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The three warships under De Wet may not be very valuable in the Netherlands, but in Ming Dynasty, the cannons on these three warships are worth more than one million taels of silver, so Tang Tong offered a bounty to the Japanese. For every Dutch killed, Tang Tong would reward them with one hundred taels of silver. Tang Tong estimated that there were only a thousand Dutch people at most, and he could offer a maximum of one hundred thousand taels of silver to encourage those red-eyed Japanese to kill the Dutch.
As for Liu Xiang's men, Tang Tong offered a reward of ten taels of silver for each of them. Although Liu Xiang's men were not from the Ming Dynasty, in Tang Tong's eyes, those who worked for the Dutch were traitors and deserved to die.
One hundred taels of silver is a huge concept. It can allow a Japanese to live happily for ten years. So when Tang Tong offered a reward, not only did the five thousand Japanese who had fought in the war become greedy, but even the Japanese laborers working on the construction site picked up their hammers, shovels, hoes and other tools and joined the battle team.
Tang Tong asked Yagyu Saburo and the Yagyu family to lead these nearly 30,000 Japanese and divided them into 100 small teams. In order to boost the morale of the Japanese, Tang Tong also made a promise that anyone who died in the battle would have his family become a Ming Dynasty person and enjoy the treatment of Ming Dynasty people. His wife and children would be given priority in jobs.
At this time, being a Ming citizen was a great honor for the Japanese. Tang Tong's order boosted the morale of the Japanese. In front of a strong enemy, the Japanese were a very obedient group of people. Several months of labor life made these people more disciplined, and one hundred small teams were quickly organized.
Tang Tong arranged the 5,000 Japanese who had fought in the war at the artillery position. His tasks were twofold: one was to assist the gunners, and the other was to lure the enemy deep into the land when the enemy landed. The other Japanese stayed in the rear, and would counterattack when Tang Tong's soldiers moved to the enemy's rear.
DeWite saw through the telescope the thousands of Japanese who were heading to the coast. They were wearing all kinds of clothes and holding knives in their hands, but not a single one was wearing armor. DeWite couldn't help but laugh even more happily, because these people looked worse than pirates and were the easiest targets for his artillery fire. The only thing that puzzled DeWite was how this Ming army, which was obviously a ragtag army, could force the Satsuma tribe of Japan to surrender.
In DeWitt's eyes, people in the East all look the same. These five thousand Japanese who followed Hei Pi to plunder everywhere are now wearing looted clothes, so DeWitt judges people by their clothes, not knowing that these people are actually Japanese.
But Liu Xiang could recognize them. Although these 5,000 Japanese were not wearing Japanese clothes, Liu Xiang could tell at a glance through the telescope that these people were Japanese. So he was very surprised that the Ming army had started to recruit Japanese.
Liu Xiang and De Wet were not on the same ship. Liu Xiang was on his flagship, so although he felt very strange, he could not tell De Wet about his strangeness. However, Liu Xiang did not care much. With the Dutch here, Liu Xiang believed that once the Dutch cannons sounded, these Japanese would be defeated.
"Report to the commander, the Ming army has entered our firing range." A Dutch soldier, De Wet, saluted and reported loudly.
"Hey, Sergeant, get out of here. Now, it's time for us to teach these yellow monkeys a lesson." DeWitt waved his hand and turned to look at the men around him.
"Yes, sir. Our country's interests will never allow these yellow-skinned monkeys to interfere. We believe that under your leadership, we will leave a deep impression on the Ming army." A man with reddish hair flattered DeWite, as if victory was just around the corner.
"Oh, sir, look, what is that? Oh my God, that's the same cannon as ours..." A man who was observing the coast with a telescope suddenly shouted, with a hint of panic in his voice, because the distance between the two sides was only about 2,500 meters, and his ship was within the enemy's range.
De Wet hurriedly picked up the telescope and took a look. Sure enough, there were dozens of cannons lined up on the coastline. He didn't see them just now because the enemy had camouflaged them. Now the camouflage was gone, and the thick muzzles pointed at the sea, revealing their ferocious faces.
"Oh, my God! These Ming people are so cunning! They always disregard the principles of chivalry and always prefer to use such despicable means. However, in front of our great Dutch army, even a clownish action will not work. The Spanish and Portuguese in the past couldn't do it, and the Ming people now can't do it either. Our Dutch army is invincible." De Wet put down the telescope, waved his fist and shouted, "Prepare to shoot!"
Boom! Before the Dutch cannons could fire, forty-six cannons on the coast fired at the same time. Since hundreds of ships were concentrated when sailing, most of the shells fell on Liu Xiang's ships. Only one shell fell on the Dutch ship, killing several Dutchmen. More than a hundred of Liu Xiang's men died, and more than a dozen ships were damaged. One of them was a small boat that could only carry thirty or forty people, which was sunk by a single shot.
"Shoot, shoot back, oh, God, these Ming people are so shameless, as shameless as that damn Zheng Yi Guan." DeWitt howled loudly.
Zheng Yi Guan was Zheng Zhilong's former name. When Zheng Zhilong worked for the Dutch, De Wet and Zheng Zhilong had a good relationship. However, now the two have become extremely jealous enemies for their own interests.
Following De Wet's order, the thirty-six cannons on one side of the Dutch ship fired, but a miraculous scene appeared. On the shore where there were many people just now, most of the people suddenly disappeared. Only the people who were loading shells by the cannons on the shore were still there. However, the targets of those cannons were too small. After the thirty-six shells were fired, only a few people were injured, but no one was killed. Seeing this scene, De Wet was so angry that he almost dropped the telescope in his hand.
After the shells exploded, the disappeared people reappeared, and some of them cheered loudly. At the same time, someone came forward to carry the injured to the back. After a while, the cannons on the coast sounded again. This time, most of the shells fell on the ships under Liu Xiang's command. It was their fault that their ships were crowded together, making them such a difficult target. Liu Xiang deserved it. Fortunately, no shells fell on the three Dutch ships because Tang Tong wanted to capture these three Dutch ships.
Later, De Wet learned his lesson and did not fire the cannons on the three ships at the same time. Instead, he ordered the cannons on the three ships to fire in turn. In this way, when the shells on one ship were fired, the Japanese hiding in the hiding caves thought that this round of shells had passed and came out of the hiding caves. As a result, they were hit by the shells from the two ships behind, killing and injuring more than 200 people. After that, these Japanese did not dare to run out of the hiding caves easily again.
After suffering losses from the second round of artillery shells, Liu Xiang quickly ordered his ships to disperse and rush to the dock on the coast. Although Liu Xiang had so many men and many ships, he did not have a single Western red cannon, only copper cannons. When he was under Zheng Zhilong, it was because Zheng Zhilong always armed his own people first after he had the cannon, but never gave Liu Xiang a single cannon, which made Liu Xiang rebellious.
As for the Dutch, they had learned their lesson from Zheng Zhilong long ago and would never do what Zheng Zhilong did, raising a dog to feed a tiger, only to have the tiger bite them in the end.
As Liu Xiang's ships dispersed, the losses were reduced. His men were all desperate men, and they were very brave at this time. They approached the dock despite the artillery fire from the shore. After reaching the range of the bronze cannons, they began to fight back from the shore.
After seeing the enemy's fierce firepower, Tang Tong ordered the gunners and 5,000 Japanese to retreat. When Liu Xiang's men saw that the so-called Ming army could not withstand their firepower and retreated, they all cheered.
Seeing that the Ming army had abandoned their positions and fled, De Wet smiled with satisfaction. So far, none of his three ships had suffered any damage, with only a few casualties. De Wet was certainly satisfied with such a result. As for how many people under his lackey Liu Xiang had died, De Wet didn't care at all.
What De Wet didn't know was that Tang Tong was also very satisfied with the current results of the battle. Only a few of his gunners were killed or wounded. Although many Japanese died, Tang Tong didn't care about the casualties of the Japanese, because these Japanese were not his dogs, but just cannon fodder bought with his money. If they were Tang Tong's dogs, Tang Tong would still take better care of them. In Tang Tong's view, raising a dog is not easy, so you still have to take good care of it before using it.
Liu Feng is Liu Xiang's cousin and also a fierce general under Liu Xiang. He was the first person to approach the dock and jump onto the shore. Looking at the Japanese people fleeing in panic in the distance, Liu Feng laughed arrogantly a few times and raised the big knife in his hand.
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