Dominate the Country

The bombardment of the National Defense Army was clean and neat. After 30 minutes of bombardment, hundreds of artillery pieces of the Spanish colonial army were already in tatters. The artillery positions they had carefully built were in a mess. I am afraid that there were not even half of the artillery pieces that could continue to fire, and all the surviving Spanish gunners ran away.

Santiago's face became very ugly, and he finally realized that something was wrong. The Chinese army had unexpected changes, and their current weapons were completely buggy like rockets.

In front of him were several cylindrical shells of different sizes, and the appearance of these shells was really beyond his imagination. Moreover, the enemy's artillery group was far away from their artillery positions. The Spaniards also brought hot air balloons, from which their observers could clearly see the artillery positions deployed by the Chinese behind the defense line.

But even at such a far artillery position, the enemy could not only hit their artillery positions, but also with high accuracy.

Santiago would not be so foolish as to think that the Chinese artillery was blessed by God, so it could shoot so far and so accurately. It was obvious that the Chinese had invented a new weapon. Just like the rockets before, they invented a new cannon.

And now Santiago is worried about what the Chinese are going to do?

Are they going to annihilate him?

Obviously, they have such powerful new weapons, but they have put themselves step by step to the northwest of the Salton Basin. Now their position is at least 200 kilometers away from the southern border. Santiago reflexively realized that the Chinese must have a big plan for doing so. And annihilating his troops is obviously very, very big.

The Spaniards who were beaten hard by the hexagonal cannon realized that the situation was not good for them.

Without the cannon, the Spanish colonial army had no sharp teeth. Rockets are weapons that can only be used at a distance of 500 meters. Without the cover of the cannon, the scattered soldiers [rifled guns] protruding forward on the front line can make the rocket soldiers die on the spot. And can the firepower and rockets in the hands of the infantry stop the counterattack of the Chinese army?

The Chinese have even made such a strange shell, who dares to say that they have no other weapons?

Santiago is an experienced soldier. According to his eyes, looking at these shells, it can be roughly determined that the new artillery on the opposite side is a mature rifled cannon.

This kind of cannon, not to mention the Spanish, many European countries have tried it, but unfortunately none of them succeeded. So now, have the Chinese succeeded?

In fact, China has not been able to make a mature muzzle-loading rifled cannon according to current technology. The inner bore of the hexagonal cannon is hexagonal, which is a clever trick. The muzzle-loading rifled cannon of Chen Han Military System Experiment has the same problems as its European counterparts. The rifling is not easy to pull, the life is super short, and it is very easy to wear.

Santiago was full of worries. The powerful artillery group in the hands of the other side had a great impact on the war.

The National Defense Army then launched an attack. The artillery shifted the muzzle and aimed at the Spanish infantry position. The Chinese army began to organize small-scale assault troops one after another.

At the same time, smoothbore guns and mortars also took the opportunity to move forward and began to fire fiercely at the enemy at a distance of 700 meters from the Spanish colonial army's position. The engineering troops were also digging trenches in a hurry. When the trenches were dug properly, rockets loaded with black powder and mortars firing shrapnel shells would surely hit the Spanish positions like a meteor shower.

A large number of snipers and scouts, holding Minié rifles, protruded from the front line and began to shoot at the Spaniards. Their lethality should not be underestimated.

Fighting the National Defense Army on this battlefield preset by the National Defense Army was the greatest sorrow of the Spaniards of Santiago's army. The Spaniards, whose long-range strike force was removed, fell into an absolute disadvantage as soon as the offensive and defensive battle began.

When dusk fell in the evening, the National Defense Army's offensive paused. But the Spaniards did not have an easy time. They found that the Chinese had an incredible number of rifled guns on the opposite side. Under the cover of the latter, the Chinese had fired hundreds of rockets at the Spanish infantry positions. Their artillery was still firing, and under the cover of the gradually darkening night, small groups of the National Defense Army began harassment operations. They fired guns, threw grenades, and set off firecrackers in iron barrels.

The latter was of course discovered by the Spaniards after they were captured.

Over the course of a night, the harassment was suspended when the artillery sounded. When the artillery stopped, the harassment continued. In each round of the National Defense Army's attack, Spanish soldiers were killed and injured. Although not many, the screams of the wounded were particularly loud in the silent night.

So the Spaniards subconsciously retreated, and no one was willing to stay in front and die.

The whole night, the Spanish did not even have time to sleep for a while. They were already in a continuous march and battle, and the National Defense Army only had a few reconnaissance troops running non-stop, and the rest of the troops were all waiting for the opportunity. The Spanish colonial army had already consumed a lot of physical strength. Not only were they beaten up during the day, but they were also attacked all night. The Chinese kept tossing and turning. Whether it was the roar of cannons or the crisp sound of gunfire, none of them could really relax and rest.

When the sun rose early the next morning, the eyes of the Spanish soldiers and officers were swollen like peaches. When they were exposed to the sun, they felt sore in their eyes and couldn't help but shed tears.

Santiago knew very well that his troops were in such a bad situation, not only because of external disturbances, but also because of their inner fear.

The Chinese had powerful new artillery, and a large number of their own artillery were destroyed and completely suppressed. Everyone understood how troublesome the future war would be. If things went wrong, they might all die here.

This place is at least 200 kilometers away from the border.

Just at this moment, a dull sound rang out.

An ultra-heavy rocket was fired by the National Defense Forces at the Spanish front-line position. In the morning sun, those rockets with red fire and white smoke flew into the Spanish position in curves.

In order to enhance the explosive power of today's rockets, the part that wraps the gunpowder is replaced by white silk - the silk is wrapped into a propellant bag, which can increase the explosive power, but the cost is also increased a lot. Silk is an absolute "imported product" for America. It is not like gunpowder that can be produced by itself. Before the development of silkworm breeding in America, the cost of silk could not be reduced.

Now all the "modern" countries in the world have a unified understanding - silk is not only a high-end textile fabric, but also a military supply. After the propellant of the cannon is wrapped in silk, the effect is very obvious. Especially for large-caliber coastal defense guns.

And rockets, which are powerful and easy to make, are still the killer of many countries to deal with underground fortifications. In order to make the explosive power of rockets even greater, some countries will even apply silk to the explosive part of rockets at any cost. However, the defects of rockets are very obvious. As an oversized shrapnel bomb, it cannot destroy solid defenses, and even semi-permanent fortifications sometimes seem incapable. However, it was impossible for the Spanish to build semi-permanent fortifications on the battlefield. The Spanish colonial army hiding in the trench they dug could effectively withstand the explosive power of rockets.

Every violent explosion would stir up a cloud of earth and sand, or a bloody storm. The unlucky Spanish colonial officers and soldiers at the center of the explosion were directly turned into fragments of bones and flesh and a puff of blood mist. Some were directly knocked to the ground by the heavy air waves and impacts. Some even had bleeding from all seven orifices, or only a small amount of bleeding in the corners of their mouths and nostrils. The internal organs of these people would be more or less injured. Those who fell to the ground motionless were not impossible to have their internal organs completely shattered. Some were even injured and knocked down by various fragments flying at high speed.

Wei Baocheng looked at the battlefield with a telescope on a high ground in the distance. The scenes on the Spanish colonial army's position were clearly visible in the telescope. Wei Baocheng did not feel any contraction in his stomach, but was just very happy. Although the distance was far enough that Wei Baocheng could not hear the screams, and the smoke made it difficult for him to see the expressions on the faces of the Spanish colonial army, he could fully imagine their panic at this moment by looking at them burying their bodies deep in the trenches like turtles, or running wildly.

The overall quality of the Spanish colonial army in front of him was indeed improved compared to the last war, but the composition of their members determined the ceiling of this army. This was a comparison between a thin man and a short man, and the strength was limited.

Wei Baocheng led the main force of a corps. A corps of more than 20,000 was the strength of a reorganized division. Wei Baocheng led a reorganized division before coming to America.

What he needed to consider now was no longer how to defeat the Spaniards in front of him, but how to stick to the Spaniards thoroughly. Don't let Santiago beg for survival.

Don't think that foreigners are so stupid. When necessary, beg for survival is the instinctive reaction of any general.

Artillery shells and rockets bombarded non-stop. From early morning to noon, the hexagonal cannons alone emptied more than 20 vehicles. The Spanish system and organization were already somewhat chaotic under such a fierce offensive.

The most important thing, of course, was that their fighting spirit was shaken.

The Spanish artillery had completely gone to see God. Without artillery, they were completely at a disadvantage in rocket fire, and they were pessimistic about the prospects of the war.

Wei Baocheng ordered his troops to launch a small-scale attack directly against the chaotic Spanish at dusk. The cruelty of this charge can be imagined. The Spanish were not wooden people. They also had muskets, bayonets and rockets in their hands. Although overall they suffered from their own wavering confidence and continuous lack of good rest, their physical fitness declined greatly. But this is like a frightened old hen, which will struggle with all its strength, at most it will struggle in vain.

As for the Wehrmacht on the opposite side, every soldier had a full rest, and more importantly, their morale was high. On the battlefields of Europe, the French Revolutionary Guards, with high morale, dared to charge into the face of rockets.

The defense fighters who were attacking now would never be soft on the Spaniards. Although they were very cautious at the beginning of their attack and suffered a barrage of rockets, they were not afraid at all. When night fell, they were more open and their attack was much stronger. At night, the Spaniards, whose confidence was shaken, were even more powerless to resist.

The stamina of old hens is limited, and the frantic struggle in front will surely consume a lot of their stamina. If Santiago had not had some ability, he would have built defensive positions in the back when the National Defense Army fired artillery during the day, resisting step by step, and defending layer by layer. Maybe the Spanish colonial army would have collapsed this night. But even so, the Spanish colonial army was "relieving its own burden" little by little.

The Spanish colonial army that was left behind to block the attack collapsed one after another, and the tactics used by the National Defense Army were very simple, that is, to contain the attack from the front and outflanking from the side. But the Spaniards seemed to be unable to react, and were beaten to pieces by this simple tactic again and again.

Any Spanish soldier who did not surrender or hesitated in the battle would be destroyed.

Wei Baocheng had no idea of ​​"pity". Although the National Defense Army is now qualified to implement humanitarian charity for Spanish prisoners of war, Wei Baocheng thinks that the dead Spaniards and their supporters are the good Spaniards and their supporters.

The contradiction between the latter and Chen Han is irreparable. The war between the two is an absolute fight to the death. In this way, the Spanish colonial army, the Spanish peninsula and their supporters in America will have irreconcilable conflicts.

If you let them go now, they may turn around and kill Chen Han's soldiers in the future.

Nothing in the world can be done without a price. The Spaniards want to keep America, keep their colonies, and keep their own interests, so they have to pay a price. Wei Baocheng has no mercy on the big duck in his heart.

In just a moment, as the charge sounded sharply, another dawn was about to come, and the dark mass of National Defense Army soldiers launched the final attack.

Just as the main force of the First Corps attacked Santiago's unit, Dong Wei led a 4,000-man reinforced regiment out of the desolate Salton Basin. The guards brought a full pot of water from the water source, and Dong Wei raised his neck and drank half of the pot in one breath.

He only had 4,000 men, Wei Baocheng had called up most of the First Corps, Chen Qi had a little police force, and there were only 4,000 men left for Dong Wei.

"Deputy Commander, where should we fight?" Dong Wei is now one of the two deputy commanders of the First Corps, a part-time one, and the other is Wei Baocheng, who leads the main force of the First Corps. This is like Gao Pingshan leading the first corps and holding the position of deputy commander of the American garrison.

Jiang Kui never thought that the big duck would have a good fight. They have all passed through the entire Salton Basin, and there is no trace of the Spanish. The scouts reported that there were Spanish cavalry active in the southern part of the Salton, and the activities were very frequent.

How could he know that the Spanish colonial army at the southern end of the Salton was now in a panic. Their contact with the main force in front had been cut off. The Chinese scouts and snipers cut off the connection between Santiago's troops and the rear. The big duck was so panicked that he relaxed the reconnaissance at the southern end of the Salton Basin.

Jiang Kui is also an old man in the army, but he suffered a loss because of his cultural studies, so he is still only a regimental commander.

Dong Wei thought for a moment and said, "Let's go to areas 7, 8 and 9. Cut off the connection between the Spaniards in the Salton Basin and the Spanish colonial army near the border."

Jiang Kui opened his mouth wide, "Run so far? What if we are discovered on the way?"

"If we are discovered, we will fight. Whoever we hit will be hit. The target is definitely area 7. We are not afraid of them..."

Dong Wei is full of confidence in this war. With the hexagonal cannon and the new musket, the main purpose of this war is crushing. A complete crushing!