Shaofeng's victory on the island of Jamaica largely "supported" the operation on the battlefield in Mexico. From some U.S. military documents captured after the war, it can be known that at that time, the U.S. military put a lot of troops that should have been used on the Mexican battlefield into the defense of Jamaica Island, especially on July 8, that is, before the U.S. military basically abandoned the defense of Jamaica Island, and the U.S. military defense focused on Jamaica, not Mexico.

At that time, the U.S. military had lost its naval supremacy, and could only support the defense forces on the island of Jamaica by air, as well as air cover and support. From 30 June to 8 July, the US military dispatched a total of 1,278 = . bombers in the direction of Jamaica, and also used 300 transport planes and 3,746 sorties to airlift or airdrop nearly 10,000 tons of war materials to Jamaica Island, but a large part of these materials fell in the area controlled by the Imperial Marines. After July 8, the U.S. military dispatched hundreds of sorties of warplanes and airdropped about 1500~: how many planes and materials were lost by the U.S. troops participating in the war, if these combat planes and transport planes were on combat missions on the Mexican battlefield, then Gu Xunlei would not be able to tear apart the U.S. defense line so easily on the Mexican battlefield.

Gu Xunlei saw the opportunity and took advantage of the opportunity of Han Shaofeng's attack on Jamaica Island and the shift of the US military's defensive focus to the Greater Andres Islands, and launched a combat operation to attack Puebla. To be precise, Gu Xunlei's troops had already begun to attack long before Han Shaofeng's move, but the offensive was not smooth until Han Shaofeng laid the foundation for victory on the island of Jamaica and successfully attracted a large number of US troops. Gu Xunlei finally seized the opportunity.

The assault on Puebla took a major turn on 3 July. Prior to this, it was entirely possible to describe the encounters of the Army Expeditionary Force on the battlefield as "holding on to the ground". Eisenhower's defensive deployment was quite perfect, and in the defensive operation, the US army fought extremely tenacious, Eisenhower also took advantage of the opportunity of Gu Xunlei's mobilization of troops to organize two effective counterattacks, forcing Gu Xunlei to invest in reserves prematurely, and as a result, the offensive was weak and there was no way to make more progress. Until July 3rd. It was when the battle on the Kingston side reached its climax that Gu Xunlei found a hole in the US defense line.

On that day, the main task of the US Air Force was to prevent the Tang Imperial Marines from attacking Kingston, and several tactical air units that were supposed to participate in combat operations on the Mexican side were all transferred to the direction of Jamaica on the night of the 2nd, resulting in much less air support and air defense cover for Eisenhower on the 3rd. On the evening of the same day, the reconnaissance plane discovered an unusual movement at the US airfield, and Gu Xunlei immediately seized this opportunity to make preparations for the all-out bombing of the US military positions and airfields on the morning of 3 July.

On the morning of the third day. The sortie of the aviation kicked off the offensive. First of all, the bombers of the Army Aviation launched an all-out sortie to attack US airfields and compete with the US military for air supremacy. Then, HNA bombers carried out a deep and interrupted bombing of the US troops, forcing the US reserves to evacuate, so that they could not be organized in time, let alone immediately put into the defense line to fill the loopholes. After the bombardment began, the artillery of the expeditionary force began to exert its might, providing the attacking troops with half an hour of artillery preparation, and then began to carry out a covering artillery bombardment of the American defensive positions in depth. When the artillery fire extended to the rear of the US defense line, the two armored assault units invested by Gu Xunlei were coordinated by motorized infantry. An attack was launched in the direction of the American army.

The attacking force on the northern front, led by the 12th Tank Division, broke through the >::line at about 10 a.m. and reached the north of Puebla at about 2 p.m., preparing to encircle Puebla from the north and cut off the road line between Puebla and Tampico at the same time. Eisenhower had left a reserve infantry division on this side, and this infantry division was reinforced by a tank regiment.

The tanks of both sides fought a small but fierce tank battle that afternoon. The terrain to the north of Puebla is relatively flat. It belongs to the terrain of the mountain plains, and it is the only place on the battlefield that is more suitable for tank battles. More than 60 tanks of the 12th Tank Division fought a tank battle with more than 40 tanks of the US tank regiment, which was also a rare one in the entire Mexican war. Compared with the tank battles in Europe, the continental battlefield, and even the Australian battlefield, the scale is much smaller, but the performance of the tankers on both sides is not too bad.

The battle ended in the evening with the retreat of the American troops. The whole battle lasted about three and a half hours, and the actual battle between the tanks took about half an hour, and the rest of the time was the two sides fighting for advantageous positions. Because the air forces of both sides were all on missions elsewhere, it was not until shortly before the American retreat. A group of tactical bombers from the Imperial Army Air Force had just arrived, but it didn't do much. In this battle, the American army lost almost thirty tanks, several of which were actively abandoned. The 12th Tank Division also lost twenty-two tanks, of which fourteen could be repaired, and only eight were actually completely destroyed.

By the end of the tank battle, the troops advancing on the southern front had reached Cuautra, southwest of Puebla, about 100 miles south of Mexico City, and had successfully surrounded Puebla from the south. Most importantly. This force is already quite close to Mexico City, if it turns north. Then it is very likely that Mexico City, which was defended by Mexican rebels at that time, will be captured first, and if Mexico City is lost, Puebla will have no value.

Eisenhower had to organize a counterattack against the Imperial Expeditionary Force attacking from the south that night, but Gu Xunlei only allowed the attacking force on the southern front to replenish supplies and fuel in the evening, and then continued to occupy the two lines of communication between Puebla and Mexico City as planned. As a result, by the time the counterattacking American troops reached Cuautra that night, the Imperial Expeditionary Force had already left here. However, on the line of communication between Puebla and Mexico City, a large-scale confrontation broke out between the troops of both sides on the night of the 3rd and the early morning of the 4th.

At that time, Puebla was connected to Mexico City by road and a railway line, which was one of only a few in Mexico. The U.S. forces defending Puebla relied mainly on rail transportation for supplies. The significance of this traffic line is very significant. The other north and south

After being broken through one after another, if this connection with Mexico City is lost again, then Puebla will be completely surrounded. This was also the main reason why Gu Xunlei had the troops on the southern front attack at night, while Eisenhower desperately launched a counterattack here, and both sides knew that this would be a major battlefield.

That night, aviation, which had rarely been active at night before, also made a full-scale sortie. It can be said that the battle on the night of July 3 became a small climax of the second campaign. Gu Xunlei even rushed to the front line at that time and personally supervised the battle. Although Eisenhower did not go to the front line to direct the battle, he gave the front commander a dead order not to take a step back, and even if the fight was over, he must remain on the battlefield. One can imagine how fierce the battle will be on this night when both sides start to fight hard.

In the first half of the night, both sides were attacking, and the situation quickly spiraled out of control. Especially when the offensive turns into a small assault, many of the assault troops are not even sure whether they are nearby enemy or friendly forces. According to the combat records of the Army Expeditionary Force at that time, the casualties caused by the misfire that night were even greater than the battle casualties. The situation of the US troops was not much better, and there was even a tragedy in which the artillery did not understand the situation on the front line and mistakenly attacked their own positions three times.

In the second half of the night, Gu Xunlei had to order the division, which was still replenishing ammunition and fuel in the north, to send a force to the south to attack the flank of the American army. At that time, most of the tanks of the 12th Tank Division operating in front were short of fuel and ammunition, and the most troublesome thing was that the convoy carrying ammunition was attacked by American bombers in the evening and did not arrive in time for the first half of the night. After receiving the order, the commander of the division could only immediately let the tank battalion with the largest reserve ammunition immediately fill it with fuel, and then go south to attack the positions of the American troops. This unit arrived at the battlefield at about half past five in the morning of the 4th.

It was this tank battalion that suddenly arrived from the north that finally broke down the American defenses. Defeated the will of the American army to resist. After the collapse of the American positions that had been attacked first, the tank battalion, despite the danger of dispersing its forces, divided its troops into three lines, with only one tank company of only six tanks continuing to assault southward, while the other two tank companies expanded the breakthrough and attacked the nearby American defensive positions. At that time, this tank battalion was without infantry cover, and the tankmen on several tanks destroyed in the assault got out of their cars and picked up their rifles to fight, temporarily playing the role of an infantryman.

Before dawn. The support of the Army and Navy Airlines arrived, and the will of the US military to resist was completely broken. The division commander of the US brigadier general, who had received the order to die from Eisenhower, did not leave his division command post until the last moment, and as a result, several staff officers from the command post were blown into the sky. By 7 o'clock on the morning of the 4th, the US troops, having lost their unified command, had begun to retreat. At this point, what is the completion of Puebla's operation, but it is still too early to conquer Puebla.

After completing this step, Gu Xunlei did not rush to attack, but quickly adjusted his forces and first consolidated the defense line encircling Puebla. Then the front-line troops, who had suffered heavy casualties, were replaced with reserves, ready to besiege Puebla first, and then attack. His decision was very far-sighted, and on the same day, Kingston was captured by the Marines, and if Gu Xunlei had attacked Puebla without adequate preparations, it would not only have taken more time and lose more troops, but it was even possible that the American counterattack would eventually succeed, and the previous victory would have been wiped out.

Then. Eisenhower did not immediately counterattack, first of all, he did not have the capital to counterattack, several reserves deployed on the front line were either routed, or seriously reduced under the bombing and artillery of the other side, and the morale of the American troops was also greatly damaged, and the effect of launching an immediate counterattack would not be much better. Secondly. Eisenhower needed time to finalize a counterattack plan, and even more so to obtain additional ground air forces. However, by the time he sent in the reserves deployed north of Mexico City, he had already lost the opportunity to rescue the besieged American troops in Puebla.

At that time, Eisenhower had only one option, and that was to retreat to Mexico City, hoping to hold out until more reinforcements arrived. If it had been another commander, he would have ordered Puebla's army to break through in the direction of Mexico City, but Eisenhower had given the exact opposite order, that is, to hold Puebla at all costs. Without his orders, there must be no breakthrough. As a result, the three divisions besieged in Puebla at that time, probably one American officer and soldier, all gave up preparations for a breakout and began to strengthen their defensive deployments. These American officers and soldiers also thought that Eisenhower was preparing a large-scale counterattack and would come to help them break out. But in reality, Eisenhower's purpose was quite different.

At that time, Eisenhower's goal was to use Puebla to slow down Gu Xunlei's advance, so that Gu Xunlei would waste more time in Puebla. In this way, he will be able to organize a new defensive line in Mexico City. Thus holding out in Mexico City for a longer period of time. As the commander of the theater of operations, Eisenhower's decision is understandable, his task is only to hold Mexico City, not to hold Puebla, if he blindly counterattacks, the forces in his hands will be consumed, after the counterattack fails, there are simply not enough troops to defend Mexico City, so how can he insist? Moreover, it will definitely take several days to redeploy the defensive line, and he can only count on the US troops in Puebla to buy him these few days.

As a result, the American forces in Puebla won not a few days, but a full twelve days. At the same time, Eisenhower's decision ultimately left Puebla's 35,000 American officers and soldiers without any hope, and all they gained was 12 days of hard defense.

At that time, Gu Xunlei also considered bypassing Puebla and attacking Mexico City directly, but he soon realized that Puebla could never be bypassed, because almost all the communication lines south of Mexico City led to Puebla, and if he could not occupy Puebla first, it would be impossible to send war materials and even troops to the front line. So even if Gu knew that Eisenhower was using Puebla to delay his march into Mexico, he would have to gnaw on the hard bone first.

The assault on Puebla began on July 7 and was still ongoing when Tan Renhao arrived in the Americas. Although the siege was fought extremely hard, by this time, the second battle of the Mexican War had already won a decisive victory!