The Spanish fleet parked in the port still maintained strong combat power. Although the expeditionary fleet was wiped out in the battle of Fengtianfu Bay, it still had two first-class warships, ten third-class warships and twenty-six fourth-class warships.

In order to prevent the Ming fleet from entering the harbor, they were ready for combat under the command of Bolton.

At the same time, in the Manila Governor General's Office, Governor Conde summoned all the generals to come for a meeting.

"Generals, we have reached the most critical moment now! The Philippines is His Majesty King Carlos III's most important colony in Asia, so we must not let it be lost in our hands!" Conde explained the current emergency situation to everyone.

"Governor General, the situation is very critical now! I am the officer with the largest rank in the army, and I am the most experienced. Now the city defense in Manila is insufficient, and I want you to hand over all the Philippine troops to me to command!" Colonel Rubio's army was full of loyalty to Spain and His Majesty the King, and he stood up the first.

"Okay, I will give you all the troops that can be summoned on Luzon to command! Colonel Rubio, you must not let Manila be lost! It is our ruling center in the Philippines!" Conde said.

"Governor General, these Ming soldiers are numerous, and the navy can only resist them for a moment, and they will inevitably be wiped out in the end! The most important thing is that we need the support from the local area!" said Rear Admiral Bolton.

"Don't worry, when I got these Ming troops attacked me, I immediately asked for help to Mark Doctor Pedro, the Governor of New Spain in Mexico! He is the closest rescue force to us, and I also wrote a letter to His Majesty King Carlos III for help! The messenger has successfully escaped on the fast ship. It won't take much time to get reinforcements!" Governor Conde said confidently.

The messengers he sent fled from Manila in a small boat without flags, but Li Jifa and the others did not notice it. However, Zhu Haitao had guessed this long ago. Occupy Philippines would seriously stimulate the Spanish Empire, which was already in its twilight, and they would do their best to retake the Philippines.

"That's good, we can rest assured." Bolton said. He knew that the navy was in danger this time, but if he could get reinforcements and buy time for Manila's city defense, he would have no regrets even if he died.

"Col. Rubio, go and prepare for the city defense in Manila now!" Conde issued an order.

After Rubio received the order, he immediately began to rectify Manila's defense. The turret here had long been rusty because it had no threat for many years, and he had only begun to strengthen it. Moreover, Manila did not have large caliber shore defense guns, so he had to deploy some 42-pound naval guns on the turret. This was the shipyard in Manila prepared for the Spanish fleet to replace it, but now it can only be used to make shore guns.

It was actually too late to rectify the defense at this time. Rubio had no confidence in whether he could successfully persevere until the reinforcements arrived. All he did was to leave his will to do was to do his best. In his hands, there were only four infantry regiments and a remaining artillery regiment, and a cavalry team of about 500 people. He also placed all the troops trained by the natives in Manila to form a city defense force, with a total of more than 25,000 people.

However, so many troops were no match for the five divisions of the Ming army. Although Rubio vigorously recruited the Spanish to defend Manila in Manila, the total number of troops was only about 15,000, and the army trained by the natives was only about 40,000. Although the number was similar to that of the Ming army, in terms of combat effectiveness, it was completely in the sky and the earth.

Rubio suggested that Conde would capture the Chinese in the Philippines as a meat shield. But Conde did not dare to use this method. Although he threatened this way in his reply to the Ming army, Conde was really afraid that Zhu Haitao would really agree to his generals to use genocide to retaliate him. In his eyes, these Chinese people had the same lives as pigs and dogs, and the Spaniards were the noble God. Even if he killed all the Chinese in the Philippines, he would not dare to let more than 100,000 Spanish people here suffer harm.

After Rubio's mobilization, the whole of Manila became panicked, and a large number of Spaniards rushed towards the Governor's Mansion. They thought that there was the safest place, but how could a small Governor's Mansion accommodate tens of thousands of people? In the end, only the families of some officials and merchants were allowed to enter the neighborhood of the Governor's Mansion to take refuge, while the rest were specially placed near the barracks with minimal conditions.

At 11 a.m. on October 10, 2020, the twenty Xia-class warships of the First Fleet and the Second Fleet had arrived at the appropriate position, and the naval guns on the warships had all aimed at the shore defense turrets in Manila. Although the information obtained by the Ming army was that the defense here was very weak, they had to deal with this hidden danger just in case.

After these days of secret mobilization, the intelligence personnel of the Jinyiwei contacted the Chinese family in Manila and told them that the Ming army was about to launch an attack on Manila. Therefore, most of the Chinese fled from Manila in time and moved to a suitable and safe countryside. They initially took a wait-and-see attitude towards the arrival of the Ming army, but now the Ming army is full of momentum, wiped out the expeditionary Spanish army and unified Mindanao. Only then did these Chinese families feel that the Ming Dynasty is very promising, so they surrendered to the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming army's attack seemed to have nothing to do with them for hundreds of years, because of the Spanish provocation, they formed a life-and-death hatred with the Chinese, and the Chinese were often the targets of bullying in the past. At the same time, they were very afraid of the Spanish but also hated them. The spies from the Jinyiwei also contacted some of their leaders, pretending to promise that as long as they overthrew the Spanish rule, they could return the Philippines to them, withdraw the Chinese, and allow them to establish an independent country. Therefore, they were also ready to move.

"Five minutes later, the First Fleet fired fire at the warships in Manila Bay! The Second Fleet aimed at their shore defense fortifications and destroyed their shore defense firepower! Then, our army launched a landing battle!" Li Jifa issued an order.

"Don't worry, Chief of Staff! We can definitely let these Spaniards know how powerful we are!" The generals said in unison.

"After this battle, Manila is ours!" Li Jifa laughed.

"Chief of Staff, after this battle, the Spaniards should get out of here! The entire Philippine archipelago has become the territory of our Ming Dynasty! There are really many Chinese people on the entire Luzon archipelago, with a minimum of 250,000! We will not be short of soldiers at that time!" Tieniu said excitedly. The biggest bottleneck in the development of the Ming Dynasty is still the constraints of the population. If hundreds of thousands of Chinese in the Philippines can be joined, this bottleneck will be greatly broken.

At 11:05, at 11:05, Li Haiyang, commander of the First Fleet and Zhao Junfeng, commander of the Second Fleet, respectively, the twenty "Xia"-class warships of the Royal Navy swung their hulls and opened fire on their respective targets at a distance of about five kilometers.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The 20 warships fired volleys, and the sound of rumbling cannons sounded on the sea.

Soon, black smoke rose from the shore defense turrets in Manila Bay, and the remaining Spanish fleet was hit by blasting bombs, causing fires to break out!

Faced with the attack of the Ming army, Manila's city defense commander Rubio and fleet commander Bolton both immediately issued a order to fight back.

The shore defense turrets and the naval guns on the warships opened fire one after another. The shells fell into the sea, splashing water columns. Although many artillery on the Manila shore defense turrets had been replaced, the 42-pound guns equipped on the two first-class warships "Philippines" and "Luzon" had a maximum range of only about three or four kilometers, and it could not threaten the Xia class warships on the sea.
Chapter completed!