1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 409

October 1641, 7, Luzon, Manila City.

Zheng Zhilong's navy ships, except for more than [-] small and medium-sized warships that continue to blockade the Manila port, the remaining more than [-] large, medium and small ships have returned to Taiwan and Quanzhou to reduce the difficulty of resupply.

Three months ago, under the guidance of three warships from Hanzhou, Zheng Jun's naval division headed straight for the small town of San Fernando on the northeast side of Lingayen Bay.

When the fleet rushed to the coast near the town, it really blocked the Spanish warship hiding here.Zheng Jun's navy first released more than a dozen arson ships. The big ships blocked the outside of the pier, and used artillery and rockets to attack the Spanish warships trying to escape from a long distance.After a fierce battle, Zheng Jun's navy burned two Spanish warships, wounded and captured two ships, but one of them broke through the siege and fled to the open sea with injuries. under protection.

Zheng Jun breathed a sigh of relief after annihilating the Spaniards' human sea power. In this way, the final destruction of the Spaniards lingering in Manila is not far away.

On April 4, after more than ten days of excavation, Zheng Jun's land division successfully arrived at the Manila port area through the excavated tunnel.After driving hundreds of captured natives to serve as cannon fodder, Zheng’s musketeers launched a volley of gunfire against Spain. More than 15 soldiers with cold weapons set up wooden ladders to besiege and broke through all the defenses around the port area on the same day. Wall fortification.

Two days later, Zheng Jun continued to drive hundreds of natives to attack several small forts in the port area without interruption, and at the cost of more than [-] people, they conquered all the forts with difficulty.The Spaniards at the pier fort felt that it was difficult to hold on, and after destroying all the artillery, they quickly fled into Manila.

As a result, Zheng Jun completely controlled all the peripheral points of Manila, forming a siege of the Spaniards on all sides.Subsequently, Zheng Jun captured a large number of natives in the four fields of Manila and forced them to dig tunnels from the periphery to the outer city of Manila, gradually approaching the city wall.

The Spanish defenders in Manila were terrified when they saw this. They stationed on the city wall day and night, constantly bombarding the natives digging tunnels with artillery, trying to scare them into fleeing.However, under the strict supervision of Zheng Jun, the natives had to brave the artillery fire from the top of the city to dig tunnels desperately.Fortunately, after being bombarded for several days, the natives became a little smarter and dug the tunnels deep and narrow, making it difficult for the artillery at the top of the city to hit them.

In the case of consuming hundreds of natives, the tunnels dug by Zheng Jun meandered through the trenches in the outer city of Manila and reached directly near the city wall.Immediately, Chen Hui, the commander of Zheng Jun's land division, launched a large-scale siege of ants, but was repelled by the tenacious Spaniards and failed to break through the city.

Chen Hui was not discouraged by this, and continued to organize small groups of troops to harass the Spanish defenders in turn, trying to exhaust the enemy troops in the city with his own numerical advantage.Finally, one night half a month later, they attacked the city in one fell swoop by means of a night attack, and occupied the outer city of Manila by dawn the next day.The remaining Spanish defenders retreated to the more fortified inner city and continued to resist Zheng's attack.

After breaking through the outer city of Manila, the morale of Zheng's army was greatly boosted. For the inner city where the Spaniards finally occupied, they all thought it would be easy to overcome, but they would only pay a little price.

However, after a few days of rest, the Zheng Jun Lu Division suddenly became speechless collectively after launching several tentative attacks.Without him, the inner city of Manila is extremely strong, and the city walls are much higher than the outer city, almost all of which are built with huge stone blocks.Moreover, because the defensive area of ​​the inner city became smaller, the Spaniards were able to make full use of their limited armed forces.Intensive artillery bombardment and continuous volleys of guns caused many casualties to Zheng Jun and the native servants who were attacking the city with ants.

The once very effective tunneling also lost its due effect when facing the inner city of Manila.The Spaniards dug a deep trench on the outside of the city wall and channeled a river into the trench.If a tunnel is to be forcibly dug, it will inevitably be flooded by a large amount of river water, making it impossible to pass through.

But if the tunnels were not dug to reach the city wall, then the Zheng army's siege soldiers could only pass through an unobstructed area through a few narrow passages deliberately set aside by the Spaniards, and approach the city wall.During this period, Zheng's soldiers will be bombarded by intensive artillery from the top of the city.

Even if Zheng's soldiers reached the vicinity of the city wall, there would still be a section of more than 30 meters of earth slope to climb. Under such an upward attack, it would be easy to be shot by crossfire from several protruding fortresses.

In desperation, Chen Hui had no choice but to stop the attack, and solicited methods from the entire army to conquer the inner city of Manila.But more than a month later, more than [-] Zheng troops settled outside the city. Facing the heavily defended and extremely strong inner city of Manila, they made no progress and returned to the mode of besieging the Spaniards a few months ago.

When the southeast trade wind came in June, Yang Geng, the commander of the Zheng army, considered that the Spanish sea power in Luzon basically no longer existed. The ships were sent back to Taiwan and Quanzhou, leaving only a few ships to transfer supplies and personnel between Manila and Cavite.

The three Hanzhou warships that jointly attacked Luzon with the Zheng army also returned to Hanxing Island (today's Miyako Island), preparing to start the annual immigration work with the immigrant fleets from the Hanzhou mainland.However, when Qi Dajiang left, he left more than a hundred officers and soldiers of the Fifth Marine Corps to strengthen the density of Zheng Jun's firearms and to deal with possible unexpected situations in the Manila offensive and defensive battle.

As for how to conquer the inner city of Manila, the company commander Su Zhongfu was at a loss and had no idea.Although Hanzhou once conquered the strongholds of the Dutch and Portuguese such as Dili City, Ambon, and Kupang, it also conquered several towns of the Spanish.But to be honest, there are many flukes in those battles. Some are because the enemy's carelessness allowed the Hanzhou people to take advantage of the loopholes. Only with unstoppable artillery fire and a fearless charge were they able to take down the stronghold.

However, the defense facilities and strength of the inner city of Manila are still far beyond the imagination of the Hanzhou people.Not to mention that the Zheng army has more than 4000 people, even if 1 people come, they may not be able to conquer it.The only way is such a long-term siege.I just hope that the Spaniards in the city will not be too rich in supplies and will not be too tenacious in defense.

"Long-term siege is not a problem, but Xiyi will not stand still. According to the captive Spaniards, they sent ships to their territory in the east last September, trying to move in rescue soldiers. If Xiyi moved faster, it would be about the same The time is coming." Standing in front of Hanzhou's camp, Chen Hui looked at the inner city of Manila in the distance, with a hint of anxiety on his face, "You Hanzhou people have broken through the strongholds of the Dutch, Portugal, and Spaniards many times. .Faced with the current situation, is there nothing you can do?"

"General, we really can't think of a way." Su Zhongfu, the company commander of the Fifth Marine Corps, said with a bitter face: "We have conquered several Western fortresses, but all the situations we faced were different from those in the inner city of Manila. This is probably the strongest and tallest city I have ever seen for the first time, and there are so many firearms in Xiyi, and the upper and lower can be united, which is really difficult."

Chen Hui sighed, and shook his head towards Shi Lang who followed, thousands of us couldn't think of a way, if we want to rely on these more than 100 Hanzhou people, it will be a bit difficult.

Shi Lang didn't care about spreading his hands. He originally came to ask about the Hanzhou people, that is, a dead horse is a living horse doctor.However, he is still optimistic about the eventual capture of Manila.All the Spaniards in the city are fully charged, and there are no more than 2000 people, and the armed forces that can be assembled are very limited.

Although Zheng's army lost hundreds of people after several months of attack, the number of troops still exceeded 500, with cannons and muskets.Through the killing of the surrounding native tribes, a lot of food was also seized, and Cavite and the outer city of Manila were occupied, plus twenty or thirty small boats came and went to communicate.Even if the Spaniards came for reinforcements, they were not very worried.It took several months to sail tens of thousands of miles, how many people could Xiyi bring to fight against them?

"What's that?" Shi Lang couldn't help asking curiously when he saw several soldiers of the Hanzhou Marine Corps placing dozens of tin cans one by one in an open space in the camp.

"Our grenadiers use the hands to throw bombs." Su Zhongfu said: "There has been a lot of rain recently, and it has been damp. The soldiers took them out to dry."

"Hand-throwing bombs?...How powerful is it? How to use it?" Shi Lang asked.

"The power is not bad. When facing a large group of enemies, the grenadiers ignite the bomb with a matchlock, throw it at the enemy, break the iron can, and kill the enemy with fragments. Within a radius of three to five meters, the wounded will be killed."

"Are you stuffing gunpowder into an iron can and then hurting people by bursting it?"

"Yes, it is to stuff gunpowder and other combustion aids, as well as pieces of iron, stones, etc. into it, use the gunpowder to deflagrate, break open the tin can, and distribute fragments to kill the enemy."

"Gunpowder is stuffed into the tin can, and it can be easily broken after deflagration. If you make a huge tin can and stuff more gunpowder, wouldn't it be possible to make a more powerful bomb!" Shi Lang said with a smile.

"Of course, not to mention the huge tin cans, even a mountain peak, buried with a lot of gunpowder, can also be overturned and blown to pieces." Su Zhongfu said: "Our mines in Hanzhou sometimes use a lot of minerals to mine ore. Gunpowder blasts. '

"Gunpowder exploded the mountain!" Shi Lang's heart moved, "If enough gunpowder is buried under a city, will it be possible to blow up the entire city?"

Chen Hui was stunned when he heard this, and turned to look at Shi Lang.

"General, should we try?" There was a strange light in Shi Lang's eyes.

"...Try it!" Chen Hui had a look of hope on his face.

After more than ten days of continuous harassment and feigned attacks, Zheng Jun drove the natives to dig several pits of varying depths on the city wall, and then launched a surprise attack to cover the natives carrying dozens of barrels of gunpowder to the city wall. In the frightened eyes, the gunpowder was quickly ignited.

With a huge explosion, the entire city of Manila felt a violent tremor, and a section of the inner city wall of more than ten meters collapsed instantly.

Zheng Jun cheered loudly and rushed towards the gap in the city wall.

The Manila offensive and defensive battle, which lasted more than half a year, came to an end. All officials of the Spanish colonial authorities in the Philippines were captured by Zheng Jun.

Because Zheng Jun sent people into the city several times to persuade them to surrender, but the Spaniards refused, and last year they massacred nearly Wanming people for no reason.After Chen Hui ordered people to pick out all kinds of craftsmen, entertainers, women and children, he carried out the May Day massacre on all Spaniards, and all of them were beheaded in the Eight Lianming people's death camp outside Manila.

All the main colonial officials, including Spanish Governor Sebastian Coquera in the Philippines, were escorted to Quanzhou, where they were personally disposed of by Fujian Governor Zheng Zhilong.

(End of this chapter)