Spain, the former empire, has long since fallen after the storm of independence in Latin America. Only three colonies remain, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines in Asia. Even if these three colonies are not peaceful, not to mention the Philippines, Cuba is now engaged in an independence movement, containing Spain's 200,000 troops. And Ren Chao also knew that the United States also took a fancy to Spain at this time, and if history did not deviate from the original track, the United States would declare war on Spain in a few months.

Ren Chao will naturally not give up this opportunity to pick up cheap, and now Ren Chao does not want to be an enemy of the Americans, although the current United States is far less powerful than that of later generations. But after all, it is also a big power, and the relationship with the European powers is also very **, so Ren Chao is not willing to provoke this strong enemy. So if you want to pick up a bargain at this time, you can only insert a foot in advance before the war between the United States and the West, so that after the war is over, Ren Chao can easily get a piece of the pie.

In January 1898, the South China Sea Fleet was ordered to arrive in the Philippine Islands. At this time, the Spanish government, which was already in a state of anxiety, did not dare to offend the increasingly powerful China at all, and could only turn a blind eye to this.

In late January, several Marines of the South China Sea Fleet clashed with a Spanish patrol in Manila, resulting in a shootout in which three Marines were outnumbered after killing five Spanish soldiers.

Ren Chao immediately used this as an excuse to order the South China Sea Fleet to blockade Manila Bay, and put forward to the Spanish colonial authorities that all the murderers should be handed over to Huaxia and that the Philippine governor be replaced.

Naturally, the Spanish colonial authorities refused to hand over the murderer, and then the South China Sea Fleet skirmished with the Spanish fleet, and a Spanish gunboat was sunk. The Spanish colonial authorities could not bear it anymore and formally declared war on the Qing Dynasty on February 1.

On February 2, at Ren Chao's pleading, Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty issued an edict declaring war on Spain. The edict declared that the Kingdom of Sulu (the Philippines), which had been a vassal state of China for hundreds of years, was invaded by Spain in 1851. In the spirit of the Heavenly Empire, I have been lenient and have repeatedly tolerated it. However, the Spaniards intensified their efforts, first openly killing our officers and men in the downtown area, and then sending warships to attack our South China Sea Fleet. provoked from the other, the public opinion is obvious, and it is difficult to tolerate it again. Ren Chaoyan sent various armies, quickly advanced and suppressed, gathered strong divisions, and marched one after another. In addition, the generals and ministers of the army along the rivers and coasts were to reorganize and march in order, and when the Westerner steamers sailed into each mouth, they immediately attacked them head-on, and wiped them all out, so that they would not retreat a little and commit crimes.

As soon as the edict of war was declared, Ren Chao immediately ordered the South China Sea Fleet to quickly annihilate the Spanish fleet and wait for an opportunity to capture the city of Manila.

"Report to the Commander. The commander ordered us to annihilate the Spanish fleet at once, and then wait for an opportunity to capture Manila. In the command room of the Celestial Empire, the flagship of the South China Sea Fleet, a naval officer reported loudly to Zhang Haiping with a telegram in his hand.

Zhang Haiping took the telegram and glanced at it, and said with a stern face, "Just wait for this order." Then destroy them! Zhang Haiping said this lightly, as if he had not ordered the destruction of a fleet at all, but the sinking of several fishing boats.

In fact, it is no wonder that Zhang Haiping is so light on the enemy, and the Spanish fleet in the Philippines at this time has only seven main warships. It seems to be quite a lot. But the only modern ship that can start the role of these seven warships is the "Rena? Christina". It has a displacement of about 3500 tons and carries a naval gun of 6.2-inch caliber. The other cruiser, the Castilian, was an old wooden ship that could not be driven by its own power. In addition, 5 warships of 500 to 1100 tons.

On the other hand, the South China Sea Fleet also has seven main warships. But all seven battleships are of the latest type. Among them, the flagship Celestial Empire is a battleship with a displacement of tens of thousands of tons, and the displacement of this Celestial Empire alone is almost equivalent to the entire fleet of Spain. There were six other cruisers with a displacement of 1,500 to six thousand tons, so the strength of the two sides was not on the same level at all.

The commander of this Spanish fleet was Don? Patricio? Rear Admiral Montoho, as early as the South China Sea Fleet arrived, Montoho had already ordered to be ready for battle. But Montoho also knew in his heart that with the strength in his hands, he would not be able to defeat the powerful South China Sea Fleet at all. So Montoho led the fleet and hid in Cavite.

But Zhang Haiping did not let them go, and after sailing into Manila Bay, the South China Sea Fleet soon found the Spanish fleet, and a naval battle broke out.

"Fire!" After entering the best range of the battleship, Zhang Haiping did not hesitate to give the order to open fire. The overwhelming shells were fired at the Spanish fleet, and the Spaniards, although desperately fighting back, were no match at all.

Several Spanish warships, including the "Rena? The "Christina" was heavily damaged in several attempts to storm the South China Sea Fleet, and was either sunk or repulsed.

More than an hour later, Zhang Haiping ordered a ceasefire, by which time all the ships of Montaujo were either in smoke or buried at the bottom of the sea, or were abandoned, and the Spanish fleet was completely destroyed.

At the same time, the 1st Marine Division, which had already arrived in Taiwan, quickly boarded a ship and sailed to the Philippines, and Ren Chao transferred another division of infantry from China to Qingdao to support the Philippines.

After destroying the Spanish fleet, since the strength of the Spanish navy had been completely lost in this area, Zhang Haiping anchored in the sea near Manila to prevent foreign interference from the Philippines. Waiting for reinforcements to arrive, warships were sent to bombard the city of Manila and force the Spanish colonial authorities to surrender.

On 6 February, the 1st Marine Division from Taiwan arrived at Manila Bay and landed successfully. The Spanish army was crushed at the touch of a button, and the Marines managed to capture the main towns near Manila. The Spanish governor in the Philippines was forced to surrender.

The news of the war between the Qing Dynasty and Spain surprised the Americans, but in fact, the United States was already preparing to take action against Spain at this time, and was looking for an excuse to prepare to provoke an incident! As a result, Ren Chao took the lead, so the Americans couldn't sit still. On 9 February, the USS Maine, a warship sent by the United States to Cuba to protect overseas Chinese, exploded in the port of Havana, and the United States used this incident as an excuse to directly declare war on Spain. On the one hand, the United States went all out to encircle and annihilate the Spanish army in the Americas, and at the same time sent a naval fleet and an expeditionary force to capture Guam and Hawaii in one fell swoop. (To be continued......)

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