"coming!"

Wang Bing didn't have to wait too long. Less than an hour after annihilating and capturing the entire Western Yi United Fleet, the smoke and dust stirred up by the three thousand Yulin Guardsmen heading south by land appeared in Wang Bing's telescope.

"Go down with the order, bombard the Spanish coastal defense guns with all your strength, and cooperate with the Habayashi Guards to seize the fort."

With the arrival of the land army, Wang Bing immediately issued an order to bombard the Spanish forts.

"Each ship listens to the order, fires ten rounds of rapid fire according to its respective target, and fires!"

After receiving Wang Bing's order, Chen Lin immediately issued the order for all ships to open fire.

"Boom boom boom boom..."

In just a moment, after receiving the flag signal from the flagship, the Royal Navy naval guns, which had already set up their formations and made all preparations, let out an earth-shattering roar in just a moment, carrying each gun one by one.

The angry cannonballs of the Ming Dynasty poured towards the Spanish forts on the shore!

"Fire back, fire back quickly!"

Because the Ming warships were too far away from the shore, the Spaniards, who did not dare to take the lead in firing even though the artillery range was barely within reach, now had to fire back.

Suddenly, the Manila Harbor, which had not been calm for long, was once again filled with the thundering sound of cannons and the smoke of gunpowder that filled the air!

Speaking of which, under normal circumstances, when naval guns and coastal defense guns are bombarding each other, it goes without saying that the side that suffers the disadvantage must be the naval guns.

After all, on undulating seas, the accuracy of naval guns cannot be compared to that of coastal defense guns located on stable land.

However, there are no absolutes in the world. Due to the use of auxiliary aiming tools such as gun gauges, gun rulers and calipers, even if naval guns were used one-on-one against the Spanish coastal defense guns, the Ming army would not fall too far behind.

A big disadvantage. What's more, in terms of the number of artillery, the Ming army still had an absolute advantage of ten to one.

In addition, unlike the black gunpowder commonly used in this era, due to the use of more fully burned brown gunpowder as propellant, the Ming army's artillery range was one or two miles farther than the Spanish.

Therefore, in the face of the solid cannonballs fired by the Spaniards, even if a warship occasionally hits them, most of the kinetic energy of the cannonballs has been lost at this time, let alone thick-skinned big guys like the first and second-class warships of the Ming Dynasty.

, even the third-level battleships the size of Fuchuan in the past can withstand as long as they are not hit continuously.

Moreover, although the loading speed of the Spaniards' muzzle-loading guns on land is almost half as fast as that on warships, it is still far inferior to the Ming army's breech-loading guns.

Therefore, when the Spanish coastal defense artillery fired one round just now, it was completely suppressed by the Ming army's artillery fire.

…

"Lord Governor, the enemy's firepower is too fierce. We should take all our precious troops back to the city! Otherwise, after the bombardment is over, those Ming cavalry will join the battle again, and they will not be able to withdraw even if they want to...

"

Just as the Spanish coastal defense batteries were being bombarded by the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy, on top of the Royal City of Manila, Lieutenant Colonel Lucio, who was temporarily appointed by de Vera as the field commander, was trying his best to persuade de Vera.

Send the soldiers on the coastal defense battery back to Intramuros.

There was no way, compared to the tens of thousands of soldiers of the Ming army, the Spanish troops were too small.

"No! You have also seen that the Ming people's artillery range is too far! If we abandon the fort, not only will they be able to land smoothly, but their warships can also directly bombard the city of Manila from the coast or even sail into the Pasig River.

…”

Regarding Lucio's proposal to shrink his troops, de Vera shook his head helplessly.

"We have no way out now. We can either pray to God to let us repel the Ming people, or we can only wait to be massacred by the Ming people!"

In fact, at this time, De Vera has clearly seen the current situation of his people. What they can do is to delay as much time as possible. If they want to win, unless a miracle happens or God comes

!

…

"Hey, Sir, how about we send a signal to the general. If the navy continues to bombard us like this, then even if we go to collect corpses from the Spaniards, we won't be able to receive a complete body!"

Just when De Vera and others were praying to their God to give them a miracle, on the south bank of the Pasig River, the three thousand feathered forest guards who had crossed the river with great swagger, in order to "steal the credit", Lieutenant General Cao Rong and other generals all looked bad.

He smiled and encouraged the leader, Zhang Weixian, to come.

"Come on, come on. If you want to send a signal, you can send it yourself. I don't want to be punished by the general when the time comes!"

Seeing the evil smiles on their faces, Zhang Weixian couldn't help but shake his head like a rattle.

"Hey, Lao Zhang, you are also a new generation of British princes now. How can the Marquis punish you for such a trivial matter?"

Seeing that Zhang Weixian was not fooled, Cao Rong and others immediately used the method of provoking the generals.

"It's true that we are a British prince now, but don't forget that the general, the champion, is older than our prince. Besides, you are both the prince-in-law and the general's nephew and son-in-law, so why don't you send this signal?

.When the time comes, even if you get a few words of reprimand from the general, it will just be an elder reprimanding a junior..."

Are you kidding, who is Zhang Weixian? He was one of the big dandies in the capital like Li Chengming, Zhu Dingchen and others. How could he be deceived by Cao Rong and some young boys?

No, just a few words, several generals of the Yulin Guard who had previously planned to let Zhang Weixian take the blame, immediately turned to 'recommend' Cao Rong.

"Just fire it, isn't it just to let the navy fire a few less guns? What's the big deal!"

In the end, Cao Rong, who was originally the leader, could not withstand the "encourage" and unknowingly took the "blame" on himself.

"call out!"

Soon, under the dusk sunset, a gorgeous firework soared into the sky in the northwest outside Manila. Needless to say, this was a signal that both parties had agreed on long ago.

"A group of impatient and ignorant guys! General Chen, ask the naval brothers to gradually extend the artillery fire to Manila to cover them in capturing the enemy forts!"

Seeing the gorgeous fireworks soaring into the sky, Wang Bing laughed and cursed without saying much. He directly asked Chen Lin to command the Royal Navy to extend the artillery fire forward and start bombarding Manila City to block the possibility of suppressing the Spanish.

The artillery bombardment launched against Zhang Weixian and others from the top of the city.

…

"A city of eternal loyalty and nobility? Humph, if it weren't for our Han craftsmen, how could you, with just a few thousand Spanish bandits and local natives, be able to build such a majestic city?"

Wang Bing couldn't help but sneered when he saw the city wall in front of him, which was built completely from a single stone and was named the "City of Eternal Loyalty and Nobility" by King Felipe II of Spain.

Needless to say, after the fierce saturation bombardment by the Royal Navy, without any surprise, the Yulin Guards led by Zhang Weixian and Cao Rong occupied the Spanish coastal forts without any effort.

Subsequently, while maintaining artillery fire suppression on the city of Manila, Wang Bing easily landed with the remaining Yulin Guards, Fujian Town Soldiers and some Royal Navy officers, and marched directly to the city of Manila.

"Master Marquis, if we attack forcefully, this city will be difficult to defeat!"

While Wang Bing was indignant at the shamelessness of these Xiyi ghosts, Chen Lin and other generals on the side were worried about the attack on Manila.

There is no way, unlike the common cities in the Central Plains, this Manila city is not only shaped like a star-shaped fortress that is easy to defend but difficult to attack, but even the city walls, which are more than seven feet thick and more than twenty feet high, are made of huge stone strips.

Built.

Therefore, if the Ming army wants to break the city, it seems that apart from the most primitive tactics of enclosing the city, it seems a bit impossible to directly blow down the city wall like in the past.

After all, this was not a castle made of rubble like the Japanese Nagoya castle. It was blown open by a fiercer artillery fire.

"Haha, today is New Year's Eve. Although I can't reunite with my family, I still have to have the New Year's Eve dinner!"

To everyone's surprise, just when all the generals were thinking about how to capture the city of Manila at the minimum cost, Wang Bing did not take up the topic at all, and instead brought the topic to the New Year's Eve dinner.

Things have gone up.

"Third brother, you're a foodie, we're discussing serious business, what are you talking about about the New Year's Eve dinner!"

Seeing that Wang Bing was still thinking about the reunion dinner at this time, Li Chengming couldn't help but was speechless among the generals who were in a daze.

Not to mention, among the generals at sea and land, even though they were both princes and dukes, the only one who could not give Wang Bing 'face' was Li Chengming, whose position and title were not high.

There is no way, since the soldiers of the Yulin Guards were sown as 'seeds' to other armies, among the dozens of 'old men' who were originally established when the Yulin Guards were first established, they are still in the Yulin Guards now.

There aren't many left.

And Li Chengming is one of these "veterans", so naturally he doesn't have so many scruples and particularities when talking to Wang Bing.

"Haha, isn't it just to attack a fortified city that is short of major generals? What's the big deal? And what I'm talking about is serious business. It's the New Year, so we can't let the soldiers have a New Year's Eve dinner, right?"

Regarding Li Chengming's accusation that he is a 'foodie', Wang Bing did not take it seriously at all.

"So, the Marquis has a way to attack the city? Then why don't we break the city before having this New Year's Eve dinner?"

Upon hearing Wang Bing's tone, all the generals couldn't help but their eyes lit up.

"Of course there are ways to attack the city, but it's too late today. Seeing that it's going to be dark soon, we can't stay up late and fight at night, right? In addition, we are not familiar with the situation in Manila, even if it is broken now

The city is a fool's errand, and the casualties among our brothers will definitely not be small when the time comes..."

In fact, why wouldn't Wang Bing want to capture the city of Manila on the last day of the twenty-fifth year of Wanli?

But as he said, without being familiar with the situation in the city, if it were to be a night battle, the casualties would definitely be unacceptable to him. Therefore, between the lives of the 'Lottery' soldiers, there was no need to think about what he would choose.

What's more, the method of attacking the city he mentioned also takes time to deploy, doesn't it?

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