Although the decision to start the war was under Viscount Santander, General Piles was the main focus of how to fight.

Although General Piles was arrogant, he was not a fool. He knew very well the power of the Ming Empire, as his opponent.

Especially after the loss of Luzon, the Spanish Kingdom's power in the Pacific Ocean was much worse. Although the Spanish Kingdom has replenished some warships through various South American colonies in recent years, compared with the Ming Dynasty, Spain's naval power was barely protected.

Therefore, it is completely impossible for the Pacific to rely on the navy to cut off the ties between the Xinming and the Ming Dynasty and attack Xinming in important cities on the west coast or even land in battle.

Now Spain's maritime power in the Pacific Ocean is barely able to protect itself by relying on the cover of port forts. Once it goes to sea to fight, the powerful Pacific fleet of the Ming Dynasty may be able to teach the Spanish Navy to be a human being every minute and every second.

From this point of view, Spain's only choice to attack the Ming Dynasty is from land. Although New Spain and the Ming Dynasty have many territories in the north, due to the direction of the mountains, Spain has little choice in attacking from land, and Sanhe Town is the best important direction for the attack.

To open the passage of advance, to reach the heart of the Ming Dynasty in Xinming and to hit the Ming Dynasty, then you must first take down Sanhe Town. General Piles is very clear about this.

Although Sanhe Town did not directly contain the narrow areas leading to the west and north, Sanhe Town is located at the small plain formed by the convergence of three mountains in the south.

If Spanish troops bypass Sanhe Town, whether west or north, the troops stationed in Sanhe Town can directly cut off the Spanish rear supply, thus making the Spanish troops a rootless duck.

It is precisely because of this that General Piles had to take down Sanhe Town at the beginning of the war and at the same time make this place a controlled area of ​​Spain, so that Spain's attack would have no worries.

In order to ensure victory, General Piles not only used Spanish military power in Mexico, but also drew troops (including militia) from various parts of South America to form a large army.

Now, there are more than 10,000 troops gathering, and nearly 10,000 troops will arrive one after another. In addition to the soldiers, there are more than 15,000 civilians responsible for logistics transportation for the Spanish army. Therefore, Spain has mobilized more than 35,000 people for this war, reaching nearly 40,000. This mobilization number is even greater than the number of people who attacked the Ming Dynasty with the French League.

Tens of miles away, the walls of Sanhe Town in the Ming Dynasty were vaguely visible. General Piles rode a tall horse and was satisfied. He imagined the moment when he took down Sanhe Town, and even he felt that the name of Sanhe Town was not good. After he seized this place, it might be more appropriate to change the name to Piles City, so that he could commemorate his outstanding achievements.

The war began early the next morning. Faced with several times the enemy, Yin Xiong adopted a defensive battle. In this case, it was not a time to show off his power. With the cover of the city wall, Yin Xiong could not directly pull the troops out of the city and fight a field battle with the opponent when the troops were inferior to those of others.

Of course, before making preparations for war, Yin Xiong first withdrew a battalion of cavalry from the city. The cavalry used as mobile forces to defend the city was useless. Moreover, when the cavalry retreated from the city, they could cooperate with the defenders in the city at critical moments. When training in the local military academy of the Ming Dynasty, Yin Xiong learned a lot, and this standard tactic of defending the city was naturally included.

The person who sent the urgent report to the Governor's Office and the Admiral's Office had already set out yesterday, but in Yin Xiong's opinion, it would take at least half a month to wait until the reinforcements arrived, which means that he had to guard the battle for half a month.

In order to take down Sanhe Town, General Piles made sufficient preparations. After the war started, the Spanish army's cannons aimed at the walls of Sanhe Town and began to bombard.

The defenders in the city were also not to be outdone and used artillery fire on the top of the city to fight back against the Spanish artillery. Although the Ming Dynasty's artillery was more well-made and the range and power of the artillery were even greater than that of Spanish artillery, facing the Spanish side's number of artillery fire power that was more than ten times more than that of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming side was at a disadvantage shortly after the artillery battle was held.

General Piles's tactics are not impatient or impatient. He is worthy of being an excellent general who has experienced the battle of the Spanish throne.

Facing the Ming army in Sanhe Town, General Piles did not show an impatient attitude, but instead issued orders step by step.

General Piles's purpose is very simple. First, he uses cannons to suppress and destroy the opponent's defensive front, try to destroy the artillery guarding the city, and kill the opponent's live power.

After being completely suppressed, the next step is that General Piles will use civil engineering to fill the moat that hinders the attack. In fact, General Piles has already done this step at the beginning of the artillery battle. The moat water source of Sanhe Town comes from the river in the east. After the Spanish started the war, they sent a group of civilians and troops to cut off the water source of the moat.

Yin Xiong also expected this in advance. He originally planned to let the cavalry outside the city harass the Spaniards and try to delay the other party's action to cut off the river, but General Piles was also on guard against this. The Spanish did not relax their vigilance while cutting off the river. The cavalry outside the city did not dare to act rashly under this situation. They could only watch the Spanish cut off the river for two days.

At this point, Spain began to fight directly against the siege, and the battle situation also moved from the initial mutual artillery battle to the most fierce battle.

In General Piles's view, facing such a powerful Spanish army, the defenders of Sanhe Town should not be able to collapse soon. When the defenders in the city flee north, he can take the city with the flow and firmly hold Sanhe Town in his hands.

But General Piles underestimated the tenacity of the Ming army. After three days of battle, the cannons in Sanhe Town were almost completely destroyed by the Spanish, and the defenders in the city also suffered more than a hundred casualties.

Due to the loss of water, the moat became a decoration and was easily filled with civil engineering by the Spaniards.

In addition, the walls of Sanhe Town are also full of holes and shaking. Although Sanhe Town is a military important place, as mentioned earlier, Sanhe Town has not reached the scale of its local Central Plains city because it was established for too short.

Although the city defense can withstand a certain degree of attack, facing the current crazy attack by the Spaniards, the city walls of Sanhe Town are overwhelmed.

But even so, the Ming army in the city still maintained a very high morale, and no one escaped from the northern gate that the Spaniards deliberately let go.
Chapter completed!