Chapter 215 The Real Purpose Is Revealed

"My lord! Why did you blow the horn and ask us to retreat? Didn't you see that the Dutch were about to die?!" Shi Shi rushed to Zhang Hu angrily and asked loudly.

"How dare you disobey my order?" Zhang Hu raised his big head that was carefully looking at the map and glanced at Shi Shi with his small eyes.

"My lord gave me the order to delay the garrison in the city. Look what you did!"

He slammed the table, "I ask you, did the Dutch red-haired devils in Fort Zeelandia send people to ask for help? Did you see a ship, a cannon, and a soldier coming from Ceylon? What we want is not just Fort Zeelandia, but the whole sea, do you know!"

Shi Shi was a little dumbfounded after being scolded.

"But didn't you just ask me to teach these Dutch people a lesson? Naturally, I thought they should be wiped out." Shi Shi, who understood, felt a little aggrieved.

He knew that he was wrong, but how could the Dutch be fooled without a death order? In order to encourage Shi Shi, Zhang Hu changed his face, "Shi Shi, you fought well in this battle, which made the brothers of the Wuwei Army proud and proud, and made people happy.

I have ordered people to write a document and present it to the lord to tell about your military exploits. Don't worry, after this battle, the first merit of Fort Zeelandia will definitely belong to your Wuwei Army! Rewards will definitely be indispensable at that time!"

"That's good! Thank you, sir!" Shi Shi nodded his head like a chicken pecking at broken rice, and joy filled his whole body and mind.

As long as there is merit, it doesn't matter if he is scolded by his superiors. Which general has not been taught a lesson when he grows up? This is the essence of growth. Shi Shi wished that it was Qin Hao who scolded him, so that he might be promoted faster.

But fortunately, Zhang Hu's scolding was not bad, and he got the first merit of climbing the city.

Amid the rumbling of cannons from the city, Zhang Hu packed a bunch of tobacco and handed it to Shi Shi, "Do you know what your results are today?"

"Sir, what are the results? Didn't we call off the battle?"

"You are so stupid, you are embarrassing me!"

Shi Shi took out a Hsinchu matchbox from his pocket, took out a cigarette and lit the pipe. After taking two puffs, he was still in a state of ignorance.

"You idiot!"

Zhang Hu felt a little disappointed with this subordinate. Could it be that because of his recklessness, there was no smart person under his command?

"You killed so many savages, black soldiers, and Dutch red-haired people this time. This is your first military achievement. Also, you let the cannons on the top of the city fire. Our gunners can know the location of the Dutch cannons, and can slowly pull out the cannons of these red-haired devils one by one! This is all thanks to your fierce attack and fierce charge!"

"Is that so!" Shi Shi took a puff of cigarette stupidly, and had no idea how much credit he had made.

"Get out!" Chen Hu kicked this stupid subordinate out of the tent, "Go to the artillery camp and announce the order, pull out the cannons on the top of the city for me."

After a while, the sound of cannons continued to rise, and after more than an hour, it gradually became sparse until it disappeared.

When the sound of cannons could no longer be heard, Xia Lifeng, as a liaison officer arranged by Zheng Zhilong in the Keelung Army, struggled to slowly move his almost stiff body down from the roof, and came down from the high place along the long bamboo ladder. When he reached the ground, he was still in shock.

After seeing the artillery of the Keelung Army, he no longer had the arrogance he had before. The fate of the Dutch had fully demonstrated that the Keelung people would no longer have any opponents in the entire sea area.

The Dutch heavy artillery on the top of the city, after the joint efforts of the soldiers, slaves, and even priests in the castle, barely adjusted the muzzle, and could bombard the Keelung Army artillery in front of Fort Saint Anne together with the 8-pound cannon.

But what can be done about this? The sword and shield soldiers of the Keelung Army showed no fear at all. They even cleverly escorted more than 300 Dutch captives who had been collected from the pile of dead bodies before the intensive artillery fire began, and waved their long swords in their hands at the city with a strong sense of demonstration, so that the city guards were afraid to fire.

After that, they escorted this mixed team composed of natives, blacks and Dutch, and returned to the camp adjacent to Fort Saint Anne in a show of force!

The rest were pulled out and thrown in front of Fort Zeelandia, enduring endless pain.

Such an approach made Lieutenant Noble curse in his heart. If the Keelung Army killed them, he would be extremely happy.

But they chose the most helpless method for him. These wounded soldiers were all seriously injured and could not fight again. They had to arrange people to take care of them. They were definitely a burden.

However, knowing that it was a trap and a fire pit, Noble had to jump!

If he didn't jump, he would lose the morale of the army and be blamed by the people in the entire castle. After all, no one wanted to be abandoned so ruthlessly after being injured, and then wait for death!

After reluctantly accepting hundreds of seriously injured soldiers, Lieutenant Noble immediately ordered to open the sluice gates and fill the trenches outside the Zeelandia Fort with water to prevent the Keelung Army from sneaking attacks or digging tunnels for blasting. He believed that the enemy on the opposite side would definitely use such means.

At the same time, for safety reasons, on the inner and outer walls, especially at the position of the artillery, straw bags and sandbags were piled up high to effectively avoid injuries from gravel.

After completing several defensive measures, Lieutenant Noble ordered the artillery to fire!

He wants to use artillery fire to show these damn oriental natives some color. The Dutch warriors cannot be slaughtered by others!

After resting for a while, the large and small artillery at the head of Relanja City fired at the Keelung Army artillery position below the city, venting their anger. The artillery of the Keelung Army was not to be outdone and began to fight back. For a moment, the artillery shells were flying back and forth across the city, and the fighting was tense and fierce!

The Dutch artillery had the advantage of being in a commanding position and increased the distance by 30%. The 8-pound and 10-pound shells continued to hit the front, rear, left and right of each gun position, splashing huge chunks of soil.

My dear, there will be more after this chapter^.^,

The artillery team of the Keelung Army relied on its own technical advantages, numerical advantages and good artillery position cover to launch shelling of the cannons at the top of the city, giving full play to its own advantages.

For a time, 12-pound and 15-pound artillery shells continued to fall on the top of the city of Jelanja, smashing the doors and windows of the city tower and killing and injuring many Dutch gunners and artillery pieces.

Both sides used nearly a hundred artillery pieces in this battle.

Until nightfall, the artillery fire from both sides gradually stopped.

"Lieutenant, this is our loss today!" The military intelligence officer sadly handed a report to Noble.

On the first day of fighting, the Dutch had 512 dead and missing soldiers, and more than 130 wounded soldiers. The auxiliary soldiers had 509 casualties and missing soldiers, and more than 260 wounded... ..Twenty-three 8-pounders and 11 10-pounders were destroyed, 3,160 pounds of gunpowder and 505 shells were consumed.

In just one day of fighting, more than 60% of the soldiers in the castle were consumed. The loss of gunpowder was also huge, half of it was consumed. What is even more frightening is that the number of artillery has dropped sharply. If the battle losses are still like this tomorrow, by the third Japan will have no cannon available.

Such losses silenced the officers and senior staff of the East India Company present. Since arriving in the East, when had there been such battle losses?

If there was no way to retreat, the soldiers would have mutinied long ago when they encountered such losses.

"Your Majesty Commander!"

"We found that there seems to be a loophole in the enemy navy's blockade of the sea. We can send people and ships to Chikan City to report today's battle situation to the Governor, and ask him to lead his troops back for reinforcements, or make deployment adjustments! "A Dutch navy saw that the Keelung Navy on the sea had not completely blocked the sea.

】

The moonlight projected through the narrow window in the castle was very miserable. On the long table, the flickering candles stretched the figures of the officials and gentlemen present. Everyone cast their hopeful eyes on Lieutenant Noble, hoping that He is able to make the right decisions and lead everyone out of danger.

"Are you sure this is not a trap by the enemy?" Noble asked.

"Commander, absolutely not. Even if the entire navy of the empire comes, it is impossible to block the entire sea area. This is completely unrealistic." The navy official was extremely decisive.

"In that case! Send a ship to pick up the two governors!"

Everyone present was relieved to hear Lieutenant Noble's words.

As long as the Governor returns to the city of Relanja, then whether it is a defeat or a surrender, it is no longer their responsibility. Even if they fail in the end, they can go home, and their ransom will be plenty!

Lieutenant Noble left his seat, walked to the window, and looked across the castle to the bottom of the city, where there was already a sea of ​​the God of Fire.

"Boom! Boom!"

Perhaps because they were afraid that the people in the city would feel too quiet, artillery shells flew one after another from nowhere and landed on the open space between the outer wall and the inner wall. Unfortunately, several soldiers on patrol encountered the cannonballs. , and buried himself in the dirt!

.........

"Sir! There are several red-haired barbarian boats secretly going out to sea at night, and they seem to be heading for Chijia City!" The Zheng Jiajun spy responsible for monitoring Relanzhe City quietly reported the news to the intelligence chief Xia Lifeng.

"Haha! This is natural. The red-haired barbarians suffered a loss during the day, and they probably went to ask their big boss for military aircraft! Don't rest any more! Go to sea and return to Xiamen immediately! Inform the commander of the battle situation here, and ask He quickly sent troops to take back our Yilan! Remember to be quick!”

Xia Lifeng was very worried that when Keelung's army crossed the border, the chance of regaining Yilan might be gone, so he had to fight quickly.

Just as the Dutch and several ships under Zheng Zhilong were sneaking out letters at night, Qin Hao, who was far away in the Beibu Gulf, was eating a bowl of durian and looking at the military report sent by Zhang Hu. , telling the results of today’s battle.

"Sir!" Gu Cheng, the head of the Reclamation Bureau, was holding the account book and was about to come in to report, but was stopped by Wei Zhou, the commander of the Guards Battalion. "The Lord is reading the military report. If your matter is not particularly urgent, Just wait a moment and don’t disturb the lord.”

"This is the number of Han people who have settled in Yilan throughout Yilan. There are more than 50,000 people, and there are more than 4,000 farmers!"

Weizhou curled his lips and expressed his ridiculous contempt for Zheng Zhilong's loss of Yilan before. "Not to mention the regular army in hand, even these more than 4,000 peasants can fight with the Dutch. I don't know how they were lost. It's so funny." !”

Qin Hao himself, who was sitting in the office eating fruit, did not hear their whispers and just focused all his attention on the information in front of him.

The military report sent by Zhang Hu was very detailed and also attached a combat diagram, allowing Qin Hao to clearly see the entire situation.

This is strange!

Qin Hao took a sip of durian and recalled with confusion the records of Master Zheng's attack on Relanja City when he regained Taiwan. It seemed to be exactly the same as his current situation.

However, in that tough battle, the Zheng army suffered heavy losses in order to overthrow the city of Relandje, the last stronghold of the Dutch on Taiwan Island.

The nearly 30,000 elite troops who went on the expedition were reduced by more than half under the city of Relanja, facing this bastion. It can be said that they suffered heavy losses!

In the end, Zheng Chenggong had no choice but to order his generals to adopt the rogue method of protracted siege and siege, cutting off the water source of the city of Relanje, leaving the wells in the castle without water, and trapping the Dutch to death.

Also facing a bastion, why did our own army behave like this?

So simple and even a piece of cake!

After looking at the drawings, Qin Hao discovered that the city of Relanja today lacked many fortresses outside the city, with only one lonely castle.

Now it became clear that Zheng Chenggong only attacked the city more than 20 years later. By that time, the Dutch had already managed the city of Relanja like an iron wall.

Qin Hao took advantage of time.

In this case, Qin Hao let go,

"Send the order!"

"Using the peasants as guides, we selected elites from the Konwei, Wuwei, Shuntian and other battalions to go to various indigenous villages in Tainan, especially those that had signed surrender regulations with the Dutch, to do only one thing , tell them that the real owner of this land is here!

Now the only thing they have to do is choose a side! For those who surrender, we will have fine iron pots, cotton cloth, rice, and salt in exchange for the deer skins, alluvial gold, medicinal materials, etc. in your hands. For those who are unwilling to surrender, we will also give you gifts! That's knives, guns and gunpowder projectiles! Make sure not to spare anyone and kill them all! "

However, it was not just Qin Hao who thought about the ownership of these natives!

Joseph, who took a boat overnight from Chican City back to the island city of Relandia, also saw the value of this group of natives in the current situation. With them, they could hold out a little longer and wait for reinforcements.

"Where are the village leaders who came to attend the local meeting? Take me to see them quickly!"

As soon as Joseph entered the city, he didn't care to listen to Lieutenant Noble's report on the battle situation, nor did he bother to go up to the tower to observe the position of the Keelung Army. He first asked where the leaders of the group attending the local meeting were?

"According to the terms of surrender signed by you and our East India Company, when the Dutch fight against the enemy, you must all mobilize to fight against the enemy as friendly forces of the Dutch! Now is the time for you to fulfill this obligation!"

Dozens of heads looked at each other, and they all saw the fear and uneasiness in each other's eyes, and even a hint of resistance.

Over the years, the Dutch gave them salt, sugar, gold and silver, and various weapons and equipment, which made their tribe stronger and fattened many people. However, they always took this for granted and they tried their best to help the Dutch. People destroy those tribes that keep giving orders.

In the past, everyone was eager to do this kind of work. But it's different now,

They also witnessed the battle between the Keelung Army and the Dutch that day. More than a thousand people went out of the city to fight against the Keelung Army, but less than 10% came back. Those who went out to die, and many of them died among their own people. in hand,

"What? When we were drinking and eating meat, none of you ever fell behind. Today, you are asked to continue fighting together, and you are all timid?!"

Joseph's words made this group of native leaders, who had never seen ice and snow, feel the biting taste of cold.

Before they could speak, Joseph said something that made the leader look sideways.

"I believe in you. There is a war going on outside right now, so there is no need for the leaders to go back in person. Please ask the warriors who accompanied the leaders to return to the rural community and gather elite soldiers to go to Chican City and Relanja City. Outside the two castles, hunt for the heads of Han soldiers! Each Han head can be used as a native's tax! Starting from the second one, you can exchange it for a silver coin or a pound of salt!"

"Sir, you can't do this!" an indigenous leader shouted anxiously.

"Shut up, it's not your turn to make the decision now!" Joseph took out the short gun from his waist and pointed it at the leader, "Now you have only one choice, which is to stay here and wait for reinforcements. Do you understand!"

"I see!"