Volume 1 Tigers in Southeast Asia Chapter 27: A Feint
Everyone hurriedly asked, "Captain Lin, what is your brilliant plan?"
Lin Fei smiled and said to everyone: "As the Art of War says, when you are strong, you should pretend to be strong, and when you are pretending to be strong, you should pretend to be strong. The Spaniards have just been defeated by us and they don't know us well. We can take advantage of this opportunity to prevent them from attacking us rashly."
Everyone still didn't understand what Lin Fei meant and shook their heads. Lin Fei smiled and said, "Don't ask any more questions. Let's prepare to go to Samar Island. I'm going to implement my plan."
After Lin Fei finished speaking, he called Chen Jingui and said, "Let's go and see the Spanish prisoners of war."
Chen Jingui agreed and went with Lin Fei to the warehouse where the Spaniards were imprisoned. On the way, Chen Jingui said to Lin Fei: "Captain Lin, these natives have poor comprehension. Shouldn't the reward for teaching Chinese be increased a little bit..."
Lin Fei ignored him and walked straight to the warehouse. It was not long before he arrived at the warehouse. The Spaniards in the warehouse looked up when they saw Lin Fei coming in. Everyone looked panicked. Lin Fei coughed lightly and said, "Do you know me?"
Chen Jingui translated in Spanish, so the prisoners understood what Lin Fei said, and they all shook their heads. Lin Fei smiled and said, "My name is Smithy Linsky, a member of the Katipunan in Manila. I want to drive all of you Spaniards out of the Philippines."
When the Spanish sailors heard Lin Fei's words, they all had expressionless faces and reacted coldly. They were just a group of sailors and didn't care about the things that the top leaders should care about.
Lin Fei coughed lightly and said, "Pay attention! I will not only drive the Spaniards out of the Philippines, but also kill them all!"
The Spanish sailors were panicked, and some of them begged Chen Jingui in a hurry. Lin Fei coughed lightly to quiet everyone down, and said, "Don't talk about it. This was my initial idea. Later, I thought about it and decided to kill only the main culprit and not the accomplices! Go back and tell the Governor of the Philippines that I, Smith Fei Linsky, will lead 50,000 elite troops to attack Laoag soon! Let them wash their necks and wait for me! Do you understand?"
The sailors were surprised and nodded. Lin Fei said, "I have asked the natives to make a small wooden boat for you. There is an ocean current from Ibayat Island to the Philippines. You can go downstream to Laoag."
After Lin Fei finished speaking, he arranged for someone to release them. The sailors boarded a small boat and followed the current to the vicinity of Luzon Island, where they were rescued by a Spanish merchant ship and then sent to Lavague. At this time in Lavague, Brigadier General Racheno was arguing with Ariel, the special envoy of Governor Sanders, and the wealthy businessman Fernand over the responsibility for the failure of the attack on Ibayat Island.
Fernando relied on his close relationship with Governor Sanders and his extensive network of contacts in Spanish politics. He pointed his gun at Brigadier General Lacheno and said, "I think this defeat was entirely caused by General Lacheno's improper command ."
Lacheno retorted: "There is absolutely no problem with my command. This defeat was entirely caused by the betrayal of the captain of the cruiser Cuba. If the cruiser Cuba had not fired at our army, we would have wiped out the guys entrenched on the island!"
Ariel frowned and said, "Why would the captain of the Cuban cruiser betray us? He is a real Spaniard and a devout Catholic. Why would he help the Katipunan?"
Lacheno sneered, "Mr. Ariel, do you still believe that the guy occupying the island is the Katipunan? Our infantry was sniped by sharpshooters as soon as they landed on the island. When they attacked the plantation, they encountered a wall that could not be blown up by explosives and artillery bombardment! When did the Katipunan become so powerful?"
Ariel and Fernand said, "If they are not Katipunan, then who is it?"
At this moment, Denison came in from outside and said to the three people: "I just received news that the sailors of the Cuba cruiser have returned."
The three of them stood up from their chairs excitedly when they heard this and said, "Go and call the sailors!"
Dennison walked out the door and came in with a few sailors. Ariel stood up in a hurry without waiting for the sailors to come to him, walked up to the sailors and asked, "Why are you firing at the army? What's going on?"
Lacheno and Fernand hurriedly stood up to persuade Ariel, and Ariel sat down again. A sailor said, "The cruiser Cuba was taken away, and the captain was killed!" Then he told the story of how Lin Fei led his men to board the cruiser and took away the cruiser.
Lacheno asked hurriedly: "Who is the leader? How can he be so powerful?"
The sailor said, "The leader said his name was Smithy Lynskey and he was the Katipunan of Manila."
Lacheno was stunned and said, "This name is so strange. Smith is a common name for British people, and Ski is a common name for Russians. How can he have such a name? Did he say anything else?"
The sailor said, "He also said that he would lead 50,000 elite troops to attack Laoag and kill all the Spaniards."
Lacheno frowned and said nothing, but Fernande stood up and said loudly: "Nonsense, how could he have 50,000 elite soldiers?"
The sailor shook his head and said, "That's what he said. I said it exactly as he said it. There is not a single lie."
Lacheno took a deep breath and said, "I want to believe this is true."
Fernande hurriedly said, "How can this be true?"
Lacheno shook his head slightly and said, "Of course this could be true! You have not attacked Ibayat Island with us, so you don't know what we saw on the island. They used a lot of advanced weapons, and I believe they are very powerful. We should deploy the defense of Laoag as soon as possible. Mr. Envoy, please go back and report to the Governor immediately and ask him to send troops for support."
The Spaniards stopped their plan to attack Lin Fei again and began to concentrate on preparing a defense plan. However, ten days passed and there was no sign of Lin Fei on the sea. On the eleventh day, Lacheno received news that the plantations on Batan Island and Babuyan Island were attacked by unidentified armed men. All the pesos, guns and bullets on the island were looted, and five transport ships were also stolen.
On the fifteenth day, Lacheno received news that there was no one on Ibayat Island. Lacheno then realized that he had fallen into Lin Fei's trap. Lin Fei said he was going to attack Lavague, but it turned out to be a feint and he didn't know where he had escaped to.
Lacheno was furious when he saw that he was being played like a fool by Lin Fei. He yelled at his men, "Where on earth is that Linski? Find him! Find him for me!"
The subordinate said helplessly: "General, there are many islands in the central Philippines. These islands are not small in size and have complex terrain. Our rule is very weak. It may be very difficult to find them."
Lacheno was so angry that his face turned blue, his teeth chattered, and he said viciously: "Damn you, Linski, one day I will cut you into pieces!"
At this time, Lin Fei was leading his men to march towards Samar Island. After looting two plantations, his strength became even stronger. Now he owned a cruiser, eight transport ships and a whaling ship, as well as a batch of rifles, bullets, nitroglycerin explosives, and a large number of chemical reaction equipment.
In terms of personnel, in addition to the people brought out from the prisoner-of-war camp, there were also sailors like Huang San and technicians like Su Yunzhao. Lin Fei promised them generous living conditions and guaranteed to bring their families under his rule in the future. Only then did they follow Lin Fei, conquer two plantations and rescue more than 500 natives who regarded Lin Fei as a god. They were all willing to follow Lin Fei.
The fleet was getting closer and closer to Samar Island. The hydrological conditions near the shore were complicated, and large ships could not approach rashly. So Lin Fei ordered the fleet to drop anchor and went ashore in a small boat for reconnaissance. When selecting the accompanying personnel, Lin Fei took into account that there were no Spaniards on the island, so he did not let Yu Xier go, but let Liu Daming, who was the best fighter, and Chen Jingui, who was familiar with the local conditions, go.
The three of them went ashore in a small boat, and after walking for a distance, they found a small town called Makepaslo. Lin Fei led them into the town, and saw that it was quite lively. There were quite a few people, all of whom looked like Malays with dark skin and thick eyebrows. The men wore silk shirts, and the women wore straight-sleeved dresses with a raised shoulder area, like butterfly wings. This was a dress commonly worn by Filipino women, and was called "butterfly dress".
Lin Fei and his two companions all looked Chinese, which attracted many people's attention on the street. Lin Fei thought that he could not detect them this way, so he took the three people to an inconspicuous tea stall on the street. As soon as the three of them sat down, an old man in Filipino clothes came over and said in Chinese: "Are you three Chinese?"
Lin Fei looked up and saw that the old man also looked Chinese, so he said, "Yes, we are Chinese."
When the old man heard this, he suddenly looked panicked and asked, "Since you are Chinese, what are you doing here?"
Liu Daming saw that the old man looked upset, so he said, "Why are you panicking, old man? Are all Chinese people the scourge of disaster?"
The old man waved his hands and said, "Speak more quietly. If people can tell you are Chinese, you might get into trouble !"
Liu Daming was furious. Lin Fei reached out and pressed his arm, then said to the old man, "Old man, please tell me in detail why the Chinese have suffered disasters?"
The old man whispered, "The Chinese are being bullied by the Filipinos in this place! You should leave as soon as you can."
When Lin Fei heard this, he became furious and thought to himself that in my time, the Filipinos bullied us. They occupied our islands in the South China Sea, illegally exploited our oil, seized our fishing boats, arrested, detained, and even killed our fishermen without reason. In this era, they actually dare to bully our compatriots!
