Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 633 Retreat to the Inner Fortress

Soon after the ladders approached the bastion, the siege towers behind also approached the bastion one after another.

The siege tower is heavier, so it takes longer to reach the city wall, but as long as the siege tower is close to the bastion, more soldiers can climb to the top of the city. After it is level with the bastion wall, the soldiers on the tower quickly put down the planks to connect the siege tower and the city wall.

At this moment, the faces of the Dutch defenders in Batavia Fort turned extremely pale. They watched as the planks were erected between the climbing tower and the city wall.

"Quick! Stop them!" a Dutch officer shouted at the top of his lungs, with undisguised panic in his voice. The defenders fired madly at the Qian army soldiers on the city tower. The sound of muskets crackled non-stop, and the smoke on the top of the city was so thick that it even covered the figures of the soldiers.

Many of the Qian army soldiers who climbed the city tower were hit by firearms as soon as they walked out of the tower. Fortunately, the Dutch defenders were also in some confusion at this time. In addition, there were Qian army soldiers climbing the city everywhere on the northwest side of the bastion, so the defenders could not form an endless rain of bullets.

The Qian army at the back rushed towards the city wall along the planks. A soldier walking in front was hit in the chest by a bullet just a few steps after stepping onto the planks. He groaned, his body swayed, he rushed forward a few steps, and then fell heavily to the ground.

However, this did not stop the Qian army from advancing. The soldiers following behind quickly passed over the bodies of their companions and climbed onto the city wall. One of them brandished a long sword and roared as he rushed towards the Dutch defenders. His long sword flashed with cold light and instantly chopped down a Dutch soldier who tried to stop him. Other Qian army soldiers followed suit and engaged in close combat with the Dutch defenders.

There was a chaos on the city wall. In the chaos, cold weapons had more advantages than firearms. Even in the anti-Japanese battlefields of later generations, warriors with big swords could chop the Japanese pirates with rifles to pieces after getting close, making them cry for their parents. Not to mention that this was an era of transition between cold weapons and hot weapons.

The news of Qian's army climbing the city soon reached Ru Han Shuaige's ears. His heart trembled, but there was nothing he could do but pray for God's help. He thought that it would take at least one or two months for Qian's army to fill the trenches outside the city, and it would also inflict huge casualties on Qian's army.

But unexpectedly, it only took six or seven days to actually fill the trenches, and the main force filling the trenches was not the Qian Army. The soldiers captured several injured civilians at night and found out after interrogation that they were natives from Borneo.

After learning the news, Ru Hansuige could only sigh that the Qian Dynasty in the East could mobilize human and material resources, which were more than a hundred or a thousand times that of the Netherlands.

On top of the bastion, the fighting between the two sides was still going on. However, the Qian army had a clear advantage, and the area they occupied above the bastion continued to expand.

The soldiers of the Qian army were holding long swords and waving their spears in the crowd, blood splattering. Although the Dutch defenders had sharp firearms, they were clearly at a disadvantage in close combat and were pressed step by step by the Qian army soldiers.

The commander of the front line, Opdam, urgently dispatched the reserve troops to the top of the city wall to try to stop the advance of the Qian army, but as time went on, more and more Qian troops climbed onto the wall, and they could even form a small-scale array.

Many of the defenders who came to support abandoned their muskets and instead drew their swords to fight with the Qian army. There were only more than 3,000 defenders in the bastion, and 1,200 of them were local soldiers recruited on the spot. Opdam believed that the fighting power of these local soldiers was only slightly better than that of monkeys who could throw stones.

As more and more Qian army soldiers climbed up the fortress wall through the climbing tower, the Dutch defenders began to waver. The soldiers began to show fear and retreated step by step.

While Opdam was still trying to boost morale and resist, the local recruits rioted. These soldiers were more than capable of bullying the locals, but in war, with these people, it was not one plus one equals two, but one plus one equals negative one hundred.

Although these soldiers were not good at fighting, they were not fools. For the past few months, they had been besieged in the Batavia Fort. Not only were their food supplies getting less and less, but artillery outside the city bombarded the castle from time to time, and the Dutch were unable to provide any effective countermeasures. Therefore, these soldiers, instigated by an officer, decided to launch a riot.

The riot in the rear inevitably affected the front. When Opdam heard the news of the soldiers' riot, he was so shocked that his jaw dropped. He never expected that the soldiers would get into trouble at this critical moment.

Looking at the soldiers who were still fighting, even though Opdam was unwilling to lose the fortress, he knew that it would be useless to delay any further.

So at Opdam's command, the Dutch soldiers who were still fighting withdrew from the battle and fled to the rear. There was an inner fort inside the bastion. Although this inner fort was taller, it was smaller in scale.

The Qian army took advantage of the situation to seize the outer perimeter of the bastion, while the Dutch defenders had already withdrawn all their forces back to the inner fort. After a day of fighting, both sides were somewhat exhausted.

Therefore, Zheng Chenggong ordered to withdraw from the shooting range of the inner fort first, and at the same time closely monitor the barbarians in the inner fort. As for the captured Western barbarians, the Qian army took them all out of the fort and tied them up in groups of ten with ropes to prevent them from escaping.

Although Zheng Chenggong hated the local soldiers who launched the rebellion, in order to more firmly control Batavia in the future, he still gritted his teeth and met with the rebellious officer.

Zheng Chenggong comforted him with a few words, saying that after the war, his contributions would not be forgotten and that he would not have to worry about wealth and glory in the future.

In the inner fort, many soldiers were standing, sitting, or lying. In short, most of them were listless and many were mentally unstable. This battle was not like the shooting in the fortress a few days ago. The cruelty of cold weapons was much more terrifying than muskets in the eyes of the Dutch soldiers who were on the battlefield.

Opdam fled back to the castle, sat at the table, and gulped down several large gulps of water. When Ruhansuige saw Opdam put down his glass, he took the opportunity to ask, "Commander, can this war still be won?"

At this time, Opdam's hat was gone, his military uniform had been torn in several places, his hair was disheveled, and he looked in a miserable state.

Hearing the governor's question, Opdam said angrily: "If it weren't for the rebellion of those monkeys, how could the Qian army have captured Batavia so easily? Now we only have a small inner fortress left. How can we win the war!"