The eighteenth day of the eighth year of the well-off, Manila Bay.

Seven days have passed since Zheng Chenggong prepared the siege camp in Manila. The heavy siege mortars of the Ming army finally began to output firepower against the city of Manila.

The Spanish defenders gritted their teeth and held out desperately under the leadership of Major General Paula. However, the disadvantage of the range of firepower made it difficult for the Spanish army to see hope. The indigenous servant army in the city was even more demoralized.

Finally, on this day, the Spaniards' last desperate gamble came.

Vice Admiral Lamond's fleet finally appeared at the mouth of Manila Bay, the kind that was suddenly killed by night from the far sea to the southwest. Approaching midnight, Fo Xiao entered the strait, and then looked for an opportunity to fight a decisive battle with the Ming escort fleet in the early morning.

Zheng Chenggong has always been guarding against this hand, so he has assembled his naval forces well. Recently, the ammunition supply is sufficient, but the food is not enough, and he will not easily send the transport fleet back to Fujian to pull goods, so as not to intercept the transport fleet at sea by the cruising Spanish fleet.

Anyway, it's just a lack of food, and it's enough to kill a little of the indigenous tribes that served the Spaniards as colonial lackeys and grab the stored grain.

The soldiers of the Ming Army who could come to the Philippines to fight were originally Fujian and Liangguang people, and their eating habits were close to the tropics, so it was not impossible for them to eat palm powder sago dew as rice.

All of this made the Spaniards have no choice but to fight head-on.

It was also at this moment that Zheng Chenggong observed the size of the Spaniard's fleet in detail through the telescope. There are actually more than 30 warships, and looking at the shape, it can be clearly seen that some of them are ships from Europe, and the other part is a warship built locally in the Manila shipyard -

Don't ask Zheng Chenggong how he sees it, his family has dominated the seas of East and Southeast Asia for generations, and of course knows the Spanish shipbuilding industry in the Philippines very well.

In previous years, the Spaniards also paid him a protection fee for their ships, which amounted to three thousand taels of silver per year.

In history, before Zheng Chenggong died, after recovering the Dayuan, he also tried to attack Luzon from the Dayuan to expand the land, but unfortunately he was dissuaded by Feng Xifan, and Feng Xifan's reason was:

"The Spaniards still give us silver every year according to the number of ships, and now they suddenly turn their faces and attack them, which is against morality, and will damage the Zheng family's reputation at sea.

Moreover, Luzon was the window for the Spaniards to trade silver from the Americas, and every year they asked us to buy tens of millions of taels of silver from Luzon. If this place is taken down, the Spaniards will not come to trade, and only the Dutch Hongyi family will be left to monopolize, and the import of Ming goods will definitely decrease, and the silver we earn through trade will also be greatly reduced. ”

It can be seen that the Zheng family still understands the naval strength and fleet ship type in the Philippines.

Now Zhu Shuren has let the Zheng family delay until Xiaokang for eight years before they start to do it against Spain, instead of last year, in addition to repairing ships and recuperating the wounded, there is another reason, that is, Zheng Chenggong stopped collecting protection fees from the Spaniards one year in advance, and continued to diplomatically condemn the massacre of Han people in Manila.

If they come to kill them again after a year, and they didn't pay the protection fee to the Zheng family this year, it won't be considered a treachery of the Ming Dynasty.

Last year, I knew that it was too late to collect your money, so it was not good to kill you, and this year I will kill you if I confiscate it.

At this moment, Zheng Chenggong saw more than 30 warships, including as many as eight Manila-type three-deck heavy Galen warships, and six European-made heavy Galen, bringing the total number of heavy Galen warships to as many as 14.

The rest of the Karak battleships and double-deck medium gunboats added up to twenty-two, and the total number of battleships was thirty-five.

However, it doesn't matter at all, Zheng Chenggong's total number of warships this time is more than two hundred, even if he has to divide his troops, the main fleet also has hundreds of ships.

There were 6 80-gun battleships, 12 64-gun battleships, and more than 20 38-gun and 32-gun and 24-gun frigates, adding up to 80 new gunboats, more than double the total number of Spaniards. This is basically the main fleet of the Ming Navy.

The Spaniards' largest naval guns were still 42 pounds of ammunition, and very few, with most lower-deck guns being only 32 pounds. The guns at the bottom of the battleships on the Ming side had reached 70 pounds.

The battleships and Manila's heavily covered platoon exploded in this way.

The spectacle was far grander than the international procurement fleet that Zheng Chenggong had taken on Vietnam 20 months earlier.

The cannon roared, and the iron bullets smashed through the thick hard oak armor on the side of the gunwale, and the canopy was wiped out.

Vice Admiral Rammond stared at the binoculars with a grim face, and his eyes resolutely ordered the soldiers to fire frantically, without stopping for a moment, even if the barrels of the guns became red hot from repeated bombardment.

However, such a thing as "not being able to penetrate the armor of the core area of the enemy ship" has never been solved by voluntarism.

This world is scientific, and no matter how tenacious the sailors of the Spanish fleet are and fight to the end, they will not be able to let their shells cause any penetrating damage to the steel-reinforced armor of some compartments of the Ming battleship.

The bloody shelling lasted for two hours, and three cases of explosion of the aft ammunition compartment appeared one after another on the heavy cover of the Manila's three-layer gun deck, and the skyrocketing fire directly broke off and sank two of the battleships, and the other also blew up the entire superstructure, especially the stern. Only the bottom half of the body remained, refusing to submerge into the water.

Five or six of the Spaniard's medium and light gunboats were sunk.

But on Zheng Chenggong's side, the sail battlefleet has always maintained zero total destruction and zero sinking, and only 2 24-gun fast frigates and 1 38-gun heavy frigate were seriously damaged, so they had to use the speed advantage to slip away from the battlefield.

As the Spanish fleet gradually became sparse and dilapidated, Zheng Chenggong decisively ordered that the battleships whose combat strength was relatively well preserved all turned around and rushed towards the Spanish line, directly between the Spaniards, and then the port and port sides were full of firepower.

The density of the Ming army's firepower skyrocketed nearly twice in an instant, and the combat distance was close to within two hundred paces, and some warships were even close to one hundred and fifty paces, looking like they could hit it with a more hard sail.

Unfortunately, the artillery battle had been going on for too long, and the masts and sails of both sides had been badly damaged by chain shells and grapeshot bullets, respectively, and it was impossible for anyone to raise enough speed to engage in a ramming battle.

The only thing the Spaniards still had a chance to launch was to rush up and fight with a hand-to-head battle, which did not require the speed and impact of the ship.

It's a pity that the Spaniards, as the party that took the initiative to initiate the broadside, could only face the enemy with the bow, and the Galen sailing ship had a tall stern, but did not have a Clarke-shaped bowhouse, so the bow took the initiative to take the broadside and could not win any advantage in the height of the firing firepower.

And in vain to get a lot of extra face bombardment during the approach. Often when the two sides were dozens of paces apart, a round of grape shells from the Ming warships could kill and wound the Spanish sailors.

Whoever made the "broadside advantage" design of the galleons was designed for the situation of "I shelled the other side and forced the other side to pick me up".

At the beginning of the design of the Galen ship, it was the world's first artillery powerhouse. Only others want to pick it up, and it never takes the initiative to pick up others, it only needs to consider the advantages when it is picked up. Now when encountering a battleship, a ship with better guns than the Galen ship, it is naturally awkward everywhere.

Several unsuccessful battles were unsuccessful, but too many people were killed by grapeball shells during the charge, and they finally collided, and were captured by the Ming sailors who reclocked onto the deck of the Spanish ship. The Ming army held the latest Wuchang-made bayonet rifle in the Ming Dynasty, which could be far and near, and the assassination was flexible, and the fight on the deck also had the absolute upper hand.

"Why! Why did we never hit through the enemy's ammunition depot! Why Zheng Chenggong's gunpowder will not be detonated! ”

Vice Admiral Lamond watched the bow and stern of his battleship being pasted up by the Ming battleships and bombarded his face, and couldn't help but let out a desperate and impotent roar.

And not long after he finished roaring, his flagship Santo Domingo finally could not withstand the repeated bombardment of the stern of the ship, and was ignited in the powder compartment.

The ship's powder compartment was originally designed to be fully loaded with 20 tons of gunpowder, and now only six or seven tons of stock are left in the fierce battle, but even if six or seven tons of black powder are detonated, the power is still amazing. The entire stern was blown up more than a dozen feet high, and the sailors on board were instantly shocked to death.

A quarter of an hour later, Vice Admiral Lamond's body sank to the bottom of Manila Bay along with the broken ship.

……

The Spanish fleet suffered an absolute crushing defeat in the end, but it was not completely sunk.

Because they were not all sunk, after Vice Admiral Lamond and the flagship were finished, the remaining Spanish warships either tried to rush to the Manila port anchorage to escape for their lives, or were intercepted and captured by the Ming army and surrendered directly.

In this battle, the Spaniards originally broke through the bay channel of the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island at night from the open sea and entered the bay to fight. And Zheng Chenggong had already ambushed the reserves at the mouth of the bay.

After the rout, the Spaniards also had a few ships that tried to retake the road and escaped, but they were all intercepted by the Ming army in the channel of the bay. The forts on the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island also had shore fortified artillery controlled by the Ming army, and the Spaniards had no way to survive unless they returned to the anchorage in Manila Harbor.

Of the dozen Galen battleships, a total of three were sunk, four were seriously burned, the rest were damaged to varying degrees, five escaped back to the Manila anchorage, and the remaining two were captured and surrendered by the Ming army.

Of the dozens of medium-sized warships, seven were sunk, three were burned, four were captured in the bay, and five were routed and captured by the Ming reserve ambush when they tried to turn around and rush out of the bay. In the end, only three escaped back to the Manila anchorage.

After a full day of bloody fighting, only eight of the thirty-five battleships survived, eleven were captured, and sixteen were sunk or destroyed. The morale of the defenders in Manila has also completely fallen to the bottom.

Governor Manuel knew full well that his last hope was dashed, and that with the end of the fleet, he would not be able to receive any reinforcements from home for at least two years.

Even if there were nearly 4,000 soldiers and tens of thousands of native servants, so what?

The Ming fought at home, and the difficulty of supply and reinforcement was twenty times faster than that of the Spaniards. The Ming army came only 2,000 miles from Fuzhou, and if it was from Anping to the northern tip of Luzon Island, it would only be 600 miles of strait.

Spain came to reinforce it, but there were 40,000 miles.

The stock is getting smaller and smaller, the reinforcements are gone, what are you struggling with?

Tired, destroy.

The Spanish Army finally struggled for a month and was worthy of its dignity before choosing to surrender. A total of 2,800 army and 1,100 naval sailors entered the prisoner camp of the Ming army, including more than 1,000 wounded and sick, and it was really impossible to fight.

At the time of the surrender, Governor Manuel also tried to get the Ming army to behave in a gentlemanly manner, keep the private property of the Spanish soldiers, and refrain from plundering the civilians of Manila.

It's a pity that this time his request was not promised by Zheng Chenggong.

Zheng Chenggong replied very righteously: "How can there be such a good thing in the world?" This time, Da Ming came to hang the people for the massacre of the Spaniards in Manila four years ago! At that time, why didn't they give the more than 30,000 Chinese who were killed a way out! How not to leave their possessions! ”

Therefore, in the end, out of humanitarian attention, as well as the need for negotiation and future constraints, Da Ming only temporarily left the lives of ordinary soldiers, after all, the other party finally ceased fire and surrendered, if they were all killed, the original resistance was provoked, and Da Ming would have to die more.

Killing a large number of prisoners for no reason is also easy to lead other countries to fight to the death with the Ming Dynasty in the future.

Therefore, there can be no indiscriminate killings, only the trial of certain people for war crimes.

In the end, Governor Manuel and Major General Paula, both as the culprits and commanders of the massacre four years ago, were beheaded by the Ming Dynasty after a public trial.

More than 200 other convicted officers and non-commissioned officers were either guilty of directing the massacre or had taken the initiative to expand the looting and killing, and were sentenced to beheading or hard labor for life according to the severity of the crime.

After dealing with these people, Zheng Chenggong released one of the lightest Spanish warships, as well as more than 100 captives as sailors, and allowed them to bring a few Spanish civilians back to China to report and negotiate an armistice with the Ming Dynasty.

Zheng Chenggong's actions really made some generals not understand: "Grandpa, why don't you kill all these people?" What else is there to talk about with these golden retriever barbarians? Just occupy the land. If they don't accept and dare to fight back, then they will fight to the end with them, anyway, they need 40,000 miles for reinforcements, and they will kill as many as they come! ”

Zheng Chenggong's face was solemn, and he was very stable: "Things are not as simple as you think, of course you have to fight for long-term stability." And the prince wants to maintain the prestige of my Ming Dynasty in the world, so as not to make people think that my Ming Dynasty is a barbarian who wantonly conquers the land, and we are all famous, but this is not the most important thing.

The Dutch are as shameless as the English and the Rakshasas in their encroachment on land, and they only restrain a little where the nations stare in the sun, and where no one sees, they are despicable and shameless.

Most importantly, there is a third point: the vast amount of gold and silver that the Spaniards excavated in the Americas is far from exhausted. The European and American silver that I received from trade every year before the Ming Dynasty was more than 10 million taels? If the Philippine line is completely broken, only I will sell the goods by myself in the future, or wait for the Dutch to come to the door. With one more competitor, the Dutch will not be able to lower the price.

Here in the Philippines, Luzon Island is the most valuable, of course, all of them must be taken, and all the places around Luzon must also be taken, so that I will completely hold the two ends of the strait between Dayuan and Luzon.

However, in the southern islands of the Philippines, there are some wild places that have neither mineral deposits nor shipping port value, and the heat is even worse than Luzon. The only way to do this was to negotiate clearly with the Spaniards and draw a clear border with them. Then the other islands that can be taken do not need us to clear the natives one by one. There are still a few points left to seduce the Spaniards to continue to trade, and continue to send American gold and silver here. This is all before the war, the regent explained my foresight. ”

Liu Guoxuan, Chen Jinnan and others didn't expect it to be so far-reaching, so they didn't say much when they heard the words, and let the country surnamed Ye worry about it.

In the following years, as the Spaniards confessed, ceded the land in exchange for the release of the captives, and admitted that the previous massacre crimes of the governor of Manuel should be cut in half, and no longer competed with the Ming Dynasty.

also admitted that Daming accepted the gold and silver savings of the Spanish treasury in Manila as war reparations and reparations for the previous massacre - and when Zheng Chenggong finally opened the Manila treasury, Rao was already rich and rivaled the country, and he was still almost shocked when he saw the gold and silver left there.

In the treasury of the colonial authorities in Manila, a total of more than 40 tons of gold and more than 1,500 tons of silver were raised, which is equivalent to nearly one million taels of gold and more than 30 million taels of silver on the side of the Ming Dynasty.

With so much gold, silver and jewelry, Da Ming had no objection to releasing the remaining captives.

The two sides finally negotiated that the Philippine island of Cebu and several islands to the east and south would be left to Spain, so that Spain could continue to come to the Philippines in the future to purchase Daming's export materials and use more real money to do business.

This is also seen in Cebu Island was discovered by Magellan himself, and Magellan was finally killed by the natives on Cebu Island. If the regent of the Ming Dynasty wants to show his respect for scientists and geographical discoverers, he should be a golden bone.

Putting on a posture of "for Magellan's sake, let Spain keep the southeast of Cebu Island, and Daming only take the northwest islands of Cebu Island", such news spread to Europa, and it can also further attract the centripetal force of advanced scholars in Europa, and have more expectations for Daming, which is more valuable than a few more primitive islands that are far away from the waterway and have no mines.

According to this division, the Ming Dynasty actually occupied more than seventy percent of the land of the Philippines in later generations, and only lost a quarter of the Philippines in the southeast corner to Spain to continue to send money.

The diplomatic negotiations between the two sides finally dragged on until the first contact in the tenth year of Xiaokang, and the armistice treaty was signed in the twelfth year of Xiaokang.

This is still the Ming side took the initiative to send a plenipotentiary envoy to negotiate, which can help Zhu Shuren and Zhu Ciyu directly and remotely make decisions in order to compress to this speed.

And the Spaniards also saw that the Ming Dynasty would release the prisoners after the negotiations, so they had to negotiate as soon as possible.

At this point, the military actions of the Ming Dynasty in the direction of the South Seas can be regarded as a year of complete stoppage. And as the second seven-year plan of the Ming Dynasty entered the period of rapid farming, the next enemy of the Ming Dynasty was obviously going to move to the direction of the northwest.

(End of chapter)