Don't look at the Central Plains Dynasty, which did not officially include the big members in the territory, but the development of Penghu can be traced back to the Qin and Han dynasties. Later, with the development of navigation technology, the Penghu Islands gradually became a springboard for transportation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. There is a good harbor here, which is the key to the southeast shipping, and is known as the "southeast key". In the Song Dynasty, it was officially included in the Chinese territory, and at that time, people from the land of Fujian had already moved to Penghu.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the permanent population of Penghu had exceeded 1,000 households. But in the Ming-Dutch War more than 20 years ago, it suffered a devastating blow. The Dutch took more than 1,500 strong men into slavery, built the Hongmucheng fortress in Penghu, and later built similar forts near Baisha and Babao. Most of these forts are square castles of 56 meters on each side, and each fort houses 29 artillery pieces. The fort took three months to complete, 1,500 Chinese slaves died of exhaustion and starvation during these three months, and the surviving 270 were sent to Batavia as a personal gift to the governor of Kuhn, of which only 137 finally arrived, and the rest died on the way.

After suffering such a catastrophe, Penghu's development momentum was cut off, and in the past ten years, more and more refugees could not survive along the coast, and Penghu's population returned to its previous level. After Zheng Zhilong crossed, he even made people focus on controlling the Penghu Islands, making it a transit point for Zheng's sailors to contact the masters.

Whether it was the transportation of people to the large number of people, or the trade with the Dutch, many ships had to pass through it.

However, in order to keep the Dutch's nerves from being too sensitive, the Zheng clan did not build fortifications such as forts on the Penghu Islands, even the cities were simple old-fashioned city walls, and the height was only less than two zhang.

"He Hui has seen the handsome." He Bin's nephew appeared in Penghu and also appeared in front of Zheng Zhilong.

"Is your uncle okay now?" Zheng Zhilong was really a little worried about He Bin's safety. This man is a rare talent in his eyes, and as long as he can use it, he will be the best person to deal with Europeans in the future.

"Lao Dashuai is worried, my uncle is okay now. The Dutch did not get hold of my uncle, and besides, they would not have done anything to my uncle until the negotiations broke down. He Hui's heart was as warm as drinking a cup of hot tea.

Their He family has now put all the capital on the Zheng family, and has obtained all the information of the Dutch, once something happens, it will be a mess with all the money.

The more humane Zheng Zhilong is now, the more He Hui will be ironed in his heart.

Without further ado, He Hui's mission to come to Penghu this time was to report to Zheng Zhilong. Although the situation in the south of the island cannot be concealed from Zheng Zhilong at all. The trade between the two was so frequent - the Chinese goods sold by the Dutch to Japan had to be purchased from the Zheng family first, and a large number of merchant ships sailed into the south of the island from Fujian every year, and they could also know the geography of the city of Geranza (the Red Pavilion had not yet been built), the navigation of the waterways, and even the number of defensive forts, as well as the number of artillery and garrisons.

Zheng Zhilong needs the latest information even more, and after receiving the support of Batavia, the strength in the hands of the Dutch in the south of the island. Even the specific food supplies in the castle of Geranza, as well as the latest military arrangements of the Dutch.

The Red Pavilions have not yet been built, and the city of Geranza is the only fortress of the Dutch in Taiwan, which is a typical Dutch-style fortress. Although due to the limitations of the terrain, the outer city and the inner city are linked to the front and back, rather than the outer city completely encompassing the inner city, it is three stories high inside and outside, surrounded by moats, and the slope earthen embankment is the foundation. The walls are made of red bricks, and the Dutch use sugar water, glutinous rice, oyster shell ash, and river sand to pound and stick to them, which is not as strong as the stone city.

The lowest height of the outer city (the four corners of the annex) is rectangular, 160 meters long (m) and 77 meters wide, which is lower than that of the inner city, and contains public buildings such as dormitories for the chief and staff, offices, conference halls, hospitals, warehouses, etc.

The inner city is square, with two floors, the length and width are the same, the length and width are 115 meters (meters), the city wall is about 9 meters high, 1.2 meters thick, and the four-corner fortress is 1.8 meters thick. The basement is a warehouse, where a large amount of ammunition, food and miscellaneous goods are stored, and the upper floor is equipped with the governor's office, a church, a lookout, a soldier's barracks and other facilities. Look down on the outer city. The firepower from above can easily cover the entire outer city, and this is where the fortress is difficult to attack.

Zheng Chenggong relied on a long-term siege at that time, and during the Ming-Dutch War before, the Ming army was also under siege in Penghu for a long time. When the food is finished, sooner or later the Dutch there will have to get out and die themselves!

The main premise of this is to completely destroy the main fleet of Batavia and completely cut off the foreign aid of the Dutch.

Putmans sailed into the south of the island with fifteen ships, and this was the perfect opportunity.

"There were originally about 1,500 sailors and troops in the south of the island, and if Heyi Qingzhuang was recruited into the army, the number would be about 2,000." The number of military and merchant civilians stationed in the south of the island by the Dutch all the year round is about 3,000, and after deducting women and children, and some high-ranking people, 2,000 has reached their limit.

"Plus a patrol of about 400 aborigines."

"This is a team dominated by refugees who fled west from the Potbelly Kingdom, generally hateful to the Han Chinese, and has close contacts with the aborigines of the eastern mountains, once the war starts, there is a possibility of further expansion, and it will definitely be a sharp knife in the hands of the Dutch." When He Hui talked about the patrol, his attitude was obvious, which showed that the patrol team was absolutely unpleasant with the Han people in the south of the island.

"Nine of the fifteen warships brought by Putmant were real warships, five of which were single-decked, and the guns on board were generally less than thirty, and the four strongest ships were all double-decked, with up to forty guns. Of the remaining six, five are armed merchant ships and one is a sloop. There were thousands of Dutch infantry on board, and now only a few of them were assigned to Dayuan Town, and most of the other half were assigned to Heliao Port. The latter has already erected a number of fortifications. ”

Zheng Zhilong immediately thought of the Red Embedded Building, the role of this Heliao Port in the Dutch is probably similar to that after the establishment of the Red Embedded Building. It was one of their nodes on the land, and at the same time it also covered the belly of the city of Geranza.

After all, the Dutch's previous series of arrangements were all for the outer sea, not for the inner Dayuan Island.

Whether it is a sandbar where the castle of Geranza is located, or the northern line of the tail island and the sandbar island of Kalaowan on both sides of the Luermen, they are all patches of sandbars, and they have been linked by the land in later generations, you can imagine how shallow the water surface of the sea is.

However, nature is magical. As it is often said, when God closes a door for you, he will open another window for you. The tides of the sea, the erosion of the tides, often create magic under the surface of the water that you can't see with the naked eye. The Luermen is a large tidal mouth, thus creating an important port route in and out of the Great Bay. It's just that the bottom is piled up with rocks, the reef is entangled, and the big ship is not easy to pass, which is known as the "natural risk".

The waterway between the castle of Geranza, where the Dutch chose the old nest of the Dutch, and the southern end of the northern line of the tail island on the opposite side, is far more navigable than Luermen, which is Dayuan Port. Therefore, the Dutch only set up a simple artillery fort at the northern end of the tail island of the northern line, that is, at the Luermen waterway, and did not garrison troops to guard it with great fanfare.

They set up their lair on a sandbank, built a solid castle of Geranza, and took control of the port of Dayuan. And continue inward from Dayuan Port, that is the sea surface of the Taijiang River, which can also be said to be Dawan, and the port inside is Heliao Port. At the same time, a series of artillery forts were built along the seven sandbanks of the seven Kun bodies, completely controlling the waters of the Great Bay in their own hands.

From the shallows around Luermen to the forts established at the northern end of the northern line of the tail island, and then there are the seven kun bodies that confront the southern end of the northern line of the tail island, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and seven sandbanks that emerge from the sea, lined up, separated by miles, like a pearl, and directly connected to the Dagou Mountain on the shore. There are artillery fortifications built above.

This series is really bullish and fearless when dealing with maritime threats.