I

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.

There is a castle on one side of the island and a residential area on the other.

Li Dingguo could only see the outside of the castle, but couldn't see what was going on inside. But just the peripheral defense gave Li Dingguo a headache, and it was 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 firepower stations on the sides. This is the office of Taiwan's governor and officials. Once the siege party breaks through here, all personnel can retreat 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 it.

The siege artillery of the seventeenth century could not be destroyed by force. It was nothing more than filling it with human lives and using human lives to consume the ammunition of the defenders. Digging Z-shaped tunnels is useless. At most, it can break through a few peripheral defenses. After entering, 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 one of our divisions will have to kill more than half of our divisions 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. The lower city of the red-haired ghost's Taiwan City (Relanja City) was built only a few years ago. The semicircular city wall (semicircular fortress) outside was also built at that time. Some angular walls (bastions) in the upper city were also 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 Tainan Han people 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 needed 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 had sallow complexions and thin muscles, which indicated long-term malnutrition.

Li Dingguo went to meet the leader, and Wu Hualong introduced: "These are the natives 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 pay tribute to 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 tribe. He heard that the general led troops to attack the red-haired ghosts, and he came with all the people in the tribe who could fight. These women and children can also fight, although they usually don't have enough to eat. But 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 front."

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 about Wu Hualong. The Han people must have been forced to survive by launching an uprising in advance. Just like these natives, as long as there is hope of revenge, they will fight even if they die.

Because if you don’t fight, you will die sooner or later and be exploited to death by the Dutch!

After appeasing the aborigines, Chief Missionary Officer Qian Huanyong pulled Li Dingguo aside and said: "If the people's support is available, we can send people back and contact the navy. Block the nearby sea and prevent the Dutch from transporting food supplies from outside. Then. , our army transported food here and distributed some to the Han 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 more than 3,000 people who migrated here in the first batch received grain donated by the court, and the family members also brought their own grain reserves. Talk to the soldiers and their families and let them Lend out the grain and pay it back after the imperial court replenishes the military rations."

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 filled with resentment, and a mutiny might even break out.

The Datong court, both the government and the army, 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 coupons, and soldiers' military pay is paid in military coupons. Both bills can be cashed at the nearest Datong Bank. Due to the extremely high credibility of the imperial court, officials and soldiers had the habit of storing bills instead of cashing them as soon as they were received.

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 severe damage, only half of the land tax was collected from all the land, and the full land tax will not be resumed until next year. Many prefectures and counties in Beiping, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Liaoning, Yunnan, and Guizhou are also in the state of land tax exemption.

Especially in Hebei, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Liaoning, and Beiping Prefectures, the policy of completely exempting land taxes will continue for several years!

Even a scholar like Mao Bijiang, who could not understand 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. How lucky are the farmers."

The Annan Zheng family, with a population of 3 million, could support more than 50,000 standing troops (one-third of the land was used to support the clan and nobles, and officials, scholars and soldiers did not pay taxes). The Ruan family in Annan had a population of 1 million and could support a standing army of more than 20,000 people. Annan Mo's family had a population of 100,000 and could support a standing army of 8,000.

However, Zhao Han, with a population of 90 million, only supported an army of 200,000 people, and often lamented that there was not enough military food. This is because in a large number of provinces, land taxes are either halved or not collected at all, and money and grain have to be allocated for disaster relief and money and grain 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 serve 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 be general guides. While going into the mountains to distribute food and relief to the indigenous people, you can also preach policies and establish villages and towns. Local people should be appointed as village and town 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 area that was just conquered was automatically regarded as a military control area, and the army could temporarily appoint officials until the court issued corresponding instructions.

A few days later, Wan Bangyan came with the Taiwanese fleet and cruised to block the waters near Relanja City. They did not dare to get too close. Each bastion in the city of Relanja was equipped with 12 city defense guns. There were nearly a hundred guns in total, which could bombard the sea from all angles.

Similarly, the Dutch warships did not dare to sail out of the port.

One of the four Dutch warships went to Batavia to fetch reinforcements. The remaining three ships 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 food to Chican City. Every time, they would catch the high tide and land at Luermen with the help of the tide, and continuously transport food 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. The Datong Army is here. Even if they just announce that they are tax-free this year, every one of them will burst into tears, not to mention that they will 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 Dingguo.

Mona had killed the leader supported by the Dutch and became the patriarch of the 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 to the general. If the general is short of people, Even if there are not enough warriors, the women in the clan will still be willing to fight for the general, even if we inform him of the war!"

Li Dingguo hurriedly 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 brothers, and we are all brothers. Help your brother to tide over the difficulties. This is How can it be necessary for brothers to kneel down and worship when they are responsible for being an elder brother?"

As soon as he said this, Mona was so moved that he cried. The indigenous warrior actually shed tears on the spot.

He translated Li Dingguo's words to other leaders, who were also inexplicably moved. There was a lot of noise all of a sudden, and they were all clamoring to become sworn brothers with Li Dingguo. Some of them just pulled off the necklaces on their chests and held them in their hands to give to Li Dingguo as gifts.

Those necklaces are their amulets, most of which are made of animal bones or teeth.

Either it was the first prey captured, or a large beast was captured. They would grind and string animal bones or teeth into necklaces. Once they were given as gifts, they would be regarded as life-and-death friends and could die for each other at any time.

Li Dingguo didn't know why, and 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 of many tribes in Tainan. From now on, if Li Dingguo gives an order, all the indigenous people in Tainan will be mobilized.