Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 24 The Million Franc War ([-])

"Stand at attention! Look to the right! Look forward! Hold your gun and walk, one two one... one two one..." Following Peng Zhicheng's command, the 250 officers and soldiers of the New Army's First Battalion walked fairly neatly through the Arrayed outside the city behind the north gate.

The first battalion is arranged in sentry units, and the three sentries are connected as one. The first row of each sentry is in the front, and so on, forming a 48*5 square formation.The officers and soldiers in the front four rows were dressed in solid three-year-style full-body armor, with a small bag, a large bag, and a tinder pot hanging on their waists. The small bag was a primer bag; The paper bag contains gunpowder and projectiles, which is the result of the promotion of fixed ammunition through the people; the tinder can is used to light the match when shooting.

The brethren of the first post of the Independent Field Artillery had established artillery positions in front, and six 4-pounders and two 8-pounders had been erected.There is an ammunition cart behind each gun, which is filled with barrels of gunpowder and various shells.The artillerymen were busy around the cannon, making final preparations before launching.

They went out to set up positions as soon as they received the news of the enemy's landing. 45 officers and soldiers plus thirty or forty horses pulled the eight cannons to the position in the shortest time.After the artillery positions were set up, the Finnish draft horses were immediately returned. There were no eyesight on the battlefield, and it would be a big loss if these horses were damaged.In the eyes of the Executive Committee, the value of these horses is much higher than that of cannons.

The horses that pulled back were not idle either.The executive committee pulled out all available horses and made up 40 horses.In the group of Cossack serfs, they made publicity and promises. In short, they were free citizens and money, and successfully recruited 40 riders.Almost all of these Cossacks could ride horses, and the executive committee distributed them the newly forged [-]-style command saber as a backup force.At this time, the battle is imminent, and it is good to have more strength.

Peng Zhicheng raised his military binoculars, and the enemies in the lens were also neatly arranged in a square formation.The clothes looked a little messy, but European armies don't have any regular uniforms these days, so it's normal to be a little messy.

The other party has no artillery, probably because of the difficulty of shipping due to landing at sea; or the lack of horses, which makes transportation inconvenient. In short, this is good news for the 250 officers and soldiers of the first battalion.

The opponent's commander also raised his binoculars, wondering what his mood would be when he saw his well-equipped soldiers with a fair fighting spirit.Peng Zhicheng thought to himself.

Sean Raffarin was indeed in a bad mood.

This landing operation was entirely the result of his willful will.Originally, after seeing that the fort could not be easily breached, everyone advocated returning to the voyage or simply continuing south to rob a Spanish town.

The English and Dutch can talk about robbing Spanish towns because they're either bona fide pirates or their home country is at war with the Spaniards; but Sean Raffarin can't, he's St Christopher's The senior officials of the company, and more importantly, the colonial representatives sent by the French government to the Caribbean region, had to be cautious in every move, word and deed. He didn't want to bring France into direct conflict with the Spanish Empire because of his stupid actions.

However, there is no need to think so much about the Tatan people who have no background, just do it directly.Although Xiao En has always wondered why this eastern nomad came to South America thousands of miles away by boat, but it is obviously not the time to delve into this issue now, as long as he knows that attacking the castle of the Tartans will not cause any additional trouble That's it.

Moreover, the most important thing is that there is amazing wealth in this castle!A wealth that can save the company and even a king would envy!As long as he succeeds in making this vote, the company will be saved, and he will also be appreciated by high-level Parisians such as Richelieu. It is almost certain that he will flourish.Maybe there will be one or two beautiful noble ladies who will fall in love with me because of her heroic deeds in the New World, this is absolutely certain!

To this end, Sean Raffarin tried his best to lobby the remaining captains, mainly Dutch and English.Captain Adrian Flores understood his urgency to save the company, and as the commander of the trip, he had to obey his orders.

There were no soldiers on board the "Good Man", so Sean didn't care much about whether the English participated in the operation; as for the captain of the "Crow", Ruben Demel, he was the one Sean tried to persuade. Because this Dutch flute ship can carry 150 soldiers.

In order to persuade Captain Demel, Sean tried his best to talk, and finally had to promise to allocate more shares to the other party, so that the other party reluctantly agreed to go ashore and attack with the French, but demanded that they retreat immediately if they found something wrong. .

After Captain Demel agreed, the English captain John Stone had nothing to do, and finally agreed to take 25 sailors ashore to try his luck.

Although Sean Raffarin was slightly worried because of the performance of the enemy turret before departure, he still believed that he could defeat the enemy and occupy the city.Cortez and Pizarro took Mexico and Peru with just a few people, and now they have 375 well-trained soldiers from Europe, occupying the cities of Tartans whose inhabitants may be less than 1000, It shouldn't be too difficult.

The only thing to worry about is the opponent's city wall.If they hid in the city walls and didn't come out with cannons, it would be a bit troublesome to occupy the city.

Therefore, when Sean Raffarin was marching and saw that the opponent did not hide in the city, but actually formed an array outside the city, he felt ecstasy in his heart; but this joy was soon diluted a lot, because He saw that the Tatans had formed a neat phalanx, and the soldiers were basically wearing bright plate armor with muskets in their hands. They looked well-trained.This made him feel a little worse.

But the matter has come to this point, everyone has no way out, they can only move forward, maybe the other party is just putting on a show.

"God bless." Sean solemnly crossed his chest, and then shouted loudly: "Soldiers, for the sake of glory and wealth, I command you to attack! God bless us!"

"God bless!" After the soldiers finished praying, they took up matchlock guns or various weapons and began to advance.

Since the executive committee built the reservoir and overhauled the canal for drinking water irrigation in the creek wetland, the current water flow has been very small.But the muddy riverbed was still a marching nightmare.

The soldiers of the first battalion lined up in the harvested wheat field, with an interval of about half a meter between them. While loading ammunition nervously, the soldiers carefully checked whether the matchlock was extinguished, and then waited for the officer's order.

They are lying when they say they are not nervous when they are new to the battlefield, but the matter has come to this point, so they can only bite the bullet.Fortunately, the usual training is relatively sufficient, they only need to repeat the training movements mechanically.

But they were not the first to fire on the battlefield.The 8-pounders and 4-pounders of the field artillery fired successively, and the solid iron ball roared and rushed towards the enemy crowd, bringing up several stumps and arms, and successfully created a little chaos.It's a pity that the ground is slightly soft, which absorbs the kinetic energy of the shells well, greatly reducing the ricochet effect.

The speed of the enemy's advancement has been significantly accelerated, so the formation is also somewhat scattered.At this time, the artillery was almost all fired directly, and shells kept falling on the crowd, killing a few people each time.Soon, the formations of the two sides were close to within the range of the muskets.

Peng Zhicheng was wearing a three-year-style full-body armor, standing in the gap between the first whistle and the second whistle.He raised his right hand and ordered loudly: "Back and shoot, get ready, fire!"

Following his order, the first battalion immediately burst into gunshots. The 48 officers and soldiers who finished shooting did not even look at the results of the battle, and quickly flashed from the gap beside them to the rear to reload; Then back again to reload, and so on.

After the first row of soldiers shot, Peng Zhicheng clearly saw that the opponent's momentum stopped, and at least 20 people were shot and fell to the ground.After the muskets in the hands of the soldiers in the second row were also fired, the battlefield was suddenly filled with smoke. From the smoke, Peng Zhicheng vaguely saw the opposing soldiers starting to fight back under the command of the officers.

The whistling high-speed projectile hit the curved iron armor made of high-carbon steel, making a muffled clanging sound.Occasionally someone screamed, it was the unlucky ghost who was shot in the face.

Soldiers in the third row and the fourth row fired one after another. At this time, the projectiles fired from the opposite side were already sparse.

After the five rows were all fired in bursts, the first row stepped forward again and fired a round of volley.At this moment, a gust of wind blew past, and Peng Zhicheng was able to see the situation on the other side of the battlefield clearly.

The other side of the creek wetland can be said to be horrible, with large pieces of corpses scattered all over the ground.The enemy's formation was obviously broken, and the soldiers who suffered heavy casualties began to turn around and flee, and the officers couldn't restrain themselves, and began to join the fleeing formation.

Peng Zhicheng grinned, and said: "I played with a matchlock gun era to line up and shoot! Liao Meng, are you still alive? Haha, organize people to pursue. Pay attention to your own safety and try not to cause any casualties."

Liao Meng laughed. He seemed a little excited when he first entered the battlefield: "I'm not so easy to hang up. The fifth row at every whistle, follow me! Chase the enemy!"

"By the way, I almost forgot." Peng Zhicheng slapped his thigh violently again, and made a metallic sound: "You, Xiao Li, hurry back and have someone send out those Cossack riders, motherfucker, chase after them!" When the enemy doesn’t need them, they can use them again. Alas, if I knew the battle was going so smoothly, I would have deployed them early in the morning.”

After Peng Zhicheng complained, he ordered the remaining musketeers to form a team, and then began to prepare to cross the muddy river bed for pursuit.Of course, the iron skin on his body had to be removed first, otherwise he would be exhausted from walking in such a suit.

Artillerymen laid planks on the river bed to allow everyone to pass through.

Not far away, the Cossack riders rushed out of the city gate, holding sharp command sabers, passing by like a gust of wind...

(End of this chapter)