Among the maritime powers in the South China Sea, only the Spaniards have not directly dealt with the Haihan. The information they have about Haihan is basically hearsay from various non-governmental channels, and many of them have various claims that are either exaggerated or belittled, and their objective credibility is not high. However, the Spaniards had always regarded themselves as superior powers in Europe, just as the Ming Dynasty had in the Far East, and they did not bother to gather detailed information about such a local power. To be honest, if it weren't for the fact that the Dayuan port had blocked the trade between Manila and the Ming Dynasty, they wouldn't even have taken the Dutch seriously.

The high-ranking lords don't care much about Haihan's movements, so don't expect civilians like Jose to care about this kind of thing. Jose's perception of Haihan basically comes from the merchants and sailors of the Ming Dynasty. And these people, whether they have a cooperative relationship with Hai Han or not, are mostly in awe of them, and they will not talk too much about Hai Han in front of outsiders, and the information that Jose can learn is basically superficial.

José had only known that the Haihan had a very strong influence in the Ming province of Fuguang and that the private armed forces under his command seemed to be quite powerful, because the Dutch in the south had planted a big deal in his hands. But none of this had anything to do with Spain, at least not before he was taken into captivity.

As Jose's vigilance slowly decreased, Jin Ming's question became more and more explicit: "What is the state of the two castles of chicken coop and freshwater, how are the city defenses, how many soldiers are stationed, and how many artillery pieces are equipped with each?"

José felt that these questions were inappropriate, but thinking about the threats he had received before, he felt that it was more important to keep himself alive now. After all, even if you try your best to rot these answers in your stomach, no one in the city of El Salvador will be grateful to you for it. If the news of his death came back, the first thing the authorities would probably do was to confiscate the blacksmith shop, and no one would care about the life and death of a small blacksmith.

Compared with the Netherlands, which had not been in power for a long time, the old maritime empire Spain had more experience in the construction and operation of overseas colonies, and the two bases they built in the northern part of the island of Taiwan had relatively complete defense systems, stationed professional armies, and were equipped with a certain amount of long-range firepower.

According to José's account, only the newly built freshwater is √ according to the diǎn inner dǐng√diǎn√ small √, .≦.∧os_ (); Armed with eight 12-pounder guns and four small 3-pounder guns, it was garrisoned with two hundred soldiers and about a thousand immigrants, most of whom were native Nanyang natives who had annexed to Spain and had immigrated there. And the reason why José knows so much about these situations is precisely because of his special status. Most of the shells used in these cannons were cast locally, and the person who did the work was none other than José. As for the daily repair and maintenance of artillery and guns, it is basically his scope of work, even if he does not deliberately inquire, José will know the relevant military intelligence according to Diǎn. Jin Ming was determined to bring Jose back to Penghu at that time, and it was precisely this factor that was taken into account, and the subsequent progress fully demonstrated that Jin Ming's adventure was very valuable.

The longer-running city of Chicken Coop Harbor Salvatore was stronger in defense than Tamsui Diǎn, with as many as 14 12-pounder guns, 8 3-pounder cannons, and two 24-pounder cannons. In addition, the Spanish armed fleet based in Joncoong Harbor also had six warships, equipped with more than 40 artillery pieces. There are about 500 members of the Spanish Army, about 300 members of the Navy, and about 300 members of the mixed army composed of multiple ethnic groups, with a total strength of more than 1,000. And how to stuff such ordinary people in the local area, there are only about 3,000 people.

To maintain such a high proportion of the population of the garrison overseas, even the Haihan on the rich side will not have an easy time. Because the development time of Penghu after Haihan took over, the resident population is not large, and the proportion of local garrisons is already quite high. But if you include the population of the immigration base, the proportion of garrisons is actually less than 20%, which is far lower than the Spanish demographics of Jonken Harbor. Moreover, the Penghu base has neighboring Fujian, which can continuously import supplies, while the Spaniards in Jilong Harbor can only count on irregular logistical supplies from Manila, more than 2,000 miles away. With such a high proportion of troops, it is certainly difficult to sustain local output alone, and it is no wonder that the Spaniards later cut the size and spending of their troops on the island of Taiwan.

Judging by the size of the garrison alone, the Spaniards were undoubtedly much more invested in the deployment of defensive forces than their Dutch counterparts in the south. It is no wonder that the Dutch had established a base on the island of Taiwan more than two years earlier, but they had never been able to expel their opponents from the island. If it were to be tough, the Dutch armed forces in Dayuangang alone would definitely not be able to conquer the Spaniards' stronghold, and even if they knew that it was a thorn in their side, the Dutch could only endure and pretend to turn a blind eye. After Haihan intervened in Fujian affairs, the Dutch could not care about dealing with the conflict with the Spaniards, after all, the two sides remained at peace most of the time, and Haihan was obviously not such a good target.

But the Spaniards probably haven't been wary of Haihan like this, even if the senior ones know some of Haihan's achievements in recent years, after all, the board doesn't hurt if it doesn't hit their ass, and the Dutch didn't really treat Haihan as an evenly matched opponent before they were beaten.

Jin Ming asked questions about the military situation several times in a backward manner to make sure that the number of things José said was the same every time, so as not to be fooled by him with improvised information. As a blacksmith, José's real military intelligence is limited to this kind of process, and if you want to ask him about the combat style of a certain commander, he probably can't ask one, two, or three.

Of course, Jose's intelligence value is not only reflected in the military aspect, Du Rong and Jin Ming plan to grasp such a hard-won Spanish life and take out all the information he knows in his head. This will greatly help Haihan to understand the actual state of Spanish society in this era and the attitude of dealing with the Spaniards in the future.

"Good job!" Qian Tiandun patted Jin Ming's shoulder vigorously before leaving, this small action made him feel flattered.

"Serve the Executive Committee!" Jin Ming reflexively stood up and replied loudly.

For the military, José's appearance is undoubtedly a huge windfall, and he has already obtained first-hand information about the information that may have taken a lot of time and energy to collect. This will certainly play a very big role in the military's next plan of operations against the Spaniards.

After receiving a notice from Qian Tiandun summoning him on the training ground and handing over the matter at hand to his adjutant, Takahashi Nan hurriedly came to Qian Tiandun's office to report.

"You can come with me and see what kind of attack this place will take. Qian Tiandun beckoned Takahashi Minami to the desk to check the map spread out on the table.

This map is a 1:100,000 satellite map of the northern part of the island of Taiwan, which clearly shows the estuary of the Tamsui River, as well as Yangmingshan and Guanyin Mountain, which are located on the east and west banks of the Tamsui River.

"Today the Ministry of Security sent a Spaniard, and according to his confession, in addition to the Chicken Coop Port, there is also a Spanish Den in this location. Qian Tiandun said and pointed to the bank of the river near the mouth of the Tamsui River: "There is a castle called Santo Domingo here, with about a dozen cannons and two or three hundred garrisons. ”

"What does the general mean...... Are we going to attack here?" Takahashi Minami has been following Qian Tiandun for several years, and he is very familiar with his style of doing things. Suddenly taking out a map for tactical deduction, it was obvious that he had already moved his heart to this place.

Qian Tiandun said: "That's right, Taipei is not as good as Dayuan Port, we can temporarily let the Dutch go, but the Taipei area is the target area that we must directly take." As for this credit, I don't want to share it with anyone else. ”

"Humble duty understands!" "Takahashi Minami rubbed his hands together excitedly. For him, there is really no pleasure in fighting the primitive armed indigenous people of Taiwan with a militia army armed to the teeth. In contrast, a strong opponent like Spain would be more interesting.

Takahashi Minami carefully examined the map, and then asked, "May I ask the general, how far is this castle from the river bank?"

"It's only one or two hundred meters away, depending on the influence of the tides at the specific time period. However, we can get more detailed information, and this link is not a problem. Qian Tiandun responded.

The location of the city of Santo Domingo is just over a kilometer from the coastline of the estuary, and the tides of the sea also have a certain influence on the marina outside the city. Ships that are normally docked will not be greatly affected, but if they are going to carry out military missions such as landing operations, then such uncontrollable factors must be taken into account. Otherwise, it would be embarrassing for the navy to find that it could not be relied on when it reached the shore.

Takahashi Minami estimated the scale of the map in his mind, and then said: "The river here is at least three miles wide, and the most powerful battleships of tonnage can also turn around on the river surface relatively easily. I think it would be possible to make it possible for the fleet to suppress the citadel with fire directly from the river in order to cover the landing of the infantry. ”

Among the amphibious warfare subjects of Haihan, the most basic content is to cover the infantry landing with shipborne artillery fire, and the special operations battalion has practiced this tactic many times without exception. However, there is a necessary premise for using this set of tactics, that is, the range of the shipborne artillery is long enough, otherwise if it can only fight one or two hundred meters away, then the landing force will not be able to fully expand the formation, and if the fire support is not done well, it will become a fire coverage of its own troops. On the one hand, there is no way to ensure the accuracy of shooting in naval combat, and the long range alone may not be able to improve the hit rate, but the cost of the gun will be greatly increased, on the other hand, the space on the ship's gun deck is limited, and if the gun body is too large, the deployment and operation in the narrow space will increase a lot of difficulty.

Therefore, it is unrealistic to expect those naval guns that can fire close to within 100 meters or even less at sea to carry out fire support on land, and this tactic can only be played by the Haihan militia, which has a huge technological advantage in weapons. When the Spaniards built this place, they probably did not expect that there would be people in this world who would use this method of warfare to launch an attack on the land. At this distance, the warships of the Han Dynasty could have anchored on the shore and bombarded the castle with a relatively steady attitude. For a large ship like the Majesty class, the number of guns on a single side is more than the total number of guns on the defender, and the bombardment of more than twenty guns is enough to form a barrage on the castle, and this is not counting the artillery fire of the army landing, which can effectively suppress the opponent in terms of firepower.

"Go on. Qian Tiandun affirmed his subordinates with his eyes and encouraged him to continue to speak his mind. At present, there is no shortage of grassroots soldiers, but there is still a gap in the demand for senior command personnel, and large-scale battles often require the traverser to personally command down to the company and platoon level. The scale of the troops participating in the battle is limited at present, and the problem is not very big; if we go to the Central Plains in the future and invest tens of thousands of troops at every turn, will we still have to rely entirely on traversers to command the grassroots combat units at that time? Obviously, the real solution is to train naturalized civilian officers, and Qian Tiandun is also very happy to take advantage of this opportunity to temper his cronies' ability to deduce the battle situation.

"As long as the army can land smoothly, the next thing will be easy. Takahashi continued: "The range and accuracy of the army artillery must have far surpassed that of the Spaniards, and a 24-pounder army gun should be able to blast open the castle gates effortlessly at a distance of two hundred meters. I can't think of a better way out for the defenders than to surrender. ”

"Then what if the defense force in the city increases, or if reinforcements from land arrive on the periphery?" Qian Tiandun planned to take the test for Takahashinan.

"Then give up the siege for the time being, and implement the tactics of besieging diǎn to send reinforcements. Takahashi Nan immediately responded: "The terrain in this area is very flat, and the reinforcements will either enter the city and defend it, or they can only retreat to a safe enough distance to go up, and watch us bomb this castle into slag." Of course, if they plan to come up and block the cannon hole, then I won't mind opening an extra diǎn killing ring. ”

Qian Tiandun said with a smile: "I will hand over this map to you for the time being, and you can go back and make a more detailed battle plan for me." I will give you five days, and I will require that the combat time should not exceed two days, and the number of troops invested should not exceed two-thirds of Penghu's existing military strength, and the corresponding logistics supply plan must be attached. Can it be done?"

"Resolutely complete the task!" Takahashi Minami replied loudly without hesitation.