"Lin Jun is in charge of the defense on land, and he must build the colony into an iron barrel that cannot be attacked within two months." Liu Yuan immediately said to Lin Jun, deputy commander of the fleet.

"No problem." Lin Jun was originally from the army and was very familiar with land warfare.

"But how to deal with it at sea still needs to be thought through." Liu Yuan is most worried about the problem at sea, which is five times the strength, and if he is not careful, he will be surrounded.

If they are surrounded, they will surely be defeated.

Liu Yuan expressed his worries in his heart, Cao Li thought for a while and said: "Five of our warships are snatched from the British warships, the British warships are more flexible and the fastest, we can arrange these five warships in the open sea, and then wait for the opportunity to use superior artillery and speed to fly the kites of the coalition forces, and resolutely not get in close contact with the coalition forces." ”

"Other warships were deployed in the harbor, and the batteries blocked the entrance. If the coalition forces rush into the port, they will enter the river and then neutralize the numerical superiority of the coalition forces in the river, and at the same time we must choose a place in a certain section of the river, set up some batteries, and if the coalition forces chase into the river, they will lure them there, and then sink them with artillery. Cao Li pointed to the map and said.

The port of Jinshan is two bays, jutting out from two peninsulas on the west coast, hugging the harbor together, with a narrow entrance to the Jinshan River, named after the American Fleet.

The first line of defense is the entrance to Jinshan Port.

Warships are located here, which can also support the batteries on the two peninsulas, and if the allied warships rush into the harbor, the warships will retreat to the Jinshan River.

There were only four important strongholds in the California colony, one of which was the Golden Mountain Fortress that guarded the entrance, which was later located in the 'San Francisco Fort Park'.

The second is the new Zhaojiabao, which is located in the lower reaches of the Jinshan River, and the shipyard is located in the new Zhaojiabao.

The other two bastions are located in the Golden Delta, where the Jinshan River meets two direct flows, which was an important agricultural area in the California colony, with cotton fields and textile factories.

This layout also makes it easier to defend now, regardless of whether the coalition warships can rush in or not.

But to keep these coalition warships out there is the best.

After discussing for a long time, Lin Jun suddenly pointed to the port entrance and exit on the map and said: "The entrance can accommodate five warships to enter at the same time, which is still too big, and once it is night, if the coalition forces attack with fireships, it is not easy to resist." ”

"This is indeed a problem...... Cao Li dragged his cheeks and thought for a while, waved his hand and said: "There is still time to take time, then we will use boulders and other objects to plug the entrance, blocking it until it can only accommodate one warship to pass through, and at the same time, taking advantage of the time is enough, pull a cross-river iron lock at the entrance." If we want to go out, loosen the locks and let them sink to the bottom, and when we want to block the sea, we tighten the locks so that they are half a meter high above the river. If a ship of fire comes, it must be the night when the east wind blows, and when the east wind blows, the iron locks must be closed. ”

"Yokoe Iron Lock! Good. "Liu Yuan is overjoyed, this method is really good, once this iron lock is pulled, in addition to calcining it with fire, or capturing the Jinshan Fortress, it will not be able to break the iron lock, and don't think about rushing into the port.

"In this way, the coalition forces will never enter the port, and they will definitely storm the Jinshan Fortress, the fortifications of the fortress are already very complete, but how to distribute the troops still needs to be discussed."

There were only 5,000 marines in force, and they had to face an attack of 25,000 men. But it is impossible to put all of them in a fortress, the only question is how many people are needed to defend elsewhere.

"This is a topographic map of the coastline of Jinshan Port, if the coalition forces attack Jinshan Fortress, it is very likely to land from the south, because the north and south coasts are mountainous and not suitable for landing." Cao Li pointed to the location of 'South San Francisco' in later generations.

"It is also not ruled out that they landed from the Mink Bend." Cao Li said that the mink bend is the area where they found a large number of mink, so it was named mink bend, and the location of the mink bend is the 'Monterey bend' of later generations, and the coast of the Monterrey bend is not blocked by mountains, and you can reach the Jinshan fortress through a relatively flat passage, and you can also reach the new Zhaojiabao.

"If they find that the Jinshan Fortress cannot be attacked for a long time, it is very likely that they will make a detour to attack Xinzhaojiabao. Xinzhaojiabao is in the lower reaches of the Jinshan River, and if you want to attack on land, there is only one passage. That is, we only need to set up a checkpoint here, three hundred people are enough to kill the attacking enemy, and then set up a pass to the west of Xinzhaojiabao, and then arrange two hundred people, so that it is definitely not impossible not to enter. ”

New Zhaojiabao is located in the later Pittsburgh, the passage leading to the new Zhaojiabao from the road, located between two small mountain ranges, the attacker must pass through the later 'Walnut Creek', 'Dublin', 'Fremont' line, directly in the place of Walnut Creek set up a checkpoint, it is enough to block the attacking enemy.

At the same time, the geographical location of the new Zhaojiabao is that it is surrounded by mountains in the southwest and the endless plains of California in the east. The enemy passed only from the north-western side of the riverbank. Set up another pass on the riverbank, absolute insurance.

"A small stronghold needs to be set up opposite the Jinshan Fortress, the peninsula on the other side is full of mountains, it is impossible for the enemy to land on it, but it is possible on a small scale, we must set up a stronghold to protect the iron lock of the Hengjiang River."

"Well, there is a real need for manpower here."

After nearly a day of continuous deliberation and revision, the entire response plan was finally determined.

In the face of the attack of the three European alliances, the California colonies adopted an active defense strategy and waited for an opportunity to destroy the enemy, and the American Fleet placed thirteen warships and fifteen pirate ships in the harbor. The other five British [***] ships, which were faster than the warships built by Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands, and five faster corsairs, were unknown outside the harbor.

At the same time, the entrance to Jinshan Port was blocked with stones and abandoned ships to a width that only allowed one warship to pass through, but these things could not prevent the fireships from rushing in, so an iron lock was pulled across the river.

Once the weather blows easterly, it is not only necessary to pull the iron lock of the Hengjiang River, but also to smear wet mud on the warships in the harbor to avoid capsizing in the gutter.

For the defense on land, 3,000 men were placed in Jinshan Fortress, and another 20,000 young and strong indigenous Indians were dispatched to assist in the defense.

A small stronghold was set up on the opposite bank of the Jinshan Fortress, and a hundred musketeers and thirty gunners were placed to defend it.

Set up two passes on the road to the new Zhaojiabao and arrange 500 people to defend it. Other soldiers guarded the new Zhaojia Fort and two other forts in the middle and lower reaches of the Jinshan River, and managed the indigenous Indians.

Once the strategy and armament were decided, the California Governor's Office began to assign tasks to strengthen the defenses and erect more shore defense guns.

First of all, strengthen the fortification of the Jinshan Fortress, which is likely to face a long-term siege, so it is necessary to stock up on food, fuel and ammunition at the Jinshan Fortress.

Then let the blacksmith make the Hengjiang iron lock, preferably two or three.

At the same time, stronghold passes were built, and some shore defense guns were erected at Xinzhaojiabao, so as to cooperate with the fleet to destroy the coalition warships in the narrow area of the lower reaches of the river after the coalition warships rushed into the port.

It is also necessary to train the 20,000 young Indians in the Jinshan Fortress, let them master the essentials of defending the city, and treat them more kindly, and brainwash and educate them.

For a time, with the exception of indigenous women and children who were picking cotton in the fields, most of the indigenous young and strong Indians were mobilized to actively prepare for war.

It is highly likely that the coalition will launch an offensive in the spring, and an attack on Jinshan in the winter is generally unlikely, and even more so in the winter, as the snow is heavy enough to prevent the coalition soldiers from moving normally on land.

So there's plenty of time.

In addition to these actions, Liu Yuan also urgently sent a clipper ship to return to Shandong, requesting some support from the military headquarters. It's October, and it's about two months from California to Shandong, and then the support will be sent to California by clippers, and it's also more than two months, and the support will arrive around March next year, just in time for the beginning of spring.

At the same time, Liu Yuan loaded the harvest of the whole year and returned to Shandong with thirty merchant ships.

Among the goods was 500,000 taels of gold, 30,000,000 taels of silver, nearly 10,000,000 taels of various goods, and 30,000 mink skins.

This was the result of ten months of looting, and the value of goods on fifty merchant ships was at least more than sixty million taels, but the colonies did not have enough manpower to sell those goods, and many of them were thrown to the Spaniards at lower prices, so that there were only forty million taels.

Reinforcements are definitely available, and with such high income from looting in California, the military department will inevitably send troops to support.

The reason for such a high profit is that the American fleet does not follow the rules and uses the navy to rob everywhere.

According to the rules of the Westerners, the regular army could not go around plundering the merchant ships of other countries, even if there was religious hostility between the two countries, if anyone did not follow the rules, it would lead to war.

The behavior of the American fleet really led to a war, and provoked a joint attack by the three major European maritime powers, which was naturally fueled by the Spaniards.

And having robbed so many ships, it was undoubtedly a piece of fat torn off on them, how could the Dutch and the British endure it?

It is impossible not to retaliate.

Louis XIII was also furious because his daughter was robbed, and although the merchant ships were not robbed much, he still raised troops to fight.

The Spaniards, fearing that the American fleet would be too badly defeated to inflict heavy damage on the coalition forces, sailed a convoy of more than thirty merchant ships in mid-October.

The fleet was full of gunpowder and food, and it was given to the California colonies for free.

Because of what the American fleet had grabbed, those goods that had no market in Daming, or were too cumbersome to transport back to Shandong, were thrown to the Spaniards and Portuguese, who really made a lot of money, and sent some gunpowder and grain, and they did not suffer.

For the Spaniards, the best outcome was a crushing victory for the American Fleet, but the American Fleet had gone overboard on the east coast, and the Spaniards misjudged it, resulting in a huge coalition force.

The Spanish king's order to the Central American colonies was to do everything possible to make it not so easy for these Asians from the Bright Empire in the Far East to lose.

(To be continued)