"What the hell are these braggar bastards trying to do!" Alcarazor put down the monoculars in his hand, and couldn't help but curse in his mouth: "Damn the Haihans, aren't they supposed to be looking for trouble with the Dutch at this time, why are they here?"

None of the officers he accepted could answer Alcaraso's question. Although they also knew that the Haihan people had set up a large-scale military base on Penghu Island, which was not far from here, they never imagined that the other party would take such a direct provocative move and send a fleet to block their door.

Alcaraço, of course, did not foolishly let his own ship stay in the harbor, but immediately ordered the only three armed sailing ships in the area to leave the port and go to sea. Of course, Alcarazo did not let them flee for their lives, but operated in the nearby waters, and if the Haihan tried to attack the city of Salvador on the island of Sheliao, the three armed sailing ships could at least play a role in harassment.

Seeing that it was getting late, the fleet of the Haihan people showed no signs of leaving, but continued to move slowly from west to east, and finally chose a small harbor near the sea only a thousand kilometers west of Jilong Harbor to dock, that is, the later Waimushan Fish Port. This place is backed by mountains and facing the sea, but there is no need to worry about sneak attacks from the land. The fleet left only two slightly larger ships to continue cruising outside the harbor, and it did not seem to pay attention to the nearby Spanish stronghold.

"It's just no one!Signal our ship closer!" Alcarazo ordered in a frustrated manner.

"My lord, do you want to go to war with the Haihans?" asked his men cautiously.

"What kind of war? Are you stupid? Don't you see how many ships are coming?" Alcarazo scolded: "They didn't do it directly, maybe they were waiting for us to offer them this excuse! Tell our people, don't fire, send someone over to inquire about their intentions." Perhaps, they were just passing through here......"

Alcarazo himself did not believe in such a reason, and if he was just passing by, he needed to show his force with the window wide open? Stopping for the night in such a sensitive area without saying hello was not so much a provocation as Alcarazo thought it was more like an adjustment preparation before the war.

Although the city of El Salvador is well armed, Alcarazo is well aware that the garrison here is not as strong as it seems. It may be enough to deal with the primitive natives of the nearby mountains, but it will be difficult for the city of El Salvador to survive a full-scale war against an evenly matched opponent for long. Almost all of the war materials here came from Manila's irregular supply, and the stock was not large, and many of them were withheld by Alcarazo and his officers in the name of training and consumption, and quietly sold to Ryukyu, Japan and other places for personal gain. If there is a real fight, then the defenders will run out of ammunition and food in two or three days at most.

In addition, the local blacksmith responsible for maintaining weapons and equipment has also mysteriously disappeared, which will also affect the army's continuous combat ability to a certain extent. There were originally five armed sailing ships stationed in the area, but two of them recently returned to the shipyard in Manila for repair and maintenance, and the combat capability at sea was greatly reduced. Although it is difficult to connect these events with the current appearance of foreign enemies, Alcarazo still has a strange feeling in his heart about this, thinking that the timing of the appearance of the Haihan fleet is too coincidental. But before Alcarazo could figure out the twists and turns, he heard another piece of news that he couldn't accept.

The mayor of Santo Domingo, Guessmann, along with the local garrison and the emigrant civilians, is on their way overland towards Chicken Coop Harbor and is expected to arrive by midnight tonight. Guersman hopes that Alcaraço will prepare the boat and food in advance so that the team, which has been on foot for two days in the wilderness, can rest as soon as they arrive at their destination.

According to the messenger, the reason why the fleeing party was forced to abandon the city of Santo Domingo was that the Haihan launched an "irresistible" offensive against the area. Captain López, the supreme commander in Santo Domingo, was also killed in the course of the battle with the enemy. In order to save the lives of the Spaniards in the city, Gusman, the prefect of Tamsui, finally chose to negotiate peace with the Haihan, and on the condition of evacuating the local area, let the Haihan people open the net and let them go. Of course, at Gusman's behest, the Courier would never mention the strange events that had taken place in the city in the past few days. In particular, things related to Delgado have become indescribable taboo content.

After careful questioning, Alcaraso learned that the Haihan had quietly surrounded the city of Santo Domingo a few days earlier, and then launched a continuous artillery bombardment, which took only three days, making it difficult for the defenders in the city to parry, and they had to negotiate and abandon the city. It is clear that the Haihan were not satisfied with the capture of the city of Santo Domingo, and immediately turned their guns to the city of Salvador in the port of Chicken Coop. Judging from the time the messenger said, the Haihan people even had the strength to rest for a day in the area before setting off for Chicken Coop Harbor, arriving one after the other with the retreating team from the Tamsui River.

"The time is so accurate!" Alcarazo exclaimed. In his opinion, this is undoubtedly a manifestation of the Haihan people's careful planning and careful planning.

In fact, when Takahashi Minami let go of Gusman and the others, he didn't plan to attack Jilong Harbor in time, even if Gusman could send the news back to Jilong Harbor first, so that this side could take precautions in advance, it would not have much impact on Haihan's attack plan. There are indeed some coincidental elements in the arrival time of this previous and subsequent arrivals. Of course, this explanation certainly does not convince Alcarazo.

Fortunately, the coast of Jonlong Harbor is very close to Sheliao Island, not even a mile away, even if they are ferried by small boat, it will not take too long for the hundreds of people in Santo Domingo City to return to the island, and it is not difficult for Alcarazo to make arrangements.

However, before Gusman's team arrived, the representative sent to negotiate with the Haihan returned first. This was carried out by Alcalázo's distant cousin Fernández, who also served as the commander of the local maritime forces.

The news that Fernández brought back was very disheartening, and the Haihan made it clear that they had come here to recover the territory that belonged to Haihan, and that the Spaniards who occupied the area must surrender and evacuate as soon as possible, or face war.

"How could this be the land of Haihan! We, the navigators of the Kingdom of Spain, were the first to discover this place! These shameless people wanted to use such a clumsy excuse to get rid of us!" Alcarazor's reaction was similar to that of Gusman's reaction when he heard Takahashi's theory come out, and he felt unacceptable.

"They have about eight or ten armed sailing ships, equipped with much more artillery than our ships, and if we go to war, we will probably lose. Despite Fernández's tactful words, Alcaraso could clearly hear the powerlessness in his words.

Alcaraso thought about it, but decided not to make up his mind yet, patted Fernandez on the shoulder and said, "Then let's wait a little longer, Gesman fought with the Haihan people in Tamsui, we should listen to his opinion." ”

Gusman arrived at the coastline around midnight and then took a fishing boat back to the city of Salvador on the island of Sheliao. After two days and nights of marching through the jungle, Guersman's appearance at this time can only be described as embarrassed, and his gray face made Alcarazor secretly amused. However, he still took care of Gusman's emotions, first asked him to wash his face with water, and then changed into clean clothes before starting the formal meeting.

"What the hell is going on in Santo Domingo?" Alcarazo asked straight to the point, "I heard that there was a fierce exchange of fire in Santo Domingo, what is the combat effectiveness of the Haihan people?"

"Hmm...... They are truly formidable enemies!" Gusman had already figured out the words on the way, and began to tell the story according to his script: "Although we found out about the situation when they first arrived at the mouth of the Tamsui River, because we had no surface armed boats, there was nothing we could do to prevent them from entering the Tamsui River to complete the landing. I ordered Captain López to set up several lines of defense on land, but the Haihan were very well armed and outnumbered us in terms of artillery, so we had to fight and retreat and return to the castle to defend. During this period, I also tried to send messengers to ask for help, but the encirclement set up by the Haihan people on the periphery was very tight, and our messengers could not break through at all. In two days, we had exhausted all our ammunition reserves, and we couldn't continue to fight with them. ”

Guersman paused here and wiped the corners of his eyes with some emotion: "Captain López has always insisted on commanding the battle on the city wall, but unfortunately on the third day of the battle, he was hit by a stray bullet outside the city and died. In order to save as many lives as possible for the Spaniards in the city, I ordered peace talks with the Haihans. Gentlemen, I think I should be a sinner in the Kingdom of Spain by my actions. ”

"No, no, Mr. Gusman, you didn't do anything wrong, and if I were in your circumstances, I would probably have made the same choice. Alcarazo was very informed, and did not accuse Guersman of surrendering, but took the initiative to round the game for him: "I think our fighters must have killed many enemies and avenged Captain López." ”

"Of course, our warriors are very heroic, and I am proud of their performance!" Gusman took the answer very naturally, and there was no sign of his weakness: "We have killed at least dozens of enemies during the battle, and although we have not achieved a final victory, we have already told them through our performance on the battlefield that the Kingdom of Spain is not such an easily defeated opponent!"

Gusman wasn't worried that his exaggeration would soon come to light, as he knew that Alcaraso wouldn't ask the soldiers about the details of the battle. As for the few officers who knew the ins and outs, he had also reached an offensive and defensive alliance with them in the past two days. Anyway, everyone will come together to round this big lie, not only will they not have to bear the responsibility for the defeat, but they will also have the opportunity to ask for credit, and no party will take the initiative to puncture this illusion.

Of course, if the Chicken Coop Harbor side can't withstand the pressure and can't beat the Haihan people who are chasing after them, then maybe Gusman will have to take Alcarazo to play the same trick again. "Mr. Gusman, do you know the real reason why the Haihan people took the initiative to attack us?" asked Fernandez.

As soon as he said this, Gusman was also angry: "It's crazy that these guys actually claim that Formosa is their inherent territory of Haihan! But I can't figure out why they want to go to war with us, there are no resources here and at the mouth of the Tamsui River, and it is not a strategic location, why would they go to war to seize control of this place?"

"There must be some kind of reason we don't know yet. Alcarazor was also puzzled by this: "This place is not of much significance other than being a transit and supply point for our trade in the Ryukyus and Japan. The Haihan people have already built a base in Penghu, and it is not very meaningful to seize this place. Besides, there isn't much land to be cultivated here, but the coastal area near Penghu is more suitable for development into farmland and plantations. ”

Even if Alcarazo wanted to break his head, he couldn't have imagined that Haihan couldn't wait to start this war because he knew that there were gold mines in the ground here. Of course, if this truth had been known, the Manila authorities would have sent ten times as many troops to garrison the area. In any case, the idea of inherent territory propagated by the Hihan was nonsense in the eyes of the Spaniards. Obviously, the Haihan did not want to expose their true motives, but just made a random excuse, and finally planned to use force to take the Spanish stronghold.

If you can't beat your opponent in Santo Domingo City, you can still retreat to Chicken Coop Harbor, which is nothing more than a reduction in the radius of the activity area by dozens of miles. But if they can't beat each other here, the Spaniards will really have to abandon the island of Taiwan and return to where they came. And this retreat would mean that the Spaniards' sphere of influence would have to shrink thousands of kilometers to the south, which was difficult for the Manila authorities to accept. So even if Alcaraso could clearly feel the strength of the Haihans, he couldn't be a shrunken turtle like Gusman did in Santo Domingo.

"Gentlemen, it seems that we must prepare for war overnight. Alcaraso declared with a solemn face: "For the glory of the Kingdom of Spain, we must fight these eastern barbarians to the end!"