1840Indian rebirth

Persuasion is always a rare thing. Armijo will not be convinced by Chavez, and it is even less likely to convince Chavez.

But war is inevitable.

Even if the corrupt governor doesn't want to fight, he can only support his nephew and military officers now in the hope of holding Santa Fe.

At least hold on until reinforcements from the south arrive, although this sounds unreliable.

The battle began quickly, and General Carney's troops began their first round of attacks on the Mexican positions.

"For America!"

"Come on -"

Amid the shouts, infantry and cavalry charged at the enemy, armed with their rifles, bayonets and pistols.

"Fire!" Mexican artillery fired.

"Boom-boom-boom!"

With the sound of several cannons, smoke and fire broke out among the American troops. Some soldiers were killed, and some cavalrymen fell off their horses.

Not to be outdone, the Americans also poured artillery shells on the opponent. For a while, the battlefield was filled with thunder, gunpowder smoke, and of course blood.

The total number of artillery pieces on both sides was less than ten, and they were not advanced weapons. Their accuracy, range and power were quite limited, and the direct casualties they caused were not many.

But the effect that artillery can produce is far beyond that of guns.

Only the blazing cannonballs can create a thunderous sound, scattered corpses, and billowing smoke, making the atmosphere of death quickly fill the battlefield.

This is still largely the era of line infantry, although skirmishing tactics have emerged.

For line infantry, advancing in the face of artillery fire is the most basic combat quality.

If it were in later generations, lining up and shooting like this would undoubtedly be a funny tactic. The dense bullets and artillery would instantly crush the soldiers into pulp.

But before the emergence of mature breech-loading guns and automatic weapons, the firepower on the battlefield was relatively sparse. Whether the troops could withstand the firepower largely depended on morale.

As long as one party's morale is firm enough and can keep its formation intact in the hail of bullets, it is as good as half the victory.

As most people expected, the morale of the Mexican army was not strong, or was somewhat broken.

Many of them have no concept of "soldiers" at all, let alone think of themselves as soldiers. They are just a group of militiamen and soldiers who have neglected training.

In their view, being a soldier is just about standing in a queue, but going to the battlefield to risk one's life is simply unimaginable.

As the artillery fire continued to pour and the U.S. troops approached, many Mexican soldiers showed panic expressions.

What's even worse is that the Americans basically use rifles, while the rifles equipped by the Mexicans are mainly smoothbore rifles, such as the Brown Bass that is being phased out.

Compared to muskets, rifles have much greater range and accuracy.

Therefore, the vast majority of American soldiers could stand still and shoot before entering the shooting range of the Mexican soldiers, firing bullets from the rifle at the enemy.

"Bang!"

"Bang bang bang——"

More and more gunfire rang out on the battlefield, most of which came from the US military.

Bullets rained down, and Mexican soldiers fell one after another amid screams.

Soon, deserters appeared in the Mexican army.

Deserters on the battlefield are often like a chain reaction. Once there is the first one, there will be a second one and a third one almost instantly... In the end, everyone will rush to escape.

In this atmosphere, no matter how brave the soldier is, he will lose his will to fight.

It only takes a short time for a few desertions to turn into a massive rout.

Now, the Mexican army is going through this process. Deserters are spreading at an alarming rate, and morale is about to collapse.

Seeing this scene, General Carney couldn't help but smile: "Haha, the Mexicans are still the same trash, Santa Fe is ours!"

It seems that the Americans are already in the driver's seat and have a sure chance of victory.

But what happened next was beyond Carney's expectation.

The young Mexican officer was obviously inexperienced and did not expect his own defeat. Both Chavez and Archuleta were at a loss for a moment.

But they soon made a decision.

"Cavalry, take our new weapons and show them some color!" Chavez shouted, then armed with Browning pistols, he took the lead and rushed towards the American army.

"Chavez!" Armijo was startled, but Chavez had already rushed out.

About five hundred cavalry followed, almost every man armed with two Browning revolvers.

Under the leadership of Chavez, they rushed against the hail of bullets from the opposite side, and soon reached a shooting distance.

"Bang! Bang bang bang!" Chavez fired both guns, shooting a series of bullets at the nearest enemy, "Go to hell, Yankee!"

The same was true for the cavalry. In less than half a minute, two to three thousand rounds of bullets were fired at the American forward troops.

The Americans were stunned on the spot.

They had never withstood such a short and intensive firepower, and they did not expect that such firepower came from the Mexicans.

In an instant, hundreds of American troops were killed.

"God, what happened!"

Seeing a large number of teammates suddenly fall down in front of them, the soldiers holding rifles dared to reload and shoot, so they all howled and fled backwards.

They also have revolvers, including Colts and Brownings, but their numbers are obviously far inferior to those of the Mexican side.

And because most of their pistols were purchased by the soldiers at their own expense, they were not concentrated and scattered throughout the battlefield, unable to form a strong counterattack against Chavez's pistol cavalry troops.

So in almost a minute, the battlefield situation reversed.

The US military rushed forward, the US military began to attack, the morale of the Mexican army plummeted, the US military victory was in sight, and the US military began to flee!

"What's going on!" Looking at the sudden retreat of his own troops, General Carney was shocked and angry.

"It's a revolver!" Cook gritted his teeth. "Damn it, the Mexicans are equipped with at least a thousand revolvers!"

"Why do they have such a thing!" Carney's voice trembled.

Donivan: "General, we have to retreat quickly!"

"Retreat! Retreat!" General Carney had no choice but to order a retreat.

The Mexican army did not pursue much.

On the one hand, the cavalry led by Chavez lacked stamina, and reloading the revolver was quite troublesome. After emptying a round of bullets on the battlefield, there was basically no chance to reload.

Another reason is that...the Mexican army itself is also in retreat.

Although Chavez led the cavalry to attack decisively and push back the American army, his own army's retreat had also taken shape, and a considerable number of soldiers were also fleeing.

As a result, a strange situation formed on the battlefield: the American army was fleeing backwards, and part of the Mexican army was also fleeing backwards.

Chavez and his cavalry stood in the center of the battlefield, looking around blankly.

"Archouleta... we won the battle, right?" Chavez seemed to have been shot in the arm. He covered the wound while looking at Archuleta.

Archuleta looked around and said hesitantly: "It should be..."