It is impossible to travel a hundred miles in a day.

If there was a good road environment in the Ming Dynasty, Chen Mu's banner army might still be able to travel 100 miles a day, but in Luzon, they could only march 80 miles at most, and normally 50 miles were the majority.

The muddy road pulled forward and pushed back the artillery cart seriously dragged the march back.

Bring a cannon, don't pack the horse and walk too slowly, but Chen Mu doesn't feel at ease without a cannon.

There was a shortage of horses in the northwestern mountains of Luzon, the roads were all in narrow mountainous areas, and the expeditionary force did not bring many horses, and only herald horses were brought with them, and herald horses could not be used to pull cannons.

But with Manila, it's no longer a big problem, and there are horses near Manila. Although the horses brought from the Ming Dynasty are not comfortable living in the rainforest, the Indian horses should be able to get used to it well.

After the liberation of Manila, Chen Mu planned to send a batch of Indian horses from India to Manila through the Portuguese.

Of course, maybe the Spaniards in Manila were willing to give themselves some good European horses?

Just like a hungry man with his head full of food, Chen Shuai watched his subordinates' long march on foot with war horses.

Watch?

Of course, he rode a black baby.

As an excellent general who feels sorry for his soldiers, he is heartbroken about how to keep the warriors under his command high.

And he walked with the soldiers for an hour every day - after all, he was always on his horse, and his thighs and buttocks were quite uncomfortable.

With the local people in the northwest of Luzon Island as scouts, it was much easier for them to march, whether they were touching the woods or climbing the mountains, they could always find a suitable path, and Chen Mu didn't even have to worry about lighting the beacon fire.

After the First Battle of Manghu Mountain, although the march was slow, it took several days to reach the unnamed bay 200 miles from Manila as agreed with Deng Zilong.

There were still more than ten miles away, and the banner army under Deng Zilong ran all the way to report the news, asking him to go to the coast quickly, and when he rode over, the huge fleet was docking at the coast and repairing the ship.

"Chen Shuai, this time Manila is in a vacuum."

Deng Zilong was so happy on the shore that he pointed to a row of large ships stranded in the shallows: "The day before yesterday, I met the Xiyi fleet at sea, eight large ships, and fourteen small boat gunboats. ”

"Carrying nearly 1,000 troops, except for two big ships and a small boat, the rest are there."

Chen Mu looked around, he couldn't name the small boats, most of them were smaller than the small shark boats; The larger ships are mostly in the shape of Clark or Caravel, but the bow and stern are slightly lower, and at least four are not warships.

But what's the deal with getting into a lucky ship?

The Spaniards were not yet in the possession of blessed ships.

Such a fleet is very powerful at sea, but against Deng Zilong, he only suffers a loss, and for no other reason, Deng Zilong has thirteen fleets, including four from Chen Luan.

He did not suffer in terms of the number of ships or the number of artillery.

What's more, there are two warships that exceed the convention, Chihai and Ironclad, unless the Spaniards still have a large Galen like the San Pablo in the Philippines, otherwise it will be an asymmetrical war to meet on a narrow sea road.

"The lucky boat is ours, what about the casualties?"

"The casualties are not small, the two fleets have been defeated, one big shark ship can barely be used for repair, the other one sank before it reached the bay, ten small shark boats are gone, and three hundred and twenty-three sailors died, of which forty are battalion soldiers under General Chen's army."

Chen Mu calmly surprised himself in his heart, the so-called Ci Bu was not to be cruel to the soldiers or anything else, but to push them to the battlefield even if he knew that he was going to die.

Like at this moment, life is a number, and it is a number that is within his reach.

"At the end of the battle, a big Xiyi ship was surrounded by the fleet, and I sent the lucky ship over to jump with them, it was a soldier lucky ship." Deng Zilong pointed to the Xiyi ship, which was riddled with holes, and said: "Before going to sea from Tortoiseshell Port, according to what Chen Shuai said, Mr. Xu was thrown off the ship, and he let me read the translated Xiyi Naval War Book. ”

Speaking of this, Deng Zilong's face was more cautious: "Xiyi jumping ship is really dangerous, and if you can avoid it before jumping back to fight skillfully, you can avoid it, and win it with more ships and artillery." Marshal, it's time for Nanyang Shipyard to build bigger ships and artillery. ”

Come on, Chen Mu can also see himself in Deng Zilong.

Deng Zilong not only became a practical school, but also admired the cannon giant ship even more.

It's just a pleasure to see that there are people in this world who are urging Chen Ye to build bigger warships and bigger artillery!

"That book was first translated by Mr. Xu in Hawksbill Harbor, and as you said, Manila is empty now." Chen Mu stretched out his arms and pointed to the ships anchored in the offshore sea and said, "How many warships are there that are not damaged?" ”

Chen Mu attaches great importance to Westerners' books, and these things will have to be translated sooner or later, but this is obviously not the most important thing now. Whether it is military, technical or other books, or even the education system they have, they are excellent trophies for Chen Mu.

"Let Chief Lin sail the boat, go and cut off the land route from Cebu to help, and let them be on the outskirts of Manila Bay for a few days, and don't let the boat run away. I don't have to worry about it, I got a few more artillery, and if it comes time to land and fight, it will be my own people in the city who wear red scarves. ”

Saying that, Chen Mu smiled with satisfaction: "Now they shouldn't even dare to sleep!" ”

Just kidding, sending a fleet to the sea for hundreds of miles was completely defeated, and at the same time bringing back the news that the army was crushing the border, according to the very small garrison of Manila, who would dare to sleep?

If he changed places, Chen Mu would definitely choose to take away the wealth of Manila, reserve his troops and retreat to Cebu Island, and then seek to seize the city after joining forces. But the Spaniards won't do that, they're too aggressive and Cebu isn't a good option for them either.

There are no fortified cities in Cebu.

The red scarf in Manila was recruited by Li Dan, and hundreds of nearly a thousand people were definitely not insured, but Chen Mu felt that Li Dan had been at sea for several years, and he must have a bottom in his heart.

Although Deng Zilong fought an unexpected naval battle, it was a good thing for them. Although it will make them face a heavily guarded Manila, this is not a problem, the city will always be heavily guarded, and the best outcome is to destroy the main enemy force outside the city.

After taking stock of the gains and losses in the engagement, the warships unloaded some spare sails for the army to replenish their baggage, and the Chihai raised the big line, followed by the ironclad ships, and the eight fleets set off for Manila.

Chen Mu led the army to slow down a little, the servant army was divided into three hundred households according to the flag army, each small flag issued cuirass by the flag, and the Ming army was fully armed, although the soldiers were not more than a thousand, but also carried the flag in array, with a trumpet sound, one by one the military flags rose from the middle of the formation, and the army shouted three times, and the troops left.

Hundreds of households and thousands of households buckled up the green red iron ghost armor, paced a few steps off, looked back at the banner army under the command of the banner army in the banner exhibition, and showed a smile that no one could see under the armor, paced the mount and laughed and left.

Accompanied by snare drums, laughter can be heard from the dust.

"Scenery, follow me to Manila!"

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The Ming army relied on pennants - from "Victory Map of Peace"