The Rise of Australasia

"Damn it, watch out for the enemy attack!" Governor Alexander shouted as he ran towards the not-so-distant defensive works without looking back.

These flying creatures were no joke; the bombs they dropped were deadly and their power was no less than that of small and medium caliber firearms. Being in the air, they could hit enemies that ground firearms couldn't.

Boom!

Perhaps Governor Alexander's will to survive moved God; anyway, a bomb exploded next to Governor Alexander, taking him and the East Indies natives' beloved Governor to meet God.

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"Governor Sir!"

The guards and messengers around Governor Alexander were in chaos, but their pace towards the defensive works was even faster.

Being hit by a bomb at close range, Governor Alexander had no hope of surviving, let alone piecing together a complete body.

In such a situation, his guards and soldiers wouldn't sacrifice their own lives for a pile of broken flesh, as their own safety had become more important than anything else.

Of course, the fastest to react was Ambassador Reno of Foreign Affairs. After Governor Alexander shouted about the enemy attack, Ambassador Reno swiftly followed, running towards the defensive works about ten meters behind Governor Alexander.

When the bomb exploded a few meters in front of Governor Alexander, Ambassador Reno was nearly 20 meters away and not too badly affected, except for a temporary hearing impairment.

This did not hinder Ambassador Reno's pace towards the defensive works; like a starving wolf who hasn't eaten for days, he quickly rushed to where food was available.

Huff~ Huff!

After finally getting into the defensive works, Ambassador Reno and some soldiers breathed a sigh of relief and began to gasp for air.

Escaping from the hands of death was not a pleasant feeling, as their rapidly beating hearts told them that they were only a breath away from death.

If they were just a few seconds slower or faster and caught up with Governor Alexander in front, they could have gone to meet God with him.

The people in the defensive works looked at each other, and only then did they realize a serious problem: who would command the army of more than 100,000?

Not only was Governor Alexander the Colonial Governor of the Dutch East Indies, but he also served as the Colonial Commander-in-chief.

With the dual status, Governor Alexander had extraordinary power, and no one in the Dutch East Indies challenged his authority.

Under Governor Alexander, the colonial military consisted of one Dutch division and six colonial divisions.

Although the Dutch division was higher in rank than the colonial divisions, the gap in power between the division commanders was not significant, and they all reported directly to Governor Alexander.

The problem at hand was that Governor Alexander had no deputy and the Vice Governor was purely a political figure, not proficient in military affairs.

The choice of a temporary military commander became an issue, and it was difficult to find a suitable successor within the military who could convince everyone and had the appropriate status and qualifications.

At this point, the guards and soldiers turned their gaze to Ambassador Reno.

Ambassador Reno, former Dutch Ambassador to Australia, was fully qualified to act as temporary Colonial Commander-in-chief.

More importantly, his resume included studying at the Netherlands Military Academy and serving in both the Dutch homeland and Dutch East Indies colonial armies, although the total length of his service was less than two years.

Taking everything into account, Ambassador Reno's status and position were quite suitable, and he had enough prestige in the military to temporarily command the army.

Of course, whether Ambassador Reno could become the temporary Colonial Commander-in-chief of the Dutch East Indies would still depend on the opinion of the Dutch government.

At the request of Ambassador Reno, several communications soldiers sent telegrams to the Netherlands, explaining the death of Governor Alexander in the bombing by Australasian airplanes and requesting that the Dutch government appoint a new Commander-in-chief for the colonial army, or a temporary Commander to lead the troops.

It is expected that the Dutch government will receive this telegram on the second day, and the reply from the Dutch government will likely arrive in two or three days.

Due to the urgency of the war, the General Staff of the Colonial Army nominated Ambassador Reno to act as temporary Commander-in-chief, to take charge of the Dutch East Indies colony before receiving further instructions from the Dutch Government and to command the army in battle.

Ambassador Reno's first command as temporary Commander-in-chief was to order all three colonial divisions, totaling over 50,000 troops on the front line, to defend at all costs and not allow the Australasian Army to advance one step.

In the eyes of Ambassador Reno, these native soldiers were expendable. Their sacrifice in exchange for the stability of the first line of defense was a good deal for both the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies.

Ambassador Reno's second command was for the colonial government to temporarily recruit at least 100,000 natives to join the defense of Batavia.

Although the number of troops in Australasia didn't seem too large, the firepower and equipment of the Dutch army at present were no match for the Australasian Army. The army needed more soldiers, even if they were just cannon fodder, they could still play their part.

This air raid lasted only half an hour, but it caused considerable casualties to the Dutch army.

The previous large-scale bombing suddenly stopped, which made the Dutch army think that Australasia had run out of shells, so many Dutch soldiers left their defensive works and entered the trenches.

The circling bombers and fighters in the sky caused severe casualties to the Dutch army. Just this round of aerial bombing alone resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Dutch soldiers and injuries to thousands.

After the air raid, the Australasian army approached the first line of defense again and launched a formal attack.

Brigadier Silvio was confident that the Dutch soldiers, who had endured a long period of bombing, were physically and mentally exhausted at this point, and needed some time to recover.

During this time, it was the best opportunity to attack. The dead Dutchmen and the moaning wounded would cause a heavy blow to the morale of all Dutch forces.

In such circumstances, even the Dutch regular army would be psychologically affected, let alone these hastily trained indigenous troops.

Even if these Dutch indigenous armies do not disintegrate and lose their fighting capacity due to this, their morale would be greatly damaged, and there is always the possibility of desertion at any time.

In this situation, if the Dutch are defeated in their war, it is likely that the indigenous forces would be the first to collapse.

As long as there were no indigenous forces, the Dutch army would no longer have a numerical advantage, and the annihilation would be only a matter of time.

Sure enough, when Australasia launched a new round of offensive, it could be clearly sensed that the resistance of the indigenous armies had diminished.

These indigenous people were already afraid of death, and they were not willing to give their lives for the Dutch willingly.

After a brief resistance against the Australasian forces, some indigenous armies threw away their equipment and scattered towards the flanks of the battlefield.

Although most of them were killed by the Dutch supervising team or annihilated by the Australasian army, a considerable number of indigenous people successfully fled the battlefield and set a good example for the remaining indigenous soldiers.

"Don't sacrifice yourselves for these Dutchmen anymore, they're almost finished! Let's return to our tribes, we just want to live our lives."

No one knew who shouted, but the Dutch indigenous army suddenly started to riot.

What's more serious was that all three divisions of the first defense line were indigenous armies, and there were very few Dutch soldiers and commanders. At this point, they were already unable to control the indigenous soldiers.

The rear Dutch army consisted only of one Dutch division and a small number of reserve forces. Under the premise that Ambassador Raynor and the General Staff had not yet emerged from the defensive works, they could not control the increasingly worsening situation at the front line.

Just like that, these Dutch indigenous soldiers followed suit and eventually turned into a large-scale collapse.

A supervising team of only a thousand people simply could not control the collective collapse of tens of thousands of people, so the commander of the supervising team could only report the situation to the rear General Staff while trying to stabilize the front line situation.

But by now, the indigenous forces were beyond the control of the small supervising team. Unless the rear Dutch army could quickly respond and use firepower to suppress the indigenous army, forcing them to return to their positions.

Otherwise, if they delay any longer, no army could stop the collapse of these indigenous forces.

The supervising team's message reached the General Staff, who then relayed the message back to the supervising team. This process took about ten minutes.

Ten minutes were enough to do a lot of things, such as causing tens of thousands of troops to collapse completely, with many already running out of the battlefield.

Learning that the front-line indigenous army had already collapsed, Ambassador Raynor's heart was crumbling at this moment.

Although becoming the new temporary colonial commander seemed like good news, the problem was that with the collapse of the indigenous forces, the war seemed to be lost.

Becoming a temporary commander only to face the failure of the war, Ambassador Raynor only now understood in hindsight that he had been forced to become the scapegoat.

After all, with Governor Alexander dead, it seemed that the only person who could take the blame for the front-line battlefield at this time was him, who had just become the new temporary colonial commander.r/>

Understanding everything, Ambassador Raynor vented his frustration in the General Staff and eventually had to accept his current miserable fate. He issued his own stubborn orders to let the Dutch division hold onto the second defense line, trying to delay the Australasian offensive as long as possible.

As for the three colonial divisions on the front line and the even larger first defense line, Ambassador Raynor had no expectations by now.r-c

Without the resistance of the indigenous forces, temporarily dispatching the Dutch division to the first defense line would only expose them to the encirclement and pincer attack of the Australasian army without the protection of the defense line.-urlencodedsure>

It would be better to let the remaining Dutch division and some reserve forces hold onto the second defense line. The remaining forces added up to 20,000 men, and as long as they could resist for a few days, the rear could organize more indigenous forces from Batavia to defend the entire Batavia with their lives.

Anyway, Batavia had as many as millions of indigenous people, and even if 10,000 people were killed or injured every day, these millions of indigenous people would be enough for the Australasians to slaughter for more than a year.

Ambassador Raynor simply did not believe that the Australasians would dare to slaughter so many indigenous people to conquer the entire Batavia.

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