Dashun Yongchang

But just as they were cooking the turtle meat in full swing, there was the sound of shelling from the north of the island.Xu Er'an climbed to the cliff and watched with a telescope for a while, then shouted to his father at the foot of the hill: "It's fighting, it's fighting. Three boats of the Zheng family are chasing one boat..."

Xu Dingguo heard that his side had the upper hand, so he relaxed and climbed up the cliff.Sure enough, on the sea to the north of the island, a sailboat that didn't look like a Chinese ship was being chased by the three big bird boats of the Zheng family and forced to the small island where he was.

Xu Dingguo took a telescope to look at it for a while, and found that this sailboat was bigger than the big bird boat of the Zheng family. If it weren't for the Zheng family's many boats, it really couldn't do anything about it. The ships circled the periphery, blocking the way of the sailing ship, and it was obvious that the ship could not escape.

Xu Er'an looked aside for a long time and said, "Father, this ship is about to escape to our island. Should we set up an ambush on the shore and help them?"

Xu Dingguo said angrily: "Mr. Zheng is indeed a pirate. We are going to attack Taiwan, and they still don't forget to rob. Really... Forget it, since the fighting has started, let's deal with them as soon as possible, and don't cause trouble... "

Xu Dingguo didn't know much about naval warfare, but he was very good at setting up ambushes on the shore. After judging the direction of the ship rushing to the shore, Xu Dingguo and his son Xu Er'an each led 15 people to ambush behind the reef. When the sailboat jumped into the water and went ashore, it rushed out suddenly and cut down seven or eight people. Among the three or forty people standing in the sea, someone suddenly shouted: "We surrender, we surrender, and all the silver on the boat belongs to you." ..."

In fact, after seeing these crew members, Xu Dingguo understood why the Zheng family attacked them, because they were all Fans.It was a Han Chinese who spoke, probably an interpreter from Fanren.But what was more surprising than seeing the interpreter was the content of his shouting. Xu Dingguo stopped his subordinates, and then asked him: "What money?"

Chapter 250 New Deal 65

When Shi Fu boarded the island in a small boat, he happened to see his nephew Shi Lang who came to greet him. Seeing that there were no outsiders around him, he asked, "What's going on? What's going on? What kind of conflict do you have with your allies? Who will go first?" What's going on?"

Shi Lang hurriedly argued: "Don't do our business, it's those northern bastards who are arrogant and unreasonable first. Obviously we forced the Dutch to the island, they insisted that they captured them. Our people were beaten by them." ..."

Shi Fu's heart tightened, he interrupted his nephew and asked, "Did you use the knife? Did anyone die?"

Shi Lang shook his head and said, "It's true that he didn't use the knife, but General Chen beat Xu Zongbing's son after he disembarked, and the scene became chaotic. We were injured more than [-] people, and the other side seemed to be injured as well." Little, then Deputy General Gao came over and stopped the people on both sides, and sent someone to look for you."

Shi Fu breathed a sigh of relief: "It's good that no one died, so how many did they hurt?"

Shi Lang hesitated for a moment and said, "There should be a dozen or so."

Shi Fu frowned and said, "Ten or a dozen?"

Shi Lang coughed and said, "I didn't count very much, but there should be ten."

Shi Fu stared at him fiercely and said, "Ten or how many? If you can't even count, you can climb the mast and learn to count tomorrow."

Shi Lang opened his mouth and said, "At the beginning, seven people lay down on the other side, but during the quarrel, I saw that they laid down another four or five people. The people who lay down behind should be pretending. These northern bastards are all wearing inner armor. If it weren't for land, they would all have to feed the fish..."

"That's enough." Shi Fu stopped his nephew and looked around, then lowered his voice and said, "Chen Hui is not clear-headed, don't you? The Empress, that's what she told us when she came back, now that there is a conflict with the Shun army, how can Dashun tolerate us in the future? Could it be that you really want to go to sea and become a pirate?"

Shi Lang shut his mouth immediately, his father had always hoped that he would become famous, but neither he nor his younger brother were educated, so they gave up studying and came to join this clan uncle.This clan uncle was the first in the clan to become an official, and his experience as an official also abandoned literature and went to military affairs, and defected to Zheng Yiguan who had just been recruited by the court at that time. Because he was a rare scholar in the Zheng army, he was reused .

Shi Lang and his younger brother came to seek refuge with Shi Fu, naturally hoping to follow the same path and become a serious court official instead of becoming a sea bandit.To be honest, if Zheng Zhilong hadn't been known as the commander-in-chief of the Fujian Navy, it would be impossible for more than half of the Zheng family's army to take refuge in him.

And after Zheng Zhilong was recruited to be loyal to the imperial court, he had almost reached the pinnacle of his life from the playful General of the Five Tigers to Nan'anbo and Fujian General Town in the Hongguang Dynasty. Who wouldn't want to copy his life history again.Therefore, under Shi Fu's scolding, Shi Lang finally came to his senses, the people standing behind Xu Dingguo were not something they could offend.

After seeing Shi Lang calm down, Shi Fucai asked a few more questions, and finally figured out what happened on the island.He glanced at the place where Shun Jun and Zheng Jun were confronting each other in the distance, and then said to his nephew: "Didn't you say that Vice General Gao has persuaded both sides? I'll wait here, and you quietly invite Vice General Gao over here. Talk to him."

Shi Lang had no choice but to leave with the order, and after a while a middle-aged man wearing Ming army armor came over under the protection of several personal soldiers.Seeing Shi Fu standing alone behind the reef, the middle-aged man turned around and said a few words to the soldiers around him, they stopped in place, and then the middle-aged man came over alone.

"General Shi."

"Senior General."

After the two greeted each other with fists in their hands, Shi Fu said frankly to each other: "Vice General Gao, we are our own people now, so I will say something frankly. If the expedition fails because of such things, do you think Who will His Majesty punish?"

Gao You, who originally wanted to argue with reason, was taken aback by Shi Fu's sudden question. It took him a while to realize that it seems that the Marshal's Mansion cannot formally control the Zheng family, so if the expedition to Taiwan fails, Emperor Yongchang can only hold him and Xu Dingguo accountable.

The idea of ​​wanting to firmly stand on Xu Dingguo's side suddenly dissipated a lot, and he could only reply vaguely: "It's just a small matter of fighting together, so it won't cause a big fight. Your general Chen Shen aggressively gave way as soon as he landed. Our handing over the spoils and prisoners here is too aggressive. Even if we don’t give Xu Zongbing face, we can’t give face to His Majesty, right? Or, the Zheng family has made up their mind to compete with Dashun for the world? "

Shi Fu was also speechless for a long time after being given such a big hat by Gao You. Can he intervene in such things as fighting for the world?No matter how he expresses his stance on this matter, Zheng Zhilong and Li Zicheng will be dissatisfied, which is obviously not what he wants.

After a few seconds of silence, Shi Fu decided not to talk about such a dangerous topic. He said bluntly: "In any case, the primary goal of this fleet expedition is to land in Taiwan. The Dutch ship captured by us is just an accident. , I don't think we need to waste too much energy on the disposal of this ship."

Gao You's face was obviously relaxed a lot, he nodded and replied, "I think so too. 10,000+ taels of silver seems like a lot, but there is not much left when it is shared equally among everyone, and His Majesty is offended by this little amount of silver." It's not the way of a wise man to be outraged."

The stone in Shi Fu's heart has finally been let go. If he can find someone in the Shun Army who can talk, today's matter will be handled easily.After the two stood by the reef and talked for a few words, they walked towards the island side by side.

When the two passed by a group of captives, a Dutchman suddenly stood up and shouted at Shi Fu angrily in Hokkien dialect: "Are you one of the officials' subordinates? Are you attacking the company's ships? Are you trying to start a war?" ? Is this an order from an official?"

The soldiers of the Zheng family guarding the captives rushed up immediately, punching and kicking the Dutchman who stood up and shouting, while several other soldiers of the Shun army sat on the stones beside them and jeered, making the soldiers of the Zheng family and the prisoners one-on-one One-on-one, don't bully others.

Shi Fu glanced at the soldiers of the Shun Army and stopped his subordinates, and then said loudly to the bruised and swollen Dutchman: "Come on, the company has attacked our merchant ships in Nanyang not once or twice. If we want to talk about war, we have already started war But this time you are going to be finished, because this is not a war between us and the company, but a decree personally issued by the emperor of our country to exterminate foreigners from East and West."

The Dutchman opened his eyes wide, ignoring the pain in his body, and shouted loudly to Shi Fu: "This is impossible. Some people in the Nanjing merchant ship from Nagasaki said that the city of Beijing has been taken down by the bandits. Your emperor doesn't know In the end, you are lying."

Shi Fu ignored him, but turned his head to look at the giggling Shunjun soldiers and said, "This Dutchman said that His Majesty is a traitor, and you are still applauding him?"

The soldiers of the Shun Army were stunned for a moment. They couldn't understand Hokkien, so they naturally didn't know what the Dutchman and Shi Fu said. One of them asked stupidly, "Which His Majesty is he talking about?"

However, some people have come to their senses, got up and rushed over cursing, punching and kicking the Dutchman again.Only then did Shi Fu continue to walk forward with Gao You, and soon came to a pile of fire, Xu Dingguo and Chen Hui were sitting across the fire pile, and a pot of soup was still stewing on the fire pile.

Shi Fu and Gao You exchanged glances, and then each walked towards one side.Shi Fu sat down beside Chen Hui, dismissed the others, and watched him say, "Let's make peace."

Chen Hui looked at him in disbelief and said, "We surrounded the Dutch. Those northern scoundrels robbed our spoils and injured our people. You asked me to reconcile with them? What will I do with this soldier in the future?" bring?"

Shi Fu lowered his voice, and said impatiently: "Are you stupid? What is this ship of money worth? The trade route with Japan is the big one. Without the support of His Majesty Yongchang, it is impossible for us to start a war with the company." , because our strength is not enough.

It's not that you don't know that the company has already robbed several of our merchant ships in Nanyang, and they just want to drive us out of Nanyang and monopolize the maritime trade in Nanyang.Even on the Japanese route, they have thought about it more than once.

A friend from the shogunate revealed to Yiguan that the Dutch business house had tried several times to the shogunate, if they moved the Chinese merchant ships on the China-Japan route, what action the shogunate would take, and the shogunate gave them a stern warning, so they kept going. Didn't dare to act.Are you going to make His Majesty Yongchang our enemy for a boatload of silver?He is the emperor who has the potential to unify the world. "

Chen Hui's anger immediately vented a lot. He knew Zheng Zhilong's admiration for His Majesty Yongchang, and he also believed that cooperating with His Majesty Yongchang was the best choice at the moment. He even betrayed Nanjing for this reason and handed over the defense of Zhenjiang to the Marshal of the capital. up.He can make these northern landlubbers succumb here, but what if the Marshal's Mansion retaliates in the future?

On the opposite side of the fire, Gao You was also persuading Xu Dingguo: "Xu Zongbing, I think it's better to reconcile this matter. Our priority now is to land in Taiwan, not to fight with Zheng Jun here."

Xu Dingguo bit a straw and said nonchalantly: "Internal strife is internal strife, his grandma's, I won the Dutchman, and the spoils of war will naturally go to me. Is it possible that I have to work hard for nothing? A boatload of money, what do they say?" I just want to be greedy for ink, isn't this when I don't know how to kill people?"

The subordinates behind Xu Dingguo also echoed with red eyes: "The old general said, how can we back down on this kind of thing, if you want to take away the money on the ship, you can, first step over our corpses..."

Gao You calmly broke the fantasy of these people and said: "This is an overseas desert island, as long as they block the island, can you still live on money?"

Chapter 251 New Deal 66

Under the persuasion of Shi Fu and Gao You, the generals of Shun Jun and Zheng Jun finally calmed down. After discussing for a long time, Xu Dingguo, Chen Hui, Shi Fu and Gao You decided to send the Dutch merchant ship together with the goods and silver on board. They were all sent back to Yangzhou and handed over to the Marshal's Mansion for distribution.

The reason why they finally reached the conclusion of sending them back to the mainland instead of splitting them up on the spot is because both sides don't trust each other now, and Xu Dingguo is also worried about what will happen to the Zheng family after the money is divided. After all, they are overseas now. A group of landlubbers were really not sure how to defend against the Zheng family's attack at sea.The other is that what Gao You said is also right, it is useless to ask for silver from overseas, they still want to bring silver back to the mainland after all.

After the agreement was reached, tensions between the two armies also eased.Shun Jun and Zheng Jun will leave people and carpenters to repair the ship, others will continue to Taiwan tomorrow, and some ships will return to the Diaoyu Islands after unloading their cargo, and then return to the Yangtze River with the repaired ships mouth.

The four of them reached an agreement by clinking bowls with the freshly stewed sea turtle soup instead of wine.The sun was about to fall into the sea at this time, so Xu Dingguo and others decided to rest on the island for one night. The island was only a few miles square, and they didn't find any big animals just now. A tent is much more comfortable.

Although Shi Fu, Chen Hui and other Zheng army generals reached an agreement with Xu Dingguo, Gao You and other Shun army generals, they were unwilling to spend the night on the island with each other, so they made excuses and went back to the ship.

Seeing this, Gao You withdrew to the boat, and Xu Dingguo saw that there were no outsiders on the island, so he brought out the Dutch interpreter hidden among his subordinates.While asking Xu Er'an to make a bowl of sea turtle soup for the Han interpreter, he asked the other party: "Why did you, a Han, get mixed up on the Dutch boat? Could it be that you betrayed your ancestors? You have to make it clear, otherwise the island will be buried again." A dead person is not a problem."

A few soldiers beside him touched the sabers on their waists maliciously, making Lin Damu, who was kneeling on the sandy ground, trembling while holding the wooden bowl, but he didn't dare to spill the soup in the wooden bowl, and repeatedly comforted himself in his heart After calming down, he replied to Xu Dingguo: "The villain is from Xiangshan, Guangzhou. He went out to sea with his family since he was a child, mainly traveling to Taiwan, Tokyo and Batavia. Later, he learned a little Annan dialect and Franji dialect. Talking to Dutch, and then when I went to Batavia for a boat trip, I was hired by the company...

Later, when traveling between Japan-Taiwan-Batavia, I learned a little Japanese... The villain is just a translator hired by the company, and he has not betrayed his ancestors, please ask the general to learn..."

Xu Er'an interrupted Lin Damu's begging for mercy with some disbelief: "This is how profitable the trade from Batavia to Taiwan to Japan is? You can transport 10,000+ taels of silver from Japan in one trip? Are you going to Japan?" What cargo was shipped?"

Lin Damu said honestly: "If you talk about the most profitable goods shipped to Japan, it is naturally raw silk. A load of raw silk in Chaozhou port is about a hundred taels, and a load of raw silk in Chaozhou port is about 150-160 taels. The price can reach 400 taels. If it is red silk and other silk fabrics, the price can be increased by [-]% to double when shipped to Japan, but the Japanese prefer their own brocade patterns, so raw silk can be sold faster.

Secondly, the best-selling goods in Japan are sugar and deerskin. Every hundred deerskins are only 12-14 taels in Taiwan, but in Japan they can be sold for more than three times the price, and sugar can reach 2-3 times the price.However, these goods cannot be compared with raw silk after all, because raw silk occupies a small area but is of high value, and it is more profitable to ship it to Japan..."

Xu Er'an couldn't help but said: "Your Majesty is right, this overseas is indeed a mountain of gold and silver. If we can occupy Taiwan, even if we can't get raw silk, we can occupy the business of buckskin and sugar, and we can become rich in the future." Weng."

Xu Dingguo's subordinates around the bonfire also echoed Xu Er'an, "The major general is right, if we can take Taiwan's buckskin and sugar output, why should we worry about military pay?" "Didn't your majesty allow us to give priority Is it honoring the land grant order? We can first enclose the deer field, and then find someone to reclaim the wasteland to plant sugarcane..."

"Stop arguing, the old man hasn't finished asking." Xu Dingguo yelled at his subordinates, and then asked Lin Damu: "How much deerskin and cane sugar can Taiwan produce in a year?"

Hearing that Xu Dingguo's tone was not as harsh as before, Lin Damu felt a little relieved, and he quickly replied: "The annual production of deerskin is about 10 pieces, and the cane sugar is about 9000 tons. However, the sugar production areas are all in southern Taiwan. , was controlled by the Dutch, and they built a big castle in Dazu.”

Xu Dingguo nodded slightly, these two numbers are quite good, so his worries about Emperor Yongchang disappeared a lot.Although he has been comforting his subordinates, in fact, he still has doubts about the big cake that Emperor Yongchang drew for himself. He is also very worried that Emperor Yongchang is just looking for an excuse to send himself to a deserted island overseas.

Xu Dingguo also understood in his heart that it was hard for Emperor Yongchang and the main generals of the Shun army to believe that they surrendered to the Ming army. Even if the northern frontier army surrendered to the Wu-Qing coalition army under Wu Sangui's persuasion, they were huddled in the south of the Yellow River and did not dare to go north to rescue them. The Ming army in the capital has already shown that they will not be loyal to anyone, but will only submit to power.

For the four towns, Li Zicheng might still be able to give some face, but he would not be so tolerant of their miscellaneous forces.For example, Xu Dingguo's identity is actually very subtle. He fled back to his hometown with his servants and stragglers after the defeat of the army. In addition, he still had an army of hundreds of people in his hands, so the local government hoped to use him to defend the village, so they gave him some support, allowing Xu Dingguo to raise an army again.

But at this time, Xu Dingguo had lost his awe of the imperial court, and he just wanted to rely on the force in his hands to protect himself, so he caused many looting incidents in the local area. By this time, his army was no different from bandits.

Although Li Zicheng accepted his surrender when he went south, it was not because he valued him, but because he didn't want to waste the energy of the Shun army. After all, at this time Xu Dingguo had already recruited thousands of people and dispersed his army Locally, it will suffer instead.

Xu Dingguo also knew how his subordinates were drawn out. They were all vicious local youths. It was fine to let them bully the common people.It is even impossible to let these people go home to farm, because they just can't bear the life of farmers, so they wander between urban and rural areas.

So when Li Zicheng led the army to the south, he mobilized all his troops. Xu Dingguo felt that this was to prevent his people from fleeing.And sending them overseas is also to make them have nowhere to escape, after all, they can never swim back to the mainland.

However, after intercepting the Dutch ship and the Chinese interpreter today, Xu Dingguo no longer thought about how to return to the mainland. It is really more tempting to make a fortune overseas than to go to the mainland to fight against Jiannu and the former Ming frontier army. strength.Next, he asked about the power of the Dutch in Taiwan and the distribution of the power of the natives and Han people on the island of Taiwan.

When they woke up early the next morning, the generals, including Xu Dingguo and his son, became more energetic, because they found that the Dutch did not even have 1000 people on Taiwan Island, and relying on this few people, the Dutch had already It controls the population of nearly 10 on the island, including nearly 2 immigrants from the mainland.

Even Xu Dingguo's subordinates, whose morale was low before, felt relieved after hearing the distribution of power on the island of Taiwan: "The Westerners are only a few thousand, and they dare to divide the troops into the north and the south. There is nothing we can't fight in this battle. Those natives still use clay bows and bone arrows. Since their bows and arrows can't pierce the armor of the Fans, they can't pierce our armor either. Besides, there are 2 Fujian immigrants. Our army is fighting from north to south. Could it be that they Do you still dare to disobey the officers and soldiers?"

On the evening of October 10, the Shunzheng Fleet arrived off the coast of Keelung, Taiwan. After mooring in the sea for one night, the fleet was divided into two the next day.The main fleet sailed directly to Jilong Port, captured the North Holland city named by the Dutch, and then established a base; the secondary fleet, led by Chen Hui, went south to the mouth of the Tamsui River to attack Fort Anthony, named by the Dutch.

At 25 o'clock in the morning on the 10th, the unsuspecting sentinel of North Holland City noticed a huge fleet heading towards Jilong Bay. At first, the Dutch in the city thought it was a Chinese trading ship from the mainland, but they looked ahead. After the ships of the Yu fleet opened the gun doors, they immediately sounded the alarm and called back all the soldiers outside the city.

The city of North Holland is a small castle built on the ruins of the city of San Salvador built by the Spaniards. It is only about a quarter of the size of the city of San Salvador.The Dutch attacked the city of San Salvador too hard, resulting in the destruction of all parts of the city except for the northwest bastion facing the sea.

Even after nearly two years, the city of North Holland is just a dilapidated city surrounded by wooden fences relying on the northwest bastion, because the Dutch have not yet completely conquered these villages in northern Taiwan, so there is no manpower to build them. Destroyed the chicken coop and the two castles of Freshwater.

Before the arrival of the Shunzheng Fleet, on September 9, Zeelandia City in southern Taiwan sent Captain Boon to northern Taiwan with 6 officers and soldiers, preparing to conquer the villages in northern Taiwan and fully incorporate northern Taiwan into the company's rule.

Therefore, when the Shunzheng fleet arrived, there were only twenty or thirty European mercenaries and forty or fifty soldiers conscripted from the south in the city of North Holland.When the Dutch in the castle saw the continuous appearance of soldiers on the docked ships, their faces turned pale.

Shi Fu sent a Dutch prisoner to the city to issue an ultimatum, asking the soldiers in the city to put down their weapons and surrender, otherwise they would slaughter the city if they captured it.The defenders in the city delayed until the fleet unloaded its artillery, and finally raised the white flag to surrender.

Xu Dingguo changed North Holland City to Keelung Port, which was named by Li Zicheng, and then left his nephew Xu Si and more than [-] people to guard Keelung Port. On the third day, he took the main force to Danshui.

Chapter 252 New Deal 67

When the Spaniards ruled northern Taiwan, they mainly used the city of San Salvador in the chicken coop as their main base, and then built the Santo Domingo Castle on a hill on the north bank of the Tamsui River estuary.

At the beginning, the Spaniards stationed in northern Taiwan for two purposes, hoping to cut off the waterway between Batavia and Japan, and to obtain a trading port closer to China than Manila.

But these two plans almost failed. First of all, because of the outbreak of the Shimabara Rebellion in Japan, the shogunate began to completely eliminate the Catholics in the country and cut off trade with Catholic countries such as Spain and Portugal. Among them, the Dutch were It took a lot of effort.

The second is that the Spanish Empire suffered repeated defeats in the European wars, and its national strength declined sharply. It had to strengthen its blood-sucking of the American colonies, so it began to limit the amount of trade between Manila and Acapulco.As the amount of American silver imported into Manila decreased, there was naturally no need to increase the amount of trade with China.

Therefore, after the Spaniards completed the construction of the San Salvador city of chicken coops, they lost confidence in the construction of the Santo Domingo Castle in Danshui. Created an opportunity for the Dutch to occupy northern Taiwan.

After the Dutch stormed the city of San Salvador in 1642, the weakly defended Santo Domingo Castle surrendered, and the Dutch never fired a single shot at the castle.But this wooden fortress erected at the mouth of the Tamsui River is really not a qualified military stronghold, so the Dutch mobilized a large number of Chinese craftsmen and natives to the Tamsui River at the beginning of this year to carry out a comprehensive renovation of the Santo Domingo Castle. reconstruction.

On May [-]th of this year, the construction of Fort Antony by the Dutch officially started. The Dutch brought in a large amount of lime and bricks, trying to build a solid brick castle here to completely control the mouth of the Danshui River.However, Taiwan's abundant rain this summer has prevented the foundation construction of the castle from being completed.

But now, the Dutch stationed in Fort Antony encountered a bigger trouble, the Chinese actually organized a fleet to fight over.At the beginning, the Dutch officers and soldiers in Fort Antony still wanted to guard. Although there are only more than 50 Europeans in Fort Antony, seventy or eighty native soldiers, nearly a hundred Chinese craftsmen and native servants in their early [-]s, but The location of Fort Antony is very good. In addition to the condescending location, they also have two cannons.

Moreover, Captain Boone led an army of more than 600 people to explore the passages in the north and south of Taiwan. If they can hold the fort and wait for Captain Boone to return to the army, they will still be able to defeat this Chinese army with nearly a thousand people. fleet.

Lieutenant Jan Dyke, who was stationed at Fort Anthony, also imprisoned all the Chinese craftsmen in the fort for safety reasons, and then tried to make the natives from southern Taiwan obey him and defend the fort.

Jan Dyke survived the first day. After landing, the Chinese only tentatively launched two attacks, and then began to build a camp at the foot of the mountain.Fortunately for Jan Dyck, the Chinese cannons on the boats couldn't reach them, but their cannons couldn't reach the Chinese boats either, because the Spaniards didn't even think that there would be warships attacking this wilderness , so the Castle of Santo Domingo did not build a fort to block the mouth of the river.

The next day, the Chinese built a palisade and trench around the hill at Fort Antony and cleared the southern trail leading up to the hill.Jan Dyke could only ask his subordinates to shoot and harass the Chinese who cleared the vegetation on the hills, but this kind of harassment was actually not very effective, because the Chinese soon began to use wood to make shields to create cover for the clearing work.

That night, Master Chief Thomas Miller questioned Jan Dyke on behalf of the soldiers, "Mr. Lieutenant, when will Captain Boone come back? Is this aimless defense going on? The Chinese craftsmen in the city are unreliable, but are the natives reliable? On behalf of the 36 soldiers in the city, I beg you to tell us your defense plan and final plan."

There were 36 soldiers, that is to say, there were less than 20 people on his side. Jan Dyke immediately came to such a conclusion in his heart.Jan Dyke can understand the feelings of these soldiers. After all, these soldiers are not all members of the Republic. Most of the soldiers hired by the company are from the German region. After all, decades of European wars have smashed the German region into one piece. In ruins, many farmers or citizens of the German states can only migrate abroad or overseas.

These people have no loyalty to the company, they are loyal to the guilder.Let them fight the tribesmen with spears and they will appear disciplined, but if they are surrounded by another army, their loyalty will appear questionable.

However, Jan Dyke was not willing to lose his reputation here, so he tried his best to convince the other party: "Those Chinese are just a group of pirates, and they will not stay here for long. As long as they feel that the loss outweighs the gain by taking down Fort Antony, then we can Negotiations have started with them. Don't you even have the courage to try, and plan to hand over your life to a group of pirates? The relationship between the company and the pirates is very bad. And, as long as Captain Boone can come back in time , we don’t even have to negotiate with them.”

Thomas Miller naturally knew how the company dealt with those pirates, or the pirates identified by the company were essentially innocent businessmen.He thought over and over again, but he could only accept Jan Dyke's suggestion, but before he left, he still warned the other party: "I think you should treat those Chinese craftsmen well, so that at least before Captain Boone returns in time, we There is a second way to go."

Jan Dyke didn't take Thomas Miller's warning seriously. At this moment, he was only thinking about how to prevent the Chinese from down the mountain from attacking him.However, at noon on the third day, the sentry at the wooden city wall issued another warning. When Lieutenant Jan Dyke walked to the city wall, he found that a larger fleet had appeared at the mouth of the Danshui River.

Lieutenant Jan Dyke watched the fleet approaching, his heart was cold, and the soldiers behind him also had a commotion, and some people couldn't help shouting: "This is not a pirate, but an army, Lord, Is this punishing us..."

Not mentioning the riots in Fort Antony, Xu Dingguo, Shi Fu and Chen Hui met after disembarking, and Chen Hui introduced to them: "Two craftsmen escaped from the mountain yesterday, and they told me something ..."

Xu Dingguo looked at the wooden castle on the mountain after listening, and then said: "If there are only more than 50 real people in the castle, then night attack is the best. The real people will not believe the natives, and the natives will not believe the real people." , As long as we create a little disturbance, they will fight themselves. But we need to lull them, send a real fan to negotiate with them, and exchange the real fan we captured for the Chinese in the city."

Chen Hui still hesitated, but Shi Fu agreed: "Since there is still a Dutch army of hundreds of people outside, it is the best choice to take down Fort Antony as soon as possible. As long as we take this castle, the Dutch army outside Even if they ran back, they would have nowhere to go, they couldn't fly back to Da Yuan, could they?"

Seeing that Shi Fu and Xu Dingguo had reached an agreement, Chen Hui had no choice but to agree.Xu Dingguo asked his subordinates to take over the important defensive areas at the foot of the mountain, and at the same time asked him to survey several passages up the mountain to prepare for the night attack.He didn't forget to call the craftsman who fled down the mountain to ask about the layout of the city in person. He also got a surprise from the two people. It turns out that there are water and land routes directly leading to Keelung along the Danshui River. .

Lieutenant Jan Dyke on the mountain saw the captured Ethel crew member. At first the lieutenant wanted to talk to the crew member alone, but the soldiers in the city stopped them and asked the representative to come in front of them Say what you want.

The captured crew members didn't have much scheming, and they expressed their request for personnel exchange in front of everyone.When the soldiers learned that the army at the foot of the mountain was indeed an army representing China and not some pirates, they quit immediately and asked the lieutenant to immediately negotiate with the other party in the name of the company.

A veteran incited everyone like this: "When the company hired us, it didn't say that we would fight against the same country. They are not Spanish and have no hatred against us. We should refuse to participate in this war."

Another treasurer in the city who was responsible for the construction of Fort Antony also believed that a war with China could not break out. He pulled the lieutenant aside and said: "The company is not even willing to fight against the Japanese shogunate, let alone the Chinese who are stronger than the Japanese. Negotiations are The best way out, otherwise you might end up with Peter Nuiz."

Lieutenant Jan Dyke's unsteady heart of resistance finally collapsed, he was not willing to be the second Peter Nuiz.So the Dutch sailors who were sent up the mountain by the Shunzheng Allied Forces went down the mountain again, but what they brought back was not to exchange personnel, but to demand a decent surrender from the people on the mountain.

Although this reply was somewhat unexpected, it was good news for Xu Dingguo, Shi Fu and others, which meant that not only did they not need to shed blood to take Fort Antony, but they could also receive various supplies in the castle by the way. On the afternoon of October 10th, when the sun was setting, Lieutenant Jan Dyke and the soldiers in the fort landed. They obtained the right to keep personal belongings and self-defense weapons, and got a separate station on the north bank of the Danshui River.