Rise of a Lonely City: From Exiled Prince to Ruler of the Nine Provinces

The night in Heliao Port was shrouded in suppressed breathing, low commands, and the faint sound of metal rubbing together.

Countless dark figures slid down rope nets from the warships anchored in the open sea, jumped into swaying small boats, and were then propelled toward the dark shore by the vigorously rowing paddles.

The gentle kiss of the waves on the beach masked most of the sounds of the landing.

Led by Guo Huaiyi and his guides who were familiar with the terrain, the first batch of elite troops from the Great Xia Army—two thousand battle-hardened soldiers from Zhejiang and Fujian—carrying swords, spears, muskets, rattan shields, and most importantly, several lightweight tiger-squat cannons, silently set foot on the land of Taiwan. They encountered no resistance.

The Dutch were completely focused on the fleet led by Gan Hui, which was showing off its power in front of Fort Zeelandia, and neglected to guard the seemingly calm mudflats to the north.

The landing operation lasted all night and into the early morning.

By noon the following day, more than 5,000 Xia soldiers, hundreds of pack horses, and a large amount of food, gunpowder, and tents had successfully landed and established a relatively stable beachhead near Heliao Port.

On the makeshift watchtower, sentries vigilantly watched both the inland and coastal directions.

"My lord, the land forces have completed their landing. The vanguard has advanced ten miles toward the Taijiang Inner Sea and has not encountered any large groups of barbarians. There are only a few scattered savages spying on us, but they have been driven away by the scouts."

Inside the central command tent, Army Commander Chen Peng reported to Zheng Zhilong.

Zheng Zhilong, dressed in light armor, stood before a hastily drawn sketch of the west coast of Taiwan and nodded: "Very good. Chen Peng, you will lead three thousand men, carrying ten tiger-squat cannons, and immediately head south to Fort Provintia! This city is relatively small and weakly defended, and it faces Fort Zeelandia across the sea."

Your mission is to surround it, cut off its connection with Fort Zeelandia, and if possible, defeat it quickly; if not, surround it without attacking, ensuring it cannot support Fort Zeelandia!

"This subordinate obeys!"

"The rest of the tribes, follow me, advance south along the coast, and approach Fort Zeelandia! Guo Huaiyi!"

"Your subordinate is here!" Guo Huaiyi clasped his hands in greeting. He had been officially appointed by Zheng Zhilong as the commander of the guide battalion.

"You will lead your men familiar with the route, and dispatch a team of elite scouts to reconnoiter the area around Fort Zeelandia, including the terrain, the layout of the artillery positions, the size of the forces, and especially the location of its water and supply lines!"

"Yes, sir!"

The Great Xia army acted swiftly and decisively.

Chen Peng led 3,000 land troops southward rapidly along the west coast of the Taijiang Inner Sea, sweeping away several small tax offices and outposts set up by the Dutch along the way. On the afternoon of the third day, his army arrived at the city of Provintia.

This castle was much smaller than Fort Zeelandia, with fewer than two hundred defenders. Upon seeing the suddenly appearing, well-organized army of the Great Xia, they panicked and quickly closed the city gates, raised the drawbridge, and fired cannons toward Fort Zeelandia to send a distress signal and request reinforcements.

However, Fort Zeelandia itself was also facing immense pressure. Zheng Zhilong personally led the main force, joining forces with Gan Hui's blockade fleet, to launch a pincer attack on Fort Zeelandia by land and sea.

Fort Zeelandia, one of the Dutch East India Company’s most important strongholds in the Far East, had by this time become an isolated hedgehog.

Inside the castle, Governor Kui listened with a grim face to the series of bad news: a large number of "Xia Kingdom" troops had appeared in the north, their numbers unknown; Prominzhe City was besieged and requested reinforcements; Dayuan Bay was completely blockaded by the enemy fleet, and the few armed merchant ships in the harbor dared not leave; the fast ship sent to Batavia for help was sunk while attempting to break through the blockade...

"Your Excellency, we are completely surrounded."

The military commander, a major named Van der Leyden, spoke in a dry voice, "There are currently 967 garrison troops in the castle, including soldiers, sailors, and armed employees. There are 42 cannons, but fewer than 30 can be used for land defense. Food reserves can last for four months, but gunpowder and shells... in the event of sustained high-intensity artillery battles, may only last for a month."

"Where are the reinforcements? When will Batavia send reinforcements?" the merchant representative asked anxiously.

Kui shook his head bitterly: "The messenger didn't manage to leave. Even if he had, it would take Batavia at least three months, or even longer, to receive the news and organize reinforcements. Besides, how many reinforcements do you think Batavia could send after Liaoluo Bay?"

A deathly silence fell over the council chamber. Everyone understood that they had been abandoned on this isolated island, facing a formidable adversary who had just defeated the combined Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch fleet.

"We have no choice."

Kui stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the dense military camps and the forest of sails on the sea in the distance outside the city. A trace of despair flashed in his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a desperate frenzy like a cornered beast.

"Fort Zeelandia was built by the company at great expense, using the best materials. Its bastion design is sufficient to withstand the bombardment of any artillery in this era! We have enough food and loyal soldiers! As long as we hold out until Batavia's reinforcements arrive, or... or let these Easterners bleed to death beneath this fortress and retreat in despair!"

He whirled around and roared at the officers, "Mobilize everyone who can handle a weapon! Fortify the fortifications! Inspect every cannon! Count every shell! We must show these yellow-skinned barbarians that the walls of the Dutch fortress are not to be easily breached!"

"Yes, Your Excellency!"

Jelande has begun intensive preparations for the war.

The bastion's slope was reinforced again, wooden palisades were erected around its perimeter, and the walls were piled high with rolling logs, stones, and oil canisters. All the cannons were put into their positions, and the artillerymen stood guard day and night.

Outside the city, the Great Xia army's camps were also rapidly expanding. Zheng Zhilong was not in a hurry to launch an attack.

He knew that Fort Zeelandia was not like a warship at sea; it was a fortified bastion, and a direct assault would inevitably result in heavy losses. He adopted a strategy of steady and cautious advance.

"Dig! Dig three trenches around Red-haired City! Each one deeper and closer than the last!" Zheng Zhilong ordered.

This was a classic tactic he learned from Western prisoners of war and military books for dealing with bastions—approaching with parallel trenches and sawtooth trenches.

Thousands of Xia soldiers and conscripted local laborers began digging the first parallel trench a few hundred paces outside Fort Zeelandia.

The soil was turned over and piled on the side facing the castle, forming a simple breastwork.

The Dutch artillery began firing sporadically in an attempt to disrupt the excavation work, but the distance was too far and the accuracy too limited, so the effect was minimal.

Several days later, the first parallel trench was dug. Zheng Zhilong deployed twenty medium cannons, which had been unloaded from the ships, to their positions behind the first trench and began to bombard the walls and exposed gun emplacements of Fort Zeelandia in a regular manner.

Although these cannons did limited damage to the main body of the bastion, they effectively suppressed the defenders' firepower and began to damage the crenellations and some salients on the walls.

Immediately afterwards, the Great Xia engineers began digging a zigzag trench from the first parallel trench forward, slowly and steadily extending it toward the castle.

These trenches effectively reduced the casualties from the defenders' direct fire. The Dutch fired heavily with cannons and arquebuses, causing some casualties to the digging work, but they could not stop the trenches from advancing inch by inch.

"We can't let those yellow-skinned monkeys dig anymore! Organize an attack and destroy their trenches!" the chief ordered.

Late one night, under the cover of darkness, hundreds of Dutch soldiers quietly opened the side gate and charged toward the nearest trench, shouting.

However, the Xia army was prepared for this. The musketeers and archers lying in ambush in the trenches immediately opened fire, and the reserves on the flanks quickly surrounded them.

In the night battle, the Dutch gained no advantage, leaving behind dozens of corpses as they retreated in disarray back into the city. Meanwhile, the Great Xia army's trenches continued to extend forward the following day.

The siege entered a tedious and brutal phase of attrition. Every day, both sides would engage in sporadic artillery fire and sniper attacks.

The trenches of the Great Xia army, like wriggling earthworms, relentlessly approached the castle. Meanwhile, Fort Zeelandia, like a silent behemoth, responded to each approaching attempt with fierce artillery fire.

As time passed, Zheng Zhilong's brows furrowed more deeply. The trench advance was slower than he had anticipated, the defending troops were putting up an exceptionally fierce resistance, and the daily consumption of food and ammunition by the large army on the field was staggering.

More importantly, a sword always hung over his mind—the reinforcements from Batavia.

Once Dutch reinforcements arrive, the battle will be turned around instantly, with forces attacking from both inside and outside.

"We can't wait any longer." Zheng Zhilong made a decision, looking at the last section of the trench on the map, which had advanced to within a hundred paces of the castle's outer wall.

"Order Gan Hui: the Xuanwu and several other newer, shallow-draft ships, advance to the closest safe distance to the front of Fort Zeelandia and concentrate their guns on the older-looking section of the city wall in the southeast corner of the castle! All artillery in the army, concentrate your fire on that area as well!"

The "Xuanwu" is another new type of warship launched by Longjiang Shipyard after the "Qinglong", "Baihu" and "Zhuque", with even more ferocious firepower.

Several days later, the black behemoth, escorted by several frigates, approached Fort Zeelandia. At the same time, more than thirty cannons of various types on land adjusted their muzzles.

"Target: Southeast corner wall of enemy city—all ships fire!"

"Army artillery, all targets aligned—Fire!"

At Zheng Zhilong's command, artillery fire from both the sea and land directions roared simultaneously!

Dozens of heavy solid shot, trailing deadly trajectories, slammed into a section of the city wall at the southeast corner of Fort Zeelandia.

According to observations and prisoners' confessions, that area was a relatively weak point when the castle was first built. Although it was later reinforced, it was still a possible point of attack.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Shells rained down on the city walls like hail, sending bricks and stones flying and filling the air with dust.

The defenders were stunned by the sudden and fierce artillery barrage. Although they quickly organized a counterattack, the guns of warships such as the "Xuanwu" were extremely powerful and maneuverable on the sea, making them difficult to completely suppress.

After a full morning of intense shelling, a section of the southeast corner of the city wall finally developed noticeable cracks and dents.

"Cease fire!" Seeing the effect, Zheng Zhilong ordered a halt to the shelling.

Then he summoned the commander of the engineering battalion and several Portuguese craftsmen recruited from Macau who knew how to use explosives.

"Do you see that crack?"

Zheng Zhilong pointed to the city wall, "I want you to dig a tunnel from the end of the last trench all the way to the bottom of that section of the city wall! Then, plant all our explosives!"

"Tunnel blasting?" The engineering commander's eyes lit up. This was a very sharp but also very dangerous move in siege warfare.

"That's right!"

Zheng Zhilong's gaze turned icy. "The Red-haired Barbarians' castle is fortified; a direct assault would result in too many casualties. We'll blast it from below! How long will that take you?"

The Portuguese craftsman estimated the distance and soil conditions: "My lord, if we continue day and night, and the Red-haired Barbarians don't find us, it will probably take... ten days."

"I'll give you seven days!"

Zheng Zhilong said decisively, "As many people as you need, allocate them! But it must be done covertly, absolutely without being discovered! Otherwise, all our previous efforts will be in vain!"

"Yes! This subordinate will certainly not fail in his mission!"

A secret tunnel began to be dug quietly from the end of the communication trench at the forefront of the Great Xia army, without the knowledge of the defenders of Zeelandia, towards the section of the city wall that had been bombarded by heavy artillery.

Meanwhile, the artillery fire outside the city became sparse and deceptive, as if the Great Xia army had lost patience with a direct assault and was preparing for a long siege.

Governor Kuiyi stood on the city wall, looking at the Xia army camps outside the city that seemed to have "slackened" and the giant ships that had temporarily retreated on the sea, but he felt no relief at all.

An ominous premonition, like a cold, venomous snake, coiled around his heart.

He didn't know where the danger came from, but he knew that his opponent, Zheng Zhilong, would never give up.

The sound of cannon fire from Fort Zeelandia temporarily subsided.

But everyone knows that this is just the calm before the storm.

A deadly threat is silently spreading underground.