The only thought of all the members of the expeditionary force, from the commander-in-chief to the black slaves, was to go to Guam to rest and recuperate.
From the day Guam was discovered by Europeans to the present day, the Mariana Islands' only role for the Spaniards is to replenish supplies for the galleons that sail from Acapulco to the Philippines every year. For the Spaniards, this is not There is no price to pay, and no difficulties will be encountered. But now the most surprising thing has happened; in 1609, about 4 years ago, Guam was occupied by the Chinese Company. And the Spanish colonial authorities in Mexico due to the The galleon trade ceased and colonial strongholds in Asia were lost one after another. No one knew about it.
It was noon on a sunny day. The Spanish fleet's forward brigantine "Roma" sailed into the port of Agana recklessly. It was within the cannon range of the west fortress of the city. Ten minutes ago, the castle The Chinese company's lookouts on board have discovered the Spanish fleet. At this moment, the alarm has spread throughout the city.
Major Zhang Hai, the commander of the Guam Garrison Battalion, and Second Lieutenant Luo Yi, the supervisory officer, appeared on the tower in full attire.
"Boom." The iron bullets fired from the 24-pound bronze cannon on the city wall hit a large splash of water on the port side of the "Roma". The sound of the cannon also woke up the Spanish fleet, causing all the sailors of the "Roma" to break out in a cold sweat. The battleship quickly turned around and fled the port of Agana under the "escort" of a series of shells.
"Guam is occupied by the enemy."
The news spread throughout the Spanish Asian Expeditionary Force. Incomparable disappointment and confusion quickly spread throughout the entire army.
On the other side, the Sea Spirit, escorted by three two-masted gunboats, left Agana and headed for the western sea. The Spanish army had not yet recovered from the shock of the fall of Guam. The Sea Spirit and the three gunboats It passed the edge of the Spanish fleet unscathed and escaped.
"What? There are ships escaping to the west. Pursuit. This is reporting to Luzon." Alonso Fonseca, the commander of the expeditionary force, was furious on the chaotic flagship "King". He pointed at the fleet commander Lord Juan. Yelling: "What are you doing? Why don't you send a ship to pursue you?"
Lord Juan was a nobleman with a Spanish royal background. He was very rude to Fonseca, a military nobleman who rose to power purely by his military exploits. He stood still and said calmly with the grace of a nobleman: "Fifty percent of the sailors in my fleet are They are all in a state of illness. And now, all the sailors are busy landing ashore..."
"What." Alonso Fonseca threw himself at the bow of the ship. Gritting his teeth, he saw a chaotic scene: outside the range of the Agana West Fort, the ships of the Spanish Asian Expeditionary Force were undisciplined and noisy around Guam. Landing on the coastline.
The indigenous Chamorro villages across Guam originally planned to take a neutral position between the Chinese and the Spanish. But they did not expect these Spanish people. As soon as the European desperadoes came ashore, they began to grab food and water without saying a word. The situation of the Spaniards It was a little better. There was still some restraint. The Caribbean pirate sailors recruited were killing people without restraint.
All this led to great chaos in the Chamorro village community. Smoke was everywhere in the green jungle of Guam. However, in the area around the Agana Castle, the Chamorro village was still safe. The Spanish army was now facing a powerful enemy. The enemy had no interest in fighting. They just wanted to get some fresh food and drinking water quickly. Everything else was secondary. The Spanish army's strict military discipline could only restrain 3,000 Spanish native troops. The situation of other native American white troops was slightly better. The military discipline of sailors and European mercenaries was now gone.
The Chinese army failed to seize this opportunity to go out of the city to attack the Spanish. Originally, Zhang Hai believed that the task of the garrison was to delay the Spanish army as much as possible. However, the garrison encountered an unexpected situation: the samurai lurking among the Japanese laborers suddenly rebelled. Already.
The Japanese immigrant village is west of the castle. When the Spanish landed, most Japanese people were still very honest - in fact, most of these Japanese laborers were obedient coolies. Only these few samurai have been patiently waiting for the opportunity. The Spanish As soon as they landed, these warriors suddenly exploded and killed the Chinese supervisors. Then they rushed towards the seaside.
Zhang Hai quickly sent someone to notify the Chinese company personnel in Nihon Town to evacuate. However, the Japanese samurai only encouraged a few people to cause trouble. And they had no intention of attacking the castle. Instead, they went to the beach to meet the Spanish.
Lieutenant Luo Yi of the Supervisory Army jumped to his feet at the top of the city and cursed: "These Japanese pirates are dwarfs. If I had known better, I should have imprisoned them all in the dungeon of the castle in advance."
Zhang Hai looked around with a telescope with a livid face. His expression softened slightly for a moment, with a teasing look on his face. He handed the telescope to Luo Yi and said, "Look, what kind of reception did these Japanese get from the Qianla people?" "
Luo Yi took a look at the telescope in confusion. He couldn't help laughing. It turned out that the Japanese samurai rushed out of Nihonmachi and rushed towards the beach with swords and guns. They shouted and rushed towards the Spanish soldiers who were landing in disorder. Go. Their original intention was to connect with each other. As a result, the Spanish soldiers, sailors, and German mercenaries from Europe saw a group of Asians rushing towards them with weapons. Although they were exhausted and depressed, the Spanish soldiers were well trained. The mercenaries were experienced in many battles. The European sailors were murderous. The Spanish expeditionary force immediately warmly welcomed the Japanese samurai with matchlocks, spears, and swords.
The rebellious Japanese samurai met a very tragic end: hundreds of Japanese were killed on the beach by the Spanish Asian Expeditionary Force.
Although the Spaniards successfully landed, the work of collecting supplies reached a deadlock. Under the guidance of the Chinese, the Chamorro people implemented a policy of fortifying the wall and clearing the country. They burned their own villages and moved everything to the central and southern mountainous forests of Guam in an attempt to The pursuing Spaniards were still in chaos. Scattered soldiers of the expeditionary force were ambushed by indigenous and Chinese people during the pursuit. The Asian Expeditionary Force fell into chaos for a whole day in Guam. When Commander-in-Chief Fonseca After finally gathering the troops, they discovered that hundreds of soldiers and sailors were missing. Subsequently, in order to collect supplies and drinking water, the Spanish army had numerous conflicts with the indigenous people throughout the island.
Seven Chinese warships took the initiative and attacked the Spanish army's landing site that night.
Lord Juan, the commander of the Spanish fleet, was not just an aristocratic. He was also an experienced naval admiral. He quickly gathered the fleet warships and immediately assigned night patrol ships. Since the Spanish fleet was already prepared, the Chinese army The sneak attack had little effect. The Spanish fleet's flagship "King" was damaged on the port side. A mast of the Karak-type troop carrier "Maracaibo" was broken. Dozens of sailors were killed or injured. The Chinese fleet was originally under fire. Not dominant. As a result, two gunboats were lost. The remaining five gunboats left Agana and moved to the south of Guam.
The war on Guam lasted for nearly ten days. The Spanish army did not want to fight the Chinese in Guam. It had no intention of attacking the Agana Castle. It only set up strongholds on the northern coast of Guam and fought with the Chinese and Chamorro people in the south. There was a stalemate in the controlled area. The Spanish fleet sent ships to collect supplies from other islands in the Mariana Islands. As a result, the entire Mariana Islands was thrown into the flames of war. There was a debate among the Spanish whether it was necessary to continue the expedition.
At this time, the Sea Spirit had successfully entered the Philippine Sea and was heading towards Manila at full speed.
…
Twelve days later, news that the Spaniards had arrived in Guam quickly reached the city of Manila. Yin Feng issued an order for the entire island to enter a state of war. Manila Bay was blockaded. The fleet concentrated in Manila Bay to prepare for battle.
"Now King Philip III of Spain reigns. He is more interested in the church than in his country."
Yin Feng's personal consultant, shareholder of China Company, and Jewish businessman Bernardo was giving lectures to a group of Chinese military generals in the lobby of the Luzon branch meeting room.
Nowadays, Bernardo is already the highest-ranking Westerner in the Chinese company system. He is also Yin Feng's European intelligence adviser. He can continuously obtain some European intelligence through his family's relationship network with the Jews.
Bernardo's Chinese level is already very fluent and he can talk about political issues very fluently.
"Spain today is in a period of decline and stagnation. Therefore, the size of the Spanish Expeditionary Force is unlikely to exceed 10,000. The news brought by the Montoya family should be true. King Philip cannot afford so much money."
Yin Feng stood up behind the rostrum and looked around at the generals sitting below. "So, the Chinese army will face about no more than 6,000 people. We have good geographical location and good people. At this moment, Lu The dry season in Songdao is also a good time to annihilate the enemy in field battles. Moreover, we have advantages in numbers, quality of weapons, etc. Haha... The end of the powerful crossbow cannot penetrate Lu Gu. Sun Tzu's Art of War says: If you fight for a hundred miles, you can capture three generals. Not to mention. It’s related to the fact that the wax people are coming from thousands of miles away.”
Zhao Tie shouted loudly: "...With such an advantage, if our Chinese army still can't win this battle, we all should jump into the sea. Then we still have the face to show off."
Med said calmly: "Ship owner, I think the most important thing now is to find out where the Greeks launched their landing attack."
In the Chinese Army barracks southeast of Manila and south of Neihu, soldiers of the First Brigade are undergoing live-fire training. Groups of Zhuangding troops come to the barracks to receive weapons. Then they rush to various garrison points. Large numbers of mules and donkeys pull them. Arms and equipment entered the military camp. Some indigenous Tagalog people gathered on the roadside outside the military camp, watching the lively scene curiously.
A middle-aged man dressed as a Taoist priest stood by the lake, looking at everything around him curiously.
In order to resist the influence of Catholicism, Yin Feng allowed all religions to preach in Luzon. The problem is that traditional Buddhism and Taoism are already in a period of decline, both in terms of theoretical innovation and ability to expand believers. The whole city of Manila except those from Hangzhou, Zhejiang A monk built a Buddhist temple. All other Chinese temples belonged to Mazu. There were almost no Taoist temples. Therefore, this weird figure dressed as a Taoist priest quickly attracted the attention of the ubiquitous military intelligence and security agents.
"It's been twenty days. The Spaniards should have arrived on the coast of the Philippines. Why haven't there been any news?" Yin Feng said distressedly in his study. He always likes to work in the study at night. There are all kinds of books piled around him. In fact, most of them he turned a few pages.
In front of his desk, Brother Li Mo was handing him a document. Hearing this, he smiled and said: "Sir, the owner of the ship, the guard posts all along the coast are in wartime mode. Special correspondents from various places of the Ministry of Security are also in place. .As soon as we find a ship related to the Greeks, we will send a message back immediately by fast horse. Don’t worry.”
Yin Feng took the document absentmindedly, looked at it, laughed, and said curiously: "A Taoist priest. Real or fake? Which sect is from which mountain top?"
"Following the method taught by Brother Lin Xiao in the special security training class, we have checked this person's luggage. There is no certificate from the court. There are a few volumes of Taishang's Induction Sutra. There is nothing else. He lives in the Zhejiang Merchant Inn at the south gate of the city. But his accent is not from Zhejiang. It sounds like a northern accent. Therefore, we suspect that he is a spy sent by the imperial court."
Yin Feng scratched his head. He hummed a few times and said, "It's really troublesome. The Spaniards are already troublesome enough. The court is going to cause more trouble. You, let's do this, send someone to monitor him. If any abnormal behavior is discovered, arrest him immediately. .”
After he finished speaking, he turned to look at the map of the Philippines spread out on the table. He scratched his head and said in distress: "Where will the Spaniards land? Cebu or Manila. Come quickly. If we keep waiting like this. My hair is turning white."
Brother Li Mo wanted to laugh but didn't dare. He lowered his head and sorted the documents. Chen Dong, the secretary at the door of the study, suddenly asked: "Sir, the ship owner. Da'an reported the day before yesterday that various tribes of the Pampanga people seemed to be holding an alliance meeting. He sent It seems there is no news from the spies yet..."
Yin Feng nodded and asked Brother Li Mo, "By the way. How is the situation in Pampanga Township?"
Brother Li Mo sighed and said: "Our security department is waiting for news about this spy. But there has been no news for more than ten days. I'm afraid the odds are against us. The rebellion of the Pampanga people is probably just around the corner."
"Is Chief Macapagal of Arayat still in Manila?"
Arayat is an important town on the Pampanga River. It is also the most important tribal alliance center of the Pampanga people. The old chief Macapagal once launched a rebellion and resisted the Chinese rule when the Chinese Company just captured Manila. The most authoritative leader among the Pampanga people.
Brother Li Mo nodded vigorously: "As you wish. He has been under house arrest in the Notre Dame Cathedral. Without him to take the lead, even if the Pampanga people make trouble, they will be in disarray."
Yin Feng nodded: "Send extra manpower to watch him. Don't make any mistakes." After that, he looked at the map. He lamented: "Spanish people, come quickly. I can't wait any longer. I just want to wipe out all of you. It will be much quieter on Luzon Island now. Come quickly..."