Chapter 232: Successive Victories

It is true that the defensive positions built by Portugal can block some artillery bombardments, but this kind of defensive position has never considered the threat from overhead.

This also led to the fact that after the Portuguese army was bombed from overhead, not only did most of the Portuguese soldiers not have any preparation, but the defensive positions that provided them with a lot of protection before did not play any role.

Although the number of shells in this bombing was much less than before, the shells carried by the bombers were all large-caliber touch-and-go bombs, filled with a large amount of broken iron and steel balls, as well as sharp objects such as glass slag, in order to cause as much damage as possible.

Coincidentally, one of the bombs happened to fall beside Kafe Filho, the commander of the Portuguese Timor garrison, and the violent explosion directly swept Kafe Filho and his adjutant and messenger.

After dropping all the bombs, the bomber returned immediately without looking back, leaving the Portuguese with only the buzzing sound in the sky.

Of course, it is impossible to kill all Portuguese and indigenous soldiers with more than a hundred bombs.

The accuracy of dropping bombs from high altitudes is not high. It is considered good if half of the 100 bombs can fall near the Portuguese soldiers.

But despite this, the fear brought by such a large number of shells falling from the sky is definitely not easy to relieve.

Especially those who saw the shells getting bigger and bigger in their eyes and finally exploded next to them, even if they were lucky enough not to die, they were already scared at this time.

The Portuguese were like this, not to mention the native army, which was already loose.

The native army suffered even more casualties in this bombing. Some of the natives who were scared to death could no longer suppress their fear and crawled out of the position.

If it were normal, these natives would be greeted with bullets and scolding from the supervision team as soon as they crawled out of the position.

But now, the garrison commander Kafe Filho, his adjutant and the messenger were all killed in the bombing just now. The Portuguese soldiers of the supervision team were also immersed in the fear of the bombing that just fell from the sky. At first, they did not notice the collapse of the native army.

When the soldiers of the supervision team reacted, many native soldiers had already left the position and were running wildly into the jungle.

"Damn it, stop those yellow monkeys!" Some Portuguese soldiers reacted quickly and shouted anxiously.

As a member of the supervision team, it is their task to supervise all the native soldiers. If these natives are successfully collapsed, they will be severely held accountable regardless of whether the war is won or not.

Seeing that the scolding did not work, several soldiers of the supervision team quickly took out their rifles and fired at the native soldiers who were running farther and farther.

Although a few scattered gunshots did knock down a few natives, more natives fled faster after hearing the gunshots, and even if they accidentally fell, they crawled and groped forward.

The Portuguese soldiers were somewhat angry, but the natives who had fled at first had already run several hundred meters away, and it was not so easy to catch them back.

Helplessly, the supervision team could only focus on the remaining native soldiers in the position, carefully prevent other native soldiers from escaping, and immediately report to the garrison commander Café Filho.

But how could these soldiers of the supervision team have thought that the garrison commander they were loyal to had been killed in the previous bombing, which also determined that their report was doomed to fall into the sea.

On the other hand, after the bombing, General Silvio Lonnie Rodlin would naturally not miss this good opportunity.

After three consecutive rounds of bombing, the morale of the Portuguese army had collapsed, and the native army had even begun to flee.

This was the best offensive opportunity for the First Division. If it went well, it could even take down the enemy's position in one go.

Of course, in order to implement the requirement of minimum casualties, General Silvio Lonnie Rodlin specifically ordered the artillery to launch another round of firepower bombardment on the enemy's position before the infantry launched a charge.

This bombing, like the first one, was large-scale and high-frequency.

This was to prevent the Portuguese from counterattacking the soldiers of the First Division and causing some unnecessary casualties.

This is the current logistical advantage of Australasia. Facing only a thousand Portuguese troops and two thousand indigenous troops, the First Division has consumed hundreds of shells and even dispatched bombers for this.

Of course, the effect of doing so is also very obvious. The First Division has not suffered any casualties so far, while the Portuguese have suffered heavy casualties, and most of the survivors have lost their fighting spirit.

Under the cover of artillery fire, the soldiers of the First Division quickly approached the Portuguese position.

There were not many Portuguese soldiers who still had fighting spirit at this time, and they were suppressed by artillery fire and could not raise their heads at all.

When the soldiers of the First Division were only more than a hundred meters away from the Portuguese battlefield, the coverage of the artillery quietly moved to the rear of the position to avoid harming the soldiers of the First Division.

The surviving Portuguese soldiers, because their commander had been killed and they were frightened by the previous bombings and air raids, had been hiding in the concrete facilities and dared not come out. It was naturally impossible for them to launch any counterattack against the slowly approaching Australasian soldiers.

At 11:00 noon, the soldiers of the First Division successfully occupied the Portuguese position, captured more than 300 Portuguese soldiers, and more than 400 native soldiers.

For these Portuguese soldiers, General Silvio Lonnie Rodlin waved his hand and asked a team of soldiers to strictly guard them.

As for those native soldiers, there was naturally no value of interest, so the only outcome waiting for them was death.

After a brief rest in the position, General Silvio Lonnie Rodlin left a platoon to take care of the captured Portuguese soldiers, and the main force continued to move north, thinking of Dili, the capital of Portuguese Timor.

The Portuguese soldiers and native troops on the position can be said to be all the troops of Portuguese Timor.

At present, the only defense force in Dili may be the few policemen in the city.

But relying on the police to resist the attack of the First Division may be more absurd than a fool's dream.

At 3 pm, the Australasian army successfully entered the city of Dili and fully occupied the Governor's Mansion and the garrison headquarters in Dili.

At the same time, General Silvio Lonnie Rodlin ordered the soldiers to move the captured Portuguese soldiers to the city and sent a telegram to the country.

It was already past four o'clock in the afternoon when Arthur received the telegram from General Silvio Lonnie Rodlin.

Arthur immediately sent a reply to General Silvio Lonnie Rodlin, asking General Silvio Lonnie Rodlin to properly handle everything in Timor and try to control the order in Timor.

At the same time, some defensive positions were built on the coast and western border of Portuguese Timor to prevent possible landings by the Portuguese in the future.

At six o'clock in the evening, with the order of the Australasian Ministry of Defense, the Second Division was divided into two groups and went to the remaining two colonies of Portugal in Asia to capture and occupy them.

Although these two colonies were too far away for Australasia, and Australasia had no qualifications to occupy either Portugal's Indian colony or Portugal's colonies in East Asia.

After the occupation, the attitudes of the neighboring British India and Qing Dynasty must also be considered, so these two colonies are not within Arthur's target range.

Of course, now in the war, it is still very necessary to capture these two colonies.

These two colonies are also Portugal's bridgeheads in Asia. Without these two colonies, Portugal's closest area to Australasia becomes the Portuguese Mozambique colony, which is separated from Australasia by the Indian Ocean.

August 10, 1907, six o'clock in the morning.

After more than a day of sailing, part of the Second Division's troops finally arrived at Portugal's colony in East Asia and quickly captured the colony.

The land area of ​​this colony is much smaller than that of Portuguese Timor, and the population is not large.

If only the Portuguese are counted, the Portuguese population in this colony does not even exceed 10,000, and the garrison is even more patchwork. Relying on the local indigenous population of the colony, the number of garrisons can barely be piled up to 1,000.

This also makes the training level of the garrison here even more worrying, and the equipment of some local indigenous soldiers is even more backward.

After several rounds of bombardment, the Portuguese troops completely lost their fighting spirit, most of them were captured, and the rest were bodies that had been sacrificed in the artillery fire.

Like Portuguese Timor, after the battlefield here achieved complete victory, the deputy commander of the Second Division immediately sent a telegram to the country, briefly describing the course and results of the war, and received Arthur's latest instructions.

In addition to maintaining order and consolidating defense, which was almost the same as Portuguese Timor, there was also the relocation of Portuguese property as much as possible.

Although the Portuguese could not be executed blatantly, it was completely no problem to deal with their property.

The factories and properties that the Portuguese had worked hard to build in this area also made wedding dresses for Australasia.

Portuguese Timor did not experience this kind of brutal demolition, because Portuguese Timor was Arthur's target and had been included in the sphere of influence of Australasia.

As long as the war went smoothly, Portuguese Timor should be renamed Australian Timor after the war, and naturally there would be no need to go to great lengths to relocate the Portuguese property, because they could not escape when the land was transferred anyway.

A few days later, on August 12, the army led by the commander of the Second Division, Fritz Reiner, finally crossed the Indian Ocean and arrived in Portuguese India.

Although when it comes to India's sovereign, everyone will think of the British Empire first.

But in fact, there are more than one country that colonized India. Portugal and France are also among the countries that colonized India.

However, Britain has ruled most of India for a long time, and Portugal and France only occupied a small piece of land on both sides of the coast of India, which is completely insignificant compared to the whole of India.

This is why Portugal and France are generally not mentioned when mentioning the Indian colony.

Portuguese India is a colony occupied by Portugal on the west coast of India, with Goa as its capital.

India has a huge land area and population. Even French India and Portuguese India, which only occupy a small area, have a population of 300,000 and 450,000 respectively.

Portugal has a garrison of 2,000 people in Portuguese India, of which 1,000 are Portuguese and 1,000 are Indian.

Although Portuguese India has a larger population and better land than Portuguese Timor, the garrison in Portuguese India is one thousand less than that in Portuguese Timor.

This is because the neighbor of Portuguese India is the powerful British India. Portugal can never be a rival of the British Empire. Therefore, the defense of Portuguese India is not that important.

If the British Empire wants to annex Portuguese India, even if it has a garrison of five or six thousand people, it can never be a rival of British India.

But if the British Empire has no idea about Portuguese India, then even if Portuguese India has no garrison, only a police force to maintain public order, the security issue can be initially guaranteed.

Portuguese Timor is different. Its neighbor is the Netherlands, a country of similar size to Portugal.

In addition, Portuguese Timor has lost nearly half of its land under the invasion of the Netherlands, so it is naturally impossible to reduce its defense against the Netherlands.

With only one thousand Portuguese soldiers, Portuguese India is naturally no match for the Second Division.

Although Indian soldiers are more loyal than the natives in Southeast Asia, their fighting power is not even comparable to that of Portuguese soldiers, let alone those of Australasia.

After paying hundreds of shells and dozens of casualties, the Second Division also successfully conquered Portuguese India and occupied Goa, the capital of Portuguese India.

Like the colonies in East Asia, on the day of the occupation, General Fritz Reiner quickly sent a telegram to Australasia and received the same response from Arthur: maintain urban order and strengthen border guards.

At the same time, a small group of troops began to look for various factories and assets in Goa, preparing to relocate them all to Australasia.

After fully occupying Portugal's three colonies in Asia, Arthur was completely relieved.

Although the First and Second Divisions suffered hundreds of casualties in total, compared with the results achieved, this little casualty was acceptable.

In addition, all injured Australasia soldiers will be quickly taken to Australasia for treatment.

The government will not only provide him with free treatment, but also provide all his salary during the period of injury.

After the initial implementation of the combat plan, Arthur dared to announce the news to the public with confidence.

Before, the results of the battle had been hidden because he was afraid that the enemy would react and make the actions of the Second Division more difficult.

Now that all the initial combat missions have been completed, it is time to announce this good news to the whole country and even to the world.

Of course, some of the details cannot be told truthfully, but have been transformed into some other rhetoric.

For example, the bombers that had been dispatched in Portuguese Timor were replaced by airships by the Australian and American authorities.

Anyway, airships can now fly in the sky and drop shells.

Europeans have not seen the war with their own eyes, so naturally no one will doubt it.

Today is more than 4,000 words. I came back late, and I didn’t rest well yesterday.

Tomorrow is 6,000 words. Please vote for the monthly ticket, brothers.