New Han Dynasty 1834

Chapter 27 Expanding Territory and Combating Smuggling

In Intramuros, the Spanish capital of Manila, the Spanish army finally mobilized after the governor of the Philippines, Alcedo, issued the order.

Some went to the castle and city walls to defend and guard, while others led servants and soldiers to the Chinese quarter to control the situation.

Outside Manila, the Han navy swiftly transported a group of army soldiers ashore with virtually no obstacles.

Some of them seized the dock under the cover of naval gunfire.

A group carrying more weapons and ammunition, led by naval scouts left in the city, first headed to the Chinese-populated area.

They would forcibly gather any Chinese they encountered along the way, and kill any white or native people they encountered.

Within the Chinese-populated area, naval scouts contacted three hometown associations in advance, organizing the young and middle-aged members of more than one hundred Chinese families.

They had made prior preparations. Upon hearing the sounds of warships and cannons coming from the sea, they immediately took their weapons and went to the streets to meet up. Then they went door to door knocking and calling for other Chinese people.

"The 100,000 heavenly soldiers of the Han Dynasty have arrived! The Spanish and the barbarians are doomed! Everyone, come out and settle your scores!"

"Brothers, kill all the Spanish barbarians, and Manila will be ours!"

"The Emperor of the Great Han will grant us official positions. As long as you kill one barbarian, you can become a junior officer; if you kill three, you can become a centurion!"

Some families were already observing the wind direction, and when they heard the shouts, they joined the crowd and rushed to call for help.

However, many families hesitated, but seeing so many people participating, they had no choice but to go along.

"The big men really came? Who are they here to fight? Will they leave after they arrive?"

But some, filled with fear, joined the crowd and then quietly slipped away, attempting to run into the city to report to the governor.

Before they even left the Chinatown, they encountered dozens of Spanish soldiers with over two hundred local servants. The soldiers killed any Chinese people they encountered who were wandering around.

The Spanish soldiers continued toward the Chinatown and soon encountered a Chinese community of more than 500 people.

The leading Spanish officer ordered a halt to the advance, instructed his soldiers to line up and raise their guns as much as possible, and sent someone forward to issue a warning:

"Lay down your weapons and surrender immediately, then return home, or we will all be killed!"

The Chinese in Manila were massacred several times by the Spanish and indigenous people. A large portion of the survivors felt an instinctive fear when they saw Spanish and indigenous troops carrying muskets.

The rather large crowd slowly came to a stop on the street. Hearing the repeated threatening shouts from the other side, some people actually began to show signs of surrendering.

A naval scout in the crowd shouted to the core Chinese members of his organization:

"Don't be afraid. We outnumber them by more than double. If we charge together, we can crush them!"

"The Han army has landed and will be there to meet us soon!"

Although many bold Chinese people joined in the shouting, the people in the front row were slowly backing away, forcing those in the middle and back to also move back.

The crowd involuntarily and slowly retreated, their momentum waning, and some people in the back row began to turn and run away.

When people at the back started running, those in the middle and at the front felt abandoned and began to push their way back.

Several naval spies, squeezed in the crowd, stamped their feet in anger at the scene:

"Damn it, you're all useless, what are you doing running around like that!"

Seeing that the Chinese ahead seemed to be in disarray, the Spanish soldiers and local servants on the other side pressed forward even more aggressively.

Seeing the Chinese community becoming increasingly chaotic, the Spanish officer ordered his men to open fire.

"Bang bang bang..."

When the gunfire erupted, the Chinese on the other side were thrown into complete chaos, running back frantically and without any order.

The naval scout was utterly speechless, but could only curse and run away.

"These useless people are going to ruin Dad..."

However, things took a turn for the better when the crowd ran across an intersection.

Another large group of people rushed over from the side of the street; it was the army of the Fujian Division of the Great Han Army, which had already landed.

The naval scouts were overjoyed when they saw this and immediately took out their special whistles and blew them loudly.

The landing troops had already spotted the crowd, and the officers knew immediately that there were enemies behind them after hearing the whistle.

The officers on the scene immediately ordered the soldiers to halt their advance and line up at the side of the street corner with their guns raised.

When most of the Chinese had escaped to the street corner, and the local native soldiers and Spaniards appeared, they immediately opened fire.

The two sides were less than ten meters apart, so even a smoothbore musket would hardly miss.

Moreover, Liu Yulong also improved the bullets for the army, designing base-expanding bullets adapted to both smoothbore and rifled guns, which greatly improved the bullet's range and accuracy.

After a round of concentrated fire, the Spanish and indigenous soldiers who had just rushed out of the street corner were immediately shot and fell to the ground.

Heart-wrenching screams and gunshots echoed through the street corner, causing the Spanish soldiers behind to panic and scream uncontrollably.

"What's going on!"

"Ambush! There's an ambush ahead!"

"The Han army is here! Let's retreat!"

The two sides were so close that after the Han landing troops finished firing a round of shots, the officers did not ask them to reload, but instead ordered them to fix bayonets and charge forward for hand-to-hand combat.

The Spanish troops and indigenous soldiers in Manila had not participated in high-intensity frontal combat for a long time, and their fighting spirit was not much higher than that of the Chinese civilians they had driven away.

When faced with ordinary Chinese people whom they are used to oppressing, they may appear very brave or even tyrannical.

Once they encounter other regular armies, they immediately become third-rate troops.

After the Han landing forces clashed with the Spanish army, the scene quickly turned into a one-sided massacre.

The somewhat chaotic hand-to-hand combat ended quickly, with nearly half of the Spanish and Native American soldiers killed on the spot and more than a third kneeling and taking prisoners.

Only a few clever ones managed to escape into the streets and alleys, managing to escape the battlefield at the street corner.

Only a dozen or so members of the Han Navy landing force were injured.

The Chinese who had just fled stopped when they realized that a fight had broken out behind them.

After the battle ended, they calmed down and stood at a distance, carefully observing the situation.

The naval scouts mixed in with the troops finally relaxed and led the Chinese they had mobilized back to the street corner to rendezvous with the landing forces.

After both sides confirmed each other's identities, the landing force officer immediately gave the following orders:

"These prisoners are in the way. Have the people you found get rid of them immediately, and then lead us to catch the opium traffickers."

The scout immediately turned to relay the message: the Chinese families that the scout could mobilize were either inherently brave and irritable, or had suffered great injustice at the hands of the Spanish.

Now that they have been informed that they can kill the original ruler or take revenge, they do not hesitate to take up their weapons and start working.

The surrendered Spanish and Native soldiers were terrified:

"What are you trying to do! We've already surrendered! You can't kill us!"

But the Chinese people opposite them did not hesitate at all:

"When you bullied us before, did you hesitate even for a moment?!"

"Foreign devils, your karma has come true! Go die, your father!"

After dealing with this group of local elites in Manila, the morale of the local Chinese community has noticeably increased.

Then, these Chinese people were sent around to call out to others, and the Chinese who were originally preparing to flee gathered together again.

Then, led by naval scouts, they took the landing troops to arrest the opium traffickers.

The arrest in Jardine's Lookout already had the effect of frying fish, and the merchants who fled immediately upon receiving the news were already on the police's list.

After Jardine was dealt with, he told them everything he knew, and the police then had concrete charges against him.

The purpose of the Han Dynasty's attack on Luzon was to reclaim and expand its territory, but that did not preclude the simultaneous arrest and punishment of opium traffickers.

Smugglers like Dindi and Russell also gathered together today to drink and make merry out of boredom.

Everyone has been relatively relaxed lately, mainly because they sent people back to the Han Dynasty to find out the direction of the situation and confirmed that the Han Dynasty had not issued an arrest warrant.

The British mission, led by Palmerston, had not heard of any such news.

Although the police force at both treaty ports was doubled in size and searches of goods and people entering and leaving the ports were intensified, no open raids were conducted on smugglers such as Din Dil.

They did not return immediately, but were preparing to wait for the British mission to continue negotiations with the Han Dynasty to obtain a clear pardon.

So while living in Manila, I wasn't very vigilant and didn't immediately realize that things were in chaos outside.

Even when they heard the sound of artillery fire from afar, they didn't contact it.

Even as the sounds of artillery fire increased and the noise from outside seemed to become more and more chaotic, they felt that war might be breaking out, but subconsciously felt that it had nothing to do with them, and simply prepared to go into the city to take refuge.

How could anyone specifically deploy an army to wage war just to arrest a few smugglers?

As a result, before most people could even set off, the landing troops had already stormed into the courtyards where they lived.

These people finally realized that the chaos outside was directed at them.

A group of soldiers rushed into the courtyard where Dian Di was located, repeatedly shouting as they brandished their bayonets-fixed muskets:

"Everyone kneel down and surrender! Put your hands behind your heads! Otherwise, you'll all be killed!"

Even as they watched hordes of soldiers rush in, Dian Di and the others still didn't realize that these soldiers were specifically there to arrest smugglers like them.

They still instinctively believed that they were merely affected by the war.

Most merchants surrendered without hesitation, instinctively considering how to obtain better treatment and redemption.

"You should be soldiers of the Great Han Kingdom. I am a very famous trading merchant. You can inquire about the name of the Dent Company."

"My business can pay a sufficient ransom; I hope you will treat me fairly well..."

But the soldiers who captured them ignored all of this, tied their hands behind their backs, and sent them back to the fleet for centralized management.

Most of the smugglers, including Dindi and Russell, did not have time to escape and were captured alive by the landing forces.