Chapter 1067

Stephen watched in despair as the imperial soldiers, like a tide, charged toward the trenches.

Under the bombardment of shells, the soldiers hiding in the trenches suffered heavy casualties. To avoid being killed by the shells, many Dutch soldiers had hidden back in the tunnels.

But now that the imperial soldiers had launched a charge, they had no choice but to crawl out of the tunnels to resist. But when they showed their heads again, the machine guns opened fire again, making their lives miserable.

What was even more terrifying was that under the cover of the machine guns, the imperial soldiers quickly rushed to the trenches. Faced with the Dutch soldiers in the trenches, they threw grenades, which immediately dismantled the defensive forces in the trenches.

Simon and Averall were both in this predicament at this moment. Without a sweeping weapon like the machine gun, they were completely unable to stop the charge of the imperial soldiers with their front-loading rifles.

The battle was doomed from the moment it began. Faced with the shells that fell from the sky, they were once again at a disadvantage.

However, the existence of the trenches and tunnels still preserved a considerable portion of the Dutch’s fighting force.

After the imperial soldiers rushed into the trenches, a fierce hand-to-hand combat using bayonets began.

“Stephen, we must retreat. We can’t hold on much longer like this.” Simon and Averall, in a sorry state, rushed to Stephen.

Their bodies were covered in dirt, which was thrown up and landed on them by the explosions of the bombs.

“What are our casualties now?” Stephen asked.

“The enemy’s bombardment alone has caused us to lose three-tenths of our soldiers. The native soldiers we trained have already become demoralized, and they will soon fall into chaos. At that point, with only the remaining Dutch soldiers, we will be completely unable to withstand the Empire’s attack.” Simon said urgently.

Although Averall was very pained, he understood that he probably had no choice but to abandon this last Dutch colony in Asia.

“After ruling here for many years, I am very familiar with the terrain here. If we lead the remaining soldiers into the rainforest to the east, we can escape their pursuit. As long as we pass through the rainforest, we can reach the city of Bula, a hundred

li away, where we can board a merchant ship and leave.” Averall said.

Stephen continued to look at the battlefield. Gunshots and grenade explosions rang out from time to time in the trenches. This was the imperial soldiers clearing out the Dutch soldiers in the trenches.

On the flank of the trenches, some native soldiers crawled out and fled, but they were shot down one after another by the sweeping machine gun fire.

As the imperial soldiers continuously poured into the trenches, the defense line was constantly being compressed. Stephen said, “Retreat, destroy everything in Jakarta that can be destroyed, do not leave anything of value for the Empire.”

“No problem, Councilor Stephen.” Simon and Averall said in unison.

Then they sounded the retreat bugle. Upon hearing this order, the Dutch soldiers in the trenches all climbed out and retreated towards Jakarta.

On the King-Class, Lei Ming was observing the entire situation on the battlefield. As soon as the Dutch showed signs of a rout, he immediately issued a pursuit order to the frontline commander, Chang Yuzhu.

Upon receiving the order, Chang Yuzhu immediately led the imperial soldiers to intensify the attack. Moving through the trenches, they no longer fought the Dutch soldiers with bayonets, but instead used their rifles to shoot them. At the same time, whenever they encountered a tunnel, they would throw a grenade inside.

Because they had ignored the tunnels, they had just suffered a lot of damage from surprise attacks. Some Dutch soldiers would suddenly rush out of the tunnels after they passed and attack them from behind.

“Quick! Quick! Don’t waste time with these Dutchmen, don’t you dare fight them with bayonets.” Chang Yuzhu cursed.

When faced with the provocation of the Dutchmen’s bayonets, the imperial soldiers often couldn’t resist going up and fighting them with their own bayonets.

However, although their bayonet skills were good, the imperial soldiers’ height and physique were still a little different from the Dutchmen’s, so they couldn’t get much of an advantage in a bayonet fight.

But this slowed down the speed of the attack. Seeing the Dutch officers leading the soldiers to retreat, Chang Yuzhu became more anxious. According to their war experience, these colonists would take away a large amount of wealth from the city and destroy everything they could before retreating.

And this situation would make their war profits much smaller, and they would also lose a lot in the settlement after the war.

The soldiers also came to their senses at this time. These Dutch soldiers who were still resisting were clearly trying to delay their pursuit.

Coming back to their senses, they all loaded their bullets. They threw grenades one after another at the enemy. With the sudden increase in firepower, the Dutch soldiers could no longer resist and retreated one after another.

Chang Yuzhu, leading the soldiers in a hot pursuit, fully occupied the trenches. He then led the vanguard to pursue the enemy into Jakarta City.

Just as they were two hundred meters from the city gate, a row of Dutch soldiers suddenly stood up on the city wall of Jakarta.

A volley of gunfire rang out. The imperial soldiers did not have time to react, and the soldiers in the front row were hit by bullets and fell to the ground.

“Everyone lie down!” Chang Yuzhu, who was lying on the ground, shouted, “Battalion Commander, quickly bring the mortars over and bombard the city wall.”

In a short while, the first thirty mortars were brought over. After a simple adjustment of the angle, the soldiers inserted the shells into the breeches. With the sound of the shells cutting through the air, the city wall of Jakarta was instantly turned into a sea of fire.

In the explosions, the stones of the city wall of Jakarta flew everywhere. In a short while, the entire city gate was blown down by the mortar shells.

After breaking through the city gate, Chang Yuzhu let out a battle cry, and the imperial soldiers once again charged into the city.

In the Governor’s Office, the three, Stephen, who had arrived a step earlier, were directing the soldiers to transport gold and silver. But the sound of the city gate collapsing suddenly made their expressions extremely ugly.

It was as if the imperial soldiers understood their intention and did not give them a chance to transport the wealth away.

Seeing that the gunshots were getting closer and closer, and the Dutch soldiers were constantly fleeing towards the Governor’s Office, the three of them looked at each other with unwillingness.

Stephen said, “Burn the Governor’s Office.”

With that, he snatched a torch from a soldier and threw it at the curtains of the Governor’s Office’s window. The flames immediately shot up into the sky.

At the same time, the Dutch soldiers all threw their torches at the valuable buildings in the city: shops, granaries, and residential houses. Everything that could be lit began to burn.

In the blaze, Stephen opened the boxes filled with gold and silver, letting the Dutch soldiers snatch them.

“Soldiers, this is all our Dutch property. Take it all. Now we are going to the city of Bula. Follow us, and don’t let those bastards get anything.” Stephen shouted.

To him, this was the best way to preserve Jakarta’s wealth now. He would rather give it to the Dutch soldiers than to the people of the Chinese Empire.

The soldiers cheered. They stuffed the gold and silver into their pockets and protected the three of them as they headed towards the east city gate.

After leaving Jakarta City, Stephen looked at the city engulfed in flames and showed a mocking smile. In this way, even if he didn’t hold Jakarta, he would still have an explanation when he went back.