New Han Dynasty 1834

Chapter 108 The War Begins

On November 12th of the fourth year of the Hanchang era (December 31st, 1838 in the Gregorian calendar), the Beiyang Fleet arrived at the Maria Islands off the west coast of mainland Mexico.

After regrouping at a temporary port in the archipelago, the fleet, consisting of 10,000 Imperial Guards on small and medium-sized transport ships, continued its journey towards Puerto San Blas on the west coast of Mexico as the northern route army.

Puerto San Blas is located in central Mexico, on the south bank of the mouth of the Grand Santiago River. It was a seaport built by order of the King of Spain and was once an important Spanish naval base on the Pacific coast.

Before Mexico's independence, Puerto San Blas was also the starting point of the galleon trade for a period of time. At its peak, the port had more than 30,000 residents.

There was even a dedicated hospital here to treat naval officers and sailors on royal merchant ships.

Official trade controlled by the Spanish royal family disappeared, and merchants from Mexico, Britain, the United States, and China all participated, making trade more diverse and, importantly, no longer under the control of the Spanish royal family.

The port of St. Blas, which rose to prominence for political reasons, declined rapidly in the era of free trade following the War of Independence, and soon had fewer than 10,000 residents.

However, as the Han Dynasty began to directly engage in trade with Mexico, ports on Mexico's west coast, which is also along the Pacific coast, gradually regained some vitality.

The population of Port San Blas has now recovered to around 15,000, and there are also some merchants from the Han Dynasty who have built houses and settled down to do business in and around the city.

In recent years, Han Chinese immigrants first appeared in Oregon, and last year they captured California, essentially putting Mexico at war.

The atmosphere in Port San Blas became unsettled once again, with officials, soldiers, merchants, and civilians alike becoming more tense and vigilant than ever before.

On the 16th day of the 11th month of the fourth year of the Han Chang era, which was the early morning of January 1, 1839 in the Gregorian calendar.

The Han fleet suddenly appeared on the sea and was quickly spotted by lookouts.

The lookout sounded the alarm, igniting panic throughout the city.

"That flag has Chinese characters on it; a Han Chinese fleet is coming!"

"There's going to be a war! Run, you bastards!"

"All soldiers, assemble! Assemble!"

Merchants and civilians near the port fled, and artillerymen ran to the coastal defense forts.

Without any prior warning, the Beiyang Fleet opened fire directly on the coastal forts and docks.

The infantry launched the landing operation directly under the cover of naval gunfire.

The battle for the capture of San Blas by the American military was slightly more troublesome than the capture of San Francisco.

There is a garrison in St. Blas, but it consists of only one battalion with fewer than four hundred soldiers.

The coastal area of ​​the port had coastal defense batteries, but their number was far less than that of the Beiyang Fleet's naval guns.

Because in any previous historical period, there have never been pirate groups of a large enough scale along the Pacific coast.

No other European country has been able to come here and seize these ports.

Therefore, the defense level is not high enough.

The appearance of the Han Dynasty's main fleet here was unplanned, something the Spanish had never considered.

Mexico is an option now, but it's too late.

The few gun emplacements in St. Blas were suppressed by several times more ship-mounted artillery and played virtually no role.

After the Imperial Guards from the Beiyang Fleet landed, they immediately began firing their new rifles at the artillery.

The soldiers on the gun emplacement screamed as they were hit by bullets one after another, and the remaining soldiers fled immediately.

The landing soldiers quickly captured the fort and then went to take control of the dock.

After the garrison at St. Blas managed to assemble, they prepared to meet the enemy at the docks.

However, these soldiers were unaware that there was already a generational gap between their weapons and the enemy's methods of combat.

The San Blas Battalion in Mexico still primarily used smoothbore muskets and remained a typical line infantry unit.

The typical combat distance is still around 100 meters.

By the end of the second year of the Han Chang era, the Imperial Guards of the Great Han Dynasty had begun to switch to breech-loading rifles with sealed copper tubes.

The elite hunters, who already used rifled guns, started using a small number of specially produced copper-cased fixed cartridges, smokeless propellant, and scopes.

Even troops that haven't had time to switch to new equipment have already rifled their traditional smoothbore muskets.

It uses base-expanding ammunition, achieving the same rate of fire as a smoothbore musket.

The Imperial Guards of the Great Han Dynasty were now entirely composed of rifled gunners, and their typical combat distance had been extended to over 300 meters.

When the two sides met near the St. Blas dock, the soldiers of the St. Blas camp were still marching in formation when the Han Imperial Guards opened fire.

The hunters aimed at the Mexican officers, while the Imperial Guard soldiers aimed at the ordinary soldiers.

Before the soldiers and officers of the St. Blas Battalion even realized what was happening, they were already falling to the ground in droves, screaming as they were shot.

The Han imperial guards quickly reloaded, fired six rounds in succession, and then launched a formal bayonet charge.

In just one encounter, the once elite St. Blas Battalion collapsed.

The Imperial Guards of the Great Han quickly took over the dock, and transport ships began to dock directly at the dock, rapidly transporting more soldiers ashore.

Two hours after the battle began, more than two thousand Imperial Guards landed and began to take over the city.

After the entire St. Blas camp was wiped out, the city lost its ability to defend itself.

The Imperial Guards did not encounter any substantial obstacles when they entered the city, but many of them clearly sensed hostility.

When the Han army fought in other places, whether conquering Southeast Asia or the grasslands, most of the foreign civilians they encountered were in a state of fear and confusion.

The Han army defeated their leader and executed their local chieftains and soldiers. The most prominent emotion they displayed was fear, but there was no obvious hatred or hostility.

Even if the people killed by the Han army were their close relatives, the hatred that should have arisen might not have been able to overcome the fear.

The residents of Puerto San Blas have now undergone some changes.

The indigenous people, who make up more than half of the total population, and the black people, who make up about a quarter of the total population, are now mostly in a state of fear and confusion.

A small number of Han merchants and immigrants were in a state of both joy and trepidation at this time.

Among the nearly one-quarter of the total, native-born whites and mixed-race individuals are also in a state of confusion and bewilderment.

However, there were also some people who clearly had different emotions; their eyes were filled with obvious hostility and hatred as they looked at the Han soldiers.

When the Imperial Guard attempted to take over important facilities such as churches, city halls, and warehouses, they encountered near-suicidal attacks and resistance.

The Imperial Guards of the Han Dynasty, of course, did not care about anything; they would execute anyone who resisted.

Meanwhile, more Imperial Guards were disembarking at the dock, and by around 2 p.m., all 10,000 Imperial Guards had made it ashore.

Following Li Anbang's orders, the on-site commander drove all the residents out of the city.

First, select the Han Chinese immigrants who can act as translators, give them temporary status as interpreters at the Four Barbarian Institutes, and let them assist the army in managing the other residents in the city.

They were sent to work separately; some went to the docks to help unload cargo, while the majority went to build fortifications around the city.

According to the plan, after all the cargo on the ship has been unloaded, all the white people, white-mixed people, black people, and black-mixed people will be loaded onto the ship and set sail.

They were sent to coal mines and road construction sites in the north to work as laborers, toiling in unfamiliar places until they died.

This was a reminder and requirement that Liu Yulong specifically gave to the Military Advisory Office.

According to Liu Yulong, the newly emerging countries in Latin America, such as Mexico, gained independence from their former colonial powers under the influence of modern European Enlightenment thought, and formed a basic national consciousness in the process.

In Mexico, amidst a chaotic political situation, upper-middle-class businessmen, politicians, and warlords constantly vying for power and profit are perhaps more concerned with the tangible benefits they have in hand.

However, middle-class white and mixed-race people may actually have believed their slogans.

During the Mexican War of Independence and later the Mexican-American War, many people truly fought bravely to the death.

They are willing to fight for their so-called newborn motherland, even at the cost of their lives.

These middle-class white and mixed-race individuals are the foundation upon which Latin American countries like Mexico are able to exist independently.

To reconquer such a country, it would be necessary to deal with these white people who had awakened their national consciousness.

For Europeans, doing something like this would be extremely difficult and costly, making it completely uneconomical.

However, for the Han Dynasty, it was not a particularly difficult task.

Regardless of the thoughts or mental strength of these Mexicans, when confronting other countries with similar characteristics, conditions beyond such strength must be considered.

The Han Dynasty could overwhelm them by virtue of its superior population, technology, and organizational capabilities, as well as its enormous size. The Han Dynasty's advantage over them was even more pronounced than that of the United States in history.

At that time, Mexico had a total population of just over seven million, of which more than three million were indigenous people and more than one million were black people.

There are only about three million white and mixed-race children.

The Han Dynasty had 500 million people. If they committed all their efforts to immigration and eliminate the white population, they would have a chance to completely conquer Mexico again.

However, the Great Han is not currently prepared to completely conquer Mexico; it only intends to seize a portion of the land and, for the time being, only needs to deal with the white people in the occupied territories.

The occupying forces would send the white people in the occupied territories out of their accustomed places and, under the supervision and control of a larger number of Han Chinese, slowly consume them as engineering resources.

No matter how strong their spirit and will are, they cannot exert much practical effect, because the objective gap will not change according to their spirit and will.

The next morning, Wu Kang, the commander of the Northern Route Army and the division commander of the Imperial Guard, left three thousand Imperial Guards to guard and manage the port of St. Blas and to direct the residents of the city to continue working.

He led 7,000 imperial guards as the main fighting force, advancing towards the plateau along the gravel road behind the city.

The core region of Mexico, including major cities and mines, is mostly situated on a dry inland plateau.

However, Mexico's former overlord, Spain, was located in Europe, while its main trading partner, the Han Dynasty, was located in the East.

All three of them needed to travel through coastal areas, using ports and ships.

Therefore, it is necessary to build roads connecting the plateau and coastal ports.

After the Spanish basically controlled Mexico, they explored and found suitable routes and gradually built several gravel roads with relatively gentle slopes, and constructed relatively sturdy bridges over the rivers.

Starting from major ports such as Acapulco, San Blas, and Veracruz, and following these roads that have been in use for two hundred years, one can enter the core area of ​​the Mexican inland plateau.

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