Griffin Commander in the Late Ming Dynasty

"And our weapons and personal property, and provide us with enough ships to enable us to return safely to Batavia, as well as the fresh water, food and ..."

"?"

Before he finished speaking, Pang Xingsheng interrupted him immediately, "Are you kidding me? Are you here for the autumn outing?"

Aldopp was obviously stunned, and said blankly: "What do you mean, sir?"

Pang Xingsheng questioned: "We should have made it very clear that we require you to surrender unconditionally, hand over all your weapons and property, and accept our disposal! Don't you understand?"

Aldopp was shaking all over and said angrily, "You are going too far! We will never accept such conditions! Never!"

After translating, the missionary also tried to brainwash with religion. He put his hands together, palms facing each other, fingers pointing upward, and said seriously: "The Lord tells us to have a tolerant and generous heart..."

Pang Xingsheng looked at the interpreter beside him and said, "What the hell is this foreign guy talking about?"

Aldopp suppressed his anger and said, "I will report your request to the commander. I hope your country can give us a few more days to discuss it."

The Netherlands would never accept such an unconditional surrender. It would be fine if we surrendered our weapons, but the most important thing is that he actually asked us to surrender our property! Are you kidding me! You might as well kill me! Every officer and soldier has saved a lot of money over the years, how could they possibly hand it all over!

You can take my life, but you can't take my money!

"A few days? Not even a few days left! The day before was already the ultimatum. Come on, prepare to attack the city!"

"Yes!"

Volume 387: Chapter Chapter : Breakthrough

The volunteers on Dongfan Island have reached the final stage, while the volunteers responsible for attacking Quanzhou have to face a much more complicated situation. After landing in Quanzhou from the sea, they still need to pass two more checkpoints before reaching the Zheng family’s base camp. Before that, they need to pass two checkpoints while the forces at sea also need to defend against the continuous reinforcements and attacks from the Zheng family.

At this moment, they were at the first pass. Under the leadership of M2HB, they had just removed more than artillery pieces of the Zheng family. At this moment, the pass was riddled with holes under the continuous firepower coverage, and a large number of Zheng family soldiers suffered heavy casualties.

Faced with such violent firepower, Zheng Fusong felt a pang of fear in his heart. Fortunately, he did not stay locked up for too long. If he had stayed any longer, he would have been dead. At this moment, the reinforcements that Zheng Fusong had sent people to call for early on finally arrived.

"My Lord, Gan Hui, the left vanguard of the Iron Man Army, listen to my orders!"

"Young Master, the left forward commander, Admiral Yang Zu, listen to your orders!"

"My Lord, right forward commander Xie Jiyuan, listen to my orders!"

In the Zheng family camp, Zheng Fusong looked at the generals who came to support him. He was relieved that he had survived the disaster. He shouted, "Okay, prepare to send troops. Let's use our Zheng family's 3,000 iron men to fight the enemy!"

The Iron Man Army is also known as the Zheng Family Elite Armor. Each of the 3,000 soldiers is covered in heavy armor, wears a shield, wears a mask, holds a long sword for close combat, and carries a musket or a long bow for long-range combat.

This heavy armor is made of iron armor on the outside and cotton armor on the inside. The whole set of armor is quite heavy and expensive.

Zhu Guozhen in the late Ming Dynasty recorded "pure cotton armor" in "Yongchuang Xiaopin": "The cotton armor is made of seven pounds of cotton, sewn with cloth like a jacket, and the two arms are pressed with feet to make it firm and not bloated. It is dried and stored. It will not become heavy when exposed to rain, will not become moldy, and will not be seriously damaged by bird guns."

Firearms were popular in the Ming Dynasty, and the manufacturing process of cotton armor was continuously improved. It was not filled entirely with cotton. Fabric, cowhide, paper and other materials were added inside to enhance defense, and it actually became a composite armor.

The cotton armor of the Eight Banners Army was originally captured from the Ming Army. Later, it was improved by wetting the picked cotton and repeatedly beating it to make very thin cotton sheets. Multiple such cotton sheets were then stitched together to form very thick and solid cotton cloth. Between the two layers of cotton cloth was iron armor, which was fixed inside and outside with copper nails, eventually forming the Eight Banners armor.

Cotton armor is very effective in defending against firearms, while cloth-covered iron armor is capable of defending against traditional bows and crossbows. Not all Eight Banners soldiers could afford cotton armor. Cotton armor was not popular in the late Ming Dynasty. Most armies were only equipped with cloth-covered iron armor. Only the elite heavy infantry among the Eight Banners were equipped with iron and cotton armor.

The Zheng family can equip thousands of iron men at once, which shows that they are very wealthy!

Thomas was overjoyed at this moment. With the Spanish phalanx formed by the Zheng family's iron army, he was now able to fight even if the enemy came in full force! So he quickly urged: "Young Master, please rest assured, our phalanx is invincible! Please start the attack!"

Zheng Fusong nodded, knowing that if he stayed in this city and faced the fierce firepower of the enemy, he could only passively wait for death. He pursed his lips, suddenly drew his sword and said: "Zheng's Iron Army, go to battle!"

Looking at the Zheng family's iron army marching out in an orderly manner, M2HB was stunned for a moment. Looking at the enemy in front of him, they seemed the same, yet also a little different: "What are they wearing?"

Looking at the bulge, M2HB thought it was some new type of armor. He was a little alert for a moment and ordered to stop the fire coverage.

A deputy regiment commander nearby took a look through the telescope and said, "Sir, the enemy should be wearing cotton armor."

"Cotton armor?" M2HB was shocked. She couldn't understand why she was almost blowing up the city gate opposite with her heavy artillery. If it weren't for the narrow terrain of the pass, which couldn't cover too much firepower, the pass would have been blown up. How could someone come out wearing this kind of armor? Who gave you the courage?

At this moment, the commander's constant jingle rang in her mind: "You are such a belly button fart, what are you thinking?"

Looking at the muzzles of guns and cannons of all sizes on the opposite side, Left Admiral Yang Zu ordered: "Move the shield soldiers to the front row and squat down to protect them!"

Yang Zu was experienced and knew that the enemy's firepower was very strong. The Zheng army would not gain any advantage from the long-range shooting between the two armies. They had to mobilize the shield soldiers to strengthen their defense and increase their own advantages.

The shield soldiers of Zheng's army used the hard and soft shields of Qi's army, which were similar to the production of cotton armor. Shields made of flexible leather, silk cotton, and cotton paper were added to the hard shields. They could avoid birds and bullets from forty or fifty steps away, and had been tried many times without fail.

M2HB was speechless. "Pull up Doe SWAP, Doe, Steel Lion, and Hydra. Shoot at those idiots in weird clothes!"

In fact, the Zheng family’s iron army not only has cotton armor, but also a considerable number of plate armor.

The sixteenth century to the early seventeenth century was the heyday of the development of plate armor in Europe. However, as early as the mid-sixteenth century, the emergence of large muskets made the resistance of plate armor insufficient.

In the face of large-caliber lead bullets, well-made plate armor can indeed effectively resist frontal penetration, but the huge impact force often causes the guard plate to dent inward and become damaged. The vibration caused by the lead bullet colliding with the plate armor can also cause serious harm to the human body, which makes the heavy plate armor increasingly powerless in actual combat.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, with the popularization of new matchlock and flintlock rifles, their lightness and huge power made most plate armor unable to resist. After that, plate armor gradually entered a period of decline. Full body armor was gradually replaced by three-quarter armor and even breastplate, and the quality also declined. With the continuous improvement of musket technology, those so-called invulnerable armors were no longer useful on the battlefield.

Not to mention, what they are facing now is the .50 heavy machine gun, machine gun, Hydra self-propelled artillery and the sweeping attack of the main gun. With just that little armor, at most it will be broken into eight pieces, with two more pieces of iron plate left. Apart from that, there is nothing else.

Not only that, even the firepower of the Volunteer Army was not enough for these Iron Men. Under Jiang Han's steady management, the Volunteer Army was well equipped. Not only was everyone equipped with a flintlock gun and a dagger, but they also had cotton helmets in addition to iron helmets, and cotton armor in addition to iron armor. They were real heavy armored infantry. Currently, some soldiers with outstanding combat records were equipped with Heding rifles.

After the steam engine was gradually popularized, productivity increased significantly, and it was expected that the Heding rifle would soon be fully equipped for the Volunteer Army.

It has to be said that the Iron Man Army's field combat capability was not inferior to that of the Qing Army. Historically, if Zheng Zhilong had not secretly surrendered to the Qing Dynasty early on and opened Fenshui Pass and Xianxia Pass, the Qing Army would not have been able to easily enter Fujian.

The Iron Man Army in history suffered an even more ridiculous defeat. They followed Zheng Chenggong all the way to Nanjing and Zhenjiang, recovering a large amount of lost territory and making the Eight Banners Army terrified. However, when they were taking off their armor and bathing by the river, they were taken advantage of by the Qing cavalry and defeated.

Following M2HB's order, the Iron Blood and military dolls slowly moved forward, pointing their guns at the naive Iron Man soldiers who had no idea what they were about to encounter. Then, countless famous flames swarmed over.

The dense Spanish phalanx formation of the Iron Man Army became their death warrant at this moment. The heavy armor on their bodies made them move slowly, making it even more difficult for them to dodge the flying bullets and shells.

Dull, dull, except for the explosions caused by the firing of guns and cannons, there was only a dull thud in the Iron Man Army. Large-caliber bullets and artillery shells hit the human body, tearing and shattering everything that blocked them. A large number of Iron Man soldiers were directly transformed into a ball of blood mist. The heavy armor on their bodies did not provide any protection except for a crisp sound. And not only that, the kinetic energy of the artillery shell did not stop after piercing one person, but penetrated two people in succession before breaking the abdominal cavity of the third person and landing safely on the ground.

The Iron Man Army turned into a sea of ​​blood almost instantly.

Thomas Martos, the commander of the Wufan soldiers, was horrified and exclaimed, "Why is their firepower so strong?"

Thomas knew that the Ming Dynasty's guns and artillery were inferior to those of Europe, but what were these things before him? They were the devil! These were the devil's weapons!

Thomas even wanted to run away on the spot, but the two sides had already started a fight, so where could he run to?

The Iron Man Army was originally small in number, and with the dense formation, just one round of firepower strikes almost wiped them out! The huge technological gap made this battle seem like child's play!

Such horror filled the Iron Man Army, which had rarely seen any war, with fear in their hearts. They began to scream and flee in all directions, but were then half-blown away by bullets that came from nowhere.

The terrible situation on the battlefield was hard to understand, but now was obviously not the time to think about it. After a brief moment of distraction, the Zheng family generals immediately realized that this was not going to happen! We had to run!

Shi Lang, the left vanguard, said, "My Lord, the enemy's firearms are strange. We have already lost this battle! You should retreat first. I will cover your rear!"

Shi Lang's father was Shi Daxuan, one of the Eighteen Zhi. In the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, eighteen pirate merchants led by Zheng Zhilong formed a sworn brotherhood in northern Taiwan and were known as the "Eighteen Zhi".

Shi Lang is 22 years old this year. He failed to learn books when he was young, so he learned sword and military tactics. He is known for his wisdom and courage. Shi Lang joined the army at the age of 17. Under Zheng Zhilong, he always led the troops and made many military achievements.

Shi Lang and Zheng Fusong were of similar age and had a very good relationship. Zheng Fusong also regarded Shi Lang as his right-hand man and treated him with great courtesy. How could he allow him to stay behind?

Zheng Fusong once again took a look at the battlefield that looked like hell, patted Shi Lang on the shoulder, and sighed: "You can't hold it. With the enemy's firearms, how long can you delay it even if you stay here? Let's go together..."

This hasty battle lasted only ten minutes. With Zheng Fusong's retreat, the Zheng family army lost its commander, and the Iron Man Army soldiers were frightened. The remaining soldiers guarding the pass dropped their weapons and surrendered. The Volunteer Army easily captured this first pass.

The Volunteer Army sent people to clean up the remaining enemies inside the pass while collecting prisoners. On the list of prisoners this time was Thomas, the black-brined egg who had not been moistened in time. When he was captured, he was still a little unwilling and resentful. He was forced to his knees on the ground by several soldiers, howling.

The head of the regiment, Chai Zijin, carefully looked at the big black man and asked, "Where did you come from? What's the situation of the Zheng family?"

Thomas let out a strange cry, wearing a medieval armor, and said something gibberish.

Chai Zijin frowned and said, "Speak human language to me!"

Thomas still looked unruly. He struggled and said in stiff Chinese: "You borrowed the power of the devil. It's not fair to win. You are a group of devils. You will be punished in the future! I curse you! Curse your commander!"

As soon as Thomas finished speaking, M2HB kicked him in the chin, instantly kicking him up and causing him to fall heavily to the ground.

Thomas was bleeding from his mouth and nose, and several of his teeth were kicked out. He lay on the ground screaming. The other captured Zheng family soldiers were in an uproar, but soon remembered the tragic scenes on the battlefield and quieted down again.

M2HB walked up to Thomas, stepped hard on his back and said: "If you continue to talk nonsense, I don't mind taking your life." You dare to curse my commander, how many lives do you have to dare to do this?

Although Thomas was black, his father's generation were all lackeys following the Portuguese nobles (the slave trade had been going on for two hundred years). He received European military education since he was a child and considered himself a minor noble. He still had a very high spirit and seemed a bit tough when he spoke angry words.

He grinned and said, "Our spirit of chivalry places the greatest emphasis on character. If you have the guts, kill me!"

M2HB nodded and smiled: "Very good, I have never seen such a tough black person in the United States."

After saying that, she lifted the foot that was stepping on Thomas' back, aimed at his knee, and stepped down hard. The crisp sound of broken bones echoed throughout the room. "You are not afraid of death, so this little injury and pain should not be a big deal!"

Normally, M2HB is a silly girl-like character, carefree and never angry. However, because of her bloodline and the fact that this Brother Ni dared to curse her commander, her American soul is burning!

Thomas finally couldn't bear it anymore, wailing in pain, and said in a hoarse voice: "I'll tell you everything, just let me go, I have hundreds of mercenaries under my command, who can serve you, you have seen their fighting power, and the reward is only 10% of the Zheng family's!"

"I still prefer your rebellious look just now." M2HB shook his head and gestured to a soldier beside him. The soldier nodded, loaded the musket in his hand, pointed it at Thomas' head and pulled the trigger. With a crisp gunshot, Thomas could no longer breathe.

M2HB looked back at the other captives who were still shocked by Thomas' death: "Anyone else wants to show off their rebelliousness?"

None of the prisoners dared to answer. They all lowered their heads to avoid M2HB's gaze. In their eyes, this orange-haired foreign woman was scarier than a ghost.

"Since there is nothing else, let's talk about the defense of Quanzhou City and the situation of the Zheng family. Do you want to talk about it yourself, or do you want us to talk about it for you?"

Volume 388: Chapter Chapter : Taking Back Home

After M2HB's previous hardcore operations, all the prisoners of war became much more honest. Sure enough, when the volunteers were asking for intelligence, these people were not only more obedient than rabbits, but also told everything they knew in detail and were very cooperative.

Through questioning, we learned that these iron lumps were the elite infantry of the Zheng family. Apart from these thousands of people, the Zheng family had no other fighting troops on land.

The volunteers attacked swiftly. Quanzhou itself is close to the sea. After breaking through the pass, there was almost no road left. The elite troops of the Zheng family were defeated again. It was a foregone conclusion that the troops would arrive in Quanzhou and raid the Zheng family's lair.

M2HB nodded and gave the order, "Repair here for a while, then continue to move forward! Attack Quanzhou!"

The reason why they are in such a hurry is not that M2HB is eager for quick success, but that they must quickly achieve the decapitation effect, that is, to reach the important goal of Quanzhou. In this way, they can avoid the volunteers from being trapped in a situation of continuous fighting with the endless Zheng family navy. You must know that the main target of the volunteers this time is not Fujian, but Dongfan Island!

You know, Fujian people are known for its eight mountains, one river and one piece of land. The terrain structure is extremely complex and the area is extremely vast. There is also support from the Guangzhou army on the side. It is easy to defeat the enemy with this isolated army, but it is a pipe dream to occupy Fujian. Therefore, from the very beginning, the combat goal of the Volunteer Army was deterrence.

As for why he did this, the answer is that Jiang Han knew very well that the Chinese people like to compromise. If you send troops and say, I want to occupy Dongfan and jointly manage sea transportation with you, then Zheng Zhilong will definitely not agree. But if you lead the army to the opposite side and say that you have to choose between your life and Dongfan Island, then he will agree to let the Yiyong Army occupy Dongfan. After all, as long as the green mountains remain, there will be no fear of running out of firewood.

At 1:05 a.m. on September 23, the volunteers who had rested for a day launched a fierce artillery attack on Fort Zeelandia. At the same time, the volunteer warships anchored in the inland sea of ​​Taijiang also fired at Fort Zeelandia from the sea, forming a pincer fire attack from the sea.

The Dutch soldiers, who were still in the era of muzzle-loading smoothbore cannons, had never seen such a fire attack method and were completely stunned.

"Oh my God! Am I dreaming?"

On the city wall, a Dutch soldier looked at the distance and exclaimed in amazement as he saw the huge beam of light shot out from Typhon's main gun completely melting a cannon along with a section of the city wall.

Paul took out his monocular and observed for a while, the corners of his mouth twitching constantly.

"It's over...."

Before he could finish his words, dense artillery fire suddenly rang out in the distance. With a loud rumbling sound, several shells, wrapped in scorching air, hit the bastion. The splashing debris splashed onto Paul's face, leaving a deep bloody gash.

Paul was so horrified that he immediately lay down subconsciously, shouting, "Everyone lie down!"

With the roar of artillery explosions, the entire Fort Zeelandia shook violently. Many Dutch soldiers defending the city were frightened and fell to the ground. Some soldiers were even shaken to the point of falling off the city.

Fort Zeelandia is different from other cities in the Ming Dynasty. On the surface, it looks like a city, but in fact it is a military castle. There are no ordinary civilians in the castle, only officers and soldiers, as well as their families. The fire coverage units on the mountain, plus the warships and artillery on the sea, the first wave of salvos from various fire strike units created an earth-shaking force.

"fire!"

"fire!"

On the ruins of Utrecht Castle, there were constant rumbling sounds from the ranks of the Volunteers, and the surroundings were filled with irritating white smoke. Huge shell casings fell to the ground, and the military and the Iron Blood Mechas were firing hard, shelling the bastards!

After firing several rounds, the artillerymen rotated the gun barrel with force, adjusted the angle, and continued firing at another target.

The volunteer army's navy operated the artillery fiercely, venting all their anger at this time!

The entire Fort Zeelandia was within the firepower range of the Volunteers, but the Dutch artillery was completely ineffective. After a day of reconnaissance, all units had a clear idea of ​​the locations of the remaining Dutch artillery positions in the city. Most of the Dutch artillery were targeted and bombed by iron-blooded firepower units from nowhere before they could even fire, and the situation was completely one-sided.

The solid bullets and shrapnel shells on the naval ships were fired continuously and in a coordinated manner. While one side was cooling down, the other side started firing, forming an almost continuous bombardment!

Huge shells kept flying and smashed heavily into various places on the city walls, creating deep holes. The shrapnel shells exploded, sending countless iron pieces flying inside. Those who were hit were all covered in blood and were beaten to tears in disarray. The city defenses were in danger of collapsing in an instant.

"Lord, your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven..."

A Dutch gunner had just finished praying and was about to fire back when a mortar shell came down from the sky with a loud whistling sound. Before he could react, there was a loud bang and the whole person was blown up into the sky, as if to announce to the other side, "This is where you're going to destroy that! Your Lord's hand can't reach it!"

There was a deafening explosion, and it was a series of explosions. The large amount of thick smoke produced after the explosion almost covered the entire Fort Zeelandia.

The Dutch had never seen such an explosion effect, especially the huge cloud of flames that rose up, as if the devil had descended. The surrounding Dutch soldiers were frightened out of their wits, screaming miserably and running around in panic. The surrounding soldiers also ran for their lives in panic.

Whenever a shell came flying, the soldiers would scream and run away. It was useless for the officers to shout at them, especially some officers who ran away themselves...

The terrible thing is that these firepower units have no intention of stopping and continue to fire continuously.

Paul and other Dutch officers were extremely anxious, their eyes were bloodshot, and they watched helplessly as people around them cried and ran away, and they were powerless to stop them.

In just over half an hour of fierce bombardment, the Dutch felt like every second was a year! Under the joint attack of the navy and the land, countless artillery shells, machine gun shells, machine gun shells, and mortar shells were fired at Fort Zeelandia. The navy alone fired thousands of shells!

The Dutch responded with only eighty rounds.

The bastion of Fort Zeelandia had been bombed to pieces, especially the inner city, where a large number of houses had collapsed and piles of rubble were piled up. It was like a city in flames, with flames and thick smoke everywhere.