So is it British? It was a bit of a possibility, because he had seen the British use similar ships, but the British had no foothold near China at all on the Asian side, except for the ports they controlled in India, and at best they had a merchant house in Batavia, how could they sell such ships to Chinese pirates? Anthony could not figure this out, but the British were the only ones to be doubted.

The appearance of this strangely shaped European sailing ship gave Anthony a sense of foreboding, and the ship neither made contact with them nor would leave, but wandered around their fleet so far away, constantly adjusting its direction, and never had any intention of leaving.

And Anthony didn't like the feeling of being watched like this, and wanted to send a ship to drive the ship away, but the agility and speed shown by this ship made him realize that there was no ship in his fleet that could catch up with this ship, and he didn't want to fight with these Chinese pirates now, since they wanted to monitor their movements, then let them watch.

So Anthony took out a map of Taiwan that the reconnaissance ship had brought back, observed it on the map, and then raised the telescope and looked towards the shore, and the fleet continued to sail along the coastline for a distance under his command, and finally under Anthony's command, the fleet temporarily landed on a cape in the northeast corner of the island of Taiwan.

To the west of this promontory, there was a small bay where their fleet could anchor for the time being, so Anthony decided to dock here first, go ashore and take a look at the terrain and see if it could be used as a bridgehead for them.

The dinghys in the flotilla began to leave the flotilla and sail into the cove, surveying the depth of the water and marking the waterways as they went, in case their large ships ran aground or ran aground as they entered the bay.

But after they had ascended this cape, Anthony found that it was not a very good place to stand, this cape did not have much flat land, not to mention a small area, it was still a mountainous terrain, with dense woods, and it was not at all suitable for building a castle here as a bridgehead for them to use as a bridgehead here.

Moreover, the bay was too small for a few ships to moor, and it was impossible to serve as a trading port, so they had to continue to find a suitable place to settle down.

After a night's rest, Anthony's fleet abandoned the cape and began to sail west along the coastline, and after another day of searching, they found a bay again about two leagues from the cape.

The bay was larger than the one they had found the day before, so they docked their fleet here, and sent some of them ashore to survey the shore to see if a castle could be built here.

But after going ashore to survey, Anthony was still a little disappointed, although the bay was larger and the conditions were relatively better, but the shore was still not flat enough, and there was no spacious land for them to build a castle and various dock facilities.

At the same time, on the shore, they also found a small pirate outpost here, and the Chinese pirates stationed at this small outpost, that is, the sea wolf troops, told them that this was already the sea wolf's control area, and demanded that they must leave here immediately.

Of course, Anthony ignored the threat of these sea wolves, but told the pirates that he had been sent by the Spanish governor in Luzon to stop here for a while, and asked them to inform their chief, hoping to meet with their leader to discuss something.

The small outpost set up here at Keelung Fort is actually just a peripheral surveillance post, in this bay, responsible for monitoring passing ships, and it is also a nearby fishing boat, in case of a sudden storm, a temporary shelter from the wind, and it is not a fortress for combat purposes.

In addition, they only had a few people, and they did not have the strength to drive away so many Spaniards, so they could only send people back to Keelung Fort to inform the black heads, and tell the black heads that these dry wax people wanted to meet with him.

After the black head discovered the fleet of the Spaniards, he immediately released the carrier pigeon and reported the news to Nanri Island, and at the same time, the black head and Sun Baoqiang and other people stationed in Keelung Fort also threw themselves to the ground for Xiaotian's "unpredictable prophet" admired by the five bodies, they didn't expect that everything was given by Yu Xiaotian.

Yu Xiaotian actually expected that these dry silk people might come to Taiyuan Island so early, and made all kinds of preparations in advance, they used to think that Yu Xiaotian had made a small Keelung Fort so heavily defended, a little too exaggerated, but when they saw the Spanish fleet, they found that in fact, these things that Yu Xiaotian had done for so long were not too much at all, and they were completely set up defense facilities to resist the attack of such a fleet.

So the black head reported the news back to Nanri Island with carrier pigeons, and at the same time, he also announced that Keelung Fort had entered combat preparations, thoroughly inspected the entire Keelung Fort defenses, and ordered everyone to enter the guard.

The more than 300 soldiers stationed here, plus the sailors here, a total of more than 240 people, were all adjusted to a state of imminent battle.

Including the craftsmen and immigrants in Keelung Fort, they were also ordered to prepare, according to the habit of the sea wolf, all the craftsmen had to form a militia, in addition to the usual work, every ten days also had to spare half a day for military training, practice team drills and the use of cold weapons, the militia team of craftsmen also regularly underwent musket shooting training, so that they at least knew how to use muskets when needed, and once they were used, they could be replenished to the soldiers who were lacking at any time.

In addition, the local immigrants were also organized by the sea wolves according to the village, and young and strong men were selected from the immigrants to form the village warriors, so that the village itself had a certain amount of force, and could easily deal with the attacks of some local natives or small groups of pirates or bandits.

Of course, they mainly use cold weapons, broadswords, spears and other objects, and will equip them with some projectile cold weapons such as bows and crossbows, rather than muskets, at most, they will select some usable three-eyed guns, one-eyed guns and bird guns from the weapons they have captured before, and let them use and accept the drills.

Although the combat effectiveness of these villagers is not strong, they can be used as auxiliaries, and there are also a group of native coolies captured before, from which some natives who are willing to work for the sea wolf are also selected to be used as auxiliaries, so the entire sea wolf in the Keelung Fort area, the manpower that can be mobilized is between 1,500 and 2,000 people.

Among them, 500 can be used as front-line combat soldiers, and a militia team of 300 craftsmen can be used as supplementary troops, and when necessary, they can be used as temporary soldiers, but their combat effectiveness is certainly much weaker than that of real soldiers.

In addition, there are 700 to 800 immigrants who can be used as auxiliaries, these people can only be filled in at the last moment, and they are mostly used to transport supplies and ammunition and carry the wounded in wartime, and once they are to be filled in the battlefield, they are basically almost useless.

More than half of these combatants had to enter the fort to guard the fort, and the Heping Island Fort, as the core of the outer defensive line, needed to garrison 150 soldiers, otherwise the dozen or so cannons in the fort would not be able to operate.

In addition, in the battle plan, the fort should also be equipped with a certain number of auxiliaries, that is, the village warriors or militia, or even the native auxiliaries, who are mainly used as laborers in the forts.

Because those twenty-four-pounder guns in the turret are quite laborious to move, and the big guys weighing more than 4,000 pounds, even if they have wheels, are very difficult to push without bearings.

There are no 24-pounder guns just to push them to reset, at least 30 people need to serve them, and the number of soldiers is limited, and the number of gunners is not much, if they want to be responsible for pushing the cannon throughout the process, it is estimated that they will not be able to shoot a few rounds, and they will be tired and lie down, so in the case of limited troops, it is necessary to equip some village warriors or auxiliaries in the fort to act as a force, specifically responsible for pushing the cannon, and the gunner only needs to load and aim, which can greatly save the gunner's physical strength, so that the gunner can fight for a while.

According to Yu Xiaotian's requirements, all the strongholds of the sea wolves, even if they are only strongholds like Nangantang, which is now not very important, the personnel guarding the town must formulate a set of combat plans in advance according to the number of their personnel.

Keelung Fort is the stronghold where the sea wolf is most threatened in the recent stage, of course, the plan is also the most sufficient, the battle plan here is formulated by Yu Xiaotian himself, and with the change of the military situation here, it is still being constantly revised.

So this time, after the blackheads found out that the Spaniards appeared, they immediately activated the pre-set plan and launched the combat deployment in an orderly manner.

All the fishing boats and whaling ships based in Jilong Bay were ordered to immediately return to the harbor to stop their operations, there was a beacon tower on the top of the mountain, which lit three plumes of smoke, and the smoke rose to the sky, as long as there was no strong wind and rain, the beacon smoke of the beacon tower could be seen on the sea surface far away, and the ships operating on the sea immediately began to rush back to Keelung Fort, unless there were a few whaling ships, which ran a little farther away and could not be notified soon, and the rest of the various ships operating nearby quickly returned to the wharf.

(Xie Lu, Xie Hulu, old brother's tip!) I've finally stuck with it this month! Considering that my son will be hospitalized for a short time, it is really unbearable to go on like this, and I can only guarantee to update one chapter a day next month! I'm really sorry for the big guy, please bear with me! ）