Chapter 3476
Chapter 3476
Chapter 3476
Conceicao had already explained to Takahashi Minami the causes and consequences of the Dutch attack on Colombo when he visited Hambantota.
The Dutch's goal in sending troops this time was to capture the city, and they had no intention of withdrawing even if they failed to capture the city. The Portuguese, who were struggling to hold on, were also about to reach the end of their strength.
The defenders in the city had suffered heavy casualties, and there were less than a thousand armed personnel capable of fighting. In addition, the defenders' ammunition reserves were running out, and their muskets and artillery were about to become useless. As long as the Dutch reorganized their troops and launched one or two more charges, the city defense would be lost.
In this situation, whether they abandoned the city and fled or opened the city to surrender, Antonio, the governor of Ceylon, would be blamed. Even if Conceicao brought Hai Han reinforcements, the governor did not know whether Hai Han would really take action, so in order to save his family's lives, he secretly sent them to the Hai Han position outside the city in advance.
If the city defenses were breached, the governor would have no choice but to fight the Dutch to the death. This way, at least he could gain the honor of dying for his country and get some benefits for his family after his death.
As for other dignitaries in the city, of course many of them wanted to escape, and some even tried to bribe the guards at the city gates to escape.
But the Governor of Ceylon would not let these people out of the city, because once the upper class began to flee in fear of fighting, the defenders' fighting spirit would quickly collapse. Only a very small number of people who had close personal relationships with the Governor were able to take their families out of the city with them.
Takahashi Nanmi asked the Portuguese cavalry responsible for delivering the message to go back and inform the Governor of Ceylon in the city that the Hai Han army would not sit idly by and watch the Dutch continue to attack the city, but the defenders in the city must continue to hold the city defenses and tie down part of the Dutch forces for the Hai Han army.
The Hai Han army will use the beachhead to attack the Dutch army from the flank, preventing them from launching a full-scale attack on the city of Colombo.
If Colombo fell, the Hai Han army would not launch a counterattack for the Portuguese to retake the city. At most, they would take in some refugees near the coast.
Soon after the Portuguese cavalry left, the Dutch began a tentative attack on the beachhead.
Several phalanxes consisting of about four to five hundred auxiliary troops slowly approached the beachhead from north to south.
Takahashi Nan saw through the telescope that the weapons used by these auxiliary troops were mainly matchlocks and flintlocks, supplemented by a small number of archers and spearmen. The front row of the square formation even had several large shields as cover, but it was unknown whether they could withstand the shooting of rifles.
However, there was no follow-up artillery in sight, and there was a lack of long-range heavy firepower cover. There was also no cavalry to launch a rapid offensive from the flank to tie down the firepower of the Hai Han army. If these infantrymen wanted to attack the beachhead deployed by the special operations division, it would be tantamount to hitting a rock with an egg.
Judging from the tactical arrangement, this is clearly a traditional tactic for dealing with European countries. It can be seen that General Van Hollen on the opposite side obviously has insufficient understanding of the special operations division.
Obviously, this veteran is not from Batavia on Java Island, otherwise he would have a clearer understanding of the Hai Han army's tactics and would not adopt such backward tactics to deal with the special operations division.
Since the other party took the initiative, Takahashi Minami no longer had any thoughts of tolerance.
It is not enough to simply repel the enemy's offensive. Takahashi Nan must establish his prestige through this battle, deter the opponent, and ensure that Hai Han's interests in the Indian Ocean region will not be easily violated.
Of course, the target of the deterrence was not only the Dutch, but also the Portuguese who were squatting in Colombo, who were also potential targets set by Takahashi Minami. In view of this purpose, Takahashi Minami ordered to let the opponent get closer before firing, in order to ensure greater killing effect during the battle.
Thanks to the rapid iteration of Hai Han's weapons and equipment, the tactics used by the special operations division using rifled rifles and fixed ammunition have also evolved accordingly, and the original line infantry tactics had been abandoned many years ago.
Sandbags were used as shelters, and firing holes were made on the shelters to protect the soldiers to the greatest extent possible. The advantage of the weapons' firing rate and range was used to build crossfire on the positions. Although there were only more than 200 rifles on the positions, the firepower output of the defense line formed by them was enough to make the opponents of this era despair.
In the suffocating silence, the Dutch infantry phalanx advanced smoothly to a distance of 100 meters, while not a single shot was fired from the Hai Han position.
Although this situation seemed a bit strange, the Dutch still followed their tactical arrangements, deployed their formation at this distance, and the musketeers began to fire at the Hai Han positions.
However, the ammunition fired from the muskets either flew away without a trace or was blocked by the sandbag bunkers on the battlefield, and basically failed to cause effective casualties.
The targets that the Dutch musketeers could see were just rows of sandbags. Those with good eyesight might be able to see the muzzles of their guns sticking out of the shooting holes, but they could not see the figures of their opponents at all, and there was no one to aim at at all.
In the interval between each round of shooting, the infantry phalanx would advance forward about three meters, gradually shortening the engagement distance until the final charge.
But this advancement did not last long. After only four rounds of shooting, the Hai Han position opened fire back.
At a firefight distance of less than 100 meters, it was extremely difficult for the soldiers of the special operations division to hit the enemy infantry phalanx that had no cover at all.
The large shields in the front row of the phalanx did not seem to be very bulletproof at this distance. The shield soldiers were knocked down by the bullets in the first place, revealing the unprotected targets behind them.
The special operations division did not need to use any heavy machine guns or field artillery. Relying solely on the rifles in the hands of the soldiers, they were able to quickly inflict heavy casualties on the enemy.
Even if some people quickly turn around and run away after realizing that the situation is not good, it is difficult to completely avoid stray bullets shot from behind at this distance, and they will still be knocked down in the process of fleeing from the battlefield.
After losing more than half of their men, the remnants of the infantry phalanx finally left the battlefield. The actual exchange of fire between the two sides only lasted a few minutes.
But Gao Qiaonan thought that the enemy would not give up fighting the special warfare division just because of the failure of this test attack. When the next round of fighting started, the enemy would definitely deploy more troops than this round, and that would be the time to really use killing methods.
However, it was getting dark by then, and Takahashi Minami thought that the opponent would probably find it difficult to organize the next round of offensive before dark, so the two sides would probably have to wait until tomorrow to fight.
Sure enough, until nightfall, the Dutch did not launch any more offensives, including the attack on the city of Colombo.