In the impression of most local officers, the Philippines is a suitable place for vacation, compared with the frequent battles in the country, the marines here not only enjoy special overseas service subsidies, but also are not trapped in winter, but they can still receive the local officers and soldiers roasting expenses, cotton clothes and other names, it can be said to be a comfortable place to the limit.

However, in this special position of the governor of the Philippines, Lin Mengchu knows that his responsibility is as heavy as Mount Tai, and he can't relax for a moment, and he may be able to allow one or two defeats in the mainland of Dajian, and he can retreat backwards, but fighting on such an island, any defeat in the battle will lead to his own death without a place to be buried, and no one has the ability to swim back to the mainland from the Philippines, as a soldier, he only allows victory.

What's more, compared with the mainland itself, the forces he can rely on, in the entire Philippines with a population of tens of millions, he can only rely on 200,000 Filipino Chinese, a part of the Filipino natives, and one of his own infantry divisions, but the problems he encounters are a hundred times more complicated than those on the mainland, for example, during the war on the mainland, the religious problem is insignificant.

But in the Philippines, almost everyone believes in Catholicism, although some Protestant priests have been introduced, but the impact is very small, so Lin Mengchu had to win over one faction to fight another, even in this case, there are still many Catholic anti-Rainbow Army guerrillas in Luzon, some fanatical Catholic believers even refused the church land allocated to them by the Rainbow Army, and the Rainbow Army had to distribute these lands that originally belonged to them to the people of neighboring villages.

Lin Chumeng did not know that the situation was similar to the Mexican Civil War in the 1920s. The progressive government wanted to distribute the land under the control of the Catholic diocese, while the Catholic priest declared that it would not be allocated, otherwise the people who were allocated the land would not be allowed to go to heaven. As a result, the government had to distribute the land they had cultivated to others, and the Mexican Catholic Church succeeded in developing its most faithful part of its adherents into staunch anti-Catholics, according to the observations of American journalists in the seventies. The Catholic priests were enthusiastic about these poor people who were below the line of abject poverty, but these landless people were full of hatred for Catholicism.

And now Lin Mengchu is not only encountering the problem of Catholicism, he and the entire Philippine garrison must learn everything from scratch to manage the occupied area, even including the most popular Spanish in the entire Philippines, and have to hold a pen in one hand and a gun in the other, guarding against the next counterattack of the Spaniards.

Not long ago, the Spaniards planned a successful raid. A garrison on an isolated island in the center, sixty-seven men, including a deputy company commander, and an entire reinforced platoon were wiped out, and no one survived, and similar tragedies have occurred in the Philippines two or three times.

According to the experience of the Yanzhou operation, the smallest detachment of the Rainbow Army on the independent side was a reinforced battalion, which made it possible to prevent unexpected losses. But in a thousand-island country like the Philippines, if each island has a reinforced battalion of troops, then Lin Mengchu must have at least 200,000 troops in his hands, but in fact, he only has a two-brigade infantry division, a total of four infantry regiments plus three independent infantry battalions. Therefore, on many islands, the rainbow army is equipped with only one reinforced company, and sometimes even only one reinforced platoon, or even a reinforced squad plus a few officers.

But these islands had to be armed, otherwise they would take control of the Spaniards and use the islands' resources to counterattack Luzon: "Wise, we must watch out for the next surprise attack of the Spaniards!" ”

"That's right!" Opposite him was Ye Huaizhi, who was born in the Red Turban Army, and because of his special performance in the capture of Manila, he has now become the commander of the Marine Brigade Maritime Mobile Regiment, which can be said to be the most important mobile force in the entire Philippines, and the regiment is even equipped with a fleet of sea transport ships. …,

"Although we have suffered losses, the Spaniards must not guard against our support!"

The example he said was an offensive and defensive battle with the Spaniards last month, the garrison was a medium-sized island near the island of Mindoro, where there were only forty-two defenders, so the Spaniards thought that they could easily take the island, but after three days of fighting, the remaining more than 30 defenders were still fighting, and the Spaniards had to replace the indigenous troops and go into battle in person, but they were still frustrated in the bayonet formation, and at the critical moment, Ye Huaizhi personally led two companies of reinforcements across the sea to kill, The Spaniards retreated in a hurry, leaving behind at least sixty bodies before escaping from the sea.

It's just that Lin Mengchu looked at the map of the entire Philippine Islands, but he had a feeling of being helpless, the Philippine Islands are too vast, and the Spaniards have been operating here for three hundred years, so the strength of an infantry division cannot firmly control the entire archipelago at all, and so far, the Hong Army has only occupied most of the northern part of the Philippine Islands and a part of the central part.

If it weren't for the two infantry battalions that had just come up, the Rainbow Army wouldn't even be able to completely control the entire Luzon Island, so Lin Mengchu said to the map: "I don't know which island the Spaniards will attack next time?" ”

"It's hard to speculate!"

Ye Huaizhi is well aware of the recent sea attack tactics adopted by the Spaniards, the Spaniards generally concentrate hundreds or even thousands of troops, using their water mobility advantage, suddenly landing on some marginal islands, and then besieging a small number of defenders on the islands, this tactic has been successful one after another, at most a rainbow army even lost an entire infantry company, but that time the Spanish dispatched at least 2,000 people.

Therefore, Ye Huaizhi believes that there is a problem with the strategy that Lin Mengchu is adopting now: "We should fight back, since Spain can attack us, we can also attack the Spaniards!" We can concentrate at least two battalions of marines. ”

"It doesn't make sense!" Lin Mengchu has his own opinion: "Time is with us!" ”

Compared with the adventurous leap forward in the early days of the Philippines, now Lin Mengchu is adopting the tactics of mobile defense, he patted Ye Huaizhi on the shoulder and said: "The backbone of the entire Philippine defense is you, that's right, it's you!" ”

"Then I won't let any of my friends suffer!"

While the two sides were discussing, a staff officer ran into the richly decorated governor's office and said in a very competitive tone: "Your Excellency, the Spaniards have landed!" ”

"Where?" Ye Huaizhi asked first: "Where is it?" ”

"On Mindoro!"

"It can't be!"

"No way!"

It is absolutely impossible, Ye Huaizhi and Lin Mengchu have made such a judgment, how is this possible? How is Mindoro.

Mindoro Island is not one of those isolated islands, it is the top seven islands in the entire Philippine archipelago, and the deployment of defense in the Philippines is at most important, you must know that the size of this island alone is as big as a mainland province, not to mention that Mindoro Island is the barrier of the entire Luzon Island.

If Mindoro falls into the hands of the other side, the entire defense of Luzon will be in a very dangerous situation.

But the problem is that Lin Chumeng has deployed heavy troops on Mindoro Island: "I remember that there is one of our infantry battalions in Mindoro? ”

"That's right, a garrison infantry battalion, but there are some forces responsible for the defense of the outlying islands, and the strength of the islands is about two-thirds of the infantry battalion......"

Lin Mengchu quickly found the top-secret monthly defense report sent back by the commander of the garrison of Binduluo Island at the end of last month: "At the end of last month, we had 426 officers and soldiers on Bindu Loben Island, as well as about 140 local soldiers, and there should be no troop mobilization. ”…,

That's strange, plus the indigenous soldiers, the garrison of the entire Mindoro Island exceeds five hundred, although it seems to be a little thin to garrison a place with five hundred people, but this is the special nature of the garrison of the Philippine Islands, five hundred soldiers are enough even if they are used to attack.

Therefore, Lin Mengchu quickly asked, "What is the news from Mindoro Island?" ”

"Commander Wang Zhongchu of the garrison of Mindoro Island sent an urgent telegram: On the 13th, twenty-three enemy ships of all sizes, four steamers suddenly landed on the eastern coastline of our Mindoro, and on the same day landed about 700 enemy troops, two artillery pieces, all of which were Spanish soldiers, and an infantry platoon garrison on the eastern front broke through the siege with a loss of about one-third, and on the 14th the enemy continued to attack, and we fought with all our strength to repel it, and by noon on this day, I lost about 20 prisoners, and according to the natives, the enemy had another five or six hundred people on land, half of whom were indigenous soldiers, and carried six or seven artillery pieces, In view of the special situation, we are determined to fight to the end! ”

Wang Zhongchu's letter did not ask for help or other expressions, but Lin Mengchu could still imagine the difficulty of the battle, and now the enemy troops who landed have exceeded 1,000, more than twice as many as the defenders, and it is possible to continue to reinforce, so Lin Mengchu said: "Generous!" ”

"It's not just a big deal, it's a desperate fight!" Ye Huaizhi said very clearly: "The specific next step of the Philippine campaign depends on the outcome of this battle." ”

"Don't be afraid of him!" Lin Mengchu stood up and punched heavily on the large square table left by the Spanish governor: "How many troops can the mobile regiment send now, it's not ......?"

Ye Huaizhi pretended not to understand Lin Mengchu's prompt: "The mobile regiment can reinforce two marine battalions to Internurol at any time, and the third marine battalion must wait for the forward transport ships to return before they can continue transporting!" ”

It's just that Lin Mengchu refocused on the map: "If the Spaniards want to take it, I'm afraid it's not a Bunduluo Island, right?" ”

Ye Huaizhi replied very cleverly: "Time is always with us, so the Spaniards can't afford to wait, but we must at least have a clear judgment and decision ......." ）