On the first day of July in the seventh year of the Wanli reign, the Luzon War Zone, the Luzon Governor-General's Office, and the Luzon People's Armed Forces jointly issued a war mobilization order, requiring all Luzon soldiers and civilians to prepare for the second half of the anti-aggression war!

Within one day, 500,000 Luzon soldiers and civilians all knew of this order, but it did not cause much panic. Instead, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Because since the day when the Spaniards were driven out of Luzon in the second year of the Wanli reign, everyone knew that this day would come sooner or later, but they did not expect it to come so late, and they actually waited for five years.

Fortunately, Master Zhao had foresight and foresaw that this battle would probably drag on for a long time, and that they could not do nothing and wait for the enemy to retaliate. Therefore, he formulated the general policy of "taking ourselves as the main body and construction as the center", requiring the military and civilians to relax and maintain a balance between production and combat readiness. Otherwise, the strings in everyone's hearts would have been broken in the long wait.

There was also an advantage to the Spaniards' late arrival, as the entire military and civilian population had ample time to prepare for war.

And proficiency brings confidence. At this point, they are not panicking at all, just preparing step by step as they have practiced over and over again in the past five years.

The Governor-General's Office declared a state of emergency in the Luzon Governorate, and the entire island was sealed off. The acceptance of mainland immigrants was suspended, and all non-combat personnel were prohibited from entering and leaving the country.

All farms, factories, and shops on the island were put into wartime status, all materials were rationed, and production was adjusted to facilitate armaments. The main thing was to suspend the production of consumer goods, and in accordance with the unified deployment of the war zone, under the specific allocation of the Governor's Office and the People's Armed Forces Department, complete the production and transportation of some logistics materials that were not durable, such as military rations and sanitary products, and assist the war zone in the construction of various defense projects.

At the same time, before the state of emergency is lifted, all citizens must obey the orders of their superiors, remain vigilant, and conduct wartime drills seriously... For the elderly, the weak, women and children, the main task is to simulate how to evacuate if the Spaniards land on Luzon.

All adult males on the reserve list of the People's Armed Forces Department began to carry out pre-war ideological education, live-fire shooting training and other combat readiness work, and took on the task of security duty in the rear. Unless the war situation collapsed, the reserve would not be deployed to combat.

But the local soldiers are going to fight. These elite militiamen, who are carefully selected from the reserve forces, have been trained for much longer than ordinary reserve forces. They have excellent military skills and physical fitness. They will undertake the arduous task of coastal defense and support the frontline operations at the right time. For example, when the war zone wants to recapture Cebu or Borneo, the local soldiers will work with the Marines to undertake the more difficult task of attacking the enemy.

The People's Armed Forces Department also has a militia, which is the mountain militia brigade composed of Igoro people who have become naturalized citizens of the Ming Dynasty. They will also be assembled and on standby to cooperate with the war zone at any time.

~~

The real protagonist of this battle is naturally the Coast Guard Force, which has been established for ten years.

In fact, one month before the war mobilization order was issued, the Coast Guard Headquarters ordered the entire army to enter a level three combat readiness state.

As soon as the garrison areas in each theater of operations received the order, they carried out in-depth combat readiness mobilization; stopped all officers and soldiers from taking leave, recuperating, visiting relatives and retiring; strengthened combat readiness duty and communication support, unsealed, inspected and replenished weapons and equipment and combat readiness materials; revised combat readiness plans and conducted pre-war training; closely monitored enemy movements and shared intelligence in a timely manner.

The two major garrison areas are mainly to prevent local fleets from suddenly heading north to attack Taiwan and the mainland. Although this possibility is extremely low, the battlefield is changing rapidly and anything can happen, so the best way is to be fully prepared.

To this end, the squadrons of each water police bureau of the Tamra Garrison all moved south and were organized into a local fleet together with the squadrons of the Taiwan Garrison, with the commander of the Taiwan Garrison, Hai Erge, as the commander-in-chief; the commander of the Tamra Garrison, Zhu Jue, served as the police commissioner.

Even Lin Daoqian, the general commander of Guangdong, and Hu Shouren, who succeeded the recently deceased Yu Dayou as the general commander of Fujian, secretly strengthened their vigilance just in case.

As for the main fleets of the two major garrison areas, they had already sailed to Luzon and were incorporated into the war zone sequence long before the typhoon season arrived.

Together with the Coast Guard Strategic Fleet based in Yongxia Bay and the Luzon Theater Combat Readiness Fleet, the four major forces of the Coast Guard had all arrived in April.

For three months, the four fleets have been conducting intensive pre-war training such as formation, combat, and night navigation. When they couldn't go out to sea due to typhoons, all officers and soldiers were frantically conducting physical training.

The slogan on the training ground, 'Sweat more before the battle, bleed less during the battle', has never been so sincerely regarded as a guiding principle by officers and soldiers as it is now.

~~

In mid-July, Zhao Hao also came to the theater command headquarters located in the Jiannei Massacre Memorial Square to supervise the overall combat readiness work.

On the 17th, the military region held a joint operations meeting. The dual chiefs of each department and fleet in the war zone, the chiefs of each department and bureau of the general headquarters, and more than 100 senior officials from the Governor's Office and the People's Armed Forces Department attended the meeting.

At the meeting, Jin Ke, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Coast Guard, Commander of the Theater and Police Commissioner, first gave a report on the combat readiness work.

He spent nearly two hours informing the participants about the specific combat readiness status of the aforementioned departments.

Finally, Jin Ke concluded: "As of the 15th of this month, the theater has completed the construction of five defense projects in Luzon Yongxia, Daimao, Wangchao, Batangas, and Dingalan, and the garrisoned soldiers can move in at any time."

The leaders of the Governor's Office and the People's Armed Forces Department were shocked when they heard this. The war zone was so generous that it also made them feel tremendous pressure.

"Why, are you a little lacking in confidence?" Zhao Hao, who was sitting alone at the top, asked Ximen Qing, the worried-looking Minister of the Luzon People's Armed Forces, with a smile.

In the second year of the Wanli reign, when Ximen Qing came to Luzon to protect Tang Baolu, he was only the deputy captain of the Marine Reconnaissance Battalion and a mid-level police inspector with two silver stars.

However, because he commanded the brutal defense of Jiannei, he established a high prestige among the Han people in Luzon. After the recovery of Luzon, he was recommended to serve as the representative of the Coast Guard in the Luzon Council.

Later, when the People's Armed Forces Department was established in Luzon, he naturally became the Minister of the People's Armed Forces.

As a result, now he, like his former superiors, Marine Commander Wu Da and Police Commissioner Pan Jinlian, has been given a gold star.

He felt that he had risen too fast, and knew that many people envied him, waiting to see him laugh. Therefore, he worked diligently on weekdays, fearing that he would make mistakes, and naturally he was overly cautious.

"We will overcome all difficulties and complete the mission!" When he heard the commander-in-chief calling his name, he stood up as if he had been electrocuted and shouted.

"Sit down and talk. Speak human language." Zhao Hao rubbed his ears, which were buzzing from the vibration, threw him a cigarette and said, "Today I want to hear the truth!"

"Yes." Ximen Qing replied, sat down awkwardly, picked up the cigarette, lit it, took two puffs and sorted out his thoughts. Then he returned to normal and said slowly:

"The five places that the deputy commander-in-chief mentioned just now, Yongxia, Daimao, Wangchao, Batangas, and Dingalan, are not only the five most important ports on Luzon Island, but also the five gateways to the Luzon Plain. If any one of them goes wrong, the gates to Luzon will be wide open, so all five places must not be lost!"

"The war zone also has 5,000 artillery pieces of various sizes, 400,000 muskets, and enough ammunition for two years in the armories of these five fortresses. There are also enough supplies in the arsenal for two years." Jin Ke added solemnly:

"So any mistake in any place will greatly weaken our army and strengthen the enemy, and the consequences will be absolutely disastrous."

"This is what I am worried about." Ximen Qing said dryly, "Five such important fortresses, are they all guarded by 15,000 soldiers? Can it be done without the Marine Corps and the Marine Patrol?"

"It has to be done!" Jin Ke said with a dark face, "Fifteen thousand soldiers who have been strictly trained for five years and have the best weapons and equipment in the world, will they not be able to defend a concrete fortress?"

"That's true. If we divide our forces, we will indeed have less, but our concrete fortress cannot be shaken by the Spanish cannons." Zhao Hao nodded with a smile and encouraged Ximen Qing, "Show your courage to defend the ravine. If things don't work, we still have the reserves. However, with the Spanish's ability to attack, they shouldn't have to use the reserves."

"Yes, our soldiers will defend the fortress to the death!" Ximen Qing seemed to be injected with powerful strength and nodded heavily in response.

Officials from the Governor's Office also expressed their determination to do their utmost to protect the rear so that the coast guard fleet fighting on the front line would have no worries.

"Everyone, go back and strengthen the propaganda, let the people of Luzon know that I, Zhao Hao, am in Yongxia. I will not go anywhere before the war is won!" Zhao Hao also instructed Xu Kezheng, Tang Baolu, Liu Xuesheng and others:

"Don't let the people think that by letting our soldiers guard the fortress, the coast guard is ready to abandon them and run away at any time."

"How could that be? Absolutely not." Everyone shook their heads hurriedly. But they had all experienced the battle to defend the ravine, and knew how complicated human nature would become once they were surrounded. So the young master's worry was absolutely justified.

Zhao Hao raised his hand, motioning them to listen to him, and said, "On the contrary, the coast guard officers and soldiers are concentrating all their efforts to eliminate the enemy outside the country as much as possible!"

As he said this, he sighed and said to Ma Yinglong, who was also the director of the war zone, "Read everyone the intelligence we just received."

"Yes!" Ma Yinglong, who had two gold stars on his chest, responded quickly, opened the folder, and read out like an ordinary staff officer:

"According to the latest intelligence we received, in May, the Spanish expeditionary force completed its assembly in Acapulco, across the ocean. There are a total of 139 warships, 3,000 guns, more than 7,000 crew members and sailors, and an estimated 25,000 infantrymen."

"Moreover, they have made many improvements in response to their previous defeat." After a pause, he continued, "For example, they have greatly increased the number of large-caliber artillery, and the infantry are also equipped with the most advanced muskets..."

"Ah..." It was the first time that everyone in the Governor's Mansion heard about the specific strength of the Spanish expedition, and they all turned pale.

ps. Just like I am going to fight a war, there are too many things to think about in all aspects, so I can only update once today. Just open it.