New Han Dynasty 1834

Chapter 109 Highland Gateway

The main force of the Northern Route Imperial Guard, consisting of 7,000 men, which participated in the operation in Mexico, advanced inland along the gravel road on the west side of Port San Blas under the leadership of Imperial Guard Division Commander Wu Kang.

The first stretch of road behind San Blas is relatively difficult to navigate.

Over this distance of more than 60 kilometers, the altitude rises by 900 meters, which is equivalent to climbing uphill the entire way.

If there are enough enemies blocking the way on the slope, advancing will become significantly more difficult, so you should get to the plateau area above the slope as soon as possible before more enemies gather.

The Northern Route Army marched for three consecutive days, completing this long, sloping route.

After the Northern Route Army climbed to over 900 meters, the surrounding terrain quickly became relatively flat, and they entered a mountain valley.

The central location of the valley is the city of Tepic, which was formed at the same time as the port of San Blas.

San Blas served as the port from which Tepic sailed out to sea, while Tepic was the gateway from San Blas to the inland plateau.

Tepice and San Blas rose and fell together, and at this time, their populations were roughly the same as those of the port of San Blas, around 15,000 people, with a battalion of troops stationed in the city.

However, the city of Tepic, located on the plateau, was far less vigilant than Saint Blas at this time.

Wu Kang's Imperial Guards suddenly appeared here and launched a surprise attack on the city, possessing both numerical and firepower advantages.

They easily captured the poorly defended city of Tepic on the same day.

After Wu Kang led the Northern Route Army to control the city of Tepic, he immediately carried out the same orders as San Blas.

All white and black people, as well as their mixed-race children, were selected, totaling about five thousand people.

Wu Kang arranged for 1,000 imperial guards to escort the 5,000 people back to St. Blas.

They were loaded onto ships along with their counterparts in St. Blas and sent to Vancouver Island and the Oregon region for coal mining and road construction.

The remaining 6,000 Imperial Guards were no longer in a hurry to advance inland. Instead, they temporarily stationed themselves in the city of Tepic to rest and regroup, waiting for supplies and reinforcements to arrive before beginning to execute the subsequent battle plan.

Ten days later, on November 25th of the fourth year of the Han Chang reign, all the supplies carried by the Northern Route Army's transport ships were unloaded, and all the black, white, and mixed-race prisoners in St. Blas and Tepic were loaded onto ships and transported away.

At the same time, Li Anbang dispatched 2,000 militiamen from the Maria Islands to land, arranged for 1,000 militiamen to control the port of St. Blas, and together with all the other northern imperial guards and 1,000 militiamen, transported a large amount of supplies to the city of Tepic.

Wu Kang gave them another three days to rest before starting the next phase of the operation on December 7th.

Wu Kang left behind a thousand militiamen to garrison and manage the city of Tepic, while he led ten thousand imperial guards on a leisurely march inland.

The destination is Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco state and Mexico's second-largest city, located 200 kilometers away.

The valley east of Guadalajara was then Mexico's main silver mining area, producing 40% of the world's silver.

According to Li Anbang's battle plan, Wu Kang was not in a hurry to rush to Guadalajara, and ordered the army to proceed step by step, eliminating all settlements encountered along the way.

They captured all Black and white people and related ethnic groups in the settlement, and after gathering a thousand people, they sent two hundred men to Tepik.

The prisoners were handed over to the militia of Tepic and Saint Blas, who then sent them to Maria Island for temporary imprisonment.

Wu Kang carried out his sweeping raids on settlements and captured prisoners in a very meticulous and detailed manner. Although he encountered almost no substantial obstacles along the way, it still took him a full month to finally reach the outskirts of Guadalajara.

While Wu Kang led his army to occupy San Blas and Tepic, and then marched towards Guadalajara, news of the Han army's attack was spreading rapidly inland, causing panic and anger to spread simultaneously.

Upon receiving this news, Jalisco Governor Antonio Escobedo first sent someone to inform the commander of the state's garrison, instructing him to quickly assemble troops to prepare to resist the Han army. At the same time, he sent people to request assistance from other nearby states and the central government.

When Wu Kang led his army to the outskirts of Guadalajara, Mexican Brigadier General Mariano Paredes had already assembled a full 10,000 troops and was stationed outside the city waiting for them.

Since the two sides have not yet clashed directly, the future Mexican president, Paredes, is currently unaware of the strength of the Han army and is bravely preparing to meet the enemy outside the city.

Paredes has discovered through reconnaissance that these Han armies are primarily composed of infantry.

Although they carried many mules to transport supplies, only a small number of scouts could be considered cavalry.

This is likely because it is difficult to transport large numbers of horses by ship.

Paredes quickly decided to take advantage of the Han army's unstable foothold and launch a cavalry attack to catch the Han army off guard.

The Imperial Guards of the Great Han Dynasty were elite troops selected from 20 million militiamen. Even in the past, they could defeat cavalry with their infantry using smoothbore muskets or even long spears, let alone now that they were armed with breech-loading rifled muskets.

Wu Kang's vanguard infantry unit of the Northern Route Army, seeing the approaching Mexican cavalry, remained unfazed and prepared to use their range advantage to wipe out this reckless cavalry.

Wu Kang had already made basic preparations, and the vanguard troops did not need to wait for his orders to immediately form ranks and raise their guns to meet the attack.

Mexican cavalry previously had only experience fighting against line infantry with smoothbore muskets.

Following their usual tactics against smoothbore musketeers, they first controlled their horses to trot slowly towards the enemy and then accelerate.

Prepare to enter full-speed sprint mode when the distance is reduced to more than 200 meters.

The distance between the two sides gradually decreased until they entered the 300-meter range. The cavalry had not yet fully started running, which should have been the distance for preparing to charge.

But the Han infantry on the other side had already opened fire.

With the cavalry still almost completely unprepared, a dense hail of bullets from breech-loading rifles rained down upon them.

Many Mexican cavalrymen, staring at the massive Han infantry formation, were quite surprised when they saw the smoke from the gunpowder explosions rising one after another, and they almost all mocked, "Open fire at this distance?"

"How could you possibly hit someone from that distance?"

"So, is this a ragtag army?"

"Not one"

The unexpected mockery quickly turned into screams, which echoed throughout the venue in a few moments, followed by uncontrollable screams and exclamations.

The cavalry and their horses were hit by bullets one after another, and then fell over amidst screams and cries.

Of the more than 300 cavalrymen in the entire battalion, nearly a third were lost in the first wave of attacks.

"They're rifled guns! They're all rifled guns!" Even after the cavalrymen who weren't hit reacted, their panic hadn't reached its limit.

Their experience led them to instinctively believe that rifled guns had a slow rate of fire and could not achieve a covering effect.

If they can survive the first wave of attacks, they will have a chance to escape or even fight back.

Therefore, the surviving cavalrymen instinctively wanted to break away from the increasingly chaotic ranks and continue to look for opportunities to attack or retreat to a safe rear.

But a dense hail of bullets fell one after another, with the interval between two waves of bullets seemingly shorter than that of a smoothbore gun.

Watching their comrades fall to the ground one after another, the remaining cavalrymen finally broke down.

"My God, how is this possible? How can a rifled gun have such a high rate of fire—"

'

At this point, no one was thinking about how to attack anymore; everyone who was still alive was trying their best to escape.

But the hail of bullets continued unabated, relentlessly pursuing and firing at them.

When the battalion of over three hundred cavalrymen finally left the battlefield, only sixty-odd extremely miserable men and horses remained.

When the Mexican army commander, Paredes, was observing the battlefield through binoculars from the rear, he went through a similar mental journey as the cavalrymen.

My first thought was that this Han army was just a bunch of ragtag soldiers who opened fire at a distance from which a smoothbore musket could not possibly hit them.

Then it was thought that the Han Dynasty had concentrated riflemen to defend against cavalry charges.

When he finally saw the dozens of cavalrymen fleeing back, he was completely terrified and stunned: "How is this possible? The Han people's muskets are not working properly."

"How can there be a rifled gun with a faster rate of fire than a smoothbore gun?"

"Could it be a breech-loading rifle? How could a breech-loading rifle be so accurate?"

The Han army would not give them time to regroup and rest. During the conflict between the vanguard infantry and the Mexican cavalry, the main force that arrived one after another was also regrouping.

After the Mexican cavalry collapsed and fled, more Han Chinese infantrymen lined up and began to advance.

The infantrymen, rifles in hand, advanced toward the Mexican forces' main camp.

Mexican army commander Brigadier General Paredes was extremely panicked and bewildered at this moment.

Faced with a group of riflemen whose rate of fire was even higher than that of smoothbore muskets, Paredes couldn't think of a useful countermeasure for a while.

We can only hope that the artillery can play a role in suppressing the Han army's offensive momentum; otherwise, the consequences of today's battle will be extremely dire.

After seeing what had just happened on the battlefield, the Mexican officers on the scene quickly lost their high morale and began to pin their hopes on artillery to turn the tide.

The Mexican army, having rested and prepared, had previously acquired relatively heavy 12-pound cannons (approximately 120 mm in diameter), with an effective range of 1,500 meters.

The Han army had come from afar and could only carry some small and medium caliber artillery, so they should not have an advantage in artillery battles.

If we can suppress the Han army's attack, we will have a chance to retreat into the city to defend.

After realizing this, Paredes forced himself to remain calm and instinctively reminded the artillery to prepare to block the Han army and the infantry to form ranks to meet the enemy.

However, the immigrant ship that arrived in the Americas in the fourth year of the Hanchang era not only brought the families of those who immigrated in the third year of the Hanchang era, but also a batch of new military equipment produced in the last two years.

This includes a batch of 2-inch (80 mm) steel breech-loading rifled guns with a 30-caliber barrel, which have an effective range of over 2,400 meters when using exploding shells.