In the early morning, the last hour before dawn, explosions occurred one after another inside the fort.
As if for free, grenades were continuously thrown down from the upper floor. A dozen heavy matchlock guns were quickly silenced.
In such a narrow space, the power of grenades is very terrifying. The Spaniards were suppressed in the house and could not rush out. The more than 100 people who first rushed out after hearing the explosion were already dead. They were beaten by pistols and grenades.
They destroyed it from a high position. Because the fort was round, they used matchlock guns to shoot at the enemies on the upper level opposite, but suddenly grenades were dropped from above their heads, blowing them away.
After the large troops rushed in, they started fighting house to house. The pirates threw a few grenades in and immediately knocked the Spaniards in the closed cave-style room upside down.
At daybreak, the remaining Spanish surrendered.
When Yang Fan saw the flaming phoenix flag raised on the fort, he yawned, turned around and went back to the bedroom to sleep.
Now that the fort has been occupied, the rest is a matter for the pirate group. They will firmly occupy the north bank of the river and push the heavy artillery on the warship to the gun position. Yang Fan's naval gun has a long range and can use the height of the fort.
Covering the entire Intramuros of Manila.
Yang Fan deliberately set an alarm and got up at four o'clock just to watch the raid. Now that the overall situation was decided, the rest of the artillery battle with the pirate group could be arranged by themselves. He was going to go back and catch up on his sleep.
Inside the balcony, inside the French door, on a big bed, the little girl and the others were sleeping soundly.
When Yang Fan opened the quilt and got into bed, Xiao Niangpi woke up.
"Sir, has the fort been taken down?" Xiao Niangpi asked sleepily. They didn't want to get up in the middle of the night to watch any military operations. They naturally wanted to sleep.
"Well, it's taken down. I don't need to worry about the rest. They are transferring the cannon. The only thing left is to have an artillery battle with the Royal City until the Spaniards surrender." Yang Fan said, yawned and hugged his mother.
Pi fell asleep.
He slept until after eight o'clock. He was awakened by the sound of artillery.
Although it was far away, the sound of the cannon still woke up the wives who were sleeping in.
Xiao Niangpi picked up the Patek Philippe watch on the pillow, looked at it, and said: "The pirates are quite capable. They transported all the cannons to the fort so quickly."
The Spaniards were horrified. They did not expect that in just one night, the fort opposite would be captured by the Ming army. At this moment, they were also panicking.
There are only more than 3,000 Spanish conquistadors soldiers in Manila, and there are also 1,000 mercenaries composed of recruited local natives and Japanese ronin. But now, there are 3,000 Ming soldiers swarming on the other side.
There were six to seven hundred people. There was also a fleet at sea. Moreover, it could be seen from the towers inside the city wall. More than three thousand people landed on the south bank of the river. Obviously these people were coming towards the city of Manila. The Spaniards suddenly felt that their troops were insufficient.
.
In fact, it is very rare for an overseas colonial stronghold to have an armed force of four thousand people. The reason why there are so many people here is because this is the trade base between Spain and the Ming Dynasty. But once it confronts the Ming Dynasty, these few people
It's not enough to watch.
The Spanish governor already regretted accepting the English. He did not expect that the Ming Dynasty actually had such a powerful maritime armed force.
At this time, it was too late to regret. As soon as the fort on the opposite side was lost, the situation in Manila City immediately became worse. The heavy artillery from the opposite side came roaring.
The Governor was on a large green baize table on the second floor of the Government House, discussing the current serious situation with a dozen officers in front of a sand table. At this time, a spherical solid bullet hit, shattering a window, and then
, a fifty-pound lead ball directly smashed a big hole in the wall, and the floor was also penetrated. In the end, half of the entire small building collapsed.
The Governor and his officers fled in disgrace. When he came to the street, he saw lead balls flying from the sky everywhere. Each of these fifty-pound cannonballs would destroy a building.
The collapse of things.
"Your Majesty the Governor, the warships of the Ming Dynasty have returned again. At this time, they also joined the bombardment of us." Captain Sanchez said.
"Where's our cannon? Fire immediately to fight back against them." The governor roared angrily. He was almost killed by a shot put from the fort just now.
"Your Majesty the Governor, our artillery can only eject shells. It can't hit the other side if it shoots directly. The one where the ejection is aimed..." Sanchez didn't know what to say.
"We have a lot of artillery, and when we shoot at them, don't you see that they also use projectiles?"
"Okay, sir, we'll call you back right away."
Less than half a day after the shooting began, Sanchez discovered that it was a bad idea to shoot against the fort. There was a military fortress over there, which was very resistant to attack. And there were no targets without cover. And here was the city, and the artillery shells coming from the opposite side were hit almost every time.
One shot can hit anything.
After the naval guns were added, the artillery battle quickly became one-sided. After all, the gun emplacements on the city wall were fixed targets, while the battleships were moving targets. Naturally, fixed targets were easy to hit. By evening, a large number of horse-mounted emplacements on the city wall were hit.
It collapsed. Some of the heavy cannons fell into the moat below as the city wall collapsed. Some were directly hit by fifty-pound cannonballs and knocked to the ground.
Yang Fan had been restrained and did not use incendiary bombs. He only fired a few rounds to scare them when he arrived on the first day. The main reason was that he did not want to damage this strong fortress city too much. At the same time, there were many people of the Ming Dynasty in the city.
Try to avoid accidental injuries.
Yang Fan used his binoculars to look at the city wall that had been bombarded by fifty-pound cannons and was as damaged as if it had been gnawed by dogs. It was full of gaps, and the 30-pound cannons on it were either knocked over or collapsed along with the city wall. It seemed that he had
Choosing the fifty-pounder as the naval gun was the right choice. A shell of this weight can be used as a naval heavy gun. It can also be used for ground attack. This is a properly weighted siege gun configuration. There are many mortar shells.
It's only about fifty kilograms, and there are even twenty or thirty kilograms.
"Manila City's artillery and city walls have been almost destroyed. A large area of the city wall has collapsed. Tonight, according to the original plan, two pirate groups will launch a fierce attack on Manila City from the north and south directions." Yang Fan said.
Xu Xiu turned around and went out to deliver the order. Yang Fan called in Lu Song, the military director of the pirate group.
"Get ready and set up a temporary court. When Manila is captured tomorrow, conduct a behind-closed-doors search throughout the city for three days. Arrest all the criminals who participated in the massacre of the people of the Ming Dynasty twenty-six years ago. Then follow the laws of the Ming Dynasty.
Judge them. We cannot give up on the Spaniards who have died and returned home. You can count them and give me a report. I will send a few prisoners back and give our demands to the King of Spain."
"One is to extradite criminals, and the other is civil compensation. Even if some people are dead, their civil liability for compensation cannot be eliminated. These need to be paid by the Spanish royal family. After all, these people were sent by the Spanish king."
