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At that time, most of the young officers in China did not open their eyes to the world and did not know that the Spaniards still had a fleet in the Pacific. Song Xiaofei knew very well that the Spaniards not only owned the Philippine Islands in the Pacific Ocean, but also owned colonies such as Guam and the Mariana Islands, but these colonies were garrisoned by an outdated Spanish fleet, but Spain stationed 42,000 troops in the Philippines and equipped with advanced Mauser rifles, and it was not realistic to easily occupy the Philippines.

Song Xiaofei decided that China would not only occupy the Cuban archipelago in the Atlantic, but also prepare for a major war in the Pacific, and he would find a fierce general who could deal a swift blow to the Spanish Army in the Philippines. Although Cao Kun and Feng Guozhang both took the initiative to ask for battle, considering that the Spanish Army was relatively advanced in infantry equipment, such as the Mauser rifle of the Spanish infantry, the rate of fire was twice that of the Mauser rifle produced in China, and the general had to adapt to the operation on the island, after thinking about it, Song Xiaofei decided to ask Liu Mingchuan to go out of the mountain again.

Liu Mingchuan in history, after the Qing government's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War and cession of Taiwan, he was depressed and died of illness in bed. But the new army led by Song Xiaofei defeated the Japanese and changed his fate, Liu Mingchuan was 62 years old at this time, his body was tough, the pockmarks on his face were also golden, and there were few white hairs on his head, and his spirit was great.

In 1898, Liu Mingchuan also served as the chairman of Fujian Province and Taiwan Province, with the support of Song Xiaofei, Liu Mingchuan painstakingly ran Taiwan, he built railways, opened university halls, opened coal mines, founded telecommunications, reformed the postal service, developed shipping, and promoted Taiwan's trade, so that Taiwan developed rapidly within ten years, and Ryukyu was under Taiwan's rule. It's also developing well. Song Xiaofei also authorized Liu Mingchuan to incorporate the original Fujian Navy Division, purchase new warships, and train the Navy Division in Taiwan, and the Taiwan fleet has more than 20 warships of 1,000 tons and seven warships of more than 3,000 tons.

Song Xiaofei had already appointed Liu Mingchuan as the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, and had already prepared to capture the Philippines. Liu Mingchuan experienced a hundred battles during the civil war, and his prestige was far away, and his veteran came out, and the morale of the squadron was greatly boosted. Liu Mingchuan is not only brave in battle, but also has a unique tactical insight and insight into the battle situation. Before leaving Taiwan, Liu Mingchuan found all the information about the Philippine archipelago and also obtained a chart of Philippine waters.

The Philippines is located in southeastern Asia, across the Bass Strait from Taiwan to the north. It is bordered by the South China Sea to the west and the Pacific Ocean to the east. The total area is less than 300,000 square kilometers. However, there are more than 7,000 large and small islands, of which 11 major islands such as Luzon, Mindanao and Samar account for 96% of the total area of the Philippines.

The ancestors of the Filipinos were immigrants from the Asian continent, many of whom came from Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, Xiamen and other places in Fujian, Fujian, China. The Chinese have always played a pioneering role. In particular, the introduction of foreign technology, capital and production equipment, the creation of the early agricultural and handicraft industry.

Before the 14th century, there were no states in the Philippine archipelago, and most of them existed in the form of indigenous tribes. Year 1390. The Minangkabau, an immigrant from Sumatra, founded the first state in the history of the Philippines: the Sultanate of Sulu. The border is located in the Sulu Islands at the western end of the Muslim Autonomous Region in Mindanao in the southern Philippines, as well as in the middle of the provinces of Basilan and Tavitawi, Palawan, northern Borneo and other islands around the Sulu Sea, with the capital in Hoaku.

In 1726, the King of Sulu again sent an envoy to the Qing court to pay tribute, which is equivalent to China being the suzerainty of the Philippines. But in 1851, the Spanish invaders invaded and occupied Hele Island, forcing the Chinese vassal kingdom of Sulu to break off exchanges with the Qing Dynasty, so Song Xiaofei decided to drive away the Spanish invaders and recover the Philippines, which was a just war, and Britain and Germany, Russia and other countries had nothing to say. In order to gain British support to prevent American interference, Song Xiaofei also borrowed $100 million from the British Bank of England to finance the war against Spain.

Song Xiaofei has his own considerations about this, fighting a war is to burn money, and in history, China has suffered a big loss of not borrowing money. After the defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War, the 230 million taels of silver that China paid were directly "deducted 53% of the British war loan" by the Bank of England when it was delivered to Japan, that is to say, Japan had nearly 120 million taels of silver borrowed from Britain for the war, so Britain supported Japan so strongly! Song Xiaofei thought to himself that after the occupation of Cuba, he would sell Cuba to the United States, which would sell it for at least two or three hundred million dollars, and he could also take advantage of the war and the armaments of New China to improve the combat effectiveness of the squadron. Moreover, the Philippines is rich in mineral resources, mainly more than 20 kinds of copper, gold, silver, etc. Because the Philippines has always been unable to get along with China in the South China Sea, Song Xiaofei consulted the information of the Philippines when he was in the military academy and knew that the Philippines has about 4.8 billion tons of copper and 136 million tons of gold, which is very considerable, and if the Philippines is returned to China in 1898, China's financial resources will definitely increase greatly. Moreover, the war against Spain also indicates that China will become more involved in world affairs, killing multiple birds with one stone.

But looking for foreign banks to borrow money to start a war, many people do not understand Song Xiaofei's behavior, some newspapers even speak fiercely, rumors that Song Xiaofei is reckless, borrowing money from the British, and may have signed some "traitorous" treaty, Song Xiaofei is very angry about this, he still uses the old way to deal with these ignorant reporters who talk nonsense: go to the rural cowshed to experience life!

At the beginning of 1898, Liu Mingchuan boarded the cruiser "Keelung" in Taiwan, and commanded eight warships of the Taiwan fleet to sail south to Hong Kong, maintaining sufficient coal burning, and approaching Manila. Liu Mingchuan purchased a coal carrier and a supply ship for the fleet, ordered the entire battleship to be docked, overhauled the mechanical parts, cleaned the underwater part of the hull, and painted the white side of the warship an inconspicuous gray to prevent the target from being exposed at sea.

Liu Mingchuan thought to himself that this might be his last big battle, so he was extra cautious, personally checked all the details, and asked the ship's personnel to practice every day, and all the guns on the ship were ready for battle, and they could fire immediately as soon as they received the order!

In order to find out the situation of the Spanish fleet and the fortification of the Philippine island, Liu Mingchuan also sent four secret agents to Manila to lurk, and let his adjutant Li Yuncong disguise himself as a tourist to spy on the Spaniards who went to Hong Kong.

Soon, Song Xiaofei sent a telegram to Liu Mingchuan: "Quickly go to the Philippines, join Deng Shichang's Beiyang Fleet, start an operation, and try your best to capture or destroy the Spanish fleet!" ”

Liu Mingchuan led eight warships of the Taiwan fleet to the south, marched at a speed of 23 knots, and rumbled straight to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and 12 warships of Deng Shichang's Beiyang Fleet were also on standby in Manila. Twenty Chinese warships, with the five-color national flag of the Democratic Republic of China flying high on their masts, raised their heavy guns, and aimed their black steel cannons at the territory of the Philippines, killing Manila Bay on Luzon Island! (To be continued......)