Chapter 1652 Attack on Manila (2)

The Spanish army had had head-on experience with the Haihan Army in 1633. Colonel Francis also knew very well that his side's biggest shortcoming was the inferior performance of its weapons. He did not rashly let the phalanx regiments under his command take the initiative to attack, but only gathered them together.

He formed a battle formation and waited on the position for his opponent to advance closer. In addition to the sixteen artillery pieces on the position, Francis relied on the defensive bunkers and fortifications built in advance.

According to the original tactics of the Spanish phalanx, there is no such thing as a bunker. Muskets attack from far away and spears defend from close range. The infantry phalanx should kill the enemy in the process of continuous advancement, rather than hiding behind a bunker and waiting for the opponent to take the initiative.

to attack. But Francis knew very well the power of the enemy's weapons. Pulling the phalanx out to shoot at each other was tantamount to suicide. It was still necessary to shorten the fighting distance as much as possible in order to effectively reduce the combat effectiveness gap between the two armies.

But this was still just his wishful thinking. Of course, Gao Qiaonan had clearly seen the deployment method of the Spanish phalanx in the telescope. He was not surprised by this. If the Spaniards really pulled out their troops to attack, then Gao Qiaonan would

Only Qiaonan would suspect that the opponent's commander's brain was burned out.

To deal with this Spanish tactic, Takahashi Minami's method was very simple and crude, that is, to let the artillery be responsible for the task of breaking the defense. The artillery company assigned by the headquarters to Takahashi Minami was used to do this kind of work. Spain

The fortifications built by the people were nothing more than chest-high low-wall bunkers built with earthen bricks and stones. It was no problem to deal with musket fire, but it was a bit difficult to block the artillery shells. Especially the howitzers that the Haihan Army had begun to install in small batches.

It is even more handy when dealing with bunkers.

Under the cover of the infantry, the artillery company leisurely set up a gun position about a mile away from the Spanish position. The artillerymen observed and calculated the shooting angle, and then conducted a round of calibration. Although

None of the calibrated shells hit the Spanish position, but the error was already within the adjustable range.

The Spanish officers took the lead in ruthlessly ridiculing the shells that the Haihan Army missed, even though many of them actually understood that this was just a test firing by the enemy, and the real bombardment might not come until later, but since it can start

When it comes to boosting morale, officers will naturally try to make the most of this method.

After receiving the report that the school firing was over, Takahashi Minami ordered the attack to begin immediately. When the real artillery bombardment began, the Spaniards immediately felt great pressure. Since the ballistic trajectory of the Haihan howitzer was a parabola, the missiles they set up

The bunker was not high enough to provide a complete shielding effect. Several artillery shells hit the infantry square behind the bunker, blowing up the crowd.

Of course, the Spaniards did not just watch. Their artillery launched an artillery bombardment against Haihan's army at almost the same time. However, the range and accuracy were too far apart, and the artillery shells could not hit Haihan's position at all. However, their own side

The roar of artillery fire from the position can bring some mental comfort to ordinary soldiers, allowing them to realize that they are not passively being beaten, and the enemy is also bearing their own artillery fire.

Naturally, the effects of the shelling on both sides were not the same. While the Spanish formation was beaten to its knees, Haihan's side was calm. In addition to the accurate judgment of commanders such as Gao Qiaonan, this was also due to the accurate judgment of commanders such as Ran Tianlu and others.

Military intelligence collected by intelligence personnel before the war. Regarding the performance of the weapons of the Spanish defenders, the Haihan military had already understood it and had made sure to form a formation outside the effective range of its artillery. The Spanish artillery was firing vigorously.

But it didn't hurt Haihanjun's side at all, so Quan thought he heard a noise.

But Francis cannot continue to deceive himself and others. If he allows Haihan to shell a few more rounds, he is afraid that the people on his side will disperse. But it would be even more unscientific to order the phalanx troops to leave the bunker and go out to fight the opponent.

Francis had no choice but to order the phalanx to withdraw a certain distance and take the initiative to get out of Haihan's shelling range.

Even though Francis usually drilled his troops diligently, this retreat under artillery fire inevitably caused some chaos. Especially the spearmen, who were mainly local indigenous people, performed particularly well. The firearms experienced by these Southeast Asian indigenous peoples

There were not many battles, and the situation of being bombarded by the enemy was very unfamiliar, so it was inevitable to feel panic. If Francis's supervising team hadn't been watching from behind, there might have been a small group of deserters right now.

Fortunately, Francis had almost no hesitation. As soon as he realized that the battle situation was not going well, he immediately issued the order to retreat, which was considered a timely stop loss. However, the retreat of the artillery position was not something that could be done immediately.

, the artillery mount must be connected to the carriage before animal power can be used to pull away these heavy iron lumps. In addition, there are ammunition and various accessories for the artillery that need to be packed away. However, the coordination and synchronization of the various arms of the Spanish army are not ideal.

The infantry immediately turned around and retreated after receiving the order, while the artillery was still busy cleaning up the stalls.

As a result, the Spanish artillery position was inevitably dragged behind. This change was immediately noticed by the Haihan Army, and then the Spanish artillery ushered in a wave of concentrated fire strikes from the sky.

Sixteen artillery pieces, but only half of the men and horses were successfully withdrawn from the firing line. Francis was in tears, and it was okay to lose some infantry. After all, training is fast, and two or three months is enough to train a group of people to supplement it. But

Artillery is much more troublesome, especially gunners who know how to calculate ballistic trajectories and charges. This requires long-term live ammunition training and actual combat experience to slowly develop. This is not something that can be accomplished by just picking a few people and training for a few months.

The two sides had just started fighting, and Francis already felt that he couldn't afford to lose.

When the enemy retreats, Haihan's side will naturally press forward unceremoniously. Gao Qiaonan has sent the reconnaissance cavalry to spread out to the left and right, from the coastline in the west to five miles away from Haihan's position in the east, monitoring whether the enemy has any other ambush.

Ambush. But now it seems that this caution is a bit unnecessary. The Spaniards obviously concentrated their main forces on the plain south of the city, counting on their own infantry phalanx to deal with the Haihan army.

As soon as the Spanish army stabilized its position, the Haihan army was already within the range of the artillery. Takahashi Nan still did not rush to advance, but repeated the tactics just now and continued to bombard the Spanish army's position with artillery. And Francis

I haven't found an effective way to deal with it, so I can only continue to retreat.

After advancing and retreating like this three times, the Spanish army had retreated to the edge of the residential area outside the city. If it retreated further, the infantry phalanx would not be able to form a formation to fight. Francis had no choice but to send out the cavalry.

Detour from the flanks, hoping to use this method to slightly restrain the speed of the Haihan Army's advance.

Seeing the Spaniards sending out cavalry, Harugong, who had been darkened for a long time, finally reacted and quickly sent an order for his cavalry to attack, lest the Spaniards would be stupid enough to rush directly to the musket formation of the special operations battalion.

When the time comes, the fruit will be picked up by the special operations battalion again.

When Takahashi Nan saw his own cavalry attacking, he did not issue any extra orders to the flanking troops. If the Spaniards really planned to try the cavalry charge, then they would have tasted the power of the Haihan Musket Formation. But Takahashi

Nan also knew that when Harugong's cavalry battalion attacked, the effect was almost the same as that of the musketeers. The Spaniards would soon know how far their cavalry combat effectiveness was compared to Haihan's.

At this time, the Spanish cavalry still used sabers, spears and light bows and arrows as their main weapons and equipment. Only officers could be equipped with single-shot flintlock muskets. The equipment of the Haihan Cavalry Battalion had already achieved full firearms. Seven

Continuous-fire short-barreled cavalry rifles are extremely lethal in close combat. They once defeated the Jin cavalry on the Liaodong battlefield and were unable to hold their heads up. It is a pity that the Spaniards did not understand the performance of the Haihan cavalry, otherwise Francis would definitely not have used his own weapons.

Limited cavalry units were sent out to hit the wall.

Fortunately, the leading officer of the Spanish Cavalry was quite cautious. When he saw the Haihan Cavalry going into battle, he did not launch a frontal charge. Instead, he still insisted on roundabout tactics and tried to circle the plains with the Haihan Cavalry while constantly moving.

Looking for a fighter plane. But the Haihan Cavalry obviously did not intend to slowly deal with him. They narrowed the distance between the two sides to within the effective shooting range and began target practice. Although it was basically impossible to achieve precise aiming on the bumpy horseback,

From a distance of tens of meters, more than a hundred rifles were shooting at the Spanish cavalry. This random shooting still had a very scary hit rate.

People or horses in the Spanish cavalry were constantly shot and fell, but the means of counterattack were almost zero. Although some Spanish cavalry tried to rush over and cut down their opponents with their sabers due to their bloodiness, they often failed in the 20s or 30s.

Meters away, they would be hit by focused fire, and would be knocked backwards by bullets from their horses. Some Spanish cavalry also wore two-piece plate armor, but this thin iron sheet could protect against ordinary bows and arrows.

However, it cannot protect against close-range musket fire, and the protective effect it can provide is extremely limited. Once it is shot, it will still lose its combat effectiveness immediately.

After losing more than 20 cavalry, the officer leading the team quickly realized the gap between the two sides and quickly gave a signal to evacuate the battlefield. The Haihan cavalry chased for a while without mercy, and after putting down several more cavalry, they calmed down.

Busily withdrawing troops.

"These damn Haihan people, don't they have any weaknesses?" Francis witnessed with his own eyes how his cavalry was ravaged, and couldn't help but get furious. Unfortunately, this kind of curse did not help the Spanish army's passive situation, nor did it help the Spanish army.

It's just a quick show of words.

What should we do next? Should we try our best to hold the current line of defense, or should we continue to retreat and withdraw our troops to defend the city? Or should we rely on the residential areas outside the city to engage in guerrilla street fighting with the opponent?

Francis looked around. Most of the people living in the residential area in the south of the city were Ming and local natives. No matter how many casualties there were, he would not have any scruples. Logically speaking, street fighting should be the most beneficial option for the defenders. But the problem is that Francis and him

None of his officers knew how to fight in the streets. What they were good at were infantry square formations and legion-style combat. If the troops were divided into small groups and dispersed to fight on their own in the city, Francis didn't need to think too much to know that it would only make his troops more vulnerable.

It becomes a mess without any order.

Francis did not dare to take this risk. The only solution for now was to withdraw his troops into the city and rely on city fortifications to resist Haihan's attack. As for how long it would take the Haihan people to clean up the residential area south of the city, Francis believed that at least

There is not much we can do today - night is approaching soon, and the Haihan people will probably take the initiative to withdraw their troops and call a truce.

Sure enough, after the cavalry confrontation between the two sides ended, Haihan took the initiative to stop advancing, and then about a mile behind his position, engineers began to set up camp. It seemed that they would stop there today.

Francis secretly breathed a sigh of relief. If Haihan continued to advance, he had no more effective means of resistance. Fortunately, the coming of night gave him a whole night's buffer time, and Francis could discuss with his officers what to do.

How can we stop the Haihan Army's offensive outside the city?

The atmosphere in the Haihan camp was relatively relaxed. Today's confrontation with the Spanish army on land went very smoothly, and there was basically no decent resistance - at least in Takahashi Nan's view. As for Haihan,

The number of casualties was also much smaller than that of the previous naval battle, which made the army generals at the headquarters feel that they were proud of themselves and had invisibly overwhelmed the navy.

"If the Spaniards start a street fight with us tomorrow, then I really have to teach them a lesson." Qian Tiandun pointed to the area in the south of the city on the map and explained to other generals: "This area covers an area of ​​about two square meters.

Kilometers, the urban planning is somewhat organized, but apart from buildings, there are no other obstacles that can provide the defenders with the conditions to build defenses. My troops have specialized in urban street fighting, but it is rare to have such a suitable environment for them.

Play.”

"You should give up, the Spaniards will not fight in the streets with us." Yan Chujie shook his head and said: "They have retreated again and again today. They are obviously not used to our tactics. I don't think they will still have the confidence to fight outside the city tomorrow.

Fight with us."

"The Spaniards have been trying to distance themselves today. I wonder if they will find that this is a wrong idea when they go back to review the game at night." Qian Tiandun did not immediately deny Yan Chujie's view, but first talked about his own.

Opinion: "The more they try to control the fighting distance, the more passive they become. Only by narrowing the fighting distance infinitely can they have a chance to struggle. When fighting on the plains, they will always suffer the loss. Only in the special environment of urban areas

Only by fighting can we hope to shorten the fighting distance to a relatively equal level. If the Spaniards think so, then they may choose street fighting as their next tactic."
Chapter completed!