Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 535 Putrajaya, Vulnerable! (one)

After occupying the port, the naval fleet rested here, repaired the fort, and began to move supplies to the transport ship.The army, led by Chang Kaisheng, headed northwest all the way and began to attack the main city of Buenos Aires, focusing on the multiple ruling institutions of the Spanish here.

More than 220 cavalrymen from two cavalry companies walked ahead, and the Spanish farms and pastures passing by along the way were full of panicked Spanish residents.Especially those women and children, when they saw the cavalry brothers in dark blue military uniforms and holding bright sabers, they were all so frightened that they did not dare to speak out.

These farms are generally developed by peninsula people (that is, Spanish whites) who moved here in the past ten years, and their farms often employ several Italians, Hungarians from central and southern Europe, and of course a larger number of Indian slaves .What is strange is that there are very few men among these slaves, and most of them are women. Maybe the local Indian men were all killed?

The man of the farm stood by the road, his hat off, and humbly bowing low in honor of the new conquerors.Their wives wear headscarves, hold the hands of their children, hide behind the master, and pray in fear.Well, maybe praying to God they encountered a better disciplined unit.

In fact they are lucky.Because before this battle, Lieutenant Colonel Lu Ming, who served as the commander-in-chief, repeatedly emphasized the importance of military discipline.He especially warned those militiamen with poor military discipline, asking them not to rob and kill at will, so as not to arouse the resistance of the local people and increase their own casualties.Now the troops on the east bank are very precious, and he doesn't want to plunge his limited troops into an infinite public security war.

Lu Ming's worry was justified.Because in the local battle against the Guarani people, the military discipline of these militiamen who accompanied the army was often quite poor.Most of these people were from bandits in Shandong of the Ming Dynasty, and a few were low-level people who could not get along in the old continent. They were unshaven, weather-beaten in society, greedy for money, lustful, and fearful of power.Unlike those Bingtuanbao students who talk about their ideals, they only value immediate interests, so their military discipline is often very poor.Wherever they go, there are hardly any living young and middle-aged Guaraní men or chaste women.

Some civil servants and ecumenicals have complained to the executive committee, asking the military to punish those militiamen who violated military discipline.However, after an investigation by the military department, it was embarrassing to find that among the militiamen who went out to fight with the army, those who did not violate military discipline were rare, and most of them had violated military discipline to some extent.A member of the gendarmerie who participated in the investigation said frankly: "If you want to be more serious, these people are probably robbers, murderers or rapists. These people don't get any military pay, and the spoils can only be distributed to a small part. If you want to If you punish them for breaking some military discipline, then their morale will be greatly damaged."

And some officers also excused them. According to their records in battle, they found that often the most indecent scum and villain would be the soldier who best fulfilled the officer's intentions after arriving on the battlefield.They were quite brave, which endeared them to the officers.Therefore, in the end, these things often can only be left alone.

But this time is obviously different. The Guarani people are based on tribes and have no strength, so bullying is just bullying.But the Spaniards have a unified national concept and a unified government agency. If these obedient farmers are forced to rebel because of poor military discipline, it will not be worth the loss for the people on the east coast who are short of troops.And this is also the reason why Lu Ming warned these militiamen before the battle, and also specially arranged for military police to monitor their every move.

The Spaniards in the villages outside Buenos Aires did not show any violent resistance, when the people on the east bank "according to the custom" levied a "safety tax" on them (one peso for each adult and half a peso for children) , They also paid the tax obediently, which satisfied Captain Chang Kaisheng who led the team.Under such circumstances, 2000 people from the Changkai Victory Department arrived in the southern suburbs of Buenos Aires on the afternoon of September 9, and then began to build temporary camps and deploy artillery positions, preparing to launch an attack the next day .

And they also progressed quite smoothly along the way, and the expected Spanish gaucho volunteers disappeared.After all, these people are not fools. Maybe they don't mind going up to make a profit when their side has the upper hand.But now those peninsulas or native whites are clearly at a disadvantage. At this time, it is a bit fanciful to expect them, the impoverished and discriminated gauchos, to join the Spanish side.Only those stupid, dead-headed Guaranís who came from the north along the Paraná River would recklessly join the Spaniards at this time and fight against the well-armed east bank army.

Unlike the masonry fortresses that dot the East Coast republics, the Spanish colonies rarely have cities surrounded by thick walls.Especially in the prosperous big cities, there are basically no city walls, and only the small strongholds on the main roads or by the sea can be solid fortresses built with stones, clay, and bricks.

Buenos Aires is no exception. Most of the city's blocks are not enclosed by walls, they are just open there, extending to the farms and woods in the outskirts.There are some walls in the center of the city, and these walls connect some castle-shaped buildings to form a mini-city within the city of Buenos Aires.These buildings are either the municipal council, the church, the general's mansion, the prison, the warehouse, or the headquarters of the local chamber of commerce. In short, they are the core essence of Putrajaya.

The two hundred Spanish defenders of Buenos Aires clung to these solid masonry buildings, and for most of the blocks outside they seemed to have given up entirely.Of course, before giving up, many important supplies must have been taken into the castle, and some young and middle-aged white men should also be conscripted to help defend.

Therefore, when the East Coast Army began to advance cautiously into the streets of the outer city of Putrajaya in the early morning of September 9, they encountered relatively limited trouble.There were only a few places where relatively intense firefights occurred, but these Guarani stragglers from Paraguay did not cause too much trouble to the people on the east coast.They gathered in some street houses in twos and threes, shooting outwards with matchlocks or bows and arrows.

The way people on the east bank deal with them is very simple, that is, to bring in artillery, use shells to destroy these houses, and bury these fanatical Guarani Catholics and the Spanish residents who sheltered them under the ruins.If you dare to shoot at our officers and soldiers on the East Coast, then don't blame us for using cannons to teach you how to behave!

After clearing the block, Xu Gang, the fastest-moving army's 101st company, took the lead in advancing to the outside of the inner city, the core of the Spaniards.After trying to bombard these walls with field artillery, Xu Gang found that these walls were not very thick, and a 12-pound field cannon could cause some damage to them, not to mention those terrifying 24-pound siege artillery.As long as the two heavy cannons arrive at the scene, they will definitely break the tortoise shell in front of them within half a day.

The navy, which had already wiped out the Spanish La Plata fleet, was not idle at this time. Under the escort of two battleships, four flute-shaped transport ships carried the 4th Company of the Army, the 3rd Company of the Independent Field Artillery, and the 3rd Company of the Cavalry. More than 35 soldiers from the Company and the 300th Regiment of the Guards Academy Corps, and of course more than 300 militiamen and a large amount of supplies to provide them with logistical support, began to march towards the sea northeast of Buenos Aires City. The army's Changkaisheng detachment did not reach the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

It took two days to complete the landing and advance to the northeast periphery of Buenos Aires. At noon on September 9, when there was a loud noise just south of the inner city of Buenos Aires, the army captain Xie Hansan commanded A detachment of 20 soldiers also attacked from north of Putrajaya.The explosive shells fired by the eight artillery pieces of the third company of the Independent Field Artillery beat the Spaniards on the top of the wall to the ground, while their few small cannons were currently exchanging fire with the East Coasters in another direction. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to resist.

The thin iron fence gate could not withstand the hot shells fired by the 12-pound field cannon, and the hastily built civil-engineering fortifications behind the gate could not withstand the ravages of artillery in turn. A large number of Spanish soldiers were buried alive in the collapsed fortifications.And they have never encountered an army with such fierce artillery fire. For example, the Changkaisheng detachment has only 400 people, and it is equipped with 16 field artillery. The caliber and double diameter are generally not small, which is really impressive. Can not accept.

Not to mention the two 24-pound heavy siege guns that just arrived. Their power is so powerful that gods can block gods and gods can block gods. Very disappointed.The loud noise just now was because a hot 24-pound shell directly penetrated the gunpowder barrel that was improperly placed by the Spaniard. The high-temperature shell quickly ignited the gunpowder inside while penetrating through the powder barrel, and then triggered a chain of fire. The explosion killed or injured two Spanish bronze cannons and more than [-] soldiers nearby, which was extremely miserable.

After encountering this accident, the Spanish casualties have exceeded 100, and their morale has also been greatly hit. They have completely lost confidence in whether they can hold on to the inner city.If the officials hadn't insisted, they might have surrendered long ago, lest they stay here and die in vain.

(End of this chapter)