.

At the same time, another thing happened, and it happened so much that it felt like this was a good opportunity given by God.

On the night of 225, 1898, Captain Charles Siegsby, the captain of the US Navy battleship "Maine" anchored in the port of Havana, Cuba, was writing a letter to his wife with affection under the light. The warship was sent last month when the Cuban people's uprising against the Spanish authorities, and the mission was to protect the lives and property of the Americans there. For more than a month, despite the spread of war, the beautiful island nation had been destroyed and thin, but Colonel Siegsby and his USS Maine had little to do.

Because no one wants to pay attention to Cubans or Spanish, nor does they want to offend this uninvited guest who is not kind to come.

The hour hand pointed at 9:40, and the trumpeter on the ship blew the lights out. In the dull and quiet night sky, the melodious and wonderful sound seemed to be very far away. Sigsby looked up at the shimmering sea outside the porthole and put the written letter into the envelope. At this moment, a sudden loud noise shook him and all the decorations on the table to the port side. In an instant, the lights in the cabin went out, and it was pitch black, and bursts of smoke came to his face.

Siggsby struggled to get up, groped and walked onto the deck, and found that the bow of the ship had been blown up and quickly sank. In an instant, its huge steel torso sank into the bottom of the sea with a violent burst sound. Among the 354 officers and soldiers on the ship, 266 were buried in the fish's belly before they could understand what had happened.

All of this was clearly seen by passengers on a ship not far away. For safety reasons, the ship did not light up. In the same way, in order to wait and see this moment, the crew had been observing for more than a month in shifts of twenty-four hours a day, starting from the moment the Maine arrived at the port of Havana.

Watching the Maine sink into the sea, the passengers did not relax. They knew what this meant? Or a man said with a strong London accent:

"There is no doubt that this battleship was not hit by mines, and it has not yet been able to hit the mines that are anchored in the ships!"

A tall middle-aged man next to him also expressed his opinion

"I saw an explosion in the ammunition depot. This is strange, I think it is very likely..." The blast furnace rooster paused for a moment and cautiously expressed his thoughts

"It's a bad performance for the Americans to sank the ship themselves and then pretend to be hit by a mine."

"Maybe, our New World friend accidentally overheated the boiler, and then a banged "The Bullfighter gritted his teeth and inferred "You know, since the Americans were far away from the war, the things they made were flashy."

Then the British gentleman made his own opinion

"Okay, everyone, we are going to do serious business now. Let's pronounce the sentence. If you think the US government is guilty, please raise your hand!"

"guilty!"

"guilty!"

"guilty!"

"guilty!"

In the darkness, one hand was raised and the Americans were sentenced to death.

However, Dewey in Hong Kong was not clear about this. After receiving the order, Dewey could only smile bitterly. The reason was very simple. His fleet suffered the most serious accident and was unable to sail at all.

When I was in the waters of North China, Dewey clearly felt the strength of the North China fleet and the stinginess of North China. In less than three months, he paid a total of 200,000 US dollars, which may only cost 20,000 US dollars. Moreover, most Chinese sailors disappeared, and it was common for them to appear in the North China fleet the next day.

When Dewey was glad that he could leave North China and parked in Hong Kong, he felt very comfortable. But everything that happened in Hong Kong made Dewey understand the huge impact North China has in the Chinese region.

The reasons on the surface are very obvious. Chinese seafarers in Hong Kong have long been subjected to British imperialist colonial rule and capitalists, and cruel exploitation and racial discrimination by contractors. They have long working hours, high labor intensity, and have meager wages. They have different salary from white seafarers. Their wages are less than one-fifth of white seafarers. They are often humiliated, beaten, scolded, and deducted wages, and are threatened with no reason at any time.

So in three parts, Liu Zhaozheng, Tan Weimin and others formed the China Sea Staff Union Federation in Hong Kong. After the third request to increase wages was unreasonably rejected, the Chinese seafarers in Hong Kong could no longer bear it and began a general strike under the leadership of the China Sea Staff Union Federation.

In just one week, the scale of the strike expanded rapidly, and seafarers returned to Guangzhou from Hong Kong. The Guangzhou trade unions gave Hong Kong seafarers active support and assistance. Starting from the end of January, Hong Kong transport workers held a sympathy strike. The strike paralyzed five Pacific routes and nine offshore routes.

The Northern Chinese government is extremely concerned about the strike of Hong Kong seafarers and organized a Hong Kong strike support club in Shanghai to serve as the backing of workers returning to Guangzhou. It published a letter "Guaranteeing Strike Seafarers" to support and guide the strike movement in a timely manner, and called on seafarers to unite, strictly observe order, pay attention to autonomy, and stick to the end.

In order to support the seafarers' struggle, Chinese workers in Hong Kong implemented a general alliance strike at the end of the second year. By early March, the total number of strikes was:

The Hong Kong Bureau adopted discord, intimidation and threatening measures to treat strikers, declared the seafarers union a "illegal group", sent armed military and police to implement martial law, closed the seafarers union club, and arrested the strike leaders, which further aroused the righteous indignation of seafarers and the vast majority of workers.

On the 34th, thousands of strikers returned to Guangzhou through Shatin. The Hong Kong police fired and shot, killing six people immediately and injured a group of workers, causing the Shatin tragedy that shocked China and the world. The atrocities of imperialism aroused strong indignation from the vast number of workers and people of all walks of life, and they all raised strong protests.

At this time, the Northern Chinese government expressed its attitude, "freedom and democracy", and said intimidatingly, "Those who want to resist the historical trend and launch will be defeated by the people. The Northern Chinese government supports the democratic movement."

Due to the situation, the Port Bureau and the ship capitalists had to surrender to the workers. They agreed to the basic requirements of seafarers: increase wages separately; implement new land hiring crew members to reduce the intermediate exploitation of foremen; provide pensions to the families of the deceased in the "Shatin Massacre" to compensate for medical expenses of the injured; restore the banned land ties and release arrested workers, etc.

In this way, Dewey had nothing to do for a month. He was originally going to beat the Spaniard and now he has become a reminder for the Spaniard. Dewey was naturally very depressed. He saw that

Chu, the main incitement of the Hong Kong strike was Northern China. It is said that their money lures Chinese workers out of Hong Kong, and at the same time raises prices and increases tariffs on the goods supplied by Hong Kong, and pays wages to workers who refuse to leave and are willing to strike.

After all, the Northern Chinese government has a strong sense of hatred for the United States, and in the near future, the United States will definitely cover its short-sighted behavior.

Soon, Dewey commanded the command southward and sailed to Hong Kong and approached Manila. In Hong Kong, he received a telegram from Acting Navy Secretary Roosevelt: "Keep enough coal burning. Once... a war breaks out, your mission is to not allow the Spanish squadron to leave the coast of Asia. Then launch an attack on the Philippine Islands."

Dewey didn't need such urging at all, because he was already stepping up preparations. He bought a coal ship and a supply ship for the fleet. He ordered the warship to be docked, overhauled the machinery parts, and cleaned the underwater part of the hull. He painted the white side of the ship to gray. Commodore Dewey personally checked all the details and asked the ship personnel to practice every day, and all the machines on the ship were ready for combat, and could operate continuously as soon as they received the order.

In order to clarify the defense situation of the Spanish fleet and the Philippine island, he sent a spy to Manila, and also let his lieutenant disguised as a tourist to spy on intelligence from tourists arriving in Hong Kong. In order to prevent the British from taking a neutral position after the outbreak of the war, he set up a temporary anchorage near Dapeng Bay, China's waters. 5, the Minister of the Navy sent a telegram: "The United States and the West have started war. Go to the Philippines quickly and start operations and try their best to capture or destroy the Western fleet." Dewey waited for another 36 hours until the American consul came from Manila and the Spanish prepared for the war. On April 27, Dewey rushed south to conquer the Philippines.

The US squadron packs four cruisers: the flagship "Olympia", "Roly", and "Boston"; two gunboats: the "Haiyan" and "Concord"; and the anti-smuggling ship "McCulloch". The total tonnage of these ships carries about 100 naval guns, only half of which are larger than 4 inches in diameter.

At this time, in the Philippines, 600 miles away from the US fleet, Major General Don Patricio Montojo of the Spanish fleet was waiting for the battle. The only modern ship that Montojo could function - astronomy - was the "Rena Christina". Its displacement was about 3,500 tons and carried a 6.2-inch caliber gun. Another cruiser, the USS Castilla, is an old wooden ship that cannot be activated by its own power. In addition, it is a warship of 5,500 to 1,100.

Montojo estimated that he would not be able to defeat the US squadron in mobile combat, so he planned to fight at the anchorage, treating his warships as fortress fleets to support coastal artillery bombarding US ships. The US fleet made final preparations for combat during a ferry to the Philippines, including day and night combat exercises, practice ship fire extinguishing and damage pipes, and dismantling all wooden parts to prevent the fire from intensifying.

On the afternoon of 430, they searched the Subic Bay and failed to find the Spanish fleet. Dewey asserted: "Now we know their location." He directed the fleet to sail to the waterway south of Correshire Island, and personally led into the Manila Bay, which was embraced by land on three sides. He was confident on the surface, but anxious on the inside. The entire Far East believed that Manila Bay was indestructible.

Mines were already laid on the harbor's waterway. Thirty years ago, his old superior, Faragette, had crossed the minefield and sailed into Mobile Bay. Although the performance of mines has improved greatly since then, Dewey estimated that Manila would not have any engineers who could accurately lay mines on deep waterways away from Correshire Island. So he decided to use the cover of night to drive his fleet into the harbor. Later, he wrote: "Whenever I was in a difficult situation or were overwhelmed by specific problems, I asked myself, 'What will Faragette do?' As we were doing various preparations to enter Manila Bay, I kept asking myself this question, and I admit that when we entered Manila Bay that night, I was thinking about him, convinced that he was doing what he would do."

On 51, 1898, when the troops successfully entered Manila Bay, several shore artillery fired, but the fire of the American warships quickly suppressed them. The fleet lined up in a "one" formation and entered the bay without any damage. At dawn, Dewey's squadron had approached Manila and began to search for the Spanish fleet. The artillery in the city opened fire, but unfortunately they all went off. They deployed his fleet in Krabi. Dewey found them here. Because there was no ammunition supply land, the US ships approached until they were only a distance from the Spanish fleet in order to save ammunition.

At 540 am, Dewey ordered Captain Olympia: "You can open fire after you are ready, Gridley." The American warship sailed back and forth on Spanish warships and continued to shoot, which reminded people of DuPont's battle in Royal Bay. Several Spanish warships, including the "Rena Christina", were severely damaged in several attempts to attack the US ships, either sunk or repelled.

735. Dewey decided to temporarily evacuate due to a false alarm about ammunition shortage. At 11 o'clock, Dewey joined the war again, and an hour of shelling destroyed the entire Spanish fleet. When Dewey ordered a ceasefire, all Montojo's ships either burst into smoke, buried at the bottom of the sea, or were abandoned.

The Spanish suffered 381 casualties in this battle, while Dewey's fleet was injured. The US ships that had received regular shooting training hit at least 170, while the Spanish sailors who lacked shooting practice hit only 15 rounds. The American victory was not only due to their strength, but also the result of their full preparation. Dewey said: "The Battle of Manila was won at the Hong Kong Pier." He should also add that, that is, this is a victory in judging the situation. If he did not discover and defeat Montojo's fleet in time, then his supply would be unsustainable. Since the strength of the Spanish Navy has been completely lost in this area, Dewey broke down on the sea near Manila, so that the Philippines would prevent external interference.

The failure of the Philippine Naval Battle was a huge panic and had to speed up negotiations with North China.
Chapter completed!