Chương 118: Chapter 119: [The Mexican-American War Begins]
Corpus Christi, South Texas.
Corpus Christi is a small town with a population of over 3,000 at this time, but the population of the town itself is less than 100 people, and the remaining 3,000 people are American troops stationed here.
Brigadier General Zachary Taylor was the commander of this army.
This old general, who was over sixty years old, had been stationed in Corpus Christi for half a year. As early as half a year ago, President Polk had sent him here as a precaution.
After half a year of stationing, General Taylor and his 3,000 soldiers felt a little restless.
Until one day in March.
"Oh my God, I've finally waited for it!" General Taylor looked like a rough man, unkempt, with a straw in his mouth, and he couldn't wait to open the presidential order that had just been delivered.
Although he almost tore the envelope in half in a hurry, after taking out the order, he handed it to a young man beside him: "Bliss, read it for me. You know I'm not very good at this."
Zachary Taylor's cultural level was criticized, and his writing ability was even described as "nearly illiterate."
Bliss looked to be in his early thirties, tall and thin, with a gentle temperament but a beard. He took the letter and said, "General, the President has ordered us to go to the Rio Grande immediately and build a stronghold. If the Mexicans open fire, we should immediately fight back."
Taylor laughed: "Great, that's it! The Mexicans fired the first shot at us, and then we incorporated half of Mexico into the territory of the United States!"
The area near the Grande River is a disputed area between the two countries. The US military going there to build a stronghold is almost an act of provocation. It would be strange if the Mexicans did not fight back.
Taylor then called together some of his subordinates to discuss a specific action plan, and soon came to a conclusion.
The action was so quick mainly because there was actually no discussion process, and the plan was almost entirely made by one person, his right-hand man William Bliss.
William Bliss was an undoubted genius who, at the age of nineteen, was an assistant professor of mathematics at the Military Academy at West Point.
He was sent to Taylor's side, probably to neutralize the reckless temperament that Taylor exuded from the inside out.
It turned out that they were a good match. Taylor trusted the young man so much that he even considered marrying his daughter to him.
"Let me take a look at this route." General Taylor pointed to the map on the table. "Before we reach our destination, we will have to cross rivers, forests, and narrow paths. So I think we should set out in batches."
"Depart in batches?"
Taylor nodded. "Yes, our army is too large, almost three thousand men. I'm worried that the soldiers won't be able to get through these places quickly."
People were convinced.
From the perspective of most people in North America at that time, three thousand people were indeed a large army.
Taylor continued his plan: "I plan to leave 500 men here, and the remaining 2,500 men will be divided into three brigades plus a cavalry regiment, a total of four groups, and they will set out one day apart."
A few days later, 2,500 U.S. troops were divided into four groups and set out south, arriving one after another at the north bank of the Grande River, facing the Mexican city of Matamoros across the river.
When they arrived, the U.S. military immediately set about building a fortress. More than 2,000 people worked overtime every day and completed the fortress in one and a half months.
I don't know if it was intentional, but the location of this fortress is quite bad.
It was almost directly within the range of Matamoros's fire.
Just as the fort was completed, Zachary Taylor led a large army away to a military base not far to the north to replenish supplies and manpower.
So, the Mexicans launched an attack on the US military fort without hesitation and surrounded the soldiers stationed in the fort.
Soon after, General Taylor led his troops back to the fortress with various supplies, successfully rescued the trapped garrison, and captured Matamoros in one fell swoop.
On May 18, Taylor captured Matamoros.
On May 23, Mexico officially declared war on the United States.
The Mexican-American War began.
Mexico's official declaration of war was on May 23, but when Ma Shao received the news, it was already June.
And not long after, he saw an article in the newspaper.
The content of the article was unimportant, an anti-war article that received little attention and had virtually no impact.
But the author of the article made Ma Shao's eyes focus.
"Illinois, Whig Congressman, Abraham Lincoln..."
After a quick glance at the article, he was sure that this Lincoln was either a duplicate of the name, or the famous President Lincoln in later generations.
In this article, the author's most important reason for opposing the Mexican-American War is that after Texas joined the United States, it became a slave state.
During this period, it was clear that there could be no other antislavery Whig congressman from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln.
At this time, Lincoln was not yet a president, and was not even famous. He was just a budding politician, serving as a state legislator in Illinois and also working as a lawyer.
After realizing that the author was Lincoln, Ma Shao read the article carefully and then thought about how to establish a relationship with the future US president.
Lincoln is a must-invest.
Before the Civil War, this was probably the only president with whom Ma Shao had a possible relationship.
After all, Lincoln was the only one in a relatively low position at the moment, still serving as a state legislator. Several other future presidents were at least senior members of Congress, and Zachary Taylor and James Buchanan were generals and secretaries of state.
And Lincoln would have some low points in his life later on, like the death of his son...
The Mexican-American War was underway.
But so far, the fighting has been concentrated in the South, thousands of miles away from Kansas, and the scale of the fighting is only a few hundred or a few thousand people.
So apart from the endless reports in the newspapers, Ma Shao had no feelings about this war.
It wasn't until mid-July that the situation changed.
An army marched from the northeast corner of Kansas toward New Mexico.
The army consisted of more than 2,000 people, and the commander was a brigadier general in his fifties. The brigadier general was tall and thin and looked serious.
"Magofin, are you sure you can convince Amijo?" the brigadier general asked without turning his head while riding on his horse.
Not far behind him, a middle-aged man with a bald head said with a smile: "Don't worry, General Kearny. I know Amijo. He is greedy and cowardly. As long as he doesn't have a 100% chance of winning, he will definitely think about the conditions for surrender."
"Given the strength of the Mexican army, they don't even have a 30% chance of winning. We just need to pay some bribes and walk into Santa Fe without firing a single bullet!"
Brigadier General Carney nodded and said nothing.
After a while he asked again: "Are we almost in Indian territory?"
"Yes, General." An officer stepped forward and said, "I heard recently that the Apache Sleeping Bear Clan around here seems to be developing very quickly. We may need to deal with them more."
"It's developing very fast?" Everyone was incredulous. Magofin even laughed and said, "Do you mean that these Indians have learned to use muskets?"
The officer seemed hesitant to speak.
General Kearney said: "Although the Indians are ignorant, they are not easy to deal with. There are many Indians in the Midwest, so we still have to be careful."
"...Apaches have always hated Mexicans. If possible, we'd better get them to join this war and fight against the Mexicans with us."
Magofin: "It's easy. In my experience, Indian chiefs are easier to bribe than Armijo. Sometimes, they can even sell you all their land with just a cart of liquor."
At this moment, Brigadier General Carney suddenly pulled the reins, stopped where he was, frowned and looked at the field ahead: "What is that?"
Everyone stopped and looked forward following his gaze, then opened their eyes wide in surprise.
"This is... a city?"
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