Chapter 3477
Chapter 3477
Chapter 3477
Based on the Hai Han army's past experience in fighting the Dutch, the Dutch were not good at fighting at night and had never launched a night attack against the Hai Han army. However, Takahashi Nan was still not careless. In addition to arranging rangers to patrol and guard the nearby area, he also ordered several fires to be lit about 100 meters outside the beachhead. Any attempt to launch a surprise attack at night would be exposed under the light of the fire.
The troop transports and supply ships that lagged behind arrived in Colombo later than expected, and it was almost midnight before they met up with the Weixing that was waiting in the open sea.
These logistics ships took about nine hours longer than the advance forces, but were still slightly faster than originally estimated.
If they were not in a hurry to put out the fire and had sailed at normal speed, these ships would have arrived here at dawn the next day.
With the Weixing and other warships escorting them, the Dutch ships made no attempt to stop them. Subsequent ships that arrived successfully landed near the beachhead and transported combat personnel and supplies ashore overnight.
After a whole day of wind and waves, the soldiers got extremely precious rest time. They could take a short rest after landing and restore their physical strength and energy before dawn.
The number of troops stationed on the beachhead had increased by thousands overnight, as well as several larger caliber field artillery. Although we cannot say that the defense line is impregnable, it is at least much more stable than when there were only more than 200 people yesterday.
Takahashi Minami did not let the troops that arrived later sit idle. From dawn, the soldiers began to expand the beachhead position.
On the one hand, the width of the bunker was increased to deploy more soldiers and further increase the firepower output intensity on the position; on the other hand, more marching tents were built in the position to prepare for a long confrontation with the Dutch.
Qian Shaobao, who was originally sent to the Weixing by Gaoqiao Nanzhi, can now return to the beachhead with justification.
Qian Shaobao also paid close attention to the battle with the Dutch this afternoon. He even climbed to the lookout position on the main mast of the Weixing and stayed there for more than an hour, watching the battle on the coast with a telescope.
Although the battle was one-sided and there was almost no suspense in the entire fighting process, Qian Shaobao still felt his blood boil and was very excited.
It had been a long time since he had experienced such a battle. Even though his opponent was the relatively weak Dutch vassal army, such combat experience was by no means comparable to military exercises.
After breakfast, Gao Qiaonan immediately called his officers and combat staff to hold a war preparation meeting. He saw Qian Shaobao standing in the team and just nodded slightly without saying anything more.
Qian Shaobao returned to the position without asking for his permission in advance, but the task assigned to him yesterday to meet the follow-up troops had been completed, so it was reasonable for him to come and report to him.
Of course, Takahashi Nan knew very well why Qian Shaobao was rushing back, but there was no need to single him out in front of everyone.
Qian Tiandun asked Qian Shaobao to follow the troops to the battle, and Gao Qiaonan naturally understood his mission. He had to ensure Qian Shaobao's personal safety and then find a suitable opportunity to reward him with military merits.
Now that the main force has landed and the defensive fortifications on the positions have been improved, the next battle with the Dutch should not be so risky. Qian Shaobao can be responsible for the command of some areas.
Takahashi Minami was fully prepared, just waiting for the Dutch to attack. But the Dutch seemed to have not recovered from the defeat in the first round of yesterday's fight, and there was no sign of launching a new round of attack until daybreak.
Takahashi Minami became impatient and climbed up the watchtower on the beachhead to observe the movements in the Dutch camp.
The two places were several miles apart. Through the telescope, one could only see a small number of soldiers coming in and out of the outskirts of the camp, but there was no sign of large-scale mobilization.
According to Takahashi Minami's prediction, if the Dutch want to continue the offensive, they will not be able to send a few hundred people to test the firepower like they did yesterday. As long as they take action, they will definitely deploy a large number of troops to break through the special warfare division's beachhead position.
It would be impossible for thousands of soldiers to line up and attack silently. Takahashi Nan estimated that given the quality of the enemy's vassal army, it would take a long time just to gather and line up outside the camp, but so far, there seemed to be no signs of the enemy lining up for battle.
Could it be that they were planning to directly attack the Dutch regular army? Takahashi Nan thought that the other side might not have such determination.
You have to know that this place is extremely far away from the Netherlands mainland, and the value of combat personnel is much higher than on the European battlefield.
On the European battlefield, tens of thousands of soldiers may just be cannon fodder lined up to be shot, but here, every professional soldier is a valuable asset, and losses are not so easy to replenish.
The normal tactic was, of course, to send the vassal army to lead the charge, with the elite Dutch troops in the rear. Once the vassal army had opened a gap in Hai Han's defenses, the Dutch would move forward to fight.
If the Dutch soldiers, who numbered only 1,800, were to be wiped out right away, even if there were still several thousand vassal troops, they would find it difficult to be effective on the battlefield.
When Takahashi Minami was feeling puzzled, he saw Dutch ships on the sea gathering towards his camp.
This kind of transfer made Takahashi Minami even more confused. Could it be that the Dutch had hidden troops or heavy weapons and equipment on the ship that only appeared at this time?
However, what really exceeded his expectations was yet to come. When the ships docked one after another, there was finally movement in the camp. The armed men lined up and marched straight to the seaside, and then began to board the ships.
What does this mean? Gao Qiaonan thought about the terrain nearby. Apart from Colombo City, there were no other important targets. It seemed that there was no need to send troops to other places by sea.
After Takahashi Minami ruled out many possibilities in her mind, the only thing left was a seemingly absurd fact that was already happening - the Dutch were planning to escape!
This seems extremely unreasonable. The Dutch spent such huge manpower and resources to attack the city of Colombo, and victory was just around the corner. Although they were affected by the arrival of the Hai Han army, it was not completely impossible to win.
But no one would have expected that after yesterday's small-scale battle, the Dutch changed their minds and actually decided to retreat.
Although the battle yesterday was won beautifully, Takahashi Nan felt that it would not destroy the Dutch's fighting spirit. After all, only some vassal troops were killed and wounded, and the large-scale weapons prepared in the beachhead to deal with large-scale battles had not yet been used. How could the Dutch conclude that they could not win?
Takahashi Minami himself felt that this idea was a bit absurd, but the Dutch's actions confirmed his idea. Several cannons were transported out of the camp one after another, transported to the seaside and hoisted onto the ship, which clearly showed that they had given up on continuing the attack on Colombo.