Chapter 3570
Compared with the settlements that were cleared in the past few days, the intensity of resistance Zheng Agui's company encountered here was obviously much higher, and it was most likely that the armed forces were stationed.
This reminded Zheng Agui of the scene of the attack on the Spanish city in the Philippine Islands two years ago. The defenders also relied on buildings similar to fortresses to put up a desperate resistance against the Haihan army.
After realizing that the opponent's combat effectiveness was no longer at the level of the immigrants, Zheng Agui did not launch another forceful attack. Instead, he asked his men to stabilize the front line first so as to attract some of the firepower for the frontal offensive maritime force.
He knew that his company was not the protagonist of today's battlefield. If he wanted to open up the situation, he still had to see whether Xiao Zhengyang's fleet could successfully eliminate the opponent's maritime power.
In the naval battle with the Haihan warship, if the Spanish galleons wanted to win, they could only fight as close as possible and use intensive broadside firepower to cause effective damage to the Haihan warship. The fleet led by Xiao Zhengyang caught the Spaniards off guard. The large sailing ships were hit by bullets and caught fire before they left the dock.
The problem now is that the fighting distance between the two sides is close enough, but because the Spanish galleon failed to leave the dock, it undoubtedly became a living target for the other side.
Moreover, the direction in which the Haihan warship approached was the stern of these large sailing ships, which had the weakest firepower, leaving almost no power to fight back. Although it will not capsize and sink immediately, it is very difficult to launch a counterattack.
This small port is not located in a key area, so no facilities such as shore defense fortresses have been built. Facing the Haihan Fleet attacking from the sea, the defenders basically had no effective means of defense and could only watch helplessly. The large sailing ship docked in the port was bombarded by enemy warships.
About an hour after the war started, all seven or eight Spanish galleons in the harbor had lost their combat effectiveness. Two of them had serious water in their sterns, and the rear half of their hulls had submerged below the sea surface. They were basically useless.
Seeing that the overall situation was decided, Xiao Zhengyang ordered the target to be transferred and began to land on the nearby coast.
Xiao Zhengyang asked the ship's naval guns to attack the fortresses and roadblocks near the shore, as well as those enemy firepower points that were still resisting, to reduce the pressure on the landing troops.
Zheng Agui saw the fireworks signal released in the direction of the port and knew that the time had come for a general attack, so he ordered the troops to continue advancing into the settlement.
By noon, the sound of fighting guns and artillery had basically stopped. The Haihan Army successfully captured the settlement. The remaining work was mainly to clean the battlefield, search for prisoners of war, and count the results of the battle.
Although Zheng Agui's company did not take on the main attack mission in this battle, it was thanks to his timely discovery and reporting of the enemy's situation that he was rewarded based on his merits after the war. Xiao Zhengyang did not hesitate to praise him and named him to participate in the trial of this battle. captured enemy officials.
Zheng Agui led his troops to destroy several settlements before. Although many Spaniards were captured, most of the information obtained was of little value. Most of the immigrants had just been sent to Sumba Island not long ago, and they did not even know that there were others in the north of the island. Such a large settlement.
Among the prisoners captured here, there are many captains and first mates on the large sailing ships, as well as officers who led troops to fight in the settlements. They know much more information than ordinary immigrants.
Xiao Zhengyang had barely slept a wink from last night to this time, but he still insisted on interrogating these special prisoners in person to ensure that timely and critical information would not be missed. The first step was to confirm the identity of the fleet that was blocked in the harbor. It didn't take much effort to find out from a prisoner why this fleet appeared in Sumba Island.
This Spanish fleet was originally stationed in the Maluku Islands in the north. It was one of the two fleets that Spain sent to this area just a year ago.
The two Spanish fleets had already been partially wiped out by the Haihan Army in previous battles, so the fleet withdrew south to the south of the Banda Sea. In order to avoid exposing their whereabouts, a remote Sumba Island was specially chosen for the attack. Supplies and rest.
Unexpectedly, they only stayed here for the fifth day when the Haihan Army suddenly came to the door, blocked them in the bay and beat them up.
Regarding Spain's current military deployment in this area, Xiao Zhengyang also obtained a lot of information from oral confessions. However, after comparing the recent battle reports, he found that most of the garrison points mentioned by the prisoners had actually been cleared by the Haihan Army in previous battles.
However, due to the speed of information transmission, the Spaniards living on the ship have not yet heard the news.
The work of counting the results of the war continued until night. This settlement with a population of 1,000 people was the most populous colony on Sumba Island. A total of more than 1,600 people were captured after the war.
However, among the more than 1,600 people, real Spaniards actually accounted for less than one-third, and the rest were basically servants and slaves of various colors and origins.
This is also a characteristic of the Spanish colonies. Whether it is the city of Manila that was occupied in the early years or the large and small settlements that were recently cleared on Sumba Island, they basically have similar population structures.
And this kind of structure is also gradually appearing in Haihan overseas regions, such as Luzon, Xingdao, and the Jinshan area on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. The proportion of Han people in the population is slowly declining. The further away from the mainland, the proportion of Han people is relatively lower.
For example, in the company led by Zheng Agui, Han people now only account for about 50%. There are not a few Hispanic officers like Staff Officer Juan in the army.
The statistics of various properties seized were also available in the morning of the next day. Compared with the same operation against Spain two years ago, the harvest this time was not huge.
After all, the development level of Sumba Island is very limited, and it is not a prosperous trading port. After Spain snatched this place from the Netherlands, it was already taken over by Haihan before Spain could manage it properly.
In addition, the captives also told an interesting story. When the Luzon Region's fleet exploring the New World set out from the port of Davao in Mindanao, the Spanish colonial authorities had already received information. They believed that the purpose of Haihan's move was to clear out his location. In the area, it is better to take the initiative than to sit still and wait for death, so the maritime armed forces were concentrated and a fight started on the way south of the Luzon fleet.
Although this action caused the Luzon region to lose to another fleet sent by Star Island in the competition to explore the New World, the Manila authorities were actually waiting for such an opportunity in order to find an excuse to attack Spain again. Now that Spain has taken the initiative to tear up the armistice agreement signed by the two sides in Cebu, it has saved the Manila authorities some trouble and can start the war directly.
Xiao Zhengyang knew very well the plans of his father's uncle. Even if Spain remained silent while the Luzon fleet headed south to the New World, it would not be able to escape this battle in the future. There was no room for the Spanish presence in the area between Luzon and the New World.