

Fernando did not see the mystery of this, he was completely confused by the immediate colonial interests, and ordered the Spanish army to attack the city of Matapura at any cost, and as a result, the Spanish army lost more than 2,000 casualties in the fierce battle for half a month, which was 20 times the number of casualties in the entire territory of Kalimantan Island.

However, the huge casualties did not stop Fernando's ambitions. In order to save face for the Spanish government, Fernando desperately wanted to eliminate the Dutch colonists, otherwise it would be difficult for him to explain to the Spanish king.

First the loss of the treasure fleet, and then the total destruction of the Philippine fleet, these were enough to hang Fernando. Therefore, by this time, Governor Fernando had no intention of thinking about other issues, let alone guessing Deng Haonan's true purpose.

In mid-July, after the Spanish army had been attacking the city of Matapura for a long time, Fernando again sent 5,000 troops from the Philippines to fight on the front line in Kalimantan.

The Pacific Fleet sent ten cruisers to escort them, covering their landing. Unexpectedly, the Dutch East India Fleet suddenly appeared, and the escort fleet composed of ten cruisers of the Ming Dynasty retreated after a little resistance, and the Spanish landing force was attacked by the Dutch navy and suffered heavy casualties. According to later statistics, half of the 5,000 Spanish reinforcements that landed that day were lost.

In response to this, Governor Fernando was furious and personally protested to Shi Jianfei, the commander of the multinational combined fleet. In this regard, Shi Jianfei could only express regret and said that he would definitely increase the number of escort warships next time to prevent this incident from happening again.

It is useless for Fernando to be angry, the battle of Matapura has reached a stalemate, and if you want to break this stalemate, you must continue to increase your troops, and strive to conquer the city of Matapura as soon as possible and occupy the whole territory of Kalimantan.

Kalimantan is the second largest island in Southeast Asia, equivalent to Luzon in the Philippines. If he could occupy the island, Fernando would be able to give an account to the Spanish government and take the blame.

Of course, Fernando had no intention of reporting the news of the robbery of the treasure fleet and the total destruction of the Philippine fleet. The more than 20 million that had been taken were to be recovered from the Dutch, and the destruction of the Philippine fleet would eventually be canceled out by the destruction of the Dutch East India fleet.

In short, Fernando is now bound to destroy the Dutch East India Company at any cost, this is his only way out, otherwise he will have to go bankrupt.

The matter is over, and Fernando does not want to pursue it, for fear of hurting the harmony. Now he is still counting on the Pacific Fleet and the Dutch fleet to fight to the death, but he doesn't want Daming to get out of the matter.

The capture of Kalimantan by the Spaniards soon reached the Anglo-French-Swiss-Norwegian East India Company, and the governors of the four countries decided to send troops as far as they could, not waiting for the arrival of the Ming expeditionary force.

In fact, the Ming expeditionary force was just throwing bricks and stones, and had no intention of really throwing them into the East Indies battlefield. Their real purpose is the Philippines, not the East Indies.

Of course, from a long-term strategic point of view, the ultimate goal is to control Southeast Asia and completely squeeze the Western forces out of the East.

The troops of the Four Nations were dispatched in mid-July and, under the cover of the Four Nations fleet, landed in Bandamia, Dutch East Indies, on 16 July.

Knowing that the calamity was imminent, the Dutch moved their nearby troops and settlers to the fortress of Batavia, so the forces of the four nations soon occupied Bandamia and arrived in Medan, a major town in the western part of the East Indies, on the 22nd.

The Dutch in the city of Medan is a small castle in the western part of the East Indies, defended by a thousand defenders, and in order to resist the attack of the troops of the four countries, the Dutch men and women in the city of Medan joined forces to form a garrison of about 3,000 people. At the same time, the local sultan has been bought by the Dutch and is a puppet supported by the Dutch. In order to maintain his position, the local sultan gathered tens of thousands of indigenous soldiers to help the Dutch defend Batavia and Medan, as well as the southern city of Bandung.

Although tens of thousands of natives could no longer fight the invaders on the battlefield, they could help the Dutch defend the city and carry weapons and ammunition, so that more Dutch could participate in the battle and strengthen their defensive capabilities.

After two weeks of fierce fighting with the Dutch in Medan, the troops of the four nations occupied Medan in early August after suffering more than 1,000 casualties. Since the Medan Castle was not a diamond-shaped castle like Matapura, its defensive capabilities were limited, and the Dutch defenders of Medan were forced to abandon Medan and retreat to Batavia City.

In mid-August, after a week's rest, the Quadruple Coalition replenished its soldiers, bringing the total strength to 5,000 men, before heading for Batavia.

Arnhem, the Dutch governor of the East Indies, did not take the Quadruple Coalition to heart, as the city of Batavia was a huge diamond-shaped castle that was easy to defend and difficult to attack. At the same time, there were tens of thousands of Dutch in the city, who could defend the city at any time.

When the Quadruple Coalition arrived at Batavia, they found that the fortress they were facing was simply difficult to capture. The British and French commanders tried to deliberately retreat, and the Yin* Dutch went out of the city to fight, only to be seen through by the Dutch.

The Dutch were not fooled and held the fortress. Due to the abundance of supplies in the fortress, even if it is besieged for a year and a half, it will be fine. However, the Four-Nation Coalition could not afford to drag it out, and their front was stretched from the Bay of Bengal to Batavia.

The Four-Nation Coalition could no longer help the Dutch, but they could burn and loot everywhere for supplies.

For a time, the western peninsula of the Dutch East Indies was plunged into terror, and all the property of the Dutch manors was looted, and the East Indies, which the Dutch had painstakingly managed, were destroyed.

Arnhem was furious, but he hadn't lost his mind yet. He knew that now was not the time to fight with the other side, and he was waiting, waiting for the East India Company base camp to quickly mobilize troops and warships to come for reinforcements.

The Dutch East India Fleet was not idle, and under Turner's command, several naval battles broke out between the Dutch fleet and the combined fleet of the four countries for the right to navigate Malacca.

Since Turner did not dare to say that all the warships were concentrated in the Strait of Malacca, it was necessary to allocate a part of the warships to assist in the defense of Batavia and Matapura, and to harass Spanish reinforcements from time to time, as well as to monitor the movements of the Pacific Fleet. Therefore, in the Strait of Malacca, Turner deployed only 40 cruisers and 30 frigates to block the strait and confront the combined fleet of the four countries. In addition, more than 40 cruisers and more than 70 frigates were mobilized to defend the Pacific Fleet in the waters around the Yamaguchi Ocean.

In this way, the Dutch were deployed on both fronts, and their troops were not strong, so they could only be in a defensive position. The combined fleet of the four countries had sixty cruisers, which surpassed the Dutch in the Strait of Malacca. However, the Dutch were desperate and flexible in command and coordination, while the four-nation fleet, on the other hand, affected its combat effectiveness because of command problems.

As a result, in several naval battles in the Strait of Malacca, neither side took advantage of the situation and was evenly matched.

After Fernando learned about the capture of Medan by the troops of the four countries, he was very anxious, so he repeatedly urged the Spanish army on the front line to capture the city of Matapura, and before other countries captured the city of Batavia, the Spanish army must also run to Batavia to get a piece of the pie.

Batavia was the stronghold of the Dutch East India Company and had a wealth of money. Until now, Fernando has always believed that the Dutch had taken the huge amount of money from the treasure ship. And if other countries were the first to storm the city of Batavia, it would inevitably divide up the wealth of the Dutch. At that time, it will be even more difficult to recover that huge amount of money.

As a result, Fernando continued to increase his troops in Matapura, committing 25,000 troops in three months.

By the beginning of September, the Spanish army in the Philippines had been drawn to 90 percent, and the total strength had reached 36,000 men, while only about 4,000 people remained on the mainland, most of them old and weak, scattered throughout the Philippines, and only 1,000 men defended in Manila.

As Deng Haonan predicted, although Fernando only promised to send 5,000 troops at first, as the war progressed, the Dutch East Indies would become a quagmire of war, dragging the Spaniards and other East India Company troops into it.

As the offensive and defensive battles of Matapura continued to intensify, the Spaniards mobilized heavy artillery to bombard the city, and the area of the city collapsed more and more. Finally, on the 13th of September, the Spaniards destroyed the three water chestnut walls on the east side of the city of Matapura. The tide of the battlefield began to turn, and after the Spaniards had paid more than 5,000 casualties, the scales tipped in favor of the Spaniards.

On the morning of the 14th, the triangular fort in the north was destroyed, in the afternoon the concave fort was blown up, and in the evening the Spanish army attacked the last barrier of the city of Matapura, the middle embankment.

As night came, the Spanish artillery easily exposed the target, giving the Dutch artillery a chance to counterattack, so the Spaniards stopped the siege. Prepare to take Matapura in one fell swoop tomorrow.

In Matapura, the Dutch had already suffered all the casualties, and the defenders were less than 200 men, and they would certainly not be able to stop the Spanish attack tomorrow.

As a result, the Dutch retreated at night, fled to the battleship from the Ximen Shuiguan pier, and abandoned the city of Matapura.

At dawn the next day, the Spaniards blasted the central embankment with heavy artillery and attacked the city of Matapura from the east.

After entering the city, there was no resistance from the Dutch, and everywhere was a mess. The Dutch had almost exhausted all their ammunition, and their weapons were worn out to the point of being unusable. Most of the remaining Dutch in the city were wounded and unable to escape, and all became captives of the Spaniards.

After entering the city, the Spaniards learned that the Dutch had escaped, and they immediately angered the people in the city. The commander of the Spanish army, Florde, immediately ordered the massacre of the local natives and the confiscation of all Dutch property.

The Spaniards burned and looted in Matapura for three days and three nights before it ended, and if it weren't for Fernando's rush to Batavia to join the war, Flot would have continued to loot for a few days to relieve his hatred.

With the capture of the city of Matapura by the Spaniards, the occupation of the entire island of Kalimantan by the Spanish marked the expansion of the colony by half.

However, Fernando was not satisfied, and the Spanish army was equally not satisfied after the seizure of the city of Matapura. So, under Fernando's orders, after three days of rest, Frode left 1,000 men to defend the city of Matapura, and the remaining 30,000 Spanish troops continued to march towards the Dutch East Indies.

At this time, the officers and men of the 10 Beiyun-class fourth-class battleships received by the Pacific Fleet quickly mastered the combat capability of the warships during the three-month intensive training period, which enabled these 10 battleships to form combat effectiveness.

In late September, the Pacific Fleet finally sailed out of Subic Naval Base and headed south to cover the landing of the Spanish Army on the East Indies off the coast of Ked.

After more than 10 days of landing operations, the Spanish Army took control of the area near Kede on October 7 and completed the landing.

After landing in the East Indies, the Spanish Army quickly marched towards Batavia, and arrived outside Batavia on the afternoon of 15 July.

The Dutch withdrew the entire fleet and blockaded the port of Batavia. In this way, the combined fleet of the four countries was able to pass through the Strait of Malacca, rendezvous with the Pacific Fleet at the Yamaguchi Ocean, and encircle the Dutch fleet in the waters of the Yamaguchi Ocean.

After the blockade of the Strait of Malacca was lifted, a 1,000-strong Marine Corps of the Pacific Fleet occupied Serk Lak Po (Singapore) under the cover of the Pacific Fleet and quickly built fortifications and harbors, completely forgetting about the war on the other side.

On October 18, the allied forces of Spain, Britain, France, Sweden, and Norway began to attack the fortress of Batavia.

At the same time as the countries in Southeast Asia were fighting, Deng Haonan quietly sent a large army to the Philippines by taking the opportunity of marrying Miss Zhao Jiu'er to return to Beijing. V