Wild North America 1846

Chapter 579 The war has begun

Author: Portuguese toothless

Chapter 579 The war has begun

In the classical palace where I stayed

Only then did His Highness Tang Li Xin, the eleventh prince, have the opportunity to meet with Major General Fan Pengfei, the deputy commander of the expeditionary force and the deputy commander in charge of the army. He was a calm and capable middle-aged senior officer with a tanned face.

There are also Brigadier General Hu Changda, the commander of the 3rd Royal Marine Division, Brigadier Meng Hu, the commander of the 4th Royal Marine Division, and the chief officers of each regiment. These are all experienced generals who were transferred from the original Royal Army Field Division and have extensive experience.

In dozens of battles, large and small, his commanding ability is extremely outstanding.

In addition to the Deputy Commander of the Expeditionary Force, Commodore Viscount Zheng Huaishan, the Chief of Staff of the Expeditionary Force, Colonel Pan Shouguo, and the Chief of Joint Logistics, Colonel Liu Daqing, all the middle and senior officers of the Expeditionary Force are here.

in front of all subordinates

His Highness Tang Li Xin showed a calmness far beyond his years, and said to everyone with a solemn expression;

"By the imperial decree of His Majesty the Holy Emperor of the Tang Dynasty..."

All the officers immediately put their legs together, raised their heads and raised their chests with a loud "bang" sound, and raised their hands in a military salute to show respect.

His Highness Tang Li Xin paused for a moment, looked around at everyone, and then continued calmly;

"No gifts, take a rest..."

Thanks to His Majesty's great love, this Duke has been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, shouldering a mountain of heavy responsibilities and the ardent entrustment of the people of the Empire.

Aiming to spread the glory of the empire, promote the majesty of our country, and the majesty of the king beyond the waves of thousands of miles, intimidate the young people from all over the world, and use strong force to respond to any provocation.

The glory of the empire cannot be tolerated by anyone.

The army is about to go on an expedition. As the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, the Duke once again reiterates the strict military discipline and enforces orders and prohibitions. The whole army will work together to seize the glory that belongs to the expeditionary force.

Anyone who violates military orders will be killed without mercy.

If you don't shrink back, you will be killed without mercy!

Anyone who confuses the public with evil words will be killed without mercy!

Those who do not obey orders will be killed without mercy!

Anyone who leaves the military formation without permission will be killed without mercy!

I, the Duke, shoulder the heavy responsibility and do not dare to slack off. I hope that all the generals will cooperate with me to defeat the enemy. If you have violated military regulations, then I can only take your heads to strictly enforce military discipline and punish lawlessness.

No matter who dares to take a step beyond the thunder pool, I will kill them! Don’t say you didn’t predict what you said.”

After a murderous display of authority, the expressions of all the senior generals present changed, and they solemnly replied in unison: "The low-ranking officers only obey military orders and do not dare to step beyond the threshold."

"That's good..." His Highness Tang Li Xin's face softened after saying this. After taking the lead to sit down in the middle, his voice became much gentler and said; "Since we have something to say first, let's all sit down and discuss it. Expeditionary Force

Let’s sit down and talk about the next itinerary, don’t be so formal.”

Give him a slap and a sweet date.

It has to be said that the noble blood born in the royal family has extraordinary skills. He is very familiar with this set of tricks to manipulate people. The senior officers of the expeditionary force sat down one after another, not daring to show any strange expression on their faces.

There are many things involved in the army's expedition, especially the 3rd and 4th Royal Marine Divisions, a total of more than 32,000 troops, and tens of thousands of immigrants gathered at the port of Xinxi'an, including many grassroots colonial officials and engineers.

Railway survey technicians, doctors and teachers, various factory technicians, tractor drivers and logistics personnel, etc., as well as some immigrants' wives and family members, the coverage is quite wide.

At Xi'an port

We have also prepared ships to transport bulk materials such as food and building materials for the expeditionary force, and ships specifically to transport cattle, sheep, livestock and poultry. The size of the fleet is as high as 51, and there are 23 large and medium-sized immigration ships alone. On average, each ship can carry up to

More than 1,800 people.

Together with the 23 warships and cargo ships of the expeditionary fleet, the total number reaches 74. Navigating at sea must be divided into four large fleets. The liaison and communication of the maritime fleets are big problems.

This is still the result of intensive compression, otherwise the fleet would have been even larger.

The 3rd and 4th Royal Marine Divisions are each assigned a cavalry regiment, and the required war horses are not carried on the ships. This alone reduces the number of transport ships by seven or eight.

War horses are actually very delicate large animals, and their mortality rate is very high in the harsh environment of transoceanic transportation. It is not uncommon for more than half of them to die when they are transported to the field.

Therefore, the empire had already made preparations and sent a small and capable team of more than a hundred people to purchase high-quality Arabian war horses in Najd and Yemen for use in the war against Egypt.

These Arabian horses are more familiar with the local arid and hot environment, can save a lot of transportation expenses, and can also avoid huge losses caused by death during transportation. It can be said that it kills two birds with one stone.

this age

Limited by backward weather observation technology, ships sailing in the ocean often encounter bad sea conditions or typhoons. As long as the ship does not sink, most healthy immigrants can survive the raging storm for several days and usher in the rain.

When it's sunny.

But the war horse is not certain, and the destruction of the entire ship is a high probability event.

Not long after the expedition fleet arrived in New Xi'an, several more cargo ships arrived one after another. These cargo ships carried North American cowboys who were keen on adventure, and their destination was also Egypt.

In the context of the martial arts in the Tang Empire,

In these years, these North American cowboys can always be seen in a series of large-scale military operations such as the war with the United States, the war with Mexico and the South American desert expedition.

The typical attire of a North American cowboy is a wide-brimmed cowboy hat on his head, a flowered handkerchief tied around his neck, a leather jacket or a rugged denim jacket, and a belt of bullets wrapped around his waist on a three-finger-wide cowhide.

Hanging one or two revolvers and wearing pointed leather boots with spurs on his feet, this look is almost synonymous with a tattooed gangster and a violent maniac.

Once North American cowboys appear in groups, it will definitely mean big trouble.

This group once gathered together to participate in desert expeditions to North America, and their reputations were mixed. The good thing is that many North American cowboys gained a substantial fortune through hard work and achieved legendary experiences.

Some North American cowboys robbed their own ranches and trophies, provoked troubles after drinking, and killed innocent people indiscriminately. Most of these vicious incidents were related to these North American cowboys with bohemian personalities.

The most egregious case is that a group of wandering North American cowboys, after being received by a Chinese manor owner, actually got the manor owner and his family drunk, and then killed all the more than 20 Indian workers in the manor, regardless of gender.

Cut off ears and exchange them for reward.

After this incident

The Andean Governor-General canceled the killing reward policy for Indians to prevent these North American cowboys from taking advantage of the loopholes and disrupting the peaceful lives of local manor owners who had already settled down.

even so

In the vast wilderness villages and towns in South America, the Indians did not dare to leave the manor for fear of losing their lives.

Objectively speaking, most of the cowboys in North America are good, and only a few are vicious and unruly.

This is a social group that is keen on adventure. There are retired soldiers, aristocrats and civilians, as well as passionate young people stimulated by legendary experiences. This is the group of people who followed the expedition to Egypt.

For them, the expeditionary force neither accepts nor rejects them. It can provide them with accommodation and other conveniences, but will not bear the consequences of their death in a foreign country.

When necessary, bounties can also be issued to allow these cowboys to cooperate in fighting.

Don't look at the fact that these cowboys only have more than 1,300 people. Behind them, there is a steady stream of followers, and they are basically light cavalry. Many of them are skilled in combat. They are a land of crouching dragons and hidden tigers.

These North American cowboys went to Egypt at their own expense, and they didn't have any financial resources.

But even if they face all kinds of difficulties, they can't stop these North American cowboys from seeking the excitement of war and an adventurous life. Going out with the army is their favorite thing.

After mid-December 1871

The expeditionary army was divided into four fleets and set off one after another towards the distant Arabian Peninsula, embarking on a vigorous journey of conquest.

After a long journey, on January 21, 1872, the first fleet arrived at the Gulf of Sena, Yemen, on the coast of the Red Sea, and stationed here.

The Seine Bay in this era was just a very simple smuggling port, with a wooden trestle extending about 80 meters into the sea, which could berth a sloop of two to three hundred tons, or a small sailing ship of several tens of tons.

No matter how big it is, it can only park in the bay and cannot get on the shallow trestle.

The arrival of the fleet caused a sensation in the city of Sena. Many local Yemeni people flocked to the beach to watch the excitement, pointing and talking. There were thousands of them.

Some armed Arabs were also among them, showing a hostile and vigilant look, as if they did not welcome visitors from afar.

for the sake of caution

The advance fleet successively put down more than a dozen small sampans, armed sailors with guns went ashore, and a landing site was established to isolate the locals.

As the small sampan shuttled between the anchorage and the shore, more soldiers soon came ashore. The expedition fleet also sent people who were familiar with Arabic to go ashore to understand the situation and try to get in touch with the members of the small team who had arrived earlier.

Soon they received shocking news;

The team that arrived early was attacked, and a total of more than 40 people were killed in the attack. More than half of them were local people employed by the team. There were also more than 70 people who were still clinging to a strong local house and about 10 people.

wounded.

Most of the Arabian horses purchased by the team were also looted. A total of more than 2,700 high-quality Arabian horses were missing, and there are less than 400 horses left.

It is said that several chiefs of local tribes in Yemen were jealous, so they joined forces to seize these high-quality war horses, which was a huge fortune!

Viscount Zheng Huaishan, the commodore in charge of the advance fleet, was furious after hearing this. He immediately sent 500 soldiers into the city, lifted the siege of the team's house by local armed forces, and rescued everyone who had been holding on for more than a month.

After detailed inquiries, the situation was quickly clarified.

It was not because the chiefs who were rumored by the locals were jealous, but because a raiding party hired by businessmen from Egypt took away these war horses that they had worked hard to collect for several months.

As a native of North Africa and the neighboring Arabian Peninsula, Egypt is very well-informed. After learning that a group of Easterners came to collect war horses near the Port of Sena in Yemen, they realized that it was probably related to the Tang Dynasty fleet that was on an expedition to Egypt.

So we struck preemptively, and it turned out that the war had already started thousands of miles away.

(End of chapter)