Chapter 1645
Important Information
Chapter 1645 Important Information
Yan Chujie knew that the person who came was from the Chaosheng Commercial Inn, so the things he sent to Jiamidi in the wind and rain at this time were naturally very important information.Immediately, he opened the envelope, took out the letterhead inside, browsed through it, handed it to his adjutant, and then gave some instructions in a low voice.
Ran Tiancheng stood on the spot and didn't dare to raise his head, let alone listen to Yan Chujie's order.He only hoped that the benefits that Ran Tianlu had prepared for the Haihan people would be substantial enough to impress them once, so that he would not have to waste time negotiating terms with them again.
After Yan Chujie arranged the matter, he asked Ran Tiancheng: "Boss Ran has worked hard all the way, and he hasn't eaten on the way?"
Ran Tiancheng quickly responded: "I rushed over to see you, but I didn't have time to eat, but it's okay... Are you satisfied with the things you sent?"
Yan Chujie nodded and said: "You did a good job. I will reward you for your merits when the battle in Manila stabilizes. In this way, I will ask someone to take you to have some hot food first, and someone will ask you later, you know What, I will answer slowly when the time comes."
Ran Tiancheng faintly felt that something was wrong, but he didn't realize it for a while, so an officer had already taken him away from Yan Chujie's office, and went to a nearby cafeteria, where he asked the kitchen to cook him a bowl of beef noodles, and took another He gave him two biscuits - this is already the treatment that only senior officers can enjoy on the battlefield.
After Ran Tiancheng ate the noodles, he realized that he was here to give money, but why did that General Haihan reward him for his merits?What is the merit of spending money to buy peace?Could it be that the envelope that I handed over to the other party didn't contain the check that Ran Tianlu said?
The more Ran Tiancheng thought about it, the more he felt that this was the truth, and the chopsticks in his hand stopped.He didn't know the true identity of his brother, only that he had a wide circle of friends and traded with businessmen from many countries.But Ran Tiancheng was not very clear about the relationship with the Hai Han people.But now that the Haihan people are approaching the city, if they can receive the information sent from the city, it will naturally save a lot of trouble. If the things sent by Ran Tianlu are related to this, it can well explain Yan Chujie's attitude.
Under the instruction of Yan Chujie, the secret letter sent from Manila city has been sent to the headquarters for several other generals to read.As for Ran Tianlu's letter, the Spaniards stepped up to build chain bombs, which naturally attracted great attention from the generals.
Although the "Black Shark" is equipped with a steam-powered propulsion system, its main power source is still the sails on the ship. Steam propulsion is only used as a temporary supplementary power during combat, not the protagonist.Otherwise, the "Black Shark" will probably have to follow two supply ships during its mission, one for coal and one for fresh water, so as to ensure its endurance at sea.
Since it still relies on the sail system, masts and sails are defense weaknesses that cannot be completely solved, and chain bombs happen to be one of the most effective weapons used to deal with masts and sails in naval warfare. defense against attacks.
Of course, at the beginning of the design of the "Black Shark", various attack methods that need to be defended have been considered, and the chain bomb is naturally one of them, and there are certain countermeasures for this.There is no particularly effective way to defend the sails. The soft canvas can't hold the shells in flight anyway. The most effective defense is to increase the combat distance and keep them out of the range of the enemy's chain bullets.
And the mast needs to defend against more than chain bullets. If ordinary solid shells hit the wooden mast, it will also cause devastating consequences.Therefore, the outer layer of the lower half of the mast of the "Black Shark" is also covered with a layer of iron armor, and various reinforcement measures have been taken to ensure that the mast will not break even if it is directly hit by a shell.In the previous confrontation with the Manila Fleet, the "Black Shark" had already carefully controlled the engagement distance, in order to avoid being hit by the chain bombs fired by the Spanish warships and hitting the weak parts of the ship.
"The Spaniards still have some brains! They figured out how to fight so quickly." Tom Wang didn't look nervous after reading the relevant information.This is because the Haihan army has already captured Cavite and has firmly established a port as a forward base. If they want to fight the Spaniards at sea again, there will be no more "Black Shark" single-handedly entering the enemy's line Naturally, there is no risk of being besieged by the opponent's warships at sea.
Although the "Black Shark" is designed as an ironclad ship that attaches great importance to defense, its main tactic is not to rush into the enemy's line to attract firepower, but to use the advantages of maneuverability and speed to wander around the periphery, seize a favorable position, and then use it on the ship. The two highly accurate naval guns bombarded the enemy ships.
In this confrontation with the Manila Fleet, the tactics of the "Black Shark" were entirely aimed at delaying the attack on Cavite, otherwise they would not have taken such a risky approach to fight with Spanish warships.Now the battleships of the Haihan Fleet have basically been freed up. The next time they confront the enemy, the three Majestic-class battleships in the fleet will be the main force on the frontal battlefield. The battle that the "Black Shark" is facing The risk will be greatly reduced, and the tricks played by the Spaniards may not even be of any use.
Wang Tom knew this well, so he was not too afraid of the tactics that the Spaniards came up with.However, the intelligence department was able to manage to send this news from Manila at such a critical time. The risks taken during the period were unimaginable, which also shows the extent of its efforts. Therefore, although this news can help the navy to a limited extent, Tom Wang He also gave a very high evaluation to the intelligence work.
But Qian Tiandun is interested in another thing: "The person who sent the news from Manila City is said to have traveled by land, with a one-night break in the middle, but actually arrived in two days. Considering the current situation We can complete this trip in two days due to the severe weather conditions, and when the weather improves, we may be able to advance to the vicinity of Manila City in one day.”
"It's not easy." Roger, who was lying on the map, straightened up and said, "Look, there are three rivers to cross from the Cavite Peninsula to the city of Manila. The messenger has one person and one horse, as long as he can It would be easier to find a small boat by the river to cross the river, but we have too much heavy equipment and supplies, crossing the river will take a lot of time, not to mention one day, two days may not be able to complete it.”
"Then we can adopt the method we used to fight in Annan. We advance by land and water. The supplies are transported to the north by ship, and all the personnel are transported by land." Wang Tom immediately proposed another plan: "Look, there is a war about eight kilometers away from Manila. Pasay Town, according to the standards on the map, this seaside town has a fishing port. We can transport supplies and equipment to land here, meet with the troops marching by land, and then complete the last part of the journey and approach Manila City. "
"But the Spaniards may also think of this and deploy a defense line locally." Roger added.
"That's not a problem. If they station troops there, they'll start fighting. Don't you have confidence in our strength?" Wang Tom asked with a smile.
Roger also smiled: "Is the fight going? That's what I want."
Roger brought his ace troops here not on vacation. He didn't get any achievements in the battle of Cavite. This has already made him suffocate, and he plans to fight for battles in the following battles. Opportunity.
Roger's South China Sea Special Forces Brigade has a different composition of personnel from other units of the Haihan Army. Many people are not of Haihan origin, or even not Han at all.When Roger formed this army on Abunna Island, the source of troops was more complicated. Besides the Han Chinese, many of them were selected from the slaves sold to Abuna Island by other countries. Only after his military exploits did he get the chance to become a Haihan nationality.
Roger gave them new life and taught these soldiers to prove their worth by fighting.This army will not have too much psychological burden if it goes to war with any country. To Haihan, it is more like an international mercenary.This force defeated the coalition forces formed by the United Kingdom and Johor in the South China Sea, and guarded the strategically important position of the eastern exit of the Strait of Malacca for Haihan, so it was able to rank among Haihan's ace troops.But now they need to prove their own strength by fighting in front of many colleagues here.
Ran Tiancheng did not return to Manila City after completing the task of delivering the letter. This was not because he wanted to stay, but because the Haihan military needed to learn more about the current situation in Manila City from him.Ran Tiancheng knew that he would not be able to get off this boat, so he simply let go and told the Haihan military everything he knew.
After another two days, the rain gradually stopped, and the weather finally began to clear up.However, the reconnaissance results of the cavalry battalion from the town of Noveleta to the vicinity of the town of Palagnac in the north were not satisfactory. Because of the heavy rain for many days, the water on the several rivers along the way was soaring. The ferry that Ran Tiancheng said was early It has been washed away by the river, and the ferry boat cannot be found.If you must march by land, you must wait until the water level of the river subsides before trying to cross the river, or you can only go around the upper reaches of the river and find a place where the river channel is narrower and the water is not so urgent.
But no matter which method is used, it will take a lot of time, which is not the situation that the command department wants to see.So after another round of preparation meetings, the headquarters decided to take Pasay Town, which is across the sea from the Cavite Peninsula, as the next attack target.After capturing the town of Pasay, use the local area as a starting point to launch the last march to Manila from land.
The straight-line distance from Cavite to Pasay Town is about eight kilometers, which translates to about five nautical miles. At the speed of the Haihan fleet, it takes less than an hour to reach the destination.However, before launching the official offensive, the navy still carefully dispatched a scout ship to make a close inspection of the fishing port near Pasay Town, and determined that there were no obvious fortifications on the local coast.As for whether there are troops stationed there, Haihan is not too worried about it. After all, the army wants to make a difference on the battlefield as soon as possible. If there is a Spanish garrison in the local area, it will just be a record for the army.
The headquarters was worried that the night would be long and dreamy, so that the Spaniards would have more time to prepare for the battle, so they launched a new wave of offensive in the early morning of the next day after completing the reconnaissance.Almost all the combat ships of the fleet came out, escorting more than 20 troop carriers heading east towards the town of Pasay.
Before the sky brightened, the Haihan army carried out a landing operation at the fishing port. The process was unimaginably smooth, without encountering any resistance at all, and there was no garrison expected by the headquarters.After searching the villages near the port, it was found that the people here had already run away, leaving only empty houses and some broken fishing boats buckled upside down on the beach.
"That's it? No enemies?" After Roger set foot on land, he received a disappointing report. There was no sign of the Spaniards within a kilometer of the landing site. Obviously, the other party did not regard this fishing port as a target. As a place that must be guarded, he gave up this place easily.This is completely different from the deployment that Roger imagined that the Spaniards would fortify layer by layer before retreating to Manila City.
But for the sake of caution, in order to prevent the Spaniards from playing tricks to lure the enemy deeper, Roger still appointed his two generals, Marcus and Dulu, to lead the team to the east and north respectively to investigate the enemy's situation.
Both of them enlisted as foreign slaves on Ambuna Island in 1633. One is black and the other is from the country of Aceh in Sumatra.However, with the accumulation of military achievements in the past few years, the two not only got rid of their slave status long ago, but joined the Haihan nationality, and now they each lead a company with the rank of lieutenant.
Soon the situation in Pasay Town also came back. The town was already empty. It seemed that the Spaniards were not only retreating and defending, but also planned to fortify the wall and clear the country, trying to cut off the possibility of the Haihan Army getting supplies and labor locally.
"If this is an inland battle, their approach will be more effective. Unfortunately, this is a coastal area. We need to complete the delivery of materials and personnel, as long as we have a ship." After listening to the situation report, Wang Tom said, There is still no high evaluation of the Spaniard's countermeasures.He believes that the only thing that needs to be careful is that the Spaniards deliberately preserve their strength by avoiding battle in this way.Their purpose of doing this may be to hope that they can start a head-on confrontation with the Haihan army under the city, relying on the strong city defense and superiority of the city of Manila to disrupt Haihan's attack.
(End of this chapter)
Yan Chujie knew that the person who came was from the Chaosheng Commercial Inn, so the things he sent to Jiamidi in the wind and rain at this time were naturally very important information.Immediately, he opened the envelope, took out the letterhead inside, browsed through it, handed it to his adjutant, and then gave some instructions in a low voice.
Ran Tiancheng stood on the spot and didn't dare to raise his head, let alone listen to Yan Chujie's order.He only hoped that the benefits that Ran Tianlu had prepared for the Haihan people would be substantial enough to impress them once, so that he would not have to waste time negotiating terms with them again.
After Yan Chujie arranged the matter, he asked Ran Tiancheng: "Boss Ran has worked hard all the way, and he hasn't eaten on the way?"
Ran Tiancheng quickly responded: "I rushed over to see you, but I didn't have time to eat, but it's okay... Are you satisfied with the things you sent?"
Yan Chujie nodded and said: "You did a good job. I will reward you for your merits when the battle in Manila stabilizes. In this way, I will ask someone to take you to have some hot food first, and someone will ask you later, you know What, I will answer slowly when the time comes."
Ran Tiancheng faintly felt that something was wrong, but he didn't realize it for a while, so an officer had already taken him away from Yan Chujie's office, and went to a nearby cafeteria, where he asked the kitchen to cook him a bowl of beef noodles, and took another He gave him two biscuits - this is already the treatment that only senior officers can enjoy on the battlefield.
After Ran Tiancheng ate the noodles, he realized that he was here to give money, but why did that General Haihan reward him for his merits?What is the merit of spending money to buy peace?Could it be that the envelope that I handed over to the other party didn't contain the check that Ran Tianlu said?
The more Ran Tiancheng thought about it, the more he felt that this was the truth, and the chopsticks in his hand stopped.He didn't know the true identity of his brother, only that he had a wide circle of friends and traded with businessmen from many countries.But Ran Tiancheng was not very clear about the relationship with the Hai Han people.But now that the Haihan people are approaching the city, if they can receive the information sent from the city, it will naturally save a lot of trouble. If the things sent by Ran Tianlu are related to this, it can well explain Yan Chujie's attitude.
Under the instruction of Yan Chujie, the secret letter sent from Manila city has been sent to the headquarters for several other generals to read.As for Ran Tianlu's letter, the Spaniards stepped up to build chain bombs, which naturally attracted great attention from the generals.
Although the "Black Shark" is equipped with a steam-powered propulsion system, its main power source is still the sails on the ship. Steam propulsion is only used as a temporary supplementary power during combat, not the protagonist.Otherwise, the "Black Shark" will probably have to follow two supply ships during its mission, one for coal and one for fresh water, so as to ensure its endurance at sea.
Since it still relies on the sail system, masts and sails are defense weaknesses that cannot be completely solved, and chain bombs happen to be one of the most effective weapons used to deal with masts and sails in naval warfare. defense against attacks.
Of course, at the beginning of the design of the "Black Shark", various attack methods that need to be defended have been considered, and the chain bomb is naturally one of them, and there are certain countermeasures for this.There is no particularly effective way to defend the sails. The soft canvas can't hold the shells in flight anyway. The most effective defense is to increase the combat distance and keep them out of the range of the enemy's chain bullets.
And the mast needs to defend against more than chain bullets. If ordinary solid shells hit the wooden mast, it will also cause devastating consequences.Therefore, the outer layer of the lower half of the mast of the "Black Shark" is also covered with a layer of iron armor, and various reinforcement measures have been taken to ensure that the mast will not break even if it is directly hit by a shell.In the previous confrontation with the Manila Fleet, the "Black Shark" had already carefully controlled the engagement distance, in order to avoid being hit by the chain bombs fired by the Spanish warships and hitting the weak parts of the ship.
"The Spaniards still have some brains! They figured out how to fight so quickly." Tom Wang didn't look nervous after reading the relevant information.This is because the Haihan army has already captured Cavite and has firmly established a port as a forward base. If they want to fight the Spaniards at sea again, there will be no more "Black Shark" single-handedly entering the enemy's line Naturally, there is no risk of being besieged by the opponent's warships at sea.
Although the "Black Shark" is designed as an ironclad ship that attaches great importance to defense, its main tactic is not to rush into the enemy's line to attract firepower, but to use the advantages of maneuverability and speed to wander around the periphery, seize a favorable position, and then use it on the ship. The two highly accurate naval guns bombarded the enemy ships.
In this confrontation with the Manila Fleet, the tactics of the "Black Shark" were entirely aimed at delaying the attack on Cavite, otherwise they would not have taken such a risky approach to fight with Spanish warships.Now the battleships of the Haihan Fleet have basically been freed up. The next time they confront the enemy, the three Majestic-class battleships in the fleet will be the main force on the frontal battlefield. The battle that the "Black Shark" is facing The risk will be greatly reduced, and the tricks played by the Spaniards may not even be of any use.
Wang Tom knew this well, so he was not too afraid of the tactics that the Spaniards came up with.However, the intelligence department was able to manage to send this news from Manila at such a critical time. The risks taken during the period were unimaginable, which also shows the extent of its efforts. Therefore, although this news can help the navy to a limited extent, Tom Wang He also gave a very high evaluation to the intelligence work.
But Qian Tiandun is interested in another thing: "The person who sent the news from Manila City is said to have traveled by land, with a one-night break in the middle, but actually arrived in two days. Considering the current situation We can complete this trip in two days due to the severe weather conditions, and when the weather improves, we may be able to advance to the vicinity of Manila City in one day.”
"It's not easy." Roger, who was lying on the map, straightened up and said, "Look, there are three rivers to cross from the Cavite Peninsula to the city of Manila. The messenger has one person and one horse, as long as he can It would be easier to find a small boat by the river to cross the river, but we have too much heavy equipment and supplies, crossing the river will take a lot of time, not to mention one day, two days may not be able to complete it.”
"Then we can adopt the method we used to fight in Annan. We advance by land and water. The supplies are transported to the north by ship, and all the personnel are transported by land." Wang Tom immediately proposed another plan: "Look, there is a war about eight kilometers away from Manila. Pasay Town, according to the standards on the map, this seaside town has a fishing port. We can transport supplies and equipment to land here, meet with the troops marching by land, and then complete the last part of the journey and approach Manila City. "
"But the Spaniards may also think of this and deploy a defense line locally." Roger added.
"That's not a problem. If they station troops there, they'll start fighting. Don't you have confidence in our strength?" Wang Tom asked with a smile.
Roger also smiled: "Is the fight going? That's what I want."
Roger brought his ace troops here not on vacation. He didn't get any achievements in the battle of Cavite. This has already made him suffocate, and he plans to fight for battles in the following battles. Opportunity.
Roger's South China Sea Special Forces Brigade has a different composition of personnel from other units of the Haihan Army. Many people are not of Haihan origin, or even not Han at all.When Roger formed this army on Abunna Island, the source of troops was more complicated. Besides the Han Chinese, many of them were selected from the slaves sold to Abuna Island by other countries. Only after his military exploits did he get the chance to become a Haihan nationality.
Roger gave them new life and taught these soldiers to prove their worth by fighting.This army will not have too much psychological burden if it goes to war with any country. To Haihan, it is more like an international mercenary.This force defeated the coalition forces formed by the United Kingdom and Johor in the South China Sea, and guarded the strategically important position of the eastern exit of the Strait of Malacca for Haihan, so it was able to rank among Haihan's ace troops.But now they need to prove their own strength by fighting in front of many colleagues here.
Ran Tiancheng did not return to Manila City after completing the task of delivering the letter. This was not because he wanted to stay, but because the Haihan military needed to learn more about the current situation in Manila City from him.Ran Tiancheng knew that he would not be able to get off this boat, so he simply let go and told the Haihan military everything he knew.
After another two days, the rain gradually stopped, and the weather finally began to clear up.However, the reconnaissance results of the cavalry battalion from the town of Noveleta to the vicinity of the town of Palagnac in the north were not satisfactory. Because of the heavy rain for many days, the water on the several rivers along the way was soaring. The ferry that Ran Tiancheng said was early It has been washed away by the river, and the ferry boat cannot be found.If you must march by land, you must wait until the water level of the river subsides before trying to cross the river, or you can only go around the upper reaches of the river and find a place where the river channel is narrower and the water is not so urgent.
But no matter which method is used, it will take a lot of time, which is not the situation that the command department wants to see.So after another round of preparation meetings, the headquarters decided to take Pasay Town, which is across the sea from the Cavite Peninsula, as the next attack target.After capturing the town of Pasay, use the local area as a starting point to launch the last march to Manila from land.
The straight-line distance from Cavite to Pasay Town is about eight kilometers, which translates to about five nautical miles. At the speed of the Haihan fleet, it takes less than an hour to reach the destination.However, before launching the official offensive, the navy still carefully dispatched a scout ship to make a close inspection of the fishing port near Pasay Town, and determined that there were no obvious fortifications on the local coast.As for whether there are troops stationed there, Haihan is not too worried about it. After all, the army wants to make a difference on the battlefield as soon as possible. If there is a Spanish garrison in the local area, it will just be a record for the army.
The headquarters was worried that the night would be long and dreamy, so that the Spaniards would have more time to prepare for the battle, so they launched a new wave of offensive in the early morning of the next day after completing the reconnaissance.Almost all the combat ships of the fleet came out, escorting more than 20 troop carriers heading east towards the town of Pasay.
Before the sky brightened, the Haihan army carried out a landing operation at the fishing port. The process was unimaginably smooth, without encountering any resistance at all, and there was no garrison expected by the headquarters.After searching the villages near the port, it was found that the people here had already run away, leaving only empty houses and some broken fishing boats buckled upside down on the beach.
"That's it? No enemies?" After Roger set foot on land, he received a disappointing report. There was no sign of the Spaniards within a kilometer of the landing site. Obviously, the other party did not regard this fishing port as a target. As a place that must be guarded, he gave up this place easily.This is completely different from the deployment that Roger imagined that the Spaniards would fortify layer by layer before retreating to Manila City.
But for the sake of caution, in order to prevent the Spaniards from playing tricks to lure the enemy deeper, Roger still appointed his two generals, Marcus and Dulu, to lead the team to the east and north respectively to investigate the enemy's situation.
Both of them enlisted as foreign slaves on Ambuna Island in 1633. One is black and the other is from the country of Aceh in Sumatra.However, with the accumulation of military achievements in the past few years, the two not only got rid of their slave status long ago, but joined the Haihan nationality, and now they each lead a company with the rank of lieutenant.
Soon the situation in Pasay Town also came back. The town was already empty. It seemed that the Spaniards were not only retreating and defending, but also planned to fortify the wall and clear the country, trying to cut off the possibility of the Haihan Army getting supplies and labor locally.
"If this is an inland battle, their approach will be more effective. Unfortunately, this is a coastal area. We need to complete the delivery of materials and personnel, as long as we have a ship." After listening to the situation report, Wang Tom said, There is still no high evaluation of the Spaniard's countermeasures.He believes that the only thing that needs to be careful is that the Spaniards deliberately preserve their strength by avoiding battle in this way.Their purpose of doing this may be to hope that they can start a head-on confrontation with the Haihan army under the city, relying on the strong city defense and superiority of the city of Manila to disrupt Haihan's attack.
(End of this chapter)