Dragon Sea Empire

The Pasig River, which runs across Manila, flows out from a huge inner lake in the southeast, and flows west through Manila into Manila Bay. The word "Tagalu" means water people, which is their traditional outdoor activity. Although these indigenous people who have just become Christians have been colonized by the Spaniards for decades, they are obviously still alive. Not completely corrupted by "civilized" European culture.

From the direction of Binondo, the new Chinese district in Manila, there are three sampans with a very low water line coming in slowly from the Pasig River. Passing by, a few young men on board were singing with relish the courtship songs of men and women in Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, southern Fujian. Suddenly, they saw the scene in the river ahead, and the singing gradually stopped.

A young man on the front boat said to the small middle-aged man behind: "Uncle Zhang, it's really hot, let's take a bath in the water."

Uncle Zhang is Zhang Wei, a Chinese who has lived on Luzon Island for more than 30 years. Wei knew his true thoughts without using his brain.

Zhang Wei said angrily: "It's only February, so it's getting hot. I said young people, we have important tasks, so behave yourself and don't cause trouble,"

As the boat approached, Luo Xiaocheng stared at the Tagalog girls in the water, seeing that his brain was congested, as if he wanted to jump into the water to play with the naked girls at any time. Fortunately, another boat caught up and sat on it. Looking at the commander of this operation, An Xiaosi, he said with a gloomy face, "Don't cause trouble. If you miss the time for the army to land, that would be a serious crime of beheading."

Luo Xiaocheng sighed and nodded: "This subordinate understands that all actions are under command,"

He shook his head, turned his head to look at the Tagalog girls reluctantly, and shouted to them in Tagalog: "Hello, you guys."

The Tagalog girl and the children patted the water, laughing and calling, "Physiological man, come down, physiological man, let's swim together."

The almost naked girls showed no signs of shyness, they looked at the biological man on board generously, chatted and laughed with each other, and seemed not to be disturbed.

Luo Xiaocheng, a young man, has never seen such a scene in his hometown of Haicheng County. He couldn't help taking out a lot of dried lychees and dried fish from the cabin and throwing them at the girls, teasing them to swim forward to pick up the gifts on the water. There are shiny splashes on the body, fluttering in the river water.

Luo Xiaocheng said to Zhang Wei with a playful smile: "When our army occupies Luzon, uncle, I will marry a local girl here as my wife. Anyway, there are no relatives in my hometown."

A dozen or so young people on the neighboring boat burst out laughing. An Xiaosi held back his smile with a scarred face and said, "Your hair hasn't even grown yet, so you just want to marry a wife."

Zhang Wei suddenly said seriously: "Stop making trouble, Fort San Diego is here."

Fort Santiago at the mouth of the Pasig River in Manila is a symbol of Spanish colonial rule.

The Fortress of Santiago is located on the south bank of the mouth of the Pasig River. It looks abrupt and majestic amidst the natural scenery of the river beach. There is a simple pier beside the fortress, where two patrol boats of the Spanish army are usually moored, and occasionally merchant ships and fishing boats dock temporarily.

The port of Manila is just north of the river mouth, and the fortress overlooks Manila Bay. The three 36-pound guns and three 24-pound bronze guns on it are a huge threat to any enemy who attempts to attack Manila by sea. The most hard-working workers, the Chinese, disappeared, the fortifications around Manila basically did not increase, and the existing facilities were not well maintained and repaired.

Cracks have appeared in some parts of the castle, so Captain Mark Gonzalo, the commander guarding the fortress, asked Governor Acuna to send someone to repair it. Spain didn't have time to deal with these trivial matters, so it casually pushed the matter to its own business agent, Francisco de Montoya, a big new Christian businessman, and An Xiaosi, who pretended to be a servant in Montoya's home, immediately arrested him. Taking advantage of this opportunity, a Chinese-physiological construction team was formed. Recommended by Montoya, they entered Fort Santiago for repair and maintenance work, and thoroughly reconnaissance the inside and outside of the castle.

Half a month ago, An Xiaosi, who had been waiting for news from Taiwan, arrived for the first batch of Chinese merchant ships to come to Manila for trade this year. The ship owner's confidant Chen Zhongji brought the last order before the war.

Starting today, five days in a row are the dates when the Chinese company's army may land as agreed in the ship owner's message. In the past few days, more than a dozen Chinese company spies lurking in Manila, including Zhang Wei, An Xiaosi, and Luo Xiaocheng, have been working on the construction site. The team came to work every morning and worked until the evening. Captain Mark Gonzalo cleared out a vacant stable near the castle for these Chinese craftsmen to rest at night. Suspicious, and said to everyone: "Look at these physiological people, they are busy from morning to night like bees; what they do in a day, those Tagalog natives have to work for a week, and let the cook give them lunch." They increase the amount, make some Chinese rice for them,"

Of course, he treated the Chinese workers so favorably. The most important thing was that De Montoya gave him a lot of money in private in order to take over the job of repairing the castle. The leader of those Chinese workers, Zhang Wei, was also a smart man. , I kept giving Captain Gonzalo some small favors.

The third day of the maintenance project was Sunday, and everything in the maintenance project was still going on as usual. An Xiaosi and several of his men were cleaning up the garbage on the fort; Zhang Wei and others were repairing the stairs in the soldiers' rest room on the second floor of the castle. Suddenly the alarm bell on the top of the castle rang, and several Spanish officers rushed out of the room. Captain Mark Gonzalo went to the Manila Cathedral to go to Sunday mass. Now the most senior officer in the castle is a second lieutenant, several junior officers Ask each other while getting dressed:

"How did it happen? Could it be a lost merchant ship?"

"This is the second time this month, where is the ship?"

"The sentry says it's a junk ship,"

The leading Spanish second lieutenant looked at the Chinese craftsmen who were working on the floor of the corridor, and frowned: "Is it a Chinese merchant ship? The order from above is to give preferential treatment to Chinese merchant ships. Let second lieutenant Mara take people to the dock, and pay attention to your attitude."

Several officers walked up the stairs to the top of the fort. After they disappeared, An Xiaosi's figure suddenly flashed into the corridor, clapped his hands, and said softly, "Brothers, get ready to work."

Luo Xiaocheng jumped up: "Fourth brother, it's our boat,"

"Yes, I can see clearly that there are four blue flags and one red flag on the top of the mast on the ship, and I am ready to attack immediately,"

……

The small group of Spanish soldiers who went to the simple pier to welcome the Chinese merchant ships carried some buckets and dry food. Most of the ships had torn canvas and crooked masts. It seemed that they had encountered a storm at sea. The Spanish soldiers really came to help, but When the ships docked, they saw fully armed Chinese soldiers holding spears, broadswords, crossbow bolts, and flintlock muskets.

The second lieutenant, the leader of the Spanish team, was announcing to the Chinese sailors who jumped off the side of the ship first: "You can't dock here. The commercial port is north of the estuary. We..."

A sailor turned around and raised his hand, the small black crossbow in his hand made a slight "bang", and the Spanish second lieutenant immediately inserted a small arrow from the small pistol trigger crossbow into his throat. His eyes widened and he said nothing. Fall back on your back.

The three Junk boats that appeared near the south bank of the Bashi River estuary were indeed the ships of the Zhonghua Company. They were not carrying merchants or goods, but Zhao Tie's escort team of 80 soldiers from the first regiment of the infantry regiment, and the escort team. There are more than 240 soldiers from the three cadets of the military academy, plus brave sailors selected by the war fleet. There were originally five ships involved in the attack, but the advance fleet encountered a strong wind the night before, and the other two ships fell behind. .

More than 50 Chinese teenagers quickly jumped off another boat, led by Yan Siqi.

"Come on," he raised his hand and fired an arrow while rushing towards the pier. Every boy behind him raised his hand and fired an arrow, and a series of crossbow arrows shot out. The small group of Spanish soldiers caught off guard and nearly everyone shot. They all hit three or four arrows.

For these Spanish soldiers who died under the rain of arrows inexplicably, these teenagers didn't take a second look, stepped over their bodies, and rushed straight to the gate of the castle. They are the cadets of the military academy, and Yin Feng specially selected them for internship Young soldiers, it was not their turn to play the vanguard, but the other two ships fell behind, and the advance team was short of manpower, so the advance team commander Mai Xiaoliu had to send them to the front line as well.

Soldiers from the [-]st Infantry Regiment also rushed to the pier. Mai Xiaoliu kicked away the corpse of a Spanish soldier, and yelled a series of curses: "Grandma, what's going on with these students, they haven't given orders yet. Damn, hurry up, don't be a fucking doll, "

At the same time, a burst of fierce gunfire erupted in the castle of Santiago. The gate of the castle was half closed, but it could no longer be moved.

On the fort, several Spanish officers were lying in a pool of blood. The Chinese craftsmen who had been working hard just now stepped on their bodies and pushed the gunpowder barrel to the entrance of the fort. An Xiaosi and others were blocking the soldiers with muskets on the second floor At the exit of the rest room, Yan Siqi led the charge into the castle, fired a flintlock pistol in each hand, then put his hands back to his waist, quickly pulled out two more flintlock pistols from his back waist, "bang bang", and fired continuously to rush to the castle. The Spanish soldiers who came forward fell down.

The student soldiers did not have muskets, and the length and weight of the flintlock developed by the Chinese company were not suitable for them. In addition to crossbow bolts, each of them was also equipped with a flintlock pistol. "Bah bah bah," after a series of shooting sounds , the unsuspecting Spanish soldiers who were wandering around the ground floor of the castle were knocked down by the sudden bullets before they could get their weapons.

Since the officers had all been disposed of by the Chinese craftsmen, more than 80 Spanish soldiers and dozens of native auxiliary soldiers without a leader were trapped in the inner layer of the castle, and they could not even approach the arsenal; Four Chinese craftsmen were sealed with stones and iron chains, and only less than twenty Spanish soldiers on duty had matchlock guns in their hands. Most of them were killed by the student soldiers of the Chinese company before they had time to light the matchlocks. They were like a storm, and swept the entire castle within 3 minutes. When the soldiers of the first regiment rushed into the castle, there were already corpses all over the ground. Only a dozen or so surviving Spanish soldiers died on the tower in the northeast corner of the castle. recalcitrant.

An Xiaosi and Mai Xiaoliu met, and before they had time to greet each other, Xiaoliu said, "Last night, there was a strong wind, and the fleet of the army might have been blown away. We must hold on here until tomorrow,"

"Boom," there was a dull explosion, the sound was not loud, but the whole castle still trembled slightly, Luo Xiaocheng and Yan Siqi, two bold young men saw the enemies in the tower guarding the aisle leading to the castle, Desperately blew up the aisle gate with gunpowder barrels, and a large group of Chinese soldiers rushed into the tower.

Mai Xiaoliu asked Zhang Wei: "Can Manila King City detect such a big commotion here?"

"Don't worry about that. It's several miles away from the king's city. They won't hear musket fire unless they fire,"

Zhang Wei had been sleeping all the time, and only then did he come to his senses: "Master Liu, why are these soldiers so young? They are all children." He was amazed at the fighting spirit and fighting skills of these student soldiers.

Mai Xiaoliu lay on the fort and looked around for a while, then turned around and said to everyone: "There is no problem with the fort, we have already taken it, the problem now is how to hold it, the captain's brigade may be at night at the soonest." to get here,"

"No problem, the time is just right. The Ganla soldiers who are changing the sentry will come tomorrow morning. As long as there are no accidents, no one else will come to disturb us until tomorrow morning," Zhang Wei said to Fort San Diego. Everything is well understood.

At this time, Yan Siqi, whose head was blackened by gunpowder smoke, rushed up to the fort brandishing a flintlock pistol, and said with a big smile, "Sixth Master, Fourth Brother An, we have already taken down the entire castle."