During this period, Spain did not fully control every corner of the entire Philippine Islands. Their main areas of control were distributed in Luzon and Mindanao. There were also quite a few independent tribal forces and small country forces on many other islands.
Most of these small independent tribal forces are indigenous people of the Philippines. They have lived here for more than a thousand years, living in isolation from the outside world. They are basically in the period of tribal civilization.
Zhao Xuening did not intend to touch them for the time being and marched directly to Mindanao.
He plans to first control Luzon and Mindanao, the largest islands in the Philippine archipelago, from the south to the north, control key waterways, ensure smooth trade routes, and then complete trade with Japan. In this way, the Lanfang Bureau will officially be on the track to take off. .
Compared with the power on Luzon, Spain's power on Mindanao is not that great.
Currently, the Spanish-controlled areas are mainly concentrated in the eastern part of Mindanao. In the west, there is also a Maguindanao country and some small tribal federations that still maintain their independence.
When Zhao Xuening dispatched the army, he learned that the Maguindanao country had organized a certain number of troops to attack the Spanish-controlled areas in the east. They achieved limited results in some places and captured some Spanish military facilities.
But when they launched an attack on the core of the Davao region, they were stopped by the Spanish's solid walls, muskets, and artillery.
The main reason is that the weapons are backward and the soldiers are not well organized. Although they are determined to eliminate the Spaniards, they fight back and forth and surround a city with a majority of troops, but they are never able to truly threaten the city.
Their best weapons were the matchlocks and short-barreled artillery of the sixteenth century. Facing the Spanish flintlocks and cannons, they could only be beaten and had no power to fight back.
Not only that, they also organized several counterattacks with limited forces by the Spaniards, and were defeated and retreated several times. The king continued to increase troops, but failed to reverse the situation of the war.
So when the Lanfang army landed in the Davao area, the Spaniards there were quite morale and even planned to teach Maguindanao a lesson. However, their preparations were broken by the Lanfang army.
Under Zhao Xuening's order, Zhao Changan led the navy and army to attack the Spanish-controlled areas of Mindanao. They wiped out all the few remaining Spanish warships at the Davao military port, and then the army landed in large numbers.
After landing, Lanfang Army advanced rapidly, catching the Spanish by surprise. The Spanish army was preparing to counterattack Maguindanao, but was suddenly blocked by Lanfang Army.
The army composed of a small number of white soldiers and a large number of soldiers of other ethnic groups had little fighting will and poor combat effectiveness. Some of them encountered the Lanfang Army in the wild and were defeated by the Lanfang Army's frontal bayonet charge.
The remaining part planned to resist stubbornly in the city of Davao. Lanfang's army set up artillery and bombarded them indiscriminately. Two hours later, the Spaniards in Davao raised the white flag and surrendered in Kaicheng.
Subsequently, Zhao Changan divided his army into two parts. One part continued deep into the Spanish-controlled area, and the other part returned to the ship and headed to the port of Zamboanga in the west, preparing to land from there, and attack the Spanish-controlled area on Mindanao from both sides.
As for Maguindanao, Zhao Xuening meant that as long as the other party did not take the initiative to send troops to attack Lanfang's army, Lanfang's army should deal with it cautiously and not fire the first shot.
If the other party wants to interact or trade with Lanfang, they can also cooperate with him.
Anyway, Zhao Xuening does not have the energy to deal with these small independent independent countries for the time being. As long as he controls the areas controlled by the Spanish first, it will be enough for him to digest them slowly. With Lanfang's current population size and administrative level, the territory will continue to expand. There is no point anymore.
Next, there is a period of planning for the future and practicing internal skills.
On May 29, the second year of the Republic of China, Zhao Changan led a section of Lanfang's army to land in the Zamboanga area, defeated the Spanish armed forces in the Zamboanga area, and took control of the ports and towns in the Zamboanga area.
At this point, the main Spanish strongholds and military forces of the Spanish Royal Government in the Philippines were destroyed by the Lanfang Republic, and the existence of the Philippines as a Spanish colony became a thing of the past.
And the Spanish government will definitely not know all this now. Even if it knows, it will take several months. It will take a year before it can make decisions and respond.
During this period, Zhao Xuening felt that the British were more likely to go to war with them.
Britain will be very manic after losing North America. It will be very crazy to seek compensation from those old colonial empires that have declined. Whether it is Spain, Portugal, or the Netherlands, their colonies will become the target of Britain's compensation.
During this period, having a fair-weather friend like Dai Ying was really a good choice.
Zhao Xuening could expand his power in the Southeast Asia and Indian Ocean regions as much as he wanted while the European colonists were shrinking their strength and engaging in internal struggles.
Anyway, the Daiying family has a great cause and a long-established colonial empire. Even if it is cheated, Daiying has a lot of blood and will definitely be able to withstand it!
Believe in Dai Ying!
After the war in the Philippines, two more states were added to the administrative divisions of the Lanfang Republic - Luzon and Mindanao. From the previous six states, the state-level administrative divisions of the Lanfang Republic have increased to eight.
At a time when administrative talents were in short supply, on June 1, Zhao Xuening further established the administrative divisions of the Lanfang Republic in Manila.
He decided to implement formal reforms. In accordance with Chinese tradition, he formally established a two-level system of counties and townships under the prefecture. He changed the original districts to counties and farms to townships, formally establishing a Chinese-style three-level administrative system.
This can be regarded as a preparation for his future northward strategy. When he goes northward, there will be no difference between the administrative level of Lanfang and the administrative level of the Qing Empire, making it easier for everyone to understand each other.
As a result, the basic layout of the Lanfang Republic's eight states and ninety-three counties was established by Zhao Xuening.
In the next month, Zhao Xuening devoted himself to the establishment of administrative divisions and administrative leadership teams, and made a wave of reappointments to the chief executives of ninety-three counties in eight states.
It should be said that although Lanfang's administrative talents were in short supply during this period, it was not to the point where no one could use them. Zhao Xuening had to thank himself for this.
From the time of Lanfang Company, Zhao Xuening began to divide the control areas into areas because the company's jurisdiction was getting larger and the population was increasing, and he began to let people he liked take on management tasks and cultivate administrative talents. In fact, he became the founder of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Prepare.
These early employees who transferred from the company's logistics management and financial management positions constitute a major source of Lanfang's current administrative bureaucracy. In addition, another major source of base is retired soldiers.
These retired soldiers received cultural and ideological education in Lanfang's army and were Lanfang's solid support. As the war progressed, although many of them did not die, they lost the possibility of continuing to fight and had to Not retiring.
Despite this, they did not lose their basic ability to continue working, so these people were gathered together by Zhao Xuening to attend intensive administrative cram schools, and then all of them entered the farm as managers to hone their administrative abilities from the most basic level.
Many of the county magistrates appointed by Zhao Xuening are outstanding retired soldiers who started their careers as farm leaders.
At the same time, Zhao Xuening also began to further strengthen the Chinese character of Lanfang Republic.
Seven of the eight governors established in this wave are Chinese, and 87 of the 93 county magistrates are Chinese.
That is to say, some of the original farm chiefs and current township chiefs were local indigenous people, and Zhao Xuening did not deprive them of their status.
But really speaking, there is nothing wrong with Zhao Xuening doing this.
First of all, the local indigenous people, who make up the majority of the population, have nothing to say.
They had just entered the civilized era from primitive tribal society, and quite a few of them were forced to enter the civilized era by Zhao Xuening. Not to mention national consciousness, they could not write these four words.
Except for a few people who have some cultural foundation, most people are still ignorant and uneducated. Their Chinese learning has just started. They can't tell the difference between one, two, three, four and five. They have to count five fingers one by one. , you have to use your toes to calculate more than ten digits, which is very laborious.
For them, apart from engaging in the primary industry, they really have no ability to engage in administrative work.
As for the Europeans, there is nothing to say. There are only a few of them, and most of them have their own positions, so there is no competition with the Chinese.
Because the Chinese have the traditional idea that no matter how poor they are, they cannot afford education, as well as the overall social atmosphere in the Ming and Qing Dynasties that "everything is inferior but only good at reading", they are indeed the group with the highest literacy rate and education rate in the entire Southeast Asia.
Therefore, what Zhao Xuening did was not only his own idea, but also the most practical approach.
