"At the end of the day, the general will lose his troops. Please punish him, commander!"

Looking at Luo Xiong kneeling in front of him, Cao Wenzhao's facial muscles trembled violently for a few times. After hesitating for a while, he made up his mind: "First take off this person's epaulettes and find him."

Lock it up somewhere!”

"Commander, please be more generous."

"Yes, Commander, the thieves are cunning, and the other party also has machine guns. This defeat is not a crime of war!"

"Gendarme, execute the order! Anyone who dares to intercede for Luo Xiong will be guilty of the same crime!"

As the second commander of the Henghai Guard after Ma Chengzhao, although Cao Wenzhao was only in his thirties at this time, his qualifications and prestige were fully established. Therefore, after his order,

Even Du Hongyu, the commander of the Eighth Division, twitched the corner of his mouth a few times before daring to say a word. Luo Xiong, with a miserable face, allowed the military police to come up and remove the two-stripe and four-star epaulettes from his uniform.

.

In the previous charge of three thousand infantry, the Spanish artillery did not cause too many casualties: due to the long distance and transportation capacity, the Spanish artillery in the Philippines at this time is still a front-loading cannon.

What really caused huge casualties to the Ming infantry were the twenty machine guns deployed by the Spaniards in the first trench. In a short charging distance of two to three hundred meters, at least seven to eight hundred Ming soldiers fell to the machine guns.

Under abundant firepower.

Then, after the remaining two thousand soldiers approached the trenches, the more than three thousand Spaniards on this line of defense rushed out of the trenches and locked bayonets with the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty after two short rounds of rifle fire.

The Ming soldiers suffered a big loss in terms of numbers, suffered a slight loss in terms of physique, and had no advantage at all in terms of morale... In addition, the opponent's machine gunners were still behind and hit wherever Ming soldiers gathered.

Therefore, after this bayonet fight lasted for more than half an hour, the Ming army was slowly pushed down from the trench line by the Spaniards. Finally, Luo Xiong was able to control the troops and did not let them collapse in a swarm.

Maintain contact with the opponent's pursuers and slowly retreat - in this way, the Spanish artillery will not be able to bombard our side again. After slowly retreating three to four hundred meters, and receiving the support of our own artillery fire, we finally led the remaining soldiers.

Come down.

After retreating, we conducted an inventory: 3,000 people went up, but more than 1,700 did not come back, and the battle loss rate exceeded half! This was an unprecedented defeat since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty's new army!

Luo Xiong, who was specifically responsible for the command, burst into tears and ran to Cao Wenzhao to plead guilty.

As a general who has experienced many battles, Cao Wenzhao saw clearly from the rear: the biggest problem why our soldiers were repulsed was that after our soldiers approached the enemy's trenches, they could not give way while running.

The heavy machine guns opened fire, so the soldiers of the Ming army could only use single-shot rifles to shoot at the opponent: in this way, the attacker's firepower was severely suppressed by the defender - this was the root cause of the failure of this charge.

Despite this understanding, Cao Wenzhao still wanted to temporarily remove Luo Xiong's position: this was to protect Luo Xiong.

Since the establishment of the Privy Council, the emperor has returned all the power of specific operations to the soldiers. In this way, not to mention ordinary civil servants, even the emperor's teachers like Xiong Tingbi and Sun Chuanting, who have been personally promoted by the emperor, have a certain degree of understanding.

dissatisfaction. From this we can see how much pressure the emperor was under?

Therefore, the battle of Luzon must be won! It must be won as beautifully as possible! Otherwise, the warriors will not be able to live up to the emperor's trust and support!

For the same reason, this time Luo Xiong must be fired from his position first: with such a huge defeat, the news cannot be blocked at all, and Cao Wenzhao has no intention of blocking it. If Luo Xiong is not fired, it will be impossible to block the upcoming news.

The surge of official comments and the counterattack of civil servants!

"Hey, messenger."

"The humble job is here."

"Send an envoy to the Westerners and ask for permission to send a small number of personnel to the front line to collect the remains of our soldiers."

"yes!"

"In addition, we are going to find a communication ship. We are going to the south of the city to interview Liu Zhaosun."

"As commanded."

After Li Guozhu and Yan Siqi's fleets escorted the army ashore, they escorted a large number of transport ships back north. However, after all, there was rainforest outside Manila at this time, so the army, which moved north and south, still found many communication ships left by the navy.

It is to facilitate the generals on both sides to communicate with each other.

"We attacked this morning and suffered heavy losses. More than 1,700 brothers have not returned."

"Hey, we also attacked. It's even worse. Nearly two thousand brothers didn't come back."

"Well... after this battle, I feel that the emergence of machine guns has given the defender a huge advantage. We need a machine gun that can be easily picked up by a single soldier, and can be used during the charge.

A firearm that can spray a large number of dense bullets."

"It makes sense, and in my opinion, it would be better if we could have a large steel plate or something that could move forward automatically."

"You think further than I do about recruiting a grandson."

"Where, in the words of the emperor, the development of this world is driven by lazy people. Because lazy people always think about how to save more effort, they will naturally keep making various demands."

"Haha, okay, stop joking, I'm here this time to ask for something."

"Do you want me to transfer all the breech-loading cannon from my side to your side?"

"That's right. Zhao Sun, now it seems that we have underestimated the enemy. The Western thieves trapped in Luzon have no fighting will compared to our army. Their defense is extremely good, and their firepower is also very powerful. If you want to

To break the situation, we have to rely on cannons!"

"Okay, I have nine breech-loading cannons here. I will send the order soon and ask them to organize manpower to carry them."

"Thank you."

"Thank you." Liu Zhaosun waved his hand: "According to the position, you are the commander and I am the deputy commander. I have to carry out your orders. According to the story of Zigong's redemption that the emperor has preached for many years, since the whole army

The best eighteen cannons are all concentrated in your hands, so you will be responsible for the main attack. I will just quietly encourage you in the south and help you contain some of the enemy forces."

"Okay, then I won't be polite." Cao Wenzhao stood up and said, "Help me transport the cannon here later, and then I'll rearrange the attack plan immediately when I get back."

"Well..." After pondering for a while, Liu Zhaosun also stood up and patted Cao Wenzhao on the shoulder: "Brother Cao, we must win this battle. I don't think I need to say more about this.

Brother, I want to emphasize that since we met at Henghaiwei, the enemies across from us have always been inferior to us in terms of firearms. And this time, the firearms of the Westerners are comparable to mine. But I always feel that my Ming Dynasty man

, there will never be a war without the advantage of firearms."

"...My virtuous brother has learned a lot!"

And on the other side.

"Your Majesty the Grand Duke, the people of the Ming Dynasty sent envoys to negotiate with us and want to withdraw the corpses of the soldiers they left in front of the trenches."

"Agree, but tell them that this process must be completed under the supervision of our soldiers, and the number of people they send to collect the corpses cannot exceed two hundred people."

"I follow your instructions. In addition, there are more than 790 wounded soldiers from the Ming Dynasty on our northern and southern fronts. Do you think?"

"Hey..." Henry looked up and looked out the window at the unobstructed view of the sea: "We are alone thousands of miles away from our homeland, so we don't know how long we can hold on. In order to protect us in case of defeat,

If the treatment can be slightly better, tell the people of the Ming Dynasty to let them pay for the redemption of the injured. No matter how minor or serious the injury is, they will receive ten double pillars for each person."

"Praise for your kindness, Your Excellency."

"Hmm." After waving his hand and letting the officials below handle the relevant matters, Henry said to his adjutant: "Abel, how many casualties will we suffer this time?"

"The Ming Dynasty attacked from the north and south of Manila City at the same time this morning, pouring a large number of artillery shells in front and behind our position... Coupled with the losses in the bayonet battle later, our two defense lines in the north and south had a total of six killed.

One hundred and thirty-six people, 455 of whom were wounded and unable to fight for the time being."

"Hiss..." Taking a deep breath, Henry's face became solemn: "There are so many casualties in just one day. What will we do if it lasts for ten days? It seems that we have to change our tactics.
Chapter completed!