"It's the most beautiful hell in the world." ——Excerpt from "Records of the Second Sino-Russian War". When the Russian GIs had just set foot on the tropical Dutch East Indies, they had a good impression of it, because it was December, so the problem of the Dutch East Indies was not too hot, but as time went by, as the Russian troops entered Kalimantan Island in batches to participate in the battle against the Chinese marines, the Russians found that they were gradually sinking into a quagmire of death. And it's getting deeper and deeper.

At first, the Russians intended to block the offensive of the Chinese Marines on the beachhead, but in their opinion, this behavior of the Chinese Army was largely an act of containment and harassment, and it would not be of much scale. WHEN THE FIRST BATCH OF 3,000 RUSSIAN AND DUTCH SOLDIERS, LED BY OFFICERS, DEPLOYED A SMALL NUMBER OF 75MM RAPID-FIRE GUNS IN THE FORTRESS ON THE SHORE, AND THEN SET UP MACHINE GUNS TO PREPARE TO SLAUGHTER THE LANDING CHINESE ARMY. The first thing that appeared in front of them was not the landing ships of the Chinese army, but battleships. The Russian soldiers, who did not know much about the navy, could not tell what was on their side. But they know very well that the heavy artillery above is not something that their own strength can resist!

In the face of ferocious artillery fire, the officers and men of the second-rate units of the Russian army, who had never even seen artillery above 6 inches, quickly collapsed. On the purgatory-like battlefield, they abandoned their artillery and machine guns and struggled in a sea of fire and blood. In just fifteen minutes of shelling, more than 30 percent of the Russian-Dutch soldiers and almost all of the heavy equipment were destroyed. So much so that after the landing of the Chinese marines, the Russian-Dutch troops withdrew from their positions with little resistance.

Kalimantan is the third largest island in the world. The total area is more than 740,000 square kilometers. Among them, except for the northwestern corner occupied by the British. The Dutch still have almost 540,000 square kilometers of land in their hands, what does that mean? Even if the Russian-Dutch army could have 50,000 men, then one person would be responsible for garrisoning an area of more than 10 square kilometers in this vast land. But in fact, the Russian-Dutch army can really be counted as combatants. There are not even 40,000 people who can carry guns to fight!

There is simply no line of defense on the island. For the Huaxia Marine Corps, as long as they can find the way, they can almost get to where they want to go. There were basically no heavy weapons on either side, and there were no strong fortresses on the island to breach. The vast majority of the area can be solved with rifles and 60 mortars in hand. The Russians were not strong enough, and the Chinese Army was also short enough, but one difference was that in Kalimantan, the Chinese Marines could get the support of the Chinese forces that remained there. These are native. The paramilitary personnel in the Chinese community, who have been engaged in all kinds of "street fighting and martial arts" for a long time, are definitely the best guides and auxiliary forces.

After the Chinese paramilitaries were equipped with brand-new weapons and various equipment, their combat effectiveness was definitely higher than that of the Russian GIs who arrived from the far north. Especially in street battles and jungle battles, often a platoon of Russian troops is beaten all over the ground by a squad of Chinese paramilitaries. The reason is simple. No Russian army has ever accepted how to fight and survive in the rainforest. Not to mention war, all kinds of poisonous insects and arthropods, snakes, hot and humid climate, all kinds of tropical diseases, etc., in the tropical rainforest, can make the Russian soldiers all kinds of meat and vegetables.

The so-called large-scale fighting almost never broke out at all after the landing of the Chinese marines, and the Russian troops of the brigade were in the process of heading to the theater of operations in the north after landing in the south of Kalimantan. Due to various non-combat reasons, the number of personnel was reduced by about 3%. They were also ambushed and harassed by Chinese paramilitaries along the way. Of course, these are not the most critical issues. The most critical question is, what do these tens of thousands of people eat!

The most important part of the Dutch East Indies is the island of Java. With the exception of Java, at the beginning of the 20th century, Kalimantan was almost entirely indigenous and Chinese. And the population of the entire Dutch part is not large. Coupled with the problems of poor roads and lack of means of transportation, the transportation of food and supplies was simply not enough to meet the needs of large-scale military operations. The same applies to the Chinese Marine Corps, so the latter generally operate in areas with a large number of Chinese, or in areas close to the coast, anyway, the inland is mostly mountainous and jungle, and whoever enters this kind of place will die. The Chinese army could be sustained by raising food from Chinese communities and transporting them by sea.

But what about the Russians? The eastern coast of Kalimantan is almost the backyard of the Chinese Navy. The Russian-Dutch fleet, after two major wars, did not dare to easily move away from the port of Batavia. And in the Java Sea, it is a playground for various submarines of the Chinese Navy. The sinking of a ship means that the supply and weapons of one regiment are in vain. As for "raising" supplies from the local natives with the help of the Dutch. Let's not talk about whether the local indigenous scattered places can get supplies for the formed Russian army. It's not realistic in terms of distance alone. The island of Kalimantan is vast. Dense rivers. It's a problem if you ship these things over. You can't expect the locals to use canoes for transportation, right? Not to mention the fact that the Dutch and Russians never had the idea of "fair trade".

As a result, some scattered Russian-Dutch troops did not hesitate to use the weapons in their hands to rob them! If it was a normal day, it would be nothing, anyway, the Dutch police were more than enough to deal with the local natives. It is still more than enough to deal with the local indigenous people. But why can't people beat you? Originally, there were various conflicts between the Chinese and the local aborigines, but under normal circumstances, the two sides were still relatively restrained and would not see blood, especially after the Beiyang Fleet, the predecessor of the Chinese Navy, washed Batavia in blood more than ten years ago. The natives seem to understand a truth, don't look at those Chinese people are usually easier to talk, but if this is in a hurry, it is definitely more terrible than the Dutch. This can be seen in the indigenous agglomeration in the city of Batavia, which was slaughtered by various artillery pieces and machine guns.

And the bombardment of Batavia brought about many other changes that the locals did not expect. First of all, they expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the treacherous behavior of the Dutch colonists, who apparently instigated them by the Dutch. said that they can "patronize" the shops of the Chinese, can "take" some shops and finances, and can "teach" some blind people. But when things really get bigger. The Dutch authorities, however, chose to save their lives. Seeing the natives fall under the fire of machine guns and artillery of various calibers. In addition, after this incident, the Dutch no longer dared to oppress the Chinese excessively, so taxes and labor services were passed on to the natives, so that friends became enemies, not to mention that the local natives and the Dutch were not friends at all!

And the other thing is that the natives have found some common interests with the Chinese. China needs natural rubber, tin ore and other specialties from the Dutch East Indies. Unable to intervene directly, the Chinese naturally became agents, and the Chinese lacked sufficient cheap labor, while the natives had nothing but labor. Since the natives already know that the Chinese on the other side of the road are no longer something they can bully at will, they must accept employment in order to live. Coupled with the fact that both the indigenous and Chinese hated the Dutch, the two sides were even more compatible, although there was still a lot of friction between them, but at least some of the disadvantaged groups of the local indigenous people had begun to cooperate with the Chinese, and in this war, this cooperation was deepened.

Of course, these are all minor problems for the Russians, they have no food, they can grab it, they can't find it themselves, and they can't fight without weapons. Anyway, the place is so big, if you find a place to nest, the Huaxia Marines really can't find it, but what if you say you're sick? All kinds of tropical diseases and creatures with all kinds of deadly toxins, even God doesn't spare these guys from the north.

Not to mention anything else, a disease called malaria has made the Russians lose more than 20% of their non-combat personnel! As the saying goes, you can walk by the river without getting your shoes wet. How can you not be knifed when you are often in the rivers and lakes? Is there anything in the rainforest that doesn't get bitten by mosquitoes? If you are bitten by mosquitoes too much, how can you not be infected with malaria? Although the locals were also bitten, it was also the result of natural selection for many years, and those who could survive until now were somewhat resistant, and even the Huaxia Marines who participated in the battle at the station this time also chose more southern soldiers, just because of this.

The Russians, even if they took it into account, did not have such conditions. Although the local government of the Netherlands plans to stock up on a batch of quinine and other medicines, there is always a gap between the plan and the actual situation, and even if a batch of drugs is stored. In fact, how much can be distributed to the front-line officers and soldiers, I am afraid that only the person concerned knows. Plus a batch sunk at sea (hit by a submarine. A batch was snatched on land. Even if there is a small amount of quinine, it is definitely not enough for front-line personnel, and malaria is acute, and once it develops, it can quickly cause death. So it keeps some of the medical staff and pastors in the military busy.

"Here, our first purpose is not to defeat our opponents but to survive, and everything here is our enemy. The climate, people, animals, and even plants here are silently killing and injuring our soldiers. The morale and combat effectiveness of the army were very open, but they were completely lost under the scorching sun, in the endless raids and harassment operations, and in the torment of various diseases. At the end of the day, my soldiers and officers could not be called soldiers at all, they were ragged, mentally discouraged, and afflicted by disease like living skeletons. After the war, a Russian officer described the situation of the Russians in his memoirs.

In this way, the original plan was to plan for the Chinese Xia Marine Corps to fight a war combining conventional warfare and guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines without a mass base, and as a result, for various reasons, the battle on Kalimantan Island was carried out quite easily. Defending a few important nodes, and then attacking the exhausted Russian army became a daily task. Instead, it makes this battlefield the easiest battlefield.

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