Chapter 1668 Attacking Manila (18)
"Sir, we have left the city."
Hearing his entourage whisper these words outside the car window, Aragones finally relaxed a little. He was temporarily out of the dangerous environment in the city and no longer had to worry about being captured by the Haihan people. However, this does not mean that he is already safe. After leaving the city, he must at least cross the Pasig River before entering a safe area - until Haihan completely controls the situation in the city, the area north of the Pasig River should be relatively safe. .
As the highest official of the Kingdom of Spain in Southeast Asia, Aragones certainly did not need to fight with the fleeing civilians for the few boats on the river. Before leaving the city, his subordinates had already arranged a route for him. A sailboat had been moored waiting for his arrival. As for the people who wanted to squeeze in, they were stopped at a distance by his private army.
When Aragones left the city, the Haihan Army was only a few streets away from the castle area in the north of the city. He knew that the situation was over and staying in the city would not help, so he simply chose to flee. As for the whereabouts of the city defense commander Francis, even he was not sure. When Francis was asked to come forward to negotiate with the Haihan people, even if the relationship between the two came to an end, Francis no longer paid attention to him as the governor from that time on.
Aragones knows this very well, but he will no longer try to improve the relationship between the two. Although both parties did not make a clear statement, they both understood that after this battle, the two would definitely go their separate ways and would never cooperate again. As for how Francis was going to direct the final battle, he never communicated with Aragones at all. Therefore, it was difficult for Aragones to make a clear judgment on how the civil war in the city would end.
After stepping onto the deck of the ferry, Aragones looked back at the city of Manila again. He could still faintly hear the sound of artillery coming from the city. It seemed that the war in the city was still not over. There were still defenders fighting tenaciously against the invaders. resistance. But perhaps they didn't know that the Governor who was supposed to stand behind them to provide support had already sneaked out of the city and became a deserter.
The fighting in the city was actually far less intense than Aragones imagined. The Haihan Army captured the defenders' last stronghold in the city without much difficulty. The sound of cannons he heard on the banks of the Pasig River was the sound of Haihan's gunfire. The Han army shelled the castle gate, and soon after the defenders in the castle chose to surrender.
It is true that Francis did not leave the city, but the troops he could command were no longer enough to make a comeback, and there was not even a chance of causing trouble for the Haihan Army. After the Haihan Army conquered the last stronghold, they began to clean up the city door by door in a block-by-block order. Anyone who tried to resist with force would be shot to death. There are at least a thousand Spanish defenders scattered and hiding in the city. Although there are many people, they can no longer organize themselves to continue fighting. Most of them can only surrender obediently and let the Haihan soldiers tie them up and then escort them out of the city in batches and imprison them until In the temporary detention area outside the city.
If these military personnel captured by the Haihan Army were unable to obtain sufficient ransom money for themselves after the war, most of the time waiting for them would be to be transported to a remote mine to spend the rest of their lives as miners. Of course, if they can find a way to get money, their life in captivity will not be too difficult, and as soon as the money is received, Haihan, who has a good business reputation, will immediately fulfill the contract and release him.
But at this time, Francis no longer had so many plans. For him personally, his career future had already been entirely staked in the city of Manila. Losing this city would be equivalent to losing his future goals. Even if There's no point in escaping. So he planned to fight to the death in the city, at least to keep a good reputation. Later history recorded the fall of the city of Manila, and Francis died on the battlefield as a commander, which can be regarded as a well-deserved death.
Although Francis was determined to die, he did not want to die without doing anything. He planned to sneak attack General Haihan and try to drag him into the water, which would not be a loss. However, he also knew that Haihan's security measures were extremely strict, and it was almost impossible for him to get a chance to assassinate him at close range. The only thing he could do was to hide in a hidden spot and wait for the opportunity to attack.
Francis did not hide in the old castle in the north of the city. He knew that after the Haihan Army captured it, they would search it every inch, and he would definitely be discovered hiding there. The Haihan Army would definitely have thought that his commander was either hiding in the castle or had escaped from the city, and would not have thought that he had voluntarily left the army and hid in the attic of a private house in the city.
Of course, this attic was not chosen randomly. It faced the main road leading to the north gate of Manila. The view was very wide. With a rifle mounted, one could command the street within a hundred meters from above. Francis planned to shoot at the target when General Haihan passed here to check the condition of the Pasig River outside the north gate. The closest point to the main road in this attic is less than 30 meters, so you can completely use the lethality of the rifle to complete a killing blow.
Somewhat ironically, the rifle that Francis planned to use to perform this task turned out to be a Haihan-made flintlock gun that he had spent a lot of effort and went through many circles to purchase from somewhere in the Ming Dynasty for a lot of money. . Although this gun is an export version and not a model equipped in the Haihan Army, for Francis, the accuracy of this gun is very high, enough to complete the requirements of the assassination mission.
The few dozen or so dead soldiers under Francis sneaked into several other houses nearby. Their mission was to distract the enemy during the operation and provide cover for Francis' critical strike. Although covering will expose their bodies and may put their lives in danger, these dead soldiers still intend to follow Francis until the last moment.
Francis waited in the attic all morning, but no senior generals as he expected passed through this main road. High mental stress for a long time can easily make people feel tired, and Francis is no exception. After observing the situation on the street again with a telescope with red eyes, he finally could not withstand the fatigue that came over him, so he sat on the floor and started. Close your eyes and rest your mind.
Francis originally wanted to take a short rest and continue to monitor the movements outside, but since Haihan defeated the Manila Fleet, it was difficult for him to sleep peacefully. On average, he only slept three or four hours a day at most. In the past few days when Haihan had invaded the south of the city, he had been unable to sleep, so he could only hold on with his breath. However, after Haihan invaded the city yesterday, the string that had been stretched for many days was finally broken, and the accumulated fatigue was like a tide. The attack was simply beyond what he could resist. As soon as the eyes closed, Francis seemed to have fainted and fell straight into sleep.
Francis didn't know how long he slept. What woke him up was the sound of gunshots coming from the street outside. It took him at least half a minute in a dazed state to confirm that the gunshots he heard were real and not real. Fantasy in dreams. By the time he remembered his battle plan, the gunshots outside had become sparse and soon became completely silent.
Why did the Haihan people shoot outside? The answer is obvious. They must have discovered the defenders who were still resisting. At this time, the only people fighting Haihan on this street were the group of dead soldiers commanded by Francis. . Francis came back to his senses, quickly opened the attic window facing the street, and looked out. He saw some Haihan soldiers cleaning the battlefield on the street. Several corpses were grabbed by their feet and dragged along the street. Although the corpses could not be seen clearly, judging from their clothes, it was not difficult to recognize Francis. It turned out that it was his subordinate. These people will take the initiative to show up to exchange fire with the Haihan Army. Either the Haihan Army discovers their hiding place, or General Haihan passes through this place, they will take the lead in attacking according to the plan, creating chaos to attract Haihan. The enemy's attention was drawn to Francis, who was hiding in the attic.
However, Francis did not see the figure of General Haihan appearing on the street. He had a terrible thought in his heart, that is, during the period of time when he was "coma", he had missed the best opportunity to take action.
Francis expected it to be true. The reason why this group of dead soldiers launched a suicide attack was because senior generals such as Yan Chujie, Qian Tiandun, and Harugong were preparing to go to the North City Gate via this road to check the status of the Pasig River. Surrounded by people and horses, it is naturally easy for the assassins to discover that a high-value target has appeared. Just being disturbed like this, Yan Chujie and others naturally would not rush forward for safety reasons, but retreated to a safe area, and the special operations battalion would clean up the resisters here.
If Francis had not fallen asleep just now, he might have seized this opportunity to carry out an assassination, taking advantage of the chaos to hit one or two targets with a high probability. It's a pity that fatigue defeated him, and the seemingly perfect battle plan was not fully implemented in the end. While Francis was regretful, he couldn't help but start to worry about whether his hiding place would be noticed by the Haihan people. If the dead soldiers deployed outside were caught alive by the other party, his hiding place might be exposed.
Francis' worries were not unreasonable. Before he could decide whether to move his hiding place immediately, he saw a large group of Haihan soldiers running quickly towards the house where he was hiding. Francis secretly screamed in pain, knowing that most of them were coming for him. He immediately picked up his weapon and prepared to fight the opponent in the attic for the final fight.
If the Haihan soldiers charged towards the attic, Francis' rifle would only have one chance to fire. It would take too long to reload, and there would be no time to stop the enemy. However, he also has a short blunderbuss. One long and one short has two chances to shoot. After the shooting, he can only rely on the waist knife to complete the final confrontation. However, Francis himself was not optimistic about whether the waist knife could be used. He knew that he would probably be beaten into a hornet's nest by the enemy's shots before he took out the knife.
Francis clutched the rifle tightly, thinking that even if General Haihan was not a target, it would be enough to kill two Haihan soldiers. However, although he heard that Haihanjun had arrived below the attic, no one climbed up the ladder to the attic for a long time. When Francis was confused, he saw smoke rising faintly from the entrance to the attic, which soon became thicker, and he smelled the smell of burning wood.
Obviously, the Haihan people were sure that he was in the attic, and they were not willing to pay a high price to capture him, so they simply lit several braziers downstairs and tried to pour the smoke into the attic. If this continues, Francis will either be choked and faint in the end, or he will have no choice but to rush out of the attic and be subdued by his opponent.
Francis tore off a piece of cloth from his clothes, poured water from the kettle on it to moisten it, and then covered his mouth and nose to prevent the smoke from choking his lungs. Before he could decide whether to stay in the attic or rush out to find some relief, Spanish words of persuasion to surrender could be heard downstairs.
The content of persuading him to surrender was very simple. He was asked to put down his weapons, raise his hands high, and immediately leave the attic to surrender. Haihan would guarantee his personal safety. If he continues to resist, I'm sorry, but I'll have to trap him in the attic and roast him until he's cooked.
"The war is over. All soldiers should go home and recuperate, instead of being roasted and fucked in the attic." Qian Tiandun said to Simang: "Tell him, if you surrender now, I can make the decision." Give him some preferential treatment, such as having a drink with me occasionally and chatting about interesting topics.”
"This sounds like a very good condition." Xi Mang lost no time in flattering him: "General Qian is so benevolent and righteous!"
Simang translated what Qian Tiandun said into Spanish and loudly conveyed it to Francis, who was still hiding in the corner of the attic and was hesitant. After waiting for a while, there was still no sound, so Ximang asked Qian Tiandun: "General Qian, there is no movement at all in the attic. Is there something wrong with the intelligence? Maybe we should send someone up to take a look?"
"How about you go up and take a look?" Qian Tiandun asked with a half-smile.
Simang shook his head quickly and said: "That's not necessary. He hasn't come down for such a long time. He either passed out or was pointing a gun at the stairs, waiting for someone to go up and kill him."
Although Simang was timid, his judgment was very accurate. Francis was indeed waiting for an opportunity to take action. It's just that Hai Hanjun has seen a lot of various tricks, and there are accurate intelligence sources pointing out that Francis is hiding in the attic, so naturally he will not be left with any chance to take action. No matter how determined Francis was to fight to the death, he could only give up his original idea under such circumstances.
After pouring smoke into the attic for more than half an hour, Francis finally threw the weapon downstairs while coughing dryly, indicating that he wanted to surrender.
(End of chapter)