The Western Combined Fleet changed its original plans and chose to land south of Manila. This further bought time for the defenders of Manila. If hundreds of sailing ships captured the port of Manila, all men and supplies could be disembarked in a very short time. But if you choose to land on a beach without a pier, you can only drop off your small boats and carry people and supplies to the coast one after another.

That's a lot of time. Fortunately, they were not in a hurry, after all, in their opinion, even if Manila sent a ship for help, it would not be possible to deliver the news to the headquarters of the Far East Company in a few days. By the time the headquarters of the Far East Company received news from Manila asking for help, most of their ships might have gone to sea to deal with the pirates.

It will take at least a month or two until the Far East has mobilized its troops and then gathers a fleet of scattered sea ships to sail to Manila for rescue. This is still a conservative estimate, so the European coalition forces are not in a hurry, and slowly use small boats to transfer the personnel and materials on the battleship.

They also sent troops to raid nearby indigenous villages, capturing not only a large number of local aborigines, but also a large amount of food. The thousands of Luzon natives who were captured became their coolies, helping them to set up camps and improvised docks, carry supplies, and other heavy tasks.

The whole landing took two days, and the whole process was full of chaos, with only a few regular troops setting up well-established camps, and the beaches were littered with supplies and men.

The commander of the European Combined Fleet formed a headquarters on the shore, carried out a simple reorganization of the armies and mercenaries of various countries, and then marched towards Manila. They also requisitioned thousands of local indigenous coolies to help them deliver supplies such as ammunition and food.

At this time, the three lines of defense of the Far Eastern Army in the direction of Palanyak were all on alert. The first front was dominated by mercenaries from the Foreign Legion, with a part of the officers and soldiers of overseas brigades and reserve militia.

Before the enemy landed, Li Ming gathered all the troops and all the Chinese young men in Manila, dug several trenches in front of several lines of defense, laid several kilometers of barbed wire, and placed the front-loading artillery and ammunition previously captured in Manila on several lines of defense.

There are all 6-pounder, 12-pounder, 18-pounder, and 24-pounder guns, as well as a large number of small Fran cannons, which are already very ferocious in this era. The warriors guarding the line carried European Spanish light and heavy arquebuses, spears, bayonet swords, and a large wooden shield modeled after a Russian explosion-proof shield.

Li Ming stood on the first line of defense, holding a telescope and carefully observing the situation at the enemy's landing site in the distance. He put down his binoculars and said to Ye Changsheng next to him: "The number of white-skinned people in the landing operation is estimated to be tens of thousands, and the main force of the land battle is at least more than 20,000. And they can also drive the natives to serve as cannon fodder for them, and if they get tens of thousands to attack the city, it will be a real threat to us. ”

"Commander-in-chief, we should have no problem delaying it for a few days. The trench in front of the line of defense was enough for them to fill for half a day, and it was more than thirty meters from the main position of the line of defense, which was exactly within the range of our arquebuses, and there were also a large number of small cannons of the Furlong machine that could fire scattered shells, and a lot of sun-lifting had to be thrown in front of this trench alone.

The European coalition forces came to the front of the first line of defense, and then urged thousands of local natives to build camps for them, and made a simple line of defense, and set up an artillery firing position a few hundred meters in front of the Far Eastern line.

They also unloaded hundreds of guns from the ship, but there were only four 24-pounder guns, only eight 18-pounder guns, and the rest were relatively light 9-pounder and 12-pounder naval guns, as well as some 3-pounder and 6-pounder army field guns.

Crassy and the military chiefs of various countries got together and arranged a plan for the attack. Crassy put down the monoculars, and then scolded: "These damned Eastern heretics actually laid out three lines of defense, and dug a trench in front of the line, just within the effective range of their muskets. Gentlemen, we are in trouble. A part of the trench had to be filled before the attack, which inevitably resulted in heavy casualties. ”

Fell next to him put down the binoculars, he thought for a moment and said: "General, aren't there so many natives on the island, we can let them fill in the trenches, if they die there, simply leave their bodies still in the trenches." ”

Cracy's eyes lit up, and then he smiled: "Yes, sir, I'll arrange it." ”

Fell smiled and said, "We don't need to rush, try to minimize casualties." But are those indigenous...... Hehe, we liberated them from the Far East, and of course they have the responsibility to participate in this operation. You can promise them something, and the terms may be higher, and we won't keep it anyway. ”

His words made the whiteskins next to him laugh.

Li Ming and others, who had been nervously guarding the first line of defense, were already ready.

But the European whiteskins were not in a hurry to attack, they just kept taking a large number of natives from all over the country, organizing them briefly, and then, like driving cattle, they pushed carts full of dirt towards the trenches in front of the first line of defense.

Li Ming put down the binoculars and shouted loudly: "Guns under 12 pounds are loaded, ready to fire, give me those carts, and the musketeers will focus on the natives behind the carts." Large-caliber artillery was forbidden to fire without my orders. ”

As Li Ming's order was conveyed, the gunners of the 6-pounder and 12-pounder guns and the small cannons of the Furlong machine began to get busy, loading the solid shells into the chambers. The others also picked up their arquebuses and lit them, nervously watching the natives getting closer and closer.

"Don't fire without my orders, everyone......"

Before he could finish his words, a reserve militiaman fired a shot because he was nervous. The other militiamen also subconsciously pulled the trigger, and a thick smoke suddenly rose from the defense line.

"Whoever fired the gun first, can you shoot it so far away?"

Li Ming was so angry that he scolded, and a ruffian from an overseas brigade ran behind a reserve militiaman, "snapped", hit him on the back of the head, and scolded: "Whoever makes you owe, you will ......be in a hurry."

Then another kick was made, and the militiaman was kicked and screamed. A group of militiamen hurriedly reloaded, and without the baptism of the battlefield, a group of militiamen were all in chaos. On the contrary, the foreign mercenaries are very calm, their faces are very calm, they don't do anything else when they are in Europe, they just fight every day.

Finally, the natives pushing the carts came to a hundred meters before rushing to the trench. The artillery on the first line of defense also roared one after another, and one after another shells roared out of the muzzles and smashed into the carts on the opposite side. R1152