He was directly defeated by his opponent!
This is the biggest defeat the Spanish army has suffered on the European battlefield since Marshal Merlot led 30,000 Spanish troops to attack Paris, France. If you don’t count the defeats that occurred in other places at this time...
Carlos II invested 20,000 cavalry, 45,000 infantry, and 100,000 minions in this battle, and had great expectations to defeat the yellow-skinned monkeys who came to die.
As a result, Hurtado was killed on the spot, Coloma and Mancilla were both injured and their troops were defeated. The commander-in-chief, Marquis Bonifaz, was unscathed, but was unable to reverse the defeat.
After the war, an inventory was carried out, and only less than 46,000 people returned. In other words, more than half of them were killed or injured in the charge and the failed escape.
This was mainly because the opponent's firepower was too fierce, and the rifles did not fire until their own attack was within a thousand feet, causing great damage to the infantry and cavalry.
In particular, the musket it uses can achieve continuous shooting, and its rate of fire per unit time is almost ten times that of a flintlock gun.
The feeling given to the soldiers of the Western Army was that the opponent hardly had any time to reload ammunition. From the beginning to the end, they were being passively beaten.
If you are lucky, you can still run back, but if you are not, there will be no way to survive. As long as any part of the body is shot, the speed of escape will be greatly reduced.
In one battle, 120,000 people were lost, including about 50,000 regular troops. This level of loss had seriously damaged the vitality of the defenders.
After the war, Zheng Chenggong released a captured officer and asked him to go back and deliver a message that would allow the King of Xiyi to send people to collect the corpse to prevent the corpse from being exposed and causing the disease.
Zheng Chenggong did not intend to use his own precious medicines to treat the injured Xiyi, so he asked Xiyi from the city to come out and carry him back.
It is gratifying to kill so many people in one battle, but it is not yet time to attack Madrid in general, so we must not underestimate the enemy at this time.
"My Marquis, doesn't the empire have an army of up to 250,000 men?"
Carlos II was already furious after seeing the imperial troops defeated by the opponent. Now he wants to know how many King Qin's troops there are.
"Your Majesty, we have 50,000 troops in America, but the defense areas of the two governorates are too large, and coupled with the naval blockade of the yellow-skinned monkeys, it is really difficult to return to the homeland as soon as possible!"
Marquis Bonifaz, who was defeated in the first battle after His Majesty the King's coronation, could only answer with fear, for fear of being deposed or even imprisoned by the furious King.
"What about Europe? What about the mainland? There won't be this obstacle, right?"
Carlos II felt that no matter how he calculated it, King Qin's division should not be limited to this. This was simply too funny.
"Count Benavides, who is in charge of the defense of Barcelona, has fifty thousand soldiers, but the city is under siege by the French. Valencia, Seville, Murcia, Zaragoza, Bilbao There are tens of thousands of defenders in places like the Apennine Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia and other places, but these places have either been attacked by yellow-skinned monkeys or are dealing with the French. There are about 50,000 people, but similar to the situation in the Americas, they are unable to return to their homeland for the time being."
After the emergency in Madrid, almost all the mobile troops that could come from nearby were sent one after another by generals from various places.
The Marquis of Bonifaz had thought of suggesting that His Majesty the King give up his interests in the Apennine Peninsula, but how could the combat troops come back?
The land route had to pass through southern France, and Louis XIV wished that not a single Spaniard could survive.
As for the sea route, the entire east coast of the mainland is currently blocked by the hateful yellow-skinned monkeys and the French.
This also means that before the local imperial troops win, it is impossible for the tens of thousands of people on the eastern peninsula to come back smoothly.
As long as you appear at sea, you will most likely be fed fish by the other party, including the boat and people.
The empire still has hundreds of ships in the eastern Mediterranean. The problem is that now is the era of ironclad ships.
The probability of a wooden warship winning against an ironclad ship is very small, and can be described as slim.
Ten wooden warships may not be able to defeat one ironclad ship. This has been verified many times on the west coast of America.
Previously, there was only the French fleet in the Mediterranean waters, and the imperial fleet could still put up a fight.
But now that there are dozens of yellow-skinned monkey armored ships, our side has lost the chance to fight even once.
You get beaten when you go out, and they can even block outside the port and attack your own sailing warships. What a sad scene this is!
I never expected that what happened to the naval fleet would happen again outside Madrid...
A loss of 120,000 people at one time was a complete fiasco!
The tactics were sound, the troops were superior, and the morale was high before the battle began.
Then why did it fail?
It's just that the weapons are backward and not as powerful as the yellow-skinned monkey!
Marquis Bonifaz even wanted to challenge the opponent's generals to a duel to determine the outcome of the two armies, but unfortunately it was impossible at that time.
The previous notice requiring the other party to compensate 100 million silver coins, hand over all weapons, and withdraw from Spain immediately was ruthlessly rejected by the other party!
Now there are not even enough troops to defend the city. This...
"According to what you said, this huge empire doesn't even have the troops to protect me? Am I going to surrender to the yellow-skinned monkey outside the city?"
After hearing this, Carlos II asked angrily. The minister replied, wouldn't the Spanish Empire collapse as quickly as the Roman Empire?
"Your Majesty is blessed by God and will definitely turn the crisis around. Although our offensive troops are not large at the moment, as long as we mobilize tens of thousands more soldiers, it should not be difficult to hold on to Madrid! Now everyone everywhere knows the news about Madrid's emergency. In the process of repelling the yellow-skinned monkeys, After the attack, we will naturally come to protect His Majesty as soon as possible! Please rest assured, Your Majesty, as long as I am still alive, I will never allow the hateful yellow-skinned monkey to trample on the dignity of the Empire and Your Majesty!"
If Marquis Bonifaz feels that the attack is not working, he should simply give up the attack and concentrate on defense.
There are many high-rise buildings in Madrid, which are very suitable for street fighting. The yellow-skinned monkey will never succeed easily.
"Don't let me down again!"
At this point, Carlos II could only temporarily agree to Marquis Bonifaz's proposal.
He had just inherited his father's huge inheritance, and it was extremely unlucky to encounter something like this.
The hateful yellow-skinned monkey actually came knocking on the door. What was embarrassing was that his men couldn't beat him.
What should we do?
Carlos II thought for a long time but couldn't come up with a good solution, so in the end he had to have dinner...
Before doing it again, the corpses must be collected, otherwise the corpses of dignified imperial soldiers would be exposed outside the city, and the dignity of the empire would be ruined.
Marquis Bonifaz sent 20,000 people out to collect the corpses, but he was not afraid of being shot by yellow-skinned monkeys.
Anyway, we have already failed once, so it doesn’t matter this time, there are only 20,000 people.
The more people die outside the city, the fewer people in the city will share the food reserves!
Marquis Bonifaz has begun to think about how to distribute food when the yellow-skinned monkeys besiege the city for a long time.
"Notify the entire army to break camp and move south, and move our camp to the six o'clock direction!"
"yes!"
Because too many Xiyi were killed and injured, about 100,000 by visual estimation, the ground was covered with bloodstains and broken limbs of the Xiyi.
Therefore, Zheng Chenggong asked everyone to camp in a new place, at least they would not wait for the original place to become smelly and attract flies.
Let Xiyi come out to collect the corpses, so that our troops don't even have to dig holes. They can bury them wherever they like.
Anyway, just leave with the fresh horse meat and start eating after setting up camp.
Defending in place basically does not consume much physical energy, and it will not affect relocation after the war.
"Success, why don't we attack the city?"
Zheng Tai looked at the messy battlefield and felt a little regretful that he could not pursue the victory.
"No attack! It's easy to kill a hundred thousand Westerners outside the city. It's much more convenient than searching house by house inside the city!"
Regarding this, Zheng Chenggong was very indifferent. He only had a few troops in his hands and must not be arrogant after winning.
"Then Xiyi has suffered such a big loss, I'm afraid he won't dare to fight easily!"
Zheng Tai felt that Xiyi would never go out of the city to seek death again, unless he was really beaten stupid.
"It doesn't matter, capturing this city is not something that can happen overnight. We must assess the situation and adapt accordingly. If the tribes from the West come to support the king, our army can besiege the city for reinforcements. On the contrary, we can besiege the city for a long time and make it eat up all the food reserves without fighting. And descend."
After experiencing many wars, Zheng Chenggong was very considerate of ordinary soldiers and would not risk the lives of his men.
Besides, Madrid is already in sight, and there is support from Jie Xuan and the French behind them. Now that the army is here, they will not leave in a hurry.
With a full force of 35,000 troops, it would not be too difficult for Zhengzhouying to use three brigades to ensure food supply.
What's more, they can continue to obtain food from the surrounding areas. At least this year and next, they won't have to worry about military rations.
There are still some ammunition and medicines on the ship. There has only been one large-scale battle, and there are not many injured on our side. These two are enough for now.
Probably before summer, the second batch of military supplies will arrive in Spain from the mainland, and then there will be no need to worry about logistics.
The soldiers and horses have not moved, but the food and grass go first.
Relying on its strong shipping capabilities, Zheng Jun has always done well in logistics, and this time is no exception.
What’s next?
Simple, dig trenches around the city!
Before, Xiyi would come out as soon as he said it.
After that, you can’t get out even if you want to.
Due to the large area of the city of Madrid, the amount of work required to replace the trenches is naturally very large. It is impossible to complete it in a short time with more than 30,000 Zheng troops.
It doesn't matter, Zheng Chenggong got the earth-digging magic tool from his respected master - the bulldozer!
Then let the Xiyi captured from the surrounding areas familiarize themselves with the future work in advance. As long as the trench surrounding the city is completed, they can board the ship.
It’s okay if you don’t want to dig, just dig a hole for yourself. Isn’t this easy to do?
In February, Zheng Zhouying sent a thousand war horses, so that Zheng Chenggong could finally have a decent cavalry force.
Zheng Chenggong hoped that the total number of his cavalry troops could reach 5,000, so that they could scrape the ground while patrolling the trenches.
Anyway, a lot of money is in the hands of Zheng Zhouying and Zheng Shengying. How to buy horses from the French and Ottomans is their business.
Buy a horse?
The French will not provide substantial support because they also need it.
But the Ottomans were completely different. They wished that the Ming Empire would eliminate these two scourges for themselves.
When Zheng Shengying sent someone to contact the other party, Osman immediately agreed.
The first batch provided 5,000 good horses. Although the price was very high, with each horse selling for up to 400 silver coins, they were indeed first-class horses.
Moreover, the Ottomans accepted Zheng Jun’s use of cheap and practical second-hand Spanish goods to pay for his war horses.
The Zheng fleet transported a large amount of various commodities from the Ming Empire to the Ottoman Empire every year, which greatly enriched the empire's market and satisfied the consumer demands of the upper class.
It can be said that Emperor Haojing and Zheng Zhilong were the two important partners of the Ottoman Empire in the Ming Empire. One had production capabilities and the other had transportation capabilities.
After the Battle of Lepanto, the Ottoman Navy was rebuilt. Its scale could not be compared with that of Zheng or the Netherlands, let alone its ocean-going capabilities.
The quantity of goods transported by Zheng to Osman was much higher than Osman's own transportation capacity.
But in the Mediterranean waters, the Ottoman fleet did not have so many worries and could deliver goods directly to your door.
Within a month, 5,000 war horses were delivered in five installments, with grooms cooperating to ensure that there would be no problems with the horses along the way.
This considerate service made Zheng Jun award recipients very satisfied and reserved the possibility of purchasing another 5,000 horses.
The huge Spanish battlefield only includes 10,000 war horses purchased from France, which seems a bit reluctant.
But no matter what, Zheng Jun finally had a large-scale cavalry unit that could complete the tasks of searching, assaulting, chasing and annihilating Xiyi.
From the beginning of spring, Spanish troops in various places may encounter Zheng's cavalry in the wild.
Especially when the Zheng army's cavalry are equipped with magazine-type bolt-action rifles, even if the Western army has a strength advantage, it will be difficult to take advantage unless it is an ambush.
The Zheng army rarely entered combat zones and spent most of its time mopping up the plains, leaving no opportunities for the Xiyi.
Now Zheng Chenggong has invested at least one million silver coins in war horses alone.
If Madrid is not captured, it is estimated that there will be a deficit in the early stage.
However, the prerequisites for attacking the city are still insufficient. The defenders will not surrender and there seems to be insufficient food.
The most important thing is to release some old, weak, sick and disabled people, hoping that Zheng Jun will feed these uncles.
Zheng Chenggong didn't have any extra rations, so he asked his men to drive him back.
The ones that have come out are only so far away and can be left to roam in the wilderness.
It's okay to find food by yourself, but coming directly to beg is just wishful thinking.
If you can bring some weapons, you can consider giving a bowl of rice, otherwise there is no need to talk!
On Zheng Jun's side, freeloaders also have to look at people, such as Yangma, they can do it.
Everyone else, except those with no talent, will be escorted to the beach to board the ship, except the old, weak, sick and disabled.
In the future, a group of non-young people can be allowed to live on the Iberian Peninsula, and the place will be considered completely disabled.
It is estimated that it will take a long time to implement the no-man's land mode. After all, the area here is not small and the population is large.
But the nursing home model is much less difficult to implement. If you capture all the young people in the first, second, and third tier cities, and then repeatedly raid the rural areas in the plains, it will be enough.
It doesn't matter if there are still people in the mountains, the Spanish Empire will be a garbage dump from now on!
