Dominate the Country

On April 5, 1783, at the end of February in the ninth year of Chengtian, when the Spanish governor of Guatemala gathered all his forces to counterattack San Jose, the expeditionary army unexpectedly chose to retreat.

The Spanish colonial army from Santiago was not large in strength, and was not as large as the expeditionary army. Logically, the expeditionary army should have swallowed them in one bite, but Chai Daji, who led this army, did not do so. Instead, he quickly summoned some local Indian poor people who were deeply resentful and bitter, generously left hundreds of muskets and a batch of ammunition, as well as several cannons, and then took all the harvest on board and left San Jose, starting his new journey of looting.

He didn't want to fight the Spaniards now.

Let the Indians and the big ducks go and waste the Spaniards, and wait until he turns back, and then deal with them and seize Santiago.

Just as the Spanish colonial army was trembling and rushing towards San Jose, the 22 ships of the expeditionary force had already hoisted their sails and approached Panama City.

As a symbolic city in the history of the conquest of America, Panama City was once a base for enslaving American Indians and a center for religious activities. It was also a distribution center for the Spanish to plunder American wealth and sell black slaves. They concentrated a large amount of gold, silver and jewelry looted from all directions in the city, and then transported them to the Caribbean Sea opposite the Isthmus of Panama by land through a small path, and then transported them to the Spanish mainland by large galleons. So much so that it attracted the covetousness of pirates.

One hundred and ten years ago, the British pirate Morgan attacked Panama City by force, looted it, and set fire to the entire city to ruins. In the next two years, the Spanish built a brand new city ten miles away from the original site, closer to the sea.

But the glory of Panama City was also overshadowed, and it lost its unique status at the beginning [West Coast of America].

Before the construction of the Panama Canal, this city could only be regarded as one of the important strongholds in the Americas, and its status was slightly inferior to that of Mexico City. It had evolved from being a unique city at the beginning to becoming one of the many.

Although it is still very important.

The Spanish have always wanted to build a canal. More than 200 years ago, some people in Spain, which had just conquered Panama, proposed to build a canal connecting the two oceans. This proposal has been fluctuating in the upper circles of Madrid for more than 200 years.

In the past 10 to 20 years, the Spanish working team has been constantly exploring the geographical trends of the Isthmus of Panama. So in a sense, although the importance of Panama has declined compared to more than 100 years ago, it is still the most important city that the expeditionary force has to attack so far.

It is one of the defense centers in the Americas, and the fortifications of Manila cannot be compared with this place.

The forts and fortresses are no joke.

The sea of ​​Panama City is a small bay on the east coast of America. It is named after Panama City. Panama City is located at the bottom of this bay. Except for the expeditionary force's Sapo Mountain that leads directly to the coast, the rest of the bay is a plain coast. The rivers that flow into the bay are very short, and the larger ones are the Chucunac River and Tuila River in the east of the bay. There are many islands in the central and eastern parts of the bay, and the larger ones are Rey Island, San Jose Island and Pearl Islands. Among them, Rey Island is a very important naval outpost outside the port of Panama.

The expeditionary fleet, riding the wind and waves, indeed found a warship in the sea not far from Rey Island. The tonnage of the warship is very small, and it is difficult to say whether it has 400 tons. It is a light two-masted square-rigged warship.

"Order the clipper warship to catch up."

Chai Daji ordered loudly.

The four clipper warships quickly increased their speed. Previously, in order to keep the same speed as the Chinese sailing ships that were lagging behind in the fleet, they could only move forward at half speed, and half of the sails were lowered.

"Raise the sails, raise the sails."

"Full speed ahead."

All four clipper warships received the flag signals, and without any hesitation, the same voice rang out on the warships.

The opposite side was just a small two-masted square-sailed warship, which was not a threat at all compared to the four clipper warships that were all larger than it.

Even if they didn't dare to get close to launch rockets now, they could quickly send it to the bottom of the sea with their higher speed and absolute advantage in artillery fire.

The Emily immediately discovered the expeditionary ship flying the blue sky, white sun and red ground flag. Faced with such a strong enemy, they decisively turned around and fled with the heavy responsibility of guarding the safety of the Panama Sea.

There were so many enemies, and the Emily went to meet them, which was completely a pebble against a stone.

Running away at this time is the most correct choice, so that Spain can retain some strength.

However, the Emily, a two-masted sailing ship that used to be agile and swift in sailing, seemed clumsy today.

In less than an hour, the two destroyers had overtaken the Emily from both sides.

The Spanish sailors on the warship had long heard about the amazing speed of the Chinese warships, but seeing that the Emily, which was known for its convenience, was forced into a dead end so quickly that it had to fight, I don’t know how many people were still shocked.

Today, God helped a lot, and it happened to be a tailwind. The wind made the speed of the clipper warship fully utilized.

In this world, is there any non-mechanical sailing ship that can run faster than a clipper ship in a tailwind? Even a two-masted warship can’t do it.

Even if the Emily stretched out her oars and tried her best to escape to Rey Island, the distance between the two sides was still getting smaller and smaller.

The Spanish seemed to find that they could not escape at this moment, and they began a desperate counterattack with the few cannons on the ship. A brig can only carry 10-18 cannons. The Emily at the moment may not even be 400 tons, and the cannons loaded are just the minimum of ten.

Some courageous musketeers also stood on the deck and prepared to shoot at the expeditionary ships. They were all experienced professional sailors, and of course they knew how far the muskets in their hands could shoot, so they just aimed. But this was exchanged for the loud laughter of the expeditionary navy soldiers.

Were the Spanish forced into a desperate situation? Someone actually picked up a musket. How ridiculous is this, when it is still a hundred years ago, when boarding battles frequently occurred?

Under the order of the gunner, the few gunners on the two small clipper warships tore off the gun jackets covering the guns, adjusted the muzzle angle, loaded the guns, and loaded the ammunition. The firepower of these two small clipper warships is not strong, and the hull structure is weaker than that of the orthodox Western sailing ships. If the two ships were to fight purely with artillery, the destroyer might not win.

But now they are two against one. And two larger clippers will soon arrive behind them.

When one destroyer was holding back the Emily and the other destroyer began to harass its stern, the speed of the Spanish warship immediately dropped.

Under the order of the officer, the five guns on the starboard side of the Emily fired in succession, and the 18-pound and 12-pound iron balls whistled towards the destroyer at a distance of more than five or six meters. Due to the strong wind and waves on the sea, and the first round of artillery fire, the accuracy was certainly not very good. All five shells missed!

The counterattack of the two destroyers was also very unreliable, and all the shells fell into the air.

No one on the expeditionary side of the navy warships dared to risk approaching the Emily within 500 meters, and no one dared to joke with their own lives to test whether there were really rockets on the Spanish ship.

Once bitten by a snake, you will be afraid of the rope for ten years.

The lesson in Jiazhou Bay left a deep impression on the entire navy.

After two rounds of shelling, two medium-sized clipper warships arrived, "boom boom boom..."

The continuous sound of artillery was like thunder in the sky. The accuracy was not enough to make up the number. The two medium-sized clipper warships took turns to go into battle and fired all the cannons on the left and right sides of their own ships. Of course, they got the benefit.

Five iron balls hit the Emily, and one of them broke the rudder of the Emily. The Spaniards cried for their parents. Then everything was over.

There was no suspense in such a battle.

After watching for a while, Chai Daji asked his men to send a signal to the clipper warship to see if the Spanish ship could be captured, and then he went back to the captain's room. However, his order was issued a little too late. Two 20-jin iron bullets hit the horizontal line of the Emily's side, and then effortlessly opened two large holes on the same side of the Emily. The seawater rushed into the Spanish sentry ship, which was not large in tonnage. After the blockage was ineffective, the sailors jumped into the sea holding floating objects such as wooden boards and barrels.

Many small boats were lowered on the four clipper warships, and the expeditionary sailors rowed the small boats to capture the Spanish crew members who fell into the water. These Spaniards were old sailors with many years of experience, and the expeditionary soldiers would naturally not let them go. Catching them and transforming them could not only increase their own income, but also reduce the combat effectiveness of the Spaniards.

The whole operation did not take too long. An hour later, about sixty or seventy surviving Spanish sailors were rescued one by one and put on the board. Then, everything was searched, locked in the cabin, and strictly guarded.

This unexpected battle was just a small episode today. The ultimate goal of the expeditionary force was still Panama City. Rey Island was not the first target at all, but now this battle reminded Chai Daji. After questioning, the captured Spaniards confessed that there was another Spanish warship of the same specifications in the port of San Miguel on Rey Island, and a company of soldiers was stationed in San Miguel.

Chai Daji decided to send two slow-moving and somewhat weak Chinese five-masted ships to eliminate the threat of San Miguel.

And he led the remaining twenty warships to still attack Panama City directly, first to eliminate the fortress group in the north of the city, and then to capture the entire city.

The time was set at night, and they wanted to launch a surprise attack.

Since the harassment of the navy warships before, the defensive forces of Panama City have been increasing.

Even though Mexico began to gradually build up a "hundred thousand troops", the Panamanian garrison was not withdrawn.

Fighting head-on is not a good idea. Entering quietly and attacking by surprise is the best way.

As a city that the Spanish have been focusing on in America for two or three hundred years, a large proportion of the residents here should be supporters of the Spanish, and these people are also within Chai Daji's target. He believes that these Spanish supporters, wearing shackles and working hard in plantations and fields on the east coast of North America, will be their best destination.

After a fight last year, the expeditionary soldiers also had a certain understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army. As long as they can get close to them and fight hand-to-hand, the expeditionary army has a great chance of winning!

Therefore, Chai Daji didn't care about Rey Island at all. If he hadn't encountered the Emily today, he would have forgotten Rey Island.

Rey Island is 1,670 miles away from Panama City. After ten hours of sailing, night has enveloped the entire Gulf of Panama, and Chai Daji and his party arrived at the sea outside Panama City.

Standing on the deck he could clearly see the lights of Panama City's lighthouse and fort.

"Be careful. Go up quietly and don't get discovered."

"Every ship is also ready for battle. Once the action is exposed, they will immediately bombard Fortress No. 1."

There are a total of five forts in Panama. The names are too confusing to pronounce, so Chai Daji numbered them and named them 12345.

Under his order, three third-level battleships pounced in the direction of Fortress No. 1 in a Z-shaped formation. From ten miles away, they quietly approached to three or four miles away. All three ships were under light control, and everything was in darkness.

The three third-level battleships anchored one after another and did not dare to approach any further. Moreover, they did not know much about the water conditions in the Gulf of Panama, and they were not sure whether the information they got from Spain was really accurate. They put down a large number of small boats. , and then the team still stood up, paddling the small boat, gradually approaching the beach in the dark night.

Fortunately, it didn't rain here. Panama is tropical, and not far south is the equatorial windless zone.

Although April is not the rainy season, it never rains in the tropics.

This time, a total of two squadrons were dispatched as a forward force. The captain personally led the team. It only took them more than half an hour to land on the coast. After landing, the captain hurriedly gathered another hundred or so people and rushed towards the No. 1 Fortress City.

The walls of Fortress No. 1 are not tall. In fact, on the east coast of America, before China intervened in the Americas, no country had the strength to challenge the Spanish. Even for the British, most of their power is deployed on the west coast and the Caribbean.

Ever since two thousand British pirates crossed the Isthmus of Panama and captured Panama City more than a hundred years ago, the situation here has been very stable. If it weren't for the frequent appearance of Chinese warships in recent years, the Spaniards would not have dispatched so many troops.

At its peak, the entire Panama City had 5,000 marines and marines. After the Spanish naval forces were forced to leave, the Spaniards gradually transferred some army soldiers, so the entire Panama garrison exceeded 2,500 people. . It's just that their combat qualities are uneven, and their combat effectiveness is vastly different.

The entire fortress is made of a mixture of volcanic rock and clay. There were some Spanish sergeants standing on the top of the city, but their numbers were small and their defenses were not tight.

"Keep an eye on the time when their patrol passes by."

The troops lurked under the fort for half an hour, wearing black military uniforms. Even the barrels of their guns, bayonets, sabers, and faces were smeared with black putty, and the Spaniards did not notice it at all.

"Yo Xi. Sasuke-kun, yours, take the people, come on."

A short Japanese soldier nodded heavily and waved his hand back. Twenty or so Japanese soldiers carrying only sabers tied tightly to their backs with cloth strips and muskets and grenades around their waists quietly walked out. Silently, he approached the base of Fortress No. 1.

When each hook was quietly thrown onto the top of the fortress by the soldiers of the Standing Team, the iron hook hit the ground and made a slight crisp sound in the dark night, but it was not noticed by the Spaniards. The captain behind him let out a sigh of relief. , the thing is done, as long as the vanguard can reach the top of Fortress No. 1, the battle should be easy.

When the captain and others disembarked, Chai Daji gave them a very clear order: to seize fortress No. 1 with lightning speed, resist the Spanish counterattack, and wait for the follow-up troops to arrive.

Looking at it now, this task is no problem at all.

No, the reality was even more optimistic than his most optimistic estimate before the war. When the Spaniards on the top of Fortress No. 1 were throwing grenades and charging towards them with muskets and sabers brandished, the Spaniards on the top of Fortress No. 1 had no courage to fight with them. Let's fight!

Some of them ran away, while others retreated step by step, then yelled.

"Ban Zai, Ban Zai!"

"Expeditionary Force, Ban Zai!"

The lights were lit on the three third-level battleships, and the oil lamps were also lit on the small boats transporting soldiers. Nothing needs to be covered up anymore.

The Japanese team cheered so loudly that even Chai Daji on Houhai could hear it. This couldn't be clearer.

Fortress No. 1 has been taken by the Standing Team.

Even if the Spaniards launch a massive counterattack, with Fortress No. 1 as the bridgehead, does Chai Daji still need to be afraid?

"Quick, quick. Attack, attack!"

Countless lights lit up on the sea, and the cheers of the soldiers accompanied the waves and spread to the land.