Chapter 1635 The long journey
The Executive Committee and the military naturally have full confidence in whether they can defeat Spain. After all, this battle mobilized most of the elite troops in the Haihan Army and prepared for nearly a year in advance. It can be said that it can be done The preparations for arriving have been almost done to the extreme, and the commanders of the army and navy will personally go out to command. There is no reason why this war will have any other outcome.
But after this battle, it is hard to say whether the short-term gains from Manila will be enough to cover the military expenditures of this operation. It was impossible for the Haihan Army to let the soldiers plunder the local people wantonly after the city was broken. At most, it would only confiscate the property of the Spaniards and their lackeys. However, based on the intelligence collected from the local area in advance, it was estimated that the proceeds from this part were not necessarily huge. Make this operation profitable. In particular, the property of Governor Aragones is said to have shrunk extremely.
From a long-term strategic perspective, the Spanish defeat of Manila City has cleared a major obstacle to future expansion in the South China Sea. The value Haihan can create by using Luzon Island will certainly far exceed the military expenditure spent this time, but for For Haihan, who has always been good at calculations, short-term gains may not make up for the amount of military expenditures, which is undoubtedly a great regret.
Although Haihan's wealth ranks among the top in the entire Far East, his military expenditure is also astonishingly high. According to national financial statistics over the years, military expenditure has maintained the first place in the expenditure list almost every year. Because Haihanhua has always adhered to the route of elite soldiers, Haihanhua has spent a lot of money on training and equipment. In addition, overseas wars have continued for years, so military expenditures have even exceeded that of a big country like the Ming Dynasty. To put it bluntly, the Haihan Army's invincible performance was indeed achieved by spending a lot of money.
Although the battlefield of this attack on Manila was not as far away as Liaodong or the Strait of Malacca, the scale of the participating troops was the largest since the founding of the People's Republic of China. The Ministry of National Defense even did not hesitate to temporarily transfer the elite border guards from the north and the south back to the South China Sea to participate in the war. The supply support provided was all implemented in accordance with the highest standards. The military expenditure invested in this operation was actually much greater than that of the border operations in the Haihan territory. If you consider it purely from an economic perspective, this action does feel a bit like making money at a loss.
"Before departure, Schneider specially greeted me and asked me to scrape the ground and collect all valuable things back to Sanya after conquering Manila." Yan Chujie shrugged and said, "I said I was going to fight, but You’re not here to scrape the land, you have to do it yourself, I can’t control that much!”
The officers surrounding him suddenly showed knowing smiles, but the person involved on the other side was also the head of the Executive Committee, but no one dared to laugh ungratefully. With Yan Chujie's status, it was natural for him to make jokes, but his subordinates still had to maintain enough respect.
The troops departing from Sanya this time were personally commanded by Defense Minister Yan Chujie, who was also the former enemy commander-in-chief of this operation. On the way to Manila, it was indispensable to gather the senior officers under his command on the flagship and seize the time to carry out the final deduction of the existing combat plan in order to achieve a foolproof effect. During the break, Yan Chujie casually told some interesting stories about the senior officials of the Executive Committee preparing for this operation, and the generals laughed in agreement, thinking it was just a pastime between meetings.
Compared with the elites mobilized by the northern and southern armies, the composition of this mixed force starting from Sanya is not that eye-catching. Almost all of this group of troops were drawn from the various units stationed on Hainan Island, rather than special forces such as special operations battalions and cavalry battalions with strong personal characteristics of the commander. In other words, this unit is the representative of the true average combat effectiveness of the Haihan Army.
Of course, Yan Chujie knows this best. Haihan's elite troops almost all perform combat missions overseas all year round, and the troops stationed on Hainan Island generally rotate regularly with overseas garrison troops. Although the opportunities for actual combat are not as many as those of the elite troops, But they basically all have experience fighting overseas. When it comes to combat effectiveness, there is naturally a gap between them and elites such as special operations battalions. After all, training, treatment, combat experience, and weapons and equipment are all quite different. But if compared with the Ming army or the armed forces of Western colonists, it is still much stronger than the other party.
The Executive Committee and the Ministry of National Defense do not want all the limelight this time to be stolen by generals stationed abroad. Therefore, in the subsequent combat arrangements, these relatively "ordinary" troops will also shoulder some key tasks and strive to be able to After the war, he was awarded military honors to balance the power in the army. Otherwise, in every foreign war, a few elite troops will receive awards for their meritorious service, and military expenditures will therefore have to be heavily tilted towards them, with the best weapons and equipment given to them first. This may not necessarily be a good thing if such long-term development continues.
Of course, the Ministry of National Defense needs to find a balance, and it is impossible to deliberately restrict the development of these special forces. That will only cause dissatisfaction and complaints from the generals. All the Ministry of National Defense can do is to find opportunities for ordinary troops to go to war. As the Minister of Defense, Yan Chujie could not take sides, but in various preparatory meetings before the war, he had roughly disclosed the high-level intentions to the officers participating in the war. Although he did not say it clearly, he must be able to understand it. After realizing the painstaking efforts of this arrangement, the only thing left is to see whether their performance on the battlefield is up to par.
Although the three armies went their separate ways, fortunately Haihan also mastered the communication method of telegraphy, so information synchronization could be achieved during the march. Regardless of the distance traveled by the three fleets every day and the difference from the original sailing plan, they can basically maintain real-time communication. Yan Chujie and Wang Tom can also calculate the itinerary of each fleet in this way, so that the three fleets can arrive at their destination, Manila Bay, simultaneously as much as possible.
According to the plan formulated by the navy, the two fleets from Sanya and Cam Ranh Bay have a similar voyage to Manila Bay, which takes about six days. The Northern Route Army heading south from Kaohsiung Port is slightly closer and is normally shorter than the other two. It took about a day less to detach the fleet. In order to be able to realize the plan of three fleets arriving at the same time, the Navy specially set aside extra time when formulating the voyage to prevent the fleet from encountering adverse weather at sea and delaying the voyage.
While Haihan's army was marching towards Manila, the people in Manila were still unaware of the coming war. Although the Manila authorities were vaguely aware that the situation was not good, they did not issue an early warning to the public in order to ensure that the local public security order would not be disrupted. Regarding the recent sharp decline in the number of ships arriving at the port, the Governor's Office explained that the southeastern coast of Daming was hit by typhoons and tsunamis some time ago. Many ports and ships were seriously damaged, which resulted in the lack of foreign merchant ships visiting the port recently. trade.
This explanation seems to be reasonable to the local people who have little information. After all, natural disasters are unavoidable, and perhaps they will slowly return to normal over time. On the contrary, some Spanish businessmen secretly regretted that if they had known that there would be problems with the supply of goods from Daming recently, they should have raised the price of the last batch of goods they arranged to ship back to the country. Of course, not everyone is unaware of the news from the outside world. For example, the intelligence personnel stationed by the Haihan Security Department in Manila City know very well that the current depressed scene in the port is not caused by climate disasters, but by Haihan in the Ming Dynasty. The result of coastal ports putting pressure on maritime merchants. Except for a very small number of businessmen running errands for the Manila authorities, who else would be willing to risk offending Haihan and continue to come to Manila to trade with the Spanish at this juncture.
Ran Tianlu is the person in charge of a business store outside Manila. According to official registration information, this business store named "Chaosheng" is the property of a certain maritime merchant in Chaozhou, Guangdong, and Ran Tianlu is assigned to He holds the position of chief storekeeper here. Every two months, cargo ships brought Ming products from Chaozhou, which were sold in batches to the local Spaniards at the "Chaosheng" store. Ran Tianlu will also buy tobacco leaves and spices from the local area from time to time depending on the market conditions, and have the cargo ships take them back to Guangdong for sale.
The "Chaosheng" store has been operating locally for more than two years. During this period, it has always behaved itself and paid the taxes levied by the Manila authorities on time and in full. Ran Tianlu even regularly donated money to the Spanish church in the city. This is This was so highly praised by the highly respected local Father Blanco that he even persuaded Governor Aragones more than once to allow local Han Chinese who believed in God to apply for Spanish citizenship.
Of course, this is just the wishful thinking of Father Blanco, who is ignorant of political affairs. He also does not think about it. If Han people can become Spanish citizens because they believe in religion, will they be able to enjoy the same treatment as Spanish nationals in the future? If this is the case, then the taxes that the Manila authorities can collect from the Han people every year will be reduced by more than half, and the main bearer of this loss is Governor Aragones himself. How could he agree with Father Blanco's suggestion?
In addition, of course, Ran Tianlu himself has no intention of becoming a Spanish citizen. In addition to his identity as the shopkeeper of Chaosheng Commercial Store, he also has another secret identity as an officer of the Special Operations Section of the South China Sea Affairs Department of the Haihan Security Department. member. Everything he did in Manila, including donating money to the Spanish church, establishing a personal relationship with the priest, etc., was all aimed at covering up his apparent identity.
These measures have indeed achieved very good results. Although the Spaniards do not think highly of Han immigrants, Han people like Ran Tianlu who can win the favor of the priest will naturally have a different attitude. Ran Tianlu has money and a protective umbrella, so no one in Manila will deliberately embarrass him.
Before being sent to Manila to lurk, Ran Tianlu had received language training for more than two years. The Ministry of Security specially found a Portuguese teacher from Macau who had lived in Spain for many years to tutor him to ensure his intelligence work in Manila. There will be no barriers due to language issues.
Even so, Ran Tianlu still pretended not to understand Spanish at all when he first arrived in Manila. It was not until he came into contact with Father Blanco that he slowly pretended to be the result of self-study and began to show his mastery bit by bit. session. Father Blanco didn't know the mystery. He only thought that this was a miracle that occurred after Ran Tianlu believed in God. Otherwise, he couldn't imagine that a Han Chinese could learn his native language so quickly.
After receiving the permission from Father Blanco, Ran Tianlu was able to freely participate in various religious activities held in the church. In this environment, he effortlessly heard a lot of valuable intelligence information from the local Spanish population. . Even the news that Governor Aragones managed to raise funds for domestic activities after the war with Haihan last year, he heard from the chats of several wealthy Spanish businessmen in the church.
However, Ran Tianlu also understood that no matter how much information he collected, it would only be of limited help to his career. Unless the two countries were at war again, the information he sent back to Sanya would only be sent to the data room after being reviewed by his superiors. archived copy. But with his ability, he certainly cannot provoke a war between the two countries, and he can only slowly wait for the opportunity. Fortunately, the wait was not too long. A few months ago, he finally received an order from his superiors, asking him to step up the collection of local military and political intelligence and wait for an opportunity to disrupt the social order in Manila at the appropriate time at the end of the year.
The order he received at that time did not have a clear timetable, but his intuition told him that the war was approaching and the long-awaited performance opportunity was about to arrive. If he could provide some key information to the military during this war, he believed that he would be able to get a chance for promotion after the war.
When Haihan sent troops to attack Manila, the most needed information was probably the local city defense deployment. But Ran Tianlu's main social connection was Father Blanco. This man was not closely related to the officers with eyes on their heads. It was impossible to get key information from the priest.
However, Ran Tianlu had his own plan. During the Batavia War in 1632, one of his colleagues, Cheng Dapeng, was also lurking in the city of Batavia as a businessman. At that time, in the name of "labor army", he collected Batavia city defense information. Although the Dutch opponent was not Haihan at that time, but the Maltalan army, the intelligence collected by Cheng Dapeng at that time still provided detailed reference materials for Haihan to figure out the armed strength of the East India Company.
Things like laboring the army can be done as long as you have money. Ran Tianlu is usually close to the Spaniards, so no one will doubt his purpose if he comes to do this. As for the corresponding expenses, Ran Tianlu believed that even if He Xi, the Minister of Security, came here, he would also think that spending a sum of money to buy city defense information was worth thousands of dollars.
(End of chapter)