Bart is also vague about Van Dimen's pre-war arrangements, not entirely clear. {We don't write novels, we're just online text porters-↗, and there are probably no more than five people in the entire city of Batavia who know the content of this battle plan, so the information he can reveal to Cheng Dapeng is also limited.} However, Cheng Dapeng's speculation based on the battle situation in the past month is indeed very close to the facts, and it is basically consistent with Bart's own conjecture.

To be precise, Van Diemen's pre-war deployment was conceived by the late Governor Cohen. Although the Mataram failed to conquer Batavia in the battle three years earlier and eventually withdrew their troops, Cohen, who was the governor at the time, did not take it lightly and thought that this would solve the problem once and for all. In the three years after the war, until his death, Cohen did not relax his preparations for the next possible engagement. In addition to these basic preparation measures, Cohen also prepared an off-the-counter move, hoping to solve the belligerent momentum of the Mataran people who had been fighting for many years.

Cohen's plan was simple and simple: it was to hide troops and deploy a scattered armed force in the South Seas colonies outside Batavia, only to assemble for unified action in wartime. Of course, this plan is based on his sufficient understanding of the strategic intentions of the Matalan army, and it is determined that the opponent has Batavia City as the main target, otherwise these armed forces scattered all over the South Seas will be broken by Matalan's separate heads, then the game will be completely ruined.

According to Cohen's plan, these armed ships and men will start to move the next time the Matarans send troops to attack Batavia, and they will operate in the South Seas in the form of armed fleets to destroy the main ports of the Mataran country. As a regime with a territory spread across the islands of the South Seas, the importance of the port is self-evident, and if this battle plan is successful, it will greatly shake the foundation of Mataran's rule, and it will greatly affect the trade between Mataran and other countries - one of the main reasons for Raden Langsan's perseverance in attacking Batavia is to seize this important trading port, known as the trading capital of the South Seas, and Cohen's combat intention is to attack it.

Of course, the Mataran people may not withdraw their troops to rescue the attacked place, because the spread of the news is limited, and when they receive the news, in fact, many days have passed, and they may not be able to stop the enemy who invaded their homeland when they rush back. Therefore, Cohen's plan was formulated to the extreme, not to defend Batavia and relieve the siege as the main purpose, but to destroy the port of Mataran as the first task - to destroy the port of Mataran first, and then consider the next step to relieve the siege.

This was a rather risky approach, as it was highly likely that the city of Batavia would fall before the armouries could withstand the onslaught of the Mada Blues. And even if these fleets can take advantage of the empty base camp to destroy their respective combat targets, it does not mean that their return defense will definitely solve the siege of Batavia, and they may even lose their own capital. However, Cohen and Van Dimen hit it off and drew up this battle plan without hesitation, determined to use it to settle the battle with the Matarians.

In addition to their extremely strong adventurous spirit, the more objective reason is that the crusade of the Mataran country has greatly affected the development of Batavia. It took less than seven years for Batavia to develop from a seaside town with a population of just over 1,000 when it was founded in 1621 to a "big city of Nanyang" with a population of 50,000, but the war between 1628 and 1629 slowed down the development momentum of this fast-growing seaport city.

If the rhythm of the war of the Mataran people continues, the city of Batavia will have only two ends: one is to be conquered by them and become the territory of Mataran, and the other is to be destroyed by years of war, unable to trade, and gradually decline, and finally forced the Dutch to abandon it. Either way, it was unacceptable to the East India Company, so Cohen and Van Dimen had the mentality that even if they couldn't keep Batavia, they would have to let the Matarians suffer corresponding losses - when the Matarians robbed only a dilapidated Batavia, and all the ports in the country were destroyed, then the status of the regional trade center they hoped for would probably not be achieved in the short term.

The worst outcome would have been the fall of Batavia and the destruction of the East India Company's headquarters, but the Dutch fleet might be able to loot a fortune and start building new strongholds elsewhere after destroying the ports of Mataram. Although this result is a lose-lose situation, it is better than being dominated by the Matalans or dragged to death.

But if the Dutch were lucky enough to keep the city of Batavia alive after this strategic intent, there was something else to do. Returning to Batavia to relieve the siege and cutting off the sea supply lines of the Matarans are all counterattacks that can be taken. And the difficulty lies in the control of the time point, the counterattack is too early, the strength of the Mataran people is more retained, and the reinforcements that fight back will not become self-throwing, and the counterattack is too late, so that the Mataran people can safely withdraw from the battlefield after receiving the news, or they have already conquered Batavia City, then the meaning of the counterattack will be lost.

In the end, it was a risky plan, and the slightest accident could render all deployments useless, but the Dutch boldly carried out this plan. When Bart and other Dutch soldiers fought their way to resist the Matar Blues' onslaught, there was some hope in their hearts that they might be able to hold on until the reinforcements returned, although most people didn't know exactly what the month and day it would be.

However, the attacks of the Mataran people continued, and the defenders were becoming more and more difficult to parry, and seeing that the city was about to be destroyed, Bart also had some doubts about whether he could hold out until the dawn, so he opened his heart to Cheng Dapeng, a newly made friend in distress, and even leaked such a high-level military secret to him. Of course, even if Cheng Dapeng is a spy who colludes with the Ma Da Lan people, there is absolutely no way to pass the news to the local camp at this time, which Bart can be sure of.

Cheng Dapeng quickly recovered from the confusion just now, and asked Zhengse: "If the city is broken, what will happen to Lord Bart?"

Bart responded decisively this time: "The defenders will retreat to the council castle in the center of the city and resist until the last moment!"

The council castle is located in the center of the city, but this so-called castle has few strong fortifications to speak of, the walls about three meters high are hardly used for defense, and there are no encompasses such as moats to stop the enemy's attack. Even if the Dutch retreated, it is difficult to say whether they would be able to hold out for two or three days. When it really came to that step in the field, a soldier like Bart could probably only die in battle, and there was no need to say it too clearly, Cheng Dapeng could also feel that determination from his words.

Bart comforted Cheng Dapeng in turn and said, "Starting tomorrow, you won't come to deliver food again." You are the main food supplier in Batavia, and after the Mataran occupy this place, it is impossible to solve the food supply of tens of thousands of people in Batavia on their own in the short term, so they will not do anything to you, rest assured. ”

Although Cheng Dapeng sighed in his heart after listening to Barth's advice, he was not impulsive enough to live and die with the Dutch, so he could only comfort Bart with kind words. After returning to Dacheng Rice Store that night, Cheng Dapeng called a meeting of his colleagues, believing that for the sake of safety, he should follow Bart's advice and reduce his outings recently. In addition, the information collected so far should also be copied as much as possible and stored in a safe place outside Dacheng Rice Shop, so as not to be taken away by the Mataran people after the city was broken. Although Bart thinks that there will be no problem with the safety of Dacheng Rice Bank, but now that it is a time of war, no one can afford to charter a ticket for safety.

On 9 August, the besieging Matar army launched its largest offensive since August, committing about 20,000 troops in the direction of the northern gates of Batavia alone. This is probably the main elite left of the Mata Blues on this expedition, and if they can't capture the Batavia defense, then their commander Lang Sang probably really needs to consider the withdrawal of the army. The news of the attack had actually reached the front, but it was deliberately concealed by the higher-ups, and ordinary soldiers and low-ranking officers did not know that the Dutch had launched a retaliatory operation on the territory of Mataran.

In fact, the north gate was gone a few days ago, when the siege engines of the Mataran people had completely destroyed the city gate. This kind of heavy siege vehicle is actually a number of wheels under a huge log, and then a solid roof is built on it to prevent heavy objects on the city wall from throwing and burning attacks, and nearly 100 wrestlers push this siege vehicle all the way to the north city gate, and then use the log to directly hit the city gate. The defenders tried all means to stop the attack of the Matarans, regardless of casualties, and finally the two gates collapsed.

However, thanks to the advance arrangement of Fan Dimen, after the fall of the city gate, several subsequent artillery pieces immediately bombarded the siege vehicles that had not yet evacuated to make way for the city, and almost all the wrestlers and soldiers in the middle of the cart were killed under intensive close artillery fire. The Mata Blues, who followed closely behind, were blocked in their way forward, and ultimately failed to seize this excellent opportunity to storm the city. Later, the defenders of the city blocked the city gate with stones, and blocked the huge siege vehicle after destroying the wheels in the city gate, so that even if the Matara Blue Army could capture the city gate again, it would have to use manpower to remove the giant log that was nearly ten meters long and hugged by three people before entering the city.

However, the offensive launched by the Mata Blues on the 9th was no longer obsessed with capturing the city gates, but once again used the tactic of climbing the city walls in a big way. With almost all of the heavy weapons on the walls scrapped over the course of a month-long engagement, the Dutch defenders had no good way to stop the Mata Blues from approaching the walls quickly. Hundreds of siege ladders were soon erected outside the city walls, and the Matalan soldiers clutched wooden shields in one hand and war knives in the other, nimbly climbing the ladders like monkeys.

Although Bart had three reserves in a row, the area of the city wall where he was located was quickly climbed by the enemy and gained a foothold. Bart was dismayed to find that his own reinforcements could not even reach the enemy army up the ladder to the top of the city. Although the defenders were able to gain the upper hand in the lethality ratio with a certain weapon advantage, it could not effectively change the momentum of the enemy army advancing into the battle line step by step into the city.

"Lord Bart, Lord Van Dimen asks you to lead your troops into the city immediately!"

The heralds had ordered Bart to abandon the imminent abandonment of the city walls, leaving the musketeers to cover the spearmen's retreat from the first line. The enemy troops occupying the city wall did not rush to pursue the evacuated enemy, but immediately surrounded and suppressed the defenders who did not have time to withdraw from the city wall.

Bart and his troops quickly withdrew to a barricade about two hundred meters from the city walls, and two six-pounder guns were erected on the five-meter-wide street, on which two musketeers and about one hundred and fifty spearmen were deployed. There were many more barricades like this in the city, and the defenders were counting on these measures to further slow down the enemy's occupation of the city. Even if it's only half a day or even an hour or two, it's good, as long as it doesn't reach the last moment, everyone actually has expectations in their hearts to turn the tables.

Bart and his troops were given about half an hour of respite before another wave of attacks from the Matarans. Due to the lack of heavy weapons, the Matara Blue Army, who had just climbed the top of the city, was powerless in the face of barricade artillery fire, and after dropping more than 20 corpses, they retreated to the vicinity of the city wall. It was clear that barricade tactics were working, and it was difficult for the Madar Blues to conquer these very narrow streets from the front before bringing artillery into the city.

The Mataran soldiers were also reluctant to charge blindly in such a situation, and it was another thing to brave enemy fire on the plains outside the city, after all, only a few people would be hit. However, there is no way to avoid it in the streets of the city, and the only result of rushing up is to become cannon fodder.

Some of the officers quickly found another way to direct their soldiers to storm the houses in the city and create an alternative route from the area beyond the streets, bypassing the deadly barricades erected by the Dutch defenders.