1840 Indian Rebirth

Chapter 120 [The US-Mexico War Begins]

South Texas, Corpus Christi.

Corpus Christi is a small town. At this time, there are more than 3000 people here, but the population of the town itself is less than [-]. The remaining [-] people are American troops stationed here.

Brigadier General Zachary Taylor, is the commander of this army.

This veteran general in his sixties has been stationed in Corpus Christi for half a year, and President Polk had planned for him to go here half a year ago.

After half a year of being stationed, General Taylor and the [-] soldiers felt a little restless.

Until one day in March.

"God, it's finally here!" General Taylor looked like a rough man, he was slovenly, with a straw in his mouth, eager to unwrap 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 literacy level has been criticized, and his writing ability has even been described as "nearly illiterate".

Bliss looked to be in his early 30s, tall and thin, with a gentle temperament, but with a beard. He took the letter: "General, Mr. President ordered us to go to the Rio Grande immediately to build a stronghold. If the Mexicans shoot, We should strike back immediately."

Taylor laughed: "Very well, that's it! The Mexicans fired the first shot at us, and then we put half of Mexico into the territory of the United States!"

The vicinity of the Rio Grande belongs to the disputed area between the two countries. When the US military ran to build a stronghold there, it was almost a slap in the face. It is no wonder that the Mexicans did not fight back.

Then Taylor called some subordinates to discuss a specific action plan, and the results were quickly drawn.

The main reason why the action was so fast was that there was no deliberation process, and the plan was almost made by one person, namely his right-hand man William Bliss.

An unquestionable genius, William Bliss was 19 years old as an assistant professor of mathematics at West Point.

He was sent to Taylor's side, probably to neutralize Taylor's reckless temperament exuding from the inside out.

As it turns out, their combination is pretty good.Taylor trusted the young man so much that he even considered marrying his daughter.

"Let me take a look at this route." General Taylor pointed to the map on the table. "Before we reach our destination, we should cross rivers, forests, and narrow paths. So I think we should start in batches. "

"Depart in batches?"

Taylor nodded: "Yes, our army is too large, almost 3000 people. I am worried that the soldiers will not be able to pass through these places quickly."

People are persuaded.

From the perspective of most people in North America at this time, 3000 people is indeed a large-scale army.

Taylor continued to talk about his plan: "I plan to stay here with 500 people, and the remaining 500 people will be divided into three brigades and a cavalry regiment, a total of four groups, and leave one day apart."

A few days later, 500 U.S. troops headed south in four groups and arrived on the north bank of the Rio Grande, across the river from the Mexican Matamoros.

When they got there, the U.S. military immediately started building a fortress. More than 2000 people worked overtime every day, and it took one and a half months to build the fortress.

I don't know if it was intentional, but the location of this fortress is quite bad.

It was almost exactly within range of Matamoros' fire.

And just as the fortress was being built, Zachary Taylor led a large army to leave and went to a military base not far to the north to replenish supplies and troops.

Therefore, the Mexicans launched an attack on the American fortress without hesitation, and surrounded the soldiers stationed in the fortress.

Soon after, General Taylor led his troops back to the fortress with various supplies, successfully rescued the trapped defenders, and defeated Matamoros in one go.

On May 5, Taylor captured Matamoros.

On May 5, Mexico officially declared war on the United States.

Thus began the Mexican-American War.

Mexico officially declared war on May 5, but when the horse sentry got the news, it was already June.

And not long after, he also saw an article in the newspaper.

The content of the article is unimportant, an anti-war article that gets almost no attention and makes almost no impact.

But the author of the article made Ma Shao look at him.

"Illinois, Whig Congressman, Abraham Lincoln..."

After a cursory glance at the content of the article, he determined that this Lincoln was not the same name, but the famous President Lincoln in later generations.

In this article, the author’s most important reason for opposing the Mexican-American War is that Texas became a slave state after joining the United States.

The Illinois Whig congressman who opposed slavery during this period, Abraham Lincoln, obviously couldn't have had a second man.

At this time, Lincoln was not yet a president, or even famous, but a budding political rookie, serving as a state legislator in Illinois and still working as a lawyer.

After realizing that the author was Lincoln, Ma Shao read the article carefully, and then thought about how to get in touch with the future president of the United States.

Lincoln is a must.

Before the Civil War, this was probably the only president with whom the horse sentry could have a relationship.

After all, Lincoln's situation is relatively low at present, and he is still a state congressman. Several other future presidents are at least senior members of Congress. Zachary Taylor and James Buchanan are even generals and secretaries of state.

Moreover, Lincoln will still have life troughs in the future, such as the death of a son or something...

The Mexican-American War was on.

But so far, the fighting has been concentrated in the south, thousands of miles away from Kansas, and the scale of the fighting is also at the level of hundreds or thousands of people.

So apart from the endless reports in the newspapers, Horse Whistle had no sense of the war yet.

It wasn't until mid-July that the situation changed.

An army marched from the northeast corner of Kansas toward New Mexico.

The army consists of more than 2000 people, and the commander is a brigadier general in his 50s. The brigadier is tall and thin and looks serious.

"Magoffin, are you sure you can convince Amijo?" The brigadier asked while riding on the horse without looking back.

Not far behind him, a bald middle-aged man said with a smile: "Don't worry, General Carney. I know Amijo. This man is greedy and cowardly. As long as he doesn't have a [-]% chance of winning, he will definitely plan in his heart." Conditions of surrender."

"With the strength of the Mexican army, they don't even have a [-]% chance of winning. We only need to pay some bribes, and we can walk into Santa Fe without a single bullet!"

Brigadier General Carney nodded and said nothing.

After a while he asked again: "Aren't you going to the Indian territory soon?"

"Yes, General." An officer stepped forward and said, "Recently, I heard that the Apache Sleeping Bear clan near here seems to be developing very fast, and we may need to deal with them more."

"It's developing so fast?" Everyone didn't believe what was said, and Ma Goffin even laughed, "Does it mean that these Indians have learned how to use muskets?"

The officer seemed hesitant to speak.

General Carney said: "Although the Indians are ignorant, they are not easy to deal with. There are a large number of Indians in the Midwest, so we should be more careful."

"...the Apaches have historically hated the Mexicans, and if we can, we'd better get them in this war with us against the Mexicans."

Margoffin: "It's very simple. In my experience, Indian chiefs are easier to bribe than Amejo. Sometimes they can even sell you all the land for a carload of hard liquor."

At this moment, Brigadier General Carney suddenly reined in, stopped on the spot, frowned and looked at the field ahead: "What is that?"

Everyone also stopped and followed his gaze to look forward, and then they all opened their eyes wide in surprise.

"Is this...a city?"

(End of this chapter)