When Coquilla used his telescope to see the Ming fleet appearing in Manila Bay, he had a premonition that the situation was not good, and he also realized that the other party was definitely not here to negotiate with him.
If you want to explain anything, I'm afraid it's too late. Coquilla can also roughly guess the other party's intention and purpose of mobilizing troops to fight in Manila Bay.
Do you regret killing those Akito in the Philippines?
No!
no way!
Those Ming people squeezed the local economy and made the Philippines lose control. They themselves became extremely rich and deserved to be killed!
Being richer than the Spaniards was the original sin committed by these damn Akito!
These damn people are still trying to collude with the Ming Dynasty and want the Ming Dynasty to send troops to invade the Philippines!
This is an unforgivable crime!
Coquilla only regretted that he had not killed enough, and he should have killed all the local wise men.
"boom……"
But now even if I have an idea and an order has been issued, I am afraid that no subordinate will be willing to do it.
Due to its location near Manila Bay, the Santiago Castle was already in a precarious stage.
Although the walls of this castle are ten meters thick, Coquilla also ordered a new wall to be built on the outside.
However, under the fierce bombardment of thousands of large and small artillery pieces from the Ming fleet, the imperial defenders were completely passive.
Hundreds of artillery positions can be deployed on the city wall, but being exposed outdoors means that they will be hit by enemy artillery fire.
No less than a hundred gunners had been killed or injured before. Now everyone has learned their lesson and will never show their faces easily again...
The result is that he is beaten in vain and cannot fight back. If he fights back, he will be hit even more violently!
"Damn it!"
Coquilla cursed and regretted.
If I had known this, I should have implemented the plan to conquer the Ming Dynasty back then.
Sending an invincible fleet carrying 20,000 to 30,000 imperial troops, plus 50,000 native soldiers, was enough to destroy this potential enemy.
It would not be possible for the enemy to send a fleet to attack Manila Bay and attack the city, leaving the local defenders so passive.
Since the city of San Salvador was captured by the Ming army, Coquilla realized that the Ming Dynasty had turned from defense to offense.
I just didn't expect that the attack on the Philippines would be so fast, and the local defenders were completely unprepared for defense.
Reinforcements?
The reinforcements are thousands of miles away from home, and now they have set out from Seville to collect the bodies of these people.
When they arrived in the Philippines a few months later, there was no meat on the body, leaving only a skeleton...
"Your Majesty the Governor, what should we do?"
The top local military commander, Colonel Jose Martinez, anxiously asked what his superior meant.
"José, military matters should be your consideration!"
Coquilla directly threw the difficulty to the other party. Once he made a decision-making mistake, his subordinates would be dissatisfied.
"Since you said so, I decided to abandon the castle and retreat inland!"
Colonel Martinez couldn't stand Coquilla's various behaviors, especially when the Philippine defenders were completely weak and still wanted to kill those "hens that lay golden eggs."
This move will undoubtedly offend the Ming Kingdom. If the two countries are at odds with each other and His Majesty the King is unwilling to go to war with the Ming Kingdom, he will order the punishment of the culprit.
Both he and Coquilla would most likely be unlucky, with the latter being the culprit, and he was just following the orders of his superiors.
Well now, there is no need to wait for His Majesty the King's order, the enemies have already arrived at the door...
Martinez has silently scolded Coquilla hundreds of times in his heart, and thousands of people were actually fooled by a fool.
"What? No way! All we have to do is hold on here and never give up! The walls of this castle are ten meters thick, and there is an outer city outside. It is an indestructible fortress! If you go out, you will be killed by the enemy. , is a foolish idea!"
When Coquilla heard that Martinez wanted to give up here, he immediately flatly rejected the other party's suggestion.
"Your Majesty the Governor, the opponent's force is more than ten times ours. This bay is full of their warships, and we don't even have the ability to fight back. As reinforcements cannot arrive as soon as possible, if we stick here, we will be isolated for a long time. A state of helplessness. Even if there is enough food and water in the castle, without vegetables and fruits, it will not be long before the soldiers will suffer from leukemia and lose their combat effectiveness! As their commander, I do not agree with this. You just said As you said, military matters are up to me, so I plan to give up here!"
Martinez completely lost confidence in this military idiot and killed thousands of people like this. Only an idiot would do it.
"You and your soldiers should go out to fight back the enemy at this moment, instead of hiding in the castle. This cowardly behavior damages the glory of the empire! In America, we conquered the Inca Empire with only a few hundred soldiers . One imperial soldier can destroy ten, twenty, fifty, or even a hundred enemies! And you are all a disgrace to the empire, even worse than women!"
Coqueira was even more annoyed by Martinez's offensive behavior. He ran away without fighting, which was tantamount to giving up on the Philippines.
"The Ming Dynasty is not the Inca. They have battleships, and they have already appeared here. They also have artillery, and they are bombarding our castle. They also have tanks that cannot be penetrated by bullets, which completely restrains our cavalry's counterattack. These are what you You don’t even know! You have been living in your dream, and you are the only one in your eyes! My men fought bravely, but you called them cowards, and you are just an idiot who doesn’t understand shit! "
Everyone's life is hanging by a thread, and Martinez no longer needs to maintain the necessary respect for the idiot in front of him.
He didn't just run back without fighting. On the contrary, the battle in downtown Manila was very fierce, but the imperial troops were far from being a match for the enemy.
The enemy was covered by chariots, and the infantry advanced slowly from behind. With clear layers and proper tactics, our own side could not find any chance to make a move.
Even if he hides in a corner and fires a cold gun, he will be quickly noticed, and then he will throw an exploding mallet and kill the imperial soldier who fired the cold gun in one fell swoop.
Facing the armored chariots, the imperial cavalry could not play its due role at all. Instead, they were beaten to their knees by the rapid-fire artillery on the chariots.
The imperial soldiers couldn't take advantage, let alone the native soldiers whose combat effectiveness was already low.
Basically, they were defeated in one blow, most of them resisted symbolically, and then turned around and ran away.
It was impossible to order them to hold their position. At this moment, no one paid any attention to them, and they were all running for their lives.
What can Martinez do about this?
Apart from being furious, he was also helpless!
"Their battleships can't go ashore! Their artillery can't penetrate the castle! Their tanks are just bluffs! We Spaniards will never be intimidated by the enemy! And you and your men have lost the ability to face the enemy. Courage and confidence are a total disgrace! If everyone is like you, the Philippines will fall soon, and then you, the incompetent fool, should kill yourself!"
Coquilla will not take the initiative to admit defeat. He also understands what kind of treatment he will receive after killing so many Ming people and being captured by the Ming army. The only way now is to hold on and wait for help.
"All of this was caused by your stupid decision, and it's all thanks to you! If you hadn't ordered the killing of those Ming people, there wouldn't have been so many Ming troops! You have to take full responsibility for this! You should kill yourself. It’s you!”
Of course Martinez will not take the blame for the idiot in front of him. How dare he take the blame? Explain to the Ming army?
I heard that their punishment methods were so cruel that they would cut a living person into a thousand pieces!
Even just thinking about it makes people feel extremely frightened!
"Presumptuous! You are not allowed to comment on your superior like this! I am the supreme Governor General of the Philippines!"
"You are just a stupid pig sitting in the position of governor! How ridiculous! How stupid! I will take my men and retreat now!"
"Damn it! I don't agree! No soldier is allowed to evacuate the castle without my order!"
"Humph! Then I will take my men and take the initiative to attack! What do you think? My Lord Governor?"
"You...no one is allowed to leave the castle for any reason!"
"If I remember correctly, you just said that our army should counterattack!"
"I changed my mind! You must stick to it!"
"Then I'll just pretend you haven't changed your mind!"
"I am now removing you from the qualification of commander! You are no longer the military commander here!"
"I don't admit that you have this kind of power now. If you are willing to stick to this place, then just stick to it yourself!"
"Damn it! Shut up!"
Coquilla took out his gun and pointed it at the guy in front of him who was planning to lead his team to escape.
"Plan to shoot me? Lord Governor! This castle is full of my soldiers! You must think clearly about the consequences!"
Martinez is not afraid at all, because reloading ammunition takes time, and the gun in the opponent's hand is now useless.
"I believe that not every soldier is as afraid of death as you are. As long as I order to kill an Akito and get fifty silver coins, then we will definitely repel the invading enemy!"
Coquilla believes that now is an extraordinary period and it is necessary to boost morale as soon as possible. Rewards for killing enemies are the best and most convenient way.
"Haha! Don't you think it's too late? The enemy is almost surrounding us. If there is no way to retreat, how many people will give their lives in exchange for the silver coins in your hand?"
It was okay to kill Ming merchants, but they were unarmed and were slaughtered at will like livestock.
But try to kill the Ming army? Doesn’t the opponent have any weapons in his hand? Did you come empty-handed to beg for mercy?
Do you think the soldiers below are as stupid as you?
Risking your life for a bag of silver coins?
What's the point of asking for money when the person is dead?
Could it be that in order to buy a coffin for himself, he took the initiative to kill the Ming army?
The more Martinez looked at Coquilla, the more he despised him. Only a stupid pig would come up with such a stupid idea.
"No matter what, this castle must not fall into the hands of the enemy! Otherwise, you and your soldiers are just jobbers and deliberately let Manila fall! Neither God nor His Majesty the King will forgive your crimes!"
Seeing that even throwing money was useless, Coquilla simply moved out the most important "guests", which would be the best way to scare the opponent.
"Forgiveness? Do we still need to wait until that time? When you are captured by the enemy, they will not forgive your crimes. I heard that they will cut the prisoner into a thousand pieces and feed them to the dogs!"
Martinez was not frightened, but planned to use the other party's methods to scare the other party.
"...You...are trying to disturb Yao Jun's heart!"
"We can't resist the enemy's advance on the frontal battlefield. Now we are fleeing in all directions. Do you still need me to disturb the morale of the army? Don't you understand the situation clearly? Do you think we can win? The enemy will come to beg for mercy?"
"The battlefield is changing rapidly and anything can happen!"
"Then you might as well hope that the enemy troops will be blown into the sea by the storm!"
The failure of this campaign, and even the loss of the entire Philippines, was undoubtedly directly related to the idiot Coquilla.
"This is also possible! They are not familiar with the local climate. Maybe a storm will come in a few days. Then we will turn defeat into victory! When the storm strikes, there is no chance for you and your soldiers to survive in the wild. You can only hold on to the castle That’s the only correct response!”
Coquilla finally found a life-saving straw, even if it is not a human factor, it can be relied on and borrowed at the moment.
"Sir! Look at the sky!"
"What?"
"this……"
The two argued for a long time without getting any results.
Suddenly, another subordinate reported, asking them to quickly look at the sky and saw something different from usual.
"It must be a new weapon from the Ming Dynasty! It can actually fly!"
Martinez looked through the binoculars for a long time, feeling sad in his heart and sighing on his lips.
"So what? Shoot it down with artillery!"
Coquilla will never give up easily, and no matter what novel weapons the opponent comes up with, he will not let them succeed easily.
"Then what?"
"What then?"
"You don't even have a battle plan, so you just want to hold on to this castle?"
"...Only cowards will choose to flee in defeat, and the brave will naturally win the final victory!"
"I think you should know that victory on the battlefield is never achieved by talking nonsense!"
“How can we win without the determination to win?”
"Then I wish you good luck!"
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing! Before the enemy forces completely surround the castle, retreat to the jungle immediately. We still have a stronghold nearby, so we can continue fighting!"
"You...you are no longer the commander here! Come here! Arrest this coward!"
"Hmph! Let me see who dares?"
The tense situation between the two sides eventually evolved into calling all soldiers to decide whether to leave or stay.
Anyone who is willing to leave can follow Martinez and retreat immediately.
Those who are willing to stay can continue to follow the Governor to defend the castle.
In the end, 785 of the more than 1,100 imperial officers and soldiers in the castle decided to retreat.
The remaining people still felt that it would be safer to stay in the castle. No matter how powerful the enemy army was, they would not be able to break through here.
Martinez's plan is simple. First break through the enemy's siege and go to the inner lake in the south.
When you get there, it depends on the specific situation. If it doesn't work, go to Ramon Bay in the east.
Here you can take a boat to the American territories of the empire, or go to the big island in the south, wait for reinforcements to arrive, and then launch a counterattack.
Martinez believes that he and his subordinates are familiar with the surrounding environment, and the probability of success of this plan is very high.
Either way, it's better than staying in the castle and waiting to die.
In short, the enemy cannot be allowed to complete the complete siege of the castle. San Salvador City is the most typical example.
When you are isolated and helpless, and there is no hope of breaking out, you have only two options: commit suicide or surrender!
