The Dutchman of the original verse 264

"These abominable yellow-skinned monkeys, they only recognize cannons and arquebuses! Only a beating of them will teach them how to get along with people! As he thought this, Putmans looked with disgust at the workers who were expanding the castle of Geranza, most of whom were local Han Chinese immigrants. (5) Labor shortage has always been a headache for Taiwan's chief executive. The Dutch brought more than 1,000 people to the island, including slaves and hired East Indian natives. And it is always in constant attrition: some are hospitalized, some are dead. He had to hire Chinese to do most of the civil engineering and reclamation work, which was quite expensive in terms of manpower, and made the already loss-making financial situation of the senior staff even worse.

But in terms of defense, he didn't dare to be careless at all. The company has hundreds of thousands of guilders in cash and goods in the merchant house of the chief, and in the event of a mistake, the company will never forgive itself - the directors of the seven provinces and republics have no mercy on those who harm their profits- Peter? Natz's fate was alive.

Recently, however, things have taken a turn for the better in trade with China, and Zheng Zhilong, whose attitude has once again softened with the rise of Liu Xianglao, is not as blunt as it used to be in trade cooperation. Last month, Zheng Zhilong's emissary had brought him a letter to explore the possibility of support from the Dutch.

Putmans got the news that the council had agreed to give Liu Xianglao covert support. The two old brigs had already been sold to Liu Xianglao, and the more pressure Zheng Zhilong came on, the more harmonious his attitude with the Dutch would be. Of course, Putmans thought that if Liu Xianglao was too big, it would be quite disadvantageous to the senior members. Pirates are always difficult to control.

But now he had another trouble, for from the natives who had come to Geranza to sell deerskins, they had learned that a convoy of "innumerable ships" had arrived to fight dogs, and was unloading their goods on the shore to build houses.

Putmans was a little skeptical about this news: First of all, the concept of the number of natives is not good, and when the number is large, it is difficult to tell the number, so they can only use concepts such as "many" and "innumerable", but they can make the natives say "innumerable", at least a dozen or twenty ships have arrived to fight dogs, and they are all "giant ships", although the natives are not very civilized, but small boats of several tens of tons are often seen, and they will never regard the small fishing boats along the coast of China as "giant ships".

What can be called a "giant ship" is at least a ship of more than 200 tons. In addition to Zheng Zhilong, the people who can mobilize so many ships in East Asian waters are Liu Xiang, Spaniards and Australians.

Whoever they came, they landed less than ten miles away from Dayuan, and they must have come with bad intentions. Putmans has sent a reconnaissance ship to the dog to find out the details.

In fact, Putmans had some predictions about who was coming: it was most likely Australian. A few months earlier, an Australian brig had come to fight dogs and killed dozens of Tagariyans at the time. This is probably the scouting for this landing.

Australians, you weishenme are interested here? Don't you have Hong Kong Island? Putmans secretly thought that if the company could occupy such a large island at the mouth of the Pearl River, it would have been satisfied with carrying out large-scale trade in the mouth of the Pearl River. How did you end up on this barren and savage-filled island? Not to mention, the disease here alone kills dozens of soldiers and sailors every year.

As a seventeenth-century merchant and soldier, Putmans could not understand the importance of the island of Taiwan in the industrial system established by the Senate.

He looked worriedly at the busy construction site - I hope the visitor is not an enemy with evil intentions towards the generals. His gaze shifted from the expanding Château de Geranza to the other side of the harbor, east of the Taijiang River. Now there was only one rudimentary fortress, although it was also built of masonry, but it was very small in size, and could only accommodate fifty soldiers and a small number of artillery. If the castle can be converted into a strong fortress, the two cities can form a pattern of mutual support. Coupled with the fort on the island at the end of the northern line, the safety of the entire staff can be fully guaranteed.

Unfortunately, his current resources were only enough to expand the castle of Geranza, and he could only be satisfied with minor repairs to other fortifications.

"Your Excellency, the communications ship Bornstein is back." The servant came to report.

"Captain, please come to me at once!"

The news brought by the communications ship Bonstein confirmed his suspicions: it was indeed Australians.

"There are twenty-seven boats moored at the Australians. All brigs. The captain reported, "The small ship also has 150 Rusts." ”

Among them was the black smoke ship reported by the consul stationed in Lingao, and the size of one ship impressed the captain. It was a large ship the size of the Spaniard's Galen, but much more slender and beautiful. There are double masts, which also emit black smoke. The captain believed that the ship could be the flagship of the fleet of the Australians. Because it has many different flags hanging on it.

According to the captain's report, the Australians had built a wooden trestle in the port of Tagou and built a three-story circular fortress next to the trestle. At the same time, about a dozen wooden houses have been erected on the shore.

"Are you right?" Putmans' eyes widened in surprise - it had only been ten days since he received the news of the landing of the Australians, and the Australians had built so many buildings? You must know that just building a wooden trestle bridge is a big project, and the people and goods at the beginning of the year were transported in small boats.

"Yes, sir. I really saw it with my own eyes. ”

"Well, did the Aussie react to your arrival?"

"They just sent a dinghy to inquire about my intentions," the captain reported, "and I said I was on my way to the island of Little Ryukyu to carry trade goods." They let me go. He went on to add, "The dinghy they use is not sails or oars, it is very fast, and it is constantly emitting black smoke. ”

"You answered very well." Putmans nodded, "You take a break, then ship some of the trade goods, and go dog hunting again." I now appoint you to be a junior merchant on board the Bohenstein. Your mission is to enter the dog hunt in the name of trade, and make contact with the high commanders of the Australian fleet to try to find out their true intentions there. Do you understand? ”

"Yes, my lord, I'll arrange it." The captain said. As he spoke, he bowed and took a few steps back to get out. Putmans stopped him.

"Captain, do you believe in witchcraft?"

The captain's face turned pale, whether it is a Catholic country or a Christian country, believing in witchcraft is a mortal crime.

"I don't believe it. My lord. I believe only in God Almighty. ”

"Well, what do you think of the Australians' smoky, non-paddle boats?"

"I don't know, sir." "Whether it's witchcraft or not, I'll not hesitate to shoot at them if I need to." ”

"Good."

After the captain left, Putmans thought about it for a while and called the commander of the garrison, Heinrich? Captain Weidenfeller. This German veteran commanded about 400 East India Company troops who served in the Grand Rank. It was a mixed force of Europeans, Arches from the East Indies, blacks, and Japanese.

"I must tell you now that we are likely to have a fight here...... "How sure are you of the guards?" said Putmans. ”

"My lord, it depends on who the enemy is...... Captain Weidenfeller said in an orderly manner, "if it is Chinese, whether he is Liu Xiang or a single official, or the army of the Ming Dynasty, I am sure that he will deal with it—one soldier under my command can fight twenty-five Chinese." ”

"I'm glad you have so much confidence. But the opponent is likely to be a stronger enemy than the Spaniards......"

"Then I need to strengthen the fortifications, and I need to recruit everyone who can use weapons."

"Summoning the men, you start small - the sailors are to be called up to me, I authorize you to strengthen the existing defenses at once, I know that the fortifications are being expanded and repaired, you first use the conditions at hand to strengthen the defenses of the fortifications. Double posts every night! I don't want to be caught off guard by then. ”

"Yes, sir."

Watching the captain withdraw, Putmans thought about the stock and cash in the warehouses and ships, and he was a little worried about his 25,000 livres of cargo. The United Dutch East India Company was very mean to its employees, and even if they became members of the Council, the salaries of the officers of Formosa were very low, and they could not save a few dollars without engaging in their own smuggling activities.

The Dutch immediately got busy in the big man. Captain Weidenfeller ordered the laying of mines on the beach and the raising of the fence with bamboo poles on the northern line of Oshima and other improvised fortifications. Some of the guns stored in the warehouses were also taken out and used to reinforce the batteries.

The soldiers sent out to protect the missionaries and merchants were called back. Volunteers were recruited from the Japanese village near Dayuan, and a part of the local people were also recruited. A mixed squad of natives and Dutch marched overland to the dogs, gathering intelligence along the way to see if the Australians were likely to attack from land.

On the orders of Putmans, all the ships anchored in the harbor were ready for battle. Three large ships moved to the entrance of the South Passage, ready to intercept enemy ships attempting to break into the harbor at any time. As for the Northern Passage, the water was extremely shallow, and since the ships of the Australians were large, they could not pass through. In addition, there was already a fortress on the tail island of the northern line, and the artillery fire on it was enough to block the northern passage. To be continued