Chapter 419 The situation has changed abruptly

The third day, the morning of June 30.

The weather cleared, and the typhoon, which lasted for a week, finally weakened.

The "Qinzhou" and "Longsheng" lit fire and anchored, left the port one after another, bypassed the northernmost Xiaoliuqiutou, entered the Taiwan Strait and headed south, arriving at the mouth of the Tamsui River at noon.

The journey was not far, only a voyage of more than 30 nautical miles.

Lin Xiao held the binoculars and looked at the red-haired city built on the top of a hill on the shore from a distance.

The castle is located on a hill next to the Tamsui River, but not by the sea, about five miles from the coastline.

Compared to the chicken coop, the castle in front of me looks significantly smaller, and the structure is relatively monotonous, not the kind of complex and difficult fortress to attack.

Visually, the city wall is only about two meters high, and it is basically square, with a side length of less than 200 meters, and the main city gate is facing the Tamsui River.

However, at a glance, in addition to a few red spired buildings, there is also a square main fortress built in the city, which occupies the commanding height of the whole city.

The main fort is about 50 meters long on the side and at least 10 meters high, and there are obvious forts on the roof, and there are some shooting holes in the walls in addition to the dome-shaped windows......

"No wonder there aren't many garrisons, it's just a bunker."

Lin Xiao put down the binoculars and said with a disdainful expression.

According to Zheng Chenggong, the castle was originally built by the Spaniards and named "City of Santo Domingo", but it was only used as a place for missionary people, so it was small in scale.

As early as the second year of Chongzhen, the Spaniards occupied the chicken coop and invaded the Taipei Basin all the way, subjugated the "Fan Society" along the river, opened up the water and land passages from Tamsui to the chicken coop, and expanded their power to Hsinchu.

It is said that the main purpose of the Spaniards was to add a point of contact for the Manila galleons, so they did not send more soldiers and had no interest in expanding further southward.

It was only because the Catholic priests also accompanied the mission here that they built a stronghold and a church here, according to their own words, to facilitate the conversion of the people.

In 1642, the Dutch swelled and moved north, taking advantage of the Spanish situation in Luzon, they took the opportunity to capture the chicken coop and drive the Spaniards out of Tamsui.

Later, in the spring of 1644, the Dutch people brought in a large number of building materials and craftsmen to renovate the "city of Saint-Domingo" and renamed it "Fort Antoine".

However, because the Han people refer to the Dutch people as "Hongmao" or "Hongyi", this city is called "Hongmao City" by the people.

The Dutch broke ground on May 7, 1644, laying the first foundation stone.

In addition to the stone, they also brought in a large amount of lime and bricks by boat, and the amount of lime used was very large, amounting to thousands of bales.

When it was built, in addition to digging deep foundations, they used a vault-like construction, proving their determination to build a very strong castle that would cement their rule.

However, in Lin Xiao's opinion, I am afraid that even the Dutch people themselves do not believe this kind of rhetoric.

Compared with the fortress, this small square castle has no defense at all in the era of hot weapons.

However, Zheng Chenggong once joked that it was better not to blow it up.

Because, this main fort built on the top of the hill is very suitable for climbing high and looking into the distance.

According to Zheng Chenggong, he visited this castle with his father in his early years, standing on the top of the main fort, you can overlook Guanyin Mountain and Tamsui River, look at the Datun peaks in the east, look at the turbulent sea in the west, and see all the wind and clouds.

At dusk, the sea, the sunset, and the Red Mansion are intertwined into a beautiful scenery, which is amazing, and you can enjoy the excellent scenery of the rare "sunset dusk, sea bathing sun......

However, at present, Lin Xiao does not have the leisure and leisure of Zheng Chenggong at all.

Now what he wants most is to take this castle immediately, as soon as possible!

Because, the war on the mainland has changed abruptly, and something happened completely unexpected......

Just last night, from Liu Xulei's mouth, he got a bad news - Hong Chengchou, the old fox, ran away!

This news alone will not make Lin Xiao mess up, this traitor, even if he lets him escape this time, he will only survive for a few more days.

No matter how big China is, there is no hiding place for this lost dog, and no matter where he flees, he will eventually receive the most severe punishment.

However, Liu Xulei also told him another very bad news - Nanjing, I am afraid that it will be captured by others first.

What shocked Lin Xiao was that this other person was neither Jiao Lian nor Zhang Tongchang, but an uninvited guest-Zhu Yihai, the king of Lu.

According to Liu Xulei's report, he and Xia Bomin had just taken Hangzhou, annihilated the main force of the Qing army in Zhejiang in one fell swoop, and were going north along the Taihu Lake, when the soldiers pointed directly at Suzhou Mansion and Songjiang Mansion, they also somehow Zhu Yihai, the king of Lu who had been hiding in the Zhoushan Islands, but they were in front of everyone, and with the support of the general soldiers Zhang Mingzhen and Zhang Huangyan, they sent more than 8,000 troops, starting from Zhoushan, entering the Yangtze River from the waterway, taking advantage of the weakness to enter and smash Nanjing, and now they have reached Yanzilu.

This King of Lu, Zhu Yihai, Lin Xiao heard Zheng Chenggong mention it.

As early as soon after Emperor Hongguang was killed, he was supported as a prisoner by the chief soldier Zhang Mingzhen, as well as Zhang Huangyan and others.

About five years ago, when the Qing army was strong and Zhoushan fell, Zhang Mingzhen had escorted King Lu to Xiamen for temporary refuge, and he returned to eastern Zhejiang to persist in resisting the enemy, and only welcomed him back to Zhoushan three years ago.

Speaking of which, the qualifications of this King Lu are much older than that of Emperor Yongli, because after Emperor Longwu was killed, until Yongli ascended the throne and became emperor, he has always refused to be a minister, and the two sides have been in a strange state of old age and death.

Now, King Lu took the lead in recovering Nanjing, and after the Tartars fled north in a hurry, Zhang Tongchang's official army progress suddenly accelerated, and he had reached the periphery of Nanjing a few days ago.

In this way, the two sides are bound to set off an infighting in Jiangnan.

This, but Lin Xiao didn't want to see it.

This kind of infighting in the old Zhu family will definitely greatly affect his original plan, and even ruin his major affairs.

What made Lin Xiao even more irritable was that, according to Liu Xulei, the reason why King Lu and the others were well-informed and moved so quickly was that there was one person who played a great role.

And this person is precisely the soft bone that Lin Xiao is extremely disgusted with - the leader of the Donglin Party, "the water is too cold" Qian Qianyi......

Therefore, what Lin Xiao lacks most now is time.

There is such a chaos in Jiangnan, and only when he goes there in person can he consider it comprehensively and formulate a countermeasure.

Yes, Lin Xiao's heart is like an arrow, he can't afford to waste a day - he can't wait to end the war of the big people immediately and set off to return to the mainland on the same day.

……

Putting down the binoculars, Lin Xiao gave the order to attack......

Unlike chicken coops, the terrain here is open and you can land calmly.

Attacking from land, the power of the mortar was fully exploited, and the task was quite easy.

He decided that the "Qinzhou" would be cruising on the river, taking advantage of the range advantage of the naval guns, and bombarding the city wall from a long distance first, so as to scare and scare these red hairy firsts!

It's only a few dozen red hairs, and maybe as soon as the cannon goes off, they will collapse.

As for the special operations team, he only sent a few sniper teams ashore, and their task was to snipe all the Dutch people who slipped out of the city and tried to escape.

The main attack task was handed over to the third company of the junior battalion led by Wen Biaorui this time, and the machine gun company served as an assist.

"Fight quickly, if you don't surrender, you will be destroyed!"

Lin Xiao ordered viciously.

……

(End of chapter)