There are no impermeable walls in the world!

This statement is absolutely 100% true. Just like Zhu Chenggong, the king of Fujian, wanted to wave his army to Taiwan and recover the land occupied by the Dutch, almost when he began to prepare, the Dutch had already learned this information because of their business relations in Xiamen and other places, and after learning this information, as the governor, he immediately asked Batavia for reinforcements, after all, as the governor, he knew very well that he was not the opponent of the Ming army at all by virtue of the strength in his hands.

In fact, from the appearance of the Ming army in Keelung to its opening up for 10,000 years, it has aroused the vigilance of the Dutch, but at that time, there was no direct conflict between the two sides. And now, the Dutch have long regretted their original "acquiescence", especially with the emergence of Nanyang strongholds such as "Nantianmen" and "Pingnan", which made them extremely vigilant against the actions of the Ming army.

Now, when Zheng Chenggong set his sights on Taiwan, the Dutch, who had lost the lead on the 10,000-year issue, were afraid of being driven out of Taiwan by Zheng Chenggong, so they sent reinforcements almost immediately, and the reinforcements were led by Major Jan Van Delang, but the purpose of his fleet was not just to reinforce Taiwan.

Unlike other countries, the Dutch rose to commerce, and the East Indies, as a Dutch colony, were effectively managed by the East India Company, and as merchants, they were naturally reluctant to do "loss-making business".

On the Taiwan issue, it can be said that the Batavia side has been arguing all along, from the appearance of thousands of Ming troops in Keelung three years ago to its firm foothold, in the mouth of some people, it is entirely because Yu Yi is a coward, he is afraid of the strength of the Ming army, even if the situation is not so tense, he will exaggerate.

He was a veteran who had lived in Taiwan for ten years, and his predecessor, Cornelius Caesar, had a short tenure, but Caesar's predecessor, Nicholas Felberg, had been governor of Taiwan for several years, and he was often in conflict with him when he was a commercial official. Felberg, who was a director of the head office in Batavia, immediately retorted when the council discussed a request for help. "Kaoriichi is a coward, even if it seems that there is nothing wrong, but it seems to him that the sky is falling......"

It was precisely because of Feerberg that Batavia was very hesitant to ask for help, but because he made a request, he could not ignore it, so he still sent a fleet led by Major Jan Van der Lang to reinforce it, but someone also put forward another opinion: "If there is no major problem in Taiwan as Feerberg said, the cost of sending this fleet will be completely wasted." ”

At that time, it was decided that Major Jan Van Derang would lead 12 ships, including the Dolfinn and the Hector, and 600 armed men to aid Taiwan, and at the same time put forward another plan - if Taiwan was fine, it would approach Macao, attack Macao, which was occupied by the Portuguese, and take it to compensate for the cost of sending a fleet.

For the Dutch, the idea was simple, to seize Macau without provoking the Ming people, and they were more eager to get it than to Taiwan, which was also the idea of Major Jan Van Derang, who had already planned to attack Macau long before he left for Taiwan.

After all, everyone believes that Zheng Chenggong's eyes are fixed on the north, and there will be no problems with Taiwan. So his mission was to capture Macao, and in contrast to the stubbornness of Major Jan Van Derang, as governor, he also stubbornly believed that Zheng Chenggong would soon attack Taiwan.

"There's no war here!"

In the city of Geranza, William once again retorted to the Doge's request that the entire castle be put on guard.

"I dare to guarantee that Zheng Chenggong will never attack here, now that all the Ming troops are on the Northern Expedition, it is impossible for him to lose his honor of winning the success of the Northern Expedition for the sake of Taiwan!"

"No, this is just a superficial phenomenon, and now the country is doing his best to prepare for war!"

He took out all kinds of information he had collected, which he had obtained through Dutch merchants and merchants of the Ming Kingdom, all of which were information that the Ming army was preparing for the landing operation.

"Is that so?"

William showed a suspicious look, since the day He Bin fled, he has always suspected that this incident was planned, and as for now he declares that Zheng Chenggong is going to attack Taiwan, in his opinion, it is just to cover up all this, and he is trying to survive the political crisis by creating a tense atmosphere. Because of this, he is fundamentally skeptical of the so-called intelligence.

"Zheng Chenggong really wants to attack Taiwan?"

William asked impatiently again, as a commercial official, he has always hoped to drive Yu Yi out of Taiwan, and then he will take over the position of governor, and it is for this reason that he will choose to attack He Bin, although he knows that He Bin represents Zheng Chenggong, at least to a certain extent.

"Yes, we gathered intelligence from all sides to come to this conclusion."

"Do you know this information is true?"

"Based on the information obtained, this conclusion can be made!"

"That's just speculation, I'm afraid I haven't asked Zheng Chenggong himself!"

"Of course I didn't ask, but ......"

He looked at William and said.

"May I ask?"

"Of course, at least you can test ......"

So the two of them quarreled with each other, and William's stubbornness did not need to be used, as a ten-year life in Taiwan, he was convinced that one day, both the Ming army would definitely appear in Taiwan, after all, it was too close to China, and the news of the Ming army's "invasion" of Keelung and the possible threat it brought made his hair stand on end. Especially when he thought that there were tens of thousands of brave soldiers and tens of thousands of peasants in the northern part of the island, he couldn't sleep peacefully, after all, he had always believed that one day the Ming army would pose a threat to the place.

As he expected, the Ming army had already appeared in the north, so Zheng Chenggong set his sights on Taiwan, but it was only a matter of time, not to mention that now the emperor of the Chinese was still in the north.

"Now, the emperor of the Ming people is in the north, if I guess correctly, compared to the glory of the Northern Expedition, Zheng Chenggong is more willing to put the emperor under his protection!"

As a commercial official, he did not believe that war would break out, and in the face of the request of Kuiyi to close the port, he almost did not hesitate to refuse, and even spoke out.

"Your Excellency the Governor, you are indeed the Governor here, but as a commercial official, I must be responsible for Batavia, and I will not agree to close the port until there is a definite threat, not to mention, reinforcements will arrive soon, and after the reinforcements arrive, I don't think there is any need to close the port either!"

The governor and the commercial officials did not have an intrinsic subordinate relationship, and even had an interest in supervising each other, and it was precisely because of the opposition of the commercial officials that even if they wanted to close the port, the port was never closed, and the port was still open to ships from all over the world, and normal trade continued.

It seems that rumors of war, for this, did not have any effect.

On December 27, 1661, just after Christmas, on this day, on the fort of the city of Geranza, several Dutch soldiers on duty, chatting as usual, suddenly a man pointed to the end of the horizon.

"There's a ship coming!"

As a port, it was normal for ships to enter the port, and at first, no one noticed the fleet jumping out of the horizon, but soon the people on the batteries noticed that it was a fleet, a fleet of fifteen ships.

"It's a fleet!"

After seeing the fleet through the binoculars, Captain Andrew's face finally showed a happy look.

"It's here to reinforce our fleet."

The fifteen warships that make up the fleet are not really military, all of them are Dutch-style merchant ships, because merchant ships need to guard against pirate attacks at sea, so merchant ships are often equipped with artillery, and the warships of the East India Company are mostly this kind of armed merchant ships, although they are only armed merchant ships, but in fact, they are stronger than bird ships, lucky ships and other ships, so in the East Asian seas, these merchant ships are not inferior to the existence of warships at all.

"Reinforcements from Batavia!"

After receiving Captain Andrew's report, Yu Yi finally breathed a sigh of relief, except for the reinforcements from Batavia, it was impossible for any other fleet to come here at this time, as for Zheng Chenggong...... He would never sail directly to Geranza in such a big way, he would definitely land in the right place first, and then attack the city of Geranza.

Although he was not a soldier, he naturally needed to understand how to attack the fortress based on the need to defend the city of Geranza, and if he wanted to attack the fortress, it was impossible to simply attack from the sea.

"Go, gentlemen, let's go and meet the reinforcements from Batavia, who will protect the Dutch interests here!"

For Yu Yi, he needs to use the arrival of reinforcements to tell everyone that war is coming, of course, he hopes to use the arrival of reinforcements to tell Zheng Chenggong on the other side of the sea - his war plot is already known here, and there are reinforcements arriving here, he needs to give up his plot.

In order to welcome the arrival of reinforcements, on the way of the fleet towards the port, Kuichi had already ordered Captain Andrew to assemble his troops, except for the gunners who needed to fire a salute, the only more than 100 soldiers in the city were ordered to welcome the arrival of reinforcements in the port.

The fleet was getting closer and closer, and when the fleet approached the port, people could already see the Dutch flag fluttering on the mast, and after approaching the port, the fleet stopped according to the flag signal issued from the port, and then a customs officer arrived at the lead "Hector" by boat, which was a Dutch-style merchant ship that was launched in Batavia two years ago, and the people of Keelung were no strangers to this merchant ship, after all, it had come here more than once to load sugar and other goods and sail to Nagasaki, Japan, so, after seeing this ship, Everyone, including Kaiichi, smiled.

The S. Glenferan, the Hector, the Maria......

They are all very familiar merchant ships, although there are a few merchant ships that rarely appear on this route, and there are even a few Portuguese-style merchant ships, but in the eyes of Kuiyi and others, this is a reflection of the importance that Batavia attaches to Taiwan.

"There's a Spanish galleon, I'm sure Batavia must have done everything it could to help here!"

"It's even possible that mercenaries were hired!"

"That's right, it's definitely so, I heard that the army has built a fortress in Malacca, and it is impossible for Batavia to send all the ships here, and hiring mercenaries is undoubtedly the most suitable choice."

"My God, the expenses must be big this time!"

In the midst of what the people said, when the merchants learned that there were mercenaries, they immediately felt a heartache, and they knew very well the character of the members of the Batavian Council, and in the end the Council would definitely let them pay at least part of the cost of hiring the mercenaries this time.

The so-called mercenaries are actually some merchants and sailors from Europe, they may be French or English or other countries, their country has no port here, they come here to trade, if they are excluded, it is difficult to make a profit, so for the sake of money, they will do anything, including acting as pirates, of course, including as mercenaries.

The premise is that as long as there is enough money.

While the merchants were in a pains for money, they saw the fleet after the customs inspection release the small boats that towed the boats, and the black men in the small boats were rowing their oars. Because of the limited number of Europeans, there were many black slaves in Batavia, who were both sailors and soldiers.

Under the towing of the boat, fifteen armed merchant ships entered the harbor one after another, and slowly approached the dock, and when the ship just docked on the dock, the band played music, and in the sound of the music, I saw the soldiers on the ship, including Europeans, blacks, and of course, a few yellows.

At this moment, a gorgeously dressed European stepped down from the ship, and when he saw Kuichi, he immediately walked over enthusiastically, and then spoke.

"Your Excellency the Governor, according to the order of the Batavia Council, I have brought 1,500 soldiers to reinforce the city of Geranza!"

1500 people!

After hearing this number, almost everyone was stunned, and some of them even exaggerated.

"My God, we are not going to occupy the kingdom of Ming. Do you need so many people? ”