Moschel, the president of the East India Company, sent men and horses to reinforce the forts, but he did not expect that the three forts were captured by the Ming army one after another, and the reinforced Dutch soldiers climbed the mountainside, and met the Ming army with high morale rushing down from above.

The Dutch finally failed to recapture the fort, but were defeated by the Ming army, lost nearly 100 men, and fled back to the main fort in a hurry.

As a result of this battle, three batteries were taken by the Ming army, the Dutch suffered more than 1,600 casualties, and the East India Company suffered a serious blow.

Since the beginning of the war, the Dutch had lost 3,600 men, which was almost a quarter of all the personnel of the Dutch East India Company in India and South Asia.

This can be said to be the greatest loss suffered by the Dutch East India Company since its establishment, the company has never suffered such a defeat, they will face the most serious challenge, and the more dangerous situation is that after the Ming army occupied the three batteries, they were turning their guns to bombard the Dutch warships in the harbor, and the Dutch fleet was no longer safe.

By this time, in a meeting room in the main fort, the councillors were already arguing.

The councillors of the East India Company, numbering about twenty people, were arguing fiercely in a room with a long table in the middle.

At this time, the commander of the Dutch fleet, Kaau, stood up and said loudly to the crowd: "Gentlemen, Your Excellency the Governor, all the batteries have been lost, and I think that the fleet must all break through and go to Batavia. ”

"Your Excellency, what about Malacca? If there is no fleet to protect the smooth sea routes, the castle will be completely besieged by the Ming people, and sooner or later it will fall into the hands of the Ming people, and once the Ming people occupy Malacca and control the shipping lanes, what is the point of the company occupying Batavia? ”

"Are you waiting for the Akito to bombard the fleet and watch all the battleships destroyed? Will you be able to hold the fort? ”

"Parliamentarians, I think we have failed, the company should all withdraw to India, we are not the opponent of the Ming people, they are as many as water in the sea, the company can't fight them at all!"

Moschel listened to the quarrel of the crowd and suddenly knocked on the table, "Silence, silence!" ”

The parliamentarians present were arguing with some insisting on defending Malacca, while others said that they would abandon the withdrawal to India.

The East India Company is called a company because it issues shares in the Netherlands, and the will of the shareholders is the growth of the value of the shares, so the company is born with the gene of expansion, and as president, Moschel's task is to increase the company's assets.

Malacca was very important to the East India Company, and the main trade in this era was with India and China, and without Malacca, the stock price of the East India Company would definitely plummet, and as the person in charge, they could not account for it to the shareholders.

For President Moschel, Malacca must not be abandoned, but neither can the fleet.

The councillors in the room fell silent, and Moschel stood up and said: "Councillors, I agree with His Excellency Kau'u's proposition, the company no longer has the strength to defeat the Ming people in Malacca, and must let the fleet rush out of the harbor, go outside to find reinforcements, and then come back to rescue us!" ”

He paused, and then said, "I will lead fifteen hundred soldiers to hold the fortress, and Kaauu will lead the fleet with two thousand soldiers to open the port and return to Batavia, and then go to Sulu to join the Spaniards, concentrate on defeating the navy of Luzon, and then invite the Spaniards to cut off the sea transportation of the Ming army, and finally come to our rescue." ”

At this time, on the batteries and on the hillside, the Ming army was busy clearing the battlefield.

On the side of the stone wall of the fort, there were rows of neat corpses, and the scribe squatted down to register the identity of the soldiers killed in the battle with a pen, and then took off the waist card, and the corpses were carried down the mountain by the soldiers for burial.

In this battle, Yu Youming's Fengjie battalion lost nearly 700 people, which was more than the casualties of the Dutch.

Although the Ming army made a lot of preparations, and the Ming army was several times that of the Dutch, after all, it was attacking the mountain, and the Dutch were not weak, so the losses were still very large.

In this battle, the Ming army lost at least 2,000 dead and thousands wounded, which can be said to be a bitter battle.

After taking the hill, Zhang Yiguo and his men stayed on the fort, he was sitting on the side for the medical officer to bandage the wounds, and the soldiers worked together to turn the direction of the heavy artillery and aim at the Dutch ships in the harbor.

At this time, Yu Youming led a few people, accompanied by the first part of the thousand households to board the fort, the first part of the first to break through the stone wall, the thousand household officials kept talking, as if to introduce him to the process of attack.

Behind Yu Youming, the Qianhu of the two divisions of B and C followed behind with a knife, their faces were not too happy, and they obviously couldn't see the smug appearance of the Qianhu of the first department.

The soldiers on the fort, seeing Yu Youming coming up, hurriedly got up and saluted, and the officials of the thousand households saw Zhang Yiguo, and immediately smiled and said to Youming: "The commander, it's him, Zhang Yiguo of the A Thousand B Division, his flag is the first to break through the stone wall." The kid also cut off the head of the Dutch commander with his own hands. ”

For his subordinates, Qianhu officials did not hesitate to praise him. When Yu Youming heard this, he glanced at Zhang Yiguo, looked up and down, and saw that he was still standing straight when he was injured, and he was also very satisfied, and said with a smile: "Take care of your injuries, and when this battle is over, I will ask you for credit." ”

Yu Youming is almost thirty years old now, and he looks heroic with a mustache on his mouth.

Zhang Yiguo hurriedly saluted and thanked him, his family is a businessman in Huguang, and three generations of talents have saved some money, but his status in his hometown is not high, so he wants to cultivate a talent to come out and improve the status of the family.

The imperial court said that the four people are all stone pillars and have equal status, but there is still a big difference among the people. However, with the development of commerce, after the merchants earn a lot of money, they will not be satisfied with the money, they will definitely want to obtain a higher social status and political rights, contradictions will gradually erupt, and the status of the merchants will gradually change in struggle and compromise.

In the new policy of supervising the country, there is a separate household system, which divides households according to assets and taxes, and most of the taxes paid can be rated as upper households, which is to meet the growing power expectations of merchants.

Zhang Yiguo has four brothers, the eldest brother inherited his father's business, and the other two went to the county to study, he chose to join the army, but he didn't expect that the fame of the two brothers was not on the margin, but he came out in the army first.

This time in terms of meritorious deeds, he can at least be a six-grade hundred-hundred-household, and when he comes out of martial arts, at least a thousand-hundred-hundred-hundred

"Commander Qiqi, the cannon has been turned!" At this time, a Ming soldier ran over and reported with his fists in his fist.

When Yu Youming heard this, he immediately turned around and waved his hand: "Then what are you waiting for, call the artillery team to come up and give the general a hard beat!" ”

On the three batteries, the Ming army spent a lot of effort to turn the muzzles of these cannons and aimed them at the Dutch warships in the harbor.

While the East India Company was discussing in the main fort, a burst of cannon fire was heard.

The guns on the fort, originally used to guard the harbor against attacks from warships from the sea, have now become a nightmare for the Dutch warships in the harbor.

This is simply the Battle of Arthur, a copy of the destruction of the Tsarist Russian Navy nested in Port Arthur, or the encounter of the Weihaiwei Beiyang Naval Division.

On the top of the mountain, the soldiers of the Ming artillery team controlled the artillery team to bombard the port, and for a while, the fort was filled with smoke.

The Dutch warships in the harbor saw a puff of white smoke coming out of the fort, and the sailors on the deck immediately ran in panic, and they only heard the roar of thunder in their ears, and then an iron bullet of more than ten catties fell into the sea a hundred paces away, splashing a column of water more than three feet high.

At this time, the Dutch ships began to move in the harbor to avoid shelling, the gun windows on the side of the ship were opened, the guns were extended, and the retreat of a gate caused the hull and the sea to shake and hit the batteries back.

For a moment, smoke filled the side of the ship, and columns of water rose on the surface of the sea, splashing into the air, and when it fell, it was like a downpour, drenching the deck and the sailors above.

After all, the fort was made of bricks and stones, and the ships were made of wood, and a Dutch warship shuttled through the water column, first smashed the mainmast by a cannon, slowed down, and then hit several bullets in succession, and finally collapsed on the sea.

Several Dutch warships wanted to leave the port, but the Ming gunboats outside lined up, and a bombardment drove the Dutch back.

The artillery battle lasted about an hour, and then ceased as it darkened.

Eight of the Dutch's ships were damaged, one of which was disabled and could not be repaired, but none of them sank.

This is because wooden warships are difficult to be damaged by solid bullets under the surface of the sea, so they rarely sink, and generally end up being solved by broadside battles and ramming tactics.

With the occupation of the fort by the Ming army, the destruction of the Dutch warships in the port was inevitable, and in order to avoid losses, the commander of the Dutch fleet, according to Moschel's request, broke through the port overnight.

However, the Dutch movement was immediately discovered by the Ming army who were watching, and fired artillery bombardment at the exit of the harbor, and the Dutch rushed out of the port under artillery fire, and after a fierce battle with the Ming warships watching outside, they sailed east towards Batavia, but the sound of the artillery alerted the Ming sailors who were berthed thirty miles east of Malacca, and they stopped the Dutch fleet twenty miles away from the port.

In a big battle between the two sides, one Dutch warship broke through the barrier from the edge of the battlefield to Batavia, three Dutch warships were silent, four were captured by the Ming army, and the rest could only retreat to the port.

On the Ming side, a three-masted gunboat was also sunk due to a collision, and five Daifuku ships were also lost.

In the days that followed, the Dutch made several attempts to leave the port, but they were all blocked by the explicit, and only a few ships fled in the direction of India, most of which were trapped in the harbor.

On the fifth day of the first month of the sixth year of the reign of the Communist Party, in order to prevent the Dutch warships from escaping, under the cover of the battery's firepower, the Ming army sailors rushed into the harbor, and sank four large ships on the channel, blocking most of the channel, making the possibility of the Dutch ships escaping greatly reduced, and the Dutch in Malacca began to gradually despair.

At this time, under the main fort of the Dutch, compared with before, it has been completely changed, a deep trench is staggered, the earthen wall rises from the ground, and in front of the earthen city are three trenches, as a barrier to besiege the main fort, which is guarded by the various units of the Ming army in turn.

These fortifications, with the addition of some wooden stakes and barbed wire, almost became the battlefield of the Western Front of World War I.

There were all kinds of flags fluttering on the earthen city, and many Ming soldiers walked among the crooked trenches, and the Ming army set up their guns under the fortress according to the previous experience of attacking the forts, and bombarded the Dutch above.

The sharp corners of the fortress have already collapsed, but the Ming army did not attack it, because this fortress has three layers of walls, even if the first layer collapses, there is a perfect defense system behind, and the attack will inevitably suffer heavy casualties.

The Ming army did not plan to withdraw from Malacca anyway, and was going to occupy this place for a long time, where they trapped Heyi with the lockdown method, and then the army was building Malacca while waiting for Heyi to surrender in despair.

Thank you Tsubaki and Autumn Borer for your reward, ask for a monthly pass, subscribe, and recommend.

(End of chapter)