Chu Feng directed Xin Batulu to enter the Bashi River.

The Balan Wasteland that comes towards us is a huge swamp, sandbank and mangrove area west of Manila City, and the Balan District of later generations.

Balan Wasteland is across a strait from Fort Santiago, and there is a wide moat between Fort Santiago and the main city of Manila.

This means that if you luckily cross the dense artillery group on Fort Santiago, if you want to attack from the moat west of Manila's main city, you will also be hit by artillery on Fort Santiago.

What's even more fatal is that if Fort Santiago is unfortunately captured, it is impossible to use the fort as a base for attacking the main city. There is no reliable dock near Fort Santiago!

There is a bridge between Fort Santiago and the main city, but it is a floating bridge. Now it is naturally removed. According to the Spanish's understanding of artillery, Fort Santiago, northwest of the main city, is enough. As long as you cross this area, there will be few artillery in the remaining areas.

Manila is famous for its wealth. When Chinese people who have settled in the Philippines go to mainland China to tempt Qing people there, they all use the guise of "Luzon is full of gold and silver."

Although it is a bit exaggerated, the reality is good. Open a map of the distribution of mineral resources in the Philippines in later generations. Whether it is Luzon in the north, the archipelago in the middle, or Mindanao in the south, there are gold mines everywhere!

Moreover, gold mines in the Philippines are not as easy as other places, and are very easy to mine.

Gold mines are often accompanied by silver mines, which makes Chinese people even more flock to them. This is the main reason why the Spaniards have killed one after another and the Chinese still flock to them regardless of everything.

This scene is very similar to the Americans who developed the Great Western Region in later generations. They obviously went not to expand territory for the United States, but to gold.

The Spaniards did not stop this scene. They didn't have much staff. The local natives were both lazy and lacked mining skills. Only Chinese people. After they arrived, they not only went to mine gold, but also took over the planting place when they saw suitable farming.

Many deserted places in the Southeast Asian region were actually developed by the Chinese, including the Mekong Delta, Singapore, Batavia, and the Philippines.

It may take longer to rely on Western colonists alone, and the arrival of the Chinese greatly shortened this time.

Use the Chinese to explore all parts of the Philippines and collect mineral taxes and grain taxes from them. The Spanish enjoy their benefits. They will not hesitate until the right moment of harvest.

There are many Spanish colonies, but only extremely solid castles were built in Manila. Obviously, this place is not simple.

In addition to the cinchona frosted seedlings that I was thinking about, this is the reason why Qitade came here in person.

Of course, you will know what it is inside.

Chu Feng, who was driving towards Bashi River, did not have such thoughts.

"Your Majesty has no other thoughts except for the affairs of His Highness Timur? This time, he asked the son of Minister Zhuang Jiyun, Zhuang Zhihe, and himself to command two iron armored fleets, and abandoned Deng Quan and Deng Yi, who had a deeper qualification. Is it because our two abilities are better than others?"

"Obviously not. Deng Quan is still the son of the former second priest Sanghamuyang, and he is even more righteous. However, the status of the elderly such as Hamuyang and Bao Dunge is no longer as good as before. After His Majesty abolished the Lifan Court, these people were actually just waiting to die."

"Obviously, he attaches more importance to some of the generals he promoted himself. We were originally prepared for His Royal Highness, but judging from His Royal Highness's thoughts, we are obviously not very worried about His Royal Highness. He wants to extend his influence to the next generation."

"Also, His Highness Timur was gone at a young age, leaving behind two equally young ladies. Could it be that they were widowed? According to the tradition of the Mongolians, His Majesty could have them taken to the harem, but His Majesty was obviously not the one who came here at risk for this purpose"

"What exactly is he for?"

"Boom..."

Just as he was thinking, a burst of cannons interrupted his thoughts and asked him to hurry back to what he saw.

For Fort Santiago, according to intelligence personnel, it is more difficult to deal with than the shore artillery in Cebu City.

"The reason why the city wall was built so wide was to arrange artillery on it. Not only that, many holes were left behind in the lower part of the city wall, and artillery was also laid there. In this way, the entire castle was actually a battleship fixed on the original place, which could strike the artillery across the Bashi River on two levels above and below."

"Especially the lower-level artillery is obviously fixed, but it must have been measured early in the morning of the ships on the Bashi River and can be directly hit to the hull. Moreover, its gun barrel must be extremely long and its power is naturally extremely huge. Our army has never seen such a long gun body"

"It is easy to destroy the cannons and gunners on the city walls, but how to deal with the cannons below?"

New Batulu stopped about three hundred meters northwest of Fort Santiago, obviously waiting for Chu Feng's order.

"Slow down"

Chu Feng waved his hand, "The moat on the west side of the fort has no bottom-level artillery, but it is said that the river depth is only three meters, and the draft of Batulu is four meters, so there is nothing to do about it."

Looking at the other side of the river, the Minluolun District in later generations were tidal flats and swamps, with a large number of mangroves interspersed in it, and in the distance were farmlands opened by the Chinese. Obviously, it was not a good place to land and arrange artillery positions.

"No wonder the Spaniards are so confident"

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but miss the scene of riding a horse on the grassland.

"Boom..."

A huge solid iron bomb fell on the first deck, immediately smashing the thick iron plate on it out of a big hole, then bounced up again, landing into the Bashi River on one side, and stirring up huge splashes.

"This situation is completely different from Cebu City. With His Majesty's wisdom, how can you not know? But he did not discuss with himself how to attack the city. It is obviously a test of himself. Well, I, the son of Chu Huer, the chief general of the Truqin Empire, we can not only kill all directions on the grassland, but also gallop across the water!"

Although he straightened his chest, he had no choice.

"If you sail close to Fort Santiago, you can naturally avoid the artillery on the city wall, but how to deal with the artillery on the lower level?"

After a while, Tuta immediately had an idea.

"Put down two flat-bottomed paddle clutches, row close to the castle, and quickly pass through the castle!"

His idea is also very simple.

"Although Fort Santiago is built by the river, it is obviously also on a high place. The bottom-floor artillery cannot be built at the lowest point. Moreover, such a long gun barrel is extremely difficult to load, so it is very difficult to withdraw it from the thick walls. At least two or three pack horses are required"

"So, there must be not many such artillery, and it is even more difficult to load it once and push it into the city wall. It is obviously impossible to do it if it is fired for less than ten minutes every time."

"According to the previous statement, the fort faces the river side of the river is about three miles long, so that the Clippers can raise the flag and pass quickly from there. If the artillery on the bottom layer is not fired, then forget it. If it is fired, we will make a profit!"

Two flat-bottomed clutches that could carry ten people were quickly put down, and then Xinbatulu also kept moving forward and approached the corner of the northwest side of the castle. It was the weakest place in the castle's defense, and only one cannon was laid. Since the corner had to bear load, it was obviously impossible to arrange artillery on the bottom floor.

"Boom..."

It’s still an old method. Turn the warship to the left, and then roughly perpendicular to the northwest-southeast diagonal of Fort Santiago. At this time, only a giant cannon above can hit you on the castle, and the cannons facing the Bashi River and the west moat must adjust their position if they want to turn around!

"Boom..."

After three rounds of bombardment, the cannon at the corner was silent.

At the same time, the two fastest speeds were heading upstream!

At this time, in the bottom gunner's vision, they could only see the Truqin flag passing quickly, and they could not see the ships below.

But the soldiers on the city wall can use the flintlock rifle in their hands to shoot the Truchen soldiers on the Clippers.

The Truqins were obviously prepared for this scene.

The Clipper is about ten meters long and narrow. It has a pair of slals that are rowing, with a total of five oars, but there is another person behind each oarist, holding an iron shield in their hands!

The iron shield can protect itself and the paddler!

"Boom..."

Chu Feng bet right. When he couldn't see the final situation, as long as a gunner couldn't help but shoot the cannon, it would form a chain reaction!

The artillery at the bottom began to rise one after another!

Not long after, the flags on both the fast ships were broken. In the telescope, Chu Feng could clearly see that the flying shells not only crossed the Bashi River, about two miles wide, but also landed far away on the other side. The range was probably more than five miles!

This is the power of a long-body cannon.

At this time, I didn't care how many lower-level artillery still had not been fired, and Xinbatulu began to officially enter the Bashi River along the river bank on the other side!

Such actions have obviously been designed in advance.

The distance between two miles, the city wall that is ten meters high, plus the height of the bank embankment is actually twelve meters. In this case, the elevation angle of the artillery on the middle deck is adjusted to ten degrees, fifteen kilograms, and the grenade shotgun fired by the twelve millimeter cannon is exactly at the highest position above the city wall!

From here, under the influence of the earth's gravity, the shells began to fall!

At this time, the timed grenade shotgun can come in handy!

The fifteen-pound shells flew further away. At this time, a batch of fifteen-pound cannons had been replaced on the ship just to deal with the current situation!

"Boom..."

It was still the same. The eight cannons fired two of them at a time and were fired in four times. During this period, all the cannons on the city walls were aimed at the ship and bombarded violently.

The lower-level artillery was obviously not fully deployed. One of the thirty-pound giant live ammunition hit the warship hard. Fortunately, it did not hit the gun position, but it was just the ship gang. Even so, it left a clear depression on the hull.

If it is an ordinary wooden sailboat, or a boat gang made of iron, the boat gang will be broken immediately, but the Truqin steel plate reinforced with manganese steel has withstood the test.

But this rapid impact caused the warship to tilt to the left in an instant, which caused the two grenades that had just been cast to cross the city wall and then fell into the city.

When Xinbatulu completely crossed this section of the city wall, his body was covered with bullet marks, and even the thick and strong chimney had sunk.

At this time, after several rounds of bombardment of naval guns, the gunners and soldiers on the city wall were obviously killed or injured. Even if there were those who insisted on it, it would obviously become sparse. Xinbatulu drew a circle on the spot, then turned around and started a new round of bombardment.

At the same time, the two flat-bottomed clutches also turned around, but this time, they did not use the same trick again, but went ashore one after another!

The number and aperture of the underlying artillery have long been discovered by the Truchinmi. Each of them can hold a cylindrical explosive pack in their hands. Under the cover of the naval gun, they start to stuff the explosive packs into the holes and then push them in with their oars.

For stone walls that are as thick as ten meters, as high as eight meters, and with a large amount of egg white on the bond, don't expect such explosive packs to blow it up, but if they can blow up a small number of Truchens near the outside, the goal will be achieved.

At this time, the gunners inside obviously noticed the movements of the Truchen people. Some people began to shoot at the explosive bags, and some guns loaded in advance had already been pushed in. The sounds of the explosive bags exploded one after another, and there were many Truchen sailors who were killed on the spot.

The worst thing is a sailor who was hit by the bottom artillery. His entire body was passed by the solid shell, and then brought to the river surface under the action of inertia, and finally fell in the heart of the river.

But this situation is obviously a rare situation. With the support of the Truchens' unique hair-pulling style, most explosive packs exploded.

Most explosions are also ideal. With the muffled sound, most of the front ends of the bottom cannon holes were blocked by falling stones, and then the huge rocks on them fell down.

At this time, it is obviously impossible to clear the gun position manually.

Also, the artillery loaded in advance has to wait for more than ten minutes after firing once. During this period, Xinbatulu returned to the mouth of the Bashi River from east to west!

But the twenty people who exploded the cannon holes on the shore were obviously not so fast. At this time, they only completed one-third!

New Batulu turns east again.

A mere section of the river that is only three miles long, Xinbatulu ran four rounds and three hours later. At this time, the soldiers on the shore blew up the last gun hole!

At this time, half of the soldiers had died under the attack of grenades and flintlocks on the city wall.
Chapter completed!