[Actually drove out the second watch, long live! ] 】

Jia Hao's eyes lit up, yes, why didn't he expect that Wu Shishi would lead tens of thousands of soldiers from Annan and Paluo at this time?

Although the time limit for conquering Manila was imminent, Jia Hao felt that there was still enough time, so he sent a clipper to Huaixiang to inform him of his plan.

After receiving Jia Hao's report, Li Xianxin said that Jia Gouzi already has the demeanor of a commander, although he is soft-minded, but he can already see the overall situation, which can be regarded as his style.

Jia Hao's suggestion was exactly what Li wanted, summoned the envoys of various countries, and issued an edict to recruit the servant army. is different from what Yuan Yinggang thought, Li Xi did entangle the servant army as the leader of the alliance, but he used it for a fee. If you give it to someone, I will give it guns, materials, and other conditions. Well, if you want to reap the benefits, you will exchange it for the army:

All the countries said that this is a good thing, didn't they still use the army to fight for benefits before? But every battle is a gamble, and it doesn't necessarily end up in a good situation. Now that the Celestial Empire has recruited and set a clear reward, this business is no more stable.

Originally, Wu Ya's subordinates had gathered tens of thousands of troops and were preparing to march north to attack Vientiane, but now they had to temporarily stop the war in Vientiane and transfer the army to Luzon.

At the end of July, a large group of gray-clothed soldiers arrived, with a total of 30,000 or 40,000 men, and listening to all kinds of accents, it turned out to be soldiers from Annam, Cambodia, Lancang, and Jiluo.

Jia Hao did not expect it, and Li Shi did not pay attention to it at this time, this measure is not only an important step to promote the integration of the Nanyang countries, but also another basic code to further stimulate the economy of Britain and China.

This pan-fry overlooks the South China Sea, north to Hunan on the mainland, west to Yunnan, and east to Taipei. The flow of people, vehicles and boats is carrying all kinds of full supplies, converging at the three piers of Qingpu and Whampoa in Yingtianfu and Kowloon in Hong Kong. A huge fleet of seagoing vessels requisitioned by the state was then transported to Luzon. Fleets of sea ships, sails and shadows continue to flow, stretching for hundreds of miles on the sea at their peak.

The tents, clothing, food, and miscellaneous items of more than 200,000 people supplied to the army and navy, the servant army, and the civilian husbands, the guns and ammunition replenished by the army, and in addition to these large heads, bedding, rain gear, working tools, and even all kinds of paper used in packaging, were handed over by the Privy Council to the Ministry of Commerce, and poured into all corners of the Anglo-Chinese country like water. Millions of farmers, craftsmen, and merchants in the country gathered materials according to orders, and hundreds of thousands of people were sent to Yingtianfu by land from rivers and rivers, and then transported to Luzon by thousands of large and small sea ships.

The port of Hansan in Luzon is being expanded to accommodate a steady stream of sea vessels, while the small port southwest of Manila is loading and unloading supplies.

This is the war economy, but it is very different from the war in China in the past, most of the materials are dispatched and transported by the people, and the context of the exchange of materials in the South Seas is very clear.

Earlier, Britain and China had a similar prosperity due to many wars, but never before had the battle of Luzon involved so deep and covered such a wide range.

While millions of people in the Anglo-Chinese country were busy with smoke on their heads for the battle of Luzon, the war in Manila was temporarily calm, because they had to wait for the arrival of the servant army.

But during this time, the Anglo-Chinese army was not idle, and the artillery was especially busy. Under the organization of Zhao Hanxiang, the artillery launched a vigorous large-scale training, which not only trained a large number of gunners, but also made progress in the previous artillery drill because of this "artillery feast":

The refinement of the artillery table, the realization of the artillery coordinates, and the defense system of the Spaniards caused great trouble to the infantry, but it became an excellent practical classroom for artillery. The Anglo-Chinese artillery was already ahead of the world in terms of equipment, and at this time, under the city of Manila, it also made up for the shortcomings in combat technology. The brilliance was so dazzling that even a Europa officer like Clinton was dazzled.

At this time, Europa, although it focused on artillery, was not yet at the level of the Napoleonic era. Even the artillery of various countries is not yet a formal army formation, closer to the nature of skilled workers. In Britain, for example, the Army Artillery was still subordinate to the trade unions.

As a British, Clinton was familiar with the Europa battlefield, but he was not familiar with fighting so "rudely" with so many artillery. With such a cannon as a battle, he naturally looked fascinated. , after the arrival of the servant army, the attack continued. With sufficient troops, the sweep of the first line of defense was extremely smooth, but the Spaniards were even more depressed because they saw the British and Chinese army increase their troops: before the siege of only 50,000 or 60,000 troops, their hearts were not shaken, but now it has skyrocketed to nearly 100,000 people, plus this half a month, fully comprehended the power of the British and Chinese artillery, even Juan is muttering to himself, I am afraid it will be difficult to survive the end of the year. The Spaniards were only shaken, the natives and the Chinese were shaken, and they continued to flee from the outer defense line, and the British and Chinese troops swept the first line of defense very neatly, and pursued the victory with all their might, and the second line of defense did not last long.

On August 16, in addition to the two gates in the north and east, there were still thousands of Chinese who were still holding the second line of defense, and the skin of the castle of Santiago had been completely bagged. Nearly 10,000 servants were killed and wounded, and the British and Chinese army also suffered 3,000 or 4,000 casualties, although this was far lower than the initial estimate, but it was far higher than the losses in the domestic battle.

Standing on the lookout, I looked beyond the shattered earth, the ruined city, and the ruined line of defense lines mixed with flesh and sand. Jia Hao looked at the San Diego Castle in the south four or five miles away, and asked Guan Fengsheng and Mead, who were obviously a lot haggard beside him: "Can you start?" ”

Mead was letting out a sigh of relief, "The track to the north is complete, you can try it." This text is provided by Qihang Dagger Qishen

Guan Fengsheng said: "The money spent is about to drown people, and if you don't start, the fourth brother is afraid that it will hurt your flesh." ”

Jia Hao said: "Sharpening the knife is not a mistake for chopping wood, time and silver, it is a whetstone." ”

Two months after the arrival of the Anglo-Chinese army in Manila, the castle of San Diego was finally completely carved out. The grey-and-white stone fort resembled a faithful and unyielding woman, standing proudly, looking at the mob as they prepared to break down the door with disdain. The reason why this noble woman is so calm is because she is still wearing hard iron panties.

Yesterday there had been a torrential rain that washed away the smell of blood and soot from the air, and Colonel Juan, as usual, patrolled the walls to the north.

Colonel Juan's heart was a little low, but he was still some way from despair. What frustrated him was that the defense of the city came a little faster, and yes, it seemed to him that the battle had just begun by this time:

Fort Poe, Santiago, could not have been destroyed by artillery. Although the Chalk artillery had shocked everyone in the previous battles, to the point that Governor Rebando had to move out Archbishop of Aruso to calm the panicked populace, Juan was convinced that it would be impossible to shake the stone fort with these cannons.

The largest guns of the Cretaceous people were about as powerful as the ugly guns of battleships, and they could smash 60 centimeters thick oak planks and 10 meters thick stone walls............ Hehe, the results are obvious.

With the intention of seeing what kind of expansion the people of the Cretaceous country would have, Juan looked far away, but saw a spot in the distance, and the position seemed to be a little wrong.

Originally, there was a small hill five or six miles away, surrounded by tents on all sides and the top, and it was not clear what it was doing. But judging from the fact that the laborers came and went, and the black smoke kept rising from the mountain bag, it looked like some kind of project was being done.

Juan also thought that maybe the Cretaceous people were casting siege cannons, but then he thought that even the stone cannons made by the Ottoman Turks, who had unique artillery skills, were already antiquities, and there was no harm to a fortified city like the castle of Santiago.

Not to mention, I haven't heard of the Cretaceous people building that kind of cannon. Their cannons were all imitations of the Portuguese at the earliest, so how could they have achieved this.

Raising the telescope, Juan leisurely looked at the strange thing that was nearly three miles away, his pupils focused, and he saw what it was, he suddenly froze, and the telescope seemed to be glued to his face, and he didn't move for a long time, so that the winning officer called out in surprise: "Colonel!?" ”

It took a long time for Juan to regain his breath, he was still holding the monoculars, panting heavily, and shouting: "Lord...... Host...... Master ......"

Yu Guan said quickly: "Lord bless Spain, Lord bless the city of Santiago......"

Juan finally uttered out the full words: "Lord! Have mercy on us! ”

Three miles to the north, a shallow trench stretched vertically, approaching the castle. The shallow trench was paved with gravel, with horizontal beams and two longitudinal rails, which stretched down the shallow trench in a dark and gloomy way. "Push!" Plenty of effort! We've been busy for so long, for this day! ”

The foreman shouted with a flushed face, and on the left and right of the shallow trench, there were hundreds of people, holding thigh-thick hemp ropes, singing the horn of hey, and slowly pulling a huge steel monster from the railroad tracks:

A total of sixteen iron wheels support a regular iron plate car, and in the back half of the iron plate car, there is a thick and short copper maniac with a front end of five feet and a thickness of seven feet at the rear end. This bronze pillar must have just been cast, and it was still glowing with bright yellow light.

If you don't see the black and heavy steel shelves supporting the copper pillars, and if you don't see that the front end is actually empty, it is estimated that not many people will associate this guy with artillery, for the Cretaceous people, it is too big, and it is estimated that there are 50,000 Creceous people who have not built such a large artillery.

This is indeed artillery, and the people of the Foshan Manufacturing Bureau led by Guan Fengsheng and Mead Zheng, because they have long had experience in Foshan, have built this cannon in the rear early. In the past two months, more work was spent on assembling the gun carriage and laying the gun tracks.

The Foshan Manufacturing Bureau built railroad gun mounts for the navy, and used the rails for siege artillery to facilitate movement and recoil, which did not require any innovative thinking.

Now that the track to the north has been completed, it was urged by the impatient Jia Hao, Guan Fengsheng and Mead

The cannon was being pushed onto the railroad tracks, ready for the north cannon to sound a virgin sound.

So what would it look like? Not only Jia Hao is looking forward to it, but Guan Fengsheng and Mi Dezheng, as well as more than 100,000 officers and soldiers, are looking forward to it.

Looking at the figure of the giant cannon gradually approaching in the direction of the castle, Mead suddenly muttered, "By the way, this cannon hasn't been named yet." What great general? No, I'm afraid of what kind of generalissimo ......"

Guan Fengsheng shook his head, what era is it, and the generalissimo should be called......

Looking at this giant cannon that has condensed countless craftsmen and consumed countless efforts of his own efforts, Guan Fengsheng feels that this guy is simply his own son and daughter, and he should be called more kindly.

With this thought, for some reason, a slender figure that had been blurred broke into his heart, and Guan Fengsheng subconsciously said: "Called...... Clouds, no, wind and clouds. ”

Mead was clapping his hands and said, "Okay, it's a good name!" ”

Jia Hao stared at the giant cannon on the other side, and the eyes of the three teenagers around him were also dead on the cannon. Among them, Jia Yifan, the youngest, faintly felt that when this cannon roared, the heavens and the earth would definitely change, and he was no longer the evil world that he hated and devoured his parents in the past