Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 519: The First Phase of Operation Begins

Attacking a city is a very difficult task, even with equipment advantages.

It has to be admitted that the Spanish Governor's tactics did work and disrupted Jia Lian's plan to achieve a quick victory.

Of course, this was just one of the plans, and we didn't hold much hope for it from the beginning.

The reason why the Spanish Governor adopted this tactic was naturally because of the information previously conveyed by all parties, such as the troublemaker Dai Ying, who provided a lot of intelligence.

For example, the Zhou Empire hired a large number of officers from the Royal Navy, the Zhou Empire's army had a huge equipment advantage, and the Zhou Empire's army was well-trained, etc.

Spain is a small country, and naturally cannot compare with Spain in terms of war potential. The gap is too big. Especially in Spain, there are huge differences on whether the Borneo colony is worth spending a lot of manpower and material resources to defend. One side insists on defending it, while the other side thinks that it is possible to negotiate, hand over the territory, and retain the trade channel.

The result of the endless debate was that no help was given to Borneo from the country. Under this premise, the Spanish governor was forced to adopt the current tactics.

There is another problem here. With Spain's ability to obtain intelligence, it was impossible to monitor the actions of the Zhou Empire Navy. When it discovered the enemy situation, the South China Sea Fleet had already reached the entrance of Manila Bay.

The Spanish governor made a lot of preparations in advance, but when the enemy came, it was still a bit hasty. At least the people in other colonies outside Manila could not return to the city, and could only shiver in their respective estates, waiting for the judgment of fate.

For the Spanish governor, more worrying things are yet to come. Not only does the Zhou Empire have an advantage in military equipment, but it also has to use things like hot air balloons.

Now the Spaniards can still defend the fortress area including the port and some surrounding outer urban areas because the enemy has not yet launched a full-scale attack.

The Spaniards have their own troubles, and Jia Lian has his own headaches.

Such a large city, with at least 30,000 people, although the regular army is not large, but the militia is at least over 10,000. If you fight hard, the casualties will definitely be huge.

Although it is said that kindness does not lead to great military success, Jia Lian was still unwilling to bear heavy casualties. Jia Lian hoped that the Spaniards would escape on their own, so the main force of the navy retreated to the islands near the mouth of Manila Bay. On the one hand, it was to surround the point and attack the reinforcements, striving to destroy the main force of the Dutch navy at sea, and on the other hand, it was to prevent possible typhoons. After all, there were many places near the mouth of the bay that were suitable for avoiding typhoons. The third reason was that supplies could be obtained nearby. With the Spanish tactics, this battle was likely to become a protracted war.

After Jia Lian determined the tactics, he became less anxious. He first surrounded the city where the Spaniards were located on three sides with the strength of two regiments, allowing them to escape by sea. Such a loose encirclement was to create a feasible illusion for the Spaniards to take the initiative. The mission of the third regiment was not to serve as a reserve force, but to sweep all the Spanish colonists' estates on the island.

Before implementing the tactics, Jia Lian called all officers above the team (company) level to a meeting and invited representatives of overseas Chinese to sit in as observers.

The purpose of holding such an enlarged military meeting is simple: to clarify military discipline.

The meeting place was chosen in a very simple environment, with a straw shed as the meeting room. It was not that the overseas Chinese could not provide a venue, but Jia Lian refused, and even insisted on living in the camp in the wild. Instead, he let Li Yuan live in the home of the overseas Chinese leader Chen Lao Da. For this arrangement, Li Yuan chose to personally visit the overseas Chinese to express his condolences, and after receiving a lot of praise and admiration, he returned to the camp overnight to share the joys and sorrows with the soldiers. Jia Lian could only give a thumbs up to this. Li Yuan had made great progress during this period, and the more so, the more Jia Lian wanted to keep him.

In front of everyone, Jia Lian showed his respect for the Inspector General. Li Yuan sat in the first seat in the meeting.

Li Yuan repeatedly declined, but Jia Lian persuaded Li Yuan to accept the offer on the grounds that "In Southeast Asia, Your Highness represents the royal family."

"The content of today's meeting is very simple. There are only two things that must be emphasized. The first is military discipline. An army with corrupt military discipline will quickly degenerate even if it has a certain combat effectiveness. If you strictly abide by military discipline, you are a soldier. If you indulge your own desires and bully the weak and do whatever you want, you are not a soldier, but a beast. This governor requires you to convey the spirit of the meeting to the officers and soldiers below after you go back to ensure that every soldier knows and is proud to abide by military discipline. Here I would like to remind you that this governor has invited Mr. Chen, a representative of overseas Chinese, to supervise the implementation of military discipline. If anyone violates military discipline in the future and is punished, don't blame this governor for not teaching and punishing. Secondly, there will be a period of time, which is the season with frequent typhoons. All departments must make preparations in advance, especially the materials that have been transported with great difficulty, which must be preserved. This is the guarantee of our army's combat effectiveness. Next, please allow Mr. Chen, a representative of overseas Chinese, to speak."

When the overseas Chinese representative Chen Lao Da learned that he would attend the meeting and speak as a representative of overseas Chinese, he was completely confused. Jia Lian also solemnly gave him the task of supervising the military discipline of the new army, which instantly elevated Chen Lao Da's whole personality. In the past, he was nothing. To put it bluntly, in the overseas Chinese community in Manila, there are only a little over 10,000 people in total. Everyone elected him as the leader, but it does not mean that everyone obeys him. There are many people who want to replace him. I will not say here that the Chinese like to fight among themselves. As long as they are human beings, as long as they are in an organization, there will be factions and internal fighting. This is human nature.

What is the essential difference between the stereotype that Chinese people must like to fight among themselves and the fallacy that all boxers believe that all men are bad?
Although he had prepared himself mentally, when he stood in front of the stage to speak, Chen Lao Da still felt a little drunk and staggered. He stuttered and finished reading the prepared manuscript. Chen Lao Da didn't know what he said. He slowly calmed down after returning to his seat and looked at the last person who came up to speak, Li Yuan, representing the royal family.

Compared to Jia Lian's seriousness when speaking, Li Yuan's attitude was much gentler, and he mainly expressed gratitude and encouragement to the officers.

Li Yuan was very satisfied to be able to speak in this meeting. It was the first time for Li Yuan to speak to so many officers of the Nanyang New Army, not to mention that everyone was taking notes.

Li Yuan first thanked everyone for their efforts. In this hot summer, they traveled thousands of miles across the sea to come to a foreign country for the great cause of the empire, so he must thank everyone. It was because of the existence of a group of qualified soldiers that the top two powers in the West had to accept the treaty demarcating the sphere of influence. He did not mention that the interests of Britain and France could not reach this area at present.

After thanks comes encouragement. I hope everyone will keep up the good work. In the future, the reputation of the empire will follow the path of the eunuch Sanbao's voyage to the West, and send out the dragon roar of the empire to the world because of your efforts.

Chen Tang of the Western Han Dynasty once said, "If anyone dares to offend the mighty Han, he will be punished no matter how far away he is." Now, wherever the dragon of our great Zhou goes, everyone becomes a concubine of Zhou.

After the big talk and the encouragement, it was time to reward the officers based on their merits. Li Yuan presided over the merit-reward meeting, letting every officer know what merits they had. The officers and soldiers who performed well during this period were given corresponding merits, which were recorded in the merit book, and then rewarded based on their merits.

The meeting ended with a dinner. All the ingredients sent by overseas Chinese were used and everyone had a good meal.

During this period, Jia Lian's meals were the same as those of the grassroots soldiers and all the officers. During wartime, they were not allowed to make any special arrangements, nor were they allowed to accept invitations to banquets from overseas Chinese.

In private, Li Yuan asked Jia Lian why he made these arrangements.

Jia Lian still patiently told Li Yuan that it was not difficult to conquer a territory, but the difficult part was how to govern it in the future and make the people loyal to it.

Strong military force can indeed frighten people and make them surrender temporarily. But they must be waiting for an opportunity to overthrow the ruler. Nanyang is not the mainland, there are many foreigners and few Chinese. There are countless examples in history books on how to rule the majority with a minority and rule stably, which are worthy of in-depth study and warning by future generations. In any case, appearing in front of the vast majority of indigenous people with the attitude of a victor showing off his power is definitely not the best approach. Therefore, the future governance of indigenous people must be based on military pressure and assisted by appeasement.

The way to demonstrate military power is not necessarily to show off military force unscrupulously. On the contrary, the result of being unscrupulous will inevitably be more resistance and a rapid decline in the military's combat effectiveness.

Jia Lian even told Li Yuan that only a small part of the rewards for officers and soldiers would be distributed locally, and most of them would be sent back to their families. Moreover, the rewards for soldiers and military workers were divided into two parts, one was property and the other was land. Property was easy to understand. There must have been gains during the war, which were converted into silver coins and distributed according to a certain ratio. The land was local land. The next step was to clean up the Spanish farms on the island, and the land obtained would be distributed to the officers and soldiers below.

Li Yuan was a bit enlightened by this arrangement. Jia Lian had always emphasized the need for immigration. If the soldiers had local land, wouldn't they be the first batch of immigrants? And their families, instead of being tenants for the landlords in their hometowns, why not come to Nanyang and become landlords?

As for the subsequent colonization, there will definitely be frictions with the natives, and how to resolve the conflicts is another matter. At least for now, Jia Lian has not decided whether to take the approach of taking the British, or to carry out a tributary rule after controlling a few key points.

In any case, Li Yuan has already seen clearly that he will definitely make money by engaging in the shipbuilding industry in the future. Another point is that Nanyang needs a large number of immigrants, which will definitely help alleviate the contradiction between people and land in China.

Li Yuan couldn't help but sigh to Jia Lian: "In the past month following you, I have learned more than in the past twenty years."

Jia Lian dared not accept such a high position, and smiled and waved his hand: "Your Highness has said too much, a person's cognition is determined by the education and environment he receives. Your Highness has enough knowledge, but he lacks to sink to the bottom of society and observe the lowest and most basic components of this country. Why do I say that? This country can be without princes and nobles, but it must not be without the bottom of society."

After hearing this, Li Yuan lowered his head and thought silently. Jia Lian walked away. After a long while, Li Yuan looked up and sighed, "The wind and rain always blow away the romanticism! The swallows in front of the halls of the rich and powerful now fly into the homes of ordinary people. The kings, princes, generals and ministers, and the dynasties have only replaced a group of people. I really don't want to be the one who is replaced."

With the end of the expanded military meeting, a new round of operations began.

The first and second targets, with the cooperation of artillery targets, began to attack key points outside the city.

The purpose of the operation was to reduce the defensive space of the Spanish colonists. The two groups launched attacks from the southwest and northwest respectively.

There was no need to hide the movement of troops, so the Spaniards quickly discovered the assembly of Zhou's army, especially the appearance of artillery.

The Spanish governor, who had been on the passive defensive, immediately became alert and mobilized 2,000 regular colonial troops to stand by at the secondary defense line in two directions, ready to launch a counterattack at any time.

This is the first battle. It doesn't matter whether we can hold the outer defense line in the future. The worst case scenario is to retreat to the fortress area, but we must win the first battle, which can greatly boost morale.

Before this, the Spaniards had already understood one thing: fighting with the Zhou army was not like dealing with the indigenous people, but was a completely different form.

The governor who was on the front line soon saw the combat mode of the Zhou Empire Army through the telescope.

The attacking force consisted of 100 men, distributed on a front of about 500 meters. They did not form a linear formation, but were divided into groups of five, keeping a distance of about 20 meters between them.

"This should be a tentative attack." The Spanish governor quickly came to the conclusion and spoke to the bishop beside him.

The bishop's expression was very serious. He looked at the approaching enemy and gnashed his teeth: "How dare you attack with such a small number of people? How arrogant!"

After entering the distance of 200 meters, the Zhou army soldiers stopped, looked for shelter nearby, and began to dig the soil with small shovels. This fighting style directly confused the two men, who had never seen such a battle.

Before they could react, the silent naval commander spoke up: "The bombardment has begun! That thing is coming again!"

The three looked up at the sky. The hot air balloon had already flown above the fortifications. At the same time, a cannon fired, and the solid projectile passed through the Spanish militia's fortifications and smashed a hole in the back wall. There was no one in the room, so no casualties were caused.

It can only be said that the Spanish had not yet mastered the essence of defensive warfare. They only dug a trench about one meter deep in the ground, built a wall on one side of the trench with soil, and in the middle of the wall was a three-meter-high wood-brick structure fence. The main task of the artillery of the Nanyang New Army was to destroy this fence with artillery fire.

This fence was very effective against the natives, but it was not so useful against the artillery fire of the new army.

After calibration, continuous artillery fire began. Twenty-four twelve-pound cannons were concentrated in the northwest direction, and solid bullets hit the fence one after another.

Just this alone was enough to terrify the militiamen hiding behind the fence. If they were unlucky, they would be hit directly by the bullet that broke through the fence. The lost lamb would return to the arms of GOD.

As a low-level militiaman, Jose once again faced an enemy he thought was invincible. He held his rifle, huddled behind the fence, and waited for the officer's order to stand up and shoot.

Bang bang bang, the shells kept hitting the earth walls and fences. The militia hiding behind the earth walls were probably safe for the time being, but several observers would be in danger.

"Ah!" An unlucky observer was hit directly, and the bullet smashed through the wooden fence, carrying him down with it.

Before the intense heartbeat became numb, a hot air balloon appeared directly above me, making me feel uneasy. Would it cause any more trouble? The flight a few days ago did not cause any substantial damage.

Just as Jose was praying silently subconsciously, things kept falling from the sky. In fact, everyone knows that if something can fly over your head, it can also drop something down. It’s just that people are more willing to believe the bishop’s lies, because even if it is lies, it can bring people confidence.

These falling objects were falling here and there in a very irregular manner, but when these black shadows suddenly exploded at different heights with a deafening roar, everything changed.

The things thrown down were explosive packs, which were filled with a lot of loose iron blocks. Although there were not many explosive packs, and only a few were thrown in this area, the fear they caused was immeasurable.

The flying iron pieces, like raindrops, penetrated everyone and everything they encountered, it could be a roof, it could be a person.

Young Jose witnessed with his own eyes that a fellow was pierced by a piece of iron in the back, and fell to the ground screaming. You have to know that the man was only two meters away from him. If he had not been lucky, he would have been pierced by the iron. Behind this earth wall, more than one person was hit by the disorderly flying iron pieces. At least within Jose's sight, five people were hit. One of them was the luckiest. He had an iron piece pierced on his head. He groaned at the time, and then there was no movement. After falling, his limbs kept twitching slightly on the ground.

At this time, Jose's ears were still buzzing. Before he could get over the explosion, he could smell the blood. Fear made him sit back on the ground, and the pain made him scream sharply: "Ah!" Jose jumped up from the ground, jumping continuously, looking down at the ground, a triangular iron was stuck into a rolling log used for defense, and Jose was unfortunately sitting on it, his anus was severely damaged, and a large amount of blood was overflowing from his pants.

"I'm hurt, I'm hurt, I'm hurt." He Xi kept shouting. An officer came over, slapped him hard, and shouted at him: "Shut up! I'll beat you to death if you dare to do that again!"

Jose stopped shouting and stared at him blankly, not even bothering to wipe away his tears. The officer pointed to a room with a cross on it and said, "Go to that room and ask the maids to bandage you. Don't try to escape. Once you're bandaged, come back and continue fighting."

Jose quickly picked up the rifle and ran over there despite the pain. When he stepped over the threshold, he saw this scene: the elderly nun in the church was lying on the ground, surrounded by several young nuns, who were kneeling on the ground and praying for her.

(End of this chapter)