As a country that rose up in the Age of Discovery and has occupied large colonies in many parts of the world, especially Spain, which has a large number of colonies in the Americas, it has to be said that it has a sense of confidence or confidence when facing war.
When the Dachu Empire launched a large-scale bombardment and landed in Cadiz, the Spanish did not surrender like the Portuguese next door, but faced a small defeat and surrendered.
Instead, the Spanish adopted a strategy of actively withdrawing from the coastal areas and gathering troops in the inland areas for stubborn resistance.
Thirty thousand troops, this is the army that the Spaniards assembled in a short time after facing the Chu army's invasion.
They include both the original garrison troops from the Cadiz area and the sailors who came ashore from the fleet, but more of them are Spanish reinforcements from surrounding areas.
In fact, some of these armies are not directly controlled by the Spanish state. Many of them are local armies of nearby nobles.
Europe these days still retains the traditional feudal system. The king is just the largest noble, and there are a lot of messy nobles below. These nobles also have armies and serve the king on the battlefield during wars.
But today, they all gathered in the area of Harkasburg, seven kilometers north of the port of Cadiz.
This small village area was not worth mentioning in the past and did not leave any name in history. Today, it is destined to be famous in history because of the successive arrival of the Spaniards and the Chu army.
It was the fourth day of September in the 37th year of Chengshun. The weather in early autumn was very refreshing, and the sky without any industrial pollution was extremely blue.
That morning, the 9th Infantry Regiment of the Indian 3rd Division, which served as the vanguard of the Chu army, was the first to arrive in the outskirts of Harkes.
However, they did not launch an attack immediately, but stayed on the outside.
Behind the 9th Indian Infantry Regiment is the 7th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Indian Division.
As for the other infantry regiment of the Indian Third Division, the Eighth Infantry Regiment, did not appear on the battlefield. Instead, it strengthened the artillery battalion of the Indian Third Division. The cavalry company formed a mixed regiment and marched toward the northwest.
According to the early cavalry reconnaissance report, the Chu army discovered traces of a large number of Spanish reinforcements in this direction.
The mission of the eighth Indian mixed regiment is to intercept the Spanish reinforcements and prevent them from appearing in the direction of Harkes. It also prevents them from bypassing the front line brigade and directly attacking the rear base camp in Cadiz.
Therefore, in this battle, the main force of the Third Division of the Indian Servant Army was only two infantry regiments. In fact, these two infantry regiments were not full because in the past wars in West Africa, the Indian Third Division had left many troops to garrison in West Africa. Although the number of troops left in each port may only be a few dozen or a hundred, the total number of troops left behind is still relatively large.
Therefore, the combined strength of these two infantry regiments is only more than 4,000!
Then add a small number of hundreds of people from the Indian 3rd Division headquarters.
In addition, the baggage battalion of the Indian Third Division stayed in Cadiz and assumed basic garrison tasks there.
After a series of battles and deployments, the Indian Third Division of more than 10,000 people actually had only more than 4,000 troops present on the battlefield at Hacksburg.
Behind the two infantry regiments of the 3rd Indian Division is the Cavalry Regiment of the 53rd Division of the Dachu Empire Army. This cavalry regiment is supervising and covering the Indian infantry units in front, and is also the main force of the 53rd Division. exists as a forward force.
Behind the cavalry regiment of the 53rd Division is the main force of the 53rd Division, including two infantry regiments and an artillery regiment.
As for the remaining infantry regiment of the 53rd Division, this infantry regiment was also split, leaving a small mixed battalion in Tangier and a battalion in Cadiz.
There is also a battalion that was sent to Portugal before and is currently stationed in Lisbon.
Most of the personnel of the 53rd Division's Baggage Regiment are still on guard in Cadiz, organizing the transportation of supplies. The Baggage Regiment will not directly participate in frontline battles in the future, but will mainly defend logistics transfer stations and maintain logistics lines.
Therefore, the strength of the 53rd Division on the battlefield at Hacksburg was not very large. There were only two infantry regiments, one cavalry regiment, and two artillery battalions, totaling about 9,000 people.
The combined strength of the Indian 3rd Division and the 53rd Division is about 14,000. Just comparing the numbers and strength, it is less than half of the Spaniards on the opposite side.
But it's just a comparison of numbers. If you want to compare technical equipment, then the Chu army can beat the Spaniards.
The breech-loaded rifled guns in the Chu army were enough to smooth out this gap in strength and gain a huge firepower advantage.
At about ten o'clock in the morning, the main force of the Chu army arrived. Then Army Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an ordered the march to continue, and the cavalry regiment began to move forward for armed reconnaissance.
However, the cavalry regiment's advance was not counterattacked by the Spanish... Although the Spanish array obviously had a large number of cavalry troops, they did not rush to send out cavalry to counterattack or expel them, but continued to stay in the rear seemingly indifferently.
In this case, although the 53rd Division Cavalry Regiment did not seem to engage in combat and did not achieve any results, it actually easily detected the enemy's main deployment direction and reported back It was given to Army Lieutenant General Bo Jianan in the rear.
Completed their main mission on the battlefield!
At 12 o'clock in the morning, the 9th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Indian Division received the order and began to advance northeastward. Fifteen minutes later, the 7th Indian Infantry Regiment began to detour northwestward.
The left and right flanks of these two Indian armies were detouring. According to Bo Jian'an's order, they were not actually conducting a detour attack... Let them conduct flank detours. On the one hand, it was to allow them to bypass the main battlefield and intercept any enemy reinforcements that might suddenly appear. The troops are also to block the enemy's retreat direction and create favorable opportunities for subsequent semi-encirclement of the enemy.
On the other hand... at this moment, the mission of the third division of the Indian Army has almost been completed. As a forward, they are mainly to explore the way for the main force, so as to prevent the Chu army from going deep into unfamiliar places and being attacked by the enemy. Ambush.
Now that the enemy's main force has appeared and the battlefield has arrived, if the Indian Third Division continues to stay on the frontal battlefield, it will actually affect the operations of the 53rd Division.
Because the Indian Third Division is still a servant army equipped with percussion guns and using line tactics as its main tactics.
Their fighting method is incompatible with the main force of the Chu army that currently uses breech-loaded rifled guns. Their cooperation on the battlefield will not only not be helpful, but will also hinder the main force's operations.
In order to avoid trouble, Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an simply asked the two infantry regiments of the Indian Third Division to maneuver to both sides to make way for the main force to fight.
Save them from causing trouble!
But the Spaniards on the opposite side didn't know this. When they saw the Chu army's two infantry regiments starting to move toward the two wings, they thought the Chu army was going to launch a roundabout attack and attack their two wings.
Immediately, he quickly mobilized his troops and deployed his troops to the two wings, making a gesture of intercepting the Indian Third Division.
Army Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an took a look at it and said, "This is a good feeling. The other side has begun to divide its troops, and the pressure for a frontal attack will be even less later."
He immediately stopped hesitating and began to get the troops into combat formation and get the artillery units ready.
In this battle, the artillery force will still be the absolute main force. The two 75mm artillery battalions with a total of 36 main force units will be responsible for most of the combat tasks.
As for the infantry...even the infantry of the 53rd Division equipped with breech-loading rifled rifles are actually used by the artillery.
Nowadays, the establishment of the 53rd Division Artillery Regiment is somewhat disrupted, because six 75mm field guns have been deployed to stay in Tangier, and six 34-year-old 75mm mountain guns have been dispatched to the Portuguese areas and West Africa. On the way, two more 75mm mountain guns were left in Ghana.
Therefore, the artillery that finally arrived in Cadiz was actually only twenty-eight thirty-four-year-old 75mm mountain guns and twelve 75mm field guns... and then three more 75mm field guns fell in. It fell into the sea and has not been fished out yet.
The remaining troops in Cadiz also left behind four 75mm field guns and two 75mm mountain guns.
In the end, the 75mm artillery brought to the battlefield by Army Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an included only twenty-six 34-year-old 75mm mountain guns and eleven 75mm field guns.
During the maneuvers along the way, the 75mm mountain gun performed as well as ever, because it only had a marching weight of 360 kilograms, making it very convenient to maneuver.
Relatively speaking, the maneuverability of the 32-year-old 75mm field gun is more troublesome due to its marching weight of 1.6 tons.
This thing has a long range and high accuracy, but the weight of 1.6 tons is still too heavy for overseas areas, and it can't be seen on weekdays. But in the indigenous controlled areas with seriously backward transportation facilities, maneuvering is very troublesome. .
Many bridges built by indigenous people simply cannot allow such artillery to pass quickly. They can only allow engineers to reinforce or even simply build pontoons before these artillery can pass.
The same problem also appeared in the four-wheeled heavy carriages that were used on a large scale by the Chu army and have always been considered very good.
The four-wheeled heavy-duty carriage is an important logistics transportation tool in the Chu army, and its load capacity of more than one ton is also the pride of the Chu army's logistics troops.
However, the carriage adds a load of more than one ton, and then adds the four horses pulling the carriage... This is not much lighter than the 75mm field gun, and the requirements for roads and bridges are relatively high. .
Therefore, it seemed that the Chu army had no problems with this move northward, but in fact it encountered considerable challenges in artillery and baggage transportation.
This also made Bo Jian'an more determined. He turned around and submitted a report to the Jinling General Staff, requesting to further increase the number of light artillery in overseas garrison troops, such as the Type 34 70mm infantry cannon, the Type 34 7 The equipment quantity of 15mm mountain gun.
As for the 32-year-old 75mm field gun, although it has an effective range of 6,000 meters, it is still too heavy.
As for heavier artillery such as the 120mm light howitzer... just get some as military-level support firepower. There is no need to assign it to division and brigade-level troops, let alone accompany infantry operations... It can't be accompanied. Infantry combat.
The same is true for logistical transportation. In some places with good roads, the use of four-wheeled heavy-duty carriages is barely enough. However, in indigenous-controlled areas where the road conditions are seriously backward and we are not familiar with them, the use of four-wheeled heavy-duty carriages will be restricted. Great limitations.
On the contrary, two-wheeled carriages with seemingly smaller loads and light four-wheeled carriages pulled by two horses are more suitable.
Fighting overseas and fighting at home are two completely different concepts. Among them, baggage logistics and artillery mobility are issues that must be taken into consideration.
Otherwise, there will be a scene like the one on the Spanish battlefield. The main force of the Chu army seemed to be fighting all the way with arrogance, but in fact they encountered many troubles along the way.
The distance is only about seven kilometers, but the engineering troops were busy and erected as many as three floating bridges... By the way, they also used blasting to widen a section of the mountain road... Those native bastards from the Spaniards built the road. It's not positive at all. One of the winding mountain roads is very narrow, making it very difficult for a carriage to pass.
The engineering troops of the Chu army couldn't stand it any longer, so they directly carried out large-scale blasting to clear the way, blasting out a wider mountain road at the mountain pass.
Right now... the engineer battalion of the 53rd Division, in addition to continuing emergency construction of port facilities, some of its troops are still building roads and bridges.
The Chu army came all the way to fight, presumably to build roads and bridges for Spain and build ports at the same time...
All these made Army Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an feel helpless... When the opponent is inferior to a certain extent, the biggest challenge faced by the Chu army is not whether the enemy can fight, but the severely backward transportation facilities in the local area.
After finally arriving at Hacksburg, looking at the dense Spanish troops on the opposite side, Army Lieutenant General Bo Jianan had made up his mind: to eliminate this Spanish force here as much as possible!
He was not willing to lead an army to play hide-and-seek with the troupes, let alone wander around Spain!
Even now, he doesn't even want to go to Madrid...
The straight-line distance of this road has been 500 kilometers, but the actual distance is even further. If our own army of more than 10,000 is killed, how many pontoon bridges must be built and how many roads must be opened along the way!
The Chu Empire came to Spain to pry open the market and plunder economic interests. They did not come to do good things and build roads and bridges for the local indigenous people.
In order to avoid any subsequent large-scale battles, especially any critical battles, Bo Jian'an decided to teach the Spanish a profound lesson: annihilate the 30,000 Spanish defenders here.
Give the Spanish dignitaries a profound understanding of the consequences of using force to fight against the Chu Empire.
Through a desperate battle of annihilation, the Spanish dignitaries were forced to despair completely, and finally sat at the negotiation table and accepted the important conditions proposed by the Chu Empire: full opening of the market!
As for other conditions, Bo Jian'an doesn't think they need too many... Considering that the Spaniards have quite a large land area and it would be quite troublesome to defeat them completely, we shouldn't push the Spaniards too hard. necessary……
As long as Spain is willing to fully open its market and limit tariffs, then everything else is easy to talk about!
With this mentality, Army Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an officially issued the order to attack at 12:30 that day.
The well-prepared artillery units began to fire intensively at the Spanish square formation more than a thousand meters away... These Spaniards thought that the Chu army was going to fight them in line, so they honestly listed out the standard line formation. Woolen cloth.
But they didn't expect that the Chu army's infantry was still thousands of meters away, and the Chu army's artillery had already begun to intensively bombard them.
Next is the performance time of the Chu Army's artillery unit...even the Chu Army's infantry did not have much opportunity to perform.
With the continuous bombardment, the Spanish main line infantry and smoothbore artillery were unable to advance or retreat... and one after another collapsed under the bombardment of the Chu army.
At this time, the Chu army's infantry were still more than 500 meters away from the Spanish.
The commander of the Chu army's infantry saw something bad, and a regiment commander immediately ordered not to worry about it so much, and to shoot at the long-range coverage given by me.
Shoot at the enemy's group target more than 500 meters away!
This is a breech-loading rifled gun used as a front-loading smoothbore gun.
Not to mention, the effect is quite good. Although the distance is very far, it is basically impossible for soldiers to specifically aim and hit a single target, but by shooting at group targets, they can get some hits.
The few results achieved by the infantry are not worth mentioning compared with the results achieved by the artillery unit.
The infantry watched helplessly as their own artillery destroyed the opposing line infantry squares and artillery positions, as well as the opposing cavalry units one after another.
The opponent didn't even have time to organize a counterattack, and then collapsed under the powerful field artillery fire of the Chu army.
In this kind of formal face-to-face field battle, the Chu army's firepower advantage was greatly utilized... In fact, if the Spaniards had dug field fortifications in advance and then relied on the fortifications to carry out defensive operations, then the Chu army would not have been able to fight so smoothly.
The key is that the previous battle of the Indian Third Division gave the Spaniards an illusion: they felt that the Chu army also used line tactics. Although they were lagging behind the Chu army, they were not too far behind.
In a head-to-head confrontation, where they compete in courage and strength, they have hope of winning.
As for hiding in the fortifications and stubbornly defending, it seems that they will collapse in a short while, but everyone knows that the Chu army's artillery is powerful, and stubbornly defending will not end well.
Finally, the Spanish made the decision to fight head-on and resist the Chu army through formal line battles.
However, they did not expect that the Chu army's breech-loaded rifled guns were so powerful. No, to be precise, the Chu army's breech-loaded rifled guns were so powerful.
As for the breech-loading rifles, they actually played no practical role in this battle. When the infantry came up, the Spanish were basically defeated by the artillery.
When the enemy army collapses, our own side can win a huge victory even if we go up with a spear, let alone a breech-loading rifle.
The Spanish's misjudgment and their arrogant self-confidence caused their 30,000-strong army to be defeated by the Chu army's artillery without any actual resistance.
What follows is a long escape and pursuit!
At this time, the infantry of the Chu army could only watch the show from behind... because the cavalry of the 53rd Division Cavalry Regiment had already charged forward with sabers after the enemy collapsed on a large scale.
At this time, the 53rd Division Cavalry Regiment no longer engaged in dismounted infantry combat tactics, but adopted the most traditional and primitive cavalry combat method: charge directly with the saber!
And it's not a charge, it's just a direct look at the fleeing enemies, waving the knife at their backs.
In the afternoon, when the chasing cavalry returned one after another, the battle ended in an anticlimactic manner.
From the beginning to the end, the Spaniards did not organize even one effective resistance... It is not that they have not tried. In fact, the Spaniards tried to organize troops to launch a counterattack at the beginning and middle of the battle.
They once tried to have the cavalry units launch a counterattack and attack the Chu army's artillery positions.
But as soon as these cavalry were assembled, they were intensively bombarded by the Chu army's artillery force... Because of the threat of the cavalry, the assembled cavalry was the priority target of the artillery force.
Under such circumstances, the Spaniards tried to assemble cavalry troops several times without success. Instead, they suffered heavy casualties. In the end, their cavalry completely lost the ability to counterattack on a large scale.
There is not much resistance from the infantry and artillery...The effective range of their artillery is too short and cannot effectively threaten the Chu army's artillery. The Chu army's artillery can just drink tea and leisurely continue bombarding the enemy's artillery positions.
In this battle, there were only four 75mm field guns assigned to the task of suppressing enemy artillery. From the beginning to the end of the battle, these four artillery used an extremely relaxed attitude to defeat the hot air balloon. Under the guidance of shooting, they took turns to shell several Spanish artillery positions one by one.
The Spanish artillery with more than 150 artillery pieces of various types... was basically destroyed in this battle without even firing a single shot. A large number of their artillery were killed and wounded by the Chu army's artillery shells, and most of the artillery was intact. The undamaged ones were left on the battlefield and eventually became the trophies of the Chu army.
During the whole process, the artillery company commander, a captain who commanded the four 75mm field guns in the suppression mission, even had enough time to make tea on the battlefield...
For him, directing the artillery to attack the fixed artillery positions of the indigenous people is quite boring after he has calculated all the design elements and conducted several rounds of shooting guidance... His artillerymen hit fixed targets according to the shooting elements. , there are also hot air balloons to guide the shooting, and for him as an artillery commander, all he can do in the later stage is make tea and drink it.
But a group of artillerymen were very tired... Constantly carrying and loading artillery shells was a very tiring job.
In this war, the Indian Third Division served as cannon fodder to clear the way in the early stage. After arriving on the battlefield, it began to watch the theater and capture prisoners in the later stage.
For the two infantry regiments of the 53rd Division, the whole process was a drama. There was an artillery unit in the early stage of the battle and they were not needed. In the later stage, there was a cavalry unit in the pursuit. Even if they were to capture prisoners, they had to be arranged by the Indian Third Division in advance.
So they could only paddle the whole way... that is, they fired several rounds of long-distance volleys during the battle to get a bit of a battlefield feel.
For the artillerymen, this battle was exciting, but they were also really tired. Most of the artillerymen collapsed on the ground from exhaustion after the battle.
For the cavalry, it was like an outing in the early stage, and there was no challenge in pursuit in the later stage... Slashing the enemy's back with a knife at the enemy's broken troops, what kind of challenge could this be, but at least it covered up a large number of enemy's broken troops, and also forced Many enemy troops surrendered, which gave them a sense of participation.
For the Spaniards on the other side of the war, this was a complete and despairing disaster!
They envisioned various battle processes and outcomes.
But I definitely didn’t expect to lose so miserably!
From the beginning to the end, there was no chance or strength to resist!
From beginning to end, they didn't even see the Chu infantry face to face, and then they were blown up alive by the Chu army's artillery.
This is a disaster, and it is a disaster for the entire Kingdom of Spain!
Before the war, many Spanish people, even the dignitaries in the Kingdom of Spain and the generals leading the front line, were actually deeply worried and even very pessimistic about this war.
They did not think that the Kingdom of Spain could truly resist the invasion of Chu!
But they still chose to resist, and they resisted actively!
They just want to cause certain casualties to the Chu army through stubborn resistance... and this psychological bottom line is actually very low.
Even if all 30,000 people on the front line are killed, as long as a few thousand Chu people are killed, it will be a victory!
This is enough for them to prove...to prove to the Chu people that the Spaniards have the courage and strength to resist!
If you Chu people want to invade and conquer Spain, you will have to pay a heavy price!
We Spaniards can bear the cost of tens or even hundreds of thousands of casualties in resisting aggression.
But can you Chu people withstand tens of thousands of casualties?
Pay enough price to cause some casualties to the Chu people, and eventually make the Chu people feel that the cost of invasion is too high, and finally return to the negotiation table.
When the time comes, the Spaniards will make certain concessions in the negotiations. On the premise of retaining the national identity, the Chu people can obtain certain benefits, such as opening up part of the market and ceding Tangier and other North African territories to the Chu people. , the American colonies can discuss it again, it’s not that they don’t want to give it life and death, but you people from the Chu country can’t just take it for nothing, at least give me some money!
In fact, for the Spaniards, facing the huge threat from the Chu people, they could agree to many conditions. However, the conditions proposed by the Chu people were too harsh, forcing the Spaniards to resist!
Therefore, for the Spaniards, the goal of this war is very clear: to cause some casualties and troubles to the Chu people through the war, to let the Chu people see the courage, determination and ability to directly and resolutely resist, and finally force the Chu people to The people returned to the negotiating table and signed a treaty that was barely acceptable to the Spaniards.
As for completely defeating the Chu people, or even driving them away completely... the powerful people in Spain have never even dreamed of doing this.
But all this... was based on the premise that the Spanish army resisted tenaciously, showed courage and strength, and caused some casualties and troubles to the Chu expeditionary force.
And now... the people of Chu state that they have not encountered any actual resistance. Even if there is trouble, it is not caused by the Spanish army, but caused by the transportation facilities in Spain.
As for the casualties... the Chu army said they were completely negligible!
In this large-scale battle involving tens of thousands of people from both sides, almost all of the Spanish army of more than 30,000 people was wiped out. At least 8,000 people were killed on the spot, and at least 10,000 people were injured.
The 53rd Division of the Chu Army suffered a total of three killed and 16 wounded, for a total of 19 casualties. Basically, they encountered some sporadic resistance during the pursuit and capture of prisoners.
The Indian Third Division suffered more casualties. When it intercepted the enemy's retreat, it was attacked by the enemy and suffered more than a hundred casualties, but it was not worth mentioning.
Even the casualties of the Indian Servant Army, the Chu Army would never count them in its own casualties... As for the Indian Servant Army, their greatest significance is here, the cost is low, and the large casualties will not have any impact.
Not to mention more than 200 casualties, the death of all the Indian Third Division would not make the senior officials of the Chu Empire frown, let alone give up the European trade free plan.
To paraphrase the attitude of some senior military generals: the empire will never surrender until the last Indian is killed, let alone give up the European free trade plan!
According to the military plan, the Indian Third Division is only the first unit sent by the military to Europe. It will be followed by the Indian Fourth Division, the Fifth Division, and a group of Indian recruits to supplement the Third Division. They have already arrived from India. Set off, heading to Europe.
(End of chapter)
