In the early morning, the last hour before dawn, explosions occurred one after another inside the fort.
The grenades were kept being thrown down from the upper level as if they were free. A dozen heavy matchlock guns were quickly silenced.
In such a narrow space, the power of grenades is very terrifying. The Spaniards were pinned down in the house and unable to break out. The first hundred or so people who rushed out after hearing the explosion were all lost by now. They were eliminated condescendingly by pistols and grenades. Because the fort was round, they used matchlocks to shoot at the upper-level enemies on the opposite side, but grenades were suddenly dropped overhead. Blow them up.
After the large troops rushed in, they started fighting house to house. The pirates threw a few grenades in and immediately knocked the Spaniards in the closed cave-style room upside down.
At daybreak the remaining Spanish surrendered.
When Yang Fan saw the flaming phoenix flag raised on the fort, he yawned, turned around and went back to the bedroom to sleep.
Now that the fort has been captured. The rest is up to the pirates. They will firmly occupy the north bank of the river. And pushed the heavy artillery on the warship into the gun emplacement. Yang Fan's naval guns have a long range and can use the height of the fort to cover the entire Manila City.
Yang Fan set an alarm and got up at four o'clock just to watch the raid. Now that the overall situation has been decided, the pirate group can arrange the rest of the artillery battle by themselves. He was going back to catch up on his sleep.
Inside the balcony, inside the French door, on a big bed, Xiaoniangpi and the others were sleeping soundly.
When Yang Fan lifted the quilt and got into bed, the little girl woke up.
"Master, has the fort been taken down?" Xiao Niangpi asked sleepily. They don't want to get up in the middle of the night to watch any military operations. Of course it’s time to sleep.
"Well, it's taken down. I don't need to worry about the rest. They are transferring the cannon. All that's left is an artillery battle with the Royal City until the Spaniards surrender." Yang Fan said and yawned. I fell asleep with my little girl in my arms.
I slept until about eight o'clock. He was awakened by the sound of gunfire.
Although it was far away, the sound of the cannon still woke up the wives who were sleeping late.
Xiao Niangpi picked up the Patek Philippe watch on the pillow, looked at it, and said: "The pirates are quite capable. They transported all the cannons to the fort so quickly."
The Spaniards were shocked. They did not expect that in just one night, the fort opposite would be captured by the Ming army. At this moment, they were also panicking.
There are only more than 3,000 Spanish conquistador soldiers in Manila, and there are also 1,000 recruited local natives and mercenaries composed of Japanese ronin. But now, looking at the Ming soldiers swarming on the other side, there are 36700 soldiers. There is also a fleet at sea. Moreover, it can be seen from the towers within the city walls. More than 3,000 people landed on the south bank of the river. Obviously these people are coming towards the city of Manila. The Spanish suddenly felt that their troops were insufficient.
In fact, it is very rare for an overseas colonial stronghold to have an armed force of four thousand people. The reason why there are so many people here is because this is the trade base between Spain and the Ming Dynasty. But once you confront Daming, this point is no longer enough.
The Spanish governor, by this time, regretted accepting the English. He did not expect that Ming Dynasty would have such a powerful maritime armed force.
At this time, it was too late to regret. As soon as the fort on the opposite side was lost, the situation in Manila immediately became worse. The heavy artillery from the opposite side roared over.
The Governor sat on a large green baize table on the second floor of the Governor's Palace, discussing the current serious situation with a dozen officers in front of a sand table. At this time, a spherical solid bullet hit, shattering a window. Then, a fifty-pound lead ball directly opened a large hole in the wall and penetrated the floor. In the end, half of the entire small building collapsed.
The governor and his officers fled in disgrace. When he came to the street, he saw lead balls flying across the sky everywhere. Every time one of these huge fifty-pound shells fell, it would cause the collapse of a building.
"Your Majesty the Governor, the warships of the Ming Dynasty have returned again. At this time, they have also joined the bombardment of us." Captain Sanchez said.
"Where's our cannon? Open fire immediately to fight back against them." The governor roared angrily. He was almost killed by a shot put from the fort just now.
"Your Majesty the Governor, our artillery can only eject shells. Direct fire can't hit the other side. The one where the ejection is aimed..." Sanchez didn't know what to say.
"We have a lot of artillery. We are shooting at them. Didn't you see that they also use projectiles?"
"Okay, sir, we'll call back right now."
Less than half a day after the shooting began, Sanchez discovered that shooting against the fort was a bad idea. There is a military fortress over there, very resistant to war. And there is no target without cover. And here is the city. When the artillery shells come from the opposite side, almost every shot can hit something.
After the naval guns were added, the artillery battle quickly became one-sided. After all, the gun emplacements on the city wall are fixed targets, while the battleships are moving targets. Natural fixed targets are easy to hit. By the evening, a large number of horse-faced artillery emplacements on the city wall had collapsed. Some of the heavy artillery fell into the moat below as the city wall collapsed. Some were knocked to the ground by direct hits from fifty-pound shells.
Yang Fan had been restrained and did not use incendiary bombs. He only fired a few rounds to scare them when he arrived on the first day. The main reason is that they don't want to damage this strong fortress city too much. At the same time, there were many Ming people in the city. Try to avoid accidental injuries.
Yang Fan used his binoculars to look at the city wall that had been bombarded by fifty-pound cannons and was as damaged as if it had been gnawed by dogs. It was full of gaps, and the 30-pound cannon on it was either knocked over or collapsed along with the city wall. It seems that I made the right choice when I chose the fifty-pounder as the naval gun. Artillery shells of this weight can be used as ship heavy artillery. At the same time, it can also take into account ground attack. This is a well-weighted siege gun configuration. Many mortar shells only weigh about fifty kilograms, and some even weigh twenty or thirty kilograms.
"Manila City's artillery and city walls have been almost destroyed. A large area of the city wall has collapsed. Tonight, according to the original plan, two pirate groups will launch a fierce attack on Manila City from the north and south directions." Yang Fan said.
Xu Xiu turned around and went out to deliver the order. Yang Fan called in Lu Song, the military director of the pirate group.
"Get ready and set up a temporary court. When Manila is captured tomorrow, conduct a behind-the-scenes search throughout the city for three days. Arrest all the criminals who participated in the massacre of the people of the Ming Dynasty twenty-six years ago. Then follow the laws of the Ming Dynasty. Judge them. We cannot give up on the Spaniards who have died and returned home. You can count them and give me a report. I will send a few prisoners back and give our demands to the King of Spain."
"One is to extradite criminals, and the other is civil compensation. Even if some people are dead, their civil liability for compensation cannot be eliminated. These need to be paid by the Spanish royal family. After all, these people were sent by the Spanish king."
