Persuasion is always a rare thing, and Amicho will not be persuaded by Chaves, and it is even less likely that Chaves will be convinced.

But war is inevitable.

Even if the corrupt governor doesn't want to fight, he can only support his nephews and officers now, hoping to hold Santa Fe.

At least hold out until reinforcements from the south arrive, although that doesn't sound reliable.

The battle soon began, and General Carney's troops began the first round of attacks towards the Mexican positions.

"For America!"

"Rush—"

Amid the shouts, the infantry and cavalry rushed at the enemy, armed with their rifles, bayonets and pistols.

"Fire!" Mexican artillery ignited the fire.

"Boom-boom!"

With a few cannon shots, smoke and fire erupted among the American troops, some soldiers were killed, and some cavalrymen fell off their horses.

Not to be outdone, the Americans also poured shells on each other, and for a time the battlefield was filled with thunder, gunsmoke, and, of course, blood.

The artillery pieces on both sides combined were less than ten, and they were not advanced, with limited accuracy, range, and power, and few casualties.

But the effect that artillery can produce is far from being comparable to that of guns.

Only the blazing cannonballs can create an earth-shattering sound, sparse corpses, and billowing gunsmoke, so that the atmosphere of death quickly spreads on the battlefield.

It is still largely the era of line infantry, although skirmisher tactics have emerged.

For line infantry, advancing against artillery fire is the most basic combat quality.

If it were in the afterlife, it would undoubtedly be a hilarious tactic to line up and shoot like this, and the dense bullets and artillery would instantly crush the soldiers into pulp.

However, before the advent of full-fledged breech guns and automatic weapons, the firepower on the battlefield was relatively sparse, and whether the troops could withstand the firepower depended largely on morale.

As long as the morale of one side is firm enough to maintain the formation in the rain of bullets, it is equivalent to half the victory.

As the vast majority expected, the morale of the Mexican army was not firm, or somewhat crippled.

Many of them do not have the concept of "soldiers" at all, let alone consider themselves soldiers, but just a group of poorly trained militiamen and soldiers.

In their opinion, being a soldier is almost the same as standing in a queue in peacetime, and it is unimaginable to really go to the battlefield to play with their lives.

As the artillery fire continued to pour down and the American troops approached, many Mexican soldiers looked frightened.

What's worse is that the Americans basically use rifles, while the Mexicans are equipped with mainly smoothbore guns, such as the Brown Bess that are being phased out.

Compared to smoothbore guns, rifles have a much stronger range and accuracy.

So the vast majority of American soldiers, before they came into range of Mexican soldiers, could stand still and shoot at the enemy with a bullet that had slashed through the rifles.

"Bang!"

"Bang bang bang-"

More and more gunfire rang out on the battlefield, most of it from American troops.

A rain of bullets struck, and Mexican soldiers fell one after another amid screams.

It didn't take long for deserters to appear in the Mexican army.

Deserters on the battlefield often react like a chain reaction, once there is a first, there will be a second and a third almost instantaneously...... Eventually, everyone will rush to escape.

In such an atmosphere, even the bravest soldier will lose the will to fight.

It only takes a short time for a few deserters to turn into a rout.

Now, the Mexican army is playing out this process, and the deserters are spreading at an alarming rate, and morale is about to collapse.

Seeing this scene, General Carney couldn't help but smile: "Haha, the Mexicans are really still the same waste, Santa Fe is ours!" ”

It seems that the Americans are already riding dragons and have the chance to win.

What happened next, however, was unexpected.

The young Mexican officer was clearly inexperienced and did not anticipate his own defeat, and both Chavez and Achulita were caught off guard for a moment.

But they soon made a decision.

"Cavalrymen, grab our new weapons and give them some color!" Chaves shouted, then double-wielding Browning pistols, took the lead, and took the initiative to rush towards the American troops.

"Chaves!" Amicho was startled, but Chaves had already rushed out.

About five hundred cavalrymen followed, almost each with two Browning revolvers.

Led by Chavez, they rushed into the rain of bullets on the opposite side, and soon came to a distance where they could shoot.

"Bang! Bang bang bang! Chavez fired a volley of bullets at the nearest enemy, "Die, Yankee!" ”

The same was true of the cavalry, and in less than half a minute, two or three thousand bullets were fired at the American forward troops.

The Americans were stunned on the spot.

They had never endured such a short and dense fire, much less expected it to come from the Mexicans.

In an instant, hundreds of U.S. troops were killed.

"Oh God, what's going on!"

Seeing that a large number of teammates suddenly fell in front of him, where did the soldiers with rifles dare to reload and shoot, they all howled and fled backwards.

They also had revolvers, including Colt and Browning, but they were clearly far inferior in numbers to the Mexican side.

And because most of their pistols were purchased by the soldiers at their own expense, they were not concentrated and scattered throughout the battlefield, which could not form a strong counterattack against the pistol cavalry units of Chaves.

So in almost a minute, the situation on the battlefield was reversed.

The American troops rushed forward, the American troops began to attack, the morale of the Mexican army plummeted, the victory of the American army was in sight, and the American troops began to flee!

"What's going on!" Looking at the sudden rout of his own troops, General Carney was suddenly shocked and angry.

"It's a revolver!" Cook gritted his teeth and said, "Damn, the Mexicans are armed with at least a thousand revolvers!" ”

"How can they have such a thing!" Carney's voice trembled.

Donivan: "General, we need to retreat!" ”

"Retreat! Fall back! General Carney had no choice but to give the order to retreat.

The Mexican army didn't chase much either.

On the one hand, the cavalry led by Chaves lacked stamina, and the revolver was quite troublesome to reload, and after emptying a round of bullets on the battlefield, there was basically no chance to reload.

Another reason is...... The Mexican army itself is fleeing.

Although Chavesgo's cavalry made a decisive attack and pushed the American army back, the rout of his own side had already taken shape, and a considerable number of soldiers were also fleeing.

As a result, a strange situation developed on the battlefield: the American army was fleeing backwards, and a part of the Mexican army was also fleeing backwards.

Chaves and his cavalry stood in the middle of the battlefield, looking around in a bit of a daze.

"Achulita...... We won, right? Chavez appeared to have been shot in the arm, and he covered his wounds as he looked at Achulita.

Achulita looked around and hesitated, "It should be ......"