During the confrontation between the two sides, a small number of Dutch people fled from the city and voluntarily surrendered to the Ming army.

They were well aware that when the war would end depended on when the shells of the Ming army would be able to break the walls of Fort Geranza.

However, Zhu Chenggong was very entangled, the eighteen-pound and twenty-four-pound Hongyi cannons were not enough to quickly destroy the fortress, but would be counterattacked by the Hongmao's artillery, which was easy to suppress.

If there is no artillery to destroy the fortress, a forced siege with infantry is tantamount to death.

Just when Zhu Chenggong was troubled, among the Dutch people who surrendered, an old acquaintance named He Bin gave him a lot of inspiration.

He Bin and Zhu Chenggong are fellow countrymen, both from Nan'an, Quanzhou, Fujian, he did business in Japan in his early years, followed Zheng Zhilong to the East during the Apocalypse, and robbed everywhere at sea, and was also a member of the pirate alliance "Eighteen Zhi".

After Zheng Zhilong accepted the Ming Dynasty's recruitment, He Bin, as his younger brother, also moved to Fujian and served as a guerrilla general in coastal defense.

At the beginning, the eighteen Chinese pirate merchants who swore swore at the beginning, some surrendered to the Ming court, and some started their old professions, and the two sides evolved from sworn brothers to officers and thieves, and they also fought fiercely.

He Bin relied on the extermination of his former sworn brothers many times to be promoted step by step, and he was promoted step by step, and he was known to the governor of the capital.

Due to the perennial suppression of his former peers, He Bin was finally remembered, on the way to and from Fujian, he was attacked by the pirate leader Li Kuiqi, and all his peers were killed in battle, only he ran away.

After running to Dongfan, He Bin did not dare to return to Fujian, fearing that he would be killed on the road, so he had to stay in Dongfan to develop.

At that time, the Dutch had already occupied Chihkan Tower and other places, and the flexible He Bin converted to Catholicism practiced by the Dutch people, learned their language, and became the Dutch generalist.

Now that the Ming army is besieging the city of Gelanza, the commander of the army is still the eldest nephew, and He Bin made the decision to defect to the eldest nephew after careful consideration.

"Those red-haired ghosts arbitrarily bullied and slaughtered our compatriots, and I have long hated their crimes!"

During the banquet, He Bin, who had curly hair, drank half a catty of wine and began to complain to Zhu Chenggong.

Zhu Chenggong just nodded, hoping that this sensible "elder" could reveal some of the situation in Wang Ba's shell.

He Bin said while drinking: "Dongfan is fertile for thousands of miles, if you can get this place, you can send people to farm, the food is sufficient, to the north to the chicken coop, fresh water, there is a large amount of military sulfur available, mast rudder, copper and iron are also very much. ”

Secretly glancing at Zhu Chenggong, he pretended to be slightly drunk and said: "Dongfan is surrounded by the sea on all sides, and it can lead to the country of the four seas, trade with it, advance can be attacked, retreat can be defended......"

"If you migrate millions of people, gather for ten years, and educate for ten years, you will be the king and hegemon, and it will be okay to enrich the country and strengthen the army!"

Hearing only a snap, Zhu Chenggong stood up, pointed at him and scolded angrily: "Presumptuous! Are you inciting me to betray the Ming Dynasty and cut off the king? ”

He Bin was taken aback, and hurriedly said: "The surname of the country has misunderstood......

Zhu Chenggong pointed at him and said, "You also know that I am the surname of the country?" Emperor Ming gave my country a surname, not for me to be the king, if it weren't for the fact that you and I have an old part, I would have taken you to sacrifice the flag! ”

He Bin was startled, immediately knelt down, and hurriedly took out a city defense map of Relanchanid from his sleeve, handed it to Zhu Chenggong and said: "This is the distribution of Hongmao's troops, as well as the city defense map set up by the fort, please calm your anger." ”

Zhu Chenggong looked at the picture carefully, and suddenly felt overjoyed, and helped him up and said, "Why is Uncle He like this, please get up quickly!" In the future, you must not say such a rebellious thing! ”

"Yes, yes, yes!" He Bin patted his ass and stood up, feeling relieved.

This eldest nephew has the style of Emperor Tianwu, so scared that Lao Tzu almost took out the waist card of Jinyiwei......

He Bin, head of the Jinyiwei Overseas Intelligence Bureau and the Nanyang Branch, joined the Daming Jinyiwei Intelligence Department in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen.

At the time of the signing of the "Five-Power Trade Treaty", He Bin, who was the general secretary at the time, went to Nanjing with Paul, the governor of Taiwan of the East India Company, and was opposed by the Jinyi Wei to help establish the Nanyang intelligence network......

He Bin not only told Zhu Chenggong in detail about the deployment of all the Dutch troops in Dongfan, but also pointed out a detail that decided the battle.

"This victory or defeat is actually not above the main city of Geranza City." He Bin said mysteriously.

Hearing this, Zhu Chenggong was taken aback: "How can you say this?" ”

He Bin opened the map, pointed to a small fortress next to the city of Geranza, and said, "Here, Utrecht Fort!" ”

Zhu Chenggong took a closer look, and through his understanding, this small fortress was a branch fort of Geranza City, located on a hill near Wang Bahuzi, the terrain was very high, and a lot of artillery was erected on it, attacking the Ming army from the side and providing fire support to Wang Bahuzi.

After thinking for a moment, Zhu Chenggong slapped his thigh and said, "Commanding heights!" Can the artillery on this small broken fort hit that Wang Bahu? ”

He Bin nodded slowly and said with a smile: "You can cover the entire area!" ”

He Bin, who has been working for the Dutch for more than ten years, is very confident, so confident that he knows the defense of the city of Geranza better than Marr, after all, he has survived five governors.....

There are very few fortresses in Europe that build secondary fortresses, but if there is a commanding height near the main city, it is necessary to build a fortress, otherwise once used by the opponent, the defender will be exposed to the opponent's line of sight or even firepower.

This Utrecht Fort is the attached fortress of the city of Geranza, which controls the commanding heights of this area, just like the outer walls of Nanjing, and wants to enclose the Purple Mountain in the city, in case the commanding heights are occupied by the enemy and bombard the city of Nanjing.

Among the examples of battles in which the commanding heights determine the victory or defeat of the battlefield, the most classic is the "Battle for the 203 Heights" in the Russo-Japanese War, where both sides put a large number of troops.

In order to win, the commander of the Japanese army, Admiral Nogi Noshinori, forced the Japanese army to continue to carry out a near-suicidal assault, depleting the Russian army with huge casualties, and finally won the victory.

In the whole battle, both Japan and Russia fought, with a total of 100,000 killed, the Japanese army lost more than 60,000 personnel, and the Russian army lost about 44,000 personnel.

Hearing this, the smile on Zhu Chenggong's face gradually bloomed, and he immediately shouted: "Come on, pass the order to raise the account!" ”

.....

Utrecht Fort is located southwest of the city of Geranza and is named after the important city of the Netherlands, "Utrecht".

A few decades ago, the northern provinces under Spanish rule broke out in revolts and started the War of Independence, and the northern provinces led by the Netherlands concluded an alliance in Utrecht, known as the "Utrecht League", which was later upgraded to the "Republic of the Netherlands".

It can be said that Utrecht was the political starting point of the Netherlands as a country, but now, this rather symbolic name, has not brought new glory to the Dutch people.

On 22 April, the Ming army concentrated 70 Hongyi cannons near Fort Utrecht, leaving only a small part to contain the main city of Geranza.

With Zhu Chenggong's order, seventy heavy artillery pieces began to bombard fiercely!

Normally, the frequency of artillery shelling in a single day is limited, and there is a danger of explosion.

However, the artillery of the Ming army fired more than 2,000 shells in one morning, and the earth-shattering roar shook almost the entire Utrecht fort.

Shocked by the surprise, Maier hurriedly sent a group of soldiers out of the city to support Fort Utlicht.

As the governor of the garrison, he knew very well that once Utrecht Fort was breached, the Ming army could condescendingly use artillery to violently bombard the main city of Geranza, and at that time, it would be a catastrophe from heaven!

However, as soon as the Dutch soldiers left the city, they were met with a head-on attack by the Ming army.

After the two sides used muskets to shoot at each other, the red-haired army left more than 100 corpses and ran back to Wang Ba's shell in disgrace.

Under the frantic shelling of the Ming artillery, the small and weakly defended Utrecht Fort was directly beaten into a pile of ruins, and almost all the Dutch defenders in the fort ascended to the sky!

The Ming and Zheng armies, having obtained the commanding heights, soon began to build fortifications and lay heavy artillery on the fortress site.

It took another day for the Ming army to break through all the three guard castles on the periphery of the city of Geranza.

At this point, the city of Geranza was completely isolated, and soon it would be devastating.

.......

Tell me why the book keeps calling the Netherlands the Netherlands.

At this time in the book, the Netherlands is known as the United Republic of the Netherlands, because Holland is the largest, richest, and most powerful province in the United Republic of the Netherlands.

It can be said that the use of the Netherlands to represent the whole of the Netherlands is not standard, and even the Dutch themselves complain.

A spokesman for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs once told EFE that "it is a bit strange to extend only a small part of the Netherlands, the Netherlands, abroad".

Therefore, the Dutch government recently announced that in order to reshape its international image, it will replace the national logo from 2020, and in the new logo, the original word "Netherlands" will be changed to "Netherlands".

Perhaps in future history textbooks, it will be changed to: Zheng Chenggong recovered Taiwan, drove out the Dutch colonists, 17th century, sea coachman - Netherlands.....

(End of chapter)