Chapter 3608
Chapter 3608
Chapter 3608
It is already September, but for this tropical battlefield located in the equatorial region, there are no clear four seasons, and the environment is still as hot and humid as in the previous months.
Zheng Agui's company has completed another round of rest and recuperation in Beimen Port and set out again to the eastern end of the Lesser Sunda Islands to continue the search and clearing mission.
At this time, a month has passed since the action deadline proposed by Xiao Zhengyang. Although the Bangui Battalion has almost cleared the area south of the Banda Sea, because the Taiwan fleet recently destroyed a secret port operated by Spain for three years on Papua Island, the combat command believes that the Spaniards are likely to continue to mobilize armed fleets from the Americas to infiltrate this area, so it is necessary to increase the search intensity of the area east of the current war zone.
Before Zheng Agui set off from Beimen Port, he saw the battle report of the Taiwan Fleet forwarded by the Operations Command. While he envied Li Zhencheng's good luck, he also couldn't help but admire the tenacity of the Spaniards. Even after the battle had reached this point, they were still thinking about counterattacking.
They had clearly lost power in the region, but they still insisted on fighting a guerrilla war with Hai Han. If they had negotiated with Hai Han, chosen to admit defeat and stop the confrontation, at least they could have safely evacuated thousands of immigrants from the war zone. But now they had lost their territory, and the immigrants they had worked so hard to move here were gone. It was a complete defeat.
Zheng Agui believes that the Spaniards are completely unaware of their situation. Even if they can transfer troops from another distant continent, it has become a tactic of adding fuel to the fire under the current situation and cannot change the strength comparison between the two countries in this region.
Judging from the information we have so far, the Spanish should want to use delaying tactics to drag the war on until Hai Han can no longer afford the resources. At that time, it would be more advantageous to choose a ceasefire.
But what the Spanish did not know was that since Hai Han was determined to develop the new continent in the south, it would never allow Spain to be a stumbling block on the route connecting the new colonies. No matter how long this war lasted, Hai Han would definitely not take the initiative to stop the war.
Even if the Executive Committee has other ideas, the Luzon region, which has already paid a huge price for this, will never put the brakes on.
This war must not only continue, but also be won completely until Spain no longer has any desire to covet this region.
Shortly after the troops were dispatched, Zheng Agui's company received the latest notice that the southern war zone south of the Banda Sea had also received reinforcements, which would greatly alleviate the current pressure of severe shortage of troops.
However, the reinforcements that recently joined the operation did not come from Fujian or Taiwan, nor from the Sing Tao region that was competing with Luzon to develop the New World, but from the Kingdom of Matalan adjacent to the southern war zone.
Speaking of the Kingdom of Matalan, it is also an old friend of Hai Han. After the Battle of Batavia in 1632, Matalan became an important buyer of Hai Han's arms exports. In 1636, Matalan envoys brought a cart of gold bricks to the gate of Shengli Fort to publicly purchase arms. With amazing financial resources, they won the auction with the Netherlands. This is still one of the legendary stories that the people of Sanya talk about with great relish.
The western part of the Lesser Sunda Islands was originally the traditional territory of the Kingdom of Matram, but it was controlled by the Netherlands and Spain. The most direct beneficiary of the Luzon Region's clearing of Spanish colonies in the Lesser Sunda Islands is actually the Kingdom of Matram. Although Hai Han has completed the cleanup of these areas, it currently does not have enough troops to control a large number of islands, and does not want to affect its relationship with the Kingdom of Matram because of the ownership of these islands.
The Manila authorities then took the initiative to propose a plan to the Kingdom of Matalan, whereby the Kingdom of Matalan would participate in the fight against Spanish colonial forces and provide material and combat support. In return, Hai Han could return the area of the Lesser Sunda Islands that originally belonged to the King of Matalan.
This deal is quite a good deal for the Kingdom of Matalan. If Matalan itself takes the lead and asks Hai Han to send troops to help take back control of these islands from Spain, the price it needs to pay will be much higher than what Hai Han is asking for now.
Matalan quickly agreed to the Manila authorities' plan and without waiting for the two sides to sign a formal agreement, it immediately organized a cargo fleet to transport food and other daily necessities needed by Hai Han to Beimen Port. At the same time, it sent an armed fleet to the Arafura Sea at the eastern end of the Lesser Sunda Islands to assist Hai Han in carrying out patrol and search missions in the area.
The voyage from the Kingdom of Mataram to Beimen Port is more than twice as close as that of Manila, and the route does not need to pass through the war zone, so the transportation cost is much lower than Hai Han’s own supply line.
Although the strength of the Matalan Fleet is not as good as that of the genuine auxiliary armies such as Korea and Annan, its main warships are almost all purchased from Hai Han, and its naval tactics are also in line with Hai Han. As long as they are not allowed to serve as the main combat force on the front line, it will not be difficult for them to cooperate with Hai Han to complete some basic tasks.
According to the arrangement of the combat command, the Ma Dalan Fleet will cooperate with the actions of the Beimen Port garrison troops. Its arrival really made Zheng Agui breathe a sigh of relief. Now he no longer has to worry about his company being "abandoned" on an island for a long time due to insufficient ships.
After entering September, good news came one after another, but most of them were in the northern war zone north of the Banda Sea.
The Fujian Fleet achieved its first military success after entering the war zone, cooperating with the Luzon Fleet to destroy a Spanish fleet that had been conducting guerrilla warfare in Sulawesi. According to the battle report, the number of enemy ships destroyed in this battle even exceeded that of the Taiwan Fleet in Manokwari, becoming the highest single battle record in this round of the Haixi War.
After this fleet was destroyed, the remaining Spanish armed forces in the area basically lost the ability to maneuver and move, and could no longer threaten the New World route passing through the east side of Sulawesi Island.
Xu Kaiyuan, who commanded the Fujian Fleet, received double commendations from the Executive Committee and the Ministry of National Defense. It was probably only a matter of time before he was promoted after the war.
Although Li Zhencheng was quite dissatisfied with the Fujian Fleet stealing the limelight, he also understood that this was the Executive Committee's intention to loosen the shackles on the Xu family, and it was not something he could control. Now that he could not clamp down on the Fujian Fleet's performance in the war, he could only try to improve his own performance in the future.
By the end of September, there had been no trace of the Spanish in both the northern and southern war zones for nearly half a month. It was not until this time that the Manila authorities reported to the Executive Committee, declaring that the war had achieved a phased victory and that they would concentrate resources on increasing the development of the New World's North Gate Port.