Chapter 705 702 [Outrageous Johor Soldier]

The Dutch garrison in Malacca really only had 180 men, so this situation was the norm.

There are actually thousands of Dutch defenders in Taiwan, which is quite outrageous. The reason is that Taiwan often has indigenous rebellions, and the local Han people in Taiwan are also very tough, causing the Netherlands to have to gradually increase its military garrison.

Except for Batavia, in other colonial cities in the Netherlands, one hundred and eighty people is the limit, and the remaining castles only have thirty or fifty people.

Think about how old the Netherlands is. With such a pitiful population, they want to colonize the world and have more than 10,000 merchant ships sailing. How many Dutch people can be left?

The same is true for the UK, which has 28 offices in India, with a total of only more than 90 employees...

"Chen Erxun, an overseas Chinese citizen, pays homage to Lord Angel!"

"Get up."

Chen Erxun is the Chinese leader in Malacca. He has been living here for two hundred years. What is rare is that he has not yet mixed blood.

Ordinary Chinese do not have this ability. They are mixed-race within one or two generations at most and often marry Malay women. This kind of mixed-race descendant is also called Nyonya, and its full name is "Baba Nyonya". A mixed-race man is called Baba, and a mixed-race woman is called Nyonya.

Chen Erxun was actually very unwelcome to Kuang Hong, an uninvited guest.

Because the Han Chinese in Malacca have mixed blood and have achieved a high degree of autonomy, they are not discriminated against. Instead, they are the upper class race here - second only to the Dutch.

This is something they fought for themselves.

During the rule of the Malacca Sultanate, the Han people were oppressed. When the Portuguese came, the Han people not only provided architectural plans for the palace (castle), but also formed an army to help Portugal fight the war.

Later, Portugal also began to exploit the Han people, and the Han people in Malacca helped the Netherlands fight the war.

The Dutch had ruled Malacca for less than ten years and were very weak. They had not had time to fall out with the Han people. Instead, they had to rely on the Han people in all aspects. Therefore, the taxes on the Han people here are very light, and the relationship with the Dutch colonists is very good.

For Chen Erxun, the leader of the Chinese in Malacca, the Chinese army is the real invader, breaking their beautiful and prosperous life!

Chen Erxun asked: "Lord Angel, do you want to capture Malacca?"

Kuang Hong did not give a direct answer, but asked with a smile: "Otherwise, what would I do with my troops? Tell me how many defenders there are."

Chen Erxun complained secretly, but his arms could not twist his thighs. In order not to be implicated, he had to cooperate and replied: "Less than 200."

Kuang Hong's eyes lit up when he heard this. This guy was very young and he was obsessed with meritorious service. That's why he forced the Dutch Governor to sign the contract. After completing Emperor Zhao's mission, he had to make a fuss. He had no intention of actually taking Malacca, but if there were not many defenders, why not take it?

This is such a great achievement!

Moreover, due to the disastrous defeat of the Dutch fleet last year, although the number of warships has recovered, most of them are temporarily recruited armed merchant ships and they simply dare not fight a decisive battle with the Datong Navy at sea.

Such a good opportunity must be seized!

Kuang Hong returned to the naval ship and discussed with the naval commander Hong Xu: "General Hong, I haven't fought many battles. There are less than 200 defenders in the castle. How should we defeat him?"

Hong Xu said: "I observed the castle with a telescope and asked a few locals. There is no other way. The soldiers climbed on boats and climbed up the city wall to fight their way in."

The Malacca Castle is disgusting and was built by the Portuguese.

It is built on the protruding part of the river's mouth. It is surrounded by the sea on three sides, southeast and west, and a mountain on the north. After more than a hundred years of expansion by the Portuguese, the outer walls of the castle became longer and longer, directly connected to the mountains.

If there were more than a thousand defenders inside, Hong Xu would definitely turn around and leave, and it would be impossible for tens of thousands of troops to storm down.

However, the Dutch defenders only had more than a hundred troops and could not take care of so many long outer walls.

At least, the outer fortifications of the castle can be easily taken down.

"Then prepare to fight!" Kuang Hong said.

There is not much else in the area around Malacca, with endless woods and bamboo forests. The Dutch colonists even complained that the land of Malacca was nothing but jungle.

In fact, food was grown here before. After the establishment of the Malacca Sultanate, maritime trade was fully developed and agricultural development outside the city was ignored. Over time, agriculture has degraded, with the surrounding farmland decreasing and forests and swamps increasing.

This situation became even more obvious after the arrival of Portuguese and Dutch colonists.

The Netherlands even only controls urban areas, handing over all land outside the city to landlords, and only collects a small symbolic agricultural tax every year.

Chen Erxun was a landlord (and businessman). He usually lived in the city and sent his slaves to the countryside to collect rent. He often lamented that there were too few Han people here, who were all concentrated in the city, and the Malay natives did not know how to farm, so it would be a waste of resources to leave the land uncultivated.

Therefore, Malacca cannot be self-sufficient in food and has to buy it from other places every year.

The Malay natives gathered outside the city were now sent by Kuang Hong to cut down trees, and the boundless forest was cut down at will. After the trees were cut down, craftsmen in the city were asked to build siege equipment and a large number of disposable wooden boats.

Within the castle.

Congressman Sanders muttered: "Are we going to have reinforcements?"

Army Commander Hendrick said: "Even if there are reinforcements, I'm afraid it will be difficult to hold on until that time."

Each colony sent reinforcements to each other, often in months.

The closest Dutch colony to Malacca is Batavia, which originally had nearly 2,000 army troops, but many were sunk with ships last year, and now only a little over 1,000 are left. The others are all in India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The average number of defenders in each colonial stronghold is less than a hundred, and even if they are all brought in for rescue, they will not be able to gather 500 people.

"Damn Vanderlin, he shouldn't have angered the Chinese!" Sanders said angrily.

He is a council member of the East India Company and one of the big guys, but he is usually based in Malacca, and his representatives are always present when parliament is held. There was a lot of money in Malacca. Sanders finally got this job, but before he could get enough, he was attacked by the Chinese.

Cutting off someone's wealth is like killing one's parents.

Sanders did not hate the Chinese, but instead hated Governor Vanderlyn.

"If there is enough food, are you sure you can keep it?" Sanders asked.

Hendrick said: "The outer wall is too big. With our current strength, it is impossible to defend it. However, 180 people can still defend the core area of ​​the castle."

Sanders said: "At the critical moment, abandon the outer walls and hold on to the castle to wait for reinforcements."

"Dang-dang-dang!"

A bell sounded outside the castle, signaling an enemy attack.

Sanders immediately ran out and climbed onto the outer wall to check the situation. I saw hundreds of small boats rowing over on the three sides of the sea, southeast and west. They were all disposable small wooden boats, which looked more formal than rafts. There is no need to bombard it with city defense artillery. It may be overturned by a wave.

"fire!"

"Boom boom boom!"

Both sides were firing, and the ships of the Datong Navy kept cruising and shooting at the outer walls of Malacca Castle. Malacca's city defense artillery fired at the small boats in the sea.

Often a cannonball would hit, still two or three meters away from the boat, and the waves would overturn the boat.

It doesn't matter if it capsizes, everyone can swim, just take the boat and swim back.

At this time, if the artillery wanted to directly hit the sparse boats, it would be as difficult as winning the lottery.

In fact, it was all a feint, and the boats were filled with paid Malay natives!

These Malay natives are not even qualified to live in urban areas and live like dogs on weekdays. Just give them some food and you can make them work hard. When Portugal attacked Malacca, they hired thousands of natives at one time.

The Dutch fired artillery for a long time. Although numerous boats were capsized by waves, they only killed and drowned more than twenty natives.

Although Kuang Hong had never fought in a war, he had read military books and learned some military theory.

Letting the natives row boats to feign an attack not only consumes the Dutch defenders' artillery shells, but also paralyzes the Dutch defenders.

For several days in a row, the natives continued to attack with rowing boats. Each time they were hundreds of meters away from the outer city wall, the natives couldn't hold on to the cannons and retreated, quickly escaping from the range in small boats.

What the Dutch paid was artillery shells, and what Kuang Hong paid was only food.

He went to sea on a business trip and made a lot of gold and silver. With these gold and silver, we can buy food from nearby Banten Kingdom and Johor Kingdom, so we don't have to worry about insufficient military rations at all.

Gradually, the Dutch artillery became numb and fired at the small boats at sea every day. Other Dutch defenders listened to the sound of cannons, counted lice, and complained about the deterioration of the quality of food. The most disgusting thing was that they could not go to the city to find women.

To the north of the city, St. Paul's Hill.

5,730 Seven-Nation Alliance troops, plus 1,000 Datong Navy soldiers, have all carried light bamboo ladders up the mountain.

They were hiding in the dense forests of the mountains and would not be discovered by the defenders.

The defenders were attracted by the feigned attack on the sea. There were only 30 Dutch soldiers on the northern backing. Moreover, the feint attacks on the sea for several days have caused the Dutch soldiers on the backing side to become a little relaxed.

"Enemy attack!"

Thousands of people approached the city wall in the woods, but they were not discovered until they were dozens of meters away. Moreover, it was only someone on the attacking side who accidentally lost his footing and rolled down the hillside, causing a movement that attracted the attention of the defenders.

There are no artillery on this side of the city wall.

Because it's pointing at hillsides and woods, the shells can't bounce, and the effect is not much different from shooting directly.

"Bang bang bang!"

The 30 Dutch defenders fired randomly into the woods. There were actually dozens of Johor soldiers who were frightened and ran away immediately when they heard the gunshots.

No wonder the country of Johor was beaten and moved its capital several times. These Johor soldiers all held matchlocks and wore leather armor. As a result, some of them fled as soon as they met.

"Come on!"

Seeing the exposed signs, the soldiers of the Datong Navy immediately rushed down the hillside, and some even slid down the hillside.

"The first one to get there will be rewarded!"

Among the seven-nation coalition forces, Prince Narai of Siam was the bravest, leading the charge with a spear in hand.

His two consultant friends are also fierce men.

Yang Dongkui carried a Chinese-style waist knife, and Hual Kang carried a Western-style long sword. They followed Na Lai and shouted excitedly. The two of them regarded fighting as an adventure game.

"Bang bang bang!"

As the distance got closer, the Dutch's musket fire became more accurate.

Of the 3,000 Johor soldiers, only a dozen were actually killed, but they turned around and ran away one by one. But this is a hillside. It is easy to come down, but difficult to climb up. In fact, it is safer to charge forward.

On the contrary, there are several small countries, usually sandwiched between the "big countries", and the soldiers' will to fight is much stronger.

Kuang Hong stood on the top of the mountain watching the battle. When he saw this situation, he was so angry that he cursed: "Damn it, what kind of cowards are these Johor Kingdoms? This is their former capital. They don't even know how to fight to regain their old place!"

When the Datong navy soldiers and Siamese soldiers rushed to build ladders outside the city wall, all 3,000 Johor soldiers had dispersed, and it was the prince of Johor who took the lead in escaping.

No wonder there were very few Dutch defenders in Malacca, because the Malacca colony was surrounded by the territory of the Kingdom of Johor.

Faced with such garbage soldiers, how could the Dutch colonists station heavy troops for defense?