I

"What? The Chinese have already invaded the city!" Peter couldn't believe it.

"Yes, they're already in town."

Peter rode towards the Datong army camp and found it empty, with only a few logistics personnel guarding supplies.

Even the indigenous warriors brought by the Datong Army have entered the city. Fortunately, there are these indigenous friendly troops, otherwise it would be difficult to quickly occupy such a large city, and after all, we would have to divide our troops to fight.

As for the discipline of the indigenous soldiers, we can only say that they should be restrained as much as possible.

Anyway, the city is full of executioners who massacre Chinese people, and they are also villains who have long exploited and oppressed Chinese and indigenous people. The indigenous warriors are willing to fight with them. First, the Chinese army provides gifts, second, the Chinese army provides food, and third, these indigenous warriors want to take revenge.

Simply suppressing the situation is not an option. The indigenous soldiers must be allowed to vent their anger. Burning, killing, and looting are normal behaviors.

As if in a dream, Peter huddled in the military camp to avoid the typhoon, and then the city of Manila was captured by friendly forces.

What the hell?

"Follow me into the city!"

Peter led the Dutch army and indigenous soldiers and ran frantically towards the city. They also want to plunder the city. If they don't run faster, the Spanish people in the city will all have their belongings robbed by the natives brought by the Datong Army.

The city has fallen into complete chaos. Bodies can be seen everywhere in the streets where water has not yet fully receded.

Wang Hui only assigned tasks to the indigenous warriors and ordered them to occupy which areas. He didn't care what they did after they occupied them. There were even headhunters who cut off Spaniards' heads as trophies, presumably to be used as decorations or as betrothal gifts to marry the woman of their choice.

Peter waded through the stagnant water to search everywhere, and found that all parts of the city were occupied, and he could not find any place to rob.

As a result, the indigenous soldiers brought by China and the indigenous soldiers brought by the Netherlands fought over the goods. A large-scale armed fight broke out between the two sides, involving more and more indigenous soldiers, eventually causing more than 2,000 casualties - this was the biggest loss for the Chinese and Dutch armies since the war began!

But it doesn't matter, the dead are all indigenous soldiers, and they will resolve the dispute themselves.

"Boom!"

The weather was only clear for half a day and half of the night. I don't know when at night, it suddenly started to rain again.

It continued until noon the next day, when the rain finally subsided, and then came the scorching sun, which could make even the people in the house panic.

"How many are left who are not sick?" Wang Hui asked.

The military medical officer replied: "More than 1,600 people."

Out of a total of 3,500 people in the expeditionary force, only more than 1,600 people were not sick. Moreover, the symptoms of the disease are diverse, and many people's diseases cannot be diagnosed, and military doctors can only judge them as "acclimatized".

Wang Hui called the herald: "Let the native soldiers collect the corpses in the city and dig pits to bury them all. Don't cause a plague."

We couldn't even burn it because we couldn't find that much dry firewood, and the dry firewood piled in the house was seriously affected by moisture.

They thought it was troublesome to make a fire, so those Dutch soldiers drank boiled water directly.

Only the Datong Army had strict military discipline. No matter how difficult it was to make a fire, they still had to drink boiled water. During the two days of the typhoon, the Datong Army that invaded the city could only drink boiled water where they were. As a result, there were a lot of sick people after the war.

The fleets of China, the Netherlands, Brunei, and Sulu are all hiding in the ports in Manila Bay.

After the typhoon passed, they only dared to patrol offshore for fear of encountering another storm after going out to sea. The Spanish fleet also did not dare to come over, and both sides waited for a while to have a naval battle.

Moreover, everyone is busy repairing their ships, so hiding in the port will inevitably cause damage.

For the next half month, there was no movement from anyone.

Inside the castle, there were a few Spanish officials and about 280 Spanish soldiers. There are also hundreds of Japanese mercenaries and the remaining Pampanga soldiers.

Spanish Governor Coquilla personally visited every day.

The more it rained, the more afraid he became, fearing that the Chinese army would attack the castle in the rain. Rainy days would make the army more vigilant.

"No fight?" Tie Hong asked.

"No more fighting," Wang Hui shook his head and said, "The city has been occupied anyway, and there is only one castle left. There is no need to add more casualties. After a while, we will bring the soldiers' families and settle in this city. Move some more Peasants, cultivate land around the city. Before that, we built fortifications around the castle, enclosed it, and beat anyone who dared to come out. Starve these red-haired ghosts to death! He has a year's worth of food, so we will surround it for a year. !”

There are also sunny days during the rainy season.

Once it was sunny, the Datong Army commanded the indigenous soldiers to push the soil into the city on small carts. Around the castle, outside the moat, fortifications were built to withstand artillery fire.

Moreover, all bridge passages on the moat were blocked by indigenous soldiers.

If the Spanish defenders want to fight their way out, they have to row across the river and move away the obstacles before walking from the bridge.

Fort Santiago is extremely strong, with walls up to ten meters thick.

Wang Hui didn't bother to use artillery to attack the city, because the castle fort was located high up and protected by stone walls, which gave him an advantage in artillery warfare when defending.

Governor Coquilla stood on the castle turret and looked around at the enemy fortifications that were gradually taking shape. He had absolutely nothing to do about it. Fort Santiago in Manila, called the "Holy Land of Freedom" by the colonists, has now become a prison cell that restricted his freedom.

This castle was besieged more than once.

Basically, if it drags on for three to five months, the enemy troops will automatically withdraw. Because neither the natives of Luzon nor the Sulu Sultanate could support the army's food supply for half a year of siege.

Moreover, after the city of Manila is repaired, the enemy troops cannot even attack the city of Manila, let alone enter the city and surround the castle.

But this time it's troublesome.

China is not a native of Luzon, nor is it a small country in Sulu. Food transportation is not a problem at all, and it can surround the defenders in the castle until they starve to death!

"I just said don't massacre the Tang people!"

Provincial Governor Sanders roared and complained again: "Killing those Tang people, what can we get except robbing property? The barber is gone, the shoe repairman is gone, and there is no one to collect the shit. Now it's better , the Chinese emperor sent troops, they surrounded the castle and refused to leave, can our food last for half a year?"

"Of course, there is food in the cellar and there is food in the warehouse," Coquilla turned around and asked, "Didn't you get a share of the goods stolen from the massacre of the Tang people? Not only did you get a share, but there was a lot."

Sanders asked: "How do you deal with this dilemma?"

Coquilla was silent.

It is impossible to send reinforcements from Spain, and it is impossible to send reinforcements from the Americas.

The Thirty Years' War has not yet ended. In Europe, Spain is fighting against allies such as the Netherlands and France at the same time. It is also very weak in the Americas. A major defeat last year caused a temporary interruption of the galleon trade. Being able to restore the Pacific shipping lanes is the ultimate.

Not only that, Spain has been operating the southern Philippine Islands for decades. Although it has built a large number of cities, ports, forts and beacons along the coast, their power can only be maintained along the coast.

There are a large number of religious indigenous people in the southern islands of the Philippines, and their spiritual leader is the Sultan of Sulu.

Although the nobles of Sulu were lying flat, these religious lower-class natives were revolting year after year. It was precisely because of the indigenous resistance that the Spanish military strength was diluted, leaving only 300 Spanish soldiers stationed in Manila.

Coquilla is more worried about the Japanese mercenaries in the castle!

Will these Japanese ronin rebel and surrender if they are besieged for another month?

…

The mountains northeast of Manila.

At this time, there were only more than 2,200 Han refugees who fled into the mountains. Those who have survived hunger, war, illness, and the rainy season have basically adapted to the environment.

In the past six months, they destroyed three Spanish plantations and defeated the indigenous people in the Pampanga mountains once. Moreover, they temporarily formed a combat alliance with a friendly Pampanga indigenous tribe.

Not all Pampanga people are Spanish lackeys. The further they go into the mountains, the less they obey Spanish rule.

One day, the rain stopped.

The natives of Pampanga came to the Han settlement and were chattering.

Immediately, a refugee who was a store clerk shouted excitedly: "Your Majesty has sent troops. They have already invaded Manila and are surrounding the red-haired ghost's castle!"

As soon as this statement came out, there was silence everywhere, everyone couldn't believe it.

Wan Zhaoan, however, knelt down and bowed toward the north: "His Majesty the Emperor of Datong, long live long live long live long live!"

The other refugees reacted and knelt down, crying and crying: "Long live your Majesty, long live your Majesty!"

After shouting and kneeling for a long time, Lin Lang suddenly said: "Let's go out of the mountains and go to Manila to find His Majesty's army."

"How about we wait until the rainy season is over before leaving?" said the scholar Lei Lisheng.

"How can we wait? It's not easy in the woods. How many people have died of illness!" Chen Yigui immediately objected.

Lei Lisheng said: "Listen to Marshal Wan."

Wan Zhaoan thought for a long time: "The castle in Manila is difficult to attack, and we can't help even if we go there. The miasma in this mountain forest is very serious, and it is not a place to stay for a long time. It is better to attack the red-haired ghost's manor, which can not only grab food, but also We can find a good place to stay again. Manila is surrounded by the Datong Army. No matter how we attack the manor, no red-haired ghost army will come to rescue us."

"right!"

Lin Lang gritted his teeth and said: "Our belongings have all been robbed, and we will be poor when we return to Manila. Why not go to the red-haired ghost's manor, and take back as much as we lose!"

Wan Zhaoan smiled and said to everyone: "Those who are willing to stay as landowners will allocate land to cultivate themselves after we conquer the red-haired ghost's village. Those are mature lands, and there will definitely be good harvests from planting crops."

Chen Yigui said with a smile: "Not only is the harvest good, if we plant rice, we can get three crops a year."

Wan Zhao'an clapped his hands and said: "Then we specialize in attacking the red-haired ghost's manor, and all the land we conquer will be distributed uniformly. In order to prevent favoritism, we draw lots every time to allocate the land. The more land we occupy, the more we will allocate. . When the time comes, take it to the Datong Army to register for settlement, and we will all be big landowners from now on!"

"Okay, let's be the landlord in Luzon!"

"You have to learn from the red-haired ghost and capture some barbarians to be tenants."

"That's not a tenant, that's a serf."

"It doesn't matter whether they are tenants or serfs, the barbarians and natives have to help farm the land anyway. Otherwise, how can we farm if there is too much land?"

"Send troops, send troops!"