Chapter 404: Surrender?

"Colonel, there's a big fish here."

After the bodies were gathered, a crew member pointed at the Dutch captain who was killed by the bombardment and said to Elvis.

"Big fish?"

Elvis glanced at the body of the Dutch captain with disdain.

"Your rank is not as high as mine, just a small captain, just a small fish and shrimp."

The crew couldn't help laughing. There might be only one person with a higher rank than you on the entire island.

Elvis took out a telescope to observe the situation in Pontianak.

At this time, Pontianak was in chaos, with Dutch-Indonesian colonial soldiers running around everywhere.

After observing for a while, Elvis put down the telescope and said to Ye Tenghui: "Mr. Ye, your people will stay at the fort, and the three guns will be left to you. You must guard the fort."

Elvis looked at the chaotic Pontianak and decided to take advantage of the chaos to make a big deal.

"Colonel, are you leaving the fort?" Ye Tenghui said in surprise.

"My mission is to disrupt the Pontianak garrison and create chaos. I will lead people to charge into the city and give the Dutch a surprise." Elvis said with a relaxed look.

"Charge into the city?"

Ye Tenghui's eyes widened. Do you think you are Zhao Zilong? Do you want to fight in and out of Pontianak?

"But you only have 70 people, and there are at least thousands of garrisons in Pontianak."

"But they don't know that I only have 70 people." Elvis said confidently.

"Mr. Liang told me about the Feishui War that took place in China more than a thousand years ago. Now the Dutch garrison in Pontianak is the million-strong army of the Former Qin Dynasty. Although there are many people, there is nothing to be afraid of! Will a wolf be afraid of a hundred sheep?"

There are thousands of garrisons in Pontianak, but after falling into chaos and morale collapse, thousands of garrisons will definitely not be able to exert the combat effectiveness that thousands of garrisons should have.

The composition of the Pontianak garrison is complex, and the people are not united. How much combat effectiveness can they have also needs to be questioned.

The reality was just as Elvis expected. After learning that the East Indies Fleet had withdrawn to Batavia, the morale of the defenders in Pontianak was already very low.

Land transportation on Borneo is inconvenient, and their supplies rely on sea transportation.

The withdrawal of the East Indies Fleet to Batavia means that they have lost control of the sea, and subsequent logistics supply will become a big problem.

Now a regiment of troops suddenly appeared in Pontianak, which made the already low morale of the Dutch-Indian defenders even worse.

"General! An enemy regiment took down our artillery in the port! We fought hard and lost, and the captain unfortunately died. I have led the troops to break through! We have preserved our living forces!"

Carito, who hastily retreated to Pontianak, reported to the Dutch-Indian garrison commander Andersson.

"Break through? Carito! Where are our Lan Fang Company soldiers?"

Ye Tingfan looked at Carito, whose clothes were cleaner than his own, and naturally would not believe Carito's rhetoric.

The soldiers on the Pontianak fort were the elite of the Lan Fang Company. Needless to say, it must be Carlito who left the Lan Fang soldiers on the fort to guard the rear and then ran away.

Thinking of this, Ye Tingfan immediately became anxious.

When Carlito was thinking about how to explain this problem, the officer of the Lan Fang soldiers also ran in and said.

"Our Lan Fang soldiers also broke through."

How could Andersen not see the problem that Ye Tingfan could see? Besides, Pontianak City is 20 kilometers away from the coast.

The California Army must wait for high tide to land. Now is the time of high tide. If nothing unexpected happens, the California Army has just started to land. Where did a regiment of soldiers come from under their noses?

Could it be that the California Army can fly and grow wings to fly to Pontianak?

Andersen was about to deal with these deserters, but he heard gunshots in the city at this time.

The guards ran in in a panic and reported: "General! The enemy has entered Pontianak!"

Andersson's face sank, and his heartbeat accelerated. He asked Carlito in a deep voice: "Carlito, did you see it clearly? Is there really a regiment?"

"General, I am also a veteran. I heard the gunshots and the enemy's firepower was extremely fierce! They also have cannons! It must be a regiment! No mistake!" Carlito insisted that there was a regiment of the enemy attacking the port fort.

"One regiment! At least one regiment! The other side is black and dense! People are next to each other, at least several thousand people!" The Lan Fang officer on the side also hurriedly said.

Andersson fell into silence.

Although he remained calm on the surface, his heart had long been like a mess.

Pontianak originally had 4,000 defenders, one of which was composed of elite white soldiers and old Java soldiers.

In addition to this elite regiment, he also had 2,000 Pontianak native soldiers and 1,000 Lan Fang soldiers to call on.

But since the Chinese resistance organization on the island launched a crazy attack on Dongwanlu and other places, Andersson had to divide his troops to suppress the Chinese resistance organization.

In order to guard against the landing of the California Army, he deployed another 2,000 troops to defend the coast.

Now, the defenders in Pontianak City are fully occupied, and Andersson can only mobilize 1,000. Moreover, these soldiers are not all white soldiers, and a considerable number of them are indigenous people, who are not reliable at all.

He may not be able to withstand the attack of an elite regiment of the other side on Pontianak.

Andersson turned his back, looked at the map on the wall, and fell into thought.

Now that the morale of his own army is low and in chaos, it is no longer realistic to organize an effective resistance force to stand firm in Pontianak and wait for reinforcements from Batavia or the Dutch-Indian army's base camp in West Borneo, Kendawangan in the south.

It seems that retreating to preserve the strength is the wisest choice now.

The Californian army has a good record, and its combat effectiveness is certainly not comparable to the armies of Chinese colonial companies such as Dagang Company and Santiaogou Company on the island.

After a brief thought, Andersen decisively issued an order: "Notify the troops in the city and the troops on the coast, take the foreigners to withdraw from Pontianak, and head south to Kendawangan!"

At this time, in the lower reaches of the Capuas River, Liang Yao's fleet was taking advantage of the rising tide to bombard the Dutch and Indian army positions along the coast, clearing obstacles for subsequent landing troops to land.

Liang Yao's fleet is dominated by small ships, but small ships also have advantages.

The shallower the water, the better the boats could get closer to bombard the coast.

"The Dutch and Indian navy are quite capable, but their army's combat effectiveness is really hard to compliment."

Fremont raised his telescope and looked at the soldiers of the Royal Netherlands and Indian Army who were constantly fleeing their positions under shelling and said.

"Perhaps the situation would be better if they were all Dutch soldiers, but it's a pity that Dutch officers coerced a group of indigenous people to fight. Such an army has no cohesion at all." Liang Yao agreed with Fremont's point of view.

The Dutch East Indies Fleet can fight, in addition to the inheritance of the Dutch naval power.

Another very important reason is that most of their sailors are experienced Dutch sailors and European sailors. The core personnel of the fleet are all Dutch, and there are basically no indigenous sailors. Therefore, it is easy to command and organize.

The Army of the Royal Dutch Army is completely the opposite. The Dutch and whites are the minority, and the local indigenous people are the majority.

The ratio of white soldiers to indigenous soldiers in the Royal Dutch Army was 1:3.

Such an army can fight smoothly with its technological advantages, but once it encounters an opponent stronger than itself, it will be vulnerable.

"There are so many natives on the shore. I guess the red-haired ghost guys use these natives as cannon fodder. They huddled in Pontianak City. There are too many white soldiers in Pontianak City. I'm afraid they will have to chew hard bones during the siege. "Deng Wenqi said.

Liang Yao took out his pocket watch and looked at the time. He didn't know whether Elvis and the others lurking in Pontianak had captured the fort at Pontianak Port.

"You guys are firing artillery shells as if they cost nothing. I have been enlisting in the army since the reign of Master Jiaqing, and I have been enlisting in the army for decades, and I have never fought such a rich war."

Hong Mingxiang couldn't help but look envious as she watched Liang Yao's fleet tilting their cannonballs on the coast as if they were free of charge.

"Fire more cannonballs and fewer people will die. My soldiers' lives are precious, more valuable than cannonballs." Liang Yao put away his pocket watch and ordered, "Prepare to land!"

Hong Mingxiang also ordered the drums to be beaten to prepare for battle.

The landing force was spearheaded by sailors from the Guangdong Navy, followed closely by two battalions of the California Infantry Regiment, rowing the famous dinghy and taking advantage of the high tide to reach the coast.

Seeing the enemy troops rushing up, the Dutch officers who stayed behind hurriedly tore off the white part of the Dutch flag, made a simple white flag, and raised the white flag high to surrender.

The first to rush to the Dutch-Indian army's position were the sailors of the Guangdong Navy led by Vice Admiral Kang Enze of the Guangdong Navy.

Connze carried a Walter 1851 rifle with a bayonet and was about to fight to the death with the Royal Dutch Army. Unexpectedly, as soon as he arrived at the position and before the fighting started, the other party raised a white flag.

Kang Enze thought that the other party was cheating, so he threw out the weapons with 70 or 80 white officers and 500 to 600 indigenous soldiers. He raised his hands and shouted in English: "Stop fighting! We surrender! We surrender!"

Seeing that the people rushing up were Chinese, the white officer didn't know how to say surrender in Chinese, so he simply knelt on the ground and raised his hands to show that he had no intention of resisting.

Kang Enze was so confused that he captured the position of the Royal Dutch and Indian Army without any casualties.

Soon, Liang Yao on the Bold learned that the Dutch and Indian troops had surrendered.

"Just surrender like this?"

After listening to Kang Enze's report and looking at Hong Mingxiang with a secretive look on his face, Liang Yao felt drained of blood.

If I had known that the Dutch and Indian troops could not help but fight on land, I would have done it myself.

After landing ashore, Liang Yao looked at the 725 prisoners queuing up for review and felt that things were not that simple. Among the surrenderers, he called out an officer with the highest rank in front of him and asked: "Do you only have so many people on your coastal position?"

"It turned out there were two thousand people. After Pontianak fell, General Andersen ordered us to retreat. We were the unlucky ones who stayed behind to provide cover."

The Major of the Royal Netherlands and Indian Army who was questioned answered like he was pouring beans out of a bamboo tube.

"Pontianak was lost?" Liang Yao's eyes widened.

"Hasn't one of your regiments already invaded Pontianak?" the major said.

A group?

Not to mention a regiment, Elvis, who was responsible for disrupting the enemy's rear in Pontianak, had only 70 crew members. Counting himself, he only had 71 men, not even a company.

Could it be that Lan Fang's army in Pontianak has gone astray anyway?

Liang Yao was also confused and didn't understand what was going on.

Could this be a trap used by the Dutch to lure their enemies deeper? To ambush them on land as they march into Pontianak?