Chapter 1065

“Boom boom boom…”

Accompanied by the roar, the entire coast of Jakarta was covered in artillery fire. Under the power of the large-caliber cannonballs, the trench position that the Dutch had meticulously acquired was constantly being sent into the air, with dirt flying as high as a dozen meters.

The trembling Dutch soldiers hid in the pre-dug trenches and tunnels at the first sign of artillery bombardment, but even so, there were still casualties in the areas that were directly hit by the shells.

Simon and Averall were also hiding in such tunnels. The Dutch soldiers now jokingly referred to these tunnels as cat ears.

“Damn it, when will this bombardment end?”

The deafening sound of the bombardment was incessant. Dust from the tunnels fell continuously, and hiding in such tunnels at this time was also very stressful.

The other Dutch soldiers tightly covered their ears, their bodies trembling. They had no energy to pay attention to Simon’s roaring.

After cursing for twenty minutes, Simon suddenly felt as if the world had become quiet.

He immediately crawled out of the tunnel, stepped on a stool, and looked out. In his eyes, the Chinese Empire’s soldiers were coming towards the coast in small boats.

Realizing this, Simon immediately shouted, “Everyone, get ready for battle!”

As his voice fell, the Dutch soldiers, each holding a stool, rushed out of the tunnels. The soldiers in the first row put down their stools and stepped on them to stick their heads out of the trenches.

And behind these soldiers stood two rows of soldiers. These soldiers, carrying Conqueror rifles, were ready to hand up the loaded rifles at any time.

Looking at this scene, Simon was slightly satisfied. It was because they believed that by using this method, they could inflict heavy damage on the Chinese Empire’s attack that they chose to stay here.

On the other side of the trench, Averall was also ready. Although he envied the Chinese Empire’s advanced firearms, he also understood that a person’s eyesight was limited. Soldiers could basically maintain accuracy within two hundred meters. Beyond that, the bullets would basically have no aim and could only kill by chance.

“Let’s fight to the death. Jakarta is mine.” There was a cruel look in Averall’s eyes. He knew how valuable this colony with a population of over nine million and rich resources was.

It could be said that before establishing trade with the Chinese Empire, Jakarta had always been the economic center of the Netherlands in Asia, with a status similar to Britain’s India.

At sea.

Yue Yun and Lei Ming were observing the beach with their binoculars. Unlike the old monocular telescopes, with the improvement of the Empire’s military industrial capacity, the two were now using binoculars.

“The effect of this artillery preparation has made the Dutch look very bad.” Lei Ming said with a smile. Although he saw many Dutch soldiers entering their combat positions, he also saw that wounded soldiers were constantly being carried out of the trenches.

“But it’s not enough.” Yue Yun said. “The rest is up to the troops themselves. We need to save our shells for the naval battle. We can’t keep consuming them like this.”

Lei Ming felt a little regretful, but he knew that Yue Yun was speaking the truth. The Dutch warships had not appeared yet, and he did not know what they were up to.

As he finished speaking, the soldier on the observation tower suddenly gave a warning, and at the same time, pointed to the southeast.

Yue Yun immediately took out his binoculars to look, and saw fifty sailing warships coming towards them majestically.

Glancing at the soldiers who were landing, he said, “Attacking us in the middle of our landing. They are quite smart. But they are overestimating their abilities.”

With that, he immediately had the flagman issue an order. Twelve ironclads broke away from the fleet and sailed in the direction the Dutch warships came from. To him, twelve warships were more than enough to deal with fifty Dutch warships, because this was an unequal war.

“Are twelve warships enough? This is not a joke. Once they charge over, our landing troops will suffer heavy casualties.” Lei Ming was a little nervous. He did not want his soldiers to lose their lives in vain at sea.

Yue Yun was full of confidence. “Sending out twelve warships is already giving them enough face. Six would have been enough.”

Swallowing, Lei Ming’s eyes widened as he looked at the approaching sailing warships. He understood that these warships must be loaded with similar explosive shells, which posed a great threat to them.

Eric, standing on the deck, looked at the imperial warships charging at them from three directions, his face pale. He understood that a fierce naval battle was about to begin.

If all the Chinese Empire’s warships were to charge, he would not be worried. But now, they were only sending a mere twelve warships, which truly scared him, because this proved how terrifying these ironclads were, which was why Yue Yun was so confident.

At this time, they were still three or four li (approximately 1.5-2 km) apart. To him, it was still not too late to escape, but as a Dutch soldier, he obviously could not do that.

Gritting his teeth, he also charged forward. Now they had the wind advantage, which was very beneficial to them. At the moment of contact, they could use the wind direction to form a “T” formation.

“General, can we start?” On the King-Class, the adjutant asked Yue Yun for instructions.

The two sides were getting closer and closer and were about to enter the engagement range.

Yue Yun nodded. He said, “Let’s start. End the battle as soon as possible!” He had no worries about this battle. In the face of an absolute difference in power, war was nothing more than a one-sided crushing.

“Yes, General!” The adjutant turned back. He said to the signalman who was waiting for the order, “Fire!”

The red small flags waved in the hands of the signalman, and then a series of roars rang out. Lei Ming, standing on the deck, only saw the ironclads tremble, and conical shells flew towards the distant Dutch fleet with lightning speed. In an instant, the leading Dutch warship was hit by a shell and turned into a sea of fire.

“These fools think we will still fight in a ‘T’ formation? Our warships can fight in all directions,” Yue Yun sneered.

The warship was burning. Scattered wood chips fell into the sea, and the clear blue ocean was instantly dyed red. There were cries of agony from the struggling Dutch soldiers everywhere on the sea.

“Help, help!” The Dutch soldiers in the water cried out.

The blood quickly attracted sharks, and the Dutch soldiers could see sharks swimming beneath their feet, which deepened their fear.

But Eric was already stunned. He just numbly watched the soldiers struggling in the water.

The other Dutch soldiers were also so scared that their legs were shaking at this astonishing scene. They were all veteran naval soldiers, but they had never encountered such a bizarre situation.

Faced with this kind of combat from the Chinese Empire’s navy, they felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

But this was only the beginning of their fear. After the shelling, the ironclads, spewing black smoke, rapidly approached them at an astonishing speed, surrounding them from three directions.

Faced with this urgent situation, Eric’s heart sank to the bottom.