At noon, Rapini and two companions tiptoed into a forest covered with swamps. More than ten minutes later, they arrived in front of a hill with an altitude of only fifty or sixty meters, which was already six kilometers northwest of Langasbetong.

The three of them crawled in the weeds, paying attention to the venomous snakes that might emerge at any time. The venomous snakes on Java Island are not fun to make fun of. The most fierce thing is that they can spray venom out more than two meters away. Although they all carry gauze bags used to drive away snakes, they contain realgar garlic powder, but no one can guarantee that the disturbed snake will not bite people.

When they arrived at the top of the hill, they carefully leaned out of the grass more than half a person tall, and their vision suddenly became clear, and they could see a scene several miles below the mountain at a glance.

The Urong River, which runs from south to north, converges in the Langasbetong and the Chibelan River, creates a large S-shaped shape on the plain, and then winds all the way, heading northward into the Java Sea.

Rapini picked up the telescope and saw that there were countless dense white tents one kilometer east of the hill. He roughly estimated that there must be 8,000 to 10,000 people. In various camps, red, white and black VOC flags were everywhere. In addition, there were also a yellow flag in some tent areas, and the three black patterns arranged from top to bottom on the flag were like three big fish bones. Rapini knew these flags. When he followed Wang Yuanfang to play the Cape Corps of the Vuttemburg, the other party held these two flags.

Speaking of the mercenaries of Württemberg, Rapini had specifically asked Degine on his way to France last year. From this he learned from the other party that the fate of the Württemberg soldiers was really miserable, and it was not much better than the green camp soldiers of the Qing Dynasty.

According to Degengie, Duke Carl Eugen of the Principal of Württemberg was a fool, with misconduct and extravagant nature. He spent a lot of money on the construction of palaces and castles. In order to make up for the huge financial expenditure, he rented 65,000 soldiers from his subordinate legion to the Dutch East India Company.

The reason why VOC signed an agreement with Württemberg was that Europeans in this year would rather stay in their hometown as porters than sign a contract to be an overseas mercenary of VOC.

The reason is that first of all, the rewards of VOC mercenaries are very low, and their monthly salary is only 9 guilds. Secondly, due to poor medical conditions, one person will die of malaria in Württemberg mercenaries who come to Southeast Asia on average for two days. If the death toll is less than 400 per year, it will be considered God’s favor!

The problem is that VOC's salary system for mercenaries is even worse than the "Little Jianyin" created by the Qing Dynasty. They only paid half a salary to these soldiers who drifted on the sea for seven months and went through a lot of hardships to Southeast Asia, and the remaining money will be paid in one go after the contract expires.

After coming to Bacheng for so long, Rapini has long understood the value of the Dutch guild. One shield is about 0.34 taels of ku flat silver, and 9 shields are only more than three taels of silver, less than 15 yuan in Beihai silver dollars. You should know that Rapini now has 50 yuan in monthly allowances, not to mention that his family still has 50 acres of land. As for those recruiting minions from railway workers, the monthly allowance is at least 15 yuan.

The telescope's vision extended to the west. Rapini saw that on the west bank of the Urong River, there were dense figures of people as big as black ants. They carried their shoulders and backs, or drove cattle and horses to transport wood and stones, as if they were building fortifications and piled up turrets. The entire fortification was almost one kilometer long from south to north.

The temperature in Java Island is cool in June, with an average of only over twenty degrees. However, today is a sunny day, and there is no wind in the air, so the dust flying on the river bank covers the construction crowd like a yellow veil curtain.

Soon, Rapini discovered that the Dutch had built two pontoon bridges on the north and south sides of the fortification. At this moment, a group of guys who looked like cavalry were passing through the south pontoon bridge, entering the opposite bank of a flat river, then turned north into the road leading to Bacheng, galloping eastward, and dust rolling up. He keenly realized that the purpose of VOC's construction of these two bridges should be to facilitate the cavalry to attack from the north and south sides.

Rapini planned to grab a tongue, but it was not a good opportunity now. He decided to go back to the camp first and wait until it was dark before taking action. So more than an hour later, the three of them recorded all the observed situations in their notebooks, sneaked back to the woods under the hills behind them, and walked west along the stream in the quiet and wet rain forest. After walking almost two kilometers, he returned to the temporary camp of the special operations camp. When he saw the battalion commander Elu, Rapini immediately reported.

After hearing this, Elu asked, "Did the enemy's command find out?"

"There are too many enemies, and the sentries are far away. Their camps are all in the woods and they are not easy to get close during the day. I plan to explore again at night, so it is best to grab a tongue."

After Rapini finished speaking, he grabbed his pen and began to mark the location of the enemy fortifications on the map. Elu nodded expressionlessly and said nothing. He felt that Overstratten's command would definitely not be too far from the front line, and the other party would not be able to stay in Cyron, thirty kilometers away, to command the battle.

When Rapini went out at noon, Elu received a telegram from the command center and learned that the attack launched in the early morning had achieved great results. After six hours of interlude and detour, each of the Northern Navy units that broke through the enemy's defense line from the north and south wings surrounded more than 8,000 enemy troops in the Tangerang area 30 kilometers west of Bacheng. The command center telegram told them to check the deployment of Langasbetong and the deployment of VOCs, but Elu wanted to find the Dutch command and seize the governor.

At dusk, Rapini took five people away. The temporary garrison of the Special Forces Battalion is more than ten miles away from Langasbetong. If nothing unexpected happens, they will be able to reach the periphery of the VOC coalition position tonight.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content later! At the same time, in the Tangerang area, the North Navy's attack on the besieged enemy is still ongoing. In order to temper the combat skills of the servants, the command center lets the battalions of the servants serve as the main attack forces. The Hokkaido, the Land Battle Battalion and the two armored vehicles will only take action when both sides are in a stalemate.

At dusk, guns and cannons roared on both sides of the West Sadan River, and the most intense fire between the two sides was a large fortress located on the east bank of the West Sadan River.

A hundred years ago, a defected king of the Sultanate of Vandan sought Vandan asylum with his subordinates, and later helped repel the attack of the Sultanate of Vandan so he was named the Regent of the Tangerang area. After that, the then Governor of Batavia sent people to rebuild the outer wall of Tangerang, replacing the bamboo wall with brick walls up to 6 meters thick, and equipped with multiple forts. Since the defenders at that time included thirty dark-skinned Makassar people, the castle was also called "Black Fort" by the locals.

After the loss of Bacheng, VOC gritted his teeth and paid for the expansion of the castle, adding more than a dozen cannons and two thousand garrisons, making it easier to defend and difficult to attack. After the attack of the Northern Navy was launched in the early morning, many fleeing soldiers' first reaction was to go to the Black Fort, so the city quickly became overcrowded. However, this also made the defenders in the castle extremely sufficient. They stood several rows on the wide city walls and kept firing in turn.

Starting from three o'clock in the afternoon, the dozen 12-pound field guns of the minion army were expanded to eight meters thick after more than two hours of continuous artillery attacks. Although the city wall became bumpy and full of scars, there was nothing wrong. On the contrary, the shells shot from the long-barrel cannon on the castle fort caused casualties. The VOC army in the city even demolished two houses, made two small trenchers with wood, divided the gunpowder into 5-pound medicine bags, sealed them in the pottery jar, then inserted the fuse and fired out. The fire outside the castle was filled with smoke and gunpowder.

VOC has a high production of black gunpowder in Southeast Asia. It has been produced on a large scale more than a hundred years ago, and there are large inventory in various strongholds. Charcoal is not a problem anywhere. Sulfur is available on many volcanic islands. Saltpet only needs feces and steak to ferment. The hot climate makes the fermentation process easier, and the product quality is much higher than that of gunpowder produced in Europe. In addition, the rivers all over Java Island also provide convenience for hydraulic mills that grind gunpowder powder.

He Xiwen, who was on the front line, led the vassal army, only then did he understand why the regular troops of the North Navy were like cutting melons and vegetables in every battle. He was not disciplined, but had too great advantages in weapons!

As the sky was about to dark, the four battalions of the servants were still on the east bank of the West Sadan River. He immediately asked the command center for instructions. After Zhao Xin's approval, the two armored vehicles came to a location two kilometers away from the Black Fort with a rumbling sound. When two 30mm cannons began to spit flames, bursting the flames from the bombardment in various places on the Black Fort, the defenders in the city suddenly felt that the end of the world was coming, and many locals even knelt on the ground and kept praying at the dome of the Kalibasi Mosque, completely losing their will to fight.

When the heavy and iron-covered city gate was blown down in just two minutes, the two platoons of servants launched a tentative attack. Unexpectedly, when they arrived in front of the city gate, no one fired on the city wall. Seeing this, He Xiwen ordered the servants of the two battalions to rush into the city, and finally saw the locals kneeling on the ground.

When night fell, He Xiwen entered the city. The regent of Tangerang actually knelt outside the palace gate with his own wives, concubines and children, and expressed his surrender to him. During his conversation, he also expressed his desire to pay homage to the "giant cannon" of the North Navy.

Giant cannon? He Xiwen said that the cannon tube with a thickness of forearm is amazing, but it is not considered "giant".

In the subsequent conversation, he learned from the translator that in Southeast Asian culture, firearms were collectively called "Bedil". They are not only a weapon, but often given the meaning of gods, and cannons are regarded as symbols of huge supernatural powers. For this reason, many sultans like to build cannons, and the bigger the better; among them, the Sultanate of Vandan also got a 180-pound cannon from the Portuguese in the 16th century, and the shells alone weighed 81.6 kilograms!

However, the most awesome one is the Sultanate of Bijapur in India. They asked Ottoman engineers to build a 55-ton cannon, which was called the "Master of the Battlefield". The British East India Company once tried to transport it to the UK as a spoil, but the thing was too big, and the British had to give up and stayed there and became a decoration for worship.

So in the eyes of everyone in Tangerang Castle, the North Navy's cannons are so amazing that they must be very powerful and favored by gods. Such cannons are by no means something that humans can resist. What are you waiting for if you don't surrender?

The Black Fort was taken, but the encirclement and suppression battles on both sides of the West Sadan River continued. Torches on both sides of the river bank, more than 20 kilometers, were lit by torches, and the three battalions of servants were divided into groups of more than 20 people, with a distance of no more than 20 meters between each other. As long as the figures were found shaking and no orders were given, a row of guns would be shot immediately.

This battle continued until late at night before gradually subsided. After statistics, the Northern Navy units killed and injured more than 6,000 enemy troops on this day, and captured more than 2,000 prisoners. The Chinese in Bacheng who were responsible for cleaning the battlefield were shocked to find that in the West Sadan River and the surrounding small rivers and woods, the bodies of the dead were everywhere, and many people were so smothered by the smell of rotten corpses that they could not even eat...

His eyes turned back to the Langasbetong late that night. The west bank of the Urong River was illuminated by countless torches and fires as if it were daytime. Tens of thousands of people were driven away by the whip in the hands of officers, desperately building field fortifications.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content later! VOC Governor-General and Alliance Commander Overt Latten also came here to inspect the progress. He rode high on a black Irish stallion, wearing a triangle hat and a blue general uniform of VOC, and more than a dozen Wurtemburg officers surrounded him.

When they came to a close to an unfinished artillery fortification, the artillery Lieutenant Colonel Schmigarh, who was in charge of the position, ran over and saluted Overstratten.

"How is the progress?"

"General, I will be able to complete it here in two hours. These cannons will definitely make the enemy suffer!"

Overstratten nodded with satisfaction: "Very good. Lieutenant Colonel, your progress here is the fastest."

Schmigarh hesitated for a moment and then asked, "General, I would like to ask if there is any news in Tangerang Castle?"

Overstratten shook his head: "Lieutenant Colonel, why are you asking this?"

"I have two good friends who have been sent there and don't know what's going on."

"I haven't received new information yet. You can tell them their names. If I know, I will let you know."

"Thank you so much! General." Schmigarh immediately reported the names of the two friends.

After the artillery lieutenant colonel turned and left, Overstratten's face, which had originally smiled, quickly drooped. Until now, all the changes have exceeded his expectations and caught him off guard.

From yesterday afternoon to noon today, the bad news was one after another. The defeat of the Kabion fleet, the sudden attack by the enemy, and the baggage camp that was set on fire three hours ago, forced him to get up from his comfortable bed and arrange people to transport a batch of supplies from Pan Delang overnight. After all this, he was no longer sleepy, so he simply took his hands to inspect the construction progress of the field fortifications.

"Damn the devil of the flower-faced Cyris!" Overstratten cursed fiercely in his heart.

Since the siege of Bacheng started, the Serris spies with flowery faces and green clothes have begun to sabotage the territory of the Sultan of Vandan. They destroyed the roads, killed their officers, attacked patrols, and even bluffed the barracks at night, making themselves in a hurry and exhausted manner.

The mercenaries in Württemberg hated and feared the group. They even dispatched a regiment to encircle and suppress the local Javanese people. However, after several times, they were all fled by the other side under the cover of the night.

However, Overstratten was still confident. He also had twelve fully organized battle infantry regiments. In addition to the Javanese local soldiers, there were 5,000 mercenaries in Wurtemburg alone, more than 3,000 Indian cavalry recruited from Ceylon, and more than 100 field artillery.

Just this afternoon, a carrier pigeon brought good news from Artin. The coalition unit he led from Wandong was progressing smoothly. It is expected that in two more days, the vanguard will arrive at the periphery of Batavia.

According to the information obtained by the spies installed by VOC in Bacheng, the Ceris army in Bacheng is less than 6,000. In addition, according to the news brought back by the officers who retreated from Tangerang, the enemy's sudden attack in the early morning of this morning used at least 5,000 troops. In this way, Bacheng's troops will be seriously insufficient. Once Artin's army arrives, the enemy will definitely have to return to defense.

Isn't it just guarding the Urong River defense line for two days? As long as the enemy starts retreating, he will immediately start a pursuit.
Chapter completed!