A month later, Juárez, who had taken over Mexico City, did not rejoice at all.

He is already a veritable president of Mexico, not just a liberal self-reliant president. Half a month ago, the French army and the Spanish combined army totaled more than 10,000 people, landed in Veracruz and immediately launched a fierce attack, his close general Díaz led nearly 10,000 liberal troops to resist, but was defeated, less than three days, Veracruz's San Juan de Ullua Castle was destroyed by the French army's fierce artillery, Juárez with the defeated Dias remnants retreated all the way from Veracruz, along the way by the scattered conservative troops in the countryside along the way, embarrassed, Fortunately, when Álvarez heard the news, he immediately sent a force to meet him, and after several days of fleeing, Juárez finally arrived in Puebla.

Juarez, who was extremely depressed, suddenly heard a huge good news: because of the invasion of foreign forces such as France and Spain, Miramon was very angry, and directly betrayed the conservatives who colluded with foreign forces and threw himself into the arms of liberals. The conservative president Felix Zorague, who occupied Mexico City, was already very dissatisfied with the fighting among the conservatives and making him a puppet president, and the church forces interfered in his territory, knowing that once the French troops supporting the Holy See occupied Mexico, it was likely to be a catastrophe for Mexico, so after some persuasion by Miramon, Felix Zorague asked Juárez to go to Mexico City, and he surrendered to the liberal rebel government with Miramon.

Juárez was naturally overjoyed, and while sending the liberal army led by General Zaragoza in central Mexico to move closer to Puebla City to replace the Alvarez army that had been stationed, he also rushed to Mexico City in person, escorted by his close general Dias. Felix Zorag really had the courage to directly lead the troops to open the gates of Mexico City, and together with Miramon, he led the people out of the city to greet them, and by the way, he expelled the Archbishop of Garza from Mexico City.

Originally, Juárez should be happy, but the next series of news made his original joy of returning to the capital Mexico City come to naught.

The combined French and Spanish forces not only swept through Veracruz, but also marched westward, defeating the resistance of the Mexican liberal army in succession, and even Alvarez was killed in the pursuit. Fortunately, I don't know if there were some differences between the French and Spanish armies, or if they had their own purposes, and the two coalition forces began to separate. After capturing Veracruz, Spain's 3,000 soldiers went straight south and attacked Oaxaca and Chiapas to the south. More than 7,000 French soldiers, led by the commander General Lorenz, quickly took control of the mountain passes west of Veracruz, and captured Orizaba in one fell swoop, aiming at Puebla, an important city in central Mexico. Puebla is Mexico City's southwestern gateway, and if it is taken again, Mexico City will be in jeopardy.

Not only that, but the conservative soldiers of northern and central Mexico, led by several generals such as Marquis, Mejía, and Mega, also began to attack the liberal army in the central states, and gathered together one after another, as if they were ready to assist the French army in attacking Mexico City.

These damn ink traitors! Juarez naturally knows that these conservative traitors are calculating. Unlike their liberal composition, the liberals represented the interests of the local native liberal landlords and the bourgeoisie, and advocated representative democracy, a decentralized federal system, the obedience of the church to the leadership of the state, the development of education, and the freedom of business. The conservatives, on the other hand, represent the interests of the big landowners and the upper Catholic class, and advocate the centralization of power, the establishment of a monarchy, and the protection of the interests of the church. Moreover, in order to win over the military power, the conservatives also gave privileges to the military class. Therefore, for the sake of the privileges of these churches and soldiers, they would rather consecrate Mexico to the French, willing to serve as their puppets and slaves.

Although Juárez felt that their liberal struggle was just, the cruel truth still made him feel bad, and that was the news that another liberal army of nearly 6,000 people stationed in Guerrero State had been wiped out, and it was the 20,000-strong army that called the Chinese Empire that it had been crushed. Moreover, the enemy force of 20,000 men suffered almost no losses at all, and was as well armed as the French, and directly occupied de León, fortunately, still lingering in the Balthus River valley and did not attack in the direction of Mexico City.

The only consolation for Juárez was that, after many requests from him, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico finally met with him and conveyed a secret order from U.S. President James Buchanan that the U.S. government would strongly support him by selling weapons and opening the southern border. Juárez breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, and finally had a way back, even if Mexico City was captured by conservatives or foreign forces, he could still lead these liberal troops to withdraw north, but if he couldn't, he could still enter the United States. However, of course, he will not be satisfied with all this, since the President of the United States can say this, it is not difficult for him to guess that this is a hint to himself, so he immediately expressed to the President of the United States through the American ambassador a deeper level of cooperation: as long as the United States sends troops to help him drive out those foreign forces and quell the conservative rebels, he is willing to sell the two states of Lower California to the United States at a low price.

In fact, Juarez had to do the same. The most important thing is whether Puebla City can hold on!

After all, in the face of a frantic attack of 7,000 French troops and nearly 10,000 conservative rebels, Puebla City had only about 4,000 Mexican liberal defenders who were not all regulars, and Juarez had to prepare for the worst.

At the same time, outside the city of Puebla, the commander of the French army, General Lorenz, looked at the Mexican soldiers guarding the city wall not far away, and with a burst of contempt in his heart, he laughed at several staff officers around him: "In less than a week, this city will be destroyed." Within half a month, we were able to pray with the archbishop in Mexico City. ”

True, General Lorenz had every reason to be so confident. The army he led on an expedition to Mexico was really speechless, not only elite but also well-equipped.

The three chaser battalions from mainland France were all first-class mountain troops at that time, among which the "Marriott" chaser battalion was a volunteer force composed of veterans who had experienced a hundred battles, and its combat effectiveness was good; The 2nd "Zuaf" Infantry Regiment, formerly stationed in North Africa, is part of the French Foreign Legion and is known for its rigorous training and tenacious fighting spirit; Recognized as a light infantry unit held up as a model in Europe, the Tebi was rich in distinctive gorgeous costumes, which once became the object of emulation by foreign armies at that time; Two battalions of marines from the colonies were also a formidable force, and it was their number one unit that made the last resistance when the anti-French coalition invaded Paris more than 40 years ago, and was regarded as a symbol of the courage and discipline of the French nation.

Moreover, not only are the soldiers these well-trained elite soldiers, their weapons are the most advanced in the world, the French emperor learned the lessons of the Crimean War, and all his soldiers were equipped with French Migne rifles, which are simple to load, high in hit, and have a range of as far as 1,000 yards, so the French army led by Lorenz can be described as the best equipped and most well-organized army in Europe.

In fact, after Lorenz led the army to besiege the city of Puebla, he thought of a quick victory and captured the city within ten days.

However, the Mexican liberal army defending the city was not a soft persimmon.

The city of Puebla was commanded by General Zaragoza. Although the general was young, he had outstanding military talents. He noted that the city of Puebla was located in a valley at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters, and the surrounding terrain was undulating, and the area east of the city where the French army was attacking was not only narrow and cramped, but also fragmented by valleys and rivers, which was not conducive to the deployment of large forces.

Therefore, he actively prepared for war by using the perimeter of Puebla to build fortifications such as walls and fortresses left over from previous civil wars. Zaragoza decided to adopt the tactics of facing the enemy on the outside, relying on the fortifications left outside the city, to launch a mobile defense, rather than being trapped in an isolated city.

To the north of Puebla are the fortresses of Loreto and Guadeloupe, located at the top of two high grounds. The two fortresses are confined to each other, connected by moats and each with a road leading to the city of Puebla below. Although the slopes of these two highlands are gentle, the surface vegetation is sparse, and they are basically barren farmland. This meant that the defenders could use their firepower to the fullest with strong fortifications and an open horizon. The besieging side has to brave the opponent's artillery fire to rush to the top, which is very disadvantageous.

Zaragoza also made a ruthless move, directly placing 2,000 defenders on the battlefield with the Guadeloupe fortress as the main position, and more than 800 people to the east of the two fortresses of Loreto and Guadeloupe, and facing the north at the same time, so that he could adjust the battlefield maneuver in these two directions at any time according to the changes in the battle situation.

The war began.

The commander of the French army, Lorenz, did not use any tactics, and directly ordered to cover the two fortresses with 30 rounds of artillery of three artillery batteries, and after the deafening artillery stopped, Lorenz felt that it was almost enough, and directly ordered the 2nd "Zuaf" Infantry Regiment and 1 battalion of the 3rd Marine Flinth Flintlock Regiment to attack the fortress of Guadeloupe and directly charge.

In Lorenz's view, with less than one-third of his two forces, a single charge could have wiped out the remnants of the Mexican enemy army on the fortress of Guadeloupe, which had already been crippled by artillery.

However, although the heavy artillery fire caused some casualties and damaged some fortifications, the strong fortress was not completely destroyed, and the battle-hardened Mexican elite only suffered more than 100 casualties.

The ending on the battlefield made Lorenz, who was holding a telescope, almost smash the telescope!