In fact, there is no doubt about the victory or defeat of the battle for the Philippines, the only question is when and in what way the Chinese will win.

MacArthur, who was originally full of confidence and determined that he could win, not only had a huge question in his heart at this time:

Can you and the army under your command still be able to hold the Philippines?

It's a pity that no one was able to give him this answer.

Now the big offensive of the Chinese has begun. The surging Chinese army was pouring towards the Philippines, and they took advantage of the all-round superiority of the sea and air to carry out the most ferocious attack on the Philippines.

MacArthur finally got the news that his opponent was Jiang Baili, chief of staff of the Chinese General Staff, who was personally in command!

Commanding the Battle of the Philippines as a Chief of Staff against MacArthur, Douglas MacArthur was not honored at all, but was filled with anger and humiliation.

He clearly remembered that when Wang Hengyue, the president of the Republic of China, visited the United States, Jiang Baili visited the West Point Military Academy and said that he could easily defeat himself.

MacArthur didn't particularly care at the time, but now, it's time to see what happens......

The Chinese are deliberately doing this, deliberately fulfilling the words of the past, using Jiang Baili to defeat themselves and bring the greatest humiliation to themselves, MacArthur thinks so.

In fact, MacArthur was thinking too much......

Whether it is Wang Hengyue or Jiang Baili, they have never really taken MacArthur to heart, and they have not really regarded him as their opponent. The reason why Wang Hengyue wanted to send Jiang Baili to take command in person was nothing more than to end the battle in the Philippines and even the entire Asian war in the shortest possible time, so that he could devote more energy to Europe.

On November 26, the Chinese used paratroopers on the battlefield for the first time.

A regiment of paratroopers, which made the most daring airborne landing at the Nichols airfield in the Gulf of Nasugrab.

With the support of completely superior air power, the young men of the Airborne Forces began a wonderful airborne landing.

Although the scale of this airborne landing is not very large, it is of absolute significance.

The Philippines is just a drill, and the future European theater is where these lads will show their talents.

Soldiers of the 1st Regiment of the 1st Division of the Chinese Airborne Forces airborne at the Nichols airfield. They carried submachine guns and machine guns. Some lost their target when they landed and fell directly into the enemy's position, and as a result, they became prisoners, while others were even less lucky, and became targets while they were still in the air, and by the time they fell to the ground, they had become a cold corpse, buried here forever.

However, a large number of soldiers still landed accurately on the set target, that is, the airborne landing site about ten kilometers away from Nichols Airport.

After the emergency rally, Qi Youdao, commander of the 1st Regiment of the Airborne Forces, found that he now had about two battalions in his hands.

Target Nichols!

"Air support, I need a lot of air support!" Qi Youdao shouted for artillery support from the headquarters.

His first regiment had only submachine guns and machine guns, no mortars, and no heavy weapons to use, and the Americans who defended Nichols would not easily give up the airfield.

His wish was granted.

Countless planes reappeared in the skies, but they didn't drop bombs, this was an airfield, and the boys of the Air Force were not willing to blow up the place where they could take off in the future.

The subchalk shells of the aviation machine guns fired as hard as they could on the ground, trying to prevent the Americans from completing the assembly. Round after round, it became a complete nightmare for Americans. …,

Then the Chinese soldiers on the ground quickly moved forward. They are not grateful to their brethren in the air force, they are far away in the sky and do not have to take on too much danger other than the limited threat of the enemy's anti-aircraft fire!

The capture of the airfield will ultimately have to be solved by the infantry.

The paratroopers, armed only with small arms, stubbornly advanced towards Nichols, despite their complaints.

And in Nichols, despite facing an attack from the air, these American GIs showed their tenacity, and they did everything they could to block the advance of the Chinese.

If there were a few tanks now, it would be much easier to attack...... Qi Youdao thought so in his heart. But if only if ......

The Americans also used machine guns, and chalk shells rained down like a rain, and the battlefield was in full swing.

On the Tagaithai Heights, 8 kilometers from the beachhead, the paratroopers were most stubbornly blocked by the American troops, and for two hours, Qi Youdao and his soldiers could not move an inch.

Qi Youdao, who was greatly annoyed, called for reinforcements to the rear again, more than a dozen gliders appeared in the sky, and more than a battalion of Chinese paratrooper soldiers were airdropped.

These brave paratroopers drove the American troops away from their positions amid the roaring crucianism. At this time, the soldiers standing on the ridge were already able to clearly see Manila in the sunlight......

It's going very hard and slow.

On 27 November, the advance of the 1st Airborne Regiment came to a halt in Imes, just 5 kilometres from the Nichols airfield. A group of recalcitrant American troops who relied on the old fortifications of the former Spanish barracks blocked their way.

This is not the US Army that the Chinese have been dealing with since they landed in the Philippines or the Philippine troops that are not much different from the common people, but the elite US Marine Corps. The 1st Airborne Regiment was entangled by them, and due to the lack of large-caliber artillery and other heavy weapons, it was unable to storm the airfield with great effort, let alone move half a step towards Manila.

Manila is a city that developed after the invasion of Spanish colonists in 1570 AD. Its history has long been associated with war. In 1646 the Dutch replaced the Spaniards as its rulers through war, and in 1762 the British captured Manila.

Later, the Americans came.

The war waged by the United States in 1898 for the seizure of the Spanish territories of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines was the first imperialist war in which the Great Powers repartitioned their colonies. Cuba and the Philippine Islands are both economically important and strategic bases for the expansion of the United States into South America and Asia, respectively. The emerging United States has strong economic and military potential, and has built up a relatively powerful navy. Spain has long since declined and is isolated internationally. In particular, the armed struggle of the people of Cuba and the Philippines against Spanish colonial rule held back a large number of Spanish troops. The brutal chalkiness of the Spanish army against the Cuban insurgents infuriated the Americans and jeopardized the economic interests of the American capitalists there. On February 15, 1898, the USS Maine, a warship sent by the United States to Cuba to protect overseas Chinese, exploded in the port of Havana, and the United States used this incident as a pretext to take military action against Spain on April 25.

At this time, the struggle in the Spanish colonies also created a favorable environment for the United States.

Armed uprisings broke out in the Philippines and Cuba against Spanish colonial rule. The Filipino rebels have liberated most of the country and surrounded Manila. The Cuban rebels pinned down Spain's 200,000 troops.

In fact, many Americans had no idea that the Spaniards still had power in the Pacific. However, there was one man in Warwickton who knew very well that the Spaniards owned the Philippines in the Pacific and had a fleet of various ships: Theodore, Assistant Secretary of the Admiralty, Roosevelt. As soon as the conflict between the West and the United States broke out, Roosevelt decided that the United States would prepare a major war not only in the Atlantic, but also in the Pacific. He's looking for someone who can deliver a swift blow to the Spanish naval forces in the Philippines! …,

In the end, he selected Brigadier General George Dewey and appointed him commander-in-chief of the U.S. Asian Fleet.

Dewey was the executive chairman of the Monitoring Committee when he accepted the order, but he was a veteran of the Civil War and had a reputation for fame. Dewey was not only a fierce fighter, but like his old boss David Glasgow Farragut, he had a unique tactical eye and insight into the situation, and before leaving Warwickton, he read every pestle he could find about the Philippines and studied all the charts of Philippine waters he could find.

At the beginning of December 1897, he left for Japan, and urgently asked the Admiralty to send him ammunition as soon as possible. A month later, he boarded the flagship "Olympia" in Nagasaki and officially assumed command.

Soon after, Dewey commanded a heading south to Hong Kong and approaching Manila. In Hong Kong, he received a telegram from Acting Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt: "Keep an abundance of coal burned. Once...... In the event of war, your mission is to prevent the Spanish detachment from leaving the Asian coast and then launch an attack on the Philippine Islands. ”

Dewey didn't need this kind of urging at all, because by this time he was already stepping up his preparations for war.

He purchased a coal carrier and a supply ship for the fleet. He ordered the battleship to be docked, overhauled the mechanical department, cleaned the underwater part of the hull, and painted the white side of the ship gray. Commodore Dewey personally checked all the details and demanded that the ship's personnel practice every day, and that all the machines on the ship be combat-ready and able to operate continuously as soon as the order was received.

In order to find out the state of the Spanish fleet and the fortifications on the Philippine island, he sent spies to Manila for a year, and had his lieutenants disguise themselves as tourists to spy on tourists arriving in Hong Kong.

In order to prevent the British from taking a neutral stance after the outbreak of war, he set up a temporary anchorage near Mirs Bay in Chinese waters.

On April 25, the Secretary of the Navy sent a telegram: "The United States and Spain have started a war, hurry to the Philippines, start operations, and do everything possible to capture or destroy the Western Fleet." ”

Dewey waited another 36 hours until the American consul arrived from Manila with the Spaniards preparing for war. On April 27, Dewey swung south to conquer the Philippines. ）