In the past few months, the Portuguese have begun to build simple houses for living, warehouses and docks for storing goods, and even a simple workshop for making guns.

However, there are not many Portuguese who come here, and there are only more than 500 merchants, sailors and troops combined, which is actually about the same size as the Portuguese who have been entrenched in the Tuen Mun area for decades.

In the famous Battle of Tuen Mun in history, the Portuguese who participated in the war were only a few hundred people, regardless of military and civilian!

It's not that the Portuguese don't want to send more people to this place, but they just have a few people in the South Seas, and it's good to have a few hundred people in a small base.

At this time, in a church on the shore with an obvious Western-style style, several Portuguese people were talking with sad faces.

"These barbarians, they actually repented and wanted us to leave Macau!"

"These damned Dons, they took our money, lots and lots of money, and now they want to repent, we must not agree, the great Portuguese will never be able to succumb to these barbarians!"

"But if we don't withdraw, they will use force, we have too few troops now, once the fight starts, I am afraid that the battle of Tuen Mun will be repeated!"

"We must immediately request reinforcements from the Malacca side, so that they can reinforce more of our ships and soldiers, and we must keep this stronghold for the kingdom!"

Although this group of Portuguese people spoke in a very tough tone when they discussed, they could also hear that they were still very jealous of the military power of the Tang Dynasty!

However, it was absolutely impossible for them to abandon Macao directly, and they managed to gain a foothold on the Chinese coast, for which they had paid a valuable bribe to the local officials in Guangzhou of the Tang Dynasty last year.

However, now they also know that these rebels, who are said to be the land of China, have ignored the Lend-Lease treaty they signed with the local officials in Guangzhou, and directly said that it is invalid.

"Since there is no resistance on land, can we attack from the sea, we will fight directly from the mouth of the Pearl River and kill them all the way to Guangzhou!"

"Guangzhou? No, there is news that the Tang are building forts at Humen and other places at the mouth of the sea, and our fleet is too small to take down these forts! ”

"And the Pearl River Estuary has always been a key defense area for the Tang navy, and the war between them and the Ming is still going on, and the size of the Ming navy is powerless against Guangzhou, let alone us!"

"However, we can't go now, but when the fleet from the direction of Malacca comes, then we will be able to make these Tang people look good!"

"Now we just need to strengthen our defenses and build fortifications, it is not so easy for these Tang people to conquer Macao!"

The Portuguese in the Haojing area were unwilling to give up, and also accelerated the speed of making guns and building fortifications, and this situation was learned by the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty who had been monitoring the situation on the opposite side, and soon reported it to Zhao Chengang, who had just arrived in Xiangshan.

After Zhao Chen just read the report, he said to his subordinates: "You go to Haojing again, give them an ultimatum, and let them leave Haojing immediately within three days, otherwise, my Datang will expel them by force, and if there are dead and wounded, don't blame me Datang for being unkind!" ”

Francois refused to evacuate, but was ready to resist stubbornly, which was within his reason, because if his own Datang was thousands of miles away, it was difficult to occupy a foothold, and he would not hand it over willingly, and there was no other way to make Datang give up his existing interests than war!

And he also knows that this time to issue an ultimatum is just to make his division famous, of course, this is also false, the truth of the matter is that the military reported that it still needs time to draw troops, and the time required is no more, no less, just three days.

That's why he said three days!

This time, in order to recover Haojing, the Tang Dynasty used not many troops, there are four armed merchant ships from Hong Kong, as well as twenty or thirty small boats of various types recruited from Xiangshan and other areas, of course, these are only secondary, the core strength is still the army force, including an infantry battalion, an artillery team.

At this time, this army force of about 650 people is rushing towards Haojing!

Therefore, it was also the first time to fight against the Francoman, so this time the Tang Army was not arrogant, but more cautious, and ordered the Sixth Infantry Division stationed in the Pearl River Delta region to take charge of this matter.

The headquarters of the 6th Infantry Division handed over this task to the 17th Infantry Regiment stationed in the area of the mouth of the Xijiang River, that is, in the areas of Xinhui, Shunde, and Xiangshan, to deal with the matter, and transferred an artillery team equipped with six five-pound guns from the division headquarters to support them.

On the one hand, the infantry regiment was ready to defend Xinhui, Shunde, and Xiangshan, and was prepared to block the possibility that the Franc machine might go up the river from the Xijiang River to Zhaoqing, and on the other hand, it also sent the 3rd Infantry Battalion under the regiment to Haojing.

At the same time, because he learned that the firearms of the Francophile were sharp, he also strengthened most of the artillery under his command in this direction to cooperate with the 3rd Infantry Battalion.

Therefore, in cooperation with the 3rd Infantry Battalion, there will be six five-pound guns, three three-pound shotguns, and four two-pound shotguns.

Just talking about the density of artillery, it can be said that the battalion-level troops have been able to receive the most artillery support in all previous Tang Army operations.

There is no way, the firearms of the Franc machine are even sharper, and the existing nine-pound artillery of the Tang Army is all purchased from the Franc man.

It will take three days for these troops of more than 600 people to arrive smoothly, and after arriving, they will build considerable fortifications and prepare for the attack!

Three days, this is the time needed by the Datang military, and it is also the time that Zhao Chen just left for the Francophone people!

But it is clear that neither the Tang Army nor the Francophile have given a positive response to this three-day ultimatum, one side continues to build fortifications, and the other side is preparing to attack!

Therefore, in the past three days, although the envoys of the two sides have exchanged several times, it is obvious that they have not been able to reach any practical agreement!

On the third day, a quarter of an hour before the ultimatum, Major Dai Liliang, the commander of the 3rd Infantry Battalion under the 14th Infantry Regiment, stood on a low hill and used the monocular in his hand to check the garrison of the Franc machine several hundred meters away.

"These barbarians are much stronger than those puppet thief armies, and this fortification is decently built!" After a while, he put down the binoculars, and then said: "Wait for the next fight, you have to let the artillery blast those watchtowers first, otherwise, those barbarian musketeers above will cause a lot of casualties to our army!" ”

A captain next to him said: "Battalion Commander Dai, don't worry, my artillery brother has already marked all the yuan, as long as you give an order, our artillery team will be able to quickly enter the predetermined artillery position, and then bomb their watchtowers to pieces!" ”

"Yes, although their watchtowers look tall, but they have only occupied this place for a few months, and this watchtower is not thick enough to go there, and if you can't bomb it, you can bombard it a few more shots, which is much better than those city walls!"

This is a fact, the city walls in these years are very thick, the height of the city wall is seven or eight meters, but the thickness is also six or seven meters, and the solid bullet is bombarded in the past, at most it is a pit, and there is no use for fart.

Only the walls of some small cities are not so thick, and if they are bombarded a few more times, they can be blown down, but in large cities like Wuzhou and Guangzhou, artillery under twelve pounds is useless.

To deal with this kind of city wall, the current Tang Army relies on gunpowder blasting, but it is obvious that the several watchtowers and those earthen walls built in a hurry by the Francophone people do not need to be so troublesome, and they can basically be knocked out with one shot, if one shot is not enough, then another shot will be fired!

"What did Honcha-sama say? The ultimatum is almost up, how is it on his side? Dai Liliang said: "This matter can't continue to drag on, even if our army waits, the navy can't wait!" ”

"We've already sent someone to inquire, and it's estimated that there will be news soon!"

For the sake of this battle, the army side is good to say, the troops are all on the shore, and it doesn't matter if they wait for a few days, but the navy side can't do it, the navy has taken the risk of transferring several armed merchant ships from the base on Hong Kong Island to support the operation, and the Xijiang Detachment under the Pearl River Fleet has also mobilized a large number of small boats to stand by, and now they are hiding in the nearby sea and waiting for a sneak attack.

If you wait too long, who knows what will happen, once this opportunity for a sneak attack is lost, I'm afraid it will be difficult for the navy to fight.

You must know that in the port of Haojing, there are many ships of the Franc machine, if it is tough, needless to say, the navy will definitely be defeated!

However, Dai Liliang did not wait long, and soon a herald arrived at the front line, bringing a handwritten letter from Zhao Chengang, which read: The Franco machine man invaded the land of China with the body of a barbarian, although our foreign ministry tried hard to educate, but it should be extremely ignorant and difficult to educate, and refused to evacuate Haojing.

After reading Zhao Chengang's handwritten handwriting, Dai Liliang immediately turned to the group of officers in front of him: "Gentlemen, the time has come to serve the country with loyalty!" ”