Due to the dark clouds in the sky, the sailors of the Xinxing boldly swam upstream from the mouth of the Pasig River in the dark night, swam nearly 10 miles, evaded the Spanish army patrol boats, and landed on land on the north bank.
They quickly armed themselves under the command of Major Coutre. The 60 capable sailors all volunteered to join the rescue team. Most of them were only in their 20s. They had experienced more than two years of storms at sea and had numerous battles with Japanese pirates.
The four battles were fought by men who had seen blood. In the past two years, they basically had to conduct musket shooting training and physical exercise every day. Yin Feng even asked a teacher to teach them how to read, but the laws of the Ming Dynasty stipulated that the Dan people were not allowed to
He had to study and take the imperial examination, so no one wanted to teach.
They received a salary higher than that of the county government officials, plus red envelopes at the end of the year, and pensions for injuries and deaths. The young Captain Yin was friendly and friendly, and he trained with them, and they shared joys and sorrows together when they fought against the wind and waves. Therefore,
The simple and loyal Dan people regard Yin Feng as their backbone. The Dan people in Dadanggang, Yazhou also have a relationship with Yin Feng like Mai Waner, and they are even more loyal to Yin Feng.
Lin Xiao just participated out of pure loyalty, while Major Coutre participated out of hatred for the Spanish. After everyone packed up, a firearms unit of more than 60 people was formed. Each person had a Portuguese standard light matchlock gun with a hanging strap.
They were carrying ammunition belts with gunpowder and bullets in horns hanging from them; each of them carried a broadsword on his back. Leading the way was Major Cutre, who worked as a mercenary in Manila many years ago and participated in suppressing the indigenous rebellion; later due to pay issues,
He left the Spanish army, but he was well aware of the situation around Manila.
Although Kutre has rich combat experience, he is only a master tactician and a good instructor, and has no commanding ability; Lin Xiao has none. Therefore, their operation has no advance plan. It is essentially the same reckless impulse as Yin Feng came to Manila;
They just followed the instructions in Yin Feng's letter and found Li Dan first. Finally, Major Coutre, who knew the terrain well, led the way. They rushed eastward along the grass on the river bank, sometimes to avoid the fixed sentries of the Spanish army on the bank.
Everyone went down to the river and waded forward with weapons and ammunition held high. Sometimes, in order to avoid patrols, they had to hide in the grass by the river and endure the bites of various insects.
It must be said that under strict training, these sailors were very efficient and disciplined in everything they did on the ship and in the water. However, they had never experienced long-distance marches on land. Not long after leaving, the team began to become a little scattered.
;Although there is usually training content of walking in unison, long-distance marches require each soldier to consciously master the rhythm of walking, which is another matter. Major Coutre frowned and had to slow down the pace and send out the two smartest soldiers first.
The sailor should go to the vanguard 20 paces ahead, and then let the rest of the crew take a rest.
As soon as everyone sat down, suddenly, gunshots were heard from the front.
Everyone did not panic and picked up their weapons together. They quickly lined up in three rows according to their daily training, holding half of the guns. The leader of the row began to light the tinder with flint and steel, preparing to light the match. All the sailors then worked hard to move forward in the dark night.
Looking around, I saw a large firelight flickering about two miles away, and there seemed to be many shadowy people.
The grass ahead shook. "One of our own!" Two soldiers said softly, and figures emerged from the darkness.
Lin Xiao hurriedly asked: "What's going on? Who is shooting?"
"It's the white devils who are killing the Greek soldiers. They are all on the river bank, shooting towards the other side of the river."
"how many people?"
"About 50 people, and hundreds of native archers. It's too dark to see how many there are."
Lin Xiao sneered and clapped his hands: "That's all? Let's sneak attack from behind and kill them!"
In the past two years, Major Cutre has basically mastered Chinese, and he can basically understand the words of the top soldiers. In fact, many mercenaries like him are masters in language learning in order to make money in various countries.
He patted one of the top soldiers on the shoulder and nodded: "You did a good job. Mr. Lin, I don't think we need to conflict with them."
He walked to a high ground ahead, and Lin Xiao followed him unconvinced.
"You see, the Spanish are trying to block this section of the river. There must be more than just these people in front of you. Other soldiers may be nearby. From here to Binondo, the only way is to bypass the group of Spaniards in front of you, and then go from behind Binondo
past."
The team of 60 people, led by Major Cutre, who was familiar with the road, bypassed the Spanish soldiers in front, went north, east, and south, making a big circle, and finally arrived at the north shore of Binondo Island at dawn.
, the river here was very narrow and shallow, and everyone waded across it smoothly and landed on the north side of Binondo Island. There were still 50 Spanish soldiers stationed on the south bank of Binondo, and the team of sailors carefully passed through behind them and approached.
Li Dan's residence by the river.
The Spaniards never thought that anyone would enter Binondo from behind. Except for a few sentries patrolling the river, the rest were immersed in sleep in temporary tents. The sentinels reported that the Spaniards were not aware of it, and the sailors carefully
Lin Xiao lined up in three lines facing the river bank in the dark. Just as he was about to knock on the door of Li's house, there was a sudden commotion on the river bank only 50 steps away from Li's house. The Spanish sentry shouted: "Enemy!"
Then a sharp scream pierced the dark night sky.
Coutre immediately ordered: "Light the fire!"
The captain of each row took out a flint, struck it hard, and quickly lit the match; all the sailors immediately followed suit.
The Spaniards on the river bank were apparently suddenly attacked. The sentry who called the police was stoned to death by several figures who suddenly emerged from the river. A lighting torch fell to the ground and ignited a tent. More
Many people are still in the river and are struggling to swim to the shore.
The incident happened suddenly, and the Spaniards were unprepared. In this era, there were very few night raids. For example, the Spanish army used matchlocks as their main individual weapons. During night battles, the burning match ropes were filled with smoke and flickering fire. Holding such
Guns can't be used for sneaky night raids, and people will notice you from a long way away.
Therefore, the Spaniards instinctively believed that the ragtag Balian Chinese would not do tricks at night and underestimated the enemy. This time they suffered a lot! The first few Chinese who came ashore rushed towards the sleeping Spanish soldiers and held in their hands
Armed with sticks, stones and kitchen knives, they began to attack without mercy.
Captain Gaspar, the commander of this small unit, reacted quite promptly. After the first alarm, he jumped up and took out his sword and pistol. As soon as the screams stopped, he was already shouting orders: "
All soldiers, line up and light fire, prepare to shoot!", and at the same time he kicked and hit the rolling Spanish soldiers: "Quick! Quick!".
Seeing a human head emerging from the dark river water, he shouted loudly: "Come closer to me!" While loading ammunition, he picked up the torch inserted in front of his tent, lit the match, and fired the first shot as quickly as possible.
One shot.
It took Yin Feng an hour to encourage a group of Chinese people from Quanzhou with good water skills to follow him across the river and attack at night. Most of these people were small businessmen and craftsmen. After all, they were a mob. It took Yin Feng another half an hour to arrange more than 100 people into formations.
Two rows later, dozens more people were missing after entering the water.
The location Yin Feng chose to attack was on the south bank of Binondo, which was far away from the Royal City of Manila. Once a battle broke out, it would be difficult to detect it from the direction of Manila. Even if it was detected, the distance to come for reinforcements would be relatively long. Spanish soldiers from the nearby river bank wanted to come for reinforcements.
They had to cross the water on the north bank of Binondo. Once the Chinese succeeded, they would have enough time to escape. At the worst, they could temporarily hide in the residential area of Binondo and wait.
On the south bank of Binondo, the torchlight in front of the Spanish army's temporary garrison became everyone's target. Several people who had been merchant sailors took the lead, and everyone worked hard to swim to the other side. However, those guys who were good at water did not take Yin Feng's words at all.
He took it seriously and did not wait for everyone to gather before attacking. These few people landed first and were discovered by sentries. After these reckless guys killed three soldiers, they were immediately surrounded by Spanish soldiers with swords.
And knocked down by the butt of the gun.
At this time, Yin Feng and more than 70 people arrived at the river; about 30 Spanish soldiers were already in a disheveled formation, nervously loading ammunition, tamping gunpowder with rods, and putting in bullets... Despite the situation
Although the soldiers were nervous, the sequence of movements of the soldiers operating the matchlocks was not messy at all, which showed that these soldiers were usually well-trained.
The Spaniards threw several torches to the shore, and now the stowaways who had not yet landed were exposed to the air without any protection.
Yin Feng led a dozen of his men and used a raft to drag Zeng Yueshan and Li Lihua at the end. He saw that the night attack plan was ruined. On the empty water, the Spanish soldiers' muskets fired, including
Everyone, including himself, was bound to become a water ghost. All the Chinese who participated in the night attack stopped paddling for a while. Although there was a person on the shore who had already come ashore, he half-crouched in front of the Spanish soldiers and froze.
He waited patiently for the fire and projectiles to be fired from the row of matchlock guns.
Yin Feng regretted it endlessly; a rabble! How can you trust a rabble? He still lacks command experience! If he had let his subordinates lead the team, it would not be like this!
He quickly shouted: "Go back! Go back! Drag the raft back!"
At this time, gunshots rang out. "Boom, boom, boom..."
Yin Feng instinctively lowered his head, and a bullet landed on the water in front of him, causing splashes.
However, there was a scream from the shore, and more than a dozen Spanish soldiers threw themselves forward and fell to the ground. All the Chinese who were still in the water were shocked and confused. Only Yin Feng saw keenly: In the darkness, on the shore
Fifty paces away behind the Spanish soldiers, there were several rows of fire ropes and looming figures.
The Spanish soldiers had already realized that there was an enemy behind them. They had never expected that it was an army with muskets. They were so panicked that they turned around and opened fire sparsely without obeying the officers' orders. While their opponents quickly fired
Another volley came: "Boom!"
Most of the remaining 20 Spanish soldiers also fell. The commander, Captain Gaspar, was hit by three bullets, but fortunately he missed the vital point. Knowing that he could not save the defeat, he jumped on the horse beside him and galloped along the road.
Go to the river bank.
In fact, the torches and burning tents on the shore made the Spanish soldiers very obvious, and they were good targets. After two rounds of volleys, most of the Spanish soldiers were wiped out. The remaining people had no morale anymore and fought back sparsely.
The gun then completely collapsed and fled for their lives. The sailors of the Xinxing were relatively in the dark, and the Spanish soldiers were attacked from behind. They panicked and were technically inaccurate. After shooting, not a single bullet hit the target.
Yin Feng finally saw clearly the group of musketeers 70 steps away in front of him through the light of the matchlock gun. He shouted happily: "It's one of our own! It's the people of Xinxing!" He rushed forward suddenly.
Go to the shore and shout loudly: "Folks, come on quickly!"