Compared with internal combustion engines, steam engines have a particularly obvious shortcoming: they are bulky. In this era when time travelers gave birth to steam engines in advance, due to the failure of metallurgy, materials and other disciplines to keep up, steam engines at this time were even more famous for their bulkiness.

Therefore, it is impossible for this expedition to have steam engines to provide land power. Cao Wenzhao's transfer of artillery was all accomplished by manpower and animal power, which was of course extremely inefficient - nine breech-loading cannons, It took three days to enter the artillery position in the north of Manila.

In the historical plane, the ultimate range of the peak muzzleloader gun is 3200 meters. Of course, when hitting this distance, how far the impact point is from the target depends purely on faith. In fact, in Zhu Youdong's era, the 120mm front-loaded guns of the Ming Dynasty and Spain The effective range of bore guns is only seven to eight hundred meters - at this distance, there is almost no need to consider the hit rate. If you want to be effective, you can only focus the fire to cover the shooting.

Now, the Ming Dynasty's breech-loaded cannon uses smokeless gunpowder as propellant. This cannon was developed by the Fangshan School Firearms Laboratory and manufactured by the Honghe Arsenal. It is numbered "Tiger Roar" and weighs 1.9 tons. Its caliber is 75mm. The length of the tube is 30 times the diameter. The maximum range is 5,000 meters, and the effective range is 3,500 meters. With such data, it can of course completely crush all kinds of muzzle-loading guns behind the first Spanish trench on the opposite side.

Of course, the breech-loading cannon is a new thing. How to use it better, even Cao Wenzhao and others have to constantly explore and learn in battle. In the first attack on October 1, Cao Wenzhao The nine breech-loading guns in his hand were evenly used by each division, but the effect was very poor. But this time, he decided to concentrate the eighteen breech-loading guns to bombard a small section of the opponent's defense line.

"Boom~"

On October 5, Cao Wenzhao gave an order, and eighteen breech-loading guns began to fire intensively at a small section of the opponent's three-kilometer trench.

"Commander, the observation tower reports that our army's first batch of artillery shells basically exploded in front of and behind the enemy's trenches, and the farthest impact point was only more than thirty meters away."

"Very good, let the brothers adjust the shooting of Zhu Yuan and make it as accurate as possible."

While the Ming Dynasty's artillery was firing hard, Du Hongyu, commander of the Eighth Division, personally led the engineers of three divisions on the north side of Manila City to begin digging trenches: the trench siege method was not only used by Europeans.

While the Eighth Division was struggling to dig trenches, Mao Wenlong also led the First Division forward, firmly guarding his own artillery and engineers. If the Spaniards dared to rush over, it would be up to them to learn from the Ming Dynasty's machine guns.

…

On this morning, after the Ming army's shelling began, he originally ordered his soldiers to hide in the trenches with peace of mind. After the Ming army's shelling ended and the infantry rushed up, he used machine guns to harvest the lives of the opponents again. Unexpectedly, a whole In the morning, the Ming army did not launch a full-line artillery bombardment, but repeatedly bombarded a small section in the middle of the three-kilometer front: After a morning of artillery bombardment, all the bunkers and supports in this trench basically no longer existed. Not many of the more than 200 soldiers in a short section of trenches were killed by direct shelling, but those who were shocked to death, stunned, collapsed on their own, and buried alive could basically be regarded as the entire army being wiped out.

"Sea!" At this time, sitting on the defensive line on the north side of Manila City was a colonel named Jose. "Where are our artillery! We have been bombarded all morning, can't they fire a few shots to show off?"

"Colonel, the rear lookout post reports that the enemy's artillery positions are at least four thousand meters away from our artillery positions, and our artillery cannot reach them."

"Asshole! If we don't think of a way, our two-hundred-meter trench will no longer exist! Then we will have to be exposed in the wilderness and fight face-to-face with the Ming people! No, we must find a way."

Enduring the constant shaking of the ground and the constant falling dust from the top of the underground bunker, Jose shook his hands, took out a crumpled cigarette from his jacket pocket, lit it and took a few puffs, but he had no time to enjoy it.

The short-term relief that tobacco brought him ended with him coughing violently due to inhaling the dust falling from the roof.

"Damn it!" He fiercely left the remaining half of the cigarette on the ground, stretched out a foot and stepped on it a few times before shouting: "Javier!"

"Captain?"

"After the battle four days ago, how many men do you still have in your battalion?"

"There were eight hundred and seven this morning, but now there are only six hundred and nine."

"Sea!" After another damn curse, Jose said: "I will transfer the troops directly under the regiment headquarters to you and supplement your battalion to a thousand men. You lead them forward and charge forward."

"Charge?" Javier was stunned for a moment: "Commander, the Ming people's artillery fire was very violent."

"It's precisely because the shelling is so fierce that we have to charge." Looking at Javier who was obviously unhappy, Jose patted him on the shoulder: "The Ming people's artillery has been firing all morning, and the shelling is getting more and more accurate.

There is a section of our defense line that can be said to no longer exist. This defense is not good here. If it is broken at one point, the entire front line will be shaken. So we must rush forward and force the Ming people's artillery to pause for a period of time so that our engineers can repair it.

Line of defense.”

"I understand, but the other side's cannon?"

"Idiot! At this moment, the Ming people's cannons are firing at a section of the front. What do you have to be afraid of if you rush out from other places? You won't refuse to carry out my order, right? Hmm!"

"Okay, as you wish."

After walking out of the regiment headquarters and replenishing his troops with the assistance of the regiment's staff officers, Havel took a long time to calm down his men. Then at three o'clock in the afternoon on October 5, he led more than a thousand people

The Spanish soldiers jumped out of the trenches and, using skirmishing tactics, began to advance towards the Ming army's front.

After the plowing and artillery bombardment on October 1, the large trees on the five-kilometer stretch of land between the Ming Army and the Western Army had long since ceased to exist. Therefore, not long after the Western Army jumped out of the trenches,

, was spotted by a Ming army lookout two kilometers away, and their movements were quickly reported.

"Hahaha, these bastards are finally willing to show up. After listening to the shelling for a day, their ears are almost deafened. Finally, they can open their doors now!" After laughing heartily, Mao Wenlong roared loudly: "Brothers, get into the fighting position,

Everyone, listen carefully, I didn’t make a sound, no one is allowed to shoot, just put the opponent as close as possible and hit him!"

"Got the order!"

…

As the son of a small Castilian landowner, Javier was not brave: he just had to join the army because there were too many children in the family and the inheritance was too small. Therefore, after he came out with his troops, he went very

slow.

Not only that, he also divided his army of one thousand men into three teams, and the three teams advanced alternately with each other. It can be said that he was extremely cautious.

"The Ming people's artillery can shoot so far. They must have smokeless gunpowder. With smokeless gunpowder, they must also have machine guns. Damn Jose, how could he not understand such a simple truth? What on earth was he thinking?

Yes! I haven’t offended him usually!”

Although he was talking in vain, as a soldier, the orders of his superiors must be carried out. Therefore, no matter how slowly he walked, by four o'clock in the afternoon, they had passed the first lookout post of the Ming Army - the sentry here.

They had already retreated.

At 4:10, they discovered the Ming Army's Mao Wenlong Division who was about one kilometer away from them. However, the other party just looked at them quietly in a simple bunker and had no intention of shooting.

Javier helplessly led his soldiers to move forward. When he was only 500 meters away from the opponent, he began to let one of his company commanders lead the charge. And he further slowed down the two troops behind him.

pace.

"It seems that the leader of the opponent's army is very cautious." After seeing the opponent's arrangement through the telescope, Mao Wenlong sighed: "That's all, let's eat some pickles first to relieve our fatigue."

Following his order, the Ming army's powerful firepower poured out towards the opponent's more than 300 people who were only more than 300 meters away from him. In a few breaths, more than half of the Spaniards rushing at the front were knocked down.

.

"Sure enough! The opponent does have machine guns! Retreat, the entire army retreats!"

"Hmph, you've already arrived, do you still want to leave? Chen Jisheng, bring your battalion and pursue us!"

"As you command!"

…

"Huh huh huh~ This damn Jose, as long as I escape back, I will definitely not play with him!" I walked more than two kilometers and ran back the same distance. Strictly speaking, it is not that far. But you can't stand it here in Luzon Island.

In a typical tropical rainforest climate, rain comes at any time. Where there is no concrete road, it is always mud. Therefore, running for two kilometers in such mud is a serious drain on physical strength.

However, when he just saw his own trench in his sight, he suddenly heard screams from behind him, from the Ming army's battle line that was chasing him so fast at first.
Chapter completed!