The Rise Of Australasia - Chapter 252

Chapter 252: Chapter 231: Consecutive Battles and Victories_2

Just after eleven in the morning, the soldiers of the First Division successfully occupied the Portuguese positions, capturing over three hundred Portuguese soldiers and more than four hundred native soldiers.

General Silvio Lonnie Rodlin simply gave a wave, instructing a squad to strictly guard these Portuguese soldiers.

As for the native soldiers, naturally, they held no remaining value, and hence, the only fate awaiting them was death.

After a brief rest and regroup in the battlefield, General Silvio Lonnie Rodlin left behind a small detachment to guard captured Portuguese soldiers, and the main troops continued to march northward toward Dili, the capital of Portuguese Timor.

The Portuguese soldiers and the native armies on the battlefield likely accounted for all the troops in Portuguese Timor.

At present, the only defensive forces in Dili might be the few police forces in the city.

But to rely on the police to resist the attack of the First Division would be more absurd than the wild dreams of a foolish man.

Around 3 PM, the Australasian Army successfully entered the city of Dili, and completely occupied both the Governor’s Mansion and Military Command Headquarters.

Meanwhile, General Silvio Lonnie Rodlin ordered the soldiers to move the captured Portuguese soldiers to the city and dispatched a telegram to the domestic country.

Arthur received the telegram sent by Silvio Lonnie Rodlin in the late afternoon, after 4 PM.

Immediately, Arthur sent a return telegram to General Silvio Lonnie Rodlin instructing him to handle everything in Timor appropriately and to maintain order as much as possible.

At the same time, he asked him to construct some defensive positions along the coast and western borders of Portuguese Timor, to prevent potential landing attempts by the Portuguese.

At six in the evening, the Australasian Ministry of Defense issued an order, and the Second Division divided into two routes, heading respectively to the last two remaining Portuguese colonies in Asia, for seizure and occupation.

Although these two colonies were far away for Australasia, and Australasia had no right to occupy either the Portuguese colony in India or the Portuguese colony in East Asia.

After occupying, they would have to consider the positions of British India and the Qing Empire, therefore these two colonies were not within Arthur’s target range.

Of course, during the war, it was still necessary to occupy these two colonies.

These colonies were also the strongholds of Portugal in Asia. Without these colonies, the closest region to Odalasia would be the Portuguese Mozambique colony, separated from Australasia by the entire distance of the Indian Ocean.

On August 10, 1907, at six in the morning.

After a day and a half of sailing, part of the Second Division finally arrived at the last Portuguese colony in East Asia, and quickly began seizing the colony.

This colony, much smaller in land area compared to Portuguese Timor, was also sparsely populated.

If only counting the Portuguese, the colony had fewer than ten thousand of them, and its garrison, cobbled together with natives from the colony, barely managed to total one thousand.

This resulted in the questionable training level of the stationed army, with some troops composed of local natives far behind in their equipment.

After a few rounds of artillery attacks, these Portuguese forces completely lost their will to fight. A majority of them were captured, and the rest were bodies sacrificed in the shellfire.

Just like in Timor, once they secured victory on the battlefield here, the Deputy Commander of the Second Division immediately telegraphed the domestic country, briefly describing the procession and results of the war and received Arthur’s latest instructions.

Besides maintaining order and strengthening defenses, which were very similar to those in Portuguese Timor, he also aimed to relocate as much of the Portuguese assets as possible.

Although they couldn’t simply execute the Portuguese, dealing with their property was entirely acceptable.

The factories and assets that these Portuguese had painstakingly established in this region all became dowries for Australasia.

Timor didn’t experience this barbaric relocation because Portuguese Timor was Arthur’s main target, already included in Australasia’s sphere of influence.

As long as the war went smoothly, at the end, Portuguese Timor should be renamed to Australian Timor. Thus, there would be no need to painstakingly move the Portuguese assets as they couldn’t escape when the land transfer occurred.

A few days later, on August 12th, the army led by the Division Two Commander Fritz Leiner finally crossed the Indian Ocean and reached Portuguese India.

While talking about India’s overlords, most people would instantly think of the British Empire.

But in fact, on this land of India, the British Empire was not the only colonial entity, Portugal and France were also among the countries that had colonised parts of India.

However, the United Kingdom had, over a vast stretch of time, ruled the vast majority of India. Portugal and France simply occupied narrow strips of land along the two coasts of India, which was insignificant compared to the entirety of India.

That’s why, when we talk about colonies in India, Portugal and France are usually not mentioned.

Portuguese India was a colony occupied by Portugal on the West Coast of India, with its capital at Goa.

India, with its vast land area and population, even the tiny French India and Portuguese India, held populations of three hundred thousand and four hundred and fifty thousand respectively.

Portugal had a garrison of two thousand in Portuguese India, half of whom were Portuguese, and half Indians.

Even though Portuguese India boasted a larger population and better land than Portuguese Timor, the garrison in Portuguese India was surprisingly one thousand less than in Portuguese Timor.

This was because Portuguese India’s neighbour was the mighty British India and Portugal would never be a match for the British Empire. Thus, the defensive forces of Portuguese India were not as significant.

If the British Empire wished to annex Portuguese India, even a garrison of five to six thousand men would have been no match for British India.

But if the British Empire harboured no designs on Portuguese India, then even without a garrison, the safety of Portuguese India could be preliminarily guaranteed by the law-enforcing police force.

Portuguese Timor was different, though; its neighbour was Netherlands, a country comparable in size to Portugal.

Moreover, considering that Portuguese Timor had already lost nearly half of its lands to Dutch incursion, the vigilance against the Netherlands could not have been lowered.

With only a thousand Portuguese soldiers, Portuguese India could never stand against Division Two.

Despite the loyalty of Indian soldiers being superior to the natives of Southeast Asia, their combat abilities were even inferior to the Portuguese soldiers, let alone being on par with the Australasian soldiers.

After having expended hundreds of shells, along with the casualties of dozens of men, Division Two managed to successfully conquer Portuguese India and occupied its capital, Goa.

Just like in the colonies of East Asia, on the day of occupation, General Fritz Leiner swiftly sent a telegram to the domestic populace of Australasia, and received the same response from Arthur: maintain urban order and strengthen border defence.

In the meanwhile, a small force started searching for various factories and assets in Goa, preparing to relocate them all to Australasia.

Only after the full occupation of Portugal’s three colonies in Asia did Arthur thoroughly relax.

Even though the casualties of Division One and Division Two combined exceeded one hundred, considering the spoils of war, this small number of casualties was acceptable.

Moreover, all injured Australasian soldiers would be quickly sent back to Australasia for treatment.

Not only would the government provide free treatment, but it would also continue to pay the soldiers’ wages during their injury period.

Once the preliminary implementation of the combat plan was completed, Arthur felt secure enough to announce the news publicly.

The previous secrecy about the progress of the war was born out of the fear that the enemy might react, making the operations of the Second Division more difficult.

Now, after the completion of all preliminary combat operations, it was time to declare this good news to the entire nation and even the whole world.

Of course, some details could not be confessed plainly, and instead were disguised under different pretexts.

For instance, the bombers that had once been deployed in Portuguese Timor were officially replaced with airships by the Australasian authorities.

Regardless, airships could now fly in the sky and drop bombs below anytime.

Since Europeans had never witnessed the war first-hand, naturally no one would suspect.