Night. This chapter is available for online reading ()

The whole new capital fell into a deathly silence, only the faint light of the palace built on the central axis revealed, Zhu Jun paced back and forth in the empty hall restlessly, the flickering candlelight shining on his slightly pale face, his hands clenched into fists, fingers deeply embedded in the flesh.

Mu Tianbo and Yang Side led the ministers of various ministries to gather in the hall and were silent. The moment Zhu Jun decided to stay in the palace, the ministers chose to stay one after another.

"Boom ......" There was a sudden roar of artillery from the direction of the sea, breaking the rare silence, Zhu Jun paused, looked in the direction of the coastline and muttered: "The Dutch are really here." ”

For the first time, some Wenchen heard the roaring sound of artillery, and the order in the hall was slightly disordered, and then it returned to the same as before, Mu Tianbo stood up and said: "Your Majesty, the war has begun!" ”

Zhu Jun nodded subconsciously, his eyes swept over the slightly uneasy and resolute courtiers in front of him, waved his sleeves and said: "It is enough for me and some young and strong courtiers to be here, and the older ones can go to the valley to hide, and I will let the palace guards escort you." ”

"We are willing to live and die with the emperor, and I hope that Your Majesty will fulfill it." The courtiers did not give an inch, the king was worried about the humiliation of the ministers, and the death of the king's ministers was not just an empty slogan or dogma, since ancient times, generations of scholars and doctors have carved it into their blood and bones, and defended it with their blood and lives.

"Good!" Zhu Jun also no longer persuaded, for the first time he had a respect for these old antiques who are full of benevolence and morality, although they are powerless and like to talk about generalities, at least they still have faith, no matter how ignorant and ridiculous their beliefs are from the perspective of modern people, at least there are people who dedicate themselves to this belief.

On the dark coastline, the roar of artillery fire pierced the sky, and the cannon fire came out of the chamber and smashed towards the buildings along the coast, and the roar of explosions rumbled.

There was no sound on the shore. The buildings within the range of the artillery were already on fire, and there was neither the panicked fire fighting of the hundreds of civilians that the Dutch had foreseen, nor the return fire of the defenders.

After a burst of artillery bombardment, Major General Kent on the flagship kept scanning the movements on the shore with a monocular, and to his regret, he did not see a single figure. Not even a single cat or dog could see it, only the crackling flames of the houses that had been ignited by the artillery fire.

"Did the Ming army abandon the city?" Major General Kent was taken by surprise.

"General. Can we carry out the landing occupation? The adjutant had a smile on his face. No one thought of it. The Ming army would have abandoned the city so easily. It seems that they really overestimated this group of mysterious enemies from the East.

"The Orientals are too cunning. Wait. ”

Minutes and seconds passed. The coastline is silent. Impatiently, Kent finally gave the order for a landing operation. Two thousand marine mercenaries boarded the beach in small boats. The Dutch were still very cautious. They didn't move on. Instead, improvised fortifications were erected near the beach. And sent several small groups into the city to reconnoitre.

After dawn. The east emitted a scorching glow as white as a fish's belly. Through the clouds. The Dutch soldiers stationed on the beach shone drowsy. After a long night's work, they felt a little dizzy. Soldiers on the ground secretly lay under the fortifications and took a nap. There are also those who sit on the beach in twos and threes and chatte to ward off fatigue.

Major General Kent grimaced. Facing several officers with a big thunder. The small unit of the reconnaissance site has not yet returned. A whole thirty Dutch mercenaries disappeared without a trace.

"Your Excellency, the least we can confirm is that there are a lot of enemies in ambush in these fortified buildings, and they are not armed with muskets, because we did not hear any gunfire throughout the night, and I think the other side may have used cold weapons to kill our reconnaissance team."

"I propose to dismantle the upper artillery of the fleet and come down to bombard the buildings in the city."

A major cautiously made a report, but was glared at by the gloomy face of Major General Kent, and said loudly: "This is common sense, I don't want to listen to this." We had to settle the battle as quickly as possible, our gunpowder couldn't have flattened an entire city, and we didn't have that much time. ”

Major General Kent pointed in the direction of the city and said: "What I want to know is where exactly the enemy is hiding, how many people they have, what weapons they are equipped with, our soldiers are tired now, they must rest, but I hope to wait until the soldiers wake up." Our investigators were able to get to the bottom of the city. In this way, we can attack. ”

The Dutch Expeditionary Force repaired in situ. Immediately after several detective teams entered the city, the fog gradually diluted by the sun, and the time passed minute by minute, to the dismay of the top brass of the Dutch command, all the detective teams did not return, and there was no movement in the city, so dozens of artillery pieces were unloaded from the ship, and Bila went to the beach to carry out artillery bombardment on the city, and the smoke of gunpowder enveloped the whole city.

The city is still dead quiet.

The Dutch stopped shelling, and their gunpowder was not extravagant enough to pour on the empty city. Major General Kent planned to attack in the evening, waiting for the soldiers to recuperate.

In the new capital, a two-storey house became the temporary headquarters of the defenders, and Li Xiao and the commanders of the mountain battalion and the recruit camp got together with the commanders, deputy envoys, and servants to spread out a simple map of the new capital in the center of the table to study the defense.

"Although street fighting and mountain and forest warfare cannot be generalized, there is not much difference between the tactics, as long as we hide our soldiers in the alleys or houses at the end of the streets, as long as the enemy dares to come, the general will definitely annihilate them in one fell swoop." Li Xiao firmly snorted the map on the desktop with his knuckles, and said to the officers beside him: "The enemy is in the light, we are in the dark, although the recruits account for the vast majority, but it is not a problem to drive out the enemy outside the city, as long as they leave the battleship, they are lame landlubbers, there is no need to worry." ”

"Filial piety and wisdom." Seeing that Li Xiao was calm and calm, everyone also put their minds at ease.

"What are the enemy forces outside the city doing now?" Li Xiao turned around and asked.

"I'm recuperating, I'm afraid I'm going to attack in the evening."

"Good! All of you go back to the headquarters, so that the soldiers can have a good rest and win the victory tonight. Li Xiao slapped the table heavily and drank heroically.

Kent finally couldn't wait, and before the sun had set in the west, the Dutch mercenaries were gradually assembled on the beach by the officers with leather whips, divided into three routes, and entered the city under the leadership of their respective officers.

This is an expensive mercenary corps, each of whom is armed with an advanced breech gun with plenty of ammunition. According to the tactics, they formed a column and marched to the rhythm of the drummers, and soon they were hidden in the streets.

"Your Excellency, I have a not-so-good premonition." Looking at the procession moving away, the adjutant said to Kent in front of him with a frown.

"God will care for us." Kent nodded in agreement, but he had to do it, and it was not a good idea for the expeditionary force to stay here for a long time, not only would the supplies not keep up, but the morale would also be greatly affected.

Laugh at...... A feathered arrow burst through the air and shot out of a house beside the street, and one of the soldiers of the Dutch mercenary regiment who passed by fell to the ground with a muffled grunt, his abdomen struck by an arrow, and the blood had stained his black military uniform.

The "bang bang ......" team began to stir, and in the face of the sudden ambush, the Dutch mercenaries panicked and fired in the direction where the arrows were fired, but they were still a step too late, and before the guns rang out, the head and steel crossbow that poked out of the paper window retracted after pulling the strings of the crossbow, and the projectiles fired from the breech guns only hit a few small holes in the hard wall one inch deep.

"Tellus, take your brethren in and search." The officer called a non-commissioned officer. The non-commissioned officer nodded, waved his hand and gestured to his companions, loaded his spear with ammunition, and flashed into the house where the attack was hiding.

Moments later, there was a burst of gunfire in the house, followed by a deathly silence, and a small group of soldiers who had rushed into the house did not come out.

One of the captains could not wait, and he rushed in with a large group of soldiers, and was greeted by seven or eight crooked corpses, all of them covered with feathered arrows, and the death was horrifying, and the guns were scattered all over the ground. But they didn't see any corpses of the Ming army, not even a shadow.

"Your Excellency, Captain, they are all dead, there is no enemy in the house, they may have escaped through the back door." After a brief search, a soldier reported to the captain with his head bowed.

"Damn barbarians!" The captain clenched his fists and scolded: "The whole city is a trap, these cowards, actually use such a despicable tactic." ”

The captain had very reason to be angry, in Europe, the war was carried out in the open, the two armies lined up and slowly approached, and then shot at each other, and the Ming army's way of fighting one shot for another made the captain feel ashamed, as an orthodox officer, he actually had to face such a despicable enemy.

At this time, there were bursts of gunfire and angry curses outside the house, and the captain hurriedly closed his team, and went out of the house to the alley, only to see another soldier fall to the ground, and a sharp arrow pierced his neck.

"Don't mess around, follow the military flag." The lieutenant colonel who led this team tried his best to maintain the order, so that the soldiers all gathered around the military flag, there was danger everywhere, and the surrounding buildings could release cold arrows at any time, although the lethality was not large, and the attrition of the legion was minimal, but this style of play had a great impact on morale, and the faces of the Dutch mercenaries were full of fear, and they didn't know if the next sharp arrow would go through someone's throat.

"Our great Dutch mercenary regiment, with a mighty fleet behind us, who has led us to conquer Indochina, to conquer the Far East, to conquer any land near the sea, and we are going to slay these damned yellow-skinned monkeys with our muskets and hang their heads on the highest part of the city." The lieutenant colonel snarled his throat in an attempt to restore morale, and he pointed to the spire rising in the middle of the city, as if he had found his target: "Right there, we're going to hang the heads of these sons of bitches on that spire." ”