The Spanish treasure fleet arrived in Manila and brought five warships to the Spanish governor in the Philippines, and since the defeat of the Armada in the war with the British, the development of Spanish power at sea had begun to stagnate. The transfer of five warships from the Americas to the Philippines was almost the limit for Spain.

On the one hand, Britain began to rise on the sea, although the rise was not fast, and it was still second-rate. But the Dutch began to ride on the Spaniards. The naval combat style of these Dutch peasants was different from that of the British, who were more adept at close combat and were simply a rogue of a bunch of hooligans.

As the so-called horizontal ones are afraid of being stunned, and those who are afraid of dying are scared. The Spaniards are the ones who are horizontal, and the Dutch are the ones who don't want to die.

In Spain, whose development was stagnant, it was not easy to send warships to support the colonial Philippines for the second time.

The good news is that the Dutch were taught a lesson by the Ming Dynasty because of the dispatch of warships to the Far East, which made the Spaniards' sea routes much less stressful.

The treasure fleet came to Manila, but it didn't work. When they arrived in Manila, they learned that the Ming army had landed in the Philippines, and that trade with the Ming had deteriorated in an all-round way, and the Ming Dynasty not only forbade official merchant ships from trading with them, but even civilian merchant ships could not go to Manila now.

To make matters worse, 20,000 Ming troops have already landed on the main island of the Philippines.

If this had been known, it would have been impossible for Spain itself to allow the treasure fleet of the Americas to cross the Pacific Ocean to support the Philippines.

The Ming Navy's attack on Luzon has been brewing for more than half a year, and it is finally time for a full-scale attack.

Nearly 20,000 Marines landed on Luzon, while the Spaniards had only 3,000 troops stationed in Manila.

The Ming army built a road directly from Lingjiayan Bay in the north, and in May of the fifth year of the Apocalypse, the scorching summer sun was scorching. The Ming navy dispatched more than 20 gunboats and hundreds of warships to blockade Manila Bay.

The Navy went into action, and the marines who had already landed began to attack Manila.

A long-brewing offensive has finally been launched. A large number of Ming troops moved south from the north, and the Spaniards looked at the large number of Ming troops. The Spanish governor was almost frightened, and hurriedly asked the colonial soldiers to retreat into the city of Manila, relying on the castle for defense.

The actions of the Spaniards did not surprise the Ming army. Sun Yiguo had already made preparations, and asked the marines to bring more than fifty heavy artillery pieces in advance.

"In this battle, we must completely annihilate these Spanish reds, so that they dare not peep into the South Seas again." When Sun Yiguo led the navy to blockade Manila Bay, he said to a group of staff officers: "In this way, the situation in Nanyang will be much clearer." After the expulsion of Spain, only the Dutch who occupied Java and the Portuguese who occupied Malacca remained. Then the Dutch and Portuguese will be expelled from the South Seas, and the task given to us by His Majesty will be completed. ”

"Commander. If the Spaniards wanted to escape, they had to break through by sea. If we break through at night, it will be difficult for us to intercept it completely. Rather than this, we should launch a night attack, and it is just in time that the wind is also favorable for fire attack, and we can burn all their ships. A staff officer suggested.

"That's a good idea." Sun Yiguo's eyes lit up.

Thinking of the fire attack, Sun Yiguo immediately moved up and down with the navy.

Meanwhile, inside Manila, the Spanish governor was almost desperate. The Ming army outside the city had already surrounded Manila.

Only one side of the port remained, but it had been blockaded by the Ming navy.

That's more than twenty gunboats! Spaniards who have suffered losses. I know very well what will happen to these dozen or so warships in their hands when they rush out.

The Spanish Navy is equipped with heavy artillery with a relatively close range, but these 30-pound guns are still inferior to the 30-pound guns of the Ming army, and the 30-pound guns of the Ming army are already about 37 pounds.

The most terrible thing is that the effective range of the heavy artillery of the Ming army is about twice that of the Spanish artillery. Fighting with the Ming gunboats is simply being kite-flying. Even if you can close the distance, you won't take advantage of anything, but will be sunk by a few rounds of shelling.

What is desperate is that at this time there were more gunboats in the Ming Navy than them.

There was no chance of a comeback, but the Spanish governor did not want to surrender. Who knows if there will be a turnaround in the struggle? Maybe the Ming army was suddenly undersupplied, maybe they suddenly broke out with a plague. Maybe they were caught in a storm all of a sudden......

So the Spaniards are definitely fighting the trapped beasts.

"Our treasure ships must leave, or in the event of defeat they will all fall into the hands of the Easterners." The Spanish governor was planning when suddenly there was a real commotion in the harbor.

"Oh no, Governor, our harbor has been attacked by night, and the ships are on fire." One of the guards hurried into the governor's palace.

"What?" The Spanish governor was so shocked that he hurriedly ran out.

From a distance, I saw that there were many burning boats in the harbor, which were rushing into the harbor like fire dragons with the help of favorable wind directions.

This is the mother and son ship of the Ming army, and the mother ship and the mother ship have been separated. The sub-ships, which were piled high with fire-starters, burst into the harbor with a whirring fire, propelled by sails and the sea breeze.

The Spanish warships, armed merchant ships, round boats, speedboats, and other ships in the harbor were soon ignited and began to burn in the harbor, and the scene was very spectacular.

For the officers and men of the Ming Navy, this is the best beauty. For the Spaniards, however, it was a nightmarish sight, and the Spanish governor sat on the ground.

The next morning, the unburned planks of Manila's harbor still emitted a faint black smoke, and the Spaniards' hopes of sending away the treasure ships, let alone breaking through from the sea, were dashed.

However, the more this was the case, the more intense the Spaniards' battle of trapped beasts became.

More than 3,000 Spanish soldiers cowered inside the city, assuming a resolute defense. The Spaniards were still a bit confident in holding on to Manila, they had strong castles and shore defenses.

These shore defense guns have a much larger range than naval guns, and if the Ming Navy dares to attack the port directly, it will definitely eat shells.

And if the Ming army on land dared to approach Manila, they would also be bombarded.

"Look, what's that?" The Spaniards on the city wall suddenly found that the Ming army outside the city was building a fort, and looking through the binoculars, they found a group of Ming soldiers pulling horses to pull several behemoths.

When they saw the behemoths, they were shocked.

"Heavy artillery, it's heavy artillery."

I saw that every heavy cannon was pulled by twelve horses, and it was terrifying to see that many Spanish soldiers here were pale.

It was not easy for the Marines to get these heavy guns, each of which weighed 3,000 kilograms. After moving to land, it was a lot of hard work to get the guns from the coast of Lingayen Bay on the back to Manila. Mainly because there has been too much rain lately, and many times the roads are muddy. This made the Ming soldiers who transported the artillery bitter, and after some efforts, they finally got the artillery outside Manila.

"Your Excellency the Governor, these Orientals are setting up heavy artillery outside the city." A Spanish officer hurriedly ran to report to the Spanish governor.

"What are you afraid of, knock out their heavy artillery." The Spanish governor is also out of the way, and the dead pig is not afraid of boiling water. Now if you can bite the Ming army, it is better to bite the enemy and let them retreat.

"No, no, it's not. Those, those heavy artillery are terrifying......," the officer stammered, and the Spanish governor grimaced, "what's so scary." ”

After saying that, the Spanish governor himself came to the city wall, and then picked up a telescope and looked out of the city. In his subconscious, even if the army has heavy artillery, it is impossible to compare with the level of shore defense artillery!

However, it doesn't matter if you don't look at it, you are almost frightened when you look at it. The heavy artillery outside the city was too big, and they had built several protective batteries and were in the process of installing them into them.

With these batteries, these heavy cannons can be fired at the heavy guns on the city walls. And the Ming army is still building more forts, and the outside has become a lively construction site.

"Shelling, shelling, knock out their batteries." The Spanish governor was so panicked at this moment that he gave the order for an artillery bombardment.

The artillerymen strictly carried out the order, and soon there was a roar on the head of the city, and huge shells whistled out and smashed in the direction of the Ming battery.

As luck would have it, more than 20 heavy artillery pieces were fired, and three or four shells concentrated on the fort, which was instantly smashed into stone chips.

However...... It's useless! Because of the distance, most of the potential energy of these shells has been exhausted, and only a few stones of the fortifications of the fort have been broken, and there is a pile of dirt bags behind the stones! The heavy artillery in the battery was not damaged at all.

After the Spaniards opened fire on their heavy artillery, the Ming troops who had built the forts quickly took refuge in the trenches, and under the cover of the trenches, they were also unscathed.

The Spaniards launched several more rounds of artillery bombardment, but the results were all without exception, and they were unable to destroy the forts built by the Ming army.

The barrels of the guns were all red, but to no avail, and the shelling had to be stopped.

"Maybe these Easterners are just scaring us, their artillery is so far away that it simply does not pose any threat to our walls." The Spanish governor muttered to himself as if comforting himself, but as soon as the words fell, there was a sudden bang in the Ming army battery opposite.

Bang!

A cannonball hit the city wall of Manila, and a large pit with a diameter of 34 centimeters came out on the spot, and the city wall was shaken, and the Spanish governor was almost shocked to fall from the city wall, but was stopped by the guards on the side.

Spain only felt that his face was hot, and he had palpitations again, and this shell was simply a slap in the face on the spot. At the same time, realizing the seriousness of the problem, he announced on the spot: "We must take the initiative and destroy the heavy artillery of these Orientals, otherwise Manila will be finished." (To be continued.) )