If they don't help the Liberation Army succeed now, how will they survive when the Liberation Army is defeated by the Spaniards?
The tragedy in San Fernando not only taught the Spaniards not to take action against the Chinese, otherwise Zhu Hongyu would have no bottom line in his revenge.
I also told the Chinese living in Luzon not to take any chances with the Spaniards!
Now that the Liberation Army is still there, they dare to massacre the Chinese. If the Liberation Army is destroyed, who among all the Chinese in Luzon will be spared?
Don't forget, the Spaniards have a record of murdering China.
Not to mention that Zhu Hongyu was polite and respectful to them, and even made promises to them, pretending to be a wise monarch and a courteous corporal.
Even if Zhu Hongyu did nothing, they still had to work hard for the Liberation Army for themselves and their families, even if they prepared their own dry food.
…
After Zhu Hongyu met with Lin Jiayan's Chinese representatives, he did not start to change anything, but let Lin Jiayan continue to maintain the status quo.
In addition to distributing a batch of muskets captured from the Spanish to the people based on clan units.
In addition to letting the Chinese people in Lingayen practice and prepare for the Spanish counterattack, Zhu Hongyu only took away a batch of food from Lingayen.
Of course, he didn’t prostitute for nothing, he was paid!
The Liberation Army only repaired for one day in Lingayen, and then continued to advance towards other Spanish towns.
Sword pointed at Saint Jones!
The towns the Liberation Army passed by along the way were all famous for the massacre of San Fernando by the Liberation Army.
There is no need for the Liberation Army to take the initiative to launch an attack. Often, as soon as the Liberation Army advances outside the town, people from the town will be sent out to ask for surrender.
Zhu Hongyu accepted their surrender. The soldiers must surrender unconditionally and the civilians can evacuate safely.
It seems that a routine has been formed!
The Liberation Army approached St. Jones, recapturing six small and large towns along the way and capturing five to six hundred prisoners of war.
Most of them are pure-blooded white people!
The defensive strength of these towns is not very strong. Most of them have one or two hundred troops stationed, while some of them only have dozens of troops.
Except for one town that resisted stubbornly, all the other towns surrendered.
After this stubbornly resistant town was captured by the Liberation Army, all Spanish soldiers who dared to resist were killed.
Although the civilians were not killed, all their property was confiscated.
Used to shock!
The Liberation Army advanced all the way to St. Jones, encountering few obstacles.
Since the Liberation Army came out of the mountains, their offensive has been progressing very quickly, as smoothly as if they were helped by God!
During the nearly month-long war, the Liberation Army captured or forced the surrender of eight towns, liberating a Chinese population of over 10,000.
They defeated and captured 800 to 900 Spanish soldiers, and seized countless muskets, artillery, gunpowder, shells, grain, money, and various other materials.
In one fell swoop, they struck directly from the mountainous areas to the central plain of Luzon, threatening St. Jones with their troops.
The fundamental reason why the Liberation Army was able to fight so smoothly was not because of how capable the Liberation Army was, but because the Spanish forces were too dispersed.
There are so many towns along the way, and each town has more or less garrison troops.
The total number of these garrison troops is about eight or nine hundred.
If these eight or nine hundred people were all gathered together, it would be impossible for the Liberation Army to eat them all in one bite. Even if they could be defeated, it would only be after a hard battle and a certain price.
However, in order to defend the place, the Spanish forces were too dispersed.
There were as few as dozens of people and as many as one or two hundred. These dispersed troops were completely vulnerable to the Liberation Army, and were defeated one by one by the Liberation Army.
The moment the twelve-pointed sun-and-moon flag of the Liberation Army appeared outside the city of St. Jones, the Spaniards in the city were instantly panicked.
San Jones is one of the most important cities in the central plain of Luzon Island. There are nearly 300 garrison troops. The bastion is stronger and taller than the bastion of San Fernando.
The Liberation Army camped outside the city of St. Jones, ready to attack at any time.
Zhu Hongyu stood on a raised hill and looked at St. Jones in the distance, his eyes full of meaning that was incomprehensible.
Wang Youcai, wearing a breastplate, strode to Zhu Hongyu and spoke.
"General, St. Jones did not send anyone out of the city to ask for surrender. It seems that he wants to resist to the end."
Zhu Hongyu frowned and then spoke.
"Give me the order to build a fortress on the spot and prepare to attack the city in caves!"
After saying this, he turned around and returned to the camp, and then ordered a meeting of the generals of the Liberation Army.
After everyone arrived, Zhu Hongyu spoke.
"Calculating the time, the Spanish reinforcements should have arrived by now!"
"The results our army has achieved in this battle are already substantial enough. There is no need to continue to risk going deep into enemy territory."
"If we continue the fight, our army will be at risk of being cut off and being surrounded and annihilated!"
The current Liberation Army is like the Jiannu in the late Ming Dynasty. It can fight, but it is limited in strength and cannot swallow up the entire Ming Dynasty.
The Spaniards are like the Ming Dynasty. Although the combat effectiveness of the army is not too bad, because they have to leave troops to garrison in places, their troops are too scattered.
The Ming Dynasty's elite troops were distributed in the entire nine-sided direction. Facing the enemy forces that gathered together and broke through from one point, the nine-sided defense line that the Ming Dynasty painstakingly managed appeared to be very fragile.
It almost breaks with a poke!
However, even so, Jiannu entered the customs every time, and except for the time in Jiashen year, he never crossed the Huaihe River.
It's not that Jiannu can't be defeated, but that they don't want to fight too deep into enemy territory.
The current situation of the Liberation Army is also the same. The Spanish’s St. Jones is almost the Huaihe River line of the Ming Dynasty.
After passing St. Jones, we reach the core of Spanish rule in Luzon.
In this campaign, Zhu Hongyu would withdraw his troops as soon as he could capture St. Jones at most, prepare for defense in response to the Spanish counterattack, and would never continue to advance toward Manila.
…
The Liberation Army is preparing to capture St. Jones!
As news of the fall of towns continued to spread, the atmosphere in Manila became increasingly solemn.
Everyone has a feeling of impending disaster!
Governor Barossa held an emergency meeting to discuss how to respond.
"Everyone was talking about what to do. After defeating Colonel Robin, the rebels chose to go out to fight."
"They conquered San Fernando, Lingayen and other towns one after another, and advanced towards San Jones."
"In the process, those rebels even committed the horrific San Fernando tragedy!"
"All the Spaniards and natives in San Fernando were brutally killed. Even the young men who were defeated and captured before were brutally murdered by the rebels outside San Fernando."
"Since the rebellion started, we have been defeated several times because we did not pay enough attention to the enemy and underestimated the enemy. Although the number of troops lost each time was not much, the total number of these losses amounted to an astonishing more than 2,600!
"
"This can't go on like this!"
"Now, Spain's rule in Luzon is facing the most severe challenge in more than a hundred years!"
“The glory of God in Manila is threatened!”
"We must not retreat. Although our troops are tight, we must mobilize manpower to reinforce St. Jones!"
"We must not sit back and watch St. Jones fall to our enemies!"