Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2331 San Joaquin

On October 1697, 10, on the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico, dozens of cannons were bombarding a small field in an orderly manner.

There is a Spanish military camp on the small soil bag, with more than 300 people stationed there.The barracks has a wall with more than a dozen cannons placed on it, condescending, it is a huge threat to the attacking side, and must be removed.

The attacking side was pirates from Liangshan and Sioux City. They gathered about a thousand people. They were equipped with muskets and cannons, and they seemed to have sufficient ammunition. They fought for so many sessions without stopping. This made the Spaniards on the mountain It's very depressing: it's unimaginable that the pirates are richer than the serious army these days.

The commander-in-chief of the Pirates in Sucheng is the famous Wang Zhaoli, but he is watching the battle with binoculars on the boat at this moment. The real front-line commander is Tian Xiaochuan, the former commander-in-chief of the enemy.The pirates are reluctant to talk about this person's identity and background. In short, he has received systematic military, intelligence, and diplomatic education. He has extraordinary knowledge and a lot of means. He can often buy a lot of control equipment for the pirates. His status has risen rapidly over the years. .

Tian Xiaochuan didn't think highly of those Spanish colonial troops.Even though the combat effectiveness of the thousand pirates under his command is not very good, they were secretly trained by the military advisers on the east coast, and all kinds of equipment are relatively complete, and they look good when used.Take cannon shooting as an example. Other pirate groups often rely on some experienced veterans to operate. They rely entirely on experience, but their accuracy is not bad.The problem with this method is that there is no systematic inheritance. Once an experienced veteran dies in battle, can the successor play so accurately?But the Sioux City pirates are different. Their artillery formation is very similar to that of the East Coast Army. The commander of each gun can measure the distance, estimate the wind force, and calculate the ballistic. This is naturally another level of fighting, so that many Officials in the colonies they robbed were all guessing whether the artillerymen of the Sioux City pirates were disguised as regular soldiers. In fact, there was no need to guess. Skills are not covered.

The weakness of Sioux City Pirates lies in ordinary infantry.After all, they are pirates, and they are used to being free and undisturbed, but the army is the most disciplined when fighting in battle. This is contrary to the nature of pirates, and it is not easy to train.It is the result of very hard work to have the situation in front of me. There is no way, it is congenitally deficient, so it can only be like this.

The howling shells smashed the city wall built by the Spaniards with wood.The Spanish officer leading the team groaned secretly. Most of the twelve cannons placed on the city wall had failed to fire.These old cannons were basically transported from Mexico after the establishment of San Joaquin City. They were older than him (forty years old). In addition, they were not maintained enough, and half of them could not fire before the war.And now, after more than an hour of fighting, there are damaged guns and exhausted shells. In short, only two guns can fight back from time to time, but they are basically useless!

Naturally, the pirates who attacked the city could also see this.So, under the command of Tian Xiaochuan, a group of swordsmen with bare upper body and sharp knives came out.These guys are basically bandits and Taoist disciples from Shandong. They were chased by the Qing court and fled to Denglai in a panic.In the past, the people on the east coast didn't think much of these bloody guys. Most of them were put into the road construction team to work to death, but they were blooming everywhere in the colony. At present, when there is an urgent shortage of manpower, these people are sent to Southeast Asia in large numbers. , India, and even the Sioux City pirates as far away as the Caribbean Sea have been assigned a lot—at this time, whoever says that the Sioux City pirates are so-called "civilian organizations" and not peripheral thugs supported by the intelligence agencies on the east coast? Just stupid as a pig.

The charge of the desperadoes was not smooth, more than [-] were knocked down by the Spanish muskets halfway, but instead of retreating, the rest of them became bloody, and charged faster with swords in hand.When they were "doing justice for the heavens" in Shandong, the musketeers of the Qing army played much better than these soft Spaniards.Wouldn't it be beautiful to break up the officers and soldiers guarding the stockade outside the city, and then rush into the city to have fun and see those Spanish girls crying in front of him?

The desperadoes quickly rushed to the village that had been beaten to pieces, and fought hand-to-hand with the Spaniards.Behind them, a musketeer team of pirates was approaching.And farther away, the artillery on the pirate ship was still bombarding San Joaquin City non-stop, and the few Spanish soldiers trapped in the city were trembling and did not dare to make any moves.

The battle on the hill outside the city ended after half an hour of hand-to-hand combat.Although these Spanish colonial soldiers were equipped with muskets that imitated the bayonets of the East Coast, their stabbing skills were really common.

After capturing the camp, the pirates directly mounted the cannons and continued to bombard San Joaquin City.Under the attack from both sides, the morale of the Spaniards immediately collapsed, and Bai Qi surrendered directly.Tian Xiaochuan, who was watching the battle from a distance, was so happy that he slapped his thighs. Behind him stood more than 100 men who were drinking Zhuangxing wine. Everyone was carrying a ghost-headed sword. They were about to charge San Joaquin to the death, but they surrendered directly. It's speechless - but it's a good thing, isn't it?

At this time, Tian Xiaochuan also had an intuitive assessment of the combat effectiveness of the pirates.What he saw before was only robbery at sea. Although the pirates were brave and skilled in combat, this time it was a land battle, and they were not fighting the Spanish militia, but the serious colonial army. It is hard to say what the result will be.But after this battle, Tian Xiaochuan found that some of his concepts needed to be corrected. The pirates are still not very good at fighting land battles. For example, this kind of behavior of charging in a mess with big knives is basically looking for death when encountering well-trained regular soldiers. However, the Spanish soldiers were too unprofessional and unorthodox to be defeated by this disorderly charge, just like an old boxer being knocked down by a young and strong boy with a punch , I don’t know what I usually practice, maybe I can’t even guarantee the training?

"More training is still needed." Tian Xiaochuan said softly to himself: "The population of Suzhou City and Liangshan City is increasing, and although the order in all aspects is a bit rough, it is gradually improving. , tax sources, regularization construction is urgent. The current group of pirates is difficult to change. Their temperament and skills are not enough to be a regular army of a country. In the future, they still have to build their own army from scratch, but they must also ensure that they will not be contaminated by pirates. It’s not easy to feel so many disgusting things.”

"The number of troops is too large and insufficient. The army needs to be expanded, and the navy is a gold-sucking behemoth. Judging from the current financial situation of Sioux City Port, it is difficult to build a regular navy, so we can only rely on these pirates first. However, most of the property obtained by the pirates will be divided up. I can only hope that these people will spend a lot of money and drink, and then let the money flow back to the governments and people in Sioux City and Liangshan to nourish it. It seems that it was a loss when I took the initiative to invite Yingying to come here." Tian Xiaochuan walked to an empty powder keg, and with his right hand Pat lightly, and sighed: "The task is heavy, and the time is running out."

The two men with short guns on their waists who followed him were also agents of the General Intelligence Bureau. They were among the pirates, and naturally they were also carrying out secret missions.At this time, Shangguan sighed, and the two looked at each other and smiled without saying anything.Everyone has read the previous orders. Attacking San Joaquin was the decision of the "Big Boss". The pirates just executed it unconditionally—well, not completely unconditional. In fact, they got some food, daily necessities and 10 military departments Sponsorship of Decommissioned Artillery - After fighting San Joaquin, the pirates can rest and recuperate for a while, and then they will start to harass the coastal areas of Mexico and Central America. The "Big Boss" said that they don't take any money from the looting of the pirates. On the contrary, they will donate some shells, gunpowder and medical supplies from Huaiyuan Island. As long as the combat effectiveness of the pirates improves, there will be more assistance in the future.

All in all, the "Big Boss" believes that this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is "a fortune to the sky" for the pirates in Sioux City, and it is the best chance for them to save a family fortune for their descendants.Because once the tasks assigned by the East Bank government are successfully completed, there will be support from the East Bank for various formalizations in the future.

But don't underestimate this kind of support. Many grassroots teams eventually collapsed and dispersed because they didn't have this kind of support.The "Thirteen Taibao", the upper echelons of the Sucheng pirates, more or less agreed with this matter, so after the East Coast State Intelligence Bureau helped them unify their thinking, they no longer hesitated and acted decisively.They even used their relationship in Florida - don't doubt, many native white nobles in Florida have nothing to do with them. On the surface, they are sanctimonious and loyal to the king, but they are not seen in private. Don't do too many things that harm the interests of Spain. ——Get in touch with local powerful figures and ask them to "battlefield uprising" at critical moments, directly declare independence, attack the Spanish Kingdom's influence in the Caribbean Sea, and reduce their available forces.

The National Intelligence Agency appreciated this very much, and formally intervened through the relationship of the pirates, and promised more to the local nobles, allowing them to become a "protectorate" on the east coast, let them do it freely, and drive the people of the peninsula back to their hometowns. Be the master and become the master of one world.

Such a careful layout can naturally greatly contain the enemy forces in the Governorate of New Spain, and facilitate the army sent by the east coast to attack cities and seize territories in various places to gather benefits.If you are lucky, you may be able to occupy some islands in the Caribbean Sea, as the defense line of the outer island chain in South America, wouldn't it be beautiful?

Spaniards, go back to Europe as soon as possible, your era has entered the countdown!

(End of this chapter)