Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 609 Surrounding Manila

Another example is Yang Guang, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty. Yang Guang is also a hero with great talent and boldness.The Sui Dynasty was able to unify the country, and Yang Guang contributed the most, which is very similar to Li Shimin in the later Tang Dynasty.Moreover, both of them succeeded by murdering their brothers, but one became a faint king and the other became a wise lord.

It is only because Yang Guang built a canal, a grand canal that made Yang Guang infamy through the ages, but benefited countless descendants.In the process of building the canal, Yang Guang also conscripted a large number of civilian husbands, and countless people died in this project.

Yang Guang didn't build this canal for traveling in the south of the Yangtze River, as those who scolded him said.

Yang Guang built this canal because the food in the north was far from enough to eat at that time, and it needed to be transported from the south, and it took several months to transport the food from the south. When the food arrived, half of it was eaten by the people on the road. Yes, more food is consumed than delivered.

In order to save people's labor in transporting grain, in order to save food, Yang Guang decided to build a canal, and then use ships to transport the grain to the north through the canal, which can save a lot of people's labor and save countless grains every year.

It's a pity that the situation of the Sui Dynasty was similar to that of the Qin Dynasty. The country was not stable soon after the founding of the country. Such a big move naturally gave some people an opportunity to take advantage of it. It happened that Yang Guang failed to conquer Korea several times, and his military strength was greatly weakened. In the end, those aristocrats seized the opportunity to rise up and overthrow him.In fact, in the process of overthrowing the Sui Dynasty, the rebel army formed by peasants did not play a big role, mainly the rebellious nobles and local tyrants.

In essence, Chu Xiang’s war to overthrow the Qin Dynasty and the nobles’ war to overthrow the Sui Dynasty were both a new force trying to replace the old force, and there was no justice or injustice at all.As for the Chu-Han war between Liu Xiang and the war between Li Tang and warlords in various places, there is no justice or injustice.

In Li Jing's view, there were only two real unjust wars, that is, wars of aggression, one when the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded China, and the other when the Japanese invaded China.

Because of these two wars, the purpose of those countries was to occupy China's land and plunder China's wealth, and there was no other reason.

It is a pity that when the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded China, the decadent Manchu Qing Dynasty was in power. The great country was defeated by an army of less than 2 people, and then China was divided up by the foreign powers and became a semi-colonial country.

Fortunately, when the Japanese country launched the war of aggression against China, the Chinese people had already awakened. Countless Chinese went on to fight with the people of the Japanese country, and finally defeated the Japanese country and won the victory of the War of Resistance.

(Note: I would like to make some complaints here. Those Chinese screenwriters who write about the Anti-Japanese War, please take care of yourself. China’s eight-year Anti-Japanese War. According to post-war statistics, more than 600 million soldiers and civilians died, and the property lost And the consumption of the war is about [-] billion US dollars. Write the plot according to your way, is the Japanese country invading China, or is the Japanese country coming to China to seek money? You make up such a nonsense, and you are not afraid of the souls of the martyrs who died in that war. Do you want to discuss the Dharma with you at night?)
Compared with the invasion of China by the Eight-Power Allied Forces and the Japanese invasion of China, those countries that fought in the European battlefield in the two world wars were only for the benefit of their own countries, and there was no justice or injustice at all.

(Note: It is more interesting to say that in the First World War, the Allied Powers formed by Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire fought against the Allied Powers formed by Britain, France, Russia and other countries. In the Second World War, Germany, Italy and Japan formed the Axis Powers, Britain, France Russia, the United States and other countries have turned into allies. The allies formed by Germany and Austria-Hungary are evil, and the allies formed by Britain, France, the United States and Russia are just? Is there any reason for this?)

What's more, even if it is an unjust war of aggression, the victorious countries have not seen what the defeated countries have done.The big deal is to lose some money, stay for a few years, and when the matter is over, take out the wealth that was plundered in the past, and live a happy life of your own, condemning and criticizing them is useless.

It's like this even if you lose the battle, so what if you win?It turned into a battle of justice.

Therefore, Li Jing didn't care about whether it was a just war or not. Of course, it would look better if he could wear a coat of justice.

For sending troops to Luzon, Li Jingming apparently wanted to take revenge on the Spaniards and local aborigines. In fact, Li Jing's purpose was to plunder Luzon's minerals and agricultural supplies.

Luzon is rich in mineral resources, with the largest reserves being nickel and copper, followed by gold and silver.In terms of agriculture, due to the climate, Luzon is rich in rice and sugar cane, which are urgently needed by Ming Dynasty.If it wasn't for the purpose of plundering these resources, and only to deal with the few thousand Spaniards and the local natives who were still using cold weapons, why did Li Jing dispatch an army of [-]?

In fact, what Li Jing was most worried about in this battle was not the Spaniards with weapons and the natives of Luzon, but the climate of Luzon. In comparison, unacceptable water and soil and uncomfortable climate are the biggest enemies of the expeditionary army. The battle report sent back from the front also confirmed this.

The Ming Dynasty dispatched 10 troops to Luzon this time. Due to transportation reasons, the troops that arrived later have not yet been transported to Luzon.

Of course, the Spaniards who attacked Manila in the early stage did not need so many people to participate in the battle. Sometimes too many people participated in the battle and they would not be effective, and it was not conducive to command.Therefore, the follow-up troops repaired for a few days after arriving in Fujian, and then transported merchant ships to Taiwan in batches to adapt to the local climate.

But not long after arriving in Taiwan, many soldiers fell ill. Fortunately, Sun Meng prepared a large amount of medicinal materials in advance, and arranged many military attendants. There was no big problem.

But this is only in Taiwan. Taiwan is still thousands of miles away from Luzon, and the climate is even more different. If you think about it, there will be many problems when these northern soldiers march into Luzon.

Of course, the battle report Sun Meng sent back would not only report these unfavorable news, but also the news of the battle ahead.

Two months ago, after receiving the seal from Li Jing, Sun Meng and Sun Chuanting began to mobilize their troops, and then Zheng Zhilong's fleet was the main force, and Li Guozhu and Zhong Bin's two troops were the flanks to blockade Manila Bay.

Naturally, the Spaniards stationed in Manila did not want to be blocked by the Ming army from going out to sea, so they immediately dispatched the garrison ships to fight.

However, although the Spaniards also have a lot of ships, neither the number of ships nor the number of soldiers is as good as the original Dutch fleet. Even the Dutch fleet was wiped out by Zheng Zhilong, so what about the Spaniards?What's more, at this time, Zheng Zhilong has Li Guozhu and Zhong Bin's fleet equipped with new artillery to cooperate, and his strength has greatly increased. It is no longer the same as when he was fighting with the Dutch fleet.

In the Battle of Manila Bay, Zheng Zhilong ordered Li Guozhu and Zhong Bin to lead the fleet forward on both wings, relying on the advantages of the new artillery to divert the attention of the Spanish ships, and then repeated the old trick, using more than [-] small ships as the forward commando, ready The burning thing, after gaining the upper hand around the enemy, quickly launched a desperate assault on the Spanish fleet, and set fire to the ship when it got close.

At that time, when it was difficult for artillery to sink large ships, this method of arson attack and gang combat was indeed the fastest way to resolve the battle.

After only half a day of fighting between the two sides, Zheng Zhilong's troops burned four large Spanish ships, sank seven medium-sized ships, and more than [-] small ships. Seeing that Zheng Zhilong's troops were gradually encircled, the Spaniards quickly withdrew from the battle when they saw that the situation was not good. . .

Zheng Zhilong led his troops in hot pursuit. Seeing that they couldn't get rid of it, the Spaniards had no choice but to retreat to Manila, and then abandoned their ships and landed in an attempt to rely on the city of Manila to defend the city.

After Zheng Zhilong's troops approached the city of Manila, they quickly divided up their troops. One part was still holding back the Spanish defenders in Manila.

But the Spaniards built many strongholds outside Manila, and each stronghold was equipped with a large number of artillery.

Zheng Zhilong's troops are indeed good at naval warfare, but land warfare, especially siege warfare, is not their forte.The three armies attacked fiercely for three days, but they all returned without success.

Seeing that the battle was unfavorable, Sun Chuanting immediately prevented Zheng Zhilong from continuing to attack the city, and ordered Zheng Zhilong to send warships back to Fujian to fetch Sun Meng's troops for reinforcements.

A few days later, Sun Meng led the marine troops and arrived in Manila with the ship. Before he had time to rest, he lined up and launched shelling outside Manila from the front.

Under the bombardment of overwhelming artillery fire, the Spanish strongholds outside Manila were wiped out one by one. Seeing that there was no threat ahead, Sun Meng immediately led his troops to land, and then divided hundreds of artillery into several echelons, and fired at the north and south outside Manila. The direction of the implementation of shelling, and then advance layer by layer.

Two days later, Sun Meng's troops joined forces with the northern and southern Ming armies outside Manila, and the troops immediately attacked Manila. On the next day, Sun Meng's troops attacked under the city of Manila and surrounded Manila.

When Li Jing received this battle report from Sun Meng, it had been more than a month since Sun Meng surrounded Manila.

In this regard, Li Jing is also very helpless. Beijing is tens of thousands of miles away from Manila, and the South China Sea is also separated. It takes more than 3000 miles for the messenger to go to Guangdong, which is the closest to Manila, and then quickly send the news to the capital. Months are fast.

But then, battle reports came every two or three days, and Sun Meng knew that Li Jing was thinking about the battle in Manila, so he sent someone to the capital to deliver the letter every two or three days.

But then there was a sudden change in the battle in Manila. This change was not because the Ming army could not break through the city of Manila. It was because the Ming army beat the Spaniards too hard. The Chinese seized the city wall.

Ming people suddenly appeared on the city wall, so Sun Meng naturally couldn't continue to attack the city with artillery.After discussing with Sun Chuanting, the two decided to postpone the siege and negotiate with the Spaniards.

Unfortunately, this negotiation is doomed to fail.

Originally, Sun Meng discussed with Sun Chuanting that as long as the Spaniards spared the Daming people in the city, they could consider letting the Spaniards survive. You must know that Li Jing's order to Sun Meng was to kill all the Spaniards stationed in Luzon. Absolutely, it can be said that Sun Meng and Sun Chuanting agreed to let these Spaniards go against Li Jing's order.To disobey Li Jing's order, Sun Meng and Sun Chuanting took a considerable risk.

(End of this chapter)