The Salton Basin in the southeast corner of Jiazhou is a harsh place with drought and little rainfall, and there is a severe shortage of water.

Three hundred years ago, the Salton Basin was flooded, and a huge lake with an area of more than 20,000 square kilometers gathered at the lowest point of the basin, but the poor natural environment has always prevented the source of life from remaining here for a long time.

Today, it was a guerrilla zone for the Spaniards, and the Chen-Han Expeditionary Force took control of San Diego, a port on the west coast of North America that had been exploited by Europeans more than 200 years ago. However, due to the constraints of troops, the expeditionary force could only accurately control the twenty or thirty miles around San Diego, and no matter how far away it was, it could only choose dangerous places to arrange military stations and barracks, and then send formed troops to fight barracks from time to time to set out to sweep in order to maintain control.

More than 10,000 combat troops seem to be strong and strong, but in addition to the strategic detachment for attack, and deducting some of the troops that cooperate with the actions of the naval fleet, the remaining troops are only 3,000 people, distributed in the vast Jiazhou area, which is like a remnant star hanging in the sky after dawn, and there are very few.

But such a force was sufficient to guard against the Spaniards. Because the latter's power in this area is even weaker.

Although there is information that the Spaniards are gathering a large number of troops to gather in Mexico City. Many of these troops were transferred from the West Indies. The wind islands there are a key center of gravity for the whole of North America, and in an era when sails were the main driving force for ships, one of the key points that influenced the strategic situation was the trade winds, and the currents that followed. In the face of obstacles in the direction of the wind and current, sailing to the upper wind is a long and difficult task for even a single ship, and it is even more difficult for larger ship groups. Thus, the situation of the trade winds made the Windward Islands, or islands to the east, a point in the inherent line of communication between Europe and the United States, and at the same time an important battlefield in the naval battle of North America, binding each other's large fleets there. Between these two theaters of war, between the North American continent and the Lesser Antilles, there is a vast and important sea area in which it is not possible to confidently carry out large-scale combat activities unless the navy of a belligerent country has a great superiority or has achieved a decisive advantage on a particular flank. In 1762, when Britain occupied the Windward Islands with indisputable maritime superiority, it successfully attacked and conquered Havana and forced France to admit defeat in the Americas. But now, the naval power of the Spanish and French allies in the Americas and their possession of the Windward Islands were more or less equal to those of the British, the focal point of the North American war, where the British, French, and Spaniards had gathered heavy forces and strangled them like crazy.

The Spaniards had drawn their forces from there, so you can imagine how serious they were about the next battle.

The real test of the expeditionary force has not yet come.

As a newly rising 'colonist', Chen Ming's goal was not to directly destroy the Spanish rule in the Americas - to destroy Mexico City, in which case the benefits would only be more from France and Britain. The strength of the Chinese expeditionary force is still too small, and to use an inappropriate analogy, China is like the Jurchens in the late Northern Song Dynasty, who could run rampant throughout China, but could not control China.

The Chinese expeditionary force now directly destroyed Mexico City, just like the Jurchen capture of Tokyo, which would only plunge China into an endless struggle with Spain. The latter still has a very strong influence in the Americas, which virtually shares the pressure for the British!

Chen Ming is still looking forward to the birth of Lao Mei. Because the independence of the United States marked a major setback for the British, China was able to continue its expansion to the east coast of North America. Moreover, if France did not fight with the British for several years, the treasury was empty, and the debts were high, how could the Great Revolution break out?

French Louisiana in the Mississippi River Valley is a hurdle that China cannot overcome as it expands eastward.

Although in the long run, the threat of the United States is really big and big. After that, it will depend on whether China will give Laos and the United States a chance to develop and grow.

On the edge of the Salton Basin, there is a small station of the expeditionary force, the construction of the station has been going on for a month, and it is almost complete, although the size and facilities here are not comparable to the barracks of other military stations, and the garrison has only one platoon with reinforced firepower, which can be said to be the smallest and most rudimentary of the several barracks around San Diego. But it can't be helped, you have to take into account the living environment here.

The expeditionary force also wants to place a squad here, but what about domestic water?

There was a small stream not far from the station, and the poor flow could only live for a platoon of men and horses. Don't look at the lake not far away, there is a lake a few acres of land, but the water there is salt water.

But this was the beginning of the expeditionary force's footing on the Salton Basin, and the first step of the expeditionary force to open up the Salton Basin.

An expeditionary force was marching through the field, with a hundred and ten soldiers, plus a few wagons driven by a group of men. These soldiers were paid much more than the first North American immigrants, fifty acres of land per capita, but they also had to bear much more danger than the immigrants. At least for now, they had to follow the patrol in a wagon, and each of them had a musket in his hand.

Since the expeditionary force entered the Salton Basin, a stalemate has been formed between the two sides after several contacts between China and the West.

The main force of the expeditionary force stayed in the City of Angels, which is now named Tokyo. Waiting for a strategic showdown with the Spaniards, after winning the victory over the Spaniards, the two sides can reach a ceasefire agreement through the French. As for the possibility of losing, the expeditionary force did not think about it at all.

Everyone firmly believes that victory must be their own!

Therefore, the current expeditionary force is more active at sea, and the expeditionary force sailor fleet completely blockades the coastline of North America, and sells weapons to anti-Westerners in Mexico, Peru, Chile and other places, and of course, the Chinese goods carried with the army.

Cloth, silk, porcelain, paper, metalware, etc.

Although the expeditionary force sent small units to patrol the posts without interruption, it had effectively suspended the offensive on the land route. Preparations are already underway in Tokyo and Hanjin [San Francisco], and it won't be long before the first arrivals will arrive, and the number will be in the tens of thousands.

……

The boundless earthy yellow color makes people lose their appetite, and He Yang, who is also the deputy of the team, who is also a guide, helped his somewhat crooked military hat, and repeatedly compared it on the map drawn by the scout. He was a cautious man, but he also had a good face, and he didn't want his entire army to go off course in the vast Salton Basin because of his own mistakes.

He is the son of He Erhu.

When Chen Ming led the Fu Han army to attack Hunan, Daozhou He Erhu, Hu Mantian, and Zhu Hongfei led the people to revolt successively, and easily took Daozhou City, so that the Fu Han army that had just rushed to Yongzhou Mansion City bumped into a big red envelope head-on.

He Erhu also directly led more than 1,000 people to join the Fuhan Army in Yongzhou and became the brigade commander of the Second Brigade of the Hunan Army, sitting in Changde. He has also made contributions to Chen Han. Even if he later withdrew from active service, it would earn the He family a certain earl's hat.

He Yang didn't feel that he could be superior because he was a noble, but thought that since he was a noble, he couldn't lose his father's face.

He Erhu, who was originally in Changde, was also called the head of the giant thief by the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

The captain has a somewhat irritable temper, and he looks at the earthy yellow world of the Salton Basin every day, and no matter how gentle a person is, he can't stand it. What's more, the team officer himself is not a good-tempered person.

It's a bit like a cannon battle now, and the temper is a little bit.

"Where are you now?" The team officer ripped off the discipline buckle on his military uniform and asked a little irritably.

He Yang carefully drew the hand-drawn map in his hand, "At present, we should be in a hilly area about twenty miles away from the Colorado River, we should march to the northwest, leave the canyon area of the Colorado River bed, and then walk about thirty miles to reach the destination." "That is, the current location of their unit may not be more than a day's journey away from the destination of this patrol.

The team officer also stretched out his head to look at the map twice, and compared his fingers on the map, "Then you have to go almost forty or fifty miles?" ”

"It should be forty miles."

"We still have to go so far, we won't be able to get to the place today." The officer muttered to himself for a while, and then ordered: "The whole army will rest for an hour, and we will leave after resting." Mother's Hippie's. A mantra from his hometown came out of his mouth.

The scenery of the Salton Basin was almost the same as the scene he had seen when he entered Xinjiang, and he really didn't like this place.

The officer ordered the platoon commander to be on guard, and the other two platoons and the soldiers and civilians to rest.

The soldiers marched for two or three hours, and by this time they were all a little tired. The soldiers and civilians took out pickled dried fish, pickles, fried soybeans, fried noodles, and compressed dry food from the carriage, and chatted while eating and drinking. More than a dozen civilians were busy feeding and watering the horses at this time, and some soldiers were also helping to help.

Twenty or thirty minutes of rest. Suddenly, there was a muffled thunder in his ears, and the team officer looked up at the sky in surprise, the sky was clear, and it could be said that there was no cloud. Just in doubt, a thought suddenly flashed in my mind, I rub, where is this thunder, this is the sound of explosion? Turning his head around, he saw He Yang also looking at him with a suspicious expression.

Before the two of them could stand up, they saw a long line of people running over like rabbits with their feet on the ground.

"Head, head, touched the red hair, touched the red hair." Red hair was the nickname given to the Spaniards by the expeditionary force. There was no panic on the platoon commander's face at all, only excitement.

"How many people? Was that the grenade you just thrown? ”

"We threw it, and there were a dozen horseback riders in the red hair." A row of guns was snapped, a few more grenades were thrown, three horses were poured, and the rest withdrew.

The officer's face was cautious, even if the Spaniards' harassment troops generally had horses, it was impossible for only a dozen people to come, and immediately ordered the whole team to move to the high ground on the left hand, and the idea was to be on guard. And he himself followed the platoon leader again to the place of conflict, and three horses and two Spanish militiamen fell to the ground, the two militiamen were already dead and could not die anymore, but one of the three horses was wailing, and a breeze blew, bringing with it the smell of gunpowder smoke and blood.

"Bang ......"

"Boom, boom, boom......"

The red-haired revenge came quickly, and the red-haired troops were relatively large. A lot of people were on horseback, it looked like there were two or three hundred people, but they didn't have cannons.

It was a long journey from the Spaniard's gathering place to the Salton Basin. Navigating the Colorado River Basin is also not an easy task. The main tributaries of this river have many canyons, and the riverbed is more powerful than the lower level, which belongs to the later generations which is rich in hydraulic resources and convenient for power generation, but in the current era, it means that it is difficult to pass. It is not easy to send these two or three hundred people to this place in front of you, and if you drag cannons and ammunition, the difficulty will increase by more than one grade.

The battle on both sides did not last long, and the battle between a well-trained elite soldier and a rabble with muskets could not be eliminated with two or three times the number of troops. But the Red Fur did not retreat immediately, but there were always cavalry hovering around the heights.

Everyone understands that the night is the beginning of the real battle between the two sides.

The darkness of the night was the best cover for the Spaniards, and without sight, a well-trained soldier would be the result of scrapping their biggest and strongest weapon, the salvo.

The last moments of the day pass, night falls, and night comes.

Flames burned halfway up the heights, and the plants and trees that grew on the mountains turned directly into fuel for the fire. The expeditionary force used this method to prevent the Spaniards from secretly approaching, so that the Spaniards would at most quietly approach the fire even if they were sneak attacking. It is wishful thinking to want to touch the top of the high ground directly without sound.

"Aim, aim, re-hit-"

At this time, neither side will pursue salvos and volleys. For many years, it has been proven that the flintlock pistol is not much better than a spear in mountain offensive and defensive warfare, especially in mountain offensive and defensive warfare in the dark night. Unless the enemy is stupid and stand up straight and face your muzzle with their chest.

The figure of the Spanish soldiers was already more than the fire halfway up the mountain, and the grenades also blew up the burning fire into sporadic fires, for the expeditionary force guarding the hill, the enemy was already very close, and they could see the dark shadows very clearly.

Some calm and experienced veterans, raising their guns to aim and shooting, whether the effect is good or not is another matter. But where can there be too many calm and experienced veterans in a unit? Even the Praetorian Guards are still far behind what they were four or five years ago. The Praetorian Guard Corps, which gathered the remaining veterans after the wars, now has many new recruits.

Their physical strength may be stronger than their predecessors, and their performance on the training ground may be better than their predecessors, but on the real battlefield, it is hard to believe that they will perform stronger than the Praetorian Guards back then.

There were also quite a few Spaniards attacking below, who were frightened by the bullets flying overhead.

But in general, relying on the advantage of numbers and the cover of the night, they still rushed through the fire and swooped down on the hill with heavy black shadows.

"Kill......" He Yang held up the musket with the bayonet on and led the troops to go up.

The officer brandished a saber and shouted to the other soldiers like a killing god: "All follow me, all follow me." Quick, quick—"

"Smack!" One shot knocked down one of the Spanish soldiers who rushed to him, and the officer dropped his empty pistol and swung his saber to cut off the head of another Spaniard.

One Spaniard fell, two, three...... Ten Spaniards rushed up. The expeditionary force did not show any cowardice, holding bayonets and shouting and fighting. The heights were crowded with people and dark shadows.

The Spaniards rushed once, twice, but they didn't have the courage to do it a third time......

And this conflict is just one of many small scenes on the battlefield on the west coast of North America.