บท 127: Chapter 128: [Flying Dragon Riding on Face]
Persuasion is always a difficult thing. Armijo will not be persuaded by Chavez, nor is it possible for him to persuade Chavez.
But war is inevitable.
Even if the corrupt governor didn't want to fight, he could only support his nephew and the officers now and hope to hold on to Santa Fe.
At least hold on until reinforcements from the south arrive, although this doesn't sound reliable.
The battle began quickly, and General Carney's troops launched the first round of attacks on the Mexican positions.
"For America!"
"Go——"
With a shout, the infantry and cavalry rushed upon the enemy, with their rifles, bayonets, and pistols drawn.
"Fire!" The Mexican artillery fired.
"BOOM—BOOM—BOOM!"
Following a few cannon shots, smoke and flames appeared among the American troops. Some soldiers were killed and some cavalrymen fell off their horses.
The Americans were not willing to be outdone and also poured artillery shells at the enemy. For a time, the battlefield was filled with thunder, smoke, and of course, blood.
The two sides had less than ten artillery pieces in total, and they were not advanced equipment. Their accuracy, range and power were quite limited, and the direct casualties caused were not many.
But the effect that artillery can produce is far beyond that of guns.
Only the hot shells could create the deafening sound, shattered corpses, and billowing smoke, which quickly spread the atmosphere of death on the battlefield.
It is still largely the era of line infantry, although skirmisher tactics have emerged.
For line infantry, advancing under artillery fire is the most basic combat quality.
If it happened in later times, such queuing and shooting would undoubtedly be a ridiculous tactic, as the dense bullets and artillery would instantly crush the soldiers into meat paste.
But before the emergence of mature breech-loading rifles and automatic weapons, firepower on the battlefield was relatively sparse, and whether the troops could withstand the firepower depended largely on morale.
As long as one side's morale is strong enough to keep its formation intact amidst hail of bullets, it is already halfway to victory.
As most people expected, the morale of the Mexican army was not strong, or even somewhat low.
Many of them have no concept of "soldier" at all, and do not consider themselves soldiers. They are just a group of poorly trained militiamen and veteran soldiers.
In their view, being a soldier means just standing in line at ordinary times. Going to the battlefield and risking one's life is simply unimaginable.
As the artillery fire continued and the U.S. army approached, many Mexican soldiers showed panic expressions.
What's even worse is that Americans basically use rifles, while the rifles equipped by Mexicans are mainly smoothbore guns, such as the Brown Bass, which is being eliminated by the times.
Compared to smoothbore muskets, rifles have much greater range and accuracy.
So most American soldiers were able to stand and fire, firing bullets from the rifled barrel at the enemy before they came within range of the Mexican soldiers.
"boom!"
"Bang, bang, bang—"
More and more gunfire was heard on the battlefield, most of which came from American troops.
Bullets rained down, and Mexican soldiers fell one after another with screams.
Soon, deserters began to appear in the Mexican army.
Deserters on the battlefield often act like a chain reaction. Once the first one occurs, the second and the third will follow almost instantly...eventually everyone will rush to escape.
In such an atmosphere, even the bravest soldiers will lose their will to fight.
It only takes a short time for a few desertions to turn into a major rout.
This is exactly what is happening in the Mexican army right now, with deserters spreading at an alarming rate and morale on the verge of a total collapse.
Seeing this scene, General Carney couldn't help but smile: "Haha, the Mexicans are still the same rubbish, Santa Fe is ours!"
It looked like the Americans were already on top and were sure to win.
However, what happened next was beyond Carney's expectations.
The young Mexican officers were obviously inexperienced and did not expect their own defeat. Chavez and Archuleta were both at a loss for a moment.
But they soon made a decision.
"Cavalrymen, take our new weapons and show them what we can do!" Chavez shouted, and then he took the lead, holding Browning pistols in both hands, and rushed towards the US troops.
"Chavez!" Amijo was shocked, but Chavez had already rushed out.
About five hundred cavalrymen followed closely behind, almost every man armed with two Browning revolvers.
Led by Chavez, they rushed into the hail of bullets from the opposite side and soon reached a distance where they could shoot.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Chavez fired both guns at the nearest enemy. "Go to hell, Yankee!"
"Bang, bang, bang!" The cavalrymen did the same. In less than half a minute, two or three thousand bullets were fired at the American vanguard troops.
The Americans were stunned on the spot.
They had never been subjected to such a short, intense barrage of fire, and they had never expected it to come from the Mexicans.
In an instant, hundreds of American soldiers were killed.
"Oh my God, what happened!"
"Help!" Seeing a large number of teammates suddenly fall down in front of them, the soldiers holding rifles dared not reload and shoot, and fled backwards howling.
They also had revolvers, including Colt and Browning, but their numbers were clearly far less than those of the Mexican side.
Moreover, since most of their pistols were purchased by the soldiers at their own expense, they were not concentrated and were scattered all over the battlefield, making it impossible for them to launch an effective counterattack against Chavez's pistol cavalry.
So in almost a minute, the situation on the battlefield was reversed.
The U.S. military rushed forward and began to attack. The morale of the Mexican army plummeted. The U.S. military victory was in sight - the U.S. military began to escape!
"What's going on!" Looking at his own troops suddenly fleeing, General Kearney was suddenly shocked and angry.
"It's a revolver!" Cook gritted his teeth, "Damn it, the Mexicans are equipped with at least a thousand revolvers!"
"How come they have it too!" Kani's voice trembled.
Donifan: "General, we must retreat quickly!"
"Retreat! Retreat!" General Kearny had no choice but to order a retreat.
The Mexican army didn't give much pursuit.
On the one hand, the cavalry led by Chavez lacked stamina, and it was quite troublesome to load the revolver. After firing a round of bullets on the battlefield, there was basically no chance to reload.
Another reason is...the Mexican army itself was fleeing.
Although Chavez led the cavalry to attack decisively and repelled the US army, the trend of his own army's rout had already taken shape, and a considerable number of soldiers were also fleeing.
As a result, a strange situation formed on the battlefield: the US 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 in confusion.
"Archuleta... We won, right?" Chavez seemed to have been shot in the arm. He covered the wound and looked at Archuleta.
Archuleta looked around and hesitated, "It should be..."
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