America 1881: Legend of the West

Chapter 582: Battle of Elkanie
"Snapped!"

A piece of paper was slapped on the table.

The person who took the paper was Li Sifu, and he seemed a little excited at this time.

Chen Jianqiu and Xu Ajiu were sitting on chairs as if nothing had happened, puffing on a cigar each while exchanging their tasting experiences of authentic Cuban cigars.

"Do you want one?" Xu Ajiu took one out of the box on the table and asked Li Sifu.

But Li Sifu seemed to have no intention of accepting Xu Ajiu's kindness.

He pointed at the piece of paper and asked Chen Jianqiu beside him eagerly:
"Boss, what does Schefter mean? 'Abandon the attack on Guantanamo and support Santiago immediately'?"

"Caimanera was captured, thousands of Spanish troops were wiped out, and the gates of Guantanamo were wide open. We have taken down the hardest things to bite, and we will be able to reach the city in a few days."

"If we go to support Santiago at this juncture, wouldn't it make all our previous efforts in vain?"

Li Sifu's eyes widened, his face full of unwillingness.

"Someone is thinking of picking peaches." Xu Ajiu said lazily, lying half in the chair.

"Damn Yankees, damn Schefter!" Li Sifu cursed.

"Call General Schefter." Chen Jianqiu tapped his fingertips on the table a few times and looked at Li Sifu with a smile.

"Boss, why are you so good-tempered? They are trying to steal our credit!" Seeing Chen Jianqiu's disapproval, Li Sifu became even more anxious.

"Eat pineapple, eat pineapple." Chen Jianqiu pushed the pot of pineapple on the side to him, "It's such a hot day, why worry about getting angry?"

Li Sifu was not in the mood to eat pineapple.

Chen Jianqiu stood up.

"It's ours, no one else can take it away." Chen Jianqiu walked to the gate.

He picked up the cigar and took two more puffs.

"Sifu, just take two thousand people and stay here and wait and see what happens."

He disarmed Rodesgues and his two thousand men and sent them back without even the intention of imprisoning them.

First of all, he didn't want to waste food providing rations to these people, not even for a single day.

Secondly, he does not intend to hand these people over to other American teams.

Li Sifu privately complained about him letting the tiger return to the mountain.

Most of these people went directly back to Guantánamo.

Some of them have no intention of fighting and are waiting to return home, while some of them plan to continue completing their missions and wash away their shame.

But these have nothing to do with him now.

Because he was going to support Santiago.

In fact, Li Sifu and others mistakenly blamed General Schefter for the order to mobilize the 2nd Cavalry Support Brigade to support Santiago.

The commander-in-chief really has no intention of seizing the fruits of victory on his own behalf.

The main reason for issuing the transfer order is simple.

The U.S. troops attacking in the direction of Santiago were beaten all over.

Except for Chen Jianqiu's team that landed first, all other subordinate troops of the Fifth Army were deployed in this direction, including Roosevelt's Rough Cavalry.

Due to Chen Jianqiu's previous activities in southern Cuba, a large number of Spanish soldiers actively or passively gathered in the direction of Santiago.

The number of defenders here greatly exceeded Schefter's imagination (and the actual number of soldiers in history).

To be honest, the performance of the US Army in the direction of San Diego is not much better than that of their Marine Corps brothers in the direction of Guantánamo.

Spanish general Rubin led his soldiers to teach Wheeler and Roosevelt a lesson in Las Guasima using two mountain cannons and the jungle.

This outstanding Spanish general retreated toward the San Juan Highlands while fighting. At the same time, during the retreat, he relied on shrubs, grape trellises, and vines to block the U.S. troops in a layered manner.

The American troops suffered heavy casualties, while the Spanish army lost only fourteen men.

By the time the U.S. military advanced close to Santiago, the camp was already full of wounded soldiers.

Under the local medical conditions, there is basically no big difference between being injured and dead.

At the same time, yellow fever also spread among the US military, causing shocking non-combat attrition, which greatly exceeded the number of people killed in combat.

Chen Jianqiu's rampage in southern Cuba also caused a second consequence.

Even Chen Jianqiu himself did not expect this consequence.

Linares, the original commander of the Spanish army in Cuba, was dismissed from his post due to unfavorable war conditions and was replaced by Brigadier General Torres.

Although changing generals on the spot has always been a taboo on the battlefield.

But for the Spanish army, this turned out to be a good thing by accident.

The former is a stereotypical academic veteran.

He had always mistakenly believed that the Fifth Army's attack in the direction of Santiago was just a feint attack. The real landing direction should be in San Diego Bay, so there were not many defensive forces set up in the east of the city.

Tens of thousands of Spanish troops huddled in Santiago.

But after Brigadier General Torres went into battle, he quickly adjusted his deployment.

The general had exchanged studies in the United States, so he didn't take seriously the poor performance of the Fifth Army.

They fought badly not because they were feinting! But that’s how they stretch their hips!

He moved most of his troops east of Santiago.

There are two strategic points on the east side.

One is El Canie in the northeast, and the other is San Juan Heights in the middle of the Royal Avenue in the southeast.

The former is the only place where the canal that supplies water to San Diego must pass, while the latter is the commanding height of the entire San Diego and the gateway to the city of San Diego.

Brigadier General Torres greatly increased the numbers and equipment at both locations.

The situation was changing, and Schefter was confused, so he urgently ordered Chen Jianqiu and his Second Volunteer Cavalry Brigade to quickly support in this direction.

By the time Chen Jianqiu and his men arrived at Elkanie, the battle to attack there had already begun.

Elkanie was originally a small village famous for its small stone church.

Legend has it that in the 16th century, the conquistador Cortez prayed in this church the night before he sailed to Mexico and ruled the Aztec Kingdom.

On a high ground less than a mile southwest of the village is a small rise.

There is a stone fortress above it called Fort Elviso.

The fortress was not big and did not even have a decent roof.

But this does not prevent it from being a veritable fortress.

The view is very good, the walls are very thick, and there are machine gun muzzles and cannon muzzles set up every few meters, pointing in all directions.

The Spanish army relied on this fort for defense.

Originally, there were only a pitiful defense of more than 200 Spanish soldiers and two mountain cannons here.

After Torres took office, he quickly increased the number of soldiers defending here to 75, and also added six mm Knub cannons and corresponding heavy machine guns.

These people were not all concentrated in the fortress, but were distributed in a circle of trenches surrounding the fortress.

The unit responsible for the attack here was the 2nd Division of the 5th Army, led by Sheft's favorite general Lawton.

Chen Jianqiu, who had just arrived, took his troops to their southwest and stationed them as a reserve force, waiting for the tired 6,600 people to launch the first attack.

Chen Jianqiu took the telescope, took Xu Ajiu, Danny and several other men, found a small high ground and began to observe the battlefield. Danny and his wife Theresa set out from Roswell one after the other.

His wife led the medical team, while he led three hundred artillerymen.

However, because they still had twenty of the latest cannons to load from Mexico, they arrived a little late.

Danny also met up with Chen Jianqiu on the way to San Diego.

"Boss, look over there."

Xu Ajiu suddenly pointed to a patch of grass not far away.

There was a rumbling sound of cannons and a huge cloud of smoke rising.

It was Lawton's artillery position.

They were bombarding the hilltop fort, breaking down the strong walls with their shells.

Chen Jianqiu raised the telescope in his hand and looked towards the direction of the artillery position.

He looked for a long time before putting down the telescope and handing it to Danny who was standing beside him.

"Look, I guess we need to stay away from these unfortunate guys."

Danny took the telescope and started looking too.

He looked at it and shook his head.

"Why are these guys still using black powder as propellant? Isn't this courting death?"

I don’t know whether it’s because these artillerymen in the army haven’t fought a formal war for a long time and are therefore fearless due to ignorance, or whether it’s because the new cannons that the Army Department just purchased have not arrived yet.

These artillerymen were attacking the top of the mountain in a nearly suicidal manner.

They gathered around the cannon in groups of four or five, some aiming and some moving ammunition.

These people were neither hurried nor panicked. Some of them even stood with their hands on their hips, chatting happily with their teammates about something.

If you change it to decades ago, there is nothing wrong with their behavior.

But times have changed.

Now it's the world of smokeless powder.

In battle, using black powder and emitting a lot of smoke is no different from collaborating with the enemy.

It is basically equivalent to drawing a few words "Come and blow me up" on the ground in front of you with lime!
Danny was choking with envy.

"These guys will be taught a lesson soon, if the Spaniards on the other side have a little experience."

The Spanish in the fort were obviously experienced.

Accompanied by another loud noise.

This time the loud noise came from the top of the opposite mountain.

A wave of shrapnel accurately hit the US artillery positions.

For a moment, the place was covered with raised dust and smoke.

When the dust and smoke cleared, a group of people were lying in disarray on the battlefield.

The remaining artillerymen got up from the ground and prepared to reload and counterattack.

However, since their guns do not have a recoil device, the gun will move after firing, so the shooting angle needs to be adjusted again.

Before the American artillerymen were ready to fight back, a second wave of artillery shells came from the opposite side.

This time, two guns were hit directly and fell apart.
And many of the unlucky people surrounding the cannon also fell.

The American artillery was suppressed to the point that they couldn't even raise their heads.

Chen Jianqiu and Danny couldn't bear to watch it anymore.

But they soon discovered that these were insignificant compared to what was to come.

The infantry attack has begun.

The 3rd Brigade and the 1st Brigade, led by Brigadier General Ludlow and Joffre (not the French Joffre) respectively, began to outflank the village under the fortress, while Miles was ordered to lead the 2nd Brigade to attack the fortress directly from the middle.

But the offensive coordination among the three lines can basically be described as poor.

The Third Brigade made the fastest progress and quickly reached its designated position, but was met with a fierce counterattack from the Spanish troops stationed in the village.

The worst of all was that the group leading them was the 2nd Massachusetts Volunteers.

Most of these people are new recruits.

The characteristic of new recruits is that they are extremely brave before they see death; but after seeing death, they are at a loss, and the little combat knowledge they have learned in the brief training is quickly forgotten. Then their technical and tactical movements are distorted, and they are hit by a bullet or a shell and become cannon fodder.

What's more, these people's equipment was not good, and they were using Springfield rifles that used black powder.

The corps was quickly stunned.

Soon someone's brains were smashed to pieces and his body fell to the ground, covered in blood.

When the recruits saw the blood, some of them ran back screaming, while others hid in the corner and trembled.

For a moment, the veterans who had suppressed the protests didn't know who to take care of. Should they comfort them, protect themselves, or just shoot the escapees?

However, at this time, the First Brigade was still on the way forward; the First Brigade responsible for the frontal attack was not in a hurry and was still slowly gathering.

It was almost noon when Miles and his Second Brigade officially began their attack on the heights.

The 25th Regiment was in the front line.

This is a black group.

Although there is still debate in the country about whether black regiments can serve the country abroad, Colonel Miles has his own ideas.

Let the niggers go first.

If they died, they would have exchanged their lives for honor; if they fled en masse, the 1st and 17th Infantry Regiments in the second row behind them, as the supervising troops, would be able to deal with this group of people.

While the Spanish artillery on the top of the mountain were engaged in a bombardment with the American artillery, they also had time to "take care of" Miles's First Brigade.

They had no choice but to take a path through the jungle.

In this way, perhaps the impact will be smaller.

The battle lines at that time were no longer advanced in formation with military music playing as before.

But basically it was just a horizontal line, all rushing forward together.

After crossing the last jungle, the blacks finally saw the fortress ahead.

Along with the towering fortress, there were also several barbed wire fences and a large area of ​​Baltic land.

From here to Fort Elviso on the top of the mountain, except for a small amount of bushes, there is nothing to hide, basically you can only charge.

The commander of the black troops gave the order to advance.

The blacks also followed the original plan, advancing step by step with guns in their hands.

But they didn't know that a disaster was waiting for them.

Because in addition to those powerful cannons, there are also three heavy machine guns mounted on the front line.

These black-looking heavy machine guns were sitting there quietly, waiting to take the lives of the black people on the opposite side.

(End of this chapter)