Chapter 87 Spanish coveting

So the northern part of Taiwan Island is a good choice. While the Dutch are still on Taiwan Island, they can land in northern Taiwan, occupy northern Taiwan, build their castles and docks, and also imitate the Dutch, where they can attract merchants from the Ming Dynasty to their place. Trade, so that they will still have the opportunity to fight against the Dutch. Otherwise, sooner or later, the Dutch will cut off their trade with Daming and cut off their great financial path.

So after the two reconnaissance ships returned last year, the governor's mansion, members of the parliament and businessmen in Manila began to rub their hands, encourage Governor Shierwa, and quickly made up their minds to send ships and troops to Taiwan Island to occupy northern Taiwan.

I don't know how many times the members and businessmen of Manila's parliament have gathered at the Governor's Palace in Manila to put pressure on Schwar to send troops as soon as possible.

Scheva looked at the plan in front of him and couldn't help crying and laughing. These people are really too idealistic. The plan they submitted to him this time asked him to send more than 10 gunboats and armed merchant ships, carrying various construction tools and construction materials, and 1,500 land. Soldiers and various city-building craftsmen went to Taiwan Island.

He now knows better than anyone about their military strength in Luzon. Now Spain's strength is far less than before after the destruction of the invincible fleet, and Asia itself is not the focus of their business. Although it can make rich profits from trade, it can be sent domestically in Spain. The number of warships coming here is very limited.

At present, there are only a dozen armed ships that can be used in Manila, but most of them are armed merchant ships with light firepower, and the transportation is not bad, but when used in combat, the firepower is really a little weak.

These people immediately asked him to mobilized more than ten ships to go to Taiwan Island and occupy the northern part of Taiwan Island. He had enough ships, but could he stop the activities of all the ships, leave such an important place as Manila, and send all the ships to Taiwan Island?

In addition, although the Spaniards have occupied the Luzon Islands for a long time, their army strength here is not very large. Even with the indigenous soldiers recruited locally and various European scum who come here to take risks, the total strength is less than 5,000.

And these troops are also scattered throughout the Philippines to monitor the local indigenous people and those immigrants to prevent them*.

And these legislators asked him to mobilize 1,500 people to Taiwan Island at once, which could not be done at all. Unless he completely ignored the castle in Manila, he could only use up to 800 soldiers to carry out the landing and occupation plan on Taiwan Island with the fleet.

As for the ship, he can only fold in half, with a maximum of six to seven large boats, and it doesn't matter if he can carry ten small boats, or a few more. This is already the most ships and troops he can deploy. No matter how many, he can't take action.

So he looked at the proposal submitted to him in front of him, gently stroked his beard, and then put the plan back on the table.

"Gentlemen, I have read your plan. I don't have anything about sending troops to Formosa (the Portuguese first discovered Taiwan Island and called it Formosa, and the Spaniards as the latecomers, and now they are brothers with the Portuguese, so they also habitually call it Formosa). Any comments, but I want to remind you that I can't meet your requirements!

Because no one knows better about the strength we have here now, the number of ships available here is only about 17, and there are not even a large fleet of Dutch personnel!

You asked me to send at least ten ships to Formosa, please forgive me for this! Unless I can give up Manila, I must have done so, and you won't agree!

In addition, for the issue of sending troops, I think the number you require is also difficult to achieve. At present, the total number of troops here is very small, and we can only send 400 troops at most to carry out this task.

But in terms of ships, I can only send five large boats and carry some small boats to carry out this mission. If there are more, there is nothing I can do!

But I would like to remind you that one thing you have overlooked is that the north of Formosa is not occupied by no man. All you know is that the Dutch did not occupy it, but in the north of Formosa, it is still occupied.

As far as I know, the local bay called chicken cage, which is most suitable as a port, is now occupied by a group of Chinese pirates, and these pirates have a lot of troops there. At the same time, they have also built fort and many other ships.

So we can't find any place to land and complete the occupation of northern Formosa, because this group of Chinese pirates may become our biggest obstacle!

I don't know if you have thought of this! Where should we land and where to occupy? In your plan, there is no mention of the specific action plan after landing. I have no way to approve such a plan! Gentlemen, please think about it more carefully!"

After listening to Schwart's words, the parliamentarians began to whisper and expressed their opinions on Schwar's situation. For a moment, the conference room of the Governor's Office filled the whole room with a buzz.

After a while of discussion, a congressman asked Schwar: "Your Excellency, when you sent a ship to Formosa to investigate, have you figured out the identity of the pirates who occupied the chicken cage? And do you have a detailed description of their military strength, population and defense facilities there?

Scherwa nodded and said, "Captain Madu, who came back, made detailed records of these things. According to Captain Madu, when they arrived at Chicken Cage Bay, they met the group of Chinese pirates who occupied Chicken Cage Bay. The Chinese pirates tried to intercept them near Chicken Cage Bay, but the two sides did not clash in the end. !

According to Captain Ma Du, there is a flag embroidered with a wolf's head sign on the mast of the Chinese pirates. After investigation, we now know the identity of the Chinese pirates flying this flag.

They are a group of pirates who were previously stationed along the coast of Fujian in the Ming Dynasty, calling themselves sea wolves. In the past two years, they have often sent ships to us to do business with us, shipping a certain amount of porcelain, raw silk and other things. At the same time, they have purchased saltpeter, canvas, and some Indian cotton cloth from us!

But they didn't buy the rifles we recommend to them and the artillery cast here, which is very different from other Chinese pirates, and they didn't ask to buy our gunpowder directly! It's a little strange.

According to some people on Chinese merchant ships who come here, this group of Chinese pirates who call themselves sea wolves have been very powerful along the coast of China in the past two years, controlling large areas of the coast of Fujian, once defeated the army of the Ming Dynasty, and even defeated a group of powerful Chinese pirates.

Their headquarters, which is often referred to by the Chinese, should be on an island called Xinghuafu, but I don't know when they went to Formosa and occupied the pretty good port of Chicken Cage Bay.

According to Captain Ma Du's observation, they have many boats in Chicken Cage Bay, most of which are fishing boats, mainly fishing on the sea for a living!

In addition, this group of pirates also built a fort on the island at the mouth of Jilong Bay, which is said to be very strong. At the same time, there is also a fort on the other side of the mouth of the harbor. In Jilong Bay, a castle has been built. The specific troops and local population are not clear at present.

After listening to Scherva's explanation, these legislators whispered to each other for a while, but soon someone stood up and said to Schwar and said, "Mr. Governor, if so, we don't think it's a problem. We are actually very clear about the force of Chinese pirates. Their Keron ship is in our In front of the cannon, it is not vulnerable at all.

In addition, the artillery they use are also some very old Chinese-style guns, with a short range and little power, which poses no threat to our warships at all!

If there are no local residents, this may not be a good thing for us, but if there are residents now, it will be very beneficial to us.

Because after we go there, we also need to build a castle, and we can't complete such a workload by our own manpower alone.

We also need a lot of slaves to work for us. Now someone has built a castle for us in Chicken Cage Bay, which saves us a lot of trouble! We can completely drive them away, occupy their castle, and use it directly as our castle. We just need to modify it a little, which will reduce our workload!"

After listening to the senator's words, there was a voice of echo in the conference room. These Spaniards have been dealing with the Chinese for a long time and often trade with Chinese pirates. Chinese pirates often ship their * obtained goods to Manila*.

And these Spaniards are now well aware of the idea of these pirates who are eager to cash out, deliberately lower the price of the acquisition and can get more benefits from it.

(Come back to get something and rush back to the hospital immediately. The little guy's condition is not optimistic and his heart is like a knife! I don't know if I can come back to update it at night. I will try my best to keep it updated!)