Wild North America 1846

With heavy troops pressing down on the border, the Dutch defenders of Balavia had no choice but to abandon the dock area and retreated to the city to defend themselves. They watched helplessly as the armed soldiers of the Tang Empire burned, killed and looted, but wisely did not take any counterattack.

The Dutch are very shrewd, and they know that the entire dock area is completely covered by the artillery fire of the enemy's powerful fleet.

There is no need to use the 305mm main gun, just the numerous ship's secondary guns can bring devastating damage, and they are not willing to die in vain.

after dusk falls

The Tang Empire's task force escorted a large number of captured cargo ships, leaving the dock one after another and heading towards the open sea.

It wasn't until nightfall that the Batavia port area, which had been looted and destroyed, returned to peace. Only a few shipyards and warehouse buildings that were still burning, as well as the mess everywhere, could prove what happened here?

The enemy moved so quickly that they retreated completely in more than an hour, causing General Michels, who was organizing a night counterattack, to dodge hard.

He hurriedly led people to the dock area. Sure enough, there was no trace of the enemies who had originally landed in large numbers?

Today, the Batavia harbor pier is in a mess, with thousands of people gathered on the pier in despair, looking particularly miserable against the firelight.

The attacking Tang Imperial fleet captured a large number of merchant ships and completely destroyed some old sailing ships, leaving only a few small fishing boats and sampans.

Many people lost their livelihoods, many Dutch captains lost their ships, and the entire Dutch East Indies shipping industry suffered a heavy blow, having lost most of its ability to supply and transport materials to other islands.

After General Michels made a tour, his face turned livid, and he realized a serious problem;

If most of the cargo ships that could sail on the high seas were destroyed or plundered, the Dutch East Indies would become several archipelagos that could not support each other and were artificially separated.

Supplies from the Dutch East Indies cannot be transported out. If coupled with the blockade of the enemy fleet, supplies from outside cannot be transported in.

His heart froze when he thought of such serious consequences.

The news was quickly reported to the Governor's Mansion. After hearing this, Governor Pos was shocked and blurted out: "Oh... God! What about other ports?"

Java Island is a long and narrow island, with mostly bulging peaks in the middle that run through the entire island from east to west. Important cities such as Jakarta, Bandung, and Surabaya are all located on the northern plains. There are many and dense towns in the coastal areas, and the shipping industry is relatively developed.

Offshore ships are the only link between the islands. Without these ships, the Java Islands are completely isolated.

Not to mention supporting the Sumatra Islands or the Kalimantan Islands, the main island of Java to Bali, Zamboanga Island and other affiliated islands have been separated. This move is really too cruel.

No one needed to answer. Governor Pos turned pale with fear when he thought of such serious consequences.

Everyone present looked at each other, realizing the seriousness of the problem, but they were helpless.

a few days later

A series of bad news came one after another, Surabaya Port was attacked, Pamalan Port was attacked, Semarang Port was attacked, Jinliyan Port was attacked...

almost without exception

Large cargo ships or passenger ships in various ports were either robbed or destroyed on the spot. Java Island's external shipping industry was severely hit, and more than 90% of its ship transportation capacity was lost.

An important port city in East Kalimantan Province Brazil

This is a port city with strong Dutch architectural features, with a total population of about 112,000. The city’s stone roads, churches, and towering Dutch-style buildings with spiers make people feel like they have arrived in a certain Dutch city.

This is the second largest city in the entire Dutch Kalimantan Islands. Traces of artillery smoke can still be seen in the city. The streets are full of heavily armed Tang Empire soldiers. It has now fallen.

At the Brazilian port, there are countless cargo ships and passenger ships moored, including sailing cargo ships, small steamers and iron barges. You can't see the edge at a glance.

In the two-story building of the former Brazilian City Council, a military meeting of extremely high standards was being held.

Marshal Tang-Li Xin, the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, sat at the head. The conference room was filled with stars, at least all officers above the rank of lieutenant colonel. More than a hundred people were seated densely.

In front of a large hanging map, Major General Wang Tianxiong, deputy chief of staff of the expeditionary force, held a slender wooden pole in his hand and was introducing the deployment of the expeditionary force's military operations.

According to him;

After the Royal Navy task force swept the Dutch's main ports, the Imperial Expeditionary Forces began to land in large numbers in two groups.

Along the way, the Sumatran Corps led by Lieutenant General Liu Zhongguo, commander-in-chief of the Second Corps of the Royal Guards, has successfully landed at Palembang and Jambi in the Sumatra Islands. After a small-scale fierce battle, it has initially occupied the area.

Next step

The landing corps will spend 15 to 20 days consolidating the occupied area and resting and regrouping. After the follow-up troops arrive one after another, they will begin to attack the enemy's deep areas.

Along the way is the Kalimantan Corps led by Lieutenant General Fan Pengfei, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Royal Army and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Corps. It has currently occupied Brazil, Samarinda and other places, and has established a stable bridgehead.

Next step

After gathering and resting, it will expand to South Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and North Kalimantan.

In response, part of the Kalimantan Corps' armed forces have landed in Lanfang State. With the assistance of the Lanfang State army, they will invade North Kalimantan Province from the northwest to implement a two-pronged east-west pincer strategy.

It is expected that within 2 to 3 months, the Dutch Kalimantan region with a total area of ​​approximately 590,000 square kilometers will be fully occupied.

The total area of ​​the Kalimantan Islands is about 740,000 square kilometers, and in the north is the British Straits Settlements Malaysia region of Lanfang.

Among them, the total area of ​​Lanfang Kingdom is about 47,200 square kilometers, the total area of ​​British Malaya is a little more than 100,000 square kilometers, and the rest is all the territory under the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, which is what the Tang Empire wants to occupy

part, occupying four-fifths of the entire Kalimantan Islands area.

Although the Dutch colonists in this area have a colonial history of more than 240 years, the degree of development is extremely low. Only some coastal areas have been initially developed, and the large inland tropical rainforest areas are completely primitive.

Therefore, the Kalimantan Corps faces great difficulties.

One is that the local road conditions are extremely poor. They are almost all muddy tropical rainforest roads. After rain, they become muddy and difficult for vehicles and horses to move. This troop expansion and logistics transportation have brought great challenges.

After careful study and combined with local geographical conditions, the Kalimantan Corps decided to mainly transport troops and supplies by sea and seize control of coastal towns one by one.

on the basis of

Relying on the controlled coastal towns, we will carry out mopping up operations in surrounding areas to gradually control the overall situation.

This process takes approximately 2 to 3 months, and the next step is the consolidation and digestion period.

The Kalimantan Corps plans to use captured local indigenous people as the main labor force to carry out large-scale road construction to connect coastal towns.

Organized efforts were made to cut down trees in the coastal rainforest area, use sand and gravel to consolidate the roadbed, build drainage ditches, and build bridges in an effort to build a smooth main highway around the island.

According to construction experience in tropical areas, it generally takes 3 to 4 years to build a trunk highway.

In the early stage, sand and gravel were used to compact the road surface and build bridges and ditches to achieve the basic conditions for transporting large amounts of materials.

After being soaked by rain, settling, collapse and other conditions, the built roads can remain smooth with constant maintenance and form a solid foundation after repeated rolling over by vehicles.

Finally, based on this solid trunk road, mixed with sand and gravel asphalt to harden the road, a smooth main artery of the ring-island highway can be built.

Of course, building a ring-island highway artery in a tropical rainforest area is a huge project.

Due to the heavy rainfall and numerous streams in this area, a considerable number of bridges and culverts need to be built, with an average of more than sixty or seventy per 100 kilometers, and a considerable amount of concrete is used.

Fortunately, the expeditionary corps is fully prepared for this. After establishing itself in Brazil and Samarinda, it has begun to select sites to prepare for the construction of cement plants, and the preliminary start-up work has begun one after another.

For the wealthy Tang Empire, anything that could be solved with money was no big deal.

The empire has been expanding for more than 50 years, and it has rich experience in the colonial field. It knows well that sharpening the sword does not waste time cutting wood. It has always been "colonial development, infrastructure construction first."

The hugely expensive main road around the island is not just a road, but by extension, an expanded colonial area.

Along the more than 1,700 kilometers of the main highway around the island, within 50 kilometers, there are new colonial areas that are easy to develop.

A trunk highway can connect countless plantations and farms along the way, which can bring livelihood to millions of new immigrants, and can connect dozens of coastal towns, bringing them continued prosperity.

Huge investment means huge gains. The completion of the main highway around the island will bring the colonization of the Kalimantan Islands, the third largest island in the world, to a depth and breadth that the Kalimantan people have not reached in 300 years of colonization. This is of great significance.

major.

Today's provinces and coastal towns in Kalimantan are fragmented and disconnected.

During the Dutch colonial period, they only focused on squeezing the economic output of the colony all year round and turning it into a raw material production base for European spices, coffee, cocoa, sugar and natural rubber, without any construction at all.

Therefore, the entire Dutch East Indies has a completely agricultural economic structure, with no trace of modern industry at all. The construction of roads, canals, and dams are still the same as they were hundreds of years ago.

Most roads are still passable during the dry season, but are completely closed during the rainy season.

This is also the real reason why the Acehnese uprising in Sumatra has been able to persist for 25 years.

As long as they escape the encirclement and suppression of the Dutch army in the dry season, the resistance forces can breathe a sigh of relief in the rainy season and continue to hide in the hot rainforest to deal with the Dutch colonists year after year.

(I would like to report to you that due to some troubles in the author Putaojun’s own family, the recent updates have been interrupted. I would like to express my deep apology to readers and friends.

Starting from today, we will resume two updates every day, with occasional bursts of three updates, until the book is finished, and we will try not to have any interruptions.

I am very ashamed and ask for your understanding.)