The Qing Dynasty put pressure on the Northern Line, and Rezhalanburg was difficult to capture for a while, which put Donghai Town in a dilemma.

Zhao Ming did not just sleep with Rezalan, waiting for the Dutch to surrender.

In order to win the war as soon as possible, Zhao Ming made various efforts. He sent his confidant back to Jiangdong and went to Nanjing to see Zhu Yihai, hoping that the Zhejiang regime would increase its troops on the Huai'an line and put pressure on the Qing army.

In addition, personnel were sent to contact the Portuguese and the British, with the intention of obtaining allies at sea.

The objects of trade are either rich or resources. After defeating the Dutch, Donghai Town still needs to find a Western country to cooperate with it in a short period of time before trade can be achieved worldwide.

The Portuguese are in Macau, and it is very convenient to contact, but the personnel sent by Zhao Ming to Macau did not successfully convince the Portuguese.

The Portuguese in Macau had fewer transactions with Donghai Town. Their main trading targets were Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian Zheng Chenggong's Nanyang Company, Portuguese, and Zheng Chenggong all expressed that they would not participate in the war between Donghai Town and the Dutch.

Many companies will divide the interests of Nanyang, and Donghai Town will defeat the Netherlands and will only dominate the entire family.

From the perspective of interests, Portugal and Zheng Chenggong hope that Donghai Town and the Dutch will suffer both losses.

The Portuguese and Zheng Chenggong did not support Donghai Town, but they remained neutral, which made Zhao Ming more satisfied.

After all, now there are enemies on all sides, and it is also a blessing for Donghai Town to lose one enemy.

Compared to contacting the Portuguese and the British, it is much more difficult.

In Zhao Ming's impression, it should be the most intense and critical moment of struggle between Britain and the Netherlands.

The Dutch controlled Malacca and naturally did not allow ships from their archenemy British to pass through, so it was difficult for Donghai Town to obtain contact with the British in the South Ocean.

At this time, Zhao Ming heard Gu Yanwu's words and couldn't help but walk aside and asked, "How did you contact me?"

Gu Yanwu said: "It was the news sent by the Zheng Guo family that a British merchant ship arrived in Quanzhou."

Zhao Ming was silent for a moment, exhaled, and sighed, "Success is still nostalgia!"

After saying that, Zhao Ming immediately said seriously: "Guinian, go to Quanzhou immediately, contact the British and invite them to Taiwan."

Gu Yanwu immediately bowed, "I'm humble and accept the order!"

After Gu Yanwu left, Zhao Ming continued to watch the soldiers practice siege.

There were only 700 Dutch people left in Rezhelan Castle, and all the warships were lost. They were trapped in the sandbank fortress. In fact, only one thousand soldiers and several warships could be sent to trap Rezhelan Castle to death. Zhao Ming could lead the army to continue south and attack Luzon and Batavia. However, Zhao Ming still did not do this when the Qing Dynasty attacked Lushun and the northern line was threatened.

The reason why Zhao Ming stationed his army in Dayuan Bay was because he found that the castle was indeed not easy to attack.

In Taiwan, the army can obtain supplies on the spot without worrying about food, so it can be sieged for a long time.

However, Luzon, Batavia, and Malacca were far away from the sphere of influence of Donghai Town. After landing, they could not quickly conquer the fortress of Xiyi. If the logistics were threatened again, Zhao Ming and his army would immediately fall into trouble.

Therefore, before he was sure to attack the bastion quickly, Zhao Ming did not intend to continue to march south.

For this reason, Zhao Ming had to make full preparations, because the army crossed the sea to attack the colonies of the Netherlands and Spain, and could only carry one or two months of food at most. If he could not capture the other's stronghold in one or two months, he would have to temporarily withdraw his troops, and all his previous efforts would be in vain.

Now that Chikan Fortress is in hand, the Western fortress can be used for East China Sea soldiers to study and train, understand the characteristics of Western prisms, know how the opponent will defend, and how they should deal with it?

Before implementing the southward strategy, Zhao Ming sent scouts in advance to spy on Manila, Batavia, Malacca and other places.

These three fortresses are very similar to Chikan Fort. They are all built near the sea and are built on high ground or on hills.

At this time, in Chikan Fort, nearly a thousand soldiers were serving as guards, and more than 3,000 soldiers under the city were digging trenches. The soldiers dug several deep trenches one person deep below the fortress, advanced forward in the shape of "zhi", and then digging horizontally, making the trenches of "zhi" connected.

For a time, the trenches were crisscrossed under the city wall, and the siege soldiers did not have to be exposed to the firepower at the city, and then went directly to the city.

Zhao Ming looked at the soldiers' drills and said to Tang Tong and Li Benshen beside him: "Dig a moat and approach the city, and then set up mortars in the trenches to bombard them. The soldiers took the opportunity to grab the city. What is the chance of winning?"

Li Ben said in a deep voice: "Digging the trench and entering the city wall can indeed reduce casualties among the soldiers."

Tang Tongze said: "There are often three fortress walls in the Western Yi fortress, each of which is higher than the outside. This means that when the soldiers attack the first fortress wall, the enemy troops on the two fortress walls above can directly shoot the soldiers of the fortress. This is definitely difficult to break. However, the Prime Minister asked the workshop to rush to make mortar cannons and equipped them with flowering bullets that can be used for mortar cannons. When attacking the fort, the mortar cannons cannons be shot at the two city walls behind to suppress the enemy. If the effect is good, the Western Yi bastion is not impossible to conquer, but the specific effect is still necessary to wait for the mortar cannons to be transported."

Donghai Town has also built several bastions, but they only have a shape and are not as complicated as Western-style bastions.

When Zhao Ming took down Chikan Castle and attacked Rezhalan Castle, he realized that the defense of Xiyi Castle was far higher than that of Donghai Town.

Zhao Ming said in a deep voice: "You can do the drill first. Our town will urge Huaxing Company to transport the mortars as soon as possible."

The two generals immediately clasped their fists, "The last general will obey the order!"

Five days later, a small boat sailing from the North Passage was docked on the shore at the edge of the Dayuan Bay Wharf.

Gu Yanwu led a British businessman to the ashore. The officer guarding the dock immediately stepped forward to greet him and sent someone to inform Zhao Ming.

The British merchant stood on the dock, looked at the harbor, and parked seventy or eighty warships, and looked at the Hotzelan Castle and Dayuan Bay in the distance.

"Mr. Smith, please come here!" Gu Yanwu was quite polite.

The British arrived in China decades ago and started trade.

However, because of the tension between Britain and the Netherlands in Europe, the two sides remained unstoppable at sea, and the Netherlands replaced Portugal and controlled Malacca, and British ships were difficult to pass, so the trade between Britain and China was greatly reduced.

This time, the British merchant ships came to China. Speaking of their purpose, they were actually consistent with Zhao Ming's purpose of finding the British, and they were all for finding allies.

In recent years, the war between Britain and the Netherlands for maritime overlords has entered a critical moment. Britain discovered that the Dutch East India Company was defeated by China and intended to cooperate with China.

For this reason, the British East India Company intended to contact China. They first went to the Lion City in Sri Lanka and contacted Donghai Town, which was left behind. After learning that they could not make the decision, they took the risk of bypassing Malacca and entering Nanyang.

However, because Britain had little trade with China and did not know much about China, they did not find Taiwan, but went to Fujian to see Zheng Chenggong.
Chapter completed!