New Shun 1730

The judgment of the British East India Company was undoubtedly correct.

The French quickly launched an attack on Madras. It was always easy to find reasons. The two sides had been fighting in India for almost a hundred years, and they could easily find a lot of reasons.

The fleet of the British East India Company did not go to support Madras, but stayed away from it. Because they did not know the attitude of Dashun, they were worried that after their fleet was assembled, they would be caught by Dashun and destroyed in one wave.

Shortly after the French launched an attack on Madras, Dashun's fleet also left Pondicherry and sailed to the ocean.

This time was very good. On the 18th of the twelfth lunar month, the Free Trade and Gothenburg bypassed India, and a speedboat accompanying them came to Pondicherry to pass on a message.

On the 20th of the twelfth lunar month, Dashun's fleet set sail.

In the eyes of the British, Dashun was preparing to deploy a battle formation and look for an opportunity to annihilate the fleet of the British East India Company at sea.

But in fact, Dashun's squadron did not go to find the British fleet, but turned around and went to Ceylon.

It is very far from Guangzhou to Ceylon.

But sailing from Pondicherry to Ceylon is like sailing from Weihai to Pyongyang. The Marines and sailors, who had been resting for more than a month, were supplied with unlimited sugarcane wine and fish dumplings before sailing.

So the soldiers and sailors understood that the war had begun.

On board, the battle slogan was quickly issued.

A very simple sentence.

Spending the New Year in the Lion Country!

It was the northeast monsoon in the Indian Ocean at this time. The weather was fine, the climate was dry, and there was not much rainfall. It was a season suitable for war.

The Dutch had two important fulcrums in Ceylon.

One was Jaffna in the north of Ceylon Island, where they could control the Palk Strait between Ceylon and the Indian subcontinent.

The other was Colombo, which was located on the main road from India to Southeast Asia, in the south of Ceylon.

Most of the Chinese immigrants were in the south of Ceylon, and there were not many Chinese in the Jaffna area.

According to intelligence, the Dutch actually had quite a few troops stationed in Ceylon. There were nearly 2,500 people in total, because they had to constantly deal with the harassment of the Kingdom of Kandy, especially the British who were stirring up trouble behind the scenes, constantly instigating the feudal nobles of Kandy to attack the Netherlands.

However, these 2,500 people were scattered in seven fortress groups. The Netherlands had no field corps in Ceylon, only fortress garrisons.

However, given the pathetic combat effectiveness of the Kandy Dynasty army, these fortress garrisons were sufficient to serve as field troops when fighting the Kandy people.

According to the combat plan formulated by the staff, the first direction the squadron had to attack was Colombo.

A large number of Nanyang Chinese were near Colombo, and there were a total of 800 Dutch soldiers in the city, so the attack was not difficult.

On the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, the fleet arrived off the coast of Colombo and did not launch a sneak attack.

It was neither necessary nor meaningful.

Instead, according to the drill manual, they deployed into an artillery formation, opened the baffle of the deck gun room, and aimed at the Colombo Castle.

The Dutch style, or the style of colonial layout, is "the city is the city, the town is the town". The core area of ​​the Dutch is in the castle, including the city council, the governor's office, the naval port, etc.

After snatching Colombo Fort from the Portuguese, the Dutch reinforced the Colombo Castle.

However, with the advent of the Dutch Golden Age, the Dutch Navy was almost invincible in Southeast Asia, which made Colombo Fort have a significant weakness.

The location of this kind of coastal fortress is basically the same.

A concave bay, with the bay as a naval port, forming a moon-shaped structure.

Normally, a solid fort should be built on the two convex corners of the moon-shaped structure to be considered a qualified coastal fortress.

However, there was money in the Golden Age, but there was no need to repair it.

There was a fleet, as long as there was a fort that could slightly protect the fleet from being attacked by pirates. It was meaningless to spend a lot of money to fortify the entire coastal side.

When the Golden Age ended, it seemed necessary to repair it, but there was no money. The directors of the East India Company did not approve enough money at all, and turnover was difficult.

Originally, it was thought that the Chinese slaves in Batavia would be transported here to be debt slaves, and the fort would be repaired for free.

However, the debt slaves became contract immigrants, and the board of directors was forced by Dashun to pay money, and they were more eager to see more direct economic benefits.

It cannot be said that the directors of the East India Company were mentally retarded, but based on their own judgment, they believed that there was no need to strengthen the defense in the direction of the sea, nor was there any need to reinforce the fort.

Although Britain has been secretly making trouble in recent years, given the relationship on the European continent, Britain and the Netherlands still have a mutual defense treaty, and the British will not attack.

It was originally snatched from the Portuguese, but after Portugal restored its country from Spain, the policy it pursued was that whoever attacked Spain would be our good friends. The Netherlands and Portugal have basically reconciled.

The Kingdom of Kandy in Ceylon did not have a navy at all.

The only possible threat was the French, but the French East India Company did not even have a fleet.

In this case, what is the point of spending money to build a fort? Building a regular fort is quite expensive, and the East India Company is responsible for profits to the board of directors and shareholders, so it saves money as much as possible.

Therefore, this Colombo Fort had its biggest weakness.

On the bay side, it was not completely fortified. There were only two artillery batteries at two convex corners, each with seven or eight cannons, less than a fraction of the number of heavy guns on a battleship.

There are four bastions around, facing the inland direction without the sea. There is a moat about four meters wide, and there are some simple fortifications outside, but they have been in disrepair for many years.

Normally, or according to the textbooks of fortress engineering in regular military academies, fortresses along the coast with ports must be built to the extent that "the enemy fleet dare not stay in the bay, and the coastal defense artillery will destroy the fleet." Weihai Naval Port, Lushun Naval Port, and Lingdingyang Naval Port were all built according to this scale: In theory, the most effective way to attack such a naval port is for the army to capture the fortress area, rather than letting the navy and the artillery fire at each other.

However, although the military manual was written in this way, the Dashun Navy had no chance to follow the military manual on this matter since its establishment. Whether it was Japan or Nanyang, there was no naval fortress that met the military manual at this time.

So the plan formulated by the staff was very simple.

The fleet spread out, bombarded the two artillery batteries on the salient corner, broke into the bay, and bombarded the inner side of the fortress with naval guns, suppressing the Dutch bastion from the inside out.

The Marines landed on the flank, summoned the local Chinese, approached by tunneling, and used the Vauban siege method to capture the bastion.

It would be best to force the Dutch to surrender directly.

When the Dashun fleet suddenly appeared off the coast of Colombo, the garrison commander and the governor of Ceylon only glanced at the formation of the fleet on the ocean and knew that the war had begun.

Although it was completely unknown why Dashun suddenly went to war, and it was completely unclear whether Dashun declared war on the Netherlands or became a military ally with France to participate in the War of the Austrian Succession, in short, the fleet was deployed like this, which was definitely not a friendly visit or a request for berthing and replenishment.

I have never heard that a friendly visit would open the cover of the gunboat warehouse.

The four Dutch armed merchant ships were blocked in the port, and they dared not leave the port at this time. They could only hope that the two artillery batteries could protect them and prevent the Dashun warships from entering the harbor.

But obviously, they also knew that these two artillery batteries could not withstand the attack of the Dashun fleet.

Just as the Dashun warships were deploying their artillery formation, a small boat with a military flag instead of a white flag set off from the flagship and sailed towards Colombo.

The Dutch were generally unreasonable. If it were the Sinhalese, the ship would most likely have been sunk.

But under the black muzzles of several battleships, the Dutch became particularly reasonable.

After the boat docked, a team of nervous soldiers sent several Dashun officers on the ship to the fortress. The military chief of the garrison and the governor of Ceylon knew very well that these people were mostly here to send a declaration of war.

The Netherlands often fought without declaration and attacked everywhere. In the Pingshan Changchen incident, they also hijacked Japanese merchant ships without permission, but at this time, they actually thought of the so-called international law. In fact, the Netherlands was the initiator of international law, because Spain and Portugal monopolized trade and the sea a hundred years ago, so the Netherlands hoped that justice would prevail over power, so they made up an axiom.

"Why did your fleet appear near Colombo? Does this mean war? This is the territory and territorial waters of the East India Company, and your warships should withdraw as soon as possible."

The Dutch governor of Ceylon did not receive the declaration of war, so he asked directly.

The officer who sent the declaration of war knew Dutch, stood there, and said seriously: "How can this be the land of the East India Company?"

"In the seventh year of Yongle in the previous dynasty, Emperor Yongle sent Zheng He to the West, and ordered the chief eunuch Zheng He to bring the imperial edict, gold and silver offerings, etc. to the Ceylon Mountain Temple for donation. Now there is still the "Donation to the Ceylon Mountain Buddhist Temple Stele" as evidence."

"The emperor of this dynasty worships gods and Buddhas. Ceylon has believed in Buddhism since ancient times and worships Buddha's tooth relics. You spread Christianity here, and the emperor is furious."

"The current king of the Kingdom of Kandy, Rajsinghe, was originally from India. The believers, after ascending the throne, serve the Buddha. The emperor thought it was good, and he couldn't bear that the Lion Country was without the Buddha's voice, so he sent us to ask you to leave. "

The Governor of Ceylon hurriedly said: "No, no, no, we Dutch are not Catholics, we believe in Protestantism. We don't force others to believe in Protestantism, and our policy is quite tolerant. Some believers of the Lord also kneel down when they see a Buddhist temple, and we don't care."

The officer who sent the letter of war smiled and said: "Mahayana and Hinayana are all Buddhism. Catholicism and Protestantism are all Christianity. I don't think there is any difference. "

"I am just delivering a letter on behalf of the general. Declarations of war can be delivered through formal channels. The fleet commander asked me to bring you a message: surrender, you can't win."

"If you don't surrender, we will bombard. The Marines have landed in nearby Cote and are advancing towards this side."

"Although a colonial governor may not have fought a formal war for a long time. However, the most basic judgment should still be there."

"We will enter the harbor and bombard after destroying the artillery. At the same time, the Marines will use the Vauban siege method to dig into the bastions near the shore."

"In view of the many local people who admire the Celestial Empire, I personally think that resistance is meaningless."

"The general said that if you can surrender, we will guarantee your safety and retain your honor and personal belongings instead of taking them as spoils of war."

"In fact, please don't expect reinforcements. Now, Malacca and Batavia may also be under attack at the same time. And it will take at least two years for the reinforcements from the Netherlands to arrive after receiving the news."

"Surrender."