Chapter 1635 The long journey

The Executive Committee and the military naturally have full confidence in whether they can defeat Spain. After all, this battle mobilized most of the elite troops in the Haihan Army and prepared for nearly a year in advance. It can be said that it can be done

The preparations have almost been done to the extreme, and the commanders of the army and navy will personally go out to command. There is no reason why this war will have any other outcome.

But after this battle, it is hard to say whether the short-term gains from Manila will be enough to cover the military expenditures of this operation. The Haihan Army cannot let the soldiers plunder the local people wantonly after the city is broken.

In other words, the property of the Spaniards and their lackeys was only confiscated, but based on the intelligence collected from the local area in advance, this part of the proceeds may not be able to make a surplus for this operation. Especially the property of Governor Aragones.

It is said that the shrinkage has been extremely severe.

From a long-term strategic perspective, the Spanish defeat of Manila City has cleared a major obstacle to future expansion in the South China Sea. The value Haihan can create by using Luzon Island will of course far exceed the military expenditure spent this time, but for

For Haihan, who has always been good at calculations, short-term gains may not make up for the amount of military expenditures, which is undoubtedly a great regret.

Although Haihan's wealth ranks among the top in the entire Far East, its military expenditures are also astonishingly high. According to national financial statistics over the years, military expenditures have remained constant almost every year.

Ranked first on the list. Because Haihan has always adhered to the line of elite troops, Haihan spent a huge amount of money on training and equipment. In addition, overseas wars continued for years, so military expenditures even exceeded that of a big country like the Ming Dynasty. To put it bluntly, Haihan’s military can

Maintaining invincible results is indeed achieved by spending a lot of money.

Although the battlefield of this attack on Manila was not as far away as Liaodong or the Strait of Malacca, the scale of the participating troops was the largest since the founding of the People's Republic of China. The Ministry of National Defense even temporarily transferred the elite border guards from the north and the south back to the South China Sea to participate in the war.

The supply support provided was all implemented in accordance with the highest standards. The military expenditures invested in this operation were actually much greater than the border operations in the Haihan territory. If considered purely from an economic perspective, this operation was indeed a bit

Losing money and making money is the taste of shouting.

"Before departure, Schneider specially greeted me and asked me to scrape the ground and collect all valuable things back to Sanya after conquering Manila." Yan Chujie shrugged and said, "I said I was going to fight, but then

You’re not here to scrape the land, you have to do it yourself, I can’t control that much!”

The officers surrounding him suddenly showed knowing smiles, but the person involved on the other side was also the head of the executive committee, so no one dared to laugh out loud. As Yan Chujie, he could naturally open his mouth.

Just kidding, but their subordinates still have to maintain enough respect.

The troops departing from Sanya this time were personally commanded by Defense Minister Yan Chujie, who was also the former enemy commander-in-chief of this operation. On the way to Manila, it was necessary to gather his senior officers on the flagship and seize the time to deal with the current situation.

Some operational plans were put through the final stages in order to achieve foolproof results. During the break, Yan Chujie casually told some interesting stories about the senior officials of the Executive Committee preparing for the operation, and the generals laughed in agreement.

It should be a pastime between meetings.

Compared with the elite units mobilized by the Northern and Southern Route Armies, the composition of this mixed force starting from Sanya is not that eye-catching. Almost all of this group of troops were drawn from the various units stationed on Hainan Island, and

Special forces such as special operations battalions and cavalry battalions that have strong personal characteristics of the commander. In other words, this unit is the representative of the true average combat effectiveness of the Haihan Army.

Of course, Yan Chujie knows this best. Haihan's elite troops almost all perform combat missions overseas all year round, and the troops stationed on Hainan Island generally rotate regularly with overseas garrison troops. Although there are not as many actual combat opportunities as the elite troops,

But basically all of them have experience in fighting overseas. When it comes to combat effectiveness, there is naturally a gap with elites such as special operations battalions. After all, training, treatment, combat experience and weapons and equipment are all far behind. But if it is with Ming Dynasty

Compared with the military or the armed forces of Western colonists, it is still much stronger than the other party.

The Executive Committee and the Ministry of National Defense do not want all the limelight this time to be stolen by generals stationed abroad. Therefore, in subsequent combat arrangements, these relatively "ordinary" troops will also shoulder some key tasks and strive to be able to

Receive military merit commendations after the war to balance the power in the military. Otherwise, in every foreign war, a few elite troops receive awards for their meritorious service, and military expenditures have to be heavily tilted towards them, giving them the best weapons and equipment first. In this way

Long-term development is not necessarily a good thing.

Of course, the Ministry of National Defense needs to find a balance, and it is impossible to deliberately restrict the development of these special forces. That will only cause dissatisfaction and complaints from the generals. All the Ministry of National Defense can do is to find opportunities for ordinary troops to go into battle. Yan Chujie himself

As the Minister of Defense, it is not easy to take sides, but in various preparation meetings before the war, he has roughly revealed the high-level intentions to the officers participating in the war. Although he did not express the words clearly, I think anyone who cares can understand it.

This arrangement has been painstaking, and all that remains is to see whether their performance on the battlefield is up to par.

Although the three armies went their own way, fortunately, Haihan also mastered the communication method of telegraph, so information synchronization could be achieved during the march. How much did the three fleets travel every day, and how different it was from the original sailing plan.

Basically, they can maintain real-time communication. In this way, Yan Chujie and Wang Tom can also calculate the itinerary of each fleet, so that the three fleets can arrive at their destination, Manila Bay, simultaneously as much as possible.

According to the plan formulated by the navy, the two fleets from Sanya and Cam Ranh Bay have a similar voyage to Manila Bay, which takes about six days. The Northern Route Army heading south from Kaohsiung Port is slightly closer and is normally shorter than the other two.

The fleet took about one day less. In order to realize the plan of the three fleets arriving at the same time, the Navy specially set aside extra time when formulating the voyage to prevent the fleet from encountering adverse weather at sea and delaying the voyage.

While Haihan's army was marching towards Manila, the people in Manila were still unaware of the upcoming war. Although the Manila authorities were vaguely aware that the situation was not good, in order to ensure that the local public security order would not be disrupted, they did not inform the people.

Warning. Regarding the recent sharp decline in the number of ships arriving at the port, the Governor's Office explained that the southeastern coast of Daming was hit by typhoons and tsunamis some time ago. Many ports and ships were severely damaged, which resulted in the lack of foreign merchant ships in the near future.

Go to the port to conduct transactions.

This explanation seems to be reasonable to the local people who have little information. After all, natural disasters are unavoidable, and maybe they will slowly return to normal over time. Some Spanish businessmen secretly regret it, if they had known that the recent supply of goods from the Ming Dynasty would be

If something goes wrong, you should first raise the price of the last batch of goods you arrange to ship back to your country.

Of course, not everyone is unaware of the news from the outside world. For example, the intelligence personnel stationed by the Haihan Security Department in Manila City know very well that the current depressed scene at the port is not caused by climate disasters, but by Haihan in the Ming Dynasty.

The result of the pressure exerted on maritime merchants by coastal ports. Except for a very small number of merchants running errands for the Manila authorities, who would be willing to take the risk of offending Haihan and continue to come to Manila to trade with the Spanish at this juncture.

Ran Tianlu is the person in charge of a business store outside Manila. According to official registration information, this business store named "Chaosheng" is the property of a certain maritime merchant in Chaozhou, Guangdong, and Ran Tianlu is assigned to

He serves as the chief shopkeeper here. Every two months, cargo ships transport Daming products from Chaozhou, which are sold in batches to the local Spaniards by the "Chaosheng" store. Ran Tianlu will also purchase tobacco leaves from the local area from time to time depending on the market conditions.

and edible spices, and let the cargo ships take them back to Guangdong for sale.

The "Chaosheng" store has been operating locally for more than two years. During this period, it has always behaved itself and paid the taxes levied by the Manila authorities on time and in full. Ran Tianlu even made regular donations to the Spanish church in the city. This is

This was highly praised by the highly respected local Father Blanco, and he even persuaded Governor Aragones more than once to ask him to approve allowing local Han Chinese who believe in God to apply for Spanish citizenship.

Of course, this is just the wishful thinking of Father Blanco who does not understand political affairs. He also does not think about it. If Han people can become Spanish citizens because they believe in religion, will they be able to enjoy the same treatment as Spanish nationals in the future? If that is true.

In this way, the taxes that the Manila authorities can collect from the Han people every year will be reduced by more than half, and the main bearer of this loss is Governor Aragones himself. How could he agree with Father Blanco's suggestion?

In addition, of course, Ran Tianlu himself has no intention of becoming a Spanish citizen. In addition to his identity as the shopkeeper of Chaosheng Commercial Store, he also has another secret identity as an officer of the Special Operations Section of the South China Sea Affairs Department of the Haihan Security Department.

Everything he did in Manila, including donating money to the Spanish church, establishing a good personal relationship with the priest, etc., was all to cover up his apparent identity.

And these measures have indeed achieved very good results. Although the Spaniards are not very fond of Han immigrants, Han people like Ran Tianlu who can win the favor of the priest will naturally have a different attitude. Ran Tianlu is rich, and

With a protective umbrella, no one in Manila would deliberately make things difficult for him.

Before being sent to Manila to lurk, Ran Tianlu had received more than two years of language training. The Ministry of Security specially found a Portuguese teacher from Macau who had lived in Spain for many years to tutor him to ensure his intelligence work in Manila.

There will be no barriers due to language issues.

Even so, when Ran Tianlu first arrived in Manila, he still pretended not to understand Spanish at all. It was not until he came into contact with Father Blanco that he slowly pretended that it was the result of self-study and began to show his mastery bit by bit.

conversation. However, Father Blanco did not know the mystery and only believed that this was a miracle that occurred after Ran Tianlu believed in God. Otherwise, he could not imagine that a Han Chinese could learn his native language so quickly.

After receiving permission from Father Blanco, Ran Tianlu was able to freely participate in various religious activities held in the church. In this environment, he effortlessly heard a lot of valuable intelligence information from the local Spanish population.

. Even the news that Governor Aragones managed to raise funds for domestic activities after the war with Haihan last year, he heard from the chats of several wealthy Spanish businessmen in the church.

However, Ran Tianlu also understood that no matter how much information he collected, it would only be of limited help to his career. Unless the two countries were at war again, the information he sent back to Sanya would only be sent to the data room after being reviewed by his superiors.

Archived copy. But with his ability, he certainly cannot provoke a war between the two countries, and he can only slowly wait for the opportunity. Fortunately, the waiting time is not too long. A few months ago, he finally received the order from his superiors.

, asking him to step up the collection of local military and political intelligence and wait for an opportunity to disrupt social order in Manila at an appropriate time at the end of the year.

The order he received at that time did not have a clear timetable, but his intuition told him that the war was approaching, and the long-awaited performance opportunity was about to arrive. If he could provide some key information to the military during this war, he would

I believe there should be opportunities for promotion after the war.

When Haihan sent troops to attack Manila, the most needed information was probably the local city defense deployment. But Ran Tianlu’s main social connection was Father Blanco. This man had no relationship with those officers with eyes on their heads.

Closely, it is impossible to get key information from the priest.

However, Ran Tianlu had his own plan. During the Batavia War in 1632, one of his colleagues, Cheng Dapeng, was also lurking in the city of Batavia as a businessman. At that time, in the name of "labor army", he collected

Batavia city defense information. Although the Dutch opponent at that time was not Haihan, but the Maltalan army, the intelligence collected by Cheng Dapeng at that time still provided Haihan with a clear understanding of the armed strength of the East India Company.

Detailed reference materials.

Things like laboring the army can be done as long as you have money. Ran Tianlu is usually close to the Spaniards, so no one will doubt his purpose when he comes to do this. As for the corresponding expenses, Ran Tianlu believes that even the Minister of Security

When He Xi comes here, he will also think that spending a small sum of money to buy city defense information is worth a thousand dollars.
Chapter completed!