St. Louis City.

In Mexico's provisional presidential palace, Joaquín de Herrera frowns as he looks at the list of assets surrendered by his men.

The amount of property looted was far less than he expected, and Joaquín de Herrera thought that he would become rich overnight and then flee to Europe to apply for political exile, so that he could live a life of spendmore for the rest of his life.

In fact, it is not that he misjudged the wealth of the city, but that his subordinates and the rich people in the city are either related to each other, or they are secretly colluding and complicit.

Joaquín de Herrera's plan to amass money was known early on, so he didn't get much oil and water after several weeks of looting, but he was so angry that he couldn't do it.

In fact, Joaquín de Herrera gradually realized the problem, but there was not much time left for him.

José Apt is on his way to his "army of tigers and wolves", and a bloody massacre seems inevitable.

On the other side of the continent, however, the bloody feast has begun

Robert Stockton's fleet had barely arrived in San Diego, and John Fremont had barely had time to say a few words to his old friend when news came from his men that an Austrian army of about 10,000 men was approaching San Diego.

This was good news for the former, and he feared that if the Austrians were to cower in the fortress, the war would last for a long time, and he would lose face.

But now the problem is solved! The Austrians chose to take the initiative, as long as they could completely annihilate this detachment, they would no longer be able to organize a counterattack, Robert Stockton's Marines would be able to fully take the initiative, and the American army would take California just around the corner.

So Lieutenant General Robert Stockton made a bold decision, he decided to directly surround the advancing Austrian army with the 25,000 marines he had brought with him.

But what he didn't know was that the commander of the other party also had a risky plan.

Of course, this behavior of the Austrian side was not completely unconscionable, but the rigorous judgment of Archduke Carl Ferdinand on the basis of "accurate" information from Washington.

Eventually, the worst encounter of the Mexican-American War began, when the Austrian army coming from the direction of San Francisco stopped at the village of Escondido (northeast of San Diego) and began to build fortifications.

This is exactly what Robert Stockton meant, he is afraid that the other party will directly choose to turn around and escape.

As a result, the US Marines who had been adrift at sea for several months did not rest much, but chose to attack directly.

The village of Escondido, despite its buildings and simple walls, is not a defensive facility.

In the face of the larger number of American troops, the Austrian army did not choose to retreat, and the two sides engaged in a fierce artillery battle as soon as they came up.

The artillery of the latter was obviously of higher quality and more experienced, but the bronze cannon of the former was really superior in terms of power and rate of fire.

However, this crushing victory was clearly not what Robert Stockton wanted, and he ordered the whole army to begin to encircle.

The battle was fought fiercely, and this unit was worthy of the elite of the American army, with superior firepower and three times the number of the enemy, it suppressed the Austrian counterattack.

Of course, the casualties were exaggerated, but they were within Robert Stockton's tolerance.

Due to the complete suppression of firepower and troops, the Austrians had to retreat to the village to defend, using ditches and houses as bunkers to continue to deal with the American troops.

In fact, the Austrians did not expect their own firepower to be suppressed, because Archduke Carl Ferdinand had prepared a large number of infantry guns and rockets for this decoy force in advance.

As a result, the previously invincible rockets could not change the situation on the battlefield when the artillery was suppressed, and although they caused a lot of casualties to the American line infantry, they could not stop the opponent's advance.

Although the Austrian army was small in number, it was far superior to the American army in terms of morale and technical and tactical literacy, but even so, it still fell into an unimaginable passive situation, which highlighted the importance of artillery on the battlefield at this time.

Fortunately, the reinforcements of Archduke Carl Ferdinand came out of the rear in time, so that the morale of the Austrian troops in the village of Escondido did not collapse.

Robert Stockton was on the front line, and the situation on the battlefield was not optimistic, although the American army was steadily advancing, he knew that this victory was piled up with human lives.

Such a heavy loss was something Robert Stockton did not expect, but he could not give up now, because giving up the attack now would be tantamount to giving up his career, so he had to grit his teeth and persevere

"Report! Your Excellency, Commander, a large number of Austrian troops have appeared in the rear of our army! ”

"What!?" Robert Stockton reacted with shock and anger, and his lieutenant looked completely incredulous.

Because it stands to reason that even if the Austrians had reinforcements, they should have come from the direction of San Francisco or the fortress of San Gabriel.

"The vanguard of the enemy army is a large number of cavalry, followed by a large number of infantry. Brigadier General Karna is holding back the enemy, and our side has suffered heavy casualties."

Since the U.S. military concentrated its artillery on the frontal battlefield to suppress the Austrian troops in the village of Escondido, there was no artillery in the rear at all.

This was a feature of the tactics of the time, concentrating artillery on one point to strike until the collapse of the enemy front.

The Austrian cavalry, of course, would not be so stupid and directly attack the opposing infantry line. They brought with them a large number of cavalry guns and rockets, and this was the area they were familiar with.

Inflict a brutal blow on the enemy with overwhelming superior firepower, and then send cavalry to charge and follow after the opponent's position collapses to extend the victory.

Brigadier General Karner's brigade was the reserve of the American army, and it was intended to be put into battle at the most critical time, but due to the sudden appearance of the Austrian cavalry, he led his army to take the initiative to meet it.

After all, if you ignore these cavalry, if you rush to the rear of Robert Stockton and are beheaded by the Austrians, it will be a lot of fun.

To say that the Brigadier General Karna of the United States Navy is really worthy of graduating from West Point, and his soldiers are also worthy of the word elite, they quickly lined up in a classic infantry confrontation formation - the hollow phalanx.

However, the Austrian cavalry did not plunge headlong into an array of bayonet rows and guns like the French marshal in underwear.

Instead, they stopped at a distance of about five hundred meters from the infantry phalanx, and then began to unload the artillery and set up rocket launchers.

Just when Brigadier General Karna was puzzled, the inhumane fire strike began. Although cavalry guns are usually light guns such as three-pounder guns and four-pounder guns, they can be very lethal at a distance of about 500 meters.

Solid shells flew into the ranks of the American army like bowling balls, and for a time the stumps and broken arms flew all over the sky, and the sound of wailing came and went.

(End of chapter)