The arrogance started from Chinatown

Chapter 807: Havana Naval Base Explosion

"Spain's despicable sneak attack! Galveston Harbor was bombed!"

Cuba's new governor, Valeriano Weiler, snorted as he looked at the newspaper in his hand.

"When did the Spanish government become so efficient? But we should let those Americans see how powerful we are!"

He came from a military background and served as the military governor of the Canary Islands before coming to Cuba. The Spanish government needed a tough governor, so they transferred him here.

The Governor of Cuba has much greater powers than the military governor of the archipelago.

And since taking office, he has been demonstrating his harsh military methods.

In addition to freezing Chen Zhengwei's assets as required by the Spanish government, in order to curb Cuba's increasingly serious freedom movement, he also built a large number of concentration camps, threw rural civilians into them, and cut off the connection between Cuban civilians and the Free Army.

Due to the harsh conditions in the concentration camps, thousands of Cuban civilians died in the camps in just a few months.

But he didn't think there was anything wrong with what he did.

Only by making the Cubans afraid will they not dare to contact the Free Army and will not provide them with information and help.

This is the only way to curb the rebels and force them into a desperate situation.

Then if he gets the chance, he will be wiped out in one fell swoop.

In order to study the rebels, he specifically studied Chen Zhengwei's battles in Cuba.

To be fair, he admired Chen Zhengwei's command level and his attitude towards the natives. It was a pity that the two sides were enemies, otherwise the two could sit down and discuss the war.

Throwing the newspaper aside, Governor Valeriano Weiler stood up, walked to the mirror, straightened his clothes, put on his hat, and went out to inspect the navy.

"The reinforcements will arrive in two to three days. You must be vigilant at all times. If I were them, I would definitely launch an attack before the reinforcements arrive to prevent us from joining together!"

The reinforcements would need to arrive in Santiago first and then come to Havana.

Valeriano Weiler was just giving these daily reminders.

The recent declaration of war by the United States has temporarily prevented him from taking care of the free army.

He felt that the United States would definitely attack Havana, and as the most important port in Cuba, it could not be lost.

Florencio Montojo Trillo, commander of the Cuban naval base, nodded and said, "I'll cheer the boys up!"

At the same time, on the clock tower in Havana, several people were observing the naval base with binoculars.

"That butcher is here to inspect again! He takes this place very seriously!"

The butcher refers to the current Governor of Cuba, Valeriano Weiler, and before that it belonged to Chen Zhengwei.

However, after the new governor took office, due to his iron-blooded military style and the establishment of concentration camps in Cuba that led to the deaths of a large number of civilians, the title of Butcher has now been given to someone else.

"The two sides have already gone to war, so they will definitely take it seriously! But they are mainly on guard against the Americans at sea, and their internal defenses haven't changed much from before!" said another person.

Since the naval base is right at the port, there are many places to observe the base, and this clock tower is one of the best locations.

They didn't come to observe today, but have been observing for several days.

"Time's up!" someone reminded them from behind.

The few of them looked around a few more times, then left the bell tower and hid in nearby houses.

Valeriano Weiler set up many concentration camps in Cuba, which scared a lot of people... but also made more people full of anger and hatred and start to resist.

Many people are not so afraid of death, they want to see the light more.

Therefore, in downtown Havana, many people were also contacting and helping the Free Army.

At eight o'clock in the evening, groups of Cuban natives wearing coarse clothes and carrying guns sneaked into Havana and sneaked into the streets and alleys.

At the same time, a group of Cuban natives sneaked into the naval base carrying packages.

At the same time, a group of Chinese youths, who were different from the natives and were wearing hunting clothes, jumped off the carriage and moved boxes of ammunition to the small hill nearby.

Two of the three mortar companies arranged by Chen Zhengwei are here, carrying 20 mortars.

Their mission was to assist these natives. If the natives failed to sneak into the naval base, the artillery company would bombard the naval base to create chaos after the exchange of fire between the two sides and assist the natives in the attack.

After moving the ammunition up, a group of people squatted on the hill waiting for news. After waiting for more than an hour, they suddenly heard gunshots in the distance.

"Looks like they've been discovered!" a young Chinese man said disappointedly.

"We can't help it. Those Spaniards have been too vigilant lately!"

"It's our turn now!"

……

At this moment, a burst of short gunfire broke out in the naval base, which immediately alarmed the navy in the base.

A large number of navy officers quickly put on their clothes and ran out of the barracks, asking in panic:
"What happened? Are the Americans calling?"

There was panic in many people's eyes.

Before they could figure out what was happening, a barrage of gunfire erupted at the edge of the naval base.

After confirming that the infiltrator had failed, the bronze giant Antonio Maseo's eyes widened, gritted his teeth and shouted, "This is our last and most important battle!"

"Go ahead and blow up their arsenal!"

"If I die, you will take over from me! Tell the Chinese that they must keep their word!"

Antonio Maceo gritted his teeth and rushed out first, then was pinned to the ground by his own men. However, encouraged by him, a large number of Cuban Liberation Army soldiers dressed in civilian clothes or Liberation Army clothes rushed out of the alley with guns and rushed to the stone wall that separated the city from the naval base.

Some people were shooting at the top of the stone wall from the streets, yards, and rooftops.

This wall is ten meters high. It was originally used to defend against pirates, but now it is used to separate the urban area and the naval base. Therefore, there is a ramp in the city for the defenders to go up and down.

"rush!"

Before the Spanish troops on the city wall could react, they felt a sudden chaos around them and a group of people rushed out from the darkness.

The defenders quickly rang the bell to sound the alarm, while aiming their guns at those who were coming back from the dark.

Bang bang bang!
There was sudden gunfire from both sides.

Then, in one encounter, the defenders on the city wall were defeated by these poorly trained indigenous rebels.

Spain's colonial soldiers were notoriously bad, with poor equipment, poor training, and poor morale.

Internal nepotism was serious, supplies were not timely, and hunger and lack of ammunition were common occurrences.

Chen Zhengwei curses the US Army every day, saying that the US Army is at best second-rate in the world.

However, the Spanish Army could only be ranked third-rate, and the Spanish Army in Cuba could only be ranked fourth-rate. They still used the Remington roller rifle, a single-shot breech-loading rifle that was finalized in 1866.

When faced with the Remington rifles loaded with 13 bullets in the hands of the natives, they were broken on the spot. The city wall was captured in just five minutes.

At the same time, on a distant hill, a young Chinese man waved his hands downward vigorously.

"fire!"

Boom boom boom!

The sound of artillery fire rang out like muffled thunder, and mortar shells flew across most of the city, across the wall, and landed on the heads of the naval soldiers who were in chaos and had no idea what was happening.

boom!
As shells exploded after falling into the base, the shock waves and fragments of the gunpowder explosion swept down large numbers of naval soldiers.

Then there was another burst of artillery fire like thunder.

The artillery company on the hill fired a total of five rounds, a hundred shells, before temporarily stopping.

"Attack!" After five rounds of bombardment, the bronze giant Antonio Maceo immediately gave the order! Then a large number of free army soldiers slid down the city wall and launched an attack towards the arsenal.

In the naval base, the already confused soldiers became even more chaotic under the rounds of artillery fire from the sky. Some officers even fled directly to the ship with their men. They did not organize any effective counterattack at all and relied entirely on the spontaneous counterattacks of some soldiers.

……

When the gunfire broke out outside, the Cuban Governor Valeriano Weiler suddenly looked up, stood up from behind the desk, walked to the window and looked outside.

"Oh no, it's the naval base!"

“How did the Americans sneak in?”

"No, it's not the Americans... Such loud gunshots, it's the rebels!" Valeriano Weiler's face flickered under the oil lamp.

However, the next second, the sound of artillery fire in the distance made his face change drastically.

"Why are there artillery?"

“How did it get into Havana?”

The moment he heard the sound of gunfire, he felt that the situation in Havana was completely out of control.

"Mr. Governor!" The Governor's secretary quickly opened the room: "Something happened outside!"

"Send a telegram to notify the defenders of Morro Castle and La Cavagna Castle to immediately support the naval base! The base cannot be lost!" Valeriano Weiler said hurriedly.

"At the same time, send a group of people to take down the artillery positions!"

After giving the order, Valeriano Weiler couldn't help but curse, "Damn it, how did those cannons get in? What are the guards and police doing? Are all of them blind and just watch them bring in such large cannons?"

He felt that there must be American and Cuban spies among the garrison and police.

After tonight, he will definitely investigate it carefully!
But soon he no longer had the heart to think about these things. The gunshots from the naval base almost never stopped, and they were spreading towards the interior of the naval base, making him unable to help but wonder what was going on in the base.

It was not until half an hour later that a huge ball of fire erupted in the naval base, piercing the darkness, and almost at the same time a loud noise was heard.

boom!
In this loud explosion, there were also a large number of dense and chaotic explosions.

The entire Governor's Mansion was shaking, the chandeliers were swaying, and the dust on the roof was shaken off.

Valeriano Weiler staggered and had to hold on to the table to steady himself. His face was pale and he looked like a fool.

There were only two words echoing in my mind: "It's over!"

He knew what happened!

The arsenal at the naval base...exploded!
Half an hour later, the secretary walked in with a pale face and unsteady steps.

"Are they attacking?" Valeriano Weiler sat in a chair, the veins on his forehead throbbing.

"Just received a telegram... The San Diego Naval Base was attacked... There was an explosion..."

The secretary looked pale and stammered.

When Valeriano Weiler heard the news, he felt a black screen before his eyes.

(End of this chapter)