Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 167: Forward, Soldiers! (Please support with monthly tickets and recommendation tickets, thank you)
Dashuaifu

The officers here were busy coming in and out, and there were also many clerks from the general's office coming and going. The telegraph office on one side of the government office had additional sentries and was on high alert.

The two prefectures and six counties on Mindanao are now all connected to telegraph lines, and urgent official documents can be immediately transmitted to all parts of the island via telegraph (note, except for the Cagayan region in the north).

The Governor's Office of Mindanao is located on one side of the Marshal's Palace, only about 300 meters away. It is a smaller four-courtyard office that mainly handles civil affairs on the island.

In the Marshal's Office
Zheng Guohui's official residence has three entrances, inside and outside. After entering, the first one is a large reception room, the second entrance is where the staff office is located, and the innermost one is the official residence of the Marshal.

At this moment, he was sitting behind the desk, writing quickly with a brush in his hand. After a while, several pages of letters were completed.

Zheng Guohui leaned back in his chair and looked at it carefully for a while, then placed the brush on the inkstone, took out a wet towel to wipe his hands, and took a sip of hot tea.

He examined the letter with the ink still wet. The letterhead read "Brother Xianque, I am glad to see you in person." This was a secret letter to Li Hezhang, giving a brief introduction to the current situation.

The letter clearly stated the planned date for the Northern Expedition, which was August 8, only eight days away.

Zheng Guohui and the Grand Steward Li Hezhang exchanged secret letters every month, discussing important military matters that were top secret.

Since the Northern Expedition was launched ahead of schedule, it was imperative to inform Li Hezhang of this matter so that he could make early preparations. After settling all affairs in Jiangnan Province, he led a large number of followers south to Southeast Asia.

After the Northern Expedition succeeded, Li Hezhang needed to be in place as soon as possible to take charge of all the trivial matters of the Prime Minister's civil affairs and prepare for the coronation ceremony of the throne.

At the end of the letter, Zheng Guohui said optimistically;
"...

The French colonial rule was brutal and inhumane, and they bullied the Chinese people. The ethnic groups in Southeast Asia have suffered from it for a long time.

When I led the army to the Northern Expedition, I followed the will of heaven and the will of the people, and saw that their colonial rule was crumbling, like a ripe fruit.

If you give it your all, you will surely succeed in one fell swoop and lay a foundation that will last forever.

"After receiving this letter, my brother Xian Que can pack his bags and depart for the south soon. Wouldn't it be wonderful to meet me in Southeast Asia and celebrate our victory together over a glass of wine?"

Zheng Guohui sealed the letter with a wax seal and then shouted, "Someone come!"

"I am here, and I will obey your orders."

A figure immediately flashed in from outside the door. This person was the deputy chief of staff on duty, Zheng Shouxu, a native of Rudong, Tongzhou. He was a distant relative of the Zheng family, but they had not been in contact for a long time.

He was a Jinshi graduate and had served as county magistrate, Tongpan of Dazhou Prefecture, and Sichuan West Transport Commissioner. He was demoted in the party struggle, stripped of his hat and feather, demoted to a commoner, and would never be employed again.

Needless to say
This was the second group of people sent by my cheap second uncle Li Hongzhang. There were three of them in total. The other two were He Xian and Wu Qingfeng. Both were down-and-out officials, but they were young and extremely talented.

These three men were a step late and did not catch up with Zheng Guohui leading his army to Southeast Asia. They arrived in Mindanao following the next immigration fleet and were appointed one after another.

Zheng Guohui pointed to the sealed letter and ordered, "Send someone by ship to Nanjing immediately and present it to Lord Li for personal opening. No mistakes are allowed."

"I obey your command and will arrange for the secret letter to be delivered properly." Zheng Shouxu stepped forward, carefully took the secret letter with both hands, took a few steps back, and turned to leave.

Such a top-secret letter was carried on board by a special officer of the Imperial Guard and escorted all the way to Nanjing. It was not allowed to pass through the hands of anyone else during the entire journey.

Faith is in the man; faith is destroyed and the man dies.

Zheng Guohui let out a long sigh, his gaze wandering to the large, half-human-height map hanging on the opposite wall. Subconsciously, his gaze shifted to the Cagayan region in the north, and his eyes became sharp...

Cagayan Bay

This is a standard large encircled bay, and its geographical environment is very similar to that of the Davao Gulf. In this large "V-shaped bay", Cagayan is located at the bottom of the "V".

Mindanao has at least three or five world-class deep-water ports, if not seven or eight. Davao Port has the best conditions, and Cagayan is second.

When Robert arrived here with the expedition task force consisting of 4 sailing warships and 11 transport ships, it was around nine o'clock in the morning on the third day after the expedition.

As the fleet with white sails fluttered into the bay, we saw a thick black smoke rising into the sky from the top of the bay, which looked extremely conspicuous against the blue sky and blue sea.

Oh, the Spanish also did this thing?

Robert smiled nonchalantly. Major General Huang Shan, deputy commander of the First Division standing beside him, frowned and picked up a monocular to observe.

"Don't worry, General Huang. Don't worry about these little Karami. My opinion is to let them starve to death here, or become savages. Perhaps they will become treasure chests that immigrants accidentally open in the future. They will have no impact on our military operations."

"The Franky camp has also sent out signal smoke signals. It seems our actions have been discovered."

"It doesn't matter. I know these Spaniards very well. They are all arrogant people with muscles in their heads. They will never run away. You can use your 12-pound field gun to teach them a lesson."

"If that's the case, then we can stay in the camp built by the Spanish at night."

"Bingo, that's right."

Huangshan observed carefully with a monocular telescope for a while and found that it was just a small stone fort built on the top of the mountain, or two extremely simple stone houses, with about five or six people living in them.

The distance was too far to tell whether they were natives or soldiers.

So he turned his attention back to the depths of the bay, and saw a wisp of black smoke rising on the distant skyline, about twenty kilometers away.

According to the fleet's speed, it would take less than an hour.

Major General Huangshan was full of confidence in the expeditionary mission. He led an army of 3,500 and had an overwhelming advantage of ten to one over the Franks. Their rifles and artillery were also not inferior.

This kind of wealth battle is as easy as pinching a snail with three fingers - it's so stable.

More than half an hour later
The task force arrived at the bottom of the "V"-shaped Cagayan Bay and conducted a careful lookout and search based on the information provided by the prisoners.

"Sir, there, there is a river mouth." The lookout quickly discovered the clue.

Major General Robert and Major General Huang Shan both raised their binoculars to observe carefully. After confirming that everything was correct, they immediately issued a series of commands.

"Reef the mainsail," "Turn thirty degrees," "All troops on alert," "Prepare for battle," "Search and advance the warships." ...

According to the captives on the "Count Fabiano Perez" ship, the Spanish colonial army's camp was about seven or eight miles away from the river mouth. It was a flat open space with its back against a hill about 100 meters above sea level.

On the hill, the Spaniards also set up a small camp for the artillery team to use, which could control an area of ​​two to three miles in radius.

Originally, the 6-pound gun could not fire that far, at most 1200 meters.

The 6-pound gun was mounted high up, with a range extending to 1500 meters, protecting the entire camp from artillery fire.

The fleet entered the river mouth and stopped moving forward.

Small sampans were lowered one after another, and some soldiers were dropped onto the shore, advancing several hundred meters to expand the security range and protect the landing site.

Afterwards, troops, artillery and equipment were transported to the landing site in an orderly manner via small sampans to consolidate the landing site first.

Although the river is about 120 to 130 meters wide, it is too narrow for a sailing warship. There is no room for maneuvering at all. One must never enter rashly without knowing the situation.

The best way is to move forward steadily.

Major General Huangshan was a veteran who had followed the Marshal through more than a hundred battles of varying sizes on the Chinese battlefield. He was well versed in the Taiping Rebellion and Marshal Zeng's tactics of "building strong camps and fighting stupid battles."

Not seeking merit, but avoiding mistakes, and never underestimating the enemy or advancing rashly, this is almost a common characteristic of the officers of the Great Chu.

Although it is a little slow, it is safe and reliable.

in the jungle

Sir Fabian has been hiding here with three companies of troops totaling about 280 people.

More than seventy people were left in the camp to defend it.

He intended to launch a surprise attack on the invading Chinese troops that were landing and defeat the landing enemy forces in one fell swoop.

"Damn it! These soldiers of King Jinghai look well-trained. They are a modern army equipped with complete Western equipment, not a mixed bag of pirates. There is no chance at all. We are in big trouble, Mr. Colonel." Lieutenant Olmo Perez sneaked back and reported with a worried look in his eyes.

He was the captain of the Cavite Company, with 79 brave Spanish soldiers under his command. He had just returned from reconnaissance at the front, but now he looked worried.

Colonel Fabian let out a surprised "Huh!", then turned to look at the Spanish soldiers sitting on the ground with their rifles in their arms. He then spoke confidently, "Hey, buddy, you're not intimidated by the display of force from these Orientals, are you? Numbers don't determine anything. In the wars launched by the British in the northern continent, 100 musketeers were able to put 1 Orientals to flight. What the British can do, the Spanish warriors will do even better. All we need to do is launch the attack."

"Believe me, Colonel, I'm an officer with 17 years of service who has seen war in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Based on my experience, I don't think they're going to be easy to deal with."

"Hmm, these yellow monkeys with pigtails are hard to deal with? This might be the funniest joke I've ever heard. They're a bunch of wimps."

"Sir, please look..." Seeing that he could not convince the colonel, Lieutenant Olmo Perez squatted down, brushed away the weeds on the ground with his hands, picked up a dry branch and started drawing.

He explained as he drew;
"Sir, this is an open river estuary landing site, a dry riverbed with no trees within a two-mile radius.

The landing site of these Orientals was to the north, toward the coastline.

If we launch an attack from the woods, we will need to cross an open area of ​​about 700 meters before we can use volley guns to strike and inflict heavy damage on the enemy.

But here

About 300 meters away from the tree line, the Orientals set up a cordon, and currently there are about three to four hundred soldiers, all equipped with muskets.

If we want to storm the landing site, we must first defeat the Orientals on this line of defense.

In the woods
The Orientals sent out a small number of scouts, about 10 people in a team, probably 3 to 4 teams, who were searching along the way to prevent ambushes in the woods.

It won't be long before these search pioneers reach here.

Once the gunfire sounded, any attempt at a surprise attack would be over. We would be facing thousands of Orientals armed to the teeth, armed with muskets like ours, not fire sticks.

It was obvious that this was an extremely experienced army, leaving no room for surprise attacks."

"Oh, things are getting more interesting. I like this kind of challenge." Sir Fabian's pride was integrated into his bones and blood, and a smile appeared on his face.

His pride stems from the strong confidence and aristocratic sense of honor accumulated by his Spanish ancestors since the Age of Discovery, who were almost invincible and victorious in colonies around the world (excluding the European battlefield).

He turned around and ordered the officers gathered around him, "Now I order, Lieutenant Merino..."

"Yes, sir, please give the order."

"I want you to send 30 soldiers to lie in wait here. When the Easterners' scouts on the central line come searching, immediately launch a fierce attack and completely wipe out this enemy force."

"Yes, sir. The Karbala Company is absolutely confident that we can complete the mission."

"Go ahead! The sound of gunfire is the order for a general attack. I will lead all the main forces and charge through the gap opened by your troops. With a fierce and resolute attack, we will defeat the Orientals in one fell swoop."

"As you command, sir."

"I now order all soldiers to load their guns and enter combat alert, ready to fight at any time."

"As you command, sir."

In the dense forest
A team of 12 people is searching forward. This team of scouts includes 6 musketeers and 6 sword and shield soldiers, which is a normal configuration of the Chu army.

This is true whether in frontal combat, searching, standing guard, or patrolling. The swordsman and shieldman can fight and defend, while the musketeer is responsible for firepower output and will not suffer any loss in any battlefield situation.

Wang Fugui, the leader of the outpost team, was once a long-haired bandit. Although he is young, he has 7 years of experience in bloody battles and is also a tough guy who crawled out of a pile of corpses.

He was a remnant of bandits who was reorganized near Yanziji. He transformed himself into an officer and soldier and participated in the bandit suppression campaign in the south of the Yangtze River. He was also one of the first officers and soldiers to land on Miannan Lao Island and had extremely rich experience.

The search team he commanded had six sword and shield soldiers in the front, searching forward in a fan shape, with each person about eight or nine meters apart, so they could quickly retreat once an early warning was given.

The musketeers lagged behind by more than 20 meters, gathered into a group, and followed cautiously.

"Wait, stop, I feel something is wrong." Wang Fugui suddenly raised his hand and ordered.

They had already gone several hundred meters deep into the jungle, but there was silence all around, no birds singing, no rustling sounds, as if it were as silent as death.

This made Wang Fugui, who was very experienced in war, feel his hair stand on end and he realized that something was wrong.

His sixth sense sent out a warning like crazy. In this silent jungle, his heart was pounding violently. He made a gesture to squat, gathered the five musketeers and whispered;
"Brothers, I am sure we have been surrounded by foreigners and are in great danger.

You remember that when we came here searching just now, we crossed a small river, which was about one hundred and forty to fifty meters away from our current location.

As soon as I wave my hand, you will immediately run back and rush to the other side of the stream as fast as possible, reload your bullets immediately, and set up a line of defense there.

There is an open area of ​​about forty to fifty meters near the stream. Your mission is to shoot any pursuing foreign soldiers and hold on to the line of the stream for at least an incense stick of time.

The sound of gunfire will alert the troops in the rear to avoid being attacked by the enemy."

"Boss, what are you going to do?"

"Don't worry about me. If I'm lucky, I can still escape with my life. If I'm unlucky, remember to burn more paper for me during the Qingming Festival. I, Wang Fugui, also have a woman and a child in Mindanao. I have not lost anything in this life."

"Boss, let's go together."

"Bullshit, there are still 6 brothers ahead! I am the team leader, I can't abandon them, I have to support them no matter what."

"Well... well, take care of yourself, Boss. If the brothers don't die, they will definitely take good care of my sister-in-law and nephew."

"I feel relieved with what you said. Now... run!" He waved his hand briefly and forcefully, and the five musketeers immediately turned around and ran backwards at an extremely fast speed.

Damn, you’re still reluctant to leave?
Wang Fugui didn't have time to complain, and hurriedly shouted, "Brothers, we are surrounded, quickly retreat, quickly, quickly..."

The other six sword and shield soldiers were at the front and were already alert when they stopped just now.

When he heard the captain's order, he turned around and ran without saying a word, even faster than a rabbit.

At this moment

Lieutenant Merino, who was lying in ambush in the woods, was dumbfounded as he saw the Orientals approaching to within 20 or 30 meters and stepping into the encirclement.

Who knew he would suddenly shout "stop" and turn around and run back.

Lieutenant Merino also knew that the secret was leaked, but he didn't know where it was leaked. At this moment, he didn't have time to think about it. He quickly drew his saber and ordered;
"Soldiers, all stand, aim at the enemy... and shoot."

In the time it took him to be distracted and speak, by the time the Spanish soldiers stood up and aimed their guns, the Chinese scouts who had originally entered the encirclement had all disappeared.

It was not that the Chinese scouts ran fast, but that there were many branches and lush bushes in the tropical jungle, and human figures could be seen clearly at a distance of twenty or thirty meters.

But once they moved away to forty or fifty meters, the figures of these Chinese vanguards were obscured by the dense leaves and bushes, and how could they be seen?
There was no need to waste time talking at this time. After a series of volleys of gunfire, bursts of gray-black smoke emerged from the woods.

The crisp sound of the volley of gunfire startled the birds in the distance, and they all flew up in a whoosh.

As for whether or not they attacked the Chinese vanguard, only God knows. It all depends on who is unlucky.

This was like a table of delicious food being served and suddenly overturned by someone, which made Lieutenant Merino's nose crooked with anger.

He cursed outright, "These damn Orientals are even more slippery than rats. If I catch them, I'll hang them one by one."

Just as he was furious, he saw a large number of Spanish soldiers with guns rushing out of the jungle around him. They quickly passed Lieutenant Merino and his 20 soldiers and bravely advanced forward.

At this time, Lieutenant Merino came to his senses;

Oh no... The Colonel said that the sound of gunfire is the order, now it's time for everyone to charge!
Just as he was hesitating, Colonel Fabian rushed out, brandishing his command knife, and quickly rushed forward past Lieutenant Merino, shouting as he rushed;
"Go forward, brave Spanish warriors, cut off the heads of these Orientals, they will be your glorious commemorative cups, glory to Spain."

Colonel Fabian was charging quite fast, followed by a large group of soldiers, all of whom were making strange noises of excitement.

"Colonel, Colonel, uh..." In this chaotic moment, Lieutenant Merino stretched out his hand and shouted twice, but was completely drowned out by the chaotic noise.

Lieutenant Merino had no choice but to draw his command knife and command the 30 soldiers around him: "Forward, soldiers! Let's fight for victory."

As he said this, he took the lead and rushed out, and the other soldiers followed him shouting.

(End of this chapter)