Chapter 514: Trapped in a cocoon

Chapter 514: Trapped in a cocoon

Across the ocean, Washington

A ray of sunlight shines directly on the desk of the owner of the White House through the window. The tenth president of the United States sits quietly at the desk. The desk in front of him is filled with documents marked in eye-catching red.

John Taylor is no longer young, as evidenced by his white hair and deep wrinkles on his face.

The outbreak of the US-Mexican War even caused him to neglect his newlywed wife. Fortunately, his beloved wife came to visit him every night. Although the mental pressure was relieved, he often felt that his body was hollowed out.

Back to the main story, the development of the war so far is still in the plan. The northern and southern fronts are advancing smoothly. The Mexicans were beaten to the point of abandoning their armor and armor. They could not look at each other. Several attacks they launched were repelled by the US military. Now I can only stay in the fortress.

In particular, the US military on the southern front not only controlled the coastline, but also effortlessly obtained the navy built by the Mexicans with a lot of money.

Once Mexico's maritime supply lines were interrupted, it would be completely unable to confront the United States with its own strength. Although this offended the Austrian Empire, it also basically cut off its possibility of assisting Mexico.

Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, commander of the Second U.S. Expeditionary Force in Mexico, easily captured Veracruz (port city) and discovered a large amount of supplies at the port, which to a certain extent will ease the logistical pressure on our own troops.

After all, he has an army of 50,000 at this time, but the 50,000 expeditionary force is still at a disadvantage facing the 100,000 Mexican troops left behind. However, the commander is not worried at all, because the demographic advantage of the United States is now emerging.

There were only 130,000 federal troops before the war began, but by this time it had swelled to 230,000, and this number would continue to increase as time went by.

You must know that the United States at this time had a population of more than 20 million, and there were countless poor people who could not survive, cowboys and homeless people who were not afraid of death. In addition, John Tyler's mobilization limit for these generals to promote the United States could reach five One hundred thousand people.

Of course, what really gives it peace of mind is not the arrival of reinforcements, but the careful layout of the United States over the years.

First, separatist forces in southern Mexico will launch a rebellion. At the same time, Mexican political opponents Joaquín de Herrera and General José Apte Delca declared Tasan Anna treason, and the former proclaimed himself the new president in St. Louis City.

Of course, this is all a trick of the Americans. Joaquín de Herrera and Jose Apter Delca are basically the puppets of the former. Their purpose is to attack Mexico and also to silence the great powers.

Although this move was despicable and shameless, it was directly effective. More than half of the 100,000 defenders Tasan Anna left at home rebelled in an instant.

He also tried several times to attack the Rio Grande Fortress, but they all ended in failure. At this time, his retreat was cut off and he was in a desperate situation.

He is now faced with a difficult choice, that is, Mexico City is in danger. If he does not return support, once the opponent takes the capital, it will directly cause the war situation to take a turn for the worse. The soldiers will have no fighting spirit and will have no fighting spirit, because many of their family members still remain. over there.

In fact, this was originally because Tasan Anna wanted to bring his brothers to enjoy the happiness together, and at the same time, it was also a method he came up with to gain a firmer grip on his troops. But at this time, it became his life-threatening talisman.

Returning aid will also cause a lot of trouble, and may even become Mexico's eternal sinner. Because at this time Tasan Anna's main force was still in the Albuquerque Fortress, which could also serve as a deterrent to the French and Americans.

But once these soldiers leave, will the enemy take advantage of the situation and seize these territories that belong to their own country? Will he take advantage of the victory and pursue it?

The future is uncertain. Tasang Anna is still waiting for news, but the waiting will be extremely difficult.

In fact, France's intelligence department is not weak, so they learned about the fire in Mexico's rear very early.

A guy like Guizot who exploited every opportunity would naturally not let go of such a good opportunity. He was so excited that he immediately called the generals of the Texas colony to discuss how to quickly seize Mexican territory.

At the same time, they also asked Paris for help, hoping that Louis Philippe could change his opinion, approve the war plan, and send some reinforcements.

But the Mexicans' standstill made France suspicious. What made it even more confused was that there was suddenly no movement from the United States.

This is even more strange. At this time, the French even began to wonder whether the Americans were trying to attack from behind, so the plan to attack the Albuquerque Fortress could only be pushed forward again and again.

Fort Albuquerque was the largest fortress in northern Mexico at this time. It guarded the two largest shipping routes. Once it fell, the enemy could move down the river and take over a large area of ​​southern New Mexico (now Arizona and New Mexico in the United States).

In fact, it was not that the unwilling American adventurers did not want to cause trouble, but that yellow fever was rampant in the Rio Grande military camp. With an extreme lack of doctors, medicines and mosquito nets, the sick soldiers could only wait to die. The entire camp was full of A pessimistic atmosphere.

Coupled with the atrocities committed by the US military against Mexican villages and towns in the early days of the war, such as massacring villages, genocide, burning churches, and doing dirty things under holy statues, some Mexicans at that time cursed them for a good death.

Some sick soldiers thought of the enemy's curse when they were about to die, and they began to talk nonsense along with high fever.

As a result, voodoo legends about the Indians spread in the military camp. It is well known that ignorance and fear are the breeding grounds of superstition.

The general low cultural quality of these Americans, coupled with the extremely high mortality rate of yellow fever, made the U.S. soldiers so convinced of the rumors of Indian voodoo that they burned everything related to the Indians nearby. , and pray every day hoping that he can go home safely.

Seeing the crazy state of the soldiers, the officers naturally could not turn a blind eye, and some people stepped forward to stop this ridiculous behavior.

But within a few days, the officers who walked out of the barracks to drive the soldiers fell ill. Now the top brass, including General Zachary Taylor, commander of the U.S. Third Army, stopped chanting.

The U.S. First Army, which was responsible for attacking California, suffered huge losses. They never expected that the leading troops would be wiped out, let alone that the Austrians would take the initiative to attack.

It was obvious that these elite US troops were exhausted after traveling long distances. Even many of the pack horses they brought were exhausted, and subsequent supplies were intermittent.

(In the early days of the war, the Mexican army’s harassment of the U.S. logistics supply troops had a certain effect.)

The actual strength of the U.S. First Army should be 50,000, but due to empty pay and losses at the vanguard and on the road, there were still more than 30,000 left at this time.

According to intelligence, the total strength of the Austrian Empire in California is about 10,000, so at this time the commander of the First Army, Stephen Carney, did not believe that it had the ability to launch a large-scale surprise attack on his own troops.

However, he still felt a little uneasy after not receiving any news from the vanguard, so he sent another 10,000 troops as an outpost, and all of this was seen by the Austrian scouts.