Li Dingguo stood on the beach and used a telescope to observe the city of Relanja on the island.
The island is located at the mouth of the river. It is a sandbar formed by the alluvial waters of the Taijiang River. It is somewhat similar to Chongming Island.
On one side of the island is the castle and on the other side is the residential area.
Li Dingguo could only see the outside of the castle and couldn't see clearly what was inside. But just the outer defense gave Li Dingguo a headache.
It's this damn group of bastions again.
Yes, the bastion group!
There is an earth slope on the outermost perimeter, and the second line of defense is the city wall.
There is a semicircular fort on the front of the building and two prismatic fire towers on the sides. This is where the governor and officials of Taiwan have their offices. Once the siege team breaks through here, all personnel can evacuate inside.
The first line of defense inside is a semicircular fort on each side, with prismatic enemy towers on all four corners, and a square firepower tower on the front.
There is a second line of defense further inside, with a total of two semicircular forts and four bastions at the four corners.
There is almost no difference between sending 10,000 people to attack such a carefully designed bastion group and sending 100,000 people to attack...
The siege artillery of the seventeenth century could not be forcibly blasted. It was nothing more than using human lives to fill the ammunition and using human lives to consume the ammunition of the defenders. Digging B-shaped tunnels was useless. At most, it could break through a few peripheral defenses. Attacking
Once inside, there is no way to dig a hole. The four innermost bastions and a semicircular fort are too unreasonable.
"If we attack by force, I'm afraid we will have to kill more than half of our division before we can get in. The number of defenders is still small, otherwise it will be useless to attack even one division." Li Dingguo sighed.
Wu Hualong said: "The general would have been here a few years ago. In the red-haired ghost's Taiwan City, it was only a few years ago that the lower city was built. The semicircular city wall outside was also built at that time, and some angular walls in the upper city were also newly added.
'
Li Dingguo said: "If we don't fight, we have to fight. We can only besiege the city and provide reinforcements, forcing the defenders to surrender after they run out of food."
Wu Hualong said: "I'm afraid the siege will take more than half a year. There are wells in the city and there is a lot of food." As he said that, Wu Hualong was extremely angry, "If I had known this, I shouldn't have helped the red-haired ghost build the city!"
The Han Chinese in Tainan were the main builders of the entire Relanja Fort Group, while the local indigenous people worked together to do the hard work. The Dutch colonists only had to design and direct.
At this moment, a group of aborigines came to Chikan City.
They wore linen trousers, most of the men were bare-chested, and the women covered their chests with a piece of cloth. Moreover, all of them were sallow and thin, indicating that they were suffering from chronic malnutrition.
Li Dingguo went to meet the leader, and Wu Hualong introduced: "These are the indigenous people of Huweilong. More than ten years ago, the red-haired ghosts sent troops to attack, burned all their houses, and robbed all their food. A large tribe with thousands of people.
, nearly half of them starved to death that year, and after that, they could only feed the red-haired ghost honestly.
The leader was very excited when he saw Li Dingguo. He danced and danced, and finally knelt down on one knee to Li Dingguo with a spear in hand.
Wu Hualong translated and said: "This is Uma, the chief of the Huweilong clan. He heard that the general led troops to attack the red-haired ghosts, and he came with all the people in the clan who could fight. These women and children can also fight, although they usually don't have enough to eat.
However, they keep practicing their skills, just waiting to one day kill the red-haired ghost to take revenge. If the general looks down on them, they can help move things. When attacking a city, they can also be at the forefront.
Li Dingguo glanced at these aborigines. They were ragged and thin, but even the old, weak, women and children looked at him expectantly.
These people really came to fight, and they were determined to die.
Li Dingguo suddenly stopped complaining against Wu Hualong. The Han people must have been forced to die if they launched an uprising in advance. Just like these natives, as long as there is hope of revenge, they will fight even if they risk their lives.
Because if you don’t fight, you will die sooner or later and will be exploited to death by the Dutch!
After appeasing the aborigines, Chief Missionary Officer Qian Huanyong took Li Dingguo aside and said: "If the people's support is available, we can send people back and contact the navy to come over. Block the nearby sea and prevent the Dutch from transporting food supplies from other places. Then
, our army transported food here and distributed some to the Han people and indigenous people to help them tide over the difficulties.
"If we distribute food to the people, we may not have enough food," Li Dingguo said.
Qian Huanyong came up with an idea and said: "Your Majesty treats the families of soldiers preferentially. Each of the first batch of more than 3,000 people who migrated here received food donated by the imperial court.
The family members themselves also brought stored grain. They talked to the soldiers and their families and asked them to lend the grain and return it after the court replenished the military grain.
Li Dingguo nodded and said, "This plan is feasible."
If it were placed in the late Ming Dynasty, let alone borrowing food from the soldiers, even if there were rumors about this, the whole army would be full of resentment, and a mutiny might even break out.
The Datong court, both the government and the military, has always had a very good reputation.
It's a loan, it's a loan, there's absolutely no way you can default on it.
Nowadays, officials' salaries are paid in official bills, and soldiers' military pay is paid in military bills. Both bills can be cashed at the nearest Datong Bank. Due to the extremely high credibility of the imperial court, officials and soldiers have the habit of storing bills.
Unlike at the beginning, he did not redeem the bills immediately after receiving them. Because of this, in the face of successive natural disasters, Zhao Han could continue to send troops to fight without intensifying the exploitation of the people.
You should know that in Henan and Shandong provinces, due to the serious damage, only half of the land tax is collected from all the land, and the full land tax will not be resumed until next year. And Beiping Prefecture, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Liaoning, Yunnan, Guizhou,
Many prefectures and counties in these places are also in the state of land tax reduction and exemption.
Especially in Hebei, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Liaoning, and Beiping Prefecture, the policy of completely exempting land taxes will continue for several years!
Even a scholar like Mao Bijiang, who could not stand Zhao Han's policy of seizing landowners' property, could not help but sigh: "Since ancient times, the benevolent government of emperors has not been as good as that of the current dynasty, so farmers are so lucky.
The Zheng family in Annan, with a population of 3 million, can support more than 50,000 standing troops (one-third of the land is used to support the clan and nobles, officials, scholars and soldiers without paying taxes). The Ruan family in Annan, with a population of 1 million
, can support more than 20,000 standing troops. Annan Mo family, with a population of 100,000, can support 8,000 standing troops.
Zhao Han, with a population of 90 million, only supports an army of 200,000, and often laments that there is not enough military food. Because of the large number of provinces, land tax is either halved or not collected at all. Money and food must be allocated for disaster relief, and money and food continue to be spent on immigration.
.
Qian Huanyong continued: "While using military rations to provide relief to the Han people and indigenous people, let the military missionaries temporarily act as local officials to set up the government here first. Especially the indigenous people. I heard that there are more than 200 tribes in the surrounding area.
There are thousands of people in large tribes and only one or two hundred people in small tribes. You can ask local Han people to serve as general guides.
While going into the mountains to distribute food and relief to the indigenous people, I also preached policies and established villages and towns. Let locals serve as village chiefs to avoid conflicts. In this way, before the enemy's castle is surrounded, the people here will be at my disposal!
"Okay, you take care of this matter." Li Dingguo was very good at fighting, but his governance of the people was average.
The newly conquered area is automatically regarded as a military control area, and the army can temporarily appoint officials until the court gives corresponding instructions.
A few days later, Wan Bangyan came with the Taiwanese fleet and cruised to block the waters near Relanje City. They did not dare to get too close. Each bastion in Relanje City was equipped with 12 city defense guns, with a total of nearly a hundred artillery pieces. The door can bombard the sea surface from all angles.
Similarly, the Dutch warships did not dare to sail out of the port.
Of the four Dutch warships, one went to Batavia to fetch reinforcements. The remaining three did not dare to compete with the more than 30 ships of the Datong Navy.
After sealing off the sea area, they began to transport grain to Chican City. Each time, they would catch the high tide and land at Luermen with the help of the tide, and continuously transport grain to support the Han people and indigenous people.
As for the soldiers and their families, they will have to tighten their belts and live a hard life this year until military food supplies are shipped from the mainland.
But the effort is worth it, and the results are immediate.
The Han and indigenous people in Tainan were increasingly exploited by the Dutch. When the Datong Army came, even if they just announced that they would be tax-free this year, they would all be grateful, not to mention that they would also send food relief.
The nearby indigenous leaders spontaneously gathered together for a meeting, and then came together to thank him.
They knelt on the ground in front of Li Zicheng. Mona had killed the leader supported by the Dutch and became the patriarch of Madou Society. He knelt in front of him and said in Chinese: "The general is our great benefactor. From now on The deer skins we hunt will only be sold to the general. The food we grow will also be paid as tribute to the general. If the general is short of men to fight, just let him know. Even if there are not enough warriors, the women of the tribe will still be willing to fight for the general. !”
Li Dingguo quickly helped him up and said to the other leaders: "Brothers, please get up quickly. His Majesty the Emperor said that we are all brothers in the four seas.
The Han people are elder brothers, and all of you are brothers. It is the responsibility of an elder brother to help his younger brother tide over difficulties, so why do we need younger brothers to kneel down and worship?"
As soon as these words came out, Mona was so moved that she burst into tears. The indigenous warrior actually shed tears on the spot.
He translated Li Dingguo's words to the other leaders, and the leaders were inexplicably moved. They started to make noises all of a sudden, clamoring to sworn sworn brothers with Li Dingguo. Some of them tore off the necklaces on their chests and held them in both hands as gifts for Li Dingguo.
Those necklaces are their amulets, most of which are made of animal bones or teeth.
Either it is the first prey captured, or they have captured a large beast. They will grind the animal bones or teeth and string them into necklaces. Once they are taken out and given to others, they are regarded as life and death friends and can be used for each other at any time. Go to death.
Li Dingguo didn't know why, and he felt that this kind of bone chain was not valuable, so he accepted it all with a smile.
Seeing Li Dingguo accept the necklace, the leaders were even more happy.
It wasn't until several days later that Li Dingguo understood what he had received.
Where is the necklace?
This is the friendship between many tribes in Tainan. From now on, if Li Dingguo gives an order, all the natives in Tainan will mobilize.