Of course, Xiao Xuan had heard that the Spaniards had planned to invade the Ming Dynasty with 18,000 men and finally achieve a decisive victory. At the time, it was thought that the Spaniards were probably just seeing the blind men touching the elephants behind the Southern Guard Army. The actual combat effectiveness may not be much stronger than that of the Dutch that the Zheng family once met in Taiwan, even if the combat effectiveness is slightly stronger than that of the Ming army's northern border army. It will not be so strong that it is one level stronger than the armored soldiers of Jianzhou, and it only takes less than 20,000 people to conquer the Ming Dynasty in history. As for the exaggerated achievements with the Indians in the Americas, they have more to do with the backwardness of the Indians.

However, now that they really confronted the Spaniards, they suddenly found that even if the Spaniards did not have the advantage of the preparation they had in the past month, but compared them under the same conditions, I am afraid that only the main force of the Polish army in Eastern Europe could be compared, or even more powerful. Because the cavalry-based combat method of the Polish elite is not very much in conflict with the infantry groups that are strong in projection power and even in all aspects, and there are obvious problems in terms of troops. If compared with the ordinary Western armies in Germany and even in Russia and France, I am afraid that it is far stronger. The fact that the Spaniards did not conquer Europe in this era or in the glory of the past may have something to do with the geography and terrain and even the fact that the bastions were still rampant in the west in this era.

After paying thousands of casualties and losses to break through the defense line around the Sompo Pass, he did not expect that the tenacious Spanish army would quickly reinforce the forces that had just recovered from the loss of tens of thousands of people, and then converged with the retreating battle group, regathered a strong force of about 50,000 troops, and confronted the main force led by Xiao Xuan.

During the day, the troops led by Xiao Xuan could only turn into a defensive state to suppress the Spanish army with three or two guns and even hundreds of guns with far better marksmanship and rate of fire than the opponent, but when organizing infantry assaults and attacks, they would still encounter an effective counterattack from the Spaniards with significantly stronger hand-to-hand combat ability and better comprehensive protection, and it was difficult to break through the formation after the opponent was also equipped with a large number of vehicle shields and protective equipment. The significance of the military handicraft industry and combat readiness training, which far surpassed that of the East, was also fully reflected at this time.

As night fell, the home field of the Volunteer Army began to become the home field in which the Spanish Army had a clear advantage. Xiao Xuan was very glad that he did not forget to build a basic fortification system when he suppressed the Spaniards during the day, which made the Spaniards, who had the advantage of hand-to-hand combat at night, often face the situation of being ambushed at all times, even if they could effectively rush into the formation, and finally had to withdraw from the battle.

This fierce battle lasted for another two days and nights, and the attrition on both sides was severe. However, the main force of the volunteer forces, which has a higher bearing capacity, has gradually won the initiative. This is especially true when fortifications and trenches are becoming more and more perfect in confrontational operations. However, it was only about two days and nights, and the investment of more than 70,000 Spanish reinforcements gave the main force of the Spanish army, which had a clear advantage in strength and was quite strong in combat, immediately gained the upper hand, even in the daytime firepower battle, in the face of the Spaniards with nearly a thousand artillery pieces, the volunteer left army led by Xiao Xuan also had to deal with the enemy's strong attack in defense. And in order to avoid accidents, in the case of a siege during the day, the reconnaissance hot air balloon cannot be effectively used, and at most the children who climb the 100-foot pole can only be used to meet the most basic reconnaissance needs.

On the fourth day and night of the battle with the main force of the Spanish army, the Spaniards launched an all-out offensive without hesitating whether a full-scale attack at night would adversely affect whether they could completely annihilate their opponents, accompanied by the earth-shattering blasting attacks of the volunteers.

The fierce sound of guns and even shouts of killing continued throughout the night, and the team led by Xiao Xuan suffered more than a third of the casualties but still showed no obvious signs of demoralization, which began to make Philip IV, who led the army, have to reassess the combat effectiveness of this powerful enemy. Because of the gradual approach of another force, many Spanish officers and generals were also a little unbreathable at this time.

Philip IV, after much deliberation, finally tried to make contact with these powerful eastern enemies like robbers. Perhaps it is due to the influence of the "first sun never sets" global colonial powers. At this time, Spain could not find a person who could be proficient in Chinese, so they quickly sent envoys to seriously sign a "city alliance": the Spanish army withdrew from the Netherlands, and was willing to pay a million taels of silver a year, and the eastern army gave up the invasion of Spain.

Unlike many eastern forces that ask for a lot of money to pay back, the West in this era seems to have some rules and simplicity since the era of feudal lords, and has not played tricks in some places that both sides know.

Xiao Xuan no longer concealed his goals and positions at this time: "This expedition is that the People's Liberation Army can defeat all the people in the hostile areas of influence, and overthrow all kinds of burdens and shackles that are pressing on the people... ”

Seeing that these thick-faced and black-faced eastern bandits seemed to have no sincerity in negotiating at all, the Spanish pressed the people to launch an offensive again. However, this offensive seemed to be much less intense than the last one, and only lasted for an hour near the wee hours of the morning. This made Xiao Xuan also begin to realize that the reinforcements led by Zhou Dayong were not far away.

The United States, Russia, other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and even Japan have the ability to threaten China without restraint, and Gengzi is second in the late Qing Dynasty and so on. So which one is the right one?

In fact, there is no need for too detailed arguments, just a glimpse or two from some simple and verifiable clues.

For strategic or geographical reasons, the weight of the status of the navy is not the same in all countries of the world, but the weight of the status of the air force is mostly not far behind. Even some small countries in Southeast Asia or Africa attach importance to the role of air power. The reason is that for many civilized and backward countries, the army is unreliable and inefficient, but it is not difficult to select a small number of elite and reliable personnel. This is why there was a huge disparity in air and ground performance in the Indo-Pakistani War and the Anglo-Argentine War. Although the performance of the Beiyang naval division in the late Qing Dynasty is problematic, it is also stronger than the army, and the same principle is true: for a late feudal dynasty, it is always not difficult to train thousands of reliable forces, and the dollar has been inflated tenfold for decades, but the cost of modern civil shipbuilding per tonnage is still a few hundred dollars per ton

(End of chapter)