Xu Xinsu, who was walking towards the bottom of the mountain, thought that he had finally completed the emperor's task and uprooted the Spanish stronghold in Taiwan, and his heart suddenly became happy, leaving behind a little unhappiness about Guo Qing.

He easily recovered the Spanish stronghold in Tamsui, and learned from the captives that there were now less than 200 Spaniards on the island of Jilongsheliao, and 3 or 400 Filipino natives who built the city of San Salvador. Xu Xinsu suddenly thought that going to the chicken coop was just another armed march.

But he did not expect that in just two years, the Spaniards had already built a two-story fortified fortress on the island, and they were even raising the third floor and building a circular fortress on the side of the castle to strengthen the defense of San Salvador.

The city of San Salvador looks like a diamond-shaped castle with a side length of about 100 meters, and the top of the castle has suddenly shrunk inward by nearly a third, greatly reducing the area of defense, and the castle is located in the westernmost protrusion of the island, which is close to the water in all directions except the northeast, which makes the castle look more difficult to capture.

The castle tightly guarded the bay in the harbor, which made it impossible for ships to enter the bay surrounded by the island of Sheliao, and therefore to besiege it from the sea.

The island is actually divided into three parts, namely the main island of Sheliao Island, Tongpanyu Island, and Zhongshan Island, and there is only a very shallow waterway between the three islands, which looks like a large island has been broken into three petals. However, there is a narrow waterway between Sheliao Island and the main island of Taiwan, which can accommodate small fishing boats of 2 to 30 tons.

The combined shape of the three islands resembles a figure of seven, with the root of the long southwest end separated from the main island of Taiwan by only a short waterway, and the short end of the northwest facing the protruding corner across the bay.

It looked like a man had stretched out his hands and wanted to embrace the sea. A pool of clear water lies quietly in the embrace of Sheliao Island, becoming a natural haven.

The city of San Salvador stands abruptly on the short handle of the figure 7, which looks completely out of place with the beautiful scenery around it.

When Xu Xinsu and Peter appeared in the sea outside Joncoop Harbor with a huge fleet of more than 20 ships, the Spanish soldiers standing guard on the city wall had already sounded the alarm.

The Spaniards and Filipino natives who were working on the island immediately abandoned their work and ran desperately towards the castle when they heard the bell.

Xu Xin's timing was really unfortunate, he originally thought that there were less than 200 white soldiers in San Salvador City, and some indigenous people with little fighting power.

But in fact, this is not the case, just a few days ago, the "San Juan", which was carrying supplies, finally arrived at Joncoop Harbor after delaying the agreed supply period for half a month.

The San Juan was a Spanish galleon of more than 500 tons, armed with 24 advanced guns and a small army of 119 men. At sea, this is a formidable force.

In the entire Viceroyalty of Manila, there are only six galleons like the San Juan, and two of them must have sailed on the Manila-Mexico route.

When Peter's three plywood galleons saw such a galleon blocked in the chicken coop harbor by themselves, they immediately became excited.

The destruction of this galleon would be equivalent to the loss of a quarter of the maritime power of the Governorate of Manila, and the Spanish power in Southeast Asia would be even more weakened.

However, compared to this galleon, the Dutch and the Ming coalition were a little unable to do it.

If they wanted to storm the harbor and capture the galleon, they had to prepare for the artillery fire of the city of San Salvador. Neither Peter nor Xu Xinsu was confident that they would be able to rush into this narrow channel under the cover of the artillery fire formed by the citadel and the "San Juan".

In fact, if it weren't for the "San Juan" blocking the "San Juan" in the chicken coop harbor, neither of them was confident that they would be able to stop the "San Juan" with the sails raised.

The governor of Batavia, Quin, wanted to use this war to provoke contradictions between China and the Spaniards, so as to relieve the pressure on the Spaniards on the Spice Islands.

Therefore, he sent only three armed merchant ships of more than 300 tons, and these merchant ships only had 12 cannons, and they were all old goods eliminated from the Dutch navy.

These three armed merchant ships were more than enough to deal with Asian ships with a sparse number of guns, but they were definitely not enough to deal with a fully armed Manila galleon, which was already very close to the performance of a professional warship.

As for Xu Xinsu's ships, most of them were merchant ships sailing in the coastal waters, and only his own battle ship was barely equipped with 8 Franc engines, which could be used as warships. The combined combat effectiveness of the ships under his command was really less than the three ships in Peter's hands.

The coast near Sheliao Island is full of strange rocks and reefs, and under the erosion of the sea breeze and sea water, there are many strange rocks and strange rocks, but they are not suitable for landing.

Although the narrow and shallow waterway between Sheliao Island and the main island of Taiwan allowed several boats under Xu Xinsu to pass through, at the other end of the waterway, there was another plywood sailing boat blocking the exit of the waterway, which obviously ruined their dream of a sneak attack.

With this plywood boat guarding here, it became difficult for them to even go ashore and make a detour and erect a pontoon bridge from land to attack Sheliao Island. Not to mention that near the edge of the waterway on the island, the Spaniards also built a wooden fence.

Peter tried to get his ships to capture the city of San Salvador first, but the sea in front of the castle was too narrow for the ships to turn around, and he was unable to take advantage of the number of ships.

Coupled with the fact that the cannons of his ship were not as long as those of the Spaniards, Peter had to evacuate the entrance to the bay after receiving a single shell.

When the ships returned from the surrounding area, Xu Xinsu and Peter found that they really couldn't find a way to attack this harbor surrounded by mountains.

However, fortunately, the northeast monsoon is blowing now, and the Spaniards have to go against the wind if they want to leave the port, and the Benign-Dutch coalition army waiting outside obviously will not let go of this good opportunity, so the Spaniards cannot flee back to the Philippines to ask for help.

Dong Weixian and Guo Qing, who were staying on the boat in the rear, watched the sun set in the west, and finally couldn't bear it, and took advantage of the slightly smaller wind and waves to run to Xu Xinsu's boat in a traffic boat. Soon Peter came over the boat.

The four of them carefully discussed the current predicament, and after Guo Qing saw the simple terrain of Chicken Coop Harbor, he decided that if he wanted to capture the city of San Salvador, he could only succeed by attacking from the narrow waterway in the east, occupying the hills east of the city of San Salvador, and condescendingly bombarding the interior of the castle with artillery.

Before that, the plywood guarding the waterway had to be dealt with, lest it interfere with the landing of the Four Seas Battalion.

Guo Qing's proposal was supported by Dong Weixian, and the two also thought that the best way was to send someone to row a dinghy from the waterway tonight to attack the plywood sailboat.

As for the opinions of the two, Peter felt that it didn't matter, anyway, his ships were going to block the port, and they would definitely not participate in this risky night attack.

After thinking about it for a long time, Xu Xinsu finally accepted this suggestion. Withdrawing like this is definitely not in line with the emperor's requirements for him.

As long as there is a chance, he still wants to give it a try. Those who can serve as night raiders are naturally those who are familiar with water and have no night blindness, and the sailors under him are the mainstay.

Dong Weixian also personally selected 20 elite people from the Four Seas Battalion, but his idea of going into battle in person was stopped by the three.

It was Guo Qing, although he didn't say anything, but he set off with the sneak attack troops that night.

In order to cover up this sneak attack, the Combined Fleet did not make any more tentative attacks, but began to land on the eastern side of the harbor on the promontory opposite the city of San Salvador.

This cape also guards half of the port, but the land connected to the main island of Taiwan does not have much flat place, and it immediately enters the hills and forests from the flat coastline.

Perhaps the Spaniards did not set up forts here because they felt that the backdrop of the mountains made it difficult to withstand attacks from behind, and that most of the risks they faced in their Asian colonies came from inland rather than from sea.

After seeing the Ming and Dutch landing here, the Spaniards immediately became vigilant and moved most of their forces to the east of the castle, for fear of being attacked by the coalition forces at night.

After successfully attracting the attention of the Spaniards, 200 people took 10 large boats and took advantage of the high tide to enter the waterway.

The Spanish presence on the island, including indigenous Filipino people, numbered about 600 people, while the San Juan had about 200 people.

If they were all huddled in the castle, it might be a force indeed. But now scattered on two ships, in the castle, and on the hill defending the waterway, this undoubtedly greatly dispersed their forces.

There were only 67 men on the ships defending the waterway, because the commander in the castle really couldn't arrange more manpower. The captain of the "San Juan" refused the order of the island commander, Waldes, to transfer some men to another ship.

The captain of the San Juan, seeing the Dutch ships in the fleet, completely abandoned the idea of holding the place.

He had only come to deliver supplies, and had no obligation to assist Waldes in holding the place. And the Dutch had several times as many ships in Southeast Asia as the Spaniards, and God knows if they would have reinforcements.

If a real Dutch warship comes to the unfinished defense system of the city of San Salvador, the fall is only a matter of time.

Without the protection of the castle, his "San Juan" would not have become a turtle in an urn. He had only one thought left in his mind, and he saw the opportunity to run out of the harbor first, and then report the matter to Governor Coquela.

As long as Waldes can hold out until he returns with reinforcements, it's a happy situation for all.

However, he did not wait for the opportunity to escape, but heard the sound of shouting and fighting on the sea behind him. In the darkness of the night, he could see nothing but a few fires on the ship in the distance.

On nights like these, it was clear that the San Juan could not support its companions behind them, and they could only pray that they would hold out until dawn.

But after about two hours, the sound of the fight gradually subsided. The people on the "San Juan" understood that the companions on that ship were finished.