In order to monitor the movements of Zhang Xianzhong's troops and carry out effective counterattacks when attacked, the Spanish established Arcata Castle in the northernmost part of California, south of the redwood forest.
In addition to the 500 defenders, there are also six armed merchant ships permanently stationed outside the castle, which can not only provide fire support from the other side, but also load soldiers and deliver them to the Oregon area occupied by Zhang Xianzhong.
There are two castles south of Arcata, located in Golden Mountain in the Bay Area in central California and Long Beach in southern California.
These three castles were built during the reign of Luis Enrique Guzmán, the predecessor of the current governor of New Spain, Francisco Fernandez Cueva.
After Couva arrived, he listened to reports from all parties and immediately realized the seriousness of the problem. He did not order a shutdown, but ordered the project to be accelerated.
By 1660, all three castles had been completed, but Couva felt that it was not rigorous enough, so he allocated eighteen armed merchant ships and evenly distributed them to the garrison of each castle.
Each armed merchant ship is equipped with more than twenty heavy guns, which is enough to provide sufficient fire cover when the castle is invaded by land.
Considering that those yellow-skinned monkeys lacked artillery, especially heavy artillery, Kuva believed that his arrangement was relatively satisfactory.
Each castle is a quasi-bastion. Although it is not comparable to the standardized bastion in Europe, it is enough for the five hundred defenders to resist the attack of five thousand yellow-skinned monkeys.
Moreover, Couva ordered imitations of captured grenades and mortars. These two weapons with simple structures but huge power can play a very good role in the defense of the defenders.
If the situation is urgent, Kuva can also dispatch 10,000 cavalry, 50,000 soldiers, 100 cannons and more than 50 armed merchant ships from various places for reinforcements.
The reason why heavy troops are not deployed on the front line is that if those yellow-skinned monkeys do not take the initiative to attack, the pressure on their own logistics will be too great. Even wealthy New Spain cannot support such a large-scale expenditure.
Even so, the total number of garrison troops in all the dotted strongholds in the six states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado is as high as 10,000.
But this is already the minimum standard. If it is any lower, it is unlikely that the local defenders and Pingmin will be bloodbathed by the Indian cavalry...
Originally, there were not so many troops stationed in this area, but in recent years, when our own forces faced off against the combined forces of the yellow-skinned monkeys and native Indians, they almost suffered repeated defeats.
They were severely beaten by the opponent's mountain warfare, guerrilla warfare, ambush warfare, and night raid warfare. The regular square-formation warfare in Europe was completely useless in North America.
In order to prevent the Viceroyalty of New Spain from being gradually eaten away by the enemy, successive governors learned from experience and lessons, racked their brains, and came up with three countermeasures.
First of all, to increase the deployment of troops, important strategic nodes must be defended, otherwise a nearby area will fall into the enemy's hands.
Secondly, build castles in the coastal areas, station garrison troops, and provide cover with warships to give full play to our maritime superiority and curb the enemy's southern invasion.
Finally, maintain enough second-line troops. In an emergency, you can launch a powerful counterattack against the yellow-skinned monkey and defeat its offensive.
September of this year is the time when the Marquis of Cuva will step down. Many orders during his tenure have been well implemented. I believe that those yellow-skinned monkeys no longer dare to covet the powerful Viceroyalty of New Spain.
"That is……"
The defenders in the castle saw a large number of warships suddenly appearing on the northern sea, and thought they were dazzled or had a mirage.
After many people used telescopes to observe it many times, they were still unsure, so they had to sound the alarm bell on the top floor to prepare the fleet for battle.
However, there were too many warships on the sea, probably more than a hundred, and they were coming from the northern waters. It was obvious that they were from the yellow-skinned monkey.
However, the yellow-skinned monkeys have never invaded south from the sea, and they do not seem to have such strength. The ships discovered before were all merchant ships, let alone warships.
When the enemy fleet was less than five nautical miles away from the coastline of Arcata, the defenders were convinced of this reality and quickly sent people to the bay area to report the news.
The six armed merchant ships on the coast had a chance to escape, but because the enemy fleet's speed was too fast, they were driven over before they could reach their maximum speed.
"Oh my God! Those ships don't have sails!"
"The speed is so fast!"
"There's black smoke coming out!"
"It is said that the French purchased this kind of warship!"
"Maybe it's the legendary ironclad ship!"
"That's really scary!"
The squadron stationed in Arcata did not escape far at all before they entered the firing range of the armored ships coming from behind.
Since the opponent only had twelve ships, the Spanish fleet even imagined that it would turn defeat into victory, so it adopted horizontal formation tactics.
Six armed merchant ships with wooden sails of more than 300 tons lined up on the sea and bombarded the target with broadside fire.
"Continue to attack in horizontal formation! After entering the anti-ship missile range, you can expose the sides and launch missiles to sink the enemy ships!"
Although the target has entered the artillery range of the ironclad ship, the hit rate of anti-ship missiles at this distance is not high.
Therefore, Jiexuan insisted on letting the fleet continue to approach the target and strive to launch a fatal blow to it.
Ironclad ships all adopt a compartment design and are much stronger than wooden battleships.
Solid bullets can't cause much damage to the armored ship at all, and it's no problem to attack with the opponent's fierce artillery fire.
In the eyes of the sailors, instead of surrendering, the Spaniards slowed down in an attempt to block their own ironclads. This was tantamount to killing themselves with an egg against a stone!
Since the scale of the Ming warships' firing was far inferior to that of the Spanish armed merchant ships, the other party mistakenly believed that these ironclad ships were just fake.
The captains even imagined that if they could capture these yellow-skinned monkeys' armored ships, they would definitely win the favor of the Governor and get rewards and promotions for themselves.
"Oh my God! That's the Devil from the East!"
But things went wrong. After the distance between the two sides shortened to less than 200 meters, the Ming army's armored ships launched "Whaling Hark" anti-ship missiles one after another.
The 200-pound "Harpoon"-V quickly detached from the launcher after being ignited, and its two huge wings flew toward the target with a 50-pound explosive warhead.
The extremely unlucky armed merchant ship opposite became the first sacrifice of this weapon. After a loud noise, a fireball that swallowed the entire bow of the ship rose into the sky.
The sprit sail on the bow of the ship had been burned to nothing, and the foremast, which was burning with raging fire, suddenly collapsed, and crew members kept jumping into the sea.
An armed merchant ship that was firing continuously a few seconds ago has now been reduced to a huge bonfire, with horrific explosions happening from time to time.
Many sailors or sailors working in North America have heard of the tragic experience of the hegemonic fleet, but most of them think it is exaggerated.
It was only after I experienced it myself that I regretted it. The actual situation was ten times, or even a hundred times, scarier than the descriptions spread by word of mouth.
The worst incident was an armed merchant ship, which was hit by three "Eastern Devils". The explosion directly caused dozens of barrels of gunpowder on the ship to detonate.
The second explosion directly blew the ship into two sections, forming a huge annular shock wave on the sea and sending many crew members tens of meters into the air.
The sailors who were not directly killed here would also be killed or injured on the sea due to the too large drop. The combat position was almost the scene of a tragedy.
There are thousands of pieces of wood debris floating on the nearby sea, as well as the bodies of dead sailors. Even if they survive, they will be salvaged by the Ming army in lifeboats and captured.
After the two sides entered the shooting session, all six armed merchant ships were severely damaged or sunk within half an hour.
The defenders in the castle had witnessed the entire tragedy with their own eyes. Apart from being horrified, they were also worried about their future.
"Gentlemen! Warriors of the empire! Those yellow-skinned monkeys attacked our warships with a sneak attack. This is unforgivable and unacceptable! As long as we persist until reinforcements arrive, we can give those yellow-skinned monkeys a heavy blow. , the final victory must belong to us!"
Upon seeing this, Major Gonzalez, the top commander of the local garrison, hurriedly cheered up his men. Even if his side lost six warships, it didn't mean much.
As long as our troops still occupy this castle, the yellow-skinned monkeys outside will be helpless. They will not be able to defeat them even if it takes half a year, and they will be defeated by reinforcements.
After listening to their superiors' words, the soldiers could only choose to believe, otherwise they would not be able to challenge the behemoths on the sea.
"Haha! Brother Jie has indeed exposed the Spaniards! Give me my order, besiege but not attack!"
Zhang Xianzhong saw clearly through the telescope that as long as he succeeded at sea, the battle on land would be certain.
"Your Majesty is wise, can you dig a wide pit for horses?"
Prime Minister Zuo Pan Dubiao immediately offered a plan, hoping to gain something.
"Okay! Just follow Prime Minister Zuo's words!"
The purpose of this strategy was to force the Spaniards not to dare to shoot the cavalry out to disturb their own troops and continue southward, otherwise their horses' legs would be broken.
So outside the range of the defenders' artillery, Zhang Jun used engineering shovels to dig more than 500,000 horse traps...
In addition to the horse trap, many mortars were also deployed.
If the defenders dare to come out to fill the holes secretly, they will be punished by shelling.
Each of Zhang Jun's soldiers carried an engineer shovel because it was the main prop for fighting ambushes.
Usually, a small group of people are sent out to seduce the prey, leading the prey into a valley and then having a "slap".
The engineer shovel is an important tool used to prevent the enemy cavalry from continuing to attack forward. With a horse trap, no cavalry dares to advance.
Jiexuan had previously formulated a rough combat plan based on the intelligence provided by Zhang Xianzhong.
That is to lead the fleet south along the coastline first and annihilate all the Spanish fleet on the west coast.
At the same time, Zhang Xianzhong led the Indian chiefs to surround the three main strongholds in California.
The important thing is to cut off the stronghold's connection with the outside world, and if possible, carry out siege and reinforcements.
Although the little emperor only had twenty steam tanks in his hands, the Marine Corps in Jiexuan had fifty steam tanks.
But even twenty steam tanks would not be afraid of two thousand Spanish cavalry.
As long as they are not bombarded by heavy artillery, steam tanks are the natural enemies of enemy cavalry.
Tie Chaodu, who was as strong as Donglu, did not take advantage of such heavy weapons.
Facing enemy cavalry, steam tanks are almost invincible.
"My son has amazing abilities!"
"My son is here!"
"Lead our troops and ten chiefs to besiege this place. If enemy reinforcements come, we can break them first!"
"My son, I obey, please rest assured, father!"
In order to concentrate his forces and severely inflict heavy damage on the Spaniards, Zhang Xianzhong specially transferred back his three sons and their main force who were guarding other places.
According to Zhang Xianzhong's plan, the fourth son was in charge of Arcata, the third son Wenxiu besieged Jinshan, the eldest son was expected to besiege Changtan, and he led the main force to fight against the local governor's reinforcements.
In less than twenty days, Jiexuan's fleet swept across the coast of California, destroying or sinking thirty-five enemy ships and capturing seventy-one ships.
More than 5,000 Spanish sailors and sailors, nearly 1,000 army soldiers, and 20,000 civilians were captured.
After tasting the Ocean Horse, the Marines' morale was high and they were eager to conquer more Ocean Horses.
All captives will be transported back to the mainland in batches. These people are either good miners or good female slaves.
Because the rich people ran very fast, not much money was found, but a lot of various supplies were seized.
Jiexuan planned to sell to Zhang Xianzhong at a price what he could not use and what was not convenient for transportation.
But Long Beach is indeed, as His Majesty the Emperor said, a good place with sunny weather and a pleasant climate.
There are blue seas, blue skies, beaches, and palm trees. You can spend the whole day lying on a lounge chair with a newspaper next to you and some snacks and tea...
This is not a fantasy, this is what some Marines are doing.
After the siege of Long Beach Castle, some people began fishing on the beach in order to improve their lives.
The fleets of Jiexuan and Zheng Guangying were capable of destroying these castles, but Jiexuan changed his mind after thinking about it.
If these castles are destroyed in advance, the bait will be taken out of their hands and the Spanish reinforcements will not be able to take the bait.
Only by besieging the defenders could the governor of New Spain come to his aid.
Of course, the price has been discussed with Zhang Xianzhong.
Everything around the castle, stretching ten miles from the coast to the hinterland, belonged to Jiexuan's fleet.
Since Zhang Jun was responsible for the siege, the defenders in the castle surrendered and were sold to the fleet for one hundred silver coins each.
Regarding the cost of purchasing captives, Jiexuan already had a plan to deal with it, which was to deal with the goods on hand...
During this expedition, apart from people and money, Jiexuan did not intend to let his men bring back too many things.
The natives of the Ming Dynasty could make anything. Those things that seemed noble in the eyes of the natives were actually not worth mentioning at all.
Next, Jiexuan plans to see his opponent's reaction before making any calculations.
If the opponent refuses to save him, Jiexuan will intend to lead his fleet to attack the Baja California Peninsula, even enter the Gulf of California, or attack Mexico by the way!
Since we have traveled thousands of miles to come here, we cannot easily return. Wherever there is a coastline and we can go there, Jiexuan plans to take people there to see the scenery!
Or bring some of these scenery, such as the Ocean Horse, home!
While Zheng Guangying was receiving the spoils of war, he was trying to have in-depth communication with some young and beautiful horses...
