The eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month in the eighth year of Xiaokang, Manila Bay.
Seven days have passed since Zheng Chenggong prepared the siege camp for Manila City. The Ming army's heavy siege mortars finally began to output firepower against the city of Manila.
The Spanish defenders gritted their teeth and held on desperately under the leadership of Army Major General Paula. However, the disadvantage of firepower range made it difficult for the Spanish army to see hope. The indigenous servants in the city were even bombarded to the point of low morale.
Finally, on this day, the Spaniards made their final desperate move.
Vice Admiral Lamond's fleet finally appeared at the mouth of Manila Bay, the kind that suddenly attacked at night from the southwest sea. Approaching in the middle of the night, Foxiao entered the strait, and then looked for an opportunity to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army's escort fleet in the early morning.
Zheng Chenggong has been guarding against this move, so he has assembled his naval power very well. Recently, the ammunition supply is sufficient, but the food is not enough. He will not easily send the transport fleet back to Fujian to collect goods to avoid the transport fleet being patrolled at sea.
Spanish fleet intercepts and kills.
Anyway, it was just a shortage of food. Killing some of the indigenous tribes who served as colonial lackeys for the Spaniards and grabbing the stored food would be enough.
The soldiers of the Ming army who came to fight in the Philippines were originally from Fujian and Guangxi. Their eating habits were close to the tropics, so it was not impossible for them to eat palm powder and sago.
Everything left the Spaniards with no choice but to fight head-on.
It was also at this moment that Zheng Chenggong observed the size of the Spanish fleet in detail through the telescope. There were actually more than thirty warships, and looking at the shape, it was obvious that some of them were ships from Europe, and the other part were from Manila.
Warships built locally in shipyards——
Don't ask Zheng Chenggong how he figured it out. His family has dominated the waters of East Asia and Southeast Asia for generations, and of course they are very familiar with the Spanish shipbuilding industry in the Philippines.
In previous years, Spanish ships also paid him protection fees, three thousand taels of silver per ship per year.
Historically, before his death, Zheng Chenggong tried to attack Luzon from Dadan to expand his territory after regaining Dajuan. Unfortunately, he was dissuaded by Feng Xifan. Feng Xifan's reason was:
"The Spaniards still give us money based on the number of ships every year. Now to suddenly turn against them and attack them is against morality. It will damage the reputation of the Zheng family at sea. In the future, others will be less active in paying money. Overall, the financial loss will be even worse.
Moreover, Luzon is the window for the Spanish to transport silver from the Americas for trade. Every year, they have to buy tens of millions of taels of silver from Luzon. If this place is taken down, the Spaniards will no longer come to trade, and only the Netherlands will be left.
If the Hongyi family has a monopoly, the import volume of goods from the Ming Dynasty will definitely decrease, and the money we earn from trade will also be greatly reduced."
It can be seen that the Zheng family is still familiar with the naval strength and fleet ship types in the Philippines.
Now Zhu Shuren asked the Zheng family to wait until they were well-off for eight years before attacking Spain, instead of attacking Spain last year. In addition to repairing the ship and recuperating the wounded, there was another reason for Zheng Chenggong to stop collecting protection fees from the Spanish one year in advance, and to
The massacre of Han Chinese in Manila continues to draw diplomatic condemnation.
If you come back to kill them after a year, if they haven't paid the protection fee to the Zheng family this year, it won't be regarded as Ming's betrayal.
Last year I found out it was too late and already collected your money so I couldn't kill you. This year I will kill you if I don't take it.
At this moment, among the more than thirty warships Zheng Chenggong saw, there were actually eight Manila-type three-layer gun deck heavy Galen warships, and six European-made heavy Galen warships, bringing the total number of heavy Galen warships to ten.
As many as four ships.
The remaining Karak warships and double-decker medium-sized gunboats add up to twenty-two, and the total number of warships is thirty-five.
However, this does not matter at all. Zheng Chenggong's total number of warships this time exceeded 200. Even if he had to divide his forces, the main fleet would still have hundreds of ships.
There are 6 80-gun battleships, 12 64-gun battleships, and more than 20 38-gun, 32-gun, and 24-gun frigates. In total, there are 80 new gunboats, which is more than double the total number of the Spanish. This is basically
It is also the main fleet of the Ming Navy.
The largest naval gun of the Spanish still has 42-pound ammunition, and it is very rare. Most of the lower-deck naval guns only have 32-pound ammunition. The bottom-level naval gun of the Ming army's battleship has reached 70 pounds.
There was no suspense in the battle between the battleships and the Manila-covered formation, and a head-on confrontation broke out.
The scene was far more grand than 20 months ago when Zheng Chenggong dealt with Vietnam's Procurement Fleet of All Nations.
The huge cannon roared, and the iron bullets smashed through the air and smashed through the thick hard oak armor on the side, and the ships and oars were wiped out.
Vice Admiral Lamond stared at the telescope with a livid face, and with firm eyes ordered his soldiers to fire wildly without stopping for a moment, even if the gun barrels became red-hot due to repeated bombardment, they were not allowed to slack off at all.
However, the problem of "the inability to penetrate the armor of the enemy ship's core area" can never be solved by voluntarism.
This world is scientific. No matter how tenacious the sailors of the Spanish fleet were and fought fiercely to the end, they could not let the shells they fired cause any penetrating damage to the reinforced steel armor of some compartments of the Ming army's battleships.
The bloody bombardment lasted for a full two hours. Three cases of explosions in the stern ammunition compartments of the Manila-type three-layer gun decks occurred one after another. Two of the warships were directly broken and sunk by the soaring flames, and the other one was also blown up.
The entire superstructure, especially the stern building, was blown away. Only the lower half of the body remained standing firm and refused to be submerged in the water.
Five or six Spanish medium and light gunboats were sunk.
But on Zheng Chenggong's side, the sail battle fleet has always maintained zero total destruction and zero sinking. Only two 24-gun fast frigates and one 38-gun heavy frigate were seriously damaged, and they had to use their speed advantage to escape from the battlefield.
As the Spanish fleet battle lines gradually became sparse and dilapidated, Zheng Chenggong decisively ordered the few battleships with relatively well-preserved combat power to turn around and rush towards the Spanish line, directly inserting themselves between the Spaniards, and then left and right
The sides were on full fire at the same time.
The firepower density of the Ming army nearly doubled in an instant, and the combat distance was close to within 200 steps. Some battleships even came as close as 150 steps. It looked like they could hit the sails with more force.
Same.
Unfortunately, the artillery battle had lasted too long. The masts and sails of both sides were seriously damaged by chain bombs and grapeshot respectively. It was impossible for anyone to pick up enough speed to carry out a collision battle.
The only thing the Spaniards still had a chance to do was to charge forward and engage in hand-to-hand combat, which did not require much speed and impact.
It is a pity that the Spaniards, as the party who took the initiative to engage the enemy, could only use the bow of the ship to fight the enemy. The Galen sailing ship had a tall poop, but did not have a Clark-type forecastle, so the active engagement of the ship's bow could not win any firepower.
The advantage of height difference,
In vain, they suffered a lot of extra close-to-face bombardments during the approach. Often when the two sides were dozens of steps apart, a round of face-to-face grape bombs from the Ming warships could kill and injure all the Spanish sailors.
Who told the Galenic sailing ship that the "advantage in boarding battle" was designed for the situation of "I bombard the opponent and force the other party to pick me up".
When the Galen ship was designed, it was the most powerful artillery ship in the world. Only others wanted to pick it up. It never actively wanted to pick up others. It only needed to consider the advantages when being picked up. Now when it encounters a battleship like this,
Galen ships are ships with better guns, so naturally they are awkward in every aspect.
Several boarding battles failed, but many people were killed by grape bullets during the charge. They finally ran into each other and were captured by Ming sailors who rushed back to the deck of the Spanish ship.
The latest bayonet rifle made in Wuchang can be used at both distance and close range, and is flexible for assassination. It also has the absolute upper hand in fighting on the deck.
"Why! Why have we never penetrated the enemy's ammunition depot! Why won't Zheng Chenggong's gunpowder explode?"
Lieutenant General Lamond saw that the bow and stern of his battleship were being attacked and bombarded by Ming battleships, and he couldn't help but let out a desperate and incompetent roar.
Not long after he finished his roar, his flagship Santo Domingo finally couldn't withstand the continuous bombardment from the stern, and the powder compartment was ignited.
The gunpowder cabin on the ship was originally designed to be fully loaded with 20 tons of gunpowder. Now after the fierce battle, only six or seven tons of gunpowder are left in stock. However, even the explosion of six or seven tons of black powder is still astonishing. The entire poop of the ship was blown up by ten pieces of gunpowder.
It was several feet high, and the sailors on the ship were instantly shocked to death.
A quarter of an hour later, Lieutenant General Lamond's body sank to the bottom of Manila Bay along with the broken ship.
…
The Spanish fleet suffered an absolute defeat in the end, but not all of it was sunk.
Because not all of them were sunk, with Lieutenant General Lamond and his flagship destroyed, the remaining Spanish warships either tried to rush to the Manila Harbor anchorage to escape, or were intercepted and captured by the Ming army and surrendered directly.
In this battle, the Spaniards originally broke through the waterway at the mouth of the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island from the outer sea at night, and entered the bay to fight. Zheng Chenggong had already ambushed his reserve team at the mouth of the bay.
After the defeat, a few Spanish ships tried to regain their way and escape, but they were intercepted and killed by the Ming army in the channel at the mouth of the bay. The forts on the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island also had shores controlled by the Ming army.
Defending against fortress artillery, and surrounded by enemies, the Spaniards had no chance of survival unless they returned to the anchorage in Manila Port.
Of the dozen or so Galen warships, three were sunk, four were severely burned, and the rest were damaged to varying degrees. Five fled back to the Manila anchorage, and the remaining two were captured and surrendered by the Ming army.
Of dozens of medium-sized warships, seven were sunk, three were burned, four were captured in the bay, and five were defeated and captured by the Ming army reserve ambush when they tried to turn around and rush out of the bay. In the end, only three were captured.
The ship fled back to Manila anchorage.
After a whole day of bloody battles, of the thirty-five battleships, only eight survived, eleven were captured, and sixteen were sunk or destroyed. The morale of the defenders in Manila also fell to the bottom completely.
Governor Manuel knew very well that his last hope was shattered. With the fleet destroyed, he would not be able to receive any reinforcements from the mainland for at least two years.
Even if there are still nearly 4,000 soldiers and tens of thousands of indigenous servants, so what?
The Ming Dynasty fought at home, and supplies and reinforcements were twenty times faster than the Spaniards. The Ming army only had 2,000 miles from Fuzhou, and from Anping to the northern tip of Luzon Island, it was only 600 miles across the strait.
The Spanish mainland came to reinforce, but it was 40,000 miles away.
The stock is getting smaller and smaller as we fight, and the reinforcements are gone, so why are we still struggling?
Tired, destroy it.
The Spanish Army struggled for several months in the end and chose to surrender after being worthy of its dignity. A total of 2,800 army soldiers and 1,100 navy sailors entered the Ming army's prison camp, including 1,000 soldiers.
There were many sick and wounded, and it was really impossible to fight anymore.
When surrendering, Governor Manuel also tried to make the Ming army observe gentlemanly behavior, retain the private property of Spanish soldiers, and not plunder the civilians of Manila.
Unfortunately, this time his request was not promised by Zheng Chenggong.
Zheng Chenggong responded very righteously: "How can there be such a good thing in the world? This time the Ming Dynasty came to punish the people for the massacre by the Spaniards in Manila four years ago! Why didn't they give the more than 30,000 Chinese who were killed at that time
A way out! Why not leave their property behind!"
Therefore, in the end, out of humanitarian considerations and the need for negotiation and future restraint, Ming Dynasty only temporarily spared the lives of ordinary soldiers. After all, the other party finally ceased fire and surrendered. If they had killed all of them, the resistance that had been provoked in the first place would have led to Ming Dynasty's death.
Multiple people.
Killing a large number of prisoners for no reason could easily lead other countries to fight to the death with the Ming Dynasty in the future.
Therefore, we cannot kill indiscriminately, we can only try certain people for war crimes.
In the end, Governor Manuel and Major General Paola, both the culprits and initiators of the massacre four years ago, were publicly tried by the Ming Dynasty and executed in half.
There are more than 200 other convicted officers and non-commissioned officers. They were either originally guilty of commanding massacres or actively expanded looting and killing. They were sentenced to beheading or life-long hard labor according to the severity of their crimes.
After dealing with these people, Zheng Chenggong released one of the fastest Spanish warships and more than a hundred prisoners as sailors, and allowed them to bring several Spanish civilian personnel back to the country to report and negotiate an armistice with the Ming Dynasty.
Zheng Chenggong's actions really made some of his subordinates confused: "Master, why don't you kill all these people? What is there to talk about with these golden-haired barbarians? Just occupy the land. If they don't accept it, they dare to fight."
When we come back, we will fight them to the death. Anyway, their reinforcements will take 40,000 miles, so when we come, we will just wait and see and kill as many as we can!"
Zheng Chenggong, however, looked solemn and wanted stability: "Things are not as simple as you think. Of course we must strive for long-term peace and stability. Moreover, the prince hopes to maintain the reputation of my Ming Dynasty in the world and prevent people from thinking that my Ming Dynasty is a barbarian who conquers the land wantonly. We
They are all famous, but this is not the most important thing.
The Dutch, the English, and the Rakshasas are just as shameless in occupying land. They only restrain themselves a little in the places under the sun where other countries are watching. They are extremely despicable and shameless in places where no one sees them.
The most important thing is the third point: the massive gold and silver mined by the Spaniards in the Americas is far from exhausted. The Ming Dynasty previously obtained more than tens of millions of taels of European and American silver from trade every year? What if we completely eliminated the Philippines?
If the line is broken, from now on I will be the only one to sell goods, or wait for the Dutch to come. If there is another competitor, it will be difficult for the Dutch to lower the price.
In the Philippines, Luzon Island is the most valuable. Of course, we must capture them all, as well as the surrounding areas of Luzon. Only then will our Ming Dynasty have complete control of both ends of the strait from Dajuan to Luzon.
But in the southern islands of the Philippines, there are some wild places with no mineral deposits or shipping ports, and the heat is even worse than Luzon. The only way to win is to negotiate clearly with the Spanish and draw a clear boundary with them.
There is no need for us to clear out the natives one by one. We can still leave a few points to seduce the Spaniards to continue to trade and continue to send American gold and silver here. This is all the foresight that the regent told me before going to war."
Liu Guoxuan, Chen Jinnan and others did not expect it to be so far-reaching. When they heard what was said, they stopped talking and let Mr. Guo Xing worry about it.
In the following years, as the Spaniards admitted their defeat, they ceded territory in exchange for the release of prisoners, and admitted that Governor Manuel deserved to be cut in half for his previous massacres, and no longer competed with the Ming Dynasty.
It also admitted that the Ming Dynasty accepted the gold and silver savings of the Spanish treasury in Manila as war reparations and compensation for previous massacres - and when Zheng Chenggong finally opened the Manila treasury, even though he was already extremely wealthy, he looked at the savings there
The amount of gold and silver still almost dropped my jaw.
A total of more than 40 tons of gold and more than 1,500 tons of silver were recovered from the treasury of the colonial authorities in Manila, which is equivalent to nearly one million taels of gold and more than 30 million taels of silver in the Ming Dynasty respectively.
After taking so much gold, silver and jewelry, Ming Dynasty had no objection to releasing the remaining prisoners.
The two sides finally reached an agreement to leave Cebu Island in the Philippines and several islands to the east and south to Spain, so that Spain could continue to come to the Philippines to purchase Ming Dynasty export materials and do business with more real gold and silver.
This is also because Cebu Island was discovered by Magellan himself, and Magellan was eventually killed by the indigenous people on Cebu Island. The regent of the Ming Dynasty wanted to show his respect for scientists and geographical discoverers, as if he was a rich man.
Putting on a posture of "for the sake of Magellan, let Spain keep the southeastern part of Cebu Island, and the Ming Dynasty only take the northwest islands of Cebu Island". If such news reaches Europa, it can also further attract the centripetal force of advanced Europa scholars, and have a strong influence on Europa.
The Ming Dynasty has more expectations, which is more valuable than Spain's carving out a few primitive islands far away from the waterway that have no mines.
According to this division, the Ming Dynasty actually occupied more than 70% of the land in the Philippines in later generations, and only left a quarter of the southeastern corner of the Philippines to Spain to continue sending money.
The diplomatic negotiations between the two sides were finally delayed until the 10th year of Xiaokang's reign before the first contact was made, and it was not until the 12th year of Xiaokang's reign that the armistice treaty was signed. This was something that could not be helped. It would take almost two years for a sea ship to make a round trip.
It was only because Ming Dynasty took the initiative to send an envoy with full authority to negotiate, who could help Zhu Shuren and Zhu Ciyu make decisions directly remotely, that they could achieve this speed.
The Spaniards also had to negotiate as soon as possible for the sake of Ming Dynasty not releasing the prisoners until the negotiation was over.
At this point, the Ming Dynasty's military operations in Nanyang have completely entered a period of lull. And as the Ming Dynasty's second seven-year plan enters a period of rapid farming, the Ming Dynasty's next enemy will obviously move to the northwest.