On the west coast of the Gulf in March, the average temperature is around 20 degrees, and for Captain Anto Aylwus from Ireland, such a spring simply does not taste like spring. It has been more than 9 months since he left his hometown www.biquge.info pen "Fun", and he misses the hazy smoke and rain of Leinster more and more, and misses the sounds and smiles of his relatives. According to the Irish Army's foreign dispatch regulations, one year of expatriation can be returned to the country unconditionally, and on the question of whether to go or stay, Captain Aylwus has already made up his mind.

Needless to say, as a Catholic, being able to travel across the ocean to help the Catholics in Mexico fight for religious freedom is a holy baptism for his personal beliefs and a wonderful journey for the sublimation of his soul. In addition, his long-term campaigns allowed him to accumulate a great deal of practical experience in the fields of guerrilla warfare in the mountains, sports warfare in the plains, and defensive warfare in fortresses, from which he learned tactical skills that were difficult to obtain in daily training and military exercises. Based on these experiences and personal insights, a number of military academic articles written by him have been published in the internal journals of the Irish Army, which have been valued by the Irish Army's top brass, and he has been awarded the Irish Medal of the Order of Free Combat, and has been placed on the Colonel's Waiting List for officers, which means that he can be promoted to the rank of Major and thus enter the ranks of mid-level officers after receiving three months of military training after returning home.

On the night of 19 March 1929, Elwus led more than 200 soldiers of the Christian Army and a convoy of empty wagons to the dock area of Lapska. The middle and lower reaches of the Almagre River, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico via Lapska, are navigable, but the depth of the river is less than five meters, making it inaccessible to cruiser-class warships regardless of tides. In February and March, the Mexican army twice organized gunboats to attack the fortress of Lapsca, which was built by the Christian army, but they were defeated, and then imposed a tight blockade on the mouth of the Almagre River. The Almagre River is no longer accessible to ordinary boats, even the fishing boats of Mexican fishermen have been banned, and the Christian army in Lapsca and nearby areas has been able to secretly bring in supplies by land, and the situation is becoming increasingly difficult.

There was no moon that night, the sparse starlight was reflected on the river, and the red beacon lights rose and fell with the waves. Towards midnight, there was finally movement outside the river harbor, and a submarine in a semi-floating state followed the guidance of the navigation lights through the anchor thunder array in the river and slowly sailed into Lapska. The unflagged submarine with the insignia erased came from Ireland and did not come to help the Mexican Archa against Mexican government ships, but to carry out a simple transport mission - it set off from the German-controlled Azores, and used night cover and submersible skills to cross the Mexican naval blockade line and bring valuable ammunition, equipment and medicine to the Mexican Archelama that held the front.

After the submarine docked at the dock, the Mexican soldiers under the command of Ellwus quickly unloaded the cargo. The appearance of the Irish submarine in front of me is not significantly different from that of an ordinary medium combat submarine, but it has a set of large sealed hatches in the front and rear of its conning tower, and the cargo is unloaded much faster than expected. In conversation with the officers on board, Elwoos learned that this is a mine-laying submarine, equipped with much less weapons and crew than conventional submarines, and can be used for mine-laying missions in wartime, and can also be transported underwater if necessary, and can carry up to 32 mines or 40 tons of supplies each way.

Mexican cigars are the best gift for Irish officers on special assignments. Despite the complete blockade of Lapska by the Mexican government army, Elws still managed to get a case of cigars and two cases of tequila for his colleagues in the country, and this also reflected the current domestic situation in Mexico - the radical policy of the Calles government in religion and other aspects is unpopular, many people are secretly supporting the resistance of the Christian army, most of the most elite soldiers of the Mexican government army were consumed in the early combat operations, and the backward and inefficient military aircraft are slow to produce blood, The soldiers of the Christian army, however, grew up rapidly in the midst of war. In the end, Mexican government forces appear to be in control of the situation, and in essence they are at the end of their power, and they have to rely on American military force to fight the Mexican Christian resistance backed by European Catholic states. If the Mexican government could have made decisive concessions on religious policy, the civil war would have been able to pull back from the precipice, but now that the Christian army has the strength to compete with the Mexican government, and the leaders are brewing the establishment of a new state power, if the Mexican government cannot show enough sincerity to negotiate, this civil war may end in the complete defeat of one side.

Accepting these gifts, the captain of the Irish submarine, an officer of the same age as Ellwus, kindly reminded: "I heard that the United States has brought in a strong fleet, and there is a possibility that it will attack the fortress here in the near future, and the supplies we have brought are far from enough to help the Mexicans withstand the attack of modern battleships, so you better be careful." ”

"I did hear a few." Alwus responded, "The troops under my command are stationed on the periphery of the fortress, and the situation may be a little better." ”

The captain said noncommittally: "Anyway, let's do it ourselves!" ”

After more than an hour, the cargo brought by the submarine was basically unloaded, and at this time, the radio officer on board hurriedly reported something to the captain. The Irish captain hesitated for a moment and said to Ellwus: "They're coming." ”

Elwus had never been afraid of battle, but the thought of facing the fierce bombardment of the U.S. Navy made his face suddenly much more solemn. At the end of the last war, the overall strength of the German Navy was far ahead of that of the United States, and in the more than a decade after the war, Germany's economic development was faster than that of the United States, but the United States Navy caught up with the German Navy with amazing momentum. From 1918 to 1924, the total tonnage of the U.S. Navy ranked first in the world, and the size of the main fleet was slightly higher than that of the German Navy. The "Treaty on the Limitation of Naval Armaments" signed by Limerick stipulates that the tonnage of the capital ships of Germany and the United States is one to one, which is equivalent to the formal recognition of the status of the German and American navies on a par.

"Will you be involved in the fight in some way?" Elwus asked unrelentingly.

The Irish captain standing in front of him shook his head resolutely.

"Anyway, thank you for bringing this ammunition in time. Maybe we'll use these shells tomorrow to make the Americans suffer. Elwus said.

The captain smiled with relief: "If that's the case, we'll open the bottle on the way back to celebrate." ”

After shaking hands, the two returned to their respective places.

By dawn, the Irish submarine carrying the supplies had safely left the mouth of the Almagre River, and the Christian soldiers led by Elwus had successfully transported the supplies back to the fortress of Lapska.

It was learned that the United States fleet had arrived in the waters near the mouth of the Almagre River, and that two Mexican Christ Army planes had taken off from a farm near Lapsca. Of the four pilots, two are Irish pilots who are instructors, and the remaining two are Mexican pilots who are learning to fly.

Before the exact whereabouts of the U.S. fleet could be captured, the pilots of the reconnaissance planes spotted a number of Mexican-flagged light ships at the mouth of the Almagre River, and in addition to the gunboats that had participated in the first two offensive operations, there were two modern destroyers that were clearly not part of the Mexican Navy. After being identified by the Irish pilots, it was judged that they belonged to the Wicks-class destroyers of the United States -- the first destroyers built by the United States Navy in accordance with the situation of the Great War, with a standard displacement of nearly 1,200 tons and a maximum speed of 35 knots, equipped with rapid-fire guns of 105 mm caliber, triple torpedo tubes of 533 mm caliber, and depth charges for anti-submarine use. Compared with the standard destroyers designed and built by the Irish Navy in the early 20s, it is only inferior in terms of firepower, damage management and communication equipment.

Since it was discovered that Mexican government forces were assembling ships at the mouth of the Almagre River, more than 20 kilometers from the fortress of Lapska, a reconnaissance plane quickly returned to report the situation, and only one reconnaissance plane flew to the open sea to search for the US fleet, but nothing was achieved. During the second aerial reconnaissance that morning, the European pilots who had helped Jasma-e-lazicant in the fight observed that Mexican government vessels, including two destroyers, were beginning to advance upstream, and dropped light bombs on them.

Although it is highly likely that the two Wicks-class destroyers were the advance ships of the United States Navy, since they were flying the Mexican flag, the Crème commander unceremoniously ordered the drifting mines to be dropped and allowed to go down the river to attack enemy ships in the river. More than a month ago, this tactic had achieved the result of sinking one government gunboat, one minesweeper, and two barges, but this move was not efficient and had great side effects. In the weeks that followed, the U.S. government used the threat of six innocent ships, one of which was a U.S. cargo ship, to move into Mexico and expand its U.S. military presence from the U.S.-Mexico border to the entire northern part of Mexico, and to prepare for the next step in the central and eastern regions of Mexico, where the Jabranis is most active.

The Almagre River flows slowly, the tidal drop is small, and it generally takes more than ten hours for the drifting mines dropped from Lapska to float to the mouth of the downstream river, and the Mexican government army has suffered a big loss before, so it will take strict precautions against this, so the Christian army does not hope that the last dozen or so floating mines will be captured, but wants to make the opponent retreat and give up the plan to attack from the waterway again, after all, most of the shells in the reserve of the Lapska fortress have been consumed in the early operation, if it were not for Ireland to use mine-laying submarines to transport a batch in time, Those long-range cannons can't hit a few shells and will be dumbed.

The drifting mines of the industrial age are no longer completely floating on the water, and the anchor mines and drifting mines provided by Ireland to the Mexican Christian Army are relatively advanced models, with good concealment and strong destructive power. At 1:11 p.m. on March 20, the hapless Mexican gunboat "Colima" was the first to trigger a mine, and the hull of more than 60 tons was shattered in a loud bang, and none of the 17 crew members survived. Nine minutes later, the USS Conway, which had slowed down and tried to retreat, suddenly exploded violently, and the hull from the bow to the front main gun was easily torn apart like a cardboard box, although there was no catastrophic ammunition explosion, the destroyer, which had just turned 10 years old, sank to the bottom of the river in just five minutes, and all the above deck were exposed, most of the crew survived the first explosion unharmed, they did not rush to evacuate, but waited for the assistance of friendly ships, but at 1:34, The second mine hit the destroyer, and the violent explosion caused a fire, which not only claimed the lives of more than 40 American crew members, but also completely cut off the hope of the Americans to save the destroyer.

(End of chapter)