Chapter 230 Landing! Landing!

Portuguese Timor is the second colony occupied by the Portuguese colonial empire in East Asia and one of Portugal's important strongholds in East Asia.

Portuguese Timor currently has a total population of more than 350,000, of which 90% are local indigenous people, 3% are other foreign nationalities, and less than 7% are white immigrants from Portugal and Europe.

This also means that Portuguese Timor has only more than 20,000 white people, and is a small colony with a small land area and a small population.

But the economic value of Portuguese Timor is not low. Although more than half of the land, that is, the western part of Timor Island, was gradually occupied by the Netherlands, Portugal still defended its land in the eastern part of Timor Island.

More importantly, although the small Portuguese Timor only has more than 10,000 square kilometers of land, it has a large amount of mineral resources including gold, manganese, chromium, tin, and copper. The nearby Timor Sea also has very rich reserves of oil and natural gas resources.

Although there are not many mineral resources discovered so far, Portuguese Timor is an extremely important springboard for Australasia, which can control the center of the Dutch East Indies.

If it can control Portuguese Timor, Australasia will also be able to turn the entire Timor Sea into an inland sea of ​​Australasia.

Not only that, it can also rely on Portuguese Timor to exercise certain control over the western part of Timor Island, that is, Java Island.

Since the two countries declared war on each other, this war has attracted the attention of some Europeans.

What no one expected was that this was originally just a diplomatic conflict, but it turned into a war between the two countries.

This can only be said to be the firmness of Australasia and the refusal of Portugal to retreat.

All major European countries have expressed their concern about this war, but in such a chaotic era, war has become commonplace for Europeans, and everyone has long been accustomed to it.

At present, Portugal has a total of three colonies in Asia, located in East Asia, Southeast Asia and India.

But these three colonies have the same characteristics, all of which are small and sparsely populated, so it is impossible to have too many garrisons.

This also led to the fact that the total number of Portuguese garrisons in all their colonies in Asia is only more than 3,000 people.

It is basically impossible to rely on more than 3,000 people to defend against the attack of the Australasian army.

Of course, Alfonso I did not think of relying on these 3,000 people to complete the war. The reinforcements from Portugal have already taken action, and the fastest will arrive in just one month.

Long before the war began, the Ministry of National Defense had already made a detailed plan. At least 50,000 people will be deployed in Australasia, of which 10,000 will be the vanguard, responsible for quickly capturing Portugal's Timor colony in Southeast Asia.

The remaining 40,000 people will be divided into two parts, one as the main force, and when the vanguard successfully captures Timor, they will land on Portugal's other Asian colonies.

The remaining part will be stationed in Australasia as a reserve force in a state of combat readiness, on the one hand, to prevent the enemy from landing in Australasia, and on the other hand, as a reserve force, to support the front line in an emergency.

Of course, the most important thing is to quickly capture Portuguese Timor, and then use Portuguese Timor as a springboard to land on Portugal's colonies in East Asia and India.

After losing three colonies in a row, the Portuguese government must also consider the consequences of continuing to fight.

August 8, 1907, 4 p.m., Maryborough Harbor.

After the Australasian government declared war on Portugal, the First National Defense Division was ready to land on Timor Island on a transport ship.

The commander of the First Division was Silvio Lonnie Rodlin, an excellent general who advocated offensive firepower.

However, Silvio Lonnie Rodlin's face did not look very good at this time. His resolute face looked a little hesitant and worried.

Of course, Silvio Lonnie Rodlin was not worried about not being able to defeat the Kingdom of Portugal, nor was he afraid of the war that had already come.

What made Silvio Lonnie Rodlin a little worried was actually the order from Arthur, that he must reduce the casualties of soldiers as much as possible and weaken the Portuguese's vitality as much as possible, including the Portuguese's influence in Timor.

It is easy to understand that weakening the Portuguese's vitality is not just to kill as many Portuguese soldiers as possible?

Reducing the casualties of soldiers can be done by being more careful. As long as you suppress the enemy with firepower before attacking, and use more firepower output in exchange for the survival rate of soldiers, you can reduce the casualties of soldiers.

But how can we weaken the influence of the Portuguese in Timor? You can't just massacre Portuguese civilians in Timor. Although this will weaken the influence of the Portuguese, Australasia will become a completely negative role in this war.

Turning a supported war into a condemned war is not worth it no matter how you think about it.

Gently shaking his head, General Silvio Lonnie Rodlin decided to put aside his distractions for the time being and try to conquer Portuguese Timor first.

Unless the country is in an emergency, Arthur's Guards Division is basically impossible to be deployed in the war.

This represents Arthur's last trump card, and it is also the most luxuriously equipped and best-trained army in Australasia.

This is also why the First National Defense Division was qualified to become the vanguard. In addition to the Guards Division, the First National Defense Division is the earliest established and longest-trained unit in Australasia, and its combat effectiveness has long been comparable to that of the German elite army.

In order to implement the tradition of attaching importance to firepower, General Silvio Lonnie Rodling specifically ordered all artillery to carry more than twice the amount of spare ammunition, and also specifically requested assistance from the navy.

Maryborough is a port city in eastern Queensland. It is not large in scale, which is why the landing troops chose it as the place to board the ship.

Initiating an action in a big city like Sydney under the watchful eyes of the public will inevitably allow the Portuguese to receive information in advance.

Although it will not have a great impact on the pattern of the war, the Portuguese who are prepared in advance will definitely cause greater casualties to the Australasian army.

The distance from Maryborough to Portuguese Timor is not short. Even if the fleet is sailing at full speed, it will take at least more than ten hours.

This also caused the fleet to approach Portuguese Timor at six o'clock in the morning when it was still dark.

In addition, it is winter in the southern hemisphere. Although Portuguese Timor is not very cold, it is still dark and hazy, which is the best time for a sneak attack.

The soldiers of the First Division had a long rest on the transport ship. Although the quality of sleep is not very good, they are energetic and full of expectations.

"Action!" With the order of General Silvio Lonnie Rodlin, the soldiers of the First Division boarded small boats from the transport ship and landed on the beach.

Timor Island was still dark at six o'clock in the morning. Even if all the soldiers of the First Division successfully landed on Timor Island, the sky was just about to dawn.

Of course, the real reason why the First Division did not encounter resistance was that the place where the First Division chose to land was located in the area controlled by the Netherlands.

The Portuguese may have been prepared and strengthened their vigilance against the coast. But who would have thought that the landing site in Australasia was in the area controlled by the Netherlands.

Unlike Portugal, the Netherlands has a large number of colonies in Southeast Asia, and the Dutch East Indies is composed of many large and small islands.

This also brought a very obvious problem to the Netherlands, that is, with the size of the Netherlands, it was not enough to completely control the Dutch East Indies.

The Dutch control over many smaller islands and barren areas in the Dutch East Indies was very insufficient.

Although the western part of Timor Island was won by the Netherlands and Portugal in competition, the Dutch focus on Timor Island was in the cities in the west.

After landing in the central part of Timor Island, Silvio Lonnie Rodlin waved his hand and directly ordered all soldiers to advance eastward, aiming directly at Dili, the capital of Portuguese Timor.

Portuguese Timor has a total of more than 20,000 Portuguese, most of whom live in Dili, the capital of Portuguese Timor.

This also means that as long as Dili is controlled, the entire Portuguese Timor is basically controlled.

Of course, in order to guard against the most important and only city in Portuguese Timor, a Portuguese army of 1,000 people and about 2,000 indigenous troops were stationed near Dili.

Therefore, when the soldiers of the First Division approached Dili, they discovered such a peculiar landscape.

A certain scale of defensive positions have been built near Dili, including long trenches and positions.

Under the supervision of a few Portuguese soldiers, many natives worked here, and it can be seen that most of this defensive position was built by natives.

It was just dawn, and the Portuguese army could not be seen clearly. But it was very likely that they were still resting. After all, who would have thought that the Australasian army had arrived in Dili the day after the declaration of war?

Silvio Lonnie Rodlin immediately ordered the soldiers to stop advancing and hide their figures, and then asked all artillery to temporarily build positions to bombard the Portuguese and natives in front.

Perhaps because they were too tired after not sleeping all night, the Portuguese's attention was always on the natives. The soldiers exchanged a few words from time to time, and then whipped the natives around them.

The experience of the natives was even more tragic. If they stopped their movements for a while, they would be ruthlessly yelled at by the Portuguese, and even whipped. It was impossible for them to concentrate on discovering the existence of the Australasians.

In addition, the sky was not yet completely bright, which vaguely formed another layer of protection for the First Division. Even if the temporary artillery position was completed, the Portuguese did not find anything.

After receiving the report from his artillery, General Silvio Lonnie Rodlin nodded with satisfaction, looked coldly at the Portuguese a few hundred meters away, and said in a cold voice: "All artillery, the enemy on the target position, a round of indiscriminate bombing!"

The indiscriminate bombing that Silvio Lonnie Rodlin mentioned is actually a range bombing.

Doing so consumes a lot of artillery shells, which is a disguised way of burning military expenses.

But for the more luxurious Australasians, using the consumption of artillery shells to reduce casualties is an absolutely cost-effective deal.

The First Division is equipped with CA-1 machine guns, M1897 75mm field guns and GA1906 105mm semi-automatic guns.

These three guns have the same feature, that is, they are equipped with semi-automatic artillery technology.

Although it will also increase the consumption of artillery shells, the improvement in firepower is enormous.

This is also an important reason for being able to achieve indiscriminate strikes within a certain range. It is precisely with these three semi-automatic artillery pieces and the extra ammunition that the artillery army had previously requested.

One of the reasons why General Silvio Lonnie Rodlin was not worried about the consumption of logistics was Arthur's promise.

Before the army set out, Arthur specifically told General Silvio Lonnie Rodlin to let him fight freely without worrying about the consumption of logistics.

Because the military factory had produced a large number of spare bullets and ammunition long before this, the Australasia fleet would also deliver these supplies to the front line in a short time.

Chapter 1, please vote for the monthly ticket, brothers