open sea

Chapter 330 March

It is impossible to travel hundreds of miles a day.

If the road environment in the Ming Dynasty was good, Chen Mu's banner army might still be able to travel a hundred miles a day, but in Luzon, they could only march a maximum of [-] miles, and normally it was more than [-] miles.

Pulling the cannon carts forward and backward on the muddy road seriously hindered the march.

Bring a cannon, it's too slow without a pack horse, but Chen Mu feels uneasy without a cannon.

There is a shortage of horses in the mountainous area in the northwest of Luzon Island, and the roads are all in narrow mountainous areas. The expeditionary force did not bring many horses, and what they brought was only herald horses, which cannot be used to pull cannons.

But taking Manila, this is no longer a big problem. There are horses near Manila.Although the horses brought from Daming are not comfortable living in the rainforest, Indian horses should be able to get used to it here.

After the liberation of Manila, Chen Mu planned to let them send a batch of Indian horses from India to Manila through the Portuguese.

Of course, maybe the Spaniards in Manila would like to gift themselves some fine European horses?
Just like a hungry man's mind is full of food, Chen Shuai's mind is full of war horses while watching his subordinates march on foot.

watch?

Of course, he was riding Heiwa.

As an excellent general who cares about his soldiers, he is worried about how to keep the warriors under his command high.

And he walks with the soldiers for an hour every day - after all, the horse is always bouncing, and his thighs and buttocks are quite uncomfortable.

The local people in the northwest of Luzon Island acted as scouts, and it was much easier to march. No matter they went into the forest or climbed the mountains, they could always find a suitable path, and Chen Mu didn't even have to worry about igniting the beacon fire.

After the Battle of Manghushan, although the march was slow, it took several days to reach the unnamed bay agreed with Deng Zilong [-] miles away from Manila.

There are still more than ten miles away, and Deng Zilong's flag army ran all the way to report, asking him to hurry to the coast, wait for him to ride over, the huge fleet is docking at the coast, and repairing the ship.

"Chen Shuai, Manila is empty this time."

Deng Zilong was so happy that he couldn't close his mouth from ear to ear, pointing to a row of large ships stranded in the shallows, he said: "The day before yesterday, we encountered the Xiyi Fleet at sea, eight large ships, and fourteen small boats and gunboats."

"There are nearly a thousand troops, except for the two big ships and one small boat, the rest are there."

Chen Mu looked around, he couldn't name the small boats, most of them were communication boats smaller than the small shark boats; the big boats were mostly in the shape of Clark or Caravel, but the bow and stern were slightly lower, and at least four of them were not warships.

But what's the deal with getting into a lucky boat?

The Spaniards are not enough to use the blessing boat.

This kind of fleet is very powerful at sea, but it can only be a disadvantage to Deng Zilong. There is no other reason. Deng Zilong has [-] fleets including four dispatched from Chen Lin.

Regardless of the number of warships or the number of artillery, he will not suffer.

What's more, there are two super-conventional battleships, Chihai and Iron Armor. Unless the Spaniards still have a big Galen like the San Pablo in the Philippines, meeting on a narrow road at sea is an asymmetrical war.

"The lucky boat is ours, how about the casualties?"

"Casualties were not small. Two fleets were destroyed. One big shark ship was barely repairable, and the other sank before being towed to the bay. The ten small shark ships were all gone. 320 sailors died. , forty of them are battalion soldiers under Chen Zongbing's subordinates."

Chen Mu calmly surprised himself. The so-called compassion does not mean to be cruel to the soldiers or anything else, but to push them to the battlefield when they know they are dead.

Just like at this moment, life is a number, and it is also a number within his tolerance.

"At the end of the battle, a large Xiyi ship was surrounded by the fleet. I sent the lucky boat to dance with them. It was a soldier lucky boat." Deng Zilong pointed to the riddled Xiyi ship and said: " According to what Chen Shuai said, Mr. Xu was kicked off the boat before sailing from Hawksbill Harbor, and he let me read the translation of Xiyi sea battle book."

Speaking of this, Deng Zilong's face became more serious: "Xiyi jumping off the ship is really dangerous. If you can dodge it before jumping back and mastering it, you should use more ships and more guns to win. Commander, Nanyang Shipyard should build a bigger ship." Ships and artillery."

Come on, Chen Mu can also see himself in Deng Zilong.

Not only has Deng Zilong become a practical school, but he also admires the giant cannons even more.

It's really nice to hear that someone in this world is actually urging Mr. Chen to build bigger warships and bigger artillery!
"Let Mr. Xu translate the book in Tortoiseshell Harbor first. As you said, Manila is now empty." Chen Mu stretched his arms and pointed to the ships parked in the offshore: "How many undamaged warships are there?"

Chen Mu attaches great importance to Western books, and sooner or later all these things will be translated, but this is obviously not the most important thing now.Regardless of military, technical or other books, and even the education system they have, they are all excellent trophies for Chen Mu.

"Let Chief Lin sail the boat to cut off the land route for aid from Cebu. First, stay outside Manila Bay for a few days. Don't let the boat run away. I don't have to worry here. I got a few more artillery pieces. If the time comes to land and fight, the city will Those with red scarves on their foreheads belong to our own people."

As he said that, Chen Mu smiled with satisfaction: "Now they shouldn't even dare to sleep!"

Just kidding, sending a fleet to sea for a few hundred miles was completely defeated, and at the same time brought back news of the army's suppression, according to the very small garrison in Manila, who dares to sleep?
If he changed places, Chen Mu would definitely choose to take away the wealth of Manila, retain his troops and retreat to Cebu Island, and then seek to seize the city after joining forces.But the Spaniards will not do that, they are too aggressive and Cebu Island is not a good choice for them.

There is no Fortress in Cebu.

The man with the red scarf on his forehead in Manila was recruited by Li Dan. It is certainly not safe to have hundreds or thousands of people, but Chen Mu felt that Li Dan must have a bottom line in his heart after years of wandering at sea.

Although Deng Zilong fought an unexpected naval battle, it was a good thing for them.Although it will make them face a heavily guarded Manila, this is not a problem. The city always needs to be strictly guarded. It is the best result to eliminate the main force of the enemy army outside the city.

After counting the gains and losses in the battle, the warship unloaded some spare sails for the army to replenish its supplies. The Red Sea raised its banner, followed by the ironclad ship, and the eight fleets set off for Manila.

Chen Mu led the army to slow down a bit, and the servant army was divided into three hundred households according to the banner army. With the sound of the sound, one after another the military flags stood up from the formation, the army shouted three times, and then rose up and left.

Thousands of households put on the green and red iron ghost masks, walked a few steps away, looked back at the banner troops lined up in unfurled banners, holding knives and carrying guns, with a smile that no one could see under the masks, and walked away. The mount laughed and walked away.

Accompanied by the army drum, laughter came from the dust.

"Sweet and beautiful, come with me to receive Manila!"
-
The Ming Army Relying on the Pennant——From "Pingfan Victory Picture"

　The writing is too slow, and I haven’t added updates to the lord and rudder. I have memorized all the chapters that are owed. Add slowly, don’t worry
　　
　
(End of this chapter)