Since the siege of the city by the Anglo-Chinese army, the sound of artillery has been continuous every day. But with Jia Hao's order, the roar of the cannon suddenly intensified, and the cannon smoke spread on three sides, connecting into a line, and the entire Manila was like a thundercloud.

Feeling the vibration of the air, the ground was trembling slightly, Luzon sent the military guest secretary, and the lieutenant general Clinton held the telescope to observe the effect of the shelling, while snorting violently and muttering in a low voice: "This is the taste of war......"

Two or three miles away, the cannonball landed on a stone corner fort, raising a puff of dust and smoke, and countless broken stones could be seen in the telescope, and there were vague small cannons and human bodies rising up, Clinton nodded, this cannon should have hit the battlement wall of the ridge line of the corner fort, and it was estimated that in three or five days, this corner fort could be abolished.

This is just from the Red Thunder Army, the 30-pound artillery organized to the artillery division began to bombard, and before that, the 20-pound guns and 12-pound guns of each division were speaking. Clinton turned his head to look at a small hill in the distance behind him, and said that when the big guy opened fire, he didn't know what kind of mountain shaking would be

Then Clinton sneezed, saying that the smell was stronger than the familiar Europa battlefield, and that there was too much artillery.

There are about 40 pieces of 30-pound artillery, and more than 200 pieces of 20-pound and 12-pound artillery pieces belonging to the division. Not only that, the guns on the captured Spanish battleships, which the navy did not want, were all unloaded in the port of Hansan, ranging from 12 to 30 pounds, as many as more than 300 guns, and a lot of ammunition. Zhao Hanxiang picked 200 gates from them, dragged them to the city of Manila, and participated in the siege. In his words, with these Spanish artillery, a large number of gunners could be trained.

In the past, small and medium-sized artillery under 20 pounds had been used to fight with the Spaniards' outer defense line, cover cleaning and trench work. Several passages have now been opened, each consisting of three vertical parallel trenches and a number of lateral communication trenches, which have made it possible to launch a direct attack on the outer line of defense.

At this point, it was necessary to use 30-pound cannons and 30-pounder guns unloaded from the battleship "Royal September" in order to destroy the forts and the fortified points of the outer line.

Combined with the experience of the British and Chinese troops, the combination of local and foreign forces, and the crazy cooperation of the Chinese in Manila, Clinton was able to build a passage to attack the outer defense line in more than ten days, and the progress was so rapid that Clinton was extremely surprised.

On the castle of Santiago, another foreigner was also shocked, the civil engineering of the Cretaceous people was so swift, looking at the composition of the parallel trenches on the north and east sides, there were simply Europa officers pointing out:

Not only that, such a fierce artillery fire, Colonel Juan had never encountered before, how many cannons did the Chalk people have? No wonder they were so confident that they wanted to take all of Manila, and no wonder the young marshal, who had made himself a slap in the nose, emphasized his cannon.

He was pondering, but his subordinates were so shocked by the sound of the cannon that they couldn't calm down, and they all shouted to fire back.

The castle had more than 20 cannons of 30 or even 32 pounders, hundreds of medium guns of 12, 16 and 18 pounders, and countless small cannons of 6 and 9 pounders.

The Citadel of San Diego was built on the former royal city of the ancient kingdom of Luzon and was extremely well defended. To the northwest was the Pasig River, which was more than 300 yards wide, and to the south, less than 500 yards to the sea, and the enemy could only approach from two places, north and east.

There are two outer lines of defense under these two sides, the outermost layer is two or three thousand yards deep from the castle, and on the entire outer defense line, there are hundreds of Spanish soldiers commanding tens of thousands of natives and tens of thousands of Chinese to guard. This text is provided by Qihang Dagger Qishen

Originally, the Siban people believed that it would take the end of the month for the other side to approach the outer defense line, but looking at the speed of the Chinese's trenches and the strength of the artillery boats in front of them, this estimate was greatly reduced.

These officers couldn't hold their breath anymore, they didn't use the castle cannon much before because of the distance, they relied on the artillery in the corner fort of the outer defense line to bombard the Cretaceous people, and now the castle cannon must also be moved when it is critical.

As the commander of the city defense urgently appointed by Governor Rabando, Colonel Juan originally wanted his subordinates to calm down and come to Japan, but this cannon is one less shot, and even if the cannonball is sufficient, the cannon has a life......

Just as they were about to admonish the crowd, a missed cannonball came from afar, rubbed against the stone wall of the castle, and ricocheted weakly back into the moat. The soldiers on the battlement wall of the castle laughed heartlessly, but Colonel Juan and the officers beside him suddenly changed color: this cannon flew from a great distance, how could it be more than three thousand yards, once the Cretaceous people broke through the first line of defense and bombarded the city wall one or two thousand yards away, then the time for the castle to hold on would be greatly shortened. The first line of defense can't be held all the time, but it still has to be delayed as much as possible.

Juan reluctantly made a choice: "Fire!" ”

The artillery of the castle of San Diego also roared, and the difficulty of the British and Chinese troops attacking the first line of defense on the periphery suddenly increased.

Twenty-pound guns, twelve-pound guns, and even Spanish naval guns were to be placed less than two miles from the first line of defense, and even close to one mile, that is, within five or six hundred yards.

The artillery of the corner fort was not large, and the number was small, so it was not much of a threat, but the cannon on the castle of Santiago in the rear opened fire, and the hemp dwarf was large.

Although the thirty-pound cannon on the side of the British Chinese army has a long range, the other party is on the city wall battery more than ten meters high after all, unless the first line of defense can be cleared and the cannon can be pushed to the front, there is no way to silence those cannons.

"It's a necessary price, Governor ......"

In the rumbling cannon, you can occasionally see your own artillery carriage cracking and the human body flying sideways, Zhao Hanxiang comforted Jia Hao, who frowned slightly:

After two days of artillery battles, several corner forts were finally destroyed and the threat of fire on the defensive line was cleared, but Zhao Hanqi himself jumped to his feet and scolded the Spaniards. In just two days, more than 20 guns were destroyed and more than 100 gunners were injured, and his heart ached to death.

On July 5, Tiangong was still partial to Yinghua, and Manila was clear and rainless, although he could not completely sweep away the artillery on the first line of defense, Jia Hao still gave the order for an assault. It's the rainy season, and who knows if it's going to rain the next day.

And then...... It was Jia Hao's turn and a group of army generals to be heartbroken.

Jia Hao personally went to the battlefield in the north to observe the battle situation ahead, where the artillery knocked out three corner forts and cleared up the heavy firepower of this section of the Bailaiwen wide defense line. Han Zaixing threw in all the infantry of a battalion, about a thousand people, here to prepare to take this section of defense.

According to the readjusted canonical of attacking fortifications, the artillery division's 30-pound flying cannon bombarded first, covering the infantry approaching half a mile of the enemy's defensive line along the parallel trenches, and assembled in the communication trenches between the parallel trenches to stand by. Then the six-pound flying cannons of each division bombarded the trenches in the front, and at the same time the hunters went out to carry out a rough attack.

The violent explosion seemed to crush everything in front of the enemy formation, and before the smoke could disperse, a thousand warriors rushed up, and there were several ladders of two or three lengths sandwiched between the crowd. The Spanish line was dug strictly according to the French trenches, which were 5.5 meters deep and 5.5 meters wide, and the breastwork behind the ditches was also 5.5 meters thick.

The defense line has been wrapped in gunsmoke, and the rear can't see the battle situation clearly, Jia Hao and Han Zaixing can only vaguely see the ladders falling down, wearing iron helmets, wearing cuirasses, and grenadiers holding rattan cards stepped on the ladders and sank into the smoke.

The explosions, the sound of decay, and the shouts continued incessantly, as long as a century, so that Han Zaixing thought that the attack had failed, and summoned the second battalion with a blushing face, ready to attack again.

The battle gradually subsided, except for the still unwilling cannon fire of the castle of Santiago in the distance. The herald, who was covered in blood, returned to the rear, and after making a preliminary report on the situation, Han Zaixing's body shook, and Jia Hao's face turned pale.

In this battle of less than an hour, on this small section of the defense line, half of the 1,000 people have been killed and wounded, either the battalion commander is tenacious, or this battalion is the elite that Han Zaixing picked out from the Tiger Ben army, maybe he can't hold on and will be beaten out by the enemy.

Although there were more than 2,000 enemy troops on this defensive line, and hundreds of people supported by them, Jia Hao was very dissatisfied, these were mostly natives, and only the officers were Spaniards. With such a tragic exchange ratio, it is necessary to clear the two lines of defense, and I am afraid that tens of thousands of people will not be filled in! The Spaniards' defensive line was set up in a staggered manner in the shape of a large tooth, and the capture of this section did not mean that the other sections of the defense line collapsed. It's just bloodshed, but the Spaniards are not bleeding their own.

Clinton was also immersed in the smooth battles of the Anglo-Chinese army, and in his opinion, the Anglo-Chinese army's attainments in cannons, both in terms of the number of equipment and tactics, had surpassed Europa. And the level of use of mortars is even more difficult for the armies of the Europa countries to match.

The expressions of Jia Hao and the others made him very puzzled, and he understood that everyone was shocked by this huge casualty, and Clinton secretly shouted in his heart, what else do you want? It's a siege! The siege war is so tragic, it is the grinding disc of flesh and blood. , he cautiously expressed his opinion, as if comforting, as if emphasizing his foresight: "This is the siege war, the siege of Europa. The outer line of defense of the Spaniards, absorbing the defensive theory of the French army. There is fire on the left and right, and there is the artillery of the castle in the distance, General Han broke through so quickly that the average Europa army can't do it......"

Clinton stressed to Jia Hao: "Governor, you must be mentally prepared for 10,000 to 15,000 casualties, this is the minimum." ”

Jia Hao and the others' faces turned even paler, 10,000 to 15,000!? Or is it the bare minimum?

After pondering, Jia Hao shook his head and said, "You can't let the soldiers die in vain!" ”

Clinton said in his heart that the Spanish trench defense system was precipitated over many years on the Europa battlefield. This is hard-hitting, there is no tricky trick to do:

After temporarily stopping the infantry attack, Jia Hao summoned Yuan Yinggang and Ye Chonglou to discuss the possibility of letting the Chinese and even the natives in Manila serve as cannon fodder and open the way in front.

The two shook their heads very neatly, and both said that no one wanted to die like this unless they were forced with knives and guns.

Jia Hao is not afraid of sacrifice, he also believes that his subordinates are not afraid of sacrifice, as long as they can capture Manila, let alone 10,000 to 15,000, half of the 50,000 army is worth it. In order to pave the way, the navy has lost half of it, and the army will still frown at the bitter battle?

But Jia Hao loves soldiers, he believes that as long as there is a glimmer of possibility, the commander must try to reduce his own casualties, not that he has no choice, and he cannot let the army carry too heavy damage.

Yuan Yinggang suddenly said: "Your Majesty seems to be in the nostalgia of the alliance of the countries, according to the ancient system, the alliance leader has the righteous ...... to order the countries to gather soldiers and horses." Well, Oscar was originally a Spanish name, I didn't think about it so much, and Jia Hao named it "Yifan", which is also a poor orphan like a lonely sail shadow, don't get me wrong.