Luzon, Castle of Glory.

The sky was dark and misty, and the sea breeze swept through the moisture and penetrated into Doya's neck. Through the morning mist, he could also see the Spaniards' artillery towers in the distance, the crisscrossing trenches under the city walls, and the people coming and going inside.

A familiar sound of music came with the wind. Duoya calmed down and identified it and confirmed that the enemy on the other side was doing a mass. The music had a sacred meaning. Duoya leaned against the female wall, sat there, and lit her pipe. The tobacco had been smoked in the ten-month siege. There was a little tobacco leaves and dried tea stems inside.

"General Duoya, look at your appearance, you seem to be very intoxicated by this religious ceremony." Ma Donglai's voice came.

Doya smiled: "I am intoxicated with tobacco leaves, not their religion. These idiots always hope to communicate with the gods in the sky with some strange rituals. I feel that tobacco and wine are easier."

Ma Donglai smiled and did not ask again. Doya did not say anything bad. After all, there were more than a dozen Taisie gunners in the castle and the dozens of cherry pills in Ma Donglai's hands, which also believed in Catholicism.

After smoking tobacco, Doya and Ma Donglai patrolled all the places in the Fort Glory, the grain warehouse, the well, the fort, and the gunpowder warehouse, and nowhere was left. He inspired the wounded with rough language, and occasionally made a few jokes that were neither salty nor light. His threat was equally real and powerful, and no one dared to question Doya's authority.

Ma Donglai followed Duoya. Although he looked down on the indigenous people a little, he had to admit that Duoya was a rare talent. If it weren't for his Glory Castle, he would not have been able to stick to the present, and he would not have been able to hold on for so long after only more than a hundred people died.

But as time went by, the undercurrents were still surging in the castle, the environment here became more and more harsh, the attack outside became more and more crazier, and the conditions for persuading surrender became more and more attractive. The vegetables and fruits stored in the Castle of Glory had long been eaten up. Only the wounded and a few officers could drink boiled water, while others could only drink well water mixed with rum. The food was dry cakes covered with bugs and bacon that could kill people. If you could catch a mouse, it would be rare fresh food.

The soldiers began to get sick, their teeth were loose and their skin was dirty, and everyone was like a pig in a pigpen. The siege that lasted for ten months was a cruel torment for the besiegers or the besieged. Loyalty began to disappear quickly like dew in the sun. More than a dozen escape incidents have occurred, and the frequency has become higher and higher.

Fortunately, the enemy is not feeling well. Their food may be better, but they have to endure the stinking water and mud in the trench and bullets shot at any time. Every attack will hit the solid walls of the Fort Glory, and be covered with bullets.

"Hey, I'm not mistaken. A large glass of rum, not a quarter, and it's not mixed with water. You're drinking it high today." During breakfast, the first soldier who received the food shouted loudly.

"Not only wine, but also meat, enough to block your stinky mouth!" Huotoujun, who was making rice, said cursingly.

The soldiers were eating and enjoying the most delicious meal in the past month. The soldiers asked, "Why are you pregnant with such a good meal? Or are you pregnant by the oil man, or did you let the mouse you raised become pregnant?"

The group of people burst into laughter, Doya knocked on the sword and explained: "The reason is very simple. Let you scum eat enough to get out of the city and beat the bacon!"

The soldiers were stunned at first, then cheered and asked loudly: "Has reinforcements arrived? Are reinforcements arrived?"

Ma Donglai raised his arms and shouted: "Yes, today, or tomorrow! Pack up your weapons and get rewarded for meritorious deeds!"

The soldiers roared. They had had enough of the days of being trapped in the past few months. The trenches of the corpses of the Fort Glory had proved that the Spanish could not break the castle at all, but the soldiers were tortured. The sound of cannons suddenly exploded in the dead of night, and the howlings and gongs of the indigenous people made people sleepless all night. The Spanish cannons were built with huge stones. There was no way to protect the castle with soil foundation, but they could constantly throw smoke cartridges filled with sulfur, crotons and arsenic at the castle. The painful days were really tormented. Crazy soldiers and suicide soldiers continued to appear. Many people were desperate, and some even lived a walking dead day.

Reinforcements have arrived, and the opportunity to counterattack. Perhaps the soldiers don’t care about victory anymore, they just don’t want to rot in the castle.

Outside the Fort Glory, General Uleve, the commander of the Philippine Governor's Army, was standing in the trenches and observing the Fort Glory. The living conditions in the castle were harsh. The same was true outside the city. The trenches of the besieged city were filled with smelly water, and the wooden boards laid on them were wet and slippery. The soldiers suffered a lot. Compared with the casualties caused by the attack, more people died of illness. At its peak, more than 4,000 soldiers besieged the Fort Glory, but now there are only more than 3,000. During the siege, Manila reinforced at least three times, but one thousand two hundred of them died under the Fort Glory.

In this era, besieging the fortress was an extremely tormenting war. Uleve had actually done a good job, at least compared to his peers. You should know that in just a few years, the Dutch besieged Malacca City, not to mention more than two thousand soldiers died, but the commander alone killed three of them, which shows the cruelty of the besieging battle.

The site and design of the Fortress of Glory are extremely reasonable. The castle itself is located on a high platform. The river passes by one side and protects the side of the castle. There are swamps and wetlands everywhere on both sides without river embankments. The Spanish Army's first attack caused thousands of people to fall into the wetlands and become a living target for the opposite artillery and mesh rope gunners.

One summer passed, the road to the highlands was covered with slippery grass, and the brick and stone walls were covered with moss. The soldiers could not climb at all. There were countless firepower in the fortress, large and small artillery, exquisite combs, and grenades that were worthless.

During the ten-month siege, Ulevi thought about and tried many ways. The Ant Support attack was just a last resort. First, he tried to persuade the surrender without success, and then he blasted the mortars and explosives, built artillery towers, and laid heavy artillery, but it was not very useful. Finally, he excavated the tunnels. However, the water content of this land was too high. The tunnels often collapsed and the water accumulation could not be controlled. Two months ago, Ulevi gave up the idea of ​​capturing the Fort Glory, and he chose the two strategies of persuading surrender and starvation.

As long as the enemy cannot support it, the enemy's materials will sooner or later be consumed. As long as the enemy cannot support it, the enemy's morale will collapse sooner or later.

But the facts are desperate. A month ago, Uleve received a letter from Manila and learned that the Dragon Company had formed a huge expeditionary force to fight the Philippines Governor. It is said that this expeditionary force has 20,000 people. Uleve did not believe that if the enemy really had this strength, he should now defend the Santiago Castle instead of besieging the fortress.

Uleve knew very well that military strength can be deceived. It is almost a tradition to exaggerate its own strength in ancient and modern times, and both in China and abroad, but the number of main battleships will not be deceived. The twelve main battleships of the Dragon Company were truly seen by Spanish spies. Uleve couldn't help but worry about starting a war. This is not the force that the Manila fleet can fight against today. Not to mention that the Manila fleet is defeated, even if it is huddled in Manila Bay, its battlefield will collapse, because the enemy will block the Manila Bay and land in Lingayan, defeating the tired army under his command.

However, the attitude of the Philippine Governor Coquila disappointed Ulevi, and his order to retreat was rejected. Coquila ordered Ulevi to capture the Fort Glory at all costs and then return to Manila. This was an impossible task.

Ulevi had to reconsider Coquila's orders. In fact, as a senior official like the commander of the army, Ulevi knew very well that Coquila's career as a governor was about to end. When the Manila sailboat arrived this year, the Governor General of New Spain would send trust in the Governor and start a final review mechanism for Coquila. Of course, this is a rumor that is flooding in Manila, but Ulevi is becoming more and more inclined to this fact.

Year before yesterday, Koquera used two armed merchant ships to go to the Americas, greatly harming the interests of the New Spain governor to go to merchants and bureaucrats. However, at that time, the Philippine Governor was in danger and received support from the Catholic Church. There was nothing wrong. However, last year, the Portuguese and the Zheng family of Fujian brought a large amount of Ming Dynasty goods, and the Dutch relaxed the spice archipelago to the Governor's area to get a bumper harvest of spices. Only Manila schooners could transport those valuable commodities to the Americas, and they had to be two.

Not only did Koquera not want to send a large sailboat, but also wanted to detain the large sailboat from America. In this way, the Philippine Governor's Governor's territory was completely divided, and merchants and the church united to oppose Coquera. In the final analysis, this was a dispute between Spain's royal power and the Catholic Church's authority. Coquera did not care about trade interests, but could not offend the five major churches, because the Governor's territory needed the financial and human support of the church. In the end, the large sailboat from America and a newly built large sailboat left with goods, and the naval power of the Governor's territory suffered a significant loss.

In fact, Uleve doesn't think Coquila has done anything wrong, but the final review review committee does not think so. This review committee originally reviewed the outgoing Philippine Governor-General to eliminate the smuggling trade between the Philippines and New Spain. Many governors were thrown into prison after returning to their hometowns.

The ending of Coquila is already destined, the difference is only the death penalty or the prison. Coquila himself understands this truth. He is making a last-minute attempt, hoping to cover up his mistakes and illegal behavior with victory, but Uleve will not be buried with Coquila, and he will not order the siege again. In fact, not only him, but many people in the Governor's district are severing ties with Coquila as much as possible, such as the new naval commander Raphael, who rejected Coquila's request at the beginning of this year and did not marry Miss Felisa.

"Master, an enemy fleet appears on the sea. The scout reported that the enemy intends to land in the Dagupan area!" A major ran over and said to Uleve.

Uleve's face changed slightly and he asked, "How many ships are there in the enemy fleet?"

"There is a mist on the sea, and the scouts did not see clearly, but there are no less than twenty ships, including at least four cruise ships, and there are more than a dozen ships in the Yahat ships, and there may be more behind them!" The major truthfully introduced what he already knew.

Uleve nodded slightly and said to the major: "Very good. I will leave you two companies and a thousand indigenous soldiers. After you gather them, you will prepare to fight. The rest will be led by me to stop the enemy from landing. Major, the war is about to end. We must cherish our own life and the lives of the kingdom soldiers."

The major nodded slightly. He knew what Ulevi meant, retreated after a war, and let the Governor take responsibility for the crime.

Soon, Uleve led an army of 2,000 people to the camp. This army was the elite of the Philippine Governor's District, including a cavalry of about 400 people, and four white reinforced companies of about 600. The other thousand were also the elite of the Pampanga natives, using all European firearms.

Dagupan.

Gao Feng stood on the stern of the Narwhal and used a telescope to observe the situation of the landing ground. This time he brought two battalions of troops. One of them participated in the new military camp of the Dunglai Imperial Guards, all of which were veterans, while the other was newly formed in Taipei this year. However, the soldiers were recruited from several pioneering teams and garrison battalions in Taipei, base camps, and they were skilled in martial arts and excellent equipment, but they were slightly inferior in terms of arrays.

The landing fleet is divided into an escort fleet and a transport fleet. Li Beiji's three cruise ships, Pilong and Taylor's privateers form an escort fleet. There are a total of forty transport ships transporting soldiers, arms and supplies, including twelve of them are large Ahat ships, six fast transport ships, and the rest are blessed ships and sand ships transformed by European rudders.

The first wave of landing was an infantry brigade, with a total of 500 people, originating from Taipei Kaituo Battalion. The commander was Li Shan, the commander of Taipei garrison. The equipment of the Kaituo Battalion was different from the field camp. Among them, 300 people were equipped with eight-foot spears, 200 people were equipped with heavy convex guns, and 24-pound mortars as fire support. The reason why they were sent to land first was because intelligence showed that there was a cavalry in the Spanish army.

The bayonet-style phalanx of the scoundrels does have the ability to fight against cavalry, but in the final analysis, it is not as deterrent as the spear jungle.

Almost every ship of the landing fleet has long boats and small boats, all of which are used to transport landing troops. Nearly sixty small boats and long boats are transported together, which can ensure that any equipment of this infantry brigade can be landed in one wave and gain a foothold on the coastline.

The first wave of landing went smoothly. Li Shan led his brigade ashore and only saw some of the Spanish scouts swaying around. After all, the landing point was at least ten kilometers away from the Fort Glory, and the Spanish had to cross at least two rivers.

Considering that the Spanish's first counterattack was the cavalry, Li Shan ordered the soldiers to form a square formation, with the convex gunner in front and the spearman behind, like a hedgehog, and the formation was completed, and the Spanish cavalry also arrived.

The cavalry commanded by Uleve felt helpless when they saw the hedgehog-like square formation. They were not here to fight desperately and let the cavalry crash into the spear jungle. It was said that it was successful or not. The casualties alone could not be accepted. Uleve ordered the cavalry not to approach, but to attack with muskets.

In addition to flintlock pistols, the muskets used by Spanish cavalry are mostly revolving rifles and flintlock rifles. Compared with the guns used by infantry, the length of the muskets used by cavalry is much shorter, which is quite carbine-like, but when galloping on horseback, the accuracy is really not high. On the contrary, the mesketeers in the square formation kept firing with heavy mesketeers, hitting the Spanish cavalry galloping left and right.
Chapter completed!