"What? The shore defense guns on the fortress were destroyed by ship guns? Salamanca asked the herald in disbelief, "You mean, the 24-pounder guns we had placed on the walls, enough to sink the 500-ton Galen, were destroyed by the ships moored in the harbor?" ”

The herald bowed his head and whispered, "Yes, Your Excellency the Governor." Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 info But the enemy destroyed only one battery, we have other batteries to use......"

Salamanca excitedly paced back and forth, babbling endlessly: "These soldiers and officers who are responsible for operating the shore defense artillery must be full of dates with a certain lady, and have forgotten their mission and responsibility - how can the coastal defense artillery lose to the naval artillery in the counter-fire?" ”

After a while, he ordered: "Tell the commander of the fortress, José Santiago, that he should rush to the battery with his men, and if the enemy fleet cannot be expelled, I will write to His Majesty the King and the Privy Council to retire early, and the defense of the fortress will be handed over to a more suitable person." ”

José Santiago was in charge of the entire military defense of Manila, and an old colonel with a gray beard - though he was not as old as he seemed - received a threatening order from the governor, and he was forced to take his guards and personally go to the battery to organize a counterattack.

In spite of the order, the Commander was still guilty of the fact that the Governor-General, who lived in fear of the illusory threat of a Dutch army and pirates from all over the East Indies, had already spent three hundred thousand pesos on the expansion of fortifications and the conscription of troops, and was prepared to spend more. Reports to His Majesty and the Privy Council were always filled with desperate appeals, as if he were standing in a besieged fortress and struggling to survive. The fear and nervousness of the military invasion made the governor make an irrational judgment, in fact, it was possible to sit down and talk with this fleet from the Ming Kingdom, instead of communicating and communicating with artillery. No, just a gun battery, a 24-pounder gun, and several experienced soldiers were lost.

On the "Guangdong", Putmans, who was watching from the sidelines, looked at the smoke-emitting battery with wide eyes, and it was the first time he had seen the power of such an explosive bomb. He couldn't help but ask: "You guys are using this kind of cannon against Zheng Yiguan?" ”

William replied proudly: "Of course not all, our defeat of Zheng Yiguan relied on the comprehensive strength of the fleet, but this kind of artillery played an important role at a critical moment. Zheng Yiguan, who made you anxious, only lasted less than 24 hours under our men before he completely collapsed. ”

Putmans was secretly alarmed, and it seemed that it was time to reassess the strength of this opponent and the seemingly impudent demands they made. With a few hundred soldiers of Gelanza, how to block the other party's thunderous blow, it is better to evacuate with dignity, in exchange for the supply of goods for maritime trade.

At this time, the battery on the castle seemed to regain the ability to fight back, and the shelling began again. "Boom, boom, boom", one after another 24-pound solid bombs flew towards the fleet. One shell, with good luck, landed on the "Chengmai", and the two sailors died.

William's face sank: "It's really stubborn, keep shooting at me, knock out these forts, and see what tricks they have?" ”

Van Bommel, the captain of the "Guangdong", shook his head: "These Spaniards are really stubborn, the ports are blocked, merchant ships cannot enter the port, how many commercial taxes are lost every day, why can't they sit down and talk about it?" Is it so difficult to give up the stronghold of the Lord? "The situation of the Spaniards was worse than that of the Dutch, because they could not get enough supplies, and because of their Catholicism, they were excluded from the Japanese market by the shogunate, and the entire Far East was in a state of loss, and the two strongholds of chicken coops and Tamsui were even more difficult to maintain. In Van Bommel's opinion, agreeing to the request of the Qiongzhou battalion and removing the stronghold down the slope can not only avoid war, but also stop losses, so why not?

William's heart moved, and when he mentioned the loss of business, he immediately thought of the situation when he followed the general to besiege the city of Guangzhou. At that time, the Qiongzhou battalion with a weak force of several thousand troops and five Wuyi-class warships completed the arduous task of besieging the city of Guangzhou and winning, one of its killer features was to continue to bombard the city with mortars, causing huge losses and psychological pressure, so that the officials in the city gave up holding on, chose the final counterattack, and concluded an alliance under the city after the defeat.

He immediately changed his order: "Give up those turrets, turn the muzzles to the maximum angle and shoot them all into the castle, and let these stubborn Iberian idiots taste the explosion!" "Since Manila is unwilling to negotiate and chooses to use force to confront, it is a trick to abandon a target with a low hit rate such as a battery, and to use all the ammunition saved in the city and use the bombardment artillery as a mortar for a while.

The range of the long-barreled cannon with the bombardment was close to the distance between the position of the fleet and the city wall, and the maximum angle of upward fire was basically able to send the shells into the city.

The commander of the fortress, José Santiago, witnessed a scene that he had never seen before: the shells fired by the ship's guns did not aim at the battery, but flew over his head and into the city. The shells landed in the soldiers' barracks, the port tax officer's office, and other places, and the violent explosion almost blew the houses into rubble.

It took him a while to react, and he said loudly: "Hurry up and report to Your Excellency the Governor, we cannot stop such an attack, and if it continues like this, Manila will be in ruins!" ”

This is obviously an exaggeration, the high elevation range of the bombardment has reached its limit, and it is simply not able to threaten the central area of Manila, and key institutions such as the Governor's Palace are still safe. But Santiago didn't know any of this, he just knew that his resistance was becoming meaningless.

Salamanca was caught in a dilemma after receiving the report. Emotionally speaking, he was absolutely unwilling to give in to these Ming soldiers, but reason told him that the losses would be even greater if he continued to fight, not only would the blockade of the port lose the tax revenue brought by the merchant ships, but the explosive bombs that fell in the city would cause more and more houses to collapse, and it might cost tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of pesos to repair or rebuild afterwards.

The Governor hesitated, and the shelling continued, and although the bombardment did not fire many shells at a time, the continuous explosion still tormented everyone in the city.

Mayor Isabella came to ask for a meeting. He earnestly pleaded to the Governor: "Your Excellency, try to negotiate with these Ming people, these bombs that can fall into the city have caused panic among everyone, and the morale of the soldiers has dropped to freezing point......

Salamanca groaned, not answering. His previous overly tough attitude made him feel that he could not step down, and if the ceasefire negotiations were negotiated, it would be equivalent to giving in to the other side in disguise.