Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1492 Beiyang Expedition ([-])
Boss Hu did not go south to Manila with the fleet this time. As he himself said, although he has a special love for the military, the reality is that as the head of the family, he must first take on family responsibilities. over responsibility.

The expeditionary fleet received the latest intelligence from Manila, and further confirmed the combat plan of "landing first, then closing the port".Gao Yimin began to order all units of the land division to prepare for the landing, including the landing operation itself, as well as the establishment of beachheads and fire reconnaissance after landing.

Theoretically speaking, with the current strength of the Spaniards in Manila, they should not be able to threaten the landing troops. However, considering that this operation is actually an actual combat training for the Marine Corps, the necessary procedures are still not the same. few.

Actual combat is the best way to test the true strength of an army, and it is also the best way to improve an army, or even make a qualitative leap. Gao Yimin has no doubts about this.In addition, the Spaniards also have some Luzon servants. Although these people are definitely not strong in combat, it would be even more embarrassing if they suffered unnecessary losses for this.

When Gao Yimin was in Liaodong, it is true to say that he was active, but if you really have to count your fingers, he actually didn't get a chance to fight tough battles several times.

This time he came to fight Manila. When he first heard that the bastion was going to be breached, he thought it was his chance to show himself. Who knew that the master and Ms. Liu already had a plan, and the "Flooded Seventh Army" had already been arranged.

A naval battle in Beiyang was fought due to a coincidence, and it directly received more than 80 taels, and took out six large ships that were not cheaper than this 80 taels.

What about Gao Yimin?Not long after the naval battle, I received news that there were not even two thousand soldiers left in Manila, and there might be only one thousand left.It must be better to fight well, but he was so angry that his eyes were filled with gold stars.

Is it so difficult for me to get some credit for co-authoring?
Having said that, the battle must be fought well.The enemy army is in this situation, if there is still a joke, then I will not be fooled in the future, so I might as well ask myself to go to Xinzheng Coal Mine to mine, anyway, it would be embarrassing to come out.

Two days later, the expedition fleet arrived in Manila Bay.Manila Bay is a large bay, almost completely enclosed by land, located in the southwestern part of Luzon.It is one of the world's largest harbors in later generations, with an area of ​​2000 square kilometers and a width of 58 kilometers at its widest point.

According to the information provided by the Nanyang Fleet earlier, there is an island named Corregidor about a hundred miles (actually 48 kilometers) west of Manila, which divides the entrance of the bay about 40 miles (actually 18 kilometers) wide into south and north. There are two straits. Although the North Strait is not as wide as the South Strait, it is safer for navigation. It is about six miles wide.

The north and northeast shores of this bay are connected to the Central Luzon Plain, and the coastal waters are relatively shallow. It is the largest commercial fishing ground in the Philippines in later generations.The Port of Manila is in the easternmost part of Manila Bay, and the water is deeper. In addition, the Bataan Peninsula and the mountains of the Central Cordillera form a natural barrier, making Manila Bay an excellent anchorage.

Since the expeditionary fleet had navigators supported by the Nanyang Fleet, the fleet headed northeast all the way after entering Manila Bay, and drove directly to the vicinity of the mouth of the Pasig River.However, for the sake of safety, Gao Zhenxin sent the "Left Wing Ranger" to lead ten armed transport ships not carrying land division troops to patrol near the mouth of Manila Bay to prevent the Spanish fleet from taking the opportunity to slip away.

The landing began immediately to the north of the Bashi River, and all ships released lifesaving boats. First, the engineering troops were sent out to quickly build a temporary dock.Along with the engineering unit, there is also a company of infantry, which is used to guard against the enemy with little chance of appearing.

The entire landing operation was extremely smooth. It took only two hours for more than 3000 troops of the land division to disembark, and it took more than an hour to unload all the materials such as artillery, spare ammunition, tents and even food.

The fleet immediately moved again, heading directly towards Manila from north to south.But as soon as they moved, they found the Spanish fleet coming towards them.

The Spaniards did have only four ships, and they were not all 1200-ton large Galen ships, but two large Galen ships and two ordinary Galen ships-about 800 tons, which was comparable in size to an armed transport ship.

This time, when they saw the Beiyang Grand Fleet, they were far from Lao Tzu's spirit of being number one in the world, and immediately turned around and left without saying a word.But they didn't want to go back to the port of Manila, but turned directly westward, looking like they were going to rush out of the bay.

But this action is of little significance, because this place is in the bay, and the sea wind is much weaker than that of the sea. In this case, it is obvious that the efficiency of the soft sail is not as good as that of the hard sail, so it has not run far. He was overtaken by several warships from Beiyang.

I don't know if the Spanish fleet didn't have a unified command when they came out this time, and the four Galen ships scattered and fled directly.It's a pity that this is of no use. The Beiyang Fleet, which has a huge advantage in numbers, dispersed and outflanked. After the semaphore was ready to bombard, a thousand guns were fired. After only two rounds of salvo, the Spaniards had three Galen ships with white flags.

The other ship didn't know whether it was luck or the high level of steering, so it slipped out while it was in chaos, but that didn't make much sense, and was soon surrounded by the "Left Wing Hussar" with ten armed transport ships. .Under the predicament of the wolf and the tiger, the Spanish Galen warship had no choice but to surrender.

The fleet took some prisoners and immediately went straight to the port of Manila.There are indeed two Portuguese galleons in the harbor, both large galleons.In addition, there are some small cargo ships with various flags. According to the introduction of the navigator of the Nanyang Fleet, most of these ships are ships from some small countries in the Nanyang Sea, and there are even Indian ships. They should all come to do business. .

The Portuguese reacted quickly, and quickly sent a small boat to inquire about the situation-in fact, the situation is very obvious, because now a total of ten Western-style large Galenian soft sailing ships have appeared in the formation of the Beiyang Expeditionary Fleet, and they have also changed their flags , A look is captured.

It's not that the Portuguese don't understand the situation, they just want to know if they are safe.

The answer is yes. Although Portugal and Castile are now a "United States of Monarchs" or "Confederation of Common Monarchs", the Beiyang Fleet "seems" to be unaware of this, stating that there is no hostile behavior against Portugal. This trip of the fleet is for the illegal organization "Governor of the Philippines" of the Kingdom of Castile to increase the tax rate again and again without reason.

The Portuguese breathed a sigh of relief, but he still couldn't help asking if he could leave Hong Kong freely.This time, the Beiyang Fleet answered in the negative, saying that during the war, in order to avoid some unnecessary troubles, all ships in Hong Kong are temporarily not allowed to leave the port until the war is over or at least comes to an end.

The Portuguese cautiously said that doing so was "unruly", but Gao Zhenxin obviously wouldn't listen, and said lightly that Luzon was a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, and if a war broke out in the vassal state, all rules were up to the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, there is no public international law these days, and the rules are all self-talk. In the final analysis, whoever has the biggest fist, whose rules are the real rules.

As a colonial empire in Portugal, how could these people not understand this truth? Didn’t they do this in Africa, America and Asia?Therefore, I had no choice but to go back to my ship honestly and wait for "the end of the war or come to an end."

The situation in the port was chaotic for a while. Seeing that the Beiyang Fleet didn't seem to rush in and set fire, it finally calmed down.But this calm is only superficial. In fact, everyone is anxiously waiting for the follow-up development.

At this time, the Philippine Governor's Palace has long been a mess.The Big Treasure Fleet that was supposed to arrive has not arrived for a long time. Hearing rumors that a large number of seagoing ships have entered Manila Bay and the cruise fleet sent out has disappeared. The Portuguese here quietly sent someone to report that the ten large Galen flags are now flying the book and sword flags--that's a fart, all of them have been captured!

Governor Devera sat down on the high-backed chair, his eyes glazed over, and his mind was distracted.In the morning, he was served by a few beautiful local women, and he felt that being a governor here is not so unbearable... He didn't know why the situation became so out of hand in a flash.

Half of the main force of the Grand Treasure Fleet and the Philippine Fleet have fallen into the hands of the enemy. What else can he do as a governor?Not to mention that the Philippines is thousands of miles away from the mainland of Castile, it is also thousands of miles away from the superior governorate of New Spain. It is a dream to expect reinforcements, but without reinforcements, how can I save the situation?
The news he just learned is very clear. The current enemy fleet in Manila Bay is at least as high as more than a hundred ships, and it is by no means a small sampan like that of a small country in the South Seas. Their ships are even more powerful than the Arab sea ships. , all equipped with powerful artillery.

It can be said that this is an invincible fleet in the Nanyang region.

Stick to Manila City?Governor De Villa also wants to stick to it, but now there are only 100 troops in the city, and the total of Castilian merchants, missionaries, and architects is less than 50. How can this be defended?It is impossible that there are more than [-] large ships outside without people who can disembark and fight. Even if each ship has [-] people, I am afraid that I will not have the advantage.

Just as I was thinking, a new piece of news came, saying that a large number of enemy troops were found near the Bashi River, at least 1 people, all wearing uniform military uniforms (all honorable family members were also issued the brown short combat uniforms of Jinghua family members during this trip) clothing), and possessed a large number of muskets and even quite a few cannons.

When Governor Devilla heard this, his waist went cold.The sea and the land came together, and they were equally powerful. The opponent saw it as a long-planned and well-prepared action.How about looking at yourself?The navy has almost been wiped out, and half of the army has gone south to fight. Just relying on these 1000 people to guard Manila... Is there a future? Is there a way out?
However, surrender is not enough.Surrendering to the "indigenous" troops outside of Europe, once the news spreads back to Europe, not to mention that he will surely become the laughing stock of the whole of Europe from now on, even the great Kingdom of Castile and the invincible Spain will As a result, it took a huge blow to its reputation.

Yes, the "indigenous" in China is very different from other indigenous peoples, but no matter how different they are, they are still "indigenous" in the eyes of the Spaniards at this moment.Why?Because the expansion of the Spanish colonial empire was so smooth, especially with the miraculous expansion of the American continent, many people have long lost their awe of the "big countries with a long history" outside of Europe.

In 1492 AD, after hundreds of years, Spain completed the restoration and unification of the Catholic country.In the same year, with the sponsorship of Queen Isabella of Castile, Columbus, who had an unusual thirst for wealth, sailed to America and opened the prelude to the Spanish colonial empire.

In the process of Western colonization of the Americas, Spain (Castile) took the lead, and later occupied most of Latin America (the vast American area south of the United States) except Brazil.In Latin America at that time, there was an Aztec Empire in the north and an Inca Empire in the south. The population of these two countries alone is estimated to be over tens of millions.

However, what defeated the two imperial armies was not the thousands of troops dispatched by the Kingdom of Castile, but two Spanish colonial armies with hundreds of people at most thousands of people.

Columbus and the so-called explorers after him explored the Americas while establishing colonial bases in the coastal areas of the Americas.These colonists soon discovered that the productivity level of these Native American Indians was not at the same level as that of Europe at the same time, so Spain decided to colonize the Americas.

If the Americas at that time were more advanced and developed than Europe at the same time, it is estimated that these colonists would obediently become businessmen.The law of the jungle is the truth of this era.

Compare the weapons and equipment of the Spanish army and the Inca Empire army at that time: Spanish soldiers at that time were equipped with armor, helmets, shields, spears, steel knives, steel swords, muskets and crossbows, basically fully armed, and the troops were also equipped with There are artillery and cavalry units, and there are mature tactics to match them.

Take the weapons and equipment of the Inca Empire army established by the Indians as an example. They were mainly equipped with bronze spears, bone-pointed spears, wooden javelins, wooden sticks with stone thorns, stone axes, bronze axes, and Inca meteor hammers.

For example, this mysterious-sounding Inca meteor hammer is actually two spherical weights connected by ropes or iron chains.The level of firepower of the two sides is obviously not at the same level, and the two sides are obviously not equal in terms of weapons, equipment and tactics. When fighting, it is almost like an adult bullying a child.

When these colonists found that the Indians were seriously lagging behind themselves, their self-confidence suddenly swelled up, and they went to America one after another.Their purpose is also very pure, that is, to obtain wealth, land, slaves, and even women. As for promoting civilization exchanges and progress, it is pure nonsense.

In the confrontation between the Spanish colonial army and the Indian army, compared with the actual combat effect, the muskets gave the Indians a more obvious psychological deterrent effect.

Artillery, not only has strong destructive and lethal power in actual combat, but the Indians emit a "strange smoke" after seeing this kind of loud noise, which can blow people up in an instant, just like seeing a ghost. This psychological fear is simply insurmountable to them.

The European cavalry was also feared by the Indians at that time.About 5000 million years ago, the earliest dog-like horses appeared in North America.About 400 million years ago, the modern horse appeared.

It can be said that in history, North America has always been the origin and evolution center of horse animals. Later, horses entered the Eurasian continent through the Bering Strait.Horses were domesticated by humans about thousands of years ago.

However, the horse became completely extinct in North America about 2 years ago and much earlier in South America.When facing Indian soldiers, European cavalry not only had great lethality in actual combat, but also great psychological power.For the Indians, the cavalry on tall horses has a sense of fantasy of visitors from outsider.

The Castilians relied on such asymmetric combat power and some intrigues to gradually realize the colonial rule of Latin America.Because it was too smooth, the Castilians firmly believed that "God favored Spain" and maintained a contemptuous attitude towards "indigenous" countries outside Europe.

In Nanyang, the Ming merchants still have some status in Manila and Malacca, and merchants from other countries are basically treated as colonial aborigines.

However, when Daming, an aboriginal empire that didn't look like an aboriginal, really made a move, Governor Devera realized that not only himself, but the whole of Castile, Spain and even the whole of Europe had underestimated it!

After deliriously ordering the various ministries of the colonial army to guard the city cautiously, Governor De Villa's mind was still buzzing. He didn't know how long his order could be carried out, nor did he know how much his resistance would last. meaningless.

At this moment, the adjutant hurried over and reported profusely, "Your Excellency, the Ming Fleet has sent an envoy!"
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(End of this chapter)