The sun is blazing.

Under the blue sea and blue sky, two huge warships were sailing in formation, cruising on the sea off San Juan Island in the northeastern part of the Spanish island of Puerto Rico.

These two battleships were the main battleships of the Qing Imperial Navy, the two Dengyun-class battleships, Dengyun and Tayun.

Since the Qing Empire and the Spanish Empire declared war on each other, Liu Buyun commanded two Dengyun-class battleships to blockade San Juan Bay in the northeast of Spanish Puerto Rico Island, and shelled the Spanish fortress Moro Castle on San Juan Island at the mouth of San Juan Bay.

In the surrounding area of San Juan Bay is the city of San Juan, the capital of Spanish Puerto Rico. The city was built around San Juan Bay, and at the mouth of the bay was San Juan Island, home to the Spanish colonial axe (today's old downtown of San Juan).

There are three castles on the island, at the mouth of the bay is the castle of Morro, which is an irregular star-shaped fortress, which is close to the sea, along the coastline built along the coastline with a 6.1-meter-thick and 42.7-meter-high protective wall, on which dozens of fortress cannons of various calibers are deployed, which is the largest Spanish defense of San Juan.

Built in 1539 as the site of the Spanish colonial government, the castle is perched high at the entrance to San Juan Bay, with its ancient cannon muzzle still facing the sea. The castle was built as a base for the Spanish merchant fleet and was a target for pirates. The fortress has been fought and restored several times, and it is still imposing.

The second castle on the island is La Fortaleza Palace, the oldest administrative residence in the Western Hemisphere, built in 1533 and rebuilt between 1639 and 1640 as the seat of the Spanish Colonial Viceroyalty of Puerto Rico.

The third castle is the Holy Castle? Fort Cristobal, the castle is in the southwest corner, located in the inner bay of San Juan, facing the coastal neighborhood of the city of San Juan. If the Moreau Fortress was a defense against external threats at sea, then St. Castel Cristobal was used only to rule the inhabitants of the island. Built between 1631 and 1772, the 11-hectare castle was designed by two Irish engineers and contained tunnels, traps, labyrinths and artifacts, as well as a place for the Spanish defenders to stock up on supplies.

In comparison with the defensive firepower of the three castles, the Spanish rule over Puerto Rico was mainly directed against the local natives and blacks. The Cristobal Fort was not very tall, the walls were only 10 meters long, the thickness was only 4 meters, and the artillery on the head of the city did not have heavy artillery, the largest caliber was the Ordonzeh.S.E 105 mm 1840 cannon, and the number was not large, only six. However, the Spanish garrison barracks were here, up to 2,000 people.

The fortress artillery used to deal with foreign enemies on the sea is much more powerful, and the caliber of the artillery on the Moro fortress is very large, including 2 Hontoria 320 mm 35 times caliber 1840 coastal defense guns, 2 280 mm coastal defense guns, 4 240 mm coastal defense guns, 8 152 mm coastal defense guns, and 10 105 mm cannons. The muzzles of the guns are all aimed at the mouth of the bay and the sea, blocking the bay and attacking the strong enemy from the sea. There were more than 1,400 defenders of the Spanish coastal defense fortress above.

The central Palazzo Lajtareza is an administrative office building, which is now devoid of artillery and is mainly used for infantry defense. There are 22 guards troops.

The fact that there were only 22 guards in a dignified Doge's palace building is not that the Spaniards did not pay attention to the safety of the Doge, and it was really unnecessary. Because only Spanish soldiers were allowed to live on the entire island of San Juan, the entire island of San Juan was a large fortress and very safe.

However, at this moment on the island of San Juan, all the Spanish defenders were in danger. Because the two huge steel battleships on the sea would fire a round of shells from time to time, and the huge bullets weighing 400 kilograms fired by the battleship's 305 mm main guns blew a big gap in the city wall more than six meters thick in an instant, and the blast wave of the explosion spread to hundreds of meters, and the Spanish defenders within their killing radius were either killed or wounded, causing huge psychological pressure on the Spanish defenders.

On the bridge of the battleship Dengyun, Liu Buyun used a high-powered telescope to observe the Moro Fortress six nautical miles away.

Sun Jingren, the chief of staff beside him, asked, "My lord, when are we going to start shelling today?" ”

The bombardment of the Morro Fortress has been going on for more than a week, and Liu Buyun commanded two Dengyun-class battleships to rain cannonballs on the Morro Fortress every day, and the number of attacks per day is also uncertain, and the time of each attack is also uncertain.

Liu Buyun's purpose in doing this was to divert the attention of the Spanish army and gain time for the landing force. The second is to test the firepower and strength of the Spaniards' fortresses. Since it took more than ten days for the expeditionary force to land, Liu Buyun had time to study these problems.

Liu Buyun put down the binoculars and said: "We have shelled the Moro Fortress from time to time every day, and now we have figured out the firepower configuration of the defenders of the Spanish Fortress, and found out the caliber, range, and ballistic coverage of its fortress guns, as well as tested the reaction time and counterattack strength of the Spanish defenders. ”

Sun Jingren smiled and said, "What the adults said is very true! So we can launch a total attack? ”

Liu Buyun waved his hand and said, "It's not time yet." If we launch a general attack now, the Spanish defenders, having suffered losses, will have time to change their firepower and disposition. We need to wait until the expeditionary force takes the city of San Juan from behind and encircles the island of San Juan, and then we attack at the same time, so that we can hit the Spaniards and take the Spanish fortress. ”

Sun Jingren nodded in agreement: "Yes, there are mountains in the middle of this Puerto Rico island, and the population is concentrated in the plains near the coastline. It is said that the island has a population of less than 500,000 people, and more than 300,000 people are concentrated in the city of San Juan. Once our expeditionary force captures the city of San Juan, it will be equivalent to occupying the whole of Puerto Rico. ”

Liu Buyun said: "I don't know what this Spaniard thinks? Instead of building the fortress on the main island, he built the fortress on a small island next to the main island. The island hangs alone in the sea, and once the main island is lost, the island will fall into a Jedi surrounded on all sides. They don't need to fight, and they are trapped to death. ”

Sun Jingren said with a smile: "I heard that foreign devils have occupied this island for hundreds of years. When foreign devils invaded this island, it was the stronghold built on the current small island of San Juan, and then used it as a springboard to invade the entire island of Puerto Rico. Although the natives on the island could not defeat the Spaniards, they did not let the Spaniards stop for hundreds of years, so the Spaniards did not dare to go deep into the main island, so they had to establish settlements on the edge of the main island, next to their own fortresses. As a result, hundreds of years have passed, and the stronghold of the year has developed into a city, and it has become what it is now. ”

Liu Buyun nodded, he also read the information about Puerto Rico provided to them by the Americans.

The island of Puerto Rico was originally inhabited by the Taíno tribe, an Indian tribe. From November 1493 Christopher? Columbus sailed to this point and named the island of San Juan to 1508 when the Spaniard J. Ponce? Morality? Leon establishes a colonial stronghold on the island. As a result, the island's original indigenous Indians were enslaved and driven to work on farms and gold mines. Many died of overwork and malnutrition, or from diseases that had been transmitted from the Spaniards, for whom Indians had not yet developed immunity. In 1511, the Taíno revolted under their leader, Guaibana, which was suppressed by the colonial authorities, and 6,000 Indians were slaughtered. Many other Indians fled to the mountains or to neighboring islands. African slaves were then brought in to replace them. African slaves brought smallpox, which caused another one-third of the surviving Indians to die, thus reducing the indigenous population to 4,000, or 1/10 of the original population. In the middle of the 16th century, the Taíno were wiped out, and the colonists brought blacks from Africa to serve as slaves and grow sugar cane. Since then, Puerto Rican immigrants and black slaves have increased, and they are dissatisfied with the rule of the suzerain. In 1869 the people of Puerto Rico met in R. Emetrio? Under the leadership of Pedanses, an uprising was held in the town of Lares, and on the 24th the republic was proclaimed, which was later suppressed by the Spanish colonial army.

As Spanish rule declined, Spanish colonies in the Americas continued to grow, large-scale armed uprisings continued, and in March 1897, Puerto Rico was finally granted local autonomy by Spain. Spain sent 60,000 troops originally stationed in Puerto Rico to Cuba to suppress the Cuban uprising, with the result that Puerto Rico now has no more than 20,000 troops on the island, of which 15,000 are Puerto Rican local security forces, and the real Spanish army is only more than 5,000 people, all stationed on San Juan Island.

"According to the plan, tomorrow the expeditionary force will arrive in the rear of San Juan, and I don't think the Puerto Rican local security force will be able to stop our expeditionary force at all. I think we'll have a general attack the day after tomorrow. ”

Sun Jingren nodded and said, "My lord, I have never understood why Junzuo has to travel thousands of miles to seize Puerto Rico?" I've heard that Puerto Rico doesn't have much economic value. On the contrary, Cuba is known as the pearl of the Caribbean, and I heard that Cuba's sugar, tobacco, cocoa, coffee and so on are very profitable, so why don't we want Cuba? ”

Liu Buyun smiled bitterly and said, "You ask me, who do I ask?" Although this Puerto Rico has no economic value, I think this is a signal that China is moving towards strength. We have colonies in the Americas, and we can participate in the affairs of the Americas in the future, I think the meaning of Junzuo should be to increase our international visibility, right? After all, we have been bullied for decades, and the whole world knows that we are the sick man of East Asia, and if we don't fight a few international wars, I'm afraid we won't be able to stand upright. ”

Sun Jingren nodded approvingly and said, "It looks like it should be like this!" When we first arrived at the U.S. Navy base, you didn't see how those Americans looked at us, like monkeys, this is still we cut our braids, if we didn't cut our braids, I guess it would be like watching us be monsters. ”

Liu Buyun sighed and said, "This reminds me of when I was studying in the UK, and I was really treated as a monster." ”

Sun Jingren suddenly asked: "My lord, you said that Junzuo asked us to cut all the braids this time, what can we do when we return to China?" Isn't this against the imperial court? ”

Liu Buyun smiled and said: "Keep your head without hair, keep your hair without your head, it's been hundreds of years, and it's time to change it." However, we don't have to worry about those things. ”

Sun Jingren wanted to ask a few words, but Liu Buyun interrupted him and said, "Order, shelling for ten minutes!" ”

Sun Jingren hurriedly said yes, and ordered him to turn around and go down to make arrangements.

"Ten minutes to prepare for the shelling!"

"Ten minutes to prepare for the shelling!"

Orders were issued step by step, and the main guns, secondary guns, and rapid-fire guns of the battleship Dengyun were quickly loaded.

"The target azimuth is 295, the distance is 6000 meters, the shooting height is 40 meters, and the speed of our ship is 14 knots."

The turrets of the two twin-mounted 305 mm 40 times extended main guns in the bow and stern turned abruptly, and the muzzles of the guns were aimed at the Moreau fortress in the distance.

"The target azimuth is 295, the distance is 6000 meters, the shooting height is 40 meters, and the speed of our ship is 14 knots."

While repeating the target parameters transmitted from the interrogation room, the naval artillery staff at all levels quickly calculated the firing elements on a piece of paper, and used tools such as compass rulers to predict the amount of ballistic advance during the shelling, and then calculated the data and handed it to the gun barrel, which quickly adjusted the firing elements.

All the work had to be done in a minute to two minutes, with the main gun taking a little longer, followed by the secondary gun, and the rapid-fire gun being the fastest.

"Ready!"

"Ready...... Fire! ”

"Knock knock!"

The two twin-inch main guns in front and behind the battleship Dengyun roared at the same time, spewing out dazzling flames, and four huge shells weighing 900 pounds burst out of the barrels in an instant, and at the same time, the entire battleship suddenly trembled, and as the roll period reached a critical point, it shook violently to the other side, and the high-pressure air waves spewed out by the main guns formed two huge water circles on the sea surface on the entire battleship's shelling side, forcing the seawater into a depth of more than ten millimeters below the sea surface. This shows how powerful the battleship's main guns were.

Immediately afterwards, the battleship Tayun also opened fire, so that a row of natural smoke shields composed of flames and smoke was instantly formed on the side of the entire formation's shelling. With the rapid movement of the warship, the secondary cannon behind the smoke screen area was not to be outdone and joined the shelling.

"Knock knock!"

Before the shells fired from the main guns reached the target, the 152-mm secondary guns on the side of the second ship had already opened fire, and the discharged shells whistled and chased away.

A few seconds later, I saw that the enemy fortresses in the distance were hit one after another, and the location hit by the cannonballs instantly rose up with a cloud of mushrooms surrounded by red and black, and then a huge explosion rumbled and dispersed, filling the entire sky.

Although they were far away, the officers and men on the ship seemed to be able to hear the howls and shouts of the enemy on the fortress, forming a symphony unique to war.

"Boom!"

The cannonballs exploded violently, and in an instant, it was like a mountain earthquake. A 12-inch shell weighing 900 pounds, wherever it lands, will instantly turn its vicinity into a graveyard of death. In an instant, dust flew, rubble splattered, and flesh and blood flew everywhere. The violent air wave swept the nearby Spanish soldiers into the air, and they fell into the fortress or just fell and injured themselves, falling outside the fortress, and the wall more than 40 meters high fell and immediately turned into a meat pie.

The gap after the fire of the main gun was also filled in by the fire of the secondary gun that followed, forming a network of fire that could not be escaped.

Rounds of cannonballs whizzed, and the fortified fortress walls were suddenly riddled with bullets.

The defenders of the Spanish fortress immediately fired back, but because their large-caliber fortress guns were basically front-loading guns half a century ago, the firing speed was slow, and the double diameter was not far, even if they could barely hit the opponent's battleship, the shells also lost their kinetic energy penetration, and in front of the powerful Dengyun class battleships, they were already quite old.

With the powerful firepower of the two Dengyun-class battleships, there was no problem at all in suppressing the firepower of the Morro Fortress, so Liu Buchan was not in a hurry, he was waiting for the expeditionary force to arrive in the rear of San Juan, and he was flanking in front and rear, and he moved together.

After more than a week of shelling, the defenders of the Spanish fortress had become somewhat nervous. In their eyes, it was the first time they saw a battleship, and the first time they experienced the powerful firepower of a battleship. Liu Buyun has not yet launched a general attack, and many Spanish defenders have already lost their souls in fright.

It must be said that the two Dengyun-class battleships caused a huge psychological pressure on the Spanish defenders, which would quickly turn into fear with the start of the general attack.

On 4 January, the Chinese expeditionary force that had crossed the Carolina River rapidly advanced towards San Juan.

At the same time, more than 12,000 troops of the Spanish Autonomous Army of Puerto Rico also advanced in the direction of Carolina. The proud commander of the Spanish army, Major General Carrod, considered the Qing Emperor's [***] team to be vulnerable, so he did not disturb the landing operation of the expeditionary force, but waited until the expeditionary force had crossed the Karolina River before he began to act.

According to Carrod's plan, he was ready to wipe out the Chinese expeditionary force on the north bank of the Karolina River in one fell swoop, and drive all the expeditionary force down the river to wipe it out.

His tactics seemed to be based on fighting on his back, but he didn't think about the difference in strength between the two sides, let alone what the actual strength of the Chinese expeditionary force was, how many artillery pieces, how many heavy machine guns, he didn't know anything.

On the morning of 5 January, when the two sides met in the plains west of Bayamun, they halted their advance and began their combat deployments.

Obviously, Carrod's purpose is to prepare for a decisive battle with Feng Guozhang and decide the outcome of the battle.

At this time, the thinking of the Spanish army was still in the era of linear tactics, and the Qing-Russian War did not bring hints to the Spanish Empire, not to mention the autonomous army as a Spanish colony, they still used the ancient linear gun tactics.

Feng Guozhang and the officers and men of the expeditionary force had combat experience in the Battle of Aihui, and when they saw that the Spanish army had adopted outdated linear tactics, they immediately relieved their hearts one hundred and twenty.

The Expeditionary Force Reading Division had three brigades, Feng Guozhang placed the first brigade in the front, the second brigade on the left flank, and the third brigade on the right flank. Governor Duan Qirui reinforced the artillery regiment in the rear of the 1st Brigade, and the heavy machine guns of the 2nd and 3rd Brigades were reinforced to the 1st Brigade, so that the 1st Brigade had 120 heavy machine guns. The cavalry regiment of the Volunteer Army was divided into two cavalry battalions of the 2nd Brigade as the main attack. A cavalry battalion was assigned to the 3rd Brigade as a diversionary force.

Governor Feng Guozhang's 1st Brigade planned to contain the main force of the Spanish army in the front, and then outflank the left and right flanks in a roundabout way, so as to achieve the goal of completely annihilating the main force of the Spanish army.

On January 6, the Spanish army set up a formation, a total of 24 phalanxes, each with about 500 people, and the battle line stretched for more than ten miles. The left extends to Cataño and the right to Guainavo.

(To be continued)