Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

The steam battleship South Africa was also swallowed by the water.

Before it completely sank, the remaining seven British warships had already rushed south in a tacit understanding, leaving only Lieutenant General Braga who was preparing to ambush them. Before launching any kind of attack, at least there would be a burst of artillery fire first.

Lieutenant General Braga consoled him: "You can't afford to anchor when you see something is wrong. Are you so stupid that you want to feed the sharks?"

With the help of telescopes, I saw that the northern Chilean soldiers everywhere in Valdivia began to take defensive positions. At this time, there was no sound of artillery on the smoke-filled battlefield.

Gunfire on land had become sporadic.

Moreover, the sound of gunfire is getting smaller and smaller, and the direction is from the south. Obviously, these southern Mascaiano troops have begun to retreat south.

Wherever they go, Puerto Montt is their evacuation destination this time.

Lieutenant General Braga guessed well. In this war, southern Chile suffered heavy losses. There were 10,000 defenders. Faced with such a disparity between the 50,000 troops sent by the north, the casualties exceeded 7,000. The remaining 3,000 people evacuated south. However, Although the destination was Puerto Montt, they received orders after retreating to Osorno and could only garrison on the spot in Osorno. Together with the original 2,000 local people, a guard city in the north of Puerto Montt was formed with more than 5,000 people.

Since South America is far away from Europe and Asia, even North America, which is also in the Americas, does not know about the war taking place in Chile on October 10.

Until October 11, 1878, all countries received news of the war in Chile.

All countries were immediately attracted.

Needless to say, there is a war between the current and previous governments of Chilean South America.

The government of Arturo Lauzon in the north dispatched 50,000 army troops to deal with the 10,000 southern troops stationed in the seaport city of Valdivia. Originally, many people would not think it would be successful, because this seaport city has been stationed with seven British warships since September, with a total tonnage of 43,000 tons.

Among them, there is also the Cape Town ironclad, Europe's most advanced 8,000-ton warship.

Faced with such a fleet with a tonnage of more than 40,000 tons, there are very few countries in Europe that dare to go to war with Britain. That's just Germany, France and Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Netherlands is fine, but now many countries naturally prefer to regard it as a country in the Indo-Pacific.

So the Netherlands is not counted.

You must know that for many years, Denmark has been among the top ten naval powers, but its tonnage is currently only 90,000 tons. In other words, this temporary deployment of the British fleet alone has reached the tonnage of Denmark, the world's tenth naval power. Half of that, and the battleships are more advanced than those of Denmark.

Faced with such a fleet, the north's attack on this seaport city will naturally only result in abuse.

Naturally, the attack on the seaport was repulsed and they could only leave in despair.

Just when everyone thought this would be the case, the information revealed that the Netherlands had actually sent a temporary fleet composed of part of the New Zealand fleet to protect northern Chile, and here the northern Chilean government went south to attack Valdivia in the south. When entering the port, nine Dutch warships also sailed south from Santiago.

In the end, an unknown number of Dutch submarines were dispatched. Many people said that the Dutch active submarine Ghost II participated in the battle.

Under the attack of Dutch surface warships and underwater submarines, Britain was unlucky. The British naval squadron in the port of Valdivia was completely wiped out, and when the news came back from Chile, another British squadron stationed in Puerto Montt in the south The squadron's dream came true and nine warships rushed to support them, but when they arrived, they found that the war was over.

The Netherlands annihilated 7 British warships in less than an hour, which shocked the Port Montt Squadron at the time. When this fleet just arrived, it was confirmed with their own eyes that a British warship was hit by 10 torpedoes from a submarine and was silenced for one minute. the process of.

In other words, the South was defeated and retreated to Osorno. Since then, it has lost the important deep-water port in central Chile. It has lost the ability to advance, attack, retreat and defend. The weather in the South is cold in the summer, and Marcos Noa is currently in power. The region is in temperate and cold zones. Compared with the prosperity of Arturo Lauzon in the north, the potential in the south is getting smaller and smaller.

However, many people speculate that Britain has a difficult purpose.

In this war, the northern Chilean government sent 50,000 troops and suffered 9,085 casualties.

The southern Chilean government defended with 10,000 people, resulting in 7,056 casualties and 2,944 evacuations.

Britain lost 8 of its 15 warships, and a total of 2,168 naval soldiers and generals were killed or injured.

The Netherlands had 9 warships and no less than 10 submarines. One submarine was sunk, and one warship was greatly damaged after being bombarded. Fortunately, it did not sink and was pulled back to the port of Valdivia that had just been captured. Carry out emergency repairs.

The Dutch navy suffered more than 180 casualties as a result.

The figure was quickly sent to countries' desks.

This made people in various countries take a breath of air-conditioning.

I was shocked by the huge losses of the British this time. You must know that the British Army's huge losses in North America and the Balkans more than ten years ago were calculated by tens of thousands of people. Therefore, there were constant protests in London and all over the UK, demanding that the UK not launch a war.

Therefore, the British had calmed down a lot in the past few years. However, when it came to the Burmese issue, the British government had no slippers, so it did not stop until it captured Upper Burma at the end of 1870.

Especially when Queen Victoria and William IV attended the wedding of Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Louise in Greece in 1870, the two secretly agreed on a strategy for Britain and the Netherlands to jointly maintain maritime hegemony and check the land powers of Asia and Europe. The alliance created a solid foundation for peace in the next seven years.

Until the second half of 1877, the two countries had been claiming that the Malacca Strait was within the scope of British rule because the Netherlands focused on the security of Sumatra in the western part of the Dutch East Indies and opposed the British invasion decades or centuries ago. The British navy was stronger than the Dutch. It didn’t matter that the Netherlands was weak in the past.

But now that the Netherlands has put its focus on the Far East, it is natural that it will not give up on the Strait of Malacca, the easiest shortcut between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. What's more, if you look at the map, as long as you can clearly see the geographical location of Sumatra Island, No one would think that the Netherlands should give up its rights and interests in the Strait of Malacca, because in comparison, Sumatra Island and the Strait of Malacca are connected from east to west, and Sumatra Island is the reason why this strait is formed, while the northern Malay Island is shorter.

Because of this, the Netherlands was naturally not satisfied with Britain's hegemonic approach, so the dispute between the two countries started.

The Netherlands has become powerful, powerful enough to cause Britain to suffer such a huge defeat. No one thinks that Britain will be willing to swallow this bitter pill, so everyone is waiting to see what kind of revenge Britain will take on the Netherlands.