Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 494: Reinforcements from thousands of miles away arrive
Zhu Youdong was unable to preside over the State Council meeting the next day. After working overtime until five in the morning, the emperor did not wake up until noon. Fang Zhenghua, who came to wait for orders in the morning, looked at the emperor snoring loudly and boldly asked the Ministry of Public Administration to cancel the meeting that day.
However, as an emperor who was so diligent in his work, he naturally urged his officials to work hard. Yuan Keli did not rest after entering his own residence in Beijing. He immediately began to draft an introduction to the Ottoman national conditions and draft an aid plan.
The core of the Ming Dynasty was like this, and the people below naturally followed suit. Even the Ming Dynasty expeditionary forces, who were now stationed under the city of Manila, were not idle at this moment.
"Commander, our supply ship has arrived."
"Huh? You're really on time."
On November 27, 1621, Li Guozhu and Yan Siqi led the main fleet to escort more than 300 transport ships to Manila again.
“ Hahaha, Brother Zhenquan, how can you be so fast?”
"Well, you have to hurry up. The letter from your communication ship is urgent. I guess you don't have much shells left in your army now, right?"
"I'm ashamed." Cao Wenzhao touched his helmet worriedly. "There are plenty of shells for the muzzle-loading cannon, but the shells for the breech-loading cannon were all used up five days ago."
"Well, after receiving your letter, I urgently contacted the Changsha Shipyard and shipped all the 75mm breech-loading artillery shells there to you."
"Oh, this solves my urgent need. Thank you very much."
The navy and the army had their own logistics officers to take charge of the transfer of supplies, while the chief officers of both sides began to exchange views on the recent war situation on the shore.
"By the way, why don't I see Kunisuke-nii?"
"Oh, he's on the Fengyang. After our fleet arrived at the entrance of Manila Bay, only the transport ships entered the bay, and the warships did not. After all, we have never caught the Western fleet. If we all enter the bay and the Westerners seize the opportunity and block us in the bay, that would be bad."
"I see." Cao Wenzhao pondered for a moment and then said, "How come Zhenquan hasn't seen the Western fleet in the past two months?"
"Of course they saw it. For the past two months, the transport ships have been moving supplies between the Taipei and Changsha shipyards, and our fleet has been hanging around nearby. However, the enemy immediately fled as soon as they saw our main fleet, so the decisive battle never took place. At most, our pursuit fleet and the enemy's trailing warships fired a few shots at each other and that was it."
The Spanish fleet in Manila had 20 1,200-ton warships and 30 600-ton second-class warships, and was not weak in strength. Although it was not as good as the Ming main fleet led by Li Guozhu and Yan Siqi, which had one ironclad ship, 40 first-class warships, and 60 second-class warships, it still had the strength to fight.
Therefore, for the sake of safety, Li Guozhu and Yan Siqi did not dare to divide their forces: after dividing their forces, the chance of catching the enemy was greatly increased, but the possibility of a complete victory was also much smaller.
What's more troublesome is that the steam turbine was a product that was forcibly produced at that time, and the lag in metallurgy and materials science. Therefore, although the Fengyang ironclad ship of the Ming Dynasty could theoretically run at a maximum speed of 13.5 knots, in actual use, Li Guozhu and others found that if this ironclad ship wanted to sail normally for a long time, its maximum speed should not exceed nine knots.
The Spanish sailing warship was improved based on the galleon type by the time travelers. If the wind direction and ocean current cooperate, it can run at a maximum speed of 15 knots!
Therefore, although the main fleet of the Ming Dynasty discovered the Spanish Philippine fleet several times, it was unable to catch the enemy.
"I see." Cao Wenzhao nodded, and suddenly remembered: "By the way, Zhenquan, how many letters have you received from my communication ships?"
"One ship, why?"
"Well, the enemy has a fleet cruising nearby. Why would I only send one ship to deliver the message to you? I sent three ships."
After these words were spoken, the expressions of both of them became somewhat solemn.
After a while, Yan Siqi spoke again: "How is the war on land now?"
“There is progress, but it’s slow.”
During this period of time, Cao Wenzhao and Henry, who was stationed in Manila, had been constantly fighting wits and courage.
At the beginning, Cao Wenzhao's side concentrated their breech-loading artillery, taking advantage of its range, and concentrated their fire on a certain section of the enemy's three-kilometer trench. After this section was basically flattened, they organized people to charge.
But there are also problems with this charge: when the enemy has machine guns, it is absolutely impossible for soldiers to charge in a dense manner. But if they don't charge in a dense manner, the Ming soldiers using single-shot rifles cannot form fire suppression. Although all the defensive measures in this section of the trench were destroyed by artillery fire, you have also clearly told the enemy that I am going to attack here.
Therefore, Henry in Manila also adjusted his troops in time, especially mobilized the machine guns in the city, and focused on guarding the defense line that was destroyed by the enemy.
At the same time, Henry also organized his officers to harass the Ming army by sending a small number of soldiers forward to lure the enemy, launching night attacks, organizing commandos to advance at night, and placing machine gun positions forward.
The Ming army also responded to the opponent's moves and even organized a commando team to move forward at night - so the battle between the two sides continued from the daytime artillery bombardment - charge - blocking to the nighttime "special forces" operations.
"In total, in the two months of fighting, our casualties have reached over 8,000. Of these, at least 6,000 were killed while charging the enemy's trenches and falling under the enemy's machine guns."
"Hiss, this is really a rare tragedy. Even in the decisive battle in the East China Sea four years ago, when so many of our navy's warships sank, there were no such casualties." After saying this, Yan Siqi quickly changed the subject: "How is our army progressing?"
"Not bad." Cao Wenzhao gave a bitter smile: "The enemy's first trench five kilometers north of the city has lost its function due to our army's repeated bombardment, and now the enemy has given up on its own initiative. But the enemy's trench three kilometers north of the city, hey, is only two kilometers long. In this way, the enemy's firepower density is even greater! However." Cao Wenzhao also raised his voice a little when he said this: "As long as we take this trench, our army's breech-loading guns can directly bombard the Manila city wall. As long as the enemy's city wall collapses, even if the enemy still refuses to surrender and wants to fight street fighting, I think it is much more comfortable than fighting a trench battle like this."
"Hahaha, Wen Zhao. The enemy's battle line is shorter and the firepower density has increased, but the length we need to bombard is also much shorter. In this way, won't the progress be faster?"
"Well, Zhenquan is right. And after the battles in the past two months, our military craftsmen have also urgently produced a batch of assault weapons for us."
"oh?"
"Zhenquan, please look." After Cao Wenzhao gestured, the staff officer beside him brought over a strangely shaped rifle, uh, no, it's a pistol?
"Eh? Brother Cao, I think this thing is a modified pistol, right?"
"Well, Zhenquan has a good eye. This is our military craftsman who installed a long stock on the pistol, lengthened the barrel, and moved the trigger slightly back through a linkage device. Speaking of which, the biggest difficulty facing the enemy's trenches is the lack of dense firepower to suppress them after entering the range of the enemy's machine guns. With this, our soldiers can fire six bullets continuously in a short period of time, which is six times stronger than the firepower density of a single-shot rifle! In this way, within the range of 100 meters to 50 meters, our soldiers use revolvers to continuously shoot and charge, and throw grenades after reaching the range of 50 meters. In this way, the firepower density during the charge is increased!"
“Hahaha, it’s just a weird idea, but I think it can be really useful!”
"Ah, this is all forced out. If we had a weapon that could unleash a lot of firepower at a distance of 200 to 100 meters, this battle wouldn't be so difficult."
"That's enough, Brother Cao. My soldiers are all good. After such a transformation, I guess that next time I send you supplies, you can invite me to Manila for tea."
"Try your best to prevent Brother Zhenquan from falling into despair... Eh? What's that sound?"
"Not good! This is a warship of our navy sounding the alarm! There may be an enemy outside the bay! Brother Cao, let's say goodbye for now. I won't take care of the unloading."
"Okay, Zhenquan, go quickly and take care!"
…
At this moment, at the narrow entrance of Manila Bay, Li Guozhu, who was sitting on the Fengyang, put down his telescope with a serious expression: "Damn, it seems that the Western reinforcements have arrived. I didn't expect that the Western king would send reinforcements from thousands of miles away. What's even more unexpected is that the Westerners actually have ironclad ships!"
