Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 192: Expanding the Occupied Area

Zheng Guohui, who was staying overnight in the temporary headquarters at the port, received a report at around 11 o'clock at night. After reading it, he burst out laughing and lost all desire to sleep.

He ordered;

"Order the ironclad Zhenbei to furl the sails, start the steam boilers, and sail upstream along the Pasig River. Use heavy artillery to fire back at Intramuros Manila and any Spanish warships attempting to escape. This is a deterrent patrol mission."

"As you command, Your Majesty the Marshal."

The messenger officer immediately ran away and quickly went to the dock to inform the armored fleet to obey orders.

The Marshal's Mansion is only a few hundred meters away from the pier, and it only takes a few minutes to run there.

After this incident, Zheng Guohui lost all desire to sleep.

He simply changed into military uniform and rode into the city with his personal guards to witness this nighttime encirclement and annihilation battle with his own eyes.

The pier is less than 7 kilometers away from the city and it only takes about ten minutes to get there by horseback.

"how's it going?"

"Reporting to the commander, these foreigners are still transporting personnel and supplies to the ship. It looks like there are a lot of stuff, probably a lot of gold, silver and jewelry. I originally planned to burn the sailboat, but now it seems that this is not possible. We have to change the plan."

"Well, this is all my money, so I can't waste it."

"The commander-in-chief has given an order. How dare I disobey? I will follow it."

"Launching the rockets is no problem. We need to burn the sails of these sailboats. It shouldn't burn down the cabins. Let's proceed as planned."

"As you command, Your Majesty the Marshal."

"Well, send a few men downstream to signal the ironclads. Don't sink my treasure ship; it would be a real hassle to salvage it."

"As you command, Your Majesty the Marshal."

"Go find some small boats. After concentrated fire, carry soldiers aboard and capture the enemy ships. I don't believe they can escape anywhere."

"As you command, Your Majesty the Marshal."

After Zheng Guohui made all the arrangements, he was surrounded by officers and entered a three-story building along the river. From here, he could look down at a river section over a thousand meters long and see all the battle situations.

Drink some tea, eat some snacks, and wait patiently.

Until the early hours of the morning
The two sailing warships docked at the Royal Navy Dock lowered their mainsails, jibsails and side sails with a "whoosh". The noise was heard far away in the night and could not be concealed at all.

Fortunately, the two sailing warships acted quickly, quickly cast off the cables and left the dock, adjusted the angle of the sails to catch the sea breeze, and slowly sailed towards the upper reaches of the Pasig River.

The dark clouds dissipated after the rainy night, and the bright moonlight shone on the river, reflecting the shimmering waves on the river surface, and the visibility was quite good.

The two Spanish sailboats went upstream at a slow speed. It took them more than ten minutes to leave the river bank of the Spanish Royal City and continue to sail upstream.

At this time, the white officer on the sailboat heard a strange noise and hurriedly silenced everyone. After everyone quieted down, they listened attentively.

After listening for only a minute or two, his face turned visibly pale.

From the dark river surface behind him, there came a heavy, "huffing and puffing" sound that made his scalp tingle, as if a terrifying monster hiding in the night was chasing him closely.

White officers were able to determine
This is the sound of the steam engine of the ironclad warship running, which can propel the ironclad heavy ship to sail at a speed of four to five knots per hour.

If there is a sail, the sailing speed can be increased to eight to nine knots, which is not slow.

"Oh, God! I hope the artillery in the royal city can stop the pursuing horrible beast. May Jesus Christ bless you!"

The white officer subconsciously made a cross on his chest. At this time, he could do nothing but pray.

Before they knew it, two Spanish sailing ships had sailed into the preset positions on the river bank, one after the other.

"ignition!"

Give an order

Oil had been poured onto the dry firewood piled on both sides of the river bank. When torches were used to ignite it, it instantly burst into flames, illuminating a large area of ​​the river bank.

A dozen bonfires burned along the river bank, revealing the clear silhouettes of two Spanish sailing ships and the frightened women and children on them. Many of them were so scared that they started crying.

"Archer, projectile."

"Raise your musket and pistol, aim, and fire."

"Artillery team, aim and fire."

Just a moment

Hundreds of rockets were fired and landed on the Spanish sails, setting all the sails, large and small, on fire, burning rapidly.

It won't take long

The two sailing warships burned rapidly, like two huge torches on the river. The burned ropes and cross masts kept falling down, causing a cry of surprise.

"Clap clap clap clap..."

"Clap clap clap clap..."

“Boom boom boom…” “Boom boom boom…”

Amidst the dense volleys of gunfire, there was the roar of 12-pound field guns, which bombarded continuously. The deadly rain of bullets swept across the deck, and the artillery fire shot in from the gun hatches opened by the Spaniards, setting off round after round of bloody storms.

The positions along the river were only a few dozen yards away from the Spanish sailboats. Under the dense artillery fire, the Spanish gunners who tried to fight back were killed or wounded and had no power to fight back at all.

On the deck

In order to transport more women and children, the Spaniards crowded the narrow deck with people. There was nowhere to hide in the river that was lit up by flames. They were hit by row after row of deadly bullets, and the blood was everywhere. They fell to the ground one after another.

Zheng Guohui stood on the balcony, looked for a while, then frowned, sighed heavily, and turned back into the room.

At this moment

More than a dozen small boats appeared on the river, carrying densely packed soldiers. They quickly reached the Spanish sailing ship and swarmed onto it.

There is no need to read the rest, everything has been determined.

"It's over, it's over. I curse these evil Orientals. They brought death and endless fear. They destroyed everything, including the hope of revival."

Major General Pedro de Manuel Carvajal looked at the river where flames shot up into the sky, and pounded his hands hard on the hard stone wall. Blood flowed out, but he could no longer feel the pain.

The intense emotions of fear and regret drove the honorable Governor crazy.

His wife Cecilia and baby daughter Honora were on board. He had personally sent his family into hell. It was difficult to describe the heartache at this moment. Everything was irreversible.

This heavy blow shattered the last hope of escaping from Intramuros Manila.

The ironclad ship "Zhenbei" received a light signal from the shore and bombarded the Royal City of Manila with its ship-borne heavy artillery for half an hour. The fortress artillery also fought back.

After the two sides fought for about half an hour, the ironclad ship "Zhenbei" withdrew from the battlefield and returned to the port to rest.

On the third day of the attack on Manila, the First Expeditionary Division sent more than 1.8 troops to attack the surrounding towns in three directions.

Each route was composed of an infantry regiment as the main force, carrying 24 field artillery pieces, equipped with sword and shield soldiers, and local Chinese elite militiamen, and launched attacks on towns in the three directions of Quezon, Angeles, and Cabanatuan.

The Second Expeditionary Division set out from Cavite and divided into two groups to launch a full-scale attack on towns in different directions, including Carawan and Batangas.

There are almost no white armed forces in the above-mentioned towns. There are only local indigenous vassal forces, with as many as one or two thousand people and as few as three or five hundred people. They are mainly equipped with cold weapons such as swords and guns, and there are only a few old-style firearms troops.

For the elite Chu expeditionary force, this is a crispy delicacy that tastes crispy and delicious. It is extremely tasty.

It is estimated that it will take about ten days to two weeks for the expeditionary forces to conquer the above-mentioned cities one after another and completely control the overall situation of the Luzon Islands. This is a nirvana process that must go through blood and fire.

Marshal Zheng Guohui sent out three main infantry regiments at once, leaving only two main regiments of the First Expeditionary Division, namely the "A" Regiment and the "E" Regiment, with a total strength of more than 2370 people. He commanded more than 5400 remaining sword and shield soldiers, as well as more than 1.4 Chinese militia organized locally.

Together with the more than 32-man Royal Guard, the Parrot Artillery Battalion equipped with 10 -pound Parrot rifled cannons was the main force besieging the Royal City of Manila.

It may not seem like much, but it is actually enough.

do not forget

The Great Chu Expeditionary Force also had a powerful naval fleet and a powerful firepower strike formation centered around four heavy ironclad ships, equipped with eight terrifying 4-inch Dahlgren cannons, which were almost unstoppable.

The four heavy ironclad ships are like four heavy artillery batteries floating on the sea, with amazing striking power.

There are 7 gates in the Royal City of Manila. As long as these 7 gates are guarded, the white colonists hiding inside will not be able to escape and can only fight like trapped beasts.

On the third and fourth days of the attack on Manila, the headquarters had been adjusting its deployment and sent out three expeditionary forces to conquer other towns in the heart of Luzon Island.

They were very busy allocating the corresponding baggage and materials, assigning porters and Chinese militiamen, transporting vehicles and horses, etc.

During this period

There was no attack on Intramuros Manila, giving it a rare chance to catch its breath.

5 day

The expeditionary force was planning to launch an attack on the royal city of Manila, but was once again interrupted by one of the original immigrant fleets.

This immigrant fleet, transporting more than 31000 people, received new instructions in the Penghu Islands and adjusted its destination to Manila, landing in Cavite and Manila ports respectively.

The voyage from the Penghu Islands to Manila is not far and only takes three days.

This means that immigrants can be transported by faster sailing ships, which can arrive in 7 days one way and half a month for a round trip.

Compared with the Fujian ship transportation, the efficiency of transportation has doubled. The number of Chinese immigrants arriving in Manila every month can reach 6.5, which is an astonishing number.

If the large number of Spanish galleons captured in Manila Bay are included, the monthly capacity to transport immigrants exceeded 100,000.

The arrival of the first batch of Chinese immigrants will be mainly handled by the Marshal's staff team for settlement and related matters. A very mature immigration resettlement process has been formed in Da Chu, so there is no need to be distracted.

Considering that immigration affairs were cumbersome and time-consuming, Marshal Zheng Guohui postponed the attack date again so that he could dispatch more manpower to promote the settlement of Chinese immigrants, mainly to the surrounding indigenous towns.

During this pause in attack
The white colonists in the Royal City of Manila watched helplessly as a large number of Chinese immigrants landed and were then evacuated and resettled in an orderly manner. They felt as if their hearts were being eaten by thousands of ants and were extremely tormented.

This place originally belonged to the white colonists, but now it has been ruthlessly deprived and trapped in an isolated city. The psychological gap can be imagined.

(End of this chapter)