"Let the blacksmith guys move quickly, it's the time of the war, don't tell me anything you can't do!" Alcarazo yelled angrily, "Whoever doesn't obey the order will arrest me!"

The city of Salvador was short of ammunition, which would prevent the defenders from gaining an advantage in the defensive line for long, and Alcarazo was so anxious that he could only order the concentration of iron weapons and cast cannonballs throughout the city. As soon as this order was given, the city was naturally a chaotic scene of chickens flying and dogs jumping. There are those who want to take advantage of this opportunity to fish in troubled waters to make a fortune, and there are also those who are unwilling to sacrifice their personal interests and hand over the iron tools at home. The only blacksmith shop in the city currently has only apprentices and no masters, and it is even more hurried and slow to progress in this unexpected situation.

How effective this temporary action can be, Alcarazo didn't dare to think about it, and if the Haihan people showed no signs of retreating after the shells, then everyone might have to think about other solutions. However, while trying to raise more ammunition, Alcaraso did not forget to give orders to the troops outside the city, asking them to slow down the frequency of artillery bombardment, and even consider putting the Haihan people ashore before fighting.

"What are you kidding!" the front-line commander scoffed at the suggestion from Alcarazo's order, the artillery battle just now had made the defenders fully realize the advantages of the Haihan Army in terms of long-range weapon performance, and their naval guns were more powerful than their own coastal defense guns, but they suffered from the ups and downs of the sea and could not maintain stable aiming. If the Haihan army is released ashore, then my own artillery position will probably be given a little name by the opponent's artillery soon.

Of course, the commander also realized that the ammunition stock was running low, and the frequency of the shelling had to be slowed down. But this meant that Haihan's warships were able to fire more brazenly from the sea against the limited number of shore anti-aircraft guns on the coast.

Half an hour later, the Haihan fleet, which had circled the sea, returned to the shore of Sheliao Island and carried out a second round of shelling against the Spanish line. This time, the Spaniards' counterattack was significantly sparser than when the war began, and the trouble caused to Haihan was much less.

"What are the Spaniards doing?" Takahashi Minami naturally noticed this situation, but he didn't think of the real reason for the other party's change for a while.

Although there are no very clear statistics of the results, Takahashi Minami concluded that at least two-thirds of the artillery on the opponent's defense line is still able to fight normally, and this counterattack without a single cannon is really a bit abnormal. With the current frequency and density of shelling, the special operations battalion can directly carry out the landing, but Takahashinan is still a little worried about the opponent's tricks, and maybe he hopes that the Haihan army will launch a landing and then attack halfway. He couldn't have imagined that it had not been long since the war began, and the Spaniards had to carefully plan their limited ammunition use.

If it had been before, Takahashi Nan might have taken this risk to launch an offensive, but before this expedition, Qian Tiandun specially told him that this time he independently commanded the campaign to attack the Taipei area, he must be safe first, and if there is something unstable, he will directly break it with force, and there is no need to risk his life. Thinking of this, Takahashi Minami ordered to continue the current tactics, intending to use artillery fire to destroy the defense line on the shore as much as possible before landing. Of course, he ordered the more rugged Expedition-class ships to rush closer to the shore to shorten the firing range and increase the pressure on the coastal defenders.

As the fleet approached the coastline closer, the accuracy of hits increased slightly, and in the second round of shelling, several shells hit the Spanish line directly, causing a certain degree of lethality. For the Spanish infantry, who had been passively beaten, the current passive situation had not been encountered in the past few years, not to mention the local indigenous tribes, who had not been beaten unilaterally even in the first armed conflict with the Dutch.

However, the Spanish army was forced to run out of ammunition, and it was true that they could no longer use the original tactics of bombardment, and could only grit their teeth to withstand the continuous bombardment of the Haihan naval guns. At present, they can only hope that the ammunition reserves of the Haihan Army are also limited, and they will withdraw here on their own after the battle.

Of course, this was just a delusion on the part of the Spaniards, and instead of worrying about the consumption of ammunition, Takahashi Minami simply ordered the expedition-class warships to stay on the shore to carry out artillery bombardment, and at the same time let the troop transports slowly lean towards the coast to prepare for the official landing.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, two troop carriers, under the cover of four expedition-class warships, approached the dock on the shore and began to carry out the landing. At this time, the Spanish defense line had completely lost the initiative, half of the ten gun emplacements had been muted, and nearly one-third of the infantry deployed on the defense line had lost their combat effectiveness, and the counterattack that could be carried out was far less powerful than when the battle began. However, the Spaniards' will to fight did not crumble, and the city did not give the order to retreat, and they would continue to hold on to the only line of defense outside the city.

Sun Zhen was fortunate to be one of the first Haihan soldiers to set foot on Sheliao Island, but in the face of stray bullets fired from the enemy's defense line a hundred meters away, he couldn't care about being excited about this honor at all. Under the loud shouts of the platoon commander, the infantry who had landed ashore dispersed and marched forward in a cat-bent posture. This combat method is completely different from the formation rotation firing tactics adopted by other Haihan army units, and it is a tactic specially designed by Qian Tiandun for special operations battalions. Although some fighters thought that such a gesture was too obscene and not imposing enough, the actual combat effect told them that the chief's decision was still as wise as ever. This seemingly obscene and chaotic way of marching on the battlefield can effectively reduce the hit rate of the enemy's muskets.

The Spaniards were already under great pressure on their defensive lines, and they thought that they could stop the enemy infantry from landing with simple fortifications, but only then did they realize that they had no intention of regrouping their ranks after the landing and forming a regular musketeer formation before attacking. As a result, the defenders' tactics of using platoon guns to attack when the enemy forces were assembled were largely frustrated, and most of the ammunition was wasted when they fired at the sparse skirmishers at a distance of 100 meters.

The remaining few artillery pieces were no longer a sufficient deterrent to the Haihan army, and the Haihan fleet even simply dropped anchor at the harbor with impunity, so that the naval guns could fire in a more stable state, thereby enhancing the hit rate. At present, the gap in the number of artillery pieces still in battle between the two sides has widened to nearly 10 to 1, and in such a situation, let alone exert combat effectiveness, the countdown has already entered the countdown for the few remaining artillery pieces to be fired one by one.

At the same time as the first infantry company completed the landing, the concentrated fire of the naval guns hit the powder keg next to one of the gun emplacements on the defending line, and the violent explosion threw the six gunners on the gun emplacement, along with the artillery, which finally led to the psychological collapse of the defenders of the defensive line. Ignoring the officer's angry reprimands, some of the soldiers began to turn around and retreat into the city. The collapse of part of the line soon set off a chain reaction, as more and more soldiers found that their line was no longer able to withstand enemy artillery fire, and if they did not evacuate the dangerous area, the infantry would be completely exposed to enemy fire after the few remaining gun emplacements were cleared.

"The Spaniards are instigated!" Takahashi Minami was also greatly relieved after confirming this scene through the binoculars. Of course, he would not doubt the ability of his troops to take this line of defense, but if the losses and consumption in the process were too large, it would inevitably affect the subsequent siege battles. But so far, both the ammunition consumption and the casualties are far below Takahashi's expectations, because what he was originally prepared to deal with was an opponent who had received the news and was fully prepared. Although the offensive was delayed for two days due to weather conditions, the Spaniards, who were also affected by the weather, were unable to take advantage of these two days, and the defensive line was broken after only half a day.

At the same time, the Spanish commander Alcarazo, who was watching the battle at the head of the city, was furious: "These shameful deserters! traitors! I will send these cowards to the gallows in the name of the governor of El Salvador!"

Of course, Alcarazo's anger can only stay in words, and the city of El Salvador has a limited number of troops, and the punishment of deserters in large numbers at this unfavorable juncture of the war is very likely to hasten the collapse of the will of the city's armed forces to resist. If he really wanted to send these soldiers who had escaped from the outer line of defense to the gallows, he would undoubtedly be forcing them to turn against the water.

"Where are Fernández and his men?The Haihans have landed, why hasn't he led his troops yet?What the hell is he waiting for!" Alcalázo, who was almost in despair, was already a little panicked, and even put his hope of saving the city of Salvador on three armed sailing ships at sea.

Of course, Fernandez also noticed that the Haihan Army had launched a landing operation, but he did not dare to act rashly under the watchful eye of the other party. He knew that as long as his three ships dared to sail close to Sheliao Island, the three Haihan warships monitoring him on the distant sea would immediately outflank his back road. He watched the battle at sea for a long time, and he already had a relatively clear understanding of the firepower output of the Haihan warships, and he also knew that the three ships under his command were by no means the opponents of the Haihan fleet. If you rush into the battlefield and are attacked by the opponent in front and back, you will have to peel off your skin even if you don't die.

Seeing that the Haihan Army relied on the powerful ship-borne firepower output to destroy the coastal defense line that he thought would be able to support at least three or five days, Fernandez did not dare to command his subordinates to enter the battlefield. If just now the ship-borne firepower of the Haihan Army was focused on attacking the coastal defense line, then now they have the spare energy to return their attention to the sea. At this time, if you bite the bullet and go up, you are basically looking for death.

Although Fernandez is not a greedy person who fears death, he is by no means a reckless man who cannot see the situation on the battlefield. Although the war only lasted for half a day, he already felt the overwhelming superiority of the Haihan army. It was only by this time that Fernandez understood why the Portuguese and the Dutch had been silent after suffering a defeat at the hands of Haihan, presumably having suffered such an overwhelming blow. It would be a shame to make it public, but it was possible to use the power of Haihan to trap other unwitting forces, such as the Spaniards at this moment.

Fernandez really couldn't understand why such an armed force as Haihan suddenly appeared in the Far East, and its combat effectiveness was so strong. Of course, if the main force of the Spanish Royal Fleet is here, it is not too much of a problem to destroy the fleet of the Haihan people head-on, but at the moment, there are only three ships on their own, let alone the landing operation of sniping the enemy, it is difficult to even get close and harass it. If he knew that Alcaraço was eagerly awaiting his armed fleet to save the city of Salvador, he would probably really say "think too much" to Alcarazo.

After breaking down the coastal defenses of the defenders, the Haihan army slowed down the pace of the offensive and began to build beachheads near the shore and unload heavy weapons and ammunition to the shore one by one. The city of Salvador is about a kilometre west of the pier, and as long as the waterway is cut off, attacking this castle really tastes like catching a turtle in an urn. There is no clear time limit for Gao Qiaonan's task at this time, and Qian Tiandun's requirement for him is a steady word, even if it is slow, and he must not go wrong when he independently commands a campaign-level mission for the first time.

Since it is a stable word, Takahashi Minami naturally has to implement it step by step in accordance with the army's regular siege warfare steps. Although the combat environment in which the special operations battalion excels does not include hard-fought siege warfare on the frontal battlefield, this does not mean that the special operations battalion will not fight siege warfare, but in the past, the military top brass would not hand over such tasks to the special operations battalion, an ace unit that mainly fights in the mountains and jungles. The fact that this attack on the Taipei area actually had to complete the attack on two armed strongholds was also a big challenge for the special operations battalion.

It didn't take much effort to take the city of Santo Domingo at the mouth of the Tamsui River, and the special operations battalion perfectly carried out the tasks of setting up ambushes on the periphery to round up the defenders' messengers and sniping the defenders' generals to promote surrender. The city of Salvador was more well defended than Santo Domingo, and the siege was much more difficult - of course, this was a conclusion that did not take into account the tight ammunition of the defenders, otherwise Takahashi Minami would probably change his strategy and speed up the attack on the city of Salvador.

As the defenders watched in fear, the Haihan militia did not launch another offensive against the city of Salvador for the rest of the day, and had been silently transporting various war materials to the shore. Later that evening, observers at the head of the city noticed the presence of what Gusman claimed to be a giant siege cannon on the pier, which was undoubtedly bad news for the defenders.