Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 1244 The bastion is difficult to attack, get off the fort first

The general trend of the world, one ebbs and another grows, and a country is neither strong nor weak.

War is the theme of human civilization. It has brought endless pain to human beings and caused human tragedies. However, a coin always has two sides. While it brings disasters, it also promotes the development of science and technology, especially The advancement of weapons.

After decades of war, the Ming Dynasty made great innovations in weapons. The Ming Dynasty changed from weak to strong, and transformed in the war.

After a long period of backwardness, the Western world experienced a brutal 30-year war. During this period, Gustav completed military reforms. Under the catalysis of the war, Western technology showed rapid growth and its strength increased rapidly.

The Netherlands, a country that became independent in the flames of war, also became stronger in the flames of war. The progress of the Western world in war technology must be recognized by the Eastern world.

After the army arrived in Malacca, the Ming army stopped on the periphery.

After Li Dingguo released Wood back, he began to wait for the news while asking people to build a sand table near Malacca based on the results of the investigation.

After the sand table was completed, Li Dingguo had no hope of recruiting the Dutch.

At this moment, he began to understand why the Dutch, with so few troops, were able to establish strongholds one after another thousands of miles away from their own country. They did have some advantages.

These fortresses in the Netherlands are really not easy to fight. They rely on the coast and choose dangerous places to build. They cannot be attacked on land, and the siege will not work, because the Dutch can take advantage of the sea and continuously send food and material support. , even if tens of thousands of troops besieged, it would be difficult to pull out these bastions.

The appearance of this kind of fortress shows the progress of Western military affairs. It is a new type of defensive fortress derived from the old city walls that are easy to collapse after the appearance of artillery.

At this time, in the commander's tent, a group of generals of the Ming army could not help but circle the sand table, each of them secretly speechless.

"Commander, this fort has six corners protruding out, turning the wall from convex to concave. If we attack any side, we will be hit by enemy fire from two to three directions!" Chen Youlong looked at the fort on the sand table, a little surprised.

When watching the formation, they only saw one side of the fortress. At that time, they only thought that it was not easy to fight when it was built on the mountain. Now they overlooked the overall situation from the sand table, only to realize that in addition to the favorable location, the fortress itself was actually a big problem.

Yu Youming also frowned, "That's right! Originally, the attack on the fort was an upward attack, and it was bombarded by enemy troops from multiple walls, and you see, there is not only one wall, the three walls are like waves, and one is higher than the other. , even if we attack the first city wall, the enemy army on the second line can shoot us condescendingly and easily regain the city wall!"

Liu Wenxiu took a closer look at the castle, pointed to the wall and said, "Look, this city wall still has a certain angle, and most of them will jump up if shells hit it!" Everyone looked, and they saw that the city wall had a slope, so The structure, the shells are easy to be bounced off.

While everyone was watching, Liu Wenxiu pointed to another place, and said, "There is still this ditch, these red-haired ghosts must have become spirits!"

The angular and wave-shaped city walls in the bastion are particularly emphasized that they are only beneficial to the defender. It makes it difficult for the attacker to attack and defend, and makes it easy for the defender to defend and attack. Even if the first wall is occupied, it can be easily taken back. Attack The more one side advances, the more vulnerable it is to multi-party threats and multi-layered crossfire from inside and outside.

At present, this hexagonal three-story bastion.The six protruding sharp corners can ensure that firepower from three directions interweaves on each concave surface, and the three-layer city wall is gradually raised from the outside to the inside, and it can also make the Ming army even if they climb the first wall, they will be destroyed by the second. Shoot and kill enemy troops on the wall and main fort.

Since a long time ago in China, there have been protrusions on the city walls such as enemy towers and horse faces, but they have not been as extreme as in the West.

The western bastions were already in contact with the Ming Dynasty more than ten years ago. Sun Yuanhua and Xu Guangqi highly praised the western bastions. The Ming Dynasty also built a copy of the "Ten Thousand Enemies Tower" in Liaodong. It is said that Ningyuan Fort was transformed according to the bastions. However, the cost of building bastions was extremely high, and the Ming Dynasty had no money. Therefore, although bastions were good, they were not promoted in the Ming Dynasty.

Li Dingguo couldn't help but fell silent after listening to everyone's words. Apart from what everyone said, there was another point, that is, the Dutch's cannons were mounted on high places, and they could hit farther than the Ming army. It was difficult for the Ming army to bombard the city. Great casualties had to be paid before even approaching the foot of the mountain.

This kind of bastion, which was said to be "impossible to conquer" before the appearance of long-range siege artillery, left the Ming army at a loss for a while.

Just as the generals were thinking hard about countermeasures, the soldiers outside the tent suddenly reported, "Commander, the Dutch have sent someone over."

Hearing this, Li Dingguo couldn't help throwing the stick in his hand onto the sand table, and said, "Bring it here to see me!"

Not long after, a 30-year-old red-haired barbarian was brought into the tent, but it was not Wood who was sent back by Li Dingguo, but a new face.

"Who are you, where is Wood?" Li Dingguo sat down behind the handsome case, and the generals stood on both sides murderously.

Perhaps it was Wood who brought back the news that the Ming army had killed nearly 2000 Dutch people. When the Dutch in front of them saw the Ming army, they were obviously a little scared, "Your Excellency, Commander, was left in the castle by the president. The company sent me to meet with the Duke. discuss."

Fearing that Wood was frightened, the East India Company obviously did not agree to the Ming Dynasty's request, so Wood did not dare to come out, so he sent a small person over.

Li Dingguo frowned, "What is your job?"

"In the Lower East India Company, the Councilor of Malacca!"

Li Dingguo didn't know how big this position was, and he didn't want to know. He didn't want to talk nonsense with the little people, so he asked directly: "Just tell me, will your company accept my Da Ming's conditions!"

The Dutchman glanced at the surrounding Ming generals, and said without confidence, "Honorable Duke, the company council and the company president, after discussion, cannot accept Daming's conditions. Malacca is an important property of the company, and the company must not lose it."

"Why is it your important property?" Yu Youming couldn't help cursing after hearing this, "This land was obviously taken by the Portuguese, and you took it from the Portuguese..."

Li Dingguo waved his hand to stop Yu Youming from continuing. The Dutch would not surrender easily. This was within his expectation. He asked in a cold voice, "Since you won't surrender, what are you doing here?"

The Dutchman hurriedly said: "After discussions, the company has recognized the strength of your country and feels that your country can become a part of the civilized world. In order to avoid the expansion of conflicts among civilized people and damage the interests of both parties, the company believes that it is possible to sign a new contract with Daming." contract, guarantee the interests of both parties, resolve conflicts, and coexist peacefully."

"What new contract, let's hear it?" Li Dingguo sneered, Jian Guo really saw it thoroughly, these He Yi encountered a setback and suffered a loss, and immediately wanted to delay the time and save their interests through peace talks.

When the Dutchman saw Li Dingguo's question, he was interested in listening, and immediately said happily: "In the new treaty, it will be stipulated that the company will maintain peace with Daming and share the benefits of maritime trade. The two parties will use Malacca as the boundary and share the benefits equally. Sailing in Nanyang, but not out of Malacca, the goods that need to be shipped to India can be shipped to Malacca, and then transported by Dutch merchant ships. In this way, Ming can enjoy Nanyang, while the company can enjoy India, and the two parties will share the benefits equally!"

After speaking, the Dutchman hastily added: "As long as a new treaty is signed, the company will immediately release the Ming people imprisoned in Malacca."

Li Dingguo doesn't know much about maritime trade, but he is very clear that the Dutch provoked troubles in Nanyang and killed Ming's Ziming. Now that the Ming Dynasty is asking for a crime, they say that they will stop fighting, and let the Ming Dynasty pretend that nothing happened. , and want to monopolize the trade between Daming and Tianzhu in a disguised form, how is this possible, Daming Dynasty is stupid.

"Go back and tell your president that you don't even want to make peace proposals. You have no other way out except to surrender. As for my merchants in Malacca, one person is missing. The red-haired ghost who sank in the Mekong River is your role model!" Dismounting Malacca and driving He Yi out of Nanyang is the bottom line of the Ming Dynasty. There is no need to negotiate with the conditions of the East India Company. Li Dingguo waved his hand directly and said, "Send him to my commander!"

Immediately, some soldiers stepped forward and kicked the Dutchman out of the tent, and when the Dutchman was driven away, there was a moment of silence in the tent.

After a while, Liu Wenxiu cupped his fists and said, "Commander, since the red-haired ghost won't surrender, then we have no choice but to attack hard."

The bastion was difficult to attack, the difficulties were ahead, and a hard attack would inevitably lead to heavy casualties, so the hearts of everyone were quite heavy.

Li Dingguo also knew that it was not easy to attack. He pondered for a while, and suddenly asked: "How did you defeat the big officials back then?"

In the battle to regain Taiwan, Zheng Jun was the main force, and the Guangdong Navy was assisted. The Lu division of Wang He's faction really didn't understand. Li Dingguo shook his head when he saw everyone, so he said, "Commander Yu, please come over!"

In the afternoon, Yu Fangqi got off the boat and came to Li Dingguo's big tent. Li Dingguo immediately asked how the Ming army regained the high officials.

Yu Fangqi thought about it for a while, then clasped his fists and said, "After the army landed on the platform, Zheng Guo saw that the fort was difficult to get down, so he adopted the strategy of besieging the enemy and cutting off the enemy's water and food, and repelled Batavia's reinforcements by water, which made The Dutch lost their support, and finally used negotiations to force Chikan Fort and Zeelandia Fort to surrender..."

"It means that the two fortresses were not attacked by force!" Li Dingguo lowered his head and pondered for a while, then suddenly walked to the edge of the sand table, and many famous generals surrounded him, and he saw Li Dingguo holding up the wooden stick and gesticulating: "Enemies on land, we It has been cleared that the key to trapping the enemy is to take down the port of Malacca, destroy the Dutch navy, and cut off their supplies from the sea."

If you want to trap the enemy to death, you have to cut off the supplies of the Dutch from land and sea. Now the Ming army has basically realized the encirclement on land, and the only thing missing is the sea.

At present, all the famous generals couldn't help turning their attention to Yu Fangqi, the general of the navy, but he hurriedly clasped his fists and said: "Everyone, the navy tried to attack the port of Malacca before, but it failed."

At this time, Li Dingguo suddenly pointed at the three forts outside the port with a stick and said, "What if I take down these three forts and turn the guns to point at the Dutch warship?"

Hearing the words, the eyes of the generals lit up. Yu Fangqi immediately smiled and clasped his fists, "If Master Lu can take down the fort, then my navy officers and soldiers will definitely wipe out the Heyi warships in the harbor!"

　Thanks to Xiao Xiaofen for 2000, Zhang/00000 for 1000, Mr. Xu Xiaoming for 1000, the vegetables on the vegetable garden, Hannibal for the reward, thanks for the support of the donors, thank you for your monthly pass, subscription, and recommendation.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)