Salamanca had no better way than to pray that there would be no deeper hostility on the other side. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 There were less than a thousand army soldiers in the entire fortress, and they had to guard the castle and guard against possible riots and riots in the city - the Spanish colonists were not afraid of the natives at all, but they were very wary of the tens of thousands of Chinese. These Chinese are hard-working and talented in business, and almost all of the Philippines' business is dominated by Chinese Americans, and the authorities are worried about the expansion of their wealth while imposing high business taxes on the Chinese.

This kind of emotion has accumulated to a certain extent, and as long as a small fuse, it can set off a bloody storm. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Wanli Emperor had just completed the three major expeditions, and was short on money, and heard that the Spaniards in Luzon had a lot of silver, and mistakenly thought that Luzon produced silver, so he started the idea of mining in Luzon. So, they chose to strike first. In 1603, the Spanish colonists instigated the local natives to carry out a large-scale massacre of the Chinese. More than 20,000 people were estimated to have been killed in this massacre.

This incident caused a great sensation at the time, and legend has it that the Wanli Emperor was furious after hearing this, saying: "The emperor deceived the imperial court, provoked overseas, and caused 20,000 merchants to use their blades, damage the prestige and humiliation of the country, and die innocently, that is, the head of the owl was reported to the sea." The Luzon chieftain killed the merchants without permission, and the officials discussed the crime. ”

However, considering the problem of national strength, it was finally abandoned, and finally the official attitude of the Ming Dynasty to this was: "The four people of China, the merchants are the most cheap, how can they be untouchables, raise a military revolution, and abandon it without pity." In other words, the Ming Dynasty believed that these people who went to the Philippines were all merchants, and merchants were not worthy of the imperial court's use of force.

If history had not changed significantly, a few years later, in 1639, the Spaniards would have launched a new massacre, killing many of the Chinese who had already converted to Catholicism.

Of course, the commander of the fleet, William, did not know all this, he just did what the general had explained, and directly blocked the port, looking for an opportunity to give these Iberians a dismount.

It was March at this time, and the fleet that had transferred silver from the New World had not yet returned, and there was no water force in the port of Manila that could stop the Qiongzhou battalion, only a few Galen ships belonging to the Governor's Palace were hiding in the corners tremblingly, and they did not dare to come out, for fear of angering this ill-intentioned fleet.

The messenger sent by Salamanca approached the fleet in a small boat, waving desperately and shouting, indicating that he had come to communicate without any malicious intent.

When the envoy boarded the "Canton", he conveyed the words of the governor to know the purpose of the fleet. William had the letter taken out and forwarded to the Governor, saying, "I hope the Governor will do as it says, and must give us an answer by noon to-morrow, otherwise we will use force to achieve our goal." ”

Half an hour later, the letter was on Salamanca's desk. The letter was written in English, and Mr. Governor, who did not speak English, had to call an interpreter.

The letter was simple, and the contents were as follows: the fleet belonged to a general of the Ming Kingdom, who had just replaced Zheng Yiguan as the maritime overlord of the Far East, and now the rules of the game had to be reformulated: both the Spaniards and the Dutch had to withdraw from the Far East, and the strongholds of the Great Commander had to be surrendered, the Doge's Office had to promise to withdraw all the soldiers of the chicken coop and the freshwater, and all future maritime trade had to take place in the ports designated by the general, and that high taxes and fees had to be paid as required.

The interpreter sweated profusely translating the letter into Spanish, peeking at the governor's face from time to time. As he expected, the arrogantly worded letter was torn to pieces by Mr. Governor and thrown to the ground.

"The arrogant Iberian warriors will not give in to the yellow-skinned monkeys of the Far East, and the strongholds of Tamsui and chicken coops must not only not be removed, but strengthened." Salamanca blew his beard and glared and said, "I will write to His Majesty the King at once, asking him to mobilize the fleet of the New World to support Dayuan Island. ”

Looking at the sails outside the window, Salamanca ordered: "Attack the enemy's flagship with fortress artillery and let them know that Manila, even without naval support, can inflict heavy damage on any enemy who dares to attack." ”

The order was conveyed to the batteries by the first rank, and the soldiers hurriedly turned the heavy 24-pounder fortress guns, aimed them at the fleet moored in the harbor, and began tedious preparations for firing.

William was waiting for a response from the castle when the sailors on the lookout shouted: "The cannon on the castle is moving, as if it is aiming at us......"

William immediately threw himself on the bow of the ship and looked in the direction of the castle with a telescope. Sure enough, the muzzles of the cannons on several of the turrets were moving slowly, and finally they were all aimed at themselves without exception. It seems that the rulers of Manila did not want to be obedient, perhaps they thought that only artillery was the most effective way to communicate.

"Damn, these stubborn Spaniards won't be obedient without suffering a little." William ordered loudly, "Attack the batteries with bombardments, and let them taste the explosives." ”

The two Yongle-class ships opened their cannon windows, and the 59-pounder bombardment guns were aimed above the castle, adjusting the firing of Zhu Yuan.

A quarter of an hour later, the 24-pounder guns on the citadel were the first to open fire.

"Boom boom", several 24-pounder guns opened fire one after another, and due to insufficient preparation and poor accuracy, several shells fell into the sea and splashed huge columns of water.

The bombardment guns on the "Guangdong" were the first to fire back, but the target of the battery was too small, and the counterattack did not hit the battery, one fell in the city, and the other hit the city wall.

The explosion that hit the wall left a dent in the wall and fell to the foot of the wall, and then exploded almost simultaneously with the cannonball inside the city. There was a loud rumbling sound inside and outside the city at the same time, and the sound was like muffled thunder.

The sudden explosion shook the soldiers on the city walls and Salamanca in the Doge's Palace. He stared in disbelief at the fire and smoke rising from the city, dumbfounded - the cannonballs fired from the fleet moored in the harbor could fly over the castle into the city, a range that could only be achieved by cannons of this caliber of more than 24 pounds, and cannons of this caliber could not fire grenades unless they were willing to bear the danger of the grenade exploding in the barrel.

William didn't know that he was hitting the right one, and a missed explosive bomb shook his opponent. He was still urging the artillery to open fire, wanting to knock out these batteries at once and completely solve the threat of artillery to the fleet.

The "Shandong" also joined the sequence of shelling, and after the correction of the impact point, one of the four explosive shells finally hit the battery accurately, and after the shell exploded, the ammunition was ignited and detonated, and with a violent sound of "boom", the entire battery collapsed, and the 24-pounder gun turned over and fell headlong into the city, deeply into the ground.