I want to be emperor
Chapter 885 The empire will never surrender until the last Indian dies in battle
Chapter 885 The empire will never surrender until the last Indian dies in battle
As a rise in the age of great voyages, it has successively occupied large colonies in many parts of the world, especially Spain, which has a large number of colonies in the Americas. It has to be said that it has a kind of confidence or confidence in the face of war.
When the Great Chu Empire bombarded and landed in Cadiz on a large scale, the Spaniards did not surrender like the Portuguese next door, but faced a small defeat and surrendered the whole country.
Instead, the Spaniards adopted a strategy of actively withdrawing from the coastal areas and gathering troops in the inland areas to resist.
The [-] army, this is the army assembled by the Spaniards in a short time after facing the invasion of the Chu army.
They included both the original garrison troops from the Cadiz area and the sailors who came ashore from the fleet, but more of them were Spanish reinforcements from the surrounding areas.
In fact, some of these armies are not directly controlled by the Spanish state control, and many of them are local armies of nearby nobles.
In Europe these days, the traditional enfeoffment system is still preserved, and the king is only the biggest noble, and there are a lot of messy nobles underneath. These nobles also have armies and serve the king in wartime.
But today, they are all gathered in the Jacasburg area, seven kilometers north of the port of Cadiz.
This small village area, which was not worth mentioning in the past and did not leave any name in history, is destined to be famous in history today because of the successive arrival of the Spaniards and the Chu army.
On the fourth day of September in the 37th year of Chengshun, the weather in early autumn was very refreshing, and the sky without any industrial pollution was extremely blue.
That morning, the Ninth Infantry Regiment of the Indian Third Division, which was the vanguard of the Chu Army, first arrived at the outskirts of Hakes.
However, it did not launch an attack immediately, but stayed on the periphery.
In the rear position of the Ninth Indian Infantry Regiment is the Seventh Infantry Regiment under the Indian Third Division.
As for the other infantry regiment of the Indian Third Division, that is, the Eighth Infantry Regiment, it did not appear on the battlefield. Instead, it strengthened the artillery battalion of the Indian Third Division, and the cavalry company formed a mixed regiment and marched northwest.
According to the previous cavalry reconnaissance report, the Chu army found traces of a large number of Spanish reinforcements in this direction.
The task of the Indian Eighth Mixed Regiment is to intercept the Spanish reinforcements and prevent them from appearing in the direction of Hakes, and also to prevent them from bypassing the front-line brigade and directly attacking Cadiz, the rear base camp.
Therefore, in this battle, the main force of the third division of the Indian servant army is only two infantry regiments. In fact, these two infantry regiments are not full, because in the past wars in West Africa, the third Indian division has left a lot of troops stationed in West Africa. Each port, although there may only be dozens or hundreds of troops left in each port, but the total number of troops left is still relatively large.
Therefore, the combined strength of these two infantry regiments is only more than 4000 people!
Then add a small number of hundreds of people from the Indian Third Division Division.
In addition, the supply battalion of the Indian Third Division stayed in Cadiz to undertake basic local defense tasks.
The Indian Third Division with more than 1 people, after a series of battles and deployments, actually has only more than 4000 troops left on the Harkersburg battlefield.
Behind the two infantry regiments of the third Indian division is the cavalry regiment of the third division of the Great Chu Empire Army. This cavalry regiment is supervising and covering the Indian infantry units ahead, and it also exists as the forward force of the main force of the third division.
Behind the cavalry regiment of the 53rd Division is the main force of the 53rd Division, including two infantry regiments and an artillery regiment.
As for the infantry regiment of the 53rd Division, this infantry regiment was also split up, leaving a small mixed battalion in Tangier and another battalion in Cadiz.
Another battalion was sent to Portugal before and is currently stationed around Lisbon.
Most of the third division's logistics regiment is still on guard in Cadiz to organize the transportation of supplies. The logistics regiment will not directly participate in the front-line battles in the future, but will mainly defend the logistics transfer station and maintain the logistics line.
Therefore, the strength of the three divisions on the Harkersburg battlefield is not very large. There are only two infantry regiments, one cavalry regiment, and two artillery battalions, totaling about 9000 people.
The Indian Third Division and the 53rd Division combined have a total strength of about 4000 troops, which is less than half of that of the Spaniards on the opposite side.
But it's just a comparison of numbers. If you want to compare technical equipment, then the Chu army can beat the Spaniards.
The breech-loading rifled guns in the Chu army are enough to smooth out this gap in troop strength and gain a huge advantage in firepower.
At about ten o'clock in the morning, the main force of the Chu army arrived, and then Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an ordered to continue marching, and the cavalry regiment began to go out for armed reconnaissance.
However, the advance of the cavalry regiment was not counterattacked by the Spaniards... Although there are obviously a large number of cavalry troops in the Spanish formation, they did not rashly send cavalry to counterattack or expel them, but continued to stay behind seemingly indifferent.
In this case, although the cavalry regiment of the 53rd Division did not seem to be engaged in battle and did not achieve any lethal results, it actually easily tested the direction of the enemy's main force deployment and passed it back to the enemy. Lieutenant General Bo Jianan in the rear.
Completed their main mission on the battlefield!
At twelve o'clock in the morning, the Ninth Infantry Regiment of the Third Indian Division received an order and began to advance northeastward. Fifteen minutes later, the Seventh Indian Infantry Regiment began to detour to the northwest.
The left and right flanks of the two Indian armies made a detour. According to Bo Jianan's order, they did not really intend to conduct a detour attack...Let them make a detour on the flanks. On the one hand, it allows them to bypass the main battlefield and intercept enemy reinforcements that may suddenly appear Troops are also used to block the direction of the enemy's rout and create favorable opportunities for the subsequent semi-encirclement of the enemy.
On the other hand... At this moment, the mission of the Third Division of the Indian Army has almost been completed. As the forwards, they are mainly to find the way for the main force, so as to prevent the Chu army from going deep into unfamiliar places and being attacked by the enemy. an ambush.
Now that the enemy's main force has appeared and the battlefield has arrived, the Indian Third Division's continued presence on the frontal battlefield will actually affect the operations of the 53rd Division.
Because the Indian Third Division is still a slave army equipped with a percussion gun and adopts line tactics as its main tactics.
Their combat method is incompatible with the main force of the Chu army that uses breech-loading rifled guns. Cooperating with them on the battlefield will not only fail to help, but will also hinder the main force's operations.
In order to avoid trouble, Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an simply let the two infantry regiments of the Indian Third Division move to the two sides to make way for the main force.
Save them from making trouble!
But the Spaniards on the opposite side didn't know this. When they saw the two infantry regiments of the Chu army starting to move towards the two wings, they thought that the Chu army was going to make a roundabout attack and attack their two wings.
Immediately dispatched troops and generals, dispatched troops to spread out to the two wings, and made a gesture of intercepting the Indian Third Division.
Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an saw that the relationship was good, and the opposite side had begun to divide the troops, and the pressure to attack the frontal attack would be even less.
Immediately, he no longer hesitated, and began to deploy the troops in battle formation and prepare the artillery units.
In this battle, the artillery unit will still be the absolute main force. The two 75mm artillery battalions with a total of 36 main units will undertake most of the combat tasks.
As for the infantry... Even the infantry of the 53rd Division equipped with breech-loading rifles were actually fighting for the artillery.
Now the 53rd Division Artillery Regiment is a bit disrupted, because six 75mm field guns were dispatched to stay in Tangier, six 34-year-style 75mm mountain guns were dispatched to the Portuguese area, and they were left in Ghana on the way from West Africa. Two 75mm mountain guns.
Therefore, the artillery that finally arrived in Cadiz was actually only 28 34-year-style 75mm mountain guns and twelve 75mm field guns... Then three more 75mm field guns fell into the sea and have not been salvaged yet. .
The remaining troops in Cadiz also left behind four 75mm field guns and two 75mm mountain guns.
In the end, the 75mm artillery brought to the battlefield by Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an consisted of only 26 34-year-style 75mm mountain guns and eleven 75mm field guns.
In the maneuvering along the way, the performance of the 75mm mountain gun was as good as ever, because it only weighed 360 kilograms, so it was very convenient to maneuver.
Relatively speaking, the 32-year-type 75mm field gun is more troublesome to maneuver because of its marching weight of [-] tons.
This thing has a long range and high accuracy, but the weight of [-] tons is still too heavy for overseas regions, and you can’t see it on weekdays, but in the indigenous control areas where the transportation facilities are seriously backward, maneuvering is very troublesome. .
Many bridges built by the aborigines simply cannot allow this kind of artillery to pass quickly. They can only be allowed to pass through after the engineers reinforce or even simply build a pontoon bridge.
The same problem also appeared in the large-scale use of the Chu army, and has always been considered very good four-wheeled heavy carriage.
The four-wheel heavy carriage is an important logistics transportation tool in the Chu army, and its load of more than one ton is also the pride of the Chu army's logistics troops.
However, the carriage plus a load of more than one ton, and then the four horses pulling the cart... The sum is not much lighter than the 75mm field gun, and the requirements for roads and bridges are relatively high.
Therefore, it seemed that the Chu army had no problems in this northward operation, but in fact they encountered considerable challenges in the transportation of artillery and luggage.
This also made Bo Jian'an more determined, and he submitted a report to the Jinling Staff Headquarters later, requesting to further increase the light artillery in the overseas garrison, such as the 34-style 34mm infantry gun and the 75-style [-]mm mountain gun. quantity.
As for the 32-year 75mm field gun, although it has an effective range of 6000 meters, it is still too heavy.
As for the heavier artillery such as the 120mm light howitzer... Just get some military-level support firepower. There is no need to assign it to division-brigade-level troops, let alone accompany infantry in combat...it can't accompany infantry in combat.
The same is true in logistics and transportation. In some places with good roads, the use of four-wheeled heavy-duty horse-drawn carriages is still barely enough. Extremely limited.
On the contrary, the two-wheeled transport carriage with a seemingly smaller load and the light four-wheeled carriage pulled by two horses are more applicable.
Fighting overseas and fighting at home are two completely different concepts. Among them, logistics transportation and artillery mobility are issues that must be taken into consideration.
Otherwise, there will be a side on the Spanish battlefield. The main force of the Chu army seems to be fighting all the way arrogantly, but in fact encountered many troubles along the way.
The distance is only about seven kilometers, but after the engineering troops were busy, they erected as many as three pontoon bridges...By the way, they also used blasting to widen a section of the mountain road...The Spaniards, the native bastards, repaired the road Not positive at all, one of the winding mountain roads is very narrow, and it is very difficult for a carriage to pass.
The engineering troops of the Chu Army couldn't stand it any longer, and directly blasted it on a large scale to open the way, blasting a wider mountain road at the mountain pass.
Right now... the engineer battalion of the Third Division, in addition to continuing to urgently construct the port facilities, there is still a part of the troops who are still building roads and bridges.
The Chu army came all the way to fight, and they dared to build roads and bridges for Spain and build a port along the way...
All these made Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an feel helpless... When the opponent is inferior to a certain level, the biggest challenge the Chu army faces is not whether the enemy can fight, but the severely backward transportation facilities in the local area.
After finally arriving at Harkesburg, Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an, looking at the dense Spanish troops on the opposite side, has made up his mind: try to wipe out this Spanish force here as much as possible!
He doesn't want to play hide-and-seek with the troupe with the army, and he doesn't want to wander around Spain!
Even now, he doesn't even want to go to Madrid...
The straight-line distance of 1 kilometers in the past on this road, the actual distance is still farther, and more than [-] troops of our own side will kill it. How many pontoon bridges have to be built along the way, and how many roads have to be driven!
The Great Chu Empire came to Spain to pry open the market and plunder economic benefits, not to do good deeds and build roads and bridges for the local indigenous people.
In order to avoid any large-scale battles in the future, especially when encountering tough battles, Bo Jianan decided to teach the Spaniards a profound and incomparable lesson: wipe out all the [-] Spanish defenders here.
Give the Spanish dignitaries a deep and incomparable understanding, let them know the fate of fighting the Great Chu Empire by force.
Through a battle of annihilation that made them desperate, the Spanish dignitaries were forced to despair, and finally sat at the negotiating table and accepted the important conditions proposed by the Great Chu Empire: fully open the market!
As for some other conditions, Bo Jian'an thinks that they don't need too much... Seeing that the Spaniard's land area is quite large, it will be troublesome to beat the Spaniard completely, so don't push the Spaniard too hard. necessary……
As long as Spain is willing to fully open the market and limit tariffs, then other things are easy to talk about!
With such a mentality, Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an officially issued an attack order at [-]:[-] that day.
The well-prepared artillery unit began to fire intensively at the Spanish phalanx more than 1000 meters away... These Spaniards thought that the Chu army would fight with them in line, and honestly listed the standard line formation.
But unexpectedly, the Chu army's infantry were still thousands of meters away, and the Chu army's artillery had already begun to shell them intensively.
Next is the performance time of the Chu army's artillery unit...even the Chu army's infantry has little chance to play.
With the continuous shelling, the main line infantry and smoothbore artillery of the Spaniards were unable to advance or retreat...the last one after another collapsed under the shelling of the Chu army.
At this time, the Chu army's infantry were still more than 500 meters away from the Spaniards.
The commander of the Chu army's infantry saw that things were not going well, and a regiment commander immediately ordered that no matter how much they were, they would shoot at the long-range coverage given by Lao Tzu.
Shoot at the enemy's group target more than 500 meters away!
This is to use the breech-loading rifle as a front-loading smoothbore.
Not to mention, the effect is quite good. Although the distance is very long, it is basically impossible for soldiers to specifically aim and hit a single target, but by shooting at group targets, they can get some hits to some extent.
It's just that the infantry has achieved some results, which are not worth mentioning at all compared with the results achieved by the artillery.
The infantry watched their own artillery, smashing the opposite line infantry phalanx and artillery positions, and even the opposite cavalry units to collapse one after another.
The opponent didn't even have time to organize a counterattack, and then collapsed under the powerful field artillery fire of the Chu army.
In this face-to-face formal field battle, the firepower advantage of the Chu army has been greatly brought into play... In fact, if the Spaniards dig field fortifications in advance and then rely on the fortifications to carry out defensive operations, then it is impossible for the Chu army to fight. so smoothly.
The key point is that the previous battle of the Indian Third Division gave the Spaniards an illusion: they felt that the Chu army was also playing line tactics. Although they were behind the Chu army, they were not far behind.
In a head-to-head confrontation, if they compete for courage and the number of troops, they have the hope of winning.
As for hiding in the fortifications and defending stubbornly, it seems that it will collapse for a while, but everyone knows that the Chu army's artillery is strong, and there is no good end for stubbornly defending.
In the end, the Spaniards made the decision to fight head-on, resisting the Chu army through a formal line battle.
It's just that they didn't expect the Chu army's breech-loading rifles to be so powerful. No, to be precise, the Chu army's breech-loading rifles are so powerful.
As for the breech-loading rifle, it didn't actually play any practical role in this battle. When the infantry went up, the Spaniards were basically crushed by the artillery.
When the enemy army collapses, let alone holding a breech-loading rifle, even if you go up with a spear, you can win a huge victory.
The misjudgment of the Spaniards and their arrogance and self-confidence caused their [-] army to basically resist any actual resistance, and they were defeated by the artillery of the Chu army.
What follows is a long escape and pursuit!
At this time, the infantry of the Chu Army could only watch the show from behind... because the cavalry of the 53rd Division Cavalry Regiment rushed forward with their sabers after the enemy collapsed on a large scale.
At this time, the cavalry regiment of the 53rd Division did not engage in any tactics of dismounting and fighting on foot, but adopted the most traditional and primitive cavalry combat method: charge directly up with a saber!
And it's not a charge, just directly towards the fleeing enemies, waving the knife and looking at their backs.
In the afternoon, after the chasing cavalry returned one after another, the battle ended in such an anticlimactic manner.
From the beginning to the end, the Spaniards did not organize even one effective resistance... It is not that they have tried. In fact, the Spaniards tried to organize troops to launch a counterattack at the beginning and mid-term of the battle.
They once tried to let the cavalry unit launch a counterattack to attack the artillery positions of the Chu army.
It's just that these cavalry were intensively bombarded by the artillery units of the Chu army as soon as they assembled... Because of the threat of cavalry, the assembled cavalry is the priority target of the artillery units.
Under such circumstances, the Spaniards tried to gather cavalry units several times without success, but suffered heavy casualties. In the end, their cavalry completely lost the ability to counterattack on a large scale.
The infantry and artillery did not have much resistance... Their artillery's effective range was too short to effectively threaten the Chu army's artillery. The Chu army's artillery could drink tea and continue to bombard the enemy's artillery positions leisurely.
In this battle, only four 75mm field guns were assigned the task of suppressing enemy artillery. From the beginning to the end of the battle, these four guns were guided by hot air balloons with an extremely relaxed attitude. Next, take turns shelling several Spanish artillery positions one by one.
The Spanish artillery with more than 150 artillery pieces of various types... In this battle, almost all of them were destroyed before a single shot was fired. A large number of their artillery was killed by the artillery shells of the Chu army, and most of the artillery were intact. It was left on the battlefield and finally became the spoils of the Chu army.
During the whole process, a captain artillery company commander who commanded the four 75mm field guns to carry out the suppression mission was even free enough to make tea on the battlefield...
For him, commanding artillery to attack the fixed artillery positions of the natives, after calculating all the design elements and conducting a few rounds of shooting guidance, the latter is quite boring... The artillery under his command hit fixed targets according to the shooting elements , and hot air balloons to guide the shooting, and for him, the artillery commander, all he can do in the later stage is to make tea and drink on the sidelines.
It's a group of artillerymen who are exhausted... It's a tiring job to constantly carry and reload the shells.
In this war, the Indian Third Division was used as cannon fodder in the early stage to open the way, and after arriving on the battlefield, it began to watch the theater and capture prisoners later.
For the two infantry regiments of the third division, they watched the show throughout the whole process. In the early stage of the battle, there were artillery units that did not need them, and in the later stage, there were cavalry units for pursuit.
So they could only paddle the whole way... That is to say, they fired a few rounds of long-distance volleys during the battle to find a sense of the battlefield.
For the artillerymen, this time the battle was fun, but they were really tired. Most of the gunners collapsed on the ground after the battle.
For the cavalry, the early stage is like an outing, and the chase in the later stage is not a challenge... Swinging a knife at the enemy's rout and slashing the enemy's back is not a challenge, but at least it conceals and kills a large number of enemy routs. Many enemy troops surrendered, which can be regarded as a lot of participation.
For the Spaniards on the other side of the war, this is a complete and desperate disaster!
They envisioned various battle processes and outcomes.
But I never expected such a miserable defeat!
From the beginning to the end, there is no chance or strength to resist!
From the beginning to the end, they didn't even meet the infantry of the Chu people face to face, and then they were blown up alive by the artillery of the Chu army.
This is a disaster, and a disaster for the entire Kingdom of Spain!
Before the war, many Spanish, even the dignitaries in the Kingdom of Spain and the leading generals at the front were actually deeply worried and even very pessimistic about this war.
They don't think that the Kingdom of Spain can really resist the invasion of Chu!
But they still chose to resist, and they were actively resisting!
They just want to cause certain casualties to the Chu army through stubborn resistance... and this psychological bottom line is actually very low
Even if all 3 people on the front line were killed, as long as a few thousand Chu people were killed, it would be a victory!
This is enough for them to prove...to prove to the Chu people that the Spaniards have the courage and strength to resist!
If you Chu people want to invade and conquer Spain, you will have to pay a heavy price!
We Spaniards can bear the cost of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of casualties in resisting aggression.
But can you Chu people bear the casualties of tens of thousands of people?
Pay enough price to cause some casualties to the Chu people, and finally make the Chu people feel that the cost of the invasion is too high, and finally return to the negotiating table.
At that time, the Spaniards will make certain concessions in the negotiations, and on the premise of retaining the state system, let the Chu people get certain benefits, such as letting go of part of the market, and it is possible to cede Tangier and other North African territories to the Chu people. , the American colonies can discuss it again, not to say that they are unwilling to give it, but you Chu people can't just take it for nothing, at least give some money!
In fact, for the Spaniards, facing the huge threat from the Chu people, many conditions can be agreed to, but the conditions proposed by the Chu people are so harsh that the Spaniards have to resist!
Therefore, for the Spaniards, the goal of this war is very clear: to cause some casualties and troubles to the people of Chu through the war, to let the people of Chu see the courage, determination and ability to directly and resolutely resist, and finally to force the people of Chu to fight. The people returned to the negotiating table and signed a treaty that the Spaniards could barely accept.
As for completely defeating the people of Chu, or even driving them away completely... the rich and powerful in Spain have never even dreamed of doing so.
But all of this...is based on the premise that the Spanish army has resisted stubbornly, shown courage and strength, and caused some casualties and troubles for the Chu State Expeditionary Army.
But now...the Chu people said that they did not encounter any actual resistance. Even if there was any trouble, it was not caused by the Spanish army, but by the transportation facilities in Spain.
As for the casualties... Chu Jun said that they can be ignored!
In this large-scale battle involving tens of thousands of people on both sides, more than 3 people in Spain were almost wiped out. At least 8000 people were killed on the spot and at least tens of thousands were injured.
The three divisions of the Chu Army killed three people, injured 16 people, and a total of 19 casualties, basically due to some sporadic resistance encountered during the pursuit and capture of prisoners.
The Indian Third Division had more casualties. When intercepting the enemy's rout, it was attacked by the enemy, and more than 100 people were killed and injured, but it was not worth mentioning.
Even the casualties of the Indian servants, the Chu army has never counted their own casualties... Well, the Indian servants, their greatest significance is here, the cost is low, and the casualties will not have any impact.
Not to mention more than 200 casualties, the death of the Indian Third Division will not make the top leaders of the Great Chu Empire frown, let alone give up the free trade plan in Europe.
To apply the attitude of some senior military generals: before the last Indian dies in battle, the empire will never surrender, let alone give up the European free trade plan!
According to the military plan, the Indian Third Division is only the first troop sent by the military to Europe, followed by the Indian Fourth Division, the Fifth Division and a group of Indian recruits to the Third Division. Departure, heading to Europe.
(End of this chapter)
As a rise in the age of great voyages, it has successively occupied large colonies in many parts of the world, especially Spain, which has a large number of colonies in the Americas. It has to be said that it has a kind of confidence or confidence in the face of war.
When the Great Chu Empire bombarded and landed in Cadiz on a large scale, the Spaniards did not surrender like the Portuguese next door, but faced a small defeat and surrendered the whole country.
Instead, the Spaniards adopted a strategy of actively withdrawing from the coastal areas and gathering troops in the inland areas to resist.
The [-] army, this is the army assembled by the Spaniards in a short time after facing the invasion of the Chu army.
They included both the original garrison troops from the Cadiz area and the sailors who came ashore from the fleet, but more of them were Spanish reinforcements from the surrounding areas.
In fact, some of these armies are not directly controlled by the Spanish state control, and many of them are local armies of nearby nobles.
In Europe these days, the traditional enfeoffment system is still preserved, and the king is only the biggest noble, and there are a lot of messy nobles underneath. These nobles also have armies and serve the king in wartime.
But today, they are all gathered in the Jacasburg area, seven kilometers north of the port of Cadiz.
This small village area, which was not worth mentioning in the past and did not leave any name in history, is destined to be famous in history today because of the successive arrival of the Spaniards and the Chu army.
On the fourth day of September in the 37th year of Chengshun, the weather in early autumn was very refreshing, and the sky without any industrial pollution was extremely blue.
That morning, the Ninth Infantry Regiment of the Indian Third Division, which was the vanguard of the Chu Army, first arrived at the outskirts of Hakes.
However, it did not launch an attack immediately, but stayed on the periphery.
In the rear position of the Ninth Indian Infantry Regiment is the Seventh Infantry Regiment under the Indian Third Division.
As for the other infantry regiment of the Indian Third Division, that is, the Eighth Infantry Regiment, it did not appear on the battlefield. Instead, it strengthened the artillery battalion of the Indian Third Division, and the cavalry company formed a mixed regiment and marched northwest.
According to the previous cavalry reconnaissance report, the Chu army found traces of a large number of Spanish reinforcements in this direction.
The task of the Indian Eighth Mixed Regiment is to intercept the Spanish reinforcements and prevent them from appearing in the direction of Hakes, and also to prevent them from bypassing the front-line brigade and directly attacking Cadiz, the rear base camp.
Therefore, in this battle, the main force of the third division of the Indian servant army is only two infantry regiments. In fact, these two infantry regiments are not full, because in the past wars in West Africa, the third Indian division has left a lot of troops stationed in West Africa. Each port, although there may only be dozens or hundreds of troops left in each port, but the total number of troops left is still relatively large.
Therefore, the combined strength of these two infantry regiments is only more than 4000 people!
Then add a small number of hundreds of people from the Indian Third Division Division.
In addition, the supply battalion of the Indian Third Division stayed in Cadiz to undertake basic local defense tasks.
The Indian Third Division with more than 1 people, after a series of battles and deployments, actually has only more than 4000 troops left on the Harkersburg battlefield.
Behind the two infantry regiments of the third Indian division is the cavalry regiment of the third division of the Great Chu Empire Army. This cavalry regiment is supervising and covering the Indian infantry units ahead, and it also exists as the forward force of the main force of the third division.
Behind the cavalry regiment of the 53rd Division is the main force of the 53rd Division, including two infantry regiments and an artillery regiment.
As for the infantry regiment of the 53rd Division, this infantry regiment was also split up, leaving a small mixed battalion in Tangier and another battalion in Cadiz.
Another battalion was sent to Portugal before and is currently stationed around Lisbon.
Most of the third division's logistics regiment is still on guard in Cadiz to organize the transportation of supplies. The logistics regiment will not directly participate in the front-line battles in the future, but will mainly defend the logistics transfer station and maintain the logistics line.
Therefore, the strength of the three divisions on the Harkersburg battlefield is not very large. There are only two infantry regiments, one cavalry regiment, and two artillery battalions, totaling about 9000 people.
The Indian Third Division and the 53rd Division combined have a total strength of about 4000 troops, which is less than half of that of the Spaniards on the opposite side.
But it's just a comparison of numbers. If you want to compare technical equipment, then the Chu army can beat the Spaniards.
The breech-loading rifled guns in the Chu army are enough to smooth out this gap in troop strength and gain a huge advantage in firepower.
At about ten o'clock in the morning, the main force of the Chu army arrived, and then Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an ordered to continue marching, and the cavalry regiment began to go out for armed reconnaissance.
However, the advance of the cavalry regiment was not counterattacked by the Spaniards... Although there are obviously a large number of cavalry troops in the Spanish formation, they did not rashly send cavalry to counterattack or expel them, but continued to stay behind seemingly indifferent.
In this case, although the cavalry regiment of the 53rd Division did not seem to be engaged in battle and did not achieve any lethal results, it actually easily tested the direction of the enemy's main force deployment and passed it back to the enemy. Lieutenant General Bo Jianan in the rear.
Completed their main mission on the battlefield!
At twelve o'clock in the morning, the Ninth Infantry Regiment of the Third Indian Division received an order and began to advance northeastward. Fifteen minutes later, the Seventh Indian Infantry Regiment began to detour to the northwest.
The left and right flanks of the two Indian armies made a detour. According to Bo Jianan's order, they did not really intend to conduct a detour attack...Let them make a detour on the flanks. On the one hand, it allows them to bypass the main battlefield and intercept enemy reinforcements that may suddenly appear Troops are also used to block the direction of the enemy's rout and create favorable opportunities for the subsequent semi-encirclement of the enemy.
On the other hand... At this moment, the mission of the Third Division of the Indian Army has almost been completed. As the forwards, they are mainly to find the way for the main force, so as to prevent the Chu army from going deep into unfamiliar places and being attacked by the enemy. an ambush.
Now that the enemy's main force has appeared and the battlefield has arrived, the Indian Third Division's continued presence on the frontal battlefield will actually affect the operations of the 53rd Division.
Because the Indian Third Division is still a slave army equipped with a percussion gun and adopts line tactics as its main tactics.
Their combat method is incompatible with the main force of the Chu army that uses breech-loading rifled guns. Cooperating with them on the battlefield will not only fail to help, but will also hinder the main force's operations.
In order to avoid trouble, Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an simply let the two infantry regiments of the Indian Third Division move to the two sides to make way for the main force.
Save them from making trouble!
But the Spaniards on the opposite side didn't know this. When they saw the two infantry regiments of the Chu army starting to move towards the two wings, they thought that the Chu army was going to make a roundabout attack and attack their two wings.
Immediately dispatched troops and generals, dispatched troops to spread out to the two wings, and made a gesture of intercepting the Indian Third Division.
Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an saw that the relationship was good, and the opposite side had begun to divide the troops, and the pressure to attack the frontal attack would be even less.
Immediately, he no longer hesitated, and began to deploy the troops in battle formation and prepare the artillery units.
In this battle, the artillery unit will still be the absolute main force. The two 75mm artillery battalions with a total of 36 main units will undertake most of the combat tasks.
As for the infantry... Even the infantry of the 53rd Division equipped with breech-loading rifles were actually fighting for the artillery.
Now the 53rd Division Artillery Regiment is a bit disrupted, because six 75mm field guns were dispatched to stay in Tangier, six 34-year-style 75mm mountain guns were dispatched to the Portuguese area, and they were left in Ghana on the way from West Africa. Two 75mm mountain guns.
Therefore, the artillery that finally arrived in Cadiz was actually only 28 34-year-style 75mm mountain guns and twelve 75mm field guns... Then three more 75mm field guns fell into the sea and have not been salvaged yet. .
The remaining troops in Cadiz also left behind four 75mm field guns and two 75mm mountain guns.
In the end, the 75mm artillery brought to the battlefield by Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an consisted of only 26 34-year-style 75mm mountain guns and eleven 75mm field guns.
In the maneuvering along the way, the performance of the 75mm mountain gun was as good as ever, because it only weighed 360 kilograms, so it was very convenient to maneuver.
Relatively speaking, the 32-year-type 75mm field gun is more troublesome to maneuver because of its marching weight of [-] tons.
This thing has a long range and high accuracy, but the weight of [-] tons is still too heavy for overseas regions, and you can’t see it on weekdays, but in the indigenous control areas where the transportation facilities are seriously backward, maneuvering is very troublesome. .
Many bridges built by the aborigines simply cannot allow this kind of artillery to pass quickly. They can only be allowed to pass through after the engineers reinforce or even simply build a pontoon bridge.
The same problem also appeared in the large-scale use of the Chu army, and has always been considered very good four-wheeled heavy carriage.
The four-wheel heavy carriage is an important logistics transportation tool in the Chu army, and its load of more than one ton is also the pride of the Chu army's logistics troops.
However, the carriage plus a load of more than one ton, and then the four horses pulling the cart... The sum is not much lighter than the 75mm field gun, and the requirements for roads and bridges are relatively high.
Therefore, it seemed that the Chu army had no problems in this northward operation, but in fact they encountered considerable challenges in the transportation of artillery and luggage.
This also made Bo Jian'an more determined, and he submitted a report to the Jinling Staff Headquarters later, requesting to further increase the light artillery in the overseas garrison, such as the 34-style 34mm infantry gun and the 75-style [-]mm mountain gun. quantity.
As for the 32-year 75mm field gun, although it has an effective range of 6000 meters, it is still too heavy.
As for the heavier artillery such as the 120mm light howitzer... Just get some military-level support firepower. There is no need to assign it to division-brigade-level troops, let alone accompany infantry in combat...it can't accompany infantry in combat.
The same is true in logistics and transportation. In some places with good roads, the use of four-wheeled heavy-duty horse-drawn carriages is still barely enough. Extremely limited.
On the contrary, the two-wheeled transport carriage with a seemingly smaller load and the light four-wheeled carriage pulled by two horses are more applicable.
Fighting overseas and fighting at home are two completely different concepts. Among them, logistics transportation and artillery mobility are issues that must be taken into consideration.
Otherwise, there will be a side on the Spanish battlefield. The main force of the Chu army seems to be fighting all the way arrogantly, but in fact encountered many troubles along the way.
The distance is only about seven kilometers, but after the engineering troops were busy, they erected as many as three pontoon bridges...By the way, they also used blasting to widen a section of the mountain road...The Spaniards, the native bastards, repaired the road Not positive at all, one of the winding mountain roads is very narrow, and it is very difficult for a carriage to pass.
The engineering troops of the Chu Army couldn't stand it any longer, and directly blasted it on a large scale to open the way, blasting a wider mountain road at the mountain pass.
Right now... the engineer battalion of the Third Division, in addition to continuing to urgently construct the port facilities, there is still a part of the troops who are still building roads and bridges.
The Chu army came all the way to fight, and they dared to build roads and bridges for Spain and build a port along the way...
All these made Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an feel helpless... When the opponent is inferior to a certain level, the biggest challenge the Chu army faces is not whether the enemy can fight, but the severely backward transportation facilities in the local area.
After finally arriving at Harkesburg, Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an, looking at the dense Spanish troops on the opposite side, has made up his mind: try to wipe out this Spanish force here as much as possible!
He doesn't want to play hide-and-seek with the troupe with the army, and he doesn't want to wander around Spain!
Even now, he doesn't even want to go to Madrid...
The straight-line distance of 1 kilometers in the past on this road, the actual distance is still farther, and more than [-] troops of our own side will kill it. How many pontoon bridges have to be built along the way, and how many roads have to be driven!
The Great Chu Empire came to Spain to pry open the market and plunder economic benefits, not to do good deeds and build roads and bridges for the local indigenous people.
In order to avoid any large-scale battles in the future, especially when encountering tough battles, Bo Jianan decided to teach the Spaniards a profound and incomparable lesson: wipe out all the [-] Spanish defenders here.
Give the Spanish dignitaries a deep and incomparable understanding, let them know the fate of fighting the Great Chu Empire by force.
Through a battle of annihilation that made them desperate, the Spanish dignitaries were forced to despair, and finally sat at the negotiating table and accepted the important conditions proposed by the Great Chu Empire: fully open the market!
As for some other conditions, Bo Jian'an thinks that they don't need too much... Seeing that the Spaniard's land area is quite large, it will be troublesome to beat the Spaniard completely, so don't push the Spaniard too hard. necessary……
As long as Spain is willing to fully open the market and limit tariffs, then other things are easy to talk about!
With such a mentality, Lieutenant General Bo Jian'an officially issued an attack order at [-]:[-] that day.
The well-prepared artillery unit began to fire intensively at the Spanish phalanx more than 1000 meters away... These Spaniards thought that the Chu army would fight with them in line, and honestly listed the standard line formation.
But unexpectedly, the Chu army's infantry were still thousands of meters away, and the Chu army's artillery had already begun to shell them intensively.
Next is the performance time of the Chu army's artillery unit...even the Chu army's infantry has little chance to play.
With the continuous shelling, the main line infantry and smoothbore artillery of the Spaniards were unable to advance or retreat...the last one after another collapsed under the shelling of the Chu army.
At this time, the Chu army's infantry were still more than 500 meters away from the Spaniards.
The commander of the Chu army's infantry saw that things were not going well, and a regiment commander immediately ordered that no matter how much they were, they would shoot at the long-range coverage given by Lao Tzu.
Shoot at the enemy's group target more than 500 meters away!
This is to use the breech-loading rifle as a front-loading smoothbore.
Not to mention, the effect is quite good. Although the distance is very long, it is basically impossible for soldiers to specifically aim and hit a single target, but by shooting at group targets, they can get some hits to some extent.
It's just that the infantry has achieved some results, which are not worth mentioning at all compared with the results achieved by the artillery.
The infantry watched their own artillery, smashing the opposite line infantry phalanx and artillery positions, and even the opposite cavalry units to collapse one after another.
The opponent didn't even have time to organize a counterattack, and then collapsed under the powerful field artillery fire of the Chu army.
In this face-to-face formal field battle, the firepower advantage of the Chu army has been greatly brought into play... In fact, if the Spaniards dig field fortifications in advance and then rely on the fortifications to carry out defensive operations, then it is impossible for the Chu army to fight. so smoothly.
The key point is that the previous battle of the Indian Third Division gave the Spaniards an illusion: they felt that the Chu army was also playing line tactics. Although they were behind the Chu army, they were not far behind.
In a head-to-head confrontation, if they compete for courage and the number of troops, they have the hope of winning.
As for hiding in the fortifications and defending stubbornly, it seems that it will collapse for a while, but everyone knows that the Chu army's artillery is strong, and there is no good end for stubbornly defending.
In the end, the Spaniards made the decision to fight head-on, resisting the Chu army through a formal line battle.
It's just that they didn't expect the Chu army's breech-loading rifles to be so powerful. No, to be precise, the Chu army's breech-loading rifles are so powerful.
As for the breech-loading rifle, it didn't actually play any practical role in this battle. When the infantry went up, the Spaniards were basically crushed by the artillery.
When the enemy army collapses, let alone holding a breech-loading rifle, even if you go up with a spear, you can win a huge victory.
The misjudgment of the Spaniards and their arrogance and self-confidence caused their [-] army to basically resist any actual resistance, and they were defeated by the artillery of the Chu army.
What follows is a long escape and pursuit!
At this time, the infantry of the Chu Army could only watch the show from behind... because the cavalry of the 53rd Division Cavalry Regiment rushed forward with their sabers after the enemy collapsed on a large scale.
At this time, the cavalry regiment of the 53rd Division did not engage in any tactics of dismounting and fighting on foot, but adopted the most traditional and primitive cavalry combat method: charge directly up with a saber!
And it's not a charge, just directly towards the fleeing enemies, waving the knife and looking at their backs.
In the afternoon, after the chasing cavalry returned one after another, the battle ended in such an anticlimactic manner.
From the beginning to the end, the Spaniards did not organize even one effective resistance... It is not that they have tried. In fact, the Spaniards tried to organize troops to launch a counterattack at the beginning and mid-term of the battle.
They once tried to let the cavalry unit launch a counterattack to attack the artillery positions of the Chu army.
It's just that these cavalry were intensively bombarded by the artillery units of the Chu army as soon as they assembled... Because of the threat of cavalry, the assembled cavalry is the priority target of the artillery units.
Under such circumstances, the Spaniards tried to gather cavalry units several times without success, but suffered heavy casualties. In the end, their cavalry completely lost the ability to counterattack on a large scale.
The infantry and artillery did not have much resistance... Their artillery's effective range was too short to effectively threaten the Chu army's artillery. The Chu army's artillery could drink tea and continue to bombard the enemy's artillery positions leisurely.
In this battle, only four 75mm field guns were assigned the task of suppressing enemy artillery. From the beginning to the end of the battle, these four guns were guided by hot air balloons with an extremely relaxed attitude. Next, take turns shelling several Spanish artillery positions one by one.
The Spanish artillery with more than 150 artillery pieces of various types... In this battle, almost all of them were destroyed before a single shot was fired. A large number of their artillery was killed by the artillery shells of the Chu army, and most of the artillery were intact. It was left on the battlefield and finally became the spoils of the Chu army.
During the whole process, a captain artillery company commander who commanded the four 75mm field guns to carry out the suppression mission was even free enough to make tea on the battlefield...
For him, commanding artillery to attack the fixed artillery positions of the natives, after calculating all the design elements and conducting a few rounds of shooting guidance, the latter is quite boring... The artillery under his command hit fixed targets according to the shooting elements , and hot air balloons to guide the shooting, and for him, the artillery commander, all he can do in the later stage is to make tea and drink on the sidelines.
It's a group of artillerymen who are exhausted... It's a tiring job to constantly carry and reload the shells.
In this war, the Indian Third Division was used as cannon fodder in the early stage to open the way, and after arriving on the battlefield, it began to watch the theater and capture prisoners later.
For the two infantry regiments of the third division, they watched the show throughout the whole process. In the early stage of the battle, there were artillery units that did not need them, and in the later stage, there were cavalry units for pursuit.
So they could only paddle the whole way... That is to say, they fired a few rounds of long-distance volleys during the battle to find a sense of the battlefield.
For the artillerymen, this time the battle was fun, but they were really tired. Most of the gunners collapsed on the ground after the battle.
For the cavalry, the early stage is like an outing, and the chase in the later stage is not a challenge... Swinging a knife at the enemy's rout and slashing the enemy's back is not a challenge, but at least it conceals and kills a large number of enemy routs. Many enemy troops surrendered, which can be regarded as a lot of participation.
For the Spaniards on the other side of the war, this is a complete and desperate disaster!
They envisioned various battle processes and outcomes.
But I never expected such a miserable defeat!
From the beginning to the end, there is no chance or strength to resist!
From the beginning to the end, they didn't even meet the infantry of the Chu people face to face, and then they were blown up alive by the artillery of the Chu army.
This is a disaster, and a disaster for the entire Kingdom of Spain!
Before the war, many Spanish, even the dignitaries in the Kingdom of Spain and the leading generals at the front were actually deeply worried and even very pessimistic about this war.
They don't think that the Kingdom of Spain can really resist the invasion of Chu!
But they still chose to resist, and they were actively resisting!
They just want to cause certain casualties to the Chu army through stubborn resistance... and this psychological bottom line is actually very low
Even if all 3 people on the front line were killed, as long as a few thousand Chu people were killed, it would be a victory!
This is enough for them to prove...to prove to the Chu people that the Spaniards have the courage and strength to resist!
If you Chu people want to invade and conquer Spain, you will have to pay a heavy price!
We Spaniards can bear the cost of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of casualties in resisting aggression.
But can you Chu people bear the casualties of tens of thousands of people?
Pay enough price to cause some casualties to the Chu people, and finally make the Chu people feel that the cost of the invasion is too high, and finally return to the negotiating table.
At that time, the Spaniards will make certain concessions in the negotiations, and on the premise of retaining the state system, let the Chu people get certain benefits, such as letting go of part of the market, and it is possible to cede Tangier and other North African territories to the Chu people. , the American colonies can discuss it again, not to say that they are unwilling to give it, but you Chu people can't just take it for nothing, at least give some money!
In fact, for the Spaniards, facing the huge threat from the Chu people, many conditions can be agreed to, but the conditions proposed by the Chu people are so harsh that the Spaniards have to resist!
Therefore, for the Spaniards, the goal of this war is very clear: to cause some casualties and troubles to the people of Chu through the war, to let the people of Chu see the courage, determination and ability to directly and resolutely resist, and finally to force the people of Chu to fight. The people returned to the negotiating table and signed a treaty that the Spaniards could barely accept.
As for completely defeating the people of Chu, or even driving them away completely... the rich and powerful in Spain have never even dreamed of doing so.
But all of this...is based on the premise that the Spanish army has resisted stubbornly, shown courage and strength, and caused some casualties and troubles for the Chu State Expeditionary Army.
But now...the Chu people said that they did not encounter any actual resistance. Even if there was any trouble, it was not caused by the Spanish army, but by the transportation facilities in Spain.
As for the casualties... Chu Jun said that they can be ignored!
In this large-scale battle involving tens of thousands of people on both sides, more than 3 people in Spain were almost wiped out. At least 8000 people were killed on the spot and at least tens of thousands were injured.
The three divisions of the Chu Army killed three people, injured 16 people, and a total of 19 casualties, basically due to some sporadic resistance encountered during the pursuit and capture of prisoners.
The Indian Third Division had more casualties. When intercepting the enemy's rout, it was attacked by the enemy, and more than 100 people were killed and injured, but it was not worth mentioning.
Even the casualties of the Indian servants, the Chu army has never counted their own casualties... Well, the Indian servants, their greatest significance is here, the cost is low, and the casualties will not have any impact.
Not to mention more than 200 casualties, the death of the Indian Third Division will not make the top leaders of the Great Chu Empire frown, let alone give up the free trade plan in Europe.
To apply the attitude of some senior military generals: before the last Indian dies in battle, the empire will never surrender, let alone give up the European free trade plan!
According to the military plan, the Indian Third Division is only the first troop sent by the military to Europe, followed by the Indian Fourth Division, the Fifth Division and a group of Indian recruits to the Third Division. Departure, heading to Europe.
(End of this chapter)
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