Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1490 Beiyang Expedition ([-])
The conversation ended up being meaningless, and the gap between the two sides' views was too great.Gao Zhenxin was too lazy to continue talking nonsense with them, and ordered several high-level commanders of the Spanish Grand Treasure Fleet to continue to be imprisoned. At the same time, he returned to the command room with Gao Yimin, Gao Musan and others to discuss the next battle arrangement.

First of all, several warships participating in the battle need temporary repairs.In fact, this task has already been arranged, but the spare repair materials stored on the four warships may not be enough. Now that the damage management reports of each ship have come up, Gao Zhenxin needs to arrange for support from other ships.

Temporary repairs are definitely not as good as going to the shipyard, but fortunately, the shelling of both sides can basically damage the part above the waterline in this era. Such damage can be temporarily replaced with some wooden boards for reinforcement, and then a simple waterproof seal can be used. used.

Jinghua's four battleships, especially the two cruisers "Dengzhou" and "Jinzhou" looked seriously injured, especially the parts above the deck, which looked as if they had been washed by a hail of bullets, and there were shocking holes everywhere And the broken wood that was "cut" by the chain bomb.

But in fact, this kind of damage has little impact on the battleship itself. The damage managers of each ship initially estimated that it can be roughly repaired before the sailors go to bed tonight.

The biggest difficulty in the current battleship restoration work is the captured former Spanish fleet flagship "San Antonio".The foremast of this large Spanish galleon was broken in the middle, and it is impossible to replace it now-not to mention that it is impossible to carry tens of meters of mast material with the ship, even if there is material, it cannot be replaced.This thing stands up from the keel, and there are various reinforcements below the deck, and there are a lot of stays connected to it above the deck. Even if it is repaired in the shipyard, it will be a big project that requires various disassembly and assembly. What's more, it's still at sea.

As a result, the subsequent speed of the "San Antonio" will be significantly slowed down, which may affect the overall speed of the fleet.As a last resort, Gao Zhenxin had no choice but to arrange another armed transport ship as a tugboat for it to help it increase its speed.

Although the tonnage of the armed transport ship itself is one-third smaller than it, it may not be easy to be a tugboat, but it is impossible for several main warships to be a tugboat.The Spaniards’ other big galleons could have been used as tugboats, but unfortunately they were not seriously injured, and the last part of the voyage to Manila was dominated by headwinds. It is better to use their soft sailboats than hard sailboats, so they are now I don't care about those, and it's a little faster, so I had to use an armed transport ship on top.

The work of damage control is roughly these, in addition to the issue of the treatment of the wounded.The three discussed for a while, and felt that it was not the best choice for each ship to take care of the wounded by itself. It would be better to temporarily change the purpose of an armed transport ship to accommodate the wounded.

The armed transport ship has a capacity of 180 people, but because it is a transport ship, its carrying capacity is still very strong.Dedicated to housing the wounded clearly suffices, as long as they are not involved in combat.What's more, it is also convenient to concentrate medical and nursing forces in this way, and the effect should be even better.

For this reason, the three asked several doctors on board the ship to inquire, and the doctors all agreed with this arrangement.Gao Zhenxin no longer hesitated, and immediately ordered to do the same.Afterwards, Gao Musan thought about it and suggested: "Commander, if this arrangement is effective, I think I can report it to the master to see if our Liangyang Fleet can allocate one or two ships to treat the wounded in the future."

Gao Zhenxin smiled and said: "This is really a hero who sees the same thing. I was thinking about it just now, and you brought it up."

Gao Yimin next to him also said: "I think this idea is feasible, just like the army division now assigns a special engineer battalion, and the medical team in the engineer battalion is a bit like the medical ship you mentioned."

The three of them laughed, even if the matter is settled like this, they will report to the master for a final decision after the battle.

Immediately afterwards, they began to formally discuss the siege of Manila.This battle must be divided into two parts, land and sea, and to some extent, the connection between the two parts is not too great, because according to previous intelligence, the fleet is at sea—even if it is docked at the port, because Insufficient range to effectively bombard the city of Manila.

So the first thing they discussed was the login issue.The key point of the landing issue is whether to let the land division land on the north bank of the Pasig River first, or let the fleet deal with the Spanish fleet docked in Manila Port first, and then the land division will go ashore.

The reason why this order is worth talking about is mainly to consider the impact of the opponent's fleet.According to the previous information, the Spaniards should have 6-7 warships in Manila, all of which are Galen ships, but whether their tonnage is 1200 tons like the big treasure ship is still uncertain. .

Normally speaking, the maximum should be 1200 tons, because the flagship of the Armada to England this year, the "San Martin" seems to be 1200 tons, so it can be judged that the mainstream Galen currently built in Spain is probably 1200 tons.

At the same time, the Portuguese's flagship "San Juan" in the Armada seems to be of the same level.This means that the "Iberian Union" [Note: Philip II is now also the King of Portugal] the shipbuilding levels of the two colonial empires, Castile and Portugal, are basically at the same level - of course as land-connected It is not surprising that the level of "Junheguo" is similar.

Taking the enemy into consideration, if the Spaniards still have seven 7-ton large Galen in Manila, Gao Zhenxin still prefers to finish the naval battle first, defeat the Spanish fleet or force the Spanish fleet to retreat in the port, and then arrange Lu division landed ashore.

If this is not the case, if Beiyang is ambushed by the Spanish fleet during the landing process on the north bank of the Bashi River, it may cause relatively large and unnecessary casualties-after all, there is no port on the north bank of the Bashi River, even if the wooden sailing warships are not like later generations The steel ship requirements are so high, but you can't just go aground, right?

Whether it is arranging to build a temporary dock, or putting down a small boat for transportation and landing, the fleet will gather densely during this period and cannot move at will.If the Spanish fleet comes suddenly, just leaving the offshore area and adjusting the lineup will bring great trouble to the fleet.

The fleet thinks so, but the land division thinks obviously differently.The Jinghua Liangyang Fleet and the Spanish Fleet have different tactical ideas. The former has always insisted on artillery tactics and will not consider boarding battles unless it is absolutely necessary, so it is meaningless for the Lu division to stay on the ship.If the fleet suffered any losses in the battle, the land division would be unlucky instead.

Gao Yimin thinks that Master Lu should get off the ship as soon as possible. His reason is that since there is no news about the loss of the Spanish Grand Treasure Fleet in World War I, the Spaniards in Manila should not be prepared for battle. Waiting for the arrival of the big treasure fleet.

Under such circumstances, it is unlikely that the Spaniards would know that the Lu division landed on the north bank of the Pasig River first, and even if there were Spaniards or their running dogs on the north bank of the Pasig River to inform the Governor's Mansion in Manila, it would be too late in time—— At this time, the expedition fleet should have gone south to find the Spanish fleet for a decisive battle.

Moreover, Gao Yimin believed that the Lu division's landing would have a greater deterrent effect on the city of Manila, because since there are only two to three thousand Spaniards in Manila, including soldiers, the huge force of the Lu division is enough to make them nervous.

How strong is Master Lu this time?There are more than [-] infantrymen armed with rifles and artillery, which is close to [-].

Among them, there are 5600 armed servants from various honorable families, roughly 300 from each family of the three major princes, 200 from each family of princes, and 100 from each family of uncles.

Jinghua temporarily mobilized part of the Marine Corps of the Nanyang Fleet, and together with the Marine Corps of the Beiyang Fleet, it was temporarily organized into two associations, with about 8000 people.

Gao Yimin served as the commander-in-chief of the Lu division and led the first township of Nanzheng Temporary Formation. The 5600 people belonging to Xungui were co-organized into the Third Association of Nanzheng Temporary Formation, which was controlled by Gao Yimin.

Such a force can be said to be stronger than the total force of Spain in Manila, and the expeditionary force is not a native of Nanyang, but a "modern army" with a higher level of firearms than the Spanish Army.

Under such circumstances, as long as the Spaniard's brain is not convulsed, he must know how bad his situation is.Although Manila's city defense system itself is solid and has a bastion-like construction style, the bastion is not a panacea. If Jinghua relies on the power of artillery and bombards indiscriminately regardless of cost, no matter how strong the castle is, it will eventually be destroyed. There will be a day of destruction.

What's more, when the Spaniards knew that the Grand Treasure Fleet was defeated and captured, and the sea off Manila was blocked by more than 100 large ships, this fear must have been even worse.

Although the bastion is strong, the people in the bastion always want to eat and drink.Although the Spaniards regard Manila as a "colonial stronghold" and have always had the habit of stockpiling wars, the Philippines is not Russia. The tropical weather is here, and the time for the stored food and materials to go moldy is very early. Once the food goes bad or is eaten up , how to live next?
Cannibalism?There are only more than 2 people in Manila. Even if they really engage in cannibalism, they will not be able to survive for a month or two.As long as Manila cannot get reinforcements and supplies, defeat remains inevitable.

Can reinforcements come?Can it defeat such a huge fleet in the open sea?Obviously unlikely.Even if the Armada wins over England, it is impossible for the main force of the Spanish navy to go to the Far East on a large scale.There is not only a problem of attrition here, but also a problem of national power—especially financial power.

The Kingdom of Castile owed a lot of debt a long time ago. Although declaring bankruptcy can solve part of the trouble, the so-called "repudiation" does not really clear the debt, it just means that it will no longer directly take out so much money A large sum of money has to be repaid, and the debt will become a mortgage part of the various tax revenues of the Kingdom of Castile, which will be repaid to the creditors in proportion on schedule.

In other words, the money still has to be paid back, but it is forced to be paid in installments.In the original history, Spain borrowed more and more, even if the gold and silver mining in the Americas continued to increase, it could not make up for it, because there was an interest problem in it-the more borrowed, the more difficult it will be to repay in the future.

Even if there is bankruptcy at every turn, it will only turn the sudden death on the spot into a chronic illness. The longer it is delayed, the more dead end it will be.

Under such financial pressure, it is impossible for the Spaniards to devote their main energy to the Far East, and to fight such a huge sea force.

In the original history, when the Netherlands was in the glorious moment of "sea coachman", in Nanyang, they could only obediently pay tribute to Zheng Zhilong, and only by buying Zheng Zhilong's flag could they move smoothly in Nanyang.Could it be that the Dutch sea power was not strong enough at that time?
Obviously not.Although Zheng Zhilong claimed to have 20 armored ships and 3000 sea-going ships at the time, there is no need to talk about the 20 miles of water, just look at their performance when facing the Qing Dynasty.

And the 3000 sea-going ships are not the standard armed transport ships of Jinghua, most of them are small-tonnage ships, and they are no match for the Dutch galleons.The reason why the naval battle at Luowan was expected to be won was that, firstly, the real ants killed elephants, and secondly, the Dutch were really not used to the large-scale fireboat tactics commonly used in Eastern water warfare, and they were not very good at defense.

In fact, although the Netherlands at that time had a small land territory, its strength was strong enough.At its peak, there were about 60 shipyards on both sides of the Zaan River in the Netherlands.These shipyards generally use mechanized equipment such as wind-powered sawmills, power feeders, tackles, winches, and heavy cranes, which improves the labor productivity of the factories and can produce a ship almost a day.

It implements standardized management in shipbuilding design, hull parts and other links. The Dutch government has set up a department in Amsterdam to research and develop navigation equipment, manufacture navigation instruments and draw navigation maps.The socialized shipbuilding mode reduces production and use costs.

This model includes three aspects: one is the sales strategy, the shipyard not only accepts customer customization, but also sells to the outside world, making use of the funds in the entire shipbuilding market; the other is to reduce costs. The price of the boats is 40%-50% cheaper, and the competitiveness is self-evident; the third is a variety of types, such as "big belly boats" for transportation, faster "spaceships" and "big sailboats" for fishing. And other ship types are popular in Europe.

At that time, the ships built in the Netherlands were reasonable in design, strong in structure, and advanced in technology, and the number of ship operators was 20% less than that of other countries. This was very important for the Netherlands, which had a population of only 150 million at that time.

what's the result?The result is that in the golden age of Dutch development, there were 2 ships in the world, 3/4 of which belonged to the Netherlands, more than the sum of other countries.That situation is like the U.S. Imperial Navy after the Gulf War and before the Red Dynasty Navy launched its forces.

However, even with such strength, the Dutch East India Company [one of the two major Dutch monopolistic colonial companies] could only admit defeat after fighting Zheng Zhilong in the battle of Liuluo Bay.The East India Company even lamented in the company records: "The company's power in the Far East was swept away".

Why didn't you dare to retaliate after being beaten so badly?Of course, it couldn’t use its strength. At that time, the Netherlands was a colonial empire with a strong commercial atmosphere (of course, the political system at that time was not considered an empire, and it was not even a monarchy in the usual sense). It had to consider whether it was cost-effective to go to the Far East.

Obviously, this is a deal that can never be cost-effective, so for the Dutch, since they were defeated, paying "tolls" is more reliable than laboring on an expedition.This is the characteristic of this era, and the distance severely limits the exertion of strength.

Although Spain's maritime strength at the moment is also strong, and it even has Portugal as a powerful maritime ally, it is absolutely impossible to have enough financial resources to support an invincible fleet for the Far East.

It is precisely for this reason that Gao Yushi has never been worried about the military retaliation of the "two teeth", but worried about the impact on trade and silver inflow.

Not to mention traveling all the way to the South China Sea, just by looking at the Anglo-Spanish war, one can find a very interesting phenomenon: Spain’s expedition to the United Kingdom means that Spain will surely lose; if the British expedition to Spain, the United Kingdom will surely lose.

Distance is so awesome in this era.Unless the attacking party achieves crushing in terms of technological civilization, it will undoubtedly lose.

Therefore, Gao Yimin insisted that the land division should land ashore earlier, and the fleet should threaten Manila by land and sea.As long as such a strategic situation is created, the Manila side will seriously consider whether to talk to the expeditionary force about peaceful dedication of the city when they learn that the expeditionary force still has 2000 Spanish captives in hand.

(End of this chapter)