Since its establishment, the Royal City of Manila has never faced any large-scale military threat. Although Governor Acuna and the new colonial commander-in-chief Don Fernando believed that the Chinese Company might launch an attack on the Philippines, they did not believe that this was imminent. danger.
Almost half a month ago, a merchant ship from Fujian, China brought news: President Yin Feng, the big owner of the China Company, was assassinated by his enemies and was seriously injured. This made the Spanish colonial authorities in the Philippines even more convinced that, at least in the short term, from The threat from the Chinese does not exist. Don Fernando’s most pessimistic estimate is that the accident will not happen until the second half of next year. But by then the wind direction on the sea has changed. Moreover, the Spanish reinforcements coming from Mexico will also increase by then. Defense capabilities of the area surrounding Manila.
Based on his own observations of the escorts on the Taiwan Port pier, Fernando believed that although this group of Chinese were relatively organized and disciplined, their weapons, equipment and military training were far inferior to those of the Spanish colonial army.
Therefore, the Spaniards on the entire Luzon Island now do not take the Chinese threat to heart at all.
The result of the lax defense is the symbol of the colony. The most important west gate in the area around the Intramuros of Manila was quickly captured by hundreds of people from the Chinese Company in just ten minutes.
The Chinese company's escort team that occupied Fort Santiago immediately threw themselves into intense preparations for war. As the general manager of the Nanyang region and a close confidant of the dominant ship owner, Mai Xiaoliu undoubtedly became the temporary commander. Everyone was busy loading the weapons on the ship. The ammunition was moved down, including a large number of flintlock muskets, granular gunpowder, two small bronze cannons, and grenades newly developed by the Ordnance Department.
Zhang Wei was almost in his 50s. At this time, he followed the guards like a curious child and asked questions.
"What is this black clay pot? Why is there a fuse exposed at the mouth of the pot?"
Yan Siqi had great respect for this old pirate. He answered calmly: "This is called a grenade. It was named after our captain. If you light the fuse and throw it out, it will explode. It will explode in a large area."
The student soldiers landed first and stormed into the castle first, stealing the show. Mai Xiaoliu scolded Yan Siqi because he charged first without receiving orders. Ten of the student soldiers were injured in this battle. Fortunately, no one was injured. After dying in battle, these precious student babies of Yin Feng were finally alive. So, Mai Xiaoliu asked all the student soldiers to clean the battlefield in the castle and guard the prisoners and weapons depot. They were not allowed to take action if there was another battle later.
Yan Siqi was bored and had no choice but to accompany Zhang Wei around the castle.
"Why don't all of your muskets have fuse clips? Are all your ammunition packed in these paper bags?"
Yan Siqi suppressed his impatience. He felt that this old man had too many problems: "These are all muskets made by our Zhonghua Company. They don't need a match rope..."
Huang Lue, the captain of the first regiment that participated in the surprise attack on the fortress, was from Jinjiang. He was a distant relative of Huang Cheng (Zheng Zhilong's uncle), the major shareholder of the China Company. He was one of the thousands of Chinese that Yin Feng brought out of Balian. He brought More than a dozen soldiers headed towards Manila City for reconnaissance. They hurried back after not going far.
"Mai Liuye, I have something to do with it. The wax officer is coming this way."
Mai Xiaoliu, An Xiaosi and others were looking at a map. They found the Manila map from the castle commander's room.
"What. How many people? How are the weapons and equipment?"
"There were only two or three people. A Qianlu officer was riding a horse. He didn't bring any weapons."
An Xiaosi suddenly realized: "I know. That's Second Lieutenant Gonzalo, the leader of the Greeks guarding the castle. He went to the Royal City of Manila to worship early in the morning."
"What. What's going on? Okay. Go find Uncle Zhang Wei. Everyone is ready to fight. Remember, you are not allowed to show your body on the tower."
Second Lieutenant Gonzalo vaguely heard gunshots coming from the direction of the castle on the way. He cursed the soldiers in his heart; he probably drank and made trouble while the officers were away. In the past few years, the colonial army has not been able to pay the full salary. In previous years, it could be The benefits gained from biological humans were no longer available. Therefore, the morale of the Spanish colonial army was very low, military discipline was lax, and training was not normal.
Second Lieutenant Gonzalo hurriedly rode back. Unfortunately, the road was in disrepair - the people who built the road were Chinese. The people who built the road were also Chinese. It had rained a few days ago. It was really difficult to walk.
This area was covered with plains, swamps and reeds for several miles. He did not realize that someone was secretly watching from the thatch around him. He drove for a full hour and then saw Fort Santiago standing majestically at the mouth of the river. The Spanish top of the fort The royal flag of the Habsburg dynasty flutters in the wind.
There was no one on the castle. Two sentries at the city gate were huddled and dozing in front of the drawbridge. They seemed to be a little shorter. Wearing helmets and breastplates, they stood there with matchlocks in their arms. Gonza Second Lieutenant Luo's horse came up to them, but there was still no reaction.
The second lieutenant was furious. He raised his hand and whipped it down: "You bunch of lazy fools, you spent most of the day..."
The whip was caught unexpectedly. An Xiaosi's scarred face suddenly appeared in front of the second lieutenant's eyes. The dark eyes revealed murderous intent. Gonzalo immediately recognized this physiological man. He was still doing it in the castle that morning. The coolie's physiological carpenter, even an idiot, Gonzalo had already sensed the strangeness of the matter.
He instinctively grabbed the command sword at his waist. However, several figures quickly flashed out of the city gate, and crossbow arrows shot out from their hands. Second Lieutenant Gonzalo and his two followers were shot by more than ten short arrows before they had time to resist. He died under the city gate.
After taking care of Second Lieutenant Gonzalo, the China Company's troops still failed to pull up the suspension bridge. The castle gate was opened and they continued to pretend as if nothing had happened. Mai Xiaoliu sent out all the spies from the Military Intelligence Department to alert for any movement in the direction of the Intramuros of Manila. .At the same time, all personnel are armed with live ammunition and ready to fight at any time.
When night fell, a Spanish army patrol boat came from the northern port. It passed Fort Santiago without even saying hello. It rowed straight along the river towards Manila. This made everyone nervous with their hands on the trigger. The soldiers of the China Company's escort team let out a long sigh of relief.
Everyone is praying to God not to cause trouble again and to allow the large troops behind to arrive as soon as possible.
A long night passed. Mai Xiaoliu, An Xiaosi, Zhang Wei and others were looking eagerly at the top of the fort. Using telescopes, they were searching the sea surface of Manila Bay inch by inch. When the sky was dark and they were almost completely disappointed, they went down to prepare. During the battle, sharp-eyed Yan Siqi stood by the flagpole and shouted: "There is a light. I saw a large shadow of the canvas."
Everyone lay down on the gun emplacement and observed for half an hour before they discovered the shadows of the large group of sailboats. Countless sail shadows were slowly moving forward under the reflection of the sun that had just jumped out of the horizon.
Everyone immediately cheered. Yan Siqi easily pulled down the flag of the Habsburg dynasty and raised the Chinese flag with Chinese characters on a blue background.
"Bang. Boom." There was a loud noise.
The sound of cannons came from the direction of the north shore port. This was the warning from the north shore port fort. Although the Santiago Fort showed no response, the Spaniards were finally alert to the appearance of the large fleet of sailing ships.
The Spanish army at the fort checkpoint on the north shore sent three soldiers to contact Fort Santiago. They found it strange why Fort Santiago, which had better terrain and wider views, did not respond to the appearance of the large group of sailing ships.
The small sampan of the three liaison soldiers had just rowed to the center of the river mouth. They were shocked to find that the royal emblem flag of Fort Santiago was missing. It was replaced by a strange blue flag. The three soldiers were all from the Aragon Mountains in Spain. The peasant soldiers didn't know the words on it at all. They looked at each other for a while, then they suddenly realized what was going on and hurriedly turned around and ran back for their lives.
"What. Fort Santiago has fallen." Andreas Pizarro, commander of the Spanish fleet at the port, almost fell off his bed when he heard this.
He hurriedly put on his boots and kicked the black slave who came to help out of the door. He asked the sergeant on duty at the checkpoint in front of him sternly: "Who are the enemies? What kind of flags do they have?"
The sergeant shook his head with difficulty: "I only know it's a blue flag. No one knows what the pattern on it is. It's a bit like the coat of arms of the Orua family..." (The coat of arms of the Orua nobles in Spain is a cross on a blue background)
Fleet Commander Andreas Pizarro came to his flagship, the thirty-gun battleship "Maria". He picked up his telescope and looked in the direction of Manila Bay: unidentified sailing ships almost filled his field of vision. scope.
"It's a Junk ship. The Chinese are coming. They are coming again." Commander Pizarro shook his head and said to the captain of the Maria: "It's too late. If we can advance half an hour, our fleet can still be there." The river mouth blocks them." Pizarro sighed: "Order all warships in the fleet to urgently raise anchor and raise sails to prepare for a naval battle."
The Spanish fleet in the Philippine Colony has a total of ten battleships. Only the Maria and the San Antonio are the main sailing battleships. Each is equipped with thirty and twenty cannons. The other eight are small battleships and clippers. At most, they can only carry There are 6-8 cannons. Moreover, there are two fast warships in Cebu now, not in Manila Bay.
At this time, the fast two-masted fortune ship of the Chinese company's navy had arrived at the mouth of the river. The simple dock on the south bank of the river mouth was full of soldiers from the first regiment to welcome them to land.
The orderly fleet approached the shore one after another. A large number of infantry soldiers descended from the nets on both sides of the transport sailing ship to the small boats and sampans on the sea. They landed one after another. In a moment, several three-masted ships with a load of more than 600 tons moved flexibly. The ground was close to the pier. A tripod was erected on the deck. Cannons were hoisted to the pier or boats on the sea using a pulley device. Several small sailing ships simply ran aground on the river beach. Then the sailors and infantrymen jumped together. Entering the water, stepping on the mud under my feet, pebbles washed up on the river beach.
Pizarro's fleet has to re-arrange through the port's pier. It cannot yet pose any threat to the Chinese landing force. The war fleet has deployed 40 brigantine warships and 8 three-masted warships to start the Spanish fleet. The port base is approaching. The three main warships Feilong, Feihu, and Feibao are temporarily hidden behind the war fleet, waiting for opportunities.
The cannon on Fort Santiago changed its direction and fired in the direction of Intramuros.
The 36-pound cannon originally used to block the mouth of the Pasig River made an earth-shaking noise. The entire castle was shaking. The cannonballs rumbled across the early morning sky, flying towards the blood-red city of Manila under the rising sun in the east.