In addition, this time the Spanish fleet also carried ten speedboats, these speedboats were not large in tonnage, mostly about a few tens of tons, both human paddle speedboats, and sloops, which could be used as a means for their fleet to unload goods and personnel ashore after arriving at the location, when there were no docks and trestles to dock, and when necessary, they were also equipped with light artillery, which could assist the main ships in naval engagements.

In addition to the purpose of loading and unloading personnel and cargo, there is also a very important reason for this kind of fleet sailing and carrying a large number of small boats, that is, there are too many pirates in the Chinese sea, and sometimes when a large number of pirates try to intercept their fleet, although the firepower of the Chinese pirate ships is weak, they are good at using the method of fire attack to attack the big ship.

Although the big ship has strong firepower, but the hungry tiger can't stand the wolves, when facing too many and don't want to kill the enemy, they will take care of one or the other, and the fire attack will often cause them a lot of trouble, at this time, a certain number of speedboats are needed to protect the big ship from the fire ship in the fleet.

In addition to carrying more than 700 sailors, this flotilla was also loaded with about 600 infantry, and these 600 infantry were formed into two companies, one of exactly 300 men, mainly pikemen and musketeers.

When the Spaniards first rose, they relied on the prestige of the Spanish infantry phalanx they created, which was famous for its strong attack power and self-defense capabilities, but as the times went on, the composition of the Spanish army also changed.

Nowadays, the proportion of infantry musketeers in Spain has been greatly increased, but the number of pikemen has been greatly reduced, the proportion of musketeers has accounted for more than sixty percent of their infantry strength, becoming the absolute main force, and the number of pikemen has been compressed, now only about thirty percent, mainly responsible for protecting the phalanx from being broken by the enemy, covering the musketeers to kill and wound a large number of enemies.

In addition to the infantry, they also equipped the infantry with a number of light artillery guns that could be used on land, which served as a pillar of fire for the infantry after landing.

In addition, their fleet also carried a lot of craftsmen and local forcibly recruited slaves, ready to help them build castles after they landed, and the cargo ships were also loaded with a lot of ammunition and weapons, as well as various food, construction tools and building materials, and made all kinds of adequate preparations.

From the Spaniards' point of view, they were sufficiently prepared for this, and on the Asian side they did not think that there was any army other than the Dutch that could defeat such a powerful army as theirs.

So at the beginning of April, Shi Erwa sent a man named Anthony to serve as the commander of the fleet for this expedition, to be responsible for commanding the entire fleet and infantry, and to establish their castle in the northern part of the island of Taiwan and control the northern part of Taiwan.

Compared with the scale of the Spanish landing in the northern part of the island of Taiwan in another time and space in history, the Spaniards in this time and space sent more manpower, material resources and ships to participate in this expedition.

There is no other reason, that is, because they have fancied in advance that Jilong Bay, which can be used as a good harbor, has been occupied by the sea wolves at this time, and before leaving, they have already made a decision, first through negotiations, to see if they can buy Jilong Bay from the sea wolves and let the sea wolves exit there.

However, if the Chinese pirates who claimed to be the sea wolves who occupied Chicken Coop Bay refused to give up Chicken Coop Bay, then Anthony, as the commander of the fleet, could decide for himself to forcibly use force to expel these Chinese pirates and seize Chicken Coop Bay.

So after some careful preparations, the Spanish fleet, loaded with personnel and supplies, finally sailed out of the port of Manila and headed for the northern part of the island of Taiwan.

They chose this time better, it was the season when there were fewer typhoons on the sea, and the wind direction was also conducive to their sailing, so they did not bother much along the way, and arrived at Taiwan Island after more than ten days of sailing.

Of course, Anthony knew where the castle built by the Dutch was, but with his current strength, it was not enough to seize the castle of the Dutch and expel the Dutch from the island of Taiwan, so in order not to provoke the Dutch to make trouble for them, after the fleet arrived on the island of Taiwan, he sailed north along the eastern coastline of the island of Taiwan and sailed to the north of Taiwan.

Eventually, after a few more days of sailing, they found themselves in the northeast corner of the island of Taiwan, where they first ran into a Chinese ship fishing at sea.

Anthony immediately sent a boat to pursue the Chinese fishing boat, and soon caught up with the boat, after a skirmish, they captured the boat, and after interrogation, Anthony learned that the boat was the whaling ship of the Chinese pirates who called themselves sea wolves, but when they met the whaling ship of the sea wolf, the whaling ship did not find the whale, and was fishing operations, but they caught it.

And when they were interrogating the whaling ship of the sea wolf, a Chinese pirate ship flying the sea wolf flag appeared near their fleet, the ship was the sea wolf's patrol ship stationed in Keelung Fort, and the sea wolf troops on board immediately discovered the Spanish fleet, and also saw a whaling ship they had captured the sea wolf, and immediately turned around and rushed back to Keelung Fort.

Before Commander Anthony could command his fleet to find a temporary landing site, a flotilla of about a dozen ships, large and small, appeared on the west side of their fleet and swooped down on them with great vigour.

When Anthony saw that all the ships in the flotilla had a wolf's head flag on their masts, he knew who they were.

The convoy immediately took up its position at sea, and sent a small boat to the Spanish convoy, and the people on board shouted that the Spaniards immediately let go of their whaling ships and release all the sailors on board.

Originally, the Spaniards were not afraid of the fleet of Chinese pirates who had come to them, and immediately all the ships opened their guns and made a posture of going to war.

However, the commander of the fleet, Anthony, felt that it was not easy to start a war with this group of Chinese pirates right now, because he had to negotiate with these Chinese pirates in the next step and pay for the money they occupied in Jilong Bay, so he decided to take a step back for the time being and release the fishing boat of the pirates they had captured first.

So the Spaniards released the whaling ship and all the crew members of the sea wolf they had captured, and after seeing the Spaniards release their whaling ship and sailors, the black head carefully observed the Spanish fleet, and knew that with the current strength of their sea wolf ships in Keelung Fort, there was no chance of winning a war with this Spanish fleet on the sea.

If the difference in strength between the two sides is not large, the enemy must fight, if you don't fight, as the captain or the commander of the fleet, after going back, you will wait to report to the torture hall, or you will be dismissed, or stay in the labor camp!

But this is not the same as blind movement, if the enemy encounters, the enemy's strength is too strong, if you still insist on fighting when you meet the enemy, it will become suicide, although Yu Xiaotian encourages his subordinates to be belligerent, but does not encourage them not to use their brains, such a suicide action, or save it, when encountering such a situation, the sea wolf's sailors can choose to retreat, or send out a patrol boat, it is estimated that the chance of coming back is not great!

Sailors are not infantry, they can be trained quickly, many pirates do it with people, eat a defeat, and then they have been in a slump since then, not because they have no money, no ships, and they can't recruit manpower, but it is difficult for them to train a group of qualified sailors in a short period of time, so Yu Xiaotian will not let his subordinates do brainless things easily.

After observing the strength of the Spanish fleet, the blackhead finally decided to give up fighting against it, withdrew to the chicken coop bay with the fleet, and sent a flying clipper to stay on the surface of the sea to monitor the activities of the Spanish fleet.

Anthony used a brass monocular to observe the sloop in the distance, and could not help but be surprised, this kind of ship he had never seen himself, and he knew at a glance that this was not a Chinese kron ship, but a kind of spinnaker sloop used by someone on the coast of Europe, but it was somewhat different.

This kind of ship is definitely not a Chinese ship, it must be a European style sailboat, and the soft canvas sails speak for themselves, a bit like a kind of inshore light dhow used by the British, but the line shape is more beautiful than that kind of ship, the sails are simpler, but it also looks simpler to operate, fast and agile.

Anthony made his judgment as he watched the Chinese pirate ship through a telescope, but it also cast a shadow over his mind.

Where did these Chinese pirates get their hands on such ships? Although this kind of ship is not big, but when it is active in the coastal area, it is very flexible, fast, and has considerable firepower, which is very suitable for use as a pirate ship, as far as he knows, there is no ship, which can be easily thrown off after being targeted by this kind of ship, and those clumsy Chinese Kron ships, in front of this kind of ship, are simply broilers, and can only be caught and slaughtered by this kind of ship at will.

Could it be that the Dutch sold this kind of ship to the Chinese pirates? Anthony thought to himself, but he immediately dismissed the idea, for as he knew the Dutch, they rarely used such ships, and he had never heard of them brought to the East, not even in Batavia.

(Go to the hospital after the update!) Let's go! ）