Chapter 420: 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 After learning that the East Indies Fleet had withdrawn to Batavia, the morale of the defenders in Pontianak was already very low.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 have also broken 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 the morale of his army is low and in chaos. It is no longer realistic to organize an effective resistance force to hold Pontianak and wait for reinforcements from Batavia or Kendawangan, the base of the Dutch-Indian army in West Borneo.

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

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

After a brief thought, Andersson decisively issued an order: "Notify the troops in the city and the troops on the coastal positions to take the expatriates out of Pontianak and head south to Kendawangan!"

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

Liang Yao's fleet is mainly composed of small ships, but small ships also have their advantages.

Small ships are shallow in water and can get closer to bombard the coast.

"The Dutch East Indies Navy is quite strong, but their army's combat effectiveness is really not good." ... Fremont raised his telescope and looked at the soldiers of the Dutch Royal Indies Army who were constantly fleeing their positions under the bombardment.

"If they were all Dutch soldiers, the situation might be better. Unfortunately, it was a Dutch officer who coerced a group of natives 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, and the core personnel of the fleet are all Dutch, with basically no native sailors. Therefore, command and organization are handy.

The army of the Dutch Royal Indies Army is completely the opposite. The Dutch and whites are a minority, and the local natives are the majority.

The ratio of white soldiers to native soldiers in the Dutch Royal Indies Army is 1 to 3.

Such an army can fight a favorable battle with its technical advantages, but once it encounters an opponent with stronger strength than itself, it will be vulnerable.

"There are so many natives on the shore. I guess the red-haired devils always use these natives as cannon fodder. They hide in Pontianak. There are too many white soldiers in Pontianak. I'm afraid it will be a tough battle during the siege." Deng Wenqi said.

Liang Yao took out his pocket watch to check the time. He didn't know whether Elvis, who was lurking in Pontianak, had taken down the artillery fort in Pontianak Port.

"Your shells are fired like they are free. I have been a soldier since the reign of Emperor Jiaqing. I have been a soldier for decades, but I have never fought such a rich battle."

Hong Mingxiang looked at Liang Yao's fleet pouring shells towards the coast like they were free, and couldn't help showing envy.

"Firing more shells can reduce the number of deaths. My soldiers' lives are very precious, more valuable than shells." Liang Yao put away his pocket watch and ordered, "Prepare for landing!"

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

The landing force was led by the sailors of the Guangdong Navy, followed by two battalions of the California Infantry Regiment, who paddled the famous boats and rushed to the coast during the high tide.

Seeing the enemy 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 to surrender.

The first to rush to the Dutch-Indonesian Army position were the sailors of the Guangdong Navy led by the deputy general of the Guangdong Navy, Kang Enze.

Kang Enze was holding a Walter 1851 rifle with a bayonet, and was about to fight the Dutch Royal Dutch-Indonesian Army to the death. Unexpectedly, just before arriving at the position, before the battle started, the other side raised the white flag.

Kang Enze thought the other side was cheating, but he didn't expect that seventy or eighty white officers and five or six hundred native soldiers threw out their weapons, raised their hands and shouted in English: "Stop fighting! We surrender! We surrender!"

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

Kang Enze captured the position of the Dutch Royal Indochina Army without any casualties.

Soon, Liang Yao on the Bold learned that the Dutch Royal Indochina Army had surrendered.

"Just surrendered like that?"

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

If he had known that the Dutch Royal Indochina Army was so vulnerable on land, he would have gone up there himself.

After landing, Liang Yao looked at the 725 prisoners waiting in line for inspection, and always felt that things were not so simple. He called the highest-ranking officer among the surrenderers to ask: "Your coastal position is just so small?"

"Originally there were 2,000 people. After Pontianak fell, General Andersson ordered us to retreat. We are the unlucky ones who stayed behind to cover the rear."

The questioned major of the Dutch Royal Indochina Army answered like a bamboo tube pouring beans.

"Pontianak fell?" Liang Yao widened his eyes.

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

A regiment?

Not to mention a regiment, Elvis, who was responsible for disrupting the enemy's rear in Pontianak, had only 70 crew members, and including himself, there were only 71 people, not even a company.

Could it be that the Lan Fang army in Pontianak had rebelled?

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

Could it be that this was a trap set by the Dutch to lure the enemy in? To ambush them on the land where they marched into Pontianak?

Yuwo reminds you: Remember to collect after reading