On March 21st, the fleet of 20 large ships belonging to the Goddess of Mercy arrived ten miles north of the city of Relanje. From there they boarded land and marched towards the city of Relanje. Not only did the two thousand troops participating in the battle this time
soldiers, a thousand Hsinchu garrison, and a thousand naval artillerymen. The artillerymen unloaded one hundred 18-pound guns from the ship and became the Marine Corps. They followed Li Yeqi and Guanyin to fight against Relanzhe
.
Ye Qi Guanyin wanted to officially start a war with the Westerners who were plundering the southeast coast. The Westerners were not a small enemy. You must know that the twelfth century can be said to be the century of the Westerners.
The Netherlands had previously conquered Spain, which dominated the European continent, and gained independence from Spain. It developed into the number one shipping and trade power in the twelfth century. In the sixth year of Xianping, the number of Dutch merchant ships exceeded the total number of merchant ships of all European countries.
Known as the "Sea Coachman".
In 1003, the Dutch began to concentrate their efforts, eventually giving birth to the Dutch United East India Company. This company's operating model also became an organizational model for the overseas expansion of European powers for the next two hundred years. Subsequently, the East India Company established by various European countries,
It can be said that they are all the origins of the Dutch United East India Company.
The Dutch United East India Company was first a colonial organization and a military organization, and secondly an economic organization. According to the authorization of the highest authority of the Netherlands, the East India Company not only had the trade monopoly over the entire Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean from the Cape of Good Hope to the Strait of Magellan, but also had
The power to independently establish rule, recruit troops, declare war, conclude peace treaties and even mint currency in this vast area.
At this time, in the fourth year of Xianping, except for a few areas, the Dutch United East India Company had actually controlled the sea power in major sea areas around the world, and was the well-deserved global hegemon at this time. The governor of the Dutch East India Company was located in Batavia, which was later known as
Jakarta, Indonesia. It can be seen that the Far East, or East Asia and Southeast Asia, is the area that the Dutch East India Company focuses on.
Taiwan Island, which was called Formosa by the Dutch at this time, was a battleground for military strategists in the Far East. Not only was Taiwan Island huge and vast, it was also located in the middle of the Nanyang Islands-Japanese trade route. It can be said who controlled it.
Once you gain access to Taiwan, you control the trade routes between Western countries and Japan. Using Taiwan as a base, you can easily plunder Western ships bound for Japan from Southeast Asian colonies.
The Netherlands' national power was at its peak at this time, and it was aggressive and sent troops to compete with the Spanish for Formosa Island. The Spanish established the city of Keelung in northern Taiwan, and the Dutch established the city of Jelandja in the southwest of Taiwan. Compared with the Spanish
A small castle with a few hundred people, the Dutch city of Geranje was much larger.
Relanje Castle was built in the southwest corner of Taiwan Island. It was composed of a series of castles in the later Tainan area. The core of Relanje Castle was built on a small island outside the harbor, four kilometers away from the main island of Taiwan.
"Fort Relanje is divided into two parts: the inner fort and the outer fort. The inner fort, the core castle, was started in the fourth year of Tianqi and completed in the fifth year of Xianping. The outer fort was completed in the fourth year of Xianping. It took a total of eighteen years to build."
Fort Geranje is a bastion from the era of hot weapons, equipped with a large number of heavy artillery for defense. "The inner fort is square, about 115 meters wide, facing south, with a total of three floors, and the wall is about 2 feet 9 high.
It is three feet and eight inches thick. There are bastions protruding seventeen feet and four feet at the four corners of the top floor. The wall is five feet and eight inches thick and has a watchtower attached. There are fifteen heavy artillery pieces on the top floor, and there are deep wells dug into the sea in the north and south.
, to prevent fire attack. There are central round forts on each side of the second floor, equipped with twelve heavy cannons. There are small doors and brick ladders on the north side, which can go down to the basement and ammunition depot."
"The outer fort is lower and overlaps the northwest corner of the inner fort. The wall is three feet eight inches thick and the parapet is four feet high. There are also bastions protruding from the northwest and southwest corners. The outer fort is 165 meters long and 70 meters long.
Seven meters wide." "The walls of the entire castle are paved with bricks, which are made by pounding oyster ash with sugar water and glutinous rice juice and making sand to make a three-component clay bond. The thickness of the bricks in the inner castle is one inch and a half, and the thickness of the outer castle is one and a half inches.
This castle was the governor’s residence and military center of the Dutch in Taiwan.”
To the east of Fort Relanje, on the land of the main island of Taiwan, there is also Chikan Fort. Chikan Fort is smaller. "The fortress consists of a large platform and two small platforms in the southwest corner. The entrance to the fort is located at
There are gun mounts in the center of the west, east, west, south and north, with a total of eight heavy guns. The perimeter of the building is 140 meters, and the height of the building is unusually 3 feet and 6 feet. There are also cellars and wells in the fort, and the outer wall is 1 meter and 80 centimeters thick.
"
There are many merchants and residents around Chikan Fort, which is actually a town. The Dutch trade deer skins and other items with the local indigenous people in this town. The Dutch not only conduct trade here, but also use force to coerce the locals.
Aboriginal and Han people collected taxes.
This time to attack the Westerners, Yegui Guanyin relied on his own 100 18-pound cannons, so Yegui Guanyin appointed Lu Hu, who was experienced in artillery command, as the frontline commander. According to the intelligence report, the center of Fort Relandja and Chikan
There are 2,000 garrison troops, including 300 in Chikan Fort and 1,800 in Relanja Fort.
Yeqi Guanyin landed and attacked the city of Relanjia by land. The first thing to capture was Chikan Fort. Once Chikan Fort was captured, Relanjia Fort became an isolated city on a small island. By then, Yeqi Guanyin could advance and retreat.
It can be defended and can gain the initiative in war.
When Ye Qi Guanyin landed, he asked a Fujian Han man who had lived in the lower town of Chikanbao for many years to lead the way. The Fujian Han seemed to be very afraid of the Western red hair. Although he got twenty taels of silver from Ye Qi Guanyin, he decided to take the risk and lead the way.
He was trembling all the way, looking behind him all the time, as if he was worried that he would have no way to escape after the defeat of Yedi Guanyin. He took a few steps and stopped for a few steps, and did not move forward until the guards behind him pushed him with their hands.
The closer he got to Chikan Fort, the paler his face turned. Finally, five miles away from Chikan Fort, he knelt on the ground with a plop, trembling all over. He lay prone on the ground, raised his head and said loudly to Yeqi Guanyin:
"Princess, you can't go ahead. If you go further, the red hair will come out. I don't want the money anymore. Princess, you are so kind and merciful, let me go back!"
Ye Qi Guanyin looked at the guide coldly and said nothing. Lu Hu, the "Navy Admiral" next to Ye Qi Guanyin, kicked the guide and scolded: "Dignified people of the Song Dynasty, are you so afraid of red hair? King Yan conquered the south and the north.
We have killed hundreds of thousands of Khitans during the war, and you are so afraid of a few red-haired men?"
The guide kept kowtowing on the ground and said tremblingly: "Princess, this red hair is not as good as the Khitan people, it is even more vicious than the Khitan people!" When the princess said she wanted to fight Relan Zhe, I thought the princess would have to mobilize at least tens of thousands.
People came to attack. Now there are two thousand red-haired men in the city of Relanja, but the princess sent four thousand Han soldiers to attack. This battle..."
Suddenly he said loudly: "I'm afraid this battle will be a disaster!" When Lu Hu heard the guide's remarks, he was a little angry. He stroked his knife and shouted: "That man, if you talk nonsense again, I will cut out your tongue!"
The guide's face turned pale and he didn't dare to say anything, but he couldn't control the trembling on his body. Pushed by his guards, he walked forward little by little. After walking for half an hour, he finally brought the team to the village three miles away from Chikan Fort.
In front of a small mound.
"Princess, in front of you is Chikan Fort. There are eight cannons in the fort, which are very sharp. Uncle, be careful of the cannon fire." Yeqi Guanyin stood on the mound and looked around, and saw that Chikan Fort was already in sight.
Inside. Looking to the west, Fort Geranje, isolated on a small island, is clearly visible ten miles away. There is no need for a guide to lead the way.
However, Ye Qi Guanyin was worried that if he let the guide go, the guide would become frightened and defect to the Westerners, leaking information about Ye Qi Guanyin's troops. So Ye Qi Guanyin simply had the guide tied up and imprisoned by the Chinese army.
The guide was tied up by Ye Qi Guanyin, and he was shaking all over, as if he was about to be shot to death by Western white people. The Westerners had already known about Yang Peng's arrival, but they did not go out to fight, but huddled in the castle.
, preparing to rely on bastions and cannons for defense. Ye Qi Guanyin sneered and waved his hand. The flag order soldiers waved their flags, and the artillerymen immediately took action, unloading all one hundred 18-pound cannons from the artillery carriages and arranging them on the seaside.
on the saline-alkali land.
The artillery here had just started to arrange, and the eight heavy artillery in Chikan Fort opened fire in this direction. Only a few booms of artillery were heard from three miles away, and a few artillery shells flew over at high speed like meteors. The distance was too far,
The hit rate of the Westerners' first round of artillery fire was very low. All seven artillery shells were shot away, and only one solid shell was shot into the artillery formation of Yeqi Guanyin. The artillery shell ricocheted and hit an artilleryman, interrupting his
Right leg.
Amid the screams of the wounded, the medical team ran up and carried the wounded off on a stretcher. The guide who was tied to the Chinese Army shivered even more when he saw that the red-haired cannon was starting to hurt people. He was now tied to
The Chinese army couldn't escape even if they wanted to steal away. It was really a shame that everything was over. He was so anxious that he was sweating. He only regretted that he was so greedy for money that he waded into this muddy water for twenty taels of silver.
Seeing the casualties in the troops, Yedi Guanyin was a little angry and cursed "Barbarians!". After the artillerymen loaded the cannons with shells and aimed at the distant fortress with muskets and other tools, Yedi Guanyin quickly swung
Wave the flag. The flag commander waved the flag, and a hundred gunners fired a hundred heavy cannons.
The scene of a hundred heavy artillery salvos was breathtaking. Standing in the middle of the army, Ye Guanyin heard a loud rumble suddenly. The sound was overwhelming and pressed on the eardrums, as if it was going to deafen people's ears.
People couldn't help but cover their ears. The heavy cannons on both sides spurted out tongues of fire, and huge sparks were ejected from the barrels. The sparks emitted by the cannons connected together. From Yang Peng's perspective, the cannon fire on the left and right looked like two
A fire dragon.
One hundred heavy cannons stumbled back, and the recoil force was pressed hard on the ground through the structure of the gun carriage. The cannon body pressed down to the ground, then rebounded under the force, and was lifted upwards and shook. One hundred heavy cannons
The huge recoil of the heavy artillery shook the nearby ground, and Ye Guanyin felt like she was on the ship all of a sudden, and her feet kept shaking.
The packhorses pulling the artillery carts had already been led 200 meters away, but they were still frightened by the roar of the heavy artillery and neighed so hard that they tried to escape. It was only thanks to the grooms' tight hold on the reins that they stabilized themselves.
One hundred bombs shot out of the barrel and towards Chikan Fort three miles away. Chikan Fort was a square bastion with a side length of more than 30 meters, and the target was not small. At least a dozen shells fell into the castle.
The bomb rushed through the castle, hitting various fortifications and knocking down those with weak walls. Then when the fuse ignited the gunpowder in the shell, the bomb exploded.
Amidst the roar, pellets shot out in all directions, sweeping through Chikan Fort like a storm. A round of shelling killed an unknown number of Westerners. It was also the first time that Ye Qi Guanyin saw a hundred heavy artillery firing volleys on land.
Scene. You have to see this kind of power with your own eyes to understand how shocking it is. The Dutch in Chikan Fort seemed to be disrupted by a salvo, until the artillery here loaded their ammunition and prepared for the second salvo.
The Dutch's eight heavy guns did not fire any more.
The flag was waved again, and one hundred 18-pound cannons fired again. Another rumble of artillery sounded, the ground shook, and a hundred shells were fired at the Dutch bastion. This time, the artillerymen fired according to the first
The shooting angle was adjusted for one shooting, and the hit rate was higher. More than 30 shells were fired into Chikan Fort. Yeqi Guanyin looked through the telescope and saw sparks emerging one after another in Chikan City.
It is conceivable that after the bomb exploded, more than 30 rounds of shotgun shells swept across the entire fortress. After two rounds, the artillerymen of Yeqi Guanyin were preparing for the third salvo, and a white flag was raised in Chikan Fort.
The Westerners surrendered. With eight solid-shell cannons against a hundred bomb-shell cannons, the chances of winning in such a battle were too small. The defenders in Chikan Fort were bombed twice, and they knew that if they continued to fight, their entire army would be annihilated.
Surrender.
However, Ye Guanyin was not prepared to let the Dutch go. She had no good impressions of these Dutch people who often fought undeclared wars and frequently captured Han Chinese along the coast of the Song Dynasty and sent them to Southeast Asia to be slaves. These bandits were everywhere along the southeastern coast.
He burned, killed and looted whenever he could. How could he ever treat the people of the Song Dynasty as human beings?
For example, in the second year of Zhidao, Western colonists forced Chinese slaves to build the Hongmucheng Fortress in Penghu. The Hongmucheng Fortress took three months to complete. During these three months, 1,500 Chinese slaves died of exhaustion and 1,300 of them starved to death.
270 of them were sent to Batavia as a personal gift to Governor Kun. Only 137 of them finally arrived, and the rest died on the way.
Regarding these Dutch people, Ye Qi Guanyin felt that there was nothing moral to say. Now that he had the upper hand, how could he let them go just because of a white flag? Ye Qi Guanyin sneered and pretended that he had not seen the white flag.
He waved his hand and told the artillerymen to continue shooting. Ye Qi Guanyin was not Yang Peng. If Yang Peng was here, maybe it wouldn't be like this.
The artillerymen continued to load and fire, and fired two more rounds into Chikan City. With each round of artillery fire, the artillerymen's hit accuracy was better than the previous round. In the fourth round of salvo, at least more than 60 artillery shells hit the city.
In Chikan Fort, the bastion was blown to pieces.
The Western garrison in Chikan Fort couldn't stand it anymore. How could this be a strong and defensible bastion? It was just a cage that was beaten in vain! They howled and abandoned Chikan Fort, opened the gate and ran to the port. Three hundred
The garrison of Chikan Fort, which consisted of many people, probably killed more than a hundred people by Ye Qi Guanyin. The remaining more than a hundred red men jumped on the boats in the port one by one, trying to row to the Relanjia Fort on the island to escape.
go.
The gunners adjusted their angles and fired at the escaping boats. A hundred cannons roared, and the shells hit the Dutch ships like raindrops. Only one cannonball was seen hitting the boats, smashing the boats several meters long into pieces.
They were all broken into pieces. Under the indiscriminate bombardment of hundreds of cannons, all eleven escaping boats were blown up by the cannons and sank in the sea.
Western soldiers were either killed by artillery shells or fell into the sea and swam desperately to Fort Relanje. However, the port of Fort Chikan was more than ten miles away from the island where Fort Relanje was located, so not everyone could swim.
In the past, I am afraid that most people would have exhausted themselves and sunk into the sea, and were buried in the belly of the fish.
The soldiers of Yeyi Guanyin laughed loudly, put away the artillery carts, and drove towards Chikan Fort. Chikan Fort was built on a small mound. After more than ten years of management by Westerners, a small structure was developed below the fort.
The commercial residential area is a town without walls. The town is inhabited by Han slaves captured by Westerners, free Han people who are doing business, and some Southeast Asians from Southeast Asia.
Seeing the fight between the white people in Chikanbao and the foreign Han troops, these people closed their doors one by one and hid in their homes. These residents of Chikan Town lived in the shelter of others and were usually very afraid of white people. They would avoid the road when they saw white people on the road.
Let the white people go first. A look from the white people can make them nervous and flee.
In the eyes of these people, the Western white people were powerful and invincible. Seeing that the sound of cannons stopped so quickly, they bravely opened the door to take a look at the situation. As a result, they saw the flying weapons above Chikan Fort.
Faced with a white flag, all of them stared with wide eyes and were speechless.
Were the white men in Chikan Fort defeated so quickly? The soldiers and horses of Ye Qi Guanyin entered Chikan Fort and saw the red-haired corpses lying scattered in the fort. The soldiers searched the fort and found a
More than a hundred taels of gold and more than three thousand taels of silver. It seems that the Dutch only used Chikan Fort as an armed stronghold and did not store a large amount of money in Chikan Fort.
In the central army of Yeyi Guanyin, the tied guide opened his mouth in surprise when he saw that Yeyi Guanyin's artillery easily killed the three hundred red men of Chikan Fort and attacked Chikan Fort. He marched with the army,
When I walked next to Chikan Fort, which was completely bombed, I stopped shivering and regained some composure on my face.
However, he was still very afraid of the two thousand Dutch sailors in the main fort, Fort Relandje, and anxiously said to Ye Qi Guanyin: "It's better for the princess to take advantage of her and return home! The Fort Relandje is different from Fort Chikan.
There are two thousand red hairs, and the defense is tight, with dozens of heavy cannons alone. Those cannons stand behind the solid forts, and my uncle's hundred cannons may not be able to defeat it..."
Yeqi Guanyin did not let the timid guide continue to talk, interrupted his nonsense, and asked: "Is the island where the Relanja Fort is connected to the land at low tide?" The guide shook his head and said: "It is not connected.
.The island is extremely dangerous, Princess, it’s better not to commit any crime..." Before the guide could finish his words, he was kicked in the stomach by Lu Hu. Lu Hu scolded: "Just say whatever I ask you to say,
Why are you talking so much nonsense?"
The guide did not dare to say more and closed his mouth. Yeqi Guanyin said in a deep voice: "In this case, we can only attack it with boats." Yeqi Guanyin let the fleet enter the port in front of Chikan Fort and will
Four thousand soldiers and cannons were loaded onto the ship and sailed to the island where Fort Relande was located. Before landing on the island, Ye Qi Guanyin asked the ship to circle around the island and carefully observed the island with a telescope.
terrain.
The island is long and narrow from east to west and narrow from north to south. There is a small bastion on the high ground in the north. On the boat, Lu Hu pointed to a high ground in the north of the island and said: "Princess, although the east of the island is vast, you can land on the island from the east.
Stay away from the artillery fire in Fort Geranje, but the terrain in the east is too low, and it would be disadvantageous for us to attack Hongmao from there. I think it is better to attack the high ground in the north with the artillery fire. As long as we capture that highland, we can bomb Hongmao from above.
"
Ye Qi Guanyin looked at the high ground in the north of the island with a telescope, nodded, and secretly said that Lu Hu was indeed an artilleryman, and he had some ideas about artillery battles. The high ground in the north is the commanding height of the entire island, and the small bastion above seems to be
There are several cannons and a dozen large ships can be concentrated to bombard them, but they can still be captured.
As long as we take over the high ground, it will not be difficult to take down Fort Relanja. Yedi Guanyin waved her hand and said: "Okay, attack the high ground to the north of the island." The fleet turned around and sailed to the north of the island. The island
The seabed in the north is very shallow, and many places cannot sail. Only twelve ships can be deployed at a time. Li Zhi asked the twelve ships to sail towards the north of the island. As soon as they entered the enemy's range, the small fortress on the high ground
Just opened fire.
Only a few booms of artillery were heard, and the heavy artillery in the small bastion fired eight shells. The shells pierced the sky and went straight to the twelve ships. The seven shells were empty and sparked out on the sea near the ship.
A huge water column. A cannonball hit the port side of a ship, making a huge hole in the ship.
Twelve ships rushed forward under the gunfire, drove within three miles of the commanding heights, and aimed their port sides at the small bastion on the mountain. One hundred and eight heavy guns opened fire. The bumpy sea made it difficult to aim, and the hit rate of the cannonballs was not as good as on land.
The cannon was fired, but seven shells hit the small bastion.
The bomb exploded in the bastion, and the pellets in the shells shot out like raindrops. There was a howl of ghosts and wolves in the bastion. The personnel in the small bastion were obviously hit hard. When they fired the second round of artillery fire,
Only five cannons fired. This time, all five cannons missed, and not a single shell hit Li Zhi's twelve ships.
The 108-pounders fired at the small bastion again, and the small bastion was hit by another seven or eight shells. The Western sailors in the small bastion collapsed. In just two rounds of artillery fire, the inside of the small bastion was filled with fire.
They were bombed into a mess. Half of their manpower was killed, and there was simply not enough gunners to fire. The dozens of red-haired people who were still alive did not dare to fight anymore, so they escaped from the small bastion and headed for Relan below the high ground.
Zha Bao ran away.
Ye Qi Guanyin asked a company to land first, ascended to the high ground and controlled the small bastion. Then he asked the fleet to land calmly on the north side of the island, and transported seventy heavy cannons to the high ground.
Ye Qi Guanyin himself also climbed to the high ground, standing on the high ground and overlooking Fort Relanjia at the foot of the highland. Through the telescope, the Western defenders in Fort Relanjia all looked panicked. Now that the powerful Ye Qi Guanyin troops had taken the
After descending from the high ground to the north, Fort Relanje was completely exposed in front of the cannons of Ye Qi Guanyin. People were constantly running back and forth in Fort Relanje, seemingly conveying ever-changing orders and appeasing the mood of the defenders.
The artillerymen on the top of Fort Relanje were constantly pushing up the elevation angle of the cannons, and seemed to be preparing to attack the artillery of Yegui Guanyin on the high ground. Yegui Guanyin sneered. The more than ten years of Western rule in southern Taiwan was about to end.
What happened after all? Let’s look at the breakdown next time.