Astra Inclinant, Sed Non Obligant

In an underground factory owned by Renaldo, a lot of men are currently in a manic and excited state, raving about a big lump of steel in front of them.

This lump of steel is composed of a 120mm thick armor made of steel and equipped with a main turret that is using a 88mm tank ammo that can blast through buildings and shoot through other armored vehicles in front of it. It is also equipped with two MG34's as it's secondary turrets with 7.92mm ammo, it's main ammo's capacity is at 92 rounds while it's secondary ammo's max capacity is roughly around 4000 rounds. It can walk through steel baricades and barbed wires that is prevalent in this era, making them obsolete as Renaldo's army doesn't have a horse cavalry.

While looking at this masterpiece that they've made, the engineers and gunsmiths around are overjoyed and awed about this masterpiece invented by their young master, this unique piece of work may be hard to maintain but this will definitely destroy any land obstruction that is in it's way!

Otto and Benz on the other hand are also awed by this big lump of steel but is also worried at it's maintenance and it's cost, it was alleviated by the fact that their boss currently owns A LOT of lands and islands that are rich in oil, steel, rubber, copper and other components needed to make this monster of a vehicle.

Both of these men preferred the much mobile, lighter and cheaper armored vehicle their master likes to call the Greyhound, with a 37mm main turrent and a 50. caliber browning machine gun as it's secondary turret! It can climb on the muddy and mountainous terrains of the Philippines and is much more cheaper and easier to make compared to the tiger, with a production capability of 100 units per month compared to the tiger's measly 30 units per month! Although they don't deny the tiger's vast firepower and it's thick armor, they definitely understand their master's thinking as it will definitely give a psychological advantage to their own troops and doom the enemies!

One year later, two large warships and a few frigates are docked in the ports of Navotas, these were the ships of Nicanor and Bonifacio.

Waiting for them at the docks is their leader Renaldo who is a 19 year old man wearing a black colored barong and is sporting a crew cut look, on his side is his desert eagle and underneat his barong is his prototype bulletproof vest, he also has an waraxe on his side as his preferred melee weapon of choice.

Behind him are some Russian Mercenaries assigned as his body guards and some armored dogs that are will kill anyone in a heartbeat.

Seeing his two subordinates returning, Renaldo immediately ordered his servants to prepare some food in his study as they will surely spend their time there for a long time.

At Renaldo's study,

Three men are in this room looking at a map that is currently showing the whole archipelago of the whole country, they are talking about various strategies and plans that will help them in their mission.

Nicanor: "Master, Andres and I thought about a lot of strategies on our way back here, we both think that conquering manila through the sea with the support of a land army to block the enemies is the best answer, our land soldiers should be our main course of action as we have an absolute advantage in the sea especially if we blockaded and sieged Manila bay, this will make our enemies caught off guard with our sudden appearance, and then our land soldiers should blockade the exit points of our enemy, they will be on standby on the outskirts of the capital and kill those coming from other provinces while also killing off those that try to retreat through the land route"

Renaldo: "Is this true Andres? That both of you thought about this?" asked Renaldo while smiling, clearly in a happy mood because of these two worked together to make a plan, this is definitely great as he wants them to cooperate with each other more in the future.

Andres: "Yes master, we thought about these plans for a long time, we even had some arguments about it but after everything that happened, through various revisions and a lot of planning, we have decided that this is the best course of action"

Renaldo: "Alright, although I agree that this plan that both of you made and brainstormed about is good, you have made a crucial mistake of underestimating our own land army that has vastly improved through their war experiences and some technological "upgrades". Don't worry though, your plan and strategy is definitely great, I'd say both of you are up to par with some of the best generals of this era, the only reason that I made a better plan is because of my advantage over both of you which is I am updated with the information regarding our army, this is a crucial lesson for both of you as a tiny bit of information lag can cost you a big amount of money, human resources and sometimes even the whole war"

The two division commanders were embarassed about this mistake of theirs because honestly, they didn't really take into account the various information available but instead settled for what they currently know and have, they've ingrained this lessons in their hearts and minds as to not make the same mistake in the future.

Seeing that both of his people took this one to heart, Renaldo let this pass as he told them about his opinions.

Renaldo: "Okay, before I start telling you about my plan, I will first tell you about the tiny details that might derail your own plan if we pursued and acted on it, First of all is your overdependency towards our technological advantage at sea, both of you were confident about our dreadnoughts and warships that you've forgotten about their lack of ability to maneuver in tiny spaces. Their main power depends on their vast firepower and thick armor, which leads to the problem that all of them are slow compared to the Spaniard's Ships, they might exploit this advantage by using the alcoves of manila bay, they will outmaneuver and outspeed you in the tight spaces of the bay compared to the vast ocean. Although their ships lack the ability to fight ours one versus one, they have the advantage of numbers because our ships are not that many, they are expensive to make and maintain with our current budget. This advantages in speed and numbers will work against you especially in tight spaces wherein our dreadnoughts and warhips will be sitting ducks upon their entry on the bay, the enemy will definitely take advantage of this and will probably sink around 2-5 of our ships which will be a huge loss for us given that we only have 10 dreadnoughts, and around 30 warships, a loss of 5 ships will definitely hurt us, notwithstanding the amount of people that will die along with our ships.

Next is the probability of external variables, the Spaniards are not the only hostile superpower around these parts, on our south and west are the Kingdoms of Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia, In our north, we have Formosa, Japan and China which are nearby our country, on our east, there is guam and the pacific islands, with Guam under the direct control of Spain and the pacific islands under the direct control of a global powerhouse, Germany. These external variables might pop out of our rear as all of them might conquer us without any notice, this situation will then escalate in a war of two fronts where we have an enemy in front of us and then sudden invaders behind us, a pincer attack will definitely sink our ships which will result in a large amount of casualties for us, and it might even lead to our demise.

The strategy about our land troops blockading the Spaniard's points of retreat is also presented with the same flaw because more often than not, a naval siege is always takes up a huge amount of time, this siege time in turn will lead to the accumulation of the Spanish army outside the capital of Manila, they will amass their whole army and march them towards our land soldier's flanks, this situation will then lead to our soldiers being pincered with a half facing the capital and on their rear being attacked by the scattered forces of the Spaniards. Do you now see the flaws in your plans?"

Nicanor and Bonifacio nodded, with some fear in their faces because they almost led their master's efforts to waste if their plans were conducted right now.

Renaldo: "Now that these things are out of the way, I will now tell you about my strategy. To be fair fo both of you and your hardwork for almost a year of planning, I will incorporate your war strategy into mine as to show both of you that your strategy is also good if it's paired with updated information and if it's tweaked a bit to cover the strategy's shortcomings.

First, I will form a naval blockade outside Manila bay, this blockade will block both inside and outside of the bay, and has the order of shoot on sight any ships on the range of our dreadnoughts, take note that I will only block the bay and will not go inside it as to not throw the advantage of our navy in the open sea, so that in case of external variables, half of our dreadnoughts and warships will be able to turn around and face the enemies in the rear and fight them in the open seas, completely taking advantage of the firepower and defensive superiority of our ships while putting them at less risk with the help of the frigates that will be responsible to destroy the super fast and maneuverable ships of the enemies, the frigates will form a net that will absorb the firepower of those faster ships as to neutralize their speed advantage in the open.

While at the front, half of our ships will bombard Manila bay to deter them and make them feel the despair of not having any way out, this will put a psychological burden to the enemy troops, which in turn will be a huge advantage to our land troops designated to conquer the capital. This will also prevent the Spaniards to sail to guam and ask for some reinforcements.

Our land troops on the other hand, will use their technological superiority to our enemies, with the use of our Tiger 1s and our M8 Greyhounds at the front, they will sweep the lands first with our footsoldiers on their rear as to clean up the rest of the enemies, I call this strategy "Blitzkrieg" with a plethora of armored tiger vehicles to stomp the defenses of our enemies and then the use of the greyhounds to support these tiger's flanks because they lack the maneuverability in close quarter combat, the greyhounds will cover this weakness and are also responsible to clean up the various soldiers and artillery of the enemies. Our footsoldiers on the other hand are responsible with cleaning up the leftovers of the armored vehicles, they will sweep up the houses and bases of the enemies which our vehicles aren't capable of doing so, this will clear any leftover enemies hidden from the sights of our combat vehicles. After these, they will then sweep through the supply caches and other important offices to mark them as conquered, this strategy will continue on until nothing is left to conquer, and the whole island of Luzon is liberated from the clutches of Spain. The only thing left is to prevent the leak of information outside as to prevent Visayas, Mindanao, and Guam to prepare. It is also important not to leak our technological advantage to the outside world. Don't worry about that part though, as I have made a team solely for that purpose, they will keep the information from spreading and will kill anyone who will try to spread word about our weaponry. (ANIMAL SPY NETWORK FTW)

These things are just superficial details to the grand scheme of things, this is just the specific strategies to use in each battle or siege, wherein the grand plan that I will set in motion will be on a scale bigger than this so wait for my other instructions.

The only thing that you need to remember about this strategy is that our main force will be the land troops while the naval troops are the auxilliary support to prevent and disrupt the enemy lines

Understood?

"Yes, young master!" Nicanor and Bonifacio said, with admiration clearly showing in their eyes because of the brilliance of their leader's strategical genius, they will definitely succeed in the liberation of the country if things go as planned.

With these things clear between the three, Mauricio then called for his father and Leandro for the next briefing as this next one will be the discussion of the overall campaign plans of their army.

~ This chapter is worth probably around two chapters! please enjoy reading! Spare me some of your powerstones please! Alms! Alms! give me alms! ~ 🤣