Chapter 1636 Labor Intelligence
The party that benefits from the labor force usually will not refuse. Even though this is a sensitive period and the outside world should not be allowed to access the military restricted area, Colonel Francis, who is in charge of the command of Manila city defense, heard that a businessman took the initiative to labor the army, and The content of the labor force given by the other party was indeed very attractive, so he readily agreed and arranged for his attendant Gonzalo to receive Ran Tianlu.
Gonzalo is no stranger to Ran Tianlu, because he is a devout Christian who regularly goes to the city's cathedral to pray and repent, and often sees Ran Tianlu there. Gonzalo does not have as many thoughts and scruples as the Governor. For him, Ran Tianlu, who also believes in Christianity and can speak Spanish, is one of his comrades. As for his identity as a Han, this is not a problem in his opinion. You must know that many Spaniards are actually pagans. He would rather stay with Ran Tianlu than admit that those pagans are compatriots in the same country as himself.
The so-called labor force, of course, focuses on the management of senior officers. As for ordinary Spanish soldiers, it can be whatever they want. Ran Tianlu prepared two thousand silver coins and three thousand kilograms of rice for this labor force as a gift list on the surface, but in fact, he also prepared a separate gift list for senior officers like Francis and Gonzalo.
The gift list prepared by Ran Tianlu for Francis was generous, and the gift Gonzalo received was two gold bars and a set of exquisite porcelain from the Ming Dynasty. This set of porcelain would sell for at least three hundred silver coins in the local market. Gonzalo was very happy about Ran Tianlu's generous act. Of course, he also knew that the other person was not a philanthropist, and he would not give him such a generous gift just because they were familiar with each other in the same church. He still understood the saying that being polite requires asking for something, so after accepting Ran Tianlu's "labor army" gift, he took the initiative to ask the other party if there was anything he needed help with.
Ran Tianlu knew that Gonzalo was a real person, so he expressed his intention to come, saying that he actually knew a little bit about the recent depression in the market, but he was not sure whether the local Spanish armed forces could withstand the sea that might attack in the near future. He was not sure at all about the Han army, so he wanted to use the name of Labor Army to inquire about the real situation from the military. If the safety aspect is not secure enough, then he plans to leave Manila temporarily and return to Ming Dynasty to avoid the limelight.
Gonzalo became anxious upon hearing this, and quickly stated that the local city defense was impregnable. Not only were there thousands of armed guards inside and outside the city, but there was also the Manila fleet at sea to assist with defense. Regardless of whether it is Haihan or any other country, it is impossible to invade Manila with arms. Gonzalo swore to Ran Tianlu that as long as the Haihan people dared to come to Manila, their blood would dye the waters of Manila Bay red.
"This is the only way you can brag like this before the war begins!" Naturally, Ran Tianlu didn't believe a word of Gonzalo's swearing. He had full confidence in the combat effectiveness of his own army, but in order to minimize the size of his own army, In terms of losses during the battle, he still had to try to find out more detailed military intelligence.
Ran Tianlu said that he was of course full of confidence in the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army, but he still hoped to know how the defenders would respond if the Haihan army landed in Manila Bay to attack the city, so that he could feel more confident.
On a normal day, Gonzalo would naturally disdain such a request. How could he leak military secrets to civilians, let alone a Han Chinese. But today is different from the past. The situation in Manila City is precarious. If these businessmen run away because they are afraid of the war, God knows whether they will come back after the war. Gonzalo would not be stupid enough to believe what he said about temporarily avoiding the limelight. If one Ran Tianlu wants to leave, there might be dozens of Ran Tianlu behind him waiting for news. If the operation is not done well, a large number of Ran Tianlu will be gone as soon as he leaves. Call people, it will definitely have an impact on Manila's future trade.
Let’s talk about the benefits Ran Tianlu gave today, but they are actually right in front of him. They earn more than he earns in a year. Gonzalo is not willing to accept the money first and then fall out, so he can only agree to Ran Tianlu’s request at the moment. Take him for a spin around Manila City’s defense.
After the Spanish occupied Manila Bay in 1571, they built castles and forts on the south bank of the Pasig River. From that time on, this place became the capital of Spanish colonial rule in the Philippine Islands. Later, the city of Manila also gradually expanded outwards on this basis. Over the past few decades, the current city was formed along the Pasig River.
In a broad sense, the city of Manila includes settlements covering more than ten square kilometers on both sides of the Pasig River. However, in fact, the areas that the Spanish authorities focus on defense are mainly concentrated in the castle area on the south bank of the Pasig River. Most of the Spaniards who settled in Manila live in this area, while the north bank of the Pasig River is mainly inhabited by Han immigrants and local indigenous people. Non-Hispanics who can live on the South Bank are generally relatively wealthy businessmen, or Han Chinese or indigenous people who have completely surrendered to the Spaniards. For example, Ran Tianlu is one of those who moved here as a wealthy businessman.
It was precisely because of this that he had the opportunity to enter the same church as the Spaniards to inquire about information. You must know that although there are churches in the urban areas on the north bank of the Pasig River, their scale is far smaller than that of the churches on the south bank, and not many Spaniards go there to pray.
But even though Ran Tianlu lives here, he usually doesn't have the opportunity to really step into the key areas of the city defense to observe the Spanish defense situation up close, let alone be accompanied by senior officers who can explain to him while visiting. Although Gonzalo carefully avoided telling many key details, Ran Tianlu was not an honest businessman, but a professional spy who had been systematically trained. There were many things that Gonzalo did not need to explain at all. You can see the secret at a glance.
The outer defense line of Manila City is mainly divided into two parts. The first is several fixed forts on the coastline. The Spanish deployed about twenty large-caliber artillery here, although Gonzalo was careful to omit the performance of these artillery pieces. Introduction, but based on its caliber and body-to-barrel ratio, Ran Tianlu was able to roughly calculate its range based on the formulas he had learned before. Moreover, most of these artillery pieces are still fixed on the base of the gun carriage. Each gun requires more than ten or twenty gunners to cooperate in wartime. In Ran Tianlu's opinion, the convenience of its operation is much worse than that of Sanya's coastal defense forts. cut.
Ran Tianlu also noticed that there are special flat passages built near these forts. This is not only to allow personnel and ammunition to quickly reach the forts during war, but also to transport more artillery to the forts from the rear when necessary to strengthen the harbor. direction of fire blockade. However, these passages are not usually open to civilians, and Han Chinese like Ran Tianlu have no chance to step into this place.
In addition to observing the range and manning of these coastal defense guns, Ran Tianlu also pretended to look at the sea view, lying on the crenellations of the forts and carefully observing the sea areas covered by these forts. He had to remember everything he saw in front of him and try to draw it into drawings when he went back, so that the information he found could truly have military value.
Gonzalo didn't know that this Ming Shang had so many calculations in his mind. He thought that there would be no problems in taking him here to take a look around. However, Ran Tianlu asked some questions in the process that were obviously amateurish. Gonzalo Then he smiled and made some random remarks to fool the past. After seeing the forts mainly distributed on the coastline, Ran Tianlu was taken to the second part of Manila's outer defense line, the outermost wall of the city.
Compared with the fort defense line, the firepower of this city wall defense line is weaker. Ran Tianlu did not see dense forts on the city wall, but there are many shooting holes specially designed for muskets at the crenellations of the city wall. It seems that the Spanish will The defense tasks of this layer of defense are mainly left to the musketeers.
This outer city wall is about six to seven meters high. Most of the sections are made of strips of stone. A few sections are made of earth, and the outside is covered with a layer of bricks and stones. The city wall is narrow and wide at the bottom, but there are still trails on the upper part for fighting and mobilizing troops. A trench was dug outside the city wall, about three meters wide, and the water from the Pasig River was introduced as a moat. Ran Tianlu knew that this small moat was not deep. Children often swam in it when the weather was hot. The shallow part was not as deep as an adult's chest, and the deepest part was only about two meters. Such a small river can only serve as a roadblock at most. When the siege battle actually begins, it will be filled up in a short time.
However, although the city wall of Manila is not high and cannot be said to be very strong, it is actually quite long and solidly surrounds the central city where the Spaniards live. Although the local aborigines had several armed riots against the Spanish invaders in history, they never conquered this urban area, which shows that its actual function is not bad.
On the inside of this city wall is the residence of the local Spaniards. Red clay tiles, hand-plastered walls, small arches, wrought iron window bars and other Spanish-style architectural details can be seen everywhere here. According to Ran Tianlu's statistics, there are at least three thousand Spaniards living in Manila, and more than 80% of them live within this city wall.
But this is not the last line of defense in Manila. The castle built by the Spanish in the last century is located in the center of the city wall. The governor's residence and local treasury, weapons depot and other important facilities are all in the castle. That is where The core of the entire city of Manila. However, even if Gonzalo was not wary of Ran Tianlu, he would not take him to visit that place. After all, it was the center of power of the Kingdom of Spain in the Far East, and it was impossible to allow a foreign businessman to enter and exit at will.
Of course, Ran Tianlu would not insist on such treatment. Being able to figure out the Spanish's deployment on the two outer lines of defense had already achieved the purpose of reconnaissance. Any other request would easily arouse the other party's suspicion.
After the visit, Ran Tianlu inevitably flattered Gonzalo, praising that since the city of Manila had such a strong defense, he had failed to discipline the Haihan people and returned home, and he wanted to stay in Manila to witness Spain's victory with his own eyes. After returning to the business inn, Ran Tianlu immediately closed the door and thanked the guests, carefully recalled what he had seen and heard during the day, and then recorded it one by one.
Ran Tianlu spent two full days preparing the text and map information, and then handed them over to his own company's departing merchant ship to take them to Sanya. The time when this valuable information arrived in Sanya was the day before the army led by Yan Chujie left Hong Kong for the expedition. When the Ministry of Security handed it over to the military, no more than five people had passed this information after Ran Tianlu.
Regarding Manila's urban defense information, Haihan has actually collected a lot of it one after another, but such a detailed report is indeed the first in history. Ran Tianlu's report even recorded in detail the artillery configuration and fire coverage of the Manila coastal defense fort. This was information that no one had ever been able to find before. In Yan Chujie's words, the value of this piece of news alone was at least worth an army company's strength.
"The Spaniards have put a lot of effort into fortifications. Look at the distribution map of the forts. They basically cover the entire port area. If we want to achieve landing, we must either attack hard under artillery fire or Find a coast far away from Manila." After carefully studying the map sent back by Ran Tianlu, Yan Chujie pointed out the key to his officers at the war preparation meeting.
Manila Bay covers an area of nearly 2,000 square kilometers, and the coastline where Manila City is located is only a section of it. It is not difficult to find another suitable place to land. But for Haihan, time may be the biggest enemy. If the beachhead is far from Manila, then it will take a lot of manpower to transport various combat materials to the front line, thus slowing down the pace of the attack. This is command. This is the scene that officials least want to see, and this is what Yan Chujie is worried about.
If the naval gun is used to bombard the coastal defense batteries on land, it will basically not take much advantage. The shooting platform of the warship is not as stable as the gun battery on land, and the range and power of the naval gun are relatively limited. The only advantage is probably the number of artillery. But Yan Chujie didn't want to take the risk of letting his warships get within 400 meters to fight the Spanish fort head-on. Doing so would probably result in more losses than gains.
Of course, Haihan is not without any chance. Yan Chujie also has a secret weapon in his hand, which is the new warship accompanying the army this time. Although the "Warrior" class battleship is only equipped with two cannons, one in front and one in the back, these two cannons are no longer traditional smoothbore cannon structures, but rifled cannons using the most advanced manufacturing technology, with both range and accuracy. Far superior to traditional naval guns, it is fully capable of challenging coastal defense batteries.
(End of chapter)