I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 367 HRE Orthodox Spain

The Dutch led a coalition of Bruneians and Sulu people to attack Cebu Island in the southern Philippines.

The Spanish troops on Cebu Island were too few and chose to retreat to Fort San Pedro.

Fort San Pedro in Cebu is the same as Fort Santiago in Manila, both castles built by Spain when they first arrived in the Philippines.

During World War II, Fort San Pedro was also used to defend against the Japanese.

The name Cebu Island may not sound familiar, but this entire archipelago is the burial place of Magellan.

Magellan sailed around the world and arrived in the Philippines. After landing on Cebu Island, he used force to force the indigenous leaders on Cebu Island to recognize that they were a Spanish colony and to convert them to Catholicism.

The leader of Cebu Island was frightened by Magellan's force and was forced to surrender and receive baptism.

But Lapu Lapu, the leader of Mactan Island next door, refused to believe in Catholicism and surrendered to Spain.

Then... Magellan took 60 crew members in three small boats and ran to attack Mactan Island, but of course they couldn't defeat it at all.

Magellan was stabbed by a javelin before he could escape, and was later chased and hacked to death by the natives.

The area was later built into a tourist attraction, and the selling point was that Magellan died here.

This time the Dutch dispatched twenty warships, including not only the Dutch's own one thousand army, but also the five thousand indigenous troops of Brunei and Sulu.

A total of six thousand coalition troops quickly removed the outer forts after landing on Cebu Island, and then surrounded Fort San Pedro near the port.

Although Fort San Pedro is the second largest Spanish colony in the Philippines, its importance is second only to Manila.

But the number of troops here is really too small. Not counting the natives, the total number of Spanish officials and civilians in the city is only a hundred.

The Dutch only besieged Fort San Pedro for five days, then divided their forces.

The indigenous coalition forces of Brunei and Sulu continued to besiege the castle, and Dutch commander De Wit specially left 50 Dutch soldiers to suppress the battle.

The remaining 950 main troops all headed north to Manila to join up with Chinese friendly forces.

Historically, the Dutch attacked the Philippines several times, mostly with siege, and then let the natives join the army to attack by force.

Most of the time, the Spaniards would surrender voluntarily and then bargain with each other.Negotiations often failed, and the Dutch were driven out of food and forced to retreat.

This is already an old tradition of European colonial wars.

Not only the Spaniards, but the Dutch also did this.

……

Although the Spanish colonized the Philippines, in addition to Manila in the central Luzon plain, uprisings occurred one after another among the Ilok people in northern Luzon, the Sibuyan people, Bicolano people, Negritos and other indigenous people in the southern Philippines.

Moreover, the Chinese who moved to the Philippines were involved in the whole process, because the Spanish were not human beings. They not only imposed heavy taxes on the Chinese, but also unscrupulously robbed and massacred the Chinese in the Philippines.

For these uprisings, if they were too big, the Spaniards would often shrink their troops and retreat to Fort Santiago in Manila.

When the Dutch came over, the great pirate Lin Feng also used the same strategy when he attacked Manila.

Liu Sheng led the main fleet to Luzon. Without encountering any resistance, he easily broke into Fengjiayan Bay and successfully controlled Pangjia Shilan Port.

There is a tortoiseshell (port) city upstream of the port, located 200 kilometers north of Manila. It is a fortress.

It is said to be a fortress, but there are less than 50 Spanish defenders in the city, and only a few hundred soldiers are included in the natives.

"Boom boom boom!"

The Ming army didn't even move their infantry, they just pushed up the artillery and fired indiscriminately, and the Spaniards inside couldn't withstand it.

Liu Sheng showed disdain: "This is Dafo Langji. He is so vulnerable and dares to provoke me, the Ming Dynasty, and massacre my people of the Han family. How audacious."

Cui Li, a civil servant who accompanied the army this time, said: "These Westerners have always been like this and don't know what etiquette is. But this is the first time I have seen this Tortoiseshell City with my own eyes. It is worthy of being built by the pirate king Lin Feng in the past. It is really extraordinary." "

Cui Li was the same Cui Li who was Zhu Yijiong's secretary and later became the prefect of Taiwan.

Because he did a good job in Taiwan, he originally planned to transfer him back to the center this year for training and reuse, but now he just happened to be in time to conquer Luzon.

Liu Sheng nodded slightly: "This Pirate King Lin Feng does have some abilities. I heard about this person when I was in Taiwan. I never thought that he could actually cross the ocean and come to this overseas place to build a city."

Not only did he build the city, Lin Feng also became the king of Luzon.But in the blink of an eye, they were beaten back to Taiwan by the Spaniards and the Ming army who were chasing them.

Liu Sheng captured Hawksbill City, and the Nan'ao Navy and the Penghu Navy quickly followed up and established a logistics transfer station here to connect with Pingtung County in Taiwan.

After struggling for about three days, the Ming army built a stronghold in Tortoiseshell City and wiped out the indigenous forces around Tortoiseshell.

Any indigenous tribe that disobeys will be beaten one by one.

The natives here have been ruled by the Spanish for too long and have long become the lackeys of the Spanish. There is no need to be polite to them.

Moreover, to put it cruelly, if these natives are not uprooted, how can the Han people move here?

Two days later, Wu Qi brought a thousand Ilok people from northern Luzon Island to Tortoiseshell City to join them.

Under the offensive of the Chinese emperor's sugar-coated bullets, those Ilok people who had a blood feud with the Spanish and had been oppressed by the Spanish for a long time were willing to fight for the Chinese emperor.

For them, as long as they can drive those red-haired devil-like Spaniards out of Luzon, it is worth paying any price.

If he were not in a hurry, and the vast area of ​​northern Luzon was mountainous, making it difficult to go deeper, it is estimated that Wu Qi could recruit more indigenous soldiers for the Ming army.

Liu Sheng doesn't refuse anyone who comes, and it's always good to have more free soldiers.

Wu Qi had a lot on his mind and said: "General, Mr. Cui, I have been in Luzon for the past few days. These natives in the mountains in northern Luzon are not all people who drink blood. They also know how to farm, and many even do it. We have done business with our people. We can definitely make friends with them in the future and buy food from them. Their food is much cheaper than domestic food, and the taste is not bad."

Cui Li nodded and said: "Well, if this is really the case, I will report it to Your Majesty truthfully and ask Your Majesty to consider it carefully."

Liu Sheng said: "We will talk about these things later. First, go to Manila and drive those big Buddha Langji people out of Luzon."

……

Although Tortoiseshell City is less than 200 kilometers away from Manila, one of the two places is located in Fongayen Bay and the other in Manila Bay.

There is indeed a land connection in the middle, but there are narrow roads in the mountains and forests everywhere, making it impossible to walk. It is better to go around by sea.

Liu Sheng led more than [-] warships and sailed all the way to Manila Bay along the sea route.

There are many Spanish plantations along the coast, and most of them are owned by missionaries.

Spanish colonization relied heavily on missionaries. Even the last governor was an archbishop and the head of the entire archdiocese.

This can be considered the orthodoxy of Shinra.

Before the Ming fleet entered Manila Bay, the Spaniards on Corregidor (Spanish: Magistrate) Island lit bonfires.

Corregidor Island controls the throat of Manila Bay and has always been a military center of Manila.

During World War II, the U.S. military defeated the Japanese army here with a small number and a large number.

In later generations, this was the Philippine naval base, dedicated to protecting the capital Manila.

The Spanish colonized Luzon, and Corregidor served as a signal station for the Spanish.

"Send the order, fire!" Liu Sheng issued the military order.

The semaphore soldiers on the sentry tower quickly issued instructions.

Not a moment.

"Boom boom boom!"

Forty warships lined up to bombard the coastal defense artillery on Corregidor.

There were more sampans and boats carrying Ming soldiers and land divisions to land on the beach.

Faced with such a bullying salvo of artillery fire from the Ming fleet, the Spaniards on Corregidor Island were unable to resist at all, and quickly abandoned their coastal defense artillery and moved to Manila.

Corregidor Island covers an area of ​​about 5 square kilometers. There is actually a castle on the island. The Spaniards on the island can retreat to the castle and continue to defend it.

But they don't dare. Spain now is no longer the Spanish Empire ten years ago.

(End of this chapter)