"Is Lord Bart still satisfied with these meals?" Although the expression on Bart's face had already explained a word, Cheng Dapeng still tested Bart's opinion in a very humble tone. Bayi?Chinese .w?w?w?.8?1zw?.?c?om

Bart wiped the grease stains from the corners of his mouth with a napkin, burped loudly, and then replied to Cheng Dapeng: "Very good! Seriously, after eating this meal, I really want to order the cook in charge of army logistics to be dragged out and hanged! In contrast, the food eaten on the battlefield in the past few days is simply pig food!"

"If Lord Bart is satisfied, since the adult likes it, the villain will ask the cook to prepare an extra meal and bring it here every day. Cheng Dapeng naturally didn't let go of the opportunity, and immediately climbed up the pole.

"If the soldiers and civilians in the city have the consciousness of becoming bosses, then the end of the war will definitely come sooner. Bart sighed with emotion.

"Could it be that the war is not going well today?" asked Cheng Dapeng tentatively.

Although Batavia officials did not announce the progress of today's fighting, from early in the morning, the east, north, and west walls were full of cannonfire, and the afternoon cannon fire continued for two hours, which made tens of thousands of residents in the city all nervous. Cheng Dapeng is naturally no exception, but what he wants to know is not only the progress of the war, but also the process of engagement and combat methods of the two sides.

"I don't admit it, these wild monkeys outside the city are really very difficult!" Speaking of this topic, Bart's good mood just now because of the food seemed to disappear all at once.

Although the situation of the battle with the Mada Blue Army is an absolute military secret, the meal sent by Cheng Dapeng just now has greatly deepened Barth's trust in him, coupled with the effect of alcohol, Bart has let down his guard against Cheng Dapeng at this time and began to describe today's battle situation to him.

Cheng Dapeng was undoubtedly very shocked by the situation described by Barth, he had carefully inspected the equipment of the Dutch defenders during his last visit to the city wall, and believed that the Dutch defenders should have quite strong combat capabilities in terms of the level of weapons alone, at least above the Ming army. Coupled with the strong defense of Batavia, it should be reasonable to inflict a large number of casualties on the besieging enemy at the beginning of the battle. Moreover, the artillery fire of the daytime battle was so intensive, in Cheng Dapeng's imagination, hundreds of artillery fires were fired, and at least two or three thousand enemy troops were killed, how could the battle situation still be at a disadvantage.

The tactics used by the Matar Blues in this attack on Batavia were undoubtedly the main reason for this situation. The Batavian authorities prepared for war in the light of the state of the engagement between the two armies in previous years, but apparently did not anticipate enough changes in the tactics of the enemy. The tactics employed by the Mata Blues on the first day of engagement left the defenders visibly bewildered. The large trebuchets that appeared on the battlefield were obviously not improvised siege equipment made by the Matara Blue Army after they arrived here, but were made long ago and specially transported from farther away by sea ships to participate in the battle. The Mata Blues did not rush to attack in the first two days after the landing, presumably assembling these huge siege engines in the camp. From this point of view, the pre-war preparations of the Mada Blue Army are undoubtedly more targeted, and the results achieved are also very obvious.

The primitive horse fighting blue army was able to take the initiative at the beginning against the Dutch army, which had advanced weapons and strong city walls to defend, which Cheng Dapeng did not expect before the war. In Cheng Dapeng's prediction, even if the Mata Blue Army can gain the upper hand in the battle by virtue of its superiority in strength, it will probably be the result of paying heavy casualties in the siege process. I never thought that on the first day of the war, the cousin of the Ma Da Blue Army gave a heavy slap in the face to a forecaster like Cheng Dapeng.

Although the Malta Blue Army inevitably paid a certain price in casualties in the course of the battle, in terms of the current casualty ratio of the troops participating in the battle, the Malta Blue Army really did not have a too obvious gap with the Dutch Army. The Matar Blues may not be able to calculate the level of Dutch casualties, but the condescending Dutch can see it more clearly, and for a commander like Barth, today's engagement has undoubtedly caused a certain psychological shadow on the defenders. Originally, the sharp firearms and strong city defenses that the Dutch army was proud of, and the damage caused to the opponent was extremely limited, but the Mada Blue Army, which was regarded as island monkeys, barbarians, and infidels, used the primitive weapons in their hands to fight a proud record.

"This ...... This is really ......" Rao is a big friend can speak, and after listening to Bart's description, he was a little unable to answer. Whether it is comfort or encouragement at this juncture, it seems a little wrong to stand in the position of Cheng Dapeng. Fortunately, his brain turned quickly, and after a slight pause, he picked up the words: "Lord Bart, we have an old saying that if you stay in the green mountains, you are not afraid of no firewood, after all, this Batavia City is still in our hands, no matter how powerful the Mataran people are, they can't fly in out of thin air, right? Besides, such a huge trebuchet must not be easy to make, they are afraid that they will not be able to replenish the loss for a while and a half outside the city, and when they run out of these dozens of trebuchets, they will not have to fill it with human lives!"

Bart said in his heart that he just didn't know how many trebuchets the Mataran had prepared, and if there were hundreds of them, then everyone would really have to think about surrendering in advance to save their lives. Of course, he wouldn't say this kind of heartfelt words to Cheng Dapeng, but he still nodded and responded: "Boss Cheng is reasonable, as long as I, Bart, are still here, I won't let the Mataran people step into Batavia City!"

Cheng Dapeng said goodbye to Bart and returned to his residence, with joys and worries in his heart. The good news is that they have successfully taken the line of Bart, and during the future war, they will have an excuse to go to the fortifications to ask Bart about the situation of the battle and obtain first-hand information; the worry is that the Mata Blue Army is so strong that the Dutch side has fallen into passivity from the beginning, which really makes people worry about whether the Batavia city can be defended in the end.

Although Cheng Dapeng had never seen the battle firsthand, from Barthes's description, the biggest problem of the Dutch army at present was that it could not quickly deal with the large number of trebuchets in the enemy's formation, and almost watched the opponent destroy their own fortifications little by little. How to get the Dutch army out of this disadvantage, Cheng Dapeng can't think of any effective way. Although he had received basic military skills training while training in the Ministry of Security, he was a layman on how to command operations.

Cheng Dapeng thought again, if one day it was the Haihan militia that needed to face the Ma Da Lan Army on the battlefield, how should he deal with it? But as soon as this thought came to him, he himself laughed dumbly. The Dutchman's artillery had a limited range, so it could not take advantage of the Maca Blues' trebuchets, but the guns equipped by the Haihan militia were very different, and there were a lot of huge cannons with a range of two or three miles, and the Matar Blues had no chance to push the trebuchets too close. Moreover, the range of three or four hundred meters of trebuchets is almost to the limit, if you want to build a longer range trebuchet, then its volume will have to be expanded, the battlefield transportation and deployment will be more inconvenient, and the time and cost required for manufacturing will also be greatly increased, and its cost performance may not be comparable to the use of artillery.

Cheng Dapeng remembered that he had heard that during the war in Annam, the army of the southern Ruan clan had used large weapons such as trebuchets on the battlefield, but its range and power were probably not as good as the giant trebuchets carefully prepared by the Mataran people.

Thinking about it this way, although the Dutch have always been proud of their level of armament, it can be said that they are inferior to the Haihan militia. However, this also reflects the importance of intelligence work from the side, if the Dutch can collect the opponent's combat readiness in advance, then presumably the current situation will not be so passive. What Cheng Dapeng did in Batavia at this time was precisely so that the Haihan militia would not have a similar embarrassment on the battlefield in the future. Thinking of this, Cheng Dapeng felt that he was also injected with inexplicable power, and immediately took up a pen to record Bart's description of the battle situation in detail.

The news that gathered to Dacheng Rice that day was not limited to Bart, and several other people who worked with Cheng Dapeng also obtained other news through other channels.

Although the Mata Blues used the north side of Batavia as the main direction of attack, they also launched an offensive in both east and west directions. The course of the battle is said to be similar to that of the north, except that the other sources of information are hearsay, far less detailed than Bart's description to Cheng Dapeng.

According to the news obtained from the city's medical and nursing institutions, there were also a certain number of casualties and battle damage on the east and west sides. In particular, almost half of Batavia was heard in the explosion outside the eastern city in the evening, before the final battle, and the casualties caused by it overcrowded the field medical facilities in the eastern city. In addition, a large number of men were sent out of the city to the east and north, and it is said that they were going to repair the fortress damaged by the trebuchets of the other side in today's battle overnight. In just ten hours by dawn, there is really nothing to look forward to how much work the people can accomplish in the dark, and it can only be said that it is better than nothing.

Due to the official blockade of the actual situation and the curfew that began at dark, there has been no negative news in the city so far. However, dozens of corpses of Mataran people have been hung in the square in the center of the city, and the council and the military can only strengthen the people's confidence in the war situation in this way. As for the next battle strategy, Cheng Dapeng estimates that a big man like Fan Dimen may not be able to be better than himself, and can come up with a better way to deal with the trebuchet of the Ma Da Lan people.

On 13 July, shortly after dawn, the horns of the Mada Blues began to reverberate in the wilderness outside the city. If hearing such a trumpet the day before would have made the defenders angry, then after yesterday's battle, many people's first reaction to this trumpet has probably become a headache. Because with the sound of this trumpet, maybe a large number of stone bullets will fall from the sky next.

Sure enough, the Mata Blues continued the way they fought yesterday, and dozens of tall trebuchets were slowly pushed out of the camp and headed towards the city of Batavia. Although they were well aware of the opponent's tactics, the defenders had no better way to deal with it at the moment, and could only watch as the opponent unhurriedly deployed trebuchets on the position, slowly adjusting the position and angle of fire.

The only thing that made the defenders happy was that the commanders could see through their binoculars that the number of stone bullets stacked next to the trebuchets was much lower than yesterday, and it seemed that the Maca Blues' stone-throwing tactics were also problematic with ammunition supply. There are also two quarries outside Batavia, but they are far from the port area of the other side Deng6, and there is probably no way to mine enough stones to transport to the battlefield in a short period of time.

However, this euphoria did not last long, and soon the Dutch commander saw through his telescope that the Mataran men were carrying carts of rubble and bricks to the front line. There is no doubt that the Mataran people are not stupid, and they have already chosen the nearest solution to the problem and started demolishing the buildings outside the city.

Although Batavia's population is mainly concentrated in the city, there are many facilities outside the city, such as plantations, ports, and trade markets, as well as a large number of buildings. If the Matars had the patience to tear down all the brick and stone buildings within a radius of ten miles outside the city, then the masonry would probably be enough to smash all the walls of Batavia.

"It's all gravel, and trebuchets aren't so accurate. The commanders could only use such helpless words to comfort their ugly-faced subordinates.

At present, the defenders have not yet obtained permission to go out of the city to fight, and there are only a few hundred cavalry in the city, and it is undoubtedly self-defeating to go out of the city to fight against the tens of thousands of horses in the array. Therefore, after losing the best opportunity to go out of the city a few days ago, Fan Dimen no longer mentioned the intention of sending cavalry to fight.

It is true that the accuracy of throwing rubble is far inferior to that of a whole stone projectile, and the ability to destroy the fortress wall is much worse, but its effect of scattering flowers is to make the defenders in the fortress outside the city suffer greatly. The soldiers had to take refuge under the wall to avoid being hit by the rain of falling pieces of masonry. Even a stone the size of an egg is powerful enough to kill when it hits this side, and even a metal helmet will most likely break its neck if it is hit by a stone.

"These damned cowards! They're just going to hide and throw stones! Are these heretics monkeys?" Bart, who was on the city wall, couldn't help but shout and curse when he saw the embarrassment of the defenders outside the city.