Dragon Sea Empire

In March in Luzon Island, the climate is already very hot compared to mainland China, and the dense fog in the morning still shrouds the plain and swampy area between Manila City and the Basig River.

The guards blew the Conch at the camps on the north and south banks of the Bashi River Estuary at the same time. A moment later, the marching drums of the whole team and the commands of the officers sounded, followed by the strong and orderly footsteps of the brigade of infantrymen. The figure swayed rhythmically in the mist.

Yin Feng stood on the temporary fort by the river bank and said loudly to all the senior officers present: "We have already agreed on the battle plan, but everyone must remember the word 'adaptive'; everything is in accordance with our prior arrangements. carry on, so we shall prevail,"

"Victory, Vengeance, Victory,"

All the senior officers are shouting: Zhao Tie, the commander of the first regiment, Yang Tiansheng, the supervisor (formerly a member of Li Dan's maritime gang, and a member of Zheng Zhilong's "Eighteen Zhi" in another time and space), the commander of the third regiment Li Xing (Li Dan's distant cousin, actually has nothing to do with it), Superintendent Zeng Xiaofeng (a servant of the Zeng family, Yin Feng redeemed him and made him a free man), Dutchman Andre, commander of the artillery battalion, deputy battalion Commander Li Kuiqi (who was promoted to the deputy battalion commander of the artillery battalion because he blew up the enemy ship Maria with one shot), as well as the leader of the Taiwanese native soldiers, An Heping and Li Yue from the logistics department, and most especially one Allies of the newly added main island of Luzon.

After the landing, the first and third regiments of the infantry escort sent out several detachments to conquer the indigenous tribes, and basically wiped out the Tagalog villages around Manila, and the northern mountainous area of ​​Yioro, which was allied with the Chinese. ,, the Chinese armed forces have always insisted on dealing with the Spaniards in the mountains, and now the retreating Captain Velasco's troops have also killed the city of Manila. A day ago, they had joined forces with Yin Feng's troops to conquer the indigenous villages. Da'an, the leader of Yi'ero Chinese descent, brought almost all the strong and strong men of the tribe, a total of 800 mountain tribe warriors.

Yin Feng pointed in the direction of Manila, and said again: "Let's lead the team and set off. See you in Manila."

"Kill," everyone shouted, and each returned to the team, commanding the headquarters to march into Manila according to the plan that had been studied for several months.

Yin Feng jumped on the newly tamed Andalusian horse, sat on the saddle in full armor, and watched the soldiers of the brigade walking by.

Li Lihua put on a clean white dress and a woolen shawl, and resumed her dress in Manila.

"Why are you here?" Yin Feng asked with a smile.

"Let's go to Manila with you," Li Lihua said with an extremely determined look in his big eyes.

"Nonsense,"

"I want to fight with you, I can't shoot with you, but I want to stand with you,"

As soon as Yin Feng stretched out his hand, he pulled Li Lihua onto the horse, Lihua screamed, Yin Feng told her to sit firmly behind him, and laughed loudly: "Come on, come with me, let's see how we defeat the Spaniards, "

The Andalusian BMW easily carried the two of them and galloped forward.

……

Huang Lue's team swam across the Bashi River, and not long after marching westward on the north bank, they joined forces with the outpost troops of the third regiment who were marching, and were temporarily incorporated into the battle order of the third regiment. Arriving a flintlock gun, and sufficient ammunition, became the outpost of the third regiment to open the way.

The morning fog gradually dissipated, and on the plains west of Manila, two large armies were approaching.

It took some time for the Spanish army to deploy its full strength in the west of the city, mainly because the training and discipline of the native soldiers could not keep up with the regular army. The battlefield commander Azquita decided to immediately launch an attack on the Chinese who landed. Commander-in-Chief Don Fernando has also been calling for an attack on Feng's long-awaited duel of "one battle determines the outcome". The reason is very simple that the food in Manila can only last for less than 20 days.

The Chinese have cut off the supply lines of Manila’s inland and seaports, and as time goes by, the Chinese will level up all around Manila, and their advantages will increase day by day. When only the isolated city of Manila remains on Luzon Island, At that time, we can only wait for the Chinese cannons to smash the city walls of Manila, or just stay in the city and starve to death.

Lieutenant Colonel Azquita had only three options, hunger, surrender or fight, and the sense of honor as a professional soldier prompted him to choose the last option.

On the ground with a radius of more than ten miles, nearly 8000 Chinese troops marched eastward across the river.

On the north bank of the Bashi River is the 1000st Battalion of the 120rd Regiment led by Li Xing. There are 8 soldiers directly under the regiment, plus 1300 foreign mercenaries led by Captain Van Layden. One post of the Artillery Battalion has [-] light field guns. The road is slightly worse than that on the south bank, so the troops marched close to the Bashi River in a column, with a total strength of [-]. The commander of the North Road was Li Xing, the commander of the third regiment, and Luo Xiaocheng, an agent of the Ministry of Military Intelligence, led the way.

There are also Chinese troops marching on the Pasig River; they are the sailor musketeers and marines led by Ye Hua with more than 800 people, led by Zhang Wei and An Xiaosi, who have been lurking in Manila for a long time and are very familiar with the river, sitting on hundreds of boats The sampans, small boats, and the canoes of the natives who had been requisitioned went upstream towards Manila. The most conspicuous thing was a big raft, which the logistics support soldiers and soldiers spent five days making. The raft is equipped with one 36-pound cast-iron cannon and two 24-pound cannons. It is a mobile fort. The raft is pulled by 100 auxiliary soldiers on both sides of the bank, slowly and firmly advancing towards the Manila city defense line. The total strength is 1000. , Commander Ye Hua.

The south bank of the Bashi River has relatively flat terrain and good road conditions. It is the area where the main force of the Chinese United Company's armed forces marched; the first regiment "Hurricane Regiment" consisted of 1900 infantry fighters, including 1600 flintlock musketeers and 300 grenadiers. (Each person is still issued with matchlock guns); the two battalions of the third regiment "Storm Regiment" have 1000 infantry fighters, including 900 fusiliers and 100 grenadiers. The strength of the two regiments is not enough, because Some outposts have been dispatched to conquer the surrounding native villages.

In addition, the army on the South Road is accompanied by 40 light field guns, the main force of the artillery battalion. Almost all the main force of the artillery battalion is here. At the same time, the Zhuang Ding reserve team is also strengthened to the South Road as an auxiliary force, with about 500 arquebus gunners and spearmen. , The total strength of the South Road is nearly 4000.

There is also a team of 60 sharpshooters beside Yin Feng, which belong to the Luo Aquan special forces; there are also 150 native Taiwanese spearmen (there were more than 200 originally, and the rest followed the Han troops to conquer the indigenous villages), plus Yan Siqi's students There are more than 50 soldiers, 800 mountain tribe allied troops in Da'an, more than 40 black personal guards led by Yin Feng's own Magaro, and more than 50 personal guards led by Lin Yue. These troops total about 1100 people, which are Yin Feng's preparations Team up.

Before the fog was completely dispelled by the sun, the Spanish army lined up for a quarter of a league, which was more than one Chinese mile. However, when observing with a telescope from the fortress of Qili at the top of the city, the Chinese brigade could already be seen People and horses are marching along the Bashi River in three ways.

Governor Aguna, Justice Juan Ferrero, Bishop Benavidez and others at the top of the city gasped: more than 30 years ago, it was also a Chinese maritime armed force, and the Lin Feng fleet raided Manila, too, divided into three routes and marched into Manila.

The Central Army under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Azquita included 800 musketeers from the regular Spanish army and 3000 indigenous soldiers from Pampanga, including 1500 native musketeers and 1500 spearmen, which were the main force of the Spanish army.

In the north of Azquita’s headquarters, 120 colonial militiamen, 500 native soldiers, and 300 Japanese volunteers are crossing the river and landing on Binondo Island. At this time, Binondo is between the Bashi River and the continuous swampland further north. An island on the island, guarding the main route from the west coast to Manila City.

Captain Velasco, who was in charge of defending Binondo, was stopped by Lieutenant Colonel Azquita who had just come down from the city: "Don Velasco, your troops will not have reinforcements after the battle begins. up,"

Velasco opened his mouth, but Azquita did not allow him to make a statement, and immediately said: "I have observed from the top of the city, the main force of the physiological human army is on the south bank, and a large number of troops on the north bank are marching in the direction of Binondo. You will reach the north bank of Binondo in half an hour, and you must use your terrain advantage to block them with all your strength... You must stop them from turning to the north of the king's city at all costs, or cross the river to turn to the right flank of our main force,"

Azquita jumped on his horse and said to Captain Velasco with a cold face: "As long as I can defeat the main force of the enemy on the south bank, the pressure you face will naturally disappear; if I am here... may God bless us , you must send 200 musketeers to the right flank of my line, and execute the order immediately,"

The lieutenant colonel turned his horse and ran away with his guards. Captain Velasco opened his mouth, but he didn't say anything. He spit and ordered the troops around him loudly: "Quick, cross the river immediately, hurry up!" Time, hurry up, Second Lieutenant Fernandez, take your company and report to Lieutenant Colonel Azquita, hurry up,"

Since the Spaniards could observe the battlefield from the tall Manila city walls, Lieutenant Colonel Azquita adjusted his troops in time and concentrated 4000 people on the southern line, which was inadvertently equal to the strength of the first line of the Chinese army on the southern road.

However, Lieutenant Colonel Azquita only has 10 cannons on hand, which is not only smaller than the Chinese, but also does not have the portable artillery carriages that the Chinese United Company field artillery has. That is, he has no reserve team on hand, and almost all fighters have gone to the front line.

He had just dispatched the troops, when the moist air and dense fog all of a sudden dissipated, and with the sound of the long conch horn, about two miles away from the Spanish army, the brigade was wearing black uniforms, plate armor, Chinese troops wearing simple helmets walked out of the thatched grass with muskets on their shoulders.

Azquita observed with the binoculars on the horse for a while, and took a breath: the outposts of the Chinese troops were all spearmen and musketeers marching in skirmish lines, but behind the skirmish lines, they were neatly arranged, The pace is consistent, and according to the standards of the Spanish regular army, they are also well-equipped soldiers, and everyone is murderous.

"No, is this really the Chinese army?" Lieutenant Colonel Azquita participated in the Netherlands War a few years ago and fought against the Dutch army. He saw Prince Moritz, who was well-disciplined and marched in unison, leading the army. The current Dutch army, the Chinese army in front of us, seems to be marching more uniformly than the Dutch army.

The Chinese front was stretched very wide. From the Bashi River to a branch of the Bashi River over there, the Chinese troops who came out of the thatched grass one after another formed a long horizontal formation with a number of [-]. The depth is no more than four rows; the first three rows are musketeers, and the last row seems to be auxiliary arms.

Lieutenant Colonel Azquita raised his hand and ordered the troops to temporarily stop advancing.

Captain Viragón, who commanded the left-wing indigenous troops of the Spanish colonial army, and Brother Flores, the priest accompanying the army, surrounded him together: "What's going on, why did you stop?" Brother Flores asked anxiously: "Mr. , the enemy has not come to form a team, we should launch an attack and defeat them in one fell swoop..."

Azquita handed him the binoculars impatiently. At this time, the Spaniards had just started to use binoculars on the battlefield, so ordinary officials and military officers did not have such gadgets.

"Father, use this to see, the enemy has already lined up,"

"What, so fast?"

The sun dispelled the last bit of fog and moisture. The Chinese array has been lined up. The 1000-man wide array is divided into three sections. A large number of artillerymen are setting up artillery positions in front of the infantry array and in the gaps between the arrays.