Things on the sea are actually basically over at this time.
Next is the matter of landing troops.
Before the naval battle took place, the 1st Marine Brigade took advantage of the darkness and quietly landed on a remote coast ten kilometers north of Manila in a transport ship.
The difference between the Marine Corps and the ordinary army lies in their ability to adapt to long-distance voyages at sea.
Moreover, they can conduct landing operations on ordinary coasts without relying on ports.
"When ordering each regiment to land, each company will lead it by itself. When assembling, the company will also assemble as a unit." As the commander, Ding Li naturally would not be the first group to land. He gave the order on the transport ship.
In order to transport their 1st Marine Brigade over, the Renaissance Army Navy assembled more than half of its transport ships.
Soldiers and equipment must be placed in small boats and transported to the coast by landing craft.
This landing site has been selected in advance, and the intelligence department will arrange special personnel to respond on the shore.
President Dong Da had already made plans for Luzon. Therefore, the intelligence agency began to develop its influence in the local area very early.
However, there have been some surprises recently, because the colonial authorities in Luzon drove out all the Chinese in the city.
This caused some of the intelligence department's plans in the city to come to nothing.
This move by the authorities also completely aroused the vigilance of the Chinese. Because every major purge against the Chinese in Luzon always started with the expulsion of the Chinese from Manila.
The Spanish authorities are trying to stay out of trouble in this way.
Therefore, after being driven out of the city, many Chinese temporarily left Luzon or hid in Chinese manors in the countryside.
At this time, there were no Chinese in Manila.
Recently, public opinion in Luzon has been promoting anti-Chinese propaganda, and some among the natives have begun to organize armed forces to prepare for a comprehensive purge of the Chinese.
Now a large number of natives have gathered in Manila City for a rally. Some educated natives are preaching in public about the various "crimes" of the Chinese.
The so-called "crime" of the Chinese is actually that the Chinese's life is better than theirs. Their life is not good because they are lazy, but because the Chinese stole their wealth.
All this was carried out with the tacit approval of the Spanish colonial authorities. Blandino had been watching all this with a cold eye. In fact, many of the natives who preached were sent out by him.
In Luzon, the educated natives were basically trained by the Spaniards. These people were equivalent to the Spanish's lackeys in ruling the natives.
Some people may think that the landing of the 1st Marine Brigade is too simple.
In fact, the reason why the 1st Marine Brigade was able to land so easily is because there is no mature coastal defense system in this era.
In addition to the main cities, the Spanish's local control over Luzon was also pitifully weak.
This is a common problem in the current colonial activities of Western colonists, who lack the manpower to effectively control the local colonies.
In addition to major strategic locations and cities, they mainly ruled locally through supporting agents.
Therefore, in Western colonies, the original tribal rule or feudal rule model is often retained, and the tribal leaders or feudal kings appointed by the colonists are their agents.
Of course, this way of governance is very rough and extremely detrimental to the development of the colony.
Therefore, the Spanish did not establish a complete border defense system in Luzon. Local security was the responsibility of the tribes themselves, and each settlement was semi-autonomous.
That's why the Chinese have their own armed forces in their estates. The same goes for the natives. The Spanish will not be responsible for their safety.
In the vicinity of Manila, there are a large number of fortifications only around the port and the fort.
The reason why Ding Li had previously organized the troops to land in companies was because it was difficult to command the troops in the dark.
If we still use brigades as units to command the army, there will definitely be huge commotion. It will also increase the time for landing.
If there is too much movement, it is easy to be discovered.
In fact, Ding Li's land battle group moved much earlier than the fleet.
Because there are no special landing crafts yet, the soldiers take the small boats on the transport ships and row to the shore by themselves.
This goes back and forth, over and over again. The login speed cannot be increased at all.
The first company to land successfully connected with the intelligence personnel of the Intelligence Department on the shore.
People in the back can log in much faster.
After a regiment of the 1st Marine Brigade successfully landed, Ding Li also led his brigade headquarters to the beach.
"Hello, Brigadier Ding." The person in charge of the Manila Intelligence Station greeted Ding Li warmly.
The person in charge of the intelligence station has dark skin and is dressed similarly to most Chinese people in Luzon. Apparently he has lived here for a long time.
Ding Li had spent a long time in Japan before and was no stranger to fighting in a foreign country.
He feels very natural now and is not nervous about fighting in a remote place.
"Hello, brother, you have worked hard. This landing point was chosen very well." Ding Li said.
"As long as it can bring convenience to the troops. Originally there were only a few families of native fishermen here, but we have dealt with them all. Brigadier Ding can rest assured." Feng Qingyun, the head of the intelligence station, said calmly. Obviously, he did not
I don't like the natives here.
"Brother, please arrange for a guide to bring our vanguard to Manila. If it is too late to wait for all the large troops to land," Ding Li said.
He calculated the time and realized that if he waited for all the troops to land, the troops would not be able to carry out a surprise attack.
Ding Li did not expect his troops to be able to capture the city of Manila in a sudden attack.
But at least we must be able to capture the coastal defense fortress northwest of Manila City.
The entire city of Manila is basically protected by the surrounding fortresses.
To conquer the city of Manila, you must first capture the enemy's fortress.
Otherwise, the landing troops will be attacked by fire from the enemy fortress when attacking the city.
On the contrary, if you can raid and capture the fortress, you can use the firepower on the fortress to help your side attack the city.
"The special forces and a group followed the guide to Manila first, taking advantage of the naval battle to capture the coastal defense fortress northwest of Manila City. Assist the navy in attacking the port."
"You don't need to attack Manila City, just capture and hold the fortress." Ding Li ordered.
Ding Li watched the vanguard leave, feeling a little worried in his heart.
The Spanish defense in Manila was very tight. There were more than 20,000 defenders in the entire city of Manila, as well as a large number of servants.
This battle is not easy to fight. It is very difficult to rely solely on their special operations brigade.
What they have to do now is to open up the situation in Manila and then wait for the arrival of the Eighth Division.
The Eighth Division will not come alone. Niu Jie will organize local Chinese to form a coalition to participate in the siege.
Therefore, the speed of the Eighth Division is destined not to be faster.
The first special operations brigade not only needs to open up the situation, but also defend against the enemy's counterattack.
This battle to attack and defend Manila City will not end in a day or two.
The special operations team of the 1st Special Operations Brigade is the vanguard of the entire brigade, and they will complete the mission of assaulting the northwest fortress.
A group following them will take over the defense of the fortress.
The sound of cannons rumbled on the sea, and more than 1,200 garrison troops were stationed on the northwest fortress of Manila to garrison the fortress.
There is now a busy and tense scene on the fortress. Spanish artillerymen with big shoulders and round waists, shirtless and in groups, are carrying ammunition to various gun emplacements.
The fortress defenders, who had been awakened from their sleep, and driven by their officers, were preparing to bombard the invading enemies from the sea.
Finally the enemy ship entered the coastal defense gun position.
Ronisio, who was tall and had auburn hair, raised his thumbs up and measured the position of the first fleet.
"Direction 90, distance two thousand, each gun position is ready to fire." Ronisio is a veteran of playing with cannons. He quickly estimated that in addition to the enemy's position, he also knew the distance of these old guys in his hands.
Whether or not you can hit it depends on God's will.
"Boys, send these invading boats to the bottom of the sea. Get ready to fire." Ronicio, the commander of the Spanish garrison on the fortress, shouted loudly.
Ronisio is already in his forties. He has a family here in Manila, and he also has illegitimate children with several native women from Luzon.
It can be said that his life here is still very happy.
He couldn't remember exactly how many of them there were. He couldn't even tell whether some of them belonged to him or not.
As long as those women from Luzon who come to him with their children in their arms still have some impressions in his mind, he will give them a little money to get rid of them.
His job was to lead the garrison of the northwest fortress. In fact, he only had more than a thousand men under his command.
This job doesn't require much lobbying. At most, he can resell a little gunpowder to the Chinese for mining.
Or maybe he knows a little bit about military pay, but he knows how to measure it. At least he treats his subordinates well. He often invites them to drink. Sometimes he also gives them some benefits.
Most of these old artillery pieces on the fort have existed since Ronisio was a soldier.
Many of them are older than the young men in the garrison.
Spain has been in financial crisis for so many years, and Luzon's income has become stretched due to the loss of South America.
This small amount of income needs to be subsidized to the country. Her Majesty the Queen seems to be in a state of constant shortage of money.
It is said that she has many men, but why she is still so short of money, Ronisio is a little confused.
Although the cannons on the fort are very old, Ronisio is very affectionate towards them because he has wiped these cannons with his hands countless times.
These huge muzzle-loading cannons look very intimidating, but in fact most of them have a range of no more than two thousand meters.
Only when the First Fleet approaches to launch torpedoes will it enter their range.
Therefore, the shooters on the fort must seize the short opportunity to fire.
"Ready, let go!" Ronisio shouted.
"Boom, boom, boom..." Flames continued to shoot out from the muzzles of these artillery pieces, and large black iron balls flew into the distance.
Ronisio raised his eyes to observe the impact point of the cannonball.
He felt that only a few of his cannonballs could knock down the enemy's warships.
Because the part above the waterline of the Jianghe-class frigates is very short, they look a bit thin.
Especially from Ronisio's perspective.
Almost all the shells fired in the first salvo were empty, which was what Ronisio expected.
"Increase the elevation of all gun positions by five degrees." Ronisio ordered to adjust the artillery under his command.
The soldiers on the fort quickly picked up hammers and nailed the prepared wooden wedges into the base of the artillery.
After the second salvo, Ronisio finally saw his shells hit the enemy warship.
"Hell, all theirs are steel armor shells." Ronisio cursed, their artillery was originally designed to attack wooden warships.
He clearly saw the shells he fired bounce off the armor of the opponent's warship.
However, he did not lose heart and ordered the soldiers to continue shooting.
"Boom, boom, boom..." At this moment, several artillery shells exploded around the fort.
This is how several battleships from the First Fleet aimed their main guns at the fort here.
The sudden shelling shocked the defenders on the fort.
"Don't panic, stick to your gun position." The artillery barrels on the deck of the opponent's warship that Ronisio could see were very long, which meant that their firing range was longer.
However, they thought that the opponent's shooting accuracy was so high, and the power of the shell explosion was greater than that of ordinary shells.
Ronisio is still organizing his men to fight back. He knows that the nobles in Manila are paying attention to this side.
He always has to show his worth.
"Boom..." This time a cannonball fired from the First Fleet exploded next to a Spanish gun emplacement.
The explosion detonated the ammunition accumulated in the gun emplacement.
There was another loud "bang", and the artillery position was completely blown into the sky.
This caused panic among the soldiers in the surrounding gun emplacements.
There has been no war here in Manila for a long time. Even the biggest pirates in the Southeast Asia region dare not attack the city of Manila.
So these defenders haven't seen blood for a long time.
"Stay steady and stick to your post, otherwise military law will be imposed." Ronisio signaled to the guards beside him.
At this time, we can only use military law and force to suppress these timid soldiers.
The attack of the First Fleet attracted all the attention of the defenders on the fort.
No one noticed that at the bottom of the mountain, a group of elite infantrymen in full camouflage were using the trees on the hillside to cover their way towards the fort on the hill.
The Renaissance Army has not used special operations for a long time.
In the grassland areas of the north and western regions, special operations are not very useful.
But in Luzon, a lush tropical region, special operations can often work wonders.
These people had oil paint on their faces, green cloth strips hanging on their clothes, and branches on their heads.
They slowly moved towards the top of the mountain in a seemingly scattered but orderly formation.
At the front of the team, a special forces commander raised his right hand, and the entire team stopped immediately.
They could see the enemy batteries on the top of the hill being bombarded by the First Fleet.
Every time there was an explosion, they kept going.
The captain made a few gestures, and the team behind them split into three parts.