September of the fifth year of Taisheng, which is later known as October 1858.

Veracruz, a port city bordering the Gulf of Mexico.

Located on the southwestern side of the Gulf of Mexico, Veracruz is the largest port on the east coast of Mexico, known as Mexico's "Gateway to the East" and the oldest city in Mexico.

The Castle of San Juan de Ullua, founded by Spanish colonists more than 300 years ago, is located in the heart of Veracruz.

At this moment, inside the Ulua Castle, Mexico's new interim president Juárez this year is looking happy. Can you not rejoice?

Mexico, which gained independence from Spanish colonial rule 30 years ago, was originally a powerful federal state, but unfortunately it was soon defeated by the invasion of its northern neighbor, the United States, and lost most of its country. Under Anna's dictatorship, internal strife and chaos led to a decline in national power. The year before last, General Alvarez led the liberals to overthrow the dictator Santa. Under Anna's rule, Juarez, a lawyer, also enacted the "Juarez Law" and the "Ledo Law" to abolish the privileges of religious churches and soldiers, and led the drafting of the 1857 Constitution. In order to further crack down on the conservatives who represent the privileged church and the military, Juárez finally completed the first draft of the Mexican Reform Law after several months of writing and revision, which means that the end of the privileged class is coming.

In addition, in the past few days, in addition to Veracruz in the Gulf of Mexico, liberal government forces have successively taken control of several states in the mountainous Midwest and the north. At the beginning, because the liberal generals and armies on their side lacked the rich war experience of the conservatives, they fought with the armies of the conservative government, failed one after another, and lost most of the central and western regions.

Together, these two happy events made Juarez ecstatic. Especially the news I received just now made Juarez even more excited.

A few months ago, the main conservative general, General Miguel Miramón, who led more than 8,000 soldiers, attacked Veracruz from Mexico City, but as soon as he entered the state of Veracruz and did not reach the castle of Ulua, he suffered two major defeats, and the 8,000 soldiers led by the former interim president of the liberal faction, the famous conservative general Álvarez, who was also an Indian, and his close general Porfirio Díaz led the army.

In addition, the two defeats of the conservative army in the southern state of Oaxaca and the central Guadalajara region in the previous month have significantly strengthened the strength of the liberals, and the most important thing is that the general Miguel Miramón, who he has contacted many times, has sent someone to contact him today, saying that he is willing to give up resistance and submit to the government for the sake of the Mexican people. You must know that the main generals of the four major armies of the conservatives, Miramon, Marquis, Mejía, and Mecca, of which Miramón guards Puebla, an important town southwest of the capital Mexico City.

Think about it, if Miramón gives up resistance or even surrenders himself, and his government forces pass through Puebla and then approach or even occupy Mexico City in one fell swoop, it will be a fatal blow to the conservatives, who will soon collapse and secure his presidency.

Thinking of this, Juarez beckoned, called his confidants, and asked him to bring his own handwritten letter to meet Miramon again on his behalf, and then determine the specific plan, although he believed in Miramon's personality, but in order to ensure that nothing went wrong, he had to be cautious and put forward a more excessive request: let Miramon send some internal responses, quietly open the Puebla gates, and as soon as the government army approached Puebla, he would retreat to Mexico City like a frightened bird, and the government troops followed, and Miramon opened the gates of Mexico City again, Let the government army take the capital in one fell swoop; In exchange, Juárez, on behalf of the government forces, promised not to embarrass conservative soldiers in Puebla and Mexico City, and that Miramón himself would continue to serve as Mexico's general in charge of the central region.

Juarez is confident that Miramón will make the right choice.

Sure enough, three days later, the news came: General Miramón led 8,000 conservative troops to withdraw from Puebla City and flee to Mexico City, and the government forces led by General Alvarez successfully entered Puebla City and then approached Mexico City.

Juárez was overjoyed. He immediately had Porfirio Díaz, a close general stationed at the port of Veracruz, summoned to discuss the dispatch of troops to Mexico City, always planning in advance, and as soon as Mexico City was captured, he would go as soon as possible to officially assume the presidency of the country.

Juárez even imagined that after he really became president, he would strengthen reforms, completely abolish the privileges of the Catholic Church and the military in Mexico, develop free trade, revitalize industry, and then recover the Sino-US joint provinces that were originally part of Mexico, which were divided into five small countries, including Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Costa Rica. At that time, he will be a hero comparable to San Martín and Bolívar, who will be remembered forever by the people of the Americas.

Just as Juárez was in a beautiful reverie, his close general, Porfirio Dias, hurriedly broke in, without even knocking on the door, knowing that he had always been very concerned about himself with sincere fear, but at this moment his face was full of horror, and he didn't even care that his military uniform was cut by a branch, and he was so out of shape that when he saw Juárez, he shouted: "Your Excellency, it's not good, it's not good!" ”

"What's so alarming?" Being disrupted, Juarez was naturally unhappy, but seeing that the person who came was his close confidant Dias, he suppressed the unhappiness in his heart and asked calmly. For this Dias, Juarez is actually not very satisfied in his heart, firstly, this person's command level is too poor, and secondly, he always feels that this person is too utilitarian. But because Juarez didn't have many people available, and Díaz was very affectionate and could entrap those sergeants, he could only use them.

"Your Excellency, I just discovered that a large number of troops are approaching the Gulf of Mexico. The two ships sent by his subordinates to stop it, which were directly captured by him, had detected the arrival of the Spanish army from the island of Cuba, and they had begun to land in the port of Veracruz, with an army of about 3,000 men. What to do, what to do? Like a headless fly, Dias circled around Juarez a few times, panting for breath because he was running too fast.

"What!?" Juarez almost fell to the ground. How is this possible? When Mexico became independent, Spain didn't recognize independence, so how could it interfere? Where did they get the guts? Did he know that Spain at this time was not at all the Spain of a few decades ago, and the troops of 3,000 people wanted to occupy Mexico again?

Still, Juarez was shocked and terrified. The main reason is that this time is too bad, taking advantage of the fact that the conservatives and liberals in Mexico have formed their own governments to form armies to fight a civil war, how can this Spain come to invade, no, it must immediately protest to the United States and those Western countries in Europe, and at the same time, it is necessary to mobilize other Latin American countries to help themselves and resist the Spanish colonizers together!

Juarez hurriedly thought of a countermeasure, but unexpectedly, the damned Dias, after taking a breath, burst out again: "Also, Your Excellency the President, also, a French warship attacked a small port in the south of Veracruz, and 2,500 French soldiers landed at the mouth of the Quaccurcoti River." ”

After hearing this, Juarez's face turned pale! He was at once horrified to think that this was not just a Spanish invasion, but probably the ambition of the Gallic rooster, which was not a declining second-rate European country like Spain. Juarez felt a little tightness in his throat, which made him uncomfortable. He couldn't help biting the tip of his tongue, calming down, sobering himself up from the panic, and shouted at Dias: "What are you panicking about! Isn't it only 2,500 people? Immediately organize the army to prepare for resistance. I summoned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to unite with neighbouring countries and put pressure on them to protest. ”

I have to say that Juarez's face is still very calm, and the handling is also appropriate.

However, half a day later, when several Spanish warships occupied the port of Veracruz and the news came that the Spanish army was preparing to besiege the castle of Ulua, Juarez found that the other party did not accept to negotiate with him at all, and their only purpose was to directly occupy Veracruz. But even so, he still ordered not to act rashly, and not to let the other party find a little excuse.

By evening, news also came from the south, and after the 2,500 French troops had occupied the mouth of the Khachaquartkoti River, they quickly assembled and marched north overnight, that is, Veracruz.

And that's not all. By the morning of the next day, Díaz had sent someone to report that a large number of French warships had appeared at the mouth of the Quadakcurkoti River, and that an army of 5,000 men had landed.

Just as Juárez was about to ask the American envoy in Veracruz what his opinion was, he received an urgent message from Zaragoza, a general stationed in western Mexico, that a large fleet had arrived from the Pacific Ocean and captured the western Mexican port of Mazatlan, landing as many as 20,000 troops.

"Flutter!" Juarez's throat was sweet, and a mouthful of scarlet blood sprayed on the black bow tie: "Where did this army come from?" Do you really want to destroy me, Mexico? ”