New Han Dynasty 1834

Chapter 110 Where did the Great Han get its allies?

The artillerymen of the Mexican Northern Route Army of the Great Han American Army drove mules to pull the new two-inch breech-loading rifled cannons forward and stopped two kilometers away from the Mexican army formation.

The group worked together, removing the mule harnesses, securing the gun mount, aiming at the Mexican artillery position, estimating the distance, loading shells, and preparing for a test firing.

The Mexican generals, led by Paredes, kept an eye on the movements of the Han army through binoculars.

They soon discovered that the cannons brought by the Han army were indeed relatively small, but they stopped outside the effective range of their own twelve-pound cannons.

While Paredes and his companions were extremely surprised and puzzled, a sense of foreboding suddenly arose within them.

"No way—their artillery can't possibly have that much range—"

"If rifled muskets can have extremely long ranges, then artillery could have the same ability—"

This unsettling speculation soon became a reality.

The artillery of the Great Han Dynasty completed its preparations at an unimaginable speed.

At the command of the artillery commander, eight two-inch field guns simultaneously opened fire for test firing.

Eight deafening roars followed in quick succession as eight pointed, cylindrical shells flew out of the cannon.

The two-kilometer distance was reached in an instant, but all the shells went astray, and not a single one hit the target directly.

However, the artillery needs to be test-fired to observe the landing point before being recalibrated. It is normal for the first round to miss completely.

However, these artillery pieces all fired exploding shells, specifically those using picric acid as propellant.

When Liu Yulong was in Tai'an for two years, he already knew that the Institute of Physics had obtained samples of picric acid in experiments.

In the laboratory, a small amount of picric acid can be obtained by soaking indigo in nitric acid.

However, the reaction speed of this experiment is very slow, and the key issue is that the obtained picric acid is rich in impurities, making the production efficiency unable to meet the needs of mass production.

Liu Yulong knew the general direction of mass production technology, so he arranged for the Institute of Geology to study coal tar and explore methods for mass production of picric acid.

By the beginning of the second year of the Hanchang era, the Institute of Natural History was finally taking shape.

The first step is to extract phenol from coal tar, and then process the phenol using a sulfonation process to obtain the semi-finished product phenol disulfonic acid.

After three more nitrations, 2,4,6-trinitrophenol, also known as picric acid, can be obtained.

After figuring out the production method, the Institute of Gewu began trial production in the second year of the Hanchang era, and small-scale application began in the third year of the Hanchang era.

The moment these picric acid-filled exploding shells landed on the Mexican artillery positions.

A blinding flash of light suddenly erupted, followed by a violent explosion unlike anything ever seen before.

The nearby Mexican artillery was overturned on the spot, and the gun carriage was reduced to wreckage.

The surrounding artillerymen were blown away by the shockwave and fell to the ground like ripped sacks, immediately losing consciousness.

Paredes and the other officers, who were watching from a distance, were all stunned by the scene.

"My God—God bless me—"

"What's going on? How can there be such a powerful exploding shell?!"

After the first round of firing, the artillery of the Great Han Dynasty completed the reloading process in just over thirty seconds.

The gunner also completed the observation of the impact point and the calibration of the firing data, and immediately began the second round of shelling.

This round of firing was even more precise, destroying the remaining Mexican artillery positions in one fell swoop, and also shattering the morale of most of the Mexican officers and soldiers.

Chaos broke out in the army formation and soldiers fled in panic.

The Han infantry did not stop advancing during the bombardment; instead, they increased their marching speed and ran towards the Mexican army lines.

After completing their third reload, the Han artillery targeted the Mexican infantry formation.

In the era of smoothbore muskets, infantry formations were extremely dense. When picric acid shells landed and exploded in the Mexican infantry formation, they killed hundreds of soldiers in the vicinity almost instantly.

The number of soldiers killed directly was not actually very large, but the powerful explosion and shockwave were so strong that they shattered the morale of the Mexican soldiers.

The soldiers, who had been gathered together, fled frantically in all directions, resulting in a horrific stampede.

The jogging infantrymen immediately launched a charge, and the battle entered the final stage.

Paredes and other Mexican officers had hoped to gain an advantage through artillery, but their formation was quickly broken by the Han's artillery.

Paredes, disregarding the battle situation, fled desperately under the protection of a few elite guards.

They didn't even dare go to Guadalajara, and fled directly towards Mexico City.

The Han infantry split up to pursue and kill, quickly capturing a large number of prisoners and also taking over the city of Guadalajara.

By evening that day, the battle was basically over, and Wu Kang had received a general report on the situation.

More than 3,000 enemy soldiers were killed directly or trampled to death on the battlefield.

It is estimated that more than two thousand enemies fled in the chaos.

In the end, more than 4,000 prisoners were captured.

The next morning, Wu Kang arranged for a thousand imperial guards to escort the prisoners to St. Blas, where they were transferred to the Maria Islands for safekeeping and awaiting further processing.

The main force first split up and took control of the settlements around Guadalajara, and then concentrated on counting and dealing with the residents of Guadalajara and the surrounding settlements.

The area surrounding Guadalajara has a population of approximately 120,000, with an estimated 40,000 white and mixed-race individuals, and over 10,000 black and mixed-race individuals.

According to the plan, these unsettled people must be cleared out, otherwise the Han dynasty will find it difficult to gain a foothold here.

They could easily become accomplices when the Mexican army attacks.

However, their population is relatively large, and Wu Kang has only brought 10,000 troops with him.

To control the city, defend against a Mexican counterattack, and deal with these foreign tribes, the military force was stretched thin.

However, Wu Kang had a solution. First, he arranged for a translator to go down and relay the order, requiring all able-bodied young men in the families to come out and work.

The indigenous young men went to cultivate farmland, build barracks and fortifications, while the white young men went to repair roads.

Most civilians would not risk their lives to fight against the occupying forces just to get a job.

During this work process, Wu Kang divided all the white people and the young and strong natives into two groups.

The indigenous people continued to work in and around Guadalajara.

The young and strong white men were driven by the burly Han soldiers to repair roads and bridges that were getting further and further away from the city.

The total number of white men in the city who are still able to work, ranging from teenagers to middle-aged and elderly people around fifty years old, is only about ten thousand.

Wu Kang arranged for two thousand imperial guards to be armed and semi-forced to continuously repair the gravel road all the way to St. Blas.

This is like slowly boiling a frog; once they built the road to San Blas, they no longer had the opportunity to resist based on their familiar surroundings.

They were then escorted onto a ship and sent to the Maria Islands, where they were temporarily placed under control pending further processing.

At this point, Wu Kang turned back to deal with the women and children who had basically lost their fighting ability, as well as the elderly who had lost their ability to work.

Two thousand people were arranged to be divided into four groups and sent to St. Blas, and also transferred to the Maria Islands.

As for the six thousand guards who remained in Guadalajara, they then organized the able-bodied locals into servants to continue building and strengthening the fortifications.

The world's largest silver mine was within reach, but Wu Kang was in no hurry to continue the attack.

Instead, they remained stationed around Guadalajara, focusing on their operations and observing whether Mexico would send more troops to be attacked.

This was Wu Kang's mission: to control Guadalajara and draw enemy fire to the Southern Route Army.

The southern route of the Mexican operation consisted of 10,000 Imperial Guards and 2,000 militia, personally led by Li Anbang.

After the northern army occupied Tepic, they sailed south in large ships and first landed to capture Acapulco.

When the Great Han captured St. Blas, the navy simultaneously blockaded the surrounding seas.

Acapulco has not yet received news of a Han attack on its homeland, and while it is somewhat vigilant due to the Han's capture of California, its alertness is not high.

Moreover, the ports along Mexico's Pacific coast have limited defenses, and even if they are vigilant, they cannot withstand a sudden and fierce attack by a large army.

Under the cover of a large number of capital ship guns, the southern army quickly captured the city of Acapulco.

Then, he left two thousand militiamen behind to control the situation at the port, while ten thousand Imperial Guards, lightly armed, marched swiftly along the gravel road towards Mexico City.

Although the road from Acapulco to Mexico City is more rugged, the distance is almost half that from San Blas to Mexico City.

If the troops near Mexico City are also drawn away by Wu Kang in Guadalajara, and Li Anbang directly captures Mexico City, then the war should be basically over.

On his way to Mexico City, Li Anbang's army received news that the Han army had occupied San Blas and Tepic, and was advancing on Guadalajara.

Bustamant jumped up after reading only half of the report, and then, with surprise and anger, shouted at the air, "What are you doing?"

"How could this be? Why is this happening? What exactly is the Han Kingdom trying to do?"

"Is it not enough that they've taken California? Are they really going to attack Guadalajara? Or even take Mexico's silver mines and Mexico City?"

"So, is the Han Kingdom an ally that France brought in?"

"The key point is that the Francois at least sent envoys to explain their demands."

"The Han Kingdom is attacking without any prior contact!"

"If Mexico City, Guadalajara, Veracruz, and San Blas fall at the same time, the United Mexican States will be in real danger!"

"Anna went to Veracruz to defend against the Francois, I must personally go to Guadalajara to defend against the Han Chinese!"

At this time, the Han Dynasty was not the only country fighting against Mexico; the Franco people, who were also at war with Mexico at almost the same time, were also involved.

Britain has its own interests in Mexico, so it will not attack Mexico directly at present, and hopes that Mexico can help them fight against the Great Han.

Although the United States has conflicts with Mexico, it now hopes that Mexico can stand up to the Han Dynasty and not harass Mexico at this time.

France, on the other hand, did not have these concerns.

After Mexico gained independence, France quickly became Mexico's third largest trading partner.

However, France had not yet signed a preferential tariff agreement with Mexico at this time, resulting in France's goods paying more tariffs than those of Britain.

France has been hoping to solve this problem for the past few years.

At the same time, after Mexico's independence, the internal situation was extremely chaotic, and urban order was difficult to maintain.

Many Franco immigrants' interests in Mexico are not protected.

Shops owned by immigrants were vandalized, and immigrants were robbed or even murdered; the Mexican government was unable to handle the situation.

In fact, in such a chaotic era, not only are the interests of Franz immigrants difficult to protect, but the interests of Mexican civilians are also difficult to protect.

However, while ordinary Mexican citizens had nowhere to seek redress, Franz's immigrants could turn to Franz's special envoy to Mexico for help.

Franz appointed an immigrant representative, a cake shop owner in Mexico City, to return to Franz and persuade the king and parliament to solve the problem for the people.

The main objective of the Franz government has always been to obtain trade privileges in Mexico similar to those in Britain, and the potential loss of interests of its own residents has been a convenient pretext for intervention.

In the years leading up to the actual start of the war, France employed a variety of methods, from diplomatic negotiations to threats of force, but none of them worked.

If we consider a country as a person, Mexico at this point is practically a madman.

Therefore, normal diplomatic coordination methods are completely ineffective.

Liu Yulong knew this all along, which is why he didn't engage in any diplomatic activities with Mexico. After making preparations, he simply went ahead and robbed them.

After several years of turmoil, France finally lost patience and, in April 1838, launched an expedition against Mexico under the pretext of demanding compensation from the French, including the cake shop owner, intending to resolve the issue by force.

Because the war was sparked by a cake shop owner's demand for compensation, it is known in Mexico as the Cake War.

Frans first arranged for the fleet to blockade Mexico's eastern coastline, and at the same time sent envoys to negotiate with the Mexican president again, calculating for him how much damage such a blockade would cause.

But this tactic didn't work; the Mexicans preferred to smuggle goods through the United States rather than submit to France.

The main problem was that the Francois were demanding too much compensation, as well as most-favored-nation status and tariff privileges.

Francis held out until November 1838, before the Great Han attacked San Blas, before finally launching an offensive that resulted in the capture of Veracruz, the most important port in eastern Mexico.

Mexican President Bustamante was furious upon receiving the news and immediately declared war on France, ordering the expulsion of French immigrants and deploying troops to prepare to retake the port of Veracruz.

However, shortly after the declaration of war was sent out, Bustamante received news that the Great Han had captured Saint Blas and Tepic, and subconsciously assumed that the Great Han and France were allies.

Bustamante now realizes that Mexico is being attacked from both the east and west by the two oceans, and the situation has deteriorated to an extreme degree.

Bustamante is preparing to personally lead an expedition to Guadalajara.

(Let me repost this simplified map. It's easier to understand the situation by looking at the map. The Han Chinese captured San Blas and Acapulco, while the Francois captured Veracruz almost simultaneously.)

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