America 1881: Legend of the West

The Spaniards on the front did not realize at first that their flanks were being attacked.

They were busy dragging people from the ruins of the fortress behind them and suppressing the American troops in the pineapple fields.

The American artillery, which was unable to raise its head after being beaten, extinguished its fire on the top of the mountain, regrouped, and fired another fierce bombardment at the Spanish artillery position on the top of the mountain.

Their accuracy is average, but their power is still there.

Another large section of the fortress's rock wall was blown down.

However, the Spanish's four heavy machine guns were still clicking.

Miles's 2nd Brigade was now suffering heavy casualties.

Edwin's 17th Infantry Regiment had been beaten to pieces, leaving a pile of corpses in the open space behind the barbed wire fence.

"Sir, General Lawton asked us to withdraw to repair and give up the attack position to the First Infantry Regiment."

A soldier crawled almost on his stomach from under the leaves of the pineapple patch to Edwin's side.

Edwin was also lying on the ground at this time, observing the movement ahead through the gaps in the leaves, and from time to time he raised his gun and fired a shot in the direction of the top of the mountain.

His eyes wandered ahead, switching between the enemy who appeared from time to time on the top of the mountain and his own soldiers who were constantly shot and fell.

The battlefield was full of gunshots, screams, groans, and groans.

"Where are my soldiers? Where are my soldiers? Gather and charge again!" He roared, his eyes red.

Seeing that his commander did not hear him, the soldier stepped forward and pulled Edwin's shoulder, repeating what he had just said.

"What did you say? I can't hear you!" Edwin's ears were ringing a little now.

He turned his head only to see the soldier's mouth opening and closing, and shouted at the top of his lungs.

When the soldier saw his commander's bloodshot eyes, he was immediately frightened and his words became stammering:
"I, I mean, the general told us to withdraw!"

"Let us what?"

"Let us withdraw!" The soldier also used his loudest voice.

"Let him go to hell! Retreat? I have so many people dead and you want me to withdraw?" Edwin was already red-eyed.

He doesn't care about Lawton's orders.

At this time, he was just a commander who was thinking about revenge for his soldiers, and he couldn't stay calm.

Edwin ignored his soldiers and suddenly found a black soldier lying in front of him with his head in his hands.

The black man buried his face on the ground like an ostrich, his limbs trembling slightly.

My soldiers are working hard out front, but you niggas are still hiding here?
Edwin was suddenly furious.

He pulled the gun and pressed the barrel against the waist of the black man in front.

"Fuck! Stand up! Fuck! Charge!" Edwin yelled.

The black soldier originally wanted to pretend to be dead, but Edwin directly pulled the bolt of the gun and loaded the bullet.

The black man clasped his hands behind his head, turned his head, and looked at Edwin behind him with fear on his face.

He thought that this man was not his commander, so why did he have to hold on to him?

"Pick up the gun! Charge forward!" Edwin glared at him.

"Yes, he will die! Sir!" the black man said timidly.

Although Edwin couldn't quite hear what the black man was saying, he basically understood and continued to yell:

"If you don't rush forward, I'll shoot you right now!"

The black man had no choice but to pick up the gun on the ground beside him and move forward slowly, almost on his knees.

Edwin followed closely behind him.

Along the way, he also caught several soldiers lying on the ground.

In addition to the black regiment, there are also some of his own subordinates.

I am afraid that the Spaniards on the top of the mountain would not have thought that this pineapple field could be so "hidden and crouching tigers".

The gang was soon cornered to the edge of the pineapple field.

They all stopped, not daring to take another step forward.

Ahead is the death zone, where many corpses lie.

"Charge? What are you waiting for?" Edwin's temper was very irritable at this time, like a grenade that could explode at any time. "Charge to the blind spot of the machine gun on the other side, and we can defeat the other side!"

He put his gun directly to the black soldier's head.

"You go first, I'll follow you! Don't let me say it a second time!" Edwin's voice was filled with murderous intent.

The black soldier took a deep breath.

He closed his eyes and rushed out of the pineapple field.

Now he can only pray to God, the Holy Mother, and Jesus to protect him from being hit by bullets and not letting him die in this strange foreign country.

Although, hope seems slim.

Because the many corpses on the ground proved this, if you didn't take two steps, you would be beaten into a sieve.

Black people dare not open their eyes.

He didn't know when he would be shot, or when he would die.

One step, two steps, three steps.
However, a miracle seems to have happened!
The black man was not shot, and not even the sound of the machine gun from the top of the hill rang out again!

"Sir, look!" The soldier next to Edwin suddenly patted his commander on the shoulder and pointed to the position on the top of the mountain.

The four machine guns went silent almost at the same time, and even the direction of the muzzles became incorrect.

Almost everyone was stunned.

They watched the black man at the front running happily forward with his legs spread, until he tripped over a corpse and fell to the ground.

What happened up there?
"Why are you still standing there? Go ahead!"

Edwin reacted the fastest.

The commander rushed out of the pineapple field with a gun in hand.

But he wasn't the only one to react, or even the first.

Next to him, the black commander Yoang had already rushed out.

The old man has too much battlefield experience.

He knows when to rush and when to hide.

No matter what happened to him, the direct firepower above was muted. If he didn't charge now, when would he wait?

A group of people swarmed towards the position on the top of the mountain.

But when they rushed forward and jumped into the trench, they were stunned by the scene in front of them.

Spaniard corpses lay scattered in the ditch.

A group of yellow-skinned Chinese soldiers holding shotguns and automatic rifles were firing at the guys who were still moving on the ground.

The fire was so intense that it made them tremble.

Edwin subconsciously looked at them and his military uniform.

Fortunately, although the styles are different, the emblems are the same, and they are all US military.

A Chinese officer with a suona on his waist walked up to him.

He carried a BAR on his shoulder, with a calm expression, and spoke to him in English with a strong southwestern frontier accent:
"We are the 2nd Cavalry Support Brigade of the US Army. I am the commander of this commando team. My name is Xu Ajiu. We have cleared this blocking position of enemies."

Edwin was stunned, not knowing whether to give the other person a hug or to be jealous.

But he quickly realized that this was a battlefield.

The battle is not over yet, there is no time to think so much.

"Where is the enemy?" he asked with wide eyes.

Xu Ajiu pointed with his thumb at the fortress behind him that was almost in ruins: "The rest of the people hide inside, but I suggest that after we surround it..."

Before he could finish his words, Edwin had already jumped out of the trench and rushed out.

"Brothers! Kill these Spaniards! For our dead brothers! For the Maine!"

The American soldiers rushed towards the fortress shouting slogans.

Then they poured another row at the entrance.

The Spanish soldiers were killed by Xu Ajiu and his men and retreated back into the fortress.

They used the ruins and the broken "remains" of the cannons as cover, intending to offer a final resistance.

Xu Ajiu covered his eyes with his hands, looked towards the ruins, and shook his head.

"Sir, should we go and help them?" asked the soldier next to him.

"Gather all the grenades that haven't been thrown yet." Xu Ajiu stroked his chin and gave the order.

Edwin nearly lost his life again.

This time his forearm was pierced.

The brave commander was forced to retreat from the ruins.

A group of people exchanged fire with the Spanish soldiers inside through the half-collapsed ruins.

Both sides suffered casualties.

Because the Spanish soldiers only exposed their heads to observe and shoot, basically everyone who was shot had a headshot.

"Make way, everyone! Make way, everyone!"

Xu Ajiu and the Chinese soldiers surrounded them.

He glanced at Edwin, whose arm was bleeding, and casually took out a roll of bandages and a box of ointment from his clothes and threw them to him.

"These are the first aid items that everyone in our army has. Legend has it that when our boss started his business in the West, he carried these two things with him." Xu Ajiu said.

Then, regardless of Edwin's thanks, he turned around and said to the Chinese soldiers behind him who were holding grenades in their hands:

"Come, give some gifts to the Spaniards in the ruins!"

The soldiers still came to the wall in groups of three.

One person was responsible for throwing mines into the ruined bunker.

As long as one Spanish soldier came out of the bunker, the remaining two would follow up with a shot.

The American soldiers standing by had never seen such a treatment before.

After watching for a while, they joined in.

The gunfire continued for about half an hour.

At this moment, a voice suddenly came from the ruins.

It sounds like Spanish.

"Sir, what are they talking about?" an American soldier asked Edwin.

"No matter what! Kill them all! Don't leave anyone alive!" Edwin's arms were already wrapped in thick bandages.

But this did not stop him from venting his anger.

Just as Xu Ajiu was about to stop them, he found that a group of American soldiers who were bloodthirsty had rushed in again.

The Spanish defense finally collapsed under the soldiers' overwhelming attack.

The U.S. Army captured Fort Elviso.

The fanatical soldiers killed every Spaniard they could see, including the one responsible for raising the white flag, until Lawton gave the order to stop them.

The accompanying American military reporter later recorded the scene:
The Chinese soldiers of the 2nd Volunteer Cavalry Brigade showed strong fighting power. They were the first to attack the heights of Fort Elviso and clear all obstacles.
Fort El Visu was reduced to ruins, with its walls and ground almost stained red with blood, and the brains of the killed Spanish soldiers "flowing out like white pigment being squeezed out"
The capture of the high ground meant that the 3rd and 1st Brigades attacking El Canie on the left and right wings would no longer be threatened.

Although the battle at the foot of the mountain was still going on, there was basically no suspense about whether Elkanie would win or lose.

Lawton was overjoyed.

He planned to thank and reward Chen Jianqiu, and hoped that he could join the attack on Elkanie.

What generals like most are troops that can solve problems.

However, when his messenger returned, he told him that Chen Jianqiu was no longer in his position.

Lawton was about to curse, but after learning who gave the order, he swallowed the curse word back.

The person who gave the order was Sheft.

The commander-in-chief urgently hopes that Chen Jianqiu will rush to the rescue of San Juan Mountain.

Because the battle situation there is even worse than that in Elkanie!
Shafter's forward command post was built on the El Pozo hill opposite Mount San Juan.

Looking west from here, you can clearly see the situation on the San Juan Heights opposite.

San Juan Heights is located in the middle of the Royal Road leading into Santiago.

This highland area includes the long and narrow San Juan Mountains and Kettle Mountain, a short distance east of the San Juan Mountains.

There is a small lake between the two mountains.
The San Juan River flows from north to south into the sea east of the highlands; the Aguadoré River flows from east to west into the San Juan River south of the highlands.

The Spanish garrison stationed on San Juan Heights originally consisted of only 500 people.

But after the commander was changed, the garrison here increased to two thousand people.

At the same time, as Chen Jianqiu saw when he came last time, the Spaniards had been operating here for a long time and had built blockhouses and machine gun positions.

At the more advanced Hushan, the Spaniards relied on a local workshop factory as a barrier, facing the part of the Royal Avenue that was left behind by the jungle.

It can be said that the defensive strength here is no less than that of Fort Elviso, and is even stronger.

The beginning stages of the battle were almost exactly the same as over there.

The American artillery bombarded the bunker on the top of Mount San Juan. Amid the smoke, the Spanish artillery accurately located it, returned fire, and then blew the American artillery position to pieces.

The shells flew over the top of the mountain and whistled into the plantation.

Stationed nearby was the 1st Volunteer Cavalry Brigade, the "Rough Riders" unit with only Roosevelt on horseback.

When the shells came, Roosevelt was holding a map to confirm the direction of the attack, but suddenly a shell that lost its direction fell beside him.

But the future president of the United States was lucky.

Apart from the shrapnel injury to the wrist, nothing else was hurt.

The shelling lasted for half an hour before it could no longer be continued.

The American artillerymen had to either quickly move to another position or stay where they were and wait to continue to be bombarded by the Spanish.

But the infantry generals below could no longer bear it.

Brigadier General Kent, commander of the 1st Division, volunteered to lead his troops to attack San Juan Hill immediately.

The morale of the three armies cannot be dampened.

Sheft agreed to Brigadier General Kent's request to fight.

So, under the leadership of the latter, the 1st Division began to advance along the Royal Road towards Mount San Juan, while the cavalry division led by Sumner dismounted and followed behind them.

But when the army passed through the Elpozuo Heights, they suddenly discovered a problem.

The road narrows!
The section of road they had just passed had been repaired, but what they were facing now was the true appearance of the Royal Avenue outside the city of Santiago.

As a result, the team had to change its formation and advance in two columns.

Brigadier General Kent thought this did not seem to be a problem.

Just speed through and get under San Juan Highlands and all will be well.

But he doesn't know.

At this time, on the San Juan Heights, the Spanish artillery commander was watching them closely.