Thousands of miles away on the island of Java, outside the city of Batavia, now renamed Coconut City. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Smoke spewed out of the castle like pillars, and hot cannonballs whistled out of the castle, drawing arcs and smashing down on the indigenous Indonesian people used as cannon fodder. Whistling cannonballs fell to the ground, rubble and clods of earth exploded, and bouncing shells wrapped in sand and gravel pulled curving flesh passages through the crowd.

The castle erupted with fire, and the shrapnel fired at close range scattered projectiles in the shape of a fan, and the crowd was full of flesh and blood, and the Indonesians in front of them fell in pieces, like a hurricane sweeping through a wheat field, killing and injuring countless people.

Looking at the dense artillery fire at the head of the city, de Knight shook his head with a wry smile: "No matter how many natives go up, it will only consume the cannonballs of the Ming people." Even if you get close to the castle, you can't take it. ”

How strong the defense of the fortress is, Europeans know. Only artillery is the nemesis of the castle. But the Dutch artillery could not be erected at all, and was destroyed by the shells from the city.

De Knight knew that there was a very powerful cannon in the city, and although the caliber was not large, the range was surprisingly long, and the accuracy was frighteningly high. When the small cannon fires, the shell makes a high-pitched whistling sound, sounding like a cannonball fired from a cannon weighing at least twenty-four, no, the sound is sharper than a twenty-four-pounder cannon.

The shells were like eyes and accurately hit the Dutch heavy artillery three or four miles away. The hit heavy guns were bounced off the ground, and the barrels were bent.

Later, de Knight sent men to dig up shells from the small cannons of the Ming army. When the Dutch dug up the shell, although the shell had long since been deformed, de Knight and Troppe saw that the mouth of the shell could not be closed: it was a cannonball in the shape of a long cylinder!

The reason why the shells of those years were spherical shells instead of cylindrical shells was because after the cylindrical shells were fired, they would roll in the air indiscriminately, and the shells aimed at the target did not know where to go. With spherical shells, the shells will not change direction much no matter how they roll after they are fired, and the accuracy can be guaranteed. Of course, if the distance is too far, the accuracy of the spherical shell cannot be guaranteed.

The guns erected by the Ming army on the top of the castle in the center of Batavia were so powerful that they could accurately hit the target at a very long distance, and none of the Dutch could hit the small cannons of the Ming army with extremely high accuracy.

Although there were only four guns, they posed a great threat to the Dutch gunners, and no matter how the Dutch tried to push their artillery up to bombard the city walls, they would be attacked by the small artillery of the Ming army in the central castle, and it was almost accurate with one cannon.

Unable to suppress the artillery fire in the city, the artillery of the Dutch could not play a role, so they could only use the local ants to attack the city.

The siege was fierce for more than a month, and the local natives suffered heavy casualties, but the castle was unharmed. Desperate had no choice but to order the siege of Batavia.

Batavia was so important to the Dutch that de Knight felt that the Dutch army should retake Batavia at all costs, otherwise the voyage to the East would no longer belong to the Dutch, and the English, Spaniards, and Portuguese, who had been waiting for the show, were eager for the Dutch to withdraw from the East.

"How did the Ming people make that terrible little cannon? It's horrible! De Knight roared in unusually angry rage. This small cannon caused the Dutch to suffer heavy losses.

Trop said calmly: "They only have four cannons of this kind, and they use this kind of small cannon on top of the battery to hit our boats, so that we can't clear the harbor obstacles." ”

The Dutch began to besiege the city, and the Hood Emperor stationed in the city was not nervous at all, and there was enough food and ammunition in the city, enough food and ammunition to feed the defenders in the city for a year, while the Dutch could only besiege for three months at most.

Hood did not forget to find something to do for the Dutch, and when the first rays of the Gregorian New Year's sun shone on Coconut City, the hot air balloon was raised along with the sun.

This is a hot air balloon with Xu Zhengming's propeller installed, the hot air balloon moves very slowly, the time in the air is also very short, only one hour, and the carrying capacity is not large, there are only two soldiers and four 20-pound bombs on the hot air balloon. Honestly, how powerful can such a bomb filled with black [gunpowder] be? The most important thing is not how many Dutch people are killed, but how many people are killed and wounded, but to create panic among the Dutch.

The carrying capacity of this hot air balloon is only 600 catties, and the two soldiers account for 220 catties of weight, plus the gondola, propellers, stove and fuel, there is still 150 catties of carrying capacity, and after carrying four bombs, there is only 70 catties of surplus load left.

The balloon rose higher and higher, reaching 300 meters in the air, and the two soldiers on the balloon stepped on the pedals, the propellers rotated under the drive of the gears, and the balloon flew towards the head of the Dutch at a speed of five knots.

"Oh my God!" The priest of the Dutch army was dumbfounded.

The Dutch soldiers raised their heads and looked at the behemoth in the sky, and some of the faint of heart began to gesture crosses on their chests and pray for God to bless.

"Devil! Evil devil! These damned Ming people, they sold their souls to the devil! In exchange for this evil magic! The priest held the cross in his hand and muttered.

The hot air balloon is painted with a skeleton with teeth and claws, staring at blood-red eyes, which is the image of the Western devil, such an image is naturally used to scare the Dutch, this is the suggestion made by Zhang Yukun, deputy commander of the Nanyang Navy. The Dutch had never seen a hot air balloon, and drawing an image on it that frightened Westerners could scare the Dutch.

There was a shout of exclamation in the Dutch barracks, and as the hot air balloon slowly moved towards the Dutch, the exclamation suddenly turned into a prayer, praying that God would send down a strong wind and blow away the devil summoned by the Orientals.

The natives, who were used as cannon fodder by the Dutch, knelt on the ground and prayed to the heavens: "There is no Lord to be worshipped, except Allahu, who is Muhammad's messenger; Universal ......"

"Damn the devil! Don't go over us! The priest took the cross and aimed it at the hot air balloon in the air.

The priest's prayers were to no avail, neither God nor Jesus appeared, and there was no scene of the archangel descending to earth to expel the devil, and the hot air balloon continued to fly slowly over the heads of the Dutch.

All the Dutch knew that the devil with the skull must have bad intentions, and the Dutch soldiers took their muskets and aimed them at the hot air balloon in the air and pulled the trigger, but it was impossible for a gun to hit three hundred meters high.

"Cast!" The Ming sergeant who flew above the hot air balloon above the Dutch barracks shouted.

Another soldier grabbed a bomb with a pre-cut fuse that exploded just after falling 300 meters from the sky. The soldier took out a red-hot iron bar from the stove, touched the tail of the bomb, lit the fuse in the bamboo tube at the tail of the bomb, and then dropped the bomb to the ground.

"Oh no, the devil has dropped something!" The Dutch on the ground saw an object in the air falling in free fall and fled in all directions.

The bomb fell in the air, and when it was about to fall to the ground, there was a loud "boom", the bomb exploded in the air at a height of three meters, and pieces of broken iron flew sideways, and a Dutchman who had no time to run away was hit by shrapnel and fell to the ground with a scream.

"I didn't blow up the tent, I missed a bit." A soldier in the hot air balloon said.

"Cast again! You don't need to kill many red-haired ghosts, just make them scared! Another soldier said.

Soon after, all three remaining bombs were dropped.

The Dutch on the ground scurried about, lest they be hurt by the devil's curse. The first bomb that had just landed, although it wounded only one Dutch soldier, caused a great panic.

"Boom" one of the bombs fell in the tent and exploded, and the tent immediately turned into numerous fragments.

"Devil! It's the Devil from Hellfire! "The local natives shouted in fright.

The hot air balloon finished dropping the bomb and made a clumsy turn in the air. After all, it is a spherical hot air balloon, and it is very inconvenient to turn, and it took half a day to turn around. However, the hot air balloon did not leave there, but used the rifled gun on it to shoot at the natives on the ground who were kneeling on the ground praying.

"Bang" A bullet came down from a high altitude, and the head of an Indonesian indigenous exploded, and Bai Huahua's brain mixed with blood spurted out all over the ground.

Another soldier also picked up a rifled gun, aimed at one of the natives and pulled the trigger, knocking him in the head.

"Oh my God! The devil is starting to punish us! Run! "The natives who were attacked scattered and fled.

Several indigenous soldiers fell to their knees and shouted, "Zhenzhu, why did you abandon us? Why can't the infidels who have been helped by the devil be punished by you? ”

"Oh my God, is it Allah who punishes us?" Someone shouted.

One of the natives came to his senses and prayed to the sky: "Forgive us our sins, Allah's Chen!" We don't dare to help the infidels anymore! ”

Because these natives are actually fighting for the infidels! When they die, their souls will no longer enter the Paradise where there is a place for nv, and I am afraid that they will only fall into the endless hell and endure endless torment!

was shouted by the local native, and the other natives also came to their senses: "Really zhu, please forgive us!" We are sinful people, so the devil has come down to punish us! ”

These fanatical followers of the River Crab Cult can not be afraid of death, because they believe that after death their souls can enter heaven and enjoy the seventy-two virgins. But because they helped the infidels to fight, especially the Crusaders from the West, who had taken their holy land! Help those crusader devils fight, no wonder Allahu will send down terrible demons to punish them!

Once you die under the punishment of Zhenzhu, can the soul still enter heaven?

"Cast the devil away! Cast the damned devil away! The Dutchman priest took the cross and shouted to the sky.

The hot air balloon slowly departed, and at this time the Dutch soldiers on the ground let out a cheer: "The devil is gone!" The devil has been cast out! Father, the magic you borrowed from the archangel drove out the devil! ”

Because the priest borrowed the magic from the archangel to expel the devil, this restored the morale of the Dutch a little, but those local natives believed that the devil was expelled not because of the work of the Westerners, but because after the real Zhu punished the sinners, they took back the devil and no longer gave the sins to the believers.

Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, and after two hours, the devil appeared again. This time, the devil's target was not the Dutch, but hovering over the natives, and the devil shot at the natives, dropped bombs on the natives, and fired at them, killing and wounding many sinners who were abandoned by the real people.

This trick was made by Hu Dedi after discovering that the effect of attacking the local natives was far better than that of the Dutch, so he changed his tactics and the hot air balloon was aimed at the local aborigines.

A second hot air balloon in Batavia was launched, again targeting the local indigenous people.

It was getting dark, and the devil was back in Batavia. After nightfall, the Dutch priests went around catching evil bats and crucifying them.

The next day, as soon as it was light, there were soldiers coming to Xiangde? Knight reported: "General, there were a lot of natives who ran last night! At least more than a thousand people ran! ”

Morality? Knight yelled angrily, "These damn inferior people! But how many people died, and they were afraid of becoming like this? No wonder these barbarians can only be our cannon fodder forever, they will not grow at all! ”

Before the words could be spoken, the hot air balloons in Batavia were raised again, this time two hot air balloons at the same time, flying above the barracks of the indigenous people of the Dutch army.

Indonesians burst into cries and shouts, and many people stopped praying and ran when they saw the "devil" coming. But there are always some unlucky people who are chosen and shot by rifled guns on hot air balloons.

After a whole day of tossing, it was only in the evening that the Ming army stopped harassing. On this night, another group of natives fled, and more than the previous night. The natives could not bear it anymore, believing that they had been punished by God for helping the pagans in their wars.

"These inferior people seem to be out of reach! To retake Batavia, we can only rely on our Dutch warriors! "Virtue? Knight said angrily.

Trop shook his head helplessly: "But without these inferior people, our warriors would suffer even greater casualties!" It seems that this battle will be difficult to fight again! ”

Morality? Knight asked, "Shall we abandon Batavia and lead the fleet all the way north?" Go to the coastal areas of the Ming people and destroy their vulnerable junk ships? Perhaps we can get the support and supplies of the Qing State as we go north. ”

Trop shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands out, "It seems that it is difficult for the Qing people to help us. But as you said, we can still try it, and maybe we can cut off the sea traffic of the Ming people. We don't go to hit their port batteries, but we can cut off their transport lines. (To be continued.) )