The morning sun rises in Mexico City as usual.

His Majesty Napoleon III, Emperor of France, was enjoying his sumptuous breakfast, the most impressive of which was a two-pound piece of margarine.

Margarine, or trans fatty acids, hydrogenated vegetable oils, was the invention of the French chemist Moules from Provence last year.

It preserves the soft and sweet taste of butter and is not easy to spoil, so that it can be presented fresh to His Majesty the Emperor from distant Europe.

If you don't take into account its health-damaging effects, this is a great invention indeed, at least for His Majesty Nasan, who loves fat and sweets.

Early in the morning, a rich piece of trans fatty acids, full of calories, cholesterol, and risk factors for diabetes, arteriosclerosis, tumors and other diseases, made His Majesty the Emperor feel extremely comfortable, as if all his worries had melted.

Of course, the great Nasan did not have any troubles, and the battle of Santa Anna, which he commanded remotely, was a major success.

After paying the price of 2 French divisions, 2 colonial divisions, and dozens of Mexican infantry battalions, the never-falling fortress of Santa Ana repelled the Ming tide offensive seven times.

Although it is not very clear why the 40,000 Dominants were able to launch a tidal offensive against the hundreds of thousands of Franco-Mexican forces, in short, victory is victory.

The Ming people paid a terrible price, repeatedly hitting a wall in Santa Anna, and fell into sand.

According to the telegram from the front, General Ming looked at the fortress of Santa Anna, tears of humiliation rolling in his eyes.

This time, the heroic French nation has once again become the shield of Christendom!

"Paperless office is great! Good...... Hiccup~"

He wiped the margarine at the corner of his mouth with a napkin, burped comfortably, couldn't help rubbing his beloved goatee, and smiled at the staff who were eating with him, "In my opinion, although this Zhu Fugui is an evil heretic, there is still merit......

"Everyone, you see, what if I capture Zhu Fugui and send him to the Paris Weaving Bureau as a technician? With his ideas, he may be able to bring a lot of new fun to our Parisian citizens! ”

"Your Majesty, you don't know yet, do you? That Zhu Fugui still likes acting very much, and even plays the main role himself? Rigoletto Jia followed Nasan's words and said, "Weichen suggested that Zhu Fugui be sent to Turkey to be a eunuch singer, and he must be welcomed by the Sultan." ”

"Haha, wonderful! Wonderful! ”

Nasan and his close ministers clapped their hands and laughed, and the hall was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

But in the corner they didn't notice, a Mexican handyman who was kneeling on the floor to clean the floor had already quietly pulled out a pen and paper and recorded it all.

The French thought they had eliminated the partisans, but they did not know that the partisans were already lurking around them.

And they don't know that there is an old saying in the far East, called: "Today the joke is good, tomorrow the bullets are full!" ”

·

You don't even have to wait until tomorrow.

Just as the three monarchs and ministers were enjoying the wonderful prospect after the victory, the pale-faced signal soldiers ran in.

He ignored the Mexican servant who was mopping the floor, and ran to the table like a gust of wind: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, important military information, urgent telegram from San Juan ten minutes ago!" ”

"San Juan?"

Nasan was stunned, a town with a name like San Juan, in Mexico, there are not a thousand but eight hundred.

However, after a little thought, Nasan understood that San Juan was a satellite city and fortress about 44 kilometers from Mexico City.

Because in addition to the telegram to the northern mining area, that is, the Santa Ana region, the only telegram that can communicate normally in Mexico is a few dozen kilometers around the capital Mexico City.

And as a defensive fortress, San Juan happened to have a line.

Nasan asked impatiently, "What happened to San Juan?" Is it another Mexican protest mutiny? Is Radmiro a fool of eating baguettes and not knowing how to use his rifle and bayonet? ”

"No, it's not like that...... His Excellency Colonel Rademiro ...... He has returned to the arms of the Lord! ”

The signal corpsman handed over the report and hurriedly explained, "Just half an hour ago, a convoy of unknown but suspected Ming troops suddenly appeared outside the city of San Juan, their chariots were terrifying, and their firepower was extremely fierce......

"What? Could it be that the Ming army only took ten minutes to blow up and kill Radmiro? Napoleon III was shocked.

"No...... No......"

With a constipated expression on his face, the Signal Soldier explained again, "Colonel Radmiro was enjoying burgundy baked snails with sparkling wine and margarine......

When the Ming shells fell, Colonel Rademiro was trying to pour the last bit of sauce from the snail shell into his throat...... And then tragedy struck......

In short, Colonel Rademiro's ultimate cause of death was due to an obstruction of the upper airway......"

"Simply put, this guy just choked to death from a snail shell, right?"

Take Trinity and slap the table, furious, sure enough, without his own personal command, these generals are just rice buckets, and they can't even understand snails!

The signal soldier was silent, and Nasan asked again, "How did those Ming people sneak into the central defense area?" Forget it, none of this matters, where are they now? ”

"According to Colonel Rademiro's adjutant, it seems that the Ming army, after showing off its might with artillery shells, did not launch a full-scale attack, but bypassed San Juan...... The target seems to be Mexico City! ”

"Oh?"

When Napoleon III heard this, the DNA in his blood seemed to move, "Go and invite Marshal Bazin, General Bourbaki and General François to the conference room, it's time for me to show my true skills!" ”

·

Compared to the barbed wire defense line of Santa Ana, the fortifications of Mexico City are much more presentable.

Because Marshal Bazin had learned a lesson in front of the barbed wire of the Mexicans.

So he was very kind to the Mexicans about the layout of the defensive line, especially the construction of the barbed wire.

In Santa Anna, Mo Bai sent out the night to destroy the enemy's barbed wire fence in the middle of the night.

On the first day, I didn't take it all night, I brought professional tools such as hydraulic shears, and on the second day, I set off directly with a sapper shovel, and dragged back a bag of scrap wire in the middle of the night.

The extremely unprofessional laying of barbed wire made Santa Ana almost defenseless against the Dingguo army.

If it weren't for the enemy's strong firepower, the strong attack would have caused a lot of attrition losses, and Mo Bai even had a detailed plan to make a feint attack for a war of annihilation.

By contrast, the barbed wire fence outside Mexico City is much more professional, at least piling the foundation, so that no sappers shovel a large area.

Mexico City in this era was not the megacity of the future, with a population of just over 400,000.

But even if the city wasn't large, the French didn't have enough barbed wire to enclose all of Mexico City.

Fortunately, until the United Mexican States regained Mexico City in 1821 and achieved full independence, Mexico City was the last stronghold of the Spanish viceroy, and the location was a well-considered defense.

Mexico City is located in the valley of the Central Mountains, and only needs to block a few key points with barbed wire to effectively withstand the enemy's advance.

His Majesty Nasan, a military genius, keenly spotted this on the map, and pointed out that instead of defending Mexico City itself, it was better to take the initiative and use the advantage of barbed wire to wipe out this wandering Ming army.

Marshal Bazin pointed out that judging from the previous Ming bombardment of San Juan but no siege, it is likely that this Ming army lacked enough infantry and lacked the means to attack the fortifications.

In this case, our French army should naturally rely on the defense of the city, and there is no need to fight with the Ming people in the field.

"Old marshal, do you think that our French warriors can't go head-to-head with the Ming people in the wilderness?" Napoleon III asked unpleasantly.

"Your Majesty, you have misunderstood, of course, our French infantry is the best in the world, but those Ming people have the convenience of cars, come and go like the wind, and are very mobile."

Marshal Bazin pondered the words and said, "They are like the rangers of the Huns and Mongols back then, I am afraid they will not be easy to deal with!" ”

"Ming people have cars, don't I have them? Isn't our reciprocating piston four-stroke gas-engined chariot difficult enough to fight them? If it means that people's cars are faster, then don't forget that our tanks are heavier!

Our European heavy cavalry will definitely not be inferior to the Asian rangers! ”

In the end, Napoleon III, as commander-in-chief of the Mexican War, issued an order to garrison the Royal Guard, the 6th Division, the Independent Cavalry Regiment, the Reserve Artillery Regiment stationed in Mexico City, the 2nd and 3rd Divisions stationed in the surrounding satellite cities, and the 4th Division, the commander of the division who had just died because of the snail, as well as the Foreign Legion and the Mexican Servant Army, to prepare to encircle the convoy of the Ming people in a semi-arc encirclement!

It has to be said that the old imperialist countries still have a deep heritage.

The corps inside and outside Mexico City soon began to assemble, and if nothing happened and not counting the Mexican servant army, before the sun set today, the strategic arrangement of the three Majesties would be in place.

This kind of execution is really commendable.

If we let the masters of the Qing Jingying carry out this order, I am afraid that we will not be able to reach the ground without five or six days of effort.

However......

Times have changed.

Qi Wenchang is crazy to give you a whole day to deploy troops.

Not only Nasan, but also Bazin actually made the mistake of empiricism.

From the moment the Ming Wumu army appeared in San Juan, the decision on when and where to fight was no longer in the hands of the French.

[Erratum, as the reader is cautioned, is overly optimistic about the speed of advance of mechanized troops.] After checking the information, it was learned that if the enemy did not put up strong resistance and broke through the enemy's defense line during the march, the daily advance speed should be between 120 and 200 kilometers. The speed of a bicycle is not the same as the speed of the convoy, so the daily advance speed of the Wumu Army is tentatively set at about 100 kilometers. The previous text has been revised, and I hope you will be aware of it. ]