national surname chiming

Chapter 513

On the eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month in the eighth year of Xiaokang, Manila Bay.

Seven days have passed since Zheng Chenggong prepared the siege camp in Manila.The heavy siege mortars of the Ming army finally began to output firepower at the city of Manila.

The Spanish defenders gritted their teeth and fought hard, holding on desperately under the leadership of Major General Paula.However, the disadvantage of firepower range makes it difficult for the Spanish army to see hope.The native servants in the city were demoralized even more.

Finally, on this day, the Spaniard's last desperate gamble came.

Vice Admiral Lamond's fleet finally appeared at the mouth of Manila Bay, the kind that suddenly killed it at night from the far southwest sea.As midnight approached, Fo Xiao entered the strait, and then looked for a decisive battle with the Ming army escort fleet in the early morning.

Zheng Chenggong has been guarding against this move, so he has assembled his naval power very well.Recently, the ammunition supply is sufficient, but the food is not enough, and he will not easily send the transport fleet back to Fujian to collect goods, lest the transport fleet be intercepted and killed by the patrolling Spanish fleet at sea.

Anyway, it's just a lack of food. It's enough to kill some indigenous tribes who serve as colonial lackeys for the Spaniards and grab the food.

The soldiers of the Ming army who were able to fight in the Philippines were originally from Fujian and Guangdong, and their eating habits were close to the tropics. It is not impossible to let them eat palm flour sago as a meal.

All in all, the Spaniards have no way to start, only to fight head-on.

It was also at this moment that Zheng Chenggong observed the size of the Spanish fleet in detail through the telescope.There are more than 30 warships, and looking at the shape, it is obvious that some of them are ships from Europe, and the other part are warships built locally at the Manila Shipyard——

Don't ask Zheng Chenggong how he figured it out. His family has ruled the waters of East Asia and Southeast Asia for generations, and of course he is very familiar with the Spanish shipbuilding industry in the Philippines.

In the past, the Spaniard's ships also paid him protection fees, 3000 taels of silver per ship per year.

In history, before Zheng Chenggong died, he tried to attack Luzon from Daxuan to expand the territory after regaining the Daxuan. Unfortunately, he was dissuaded by Feng Xifan. Feng Xifan's reason was:

"The Spaniards still give us money according to the amount of the ship every year. It is against morality to suddenly turn against them and attack them. It will damage the reputation of the Zheng family at sea. In the future, others will not be active in paying money. Overall, it will be even worse financially.

Moreover, Luzon is the window for the Spaniards to transport silver from the Americas for trade. They ask us to buy tens of millions of taels of silver from Luzon every year.If this place is taken down, the Spaniards will no longer come to trade, and only the Dutch Hongyi family will be left with a monopoly. The import of goods from Ming Dynasty will definitely decrease, and the money we earn through trade will also be greatly reduced. "

It can be seen that the Zheng family still understands the naval strength and fleet ship types in the Philippines.

Now Zhu Shuren asked the Zheng family to wait until eight years in a well-off society before attacking Spain instead of last year. In addition to repairing the ship and recuperating the wounded, there is another reason, which is to let Zheng Chenggong stop collecting the protection fees of the Spaniards one year in advance, and just Diplomatic condemnation continues for the massacre of Han Chinese in Manila.

So if they come back to kill them after a year, if they didn't pay the protection fee to the Zheng family this year, then it's not considered a breach of faith by Daming.

Last year, I knew it was too late and already collected your money, so it is not easy to kill you, but this year I will kill you if it is confiscated.

At this moment, of the more than 30 warships that Zheng Chenggong saw, there were as many as eight Manila-type three-story gun-deck heavy Galen warships, and six heavy-duty Galen warships made in Europe, bringing the total number of heavy ships to fourteen. There are so many ships.

The remaining Karak battleships and double-decker medium-sized gunboats add up to 22, and the total number of all warships is 35.

However, it didn't matter at all. Zheng Chenggong's total number of warships this time exceeded two hundred. Even if he had to divide his forces, the main fleet would have hundreds of ships.

80炮战列舰6艘，64炮战列舰12艘，还有38炮和32炮、24炮护卫舰各二十余艘，加起来新式炮舰80艘，比西班牙人的总数多一倍还不止。这基本上也是大明海军的主力舰队了。

The largest naval guns of the Spaniards still have 42 pounds of ammunition, and there are very few of them. Most of the lower deck naval guns are only 32 pounds.The naval guns at the bottom of the battleships of the Ming army have reached 70 pounds.

There was no suspense between the battleship and Manila's heavily built lineup, and it broke out head-to-head.

The scene is far more magnificent than Zheng Chenggong's deal with Vietnam's international procurement fleet 20 months ago.

The giant cannon roared, and the iron bullets smashed through the air and smashed through the thick hard oak armor on the side, and the mast and scull were wiped out in ashes.

Vice Admiral Lamond stared at the binoculars with a livid face, his eyes determined to order the soldiers to fire wildly, without stopping for a moment, even if the barrel of the gun became red and hot due to repeated bombardment, he did not allow the slightest slack.

However, things like "unable to penetrate the armor of the enemy ship's core area" have never been solved by voluntarism.

This world is scientific. Even if the sailors of the Spanish fleet were tenacious and fought to the end, the shells they fired could not cause any penetrating damage to the steel plate reinforced armor of some cabins of the Ming battleship.

The bloody bombardment lasted for a full two hours. Three cases of ammunition compartments at the stern of the Manila-type three-layer gun deck were killed one after another. The entire superstructure, especially the poop, was blown away.Only the bottom half of the body was left stiffly refusing to sink into the water.

Five or six of the Spanish medium and light gunboats were sunk.

But on Zheng Chenggong's side, the sailing battleship fleet has always maintained zero total destruction and zero sinking. Only two 2-gun fast frigates and one 24-gun heavy frigate were seriously damaged, and they had to use their speed advantage to slip away from the battlefield.

As the Spaniard's fleet became sparse and dilapidated, Zheng Chenggong decisively ordered that the few battleships with relatively well-preserved combat power all turn around and rush towards the Spaniard's line, inserting directly between the Spaniards, and then left and right. The side is fully fired at the same time.

The firepower density of the Ming army nearly doubled in an instant, and the combat distance was close to within 150 paces, and some warships were even close to [-] paces.

It's a pity that the artillery battle has lasted for too long. The masts and sails of both sides were severely damaged by chain bullets and grape bullets respectively.

The only thing the Spaniards still have a chance to launch is to charge up and fight hand-to-hand, which doesn't require much impact on the speed of the ship.

It's a pity that the Spaniards, as the party that initiated the side-on-board, can only fight the enemy with the bow. The galleon has a tall poop, but does not have the forecastle of the Clark ship, so the proactive side-on-side of the bow cannot win any shooting firepower. height difference advantage,
In vain, he will suffer a lot of extra face-to-face bombardment during the approach.Often when the two sides were dozens of steps apart, a round of grape bullets from a Ming warship could kill and injure Spanish sailors.

Who made Galen's "advantage in boarding battle" designed for the situation of "I bombard the opponent and force the opponent to come to board me".

At the beginning of the design, the Galen ship was the number one artillery ship in the world.Only others want to pick it up, and it never actively wants to pick up others. It only needs to consider the advantages of being picked up.Now when encountering battleships, which are more powerful than Galen ships, it is naturally awkward everywhere.

Several board battles were unsuccessful, and they were killed by grape bullets on the way to charge too many people. They finally hit them and were captured by Ming army sailors who recoiled onto the deck of the Spanish ship.The Ming army carried the latest Wuchang-made bayonet rifles, which could be used from a distance or near, and were flexible in assassination. Fighting on the deck also had an absolute advantage.

"Why! Why have we never shot through the enemy's ammunition depot! Why didn't Zheng Chenggong's gunpowder explode!"

Lieutenant General Lamond watched the bow and stern of his battleship being stuck on the face by the battleship of the Ming army, and he couldn't help roaring in despair and incompetence.

Not long after he finished yelling, his flagship Santo Domingo finally couldn't bear the continuous barrage of chrysanthemums at the stern, and the gunpowder compartment was ignited.

The gunpowder compartment on the ship was originally designed to be fully loaded with 20 tons of gunpowder, but now only six or seven tons of gunpowder are left in stock after repeated fierce battles, but even the death of six or seven tons of black gunpowder is still astonishingly powerful.The entire ship's poop was blown up to a height of more than ten feet, and the sailors on board were also killed instantly.

A quarter of an hour later, Lieutenant General Lamond's body sank to the bottom of Manila Bay along with the broken ship.

……

The Spanish fleet suffered an absolute fiasco in the end, but it was not completely sunk.

Because they were not all sunk yet, after Lieutenant General Lamond and the flagship were finished, the remaining Spanish warships either tried to rush to the anchorage in Manila Harbor to escape, or were intercepted and captured by the Ming army and surrendered directly.

In this battle, the Spaniards broke through the waterway at the mouth of the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island from the open sea at night, and entered the bay to fight.And Zheng Chenggong had already ambushed the reserve team at the mouth of the bay.

After the defeat of the Spaniards, there were a few ships that tried to retake the road and escape, but they were all intercepted by the Ming army in the waterway at the mouth of the bay.On the forts on the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island, there were also coastal defense fortress artillery controlled by the Ming army. Besieged on all sides, the Spaniards had no way out unless they returned to the anchorage in Manila Port.

Of the dozen or so Galen warships, three were sunk in total, four were severely burned, and the rest were damaged to varying degrees. Five fled back to the Manila anchorage, and the remaining two were captured and surrendered by the Ming army.

Of the dozens of medium-sized warships, seven were sunk, three were burned, four were captured in the bay, and five were captured by the Ming army reserve ambush when they tried to turn around and rush out of the bay.In the end, only three escaped back to the Manila anchorage.

After a whole day of bloody battle, of the 35 warships, only eight survived, eleven were captured, and sixteen were sunk or destroyed.The morale of the defenders in Manila also fell to the bottom.

Governor Manuel was well aware that his last hope was shattered, and with the fleet destroyed, he would not be able to get any reinforcements from the mainland for at least two years.

Even if there are nearly 4000 soldiers and tens of thousands of indigenous servants, so what?

Daming was fighting at home, and the difficulty of supply and reinforcement was [-] times faster than that of the Spaniards.The Ming army was only two thousand miles from Fuzhou, and if it was from Anping to the northern tip of Luzon Island, it was only a [-]-mile strait.

The mainland of Spain came for reinforcements, but it was [-] miles away.

The stock is getting smaller and smaller, and the reinforcements are gone, so why are you still struggling?
Tired, destroy it.

After struggling for the last month, the Spanish Army chose to surrender after being worthy of its dignity.A total of 1000 soldiers from the army and [-] navy sailors entered the prison camp of the Ming army, including more than [-] wounded and sick. It was really impossible to fight.

At the time of surrender, Governor Manuel also tried to make the Ming army observe gentlemanly manners, keep the private property of Spanish soldiers, and refrain from looting civilians in Manila.

Unfortunately, this time his request did not get Zheng Chenggong's promise.

Zheng Chenggong replied very righteously: "How can there be such a good thing in the world? This time, the Ming Dynasty came to punish the people for the massacre of the Spanish in Manila four years ago! Why didn't they give the more than 3 Chinese who were killed at that time?" A way out! Why not leave their property!"

Therefore, in the end, out of humanitarian considerations, as well as the need for negotiations and future constraints, Da Ming only left the lives of ordinary soldiers temporarily. After all, the other party finally ceased fire and surrendered. many people.

Killing a large number of prisoners for no reason will easily lead to other countries fighting Ming Dynasty to the end.

Therefore, we cannot kill indiscriminately, and we can only try certain people for their war crimes.

In the end, Governor Manuel and Major General Paula, as the chief culprit and initiator of the massacre four years ago, were publicly tried by Ming Dynasty and executed by Ming Zhengdian.

A total of more than [-] other officers and non-commissioned officers were convicted. They either committed the crime of directing the massacre at the beginning, or they actively expanded the act of looting and killing. They were sentenced to beheaded or hard labor for life according to the severity of the crime.

After dealing with these people, Zheng Chenggong released the lightest Spanish warship and more than a hundred captives as sailors, and allowed them to bring a few Spanish civilians back to the country to report and negotiate an armistice with Ming.

Zheng Chenggong's actions really made some generals not understand: "Grandpa, why don't you kill these people? What is there to talk about with these golden-haired barbarians? Just occupy the land. They refuse to accept and dare to fight." Come back, then fight them to the death, anyway, their reinforcements will cost [-] miles, and when they come, they will just wait for work and kill as many as they want!"

Zheng Chenggong's face was solemn, and he was seeking stability: "Things are not as simple as you think. Of course, we must strive for long-term peace and stability. Moreover, the prince hopes to maintain my Daming's reputation in the world, so that people will not think that my Daming is a barbarian who wantonly conquered the land. We All teachers are famous, but this is not the most important.

The Dutch are as shameless as the English and the Rakshas in encroaching on the land. They only restrain themselves a little in the places where the countries are staring at them in the sun, and they are extremely despicable and shameless where no one sees them.

Most importantly, there is the third point: the gold and silver mined by the Spaniards in the Americas is far from exhausted.Before my Ming Dynasty, the European and American silver that I obtained from trade every year was more than ten million taels?If the line to the Philippines is completely cut off, then only I, Daming, will sell the goods by myself, or wait for the Dutch to come to the door.If there is one more competitor, the Dutch will not be able to lower the price.

Here in the Philippines, Luzon Island is the most valuable. Of course, all of them must be taken, and all the surrounding areas of Luzon must also be taken, so that my Ming Dynasty can completely control the two ends of the strait from Dayuan to Luzon.

However, in the southern Philippine islands, some wild places have neither mineral deposits nor shipping port value, and are hotter than Luzon.The only way is to negotiate clearly with the Spaniards and draw a clear border with them.Then we don’t need us to wipe out the indigenous people one by one for the other islands that can be taken.There are still a few points left to lure the Spaniards to continue to trade and send American gold and silver here.This is all before the battle, the regent has explained my foresight. "

Liu Guoxuan, Chen Jinnan and others didn't expect it to be so far-reaching, so they stopped talking when they heard the words, and let Guo Xingye worry about it.

In the next few years, as the Spaniards confessed, they ceded land in exchange for the release of prisoners, and admitted that Governor Manuel's previous massacre crimes should be cut in half, and they no longer competed with Ming Dynasty.

It is also admitted that Daming accepted the gold and silver savings in the Spanish treasury in Manila as war reparations and compensation for the previous massacres-and when Zheng Chenggong finally opened the Manila treasury, he was already rich enough to be an enemy. Gold and silver, still almost dropped his jaw in shock.

A total of more than 40 tons of gold and more than 1500 tons of silver were unearthed from the colonial authority's treasury in Manila, which is equivalent to nearly one million taels of gold and more than 3000 million taels of silver in Ming Dynasty.

Having taken so much gold, silver and jewels, Daming has no objection to releasing the remaining captives.

The two parties finally negotiated to leave Cebu Island in the Philippines and several islands to the east and south to Spain, so that Spain can continue to come to the Philippines to purchase Ming's export materials in the future, and do business with more real money.

This is also because Magellan himself discovered it in Cebu Island, and Magellan was finally killed by the indigenous people in Cebu Island.If the regent of the Ming Dynasty wants to show his respect for scientists and geographical discoverers, he should be regarded as a daughter of gold.
Putting on a posture of "for Magellan's sake, let Spain keep the southeast of Cebu Island, and Ming Dynasty only takes the islands in the northwest of Cebu Island". This kind of news spread to Europa, which can also further attract the centripetal force of advanced European scholars. Da Ming has more expectations, which is more valuable than just a few more pristine islands far away from the waterway and unmineralized in Spain.

According to this division, Daming actually occupied more than [-]% of the land of the Philippines in later generations, and only lost a quarter of the Philippines in the southeast corner to Spain to continue sending money.

The diplomatic negotiations between the two sides were delayed until the first ten years of Xiaokang, and the armistice treaty was not signed until the 12th year of Xiaokang.
This is because Daming sent a full-fledged envoy to negotiate on the initiative, who can help Zhu Shuren and Zhu Ciyu make a decision remotely, so that they can be compressed to this speed.

And the Spaniards also had to settle the deal as soon as possible because Daming would release the captives after the negotiation was over.

So far, Ming Dynasty's military operations in the direction of Nanyang have completely entered a year of cessation.And as the second seven-year plan of Ming Dynasty entered the rapid farming period, the next enemy of Ming Dynasty would obviously move to the direction of the Great Northwest.

(End of this chapter)