freenovelworld Chapter 692: Southern Expedition (7)
Chapter 692: Southern Expedition (7)
The Marines waited two more days.
Finally, we received the news that the army troops had arrived at Sanda.
Under the unified command of Dingshan,
The two sides began to encircle the city of Sanda.
Along the way, the bodies of the enemy soldiers were seen everywhere, even in the suburbs of Sanda.
It is common to see houses blown to pieces on the roadside!
The Army Aviation Corps has been busy these past two days, continuing to carry out air strikes on areas around Sanda!
Lu Chen's infantry company did not participate in the battle because they suffered too much casualties. They only performed a guard mission on the periphery.
Sitting in the armored vehicle, listening to the fierce gunfire and watching the huge columns of smoke rising from the Sanda City in front of him, Lu Chen smoked a cigarette out of boredom.
After only two hours, the sound of gunfire gradually stopped. The communicator in the back reported that the battle was basically over, and asked Lu Chen and his men to strictly control all intersections and search for the remaining escaped enemies.
There were tens of thousands of enemy troops in the city, and when they attacked the Marines, they lost two thousand men.
Then they were hit by air strikes for two consecutive days, and their retreat was cut off. The Indonesian soldiers in the city were already demoralized and had no fighting spirit. In two days, more than half of them fled.
By the time the Haizhou army officially launched the attack, there were less than a thousand Indonesian troops left in the city to resist, and they were quickly wiped out!
After occupying Sanda, the troops discovered a small iron mine in the east of the city, 20 kilometers away. An Indonesian company was responsible for its operation and management. No wonder the best road in the south of the island was built from Sanda to Bangamasing, and the railway track laying has been basically completed!
Ding Shan reported the battle situation, and Yin Xinjun quickly called back, asking him to station in Bangamasingh and Sanda, control the surrounding areas, intensify the search for remaining enemies, and maintain local order!
Presidential Palace, Jakarta, Indonesia
President Sukarno, Army Commander Nasution, Navy Commander Subijakto, and Air Force Commander Danulul gathered together and held an emergency meeting. All four of them looked very ugly!
Sukarno, in particular, suffered a heavy blow to his Greater Indonesiaism. He had always dreamed of dominating Southeast Asia, but instead he lost a large amount of territory. If it had been the intervention of Britain and the United States, it would have been fine, but he did not expect to lose to an unknown small country!
Sukarno's face flushed red. Since he had lost, he had to find a scapegoat. He shouted,
"Has Major General Argus returned?"
Nasution said hurriedly,
"He's back. He secretly changed into plain clothes and escaped back!"
"Deserted from the battlefield! Send to the military court and severely punished!" Sukarno's face was full of anger!
Nasution quickly responded, "Yes, President!"
Subijakerto suddenly became extremely nervous. In the Battle of the Java Sea, the two largest frigates of the Indonesian Navy were sunk, which was almost half of the Indonesian Navy's assets. The two warships were second-hand goods purchased from the British at a large amount of foreign exchange!
Sure enough, Sukarno looked at Subijakto with a gloomy look and asked,
"Subijakto! Why don't you explain the Battle of the Java Sea? The invincible navy in the South China Sea that you brag about every day cost me half of my foreign exchange reserves!"
Subijakto's face turned pale and his whole body began to tremble. He held it in for a long time and finally said,
"Mr. President, we have two 1200-ton frigates, but the other side has two large destroyers, with a tonnage at least twice ours!"
When Sukarno heard this explanation, he became even angrier.
"Whenever you lose, you praise the other party to the sky. Let me ask you, what is the background of this Haizhou country? Is it British, American, or Soviet? I think you are just an incompetent person who likes to brag!"
As the army commander, Nasution received a lot of intelligence from the Military Intelligence Bureau.
"According to our Military Intelligence Bureau's analysis, it may be China's background!"
Sukarno gave him a cold look.
"What nonsense! I have read all the intelligence from your Military Intelligence Bureau. It is worthless. The Chinese Navy does not even have a large warship. How could it be a Chinese background?"
He then said irritably,
"You three should figure out how to take back Kalimantan Island. We just occupied this place less than two years ago and we lost it. I feel ashamed!"
The three of them looked at each other, and all of them were silent. After a moment,
Danuru said,
"Mr. President, although our air force has 1 aircraft, they are all outdated equipment, most of which are training aircraft. The total tonnage of the navy is only tons, and there is no large warship. The only advantage may be the army, but there is no chance of winning the island without the support of the navy and air force! At present, Haizhou State has an air force and navy, and its combat effectiveness is far stronger than ours. Therefore, there are only two ways now. One is to conserve our strength and increase investment until we are strong enough to compete with our opponents!"
After Sukarno heard this, he frowned and shook his head and said,
"With Indonesia's economic strength, how long will it take? Just tell me the second solution!"
Danuru continued,
"The second is to seek help from external forces. If that doesn't work, we can turn to Britain for help and borrow their power. Haizhou has also seized British colonies. We believe that they must hate Haizhou!"
Sukarno's eyes lit up when he heard this.
"This idea seems good. Indonesia and the UK have always maintained friendly exchanges. So, let's contact the British ambassador to meet him!"
More than an hour later, British Ambassador to Indonesia De Winter arrived at the Presidential Palace.
Sukarno asked directly,
"Mr. de Winter, has your country given up Kalimantan?"
De Winter was a little embarrassed. He asked back,
"Why do you say that, Mr. President?"
"We heard that Haizhou has occupied several of your colonies in the north of the island. We find this very strange. Are you planning to give up this place?"
De Winter said unhappily,
"We, the British Empire, control many areas around the world. Whether it is Gibraltar, the Suez Canal, the Cayman Islands and so on, they are much more important than this poor island!" The implication is that this island is too poor and we in the British Empire don't even look down on it!
In fact, after World War II, the British treasury was empty, and they were poor and had a lot of foreign debts! They were not willing to control some barren lands at all!
De Winter looked at Sukarno, who was a little dumbfounded, and added,
"But now our Royal Army is fighting in Korea. When the Korean War is over and we are able to withdraw, we will naturally take back the rights we deserve!"
Sukarno said hurriedly,
"Mr. Ambassador, what I mean is that we form a joint army and fight against Haizhou together. We send the army and you send the navy and air force. How do you think?"
De Winter finally understood Sukarno's intention and was overjoyed. This would not only save a lot of military expenses, but also save many lives.
He pretended to hesitate for a moment, then said,
"You want us British to help, but we have to pay a price. The United States invited us to go to North Korea and gave us a military budget of one million US dollars a day!"
"The money issue is easy to talk about. First of all, I can promise that the oil on the island will continue to be operated by your country's companies!"
"That's not enough. We need all the resources on the island! Only then can I convince Her Majesty the Queen!"
Sukarno hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said,
"Okay, it's a deal!"