The attack on Manila was not a decision made by Lin Mengchu after patting his head, but the final result that he and Zhang Sigui repeatedly deduced on the map several times, and even personally infiltrated Luzon to reconnoitre.

Manila has a special position in the Philippine layout of the Spaniards, not only as a religious, administrative and economic center, but more importantly, it is also home to the most elite Spanish troops, and once Manila is defeated, the whole island will be in the hands of the whole island.

Therefore, the Spaniards also deployed elite royal guards and artillery here, and built Western-style fortresses, using the terrain and firepower to the extreme, the attacking side must have absolute superiority in strength and firepower to break such a fortress, in history, Lin Feng gathered the most elite armed groups along the coast of China at that time, and attacked with absolute superiority of troops but did not take Manila, because he was first frustrated by the fortress, and then frustrated by the Spaniards' assault.

However, Lin Mengchu was sure that as long as there was enough military superiority and firepower, an old-fashioned fortress like Manila would soon be infiltrated by his own troops.

Now the only question is, how many Spaniards are there in Manila?

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Manila.

The city and fortress, built in the Spanish tradition, had become a buzz of war, and although the exact circumstances had not yet been clarified, a Chinese army of up to 10,000 men had attacked Manila for the first time.

This will be the first Chinese army to visit the Philippines after Lin Feng's conquest of the Philippines, and the Catholic missionaries in the Philippines have asked His Excellency the Governor General to issue weapons to loyal Filipinos, if not to Christians, but at least to arm Creole (Spaniards born in the Philippines) and even Mistizo (referring to mixed race).

His Excellency the Governor had also made considerable preparations, and he had ordered the 70th Infantry Regiment stationed in Manila to be fully armed and put into combat condition, and all the cannons to be test-fired and rifle ammunition to the soldiers. Barrels and barrels of gunpowder were extracted from the ammunition depots, and even a military parade of a vigilant nature was carried out without further measures being taken.

Many Spaniards thought that His Excellency the Doge was too conservative, and that the situation in Manila was as critical and even more dangerous than it was in Manila during the Seven Years' War of 1762, and that the enemy of that invasion was still Christian, but the enemy was outright infidels.

As long as His Excellency the Governor is willing to give orders, faithful indigenous Filipinos like the Migu can be trusted. In the war of 1762, when 6,800 British troops were in Manila, there were only 550 Spanish soldiers and 80 Filipino gunners in the city, if not for the 4,000 loyal Filipino native troops to help, and with their bravery and good fighting, the British army was greatly shocked, although in the end Manila unfortunately fell. The Philippines, however, is preserved in the Spanish territory.

They could not understand this, did His Excellency the Governor think that the garrison of Manila was overloaded? But as far as the Spaniards knew, there was only one Seventy Regiment.

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The Sun family is a Filipino-Chinese family that has been localized, and after decades of hard work, they have achieved considerable commercial success.

Although both domestically and in the eyes of the Spaniards, they belong to the alternative within the other, as the Central Fiestizzo (Spanish, meaning mestizo). With only the amount of taxes to be collected from the Chinese diaspora, and the lessons of the three Manila massacres have taught them to be vigilant at all times, but they are already part of the Philippines.

In the Philippines, there are 200,000 people like them, almost 5 percent of the entire Philippine population, almost 10 times the size of Sifi Mistizo - and at the beginning of the 19th century, it reached 20 times, but Sifi Mistizo has grown rapidly in the past 50 years.

And their family. It has also been completely localized. Many people speak familiar Spanish and believe in Catholicism. There are not many Chinese characteristics that have been preserved, but the past clan system is still preserved in this family.

Sun Tianwei, that's his Chinese name, he also has a Spanish name of San Juan, it was thanks to the order of the Spanish governor in 1849 that the Philippines had its own surname for the first time, and it was the entire Sun clan

The unquestioned dictator.

Under the candlelight of the silver candlestick, the dictator said in an unquestionable tone: "Don't mess up, everyone, what about some local Chinese rebels and thieves?" In Manila, the blood of the Chinese has been shed three times, and there will be no fourth time, and I have spoken to the Governor, who assures us that as long as we remain loyal to the King of Spain, Manila will always welcome us Mistizo. ”

Someone below whispered, "Manila's blood has flowed for the fourth time." ”

He was referring to the massacre of foreigners in 1820, which was much smaller than the massacre of 20,000 or 30,000 Chinese at once, ostensibly not at the behest of the government, in which only 85 Chinese and 11 British were killed, after which the colonial government suppressed the massacre with a thunderous force.

But the Chinese who know the inside story know that it is just a trick played by the colonial government to divert attention, and in recent years, due to the opening up of Manila, the whole Philippines has a gradual smell of mountain rain.

Manila became an open port in 1834, and in a sense it was no stronger than the Manchu Five-Port Trade, and perhaps even weaker.

In the 300-year colonial history, the Spaniards took the form of galleon trade, in order to protect the interests of the Spaniards, only two 300-ton galleons were allowed to trade in Mexico every year.

But the monopoly of the galleon trade suppressed all hope for the colony's possible growth, and it was not until 1815 that the last galleon trade came to an end, and this time the galleon trade could be described as a tortuous experience, and they returned to Manila after four years.

The end of the galleon trade seemed to have brought good times to the Philippines, but this was not the case, and the end of the galleon trade coincided with the independence of Mexico, and in order to punish the renegade of the Spanish colony, the Spaniards imposed sanctions on Mexico, resulting in the bankruptcy of the Wang Li Company, which replaced the galleon trade, in 1834, and Manila was forced to open to the outside world.

However, the Spaniards still wanted to monopolize all the vital interests of the Philippines, and they did not even allow foreign merchants to enter the Philippines, but the trend of history was completely uncontrolled by the will of the Spaniards, and in just 20 years, the merchants of Britain, France, and the United States, who were completely restricted, had a comprehensive advantage in the foreign trade of the Philippines.

The puzzled Spaniards had to think about the root cause, and after a detailed investigation, they believed that the Chinese, or Chinese-Filipino mixture, were the main reason for the rejection of the Spaniards by foreigners and the monopoly of Philippine foreign trade, and since a few years ago, the newspapers have been full of such attacks on the Chinese.

Therefore, even in the Sun family, where Sun Tianwei, the dictator has an absolute advantage, there are also people who oppose it: "Who dares to say that? Doubting our loyalty to the Kingdom of Spain? Please rest assured that the blood of the Chinese in Manila will never be shed for the fourth time. ”

The speaker was also polite: "It has already flowed for the fourth time, in 1820, less than thirty years from today, and I think many people in our family still remember this incident!" ”

"Heavenly Cow!" Sun Tianwei has already identified this challenger: "What nonsense are you talking about? Do you dare to say this in front of the governor, in front of the bishops? ”

Sun Tianwei originally thought that he was talking about the young people in the family, but he didn't expect that Sun Tianniu was the same generation as himself, this person seemed to be one or two years older than himself, and he was also an elder in the family, but he didn't expect him to be so arrogant.

"Why don't you dare!" Sun Tianniu also said unceremoniously: "Sun Tianwei, I just said this in front of a bishop, do you think this is still the era of your Yiyantang?" ”

"You!" Sun Tianwei exploded in anger: "Do you think the rebels from China will achieve the final victory?" ”

"Just a seventy regiment?" Sun Tianniu said unceremoniously: "Or the sixty-eighth regiment, sixty-ninth regiment, seventy-first regiment, seventy-second regiment, seventy-third regiment." ”

Although it has been operating in the Philippines for a full 300 years, the Spaniards have not made much achievements in both civil and military affairs, especially in martial arts, which are not worth mentioning, and the current garrison in the Philippines is only 68 to 73 regiments, which are only six infantry regiments, and there is almost only one 70 regiments in Luzon.

For the past three hundred years, the Spaniards have been busy using force against the Moros who believe in Islam in the south, but for the whole three hundred years of war, the two sides have fought evenly, winning and losing each other, and sometimes the Spaniards have suffered great losses, even in the nineteenth century, the Spaniards still have nothing to do with these Moros, and the Moro's clippers often swarm, happily harassing the islands under the control of the north, and even pointing directly at Luzon to capture ships and ships of Catholics as slaves.

This situation lasted until 1848, not because of any decisive victory for Spain, but because they purchased three steamships in Europe and completely suppressed the clippers sent by the Sultans to capture slaves, which led to the southern raids of the 1850s, but also trapped most of the Spanish troops in the southern islands.

Sun Tianwei thought more: "Do you know how many troops the entire Spanish Kingdom can mobilize? ”