United States, Rio Grande Barracks.

Due to the lack of resistance of Mexicans in New Mexico (Colorado), the U.S. military established a stronghold along the Colorado River and was able to use the river to transport troops and supplies.

This allowed Lieutenant General Stephen Carney's forces to be quickly replenished, and for the first time, the United States demonstrated the ability of a new power to mobilize terror.

Stephen Carney asked John Taylor for 50,000 reinforcements, and the latter sent 80,000 directly, as well as heavy artillery necessary for the siege, as well as supplies for the army to consume.

In fact, since the Austrians did not burn down the agricultural area of St. Pascual when they retreated, the American army was completely self-sufficient in local materials.

However, the fortress of St. Gabriel was much more difficult to conquer than he imagined, although the main body of the fortress was a convex fortress built by Spain in the 16th century, but after the Austrian side remodeled it, it was much more resistant to shelling.

In fact, Archduke Carl Ferdinand piled up a dirt slope outside the Boss Castle, plus a trench. But don't underestimate this layer of "soil", it can greatly reduce the impact of the shelling.

Due to the lack of heavy artillery in the California area, the Austrian side did not have much advantage in the artillery battle between the two sides.

However, due to the existence of the anti-artillery slope, the heavy artillery of the US army did not play much advantage.

There were pros and cons to this, and the Austrian renovations of the lobe-horned forts were greatly enhanced, but the height of the walls was also reduced due to these temporary heightened slopes.

The difficulty of the infantry assault was greatly reduced, but it also greatly increased the bloodiness of the war.

In the first battle, the American recruits rushed up the gentle slope with courage and fearlessly, and then jumped into the trench, only to realize that the original low wall had instantly "grown taller".

The walls of the fortress are actually far low and high near the bottom, because many people pay more attention to the slope in front than to the ditch behind.

As a result, the first attacking Americans fell into this simple trap like dumplings, and the Austrians, as the defenders, could solve the problem comfortably by shooting from the shooting hole.

In fact, the Americans had not fought any serious siege warfare since the beginning of the Revolutionary War, let alone attacked such a fortress painstakingly managed by defense experts.

(Actually, Archduke Karl's family were experts in defensive warfare, but Albrecht and Friedrich were more adept at attacking.) ）

During the American Revolution, most battles were fought by the French, and the Americans relied more on guerrilla warfare.

At this time, the fortress of St. Gabriel was like a moat in front of the American army, and no matter how many people Stephen Carney sent, he could only return in vain.

In fact, he was wrong, because the fortress of St. Gabriel was built on a hill, and the area that could be used for the deployment of troops was very limited.

So no matter how many Stephen Carneys sent to attack the fortress, only one or two thousand men could directly engage the defenders.

It was for this reason that Archduke Carl Ferdinand abandoned St. Pascual, as the narrow terrain of the fortress of St. Gabriel was not conducive to the deployment of large armies.

At the same time, it can also delay the opponent's advancement speed, which is just the right time to solve the "aftermath" that may arise.

This is the last thing the Americans want to see, because this war of attrition may last for months, even half a year, until one side can no longer afford to suffer casualties.

And John Taylor's order was that the war must be ended within three months, otherwise it would be a huge burden on the United States.

However, the reality is that after the night attack, the morale of his soldiers fell to the bottom, and the recruits did not know enough about the war, and each attack would pay heavy casualties.

In fact, that was just Stephen Carney's point of view, because as soon as the cannon on the city wall sounded, the American attacking troops would run back with rolling and crawling.

But in fact, because the American troops did not attack in a line, but in a straggler formation, the shelling did not cause many casualties.

Coupled with the low morale of the American troops, almost no one would be stupid enough to jump into the trenches and attack the walls of the Austrian side directly, except for the initial attack.

Although they also attacked on the gentle slope many times, the accuracy of the smoothbore gun was limited after all, and even the hit rate of less than 50 meters was very impressive, so the loss of American soldiers was not much.

Anti-infantry rockets can kill infantry efficiently at such distances, but the problem is that the Austrian arsenal in California could not make this new type of rocket, not even a standard small iron ball, but only some nails and iron pieces in it.

Similarly, the number of artillery shells is decreasing, because the local industrial production capacity is seriously insufficient, and the production of weapons is mostly carried out by blacksmiths and gunsmiths.

This was actually Franz's desire to weaken the local resistance and make it dependent on Austrian industry. Therefore, the weapons and equipment in the California region are mainly imported from Austria.

In normal times, Austria would use its colonies in Central America to transport supplies to California, but now that the U.S. Navy blockade left Carl Ferdinand and John Sina on their own.

John Sina was no mediocre man, and after receiving the news of Archduke Ferdinand's victory, he began to send people to persuade the U.S. Navy on the coastline of California to surrender.

As for logistics, John Sina has converted those factories used for the production of civilian products into temporary arsenals.

At the same time, a group of craftsmen were recruited from the captives of the American army, many of whom were apprentices to gunsmiths and blacksmiths before joining the army.

Although California was a fertile region, he had enough food to store for several years. However, for the sake of safety, artificial price gouging has begun, which is actually to strengthen local control.

The fact that the increase in prices did not significantly affect the lives of the locals and immigrants, and the ability of the administrators to increase the supply of goods for the army and increase the fiscal revenue was a great test of the ability of the administrators.

Fortunately, John Sina was one of those people, and he was very energetic, often speaking in front of the people, and at the same time dealing with a lot of official business, and dealing with local chiefs and opinion leaders in the evenings.

Archduke Carl Ferdinand was very depressed, and he was annoyed by the harassment of the US Navy, and there was no good way to deal with it.

At this time, almost all of California's important cities were on the coastline, but his forces were not enough to hold them all.

At that time, the army was completely unable to compare with the navy in terms of mobility, so even if it was exhausted, it could not do mobile defense.

San Francisco, City Hall, Provisional High Command in Wartime.

Archduke Ferdinand sat at his desk looking at the map and frowned, John Fremont's fleet was almost everywhere, and it seemed that the latter knew a lot about the defense of California, and the only rational thing to do at this time seemed to be to abandon some of the less important areas.

John Sina knew the former's concerns, that California was a place of gold, and that any loss would be a great loss for the Austrian Empire. So he suggested.

"Grand Duke, you don't have to worry about it. I have already sent someone to negotiate, and I believe that the result will be soon. Their marines are finished, and nothing will come of fighting any longer.

But as long as you surrender to us, you will have money that you will never spend for a lifetime. ”

Grand Duke Ferdinand shook his head.

"If it really worked, they should have surrendered a long time ago, it's been almost a month, the attacks are still going on, and although there are no big losses, my soldiers are almost exhausted.

The most important thing now is to guarantee the security of the fortress of St. Gabriel. ”

"But that was the advice of the Grand Duke Franz, and we should trust the judgment of the Grand Duke." John Sina insisted.

"He's just a kid, don't you guys all have hope in a kid who has to follow two nannies everywhere he goes?"

Archduke Carl Ferdinand did not have a good impression of Franz, and in his eyes this kind of guy who takes a nanny everywhere seems too weak.

John Sina was momentarily speechless, but he thought of another point in Franz's letter.

"Then you can recruit more troops, don't those Mexicans, Indians, Californians want to join our army?

Just put them in the area where you want to give up."

In fact, Franz still hopes to create a historical memory of California, a region with many immigrants, because it is more conducive to national integration.

"No way!" Archduke Ferdinand replied firmly, "The loyalty of this group of people cannot be guaranteed at all, in case the mutiny does not help the Americans?" ”

"Wouldn't it be better to mutiny? Then we save ourselves the time of sifting through traitors, and as soon as this group is on land, you and your army can annihilate them, can't we? ”

(End of chapter)