Chapter 1660 Attacking Manila (10)

The Spanish defenders sealed the southern city gate and prepared to defend without retreating. However, the Haihan army followed the tactic of encircling three buildings and only exerted pressure on the southeast, southeast and west sides, leaving only the north direction of the city.

It can be said that as long as you leave the city and cross the Pasig River to the north, you will be temporarily out of the war zone. This is not difficult for people inside and outside Manila who want to escape the war.

This arrangement is of course deliberate. The purpose is to weaken the morale of the people and the military in the city, making it difficult for them to form the determination to fight to the death in the city. As long as someone takes the lead in escaping from this escape route and succeeds, it will affect

There are more people. After all, how many people can take the initiative to die calmly when they have options for life?

Aragones initially gave the task of guarding the northern city gate to an official who was related to him, but he never thought that this guy usually looked like a nice guy and would show his loyalty to Aragones at every turn.

, but it was unreliable at the critical moment. The Haihan Army attacked outside the south gate. After hearing the news, this guy abandoned his post, secretly joined the fleeing veterans, and ran out of the city without saying a word to Aragones.

It was lost. When the news came back to the Governor's Mansion, Aragones was so angry that he could only grit his teeth and could do nothing for the time being. He could only send an attendant and a group of soldiers to the north gate to stabilize the order.

When the attendant led a group of soldiers to the north gate, the situation here was actually a bit out of control. Many people were leaving the city through the unguarded north gate. It is conservatively estimated that at least a thousand people left during this period.

After entering the city of Manila, the attendants could only quickly re-block the city gates, but this immediately aroused dissatisfaction among the people who were trying to leave the city, and they were instantly drowned out by angry curses. Some people even began to push the soldiers, asking them to

Make way for the passage out of the city.

Under the orders of the attendants, the soldiers fired several shots into the air to warn the cheering people, but it had no effect. The desire to escape and the mentality of not being punished made these people no longer willing to be imprisoned in the city. They were eager

They wanted to flee to a safe area outside the city. In the eyes of these people, it was obviously impossible for the soldiers guarding the gate to treat the local people as brutally as the Haihan people in the south of the city.

But what they didn't know was that the instructions given by Aragones to the attendants were to prevent the people from fleeing at all costs, and even if individual people who tried to flee had any special status, they could be killed first and dealt with later. All consequences would be decided by Aragones.

Goness takes responsibility. This is equivalent to giving the attendant a sword of superiority, giving him the authority to make his own decisions on the scene to handle the situation.

Of course, the attendant would not be really stupid enough to choose a big shot with a clear background and identity. He decisively ordered the soldiers to pull out a few of the most troubled gangsters from the troubled crowd, and then tied them up immediately.

He was executed on the spot. A few fresh lives finally helped him calm down the situation temporarily. Those who wanted to get out of the city by making trouble did not dare to make trouble again.

However, this method cannot really solve the problem. The desire of the people in the city to escape from the war is still very strong, and more and more people are beginning to be pessimistic about whether the invaders can be defeated. Although the city defense commander Francis has ordered that the fighting situation be kept secret

, but there are still more and more battle reports flowing out through various channels. Many people know that the Manila fleet has almost lost the ability to continue fighting, and the defense line deployed in the south of the city has been repeatedly defeated, and now only a city wall is left to temporarily block it.

defeated the Haihan offensive.

Many people who wanted to escape had to stay in the city temporarily. However, the already stretched city defense force had to allocate more manpower to prevent these people who wanted to escape from Manila. And in this way,

The authorities could only arouse more dissatisfaction, and many people put this account on the head of Governor Aragones.

Some people even started to open up old scores. If Aragones hadn't made the plan to raid Sanya before, the Haihan people might not have taken such drastic retaliatory measures. It seems that the root of this problem still lies with him.

Of course, Aragones himself has not heard these rumors yet. His biggest headache now is how to resist the Haihan army that has launched an offensive in the south of the city. According to the battle reports returned from the front line, the firepower deployed by the defenders at the top of the city was almost completely destroyed.

The opponent was fully suppressed and could not even use any decent counterattack. If Francis had not wisely sealed the city gate in advance, perhaps the southern defense line of the city would have been defeated by the enemy's heavy artillery bombardment at this time.

Both Aragones and Francis knew that it was inevitable for the Haihan Army to take the initiative in offensive and defensive battles with its firepower superiority, but at the same time, they could not think of any effective way to curb the opponent's offensive. They could only

A large number of migrant workers were temporarily mobilized in the city to reinforce and heighten the section of the city wall that was bombarded by Haihan, hoping to delay the opponent's attack rhythm.

However, this temporary measure also has many disadvantages. First of all, these reinforcement and heightening methods are not specially designed and are simply directed by the construction foremen based on their experience. Secondly, the amount of this kind of construction is actually quite large.

There are thousands of pieces of earth and stone required to reach the city wall. How can it be completed in just a few days?

There is another issue that is not so intuitive, and that is the social impact on the people in the city. This kind of project requires a large number of migrant workers. Once more people participate, there will naturally be no secrets in this relatively closed environment.

That's it. When most people learned about this incident, their most intuitive thought was that the defense line in the south of the city was about to be unable to withstand it.

After nightfall that day, Haihan took the initiative to stop the bombardment and began to prepare for the secret operation in the second half of the night. Defense Minister Yan Chujie and General Qian Tiandun also took advantage of this time to come to the frontline command post located at Chaosheng Commercial Store.

Listen to Takahashi Minami's battle report. Of course, there is another important thing, which is to meet with the intelligence personnel of the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Department who made great contributions in this battle.

Ran Tianlu and Fang Peng, as representatives of these two units, were personally received by Yan Chujie. This was the first time they had received such an honor since they were on duty. Both of them were extremely excited.

Yan Chujie encouraged the two of them after hearing this, saying that after the war, based on the role of the collected intelligence and their performance in cooperating with the large forces during the attack here, they would apply for military honors and awards as appropriate.

After the two bowed to express their thanks, Yan Chujie specifically expressed his appreciation for Fang Peng's proactive attack the day before yesterday, praising him for disrupting the defensive deployment of the Spanish defenders and clearing the way for the army to launch an offensive. For such a brave man behind enemy lines

To attack, the Ministry of National Defense and the Executive Committee will definitely express their opinions.

Ran Tianlu watched with enthusiasm, but he also knew that Fang Peng's actions were indeed heroic, and what he did was definitely beyond his ability. So although he envied Fang Peng for being appreciated by a big leader like Yan Chujie, he still

There is nothing psychologically unbalanced.

However, Fang Peng did not forget to make a name for his partner who had fought side by side, and took the initiative to report to Yan Chujie: "Chief, Shopkeeper Ran has received a batch of property that is said to be of great value from the Spaniards, and is waiting for the army.

It will be easier to do business when you arrive."

"Oh? Are these things here?" Yan Chujie was a little concerned when he heard the word "property".

Previously, the Haihan Army found almost nothing in the Port of Cavite. They finally found a secret granary of the Spanish. They finally dug up some valuable materials, but they were far from the "treasure" that the military expected.

. The military wanted to invade the city of Manila as soon as possible, and it also wanted to seize Spanish property from the city to subsidize the huge military expenditure of this operation. No matter how much property Fang Peng said, the sparrow was anyway.

Naturally, Yan Chujie would not let go of the meat easily.

Ran Tianlu nodded slightly to Fang Peng gratefully, and then answered Yan Chujie's question: "Report to the chief, all the church properties brought by the Spaniards are properly stored in the storehouse. I will take the chief to inspect them now."

Qian Tiandun said that he would stay and continue the meeting with Gao Qiaonan, so Yan Chujie followed Ran Tianlu to inspect the property. There were seals in Spanish and Chinese characters on the doors and windows of the warehouse. The former was the one that Father Blanco escorted the property to on that day.

He sealed the property himself after bringing the property to the store for storage, and the latter was sealed by Ran Tianlu on behalf of Chaosheng Store.

Ran Tianlu asked Yan Chujie to check that the seals were intact, then tore them off, and then asked people to move all the boxes inside and put them in the patio. Yan Chujie saw that each box had a complete seal, which showed that the Spaniards were very concerned about this batch.

Things should be taken very seriously.

Yan Chujie picked a box at random and asked the guard to open it. When the lid of the box was opened, the onlookers couldn't help but let out low exclamations. Sure enough, as Ran Tianlu had guessed, the box was all neatly stacked.

There were stacks of silver coins, and the gaps were plugged with straw to prevent them from sliding and rattling in the box. Yan Chujie looked at the volume of the box and estimated that there must be about 2,000 silver coins in this box.

"You just said these things are from the Spanish Church?" Yan Chujie asked again.

"Exactly." Ran Tianlu responded: "But I didn't expect the church to be so rich."

Yan Chujie accepted this calmly. In colonial countries like Spain, churches and clergy in the Far East have very high social status, and it is very easy to make money through religion. With a colony like Manila that has been open for more than 60 years,

In other words, the wealth accumulated by the church will naturally be very considerable.

But Father Blanco, who stored these belongings outside the city, probably never thought that he would be betrayed by the disciple Ran Tianlu. He originally wanted to use the principle of darkness under the lamp. When the city was breached, the Haihan Army ransacked the city, but he never thought of the church.

The property had been transferred outside the city early. Unexpectedly, Ran Tianlu turned out to be an intelligence officer sent by Haihan to Manila to perform a latent mission. He sold him out in a flash. Otherwise, Blanco

With the priest's operating ideas, if you find the right person, you might really have a chance to get through.

At that moment, Yan Chujie ordered all the boxes to be opened, inspected on the spot, and registered. Of course, after the inspection was completed, the seals on the boxes would definitely have to be replaced by a new unit.

After these stored belongings were opened one by one, people had to sigh again how rich the church was. Not all of the boxes contained silver coins, but all kinds of gold and silver jewelry, and even natural objects the size of a human head.

I don’t know where Father Blanc collected the gold nugget.

There was only one box of documents that Father Blanc had specially stated at the beginning. However, Yan Chujie was very interested in the documents in this box, even more interested than those in the dazzling gold and silver.

He briefly looked through the documents in the box. Most of them were records of the Spanish authorities' development and operations in Manila over the years. There were also a large number of nautical charts and some logbooks with unknown owners. These things are very important for the people who are about to occupy Manila.

For Haihan, it is indeed a reference material that can be of great use. I just don’t know how these materials that should have been stored in the library or the Governor’s Palace fell into the hands of Father Blanco, and how they were used as materials.

became the property of the church.

Yan Chujie quickly figured out the key. These documents were probably not simple church property, but confidential information entrusted to the church by the Governor's Mansion. The reason why the Governor's Mansion entrusted these materials may be that the church claimed to be able to provide services during wars.

The Manila authorities kept valuable items in safe hands, so these items passed through the hands of the church and arrived at the Chaosheng Merchant Store outside the city.

Yan Chujie's inference actually has no real evidence, but after removing all unreasonable possibilities, the remaining answer may seem incredible, but it is the only truth.

Soon Yan Chujie found a treasure in this box of documents, a notebook recording the detailed distribution of minerals in Luzon Island. The main minerals in Luzon Island are iron, gold, and copper, and this is what Haihan

The important metal mineral deposits needed. According to the notes, there are many mines that have been discovered, but according to the records, most of them have not started mining yet, so Haihan will be at an advantage now.

In addition to mineral deposits, the notebook also describes information about various flora and fauna on Luzon Island. It can be seen that the owner of this notebook should be a naturalist who has traveled all over Luzon Island. From the standard time in the notebook

Judging from a few points, it should be from the beginning of this century, which is about thirty years ago.

"I don't know if these mines have been dug. Your security department should be responsible for implementing this matter!" Yan Chujie was currently focusing on the siege and did not want to be distracted by such a thing, so he decisively handed over the task.

Gave it to Ran Tianlu.

Ran Tianlu actually didn't know much about mining, but since it was a task assigned by the chief, he didn't dare to refuse, so he could only accept it first, and secretly began to think about how to implement the information from decades ago.
Chapter completed!