On the same day, several small towns near Manila were attacked by Spanish troops, and according to the original plan of the Spaniards, one of the most important goals of these attacks was to capture as many Chinese as possible. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 Even though they received reinforcements from the European mainland, which greatly increased the strength of Manila's army and navy, the Spaniards still believed that it was impossible for them to completely destroy the power of the Zheng family now, so in the end, no matter whether they won or lost, they still needed to negotiate with the Zheng family and the Ming family. And once the negotiations begin, these captured Chinese can become a very important bargaining chip. Especially in the event of defeat.

However, these attacks did not achieve the results they wanted. Most of the towns near Manila have complex and efficient tunnel systems, some of which are not as large as those encountered in Santos due to geological constraints, but they are still large enough to ensure that the people in the town can move quickly. The Chinese strongholds, which were farther away from Manila, were more difficult to deal with, and these strongholds, which had been agreed to build large walls, were very serious about building these walls into improvised bastions.

Although these bastions are relatively simple, their defense is still good. Even though the number of cannons on these forts was small, the caliber was small, and the range and power were far inferior to those in the hands of the Spaniards, but the walls of the forts were specially designed for cannon bombardment. Solid shells hit it, that is, a small crater, and there will be no large-scale collapse. In the era when there were no blasting shells, it was almost impossible to destroy a fortress with artillery alone, even a simple one.

Therefore, to break these forts, to force the Chinese hiding in the forts to surrender, without paying too many casualties (even if they received reinforcements from the country, the number of Spaniards was still very limited), there was only one way in this era, and that was a long-term siege.

After the last armistice was signed, Zheng Sen knew that this agreement was nothing more than a temporary truce. So the Chinese in Luzon, like the Spaniards, were always preparing for war. There was a lot of food and ammunition stored in the fort, enough to last for a long time.

However, if there are no reinforcements, no matter how much material is hoarded in a lonely city, there will be times when they will be exhausted. Just like Zu Dashou's Jinzhou, it must be strong and have sufficient materials, but after being besieged by the Manchus for a long time, there is still a time when it can't hold on.

Therefore, the key to conquering these bastions has become whether or not the Zheng family's fleet can be defeated at sea, so as to prevent the Zheng family from sending troops to reinforcements.

On this day, Franco, the Spanish governor in Manila, urgently summoned the tribune Wu Tiande and lodged the most serious protest against the Chinese rebellion. He also said that in order to quickly restore order, he must suspend the implementation of the peace treaty.

Wu Tiande didn't say much about this, but said that he needed to report the situation to the "imperial court", and then left the governor's palace. The Spaniards did not do anything against Wu Tiande, because in Taiwan, there were also Spaniards.

In the afternoon of the same day, Wu Tiande left Manila by boat. As the ships were leaving port, they were met by the cruising Spanish fleet, led by two majestic battleships, followed by a string of frigates. The boats deliberately passed by the clipper that Wu Tiande was riding, and they also deliberately opened the cannon doors, revealing numerous artillery pieces to demonstrate against him.

Wu Tiande arrived in Beigang four days later, but his carrier pigeon arrived in Taiwan earlier and informed Zheng Sen of the news of the incident, so when Wu Tiande arrived in Beigang, Beigang in front of him was busy.

……

At Fabio's shipyard, Zheng Sen inspects the ocean-going whaling ships that are being refitted. With the introduction of the process of refining whale oil directly on ships, whaling ships have been able to go to sea for long periods of time to hunt whales farther away, without having to rush back before the whale fat has deteriorated. Therefore, these ships are made larger, coupled with the advantages of wood processing, so that the Zheng family has a lot of good wood that can be used, so more and more ocean-going whaling ships are built with standards that are very close to those of warships. Now, after receiving the news of the incident, the two ocean-going whaling ships that had just returned to Hong Kong had just unloaded their cargo, and they were urgently requisitioned and sent here for combat refit. At the same time, a group of high-speed liaison ships were also quickly dispatched to the area where the whaling ship operated, in order to recall those ocean-going whaling ships that were still engaged in whaling operations.

A cannon was hoisted by a lifting pulley from the shipyard and sent to the deck of a whaling ship undergoing refit. After all, a whaling ship is not a warship, for example, this whaling ship of more than 600 tons has the top gun deck. And a cruiser of the same weight would definitely have two decks of gun. And the thickness of the hull of this ship is also inferior to that of a regular cruiser. In order to ensure that it can fight the enemy's warships, a longer range and better artillery are necessary.

Now hoisted is a 12-pounder gun, which was originally used on the regular cruisers in Zheng Sen's fleet, but now it is beginning to be replaced by some newer guns on the regular cruisers. It was transferred to these whaling ships. However, although this gun is an old gun, it is also a gun with a double-layer barrel and forged drill pipe technology, and its range and power are better than the Spanish version of the 12-pounder gun. Such artillery is already very good for a modified warship used for miscellaneous work, and with these guns, even in the face of the Spanish corvettes, these whaling ships are not without the ability to fight a war.

And the regular cruisers, as well as the likes of the Xiang Endeavour, have begun to adopt newer long-barreled 12-pounder guns, a cannon specially developed for the fleet with a barrel of thirty times the caliber that seems very perverted in this era. This long barrel gave the gun a far longer range than a normal gun, but it also made it almost twice as heavy as the other twelve-pounder guns, and three times more expensive than the average 12-pounder. Of course, this was not the best weapon Zheng Sen had equipped his warship, as an epoch-making 18-pounder, 30-caliber rifled cannon with an inner barrel made of crucible steel was also equipped on the USS Endeavour and its sister ships.

"Major General, it is estimated that other whaling ships will also return to Beigang in the next half month." Fabio took the opportunity to show his loyalty, "In accordance with your orders, the shipyard has set aside a portion of the shipyard for the necessary modifications to them. I promise I won't let your boat wait for the dock. You know, it's going to interfere with my shipbuilding, and of course it's going to reduce my income, but I know ......"

"In a month's time, I hope you can complete the refit of these 12 ocean-going whaling ships, and I will not forget your contribution." Zheng Sen said.

And on the other side, in Lawrence's shipyard, new transport ships occupied all the docks. Because a larger, more seafaring, and faster transport clearly had a great advantage in the war against Spain, his design was supported and production is now ramping up.

A few days later, the "Endeavour" fleet, which was on a training mission in the waters near the Ryukyus, was notified by the fast communication ship "Blue Bird" and began to turn south to carry out the task of monitoring the Spanish fleet and covering the assembly of other ships, and returned to the North Port half a month later, and a month later, a fleet of two large "Endeavour" class frigates, eight frigates, and twelve modified ocean-going whaling ships with twelve guns each was concentrated.

At the end of August, under the chairmanship of Zheng Zhilong, the pre-war preparation meeting was held in Beigang.

"Daddy, this is our goal in this battle." As the commander of the former enemy, Zheng Sen was explaining to Zheng Zhilong and others the battle plan drawn up by his staff team, "Our first goal is to destroy the Spanish fleet on Luzon. Then landed on Luzon and, with the support of the local Chinese, put on a long siege of Manila in order to force the Spaniards to surrender and thus completely seize the island. The key to this battle was how to defeat the Spanish fleet. ”

"The sea is so big, where is the fleet of the Spaniards, how can we find it?" Zheng Zhibao asked.

"Fourth uncle, the Spanish fleet will also take the initiative to find us. Their fleet is much stronger than before, and the reason why they dare to stir up trouble is because they think their fleet can defeat us. Zheng Sen replied, "They now have two first-class warships, and such warships have never been sent to Manila." Each of these battleships had nearly a hundred guns......"

Speaking of this, Zheng Sen saw Zheng Zhibao's face change for a moment, and hurriedly added: "However, most of these cannons are small cannons, although there are many of them, they are not as powerful as the cannons on our 'Endeavour'. So there's nothing to be afraid of - besides, they've recently brought in two second-class ships, each with about sixty guns, but mostly small guns. Then there are the frigates, they now have ten corvettes, plus some armed merchant ships, they think that such a fleet should be able to deal with us, so they will definitely take the initiative to fight. ”

Zheng Zhilong often ran to the shipyard and the fleet during this period of time, and he also knew more about the situation of the fleet, and after listening to Zheng Sen's words, he smiled and said: "The Spaniards don't know that their cannons are long inferior to ours, and it shouldn't be difficult to defeat them at sea, I think the difficulty is how to send enough people to the island." ”

"Daddy, the Zhenyuan Harbor we built nearby can be used by the fleet. In addition, near Manila, we also control a private port. The size of this private port is not large, but if we exclude the threat of the Spanish fleet, we can slowly expand it while slowly transporting people up. Anyway, according to the plan, this battle will not be able to be resolved in a short time. Maybe it will take two or three years to play slowly, and then Adu will have the opportunity to practice. Zheng Sen said with a smile.