After all, Zhu Youdong still failed to preside over the state affairs meeting the next day. After continuing to work overtime until five in the morning, the emperor did not wake up until noon after falling asleep. Fang Zhenghua, who came over in the morning to wait for orders, looked at the emperor who was snoring like thunder.

He boldly asked the General Secretary to cancel the meeting for the day.

However, since he was such a diligent emperor, he naturally urged the officials below to work hard. Yuan Keli never rested after entering his residence in Beijing, and immediately began to draft an introduction to the Ottoman country and a draft aid plan.

The center of the Ming Dynasty is like this, and the people below will naturally follow suit. Even the Ming Dynasty Expeditionary Force, who are currently under the city of Manila, are not idle at this moment.

"Commander, our supply ship has arrived."

"Huh? You're really on time."

On November 27, 1621, Li Guozhu and Yan Siqi led the main fleet to escort more than 300 transport ships to Manila again.

"Hahaha, brother Zhenquan, how quickly did you come?"

"Hey, we have to hurry up. The letters brought by your communication ship are urgent. I guess you don't have many artillery shells in the army at this time, right?"

"Ashamed." Cao Wenzhao touched his helmet worriedly: "There are a lot of shells for the front-loading cannon, but all the shells for the breech-loading cannon were used up five days ago."

"Well, after receiving your letter, I urgently contacted the Changsha Shipyard and shipped all the 75mm breech-loading gun shells there to you."

"Oh, this has solved my urgent need. Thank you very much."

Both sides of the sea and land have their own logistics officers responsible for handing over materials. The chief officers of both sides began to communicate on the recent war situation on the shore.

"By the way, why didn't you see Brother Kunosuke?"

"Oh, he is on the Fengyang. After our fleet arrived at the mouth of Manila Bay, only the transport ships entered the bay, and the warships did not enter the bay. After all, we have never caught the Western fleet. If we all enter,

It would be bad if the Westerners seize the opportunity and block the bay."

"I see." Cao Wenzhao pondered for a moment and then said: "Why, Zhenquan hasn't seen the Western fleet in the past two months?"

"Of course I saw it. In the past two months, the transport ships were transporting supplies between Taipei and Changsha shipyards, and our fleet was hanging around nearby. But the other side fled immediately as soon as they saw our main fleet, so this decisive battle has always been

If there is no fight, the most we can do is fire a few shots at each other between our pursuit fleet and the opponent's warships lagging behind."

The Spanish fleet in Manila itself has twenty 1,200-ton battleships and thirty 600-ton second-level battleships, and its strength is not weak. Although in Li Guozhu, the Ming Dynasty's main fleet led by Yan Siqi had one ironclad and four

Ten first-level battleships and sixty second-level battleships are not enough to see, but they still retain the power to fight.

Therefore, for the sake of safety, Li Guozhu and Yan Siqi did not dare to divide their troops: after dividing their troops, the chance of seizing the opponent was greatly increased, but the possibility of their own victory was also much smaller.

What's even more troublesome is that the steam turbine was a forcibly produced product at this time, coupled with the lag in metallurgy and materials science. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty's Fengyang armored ship can theoretically run a maximum speed of 13.5 knots.

But in actual use, Li Guozhu and others found that if this ironclad ship wanted to sail normally for a long time, its maximum speed should not exceed nine knots.

As for Spain's sail warship, which was improved based on the Galen ship type of the traverser, if the wind direction and ocean current cooperate, it can run up to 15 knots at its highest!

Therefore, although the Ming Dynasty's main fleet discovered the Spanish Philippine Squadron several times, it was unable to capture it.

"That's it." Cao Wenzhao nodded and suddenly thought about it: "By the way, Zhenquan, how many letters from my communication ships have you received in total?"

"One ship, what?"

"Hey, after all, the other party has a fleet cruising nearby. Why would I only send one to send you a message? I sent three."

As soon as these words came out, the two people's faces became a little solemn.

After a while, Yan Siqi spoke again: "How is the war on land now?"

"There is progress, but it's slow."

During this period of time, Cao Wenzhao and Henry, who was based in Manila, were constantly competing in a battle of wits and courage.

At the beginning, Cao Wenzhao concentrated his breech-loading artillery and took advantage of its range advantage to bombard a certain section of the opponent's three-kilometer trench. After this section was basically leveled, he organized manpower to charge.

But there is also a problem with this charge: when the opponent has machine guns, it is absolutely impossible for the soldiers to charge intensively. But if they do not charge intensively, the Ming army soldiers using single-shot rifles cannot form fire suppression. Although the various types of trenches in this section

The defensive measures were destroyed by artillery fire, but you also clearly told the other party that I am going to attack here.

Therefore, Henry in Manila also adjusted his troops in time, especially the machine guns in the city, focusing on guarding the defense line that was destroyed by the opponent.

At the same time, Henry also organized the officers below to harass the Ming army by sending a small number of soldiers out to lure the enemy, launching night attacks, organizing commandos to go out at night, and placing machine gun positions in front.

The Ming army, on the other hand, also used tricks and tactics, and even organized commandos to advance at night - so the battle between the two sides continued from the artillery bombardment - charge - blocking during the day, to the "special forces" operation at night.

"In total, in the two months of fighting, more than 8,000 of our troops have been killed. Among them, at least 6,000 died because they attacked the opponent's trenches and fell under the opponent's machine guns."

"Hey, this is really a rare tragedy. Even in the decisive battle in the East China Sea four years ago, when so many warships of our navy were sunk, there were no such casualties." After saying this, Yan Siqi quickly changed the subject: "

How is the progress of our army?"

"It's not bad." Cao Wenzhao smiled miserably: "The opponent's first trench five kilometers north of the city has lost its effectiveness due to repeated bombardment by our army. Now the opponent has voluntarily given up. But the opponent's first trench three kilometers north of the city has lost its effectiveness.

The trench, hey, is only two kilometers long. As a result, the opponent's firepower density will be greater! However." At this point, Cao Wenzhao also raised his voice a little: "As long as this trench is captured again, our army's rear

The cannon can directly bombard the Manila city wall. As long as the opponent's city wall collapses, even if the opponent still refuses to surrender and wants to engage in street fighting, I feel that it is much more comfortable than fighting such trench warfare."

"Hahaha, Wen Zhao. The opponent's front is shorter and the firepower density is increased, but the length of our side that needs to be destroyed is also much shorter. So, won't the progress be faster?"

"Well, what Zhenquan said makes sense. And after the last two months of fighting, our army craftsmen also rushed out a batch of sharp-edged weapons for us."

"oh?"

"Zhenquan, please take a look." After Cao Wenzhao signaled, the staff officer next to him brought over a strange-looking rifle. Uh, no, it was a pistol?

"Huh? Brother Cao, I think this thing is modified from a pistol, right?"

"Well, Zhenquan has a good eye. This is our army craftsman. He installed a long stock on the pistol, lengthened the barrel, and then moved the trigger back slightly through the linkage device. Speaking of which, our army is facing the other side.

Isn't the biggest difficulty in the trenches the lack of intensive firepower to suppress the opponent's machine gun after entering the range? With this, our soldiers can fire six bullets continuously in a short period of time, which is more dense than the firepower of a single-shot rifle.

Six times stronger! In this way, within the range of 100 meters to 50 meters, our soldiers shoot continuously with revolvers, charge, and throw grenades after reaching the range of 50 meters. In this way, the firepower density during the charge will increase! "

"Hahaha, it's a strange idea, but I think it's really useful!"

"Hey, this is all forced out. If we had a weapon that could pour out a large amount of firepower at a distance of 200 to 100 meters, this battle wouldn't be so hard."

"Okay, okay, brother Cao, my army officers are all good. If you transform them like this, I guess you can invite me to have tea in Manila the next time I give you a foster child.

"

"Try hard not to let Brother Zhenquan miss you... Huh? What's the sound?"

"No! This is a warship of our navy giving a warning! I can't believe that there is enemy activity outside the bay at this time! Brother Cao, let's say goodbye for now. I won't bother with the unloading matter."

"Okay, Zhenquan, go quickly, take care!"

...

At this moment, at the narrow entrance of Manila Bay, Li Guozhu, who was sitting on the Fengyang, put down his telescope with a solemn expression: "TMD, it seems that reinforcements from the West have arrived. I didn't expect that the King of the West would send them thousands of miles away.
Chapter completed!