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The Qing army was defeated, and the news that the Qin army had defeated Xuzhou, Fengyang, and Shouzhou reached Fujian. Zheng Zhilong was very worried. While stabilizing Gannan, he secretly prepared to attack Taiwan, repaired ships, reorganized the army, prepared food, grass, weapons, and everything else. Made very secretly.
December 23rd of the first year of Qin Dynasty. The Zheng family's fleet was assembled at Liaoluo Bay in Kinmen, with a total of 25,000 troops and hundreds of warships. Led by Zheng Zhibao, the fleet left the harbor and sailed eastward.
In this attack on Taiwan Island, the morale of Zheng's army was still very high. Because they defeated the Dutch many times.
The Dutch retreated to southern Taiwan only after being defeated by the Ming Navy in Penghu in May of the fourth year of Tianqi in the Ming Dynasty. It was also the year when Yan Siqi, Zheng Zhilong and others conspired to overthrow the Japanese shogunate, failed and fled to Taiwan Island, and began the great expansion of Taiwan.
After Zheng Zhilong accepted the Ming Dynasty's recruitment, his scope of activities gradually shifted to the coastal areas of Fujian, and his control over Taiwan decreased a lot. The Dutch took advantage of this opportunity to become increasingly powerful, and tried to break Zheng Zhilong's monopoly on trade in the Far East;
The two sides fought several battles, but they basically ended in defeat for the Dutch. Especially in the sea battle at Liaoluo Bay, the Dutch suffered an unprecedented defeat.
Compared with the optimism of ordinary soldiers, coach Zheng Zhibao is not so optimistic. He knows the situation of the Dutch better and knows that this is a tough battle and not easy to fight.
In the past few years, the Dutch have continued to strengthen their power in Taiwan. Although they only built two cities, Relanja City and Chican City. These two castles are also different from Chinese cities. They are not large in area, but they are purely for military purposes and are very strong. No matter how much ordinary artillery bombards them, they cannot be damaged.
The Dutch garrison on the island currently has 1,800 people. Although it sounds like a small number, their weapons and equipment are very sophisticated.
First of all, the Dutch's large warships were very powerful. Zheng Zhibao and the others called them plywood ships. This kind of plywood boat is composed of two decks. It adopts a lowered bow and an extended hull, giving it unprecedented stability when sailing on the water; it also reduces the wind resistance on its front side;
Each ship is equipped with three to five masts. Except for the last mast, which uses a triangle sail, most of them are equipped with a square sail as a sail, which increases the sailing speed and makes it easier to steer.
Each plywood ship is equipped with more than twenty-five cannons, and the most can be as many as forty or fifty. The artillery is more powerful than the Zheng's army; secondly, the Dutch basically use the most advanced rifles made by Westerners. This rifle is said to have a long range, high accuracy, and amazing power.
This time Zheng Zhibao brought a total of 25,000 troops. Five to six hundred warships were mobilized in this way out of fear of the Dutch's sophisticated weapons. For the Zheng family, this battle must be won, otherwise the Zheng family will not even have a place to stay.
With such a mood, Zheng Zhibao led the vast fleet to the east. The sailing on the first day went very smoothly. The fleet arrived at the Penghu Islands the next day.
After a day of rest in the Penghu Islands. The Zheng family fleet continued to sail eastward, but encountered heavy fog. Fortunately, Zheng Zhibao and the others were familiar with the nearby waterways, and by noon. The heavy fog dissipated, the sky was clear and cloudless, and Zheng Zhibao ordered the sails to be moved forward at full speed.
Dawn the next day. The fleet arrived at the sandy line outside Taiwan Island, and at dawn, sailed to Luermen. At this time it started to rain heavily. The sea is vast and there are many reefs, so it is very dangerous to move forward.
The soldiers became restless, and some generals advised Zheng Zhibao to retreat temporarily and wait for the weather to improve before attacking again.
Zheng Zhibao knew that once he retreated, his morale would be low, so he encouraged everyone: "The rain will not fall sooner or later, and it will rain at this time. It is God who is helping us and hiding our whereabouts. The red-haired devils must not have thought that we would be in such a situation." Don't be afraid if the weather comes to attack them. As long as we hold on, we will be able to catch the red-haired Japanese off guard."
Chican City and Relanjia City are not very far apart. There are many small islands on the seaside, and there are two main channels to enter;
One is the North Channel, also known as the Luermen Port Channel. The hydrological conditions of this port channel are very complex. The port channel is tortuous and circuitous, and the water depth is shallow. The bottom of the water is sandy and arranged in vertical and horizontal directions. It is very difficult for large ships to enter. Only those who are familiar with the waterway can enter and exit the harbor from a slightly deeper place. The harbor road is narrow and can only accommodate two parallel ships.
The other is the South Channel, also known as the Grand Port Road. The entrance is narrow and the water depth can allow large ships to enter and exit. However, the city of Geranje is built here, and the Dutch artillery can cover the entire channel entrance.
The Zheng family's military strength is ten times that of the Dutch, but if they cannot land, the advantage in military strength will not be reflected. Therefore, whether they can defeat the Dutch depends on whether they can successfully land on the beach.
In order to avoid the Dutch fort, Zheng Zhibao chose to enter through the North Channel Luermen Port Road. This channel was narrow and tortuous and very difficult to walk. Encouraged by Zheng Zhibao, Zheng Jiajun continued to move forward in the rain, and was surrounded by dangers along the way.
Fortunately, Zheng Zhilong was a thoughtful person. When he came to work as an interpreter for the Dutch, he drew a blueprint of this waterway. After preparing to attack Taiwan a while ago, he sent people to investigate on the pretext of trade.
For safety reasons, Zheng Zhibao also sent two small boats in front to explore the path. A wooden pole with a draft slightly deeper than the larger ship was nailed to each side of the small boat. Once the wooden pole hit the bottom, he would move back and explore the path again.
The date of coming to attack Taiwan this time was also carefully selected and not random. Zheng Zhibao also carefully calculated the itinerary. It coincided with the high tide, the sea water rose several feet, and just like this, all the ships in Zheng's army entered the harbor smoothly despite the rain.
This operation went so smoothly that even Zheng Zhibao did not expect that the heavy rain might have concealed their operation. The Netherlands probably never dreamed that an enemy would be able to escape from the deer during the heavy rain and poor visibility. Ermengangdao came in.
This huge army of 25,000 men and hundreds of warships successfully got under the eyes of the Dutch without anyone noticing.
The Dutch were completely unprepared for Zheng's army to attack Taiwan. It was not until the Zheng's army unexpectedly successfully landed at Lu'ermen that the Dutch knew there was an enemy attack. Governor Overward and military chief Macri hurriedly assembled their troops and came to meet them.
At this time, the Zheng Jiajun took the lead in occupying Weiyu Island on the northern line. Weiyu Island on the northern line connected with Luermen from the north to the south. It was the entrance to the north-south waterway and had a significant strategic position.
Macri planned to seize back this strategic location first. He sent Captain Kusi to lead 300 soldiers to land at the southern end of Weiyu on the northern line. They approached the Zheng army in a square formation of 15 people per platoon, totaling 20 platoons. position.
The Dutch often suppressed uprisings of the Taiwanese people. Since the Taiwanese people had backward weapons and no strong leaders, the Dutch could easily suppress the uprisings every time. Over time, the Dutch have developed a contempt for the Chinese. I thought that once the shot was fired, the Chinese in front would be frightened and run away like before.
They fired volleys at the same time as they advanced. In the past, they were invincible in this way. But this time, the Zheng Jiajun formed a shield wall with a one-man high-speed iron shield. The Dutch's bullets hit the iron shield, but failed to cause enough damage to the Zheng Jiajun. The Zheng Jiajun counterattacked with a rain of arrows from behind the shield wall, but the Dutch suffered heavy casualties. .
The two sides were very close. The Zheng Jiajun's arrows were thrown out in rapid succession. The Dutch used hot weapons to penetrate them. They had no armor at all. There was a constant sound of popping into the flesh. They fell to the ground screaming one by one. Soon, they Unable to hold on any longer, they turned around and ran away one by one.
Zheng Jiajun took the opportunity to cover up the enemy, defeated the Dutch, and chased Macri all the way to Macri's main formation. Macri still had more than a thousand people, but his own people fled back in front. He could not order a volley and could only let the soldiers fire bursts. Just when he was about to stabilize the situation, Zheng Zhibao personally led thousands of people and came from behind;
The Dutch were attacked from two sides and panicked.
The morale of Zheng's army was high, and their strength was more than ten times that of the Dutch. They rushed forward and besieged them fiercely. The Dutch quickly collapsed. Some raised their hands and surrendered, and some fled for their lives. They no longer had the courage to resist.
In fact, this battle was doomed to fail for the Dutch from the moment the Zheng's army successfully landed. What's more, they were so careless that they thought they were facing the vulnerable rebels on Taiwan Island.
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ps: In order to update tomorrow, I have been immersed in typing for a whole day. I looked up and looked out the window. The sun was already setting. I don’t know if it is still listed on the classified monthly ticket list. Anyway, I feel that there are always dangers. I ask my brother for a monthly ticket. !
.(To be continued...)
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