Chapter 255 The decisive battle against Japan, imminent

An hour is not long, but if he stood like this all the time, he would definitely have ached back and sore feet, but it was obvious that George Dewey could not feel it. The rumbling gunfire seemed to distract him. His eyes hooked a roaring main gun, and he didn't know what he was thinking.

When the Antarctic Star signaled the end of the shelling, he slowly recovered from shock and surprise. Looking at the city of Manila shrouded in fire and smoke, he sighed deeply from the bottom of his heart.

George Dewey and Ditrich both realized that the power in their hands was not the opponent of the Pacific Fleet at all at this moment, even if the two fleets combined, so soon after the shelling, they immediately said that they would not intervene in the war between Honolulu and Spain.

Although both of them have their own goals and thoughts, one thing must be the same, that is, they should not intervene in this war under any circumstances until the Pacific Fleet and the Japanese Fleet are divided.

Less than five minutes after the shelling ended, the two regiments that had been on standby for a long time launched a strong attack on the city of Manila. The unique sound of Mark Qin's machine gun resounded throughout the city, accompanied by the explosions of grenades and mortars.

However, such gunfire did not last long. The scene of the Spanish army's brave resistance in the staff did not appear at all. It took only two hours for the third and fifth divisions to open up the main road of the city with less than 100 people.

Polavisha, who was already scared by the bombardment of the fleet, was even more at a loss after seeing the city was broken, and immediately sent someone to contact the Pacific Army to announce the cessation of resistance.

At 6 p.m. on April 24, Polavisia announced that she would give up resistance at the governor's residence and submitted a letter of surrender in the presence of George Dewey and Petri. According to the previous agreement, Chen Ping, on behalf of Li Mo, promised to guarantee the safety of him and the 13,000 Spanish soldiers trapped in the city, and the remaining 20,000 loyal troops also put down their weapons one after another.

No one would have thought that just four days after Spain and Honolulu declared war, Manila City changed hands under the powerful firepower of the Pacific Fleet. When George Dewey and De Trisi, who witnessed this scene, sent the news back to their respective countries by telephone lines to Hong Kong, the whole Europe was shocked. Moved.

Whether Britain, which thinks it is the number one in the world, or Spain, which has become a third-rate country, did not expect Li Mo to defeat Manila so quickly. When Spain hated Master Li half to death, he did not forget to point the finger at Governor Polavisia and scolded him for losing the dignity of the Kingdom of Spain.

Spain's boiling domestic political situation is already unstable. Under the impact of this unfavorable news, it is even worse. Under pressure at home and abroad, Spain announced that it will do its best to recover the Philippines.

In a few days, Spain's Yu Yong seemed to be completely inspired. Tens of thousands of soldiers were concentrated in the port of Madrid, and the navy even mobilized the only battleship Pelejo and four cruisers to prepare to send troops to the Far East.

But just as Spain shouted to teach the Far East arsonist a good lesson for the white Europeans, the second explosion completely plunged Spain into despair.

On April 27, 1897, the United States [***] ship Maine, which had just arrived in Cuba, suddenly exploded. All 488 sailors, including the captain, were killed. When the news of the explosion came back to the United States, the United States, which was in financial turmoil, was completely ignited.

This emerging industrial power has long been dissatisfied with its achievements in industry and economy. They prefer to obtain the status of a country that matches their economic strength. They have long coveted rich Cuba. Therefore, incited by newspapers, almost all public opinion pointed to Spain, saying that this is Spanish conspiracy.

Some radical people and parliamentarians shouted to "remember the Maine" while encouraging the political axe to declare war.

But it is obvious that the United States is not ready, especially the gold exchange crisis, which almost made the United States desperate, has become a problem for everyone. Even the most active Roosevelt had to succumb to the danger of a sharp depreciation of the dollar.

On April 28, in this case, President Cleveland had to accept the conditions of Thomas's Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase to issue $100 million in special gold bonds to the two companies to buy 150 tons of gold in their hands.

The two people who each had reached 65 million and 35 million gold bonds immediately announced that they would take out 150 tons of gold and join hands with the U.S. political axe to use the new gold reserve mechanism to establish the U.S. Federal Gold Reserve Board to jointly curb the exchange storm.

With the hands of these two now well-known super-rich, the gold run gradually subsided, and the stock market that fell into the trough began to rise like crazy. White sugar, wheat and other futures also rose like a volcanic eruption because of the possibility of a war, which made Master Li, who was hiding in the dark corner, smile.

It is strange that after signing this agreement that affects the future of the United States and is even regarded as losing monetary rights, after the turn of the run crisis, U.S. President Cleveland still did not immediately declare war as people hoped, but just signed an insignificant mobilization order. Not only that, even the U.S. Parliament, which had been shouting for a few days, and the Spanish ax on the other side of the Atlantic were silent.

Soon, people found that the Cuban news, which should have been on the front page, was replaced by the simple bold characters "Far East". Suddenly, the whole world held its breath, because the time pointer had arrived on April 30.

Everyone knows that even the United States knows very well that compared with the United States and the West, the war in the Far East will determine the future pattern of the whole world. Whether it is dedicated to supporting the United States and the United Kingdom, or the half-hearted Germany, or Nicholas II who cursed Li Mo in St. Petersburg, they have all stopped working. He waited for the young master of Hawaii, who seemed to rise in one night and was still full of mysterious Hawaiian young master to issue another declaration of war.

In the port of Krabi, Master Li did not seem to realize that he had been filled with countless black, red and white auras on his body, and stood quietly in front of a large number of rifles, dripping saliva.

It's all Mauser 1891!

Although Spain is old and its teeth and claws are all useless, there are really a lot of good things in his pocket. The wealth accumulated from the era of great navigation has not been completely exhausted, so even the 20,000 loyal troops formed have been assigned to Mauser. If this pile of things is put into future generations, it will definitely kill all Demi.

Even now, this batch of confiscated guns is enough to satisfy Master Li. Although the Pacific Army can no longer use these guns, it is not a lot of wealth to sell or support others.

On the dock next to the dock, several supply ships that followed the arrival of the fleet were next to Spirit and Tough. The cranes on the ship were busy. In addition to replenishing shells and supplies for warships, the most important task was to replace the barrel of all six warships.

Since the previous barrel has reached its lifespan in high-intensity shelling for two consecutive days, although it can continue to be used in theory, a new war is about to begin, so the replacement of the barrel has become the top priority of supply from the beginning.

After three days of busy work, the last L45/203mm barrel was slowly pressed on the turret under the command of the sailors and engineers. Soon after the two ships made a loud whistle, they slowly left the dock, like a fish returning to the sea, and regained their former majesty and domineering.

As the two ships left the dock and returned to the bay, the capital ships gathered on the sea also began to assemble. At this moment, there are only these steel ships in Manila Bay that have defeated the enemy again.

George Dewey left with the fleet three days ago. After adding coal, the German fleet also left Manila and continued to go to the Far East, working hard to continue to find a berth. Even Li Mo did not know that Ditrilich was ready to arrange the thousands of army soldiers he protected there.

The three regimental commanders hid by the dock. While smoking and laughing, their eyes always glanced at Li Mo, who was inspecting the port from time to time.

Next to them, Chen Ping and Zhong Wenyao was also whispering about something. Although the Spanish army had put down their weapons and were all guarded, Li Mo was not in the mood to clean up the bombarded Manila at this moment, so Zhong Wenyao, as the only highest official of the State Council here, took on the responsibility. He was responsible for reorganizing Luzon and forming a transitional administrative structure. For this reason, Chen Ping also deliberately hindered the officials of the State Council from fully cooperating with the troops currently in Luzon when they were still on the road.

On the sea in the distance, there was a loud whistle again, and the transport fleet carrying the last two regiments under the protection of two light patrols finally arrived.

Six regiments and 30,000 soldiers, they shoulder the task of sticking to Luzon for half a year once the fleet fails. Although Li Mo is very confident to win this battle, no one can guarantee what will happen once the fleet leaves, so what should be prepared must be prepared.

When as many as 12 large ocean-going cargo ships began to queue up to enter the narrow port of Krabi, there was also a rapid sound of footsteps behind them. Li Mo turned his head and saw that Duan Fei had already sat over with a piece of information.

"Young master, our fleet has entered the Andaman Sea, and it is expected that they will stop at the port of Blair to add coal." The news brought by Duan Fei immediately made everyone hold their breath. Everyone knew what the arrival of this fleet meant.

Li Mo took a deep breath and glanced at the people in front of him. Finally, his eyes stopped on Chen Ping's face and nodded.

Five minutes later, thick black smoke came out of the chimneys of the six capital ships in the complete formation at the same time, rolling straight up to the sky like an angry dragon. Soon after, the Sky, the Sea Patrol and two destroyers rushed out of the waterway first, and then the six capital ships disappeared from the horizon.

At the same time, the radio stations in the three major headquarters of Lushun, Honolulu and Ryukyu sounded almost at the same time, and then more and more ticks joined the radio wave, converging into a torrent of violent radio waves and spreading around.

Half an hour later, the port of Guam first boiled up. In the sound of alarms and the rapid flashing lights, four Jinghai-class light patrols and four Vladivostok-class heavy patrols ignited and anchored at the same time. Countless sailors rushed into the already prepared warships from the rest area. Everyone was two The eyes are shining and the teeth are urgent.

Everyone knows.

The decisive battle is on the verge of breaking out! ......

(to be continued)