The Dutch defenders of Palavia had no choice but to abandon the dock area, retreat to the city to defend it to the death, and watched the armed soldiers of the Tang Empire burn and plunder, and wisely did not take counterattack actions.

The Dutch were shrewd, and they knew that the entire dock area was completely under the cover of the enemy's powerful fleet.

Without the need to use 305 mm main guns, only a large number of ship's secondary guns can bring devastating damage, and they are not willing to die in vain.

After dusk came

The Tang Empire's task force escorted a large number of captured cargo ships, and one by one they left the dock and headed for the open sea.

It wasn't until nightfall that the looted and destroyed port area of Batavia returned to calm, and only the few shipyards and warehouse buildings still burning, and the mess everywhere, proved what had happened here?

The enemy's movements were so swift that they were completely withdrawn in more than an hour before and after, which made General Michels, who was organizing a counterattack by night, flash his waist fiercely.

He hurriedly led people to the dock area, and sure enough, how could there be any trace of the enemy who had landed in a big way?

Today, the docks of Batavia's harbor are in shambles, and thousands of people have gathered on the docks, which are extremely miserable in the light of the fire.

The raiding Tang Imperial fleet captured a large number of merchant ships and completely destroyed some old sailboats, leaving only a few small fishing boats and small sampans.

Many people lost their livelihoods, many Dutch captains lost their ships, and the shipping industry as a whole in the Dutch East Indies was hit hard and lost most of its ability to supply and deliver supplies to the other islands.

General Michels's face turned blue after making a round of inspections, and he realized a serious problem;

If most of the cargo ships that were able to sail the far seas were destroyed or plundered, the Dutch East Indies would have become several islands that could not support each other, and they would have been artificially divided.

The Dutch East Indies could not be transported, and if the blockade of the enemy fleet was added, the supplies from outside could not be brought in.

The thought of such a serious consequence made his heart half cold.

The news was quickly reported to the Governor's Palace, and the Governor of Poce, shocked when he heard this, blurted out a question; "Oh...... Oh my God! What about the other ports? ”

Java Island is a long and narrow island, the central part is mostly raised peaks from east to west through the whole island, Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and other important cities are located in the northern plains, the coastal areas are many and dense towns, the shipping industry is more developed.

Offshore vessels are the only link between the archipelagos, and without them, the Java archipelago is completely isolated.

Not to mention supporting the Sumatra Archipelago or the Kalimantan Archipelago, that is, between the main island of Java and the affiliated islands of Bali, Zamboanga Island and other affiliated islands, they are all separated, and this move is really too vicious.

Needless to answer, Governor Poce's face turned pale with fright at the thought of such a serious consequence.

Everyone present looked at each other, aware of the seriousness of the problem, but they were helpless.

A few days later

A series of bad news came one after another, such as the attack on the port of Surabaya, the port of Barmalan, the port of Semarang, and the port of Jereyan......

Almost without exception

Large cargo or passenger ships in various ports have either been taken away or destroyed on the spot, and Java's foreign shipping industry has been severely hit, losing more than 90% of its shipping capacity.

An important port city in East Kalimantan Province, Brazil

It is a port city with strong Dutch architectural characteristics, with a total population of about 112,000 people, and the city's stone roads, churches, and towering spires of Dutch buildings make people think that they have arrived in a Dutch city.

It is the second largest city in the entire Dutch Kalimantan archipelago, and traces of artillery fire can still be seen in the city, and the streets are full of heavily armed soldiers of the Tang Empire, which has now fallen.

In Brazilian ports, there are countless freighters and passenger ships moored, from sail cargo ships to small steamers and iron barges.

In the two-storey building of the former Brazilian City Council, a high-profile military meeting is being held.

Marshal Don Li Xin, commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, sat at the head of the army, and the conference room was full of stars, at least all officers of the lieutenant colonel and above, and more than 100 people sat densely.

In front of the large map hanging, Major General Wang Tianxiong, deputy chief of staff of the expeditionary force, was holding a slender wooden pole and giving a briefing on the military operation deployment of the expeditionary force.

According to him;

After the Royal Navy task force swept the main ports of the Dutch, the Imperial Expeditionary Force began a major landing in two directions.

The Sumatran Corps, led by Lieutenant General Liu Zhongguo, commander-in-chief of the Second Corps of the Royal Praetorian Guard, has successfully landed in Palembang, Jambi, in the Sumatra archipelago, and has initially occupied the area after a small fierce battle.

Next

The landing corps will spend 15~20 days consolidating the occupied area and resting and assembling, and after the follow-up troops arrive one after another, it will begin to attack and advance to the enemy's deep area.

One is the Kalimantan Corps, led by Lieutenant General Fan Pengfei, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Royal Army and Deputy Commander of the Expeditionary Corps, which has now occupied Brazil, Samarinda and other places, establishing a solid bridgehead.

Next

After a build-up break, it will expand to South Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and North Kalimantan.

In response, a part of the armed forces of the Kalimantan Corps has landed in Lan Phuong, and with the assistance of the Lan Phong army, it will attack North Kalimantan Province from the northwest to realize the strategy of flanking from the east and west.

It is expected that in 2~3 months, the Dutch Kalimantan region with a total area of about 590,000 square kilometers will be fully occupied.

The Kalimantan archipelago covers a total area of about 740,000 square kilometers, and the northern part is the Grand Dominion of Lan Fong, the British Straits Settlements of Malaysia.

Among them, the total area of Lanfang is about 47,200 square kilometers, the total area of British Malaya is more than 100,000 square kilometers, and the rest is all the territory under the command of the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, that is, the part to be occupied by the Tang Empire, occupying four-fifths of the area of the entire Kalimantan Islands.

Although the Dutch colonizers in the area have been colonized for more than 240 years, the degree of development is extremely low, only the coastal part has been initially developed, and the large inland rainforest area is completely untouched.

Therefore, the Kalimantan Corps faced great difficulties.

One is that the local roads are in extremely poor condition, almost all of them are muddy tropical rainforest dirt roads, and after the rain, they are muddy and difficult for vehicles and horses to travel, which brings great challenges to the expansion of troops and logistics transportation.

After careful study and combined with local geographical conditions, the Kalimantan Corps decided to seize control of coastal towns one by one by transporting troops and materials by sea.

On this basis

Relying on the coastal towns under its control, it carried out sweeping and sweeping operations in the surrounding areas and gradually controlled the overall situation.

This process takes about 2~3 months, and then the next step is the consolidation and digestion period.

The Kalimantan Corps intends to carry out large-scale road construction to connect coastal towns with captive local natives as the main labor force.

Trees were systematically cut down in coastal rainforests, roadbeds were tamped with sand and gravel, drainage ditches were built, bridges were built, and a smooth ring road was built.

According to the construction experience in tropical areas, it generally takes 3~4 years to build a trunk road.

In the early stage, it is mainly to use sand and gravel to tamp the road surface, build bridges and ditches, and achieve the basic conditions for transporting a large number of materials.

The constructed road can be kept smooth under constant maintenance due to various conditions such as rainwater soaking, subsidence, and collapse, and a solid foundation can be formed after repeated rolling by vehicles.

Eventually, on the basis of this solid trunk road, the road can be hardened by mixing sand and asphalt to build a smooth ring road artery.

Of course, building a ring road artery in the rainforest is a huge undertaking.

Due to the heavy rainfall and numerous streams in the area, the number of bridges and culverts that need to be built is quite large, with an average of more than sixty or seventy per 100 kilometers, and a considerable amount of concrete is used.

Fortunately, the expeditionary corps has sufficient preparations for this, and after gaining a foothold in Brazil and Samarinda, it has begun to select a site to prepare for the construction of a cement plant, and the preliminary start work has been carried out one after another.

For the wealthy Tang Empire, as long as it can be solved by spending money, it is not a problem.

Over the past 50 years of imperial expansion, he has rich experience in the field of colonization, and knows the truth that sharpening knives does not mistake woodcutters, and has always been "colonial development, infrastructure first".

The costly arterial road around the island is not just a road, but by extension, an extended colonial area.

Along the more than 1,700 kilometers of the main road around the island, within 50 kilometers of it, are newly colonized areas that are easy to develop.

A single arterial road can be strung along countless plantations and farms, which can provide livelihoods for millions of new immigrants, and can connect 10 coastal towns that bring them sustainable prosperity.

The completion of the Ring Road will bring the colonization of Kalimantan, the world's third largest island, to a depth and breadth that has not been reached by the Hulan people in 300 years of colonization.

Today, the provinces and coastal towns of Kalimantan are fragmented and disconnected.

During the Dutch colonial period, they only cared about squeezing the economic output of the colony all year round, turning it into a raw material for European spices, coffee, cocoa, sugar and natural rubber, and did not build it at all.

Therefore, the entire Dutch East Indies is a completely agricultural economic structure, and there is no trace of modern industry, and the construction of roads, canals, and dams is still the original appearance of hundreds of years ago.

Most roads are passable during the dry season and are completely cut off during the rainy season.

This is also the real reason why the Acehnese uprising in Sumatra was able to hold out for 25 years.

As long as they escaped the encirclement and suppression of the Dutch army in the dry season, in the rainy season, the rebels could take a breath and hide in the hot rain forest year after year to deal with the Dutch colonists.

(I would like to report to you, because of some troubles in the author's own family, the continuous update has been interrupted recently, and I would like to express my deep apologies to readers and friends.)

From today onwards, two shifts will be resumed every day, and three shifts will occasionally break out until the end of the book, and strive for no interruptions.

I am very ashamed, and I ask for your understanding. ）