Berg vaguely remembered that his predecessor, Hans Putmans, who served as chief minister between 1629 and 1636, once said that war in the East is completely different from that in the West. The latter is a game involving victory and defeat, while the former is a life-and-death contest!
This is also the conclusion that Putmans came to after many years of fighting and living in the East. In the East, strength is power. Only strong people can live well. The strongest person can be the emperor and the founder of the Ming Empire. Just follow this path. ,
The contractual spirit admired by the West is not worth mentioning here. The only way to force Eastern partners to fulfill their contracts is to have strong strength and to let the other party understand this, otherwise these people may breach the contract at any time.
The value brought by one's own strength is the price the other party has to pay for breach of contract. As long as one participates in it, no one is exempt. Only by conducting trade activities in this way can the Netherlands' economic and military presence in the region be maintained.
Due to the high trade volume with the Ming Empire and the Japanese country, the East India Company also attached great importance to the construction of the Damuan area, focusing on the operation of Damuan Island. For this reason, it also built towns and Relanjia Castle to realize this development. permanent control of the area.
The construction plan on the east coast is also on the agenda, but no funding has been allocated yet. I believe it will be implemented over time. However, the pirate leader Zheng Yiguan, who was protected by the Ming Empire, did not intend to let the East India Company get what he wanted.
First, a huge fleet was sent to bombard the Castle of Geranze, and then tens of thousands of soldiers landed on the beach and captured the Utrecht Castle on the top of the mountain. Then they launched a bombardment of the castle. The bombardment failed to achieve the expected results, and they started firing again. Lots of dung bombs.
Bolger didn't know who instigated Zheng Yiguan to do this. He was still not sure whether the Ming Empire really authorized this pirate leader to attack the Dutch Dajuan area. It was said that generals with military power often violated the law.
In Berg's view, the waning Ming Empire was equivalent to the Holy Roman Empire in Europe, which was overwhelmed by the allied forces, and Zheng Yiguan, who had 100,000 troops, was equivalent to Wallenstein.
That guy died a violent death in the end, and Zheng Yiguan's fate would not be much better. He transformed from a pirate leader to the most powerful vassal town in the Ming Empire. It was impossible to avoid the emperor's suspicion. But Bolger also obtained the publication of the Capital Daily and knew that the emperor was unconscious. This huge Eastern Empire was currently supervised by the ten-year-old crown prince, and the real power fell into the hands of the queen and Prime Minister Xue Guoguan. .
This was undoubtedly a God-given opportunity for Zheng Yiguan. When he was really trying his best, Bolger knew that Zheng Yiguan came to Beijing on orders, so he guessed that during this trip, the pirate leader might reach some undisclosed agreement with the Queen and the Prime Minister. human agreement.
No matter what, it was an irrational act for him to lead his army to attack the Dutch Dajuan area. When reinforcements from the East India Company arrived, Zheng Yiguan would know that he had made a huge mistake and it was irreversible. As long as he could hold on to the castle of Geranze until reinforcements arrived and defeated Zheng Yiguan's fleet, Bolger would pay a compensation of 20 million taels of silver to punish this arrogant pirate leader.
He must understand the tragic consequences of offending the Netherlands and the East India Company. His fleet will be wiped out, his soldiers will be littered with corpses, and his wealth will be used as atonement. It will take more than two months to realize all this. For now, Berg can only sit in the basement and think about the future, or it is not too much to say that he is dreaming about victory. ,
Originally, I could go out for a breath of air at night, but as the enemy fired a large number of dung bombs at the castle, I could only go out for a breath of stench.
This was simply a huge humiliation to the defenders and himself, but at this moment, Bolger had to swallow the bitter pill and continue to endure it, because there was no choice. Throughout the afternoon, Zheng Yiguan's pirate army was frantically bombarding the castle. Today, there was no constant sound, but a lingering stench instead.
According to the statistics of the sentry, the enemy actually shelled fifty times. If fifty dung bombs fell into the castle each time, the total would be as high as 2,500, not to mention the actual attack situation. Much worse than conservative estimates.
From this point of view, Colonel Jansen's conjecture was correct, that is, the enemy had at least three hundred or more mortars. Otherwise, with such frequent firing, the barrels of the mortars would have overheated and would have exploded long ago. The garrison's strength was too small to launch another night attack, which meant that unless artillery was used to counterattack, it would be impossible to destroy the enemy's artillery positions.
Of course, there is another possibility, that is, the six companies fighting on the east coast can return safely and then jointly attack with the defenders, but this possibility has become smaller and smaller as time goes by. After Zheng Yiguan sent a large number of pirates to seize the beach and land on the beach, the troops on the east coast faced an enemy that was ten or even twenty times their own. It would be good if they could survive. Even Bolger did not dare to hope for the rest. The only thing the defenders in Relanjia Castle can rely on is themselves, while Zheng Yiguan's pirate army opposite relies on countless coconuts!
"Damn the weather!"
"Damn coconut!"
"Damn pirates!"
"Damn Zheng Yiguan!"
Without the bad weather, coconut dung bombs wouldn't be as effective.
Without the despicable Zheng Yiguan, the officials would not have been attacked, and the defenders would not have been surrounded by the stench.
Burg could not change the hot weather here, not even the number of coconuts. He could only watch batches of dung bombs being projected from the top of the mountain into the castle.
Bolger had no way of knowing how many coconut trees there were in the Dayuan area, but he understood that as long as the defenders did not surrender immediately, Zheng Yiguan would let his men do this every day, and his own side was unable to stop it.
Even if two thousand dung bombs are launched in one day, there will be as many as 40,000 in twenty days! Berg couldn't imagine what it would be like once the Castle of Geranzi was covered with 40,000 dung bombs.
I'm afraid that the surface of the castle will turn yellow-brown, emit a thick stench, and be covered with a layer of black flies. In this case, the soldiers could not go outside to bombard the pirates on the top of the mountain, and had no choice but to hide in the basement.
If there is no rainfall, the plague caused by feces may break out soon. This is what Bolger is most worried and afraid of. As the governor of the Netherlands, this was the first time for Borg to pray that it would rain every day. The stronger and longer the rain would be, the better. It would be best if there were storms every day.
This is the only cheap way to quickly clean up the excrement in the castle at the moment, otherwise there will be a cost of casualties. Bolger believed that this was done intentionally by Zheng Yiguan with sinister intentions, trying to quickly consume the water resources in the castle. Without enough water, the defenders would face a serious crisis.
It was unrealistic to expect reinforcements from Batavia to arrive as soon as possible, and Berg could only pin all his hopes on the next storm. But there is no astrologer in the castle, and no one knows when the next storm will come. The most they can do is pray.
It has to be said that relying on the storm to repel the pirate army is a helpless and resentful thing.
The defenders' military strength and firepower were inferior to Zheng Yiguan's army, and even the terrain advantage was lost.
Bolger was at his wits' end. When he saw Jansen coming down from above, he hurriedly stood up and asked with concern: "How is the situation above?"
It was obvious that Colonel Jansen had been choked by the smoke. He took off his nose plug and took a long breath of "fresh air" in the basement before replying: "It's not optimistic. There are dung bombs everywhere, and they can't be cleaned up in a short time. If I did not order the soldiers to block their noses, the stench would almost make everyone lose most of their combat effectiveness."
Bolger was not willing to sit still and wait for death, and wanted to hear any good suggestions from the other party: "Then what should we do now?"
Jansen was not willing to be passively beaten all the time, so he decided to fight back: "I have asked the soldiers to clear a small area to launch the mortars and launch our dung bombs after sunset!"
There are also a lot of coconuts in the castle. Although the number is not large, only a few hundred, it should be enough for the recent period. Anyway, the defenders only have sixteen mortars, and they cannot be fired all the time.
"That's great!"
Being blocked in the castle by Zheng Yiguan's army and unable to get out, the food was no longer fresh. Bolger supported Jansen in doing anything that could make the enemy unhappy, even if he could only get a little psychological comfort. That's ok too.
The pirate army occupied the day, so the defenders could take advantage of the night. The pirate army occupied the top of the mountain, and the defenders at least had the castle of Geranze as a stronghold.
The pirate army used dung bombs to attack, and there were also defenders. Although not too many, it was better than none at all. After 11 o'clock in the middle of the night, Jansen ordered the artillerymen to quietly roll out their mortars, launch a surprise attack toward the top of the mountain, and then retreat to the dilapidated building to take shelter before the enemy counterattack. However, the prepared enemy counterattack did not come, because the opponent seemed to have withdrawn from the top of the mountain, and it was completely unknown whether the bombardment had achieved the expected effect.
In order to achieve the desired effect by launching a dung bomb attack, the prerequisite is that the enemy must be in a fixed place and unable to move, and it is difficult to quickly clean up the dung in the impact point, so that the dung bomb can exert its due power.
The number of mortars the defenders possess is less than one-twentieth of the opponent's, and the number of coconuts they possess is probably less than one percent. This can only be used to boost morale, nothing more. In order to facilitate defense and avoid another large-scale casualty situation, Zhenhaibo Zheng Zhilong had already ordered all troops on the top of the mountain opposite the castle to retreat. From now on, the army will only enter the position during the day to bombard the castle of Relanja. After sunset, they can all return to the camp to rest. In this way, Hongyi will not be able to succeed in a sneak attack.
During the day, Hu Dawei's artillery regiment fired more than 5,000 coconut shells in the general direction. Although it seems that it has not yet achieved the expected effect, it will take time for this thing to slowly develop its power. Since Zheng Shao, who had both his hands cut, was unwilling to return to his hometown to recuperate, Zheng Zhilong allowed him to stay here. His new job was to take his men by boat to pick coconuts on the east coast.
In order to replenish the body fluids of the soldiers, the army needs at least 15,000 coconuts every day. Thirty coconuts are harvested from one tree, which also requires 500 trees. This workload is very large, even if 1,000 coconuts are used. Celebrity soldiers are also very heavy.
Fortunately, the natives on the east coast heard that the Dutch Red Barbarians were desperate, so they immediately took refuge in Zheng Jun. As long as the other party was willing to trade cloth, ironware, porcelain and other items, they would have all the work of picking coconuts.
Not only can they provide coconuts, but also all the fruits produced on the island, the village chiefs of the indigenous communities are willing to supply Zheng Jun in large quantities, and they can also provide a lot of deer and fish.
For them, Zheng Jun is a better trading partner than the Dutch. Zheng Jun has everything the Dutch have, and Zheng Jun has what the Dutch don't have. So why do they need the Dutch? Moreover, the natives wanted to retaliate against the Dutch for occupying their land and killing their companions, so they were willing to lead the way for Zheng's army and help Zheng's army encircle and suppress the remaining Dutch troops on the east coast.
Being able to use local materials, Zheng Jun's supply situation was much better. The food was transported from the mainland, so there was no need to worry about it. The seafood was caught nearby, and the fruits were supplied by the indigenous people. Therefore, the soldiers were in good physical condition and did not suffer from nutritional deficiencies. Undesirable situation. With the arrival of the medical team from the capital and the use of special medicines, the injuries of most of the wounded were effectively controlled, with only a few unlucky ones dying. In general, Zheng Zhilong felt a little regretful that he did not capture the Relanja Castle quickly, but the situation was still under his control. The next step was to see the effect of the coconut bombs.
With the experience accumulated on the first day, starting from the next day, Zheng Zhi'ao began to order his men to manufacture coconut bombs in large quantities, and the daily output should not be less than 10,000. This quota is very reasonable, because the more people we have, the more "n" we can produce in Japan!
In this regard, Zheng Zhi'ao was determined not to let the red barbarians in the castle underestimate his troops. Since conventional strategies won't work, let's use thousands of dung bombs to completely bury the Dutch Red Barbarians!
"Let go!" "Boom, boom, boom." The two artillery battalions under Hu Dawei's command were open to all comers. As long as Zheng Zhi'ao could provide them, they could shoot out as many coconut shells as they could. Even if as many as 15,000 cannons are fired every day, the average number of cannons is less than 40. Using a lower firing frequency, firing five times per hour, it can be done within an hour. The artillery position was covered with coconut shells fired by Hongyi. It was disgusting to clean up. This made Hu Dawei's men very angry. Today, the Hongyi people in the castle must understand that this is not a place for you to run wild.
If you dare to shoot over 500 coconut bombs, we will dare to shoot over 5,000 coconut bombs!
If you dare to shoot a thousand coconut bombs, we will dare to shoot ten thousand coconut bombs!
How dare you hit me with 10,000 coconut bombs?
Feel sorry!
You don’t have that many coconuts!
Unless you pick up your own coconut shells that haven't cracked and fire them over again, Hongyi's inventory will be misfired in at most three days.
Although the large-scale coconut shell attack will allow Hongyi to pick up some "shell casings", the more shells fired, the better the suppression effect will be.
Golden juice is a very common weapon in the East. Since the red barbarians are here and don’t want to leave, it’s time for you to show your “loyalty to the landlords”11
