Chapter 392: The Advantage Is Not Mine
Populism is a very dangerous thing.
Especially in this era when most people do not have the ability to think rationally.
Once the Dutch colonial government's atrocities against the Chinese in Borneo were announced, the entire California population, especially the Chinese community, exploded instantly.
The headlines on the front pages of major newspapers about the Dutch Royal East India Army massacring the Chinese in Borneo and the photos of massacring local Chinese, Chinese Americans, and setting fire to Chinese huts were so glaring.
Collins, an old media person in California, is indeed an experienced media person. Even the beauties in the photos are carefully selected.
The Dutch Royal East India Army soldiers holding bayoneted rifles and the Dutch officers wielding sabers in the photos are actors that Collins found on the street.
And the Chinese elderly, weak women and children under the knife of the Dutch Royal East India Army were also actors selected by Collins from the Chinese immigrants waiting for resettlement in the temporary resettlement area with a salary of 30 cents a day and generous conditions of food and accommodation.
Even the huts were newly built.
Collins's photographs were successful, and they inspired the empathy of the people of California.
However, there are a few sharp-eyed and knowledgeable Chinese who find it strange: How can these red-haired devils of the Dutch East India Company be equipped with American Springfield M1842 rifles?
However, these minor issues are harmless. Many Chinese people do not know what the Dutch East India Government is, let alone let them distinguish the authenticity of the photos.
Although many Chinese do not know what the Dutch East India Company is, they know what the Dutch are.
Many Dutch and Scottish immigrants have been greeted with cordial greetings recently. Either their windows have been smashed, or they have been inexplicably surrounded by a group of Chinese and other ethnic groups when walking on the street.
These Dutch and Scottish immigrants soon learned that their red hair was the culprit.
Because the Chinese call the Dutch red-haired devils, red hair is their way of distinguishing the Dutch from other white people.
The Dutch and Scottish immigrants who knew the reason hurried to the barber shop and asked the owner to dye their red hair into other colors, or even cut off the red hair.
As a result, the barbershop business became prosperous for a time, and the shop owners' smiles were brighter than the blooming chrysanthemums.
Some clothing store owners who saw business opportunities even sold clothes and hats with words "I am American, not Dutch" written in both Chinese and English in their stores. These clothes and hats were quickly swept away by immigrants with obvious Dutch features.
Even the teachers of the language school who taught Chinese were entangled by white people with obvious Dutch features as soon as they left the school gate, asking them how to quickly explain to the Chinese whether they were Dutch.
Even Jeremiah, the director of the St. Francis Shipyard, couldn't help complaining to Liang Yao that because of his Dutch identity, he often suffered misfortunes recently.
In fact, Jeremiah's ancestors immigrated to the then New Amsterdam, which is now New York, as early as the mid-18th century. After several generations of mixed blood, they have nothing to do with the Netherlands and are typical Americans.
But it is futile to explain these things to the irrational people.
On the last day of 1853, the Huaxia Chamber of Commerce announced the suspension of all trade activities with the Dutch East India Company.
Just one week later, the California state government also passed a bill announcing an embargo on the Dutch East India authorities until the Royal Dutch East India Army withdrew from Borneo.
The next day, the California Consortium announced that the Port of San Francisco, the Port of Los Angeles, the Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the Port of Nagasaki in Japan, and the Port of Xiangshan in China, which were operated by the California Consortium, would suspend any services to all Dutch East India Companies and any merchant ships flying the Dutch flag from the time they received the news from the headquarters.
"It's still the comrades-in-arms unity in California. If the comrades-in-arms on Borneo Island could be half as united as the comrades-in-arms in California, why would we be bullied to this extent by the red-haired devils and not even be able to keep a foothold."
Seeing this scene, Liu Shanbang couldn't help but sigh.
"The comrades-in-arms unity in California is because California has a person like Mr. Liang, but we don't have a person like Mr. Liang in Borneo." Wang Jia also sighed.
"In Borneo, we depend on the foreigners, but here, the foreigners depend on us."
In Tingtao Garden on January 15, 1854, Liang Yao was mobilizing and deploying his own armed forces based on the intelligence he had collected about the Royal Dutch East India Army.
"According to the intelligence we have collected, the troops of the Dutch East India authorities are composed of European Dutch volunteers and local indigenous soldiers recruited.
Of course, in addition to European volunteers and indigenous recruits, their troops also recruited more than 2,000 foreign mercenaries of multiple nationalities and other nationalities.
However, the officers of the Dutch East India authorities are all Dutch." Elvis, the head of the Arizona Infantry Regiment, introduced to everyone.
"One thing that must be emphasized is that they are not completely professional soldiers. The Royal Netherlands East India Army is not a military organization, but a military police organization. They play both police and military functions in the Dutch East Indies.
According to my assessment, the cohesion of this army, which is composed of Dutch officers and Dutch expatriates, European mercenaries, and Europeans and local indigenous soldiers, is very problematic.
Its combat effectiveness is even lower than that of the newly established Beaver Regiment."
Added Kruger, the commander of the Beaver Regiment.
Fillmore gave Liang Yao the establishment of four and a half regiments. At the end of 1853, he targeted the California Infantry Regiment soldiers' excessive treatment and the mismatch between the current establishment and equipment and tactics.
Liang Yao organized his officer corps to begin reforming his armed force, the Western Brigade.
After the reform, one-third of the non-commissioned officers and half of the soldiers of the California Infantry Regiment retired and became mercenaries for the Umbrella Company.
The military reform of the California Infantry Regiment left gaps in non-commissioned officers and soldiers to be filled by selecting the best from the original militia regiments.
The commander of the California Infantry Regiment was concurrently appointed by Liang Yao.
Due to reasonable wages, the Arizona Infantry Regiment did not change much. The original ten infantry companies were expanded to twelve infantry companies in order to adapt to the new military structure of one regiment, four battalions, and one battalion and three companies.
The Arizona Infantry Regiment was still commanded by Colonel Elvis.
The Beaver Regiment, also known as the Oregon Infantry Regiment, was a new regiment formed by recruiting California citizens with military experience from the original California Militia Regiment that had not been transferred to the California National Infantry Regiment.
At the same time, the Beaver Regiment is also the only infantry regiment among the three infantry regiments that has no actual combat experience and record. It is recognized as the weakest infantry regiment in the Western Brigade.
The leader of the Beaver Regiment is former instructor and current American Army Colonel Krueger.
The three infantry regiments were not the entire armed force of the Western Brigade.
In addition to three conventional infantry regiments, after military reform, Liang Yao also has a cavalry battalion, an artillery battalion, and an engineer battalion.
Krueger said that the combat effectiveness of the Royal Dutch East India Army was not as good as that of the Beaver Regiment, which somewhat meant that he looked down on the Royal Dutch East India Army.
The Royal Dutch East India Army was a colonial army established on September 14, 1814 by a Dutch royal decree, and also had police functions.
The composition of the Royal Dutch East India Army was very similar to the colonial army formed by the British East India Company in India. The basic structure is white officers from the mother country plus local indigenous soldiers.
The big difference is that the officers of the British East India Company's colonial army are basically British, but the Netherlands, with a population of only three million, cannot do this.
In addition to accepting the Dutch and Dutch expatriates, the Royal Dutch East Indies Army also mainly accepted Flemish (Flemish region of Belgium, located on the northern coast of Belgium), Germans, Swiss and French. Applicants who are proficient in Dutch or German will be given priority.
Walloons (Belgian region of Wallonia, located in the interior of southern Belgium), Arabs, and nationals of the United Kingdom and the United States were prohibited from serving in the Royal Dutch East Indies Army.
The largest number of indigenous soldiers in the Royal Dutch East India Army were mainly composed of Javanese, Ambon and Manado, with the majority of them being Javanese.
When Liang Yao went to Borneo, apart from the armed forces of the Lan Fong Company that had taken refuge with the Dutch and Indian colonial authorities on the island of Borneo, his biggest enemy was the Royal Dutch East India Army of the Dutch and Indian colonial authorities.
The Royal Dutch East Indies Army was not part of the Royal Netherlands Army, but was an independent army raised specifically for service in the Dutch East Indies.
As for the achievements of the Royal Dutch East India Army, most of them were achieved with the indigenous people of the Indonesian archipelago, such as the Padre War from 1821 to 1845, the Java War from 1825 to 1830, and the war to suppress the colonial rule of the Bali residents in 1849. .
Although the Royal Dutch East India Army was victorious in these wars against the local aborigines, they were not fought beautifully. Kruger even believed that with an absolute advantage in equipment, they could win against the uncivilized aborigines. Once upon a time, the Royal Dutch East India Army was also talented.
“I agree with Colonel Kruger’s point of view. When the Royal Dutch East India Army was formed, the grassroots European soldiers and indigenous soldiers were divided in half. With European soldiers holding back the formation, the Royal Dutch East India Army could still maintain a certain combat effectiveness.
But since 1835, because the Dutch East India Company could not recruit enough European soldiers in Europe, the ratio of European soldiers to indigenous soldiers has changed from 1:1 to 1:3, or it may be higher.
Therefore, I also believe that the combat effectiveness of the Royal Dutch East India Army is constantly declining, and I am skeptical about their combat effectiveness. "
Elwes agreed with Kruger that the Royal Dutch East India Army was inferior to the Western Brigade.
The Western Brigade is an army created with money and bullets. Except for the Beaver Regiment, everyone has corresponding combat experience.
If it could not even compete with the Royal Dutch East India Army, which was composed of Europeans and indigenous people and fought back and forth with the indigenous people, it would be a bit unreasonable.
"Strategically, we must despise the enemy, and tactically we must pay attention to the enemy. The Royal Dutch East India Army has more than 8,000 European officers and soldiers and more than 20,000 indigenous soldiers. We are still at a disadvantage in terms of military strength." Liang Yao said.
During this military operation, Liang Yao was more nervous and apprehensive than when he was on the expedition to Japan.
After all, the vassal soldiers of various Japanese vassals and the army of the Tokugawa Shogunate were essentially medieval armies, and there was a generational difference from his army.
There is no obvious generational difference between the Royal Dutch East India Army and the Western Brigade, and Liang Yao does not have an advantage in maritime power. Liang Yao is not sure of victory.
Before fighting, it is better not to underestimate your opponent.
"I think we still have certain technological advantages on land. Didn't Wang Jia and Liu Shanbang say that they still have 20,000 adult men who can be armed to participate in the battle?" Fremont stood up and interjected.
"On the contrary, there is a huge disparity between our maritime power and that of the Dutch and Indian authorities. In order to control the war to a certain scale, the American Navy will not intervene. I heard that you have a good relationship with the commander of the Qing Navy. Can you please win over him? Come over and help out? We can give you money.”
"Let Hong Mingxiang help out?" Liang Yao shook his head.
"Not to mention whether Hong Mingxiang dares to mobilize troops to help us privately. Even if he has the courage to earn this money and dares to mobilize troops to help us, the Guangdong Navy only has six Loach-class battleships and some old-fashioned Chinese sailboats. I'm afraid he can't help us. Nothing to do."
"Considering the issue of economic efficiency, the Dutch East India Company does not have many serious warships. The sailing warships in service are all sailing warships from the last century or even the last century! Armed merchant ships are the main force of the Dutch East India Company at sea. major force.
We still have at least four warships that are iron-clad and equipped with Sacramento guns. We will also modify some merchant ships, drag a dozen Loach-class ships, and mobilize some civilian armed merchant ships. We still have a good chance of winning. "
Sven, who had just returned from Sven Island, rubbed his hands and said excitedly.
Sven had long wanted to engage in a serious naval battle. Although there were naval battles between the United States and Japan during the expedition to Japan, that kind of naval battle with a completely asymmetrical strength was no different from Sven's view, and it was not considered a target practice at sea. Real naval battle.
"More than a dozen Loach-class ships? The Anti-Smuggling Bureau has all switched jobs and no longer has to work, right? If the Anti-Smuggling Bureau doesn't work, your Global Shipping Company will pay to support us next year?"
After hearing Si Wen's suggestion to take a dozen Loach-class ships to fight naval battles in Southeast Asia, Deng Wenyu immediately jumped out to object.
"The Dagang Company and other resistance companies still have seven or eight ships available, but the ships are small and not as big as yours. However, we know some local pirates who have a long-standing feud with the Dutch East India Company. These are also maritime areas that can be fought for. Strength." Liu Shanbang said.