I

   Chapter 660 657 [Difficult Uprising]

   "Kill the red hair, you will be free!"

   "Kill the red hair, you will be free!"

  The slogan of September 9 has been changed, and there seem to be scholars in the rebel army.

  Early in the morning, every family in Shimei Village cooks delicious food. Some chickens kill chickens, some ducks kill ducks, no matter how bad it is, cook a dry meal.

  No one knows whether the uprising will be successful. They make "beheading meals" for themselves, and they want to have a life-and-death fight with the red-haired ghost, and they no longer think about saving food to live.

  The rebel army first gathered in Shimei Village, and in the middle of the morning, the rebel army from surrounding villages came to vote one after another.

   All men, women and children, holding bamboo poles, hoes, kitchen knives and other weapons in their hands. Because the Dutch forbade the Han Chinese to hide weapons privately, the tens of thousands of uprising troops could not even find a waist knife.

  Guo Huai climbed up and shouted: "Everyone in my hometown, the red-haired ghost squeezed our blood and sweat. Today I will take everyone to eat red-haired meat and drink red-haired blood!"

   "Eat red-haired meat, drink red-haired blood!"

   "Kill the red hair, you will be free!"

   "Kill!"

  The rebel army set out in a mighty way. When they approached Chixian City, many Han people joined in one after another, and the number was close to 10,000. There were even eleven or twelve-year-old children, led by their mothers, charging excitedly with wooden sticks.

  Guo Huaiyi pointed at Chixian City: "Follow me!"

  Chixian City did not build a city wall. It is a city where Han people, aboriginals and Dutch immigrants gathered around Chixianlou (castle).

  The rebel army divided into three groups and rushed in from three directions.

  In the area inhabited by Han people, the insurgents shouted with all their might: "Brothers of the Han people, rebel quickly, kill Hongmao, and be free!"

  Some Han people in residential houses and shops, inspired by the rebels, took up arms and joined the ranks. There are also many Han Chinese who hide in their homes or shops, for fear that they will be involved.

  The aborigines living in the city are basically the dogs of the Netherlands. They wanted to escape into the castle, but the Dutch defenders refused to open the door, telling them to go back to bear the wrath of the Han people.

   "All burned, not a single house left!"

  Guo Huai stood in the aboriginal settlement, pointing to the houses and shops there. The houses are inhabited by the natives, but most of the shops are owned by the Dutch, and they are usually taken care of by dogs (including some Han dogs).

  In a blink of an eye, half of the city was on fire.

   "Surround Chixian Tower!" Guo Huaiyi ordered again.

  The five-yuan NT dollar has the main design of Chixian Building, but that is the appearance after Zheng Chenggong's reconstruction. The Chixian Tower at this time is a typical European castle.

  As for the city of Zeelandia, where the governor of Taiwan lives, it is several miles west of Chixianlou and is located on a small offshore island. The terrain is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

  Until this time, the Han uprising army had exceeded 12,000 people, and a large number of city residents participated in the uprising.

  They surrounded the red-embedded castle, removed the planks to make stairs, and tried to attack the castle in the afternoon.

   Countless Han people carried wooden ladders and simple weapons in their hands, rushing towards the castle desperately.

  Inside the castle, there are only 106 Dutch defenders.

   "Boom!"

  A cannon shot, iron bullets smashed into the crowd, plowed a passage of flesh and blood, and nearly twenty rebels were either killed or disabled.

   "Bang bang bang!"

   Another gunshot rang out, and more than 30 rebels who rushed to the front fell down immediately.

   "Hell, what year is this gunpowder?"

   "Those monkeys are coming!"

   "Go and push the wooden ladder away!"

   "..."

  The Dutch defenders in the castle are in a mess at the moment.

  They received a report from a traitor last night, but they didn't take it seriously at all, and they didn't even bother to check the powder keg.

   Some of the matchlock guns in these guys' hands are already moldy. The gunpowder in the gunpowder barrel is not just as simple as being damp, but the whole barrel of gunpowder is hardened together, and it has to be broken with a hammer before it can be stuffed into the barrel.

   Again, the Dutch Army is here to make a joke.

  Their military pay is so pitiful that they can’t support themselves at all. They usually have to leave the castle and go to work in shops in the city to make a living. There are also quite a few who have gone back to their old profession, blackmailing Han merchants every day, and relying on being local hooligans to support their families.

  Historically, after Zheng Chenggong besieged Chixian Tower, Ma Liu, a hundred defenders in the castle, surrendered.

   "Attack is coming, attack is coming!"

   "Quick retreat!"

  The rebel army paid more than a hundred casualties and finally captured the outer fortifications of the castle. The Dutch defenders panicked and retreated further inside.

   Withdrawing and retreating, it turned into a rout and was almost wiped out by the rebel army.

"we won!"

   "Long live, long live!"

  The rebel army cheered happily, Guo Huai and others entered the castle and distributed the captured cold weapons to his cronies.

  The news that the rebel army occupied the Chikan Tower spread rapidly. That night, Han people from nearby villages came to vote, and by dawn the number of rebels had increased to 16,000.

  The governor of Taiwan in the Netherlands was only in Zeelandia a few miles away, and he received a report from the traitors in advance, so he actually sent troops the next morning.

  Taiwan Army Commander Danker personally led 120 soldiers to kill.

  These Dutch armies are obviously more reliable than the defenders of Chikanlou. At least, their muskets are not moldy, their gunpowder is not hardened and damp, and even their usual wages are higher.

   They carry artillery and 2000 native servants.

  The red embedded castle is too small to accommodate more than 10,000 rebels. As soon as Guo Huai detected the enemy's movements, he took the initiative to lead his troops to attack, and asked his brother Wu Hualong to lead the rest of the troops to garrison the castle.

  A fierce battle broke out by the Erren River.

  Although the Dutch army has only 120 people, it carries more than ten artillery pieces, and the meeting is a shelling meal.

   On the side of the rebel army, there was no formation at all, and they crowded together in a mess to charge. The concentrated bombardment of more than a dozen artillery pieces immediately scattered a tribe of more than 2,000 people, and the indigenous servant army rushed over.

  The two sides are not equal in strength.

  Although the rebel army had a large number of people, they were all wooden sticks, bamboo poles, hoes, and kitchen knives, while the native army carried real weapons. Even, the opponent had an earthen bow for hunting, and the rebel army was shot and many fled.

  Guo Huai saw that the situation was not good, and the whole army would collapse if this continued. He drew out the waist knife he had seized from the castle: "Follow me and take the enemy's general!"

  The two thousand people led by Guo Huaiyi were all young and strong.

  They charged forward bravely and headed towards Denker's Dutch main force, but they were not broken up by a round of shelling midway.

   "Bang bang bang!"

   There was a burst of gunfire, and Guo Huaiyi, who was charging ahead, was shot and fell to the ground unfortunately.

   "Brother Guo!"

   "Run, the red-haired ghost's firecracker is powerful!"

  The death of Guo Huaiyi led to the collapse of the main force of the rebel army. Most of the people turned around and fled. They started the incident with a rush of enthusiasm, but now they have lost their backbone, and their enthusiasm has turned cold.

  A small number of Guo Huaiyi's cronies risked their lives to **** the body, and fled with Guo Huaiyi's body.

   "The whole army goes out and hunts down the rebels!"

  Denker drew out his command saber, turned over and mounted his horse, and led the few cavalrymen to chase after him.

  Including Danker, the Dutch only had four riders. But they killed dozens of rout soldiers and captured more than a thousand rebels as they passed along the way. On the side of the indigenous servant army, they were also beheading and capturing the rebel army.

  Wu Hualong learned that Guo Huaiyi had died, and in grief, he ordered to defend the castle. He said to the rebels: "Brother Guo has sent someone to contact His Majesty's army. As long as we stick to it for two or three days, the court officers and soldiers will come to rescue us!"

  The Dutch army and the native army were too small to surround the castle, so they chose to encircle three and lack one.

   "Boom boom boom!"

  More than a dozen artillery pieces aimed at the castle, bombarding it from morning to evening.

  Although the bombardment did not collapse the city wall and did not cause any casualties to the rebels in the city, the morale of the rebels holding hoes plummeted.

   Just when it was getting dark, Danker felt that the time was right and ordered the native army to attack the city.

  This kind of low European castle, with firearms troops stationed, will become a nightmare for the attacking party. But the rebels don't even have firearms, they don't even have cold weapons, so how can they withstand the aborigines' attack?

  Seeing that a city wall fell, Wu Hualong could only say: "Follow me to the north to break through!"

  Countless rebels rushed towards the north gate crazily. In order to escape for their lives, they fought bravely one by one, and the native servants gave way in fright.

  Denker saw this and said with a smile: "Let them escape, after they all escape from the castle, they will not try their best, but think about how to escape."

  So, the Dutch army and the native army all stood by and watched without doing anything.

   It was not until most of the rebels had escaped that Denker said: "Pursue and kill with all your might!"

   Sure enough, after the rebel army escaped from the castle, they completely lost their courage to fight, and fled in panic to a direction where there were no pursuers.

  Wu Hualong tried to organize the troops to rear, but no one listened to him at all.

  There are more than 16,000 rebels. So far in the battle, nearly 2,000 men have been killed, more than 3,000 men have been captured, and more than 5,000 women and children have been killed or captured.

  Danker ordered: "It's good to keep the prisoners in custody, and all the leaders will be killed after investigation, and the rest of the thugs will be locked up temporarily."

  The governor of Taiwan has not yet made up his mind, and he really wants to kill all the Han people. However, the operation of the city requires the Han people, and the cultivation of food also requires the Han people. The indigenous people are not as effective as the Han people.

  Wu Hualong took the remnant soldiers and managed to escape in the dark.

   On the way, they encountered several groups of defeated soldiers, all of whom collapsed after fighting with Guo Huaiyi.

  The next morning, Wu Hualong counted the number of people, and there were only more than 1,000 people around him. Most are adult men, only a few are women and children.

  People were hungry, weeping and howling.

  Wu Hualong had no choice but to appease him, and said: "Go north, there are officers and soldiers sent by His Majesty, we will be safe when we meet them!"

  At this moment, Li Dingguo was on his way with anger.

  He sent someone to inform Guo Huaiyi, telling him not to mess around, and to act with the Datong Army next year.

  The battle plan of the Datong Army is to take down Zeelandia City and Chixian City together, and must hoard enough food to slowly besiege the city.

  Historically, when Zheng Chenggong regained Taiwan, Chixian City was also easily handled, but Zeelandia City was besieged for nine months. That is not something that can be done with a large number of people. The strong fortress on the island requires the cooperation of the navy and the army. After winning the naval battle, the city will be slowly besieged.

  At this time in Tainan, the Netherlands has four warships (armed merchant ships).

  The largest is the Hector, with a displacement of 650 tons, 27 iron cannons and 9 bronze cannons on board. As for the Taiwan fleet of the Datong Navy, although there are more than 30 warships, the largest one is only 400 tons, and Zheng Zhilong sold it to the court at a low price.

  Zhao Han’s warship built with century-old oak wood will not be launched until at least next autumn, and it will be time to train with the Dutch.

  But the court's plan was disrupted by Guo Huaiyi's unauthorized actions.

  Li Dingguo had to save him. He knew that the imperial court spent a lot of money and food every year on immigration. The number of Han people near Chixian City is close to 20,000. As long as they can be saved, it will save countless immigration costs for the court.

  (end of this chapter)