Chapter 803 The troops are approaching the city

On both sides of the lower reaches of the Tamsui River, there is only a decent pier outside Santo Domingo. Other than that, it is almost all riverbanks and beaches in a natural state. It is extremely difficult to load and unload shipping materials from water to land. Although it is very difficult to go further.

Upstream, there are several village wharves left by the indigenous tribes who originally lived here, but those places are quite far from the city of Santo Domingo, and the time required to transport them by land there is not cost-effective.

The combat operations of the special operations battalion have always focused on mobility, so they rarely carry heavy equipment and large amounts of supplies into battle. They always go into battle lightly to perform combat tasks such as raids, pursuits, and annihilations. Most of the time, the company is even responsible for the logistics of transporting supplies and baggage.

The team also does not know how to conduct wartime coordinated operations with the logistics department, which is not very smooth for the special operations battalion. Although Takahashi Minami has considered this in advance and conducted one or two specialized trainings, the specific landing environment

The difference still slowed down the pace of deploying troops to the battlefield at this time.

At this time, Sun Zhen was standing in the river water up to his knees, and he and others were carrying the supplies unloaded from the ship to the shore. Since the supply ship carrying combat supplies could not completely approach the river bank, it had to be carried out from near the shore by manpower.

Therefore, there were about two companies of soldiers on this section of the river doing the same thing as him. Although he did not know the specific battle plan, looking at the anxious expressions and constant urging of the officers, he also

I can imagine that this link probably consumed too much unplanned time.

Takahashi Minami ordered to stop unloading goods on the shore. When everyone was preparing to enter the battle, the combat materials were actually far from being unloaded. However, Takahashi Minami believed that the materials currently unloaded were enough to support the troops for about two days of combat.

It would be better to take time to unload the goods here. It would be better to control the outside of Santo Domingo first and then slowly transfer the remaining supplies ashore.

Sun Zhen and his comrades got fifteen minutes of precious rest time. They quickly returned to the shore to sort out their personal belongings, eat a small piece of compressed biscuit to replenish the energy consumed by the physical labor just now, and then listened to their superiors' arrangements for the next march route.

When the special operations battalion completed its repairs and began to move westward from the landing point, the sky was slowly getting brighter. Without the help of telescopes, the soldiers could see the smoke rising near the city of Santo Domingo in the distance.

The residents here probably didn't expect that on this unremarkable morning, they would already receive a group of hostile uninvited guests.

The landing point is only three miles away from the city of Santo Domingo, and the actual distance from the farms and plantations cultivated outside the city is only a little more than one mile. It can be reached in a matter of seconds at the marching speed of the special operations battalion.

When the soldiers from the special operations battalion wearing fancy military uniforms filed out of the jungle, the few local residents who witnessed this spectacle outside looked confused. Even those who reacted quickly took a long time to realize

What appeared in front of him was not the indigenous armed forces from the nearby mountains, but a terrifying army - those soldiers were not holding the bamboo spears used by the indigenous people, but weapons that could shoot bullets.

rifle!

"Intruders!" When someone shouted out the identity of this group of uninvited guests, others woke up, dropped their farm tools and began to run away in a panic towards the city of Santo Domingo. In the past few years, local immigrants and

The total number of soldiers killed by indigenous armed forces is dozens. This is a big shadow for everyone. No matter what the identities of these intruders are, it is more important to escape to a safe place first to save their lives.

.

The soldiers of the special operations battalion did not pursue these panicked people. They still marched forward silently along the established route, and divided into small groups to search the farmhouses on the advancing route.

Of course there won't be anything valuable in the farmhouse. On the one hand, this is to ensure that no one will escape Haihan's encirclement by this method. On the other hand, it is also hoped to capture alive so that we can learn the latest situation in the city through surprise interrogation.

.

The manhunt did not disappoint Gao Qiaonan, and soon the soldiers found two trembling farmers in one of the farmhouses. The two were not Spanish, but mixed descendants of Han Chinese and Luzon natives, but

Probably because of their living environment, they did not speak Chinese but only Spanish. Fortunately, the military was well prepared for this and specially transferred translators who knew Spanish from the Ministry of Commerce to accompany the army on the expedition.

This came in handy. Of course, Minami Takahashi did not need to personally deal with such a small role. He now needed to focus on the more important command work.

With the strength of the special operations battalion, it is difficult to completely blockade the area where Santo Domingo City is located, because the hills where this stronghold is located are not only the small area occupied by the city, but are one kilometer long from east to west and from north to south.

Above, the city of Santo Domingo is located on the south-facing slope of this hill near the river. In later generations, the University of Truth, Peace Park, Taiwan Golf Club and other institutions were built on this hill, of which the city of Santo Domingo occupies

The area is only a few tenths of it.

If you want to completely seal off such a large area, it is probably impossible to have enough troops left to attack the stronghold. Therefore, Takahashi Nan can only detach a small group of troops to guard those leading from Santo Domingo City to the outside world.

The small roads and mountain trails left as little as possible any opportunity for the defenders in the city to ask for help from outside.

Luis Gersman woke up to the panicked exclamation of the servant. Without even opening his eyes, he slapped someone in the direction of the sound and accurately hit someone on the side.

Face.

"You idiot, didn't I tell you last night not to wake me up this morning?" Gesman, who had not yet woken up from the hangover, was very angry. The combination of alcohol and wake-up energy made him feel as if he was about to explode.

It was like firecrackers. If it weren't for the fact that this servant had been following him for many years, Gesman would have even jumped out of bed with a heartbeat, pulled out his sword and stabbed this ignorant guy to death.

"Sir, it's bad, something happened outside, please get up quickly!" The servant who was slapped inexplicably did not have the sense to leave the bedroom, and still asked Gesman to pay attention to it in a panic tone.

"What's going on!" Gesman sat up angrily, pointed at the servant and cursed: "If it's one of those trivial things again, I'll ask the guards to drag you out and give you twenty lashes!"

"Sir, there is... a foreign enemy has invaded!" The servant stammered the key points.

Gesman's mind was agitated, and his sleepiness immediately faded away. He opened the quilt and jumped out of bed. While putting on his pants, he asked: "How many people are there? Where are they? Where is Captain Lopez? Ask him to gather the troops quickly."

!”

It is nothing new for the Tamsui stronghold to be attacked by foreign enemies. Since the Dutch first set foot here in 1628, armed conflicts with the local indigenous people have never stopped. Although the Dutch had defeated all the indigenous tribes in the surrounding areas in 1629, and

The Guirou Society, the largest local tribe, was forced to move away from this place and moved into Yangmingshan, but it was still unable to completely eliminate small-scale sporadic conflicts.

Gersmann came here after the city of Santo Domingo was founded in 1630, but there have been at least double-digit conflicts during his tenure. The most serious two of them even attracted nearly a thousand indigenous warriors to besiege Santo Domingo.

Domingo City killed farmers and patrolling soldiers working outside the city, and destroyed production facilities and farmland outside the city. These two conflicts also left a great psychological shadow on the residents of the city.

, farmers are unwilling to go out of the city to farm, and soldiers are unwilling to go out of the city to patrol, resulting in a sharp decline in the cultivated area of ​​farmland outside the city. Until now, it is impossible to achieve self-sufficiency in food, and it still needs to partially rely on supplies shipped from Jilong Port every month.

There are only about two hundred buglers in the city, which is barely enough to defend such a small stronghold. But if he has to go out of the city and into the mountains to exterminate the indigenous tribes, Gesman will never take such a risk. He can securely defend it.

In the stronghold of Santo Domingo City, it is Gesman's biggest wish at present to finish his term in this unlucky place without incident. After being transferred back to Manila, his qualifications as a colonial governor may help him in his official career.

One more step forward.

The chief executive is actually quite aggrieved to be stuck in this remote place without even being able to ensure absolute safety when going out for activities. In the three years since he took office, the population of Santo Domingo has only increased less than when the city was first established.

Fifty people, this is simply a joke for Spain, which has always been proud of expanding its overseas colonies. But the Manila authorities have never mentioned replacing Gusman, which shows that the people above know that the condition of this place is not good, so who should be replaced?

Basically the same effect.

There was not much money that Gersman could make in this position, and most of it was sent back to Manila to deal with various gods, hoping that the people above would be merciful and transfer him away from here as soon as possible. Two months ago, he

Finally got the news that the superiors wanted to transfer him back to Luzon and send him to Batangas, a newly developed port in the south, as a commander, but the condition was that he had to stay in the Tamsui stronghold until October 1633 to complete his three-year mission.

term of office.

Now that he has seen the dawn of exit, Gesman naturally has no plans to achieve anything during his term. Being able to survive the last half of the year in peace and leave this hellish place is the ideal result. So in the near future, he

Basically, they adopt a "governing by doing nothing" attitude to deal with local affairs - to put it bluntly, they don't care about anything.

But God obviously did not intend to let Gesman pass so smoothly. Just when he thought he saw hope, the sudden intruder appeared at an inappropriate time. Gesman's first reaction was that one of his subordinates was probably following him again.

The natives took advantage of the other party during the transaction, and as always, the natives adopted simple and crude methods to recover their losses. Although these natives had nothing to do with the fortified city of Santo Domingo, they wreaked havoc outside the city.

But they are extremely powerful. If they wreak havoc outside the city once, the people in the city will have to spend dozens of times longer to recover afterwards. It's no wonder that Gesman immediately became furious when he heard the news of the invasion.

But today's situation is obviously different. The servant responded: "Captain Lopez is waiting outside. He said...the enemies coming this time are not natives."

"What are they if they're not natives? Are they Dutch?" Gesman frowned and said, "These guys haven't even cooled the rice in their own bowls, and they want to grab it and eat it?"

"It seems... they are not Dutch..." the servant said tremblingly: "I heard from people who escaped from the city that these invaders wore strange but uniform styles, and they were all equipped with rifles!"

"What!?" Gersmann responded in disbelief: "You mean there are a large number of musketeers occupying the land outside our city, and these musketeers are not Dutch?"

This was even more surprising to Gesman than the enemy invasion itself. As the official opponent of the Spanish, the Dutch have often dealt with the Spanish in recent years. The Spanish side has been in a long-term tug-of-war.

The main reason is that Manila, the center of Spain in the Far East, is not too far away from Taipei and is much closer than Batavia, the headquarters of the Dutch. But since the Dutch’s attack in the Fujian Strait the summer before last

After losing to the combined fleets of the Ming Dynasty and Haihan in the battle, they restrained themselves a lot and did not take the initiative to provoke any more. But after Batavia was attacked by the Malan army last summer, the Dutch East India Company's vitality was seriously damaged.

The Taiyuan Port area has also quieted down. But if the intruder is not the Dutch, then who can it be?

"Sir, the army outside the city is the Haihan people, and they have shown their military flags. If our judgment is not wrong, there should be a certain unit outside the city belonging to the Haihan militia."

Later, Gesman got an answer that surprised him from the local military commander Captain Lopez. Gesman didn't quite understand why the Haihan militia, which had nothing to do with Spain, appeared in Santo Domingo.

Besides, they came fully armed, and they didn’t look like they were preparing for friendly exchanges with their own side.

Gesman didn’t know much about the Haihan Militia. He only knew that this private armed force had a deep relationship with the Fujian Ming Army. The Haihan Militia seemed to have provided some technical support to the Fujian military in exchange for the Haihan Militia.

The Han trading fleet had the power to trade along the coast of Fujian. In fact, both Spain and the Netherlands planned to do similar things, but the Netherlands had chosen the wrong partner before, and the situation was irreversible, while Spain did not end it in time because it had been sitting on the sidelines for too long.

Joined, but Haihan took advantage of every opportunity and snatched away Ming Jun as a potential partner.

"We have never had any dealings with Haihan, and we have never had any trouble. Why do they come here to cause trouble for us?" Gesman asked innocently.
Chapter completed!