Chapter 804 Siege
Gesman was not very able to understand Haihan's approach. Spain's main competitors in the Far East were European countries such as the Netherlands. There was no direct conflict of interest with Haihan, and there was no record of bad relations between the two parties. Why were these armed businessmen He will take action without any warning. Having said that, this Tamsui River is a barren place with no valuable resources. The Spaniards themselves almost want to give up and give up this colonial stronghold with only input and no output. Why do the Haihan people actually send troops here to cause trouble? ? Do they think there is gold hidden in the land here?
However, his subordinate Captain Lopez, probably out of his duty as a soldier, had some understanding of Haihan, a potential competitor, and explained to him: "Sir, the Haihan people have been expanding from south to north in recent years. Very quickly, they were not satisfied after occupying Penghu. I heard that in the second half of last year, they had already started sending ships to the coast south of Formosa. For them, perhaps other forces besides the Ming Empire. They will all be treated as opponents and enemies.”
"Isn't the south the territory of the Dutch? Can they really tolerate it and watch outsiders step in?" Gesman asked suspiciously. If it had been a Spaniard who did this, the Dutch would have jumped on it. In recent years, they have made many overt and covert moves against the Spanish stronghold in Taipei. However, due to limited strength, they were unable to completely drive the Spanish out of this area. If Gesman hadn't known that there had always been discord between the Dutch and the Haihan people, he would have really suspected that the Dutch had paid to hire an army of Haihan people to come here to cause trouble.
"I don't know about this... probably the Dutch can't do anything about them." Lopez's intelligence sources are also extremely limited. Although Biggsman knows more, he doesn't know much about the current changes in the situation in Tainan. clear. He could only judge from old intelligence that the Dutch probably suffered a defeat at the hands of the Haihan militia. In addition, the incident in Batavia last year prevented Damuan Port from receiving rear support, so the "invasion" of Haihan could not be carried out. Provide effective resistance. Of course, compared to the Dutch people's powerlessness, their current situation does not seem to be much better.
"Okay, let's forget about the damn Dutch for now. Are these Haihans...really planning to attack our castle?" Gesman was still a little dubious about this, because there is nothing worth using in Santo Domingo. War to fight for something.
"I personally think...the reason why they attacked here may just be to gain complete control of the west coast of Formosa." Although Lopez's guess was not entirely correct, it was not far off.
"Well, no matter what, we can't surrender to these invaders. Dear Captain Lopez, I think you must have a way to drive them out, right?" Since war seems inevitable, for today's plan Sman can only rely on the performance of the soldiers. He is just a simple administrative official who basically knows nothing about matters such as combat, and has no intention of actively intervening in military operations. Lopez has repelled armed raids by the Dutch and natives several times in the past few years, and his performance is very stable. He is also the only person Gesman can rely on now.
"Yes, sir, we will win as always. These barbarians will not stay on our land for too long." Lopez responded confidently. Although he did not know the true purpose of his opponent, he believed that the fortifications of Santo Domingo City and the well-trained soldiers under his command were enough to stop these uninvited guests with malicious intentions. Of course, if he could see the several 48-pound siege guns that were still being assembled on the upper river bank, he might not despise his opponents so much.
"Very good... I will allocate you two hundred silver coins, which you can use to reward your soldiers. Tell them that for every enemy they kill, they will get a silver coin as a reward. After driving away the enemy, I will give you another There is a reward!" Gesman was not stingy at the critical moment and took the initiative to reward the defenders with money.
"Your Majesty is so generous. I guarantee that the soldiers will do their best to kill the enemy!" Lopez reciprocated and gave Gesman reassurance.
After Lopez calmly appeased Gesman, he immediately returned to the city wall defense line. Although he acted calm, the actual situation outside the city was far more serious than what he told Gesman. Within the range that could be seen with the naked eye, the enemy's strength was at least five hundred, and the number was already far greater. Far surpassing the defenders, and blocking all roads in and out of Santo Domingo from a distance.
If the threat was just from land, Lopez might not be particularly nervous, but he noticed that some sailboats with the Haihan flag appeared on the river, which clearly meant to block the channel to the sea. Originally, he planned to send someone to take a boat back to Jilong Port to call the police for help, but seeing his opponent's posture, he had no choice but to give up. There are only two small sailboats on the pier in Santo Domingo City that can go to sea, and the other boats are all flat-bottomed river boats. Fishing on the Tamsui River is usually okay, but going to sea is too risky.
Lopez was also unsure of the way the Haihan Militia would fight and did not dare to order an attack rashly. All he could do now was to hold on to the castle and observe his opponent's actions before making any moves. Although Lopez is not happy to accept such a passive situation, he currently has no better choice.
"Pass my order to organize a reserve team immediately and ask the quartermaster to distribute weapons to the farmers and prepare for battle!" Lopez gradually became nervous as he watched more and more Haihan soldiers appear outside the city. . It seemed that the other party was not just here for an armed parade, but was really planning to take action against the city of Santo Domingo.
While the Spaniards in the city were mobilizing the whole city in a chaotic manner, the special operations battalion of the militia army outside the city was also slowly completing the outer blockade. One point that Takahashi Nan was originally very worried about was that the Spaniards immediately sent people out of the city to break out the encirclement after discovering the militia army, and the Haihan side that had not yet had time to complete the encirclement might inevitably let out a few fish that slipped through the net. Although even if someone can escape the encirclement, he may not be able to go to Jilong Port to report the news, but Gao Qiaonan still does not want some uncontrollable accidents to occur on the battlefield.
However, the Spaniards' slow reaction gave the special operations battalion enough time to deploy on the outside and block all main channels in and out of the castle. In Takahashi Minami's view, this conservative defense method is completely backward and primitive. The various tactics he learned during the years of following Qian Tiandun were almost all mobile warfare based on the mobility of the troops. How to intersperse and cut on the battlefield, and mobilize the enemy to follow one's own rhythm. Such tactical ideas are advanced tactics that have been proven to be truly effective in many years of actual combat.
Although the Spanish once played a strong role on the European battlefield, it is obvious that not every Spanish officer has outstanding military qualities. Choosing a defensive method such as retreating and defending may be effective against the primitively equipped indigenous armed forces, but if you want to use such an old-fashioned method to fight against the Haihan militia, it would be overestimating your capabilities. That is to say, the basic equipment of the special operations battalion is somewhat inconsistent with the professionalism of siege warfare. Coupled with the limited environment, the deployment of some arms is not smooth enough. If other battalion-level combat units in the army encountered such a scene, the commander would probably say They were already bursting with laughter. It was enough to just push the artillery to the front line and blast away.
As the various detachments gradually arrived at the predetermined positions, the encirclement of the Haihan Army on the outside of Santo Domingo City was basically completed. The only thing that made Gao Qiaonan dissatisfied was that the artillery transported from the upper river bank encountered trouble on the way due to poor roads. The engineers were still trying to pave the way to allow the heavy artillery carts and heavy flatbed trucks transporting ammunition to pass smoothly. . But even the most optimistic estimates suggest that it will take at least two to three hours to complete the transportation task of just a few miles. This means that even if other combat units of the special operations battalion have been deployed, it will be difficult to launch a general attack on the Spanish stronghold immediately. Without heavy artillery to clear the way, Takahashi Nan was not going to let his men use their bodies to fight the enemies hiding behind the crenellations of the high wall.
"Inform all the detachments and let the brothers eat in batches. We will see the situation in the afternoon." Takahashi Nan saw that it was past noon and ordered to suspend the attack and stop to rest and replenish energy. However, he had no intention of letting the defenders in the city relax. He had to find a way to make them relax a little. "Let the navy brothers go out and do some activities." Takahashi Minami then ordered: "There happens to be a bunch of targets on the pier over there, so let them practice cannon."
Since this battle plan gave up the battle plan of having warships directly approach the river bank to bombard Spanish strongholds, the main task of the navy in this battle is to block the waterway and act as a means of transportation. In addition, it may also have to undertake some logistics tasks. For example, setting up logistics facilities, taking captives into custody, etc. But such an arrangement is obviously difficult to satisfy the Navy. After all, it is difficult to gain any military merits by undertaking these tasks. In the end, it can only become a green leaf supporting the Army's performance.
Takahashi Minami has served in the army for many years, so he naturally understands the tricks of this kind of back-and-forth. Since he now needs to coordinate the army and the navy as a battle commander, he can no longer favor the army. He must take into account the mood of the navy and make appropriate decisions. Let some of the credit go out. For example, the ships docked at the dock outside the Spanish stronghold are good targets for earning credit. The sailors on the ship had already abandoned the ship and fled into the city. The navy had no difficulty in attacking these ships. As long as they did not get too close to the river bank, the city's artillery had no way to deal with them.
After the messenger sent a signal to the warships on the river through semaphores, several warships soon pounced on the target like hungry wolves. In order to save ammunition and hit the target accurately, these ships even unscrupulously anchored in the center of the river. After the movement of the ship's hull slowed down, they began to fire at the target.
The rumble of cannons immediately reached the castle hundreds of meters away. Gesman, who was drinking soup, shook his hand and the spoon fell into the bowl. He immediately grabbed the copper bell at hand and shook it desperately. When the servant came in, he asked loudly: "What happened outside? Who is firing the cannon?"
"Sir, I'm going to inquire about the news." The servant quickly responded and exited quickly.
After a while, the servant returned to Gesman's dining table and reported to him the latest battle situation: "Sir, the enemy outside fired at our ship from the river."
"What about our counterattack?" Gesman asked, waving his fist.
"My lord...the crew has returned to the city, and there is no one of us on board." The servant responded with some embarrassment.
"Ah...then we won't have any casualties, which is good..." Gesman could only reconcile himself, but he was still a little unwilling to be attacked unilaterally by the enemy: "Go and tell Captain Lopez, tell him not to just watch the enemy take action, but at least respond, otherwise the enemy will treat us all as dead. Well, don’t we have a lot of artillery? Let Captain Lopez fight back!" br>
"That's nonsense!" Lopez heard Gesman's layman's combat advice and couldn't laugh or cry.
As a serving officer who has commanded many defensive battles in the past few years, Lopez is very aware of his own defense capabilities and weapon performance. The deployment area of Haihan's army outside the city is just outside the maximum range of the city's defense artillery. And that's true in every direction. The sailing ships on the river also kept a strict distance from the river bank, as if there was an invisible boundary that restricted them from the range of Spanish artillery. Lopez felt that such a scene was really strange. It seemed that the Haihan people had complete control over the defensive fire range of Santo Domingo City in all directions, but he could not imagine how such a military secret that even ordinary soldiers did not know could be leaked. After hearing the news, we can only regard it as a coincidence. Of course, even if he broke his head, he would never have imagined that this information was actually provided to his opponent by a blacksmith responsible for maintaining weapons at two strongholds in Taipei.
Although his opponent may already have some of his own military secrets, Lopez cannot risk exposing them. When the Haihan warships began to bombard the ships on the shore, Lopez had already calculated the distance. He was sure that these Haihan warships were perfectly outside the range of the city defense firepower. If the Haihan warships were fired, they would be used as a deterrent. Counterattack, apart from exposing the range of the artillery, does not seem to have any other purpose. Only a layman like his immediate boss Gesman would ask him to use artillery to counterattack for the sake of his own face.
But Lopez is a soldier and the commander who can decide the fate of the defenders at this time. He will not just follow the orders of his layman boss. After sending away Gesman's servant with good words, Lopez did not order the city to fire back, but continued to observe the enemy's movements.
(End of chapter)