Zhou Lang, who is in Taiwan, is in a huge predicament.

This kind of predicament is bigger than Zhou Lang expected, and it is simply a domestic and external predicament.

The external dilemma is that the Qing army took unexpected action, before Zhou Lang thought that after occupying the left camp, the local government would definitely take action, Zhou Lang according to the analysis of the captured Qing soldiers, Fengshan County has no more than 2,000 armed forces, and scattered in all directions, the largest mobile force in Fengshan County is only 500 people, this is still not counting the situation of empty salary.

Unless the other party is willing to leave the city empty, then Zhou Lang will definitely not face more than five hundred enemies, Colin assured, as long as the opponent's troops are not more than five times his own at a time, he has absolute confidence to rely on the favorable terrain to hold on. Now Colin has a hundred armed forces composed of forty mercenaries and sixty sailors, which can withstand an attack of five hundred people at a time, and it is obvious that even if Fengshan County comes out of the empty city, it is impossible to press all the forces at once, so there is no doubt about holding it.

As long as he can hold the left camp, Zhou Lang is 100% sure that the Fengshan County government will not fight with them, and after seeing that it is impossible to recover the left camp by force, the other party will definitely choose peace talks, which is a historical experience.

Qi Shan is the minister of the Qin Mission, Humen was occupied by the British, this is just a small place for the whole of China, such a small loss, Qi Shan dares to negotiate privately, compared to the current Zuo Ying is much more important to Fengshan County, and the defeat is also greater, and the officials of Fengshan County have more reason to negotiate with Zhou Lang because of this degree of defeat.

The other party took the initiative to talk, Zhou Lang took the initiative, Qi Shan dared to privately promise the British six million silver dollars, and it should not be a problem for the officials of Fengshan County to come up with twenty or thirty thousand silver dollars, and there were merchants in the city for them to extort, just like Qi Shan forced the merchants of the Thirteen Lines. Zhou Lang's purpose is not to make money, but through this strong attitude, the other party will not dare to provoke him, and then he can spend the time of repairing the ship safely. To put it bluntly, it's the same as those five poisons but colorful use of force, but it's just a deterrent color.

The purpose of his toughness is just to protect himself, because for the entire local government in Taiwan, Zhou Lang's current strength is too weak. If he keeps admitting it, the other party keeps bullying him, and he can't stand this kind of consumption.

But unlike Zhou Lang's prediction that the other party would send an army to attack the left battalion, the cautious attitude of the Fengshan County government was unexpected, they did send an army, and sent a three-way army, and an army entered from the north, south and east, but instead of attacking, it blocked all the official roads in and out of the left battalion, making a posture of long-term siege.

This is really unexpected, no matter how Zhou Lang calculates, he can't calculate that the Qing Dynasty officials are so bold. Although Colin had set up checkpoints north and south of the left camp, he had been working hard to prevent the infiltration of spies. But in fact, the situation in the left camp could not be stopped, because the locals were needed to provide supplies, so the trade could not be cut off, and the caravans were always welcome.

These caravans entering and leaving must have informed the Fengshan Government of the actual situation of the Zuo Battalion, and the Fengshan Government must have known that the Zuo Battalion only had one hundred and ten Yi soldiers, and in this case, it was impossible for them not to have the courage to launch an attack.

But now, according to the information brought back by Colin's scouts, there are hundreds of Qing troops in the north, about 200 Qing troops in the east Lianchitan, and nearly 500 in the south. According to this troop strength, it can basically be determined that Fengshan County has mobilized almost all the strength of the three major battalions in the territory, the north should be the Gangshan battalion with 180 soldiers, the east is the Xiatamsui battalion with 300 troops, and the south must be the main force of the Nanlu battalion transferred from the direction of the county seat, with a number of 500 troops.

The enemy's total strength was close to a thousand, and instead of taking the method of direct attack, he adopted the tactic of encircling but not fighting, which really put Zhou Lang in a difficult situation. Because in Zhou Lang's plan, the biggest reliance is that the mercenaries have more advanced weapons, stronger combat experience and organizational skills, and the geographical advantage can withstand the attack of several times the enemy. The biggest flaw is that there are not enough troops, and there is simply no spare strength to counterattack. But now the enemy obviously has ten times the number of troops, but instead of attacking, he adopts encirclement tactics, and if he blockades it for a long time, the place of Zuoying will be dead.

But even if it is blocked, if it is destined to die, it will also take a process of death, and the real disease is that there is a problem within the upper echelons of the left battalion, Colin and Zhou Lang have differences of opinion on the current situation, and both of them are very insistent.

Colin believes that the enemy has adopted the most correct tactics at present, and has seized the dead hole of his own lack of troops, and there is only one way to solve this problem, that is, to expand the force, and he asked Zhou Lang to immediately take out the money and recruit local soldiers in the city.

"Sir, this approach will only make us more passive. Hiring locals as soldiers hastily makes their loyalty completely unguaranteed. ”

Zhou Lang felt that this was simply a matter of common sense, and he didn't expect Colin to make such an amateur suggestion.

Their relationship with the local area is good, but that is based on the fact that they do not harass the local people and can bring benefits to the local people, Zhou Lang thinks that the biggest advantage of the local people is that they can get supplies and recruit soldiers from the local area, which is too whimsical.

The place where soldiers can be recruited here, one is Zuoying City, after all, this used to be the county seat of Fengshan, although the government moved, took away thousands of officials, officials and soldiers, but there are still more than 2,000 residents left, most of these are merchants, craftsmen, and some shop guys, and some idlers. These idlers can be hired, but I am afraid that as soon as the war starts, they will become deserters. There are several villages outside the city, such as the fishing village of Banten. But the problem is that there was a battle with Wanten Village before, killing dozens of their villagers, and now the family is wearing filial piety, and it would be good if they didn't organize to seek revenge, and it was impossible for the villagers of Banten to come to help them fight.

There is no need to consider a few villages near the left camp, the backbone of the rural society is the landlords and clans, and these clan forces cannot take refuge in an unreliable foreign force, but after the fall of the left camp, the young and strong people of several villages are armed and formed a regimental training, they do not help the local government to fight the left camp to burn high incense, and they also hope to recruit soldiers from them.

But Colin just didn't believe it: "Loyalty? Mr. Zhou, are you kidding me again! Is there a stronger loyalty in the world than money? As long as you're willing to spend money, how many people can't be hired? And I don't need many people, as long as I'm giving me three hundred, I can fight out and lift the enemy's blockade. ”

Zhou Lang sighed in his heart, cultural differences, he could probably guess Colin's thoughts. As a country that grew up fighting with mercenaries, Colin was too comfortable with the soldiers who were paid to do things.

Zhou Lang could only explain: "Lord." I must solemnly remind you that it is impossible for us to recruit soldiers from the surrounding villages, it is not a matter of money. You should know that not long ago we killed people in the port, and the villages in the Chinese countryside are related to each other, and if we kill people from the fishing villages, the surrounding villages will definitely not cooperate with us. At most, we can recruit some unemployed homeless people in the city. These people are unreliable, if you go out to attack with the front foot, these people with the back foot may open the city gate to welcome the Qing army into the city. ”

Colin snorted, "It can't be. I'll take them with me to attack. I guarantee that what you feared will never happen, we have recruited tens of thousands of soldiers in India and we know how to use the Easterners to fight the war. ”

Zhou Lang finally knew where Colin's confidence in proposing to hire locals came from, and it turned out that the experience he had tested on the third brother was applied in China.

Zhou Lang knew that the British people in this era were too confident, and they couldn't convince him to talk about regional culture.

Zhou Lang sighed: "I don't want to talk about the combat effectiveness of temporarily recruited soldiers on the battlefield, I think you know better than me." Suffice it to say that even if you successfully launch an offensive and break through the blockade of the other side, it will not help. Even if they didn't use an army to blockade them, a proclamation from the local government would be enough to deter most merchants from coming to the left camp for trade. In other words, even if you win the battle against the enemy head-on, you won't be able to get the supplies from the local merchants to stay here. ”

Colin was stubborn: "Zhou." It's an excuse. You can't convince me, no businessman will refuse business, we can raise the price, and naturally someone will give me supplies. ”

Zhou Lang said: "I know it's useless to explain these things to you. But you don't have to worry, the materials we have in reserve now can last for half a month. Within half a month, our lucky number in Macau will definitely be able to come here, and in the most unfavorable situation, we can also take the lucky number to leave. ”

The Lucky is the name of the merchant ship registered in India as Xie Qinggao, and it was also acquired collectively by the shareholders of the East India Company, and it was still their hopes.

Colin said eagerly: "Zhou, I don't know why you are against it. Are you worried about spending? I think our safety is more important than anything else. We can't afford to take this risk, what if the lucky number doesn't arrive in half a month? You also know that we can only hold out for half a month, so we are pressed for time. I also need to train the newly recruited soldiers, recruiting from now on, and the time is also tight, we can't afford to delay. ”

Zhou Lang knew that he couldn't convince this person no matter what, and the other party had lost all patience, Zhou Lang understood that he didn't have the confidence to stalemate with the other party, because Colin was in control of the army and could launch a coup d'état at any time, and there was no need to ask for his opinion at that time.

However, arming the homeless people in the city and giving them weapons is probably more dangerous than being blockaded by the Qing army.

He made one last effort: "Give me ten days, no, five days." Let me talk to the Qing army outside the city, and if they can't be persuaded to lift the blockade after five days, then hire local soldiers, as you say. ”

Colin was silent for a moment and stretched out three fingers: "Three days, three days at most!" ”

Zhou Lang nodded and agreed.

Then he wrote a letter and handed it to a Qing soldier who had been captured on the beach before, and asked him to take it to the Qing army camp outside the city.