With the mercenaries retreating, there is no longer any suspense about the outcome of the whole battle. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 As Olson knew, retreat, especially in front of enemy lines, was always one of the most difficult combat operations. Because in the retreat, it is necessary for all units to be highly united, highly coordinated with each other, and cover each other. Some of them have to retreat quickly, so that they can prepare a new blocking position in the rear, and some cannot withdraw, so they need to ignore the casualties first, and risk being surrounded and annihilated to block the enemy, (and during this period, he must resist the attack of the enemy's large army alone) until the teammates behind him are ready to block the attack layer by layer, and then there is an organized retreat. However, anyone in such a situation is prone to thoughts such as "I don't need to run faster than the enemy, but I must run faster than my teammates", and "Dead friends don't die poorly". And they will also worry about whether they will fight hard here, but others will take the opportunity to run. Therefore, without sufficient organization and strong combat effectiveness, it is not possible to retreat in front of the enemy.

The organization of the indigenous army is not enough to support such an operation, in fact, the Chinese People's League opposite them does not have such a high degree of organization, even if it is a model army, it may not be able to retreat in an orderly manner in front of the enemy. In fact, in this era, there are few armies in the whole world that have such a degree of organization.

In the rout, the organization of the indigenous army has been reduced to zero, naturally it is impossible to provide any cover for the mercenaries, and the mercenaries also know that if they run slowly, they will be finished, so it is impossible to fight and retreat in an organized manner, on the contrary, for them, the best thing to do is to run as fast as possible than those natives, so in the retreat, the organization of the mercenaries will quickly return to zero.

In general, most of the losses in battle tend to occur during the retreat, especially if the opponent has a light cavalry. The final result of this battle was Aquino's nearly 5,000 men, and only a few hundred ran back. And the mercenaries, who had spent a lot of money, were attacked by the opponent's cavalry troops, and only about 20 people ran back, and they also discarded all the artillery and other weapons.

In another battlefield, relying on a return rifle, Li Changsheng also defeated the pursuing indigenous army and launched another attack on Vanu Village. However, attacking fortifications is a difficult problem even for well-trained regular soldiers, and even more so for the Chinese People's League. Therefore, the situation was stalemate, and it was not until the four 6-pounder guns captured in the Battle of Jiangjiazhuang appeared on the battlefield that the situation began to change.

In their eagerness to escape, the mercenaries did not take the time to destroy the cannons before leaving them behind and running away. So these cannons fell into the hands of the Chinese in their entirety. In fact, although the power of these four cannons is obviously greater than that of the three-pounder guns, they are not necessarily particularly useful when facing the relatively low walls of the Vanu Village, which have a considerable slope. However, the appearance of these cannons was a great blow to the morale of the natives. They confirmed rumors that on the battlefield on the other side, the indigenous army had suffered heavy losses.

Moreover, after that, the Chinese began to dig long trenches around the stockade, which made the defenders in the stockade a mess. The stockade has limited food stocks, and if it is besieged for a long time, the results can be imagined. So, on a moonless night, the natives in the stockade hurried away while the long trench was not yet finished.

The loss of Vanu further aggravated the situation of the indigenous people, and the Chinese People's League took advantage of the situation to attack, taking five more villages in a row, and basically controlling the most fertile and land near Manila in their own hands.

……

The Governor of Aquila finally waited for his successor, because of the previous failure, he naturally lost the position of Governor of Manila, and now the new Governor sent by the country finally arrived in Manila, and with him, there was a new fleet. Obviously, although the situation in Europe is very troublesome now, considering the importance of the Philippines, Spain still did its best to keep it by taking advantage of the civil strife in the British country.

The fleet consisted of four cruisers and two battleships weighing more than a thousand tons. Although the number is not too large, the ships are all in good condition, and they are all relatively new ships. Both battleships, although inferior to Endeavour in tonnage, were equipped with a greater number of guns. (Of course, the price paid is that the speed and strike resistance are not as good as the Endeavour) Therefore, when facing a monster like the Endeavour, it will not be completely powerless to fight back.

"Mr. Aquila, you're about to return home, and I think you must have some advice for me at this time." At the farewell party to Governor Aquila, the new Governor Franco said this to Aquila.

Although Aquila was deposed due to defeat, in Spain, Aquila's faction had the upper hand at home. So Franco, who was sent to replace him, was politically on the same faction as Aquila, and even had some kinship with Aquila.

"Ah, Franco. I've told you more than once what I should have said. Aquila sighed, "In short, it is to be vigilant against the Chinese, to keep peace with them as much as possible, but also to be ready to go to war with them at any time." Franco, it's good that you brought a powerful fleet. But the arrival of this fleet did not really change the balance of power at sea. Now at sea, the balance of power is still not in our favor. My brother, don't get excited, I know that you brought two powerful battleships, but you must know that naval battles in the Far East are not the same as in Europe. In the Far East, our adversaries have warships more suitable for raid routes. And they don't have much of a route to protect......"

"How so? Aren't they dependent on trade with Europe? Franco asked.

"The entire Ming Empire is very dependent on trade. However, when it comes to our opponents, they are very dependent on trade. It's just that...... On the trade routes between them and Europe, it was not our merchant ships, but also the Dutch or the Portuguese. So if we were to cut off this trade route, it would mean that we would have to go to war with the Chinese and the Dutch at the same time. It's hard for our forces to do that. You know that Batavia is well defended, and even with two battleships, it's hard for us to take it quickly. And the civil strife in Britain allowed the Dutch to mobilize more forces to the Far East than we did. Of course, they also had a trade route with Japan, which was also important to them, and it was their ships that ran on this route. But Japan is in the north, and on this route, we don't have any bases, and to cut off this route, we have to sail thousands of nautical miles, and we don't get any other supplies except fresh water on some uninhabited islands, and we don't have any docks to dock at. Damn, the Chinese were able to get supplies from the Dutch, and I know that they had recently built a new port somewhere in the south. Also, as you know, the docks in Manila did not have the ability to repair battleships. This also meant that in the Far East, battleships became almost disposable warships, and once damaged, it was difficult to restore combat effectiveness. And the enemy's ships were superior to our battleships in speed. It will be difficult for us to sink our opponents in naval battles. Perhaps in the first naval battle, we still had the upper hand, and our battleships inflicted heavy losses on them at the cost of minor injuries, but at most a month, those heavily damaged Chinese warships will reappear at sea, and the minor injuries of our battleships have not yet healed. In such a situation, after several battles, the superiority at sea will inevitably fall into their hands. And to cut off their routes to Japan is naturally even more impossible. ”

"My brother, the situation in Manila today worries me a lot." Aquila took a sip of wine and moistened his throat and continued, "Now the Chinese outside Manila occupy large areas of fertile land and are constantly building forts. There are more and more of them, and everyone has guns in their hands. This makes it almost difficult for us to get rid of them. Relying on them, those Chinese also have the possibility of besieging Manila for a long time. During this time, I strengthened Manila's defenses as much as I could, and I tried to support the natives against the Chinese, but the natives were indigenous...... And they are also unreliable. My brother, if I have any suggestions, I think there are a few......"

"Mr. Aquila, say it." Franco said.

Aquila nodded and said, "First of all, the equipment of our soldiers must be replaced. You know, our soldiers are still using old-fashioned arquebuses. Yes, even in Europe, the armies of most countries are still using arquebuses. But in the Far East, the situation is already different. Nowadays, although most of the Far Eastern countries are still using pure cold weapons, our opponents, the Zheng family in China, have already used all flintlock pistols, and even those Chinese outside Manila have all flintlock pistols in their hands! Hell, these Chinese civilians have even better weapons in their hands than in the hands of our army. You also know the advantages of flintlock pistols for arquebuses, so if you want to keep Manila in China, you must equip Manila with flintlock pistols as soon as possible. In addition, once the war broke out, Manila's fortifications were strong enough, but Manila's garrison was not enough. Especially when facing an opponent with a lot of human resources. In addition, in the Far East, high-speed raid ships were perhaps more important than powerful battleships, and a shipyard capable of building such warships and repairing them was also very important. This requires strong domestic support. You can write this request in the letter, and I'll be happy to bring it to you. ”

"But it takes a lot of money, and the country may not be willing to come up with so much money." Franco said.

"If they're not willing to come up with that money, it means they could lose more money." Aquila replied.