Chapter 505: War (Part 2)
Although the Mexican Border Patrol put up a desperate resistance, the 2,000 people could only sit back and wait to die in the face of tens of thousands of U.S. troops who had been prepared for battle.
It would take at least several days for the scouts sent out to convey the message to reach the nearest Mexican military camp for help, and it would take one to two months to reach the capital, Mexico City.
The U.S. military generals on the other side were told that gold worth at least hundreds of millions of dollars was waiting for them in California.
As a result, the Yankees advanced very quickly and only sent a small number of old and weak soldiers to besiege the strongholds and barracks encountered on the way.
Of course, most of these Mexican soldiers did not live up to expectations. Almost all of them chose to surrender without fighting.
Being a prisoner of war is not a glorious thing, but it is commonplace for Mexican soldiers. After all, their country has had so many civil wars that these soldiers can't count them.
However, the Americans do not intend to accept these guys into their army, but they will not let them go like Napoleon did.
The next fate of these Mexicans can be roughly divided into two types. One is to follow the US military troops and be used as livestock, and the other is to be sold to local American immigrants as slaves.
It's just that the price of these Mexican whites or mixed-race children is not comparable to the price of black slaves, and they usually only sell for about 30 US dollars.
It took the U.S. military advancing along the 37° north latitude to reach California in less than a month.
What's even more astonishing is the Mexican army's response speed. Nearly a month after the war began, they were still defending against possible attacks from Texas.
The French side strictly abided by Louis Philippe's principle of standing still. Only Guizot once wanted to try to take a piece of the pie.
But he soon realized one thing, that is, both the United States and Mexico were strictly guarding France. Only this time Guizot believed that Louis Philippe was right and that it was indeed not the right time to join the war.
Although the focus of the US military's offensive was California controlled by Austria, after all, it was invading territory belonging to Mexico. Tasan Anna decided to lead his troops north to "recover the lost territory."
A fierce battle broke out between the two sides on the Rio Grande. The Mexican army was seven times larger than the US troops stationed here. As a result, Tasan Anna remembered the previous tragedy. He refused to send superior troops to attack, but chose to engage in artillery battles with the enemy.
However, the U.S. military at this time was no longer what it used to be. They gave up their previous small-caliber artillery and old-fashioned cast iron cannons, and chose expensive but efficient bronze cannons.
In fact, the quality of bronze cannons at that time was much stronger than cast iron cannons, and could even compete with Austrian steel cannons. The U.S. military purchased 98 6-pound bronze cannons in 1838. After that, it purchased large quantities every year. By 1844, the number of bronze cannons in the U.S. military was close to 350.
The Mexican army uses all antiques made by Austria and Britain during the Napoleonic Wars. These old-fashioned cast-iron cannons are as dangerous to themselves as they are to the enemy, because they are very easy to explode, especially when firing continuously.
The US troops stationed in the Rio Grande were equipped with nearly 80 bronze cannons and quickly suppressed the Mexican army with 150 artillery pieces.
The artillery battle was very cruel. Bronze cannons had better ductility and could add more gunpowder. The cannons ejected faster and had a higher hit rate.
Therefore, they had the advantage in the artillery battle. At the same time, Tasan Anna did not allow the cavalry and infantry to charge, which greatly damaged the morale of the Mexican army.
This kind of fighting is a kind of torture especially for those strong-blooded Indian soldiers. They are not afraid of death, but they are not used to being named and slaughtered in this way.
It is gratifying that the Mexican army successfully eliminated several teams of American troops transporting supplies. The latter's pistol cavalry once again lost to the light cavalry in a short encounter.
However, this cannot be blamed on the pistol cavalry. After all, as attackers, the Mexicans have two cavalry divisions, while the US military transport team only has one or two companies at most.
But these victories were still not enough to encourage and prevent a pessimistic mood from spreading in the army. Tasang Anna realized that this could not continue.
Then he remembered what his idol did in 1812. At night, the Mexican army left enough campfires and quietly evacuated the battlefield.
The bright bonfire became the culprit of covering up the truth. At this time, yellow fever had broken out in the U.S. military camp.
Because mosquitoes are too active in the summer, and most of the people who went to Mexico this time were "northerns" who had no resistance to the virus, a large number of soldiers soon lost their combat effectiveness.
Yellow fever is an acute infectious disease caused by the yellow fever virus and spread mainly through the bites of Aedes mosquitoes. This disease has an extremely high mortality rate and is highly contagious. Even today, there is no specific treatment, and prevention is the main approach to dealing with this virus.
Historically, this kind of death claimed the lives of nearly 10,000 Americans during the Mexican-American War. At this time, the number of U.S. soldiers was larger and the sanitary conditions were worse. Moreover, they chose to camp by the river and sent troops in the summer, which greatly increased the number of U.S. soldiers. Risk of contracting this virus.
When the Americans discovered that the Mexicans had withdrawn their troops the next day, the American general and his adjutant embraced each other to celebrate the aftermath, and at the same time declared that they had won the battle of the Rio Grande.
Although there are still thousands of corpses of US military transport teams on the road not far away, the withdrawal of the Mexican army is the best proof.
At the same time, Tasan Anna declared that he was the winner, because he blocked the Yankees in the barracks for a week, wiped out many US military convoys, and captured several flags, so Mexico was the one who really laughed. The final winner.
Both sides felt good about themselves, but the war did not escalate further. First of all, the purpose of this group of American vanguards led by General Taylor was to hold the supply line.
And the Mexican side naturally knows how serious yellow fever is, and those mosquitoes don't just bite Americans.
Tasan Anna is anxiously waiting for enough mosquito nets and doctors to be transported to the front line, otherwise he knows exactly what will be the next step for him; after all, this virus has not broken out in Mexican army camps once or twice.
On the other hand, the first American soldiers who arrived in California were stunned by the richness of this land. In fact, after many years of management in Austria, it has become a rich "oasis".
In fact, the land in California is already very fertile and very suitable for agricultural production. On the one hand, Austria cannot live by the primitive hunter-gatherer way of killing bison and eating beef every day. In addition, there are more "laborers" on hand, so they started agricultural planting.
Of course, this strategy of focusing on agriculture in California was also inspired by Franz. After all, he knew that this place would be one of the most important granaries in the United States in later generations.
Naturally, this also has sustainable development strategy considerations, because non-renewable gold mines will be exhausted sooner or later.
At this time, the first group of U.S. soldiers who entered California had become underground miners, and they could finally see the precious gold.
They just need to take it out with their own hands and then hand it over to others. How could such a situation be so cruel?