Chapter 1660 Attacking Manila (10)
The Spanish defenders sealed the southern gate and made a gesture of preparedness to defend to the end. However, the Haihan Army followed the tactic of surrounding three buildings and only exerted pressure on the three sides of the city, 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 in and around Manila who want to escape the war.
This arrangement was of course deliberate. The purpose was 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 way of life and succeeds, it will affect more people. After all, how many people can take the initiative to die calmly when there is a way to survive?
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. dropped. When the news came back to the Governor's Palace, Aragones was so angry that he could not think of anything else for the time being. He could only send an aide and a group of soldiers to the north gate to stabilize 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. to the city of Manila. The attendants could only quickly re-block the city gate, but this immediately aroused the dissatisfaction of the people who were trying to leave the city, and they were instantly drowned out by the roar of curses. Some people even started to push the soldiers, asking them to give up the passage out of the city.
Under the order of the attendant, the soldiers fired several shots into the air to warn the booing 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 He wanted to escape 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 assumes. This is equivalent to giving the attendant a Shangfang sword, giving him the authority to handle the situation on his own at the scene.
Of course, the attendant would not be so stupid as 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. 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 mistakes easily 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 they can defeat the invaders. Although the city defense commander Francis has ordered that the fighting situation be kept secret, more and more battle reports are still 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. Now only a city wall is left to temporarily block 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 guard against these people who wanted to escape from Manila. In this way, the authorities can only arouse more dissatisfaction, and many people put this account on the head of Governor Aragones.
Some people even began 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 cause 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 suppressed by the opponent, and they could not even use decent counterattacks. If Francis had not wisely sealed the city gate in advance, perhaps the southern defense line of the city would have been destroyed by this time. It was defeated by the enemy's heavy artillery bombardment.
Both Aragones and Francis knew that it was inevitable that the Haihan Army would 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 work involved in this kind of construction is actually quite large. The amount of earth and stone that needs to be transported to the city wall alone is thousands, and it cannot 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. 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 overwhelmed.
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. Minister of Defense Yan Chujie and General Qian Tiandun also took this time to come to the frontline command post at Chaosheng Commercial Store to listen to Gao Qiaonan's battle report. Of course, there is another important thing, which is to meet with intelligence personnel from the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Department who have 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 and thanked him, 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. The Ministry of National Defense and the Executive Committee will definitely express their opinions on this heroic attack behind enemy lines.
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. Therefore, although he envied Fang Peng for being appreciated by a leader like Yan Chujie, he still There is no unbalanced psychology.
However, Fang Peng did not forget to make a statement 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’s easy 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. It 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 was also partly hoping that it could seize Spanish property from the city to subsidize the huge military expenditures for this operation. No matter how much property Fang Peng said, sparrows are still meat anyway, so Yan Chujie would not let them go 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 are two kinds of seals in Spanish and Chinese characters on the doors and windows of this warehouse. The former was sealed by Father Blanco himself after escorting the property to the store for storage that day, while the latter was sealed by Ran Tianlu on behalf of Chaosheng Store.
Ran Tianlu asked Yan Chujie to check that the seal was intact, then tore it off, and then had all the boxes inside moved out and placed in the patio. Yan Chujie saw that each box had a complete seal, which showed that the Spaniards must attach great importance to this batch of things.
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 filled with neatly stacked stacks of silver coins, with straw plugged into the gaps to prevent them from sliding around inside the box. Yan Chujie looked at the size of the box and estimated that there would be about two thousand silver coins in this box.
"Did you just say that 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 had very high social status, and it was very easy to make money through religion. For a colony like Manila that has been open for more than sixty years, the wealth accumulated by the church is naturally very considerable.
But Father Blanco, who stored these belongings outside the city, probably never thought that he would be betrayed by the believer Ran Tianlu. He originally wanted to use the principle of darkness under the lamp. When the city was broken, the Haihan Army ransacked the city, but he never thought of the church. The belongings had been moved outside the city long ago. 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, with Father Blanc'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 is completed, the seal on the box will definitely have to be replaced with a new unit.
After the stored belongings were opened one by one, people had to lament once again how rich the church was. These boxes are not all filled with silver coins. There are all kinds of gold and silver jewelry, and even natural gold nuggets the size of a human head. I don’t know where Father Blanc collected them.
The documents that Father Blanc specifically declared at the time were only one box. However, Yan Chujie was very interested in this box of documents, even more interested than 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 indeed very useful reference materials for Haihan who is about to take over Manila. 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 passed off as church property.
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 Office. The reason why the Governor's Palace wanted to entrust these materials may be that the church claimed to be able to keep valuable items for the Manila authorities during the war, so these items passed through the hands of the church and came to 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 seems incredible, but it is the only truth.
Soon Yan Chujie dug out a treasure in the box of documents, a notebook recording the detailed distribution of minerals in Luzon Island. The three main minerals on Luzon Island are iron, gold, and copper, and these are the important metal deposits needed by Haihan. There are many mines that have been discovered in the notebook, but according to the records, most of them have not started mining yet, so Haihan will be advantaged 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. Judging from the standard time points in the notes, it should be from the beginning of this century, and the time 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. 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.
(End of chapter)