Nan Ming Sun Never Sets

Chapter 314 Landing
In the harbor, the warships of the Ming Navy have already approached Fort San Diego.

Salcedo, who was defending here, heard that the attack on Chinatown by thousands of natives was not successful at all, but was beaten back by the Chinese.The Chinese are well-equipped and organized armed forces, which greatly exceeded his imagination and brought many hidden worries to his defense.

But at this time, he had no time to deal with the Chinese armed forces in Manila. The Chinese did not dare to leave Chinatown and only dared to guard their residences.Salcedo decided to stabilize this wave of guards before dealing with them.

"The forts have been prepared for me. The Chinese are very arrogant. They will definitely rely on their excellent cannons to bombard our star fort. It doesn't matter, let them bombard it. They don't understand how powerful the fortifications built by the Spaniards are. It is strong. Lieutenant Ramos, I need you to lead our army and guard the shore of the port. If the Chinese make a rash landing, you will drive them into the sea!"

After hearing the Governor's order, Ramos was shocked and immediately said: "Okay, Your Excellency Governor, leave it to me, I will not let the Chinese come under Fort Santiago."

Ramos is the military officer who came to the Philippines with Salcedo this time. He is very young and handsome.Ramos' self-confidence comes from some of his battles in New Spain. He has led teams to wipe out those troublesome Indians many times. compared to the Spanish army.

Even in the face of China, Ramos lacks a sense of awe, even if the Ming navy has already wiped out the entire Spanish navy.

"As long as they charge up, I can show them what a real battle is!" Ramos thought.

The number of troops he led was nearly 2000. In addition to the original Spanish colonial army on the Manila side, there were also people brought over from Mexico.Salcedo wanted to strengthen the Philippines' defenses and found ways to recruit more troops to serve the colonial government.The money he got from the king directly recruited some native white and mulatto soldiers in Mexico.Salcedo is very proud of this military strength.

On the side of the Daming Navy, Meng Hui looked at the not-so-small Fort Santiago and said, "It will take a while to destroy this castle."

Zhang Fengming said more optimistically: "A castle cannot have much impact on our army. And if we want to blow it up, we have to bring a lot of high explosives."

Meng Hui already had a map of the entire Manila city. Fort Santiago can be said to be a key point in Manila's defense, but the Ming army could isolate the castle by quickly pushing away other places.The firepower possessed by the Ming Navy was also a factor in suppressing the castle.

"Let's fire, prepare to land." Meng Hui said.

The warships of the Ming Navy formed a semi-arc fan shape and surrounded Fort San Diego, which was guarding the port.

Salcedo also became nervous: "The Chinese are ready to shell at sea!"

Generally, ships are not very good at bombarding hard targets on the ground because the defense of the fort is much stronger than them. Even in World War II, battleships did not dare to fight hard with coastal defense artillery at will.However, at this time, the Ming Navy still has its own advantages. Their artillery range and accuracy are better, which guarantees their safety to a certain extent.

One after another, the artillery shells of the Ming army fired at Fort Santiago.

"Don't be afraid, this level of shelling..." Salcedo wanted to motivate his defenders.After all, relying on his usual experience, fortifications such as bastions are quite powerful in defending against shelling.The shells will hit the wall directly, and many times they will bounce off, and they will not cause much damage.

"Boom!" With a loud noise, the shells of the Ming army exploded directly above the parapet.The volley explosion of this shell immediately caused heavy damage to a group of Spanish soldiers guarding the bastion wall.

"Not solid bullets?" Salcedo's brain shut down again, and he realized that Jiji didn't understand the Ming army's style of play, their weapons, or their tactics.

The Ming army also didn't like to fight siege battles or fortified battles, but they had to fight many times.It is true that the walls of ordinary bastions can defend against artillery, but when the Ming army used newer technology blasting bombs, which mainly focused on fragmentation and air blasts, the purpose was to kill the vital forces of the enemy, which caused these artillery to be of great importance to the bastion. Lethality has become greater.

"Hold on to me, don't panic!" Salcedo's voice changed a little. He couldn't imagine that the Ming army actually had this kind of shells. fall.

After the Ming Dynasty Restoration Army basically eliminated smoothbore guns such as Napoleon guns, they no longer used solid bullets. Even in naval battles, the actual effect of fragmentation-killing high-explosive bullets is much better than solid bullets. After all, the Ming Navy The enemy warships are all wooden ships.

But more and more shells shrouded it, and the parapet of Fort Santiago almost became a place where it was impossible to stand and survive.Originally, the bastion would not be such a tall fortification, because if it is tall, it must be thin, and if it is thin, it will not be able to defend against artillery.But when high-explosive bombs appeared, which could hit the vital forces on the top of the fortifications, the meaning of the castles built by Westerners almost disappeared.

"We can't stay here, we have to go down!" Salcedo didn't want to be killed by the artillery of the Ming army on the city wall, so he chose to withdraw from the city wall immediately.

At this time, the Ming Marine Corps also began to attack the beach in small sampans.

Meng Hui also immediately said: "Allow part of the firepower to attack the Spanish troops guarding the shore. We need enough covering firepower for our landing."

This seems to be a normal tactical exercise of the Ming army, and the Navy and Marine Corps often conduct similar exercises.

Fierce artillery fire shrouded Fort Santiago and the surrounding coast, making it impossible for the Spanish troops to climb out of the crude fortifications.Ramos, who was confident before, also looked pale at this time.

"My God, there is no such fierce artillery fire in Europe! What kind of war are we involved in!" The young and promising army lieutenant was lying behind a low wall, feeling the ground caused by the shelling. Shocked, he didn't dare to show his head at all, and used the flintlock gun in his hand to attack the Ming marines who were landing.

As soon as the marines landed, they immediately established their own firepower points. From this moment on, the victory and defeat have been divided.

(End of this chapter)