Chapter 397: The Fortress of the City of Geranza

Chinese The main island alone covers an area of more than 30,000 square kilometers, the island is about 400 kilometers long from north to south, about 150 kilometers wide from east to west, and more than 1,000 kilometers of coastline around the island.

The island is the center of the western Pacific shipping lanes and is an important maritime hub for maritime links between China and countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Taiwan Island is surrounded by the sea on all sides, with abundant precipitation, humid climate, extremely lush vegetation, the whole island is roughly divided into five major terrains: mountains, hills, basins, plains, and platforms, and the five major mountain ranges are the Coast Mountains, the Central Mountains, the Snow Mountain Range, the Yushan Mountains and the Alishan Mountains from east to west.

More than half of the island's area is mountainous terrain in the east, while the coastal area in the west is a flat alluvial plain, dominated by low hills and plateaus, dense rivers and fertile soil, which is the main grain-producing area of the island and a densely populated place.

The coastline of the western region is mostly a straight and monotonous sandy shore, with many natural high-quality ports.

Taiwan has been a Chinese territory since ancient times, with a written history dating back to 230 AD.

As early as the Three Kingdoms period, King Sun Quan of Wu sent generals Wei Wen and Zhuge Zhi to lead a fleet of more than 10,000 soldiers and more than 30 ships to Taiwan (then called Yizhou), which was the ancestor of Chinese mainland residents using advanced cultural knowledge to develop Taiwan.

During the Soochow period, Shen Ying, the Taishou of Danyang, wrote a book called "Linhai Tuzhi", which recorded in detail the production and life form of Taiwan at that time, and was the earliest account of Taiwan in the world.

In the Sui and Tang dynasties, the contact between the mainland and Taiwan became more and more frequent, and Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty sent Zhu Kuan, Chen Ling and others to Taiwan three times (also known as Daliuqiu at that time).

During the Song and Yuan dynasties, the Han people had a considerable number in Penghu, they began to develop to Taiwan after opening up Penghu, bringing advanced production technology, in the middle of the 12th century, the Southern Song Dynasty assigned Penghu to Jinjiang County, Fujian Road (now Jinjiang, Fujian) under the jurisdiction, and sent troops to defend it.

The Yuan Dynasty further strengthened the management of Taiwan, and Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan dynasty, sent personnel to Taiwan to proclaim and appease, and set up the Penghu Inspection Division, which was subordinate to Tong'an County, Quanzhou Road, Fujian.

After the Ming Dynasty, the people of the mainland and Taiwan were in constant contact, and during the Yongle period, Zheng He led the fleet to stay in Taiwan for a short time.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Fujian people Yan Siqi, Zheng Zhilong and others led a large number of Fujian and Guangdong residents to move to Taiwan, engaged in agriculture and trade on the one hand, and organized armed forces to resist the Japanese and the Dutch.

Since then, mainland residents have begun to migrate to Taiwan on a large scale, and many villages have gradually formed in various places, which has given a great impetus to Taiwan's socio-economic and cultural development, and Taiwan has entered a period of large-scale development.

On the other side of the world, with the great geographical discoveries of the 15th and 16th centuries, the West entered the era of sea power, and the emerging sea power countries in Europe went to Asia to expand their power.

After entering the Age of Discovery, Europeans were keen on ocean exploration, and Portugal became the first European country to open up Asian routes.

On the way to trade with China and Japan, they saw a beautiful island and called it "Formosa", which became Taiwan's nickname in the West.

However, they did not land because of their busy trade, but only drew it on a nautical map, which attracted the attention of the Spaniards, who had long annexed Portugal.

At this time, Spain had already occupied Manila in the fifth year of Longqing (1571 AD), and finally evolved the Philippines into the only Christian country in Asia.

However, they encountered the same ambitious Japan on the Taiwan issue, and during this period, Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent people to Taiwan and brought the "Takayama Imperial Edict Plan" in an attempt to make Taiwan voluntarily submit to Taiwan through intimidation.

The Spaniards, who learned the news, wanted to capture Taiwan in order to strike first, but unexpectedly, Toyotomi Hideyoshi died within a few years, so the matter dragged on.

In the fourth year of the Apocalypse (1624 AD), the Dutch, who had wanted to occupy Macao and the Penghu Islands, were defeated by the Ming army, and after being frustrated, they turned to attack Taiwan and started colonial rule, which was the first colonial power from Europe on the island of Taiwan, with the purpose of serving as a colonial base of the East India Company to compete with Spain in Asia.

……

At this moment, it was nearly dusk, and the governor's palace, the highest point of the castle of the Grand Commander, was bathed in the afterglow of the setting sun.

After a long nap, Governor Nicholas Felburg, dressed in a striped nightgown and holding a cup of coffee, was languidly standing in front of a window, looking out at a fleet of ships that had just docked in the distant harbor.

Dozens of junk ships had just returned from Zhangzhou Bay, and in addition to various trade goods, they had also brought hundreds of thousands of green bricks, as well as many strips of stone and timber.

The exchange of grain and sugar for so much building material was intended to continue the fortification of the castle of Geranza and the expansion of a series of fortifications around it.

As for the construction of private merchants, houses, streets, etc., outside the city, that is their own business, and the Dutch authorities will not care about these things.

Fairburg's haste to strengthen the city's defenses was certainly not for nothing – right now, the entire army was in an unprecedented crisis......

The city of Geranza was the earliest foothold of the Dutch people on the island, and it has always been the seat of the governor's palace, and occupies the most important position among all the strongholds on the island, and is the main hub of their Dutch rule over the island and foreign trade.

This incomparably strong fortress is built on a sand bar island by the sea, which is actually a sandbar sticking out of the sea, that is, a sandbar outside the coast, which is a kind of sandy terrain.

Between the island and the real land, there is a large lagoon, which forms a natural harbor that can accommodate many boats.

At the beginning, when the predecessors of Fort Fairburg first landed in Dacheng, they took a fancy to this lagoon, and only then built a fortress in the middle of this sandbar island, and after gaining a foothold here, they gradually expanded inland, until they occupied all the densely populated areas of the western plains.

Over the past 20 years, with the continuous development of trade, the port facilities have become more and more perfect, the island has become more and more densely built, more than 10,000 people have settled on this small island, and the castle has long been overcrowded.

Many of the merchant houses and dwellings had to stretch along the coastline, so much so that large areas outside the city became real trading centers, and the castle itself was reduced to a purely military fortress, a storehouse of important supplies, and a residence for Dutch officials.

As a result, the castle's defenses were constantly strengthened, not only by enlarging and fortifying the castle itself several times, but also by the addition of several tall gun emplacements.

Today, the fortress at the foot of Fort Feull is not only large-scale, well-walled, built on a high platform, but also a four-storey fortress with irregular walls, known as the most fortified defensive fortress today - the famous "bastion".

(End of chapter)