Chapter 1660
Attacking Manila
Chapter 1660 Attacking Manila ([-])
The Spanish defenders sealed the southern city gate, and made a gesture of preparing to defend it.However, the Haihan army followed the tactics of encircling three ques and one, only exerting pressure on the southeast, west and east, but leaving the north of the city alone.It can be said that as long as you go out of the city and cross the Basig River to the north, you will be temporarily out of the war zone. This is not difficult for those who want to escape the war in and around Manila.
This arrangement is of course intentional, the purpose is to make the hearts of the people and the army in the city tend to be loose, making it difficult for them to form the determination to fight to the death in the city.As long as someone takes the lead in escaping from this way of life and succeeds, it will affect more people. After all, how many people can take the initiative to die calmly when there is a way of life to choose from?
At first, Aragones handed over the task of guarding the northern city gate to an official who was related to him, but he never thought that this guy usually looks like a decent guy, and he always shows his loyalty to Aragones. , but at a critical moment, he was unreliable. The Haihan army attacked outside the south gate. After hearing the news, this guy even gave up his post, secretly joined the fleeing veterans, and ran out of the city without saying a word to Aragones Lost.When the news was sent back to the Governor's Mansion, Aragones had no choice but to gnash his teeth in anger. He could only send an attendant and a team of personal soldiers to the north gate to stabilize the order.
When the attendant led a group of soldiers to the north gate, the situation here was already out of control. Many people were going out of the city through the unguarded north gate. It is conservatively estimated that at least a thousand people left during this period. the city of Manila.The attendants had no choice but to quickly re-seal the city gate, but this immediately aroused dissatisfaction among the people who were trying to leave the city, and they were drowned in cursing in an instant.Some even started shoving soldiers, telling them to give way out of the city.
Under the order of the attendants, the soldiers fired a few shots into the sky to warn the booing people, but it did not have any effect. The desire to escape and the mentality of not punishing the public made these people unwilling to be imprisoned in the city. want to escape to a safe area outside the city.In the eyes of these people, it is obviously impossible for the soldiers guarding the gate to treat the local people as cruelly as the Haihan people in the south of the city.
But what they don't know is that the order Aragones gave to the attendant is to stop the people from fleeing at all costs, and even if some individual who tries to flee has any special status, they can also kill first and play later, and all consequences will be determined by Aragones. Gunness bears.This is equivalent to giving the attendant a Shangfang sword, allowing him to have the authority to decide and handle the situation on the spot.
Of course, the attendant would not be really stupid enough to pick someone who has a background and identity at first sight to perform the operation. He decisively ordered the soldiers to pull out a few hooligans who were the most troublesome from the rioting crowd, and then tied them up immediately. Executed on the spot.A few fresh lives finally helped him calm down the situation temporarily, and those who wanted to make troubles to get a chance to leave the city would not dare to make another rash easily.
It's just that this method can't really solve the problem. The desire of the people in the city to escape from the war is still very strong, and more and more people are beginning to be pessimistic about whether they can defeat the invaders.Although the city defense commander Francis has ordered that the battle situation be kept secret, more and more battle reports are still flowing out through various channels.Many people know that the Manila fleet has almost lost the ability to continue fighting, and the defense line deployed in the south of the city has been repeatedly defeated. Now there is only one city wall that temporarily blocks the Haihan people's offensive.
Many people who wanted to escape had to stay in the city temporarily, but in this way, the already stretched city defense force had to allocate some more people to guard against these people who wanted to flee Manila.In this way, the authorities can only arouse more dissatisfaction, and many people have charged this account to Governor Aragones.
Some people even started to turn over old scores. If Aragones hadn't decided to formulate the attack plan on Sanya, the Haihan people might not have taken such drastic retaliation measures. It seems that the root of the matter is still on him.
Of course, Aragones himself has not heard these rumors for the time being. His biggest headache now is how to resist the Haihan army that has launched an offensive in the south of the city.According to the battle report sent back from the front line, the firepower deployed by the defenders at the top of the city was almost completely suppressed by the opponents, and they could not even use a decent counterattack method. If Francis hadn't wisely sealed the city gate in advance, perhaps at this time the south of the city's defense line has been completely suppressed. It was defeated by the enemy's heavy artillery bombardment.
Aragones and Francis are very clear that it is inevitable for the Haihan army to take the initiative in offensive and defensive battles by virtue of their firepower superiority, but at the same time they can't think of any effective way to curb the opponent's offensive. Temporarily mobilized a large number of migrant workers in the city to reinforce and heighten the section of the city wall that had been bombarded by Haihan, hoping to slow down the opponent's offensive rhythm.
It’s just that this kind of temporary measure also has many disadvantages. First of all, these means of reinforcement and heightening have not been specially designed, and they are only directed by construction foremen based on their experience.Secondly, the amount of work involved in this kind of construction is actually quite large. There are thousands of earthworks that need to be transported to the city wall, and it can't be completed in just a few days.
There is another problem that is not so intuitive, and that is the social impact on the people in the city.This kind of project requires a large number of migrant workers, and once there are more people involved, there will naturally be no secrets in this relatively closed environment.When most of the people learned about this, the most intuitive thought was that the defense line in the south of the city was about to be overwhelmed.
After nightfall that day, Hai Han took the initiative to stop the shelling and began to prepare for the secret operation in the second half of the night.Minister of National Defense Yan Chujie and General Qian Tiandun also took advantage of this time to come to the frontline command post in Chaosheng Commercial Warehouse to listen to Gao Qiaonan's battle report.Of course, there is another important thing, which is to meet the intelligence personnel of the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Department who have made great contributions in this battle.
As representatives of these two units, Ran Tianlu and Fang Peng were personally interviewed by Yan Chujie. This was the first time they had received such an honor since they were on duty. Both of them were extremely excited.
Yan Chujie encouraged the two after hearing the words, and said that after the war, based on the role of the collected information and their performance in cooperating with large forces during the attack on this place, they would apply for military merit and awards as appropriate.
After the two bowed to thank him, Yan Chujie specifically expressed his appreciation to Fang Peng for his proactive attack the day before yesterday, praising him for disrupting the defensive deployment of the Spanish defenders and clearing the way for the army to launch an offensive.For this heroic attack behind enemy lines, the Ministry of National Defense and the Executive Committee will definitely have something to say.
Ran Tianlu was watching with red ears, but he also knew that Fang Peng's actions were indeed heroic, and what he did was definitely beyond his own ability, so although he envied Fang Peng for being appreciated by a leader like Yan Chujie, he There is no unbalanced psychology.
However, Fang Peng did not forget to check his existence for his partner who had fought side by side, and took the initiative to report to Yan Chujie: "Boss, shopkeeper Ran has received a batch of property that is said to be valuable from the Spaniards. It’s a good deal when you come.”
"Oh? Here are these things?" Yan Chujie was slightly concerned when he heard the word "property".
Previously, the Haihan army found almost nothing in the port of Cavite, and finally found a secret granary of the Spaniards. They finally dug up some valuable materials, but it was far from the "treasure" expected by the military. up.The military wanted to invade the city of Manila as soon as possible, more or less thinking of confiscating the property of the Spaniards from the city to subsidize the huge military expenditure of this operation.No matter how much property Fang Peng mentioned, sparrows are meat anyway, so Yan Chujie will not let them go easily.
Ran Tianlu nodded gratefully to Fang Peng, and then answered Yan Chujie's question: "Report to the chief, all the church property brought by the Spaniards has been properly stored in the warehouse of the store, and I will take the chief to inspect it."
Qian Tiandun said that he would stay and continue the meeting with Gao Qiaonan, so Yan Chujie followed Ran Tianlu to inspect the property.There are two kinds of seals in Spanish and Chinese characters on the doors and windows of this warehouse. The former was sealed by Father Blanco himself after he escorted the batch of property to the store for storage, while the latter was sealed by Ran Tianlu on behalf of the Chaosheng store.
Ran Tianlu asked Yan Chujie to check that the seal was intact, then tore it off, and then asked people to move all the boxes inside out and put them in the courtyard.Yan Chujie saw that there were complete seals on each box, which showed that the Spaniards should attach great importance to these things.
Yan Chujie randomly picked a box and asked the guards to open it.When the lid of the box was lifted, the surrounding audience couldn't help letting out a low exclamation.Sure enough, just as Ran Tianlu guessed at the beginning, the box was full of neatly stacked stacks of silver coins, and the gaps were stuffed tightly with straw to prevent them from sliding and making noise in the box.Yan Chujie looked at the volume of the box and estimated it. It is estimated that there are about two thousand silver coins in this box.
"You just said that these things belong to the Spanish Church?" Yan Chujie asked again.
"Exactly." Ran Tianlu replied, "However, I didn't expect the church to be so rich."
Yan Chujie accepted this frankly. In colonial countries like Spain, churches and clergy in the Far East have very high social status, and it is very easy to make money with the help of religion.For a colony like Manila, which has been open for more than 60 years, the property accumulated by the church will naturally be very considerable.
But Father Blanco, who deposited these belongings outside the city, probably never thought that he would be betrayed by a believer, Ran Tianlu. The property has already been transferred outside the city.Unexpectedly, Ran Tianlu turned out to be an intelligence officer sent by Haihan to Manila to carry out a latent mission, and he sold him out as soon as he turned around.Otherwise, with Father Blanco's operation thinking, if you find the right person, you may really have a chance to get away with it.
At that moment, Yan Chujie ordered all the boxes to be opened, inspected on the spot, and registered.Of course, after the inspection, the seal on the box must be replaced with a new unit.
After the deposits were opened one by one, people had to sigh again how rich the church was.These boxes are not filled with silver coins. There are all kinds of gold, silver and jewelry, and even natural gold nuggets the size of a human head. It is unknown where Father Blanco collected them.
However, there was only one box of documents that Father Blanco had specially declared.However, Yan Chujie was very interested in this box of documents, even more interested in those dazzling gold and silver.
He briefly looked through the documents in the box, most of which were records of the development and operation of Manila by the Spanish authorities over the years, and then there were a large number of nautical chart materials, as well as some logbooks with unknown owners.These things are indeed useful reference materials for Haihan, who is about to enter Manila.I just don't know how these materials that should have been stored in the library or the Governor's Mansion fell into the hands of Father Blanco, and how they were used as the property of the church.
Yan Chujie quickly figured out the key point. These documents were probably not simply church property, but confidential information entrusted to the church by the governor's office.The reason why the Governor’s Mansion took care of these materials may be that the church claimed to be able to keep valuable items for the Manila authorities during the war, so these things went through the hands of the church and came to the Tide Rise Store outside the city.
Yan Chujie's inference actually has no real evidence, but after removing all unreasonable possibilities, the remaining answer, even though it may seem unbelievable, is the only truth.
Soon Yan Chujie found the treasure in this box of documents, a notebook that recorded the detailed distribution of minerals in Luzon Island.The most important minerals on Luzon Island are iron, gold, and copper, and these are the important metal deposits that Haihan needs.There are quite a few mineral veins that have been discovered in the notes, but according to the records, most of them have not yet been mined, so it will be cheaper for Haihan now.
In addition to mineral deposits, the notes also describe various flora and fauna information on Luzon Island. It can be seen that the owner of this note should be a natural scholar who has traveled all over Luzon Island.Judging from the standard time point in the notes, it should be from the beginning of this century, and the time is about 30 years ago.
"I don't know if these mines have been dug. Your security department is responsible for implementing this matter!" Yan Chujie was currently focusing on the siege battle, and didn't want to be distracted by such things, so he decisively handed over the task to Gave it to Ran Tianlu.
Ran Tianlu actually didn't know much about mining, but since it was the task assigned by the chief, he didn't dare to refuse, so he could only accept it first, and secretly began to think about how to implement the information decades ago.
(End of this chapter)
The Spanish defenders sealed the southern city gate, and made a gesture of preparing to defend it.However, the Haihan army followed the tactics of encircling three ques and one, only exerting pressure on the southeast, west and east, but leaving the north of the city alone.It can be said that as long as you go out of the city and cross the Basig River to the north, you will be temporarily out of the war zone. This is not difficult for those who want to escape the war in and around Manila.
This arrangement is of course intentional, the purpose is to make the hearts of the people and the army in the city tend to be loose, making it difficult for them to form the determination to fight to the death in the city.As long as someone takes the lead in escaping from this way of life and succeeds, it will affect more people. After all, how many people can take the initiative to die calmly when there is a way of life to choose from?
At first, Aragones handed over the task of guarding the northern city gate to an official who was related to him, but he never thought that this guy usually looks like a decent guy, and he always shows his loyalty to Aragones. , but at a critical moment, he was unreliable. The Haihan army attacked outside the south gate. After hearing the news, this guy even gave up his post, secretly joined the fleeing veterans, and ran out of the city without saying a word to Aragones Lost.When the news was sent back to the Governor's Mansion, Aragones had no choice but to gnash his teeth in anger. He could only send an attendant and a team of personal soldiers to the north gate to stabilize the order.
When the attendant led a group of soldiers to the north gate, the situation here was already out of control. Many people were going out of the city through the unguarded north gate. It is conservatively estimated that at least a thousand people left during this period. the city of Manila.The attendants had no choice but to quickly re-seal the city gate, but this immediately aroused dissatisfaction among the people who were trying to leave the city, and they were drowned in cursing in an instant.Some even started shoving soldiers, telling them to give way out of the city.
Under the order of the attendants, the soldiers fired a few shots into the sky to warn the booing people, but it did not have any effect. The desire to escape and the mentality of not punishing the public made these people unwilling to be imprisoned in the city. want to escape to a safe area outside the city.In the eyes of these people, it is obviously impossible for the soldiers guarding the gate to treat the local people as cruelly as the Haihan people in the south of the city.
But what they don't know is that the order Aragones gave to the attendant is to stop the people from fleeing at all costs, and even if some individual who tries to flee has any special status, they can also kill first and play later, and all consequences will be determined by Aragones. Gunness bears.This is equivalent to giving the attendant a Shangfang sword, allowing him to have the authority to decide and handle the situation on the spot.
Of course, the attendant would not be really stupid enough to pick someone who has a background and identity at first sight to perform the operation. He decisively ordered the soldiers to pull out a few hooligans who were the most troublesome from the rioting crowd, and then tied them up immediately. Executed on the spot.A few fresh lives finally helped him calm down the situation temporarily, and those who wanted to make troubles to get a chance to leave the city would not dare to make another rash easily.
It's just that this method can't really solve the problem. The desire of the people in the city to escape from the war is still very strong, and more and more people are beginning to be pessimistic about whether they can defeat the invaders.Although the city defense commander Francis has ordered that the battle situation be kept secret, more and more battle reports are still flowing out through various channels.Many people know that the Manila fleet has almost lost the ability to continue fighting, and the defense line deployed in the south of the city has been repeatedly defeated. Now there is only one city wall that temporarily blocks the Haihan people's offensive.
Many people who wanted to escape had to stay in the city temporarily, but in this way, the already stretched city defense force had to allocate some more people to guard against these people who wanted to flee Manila.In this way, the authorities can only arouse more dissatisfaction, and many people have charged this account to Governor Aragones.
Some people even started to turn over old scores. If Aragones hadn't decided to formulate the attack plan on Sanya, the Haihan people might not have taken such drastic retaliation measures. It seems that the root of the matter is still on him.
Of course, Aragones himself has not heard these rumors for the time being. His biggest headache now is how to resist the Haihan army that has launched an offensive in the south of the city.According to the battle report sent back from the front line, the firepower deployed by the defenders at the top of the city was almost completely suppressed by the opponents, and they could not even use a decent counterattack method. If Francis hadn't wisely sealed the city gate in advance, perhaps at this time the south of the city's defense line has been completely suppressed. It was defeated by the enemy's heavy artillery bombardment.
Aragones and Francis are very clear that it is inevitable for the Haihan army to take the initiative in offensive and defensive battles by virtue of their firepower superiority, but at the same time they can't think of any effective way to curb the opponent's offensive. Temporarily mobilized a large number of migrant workers in the city to reinforce and heighten the section of the city wall that had been bombarded by Haihan, hoping to slow down the opponent's offensive rhythm.
It’s just that this kind of temporary measure also has many disadvantages. First of all, these means of reinforcement and heightening have not been specially designed, and they are only directed by construction foremen based on their experience.Secondly, the amount of work involved in this kind of construction is actually quite large. There are thousands of earthworks that need to be transported to the city wall, and it can't be completed in just a few days.
There is another problem that is not so intuitive, and that is the social impact on the people in the city.This kind of project requires a large number of migrant workers, and once there are more people involved, there will naturally be no secrets in this relatively closed environment.When most of the people learned about this, the most intuitive thought was that the defense line in the south of the city was about to be overwhelmed.
After nightfall that day, Hai Han took the initiative to stop the shelling and began to prepare for the secret operation in the second half of the night.Minister of National Defense Yan Chujie and General Qian Tiandun also took advantage of this time to come to the frontline command post in Chaosheng Commercial Warehouse to listen to Gao Qiaonan's battle report.Of course, there is another important thing, which is to meet the intelligence personnel of the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Department who have made great contributions in this battle.
As representatives of these two units, Ran Tianlu and Fang Peng were personally interviewed by Yan Chujie. This was the first time they had received such an honor since they were on duty. Both of them were extremely excited.
Yan Chujie encouraged the two after hearing the words, and said that after the war, based on the role of the collected information and their performance in cooperating with large forces during the attack on this place, they would apply for military merit and awards as appropriate.
After the two bowed to thank him, Yan Chujie specifically expressed his appreciation to Fang Peng for his proactive attack the day before yesterday, praising him for disrupting the defensive deployment of the Spanish defenders and clearing the way for the army to launch an offensive.For this heroic attack behind enemy lines, the Ministry of National Defense and the Executive Committee will definitely have something to say.
Ran Tianlu was watching with red ears, but he also knew that Fang Peng's actions were indeed heroic, and what he did was definitely beyond his own ability, so although he envied Fang Peng for being appreciated by a leader like Yan Chujie, he There is no unbalanced psychology.
However, Fang Peng did not forget to check his existence for his partner who had fought side by side, and took the initiative to report to Yan Chujie: "Boss, shopkeeper Ran has received a batch of property that is said to be valuable from the Spaniards. It’s a good deal when you come.”
"Oh? Here are these things?" Yan Chujie was slightly concerned when he heard the word "property".
Previously, the Haihan army found almost nothing in the port of Cavite, and finally found a secret granary of the Spaniards. They finally dug up some valuable materials, but it was far from the "treasure" expected by the military. up.The military wanted to invade the city of Manila as soon as possible, more or less thinking of confiscating the property of the Spaniards from the city to subsidize the huge military expenditure of this operation.No matter how much property Fang Peng mentioned, sparrows are meat anyway, so Yan Chujie will not let them go easily.
Ran Tianlu nodded gratefully to Fang Peng, and then answered Yan Chujie's question: "Report to the chief, all the church property brought by the Spaniards has been properly stored in the warehouse of the store, and I will take the chief to inspect it."
Qian Tiandun said that he would stay and continue the meeting with Gao Qiaonan, so Yan Chujie followed Ran Tianlu to inspect the property.There are two kinds of seals in Spanish and Chinese characters on the doors and windows of this warehouse. The former was sealed by Father Blanco himself after he escorted the batch of property to the store for storage, while the latter was sealed by Ran Tianlu on behalf of the Chaosheng store.
Ran Tianlu asked Yan Chujie to check that the seal was intact, then tore it off, and then asked people to move all the boxes inside out and put them in the courtyard.Yan Chujie saw that there were complete seals on each box, which showed that the Spaniards should attach great importance to these things.
Yan Chujie randomly picked a box and asked the guards to open it.When the lid of the box was lifted, the surrounding audience couldn't help letting out a low exclamation.Sure enough, just as Ran Tianlu guessed at the beginning, the box was full of neatly stacked stacks of silver coins, and the gaps were stuffed tightly with straw to prevent them from sliding and making noise in the box.Yan Chujie looked at the volume of the box and estimated it. It is estimated that there are about two thousand silver coins in this box.
"You just said that these things belong to the Spanish Church?" Yan Chujie asked again.
"Exactly." Ran Tianlu replied, "However, I didn't expect the church to be so rich."
Yan Chujie accepted this frankly. In colonial countries like Spain, churches and clergy in the Far East have very high social status, and it is very easy to make money with the help of religion.For a colony like Manila, which has been open for more than 60 years, the property accumulated by the church will naturally be very considerable.
But Father Blanco, who deposited these belongings outside the city, probably never thought that he would be betrayed by a believer, Ran Tianlu. The property has already been transferred outside the city.Unexpectedly, Ran Tianlu turned out to be an intelligence officer sent by Haihan to Manila to carry out a latent mission, and he sold him out as soon as he turned around.Otherwise, with Father Blanco's operation thinking, if you find the right person, you may really have a chance to get away with it.
At that moment, Yan Chujie ordered all the boxes to be opened, inspected on the spot, and registered.Of course, after the inspection, the seal on the box must be replaced with a new unit.
After the deposits were opened one by one, people had to sigh again how rich the church was.These boxes are not filled with silver coins. There are all kinds of gold, silver and jewelry, and even natural gold nuggets the size of a human head. It is unknown where Father Blanco collected them.
However, there was only one box of documents that Father Blanco had specially declared.However, Yan Chujie was very interested in this box of documents, even more interested in those dazzling gold and silver.
He briefly looked through the documents in the box, most of which were records of the development and operation of Manila by the Spanish authorities over the years, and then there were a large number of nautical chart materials, as well as some logbooks with unknown owners.These things are indeed useful reference materials for Haihan, who is about to enter Manila.I just don't know how these materials that should have been stored in the library or the Governor's Mansion fell into the hands of Father Blanco, and how they were used as the property of the church.
Yan Chujie quickly figured out the key point. These documents were probably not simply church property, but confidential information entrusted to the church by the governor's office.The reason why the Governor’s Mansion took care of these materials may be that the church claimed to be able to keep valuable items for the Manila authorities during the war, so these things went through the hands of the church and came to the Tide Rise Store outside the city.
Yan Chujie's inference actually has no real evidence, but after removing all unreasonable possibilities, the remaining answer, even though it may seem unbelievable, is the only truth.
Soon Yan Chujie found the treasure in this box of documents, a notebook that recorded the detailed distribution of minerals in Luzon Island.The most important minerals on Luzon Island are iron, gold, and copper, and these are the important metal deposits that Haihan needs.There are quite a few mineral veins that have been discovered in the notes, but according to the records, most of them have not yet been mined, so it will be cheaper for Haihan now.
In addition to mineral deposits, the notes also describe various flora and fauna information on Luzon Island. It can be seen that the owner of this note should be a natural scholar who has traveled all over Luzon Island.Judging from the standard time point in the notes, it should be from the beginning of this century, and the time is about 30 years ago.
"I don't know if these mines have been dug. Your security department is responsible for implementing this matter!" Yan Chujie was currently focusing on the siege battle, and didn't want to be distracted by such things, so he decisively handed over the task to Gave it to Ran Tianlu.
Ran Tianlu actually didn't know much about mining, but since it was the task assigned by the chief, he didn't dare to refuse, so he could only accept it first, and secretly began to think about how to implement the information decades ago.
(End of this chapter)