1850 American Gold Tycoon

Chapter 405: Initiative

At first, Liang Yao was worried that this was a dubious plan by the Dutch and did not dare to go deep into it rashly.

He just organized some troops of the Guangdong Navy and a battalion of infantry from the California Infantry Regiment to form an advance force, preparing to attack Pontianak steadily and steadily, and then inquire about the truth and confirm whether what these prisoners of war said was true.

Pontianak is important to Liang Yao, but it is also important to the Dutch and Indian authorities.

Losing the Dutch Indian authorities in Pontianak is equivalent to losing the logistical supply point in West Borneo and losing the initiative in the West Borneo region.

Liang Yao can see this, and the Dutch and Indian authorities must also be able to see this.

Liang Yao's supplies relied heavily on ports, as did the Dutch and Indian authorities.

Soon, before the leading troops arrived in Pontianak, Elvis sent a communications soldier to inform Liang Yao of the current situation in Pontianak.

Pontianak was indeed lost.

Those Dutch prisoners of war did not deceive him.

The Dutch evacuated Pontianak in a hurry. Before leaving, they did not even have time to destroy the supplies in the Pontianak warehouse to avoid damaging the enemy.

Liang Yao also breathed a sigh of relief when he learned that Pontianak was captured.

A tough battle has just been fought at sea, and it is always a good thing to avoid a tough battle on land.

Now that Pontianak has been captured, the first thing to do is to dredge the channel of the Capuas River and restore navigation as soon as possible.

Liang Yao did not expect to rely on the inventory of materials left by the Dutch and Indian authorities to defend Pontianak, the newly harvested fruit of victory.

After all, the calibers of the guns on both sides are different. The Western Brigade soldiers who are accustomed to using Walter M1851 rifles and Sacramento guns must not be used to the Dutch's broken guns and cannons.

Of course, the beachhead cannot be lost.

He can conquer Pontianak, and the Dutch and Indian authorities will seek to recapture Pontianak after they react.

Liang Yao left behind the engineer battalion and the Beaver Regiment, the two battalions of the Oregon Infantry that accompanied the team on the expedition.

The engineer battalion is responsible for on-site surveying and mapping, as well as designing and constructing beachhead defense lines and arranging forts.

Two battalions of the Oregon Infantry were responsible for the defense of the beachhead.

As long as the beachhead position is well managed, Pontianak, 20 kilometers away from the beachhead, can be used as a stable and safe rear base without directly facing the artillery fire of the Dutch and Indian fleets.

Even if the Royal Dutch East India Army comes in full force, Liang Yao still has enough reaction time and ample buffer space.

It would not be like the Royal Dutch and Indian Army, which lost Pontianak so quickly.

The Dutch-Indian authorities have operated the island of Borneo for many years, and the Royal Dutch-Indian Army has other bases on the island.

If they lose the Pontianak, they have a place to retreat. If Liang Yao loses the Pontianak, the enemy will not be able to retreat even if they want to. They can only retreat to the deep mountains and forests inland to play hide and seek with the Dutch.

Such a result was unacceptable to Liang Yao.

"I'll stay and assist the engineer battalion in surveying and building beach defense formulas."

Fremont took the initiative to ask Liang Yao to stay.

He is an engineering soldier and has the expertise to do this job.

"Then I'll bother you. After I arrive in Pontianak City, I will recruit some personnel as soon as possible to help build the defensive position on the beach. The position built by the Dutch is too rough and cannot be used directly." Liang Yao dismissed it. He said after taking a look at the crude position of the Dutch and Indian troops.

"General, can you deploy another artillery battery?"

Kruger, the commander of the Oregon Infantry Regiment in charge of beachhead defense, hoped that Liang Yao could allocate an artillery battery to him.

The artillery is a unit directly under the Western Brigade, under the direct control of Liang Yao, and has not yet been delegated to the regiment level.

This is not because the artillery production of the Sacramento Arsenal cannot keep up, but because the artillery talent pool cannot keep up.

Expanding an artillery company to an artillery battalion is already the limit of California's artillery talent pool.

California's population limits California's war potential. Therefore, although Liang Yao has been expanding his army, the scale of the expansion is also relatively limited.

Furthermore, Liang Yao pursues a policy of elite troops, adhering to the principle of "preferring to be deficient rather than indiscriminate," and has relatively high quality requirements for soldiers.

"I will leave an artillery company for you. The artillery company's field artillery cannot block the Capuas River. We have heavy artillery in our warehouse in Xiangshan. I will ask Global Shipping Company to transport the heavy artillery over immediately." Liang Yao pointed to the wide Said the mouth of the Capuas River.

"Before the heavy artillery arrives, you only have 6-pound and 10-pound field guns available. Even if you use these field guns, you must guard the mouth of the river for me. Don't release any Dutch warships or let any Dutch soldiers enter. Dian, do you understand?”

Although Liang Yao had an artillery battalion, he only brought two companies with him to this expedition, and the remaining company stayed in California to train new recruits.

At most, he could only transfer one company of artillery to Kruger, and the remaining artillery company had to be retained to capture Pontianak or participate in subsequent military operations.

"Yes! Your Excellency, General! Please rest assured, General, our Beaver Regiment must hold its position even if we fight to the last man!"

Kruger puffed up his chest and saluted Liang Yao with a military salute.

This was the Beaver Regiment's first combat mission, and he hoped that the Beaver Regiment he had single-handedly led would perform well in this mission.

After Kruger left, Liang Yao asked the engineer battalion to immediately set up a telegraph line from here to Pontianak so that he could learn about the situation at the beachhead as soon as possible.

Since the channel of the Capuas River had been blocked by the Dutch with sunken ships, dredging the channel would take some time.

Liang Yao's large army could only go to Pontianak on foot.

After less than two hours of marching, Liang Yao rode his horse and led the subsequent large troops into Pontianak.

The Dutch withdrew from Pontianak quickly and decisively, and no fierce fighting broke out in Pontianak.

Even when Elvis led his army into Pontianak, there were only sporadic exchanges of fire with the Royal Dutch and Indian Army, and artillery was not used.

Therefore, the battle in Pontianak caused minimal damage to the entire city of Pontianak.

What Liang Yao got was a Pontianak that was intact and the infrastructure was still functioning normally.

"The Dutch ran so fast. I only captured 240 prisoners, of which only 65 were Dutch. The rest were Chinese and local indigenous people." Elvis came out to greet Liang Yao.

"Okay, I know you have captured 240 prisoners." Liang Yao said, "You are the first to win Pontianak."

Liang Yao didn't know how Elvis captured 240 prisoners with 70 people.

However, compared with the maritime power of the Dutch and Indian authorities, their military power on land performed really poorly.

"Should we continue to pursue the Dutch and Indian troops that fled south to expand the results?" Elvis asked for instructions.

"The top priority is to consolidate the results we have achieved, and it is not appropriate to pursue them rashly." Liang Yao shook his head and said.

If he was familiar with the situation in West Borneo, Liang Yao would certainly be willing to chase the poor bandits. But in reality, Liang Yao was not familiar with the situation in West Borneo. He did not even have an accurate map of West Borneo.

Liang Yao's understanding of West Borneo basically came from the intelligence provided by the local Chinese.

Liang Yao did not want large-scale non-combat attrition, and preferred to consolidate the results already achieved.

"Borneo is a wild and wild land. Outside the city, it is a smog-infested land with many snakes and insects. The snakes and insects here are much more venomous than those in Guangdong.

Those of us who have lived in West Borneo for 20 to 30 years are still lost when we enter the deep mountains and forests, let alone new guests who have just arrived in Borneo. "Liu Shanbang also suggested not to pursue rashly.

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