Under the scorching sun, on top of Relanzha City, a persistent figure stood and stared stubbornly.
"Boom", a cannonball exploded next to the figure. He remained motionless and continued to stare.
Not gazing at the sea, but gazing at the ship.
The city of Oranje has been besieged for three months. There is a shortage of food in the city, and the Dutch army is in a very difficult situation.
Just like the priestess Hero in Greek mythology who lit a torch every night, Governor Firburg went to the city every day to stare at the sea leading to Batavia. It was already July, and the southern trade wind was blowing.
During the season, Batavia's fleet came with favorable winds and arrived in a month. Why haven't we seen any sign of reinforcements yet?
Fairburg looked again with his telescope, but still didn't see a single shadow of sail. He shook his head and left the city in disappointment.
Not far away from him, another person, Enpinghou Gao Minggui of the Ming Dynasty, was also shaking his head. While shaking his head, he cursed: "Thief bastard, this bird city is really difficult to defeat!"
It was indeed difficult to defeat. From the beginning of April to the middle of July, the Ming army captured all the peripheral castles of the city of Geranje except for the Utlich Round Fort. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do to defeat this city.
The city wall, which is more than three feet high, was considered a majestic city even in the Ming Dynasty. In addition to the three-foot-high wall that was exposed outside, there was another ten-foot-high wall that went deep into the ground. The Yi people actually used sugar water to mix ash and build bricks to make the city wall taller than the city walls.
The stone is still hard.
The Ming army's artillery bombarded the city wall for three months. Although the city wall was riddled with holes, it could not bring down the city wall.
What's even more despicable is that the opponent adopted a bastion-style design. No matter which side they attacked, they could be shot from several sides. More than a thousand corpses were thrown away, and the Ming army did not gain any benefits.
As for digging tunnels and the like, not to mention that the city was built in a mountainous area, which is hard and difficult to dig. Even if it is dug, how can such a solid city foundation collapse due to explosion?
Gao Minggui felt sorry for the lives of his subordinates and changed to a long-term siege.
While besieging them, they ordered the captured Dutch prisoners to shout, "If you surrender, you will be spared death, and you will be released back to the Netherlands after surrender," one sentence after another.
It was indeed very effective and had a heavy blow to the morale of the Dutch army. Gao Minggui observed through a telescope and found that the Dutch soldiers in the city gathered together in small groups to smoke and sigh.
Although the morale of the Dutch army was low, Governor Feuerburg refused to surrender, and Gao Minggui was unable to do anything to him for the time being.
??
In fact, the Dutch reinforcements arrived a few days ago.
In late May, after the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia received the news of the fall of Chicana and the siege of Geranzea, it immediately appointed Jakob Kaou as commander and led 700 soldiers.
Ten warships rushed to Taiwan.
Taking advantage of the southern trade wind, after thirty-eight days of sailing, Jacob Kaou arrived in the sea of Taiwan in mid-July.
As a result, they were surprised by nearly a hundred warships of the Ming Army's Guangdong Navy Chen Qice's unit parked in the sea area of Relanzhe.
Oh my God! The enemy actually has so many warships. Not only are they numerous and densely packed, as far as the eye can see, they are also powerful and well-trained.
Commander Kaowu was mature and prudent in his work and was not completely sure. He did not dare to land in Relanja City to avoid being attacked by the Ming Navy.
He was waiting for an opportunity, an opportunity to lead his men and avoid the Ming Navy.
The opportunity came. On July 18, a big storm broke out in the sea near Renanzi, and the Ming navy withdrew to the port to take shelter.
"The whole army will sail to the coast of Relanje and land", Kaou issued a military order.
The subordinates were a little scared, "Your Excellency, Commander, the phoenix wave is so huge, do you want to wait until it is smaller before setting off?"
"No, it's now. Faced with the two enemies of big wind and waves and countless Ming warships, I choose big wind and waves," Commander Kaowu said firmly.
It took a lot of courage for the Dutch to choose to brave the wind and waves to land. Because compared with the Ming Dynasty's warships, their warships were weaker in resisting wind and waves.
At this time, the warships of the Ming Dynasty used hard sails that could rotate around the mast, commonly known as "eight-sided wind". This kind of sail fell quickly and was not easy to capsize in strong winds and waves; the Dutch warships used soft sails.
The sails are slow to lower. When there is a big wave, it is too late to lower the sails and the ship will easily capsize. In addition, although the warships of the Ming Dynasty are small in size, most of them use watertight cabin technology and are not easy to sink if water enters; the large ships of the Dutch
It is dangerous once water enters.
"Hoo~hoo~hoo~"
"Woo~woo~woo~"
"Ho~ho~ho~"
The Dutch fleet advanced amidst the howling of strong winds and huge waves. Commander Kau hid in the captain's cabin and secretly made the sign of the cross, "Almighty and merciful God, please bless the Netherlands, Amen!"
"Your Excellency, the port of Relanja is ahead," the first mate of the flagship shouted excitedly, his voice full of surprise of escaping from death.
Kaowulian called for God's blessing and looked through the telescope. He even saw the city wall of Relanze.
Suddenly, "hoo hoo hoo", "woo woo hoo", "ho ho ho", waves of bigger, higher and wilder waves rushed towards us, seeming to tear this small fleet apart.
, sank to the bottom of the sea.
In the face of the power of nature, human beings appear so insignificant!
"No, lower the sails quickly." Kaowu ordered the sails to be lowered. At this time, the ships had been blown far away from each other by the strong wind, and the military order could only be given to his own flagship. Fortunately, each captain had rich sailing experience.
An experienced sailor knows how to lower a sail without giving an order.
In the face of the shocking power, the Dutch were very obedient, letting the sea wind and waves push their boats to swing back and forth.
After a long time, finally, the sea was calm, and Kaowu ordered the sail to be raised to find his subordinates.
After much searching, only three ships were found, and the other six ships were missing.
"Quick, get the chart, I have to figure out where this is," Kaowu yelled.
The subordinates took the chart and studied it for a long time, and finally determined that their position was in the sea north of Luermen. The crazy south trade wind blew them all the way north, blowing, blowing, blowing.
Kaow ordered to sail south to look for the six missing ships, but they couldn't find them.
"Your Excellency, Commander, we encountered strong waves near Relanje. Maybe they were blown to the Port of Relanje," the adjutant advised. There was another possibility: the ship capsized, he didn't dare to say.
Kaowu sighed, "I hope so."
When the weather was calm, the warships of the Ming army reappeared in the sea area of Relanje. There were only four ships and 270 soldiers left in Kawu. They did not dare to risk going to Relanze and had to avoid the open sea first.
The adjutant asked for instructions: "Your Excellency, Commander, where are we going now?"
Kaou finally made a decision, "Go to the northernmost part of Formosa, where we have our North Holland City and Fort Victoria."
The city of North Holland was formerly the city of San Salvador built by the Spanish. During the Battle of the Chicken Coop in 1642, the Dutch army captured the city of San Salvador, rebuilt the city walls, and built the city of North Holland and Fort Victoria. Later, the Netherlands discovered
There are Pingpu tribe communities everywhere in the north. Transportation is inconvenient and development costs are too high, so only a hundred soldiers are left to garrison.
The adjutant's guess was actually correct. Five of the six ships were indeed blown into the Port of Relandia by strong winds and waves.
"The reinforcements from Batavia are coming." When the defenders in the city of Geranze saw the five ships and 400 reinforcements, they were so excited that tears filled their eyes, and their morale improved a lot. Although there were only 400 reinforcements,
But at least it means that Batavia hasn't forgotten Formosa, right? In fact, they are overthinking it. "Formosa" means "beautiful". Such a rich and beautiful place, Batavia headquarters ten
Seven gentlemen, naturally reluctant to give up.
However, there was another ship, the "Erk", which was unlucky and was blown near the Ming army's port by strong winds and waves. To make matters worse, it actually ran aground on the rocks and sank slowly.
This was a very small communications ship with thirty soldiers on board. A dozen of them were unable to escape and sank to the bottom of the sea with the ship when they hit the rocks; a dozen more rolled and climbed onto the rocks. p>
They tore off their clothes, looked for scraps of wood on the ship, and made a white flag. Whenever they encountered a ship, they would wave the white flag and call for help. Even if they encountered the Ming army, they would still wave it. Being a prisoner was better than starving on the rocks.
Die, freeze to death.
Cai Xin, deputy general of the Guangdong Navy of the Ming Dynasty, was cruising with his fleet and saw this group of people.
"Vice Admiral Cai, someone seems to be asking for help on the rocks over there," the subordinate reported.
"Let's go and have a look over there."
This group of people was captured, and the Ming army commander Enping Hou Gao Minggui immediately interrogated them. He soon learned about the strength of the Dutch reinforcements, and stepped up the deployment of siege and reinforcements.
