South of Macau, east of Great Hengqin Island.

A small fleet of fast crabs and three eight-pad boats was Zhang Qifan quickly heading towards the Macau Peninsula to the north. Captain Li Beiji stood at the bow of the fast crab boat and breathed in big mouths. The young man reluctantly patted his boat on the boat, his face full of guilt.

Although Li Beiji was only seventeen years old, he was the old man with the most experienced community. He was one of the young men who followed Li Mingxun from Manila. Like many people, he was called a name like Maoer and Gouer, but the development of the community changed his destiny. This young man who had learned to tie sailors from the Yongjin Ship, spent most of his days on the ship in the past few years. When Li Mingxun personally taught them to learn astronomy, he took the current name, and then from the lookout hand of the Yongjin Ship to the sailing cable of the transport ship, to the sailing captain of the frigate, and finally became the captain of the fast crab gallopy. Half a month ago, he rescued the Fuhai merchant ship in the outer sea and defeated the Bashang Thief, Li Beiji became the commander of a fast crab squadron.

And now, he received a new mission from the Navy commander, modified the ship "Virgium", and went into Macau with the captured eight-altitude boat, disguised as a smuggling ship, to investigate the strength of the Spanish fleet and the Portuguese fleet.

In addition to canceling the four-pound cannon on the bow and the circling cannons on both sides, the camouflage is to change the spinnaker into a common despicable sail for fishermen. Not only does it dirty the hull, but it also loads more than a dozen baskets of stinky fish and rotten shrimps on the boat. This method is commonly used by smuggling boats, and the disgusting smell is that patrol boats in Guangdong and Macau don’t like to get close to them.

The Viper took this small fleet around the rugged coastline of Hengqin Island, heading straight north and into the strait. It faces the Macau Peninsula, located on the east side of Macau, is the location of the Macau inner port. Compared with the outer port facing the community and the Guangdong Navy to the west, it should be safe. Therefore, the Portuguese regarded the inner port as a military port, and wanted Spanish ships to come here too.

In the waters of Hengqin Island, the fleet was intercepted by Guangdong patrol ships. The smell of stinky fish made the tax collectors not boarded the ship. A small bag of broken silver handed over was granted permission to release. Soon, the blue sea was thrown behind him, and the surrounding water surface turned pale yellow.

Macau is getting closer and closer. You can see the low city walls on the south side of the peninsula from afar and the bustling streets behind it. That is Macau’s most prosperous place, Macau Street, which is the most developed residential area in Macau and is also located in the city of Macau.

However, the smooth sailing came to an abrupt end with the arrival of a paddle boat, which was hung with the flag of the Macau Governor, several messile guns and a cyclone cannon that forced Li Beiji to stop the ship.

"What do you do?" asked the Portuguese on the paddle boat vigilantly in skillful Cantonese.

"We are businessmen, here to do business." Li Beiji replied casually.

The Portuguese got on the boat, looked at the fish baskets, covered their noses, and asked, "These smelly fish don't need them in Macau, leave here immediately."

Li Beiji smiled, opened the wooden board under his feet, revealing the strapped raw silk, cotton cloth and more than a dozen bags of rice, and said, "Without these smelly fish, our boat cannot enter so smoothly."

The Portuguese's face immediately looked much better. Since the opening of Hong Kong, Macau's trade status has become lower and lower. There are fewer merchant ships and smuggling ships, and the trade volume of raw silk is getting smaller and smaller. All those who transport raw silk will be regarded as VIPs. The Portuguese smiled and said, "Okay, businessmen, you will be warmly entertained by the kingdom merchants, but you can't go north, but go to Macau Street, with a military zone to the north, and all the Ming people who are close to them will be shot by a mud rope."

Li Beiji's heart tightened, but he had no intention of disobedience. He gave a few instructions to the people behind him. Everyone worked together to pour the smelly fish and shrimps in the bamboo basket into the water. Li Beiji handed a few Spanish silver balls to the Portuguese and said with a smile: "I'm sorry to find a better berth."

"You are a generous person." The Portuguese weighed the silver ball and said.

Li Beiji looked greedy: "I know that the Spaniards defeated the Red Mauyi and brought countless such silver balls in the big sailing ship, and I will make a lot of money."

Guided by Portuguese ships, four ships sailed into the berth on the south side of Macau Street. After landing, the pulpmen happily carried the goods in the cargo hold to the ashore. Everyone carried raw silk and rice to the ashore. After arriving at the south gate, they put the straw sandals tied around their waists on their feet. The Portuguese guarding the gate were no longer surprised. They had seen too many poor Ming people and knew that these people could not even afford to wear shoes. Even straw sandals could only be worn when they entered the city, and they usually would barefoot.

The city of Macau is full of temptation. The streets on both sides are full of goods. The tall houses are filled with aromas of wine and meat. The narrow and dark alleys are the places that sailors love. There are cheap alcohol and coquettish prostitutes. The pulp holders who carry goods are coveting, but their wages have not been paid yet, so they can only follow the sound of Li Beiji's footsteps.

Everyone came to a shop in Macau and put the things in the yard. Li Beiji took out a large amount of copper coins and broken silver and distributed them to nearly forty palms one by one. Each of them had three cents of silver. For them, this was already a huge sum of money.

The hand holding the silver paste was about to leave with excitement. Most people stuffed half of the money into their pockets, which would be left for their wives and children, and the rest would be squandered in Macau. Li Beiji smiled and held down the shoulder of a tall sailor, looked at the money left in his palm, and said, "Brother Seven, this amount of money is not enough to drink, let alone find a woman."

Everyone burst into laughter. Lao Qi licked his mouth and said, "In addition to my wife, there are four children in my family, so it's better to be frugal."

Li Beiji smiled, took out all the money from Lao Qi's pocket and put it in his palm, and said, "I finally came to Macau, how could I feel so wronged? It's delicious, delicious, and fun. Don't worry, I only gave you one-third of your salary."

"Really?" A group of people surrounded him, all of them looking greedy.

Li Beiji said: "Of course, because in five days, there will be another work that you need to do. At that time, the wages will double and there will be a bounty. So you have fun these days. Come here again in five days. I will assign you work!"

Everyone took out all their money, dispersed in a blast, entered brothels, taverns and casinos, and enjoyed everything in Macau.

Li Beiji was left with only four men, each of whom was smart and capable. These were originally subordinates on the Viper. He nodded and whispered: "You are divided into two teams, one team went to see the Viper. The other team was trading in this shop. Remember, you are different from those poor sailors. You are soldiers. You are not allowed to drink or play with women in these five days. All those who come to trade will choose large-scale transactions and must fill this yard."

The four people agreed and went there.

As the sky got darker, Li Beiji entered the door and changed into clothes, dressed in zipper clothes, wrapped his head barefoot and green cloth, poured wine all over his body, and walked out of the yard with a shoulder pole and headed west. He climbed up the Fortress Mountain, twisted the shoulder pole, and took out an exquisite telescope from the hollow. He observed the inner harbor, counted the number of ships inside, carefully identified the flags on the ship, and kept writing and painting on paper.

"There are seven ships in Portugal, one large Galen and two medium-sized ships. The rest are armed merchant ships, six patrol ships and notification ships. The gunboats are disposed north. The specific details are subject to the picture. The patrol ships are in the south. There are five ships in the port, including one cruise ship and one frigate each, and the rest are sloop ships, which are in the middle of the port."

The information on Li Beiji's reconnaissance was soon delivered to Hong Kong. After Simmons summed up the information, he ordered the staff to mark all kinds of information on the map. This is the map of Macau. The terrain information is so detailed that no one except the Portuguese. The information about the fleet was obtained by Li Beiji's pre-war investigation, and the forts, castles, etc. had been summarized one after another as early as the opening of the port in Hong Kong.

As the most important stronghold of the Portuguese in the Far East, it is logical that Macau should be repairing the castle at all costs. But the embarrassment of Macau is that it was the land of the Ming Dynasty, and the Portuguese were also powerless. For decades when Macau opened its port, it has been an unguarded city. It was not until the Dutch East India Company arrived and invaded Macau that Macau began to build a defense system.

After the construction of the city wall in Macau was ordered to be demolished by the Ming Dynasty. However, in the Chongzhen Dynasty, Guangdong and Guangxi were no longer able to stop the Portuguese from building the city wall. Finally, in the fifth year of Chongzhen (1632), the city wall of Macau was finally formed. It was only more than three miles in circumference and less than six meters high. It was built with rammed earth as a basis and was built with stone. However, because the city wall connected to many of the outer forts, the city wall was twisted and starfish-shaped. This city wall was low, and Macau really relied on eight forts.

The largest fort is the large fort located in the north of Macau City. It is also the residence of the Governor of Macau. It has more than 30 cannons and is the core of Macau’s defense. In addition, there are no more forts in the city walls on the north, and there are no artillery points to the north on the fort. This is to show respect for the Ming court. In fact, this situation lasted until the 19th century, and the Qing government was bullied by the great powers in the late Qing Dynasty. The Portuguese knew that the Qing Dynasty was weak and could be bullied, so they occupied Taipa and the road rings and built the fort gate.

The focus of the defense of the fort was to face the east of the Pearl River Estuary. In addition to the Songshan Fort and Wangyangshan Fort at the commanding heights, there were also St. Joao Fort. In order to protect the important commercial center, the Gathlan Fort and St. Peter Fort were also built. In the west wall, the only ones protecting the inner port were Shalitou Fort and Shalan Zaihai Fort. However, these were small turrets, with only five or six guns. The smallest St. Peter Fort even only had an eight-pound cannon.

The defense system of Macau City was not strong at all. Its walls were low and weak. Only the fort was designed reasonably and could cover and support each other. However, the biggest weakness of Macau City was that the strength of the garrison troops was really weak. When the Dutch and British coalition attacked Macau City, there were only fifty defenders in Macau and more than 200 temporary armed civilians. If a priest had not directly hit the Dutch army's gunpowder depot with a cannon on the temporary fort, causing the Dutch army to collapse, then Macau City would have changed hands long ago.

In Macau's history, the Dutch invaded five times, with the strongest strength for the fourth time. Of course, the Netherlands and Britain jointly dispatched a total of twelve warships (two British ships), with only more than a thousand soldiers. The final result was that the Dutch gunpowder depot exploded and the army was in chaos. One hundred and thirty soldiers were killed, more than a hundred were injured, and forty were captured.

Even in the 16th year of Chongzhen more than ten years later, the Macau defenders were not strong enough, with only more than 200 permanent troops. The only thing worth noting is that it is the southwest monsoon season, and Portuguese merchant ships from East Timor and Goa entered the port in large numbers, which led to a surge in the number of Portuguese people in the city, reaching more than 5,000, many of which were armed merchant ship sailors and guards. The Spanish warships resting in the Macau Port will greatly enhance the defense power of Macau City. However, in any case, the city cannot organize an army of thousands of people. If this war is considered to be just for punishment and to promote peace, Macau's defense power is almost not worth mentioning.

"The Dutch failed to attack Macau, except for the accident caused by the Portuguese good luck, the attack position was in the west of Macau city, which was the direction with the strongest firepower of Macau defense system. The military operations of the community started from the north, seized the city gates in the north, quickly grasped the entire city, and forced the Macau defenders to surrender or negotiate."
Chapter completed!