Chapter 2991
In the deep mountains and forests of central Cebu Island, there are many temporary settlements like this, and the construction history of some of the buildings can even be traced back more than ten years ago.
At that time, the Haihan Army went south to attack Cebu for the first time. The Spaniards realized that they were outnumbered, so they thought of building more settlements on the island so that they could avoid the sharp attack when the Haihan Army attacked this place, reducing the number of people and Damage to property.
However, there is no time pattern for the Haihan Army's offensives. They may come several times in a year, or they may go without any warning for many years.
This also led to the intermittent construction of temporary settlements. When the situation was not good, we rushed to work and wished that the construction could be completed overnight. But once the peaceful days have passed for a long time, these facilities will not be used for a long time, and people will have to be sent to maintain them. It will be very uneconomical to build too many, so related projects will inevitably fall into a state of suspension.
Moreover, in order to prevent the Haihan Army from taking over the settlements in the mountains and forests, the building scale of a single settlement will not be very large, and can accommodate anywhere from a few hundred to a thousand people. There are no roads between various settlements, only mountain trails connecting them to prevent enemies from advancing quickly along the roads.
However, inconvenient transportation has also caused problems for the operation of each settlement. In order to facilitate the acquisition of materials and information from Cebu City, the location of these settlements cannot be too far from the urban area. In addition, there are certain requirements for living environment such as water sources. Therefore, most of the settlements are located in the area between the east and west coasts in the center of the island.
The purpose of the Spaniards in building these settlements was not to fight the Haihan Army in a decisive battle, but to avoid fighting and preserve their strength to delay the Haihan Army to evacuate Cebu Island on its own. For this purpose, almost no fortifications were built in these settlements, only some outposts were set up on the periphery.
All these designs of the Spaniards are based on the concept that the Haihan Army will not occupy Cebu Island for a long time, let alone go deep into the mountains and forests to clear out the entire island. Once the actions of the Haihan Army break through this old concept, the Spaniards will have nothing Further contingency plans are in place.
There is no place to escape if you want to continue fleeing. Without suitable living conditions and stable material supplies, even if you escape further into the mountains and forests, it will be difficult for most people to survive.
Moreover, the Haihan Navy has controlled all the ports on Cebu Island, including the fishing villages. Now there are no ships that can leave the island. If you want to escape from Cebu Island, the only way left is to cut down trees and make rafts yourself. However, the survival rate of escaping at sea may not be much higher than going directly to the battlefield.
The almost desperate Spaniards launched a counterattack at the second settlement attacked by the Haihan Army. They knew very well that they had only two options left, either to die in battle, or to surrender or be captured as hard labor. In essence, there is no difference between the two results. They are just dying faster and dying slower.
The Spanish's desperate struggle did not lead to a miracle. The Haihan Army had already expected such a situation and effortlessly defeated the Spanish charge.
The battle only lasted a short time. Under the intensive firepower, more than 150 Spaniards were killed on the spot, and almost everyone who survived was injured.
After the battle, the Haihan Army captured hundreds of old, weak, women and children who were not capable of fighting in this settlement. The adults among them were gathered to clean up the battlefield in exchange for a chance to survive.
"Let them dig a hole three feet deep at the designated location. They must dig it before tomorrow morning, otherwise they will all die!"
Zheng Agui angrily gave instructions to the Spanish translator, asking him to tell the cowering prisoners in front of him.
The reason for arranging such a task is firstly to consume the physical strength of these prisoners and dispel their thoughts of resistance, and secondly to facilitate the disposal of a large number of corpses here after the pit is dug. However, even if they are threatened with death, there are still people who are not afraid of death. An old man took the initiative and told the translator that he would rather die than obey the orders of the Haihan people.
After listening to the translation, Zheng Agui was too lazy to talk nonsense. He had the old man dragged to the front of the prisoner queue, picked up a rifle and executed the stubborn old man himself.
"Tell them that they can either bury their dead relatives or be like this guy and wait to be buried by others!"
Zheng Agui will not have any sympathy for people in the hostile camp. Moreover, Zheng Agui could only interpret this refusal to cooperate as disguised resistance. For resisters, the headquarters had already given clear orders, and any method of dealing with them, including shooting them, was not an exaggeration.
Even if the old man did not have the ability to take up arms and fight, Zheng Agui would never sit idly by and watch him incite resistance in other prisoners in front of him, and he would decisively kill him as a warning to prevent the situation from getting out of control.
This trick worked as expected. The prisoners who were still muttering suddenly became quiet, and the several crying children were immediately silenced by the adults.
After conquering this settlement, the Haihan Army's subsequent actions were even more overwhelming. Only five days had passed from the time the troops were dispatched to the time when the eastern and western armies completed their rendezvous in the predetermined area.
At this time, there were very few settlements controlled by Haihan. It seemed that it would not take the month Xiao Liang requested to end the suppression of the remaining Spanish forces ahead of schedule.
The only disappointing thing is probably the failure to capture the Governor of Cebu. To be precise, the governor is currently missing. No one knows his whereabouts, so there is no way to arrest him. But the situation in Cebu Island has been decided. Even if this person is not dead, there will be no chance of a comeback.
As these settlements in the mountains and forests were cleared, the defense pressure on the periphery of Cebu City was also greatly reduced. Some time ago, attacks occurred almost every day near the defense line, but it has gradually calmed down in recent days. Many outposts have not issued any alarms for many days in a row.
On December 12, a team from the Subic Battalion killed the Spanish commander Kress who was hiding in a cave sixty miles away from Cebu City.
This person is the deputy to the Governor of Cebu and is responsible for organizing and commanding the local armed forces. However, his whereabouts have not been found since the Haihan Army attacked Cebu Port. Only from the confessions of some prisoners can we know that Kress is still hiding somewhere on the island, commanding local resistance operations remotely.
When the Subic Battalion tracked the cave, they did not actually know the identity of the person in the cave. It was not until the end of the battle that they discovered that the enemy personnel killed in the crossfire turned out to be a senior military officer, and they quickly verified the identity.
Although it was a bit regretful not to be able to capture this man alive, it was also a great achievement, and the Subic Battalion, which had performed poorly in the previous battle, was able to save some face.
(End of chapter)