1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 799
Due to the very limited manpower of the Spaniards, there were almost no military personnel deployed outside Santo Domingo, only some immigrants who knew how to farm were in the plantations to guide the natives to take care of the fields.It's not that the Spaniards are lazy and don't want to go out of the city to do things. It's because they have suffered many dark losses when developing this area. People also have double digits.Although this has become a thing of the past, the shadow left in the hearts of the Spaniards is hard to erase.Gusman, the governor of Santo Domingo, had to implement the ban, stipulating that the Spaniards should minimize their activities outside the city if it is not necessary, and they are not allowed to leave the city at night.

There are no light and dark sentries, no patrols, and almost completely abandon the outer line of defense. This defensive deployment method undoubtedly leaves enough room for the reconnaissance platoon to move.As long as Chen Yixin keeps the forward route of the reconnaissance platoon and does not directly step into the plantation area, the Spaniards will basically not be aware of the existence of this secret army. It is the hunters of the indigenous tribes hunting in the woods.Of course, due to the ban and the existence of many lessons learned, no one would dare to enter the forest to check the real situation, so the activities of reconnaissance in the outer area can be regarded as unimpeded and without any scruples.

The only thing scouts need to be careful about is all kinds of poisonous insects, snakes and ants in the dense forest. These guys lurk among the dense branches and leaves, and will attack people passing by at any time. They are far more dangerous than the Spaniards hiding in the castle. threaten.Fortunately, these veterans have been in the tropical jungle for many years, and they have their own set of countermeasures against these hidden killers in the forest. After two days, no one was injured by such accidents.

In the next two days, Chen Yixin led the team to circle around the Spanish stronghold for more than half a circle, reconnaissance of its terrain and defensive measures from various angles.The result can be said to be mixed. The good news is that the Spanish peripheral defense is almost completely abandoned, which is undoubtedly good news for Haihan who wants to use military operations to seize control of this place; the worry is that Santo Domingo The terrain of the city is more favorable to the defenders, and it may not be easy to win when the time comes.

Although Chen Yixin was sure that his side was strong enough to capture this stronghold, he also had to admit that without special means, it might not take a day and a half to conquer this castle.The current plan is not to pursue a quick battle, but to consider how to cut off the connection between this place and the outside world, surround the castle and start slowly.

Regarding this alternative plan, Takahashi Minami had made some preparations in the previous combat plan.The land passage from Danshui to Jilong is to go upstream along the Jilong River, a tributary of the Danshui River, through the valley between the Taipei Basin, Yangming Mountain and the Central Mountain Range, and finally arrive at Jilong Port.On the upper reaches of the Jilong River about [-] miles away from Santo Domingo, near the famous Grand Hotel in Taipei, there is only a very narrow path along the river between the foot of Yangming Mountain and the Jilong River. It is also the only channel for land travel between the two places.If the Haihan militia wanted to cut off the land connection between the two places, they only needed to deploy a small amount of troops here, supplemented by fortifications and heavy firepower.

The night before the retreat, Chen Yixin decided to go to check the situation of the local wharf along the river in person.After nightfall, a group of people put down the improvised bamboo raft on the upstream river beach, and slowly rowed downstream along the river bank.

There was no public lighting outside Santo Domingo at all, and the area including the pier was completely dark, which also provided an excellent cover for the actions of Chen Yixin and others.It took them half an hour to arrive at the pier area outside Santo Domingo.

It is said that it is a wharf, but in fact it is just a few trestles built on the shore to facilitate the docking of ships that come to deliver supplies. It is not at the same level as the comprehensive wharf built by the port operated by Haihan.They rowed the bamboo raft to the side of the trestle bridge by moonlight, fixed it under the trestle bridge with ropes, and then climbed up the shore one by one along the legs of the trestle bridge.Only two people were left on the bamboo raft to take care of them. By the way, they used this time to measure the water depth and current velocity near the pier.

Chen Yixin dared to lead a team to sneak in in the dark. Of course, he was not unprepared. The magic weapon he relied on was the RNOHC640 binocular thermal imager that Qian Tiandun temporarily transferred to him from the military supply depot before departure.This American-made military thermal imager was one of the high-end military products purchased by the North American Gang before the crossing. Because its price was as high as six figures, only two were purchased at that time, and one of them was allocated to Qian Tiandun for safekeeping.You get what you pay for electronic products, and the night imaging quality of this thing is far better than that of a relatively simple head-mounted night vision device.

With the help of this treasure, Chen Yixin can easily spot signs of activities a hundred meters away, so that he can avoid them as soon as possible.But the reality is that his tool doesn't seem to be effective, because there are no human traces in the range of vision, and there are no signs of guard activities on the distant city.

"The nerves of these Spaniards are really rough!" Chen Yixin was also a little speechless about the low vigilance of the Spaniards.Haihan’s Shengli Fort in Sanya has not been attacked by foreign enemies since it was fully completed, but the defense force on duty has never relaxed. There are two shifts of guards changing guards every night. The patrol team of China is haunted, how can it be so indifferent like the Spaniards.With such military qualities, it is no wonder that after they settled here, they would be equipped with primitive natives to kill so many people one after another.If the opponent was replaced by the Haihan militia, or even Qian Tiandun's special warfare battalion, Chen Yixin estimated that the Spanish casualties would be at least dozens of times the original number in the same period of time.

The residential areas outside the city are very sparsely distributed, and the Spaniards seem to be too lazy to carefully plan this place with a lot of land. The castle on the hillside is basically useless as a cover.If this kind of town planning is placed in the colony under Haihan's rule, the people in charge of related affairs of the Ministry of Construction will probably have to be dragged out by the executive committee to make a decision.Obviously, the Spaniards paid very little attention to this place, probably limited to the level of "occupying this place to prevent the Dutch from attacking", and there was no overall plan and long-term development goals at all.

Of course, if the Spaniards really valued the colony of Taiwan Island, they would not have waited until the Dutch had become a climate here before sending people to build a colony in a hurry.The level of development of the colony is indeed closely related to the importance of the high-level. Compared with Haihan's dedication to each new colony, Chen Yixin seems to be able to understand more why this old maritime empire has gradually embarked on a new stage in the near future. Going downhill, slowly losing the first-mover advantage in front of the opponents in the same field.

Chen Yixin originally wanted to lurk near the city to see the situation of the city defense, but his subordinates desperately held him back from letting him go in person.For these veterans, as the "chief", Chen Yixin's personal safety is much more important than the lives of these big soldiers. Reconnaissance here is an extremely risky move, how can we let him stick under the enemy's nose .Immediately, two people forcibly grabbed the errand and quietly moved towards the castle, while the others were lurking in the residential area outside the city waiting for news.

About 10 minutes later, the two scouts returned intact, and their close-range reconnaissance operations did not disturb the defenders in the castle.So a group of people quietly retreated to the river bank, still left the pier on the bamboo raft they had come, and rowed to the downstream estuary.

After the team landed at the mouth of the sea, they cut the ropes that bound the bamboo rafts and let them float into the sea without leaving any suspicious traces.Chen Yixin and others took a short rest on the shore, ate some dry food to replenish their strength, and then marched northward along the coastline overnight.They had to arrive at the rendezvous point at sunrise, join another detachment returning by land from the upper reaches of the Danshui River, and then leave here by boat.

At [-] o'clock in the morning, the two teams rendezvoused smoothly. After waiting for about an hour, the Guangzhou boat that took them here appeared on the sea again.During the three days when the reconnaissance platoon landed, the ship would visit here at this time every day, so as to be able to take them out of here in time when there might be emergencies.

The entire retreat went smoothly without any trouble.The Spaniard in his sleep had no idea that Suo Ming Wu Chang had already made a round at their door.When the Haihan people come again next time, they probably won't have the chance to sleep so peacefully again.

A day and a half later, Chen Yixin and the reconnaissance platoon returned to Magong Port, Penghu. Qian Tiandun personally went to the pier to greet them after receiving the news.In this reconnaissance operation, which took a total of more than six days, the team basically completed all the scheduled reconnaissance tasks in the target area of ​​the Tamsui Estuary, with zero casualties and no warnings.If one had to criticize this operation, it would probably simply be the failure to capture anyone with intelligence value from the local area.But if you do that, it is very likely that the reconnaissance operation will be exposed, which will arouse the vigilance of the Spaniards, and Haihan already has such an information source as Jose in his hands, so it is not very meaningful to capture people from the local area—— Unless it is to directly capture the other party's military officer or other administrative officials, but the local Spaniards rarely leave the castle, and the possibility of such capture is very small.

On that day, Qian Tiandun hosted a banquet to welcome Chen Yixin. After he was full of wine and food, Qian Tiandun started to talk about the business: "I have been busy there for a few days, how do you feel?"

"The Spaniards are not as powerful as we expected, but it is still difficult to attack this castle." Chen Yixin put down his chopsticks and told Qian Tiandun what he saw in the local area.Chen Yixin also wanted to hear Qian Tiandun's opinion on this kind of armed stronghold with a relatively special terrain. After all, he had commanded many fortified battles in this time and space, and there must be more effective tactical arrangements.

"The castle is built on the hillside?" Qian Tiandun thought for a while before continuing to ask, "Are there any other bunkers outside?"

"Not at all. I think the Spaniards have completely given up their peripheral defenses. They have no bunkers, no outposts, and no security measures." Chen Yixin recalled what he saw while responding to Qian Tiandun's question: "I think their vigilance The resistance is quite low, and it is estimated that they never expected to encounter foreign enemies approaching the city, and they lack corresponding means of refusal. The Spaniards probably pinned their hopes on their city defense capabilities. After all, the possible foreign enemies may only be By projecting troops to the local area through the Danshui River, they only need to deal with threats from this direction."

The Spaniards had probably exhausted all their enthusiasm when choosing a site to build a stronghold. The location of the city of Santo Domingo was indeed extremely beneficial to the defenders. Heavy equipment such as artillery was put on the shore, and there was no road to the area where the city of Santo Domingo was located. When a large group of troops landed there, they would face the difficulty of quickly transporting the equipment to the front line.

And if the enemy wanted to project troops upstream through the Danshui River, the situation would not be much better.First of all, it is difficult to avoid the surveillance in the high Spanish strongholds, and it cannot achieve the effect of surprise soldiers.Secondly, the river banks in the upper reaches are almost in the state of virgin forest, and it is also impossible for the army to pass through quickly.

If the troops who want to attack the local area want to land on the pier under the city, they must face fire from high places, and if they choose to land a little farther away, it is difficult to quickly put heavy equipment on the battlefield.This is undoubtedly a dilemma for the commander.

"This is very embarrassing!" Qian Tiandun sighed, touching the stubble of his chin.If the special warfare battalion wants to attack head-on, of course there is a great chance to capture the Spanish stronghold.But the problem is that if the special warfare battalion adopts this tactic, casualties will inevitably occur, and it is likely to be a number that neither Qian Tiandun nor the military can accept.Qian Tiandun would never let the elite he had trained so hard to carry out such a low-level tactical task of exchanging lives for results.

"If you use the siege tactics, what do you think?" Qian Tiandun could only change his mind.

With the strength of the navy and army stationed in Penghu, it is not too difficult to simultaneously cut off the land and water channels between the local area and the outside world.According to Jose, the city of Santo Domingo is very dependent on supplies from Jilong Port, and a batch of supplies is delivered from Salvador to the local area basically every month.If siege tactics are adopted, cutting off its supply channels seems to be a good choice.

(End of this chapter)