Chapter 334: Battle of Banda Lampang

[Today's first update, there may be a second and third update later, so stay tuned]

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The situation in Southeast Asia has changed in a new way, and the Dutch East India Company has summoned the West India Company to increase the number of troops to the Dutch East Indies by 50,000 troops and sent more than 100 warships, including battleships, which has made the situation in Southeast Asia tense.

Originally, the Dutch East India Fleet still had about sixty or so cruisers, but this time the East India Headquarters sent a strong lineup, including twenty third-class battleships, forty fourth-class battleships, and fifty cruisers, so that the number of warships in the Dutch East India Fleet surged to one hundred and seventy, not including up to two hundred frigates and schooners of various kinds.

For a time, the dominance of Southeast Asia returned to the Dutch.

In the Dutch East Indies, the armies of the East India Company of Britain, France, Sweden, Norway, and the Holy Roman Empire, as well as the Spanish participating armies, were shocked by the actions of the Dutch.

They never imagined that the Dutch would go so far as to give up all their possessions for an East Indies.

After the Dutch army was reinforced in Batavia, the commanders of the six armies in the Dutch East Indies knew that they could not fight the Dutch on their own, so they gave up their turf rivalry and turned hostile to the Dutch.

At the same time, in addition to the Spaniards, the governors of the East India Company of the other five countries sent envoys to Luzon and Beijing to request assistance from the Chinese Imperial Government.

At this time, the Chinese Empire occupied ninety percent of the Southeast Asian archipelago, most of which were Dutch. Therefore, the imperial government was nervous about this, and agreed to the request of the East India Company of the Five Nations, willing to increase troops in Southeast Asia and help them deal with the Dutch.

However, to the surprise of the Imperial Government, the Dutch sent people to Beijing to seek peace with the Imperial Government.

In the imperial study, Deng Haonan looked at the report submitted by the Ministry of Rites, and couldn't guess what the Dutch thought.

"What do you think?"

The Ministry of Rites Shangshu Chengji replied: "According to Weichen's judgment, the Dutch should first pacify the empire, then concentrate on clearing the power of the other six countries in Southeast Asia, and finally have a showdown with the empire."

Deng Haonan nodded and said, "But the Dutch recognize the Empire's control over the existing occupied areas, which is very beneficial to the Empire's future actions."

In order to prevent the Chinese Empire from intervening in the war in Southeast Asia, the Dutch proposed to recognize the sovereignty of the Chinese Empire over the Philippines and sovereignty over Kalimantan Island, Singapore, Papua and other areas actually occupied.

Sung Ki replied, "What the Emperor said is very true, but if the Imperial Army does not intervene, the Dutch will soon defeat the other six kingdoms and regain control of the Dutch East Indies." At that time, it was difficult to guarantee that the Dutch would not make a move against Dutch Guinea"

The Dutch East India Fleet had sixty capital battleships and one hundred and ten cruisers, while the Imperial Chinese Navy currently had only forty capital battleships, and most of the cruisers were sent around the world. Even if the other four fleets are united, there is a big gap between them and the Dutch East India fleet, after all, the other side has twenty more battleships.

"You must know that a detachment with twenty more battleships than us is very difficult to defeat"

Deng Haonan raised his concerns, although Cheng Ji did not understand military affairs, he also accompanied Deng Haonan to visit the Dingzhen Second Ship. The shock of the Dingzhen Second Ship to these civilian officials was quite large, so Cheng Ji knew very well what the battleship meant.

Sung Ki replied, "However, if the empire acquiesces to the military actions of the Dutch, then the fleet of the four countries will be wiped out or expelled from Southeast Asia. If the Dutch go to war against China again, the empire will be at a greater disadvantage."

Deng Haonan nodded, Cheng Ji's analysis made sense, but Deng Haonan still had his plan in his heart, that is, seven or eight countries intervened in the competition for Southeast Asia, which always made people feel bad.

"I plan to borrow the hands of the Dutch to drive all the other six countries out of Southeast Asia."

When Cheng Ji heard Deng Haonan say this, he immediately understood that he had decided not to help the Six Kingdoms and sat back and watched the Six Nations be destroyed.

"With the destruction of the Six Kingdoms, the Dutch will become the only enemy of the Empire in the seas of Southeast Asia, and the war will not end lightly, unless the Empire cedes Papua"

Deng Haonan thought for a while and said: "The Dutch came to the Far East to do business, if the empire handed over a part of the freight share to the Dutch for transshipment, do you think they will still provoke a war with the empire?" ”

Cheng Ji replied: "Your Majesty, you must know that the Imperial Caravan has made huge profits from this trip to Europe, and it has given the Dutch a part of the share, which is worth enough to support a big war. It's more than worth the loss."

Deng Haonan nodded, and said: "What the empire needs now is time, the shipyard is already at the end of the day, as long as it is delayed for half a year, the imperial navy will get the second batch of advanced warships, and the imperial navy will not have to worry about the Dutch navy at that time."

The second batch of battleships is in the shipyard, and once completed, the Imperial Royal Navy will have forty more battleships, and by that time it will surpass the Dutch East India Fleet in the number of capital ships

Procrastination

Cheng Ji thought about it carefully, and suddenly said: "Your Majesty, Weichen has an idea"

"Aiqing, please speak"

Deng Haonan nodded at Cheng Ji and motioned for him to speak out. For these old fritters on the political zhì, Deng Haonan never underestimated them, knowing that there are countless ideas in their hearts. There may not be many good things, but there must be intrigue and intrigues.

"Emperor Qi," Cheng Ji replied, "Wei Chen's idea is to pretend to consider the request of the Dutch and delay the Dutch's action. On the one hand, he appeased the envoys of the East India Company of other countries, saying that the empire was willing to send troops, but the specific schedule of troops needed to be arranged in detail to be in order. This can be delayed for a month or two. When the delay could not be carried out, the Dutch took action, and on the one hand, the empire secretly reached a peace agreement with the Dutch East India Company, and on the other hand, secretly supported other countries and delayed the war in the Dutch East Indies. In this way, no matter how strong the Dutch were, it would take at least three or four months to recover the Dutch East Indies. After the end of the war in the Dutch East Indies, the other six nations were expelled from Southeast Asia, but the Dutch had to rest for a month or two, so that the empire would have six to eight months to prepare before completing the emperor's plan."

"What a procrastination"

Deng Haonan said with a smile: "Aiqing's plan is very good, so I will act according to Aiqing's words"

"The emperor praised it falsely" Cheng Ji hurriedly said: "Weichen just added a little to the emperor's plan, or the emperor is wise and martial"

Deng Haonan smiled, accustomed to their rhetoric, and no longer more modest.

Subsequently, Cheng Ji did things according to Deng Haonan's order and began to negotiate with the Dutch East India Company, one asked for a sky-high price, and the other sat on the ground to repay the money, and began a tug-of-war, procrastinating and deliberately delaying time.

At the same time, the Imperial War Department exported weapons and equipment such as defensive fortification guns, army infantry guns, and muskets to Britain, France, Sweden, Norway, and the East India Company of the Holy Roman Empire, as well as related gunpowder and projectiles, to support several countries against the Dutch.

Of course, the weapons and equipment exported were all obsolete weapons and equipment from the Imperial Army. Although it is obsolete weapons and equipment, it is much more advanced than the artillery used by the East India Companies of various countries, so the price of second-hand goods is also not low. Among them, the largest number is the Apocalypse seven-year front-loading smoothbore infantry gun, up to 200 guns, 10,000 rounds of ammunition.

The armies of several countries have conducted fire tests on the seven-year infantry gun of the Apocalypse, and they feel that it is very powerful and convenient, so they are willing to spend money on it.

From Beijing to Batavia, according to the speed of communication of the Dutch, the news was delayed for about a month. The negotiations between the Imperial Government and representatives of the Dutch East India Company took more than half a month to grind between the two sides.

Arnhem, the governor of the Dutch East India Company, held a board meeting to discuss countermeasures, and the negotiations on the Beijing side dragged on, but the surrounding armies of the six countries began to secretly prepare for the large-scale counterattack of the Dutch army.

It makes them feel that things are not good.

"Your Excellency" Vice Admiral Turner, commander of the East India Fleet, pushed open the door and handed Arnhem an update of the information.

"Intelligence shows that the Chinese Empire exported a large number of weapons and equipment to the armies of the five countries," Turner said: "This is a Dutch merchant in Singapore's port, who said that the Chinese Empire's military shipped a large number of weapons and equipment to Singapore, and then secretly transported them to Palembang on the Pingdu ship and handed them over to the British East India Company." It is said that there were at least 150 artillery pieces on it, as well as a large amount of ammunition. ”

Arnhem took the information and looked at it, frowned, and asked, "When did you find out?"

Turner replied, "Half a month ago"

"The negotiations on the Beijing side are dragging on, but here is secretly in full swing to deliver equipment, and we have been deceived"

Arnhem nodded and said, "This batch of weapons and equipment will greatly improve the combat effectiveness of the British army and pose a great threat to our recovery of the East Indies."

Turner replied, "I think other countries are just as good."

"Your analysis makes sense"

Arnhem nodded and asked, "What do you mean?" ”

Without hesitation, Turner replied, "Do it now"

Arnhem was still hesitant, he was worried that the Chinese Empire would intervene in the war, and although the Dutch East India Company was not afraid of the other side, it would be unwise for a merchant to use force against a superpower. After all, the East India Company would still need to do business with the Chinese Empire in the future.

"There has been news from Beijing that the Chinese Empire has expressed its willingness to end the war with us, on the condition that we renounce our military operations against the areas actually occupied by the Chinese Empire, recognize these areas as the Chinese Empire, and in exchange, they will hand over to us the share of trade with the former six countries, do you know what a great fortune this is?"

Turner naturally understands the huge stakes, and although he is a soldier, he is still a businessman at heart. When I heard this, I was very happy.

"What does Your Excellency the Governor mean?"

Arnhem thought for a moment, then said: "We can't trust all the words of the Chinese Empire, so we will negotiate with the Chinese Empire while we are exterminating the armies of the Six Nations." I think that since they are willing to negotiate with us, they will not directly intervene in the army. ”

Turner nodded and said, "With the strength of our navy, once the war starts, the troops of the Chinese Empire will not be able to land in the Dutch East Indies at all, so we don't need to worry too much about them."

Arnhem then said: "Then prepare to act, first destroy the East India Fleet of the Four Kingdoms, so that our bargaining chips will be higher"

"Yes"

Turner received the order, and just turned to leave, when suddenly he turned back again.

"Your Excellency the Governor"

"Any questions?"

Turner said: "I thought we should talk to the Spaniards"

"What do you mean?" Arnhem asked, "I mean, what are your plans?" ”

Turner replied, "Of the six armies, only Spain has the most troops, and Spain has lost the Philippines, so I wonder if we should take advantage of them?" ”

"What do you mean?"

"Temporarily abandon the attack on the Spanish army, promise them benefits, and unite with the Spaniards to prevent the military intervention of the Chinese Empire. In this way, it will be very easy for our army to destroy the armies of the other five countries. ”

Uniting with the Spaniards can not only divide and disintegrate the temporary alliance of the six countries, but also form an alliance against the Chinese Empire, killing two birds with one stone, which is indeed a good strategy.

"This advice of yours is very good, I will hold a board discussion right away"

The board of directors of the Dutch East India Company soon agreed to Arnhem's construction of a policy of co-optation over General Lysard, the commander of the Spanish army.

Soon, Ryshard received lucrative offers from the Dutch. The Dutch East India Company acknowledged Reshad's occupation of the existing area and offered to help Reshard's transport soldiers fight in the Philippines and regain lost territory. The Dutch's condition was only that Ryshard not intervene in the other five nations.

But Ryshard also did not believe the words of the Dutch, knowing that the Dutch did nothing more than to break each other. Once the other five nations were wiped out, Ryshad was not spared either. By that time, Ryshad would not only be unable to recover the Philippines, but would also have no foothold in front of him.

As a result, Ryshard asked the Netherlands for terms. It was fine for him not to intervene, but the Dutch would not agree to their request if they gave him fifty cannons and five thousand shells, as well as twenty thousand muskets and ammunition.

The Dutch were very depressed, and Reshad's request did not seem excessive, because Rexhard did not have any ammunition and supplies at this time, especially firearms, and there was no way to resupply them. At this time, although the Spanish army still had nearly 30,000 soldiers, it had only more than 23,000 muskets at its disposal, and more than 7,000 muskets were damaged in different ways.

Ryshard put forward this condition on the pretext that he was afraid that the Dutch would renege and act against them.

However, how could the Dutch give Spain weapons at this time? Fifty cannons and 20,000 muskets, not to mention the huge expenses, arming the Spanish tiger is no joke.

As a result, the Dutch agreed to Reshad's request, but they were slow to fulfill it, and instead took the lead in launching a major counteroffensive against the other five-nation coalition forces.

In May of the fourth year of Shenwu, the Dutch East India Fleet went out to blockade the entire waters near the Dutch East Indies. Once again, the combined fleet of the four countries was forced to withdraw from the Yamaguchi Ocean and remained withdrawn from the Strait of Malacca.

Although the Combined Fleet of the Four Nations had 60 cruisers, under the pursuit of 20 battleships and 80 cruisers of the Second Squadron of the Dutch East India Fleet, all countries had to retreat to the Bay of Bengal in order to preserve their strength.

Similarly, twenty third-class battleships and twenty fourth-class battleships of the First Squadron of the Dutch East India Fleet, as well as more than a hundred cruisers, frigates, and schooners, were all used to target possible military intervention by the Imperial Chinese Navy.

At the request of the East India Company of several countries, the Pacific Fleet of the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire sent twenty Sea Lion-class battleships and twenty Beiyun-class battleships to the south for reinforcements, but the Imperial Royal Navy did not take military action, but only engaged in a confrontation with the Dutch East India First Fleet for several days, and neither side fired a fire, maintaining a tacit understanding with each other.

Subsequently, the Ministry of Rites of the Chinese Empire replied to the East India Companies of several countries that the Dutch fleet was too strong for the Imperial Royal Navy to break through the blockade of the other side for the time being, and asked the East India Companies of various countries to hold on to help, and the Chinese Empire would definitely help them.

Say one thing and do another, this is politics. But it has to be said that this not only blocked the mouths of the East India Company of several countries, but also avoided a head-to-head confrontation with the Dutch.

Driven by the supreme interests of the Chinese Empire, these East India Companies had to be sacrificed. After all, they are nothing more than colonial companies, and even if the relationship with them breaks down, the relationship can still be repaired for the country behind them.

On 15 May, the Dutch East India Company issued an ultimatum to the East India Companies of the other five countries, and on the 16th launched a major counteroffensive.

The forces of the Five Nations East India Company were outnumbered by the Dutch and were quickly repulsed and retreated to Palembang for defense.

At this time, the combined armies of the five countries were less than 10,000 people, and the gap in numbers in the face of the Dutch army that was pouring out was too great. The Dutch East India Company transferred 50,000 troops, plus the original 30,000 defenders in Batavia City transferred 20,000, bringing the total strength to 70,000, which was seven times that of the Five Nations Alliance.

On 20 May, the largest battle in the Dutch East Indies took place, the Battle of Banda Lampang.

Bandar Lampang is located on the western peninsula of the Batavia Strait, and is a military important place to guard the strait and defend the western peninsula. After the Dutch retreated to Batavia, the navy was besieged in the port of Batavia and did not dare to come out, so the Six-Nation Alliance landed on the Eastern Peninsula. Now, the Dutch counterattacked, and the other five-nation coalition forces retreated to the Western Peninsula except for the Spanish army, which was still on the Eastern Peninsula. The Dutch East India Fleet blocked the strait, leaving the Five Powers Alliance to hold on to the coast to prevent Dutch troops from landing on the Western Peninsula.

The Dutch East India Fleet bombarded the coast of Bandanambang, forcing the Five-Nation coalition to retreat a distance of ten miles. The Dutch troops, under the cover of the fleet's artillery fire, carried out the landing.

As soon as the Dutch army landed, the Five Nations coalition forces turned back to attack. Because the Dutch navy had its own land on the shore, it did not dare to open fire, for fear of accidentally injuring its own people.

So the first 2,000 Dutch troops landed were charged by the coalition forces of 8,000 men, suffered heavy losses, and were forced to withdraw from the beach.

The next day, the Dutch army mobilized more landing ships, and after retreating from the five-nation coalition forces, they sent 5,000 people ashore at one time, and at the fastest speed, they rushed to the forefront of the five-nation coalition army's counter-charge.

The Dutch army, formed by 5,000 people, formed a large phalanx and arrived at the charge of the five-nation coalition.

The two sides lined up in a long phalanx and engaged in fierce battles on the front, which stretched for four kilometers. The combat strength of both sides was about the same, but the five-nation alliance was large in number, and soon suppressed the firepower of the Dutch army and gained the upper hand. As a large number of artillery pieces of the Five Nation Coalition were mobilized to the coast, the artillery of the Five Nation Coalition opened fire after more than a dozen rounds of musk exchange between the two sides.

Using the field artillery of the Chinese Empire, the lethality of the Dutch army was very strong, and the casualties of the Dutch army became larger and larger, and the first batch of 5,000 Dutch troops who landed gradually could not withstand it, and after more than half of the casualties, they immediately retreated.

The victory of the allied forces in this battle greatly enhanced the reputation of the Chinese Empire's seven-year infantry artillery of the Apocalypse.

After two days of failed landing operations and the loss of more than 3,000 soldiers, the Dutch commander Kajin Kajkas was scolded by the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company.

The artillery fire of the Five Nations Alliance was fierce, and Kajinka remembered afterwards that they had obtained weapons and equipment from the Chinese Empire, and immediately regretted it.

The gains from a frontal landing outweighed the losses, and the coalition forces had long been prepared. However, the coalition forces were too small to defend the entire coastline, so Kajinka decided to land elsewhere and adopt a roundabout strategy.

Five days later, the Dutch army landed successfully in Padang, and about 20,000 Dutch troops landed from Padang, turned around and attacked Palembang south.

Palembang was empty of troops, defended by less than 2,000 men.

When the news reached the Allied Command, the Allied forces decided to retreat, because once Palembang was lost, the Allied forces would have no way to retreat and supplies, which would inevitably lead to the annihilation of the Allied Army.

On 28 May, the Allied forces began to retreat, leaving behind 500 defenders to confuse the Dutch.

However, the Dutch army had long expected that the coalition forces would retreat, and in order to hold back the coalition forces, Kajinka once again carried out a beach-grabbing landing operation. This time it was not attacked by the main forces of the coalition forces, and the defenders of only 500 men, and without artillery support, could not hold the coast at all.

The Dutch landed 10,000 troops at once, quickly wiped out the 500 coalition forces guarding the coast, and advanced towards Bandar Nambang.

The coalition forces learned that the coast was lost, and tens of thousands of Dutch troops pursued them, and there was no time to return to Palembang, and it was likely to be wiped out in the field. So all the allied forces retreated to the city of Bandar Ampang and defended the city.

In this way, strategically, the coalition forces have already fallen into the encirclement of the Dutch army, and defeat is a matter of time.

On 1 June, the Dutch captured Palembang, and all the logistical supplies of the allied forces were intercepted by the Dutch army, including advanced weapons and equipment imported from the Chinese Empire. On the same day, Bandar Lampang entered the most tragic offensive and defensive phases. The Dutch army mobilized heavy artillery to bombard the city walls, and the allied forces of the Five Nations swore to resist to the death, but it was already difficult to return.

Three days later, the walls of the eastern city of Bandar Ampang were destroyed by heavy Dutch artillery, and the coalition forces knew that the tide was turning, and the remnants of less than 3,000 men surrendered.

The fall of Palembang and Bandar Lampang, combined with the surrender of the Five-Power Alliance, declared the loss of the East India Company's vested colony in the Dutch East Indies and its expulsion from Southeast Asia. E