Daming Military Empire

Chapter 197
Zhu Cijiong has been rather depressed these two days. He has personally conquered a few times, and he has never encountered such a tough bone as the Zeelandia City. He used to use hot weapons to crush others. This time he encountered hot weapons. The same advanced Netherlands, he felt a little bit at a loss.

The city of Zeelandia is a typical "bastion". This kind of bastion is a great invention of the European Renaissance. It is characterized by extremely irregular walls, full of edges and corners, and high and low, with a large number of firepower points, which can be attacked by guns and artillery. There are also many dead spots, unless your artillery range is two or three miles farther than the enemy in the bastion, and the edges and corners of the bastion are all flattened with dense shells, otherwise, it is really difficult to break through.

Daming’s current artillery is naturally farther than that of Houjin, but compared with the Dutch, it’s still far behind. The Dutch like to build cannons with super long range. Compared with them, Ming’s howitzers are two or three miles farther. , but two or three miles closer!
Of course, it is impossible to say that 15 people can't attack a fortress garrisoned by 500 people. Even if the 15 Dutch people are hiding in the reinforced concrete fortifications, [-] people pile up and pile them up to death.

Now Zhu Cijiong is going to use people to pile up. What makes him depressed is not that the soldiers refuse to use their lives, but that he wants to use the lives of the soldiers to build a strong fortress. They are all elite guards who have followed him for several years. Ah, thinking that at least a few thousand people will be lost this time, he feels very uncomfortable.

If you say that the Dutchman is better at building fortresses than Sun Chengzong, the location chosen by Zeelandia City is a poisonous one, which just strangles the outlet of the Taijiang Inner Sea. Know how many people will be killed by them.Fortunately, with the channel map presented by He Bin, the Ming fleet was able to enter the Taijiang Inner Sea from the abandoned Luermen Channel, which allowed the ground troops to go around the side of Zeelandia City by land, and the loss was more than doubled. .But even if this is the case, if you want to attack hard, you will have to accompany at least a few thousand lives.

In order to minimize the loss, Zhu Cijiong thought of ways both on the sea and on the land. On the sea, he planned to let the super battleships approach the city of Zeelandia from the inland sea of ​​the Taijiang River, and confront the forts in the city to distract their attention; On the land side, try to manufacture as many siege equipment as possible, especially siege vehicles. Shotgun attacks cannot smash the siege vehicles. Can't hit a few cars.He reckoned that if thousands of siege vehicles could be built and rushed up in batches, the Dutch would be able to blow up a third of them at most, and then they would have nothing to do.

Just as Zhu Cijiong ordered people to cut down trees to make siege equipment, Chen Zhang escorted Putmans and more than 1000 Dutch prisoners to come. Zhu Cijiong was so excited that he immediately asked Chen Zhang to escort Putmans to have an audience.

Putmans was honest this time, because Chen Zhang kept warning him along the way that this time he was going to meet His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Empire. If he dared to be a little disrespectful, he would be executed immediately!

He wasn't afraid of death anymore, but he was still very afraid of Ling Chi's execution. At least three thousand knives would be cut, and he would be wailed for three days and three nights. Everyone was afraid!Therefore, after he saw Zhu Cijiong, he knelt down on his own initiative, without making any noise, and just knelt there with his eyes closed, waiting for the death sentence to be pronounced.

Zhu Cijiong hadn't thought of giving Putmans the death penalty. He sized up Putmans with great interest, and then asked, "Is he willing to persuade the defenders of Zeelandia City to surrender?"

Hearing this, Putmans opened his eyes and looked at Zhu Cijiong blankly, not knowing what His Majesty the Emperor was talking about.

Chen Zhang, who was kneeling beside him, quickly pushed his head down, and reprimanded him in a low voice in Dutch: "Idiot, don't stare at the emperor, it's disrespectful."

After pushing Putmansi's head down, Chen Zhang replied respectfully: "If you go back to the emperor, our admiral has already asked him, and he is not willing to persuade the defenders of Zeelandia City to surrender. don't go."

Zhu Cijiong was not discouraged, he continued to say to Chen Zhang: "Tell him, if he is willing to persuade the defenders of Zeelandia City to surrender, I will not only let him go back, but also reward him with 1 taels of silver."

Chen Zhang immediately translated it in a low voice, and Putmans didn't bother to speak, just shook his head.

Seeing this, Zhu Cijiong added: "10 taels of silver."

Chen Zhang translated it again, but Putmans still shook his head.

Now Zhu Cijiong became a little impatient, and he said angrily: "One million taels, tell him that this is his last chance, if you don't agree, I will chop off his head and blast him into the city of Zeelandia with artillery .”

Chen Zhang translated it in a stern tone, but Putmans still shook his head vigorously. No matter how much money you have, you will have to spend your life. What is the use of going back? Not only will you die, but you will also be accused of treason. Even his family will suffer, he might as well die here as a hero!

Zhu Cijiong couldn't help getting a little angry, and shouted: "Don't I dare to kill you? Come here."

Immediately, two brocade-clothed guards walked in, kneeling there and waiting respectfully.

Seeing this situation, Chen Zhang quickly saluted and said, "Your Majesty, please calm down. When the minister came, our admiral asked the minister to give the emperor a word. If they are not the defenders of the city, then push all the captured Dutch to the front of the formation to serve as human shields, and see if the Dutch in the city dare to fire!"

Zhu Cijiong's eyes lit up when he heard the words, he nodded in praise and said, "Well, that's a good idea, so let's detain him first."

Putmans thought that he was going to die, but he didn't expect that the general of Ming Dynasty who escorted him would intercede for him, and he didn't know what he said. It's out.Although he knew that he had little hope of surviving this time, if he could not die, how many people would seek death, so he was still very grateful to this great Ming general.

However, he couldn't be grateful the next day, because early the next morning, he was taken to the front of the siege army by the Ming general together with all the captured men, looking at the familiar city of Zeelandia in the distance, Putmans couldn't help asking annoyedly: "Didn't I say that I wouldn't try to persuade us to surrender? Why did you bring us here?"

Chen Zhang didn't bother to reply, and directly led his men to escort more than 1000 Dutch captives to the front siege vehicle, and then loudly ordered: "Tie them all up, five or six on each siege vehicle."

Chen Zhang's men immediately dispersed, and Putmans was escorted to the front of the siege vehicle. At this time, there were already two soldiers of the Ming army standing on top of the siege vehicle, and the two soldiers who were escorting him Lifting him up and throwing him up, the two soldiers in the car immediately put him on his back, and then took out the rope and tied him up.

Putmans finally knew what the Ming army was going to do. He yelled loudly: "You are killing prisoners, you savages, let me go."

The defenders of Zeelandia City naturally saw such a big movement on their side. At this time, the two lieutenants under Putmans were in charge of defending the city. The specific looks of the people in the car, but they can see the clothes, which are the same as what they are wearing!

Lack, the Ming army is so shameless that they use captives as human shields. Now they are entangled, should they fire the cannon? Those who will be bombarded with blood and blood are all their colleagues!

One of the tall lieutenants counted the siege vehicles of the Ming army, and said with a little hope: "Their siege vehicles only have two hundred in total, and even if ten people are crowded below, there are only 2000 people. If they only use that kind If the siege vehicles come to attack the city, we don't need to fire at all. They will always come out to climb the wall when they get to the bottom of the city wall, and then shoot at them. At such a short distance, I can kill all 300 of them with only 2000 people , I just don’t know if they will rush with the siege engine.”

The Ming army didn't give them much time to think. The captives on this side were tied to the siege engines, and the ten super battleships on the sea on the other side were slowly approaching the city of Zeelandia.

Seeing this, another short lieutenant hurriedly said, "Okay, I'll leave you with 300 people, and I'll take the other 200 people to shoot. If they just use that kind of siege vehicle to attack, I won't shoot here. If there are other people following, I can only shoot at them as much as possible, hoping not to hurt the people above."

The tall lieutenant nodded and said, "Okay, that's it. I hope they only use that kind of siege vehicle to attack, and we still hope to rescue the captain and the others."

They had just discussed with each other, and the warships at sea had entered the firing range of some of the turrets. The short lieutenant quickly ran to the turret and ordered loudly: "Fire the turret from one to ten, and fire."

After a while, there was a roar of "boom boom boom", and more than 20 shells flew towards the warships of the Ming army. Forts from this to No. 32 were all 32-pound cannons with the longest range. As long as the military warship is hit by the bombardment, there will be sawdust flying. If the ship's side and gun door are hit, it will be a big hole, and the deck will also be smashed into a big hole, but they are less than three Of the ten [-]-pound cannons, only a few hits were possible. The warships of the Ming army did not suffer much damage, and they continued to approach the city of Zeelandia.

As soon as the warships of the Ming army entered the attack range of the 20-pound cannon, they immediately began to turn the rudder and sway. When they hit the city of Zeelandia, the Dutch soldiers in the city immediately began to evade. This is the advantage of the bastion. There are edges and corners everywhere. If you attack from any angle, the soldiers defending the city can find the corresponding dead corner to avoid. No one was hit by the round of shelling, but the roaring sound of more than [-] [-]-pound cannon cannons smashed several large holes in the battleship of the Ming army.

The short lieutenant ran out from the hiding place triumphantly, and was about to greet the artillerymen to continue loading shells, when the Ming warship opposite suddenly heard the roar, "Boom boom boom", another piece of shotgun flew over, and the lieutenant who was frightened hurriedly He ran back to the hiding place and cursed: "Oh, Shete, how is it possible, how can they reload ammunition so fast!"

The artillery fire of the Ming army is so fast, almost every ten seconds, and there is more than that. Just after the ten battleships in the front fired ten rounds and turned their rudders to leave, ten more appeared immediately behind, and the interval between them was only a few minutes. Seeing this, the short lieutenant had no choice but to order all the artillerymen to run to those forts that were in dead ends to reload shells and fight back. In this way, the number of shells they fired was more than doubled.

Not long after the artillery battle started here, the Ming army on the side began to attack the city. They actually rushed over with only two hundred siege vehicles and human shields on top of them!

Seeing this scene, the two lieutenants in Zeelandia couldn't help showing surprised expressions at the same time. There were only two thousand people, and they didn't need to fire at all. It might be possible to attack, and then it is really possible to rescue all their captured colleagues!
Can these 2000 people attack the city of Zeelandia?Were they really here to return the captives?The answer will be revealed in the next chapter.

(End of this chapter)