"Rise the gun, aim, prepare - let it go!" Major Lan Guo, the battalion commander of the Third Mixed Battalion of the Army, waved the command knife in his hand fiercely, and then a flurry of black smoke rose. With the crisp sound of projectile shooting, a scream suddenly sounded from the Portuguese formation opposite.

This is the Portuguese coastal town on the south bank of the Lima River, opposite the famous Viana Fort. There is an unknown Portuguese army stationed. However, it seems that they do not have the courage to rush out to cross the river to rescue the compatriots on the South Bank who are being ravaged by the enemy. They can only use one or another to make a big noise to promote their momentum, but what harm can this cause to the people on the East Bank?

After a volley of guns just now, the Portuguese militia that was quickly organized was beaten to pieces, especially when these people were "careful" by multiple East Coast artillery for a while, and the casualties were not light. This time, they could persist in not retreating because they were defending their country and covering their relatives' retreat. This time, the East Coast people changed their previous practices and did not carry out large-scale ship gun cleaning. Instead, while conducting key bombardment (bombing solid targets), they directly sent people to land to reduce the enemy's reaction time.

At this time, the bombardment of ships and guns has basically stopped. It took half a day to land (meaning that many Portuguese have fled) to complete the East Coast army on the beach, and then quickly formed the Sixth Battalion of the Volunteer Army (negative artillery, cavalry, engineering, baggage, etc.) as the core, and formed a combat cluster of about 2,000 people to fight towards the Portuguese town.

The battle has been going on for about half an hour so far. The Portuguese, who had basically no decent armed forces, was beaten so hard that they could not raise their heads. There were no less than a hundred people killed or injured, and the collapse was only a matter of a moment. At this time, it was the turn of the vassal troops to appear. Soon, Captain Yang Liang, who is known as the "fire-fighting captain" and the "pot-making maker" in the East Coast military circle, made a brilliant debut with the Sixth Battalion of the Volunteer Army!

The Sixth Battalion of the Volunteer Army was temporarily formed before this voyage, with a size of about a thousand people, composed of Indian slaves, non-national labor workers and even some criminal prisoners, including whites, blacks, and yellow people. It is really a hodgepodge, and its combat effectiveness is naturally very suspicious. Many of them had never touched guns before departure. Because of this, when they needed to charge, Captain Yang Liang asked these people to find their chosen cold weapons and kill the Portuguese who had just been "educated" by guns and artillery.

The leader was a group of Qing army prisoners - saying that the prisoners were all gilds on their faces. In fact, some gentry and bully armed forces captured during the attack on Huai'an Prefecture, with very complex composition. Among them, there were many feudal Taoist organizations, such as "Red Gun Club", "Hard Belly Club", "Bai Ji Club", "Buddha Club" and other people in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. They were captured by people on the east coast at that time, and then packaged and sent back to the local area. The opinions of these naturally uneasy guys, the Mei agency and the military police team were consistent, that is, they were asked to go to the front line to be cannon fodder, so as not to stay in the local area to corrupt the social atmosphere.

At this time, dozens of big men were bare-armed, exposed their white belly, and a rag with Tai Chi pattern hanging on their chests. They were painted with various patterns like ghost paintings, and their roars rushed up like thunder. They were holding 2.7 meters of spears in their hands, and their momentum seemed to be moving forward. The sun shone on their white belly and shining directly on their eyes. It seemed like they were as awesome as the divine weapon and the generals.

"If you can't get into it, you can't get into it. The Buddha of the West protects me!" Another hundred men rushed up. They either held big swords or short spears, and some even grabbed a battle axe. Following the methods in the scriptures, they shouted slogans while rushing up with ferocious eyes.

Behind them were Ross laborers, black slaves from Congo, Indians, and even some Italians, but they all rushed up with weapons - a fool would not rush! Those who obeyed the orders would not only obtain official status after returning, but also had spoils to grab in front of them, and they were afraid of hair!

So you see that on the not-so-wide battlefield, thousands of mobs rushed to the Portuguese town with a variety of cold weapons in a messy formation. At this time, the formation is no longer needed, what is needed is the momentum of moving forward. Anyway, the Portuguese opposite cannot organize any decent offensives due to various reasons, right?

After paying the price of dozens of casualties to break through the last interception, these "monsters and demons" called the cold weapons they had at their hands to the top of the Portuguese. While cursing loudly, they slashed and killed. While venting their anger, they also defeated the last group of Portuguese militias who defended their country and collapsed.

The subsequent battle became simple. These guys rushed into the town in batches, searching for Portuguese residents who had not yet escaped, while robbing property everywhere. It was in chaos. A Portuguese veteran organized more than a dozen young people to make a counterattack in a mess, which could make them chaotic. The chaos of the order at that time can be seen from this - only a few 300 nominal warriors were restrained by the officers in every way, and then followed the route of the Portuguese escape and searched deeply into the inland areas. Of course, they did not dare to go too far, as they would likely encounter some unpredictable risks. Everyone came to make a fortune, not fight hard with the Portuguese, and there was no need to fight with them.

In this service, the people of the East Coast arrested more than 900 Portuguese residents nearby, as well as a large number of livestock, grain, wine, and spices (the herders store meat prepared for autumn), oil, fruits and vegetables, and the landing officers and soldiers also received a per capita trophy dividend of four or five yuan. For a time, everyone was smiling and their morale was extremely high.

On August 24, 1662, after the last landing, the East Coast people landed near the coast of Coimbra and successfully robbed two Portuguese towns, capturing thousands of residents and seizing them indefinitely. Although they were placed on a Portuguese cavalry of more than a thousand people during the retreat, and more than 300 people were killed or injured in the Sixth Battalion of the Volunteers, in general, this transaction was not too disadvantageous.

On August 28, the fleet shelled some villages and towns off Porto. When trying to land, it encountered a Portuguese cavalry that was coming quickly. Captain Yang Liang decided to give up landing and retreat back to the ship.

On September 2, the fleet unexpectedly arrived at the Faro area, the southernmost part of the Kingdom of Portugal. After routine shelling, the troops were sent to land. The seizure was infringed, and only dozens of people were injured.

...

Not long after the news that the East Coast fleet was raging near Portugal, it spread to Palermo. The East Coast, which had just interrupted the third round of talks, responded inconsistently after hearing the news. The East Coast envoy Zheng Yong seemed confident and calm, as if he had expected such a thing to happen. The Portuguese envoy Prince Pedro looked depressed and sad, especially after learning that a large number of Portuguese people were captured and the navy was also huddled in the mouth of the Tejo River and did not go to war, he seemed very angry and didn't know who was angry. As for the mediators of both sides, Paul from the Dorian family, he seemed to foresee that this was an opportunity to break the negotiation deadlock between the two sides, so he started work between the representatives of both sides.

On September 15, Paul Doria took the lead in finding Prince Pedro and pointed out to him that the business and banking circles are like most people in the Kingdom of Portugal, hoping to make peace immediately. Only the palace, nobles and priests insisted on fighting because they seemed to be looking forward to further assistance from Britain, France and other countries. But Paul clearly pointed out that "don't have too much hope for foreign aid, which will only harm the long-term interests of the Kingdom of Portugal."

Prince Pedro did not respond to Paul's words, because he also learned some domestic information from other channels during these days. Duke Mello, who held the power of the government, was very excited about England's aid and publicly stated on many occasions that "with the assistance of Britain and France, I believe that the war will end with the victory of Portugal" and "good luck will not always favor the people of the East Coast."

Paul Doria was very disappointed with Prince Pedro's reaction. After returning, he admitted to his left and right: "Portugal should suffer a few more military setbacks, and then they will give up their fantasies and sign the peace agreement under reasonable conditions."

20 days later, more news about the east coast navy raging the offshore of Portugal came, and there were even several east coast battleships sailing to the mouth of the Tejo River, sinking a Portuguese warship, injuring six, forcing them to retreat to the harbor again, which shocked the Portuguese negotiator delegation.

Paul Doria, who had not given up persuasion to the Portuguese, visited Prince Pedro again, pointing out that the war in the previous stage showed that the East Coast people "may spread the war to Portugal's mainland". Now the Portuguese kingdom can do only two things. One is to buy some newspapers in Amsterdam (regular communiqués, and more commercial information is published), so that Portugal's public debt will not plummet in the exchange, affecting the next borrowing; the second is to reopen negotiations with the East Coast people as soon as possible. Currently, Zheng Yong's special envoy is still in the port of Palermo, and the Portuguese have time to change their attitude.

Moreover, Paul Doria told Prince Pedro with the keen sense of a business family that now, whether it is *******, Amsterdam or London, the market is still sufficient (the monetary base is loose), but he believes that in the next one to two years, there will be no more abundant currency in the market, because many people are reserved funds to cope with possible huge expenses, such as the Dutch Navy, which is building ships, and the United Kingdom, which is also trying to allocate additional naval military expenses.

Prince Pedro was a little shaken by Paul's words. Although he still said toughly, "In the face of the unjust aggression and intimidation of pagans on the East Coast, he will never make a moment of concession." However, he privately sent a confidant official to go back to Lisbon on the fast ship to contact the king, Queen Gusman and Duke Mellor, exchange views on the latest situation, and then discuss whether it is necessary to revise the negotiation strategy formulated before.

Paul Doria, who knew everything about Palermo, was a little happy and satisfied that the Portuguese were finally willing to make changes. After all, this was the best opportunity for the Republic of **** to improve its national status and prestige since 1627. At the same time, it was also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Doria family. Therefore, he and the family behind this matchmaking negotiation were really very concerned - to put it in an exaggeration, they and even the people of the ****** and the Portuguese negotiators hoped to reach an agreement as soon as possible.

On October 25, 1662, Prince Pedro, the special envoy of the Kingdom of Portugal, requested to reopen the negotiations. At this time, they had already understood the situation of overseas colonies such as Angola, Mozambique, and Macau, that is, Macau has fallen; Bengra and Luanda are occupied on the coast of Angola (fortunately some towns in the inland are not lost); Mozambique Island, Lorenzoma Guisi and other places have fallen, and the mainland - especially the Zambezi River Basin - has not been seriously invaded; Cape Verde Islands have also fallen; southern Brazil has basically been completely destroyed, and the East Coast has become a person.

Complete military occupation. In addition, the offshore sea control power in all the above areas has undoubtedly been controlled by the East Coast people. The Far East trade routes of the Kingdom of Portugal have suffered great damage (merchant ships dare not even go near the sea, and lack supply and maintenance ports). This war has indeed suffered a great loss for the Kingdom of Portugal. Not to mention, the merchant ships and other property intercepted by the East Coast people alone have suffered as many as millions of Kruzas. No wonder the merchants were so anxious to rush into the palace and ask His Majesty Alfonso to order the end of the war immediately.

After being "persuaded" by Paul Doria, Zheng Yong, the special envoy of the East Coast, also "barely" returned to the negotiation venue and held the fourth formal negotiation between the two sides with the Portuguese. The negotiations made some progress. The Portuguese mission headed by Prince Pedro said that it could hand over the land including the General San Vicente (inclusive) and the land south, the Lorenzoma (inclusive) and the south to the East Coast Republic for management, and at the same time, it would symbolically compensate 600,000 Cruzado for military expenses, and handed over to the East Coast people together with the Almeida family's fine of 200,000 yuan, to the East Coast people, hoping that the East Coast people would accept these conditions and quickly concluded a peace treaty with the Kingdom of Portugal, because this is the greatest sincerity they can show at this stage.

The conditions given by the Portuguese were naturally unacceptable to Zheng Yong. He still insisted on ceding all Brazilian territory south of San Salvador. At the same time, the Cape Verde Islands, Mozambique, and Angola that had been actually controlled by the East Coast were not missing. For this reason, they could consider returning Macau to the Kingdom of Portugal and reducing the demand for military compensation to four million Cruzado. No other conditions were acceptable.
Chapter completed!