When it comes to Malacca, you can't fail to mention a castle, that is, Santiago Castle, this fortified city was built on St. Paul's Hill, was built in 1511, by the Portuguese who occupied Malacca at that time, the wall is ten meters thick, all made of huge stones, there is a moat more than eight meters wide outside the city, and there are various defensive facilities such as towers and batteries on the city wall. In 1641, the Dutch occupied Malacca and expanded the original castle again, expanding the size of the castle a lot, from the foot of St. Paul's Hill to the top of the mountain, on the top of St. Paul's Hill not only built a church, but also set up two large forts to clamp the Strait of Malacca, the whole castle is extremely strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and more than 600 Dutch defenders are guarding this castle.

On the 2nd day of May in the eighth year of Yuanzhuo, the main force of the Guangdong Marine Battalion of the Qing Dynasty rushed to the outside of Malacca, but unfortunately the sky was already light at this time, and the fighter plane had been lost, in order to prevent the grass from startling the snakes, the Qing army that could not launch an attack at night had to stop in the dense forest outside the city, and the officers and men of the Qing army, who had been running for a long time for a day and a night, were already exhausted at this time, and as soon as they received the order to rest in place, almost all the officers and soldiers immediately fell asleep on the grass in the dense forest, and they fell asleep soundly without even taking care of food.

After Lin Wanlong arranged the sentry post on duty with a calm face, he called Chen Guozhong to his side, and said with a gloomy face: "Mr. Chen, it seems that our army will not be able to launch an attack before dark, can you contact the Shadow No. 3 first, and thoroughly understand the enemy situation, so as to cooperate with our army's actions." ”

Chen Guozhong was not a soldier in the first place, although his physical fitness was good, but he could not be compared with the officers and soldiers of the Guangdong Marine Battalion in the Qing Dynasty. The indigenous shadows who originally set off with him had already been pulled far away on the way, and when they heard Lin Wanlong's words, Chen Guozhong's tired face showed a hint of redness, and his spirit was lifted, and he nodded and said, "Okay, let's go here." As soon as the words fell, he turned around and was about to leave, Lin Wanlong suddenly said: "Mr. Chen, slow down, bring some dry food for use on the road." Lin Wanlong said as he took a military kettle and a bag of dry food from the guards around him and handed them to Chen Guozhong. Chen Guozhong's eyes moistened. Without saying anything, he silently took the kettle and dry food in his hand, turned around and strode away with tears in his eyes.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, just when Lin Wanlong was waiting a little anxiously, there was a commotion outside the forest, and then, several sentries accompanied four or five local aborigines dressed as men hurriedly walked to the door of the temporary command post, and one of the two people walking in front was Chen Guozhong. The other person was a burly and sturdy man, with a beard on his face, and he looked extremely powerful.

"General Lin, I finally looked forward to you. Under the surname Wan, the single name Ming. Before Lin Wanlong could speak. The big man smiled and said hello first.

"Mr. Wan has been looking up for a long time, come, hurry, please inside. Lin Wanlong shook Wan Ming's outstretched hand. Very politely welcomed Wan Ming and his party into the command post temporarily built with tree branches, and the group sat on the ground, Lin Wanlong asked a little impatiently: "Mr. Wan, our army has been ordered to take Malacca before May 4, the time is urgent, I won't say much politely to Lin, please forgive Mr. Wan, what is the current enemy situation?" ”

Wan Ming laughed. Without much politeness, he directly picked up a small branch and drew it on the ground, and said while drawing: "Several Dutch soldiers who were defeated from Johor Bahru have arrived at the castle of Santiago in the early hours of this morning, and the Dutch soldiers who were originally doing anything wrong in the city have all taken refuge in the castle of Santiago this morning. General Lin, please see: This is Malacca City, the walls are low, there is nothing to fear, and besides, the indigenous soldiers guarding the north gate are all my Shadow Men. There was no difficulty in getting into the city; There is a large mountain in the northwest corner of the city of Malacca. The locals call it Mount Kama, and the Dutch call it Mount St. Paul. The castle of Santiago is on this hill, the whole castle has only one gate, the city is about 20 meters high, 10 meters thick, there is an eight-meter-wide moat outside the city, only a drawbridge can enter the city of Santiago, there are many fierce crocodiles in the moat, can not swim crossing; There are twenty cannons on the front of the city wall, and three towers, and after entering the city gate there is a straight street leading to the church at the top of the hill, and about fifty meters in front of the church is the battery, and the two batteries facing the strait have a total of forty-eight heavy guns; This is the Dutch barracks, turn left, around an alley and then is the Dutch ammunition depot, from the ammunition depot to the north, after two streets is the Dutch grain depot, according to reliable information, the Dutch grain depot is enough to maintain more than 5,000 people a year, there are eight wells in the city, and water is not a problem. Early this morning, the Dutch were already in a state of battle, and all the locals who had been working in the castle had been driven out of the castle, and my stakes could not gain a foothold in the city. ”

Is it not feasible to cooperate inside and outside, and it is not feasible to launch a sneak attack by armed swimming, and it is not feasible to attack? It is even more infeasible without the support of heavy artillery! Looking at the topographic map drawn by Wan Ming, Lin Wanlong's brows suddenly furrowed, and he thought for a while: "Mr. Wan, our army has captured a lot of clothing and guns of heavy soldiers, and also brought more than a dozen prisoners, can you disguise yourself as a defeated soldier and sneak into the castle at night and launch a surprise attack?" ”

"The Dutch are timid and suspicious, Wan does not dare to guarantee that he will succeed, but you can try it, there are many people under Wan who know Dutch, so I will interrogate the prisoners first, and everything will be seen when the time comes, if not, please prepare for a strong attack, there are more than 1,000 people under Wan Mou's hands. Wan Ming didn't dare to guarantee the ticket, so he could only say that he would do his best.

"That's good, let's ask Mr. Wan to work hard, interrogate the prisoners first, everything depends on the situation at that time, if it doesn't work, you can only attack." At this point, Lin Wanlong had no choice but to order his subordinates to bring the dozen or so Dutch prisoners of war who were taken here to be interrogated by Wan Ming's people.

In addition to some wine shops, brothels, and some noise, most of the residents of Malacca have already fallen asleep, and dozens of indigenous soldiers under the local sultan on the low walls of Malacca are bored yawning on the city gate, looking drowsy. Suddenly, a torch lit up in a forest not far away, and shook in the air several times, and the group of native soldiers who had been dozing immediately woke up as if they were a different person. They moved quickly, silently opened the city gates, and a group of men and horses appeared from the darkness in the distance, and a small group of more than twenty people ran at the front, ignoring the large army behind, rushed into the city gate, and rushed straight down the street to the northwest corner of the castle of Santiago, by the light of the wine shops in the street. It can be seen that this small group of people and horses are all dressed in Dutch soldiers, but all of them are in tattered clothes and covered with blood, and they look extremely embarrassed.

"Open the door, open the door! I'm Frost; Captain Basten, Captain Basten of Johor Bahru, open the door! The defeated soldiers rushed to the foot of the castle of Santiago, screaming and screaming.

The city of Santiago is lit with torches. As the figure flickered, a man who looked like an officer poked his head out of the city, looked at the small group of black shadows by the moat, and shouted menacingly: "What's the noise, be quiet." The gates are closed, and it is not too late to enter the city early tomorrow morning. ”

The defeated soldiers below refused to give up, and immediately scolded, everything was ugly. After a long period of shouting, Captain Basten's voice rang out again: "Open the door, I have important information to meet Morgan immediately; Colonel Heim, the Qing army is coming, open the door! ”

As soon as he heard that the Qing army was about to kill, there was a panic on the city gate, but no one opened the city gate, after a noisy sound. A group of Dutch soldiers armed with torches surrounded a fat middle-aged officer from the city gate, but the fat officer shook the fat on his face and shouted, "Which one is Captain Basten?" Stand up. ”

"Colonel Heim, here's the officer. Captain Basten shook his hat vigorously in the crowd, but it was too dark for the people of the city to see the faces of the people below, and after a long time, a lighted torch was thrown down from the gate tower, and a voice came from the city: "Raise the torch." ”

The defeated soldiers under the city swarmed and raised their torches. Illuminated Captain Basten's somewhat distorted face. Captain Basten was heard crying anxiously, "Lieutenant Colonel Heim, for my uncle's sake." You just open the door quickly, the Qing army is about to kill, I have important information about the Qing army in my hands, open the door quickly. At this moment, gunshots suddenly rang out outside Malacca, and the soldiers were in a panic, and the originally sleeping Malacca City immediately fell into a panic.

Captain Basten is a distant relative of the Hohendeck family, one of the four major families in the Netherlands, and was originally a gentleman who came to the Far East to make money and take out gold-plated. Colonel Haim looked up at the commotion in the distance, lowered his head and thought for a while, the fat on his face trembled, but he still waved his hand and said, "Open the city gate, move quickly." ”

The Santiago Ground Drawbridge slowly fell, and the thick gate was slowly pushed open, the group of defeated soldiers seemed to panic, and rushed to the city gate without waiting for the drawbridge to settle down, several Dutch soldiers who were opening the city gate did not expect this group of defeated soldiers to rush so quickly, and before they came to their senses, they were carried by the defeated soldiers and retreated from the city gate hole, the city gate hole was opened, and the group of defeated soldiers did not run forward along the street when they entered the city, but rushed up the city gate tower along the stairs of the city wall, and before the Dutch soldiers on the city gate tower understood what was going on, I saw that the hands of the group of defeated soldiers suddenly burst into flames, bursts of crisp gunshots, and the Dutch officers and soldiers who did not know what happened were thrown to the ground one by one, and in an instant more than 20 defeated soldiers had been killed on the city gate tower, and the fierceness of the fire made the Dutch officers and soldiers who were already at a loss into a mess - some turned around and fled along the city wall into a distance, some rushed forward with guns, trying to fight with this group of defeated soldiers, and some shot back, and the entire city gate tower was suddenly in chaos.

Chen Guozhong held a revolver in each hand, fired his bow left and right, and didn't need to take any aim, although he shot into the crowd, he shouted as he fought: "Quick, occupy the tower, don't let the drawbridge rise." More than 20 Qing marines armed with revolvers swarmed towards the tower where the drawbridge was located, crushing the weak resistance of the Dutch troops and knocking several Dutch soldiers in the tower who were about to raise the drawbridge to the ground.

Colonel Heim, who was protected by the Dutch officers and soldiers and retreated to another tower on the city wall, was red-eyed, and desperately drove his Dutch officers and soldiers to the section of the city wall guarded by the Qing army, and the two sides fought on the ten-meter-wide city wall, although the Qing officers and soldiers had advanced weapons and marksmanship like gods, but they were outnumbered, and for a time they were oppressed by the Dutch troops who rushed from two directions and could only shrink in the tower to resist desperately, under the dense rain of bullets, the Qing commandos suffered heavy casualties, but they fought tenaciously, More than 2,000 officers and men of the Guangdong Marine Battalion of the Qing Dynasty rushed onto the drawbridge with shouts, and entered the city of Santiago along the city gate, and launched a strong attack on the recalcitrant Dutch army according to the predetermined battle plan.

This is the hell of blood and fire, the Dutch officers and soldiers who have no way out resist stubbornly, the city is full of fierce battles, there are gunshots everywhere, shouting and killing, groups of soldiers on both sides can be seen everywhere in hand-to-hand combat, the sound of killing shook the sky, after a night of hard fighting, the Dutch army, which was already at a disadvantage, finally could not withstand it, under the leadership of Colonel Heim, raised the white flag, and at dawn, in addition to some Dutch soldiers in the castle of Santiago and then sporadically resisted, the entire city of Santiago has fallen into the hands of the Qing army, It's just that Lin Wanlong is deeply saddened by the fact that most of the commandos who participated in the surprise attack were killed, including the commando commander Chen Guozhong.

"Report to the general, Mr. Chen died heroically in battle, and before he died, he left a sentence - to bury him and this kettle on the top of Kama Mountain. The surviving commando soldier reported to Lin Wanlong with a jug that had been shot out of the eye by a gun.

Lin Wanlong recognized at a glance that the kettle was the one he gave to Chen Guozhong in the morning, his eyes suddenly turned red, and after being silent for a while, he waved his hand and said: "According to Mr. Chen's last wishes, let the shadow immediately send out a carrier pigeon and tell the marshal that our army has completed the scheduled battle plan." ”

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