Volume 1 Tigers in Southeast Asia Chapter 97: A Strong City
After Lin Fei finished speaking, his face was full of disdain. The officer was very angry and said, "Our action plan was personally thought out by General Linghu. How could you Huazhu possibly have guessed General Linghu's deep meaning?"
When Lin Fei heard the name "General Linghu", he was stunned and asked, "General Linghu? Who is he?"
The officer snorted coldly and ignored Lin Fei. Lin Fei turned around and called a servant over, saying, "Go and invite the old craftsman Qin Xiren."
Qin Xiren arrived not long after. He bowed to Lin Fei and asked, "Your Majesty, what do you want me to do?"
Lin Fei asked: "Old man, you have lived in Cotabato for quite some time. Have you heard of General Linghu?"
When Qin Xiren heard this, a look of fear appeared on his face, and he asked in surprise: "General Linghu? Why did you mention him?"
Lin Fei pointed at the captured officer and said, "I heard him mention it."
Qin Xiren said in a trembling voice: "Did General Linghu go to Cotabato?"
Seeing Qin Xiren's expression, Lin Fei was full of curiosity . Just as he was about to ask, he heard the officer smugly saying, "Yes, the Spirit Fox General has been transferred to Cotabato!"
Lin Fei patted Qin Xiren with his hand and said, "Old sir, please tell me quickly, who is this Spirit Fox General? What's so special about him?"
Qin Xiren nodded and said, "This fox general is called Servetus. He has been fighting against the Sulu Sultanate in Zamboanga for many years. It is said that he has never lost a battle. His military tactics are extremely clever and unpredictable, so people call him the 'Fox of the Pyrenees Peninsula'. He is a brigadier general, so people call him the fox general."
The officer said proudly, "I can tell you one more thing. General Linghu just repelled the attack of Sultan Yagurul. Governor Sanders in Manila heard that a Chinese empire founded by a Chinese pig had emerged and conquered Butuan City, so he transferred General Linghu from Zamboanga to Cotabato."
Lin Fei thought that this Spirit Fox General seemed to be a formidable opponent and he would need to be careful in dealing with him in the future. However, he had to strike hard at this arrogant officer now. Lin Fei smiled and said, "General Spirit Fox, I think he should change his name to 'Spirit Turtle General'. He hid in Cotabato and dared not come out. He also ordered his troops to only travel 30 kilometers in five days. What's the difference between him and a turtle?"
The officer was so angry that his face turned red. He said angrily: "You are not allowed to insult General Linghu like this. General Linghu asked us to slow down so that we can have enough time to collect your intelligence. Don't fight without preparation!"
Lin Fei's heart moved, thinking to himself that this was the real purpose of General Linghu. This General Linghu was completely different from the generals he had met before. All his previous enemies despised the Chinese and looked down on his army, and he had used this to inflict heavy damage on the enemies. However, this General Linghu did not despise him at all, and ordered his troops to slow down their advance and not easily come into contact with him.
Lin Fei laughed and said, "So this is General Linghu's purpose!"
The officer then realized that he had accidentally leaked his own military secrets. He regretted it very much, lowered his head and stopped talking. Lin Fei waved his hand and asked someone to take the officer away. Then he took out a map and calculated the distance from his troops to Cotabato - 85 kilometers. On Mindanao Island where there are no roads, this distance takes 4 days to walk.
Lin Fei thought to himself, General Linghu is not in a hurry, and neither am I. I will extend the march time to 8 days, carry out land reform in the villages and towns along the way, and establish the prestige of the Chinese Empire among the people. In this way, we will form an encirclement of Cotabato and will be invincible no matter how we fight.
Lin Fei then led his troops forward leisurely, carrying out land reform as he went. Two days later, on January 28, Chen Jingui followed the logistics supply team to Lin Fei's army.
Although Chen Jingui was responsible for delivering the weapons and ammunition produced on Samar Island to Lin Fei's troops, he only needed to stay in Bazahai City and there was no need for him to go to the front line. The reason why he came to the front line was all arranged by Lin Fei. Lin Fei had been away from the capital Yanhuang City for almost 20 days and must know the situation of the Huaxia Empire. Chen Jingui came to deliver reports from various departments to Lin Fei.
During the 20 days that Lin Fei was away, all work in Yanhuang City was proceeding in an orderly manner. The first thing was to establish grassroots political power. Li Mingbai led the police force to establish village governments in various villages. Chen Fu recruited more than 200 failed scholars from Taiwan. Some of these people went to the village government to serve as village heads , and some went to various cities to serve as teachers. Lin Fei established schools in various cities, and every child over the age of 7 must go to school.
The main purpose of the school is to make the people support the Chinese Empire, so the school focuses on patriotic education. While teaching patriotic education, the school also teaches children Chinese characters. Lin Fei also hired some shop owners to teach the children the most basic arithmetic. What these children learn cannot be called mathematics.
In terms of economy, prices of all commodities were basically stable, new books sold well, and many people went to see plays. The increase in spiritual consumption accelerated economic development on the one hand and promoted cultural construction on the other.
What Lin Fei was most concerned about was the progress of the shipbuilding industry. It was already January 28, 1895, and in a few months the Qing government would sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japan, ceding Taiwan Island and paying a compensation of 200 million taels of silver. Lin Fei could not just watch Taiwan Island and 200 million taels of silver fall into the hands of the Japanese!
When Lin Fei led his army to Mindanao, he asked Ling Xue to oversee the construction of two large slipways. These two slipways could build 5,000-ton warships. The construction of the slipways was relatively simple. After 20 days of sleepless construction, 40% of the work had been completed.
Another area that has also made progress is the steel pretreatment production line. The steel used to build warships needs to be pretreated before it can be used on the warships. These pretreatments include straightening various steels, removing the outer oxide scale, spraying protective paint, etc. The pretreatment production line has been basically built, and the training of relevant technical personnel is also in progress.
After reading the report, Lin Fei gave the plan to integrate the Butuan City factories to Chen Jingui, asking him to take it back to Ling Xue and let her lead her men to organize it. He also gave Chen Jingui a new round of Chinese recruitment plan and asked him to take it back to Chen Fu and let Chen Fu continue to go to Taiwan to recruit Chinese. This time, the recruits were mainly craftsmen and farmers. The craftsmen stayed in Yanhuang City to build ships, and the farmers were sent to Mindanao to reclaim wasteland.
Chen Jingui agreed and said goodbye. Lin Fei continued to lead his troops towards Cotabato. At 6 o'clock in the morning on February 4, Lin Fei led his troops to a small village called "Palang" 15 kilometers east of Cotabato.
There are more than 200 households in the village, which is controlled by a Spanish church. Lin Fei first destroyed the church, then ordered the troops to stay in the village temporarily, control this small village, and set up a material transfer base here.
Palang Village is very close to Cotabato. Lin Fei was worried that the Spanish army would launch a surprise attack, so he sent out mobile sentries five kilometers away and deployed several layers of secret sentries. After all these things were done, it was 2 pm on February 4th. Lin Fei decided to go to Cotabato for reconnaissance while it was still early.
Lin Fei brought two sniper team soldiers and rode fast horses towards Cotabato. Soon they saw the majestic city wall in the distance, but there was no one at the entrance. A soldier asked, "Your Majesty, isn't Cotabato the most prosperous city on Mindanao? Why is there no one coming in or out?"
Lin Fei thought for a moment and said, "It's likely that the Spanish learned of our arrival and blocked the city."
Lin Fei walked towards the city wall for another hundred meters. Now he was only four hundred meters away from the city wall. Lin Fei raised the telescope and looked towards the top of the city wall. He saw that there was actually a cannon on the top of the city wall. Due to the angle, Lin Fei could only see a little bit of the exposed muzzle of the cannon and nothing else.
The sight of a cannon muzzle also surprised Lin Fei greatly. He did not know in advance that the Spaniards had deployed artillery on the wall. Cotabato was originally a strong city that was difficult to attack, and now with artillery for defense, it would be even more difficult to attack. While thinking about it, Lin Fei looked into the distance and found that there was a cannon every three hundred meters.
A layer of worry slowly covered Lin Fei's face. Cotabato had a strong city, powerful artillery, and a wise general - the Fox of the Pyrenees Peninsula. How should this battle be fought?
At this time, a soldier asked: "Your Majesty, should we go closer to the city wall and take a look?"
Lin Fei shook his head and said, "What if the Spaniards shoot us from behind? Don't get close. Let's just go around the city wall and take a look."
Lin Fei walked around the city wall and scouted the surrounding terrain. There was an open area to the east of the city, so his troops were stationed there. To the west of the city was the sea with a port. To the south of the city was an east-west river with a riverbed that was one hundred meters wide. Since it was the dry season, the river was only fifty meters wide. There were dense forests along the river, making it difficult for large troops to pass.
After looking at the terrain of Cotabato, Lin Fei couldn't help but frown. He thought that in order to capture this city, he had to lure the enemy out of the city, but what method did he have?
Lin Fei thought about it but couldn't come up with a good idea, so he rode back with his men. When Li Tianqian, the staff officer, saw Lin Fei coming back, he hurried over and asked, "Your Majesty, how was the reconnaissance?"
Lin Fei said: "Cotabato's defense is much stronger than I thought. I even found enemy artillery on the wall."
Li Tianqian was stunned and asked, "Cannon? What kind of cannon?"
Lin Fei shook his head and said, "I don't know either. The distance is too far and the angle is wrong. I can only see the muzzle of the cannon and nothing else. Ask in the village immediately if there is anyone who has seen the cannon in the city and bring them to me."
