After the negotiations were completed, Zhou Lang sent people to contact the mercenaries in the east first, and then the fleet at sea, and soon the shelling stopped.

After sending people into Donggang, the situation of the Qing army was not as bad as imagined, and in the past few days of fighting, their personnel losses were not large, and there were more than 300 casualties before and after, which could not be said to be an absolute desperate situation for a 2,000-strong army.

But their lieutenant committed suicide, and before committing suicide, he told his men that they could escape, but not surrender.

Zhou Lang had already determined at this time that Li Nanxin had sent people to negotiate before, and the purpose was to go to Fengdanxun to unite the landlords' armed forces and then counterattack Donggang. This is a strategic battle for military generals, as long as it is not too pedantic, it is acceptable. But Zhou Lang refused, and instead allowed them to go by sea.

Although Li Nanxin was also worried that if he let his subordinates go from the sea, the enemy would pursue, and the Haikou had many ships and cannons, and once they walked from the sea, if the other party chased and killed, it was equivalent to giving up the way to survive. So if it weren't for the fact that there was no way, he wouldn't have gone by sea, so he had sent troops north to make a final breakthrough. But Zhou Lang's cannon is too fierce, especially on the cramped official road, and the power of the cannon is magnified. The soldiers who fled back cried that breaking out was a dead end.

Li Nanxin gave up all luck, he was sixty years old, and he was not afraid of death, but he didn't want to cut off the way of life for his subordinates, so he killed himself to serve the country and told his subordinates that let them escape, it was okay to escape from the sea, and it was okay to flee in all directions.

After Li Nanxin's death, his officers decided to agree to Haikou's request and go by sea. Because they were not locals, the Qing army adopted a squad army system for Taiwan, and the regular Qing army was transferred from Fujian, with one shift a year or two years, and they were rotated. This was out of distrust of the Taiwanese and to prevent the garrison from forming small cliques with the locals.

Although the Penghu sailors are not sitting in the squad army, they are not locals, and they prefer to return to Penghu.

According to the agreement, Zhou Lang sent people to supervise their boarding, these people laid down all their weapons, boarded thirty ships, and then Zhou Lang let them leave the harbor as promised, sailed safely through the blockade fleet, and then disappeared into the distance.

The situation in Donggang was indeed better than the previous Dagu Xun, and it was obvious that the Qing army had maintained it, but it was still unable to meet Zhou Lang's requirements.

Fischer also looked at the fort, the base is solid, but the facilities are too backward, the cannon on the turret is a self-cast red-coat cannon, not only the range is short, the key is inflexible, not as good as the western fort can almost rotate 360 degrees, this kind of red-coat cannon angle is dead, can only face one direction.

"Get those engineers from Ta Kwu Port to come and renovate it. There are still some fortress guns left in the left battalion, right? ”

"Twenty more!"

Wang Fuqian is now in charge of managing all the logistics materials, he used to work as a bookkeeper, Zhou Lang taught him the double-entry bookkeeping method, and compiled a set of modern file forms, although cumbersome to ascend the throne, but very clear and understandable.

Among the aid sent to Colin by the East India Company at that time were 300 cannons, 100 of which were fortress guns, as well as corresponding artillery equipment, such as rotating members. Colin sent thirty fortified guns to Tagu Harbor, while the left battalion left fifty guns and built two batteries.

"Pull all twenty guns and load them on the Donggang Fort."

Wang Fuqian wrote them down one by one.

Then asked: "Now that Donggang has been defeated, don't you need to transfer the troops from the top of the mountain to come back?" ”

Zhou Lang said: "The military order has been issued, and judging from the time, they are about to return." The change of order is easy to cause confusion, and it will be arranged after they arrive in Donggang. But the next step is that we have to think about it. ”

Wang Fuqian nodded: "The Qing army's combat strength is weak, should we go to save Fengshan County?" ”

Zhou Lang said: "Salvation is to be saved." Let's take a look at the situation before, but now we don't know much about the Tamsui Xidong area (Pingtung Plain), where was the territory of the Tiandihui before. Since they can't keep it, we'll take it over next. ”

Wang Fuqian is very satisfied with Zhou Lang's steady style, the literati all believe in the strategy of building a high wall and slowly becoming king, and if they can collect the Pingtung Plain, they will have a stable foundation, and the grain produced here is sold in large quantities every year, which is enough to feed 300,000 people in Fengshan County, and there can be a lot more, and if it is used to raise soldiers, it can raise 100,000 soldiers.

It's just that Zhou Lang has been struggling with how to win over those landlords: "Maybe let the squires support us and so on?" ”

Wang Fuqian is even more satisfied, those who can succeed in history, no matter how strong or weak, can only succeed if they get the support of the gentry class, and all those who are enemies of the gentry will all fail. Zhu Yuanzhang was not the strongest back then, but he was able to have the last laugh because he did not touch the landlord's land. Li Zicheng should be the most powerful thief in history, but he insisted on robbing the landlords and rich households from beginning to end, and in the end, there were few scholars in his hands to support him, and finally gave up the country to the Manchu Qing Dynasty in vain.

Zhou Lang is not the strongest now, but he has the intention of winning over the gentry, which at least shows that he is stronger than those people in the Heaven and Earth Society.

Although Wang Fuqian is a poor man, but there is a difference in thinking from the poor Jianghu people as the core of the world, he is a scholar, and he is proud of the identity of a scholar, he does not think that it is immoral for the landlord to collect heavy rents and exploit tenants, but thinks that the landlord and gentry who are knowledgeable and reasonable are decent people with status.

So he 100% supported Zhou Lang's idea: "It's nothing more than a show of gratitude!" The subordinates implore the marshal, if they can dominate the Tamsui Creek, they will be exempted from paying taxes for one year! ”

Zhou Lang smiled: "As long as they support me, let alone a year, three years is fine." ”

Zhou Lang has always suspected that he may not be able to collect taxes for a long time in the future, and those landlords are not recruiting their families to defend themselves and levy their grain, they will resist the grain. Unless they show the strength to completely crush the Manchus, they will not accept the reality at that time. Now in their opinion, the Manchu Qing are much more reliable than Zhou Lang.

Wang Fuqian sighed: "It's not necessary for three years, our army's grain and grass still rely on taxes, and we can't rely on looting!" ”

Zhou Lang said: "Do you have any plans for this matter?" ”

Wang Fuqian said: "I am willing to take a trip and go to the countryside to settle the people." ”

Although Wang Fuqian is not a local, he is a scholar, and he has a natural sense of trust in the landlords, and feels that those people can communicate.

Zhou Lang said: "Be careful. I'll send you a hundred soldiers. ”

Wang Fuqian shook his head: "It's not beautiful to lead troops to the countryside, just give me three entourage." ”

Zhou Lang nodded: "You go and arrange it." ”

When the two of them said this, they came to report that Ma Dalei reinforcements had arrived, and that they had laid down the top of the hill yesterday, occupied the inspection department, and returned as soon as possible.

Zhou Lang asked Ma Dalei to take people to rest, and Wang Fuqian went to Kunding, where did he start from and go to the countryside to settle the people.

Zhou Lang sat in Donggang and handled some official business.

The hydrological conditions of Donggang are similar to those of Dagu Port, but in terms of prosperity, it is far better than Tagu Port, which is inverse to the status of Kaohsiung and Donggang in later generations.

At this time, Donggang, together with Lukang, Anping Port and Tamsui Port, is known as the four good ports in Taiwan. In fact, it is still due to the geographical location, which sits on the Gaoping River, the largest river in southern Taiwan, and the Pingtung Plain has been developed by the Kang Yongqian Three Dynasties, and is already the largest production base in the south, and the largest output of the entire Taiwan is grain, so that Donggang has a foundation that is on par with other ports.

Therefore, Donggang is not only a military barracks, a fort, but also a commercial town. Most of the residents of the city fled after the cannon fired, and they still dare not return, probably hiding nearby. Zhou Lang posted a large number of notices in the city to ensure that the good people would not be robbed and that everyone would be in their place.

At the same time, military discipline does not need to be particularly emphasized, Wang Fuqian has written all kinds of rules before Zhou Lang into easy-to-understand rules, which have been publicized in the army, plus the soldiers' salaries are very generous, under the constraints of military discipline, no one will rob those people who are poorer than them.

The next day the townspeople and merchants began to return, and they found out what their houses were like when they left, and what they were when they returned, and they could not help but rejoice and be impressed by the current occupation force.

People are back, but business wants to recover, not so easy, in fact, since the Heaven and Earth will revolt, the trade of Donggang has been greatly affected, originally this is the largest grain export port in Fengshan County, mainly from Guangdong, Fujian grain merchants come and go, after Fengshan County was captured, the Qing army Penghu sailors stationed here, grain merchants came less.

In order to resume trade as soon as possible, Zhou Lang decided to send people to Macao to spread the news, and the fanfare was definitely not good, so he went to visit some foreign trading houses in private, visited some Chinese merchants, and asked the beggars on the street to help distribute leaflets, Macao is a place with a bigger butt, but it is the center of information replacement, Chinese and Western merchants gather, pirates are also here to hear and see, the news here must soon spread in the merchant circle, let everyone know that the current occupiers of Donggang encourage trade.

After three days, a ship sailed into the port, and it was obvious that no matter how well informed Macao was, it would not have been possible to produce results so quickly, and it was not a big merchant ship, but a fishing boat.

Donggang is a port and a fishing village, and it is not surprising that there are fishing boats, but the wharf where fishing boats dock, which is located near the mouth of the river, is rarely driven from the port.

Soon the news reached Zhou Lang's ears, and the ship that came turned out to be here to serve him.

It's a pirate ship!