Chapter 429: Death, going into battle in danger, and being defeated.
"Damn it, be careful of enemy attacks!" Governor Alexander shouted as he ran towards the fortifications not far away without looking back.
These flying guys are no joke. The bombs they throw can also kill people, and their power is no worse than that of small and medium-caliber artillery. Because they are in the air, they can hit enemies that ground artillery cannot hit.
boom!
Perhaps Governor Alexander's will to survive moved God. In short, a bomb exploded next to Governor Alexander, taking Governor Alexander, beloved by the natives of the Dutch East Indies, to see God.
"Mr. Governor!"
The personal guards and messengers around Governor Alexander were in chaos, but everyone rushed to the fortifications faster.
Governor Alexander, who was hit by a bomb at close range, had no hope of survival, and it was even impossible to put his whole body back together.
Under such circumstances, it is impossible for his personal guards and soldiers to sacrifice their lives for a pile of scraps of meat. Their own life safety has become more important than anything else.
Of course, the person who rushed fastest was the diplomat Ambassador Renault. After Governor Alexander called out the enemy attack, Ambassador Reno reacted quickly and followed Governor Alexander more than ten meters behind, running towards the fortifications.
After the bomb exploded a few meters in front of Governor Alexander, Ambassador Renault was not affected too much because he was nearly 20 meters away, but his hearing was temporarily affected.
It did not stop Ambassador Renault from rushing towards the fortifications, like a hungry wolf that had not eaten for several days, rushing towards a place with delicious food.
Huh~huh!
After finally breaking into the fortifications, Ambassador Renault and some of the soldiers breathed a sigh of relief and began to breathe heavily.
The feeling of escaping from the hands of death was not very good. The rapid beating of their hearts told them that there was really only a thin line between them and death.
If Fanfan slowed down for a few seconds or walked faster for a few seconds and caught up with Governor Alexander in front of them, they would most likely follow Governor Alexander to see God.
Everyone in the fortifications looked at each other. Only then did they think of a serious question, that is, who should command the more than 100,000 troops?
Governor Alexander was not only the colonial governor of the Dutch East Indies, but also the colonial commander-in-chief of the Dutch East Indies.
With the blessing of his dual status, Governor Alexander had extraordinary rights, and there was no one competing for power in the Dutch East Indies.
The colonial military under Governor Alexander consisted of one Dutch division and six colonial divisions.
Although the Dutch Division was larger than the Colonial Division in terms of rank, the power gap between the several division commanders was not too large, and they all directly obeyed the orders of Governor Alexander.
The more difficult problem at present is that Governor Alexander does not have an adjutant, and the deputy governor is a purely political figure and is not proficient in military affairs.
The selection of a temporary military commander has become a problem. It is difficult to find a successor in the military who can convince the public and is more suitable for his identity and status.
At this time, Governor Alexander's personal guards and soldiers looked at Ambassador Renault.
Ambassador Renault is the former Dutch diplomatic ambassador to Australasia, and is sufficiently senior to become the temporary colonial commander-in-chief.
More importantly, Ambassador Renault's resume includes that he studied in a Dutch military academy and served in the Dutch mainland and Dutch East Indies colonial armies, although the total service time was only two years.
All things considered, Ambassador Renault's identity and status are more suitable, and he has enough prestige in the military to command the army when needed.
Of course, whether Ambassador Renault can become the temporary commander-in-chief of the Dutch East Indies Colony depends on the opinions of the Dutch government.
Under the order of Ambassador Reno, several signalmen began to send telegrams to the Netherlands, explaining that Governor Alexander had died in the bombing of Australasian aircraft, and requested the Dutch government to appoint a new commander-in-chief of the colonial army, or a temporary commander-in-chief to take command. army.
It is estimated that it will be the second day after the Dutch government receives this telegram, and it is likely that it will be two or three days before the Dutch government receives a reply.
Because the war was relatively urgent, the Colonial Army Staff recommended Ambassador Reynaud to be the interim commander-in-chief. He would serve as the interim commander-in-chief of the Dutch East Indies Colony and command the army in combat until the Dutch government issued further instructions.
Ambassador Reno's first order as interim commander-in-chief was to order the troops of the three colonial divisions on the first line of defense, totaling more than 50,000 people, to defend with all their strength and to pay all costs and not allow the Australasian army to advance further.
In the eyes of Ambassador Reno, these indigenous soldiers can give up at any time. Using their sacrifices in exchange for the stability of the first line of defense was a very cost-effective deal for the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies.
Ambassador Reno's second order was to have the colonial government temporarily recruit at least 100,000 natives to join the defense of Batavia.
Although the number of Australasian troops does not seem to be too large, from the perspective of firepower and equipment alone, the current Dutch army is no match for the Australasian army. The army needs more soldiers, even if they are just cannon fodder, they can play the role that cannon fodder should have.
This air attack only lasted for more than half an hour, but it caused considerable casualties to the Dutch army.
The sudden end of the previous bombing campaign mistakenly led the Dutch army to believe that Australasia was short of artillery shells, so many Dutch soldiers walked out of the fortifications and entered the trenches.
These bombers and fighter jets hovering in the sky caused considerable casualties to the Dutch army. Just this round of aircraft bombings killed hundreds of Dutch soldiers and injured thousands.
After the aircraft bombing, the Australasian army once again approached the first line of defense and launched a formal attack. Division Commander Silvio determined that the Dutch soldiers were physically and mentally exhausted after enduring a long period of bombing and needed some time to relieve themselves.
This time period is also the best opportunity to attack. The corpses of the Dutch and the wailing wounded soldiers would have dealt a heavy blow to the hearts and minds of all Dutch troops.
Under such circumstances, even the regular Dutch army will have a certain psychological impact, let alone the indigenous army formed by these simple trainings.
Even if the Dutch native troops do not collapse and lose their combat effectiveness, their morale will be greatly damaged, and they may even become deserters at any time.
Under such circumstances, as long as the Dutch lose the war, the indigenous troops will probably be the first to be unable to hold on.
As long as there are no indigenous troops, the Dutch army no longer has a numerical advantage, and it is only a matter of time before it is surrounded and annihilated.
Sure enough, when Australasia launched a new round of offensive, it was clearly noticeable that the resistance of the indigenous army became smaller.
These indigenous people are originally greedy for life and afraid of death, and they will not willingly give up their lives for the Dutch.
After a slight resistance from the Australasian army, some of the indigenous troops threw down their equipment and fled towards both sides of the battlefield.
Although most of them would be killed by the Dutch army's supervisory team or eliminated by the Australasian army, a considerable number of indigenous people successfully escaped from the battlefield and set an example for the remaining indigenous people.
"Stop working for these Dutch people, they are almost finished! Return to our tribe, we just want to live our lives." Someone
shouted, and the Dutch indigenous army instantly rioted.
What's even more serious is that the three divisions on the first line of defense are all indigenous troops. There are very few Dutch soldiers and commanders. At this time, they can no longer control these indigenous troops.
The Dutch army in the rear only had one Dutch division and a small number of reserve troops. Under the premise that Ambassador Renault and the staff had not yet come out of the fortifications, they could not control the already very bad situation on the front line.
In this way, these Dutch indigenous soldiers imitated each other, and eventually evolved into a large-scale rout.
The supervising team with only a thousand people could not control the collective collapse of tens of thousands of people. The commander of the supervising team could only report the news to the rear staff while trying to stabilize the situation on the front line as much as possible.
But at this time, the indigenous troops were no longer controllable by the small supervising team. Unless the Dutch troops in the rear could react quickly and use firepower to suppress these indigenous troops, forcing them to return to their positions.
Otherwise, as long as it is delayed for a while, no army can restore the collapse of these natives.
The news from the supervising team was transmitted to the staff, and the staff sent the news back to the supervising team. This process took about ten minutes.
More than ten minutes are enough to do a lot of things, such as completely disintegrating an army of tens of thousands of people, and even many people have run away from the battlefield.
Upon learning that the indigenous troops on the front line had been disbanded, Ambassador Renault was heartbroken.
While becoming the new temporary commander-in-chief of the colony seemed like good news, the problem was that with the natives disintegrating, the war seemed to have been lost.
As soon as he became interim commander-in-chief, he was about to face the defeat of the war. Only then did Ambassador Reno realize belatedly that he had been forced to become a scapegoat.
Anyway, Governor Alexander is dead for a hundred years. It seems that the only one who can take the blame for the frontline battlefield is him who has just become the new commander-in-chief of the colony.
Ambassador Renault, who understood everything, smashed the situation in the staff department, and finally had to accept the current tragic fate, and issued an order to resist stubbornly, asking the Dutch Division to hold on to the second line of defense and try to prevent the Australasian attack as much as possible. Procrastinate longer.
Ambassador Renault no longer counted on the three divisions of colonial troops on the front line and the larger first line of defense.
Without the resistance of the indigenous army, the temporary deployment of the Dutch Division to the first line of defense would instead cause the Dutch Division to face the encirclement and flanking attack of the Australasian army because of the loss of the protection of the defense line.
It is better to let the remaining Dutch division and part of the reserve troops hold on to the second line of defense. The remaining troops total 20,000 people. As long as they can resist for a few days, the rear can organize more indigenous troops from Batavia. , defending the entire Batavia with human lives.
Anyway, Batavia has millions of indigenous people. Even if there are 10,000 casualties a day, these millions of indigenous people are enough for the Australasians to massacre for more than a year.
Ambassador Renault didn't believe that the Australasians really dared to massacre so many indigenous people to capture the entire Batavia.
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(End of chapter)