Several major events have occurred in the world this year, the first of which is the death of the former French emperor Napoleon III, who was exiled to London at the beginning of the year, which caused a shock in Europe, and countless European royal families and nobles went to mourn and lament the death of a generation of kings.

The second is the escalation of the crisis in the Near East, the weakening of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the Balkans, in the nineteenth century, and the opportunity of the country's ethnic minorities of different faiths to fight for independence.

Since the 19th century, there have been constant rebellions and repressions in the Balkans, and the Greek War and the Crimean War are the most typical wars in which contradictions erupted, leading to the intervention of foreign powers.

By the beginning of the 70s

The liberation movements of the Slavic peoples against enslavement in Turkey and for national autonomy and independence became more and more intense.

As a result of the intervention of the major European powers, the contradictions in the Balkans have turned into an increasingly fierce international struggle. The Near East became the focus of international issues in the nineteenth century, and the Balkans became "Europe's powder keg."

The third is the "Three Emperors Alliance" between Germany, Austria, and Russia, which was vigorously promoted by German Prime Minister Bismarck, aimed at forming a strategic advantage over its old enemy France, squeezing its living space, and forming a strategic situation favorable to it.

The establishment of this alliance directly contributed to the rapid warming of relations between Britain and France, and they secretly hooked up with each other.

The British Empire could not tolerate the destruction of the "European Balancing Strategy", and when France was in a weak position, it actively approached and supported it. And France also understands the cooperation, and the two sides are getting closer and closer.

As a result, the originally close relationship between Britain and Germany has been estranged, and the political situation in Europe has changed so quickly that it is dizzying.

The fourth is that on September 17, 1873, the Tang Empire invaded Colombia on a large scale, brazenly triggering the second South American War.

The invading army conquered Medellín at the end of September, captured the northern town of Cartagena on October 7, and captured the important southern city of Cali on October 11 after three days of bloody fighting.

After more than half a month of rest, the southern invasion army gathered on the outskirts of the capital Bogotá on November 6 and launched a fateful decisive battle in Colombia......

Outside Bogotá

The large-scale invasion of the Tang Empire gathered 42,000 heavy troops to press the border, armed to the teeth of cavalry, artillery and infantry lined up, and the battle flag fluttered, shrouding this world with a cloud of war.

on a vast field

The two sides were clearly distinguished, the uniform color was unified and the queue was strictly organized by the Tang Imperial Army, with 28,000 infantry in the middle, more than 3,700 artillery and more than 220 field artillery, and the muzzle of the black hole pointed straight ahead.

More than 9,600 cavalrymen were divided into left and right flanks, with distinctive armor, and each cavalry was equipped with a Colt cavalry-style revolver, a Colt lever-type rifle (short-barreled cavalry model), and a standard sabre.

It is precisely with these advanced equipment that the cavalry of the Tang Empire fought all over the Americas and became invincible, breaking through the great prestige of the world, and was known as the "strongest cavalry in the world".

In the strict cavalry ranks, there are more than 3,400 cuirassier heavy cavalry, who are responsible for delivering the fatal blow when the enemy army is in disarray, and are one of the hole cards at the bottom of the box in the imperial army.

Look at the opponent

The uniforms of the Colombian army are varied, and even many people come with trouser legs, Mexican-style straw hats on their heads, and carry knives and guns, and there are smoothbore rifles with messy brands in the ranks, as well as more advanced French-made Chasepo 1866 breech rifles, Mini rifles, and almost everything.

The Colombian army cobbled together 310 artillery pieces, but the quality is not flattering, from bronze cannons more than 150 years ago to Napoleonic cannons.

The only thing that can give confidence to the Colombian army is the large number of troops, which is really crowded with people, with a total of more than 117,000 people, almost three times the number of the other side.

It was hard to cobble together so many armies, but it was impossible to have so many weapons.

So the Colombian army at the front of the queue everyone had a musket, but not necessarily with the one behind.

The situation was better, with spears and broadswords, and almost only wooden sticks and dung forks in his hands, all pointing to the army soldiers in front of him who were killed in battle, and were able to pick up muskets and continue the battle.

As can be seen from the army gathered in Colombia, most of these officers and soldiers have distinctly white characteristics, and most of them belong to the native white people, direct descendants of the Spanish colonizers.

There are two civilizations in Colombia, one is the Indian civilization inherited from the Inca Empire, mainly the Chibucha Indians, who use wooden and stone tools to grow corn, cassava and other crops, weave cotton cloth, and belong to the agricultural Indian civilization.

The other is the Tayrona civilization that originated from the Spanish colonizers, and reflects the characteristics of European civilization everywhere from architecture, clothing to religion.

These are the native white descendants of the early Spanish colonizers who pioneered South America, as was the case near Bogotá.

The city was first founded on August 6, 1538 by the Spaniard Gonzalo Jimenez de Quezada, on the basis of the original Chibucha town.

The inhabitants of Bogotá were predominantly Hispanics born in the New World, and under their influence, Bogotá gave rise to the germ of the Colombian independence movement.

On July 20, 1810, Colombia gained independence from Spain for the first time, and Bogotá became the capital of Gran Colombia.

However, due to internal conflicts, Gran Colombia soon split into the three countries of today, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.

Because of this historical origin, most of the Colombian officers and soldiers who appeared on the battlefield on the outskirts of Bogotá had white faces and walked into battle with muskets of different models in their hands.

"Let's get started!"

Lieutenant General Mai Hyo-zu, commander of the Southern Army, waved his hand and ordered, then looked around the battlefield with confident eyes and muttered; "It's going to be a day of brilliant victory for the Southern Corps, and I'm confident about it."

"Yes, Your Excellency Commander!"

After the order to start the battle was issued, the commanders' commands were heard from the military formations one after another, the military band played the marching song, and the strict army column began to advance slowly, and the atmosphere on the vast field instantly became tense.

The field artillery, dragged by the war horses, walked at the forefront of the military formation.

The Colombian army on the opposite side did not move, not because they did not want to move, but because they really couldn't.

Because the heavy bronze cannon could not be dragged at all in the field, it took a lot of strength to get it to the field, and once the gun position was established, it could only be fixed in place to bombard.

The last time Colombia fought a foreign war was a war for independence at the beginning of this century, when it fought with the Spanish army for more than a year and won the final victory.

After independence, it fell into a long period of chaos and warlord separation, and the domestic governance was a mess......

Whether it is Spanish descendants who run the country or develop the economy, they are not good at it, and the former Spanish colonies have been in a mess after independence.

It's like their European ancestors, who were best at picking up knives and guns to rob, to occupy territory, or to dig gold or silver mines, and to get the money and live a life of prostitution and shamelessness until the money was gone.

This is the case with Colombia, which has been in disarrays for more than 60 years since independence. There are many warlords in various places, there are many contradictions between them, there are corrupt people in the government, and the officials in power are more greedy than the other......

More than half an hour later

The distance between the two armies was shortened to less than 2 kilometers, and the field cavalry artillery of the Tang Empire quickly unloaded the gun carriages, turned the gun muzzles, and began to adjust the artillery to prepare for the bombardment.

At this time, the artillery positions of the Colombian army took the lead in firing, and the sound of "boom, boom, boom and ......" artillery rang out in the sky, kicking off the prelude to the big battle......

The artillery of the Tang Empire quickly counterattacked, destroying the enemy's artillery positions with more intense and accurate artillery fire, killing and wounding a large number of enemy soldiers, and the battle tended to be white-hot from the beginning.

The sound of artillery rumbled, and the choking smoke covered the sky and the sun.

The battlefield lasted for more than an hour with the sound of artillery and gunfire, and the Colombian army, which had suffered a large number of casualties, was the first to lose its strength, and about 26,000 officers and soldiers of its left flank corps fled in a large area, exposing the weakness of the flank.

Such a good opportunity could not be missed, and Lieutenant General Mai Xiaozu decisively threw 3,400 heavy cavalry into the battle, followed by 5,900 light cavalry, all of which were invested at once.

If it were replaced by any army in Europe, Lieutenant General Mai Hsiao-zu would never dare to take out his precious cavalry and send it to death to attack the flank of the densely formed infantry formation.

But the opponent is the Colombian army, that's another story.

The Colombian army, which was only outnumbered and gritted its teeth, was poorly trained and had inconsistent orders, and exposed its fatal shortcomings in dealing with the cavalry corps that swept like a wind on the flat ground.

Far from being able to unite the Colombian troops, they were pushed and thrown into chaos in a state of extreme panic and fear, causing confusion in the already terrible frontal ranks.

How powerful is the galloping horses of tens of thousands of cavalry?

The well-trained cuirassier heavy cavalry of the Tang Empire formed several sharp angles in the impact, and in the face of the terrified enemy, they took the lead in taking out Colt lever rifles. When approaching within 150 yards, vent fire in the general direction ahead.

The rain of bullets and bullets splashed down on the head and face, and this kind of firepower coverage that only emphasizes firepower without precision is unreasonable, and the enemy in front of him is overturned to the ground like patches of wheat harvesting, and in an instant there is a bloody storm.

After emptying the thirteen rifle bullets in their hands in one go, the cuirassiers quickly inserted the rifles with hot barrels into the cowhide horse bag in front of their right knee, drew their sabers with their backhands, and screamed into the enemy positions that were already full of corpses.

The light cavalry that followed closely behind also crashed headlong into the enemy's formation, and the Colombian army soon collapsed with their sabers......

Lieutenant General Mai Xiaozu, commander of the Southern Army, only then did a smile appear on the corner of his mouth, and with a wave of his hand, he ordered the whole army to press on it, so as to win the battle.

More than 40,000 officers and men of the whole army were in high spirits, brandishing swords and guns, and chased after the enemy who was crying for his father and mother......

The red sun fell in the west, and the blood-like remnants filled the sky

The Battle of Bogotá was drawing to a close, and after the collapse of the Colombian army, the one-sided massacre lasted more than five hours, killing the valleys with blood, the rivers changing color, and the smell of death so thick that it obscured the sky.

In the evening

The officers and men were extremely tired after a day of fighting, except for some officers and soldiers, who took prisoners to clean up the battlefield and clean up the corpses, most of the soldiers returned to the camp one after another, and what awaited them was a sumptuous dinner and the great glory of victory.

Lieutenant General Mai Hsiao-zu, commander of the Southern Corps, knew that although the battle was terrifying, Bogotá was the largest city in Colombia with more than 430,000 inhabitants.

Most of the remnants of the defeated soldiers who fled in the battle were annihilated or captured, and no less than 3~40,000 still fled back to the city to hide.

These were dangerous rebels, armed with knives and guns to hide in the city shrouded in night, which was a great threat to the imperial officers and soldiers who rushed into the city.

As long as the city is surrounded, these fish that have slipped through the net will not be able to escape.

It is a safe way to wait until the army enters the city after dawn, and then find out and eliminate these dangerous elements like rats.

The bonfires lit in the camp lit up the happy faces of the soldiers, and invisibly exuded a strong killing atmosphere. After a series of battles, the officers and men of the Southern Army Corps have undergone a qualitative transformation.

From a well-trained army to a brave army with strong fighting conviction and a high degree of cohesion and resilience, its combat effectiveness has been substantially improved.

Early the next morning

After the feast, the morale of all the officers and soldiers was high, and Shangfeng issued an order to "not seal the sword for five days", and the desire for women and wealth made all the soldiers of the Southern Army turn into howling wolves, rushing into the city to vent the anger accumulated in the war......

Bogotá, an ancient city with centuries of history, is immersed in the unprecedented ravages of war, where blood and fire spread to every corner of the city with the wails of the losers, a bloody feast for the conquerors.

According to post-war statistics;

The Southern Army has captured Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, at the cost of 1,769 casualties, of which 517 officers and soldiers were killed and more than 1,250 wounded, and the losses were negligible.

On the Colombian side, 47,500 were killed and wounded, 62,000 were captured, and the rest fled and died in the bloody slaughter inside the city.

At this point, the large-scale organized war in Colombia came to an end, and the imperial army of the southern invaders took full control of the South American power.

But victory in the war of conquest was only the beginning, not the end.

The more difficult task facing the Southern Army was to maintain repressive rule, to extract as much wealth as possible from Colombia, to suppress all resistance by force, and to colonize the region.

At the end of December 1873

A decree from His Majesty the Emperor arrived, and the commander of the Southern Corps, Lieutenant General Mai Xiaogu, was specially promoted to the title of Duke of Pingnan of the first class for his meritorious service, and was promoted to the rank of Deputy Chief of Staff of the Royal Army Headquarters, and promoted to the rank of General of the Royal Army.

The generals in the army have their own awards, and from top to bottom, there is a festive atmosphere.

So far, after a lapse of 12 years, another heavyweight commander of the Tang Empire military was born, and the appointment of the deputy chief of staff of the Royal Army established the status of General Fang Elder Mai Xiaozu.