Chapter 1661
Attacking Manila
Chapter 1661 Attacking Manila ([-])
The Spaniards have been colonizing the Philippines for more than half a century, and they are naturally much more familiar with various local products than Haihan who has just arrived, and these geographical data sorted out by the colonists are of no significance to Haihan. Compared with those gold and silver treasures packed in boxes, Haihan can save a lot of time and money in developing Luzon Island in the future.
While his subordinates were counting the belongings, Yan Chujie called Ran Tianlu to him and asked him, "What kind of priest is this priest who deposits the church's property in the store..."
"Boss, it's Father Blanco." Ran Tianlu heard Yan Chujie draw out his tone, and quickly responded with great interest.Although he didn't know what Yan Chujie's intention was when he mentioned Father Blanco, he still listened carefully for fear of missing a word.
"Well, this priest, after we break the city, try to find him and see if you can get more things out of his mouth." Yan Chujie pointed to the document that records the local natural features: "Find out The source of this information, see if he can provide more things like this."
Ran Tianlu readily accepted this order.He has known Father Blanco for a long time, and it can be regarded as some personal friendship. Although business is the most important thing, he will never favor Father Blanco emotionally, but if he has the opportunity to give him a hand, let him He is still very happy to get a safe situation in this war.Now that the chief has entrusted himself with this task, Ran Tianlu can take this command arrow and save Father Blanco—provided that he survives before he finds him.
But Ran Tianlu was not very optimistic about this. He knew that Father Blanc would never hide in the church and wait for the end of the war, but would take a group of church members to the battlefield to help treat the wounded.In a war-torn environment, no one can guarantee his personal safety, and no one knows whether he will be hit by stray bullets when the city is broken.
The cleaning work didn't come to an end until late at night. Although Ran Tianlu had predicted in advance that this batch of property was worth a lot, the final counting result still greatly encouraged the generals who led the troops this time.According to a rough estimate, the valuation of this batch of gold and silver treasures is at least 400 million Haihan coins, and the exact value of some handicrafts made of gemstones and pearls cannot be estimated for the time being.Since the launch of this operation, this can be regarded as the biggest gain of the expeditionary force.
"With this, you can communicate with the Executive Committee." Yan Chujie patted the box containing the money proudly: "Ran Tianlu, you have made a great contribution this time!"
"The humble job is done according to the command of the chief. I dare not enjoy this kind of credit alone!" Ran Tianlu was very knowledgeable and did not forget to ask for credit for the Ministry of Security to which he belonged.
Yan Chujie ordered all these boxes to be resealed with the seals prepared by the military, and then transported to the fishing port in Pasay Town, from where they were shipped to the temporary base in Cavite Port for safekeeping.With such a large amount of money, no matter where it is placed, it is not safe enough. Yan Chujie decided to wait for the situation to stabilize before dispatching a naval ship to send it back to Sanya.
Apart from this big event that night, the army was naturally not idle.Before dark, two platforms with a height of about ten meters were set up one mile away from the city wall. In the middle of the night, snipers were arranged to carry out precise strikes on several illuminated places on the top of the city.Since the shooting point was condescending, the lighting made the defenders at the top of the city a living target. After a few rounds of shooting, the defenders who realized that they were exposed quickly turned off the lighting on the top of the city to avoid dying in vain.
After forcibly solving the monitoring on the top of the city, the engineering troops of the special warfare battalion moved into action. The engineers, all dressed in black, carried explosives and tools on their backs, and silently groped towards the city gate.They had to plant explosives under the city before dawn, and what could really provide them with cover was not the snipers lying on their stomachs on a high platform a mile away, but the night that allowed them to hide.
There is no such thing as a moat outside the south gate of Manila City, which saves the engineers a lot of trouble when approaching the city gate.
It's just that although this kind of concealment allows engineers and soldiers to approach the city gate, it will also bring great obstacles to their construction operations. Without lighting, it is difficult to carry out complex construction operations.However, the engineering troops have long developed a nighttime action plan specifically for this type of environment. In order to avoid attracting the attention of the defenders on the tower, the engineers carried a special portable cloth tent with an arched structure and a thick, opaque cloth. It is made of black tarpaulin. When using it, you only need to pull the folded part to stand up, and you can form a simple arched cloth tent, and the engineers can put a light that is not strong in the middle point to assist the construction.Looking down from the top of the city above, you can only see a piece of lacquer, and it is difficult to distinguish the existence of the cloth tent when the visibility is not high.
Two experienced officers pulled out the measuring tape, first measured the location, and marked the approximate construction point under the city wall. Then, several arched cloth tents were spread out against the city wall. Under each cloth tent was a team of engineers, each of whom started construction.
The digging tools used by the engineers are also specially made, and the silent hand drill is the most important tool.They need to drill dozens of arm-thick tunnels under the city wall, and then bury explosives and detonated detonators in them.This job requires both care and patience, and if a slight noise is heard by the defenders on the top of the city, it is likely that all previous efforts will be wasted.
Since the city wall near the south gate is covered with bricks and stones, and the engineers did not dare to let go of their hands and feet to construct, the drilling progress of several hand drills was much slower than expected. After an hour, only two holes up to standard.By [-] o'clock in the morning, half of the construction volume of the project was barely completed, but if the blasting hole was charged at this point, it was very likely that the planned blasting target would not be completed.
The sky will be bright later, and if the construction continues and retreats later, the whereabouts may be exposed. In desperation, the engineers can only withdraw their troops and return to the camp.Fortunately, these tunnels are located perpendicular to the city wall, and their existence cannot be seen from the top of the city, so there is no need to worry about being discovered by the defenders during the day.
Of course, after entering the daytime, the Haihan army will not let the defenders in the city idle.Several large-caliber mortars have already arrived at the front line. They can fire artillery shells weighing tens of kilograms or even stone bombs, and they can also directly project explosive packets, but there is no accuracy at all, and hits are basically random. .
It is of course unrealistic to expect such a few mortars to blow away the city defenses of Manila, but this thing is very useful for attacking the morale of the defenders and the people in the city. The people in the city have been keeping a high level of tension, because it is impossible to say that there will be shells falling from the sky to take their lives in the next moment.
And Roger, who was in charge of attacking the east of the city, couldn't stay idle anymore. Since the headquarters deployed most of the artillery in the main attack direction of the south of the city, Roger only had a few small-caliber guns to suppress the scene. Combat in the city has no effect, so after his troops control the east of the city, there is no follow-up action.But Roger didn't want to just do it and watch, so he simply led a company and continued to march north, until he reached the Pasig River Basin several miles away.
Roger did not lead his troops to turn to the north of the city, because the siege plan formulated by the headquarters had deliberately set aside an "escape route" in the north of the city. If he blocked this gap, the people in the city would really have to Fighting desperately, and this is obviously not in Hai Han's interest.
The Haihan army turned a blind eye to the Manila people who sneaked in from land and sea. As long as they didn't take the initiative to fly moths into the flames, they would let them escape.Even if these people escape, they will not be able to move to rescue soldiers to solve the predicament in Manila, and the Haihan army does not want to focus on these small fish and shrimp.For Haihan, capturing the city of Manila is not only the goal of this operation, but also the goal. The first priority of Haihan's army is to capture the city as soon as possible.
In this way, even though there is a ban issued by Governor Aragones in the city, which prohibits the entry and exit of non-military personnel at all city gates, some people will still use various channels to escape from the city of Manila.The north city gate refused to let them go, so some people left the city through the west city gate leading to the port, and then went around to the north.This kind of lax and hopeless public sentiment has been difficult to restore by relying on the orders of the Governor's Office.
On January 26, the main attack direction of the Haihan army was still concentrated near the south gate. Many crenels on the city wall had been flattened by shells, and a large number of houses near the city wall were battered by the shells flying in.According to the statistics of the Haihan army, the artillery positions deployed by Haihan outside the city fired more than [-] rounds of various types of artillery shells during this day, but there was no real infantry siege operation.
Francis is not an idiot, of course he can understand that although the Haihan army's movement in the south is quite large, it is still a feint in a sense, otherwise it would be unreasonable to keep besieging and not attacking when the long-range firepower has completely suppressed the defenders .
Francis thinks that the Haihan army should be waiting for a suitable time, but he has no idea what this time means.The only thing that gave him some comfort was that the Manila Port in the west of the city and the Basig River Basin in the north of the city were still under his control, and the Haihan Army did not show any intention of forcibly breaking into these two areas.If the defense line in the south of the city is really broken, then the Spaniards in the city will have at least one step to retreat, and they will not be trapped to death in the city.
As for the governor's ban, Francis could also think that this decree could not be fully implemented. After all, the relationship between the Spanish immigrants in this city was so intricate that a ban could completely block it.The most fundamental reason is that people's hearts cannot be blocked!
Francis had no good way to deal with the siege of the Haihan army outside the city. He could only try to organize his manpower and continue to reinforce the attacked city wall in the south of the city.If Haihan doesn't send infantry to attack the city, it will be beneficial to the defenders if it is delayed for a day. The longer it is delayed, the weaker Haihan's advantage will actually be.Francis can only hope that the ammunition reserves of the Haihan Army will be depleted quickly, so that when he wakes up one morning, he will get the good news that the Haihan Army has voluntarily withdrawn its troops.
But of course this is just wishful thinking of the Spaniards. The Haihan army has made sufficient preparations for this operation, and even considering the ammunition consumption required for the month-long siege, the combat supplies brought to Manila are sufficient to support Haihan. The army spent here until mid-February.If the follow-up supplies can keep up, then the time of continuous combat can be extended further.
The battle on the 26th lasted for a whole day with Haihan's unilateral shelling. After nightfall, the engineering troops continued to do the same and sneaked into the city to continue construction.On the top of the city, as long as someone dares to show their heads, they will immediately attract snipers. After a few more people die, no one dares to straighten up and walk on the city wall, let alone lean out of the city wall to watch the situation below the city. .
With the construction experience of last night, four more teams of engineers were dispatched this time to speed up the construction.After more than six hours of rush work in one night, the scheduled blasting project was finally completed. Hundreds of kilograms of high explosives were buried in the tunnel under the city wall, and then the fuse connected to the detonator was extended all the way to the south until it was safe. beyond the distance.
All the personnel of the Special Operations Battalion began to gather quietly at four o'clock in the morning. Now that the explosives near the city gate had been planted, Gao Qiaonan did not intend to drag the battle here for another day.
The sky had just started to turn pale, and most of the people and defenders in the city were sleeping when they heard a huge explosion from the south of the city.This is the loudest sound that many people have heard in their lives. Almost at the same time, the ground also trembled obviously. Many people even thought that an earthquake had occurred when they woke up from their sleep.
However, this movement came from the blasting operation of the Haihan Army on the South City Gate. Huge smoke and dust rose tens of meters high. The shock wave generated by the explosion disintegrated the city wall into countless fragments, which were thrown out towards the city.Some stones weighing dozens of catties tilted down from the sky, as if hundreds of trebuchets were attacking the city simultaneously.
How many Spanish defenders near the city wall were killed and how many were injured is completely unknown at the moment. A few survivors walked out of the smoke and dust in disgrace, and glanced blankly at the ruins of the city wall that had become a pile of rubble. What's the situation.
After a while, the screams of the wounded began to be heard from all over the vicinity, but these people were considered lucky, those who could scream would not die for at least a while, and those unlucky ghosts who were really buried alive by the ruins did not appear at all. No chance of sound.
The command post originally set up by Francis was actually only a few tens of meters away from the south gate, but because a lot of shells flew into the city during yesterday's shelling, he retreated a little further for safety.In the end, this happened to save him. Most of the roof of the original command post was smashed down by falling bricks. If he had stayed here yesterday, he might have been buried alive.
(End of this chapter)
The Spaniards have been colonizing the Philippines for more than half a century, and they are naturally much more familiar with various local products than Haihan who has just arrived, and these geographical data sorted out by the colonists are of no significance to Haihan. Compared with those gold and silver treasures packed in boxes, Haihan can save a lot of time and money in developing Luzon Island in the future.
While his subordinates were counting the belongings, Yan Chujie called Ran Tianlu to him and asked him, "What kind of priest is this priest who deposits the church's property in the store..."
"Boss, it's Father Blanco." Ran Tianlu heard Yan Chujie draw out his tone, and quickly responded with great interest.Although he didn't know what Yan Chujie's intention was when he mentioned Father Blanco, he still listened carefully for fear of missing a word.
"Well, this priest, after we break the city, try to find him and see if you can get more things out of his mouth." Yan Chujie pointed to the document that records the local natural features: "Find out The source of this information, see if he can provide more things like this."
Ran Tianlu readily accepted this order.He has known Father Blanco for a long time, and it can be regarded as some personal friendship. Although business is the most important thing, he will never favor Father Blanco emotionally, but if he has the opportunity to give him a hand, let him He is still very happy to get a safe situation in this war.Now that the chief has entrusted himself with this task, Ran Tianlu can take this command arrow and save Father Blanco—provided that he survives before he finds him.
But Ran Tianlu was not very optimistic about this. He knew that Father Blanc would never hide in the church and wait for the end of the war, but would take a group of church members to the battlefield to help treat the wounded.In a war-torn environment, no one can guarantee his personal safety, and no one knows whether he will be hit by stray bullets when the city is broken.
The cleaning work didn't come to an end until late at night. Although Ran Tianlu had predicted in advance that this batch of property was worth a lot, the final counting result still greatly encouraged the generals who led the troops this time.According to a rough estimate, the valuation of this batch of gold and silver treasures is at least 400 million Haihan coins, and the exact value of some handicrafts made of gemstones and pearls cannot be estimated for the time being.Since the launch of this operation, this can be regarded as the biggest gain of the expeditionary force.
"With this, you can communicate with the Executive Committee." Yan Chujie patted the box containing the money proudly: "Ran Tianlu, you have made a great contribution this time!"
"The humble job is done according to the command of the chief. I dare not enjoy this kind of credit alone!" Ran Tianlu was very knowledgeable and did not forget to ask for credit for the Ministry of Security to which he belonged.
Yan Chujie ordered all these boxes to be resealed with the seals prepared by the military, and then transported to the fishing port in Pasay Town, from where they were shipped to the temporary base in Cavite Port for safekeeping.With such a large amount of money, no matter where it is placed, it is not safe enough. Yan Chujie decided to wait for the situation to stabilize before dispatching a naval ship to send it back to Sanya.
Apart from this big event that night, the army was naturally not idle.Before dark, two platforms with a height of about ten meters were set up one mile away from the city wall. In the middle of the night, snipers were arranged to carry out precise strikes on several illuminated places on the top of the city.Since the shooting point was condescending, the lighting made the defenders at the top of the city a living target. After a few rounds of shooting, the defenders who realized that they were exposed quickly turned off the lighting on the top of the city to avoid dying in vain.
After forcibly solving the monitoring on the top of the city, the engineering troops of the special warfare battalion moved into action. The engineers, all dressed in black, carried explosives and tools on their backs, and silently groped towards the city gate.They had to plant explosives under the city before dawn, and what could really provide them with cover was not the snipers lying on their stomachs on a high platform a mile away, but the night that allowed them to hide.
There is no such thing as a moat outside the south gate of Manila City, which saves the engineers a lot of trouble when approaching the city gate.
It's just that although this kind of concealment allows engineers and soldiers to approach the city gate, it will also bring great obstacles to their construction operations. Without lighting, it is difficult to carry out complex construction operations.However, the engineering troops have long developed a nighttime action plan specifically for this type of environment. In order to avoid attracting the attention of the defenders on the tower, the engineers carried a special portable cloth tent with an arched structure and a thick, opaque cloth. It is made of black tarpaulin. When using it, you only need to pull the folded part to stand up, and you can form a simple arched cloth tent, and the engineers can put a light that is not strong in the middle point to assist the construction.Looking down from the top of the city above, you can only see a piece of lacquer, and it is difficult to distinguish the existence of the cloth tent when the visibility is not high.
Two experienced officers pulled out the measuring tape, first measured the location, and marked the approximate construction point under the city wall. Then, several arched cloth tents were spread out against the city wall. Under each cloth tent was a team of engineers, each of whom started construction.
The digging tools used by the engineers are also specially made, and the silent hand drill is the most important tool.They need to drill dozens of arm-thick tunnels under the city wall, and then bury explosives and detonated detonators in them.This job requires both care and patience, and if a slight noise is heard by the defenders on the top of the city, it is likely that all previous efforts will be wasted.
Since the city wall near the south gate is covered with bricks and stones, and the engineers did not dare to let go of their hands and feet to construct, the drilling progress of several hand drills was much slower than expected. After an hour, only two holes up to standard.By [-] o'clock in the morning, half of the construction volume of the project was barely completed, but if the blasting hole was charged at this point, it was very likely that the planned blasting target would not be completed.
The sky will be bright later, and if the construction continues and retreats later, the whereabouts may be exposed. In desperation, the engineers can only withdraw their troops and return to the camp.Fortunately, these tunnels are located perpendicular to the city wall, and their existence cannot be seen from the top of the city, so there is no need to worry about being discovered by the defenders during the day.
Of course, after entering the daytime, the Haihan army will not let the defenders in the city idle.Several large-caliber mortars have already arrived at the front line. They can fire artillery shells weighing tens of kilograms or even stone bombs, and they can also directly project explosive packets, but there is no accuracy at all, and hits are basically random. .
It is of course unrealistic to expect such a few mortars to blow away the city defenses of Manila, but this thing is very useful for attacking the morale of the defenders and the people in the city. The people in the city have been keeping a high level of tension, because it is impossible to say that there will be shells falling from the sky to take their lives in the next moment.
And Roger, who was in charge of attacking the east of the city, couldn't stay idle anymore. Since the headquarters deployed most of the artillery in the main attack direction of the south of the city, Roger only had a few small-caliber guns to suppress the scene. Combat in the city has no effect, so after his troops control the east of the city, there is no follow-up action.But Roger didn't want to just do it and watch, so he simply led a company and continued to march north, until he reached the Pasig River Basin several miles away.
Roger did not lead his troops to turn to the north of the city, because the siege plan formulated by the headquarters had deliberately set aside an "escape route" in the north of the city. If he blocked this gap, the people in the city would really have to Fighting desperately, and this is obviously not in Hai Han's interest.
The Haihan army turned a blind eye to the Manila people who sneaked in from land and sea. As long as they didn't take the initiative to fly moths into the flames, they would let them escape.Even if these people escape, they will not be able to move to rescue soldiers to solve the predicament in Manila, and the Haihan army does not want to focus on these small fish and shrimp.For Haihan, capturing the city of Manila is not only the goal of this operation, but also the goal. The first priority of Haihan's army is to capture the city as soon as possible.
In this way, even though there is a ban issued by Governor Aragones in the city, which prohibits the entry and exit of non-military personnel at all city gates, some people will still use various channels to escape from the city of Manila.The north city gate refused to let them go, so some people left the city through the west city gate leading to the port, and then went around to the north.This kind of lax and hopeless public sentiment has been difficult to restore by relying on the orders of the Governor's Office.
On January 26, the main attack direction of the Haihan army was still concentrated near the south gate. Many crenels on the city wall had been flattened by shells, and a large number of houses near the city wall were battered by the shells flying in.According to the statistics of the Haihan army, the artillery positions deployed by Haihan outside the city fired more than [-] rounds of various types of artillery shells during this day, but there was no real infantry siege operation.
Francis is not an idiot, of course he can understand that although the Haihan army's movement in the south is quite large, it is still a feint in a sense, otherwise it would be unreasonable to keep besieging and not attacking when the long-range firepower has completely suppressed the defenders .
Francis thinks that the Haihan army should be waiting for a suitable time, but he has no idea what this time means.The only thing that gave him some comfort was that the Manila Port in the west of the city and the Basig River Basin in the north of the city were still under his control, and the Haihan Army did not show any intention of forcibly breaking into these two areas.If the defense line in the south of the city is really broken, then the Spaniards in the city will have at least one step to retreat, and they will not be trapped to death in the city.
As for the governor's ban, Francis could also think that this decree could not be fully implemented. After all, the relationship between the Spanish immigrants in this city was so intricate that a ban could completely block it.The most fundamental reason is that people's hearts cannot be blocked!
Francis had no good way to deal with the siege of the Haihan army outside the city. He could only try to organize his manpower and continue to reinforce the attacked city wall in the south of the city.If Haihan doesn't send infantry to attack the city, it will be beneficial to the defenders if it is delayed for a day. The longer it is delayed, the weaker Haihan's advantage will actually be.Francis can only hope that the ammunition reserves of the Haihan Army will be depleted quickly, so that when he wakes up one morning, he will get the good news that the Haihan Army has voluntarily withdrawn its troops.
But of course this is just wishful thinking of the Spaniards. The Haihan army has made sufficient preparations for this operation, and even considering the ammunition consumption required for the month-long siege, the combat supplies brought to Manila are sufficient to support Haihan. The army spent here until mid-February.If the follow-up supplies can keep up, then the time of continuous combat can be extended further.
The battle on the 26th lasted for a whole day with Haihan's unilateral shelling. After nightfall, the engineering troops continued to do the same and sneaked into the city to continue construction.On the top of the city, as long as someone dares to show their heads, they will immediately attract snipers. After a few more people die, no one dares to straighten up and walk on the city wall, let alone lean out of the city wall to watch the situation below the city. .
With the construction experience of last night, four more teams of engineers were dispatched this time to speed up the construction.After more than six hours of rush work in one night, the scheduled blasting project was finally completed. Hundreds of kilograms of high explosives were buried in the tunnel under the city wall, and then the fuse connected to the detonator was extended all the way to the south until it was safe. beyond the distance.
All the personnel of the Special Operations Battalion began to gather quietly at four o'clock in the morning. Now that the explosives near the city gate had been planted, Gao Qiaonan did not intend to drag the battle here for another day.
The sky had just started to turn pale, and most of the people and defenders in the city were sleeping when they heard a huge explosion from the south of the city.This is the loudest sound that many people have heard in their lives. Almost at the same time, the ground also trembled obviously. Many people even thought that an earthquake had occurred when they woke up from their sleep.
However, this movement came from the blasting operation of the Haihan Army on the South City Gate. Huge smoke and dust rose tens of meters high. The shock wave generated by the explosion disintegrated the city wall into countless fragments, which were thrown out towards the city.Some stones weighing dozens of catties tilted down from the sky, as if hundreds of trebuchets were attacking the city simultaneously.
How many Spanish defenders near the city wall were killed and how many were injured is completely unknown at the moment. A few survivors walked out of the smoke and dust in disgrace, and glanced blankly at the ruins of the city wall that had become a pile of rubble. What's the situation.
After a while, the screams of the wounded began to be heard from all over the vicinity, but these people were considered lucky, those who could scream would not die for at least a while, and those unlucky ghosts who were really buried alive by the ruins did not appear at all. No chance of sound.
The command post originally set up by Francis was actually only a few tens of meters away from the south gate, but because a lot of shells flew into the city during yesterday's shelling, he retreated a little further for safety.In the end, this happened to save him. Most of the roof of the original command post was smashed down by falling bricks. If he had stayed here yesterday, he might have been buried alive.
(End of this chapter)