Chapter 257: Chapter 236: Battle Results (Extra 1)

Although only more than 3,000 soldiers were successfully collected, the Portuguese general had no choice at this point.

Seeing that the Australasian army at the frontline had begun to charge out, and there were still many Australasians surrounding them and chasing them down.

Under such circumstances, not fleeing earlier and continuing to collect the remnants of the defeated soldiers was just waiting for death, the clever Portuguese commanders chose the most reasonable method, which was to break through with the gathered troops.

Most of the soldiers collected by the Portuguese general were Portuguese, but there were also about a quarter of them who were native soldiers.

Portuguese generals are not stupid, breaking out is bound to be difficult, so letting these native soldiers explore the roads and break through is the best way.

After casually choosing a direction near the coastline, the Portuguese general led his defeated soldiers toward the coast to break out.

Even before the encirclement and suppression began, Brigadier General Fritz had specifically noted the possible enemy retreat routes.

The coastline is the most likely target for the Portuguese army to retreat, after all, the inland areas are British India, and the British do not have such a good relationship with the Portuguese there.

For this reason, there are the most encirclement forces along the coastline, and they have also successfully been assigned two heavy machine guns and many hand grenades.

The Portuguese general thought he had found a way to survive, but instead, it turned out to be the largest military feat in the eyes of the Australasian soldiers.

After more than ten minutes of fierce battle, the group of defeated soldiers collected by the Portuguese general suffered heavy casualties, and the remaining people could no longer stand it, hastily dropping their weapons and shouting their surrender.

Unfortunately, the Australasian soldiers couldn’t understand Portuguese, even if these Portuguese soldiers looked like they were going to surrender. Still, they carried out the orders given by their commanders and tried not to leave any survivors.

On the other hand, the frontline soldiers personally commanded by Brigadier General Fritz had already rushed out and chased down the collapsing Portuguese army.

Allowing these defeated soldiers to escape is not a good thing; these defeated soldiers can also cause casualties to the Australasian army in secret.

Even if they dare not attack the Australasian army, they are still an uncontrollable force.

The previous defense battle caused the Portuguese army to lose at least 8,000 men, of which 70% were native soldiers.

Minus the more than 3,000 defeated soldiers collected by the Portuguese generals, there are still 8,000 to 9,000 defeated soldiers on the front lines who are scattered around, and they are also the primary targets of Brigadier General Fritz’s pursuit.

Fortunately, the airships in the sky can also provide firepower support, and they can also detect the specific escape direction of the defeated soldiers.

Through the areas bombed by the airships in the sky, Brigadier General Fritz can easily know the whereabouts of the defeated soldiers and then lead the soldiers to encircle and suppress them.

The war continued from the afternoon until the evening, and finally, the sound of gunfire and battle gradually subsided.

Seeing that the night was getting darker and darker, Brigadier General Fritz decisively ordered the troops to retreat and wait until the next morning to search again.

The long war made the soldiers very tired, and Brigadier General Fritz didn’t say anything. In addition to letting more than 1,000 soldiers from the second line of defense be on guard and patrolling, the other soldiers could count the number of people, casualties, and ammunition consumption according to the organization and then rest on their own.

Although Brigadier General Fritz returned to his command room, he did not rest but patiently waited for the casualties to be counted by the troops.

Half an hour later, the various units gradually counted their casualties and reported them to Fritz’s headquarters.

This battle of attack and defense should be the largest casualty in the history of Australasia since its founding, but also the largest harvest.

First, the Australasian side, with nearly 10,000 troops had more than 700 casualties. Among them were more than 100 deaths, more than 200 seriously injured, and the rest were lightly wounded.

There is a Portuguese fleet stationed offshore, and it is impossible to send these wounded back to the country by transport ship for medical treatment.

Fortunately, Brigadier General Fritz still had three airships, and it was no problem to accommodate the nearly 400 moderately and severely injured people.

The rescue of the seriously injured was very urgent, and Brig-General Fritz ordered the airship soldiers to carry all the wounded on the airships and immediately set sail to send the wounded back to the country for medical treatment.

By the time the airship returns, it can also bring some supplies and convey orders from home.

As for the remaining more than 200 lightly wounded, most of them were only affected by the shrapnel of artillery fire and bullet grazes and did not lose much combat power. Simple bandaging would suffice.

Compared to personnel losses, the ammunition consumption in this war was not that significant, at least compared to the battle on Portuguese Timor grounds, the ammunition consumption was not significant.

After all, for most of the time engaged in battle, the Australasian army was in a state of being beaten, so naturally, ammunition consumption would not be significant.

The good thing was that a large amount of weaponry, ammunition, grain, and medical supplies were stockpiled in advance on the Portuguese Indian coast, and the casualties in today’s war were not significant. At least looking at the supplies now stockpiled, a few more such battles could be fought.

Although it is unclear about the specific casualties of the Portuguese, most of the Portuguese troops today have been killed, and the remaining Portuguese soldiers do not even account for one-tenth of the total number of troops.

The defeated Portuguese soldiers can no longer pose a threat to Australasia. It only takes one more cleanup operation, and they won’t have any resistance.

Now, for Brigadier General Fritz, the real trouble is the Portuguese fleet off the coast.

Even though the Portuguese navy couldn’t rank among world powers, it was still more potent than the current Australasian navy.

If these Portuguese navies do not leave, the ports of Portuguese India would not be able to resume traffic, and the only way for Brig-General Fritz to obtain logistics would be through airships.

However, some defeated Portuguese soldiers should still be able to return to the coast. Once they have relayed the results of the complete defeat and collapse of their army, the Portuguese fleet should not linger off the coast of Portuguese India for long.

With that in mind, General Fritz sent a telegram to the home front, detailing the entire process and course of the war and seeking Arthur’s next command.

After waiting for a while and not receiving a telegram from the home front, Brigadier General Fritz chose to rest for a while, as there would be more heavy work the next day.

When Arthur received the telegram, it was already the next morning.

It’s not that the telegram was delivered so slowly; in fact, the telegram from Brigadier General Fritz was received in the middle of the night.

However, after all, the telegram was good news, and it was not that urgent, so Minister Kent decided not to disturb Arthur’s sleep and chose to report the situation early the next morning.