Chapter 356 Militia

Somewhere off the coast of Peru, two Sea Lion-class third-class sail battleships, the Haichen and Hairong, are in full pursuit of a Spanish frigate.

The Haichen kept pressing in the direction of the right port side of the enemy ship, and every time the cannon attacked the bow of the enemy ship, forcing the enemy ship to turn to evade.

Whenever the enemy ship turned to evade, the broadside guns could not attack the approaching Hairong, and the Hairong took the opportunity to quickly approach the left port direction of the enemy ship and attack the stern of the enemy ship, with the purpose of breaking the rudder of the enemy ship and forcing the enemy warship to stop.

Why not sink the other party

Apparently because these fleeing enemy ships were often loaded with a lot of goods. The ships of the Pacific Fleet seized a large amount of property on the captured Spanish ships. The Spanish Empire's plundering in Peru was mostly destined for Spain itself, but a considerable part of its wealth went to the Spanish military and Spanish settlers.

The Spanish royal family ate meat, and these colonial soldiers also had to drink some soup, so they also had a lot of possessions.

Colonial wars were dominated by plunder, so after the ships of the Pacific Fleet had completed their national tasks, they were allowed to make a bit of personal windfall, and the imperial government, from the emperor and cabinet to the fleet, the headquarters of the detachment, and the officers and men of each ship, formed a tacit rule.

Knock knock

The Haichen fired another volley of fire, and the cannonballs flying from the sky fell into the sea, splashing huge columns of water. The waves roll and the sea boils.

The Spanish frigate turned left and right like a rabbit chased by two tigers, but as soon as it turned, the degree dropped rapidly, and the Hairong, which had caught up behind, would close in and fire at the rudder of the stern.

Knock knock

The Hairong approached again, and as the hull went up to the "Z" position, the rudder position of the stern of the enemy ship appeared in the crosshairs of most of the guns on the starboard side.

The cannon roared, and a long column of smoke erupted from the muzzle, and then the cannon burst into its chamber and whistled towards the target.

With a loud bang, accompanied by a crisp cracking of metal and hardwood, the rudder of the enemy ship was finally shattered.

The Spanish frigate, which had lost its rudder, suddenly lost its ability to turn, and the Spanish sailors and fleeing merchants on it immediately cried and mourned, and their faces were ugly.

If you still want to die, then you have to stop the ship and hand over all your belongings.

"Lower the sails, drop anchor, and assemble everyone on deck"

The soldiers of the Chinese Empire shouted in a few words of deflated Spanish, each of which was simple, but the most practical.

With the victory of the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire at the Battle of Isabella, the main force of the Peruvian Navy was completely wiped out, and Peru, and even the entire Pacific coast of the Americas, had no navy that could compete with the Chinese Empire.

The Pacific Fleet's 100 main battleships were divided into several squadrons, ranging in number from one to several ships per squad, depending on the number of enemy ships in the vicinity.

In the waters off the eastern coast of the American Pacific, not only did they not threaten the naval presence of the Pacific Fleet, but in terms of single-ship combat strength alone, the Spaniards did not have a corresponding battleship that could compete with the battleships of the Chinese Empire. For this reason, a single ship of the Pacific Fleet can also act on its own to hunt down prey. Without the protection of the main fleet, the ships of the Spaniards could only flee in all directions. At this time, among the few remaining ships of the Peruvian Navy, sloops were the mainstay, and the largest were only some patrol and training frigates, which could not compete with the warships of the Pacific Fleet.

The Pacific Fleet attacked the port of Guayaquil at dawn the day after the Battle of Isabella. Originally, the Peruvian Governor was going to wait until the Peruvian Navy and the Pacific Fleet would fight it out before blockading the port, but due to Vice Admiral Kstrass's arrogance, the Peruvian Governor postponed the blockade of the port.

In fact, the Peruvian governor did not believe that the Peruvian navy had been wiped out in one day, so not only was the port of Guayaquil not closed, but even many of the remaining naval personnel were ready to celebrate the triumph of Kstras.

Therefore, when the Pacific Fleet attacked the port of Guayaquil at dawn, the Peruvian side was unprepared, and even the commander of the coastal battery did not know where to go, and as a result, the Pacific Fleet was in a no-man's land and concentrated its fire on the port of Guayaquil.

By the time the Peruvian governor heard the sound of artillery in the direction of the port in his sleep, it was too late, and the large warships of the Pacific Fleet had already broken into the port. Powerful battleship fire, within ballistic range, the port of Guayaquil was in flames, and an assault group composed of marines from the Pacific Fleet, taking advantage of the fleet shelling, landed from another direction and occupied the batteries on the coast of Guayaquil.

After the loss of the fort, the Spaniards could not control the situation in the port. The Peruvian governor believed that the number of squadrons that landed was small, so he urgently ordered the Spanish troops in the city of Guayaquil to fight and recapture the coastal batteries at any cost.

The Marine Corps commando team consisted of only a few hundred men, and in the face of the fierce attack of tens of thousands of Spanish troops, the coastal batteries could not be held. For this reason, after learning of the situation, Shi Jianfei hurriedly ordered the assault team to withdraw and blow up all coastal batteries.

With a series of explosions, the assault team used explosives to blow up all the coastal fortifications and fortress guns, and then retreated to the harbor and withdrew to the battleship.

The Spanish army regained the coastal forts, but what they got was ruins and fortress guns that had been blown into twists.

The coastal fort batteries were useless, and the Spaniards could not drive away the Chinese ships in the bay, so they had to withdraw all the armed forces and civilians from the surrounding area and retreat to the city of Guayaquil.

Most of Peru is in the Andes, and the Spaniards largely live on the shock plains between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean.

Guayaquil is one of the larger alluvial plains, where the Baba River flows down the Andes, through the city of Guayaquil, and then into the Gulf of Salitra into the South Pacific.

The city of Guayaquil is still more than 100 miles away from the bay, but because the Baba River is very wide and leads directly to the bay, it forms a very special Salitla Bay.

Three nautical miles northwest of the Gulf of Salitra there is a huge island striking plain, Salinas Island. Salinas Island occupies almost half of the bay, making it look like an upside-down ear.

After the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire blockaded the bay, it sent marines to land on Salinas Island and occupy the bay town of La Esperanza on the island, which was used as a forward military base for the invasion of Peru.

With the Royal Navy blockading the bay, La Esperanza became an excellent place to garrison.

The headquarters of the Pacific Fleet and the headquarters of the Marine Corps were all located on the island, and in order to facilitate the smooth and safe dispatch of the Marine Corps, the Pacific Fleet sent twenty battleships along the Baba River to the north, and shelled the two river ports of Qiurut and Taura along the coast, until they were close to the city of Guayaquil and five miles outside the water pass.

The range of artillery on the citadel of Guayaquil was within five miles, and the large-caliber fortress guns, each shot of shells weighed more than ten kilograms, and the curved trajectory made it amazingly destructive when it fell, even the battleships of the Pacific Fleet could not withstand such shells, a few such shells were enough to sink a large battleship, and a battleship below the cruiser was even reimbursed for one shot.

By this time, the naval warships could no longer help. The Marines will do the rest on their own, or wait for the arrival of the Hawaiian Army.

Obviously, the Marines do not want to wait for the arrival of the Army, and hope that before they arrive, they will fight a good battle and let the Army see that the Marines are not vegetarians either.

The Marines landed in the early morning of the next day, under the cover of the Navy, from the Dorolha area to the north.

Prior to the landing of the Marines, naval guns carried out two rounds of covered shelling of the beachhead area to test the vicinity for enemy ambush forces.

After observing through the binoculars, the commander of the Marine Corps, Major General Wang Zhiguo, found that there was no existing enemy ambush nearby, so he ordered the officers and men of the first echelon of the Marine Corps to carry out a beach landing.

Soon, about 300 officers and men of the first echelon of marines boarded a small boat onto the beach and searched the surrounding area for about two miles.

"Security"

After receiving the security report, Wang Zhiguo ordered the second echelon to start landing, followed by the third echelon, and then the fourth echelon......

The first echelon continued to search outward, and when it advanced to about five miles, suddenly a gunshot rang out in the jungle ahead, and a Marine soldier was shot and fell.

When the carefully trained Marines heard the gunshots, they immediately fell down and took cover on the spot.

Bang bang bang

A series of gunshots rang out one after another, projectiles whizzed through the jungle, and the branches and leaves of the trees crackled.

"Ten o'clock"

"Two o'clock"

Soon, the squad leader of the first echelon got the enemy's firing bearings.

I took out the binoculars and observed that the position of the enemy's fire was very easy to judge, because the smoke of the guns there had not yet dissipated

"Withdraw"

The squad leader waved his hand and ordered his subordinates to retreat.

Retreating outside, the first echelon quickly assembled into a queue to form an echelon attack formation.

At this time, the enemy in the jungle thought that the other party was scared, and quickly chased out.

A dozen or so fast runners rushed out of the jungle first, but when they saw that the other party was already lined up, they suddenly felt bad and turned around and ran back.

"Shooting"

The squad leader draws his command knife, and the blade is pointed at the enemy.

Trained Marines move their guns quickly, take aim, and pull the trigger in an orderly manner.

Bang bang bang

After a volley of shots, when the soldiers opened their eyes, the enemy was now left with seven or eight corpses, as well as a few wounded and wailing men.

The squad leader winked, and several soldiers quickly picked up their guns and ran over to drag a few of the living enemies over.

Looking at the enemy attacking his side, the squad leader frowned, although the other party was white, it was obviously not the regular army of the Spaniards. Judging by their clothing, they have everything, and it seems that they are the private armed forces organized by the common people.

"Militia"

After a brief interrogation, the squad leader heard the term for the first time. They were attacked by the local Spanish inhabitants, numbering less than twenty people. At the behest of the Peruvian governor, the Spanish immigrants were militiamen, i.e., the same as the reserve soldiers practiced in the Chinese Empire. It's just that the Spaniards' reserve is the vast majority of Spanish immigrants, that is, every Spaniard is likely to be a militia.

"Forward"

At the sound of the order, the Marines marched towards the jungle with their rifles in order.

After finding out the details of the other party, the team leader no longer worried, and directly commanded the troops to attack.

However, to their surprise, when they stepped into the jungle again, the Spaniards who had attacked them had disappeared.

"Damn"

Captain Kong Ze, the leader of the team, cursed fiercely, and hurriedly sent someone to inform the base camp of the matter here, and then continued to search forward.

The Spaniards in Peru did not know that the Chinese Empire would send an expeditionary force to Peru until the arrival of the Pacific Fleet, and did not realize the proximity of war until the arrival of the Pacific Fleet. The Peruvian governor also knew little about the Chinese Empire, so he only ordered the navy to be on alert, and the army did not make a large-scale move.

However, the Navy was suddenly defeated, and the artillery of the Pacific Fleet hit directly at the doorstep. In a hurry, the governor of Peru had no choice but to order the defenders to be on alert, and then to send reinforcements to the Spanish army, which had plundered the treasures of the Incas deep into the Andes.

However, it took a week for the Spanish troops to withdraw from the mountains. Prior to this, the Peruvian governor had to rally his militia to resist the military invasion of the Chinese Empire.

The militia system has always been a special product of the era of colonial wars in the West. Western colonial empires did not have so many regular armies to send, but they needed strong soldiers to participate in colonial wars, and after the occupation of the colonies, it took a huge amount of manpower to rule the colonists, so Western countries released weapons to overseas immigrants and explorers to form a special militia system.

For example, the Spanish Empire had only 60,000 standing troops, but the militia reached 1.5 million, or a quarter of the population. In the colonies, the Spaniards, with the exception of women and children, were militiamen.

Of course, in the colonies, the use of militia against the natives was the most effective method, both sides were engaged in guerrilla warfare, and the Spaniards were clearly ahead of the natives in weapons, tactics and intrigues, so in colonial wars, the use of militia was sufficient.

Although the intelligence work of the Chinese Empire at this time was carried out in Western countries, the effect was not good. The situation of the colonies of Western countries is even less understood, which is why the intelligence that Peru has 150,000 Spanish troops appears.

In fact, there were fewer than 300,000 Spaniards in Peru at this time, and the 150,000 Spanish troops included all the militia.

The personnel of the Chinese Empire were unaware of the Western system of colonial warfare, and the real Spanish Army in Peru, with only 30,000 men, was searching for the remnants of the Inca Empire in the Andes and plundering the Incas for their wealth.

The Marines of the Chinese Empire were very cautious, unaware that they were dealing with a militia of Spanish civilians.

The main force of the Westerners' colonial wars was the militia, because their opponents were only the more backward indigenous Indians, so their colonial wars were smooth. But if you're dealing with a regular army, then it's a different story.

With the landing of the Marines of the Chinese Empire one after another, the officers and men of the first echelon of marines had advanced thirty miles, and they were all met with resistance from the Spanish militia in nearby towns.

Some only have a few people, some have dozens of people, and the patriotic fighting spirit of the Spanish militia is very high, and they resist the Chinese imperial ** team every day.

Of course, it is not so much the patriotism of the Spaniards as the determination to protect their families. After all, the Spaniards overseas, they all have a large amount of property, although they are all looted and full of blood, but it has to be said that others have to pay a price if they want to take away this wealth from them.

The price paid by the first echelon was that during the advance, they were resisted by the Spanish militia, and thirteen people were killed and wounded, 12 of them were the result of cold gun attacks, and only one was wounded in the head-on firefight.

The officers and men of the first echelon of marines quickly advanced to the small town of Anyaran, which was the first seaside town to be seen, because of its large size, with nearly 200 families living in the town.

Looking down the dirt slope, the Catholic church peculiar to the Spaniards is most obvious, and of course there is a militia of about 400 people blocking the town intersection.

"What does that mean?"

Squad leader Kong Ze put down the binoculars and couldn't help but sneer.

Look at the variety of muskets they wear, and the muskets they use are also varied, as well as the oldest Spanish Mushquet arquebus, which needs to be propped up to hold it. And handcuffs, and even spears.

Maybe the Spaniards with their hands behind their backs still have kitchen knives in their hands

Kong Ze thought so, and immediately waved his hand, and the marines lined up and continued to move forward.

Soon, the Marines approached.

When they were three hundred meters away, the Spaniards began to shout, and the comers stopped.

The Marines could not understand their words, but Kong Ze did not give orders, so they had to carry their guns and continue to advance.

Bang bang bang

As if they had not seen the turtle militia on the opposite side, the Marines continued to march, their heavy leather boots neatly and forcefully on the ground.

It wasn't until the Spaniards fired warning shots that Kong Ze raised his hand, and the team immediately stopped advancing and lined up in battle formation on both sides.

The two sides were tense, and as a result, a man dressed as a Catholic godfather came out to negotiate with Kong Ze and demanded that Kong Ze withdraw his troops.

This is obviously impossible

Since we can't talk about it, we have to fight

Fortunately, Kong Ze had less than three hundred soldiers, and there were a few wounded soldiers in the back, and the Spaniards had more than four hundred people, and they were not afraid to prepare for a battle.

"Please shoot first"

“……”

Kong Ze was stunned for a moment, then nodded with a wry smile.

"As you wish"

…… U