America 1881: Legend of the West

Chapter 574 Earthwork
Behind Songo Fortress is a hilly area with ravines.

These ravines may be deep or shallow, but they are basically not next to each other.

At this time, a group of people, waving shovels and hoes in their hands, were digging forward frantically, connecting these ravines as much as possible to create a road to the fortress.

An old man nearly eighty years old, wearing a sleeveless cloth jacket and holding a shovel, was at the forefront of the team.

He shoveled the shovel down, submerged it into the soil, stepped on it, exerted force on his waist, and a shovelful of soil was shoveled out.

The old man turned around, poured soil into the basket behind him, and then quickly shoveled a shovel.

"Uncle Danian, please put on your coat. There are too many mosquitoes here. It will be troublesome if you get bitten!" A young man handed a long sleeve to the old man and said earnestly, "Boss Chen asked us to take good care of you. If you There are three advantages and two disadvantages, how should we explain them?"

Zhang Danian didn't look back: "I'm very thick-skinned, so I'm not afraid of these bugs."

The young man's face was full of embarrassment: "You are always here to command, not to charge into battle. Just leave the digging to us. You are almost eighty."

"Eighty? What happened to eighty?" Zhang Danian straightened up and turned his head, "When I was in the Taiping Army fighting in Changsha, we dug that tunnel. You dug it? Do you know how to dig it?"

He wiped the sweat from his head with the edge of his coat and continued digging:

"The soil here is not too hard. We have to dig harder. Jianqiu gave us a week. I told him it only takes three days!"

He turned his head and glared at the young man again, pulled the long sleeves from his hand and put it on:
"Why are you still standing there? Hurry up and take the basket of soil out!"

Zhang Danian, who was hard-spoken and soft-hearted, led a group of people to dig trenches behind Songo Fort.

This was the secret mission assigned to him by Chen Jianqiu.

Zhang Danian, who was born in the Taiping Army Geotechnical Camp, agreed without thinking.

The members of his unit were all miners and railroad workers, and they were quite experienced at doing these things.

Since there are many natural ditches here, Zhang Danian and his team's workload is much smaller. In addition, the terrain is uneven and there are many vegetation, making them very concealed.

From the city wall, basically nothing can be seen.

Chen Jianqiu and the others staged a feint attack right in front to attract the attention of the defenders, and at the same time searched for the Xibaya scouts who had left the city.

From the second day of the feint attack, no living scouts returned to the city.

Lieutenant Gonzalez and his defenders were now blind and had no idea what was happening outside.

But the lieutenant didn't feel too much pressure.

First of all, the commander on the opposite side did not organize a strong attack. To put it nicely, he was cautious, but to put it badly, he was afraid of death.

How can you be afraid of death in a war? What's more, it's a siege.

Secondly, there are sufficient supplies in his fortress, including a lot of water, so he is not afraid of siege at all.

He believed that these rebels would either be unable to hold back, swarm forward and be beaten to pieces by his two heavy machine guns, or they would retreat as before.

However, the lieutenant began to paint in the house.

He put the easel by his bed.

Draw a few strokes, then climb into bed, look at your painting, and slowly fall asleep.

In the dream, the lieutenant entered his own painting.

He walked alone through the jungle.

No enemies were encountered.

The Chinese seemed to have withdrawn.

Behind the jungle is a vast savanna, with wild dogs, zebras, and antelopes running wild on the grassland.

The scene that followed became magical.

These animals flew up and floated in the air as they ran.

A building that looks exactly like the Bullring in Madrid suddenly rises from the grassland.

The lieutenant's own steps became lighter.

He also floated into the bullring.

There, he saw his sister and brother who died in the civil war, as well as the Cubans he killed!
Their skin colors vary, some are white, some are black, and some are Chinese.
They actually stood together, waving to him in the middle of the bullring.

The lieutenant rushed towards them in a rage.

He couldn't tolerate his relatives and his enemies being together.

"You devils, don't try to trick me!" the lieutenant shouted.

But a huge explosion suddenly sounded behind him.

The lieutenant looked back and saw that half of the bullring behind him was crumbling.

"Sir! Sir!"

A voice floated from the air.

"Sir! Sir!"

Lieutenant Gonzalez's eyes shot open.

He found one of his own soldiers standing beside the bed, looking panicked and saying to him in despair:

"Sir! The call is coming! The call is coming!"

"What started a fight?" The lieutenant's mind was still a little confused.

"The city wall behind was blown down by the enemy! The enemy came in!" The soldier cried in despair.

The lieutenant jumped up from the bed.

He didn't even have time to put on his clothes, so he put on a pair of trousers and rushed out of the door, looking towards the back of the fortress.

It should be dawn at this time, the sky is just getting bright.

In the direction he looked, gunshots and killing sounds were loud, and a group of uniformed soldiers loomed.

"Where are the soldiers? Where is my machine gun?" the lieutenant shouted, "block them, go up the wall and fight them back!"

"We tried it." The soldier cried in despair. "No one can stand on the front of the city wall. If you go up, you will be knocked down. You can't hit the sides at all. They seem to have come out of the ditch."

"In the ditch?" The lieutenant was confused now.

But the battlefield didn't give him much time to think.

More and more enemies are rushing in.

The lieutenant took the gun from the soldier and rushed over.

But as soon as he reached the halfway point, he saw two Chinese soldiers coming face to face.

The two sides had a face-to-face meeting.

Without hesitation, the lieutenant and the soldiers behind him raised their rifles and fired. Unexpectedly, a hail of bullets came from the opposite side.

Maybe it was a hasty fight, and neither side hit.

The lieutenant hurriedly pulled the bolt and prepared to shoot again.

Little did he know that the soldier on the opposite side quickly changed his kneeling position, held his gun and fired again.

The rate of fire was completely suppressed.

This time, the opposite side took aim.

The lieutenant was knocked to the ground in an instant, but the soldier behind him didn't last longer than he did, lying next to the lieutenant two seconds later.

The same thing happened in other corners of the fort.

The Chinese soldiers followed the trench to the gap in the city wall and rushed into the fortress on the collapsed rubble.

They carried automatic firearms such as BARs and fired at the Spanish soldiers who blocked them.

Most of the Spanish soldiers were asleep.

They heard the signal and came out disheveled with guns in hand, some of the bullets not having had time to be loaded.

As soon as they came face to face with the Chinese soldiers, they were knocked to the ground.

The battlefield quickly became one-sided.

More than half of the one hundred Spanish soldiers were quickly wiped out, and the remaining ones lost all will to fight, opened the door and fled for their lives.

Half an hour later, Chen Jianqiu walked into the fortress through the gap.

Zhang Danian followed behind him.

"Uncle Danian, you should be credited with the greatest achievement in this battle." Chen Jianqiu glanced at the soldiers who were cleaning the battlefield, then turned back and said to Zhang Danian.

"I'm not bragging to you, Jianqiu, I was just bragging when I attacked Changsha City." The old man had been digging for days and nights, still energetic and not a bit tired, and his saliva was flying. Chen Jianqiu smiled and listened to Zhang Danian's bragging, then patted him on the shoulder: "Uncle Danian, you should go and rest quickly, we still have to continue to clear out the Spanish soldiers outside."

"Well, I need to take a nap. It's not like the past." Zhang Danian put his hands behind his back and stepped out.

"Boss, what should we do with these surrendered soldiers?"

Li Sifu came over with a group of Spanish prisoners.

The prisoners' hands were tied in front of them and they were tied together with ropes. They followed one after another, all of them looking dejected.

"Throw them to the rebels and let them deal with them. Those who have grudges will take revenge, and those who have been wronged will get justice." Chen Jianqiu glanced at the soldiers and said, "I don't have enough food to feed them."

These Spanish soldiers could not understand what Chen Jianqiu said, but Li Sifu could.

The rebel soldiers naturally did not have much food.

Spain's brutal rule had left the country devastated by poverty and famine.

There was a deep blood feud between the two sides, and the fate of these Spanish soldiers can be imagined.

"What should we do with the enemies who escaped?" Li Sifu asked. "What if they run to other strongholds and reveal our tactics? Should we chase them?"

"I'm not worried." Chen Jianqiu disagreed, "I have many tactics, and the cannons are on the way."

Because the location of the first landing was not very good, a lot of supplies were not transported over.

Chen Jianqiu's artillery is gathering in southern Florida under the leadership of Danny.

"Moreover, if I were them, I would not choose to run to a small stronghold and die a second time, but would directly flee to San Diego or Guantanamo," Chen Jianqiu continued.

"Ah? In that case, wouldn't those two places be even more difficult to attack?" Li Sifu was a little puzzled.

"Yes." Chen Jianqiu shrugged, "But that has nothing to do with me. I'm not in a hurry to fight over there."

In the following weeks, Chen Jianqiu led the U.S. 2nd Cavalry Brigade on a rampage across southern Cuba between Santiago and Guantanamo, clearing out all Spanish strongholds in the area.

Behind them followed the Chinese rebels.

When the Cuban people along the way heard of the arrival of the Chinese troops, they all prepared food and drink to welcome the royal army.

Although many of them have nothing left, they are still willing to give out the little cassava and sweet potatoes left in their homes.

The military discipline of Chen Jianqiu's troops has always been very good.

One of the reasons is the high military pay and clear rewards and punishments, which is also closely related to the usual ideological education.

Every soldier in the night school church could sing it, whether they were Chinese, black, white or Mexican soldiers.

Each grassroots team has a specialist responsible for ideological education.

The Chinese soldiers were told they were there to liberate their compatriots.

Just when Chen Jianqiu led his troops to triumph in southern Cuba.

Other units of the U.S. Army are still being prepared.

But the navy was not idle.

The US Asiatic Fleet, which had received advance notice from Roosevelt, left XG.

乔治·杜威海军准将率4艘巡洋舰、2艘炮舰、1艘缉私船于5月1日凌晨悄悄潜入马尼拉湾。

General Dewey was originally concerned that the Spanish had mined Manila Bay.

But in fact it doesn't.

The main force of the Spanish fleet was there.

They were soon discovered.

However, General Dewey's fleet had already completed its deployment.

At about 5:40 a.m., the commodore ordered the fleet to open fire on the Spanish fleet consisting of six cruisers and three gunboats commanded by Rear Admiral Montoyo.

Although Spanish warships had an advantage in numbers, they were far inferior to the American new warships.

The Spanish warships were old and ill-prepared.

The main gunner was missing and ammunition was scarce.

Their shore defense firepower wasn't even ready.

In comparison, Dewey was much more prepared.

As early as a year ago, at the instruction of Roosevelt, he entered XG Island and conducted six months of training.

The American artillery was much more accurate than the Spanish.

According to post-war statistics, the American artillery hit at least 170 times, while the Spanish only hit 15 times.

The American ships' naval guns had clear division of labor, with the 8-inch large-caliber guns bombarding coastal artillery positions and the 5-inch secondary guns attacking Spanish warships.

The U.S. fleet kept approaching the target and firing continuously until it was more than 1800 meters away and then made a 180° turn, maintaining a parallel posture with the Spanish fleet, so that it could fully utilize the firepower of the 5-inch secondary guns on both sides.

As a result, this naval battle became a one-sided "massacre".

The final outcome of the battle was no surprise.

The Spanish fleet was completely destroyed, while the American fleet suffered almost no losses.

Their damage control was very good and no battleships were sunk.

News of the great victory in Manila Bay reached the United States.

The crowd was excited and demanded an immediate attack on the Spanish troops in Cuba.

Most people don't know how many members of Chen Jianqiu's troops went to Cuba or how they fought.

All they knew was that these Chinese people, whom they usually despised, landed on the island first.

This is so embarrassing.

Why could a Chinese volunteer army fight so bravely, while the American army, which has always been full of martial virtues, was reluctant to take action?

They guessed correctly, the U.S. Army was still not ready.

It's not because no one wants to go.

After the recruitment order was issued, the Army Department received applications for enlistment from 200,000 people!
These volunteers were concentrated in Florida.

There, their unskilled instructors taught them how to shoot, how to line up, and how to march.

These people are complete rookies.

A rookie who knows nothing except passion.

There were also fights between black and white soldiers in the boot camp.

The Army Department had to spend a lot of energy dealing with this matter.

Otherwise, before the army sets out, our own people will have to fight in Florida first.

Also, they didn't have enough guns.

The Clark rifles produced by the Springfield Armory were only equipped to a portion of the US military soldiers.

This is under the premise that the Roswell Arsenal is working at full capacity to process a batch.

Many people brought their own guns, which were more advanced than the Krag, but most people still used black powder rifles, the kind that would smoke when fired.

The army did not have enough transport ships, so they tried to requisition civilian ships.

Fishermen and commercial transport companies along the coast are very active, but they really have no experience.

Coupled with the overwhelmed army, the arrangement of the ships became a mess.

In addition, the army did not have enough uniforms and food.
In short, except passion, nothing else is enough.

But Roosevelt couldn't help it.

He decided to lead the 1st Volunteer Cavalry Brigade to Cuba.

His good friend was already on the island, and he couldn't just sit there and watch.

After several requests, Commander-in-Chief Shaft finally agreed to his application.

Roosevelt set out on his journey to Cuba with great vigor and confidence.

But what he didn't expect was that he was hit hard as soon as he set foot on Cuban soil.

None of the horses and equipment of the 1st Cavalry Brigade were transported except his.

Two-in-one, 4000 words

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(End of this chapter)