Chapter 2929
"Currently, there are still at least ten or so Spanish colonial settlements in the Visayas. The largest of them is still the Cebu Port where we have conducted many clearing operations."
Fang Peng raised his hand and pointed to the location of Cebu Island on the map: "Between 1638 and 1643, we organized at least three rounds of offensives against Cebu Port. Although we achieved victory in every operation, due to The distance is difficult to supply, and it is difficult for us to station troops and occupy the area for a long time. Therefore, after each operation, we voluntarily evacuate the area. The Spaniards are also very resilient. They will retreat inland as soon as we arrive. As soon as the front foot left, they came back with the rear foot, using a guerrilla approach to consume our limited time.”
"In the past ten years, considering that the effect of military strikes has not been ideal, we have gradually reduced the frequency of military operations against the Visayas, so the Spanish colonial operations there have been restored to a certain extent. According to us According to the data available, there may be tens of thousands of Spanish immigrants settled in Cebu alone.”
"In addition, in the Mindanao region further south, the Spanish have at least four or five large-scale colonial ports. We judge that in the central and southern regions of the Philippine Islands, Spanish immigrants may have reached a population of about 30,000, which has already been Close to pre-war levels.”
Before the Spanish colonists built the city of Manila, Cebu was their main base in the Philippine Islands. It was operating half a century earlier than Manila, and has been in business for more than a hundred years. After the Spanish colonial authorities were defeated and lost Manila, they moved the administrative center south back to Cebu.
The sea voyage from Manila is about 1,500 miles. It is not that far. The armed fleet is sailing at full speed. It will take about seven or eight days to arrive. But it is not close. This distance is far beyond the actual control of the Manila authorities. Large-scale military operations rely heavily on logistical supplies. With such a long maritime supply line, even someone as powerful as Haihan would find it difficult to sustain military operations for a long time.
To defeat the Spanish colonial armed forces from a military perspective, Haihan could do it twenty years ago, and there is not much suspense now. But defeat and suppression are two different things. As long as Haihan did not achieve a long-term garrison in the area, it was unlikely that the Spaniards could be completely driven out of the area. To change this situation, we must first completely change our previous coping strategies.
The three senior officials present did not show the slightest surprise at this situation, because this situation had gradually formed with their tacit approval.
Whether it is to save military expenditures or to support the self-respect of the invaders, the Manila authorities need the long-term existence of such an external opponent as a reason to maintain a certain scale of military strength.
Until the executive committee is willing to invest more resources to support the southward expansion of the Luzon region, then this opponent can be eliminated naturally. The Manila authorities had been waiting for nearly two decades for such an opportunity.
Qiu Yuan interrupted at this time: "Fang Peng, please tell me about the current level of armed force of the Spaniards."
Fang Peng nodded in agreement, and then said: "Compared to twenty years ago, the Spanish's armament level has not changed much. They still use traditional sail warships as the main force of their maritime armaments. They have about two ships in the southern part of the Philippine Islands. The establishment of an armed fleet, with a total of about thirty large and small warships, is stationed in the Port of Cebu and the Port of Cagayan de Oro in northern Mindanao.”
This number may sound large, but there is still a relatively large gap between the combat effectiveness of the Spanish warships and the Haihan warships. Moreover, when it was defeated, the Spanish colonial authorities lost the vast majority of their warships. More than half of the existing ships were gradually saved in the years after the war. Therefore, in recent years, the Spaniards have rarely taken the initiative to provoke trouble, and will not allow warships to sail into the waters controlled by Haihan to avoid losses to these hard-won armed forces. The two sides have an old grudge that is difficult to resolve, but the frequency of armed conflicts has been significantly reduced in recent years, which is a miracle.
Fang Peng continued: "As for the armed forces on land, because the Spanish do not have a clear regulation on the local garrison establishment, the specific troop strength is relatively vague. We can only estimate that it is roughly between three and five thousand people. A single The main weapons of the soldiers are flintlock guns, and the artillery is basically the old cast iron cannon. The coastal defense fort in Cebu Port has been destroyed several times by us before, and the Spanish have not repaired it since then. Long-range shore firepower was abandoned.”
The armed forces under the Spanish colonial authorities were not regular troops, and their organization was relatively chaotic. They often appointed an officer as the local garrison commander in a certain colony, allocated a certain amount of weapons and military expenses, and then allowed him to organize and train the army on his own. , responsible for maintaining local security and external defense.
The professional levels of these commanders are different, and the environmental conditions of their locations are different. Naturally, the local security forces formed are also strong or weak. Some places may maintain a security force of a hundred or so people, while other places have a quasi-regular army with thousands of people, complete arms, well-trained, and with the goal of combat.
The Military Intelligence Bureau's assessment was that the local armed strength of the colonial authorities was uneven, coupled with the fact that they were stationed in various places, information transmission was poor, and there was a lack of a unified combat command system, making it difficult to mobilize troops for coordinated action. As for proactively launching cross-regional operations, that is an even more difficult task for them.
With the combat level and maneuverability of the Haihan Army, it is completely possible to defeat the Spaniards one by one before they can react. However, because the Spanish colonies were relatively scattered, related combat tasks required the full cooperation of the navy.
And judging from the past response strategies of the Spaniards, they are likely to choose to avoid fighting when they are attacked by the Haihan Army. This will greatly slow down the actions of the Haihan Army, and they need to be prepared for such a situation.
Harugong also interjected after hearing this: "We can beat but cannot destroy. This is a problem that we have not been able to solve for a long time. But this time since we are determined to occupy these areas, we must take measures More violent measures were used to cut off the possibility of the Spaniards fighting guerrillas locally. ”
Xiao Liang said: "The staff should have formulated a corresponding plan for this. Fang Peng will stop for a moment... Feng Xingbang, please explain it to everyone!"
Feng Xingbang stood up after hearing this, walked to the map, and took over the position vacated by Fang Peng.
(End of chapter)