As an old colonial empire of this era, Spain has fought countless large and small battles against local natives all over the world, and most of the time it has been able to rely on advanced military systems, tactical arrangements, and weapons and equipment to gain overwhelming superiority. Although there were occasional sieges due to military inferiority, it was rare for indigenous people to fall into Spanish colonial positions. Even other European countries, which competed with Spain for colonization around the world, struggled to win favor with the Spaniards.

But the emergence of Haihan is obviously a special case, this force that fell from the sky has a complete military system, advanced weapons manufacturing capabilities, and increasingly exposed colonial ambitions, and is definitely not an opponent to be taken lightly. Of course, the Portuguese and Dutch, who dealt with Haihan before Spain, did not make this fact public, so that the Spanish colonists in Taipei underestimated the threat to Haihan this time, and they were restrained everywhere as soon as they fought, and Santo Domingo City chose to abandon the city and surrender under the pressure of the other side's various routines before it could even fully carry out effective resistance.

If the Spaniards could have an in-depth understanding of the true strength and recent movements of the Haihan people some time in advance, then Alcaraso and others would definitely be aware of their dangerous situation and make corresponding preparations in advance to prevent the Haihan people from taking the initiative to attack. Whether it is the Tamsui estuary or the chicken coop port, if you can start preparing a month in advance, you will not fall into such passivity on the battlefield today.

But it's a pity, but when they realized this, the Haihan people had already come to the city with a fleet and siege artillery, and they didn't leave time to prepare for war at all. And the strength displayed by the Haihan people during the battle was already on the verge of despair. Under the blockade of the Haihan fleet, Fernández and his sailing ships at sea were obviously unable to do much, so Alcarazo had no choice but to immediately gather several high-ranking officers in the city and ask them for their next countermeasures.

"Gentlemen, we must now find a way to prevent the Haihan from deploying artillery positions outside the city. As you must have seen, these Eastern barbarians still have siege artillery! If these weapons are not used to scare people, then I am afraid we will face a big problem. Now that the retreat on land and sea has been cut off by the enemy, everyone should think about it, what other methods can be used to retreat from the enemy, and there is not much time left for us to counterattack!" Although Alcaraso usually does not have a good voice with these officers, at this time it is time to let them go desperately, so he has to lower his posture and let the officers think of a way again as pleasantly as possible.

"Sir, we should be realistic, and the question now is not how to repel the enemy, but how to inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy before the city is broken, if we really intend to live and die with the city of Salvador. "The person who answered was Captain Ross, a veteran officer in his fifties, who was in charge of the artillery. After fighting for the Spanish army in Europe for several years, he was severely wounded and unable to continue his charge, and finally chose to come to the Far East to serve the colonial authorities, where he could barely make ends meet for a much higher salary than his wounded soldiers.

Veterans like Ross have no fear of war, and the Shroud of Horse Leather is the most normal fate for them, and if Alcarazo decides to resist to the end and live and die with the city of Salvador, he will indeed not hesitate to carry out such an order and lead his men to fight until the last moment. Of course, he also knows that some things are not as simple as whether to fight or not, as a soldier, he knows what he should ask and what he should not ask, so Alcarazo asked for his opinion, and he did not completely say nothing, leaving a certain room for maneuver.

"You think it's impossible for us to defend this castle?" Alcarazo, although he had been mentally prepared before the question, was still a little psychologically difficult to accept when he heard the military say it so bluntly. Although he also wanted to defeat the invading Haihan, if he had to pay the price of burning jade, and even after paying such a price, he still couldn't change the outcome of the defeat of the Spanish side, then he might really have to consider whether it was worth it.

"Honestly, sir...... This army is different from the eastern armies we have encountered before, they use weapons and tactics that we have never seen before, maybe a fortified city like Manila can withstand their attack, but with the conditions of the city of Salvador, it is really difficult to stop their artillery fire. Roston paused, but decided to say what he thought: "The most ideal outcome is that we may be able to inflict about 100 casualties on them before the city is broken, but it is difficult to say whether these Orientals will execute the prisoners of war after the city is broken." ”

Alcaraso swallowed silently, he didn't want to bury his life on a desert island in the Far East. Even if the Manila authorities were able to posthumously recognize him for his exploits, he unconsciously retreated when he thought that his family would have to face the situation of no one in charge of the family in the future.

At this time, he couldn't help but think of the city of Santo Domingo, which had fallen before this, and Gusman, who had given up resistance at the last moment and surrendered to the city, not only saved his own life, but also saved the lives of the troops and people in the city. As they claimed, they wanted to bring the region under the rule of the Haihan.

Like Guersman, Alcarazo couldn't understand why the Haihan held such a high value on the area. The Spaniards have been here for seven years and have not been able to fully self-sufficiency until now, relying partly on regular supplies from Manila. If it weren't for the fact that the trade between Spain and Korea, Japan, the Ryukyus, and other countries could still have a little oil and water, and it would have been able to subsidize the daily operating expenses of some Taipei colonies, and if it were not for the strategic containment of the Dutch, the Manila authorities would have ordered the withdrawal of the Taipei colonial area long ago.

But Alcaraso was not stupid to be appointed as the chief executive here, and the fact that Haihan was able to quietly develop such a powerful military power in just a few years shows that these people will definitely not waste time in worthless places. If this place is really as barren as he thinks, then what is the purpose of the Haihan people who do not hesitate to start a war to seize control of the region? The only thing he can't figure out is the key to this, he believes that as long as he finds out the true intentions of the Haihan, many things can be solved.

Unfortunately, the Haihan did not intend to leave much room for negotiation, and according to Gusman, the only conditions for the Haihan to accept negotiations were surrender and renounce any claims to the region. This meant that Al Carazo had little room for bargaining with the other side, unless the defenders could use their own strength to make the Haihan people compromise to a certain extent, but now it seems that it is also very difficult to do so, and the weak resistance of the defense line outside the city has proved the difference in strength between the two sides, even if this position is moved to the city walls of El Salvador, there seems to be no hope of reversing the situation.

Ross is arguably the most senior officer in the region, and his opinion is largely indicative of the attitude of the military, which is not optimistic about the outcome of the war, but leaves the final choice to Alcarazo to decide.

"I think we should ...... Well, take a little more time to think about it. Alcaraso hesitated, but finally did not say the word "surrender".

It is easy to surrender, but the pot of defeat is not easy to carry, the city of Santo Domingo chose to surrender, after all, the number of local garrisons is too small, and the strength of the city defense is not enough, which can be regarded as a forgivable move, plus the life of the whole city was saved, and there was the retreat of Chicken Coop Harbor, Gusman needed to bear little responsibility. However, the city of El Salvador was already the last Spanish colonial stronghold on the island of Taiwan, and there was no way to retreat, and if it surrendered, it could only directly return to the city of Manila on Luzon Island. That would mean that the Spanish business had completely failed for the past six or seven years, and that everything was back to square one - no, not even as it had been, since when the Spaniards set foot in Taipei, there was no such powerful army as Haihan.

Even if surrender would save the lives of the Spaniards here, a return to Manila would not necessarily prevent the authorities from holding them accountable. If the high-level attributed the fall of the Taipei colony to Alcarazo's ineffective response and miscommand, then he would not have thought of any comfortable life for the rest of his life.

Alcalázo had been thinking about it in the middle of the night, but he had not been able to make up his mind to make a choice, and it was almost dawn that he could not resist the sleepiness and fell asleep. The next morning, he was awakened by the rumbling of cannon fire from outside the city.

"What's going on? The Haihan people are starting to attack the city?" Alcarazor asked in a loud voice, turning over in a hurry.

The guards didn't know what was going on outside, so Alcarazo had to ask him to hurry up and inquire about the news. After a while, the guards came back to report that it was the Haihan people who tested the artillery outside the city, and did not start a formal siege operation.

"Test the gun?" Alcarazor could only smile wryly when he heard this answer. Obviously, the artillery of the Haihan Army has been deployed in place, and the purpose of the test artillery is to calibrate the range and target. When the test artillery is over, it will probably be time for the Haihan army to launch a siege.

At this time, Alcarazo naturally couldn't continue to sleep with peace of mind, so he quickly got up and dressed neatly, put on a set of light helmets brought from China from thousands of miles away, and then rode to the city wall to supervise the battle.

"My lord, the situation may be worse than we expected yesterday. Captain Ross reported to him with a gloomy face: "The Haihan have deployed about twenty artillery pieces outside the city, including four huge cannons, presumably to bombard our gates and the weak parts of the city walls. Although we have blocked the city gate, when the Haihan people tested the artillery just now, they targeted the city wall in front. ”

Rose said as he pointed to the city: "They had already hit the battlements when they tried the cannon, and the cannonball easily opened a big gap at the head of the city......"

As he spoke, Alcarazo had already seen what Ross was talking about, like a large watermelon, and it looked like it should be forty or fifty pounds. The power of this thing can be imagined, if it is an adobe city wall, it can collapse in a few rounds, although the city of El Salvador has wall tiles wrapped in the outer layer of the adobe city wall, but the relatively thin battlements must not be able to withstand the bombardment of this kind of cannon.

Alcarazor was still calm, and after looking at the shells, he took the initiative to ask Rose if he could go up to the top of the city to see what was going on outside.

Ross replied, "It's okay to go up, but please don't show your body at the battlement." According to Master Gusman, the Haihan seem to have mastered some special technique that allows the musket to hit the target at a long distance, and Captain López, who was stationed in Santo Domingo, was shot from a distance by the Haihan who was shot from a distance by the Haihan because of a moment of negligence leaning out of the battlement. ”

Alcarasso forced a smile, "Thank you for the reminder, Captain Rose, I'll be careful." ”

After ascending to the city wall, Alcarazor did follow Ross's command, hunched over his waist, and avoided appearing directly in the enemy's field of vision as much as possible. There is only the ruins of the battlements left in a battlement on the city wall, and there is even a pool of blood that has not completely dried up next to it, and it seems that when the Haihan cannonball hits here, the damage caused is not only the battlement.

Alcaraso did not ask what had happened to the unfortunate man, he chose another battlement about five or six meters from where he had been hit, and looked out cautiously.

Without the use of a telescope, Alcaraço was able to see the arc-shaped gun emplacements outside the city, all about 300 meters away from the city walls. The range of the city's fire cannons was so long, but the hit rate was pitifully low. And the Haihan people had already hit the battlements when they tested the cannon, and it was clear that their artillery had an extremely high hit rate and did not suffer in range.

"If we don't care about the consumption of ammunition, can our artillery fight them?" Alcarazor asked Ross with a fluke mentality.

"Absolutely. Rose gave him an affirmative reply. But before Alcaraso could rejoice, Rose added: "But we will probably lose badly, and even if we run out of ammunition in the city, we may not be able to destroy these gun emplacements outside the city." ”