ps: Ask for subscriptions, ask for likes and support

Manila Harbor, like a blue ribbon, floats in the southwestern part of Luzon Island, surrounded by land on three sides. The low-lying terrain of Luzon was so low that the Spanish army laid a mine array at the entrance to Manila Bay, which was considered an impregnable line of defense by the Spaniards. Patricio. Under the leadership of Montojo, he hid in the harbor of Manila and held out.

The only combat-ready warship in Montojo's hands was the three-thousand-ton "Reina. The armored cruiser "Christina" has a displacement of about 3,500 tons and a main gun caliber of 6.2 inches, and the other cruiser, the "Castile", is an old wooden gunboat, which is still unable to drive on its own power. In addition, there are five warships with a displacement of only 500 to 1,100 tons, and this kind of equipment in the 18th century is quite suitable for fighting those natives in the Philippines, and there is a considerable gap compared with Liu Mingchuan's Taiwan fleet, not to mention the Beiyang Fleet, which has two 7,000-ton maritime giants "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan".

The sun sets and the sky darkens. When the summer night fell, the hot and humid sea breeze blew on Montojo's irritable face, Montojo had been the governor of the Philippines for more than ten years, and his life was very comfortable, similar to that of an emperor, he was arbitrary, violent, and harsh, and married a dozen or so brown-skinned, big-breasted, heavy-breasted, and heavy-ass Filipino indigenous women as wives, and gave birth to a large number of mixed-race children. It has always been others who are afraid of him, including his wife and children.

At this moment, for the first time in his life, Montoho felt scared, and he stood in the "Rena. On the deck of the "Christina", he looked about forty years old, medium height, very well-proportioned, brown skin, golden curly hair, big eyes a bit like those painted by Copts mosaics, high nose, he looked at the rough sea outside Manila Harbor, he was confident on the surface, but he was anxious inside, except for the minefield outside Manila Bay, he could only silently pray that God would bring good luck to the Spanish fleet.

Because once the mine array is broken through by the medium ** ship, no one but God can save the Spanish fleet in this battle with a huge disparity in strength. Montoho estimated that the Spanish fleet had no hope of defeating the Chinese fleet in maneuvering operations at sea. But as a rear admiral of the Spanish Empire, for the sake of honor. He will continue to fight to the end, even if the whole army is destroyed. So he anchored all seven Spanish warships at anchorage, and used the Spanish warships as a fortress fleet, supporting coastal artillery, ready to bombard the medium ** ships entering Manila at any time.

The Chinese fleet includes two 7,000-ton cruisers, the "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan," and eight 3,000-ton battleships such as the "Keelung," with a total tonnage of 60,000 tons and about 200 huge guns and fast guns, half of which are larger than 8 inches in caliber and have a speed of more than 23 knots. On the way to the Philippines, the Chinese fleet made the final combat preparations. This included day and night combat drills to drill ship fire extinguishing and damage management, and the removal of all wooden parts to prevent fire from intensifying during artillery battles.

As night fell, the stars rose one after another into the island's quiet sky, and the cold moonlight squeezed out from the clouds. Liu Mingchuan first sent Deng Shichang's fleet to search Subic Bay, but failed to find the Spanish fleet. Liu Mingchuan stood on the deck of the "Keelung" and asserted to his adjutant Li Yuncong: "Now I know the location of the Spanish fleet!"

Li Yuncong, wearing a white navy uniform and a cap, stood beside Liu Mingchuan and asked, "Where does the marshal think they are hiding?"

Liu Mingchuan pointed to the dark front of Manila Harbor. Laughing: "Montoho thought that it would be okay to hide in Manila Bay, which is surrounded by land on three sides, as a shrunken-headed turtle, but his mind was too simple. ”

Li Yuncong nodded. "Look at the silence of this harbor. The channel of the harbor must have been covered with mines. ”

Liu Ming said: "Your brain is getting better and better, I expected this." At the beginning, the American General Farragut once strayed into a minefield, and the American fleet suffered heavy losses in Manila Bay. I have a secret weapon against these mines. What happened to the spies who infiltrated the Philippines that you contacted earlier? Have you been in touch with the former 'Sultan' in your area? ”

Li Yuncong's face showed joy, and he handed Liu Ming a letter, "Handsome." This is a letter they sent back, and as soon as the guns of our warships sounded, they rioted with the rebels on Luzon and drove out the Spaniards. ”

Liu Mingchuan took the letter and looked at it. The letter recounted in detail the meeting between the Chinese secret agents and the Philippine "sultan": The Philippine "sultan" met us in the meeting room, a young boy of twelve or thirteen years old from the Philippine royal family, with a horse face, pale ivory skin, a large mouth, a pair of small eyes, a yellow silk jacket, trousers and a sarong, a black Turkish felt hat on his head, a small diamond studded with a large gold necklace around his neck. Both regent were close relatives of his, wearing dark trousers and short clothes. Behind them were a group of guards, dressed in tattered palm clothes, one holding a national sword, another a spear, a third with a tool for striking betel nuts, and a fourth dragging plates and giving everyone a cigarette, each the size of a cigar made of coarse blades of grass. One of the regents told us that they had more than 4,000 men who could fight, and that they could contact other tribes on the island to attack the Spaniards together, but that their weapons were mostly long knives and bows and arrows, and a small number of earthen guns.

Liu Mingchuan saw that the rebel army on the Philippine island was similar to the indigenous people of Taiwan, and he probably couldn't hold out too much hope. Therefore, Liu Mingchuan decided to take advantage of the cover of night to sail eight warships of the Taiwan fleet into the harbor. Deng Shichang's Beiyang Fleet, on the other hand, was on standby in the deep-water waterway away from Korehill Island.

When Liu Mingchuan's warship was about to sail into Manila Bay, about 20 middle-aged sea ladies wearing one-piece black rubber pants appeared on the deck of the "Keelung," some with deep wrinkles carved on their faces. Li Yuncong asked curiously: "Dashuai, this is what you call the 'secret weapon'?" ”

Liu Mingchuan said with a smile: "Don't underestimate them, they are all carefully selected from Taiwan Island. When they were young, their men fought and died in battles with the Japanese, all relying on them to catch fish, shrimp and shells in the sea as food, and also sell them in exchange for food, some sea women, after giving birth to a child for half a month, went to the sea, holding their breath underwater is a good hand, one person is worth ten underwater deminers, tonight it depends on them to make miraculous achievements. ”

These ama jumped into the sea, sure enough, they were good divers, and after they cleared mines, the Taiwanese fleet arrived in Manila Bay just after midnight, barely touching any mines. When the Taiwan fleet was silent and almost all of them sailed in smoothly, the Spanish artillerymen who were sleeping woke up and several shore guns opened fire in a hurry, but the artillery fire of the Taiwan warships quickly suppressed them, and all four batteries on the shore were blown up by the Taiwan fleet.

Liu Mingchuan commanded eight ironclad warships to enter Manila Bay in a "one" formation without any damage, and at dawn, the Taiwanese fleet approached Manila and began to search for the Spanish fleet. The city's artillery opened heavy fire, but unfortunately the range of the cannon was not long enough, and all the shells exploded in the bay, stirring up a huge wave. In order to protect the city of Manila from shelling, Montoho deployed his fleet outside the city, and Liu Mingchuan found them here.

In order to save ammunition and improve the hit rate, Liu Mingchuan approached until he was only 5,000 yards away from the Spanish fleet. The "Christina" opened fire.

Eight Taiwanese warships on the Spanish warship went back on their voyage, constantly firing," said Reina. The "Cristina" and three Spanish warships attempted to storm the Chinese ** ship several times, but they were all severely damaged. After an hour of shelling, the seven warships led by Montojo either smoked, were buried at the bottom of the sea, or were abandoned," said Rena. In the fierce naval battle, the cockpit of the "Christina" was hit by the gunfire of the "Keelung", the Spanish fleet was completely annihilated, and Montojo himself was also hit by artillery fire and died of serious illness!

When Liu Mingchuan ordered a ceasefire, the Spanish army suffered 681 casualties in this battle, while the Chinese fleet, only 3 people were slightly wounded, and the Taiwanese warships opened fire on the Spanish fleet, hitting at least 170 shells, while the Spanish sailors, who lacked shooting practice, only hit 15 rounds.

The Spanish Navy was completely lost, so Liu Mingchuan dropped anchor in the sea near Manila to prevent the Philippines from interference from foreign warships. At this time, 5 German ironclad warships appeared. It turned out that the Germans had been looking for an opportunity, and as soon as the Chinese ** ship was defeated in the Philippines, they were ready to plunder the Philippines as their own colony immediately. It is a pity that the Chinese ** ship won a big victory in the Philippines and was unscathed. Deng Shichang led the Beiyang Fleet to quickly go up to intercept it, and when the German ** ship saw that the Beiyang Fleet was unscathed, it was regarded as a passing by.

On the way to drive away the German ships, the Beiyang Fleet occupied Guam, which belonged to Spain, without bloodshed, and the governor of the island did not know that war had broken out between China and Spain, and China did not declare war on Spain at this time.

The 10,000 new troops led by Cao Kun also quickly set out from Tianjin to besiege the city of Manila. The indigenous rebels in Manila also began to riot! Under the joint attack of them and the Chinese army and navy, the 40,000 Spanish troops in Manila were leaderless, and they were also attacked from inside and outside, and they resisted desperately at first, but later, the weather on the island was hot and humid in the summer, and many Spanish soldiers suffered from fever epidemics, and the 40,000 Spanish troops who lacked medical treatment and medicine suffered from no foreign aid, and after symbolic resistance, they declared a ceasefire and surrendered to Liu Mingchuan.

At this time, the "sultan" of the Philippine royal family sent a letter to Liu Mingchuan, asking the Philippines to stand on its own feet and restore the throne. Liu Mingchuan listened, "Damn, Lao Tzu worked hard to get rid of the Spaniards, you are a twelve-thirteen little hairy boy to stand on your own", and then, Liu Mingchuan disarmed the Sudanese aborigines, drove the indigenous people and the royal family of the Philippines to the deep mountains and old forests, and the separatists who demanded the independence of the Philippines were slaughtered by Liu Mingchuan Thousands of people, since then he has earned a nickname of "Liu Butcher" in the Philippines, and the children of the Philippines are so frightened that they cry when they hear Liu Mingchuan's name!

Song Xiaofei immediately announced that the Philippines would be set up as a province, and the local Chinese would form a government and incorporate it into the jurisdiction of the Fujian Special Administrative Region. China occupied the Philippines before the United States, and at the same time, the battle between China and Spain for Cuba was also raging in the Americas. (To be continued......)